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FOR. PHE. PEOPLE 
FOR EDVCATION 
FOR SCIENCE 


LIBRARY 
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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 
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SCIENCE 


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AN ILLUSTRATED :JOURNAL 


PUBLISHED, WEEKLY 


VOLUSBE. VII 


JANUARY—JUNE 1886 


NEW YORK 
eo ee ee Cee COM PANY 
1886 


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; By THE SCIENCE COMPANY. 


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CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIE. 


See OTAweARTICLES. 


PAGE 
Abbott collection at the Peabody museum 4 
Abbott’s report on the Flood Rock counters 25 
Accessions to the national museum < 93 
Agricultural industries of Japan 463 
Allen, J. A. Present wholesale destruction of bird- 
life in the United States . : : = AG 
American climatological association | 453 
American engineers’ meeting - 92 
American fishery interests... oe a, 113 
American journal of archeology . 71 
American ornithologists’ union committee on bird-pro- 
tection. : - 205 
Apparitions and haunted houses 341 
Appeal to the women of the country i in behalf of the birds 204 
April meeting of the National academy of sciences 384 
Armsby, H. P. Imitation butter . 471 
Article ‘ Psychology’ in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 514 
Astronomy in Appleton’s Annual cyclopaedia 534 
Bacteria and disease 422 
Bartlett. J. R. Deep-sea soundings in the Atlantic. 
Til. 387 
Deep-sea pomndines in the South Pacific. Il. 252 
Benedict, J. E. Surface-collecting on the Albatross 300 
Bird-laws . 202 
Blindness in Russia 291 
Blondes and brunettes in Germany 129 
Book-manufactory in ancient Rome . 467 
Botanical instruction in this country 251 
Burmah, present and future : 62 
Butler, W.M. Educational tendencies in J: apan and 
in America : ‘ : teen 
Settlement of labor differences 339 
The collapse of the theosophists 81 
The competition of convict labor : : 68 
_ The convict-labor problem : = : : - 28 
Cartwright lectures on physiology 320 
Cerebral excitability after death i 16 
Channing, E. A new route to south-western China. 
Map 137 
Characters of children as evidenced by their powers of 
observation ; . 288 
Cholera mortality in Europe during 1885 . 62 
Coast survey and the navy 407 
Comparative distribution of J ewish ability 247 
Cook. A. J. Bee-hives and bee-habits . 127 
Cross - fertilization of plants by birds. Jil. 441 
Cyprus under British rule. 576 
D. Total abstinence teaching i in the schools 115 
D., W. M. Date of vintage. Til. 60 
The recent cold wave. Ill ‘ 70 
Winter on Mount Washington 40 
Dana, C. L. The nature of so- -called double con- 
sciousness and triple consciousness . etd 
Davis, W. M. Currents of the North Sea 22 
Death- rate and sanitation in Russia . 314 
Deformities of hones among the ancient Peruvians 130 
Destruction of birds for millinery purposes . 196 
Dewey, J. Inventory of philosophy taught in Ameri- 
can colleges : 353 
Different physiological senses for heat and cold 151 
Distribution of colors in the animal kingdom . , 557 
Dutcher, W. Destruction of bird-life in the vicinity 
of New York 196 
Dutton, C. E. Crater Lake, = a ‘Dropased na- 
tional reservation . . 179 
Earthquake observations 301 
East Greenland Eskima 172 
Educational books and reports 153 
Electric lighting in England - 343 
Ely, R.T. Ethics and economies . 529 
England’s colonies . A 475 
Facsimile of the Antilegomena E : 153 
Faye, H. Is the ocean surface depressed? : 421 
Final buffalo-hunt . 520 
Fish-cultural station at ‘Gloucester, Mass. 182 
Fletcher, Alice C. Composite’ portraits of Ameri- 
can Indians, Til. . 408 
Food-accessories : their influence on digestion 312 
Food consumption . 342 
Formation of structureless chalk by seaweeds 575 


PAGE 

Geography-teaching iu Repay . 209 
Giants and dwarfs . * ; 82 
Government surveys 363 
Great silyer-mines’of the west 333 
Primitive marriage 147 


Hadley, A. T. How far have modern improvements 
in production and transportation changed the prin- 
ciple that men should be left free to make their 
own bargains? . : : : Z ; ‘ 

Hale, H. Race and language 

Health of New York during April. Ill. 

Health of New York during February. Ill. 

Health of New York during March. Ii. 

Health of New York during oo Til. 

Heating-power of gas - 

Historical association . 

Holmes, W.H. The trade in spurious Mexican an- 
tiquities ; z ‘ - : 

How to teach geography : 

Hubbard, G. G. International copyright é 

Railroad to Merv, Bokhara, and Samarkand 
The European colonies and their trade . 

Hudson Bay route to Europe 

Huxley, ‘EER ‘The a fisheries board of 
Great Britain : ‘ : : 4 : 

Induced somnambulism 

Ingersoll, E. Fish and famine in India 

The Rocky Mountains as seen from the Canadian 
Pacific railway . : ; : ‘ : : 

Insectivorous plants 

Iron conference at St. Petersburg F 

J., J. Dr. Hughblings-Jackson on orceee 

Popular psychology . ‘ 

James, E. J. The silver problem 

The state as an economic factor . ; 
Jastrow, J. Elementary science- -teaching P 
The evolution of language : 

Kennan, G. A trip to the Altai Mountains. 

King of the Belgians’ prize . 

Kunz, G. F. Some remarkable gems. 

Ladd on the Yale curriculum 

Lankester, R. Proposed English fishery board. 


Lapparent, A. de, Is the ocean surface de- 
pressed ? 

Laughlin, J. L. The silver problem . 

Legibility of letters of the alphabet. Il. 

Lighthouse illuminants . 

Lockyer, Jens Lhe data now requisite in solar in- 


quiries 

Longevity . 

M. Explosions in coal-mines 

Making a new Merv oasis. 

Marks, W.D. Electric railways 

Mendelieff, Kosmos, An Indian snake- dance. 

Metal work of the Burmese . : : z : 

Meteorological conference 

Method of signalling diagrams. ‘Tl. 

Mitsukuri, K. The intellectual movement in J: apan 

Mouse-plague of Brazil. : : 3 A : 

Mrs. Sidgwick and the mediums . 

Multiple personality 

Naval observatory . 

New expedition to Alaska 

New volcano in the Pacific . 2 

Newcomb, S. Aspects of the economic discussion . 

The silver problem : 

Observations upon digestion i in the human stomach 

Occupations of the British pera 

Oil-wells of Baku. 

Origin of fat in animals 

Origin of human races and types ; 

Orton, E. Petroleum and natural gas as ‘found in 
Ohio. Map : ‘ ; 
, V. Recent psychical researches’ 

Palace of the kings of Tiryns 

Panama canal. Map 

Pasteur and hy drophobia , 

Paul, H. M. Close approach of Saturn and & Gemi- 
norum, ZIil. ‘ : : 


485, 
Map 
Tike. : 


” TL. 


1V 


PAGE 


Peale, A. C. Method of stating results of water- 


analyses 2 : 
Pickering, E. C. ’ Accurate mountain heights : 


Photographic study of stellar spectra 


Plympton, G. W. Flooding the Sahara. Maps 

Poisonous mussels from impure waters 

Population of London 

Prejevalsky’s explorations in Mongolia 

Professor Hughes on self induction . 

Programme of the ede as ans philomathic con- 
gress : : - : : : > 

Progress in India . 4 

Proposed new trade outlet on the Black Sea . 

Public health improvement in England : 

Railway to central Asia : : : 

Rainfall in South Africa. Map . 

Ratio of increase of height to increase of bulk in the 
child , - : : ‘ : : 

Regulation of contracts . 

Relation of birds to agriculture . 

Remarkable powers of memory in the humble-bee 

Royal geographical society . : 

Rowland, H. A, The physical laboratory in ” modern 
education . : : 

Russell, I. C. Soda and potash i in the far west . 3 

Ryder, 7 A. Hatching, rearing, and transplanting 
lobsters. 

Success in hatching the eggs of the cod. il. 

S.. Recent changes in Cornell university 

Scientific commission report : 

Scudder, H. E. The extension of ‘copyright 

Seaman, W.H. Method of stating results of water- 


aualyses 
Seligman, E. R. A, Change in the tenets of puis) 
economy withtime . 


211 
423 
278 
542 
175 
173 
157 
442 


455 
156 
424 
272 
207 
151 


SCIENCE.— CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII. 


PA 


Sennett, G. B. Destruction of the eggs of birds for 


BO OAR REVIEWS. 


PAGE 
Abbot’s Scientific theism. By J. Bevee . 835 
Ball’s Story of the heavens . - 365 
Bancroft’s History of Alaska 292 
Barlow's New theories of matter and force 294 
Beddoe’s Races of Britain. By H. W. 2 84 
Bell’s Climatology . 316 
Bolton’s Preservation of timber . 176 
Lrowne’s Water-meters 176 
Cazin’s Phenomena and laws of heat : 176 
Challenger report on the Lamellibranchiata 250 
Challenger report on the Schizopoda. ee! S. I. Smith 249 
Church’s Statics and dynamics . 316 
Clark and Sadler’s Star-guide 470 
Compayré’s History of pedagogy 469 
Cornell university experiment- ‘station, third report of. 205 
Cotterill’s Suggested reforms in public schools At 
Croll’s Climate and cosmology. By W. AM. Davis. 491 
DeLanoye’s Rameses the Great . : 176 
Fisher’s Outlines of universal history 246 
Froude’s Oceana . 292 
Gilbert’s Topographic features of lake shores 263 
Greely’s Three years of arctic service. Jill. . 182 
Griscom’s Farmer’s view of a protective tariff 176 
Hadley’s Railroad transportation. By F. W. Taussig. 258 
Ham’s Manual training. 492 
Handley’s First lessons in philosophy : 5 
Hartmann’s Philosophical questions. By J. Royce . 426 
Henderson’s Diet for the sick i r . 4 . 66 
Holzapfel’s Roman chronology 261 
Household economy 154 
Hudson’s Railways and the republic . 57 
Hudson’s Rotifera. By C. S. Minot. 2 
Hull’s Geology of Arabia and Palestine 535 
Hussak’s Rock-forming minerals 294 
Jevons, W. Stanley, letters and i jo of 57 
Ketteler’s Theoretical optics ; 401 
paar mal s Proper names 403 
Kobelt’s Algeria and Tunis . 260 


Ktikenthal’s Die mikroskopische technik im zoolo- 
gischen praktikum . ‘ : ; . ‘ : ; 


ASTRONOMICAL NOTES, 49, 73, 161, 368, 567. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM, 1, 23, 45, 67, 89, 111, 133, 155, 177, 207 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES, 48, 72, 96, 160, 233. 301, 367, 408. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, 4, 31, 54, 75, 100, 117, 141, 165, 187, 214, « 


NEw BOOKS, 154, 176. 
NOTES AND NEWS, 6, 29, 49. 73, 98, 116, 
SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT, J5, 37, 59, 81, 103, 125 
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE : Boston Letter, 

212, BU2, 4u9, 521 ; 


235, 503 ; 


999 


239, 264, 284, 307, 327, 351, 371, 391, 416, 436, 460, 481, 505, 525, 550, 570. 


139, 162, 185, 213, 236, 238, 283. 308, 324, 347, 
. 147, 169. 191. 221, 
London Letter, 30. f 
St. Petersburg Letter, 161, 261 ; 


243, 


GE 


food . 199 
Sense of touch, and the ‘teaching of the blind . $ 271 
Shaler, N.S. The swamps of the United States 232 
Shell-fish in Connecticut : 59 
Some recent text-books on methods in microscopic 

anatomy . 5 a 64 
Some work of the government surveys A 257 
Sternberg, G. M. The malarial sche of Laveran a 
Sindy ‘of geomet 15 
Sumner, W. Ga. How far have modern improve- 

ments in production and transportation changed 

the principle that men should be left free to make 

their own bargains? : . 221 
Sympathetic vibrations of jets. Tl. 494 

si Large versus small telescopes. ; 131 
Tarr, R.S. Parasitism among marine animals . 17 
Taussig, F. W. The state as an economic factor 488 
Todd, D. P. The coast and geodetic survey 3 . 2 
Topographical maps of the United States 425 
Trade-route between Bolivia and the ss shana Repub- a. 

lic p ; : 
True, F. Ww. “Atask for anatomists . 428 
Upton, W. The distribution of rainfall in New Eng- 

sane Feb. 10-14, 1886. Il. : : . 254 
U.S geological survey . 158, 27 
Virchow on acclimatization | : -; 169 

. The causation of pulmonary consumption 86 
Waste in wheat-crops . 174 
White, C. H. Method of stating results of water- 
analyses - ; oy 
W oeikof, A. The levelling of Siberia. Ill. : 105 
Worthless bayonets 3 : 5 , . ; 93 
Y., E. The eight-hour day ; ; R ‘ 59 
PAGE 
Krause’s Explorations in Alaska 95 
Lanman’s Farthest north : 94 
Laughlin’ s Bimetallism 534 
Lee’s Microtomist’s vade- -mecum 65 
Menault’s Intelligence of animals 176 
Meynert’s Psychiatry. By M. A. 8S. F 359 
Morse’s Japanese homes and their surroundings 42 
Muir’s Thermal chemistry . 314 
Murray’s New English dictionary. By C. H. Toy . 557 
New York agricultural rewares -station, fourth an- 
nual report of < y - : «yoko 
Oppolzer’ s Treatise on orbits 580 
Patten’s Political economy . 446 
Pilling’s Bibliography of the languages ‘of the North 

American Indians ‘ 358 
Poliakoff’s Journey in Sakhalin . 234 
Powell’s Fourth annual report of U. Ss. geological survey 158 
Rae’s Country banker. By Ff. W. Taussig . 425 
Redard’s Disinfection of cattle-cars . 316 
Remsen’s Introduction to the study of chemistry . 468 
Richards’s Food-materials . z : ~ - 154 
Richter’s Inorganic chemistry 261 
Roscoe’s Spectrum analysis. 261 
Russell’s Recent glaciers of the United States 264 
Schliemann’s Prehistoric palace of the kings of Tiryns 37 
Schwatka’s Along Alaska’s great river : . 294 
Scott-White’s Chemica] tables 176 
Shaw’s Mechanical integrators 316 
Stokes’s Lectures onlight . ‘ a 5 . 338 
Thurston’s Materials of construction : eee a os ae 
Trutat’s La photographie : : <2 
U.S. national museum, handbook to the. . . 154 
Ward’s Paleobotany ; . . - 263 
Warner’s Physical expression. By M. A. ‘Ss. G 43 
Whitman’s Methods of research in par ri 33" anat- 

omy and embryology ? ; , = #04 
Williams’s Chemistry cookery 66 
Wilson’s Drainage for health ‘ 316 
Wood’s Nature’s teaching 154 
Wyse’s Panama canal. Map 279 


251, 273, 295, 317, 339, 361, 383, 405, 427, 449, 471, 493, 515, 537, 559. 


368, 391, 412, 434, 455, 479, 504, 523, 546, 568. 


265, 287, 
Washington Letter, 7, 51. 


#04, 331, 353, Ty 307, 419, 441, 463, 485, 507 529, 551, 578. 
53, 13S, 14, 234, 281, 322, 389, 477, 544; Paris Letter, 
Vienna Letter. 282 : 


SCIENCE. 


AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 


NEW YORK: THE SCIENCE COMPANY. 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


TO MANY PEOPLE in this practical era, the mani- 
fest usefulness of work done affords the only 
available standard of judging every thing. It is 
worth the while to see how the coast survey abides 
this test ; for it can point to its system of charts 
covering every harbor of prominence in the coun- 
try, and nearly all the shore-line between them, 
all the principal rivers to the head of tidal influ- 
ence, and Lake Champlain ; to its researches and 
publications relating to terrestrial magnetism, and 
its magnetic charts; to the tide-tables, published 
annually, of the ports on the Atlantic, Gulf, and 
Pacific coasts ; to the ‘ Coast pilots’ for the At- 
lantic and Pacific coasts and Alaska; to its ex- 
plorations and discoveries in physical hydrography ; 
to its transit-of-Venus and eclipse expeditions, and 
longitude determinations in Alaska and in foreign 
countries ; to its work on the Isthmus of Panama; 
to the numerous scientific publications on all sub- 
jects relating to or connected with its work ; to 
the determinations of the force of gravity in all 
parts of the world ; to very considerable improve- 
ments in geodetic and field-astronomical instru- 
ments; and to the present perfected system of 
weights and measures, which has secured har- 
mony not only within the United States by sup- 
plying standard weights and measures to every 
state, to the principal custom-houses, and to the 
agricultural colleges in the several states, but also 
between our own country and foreign nations. 


Such an amount of scientific and practical work 
of the highest merit could not possibly have been 
accomplished except under the wisest organization 
and the most efficient supervision. The character 
of this work is itself the sufficient argument for 
the maintenance of that organization. With so 
exceptional a record of work actually accom- 
plished, embracing so much that is of immediate 

No. 152, — 1886. 


Vérité sans peur. 


a 

economic bearing upon the welfare of the coun- 
try and the conservation of national interests, the 
survey need have little fear of hostile criticism, 
and, least of all, that having its origin in personal 
or political motive. The obviously useful charac- 
ter of a large part of this work shows that it is 
of real and direct value to the nation, apart from 
its purely scientific merit. 


THERE IS NO PORTION of North America where 
complete and long-continued series of tidal obser- 
vations are more important, and will yield more 
interesting results, than the coast of Canada. The 
great rise and fall in some portions, and the anom- 
alous conditions and irregular and unequal tidal 
currents prevailing along its deeply indented shores, 
render a careful study of them a matter of serious 
interest from both a scientific and practical point 
of view. Weare glad to see that the matter has 
been attracting attention among our neighbors, 
and that the different commercial bodies of Can- 
ada have moved in the matter. A report on the 
subject by a committee of the British association, 
at the Aberdeen meeting, shows what has been 
done, and what is proposed. The matter is one 
more of general than local importance. As such, 
it appears to be well worthy the attention of the 
imperial government, which, at small cost to itself, 
can here properly come to the aid of the colonial 
department of marine, in the interest of the com- 
merce and navigation of the world. Tidal obser- 
vations on the eastern coast of America have 
gained a new importance since the coast and 
geodetic survey has confirmed by recent observa- 
tions its announcement, some years since, that 
there are tidal fluxes in the Gulf Stream, and 
variations of its velocity due to half-monthly 
changes in the relative sea-levels of the Atlantic 
and Gulf of Mexico. 


JUDGED BY THE RESULT, it would seem that the 
civil engineers’ convention, recently held at Cleve- 
land, to consider the relations of civil and mili- 
tary engineers, found, that, like an historical 
gathering at Ephesus, it had come together with- 


2 SCIENCE. 


out sufficient reason. Congress is asked by the 
convention to ‘organize a civil bureau of public 
works’ in a certain way, and for certain reasons. 
It is difficult for an onlooker to interpret the way 
and reasons, otherwise than that the army engineers 
are in possession of a good thing which some of 
their civil brethren covet : hence the intervention 
of congress is invoked to change the established 
order, to put the one class out and the other in, 
or, if this may not be, that the good thing be at 
least divided. The reasons given are weak, and 
open to dispute, some easily refuted ; and the re- 
quest that the basis of organization of the pro- 
posed bureau should be studied and reported on by 
a board consisting of seven members — three mili- 
tary engineers, three civil engineers, and a lawyer 
— savors quite strongly of place-making for some 
of the leaders in the movement. All this is un- 
fortunate. There are strong and good reasons 
why the organization for the conduct of public 
works should be recast, just as necessity for re- 
organization has been found in other departments 
of administration. That these reasons exist is 
proven by the fact that a letter from the chief 
of engineers, U. S. army, General Newton, was 
read at the meeting, expressing sympathy with 
any move which would better the public ser- 
vice. The betterment of the public service 
ought to have impressed itself upon the Cleve- 
land meeting as being the only ground upon 
which they could go before the country with 
reasonable expectation of being listened to. In- 
stead of this, the convention considered the 
question as one of class, and seeks to secure class 
legislation in a way which is itself a suggestion 
that congress is incapable of doing its own work. 


THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY. 


THE time was long ago when any one would 
think of asking what is the use of having any 
coast survey at all,— one might almost say, long 
past, when any one would expect that the work 
of such an organization could ever be brought to 
an end. As originally constituted, by the act of 
1843, the organization was empowered to proceed 
with the accurate mapping of the Atlantic and 
Pacific coasts of the United States, — a work which 
involved a trigonometric survey of the coast-lands 
to be conducted with the utmost precision. This 
formed also the only suitable basis for the hydrog- 
raphy of the coasts. 

Those interested in the thorough prosecution of 
this work were not slow to appreciate the obvious 


[Vou. VII., No. 152 


advantages of connecting the independent surveys 
of these coasts into a single homogeneous system. 
The surveys of individual states might thus be 
supplied with the precise determination of points 
for their own topographic and geologic work, and 
the entire domain of the United States be covered 
by a net-work of triangles of the utmost accuracy. 
The foundations of this vast work were laid nearly 
fifteen years ago; and in its execution natural 
precedence has been given to those regions where 
there was the most urgent call for the work. 
Such a connecting-link is a necessary part of a 
survey of the ‘ coasts and adjacent islands, etc., of 
the United States,’ as originally provided for by 
law, in order to bring into harmony the measure- 
ments along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. As 
Professor Hilgard has pointed out, this is suffi- 
ciently obvious to allow the belief that it would 
have been specified in the original law, if, at the 
time of its enactment (1807), the country had had a 
‘western coast.’ 

But this is not all: what is the obvious require- 
ment of the law has led, in addition, not only to 
the incidental accomplishment of important sci- 
entific results, but also to many advantages of the 
most practical significance. To appreciate the 
former, we need only recall that our national 
domain extends in an east and west line over 
about one-eighth of the circumference of the 
entire earth, and that the accurate measurement 
of this line, as undertaken by the survey, will 
constitute much the longest arc-parallel ever 
measured for determining the size and figure of 
the earth. The same survey will afford accurate 
elevations of a multitude of points above a com- 
mon datum plane, and will show the relation of 
the mean level of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 
From a purely scientific stand-point, these would 
be reasons enough for completing the transcon- 
tinental survey as originally outlined ; but let us 
see what some of the practical advantages of the 
work are. To begin with, this already well- 
advanced scheme of a national survey, from 
ocean to ocean, provides every subsidiary state 
survey with an accurate base-line. How impor- 
tant this is will appear if one attempts to conjoin 
the hitherto existing surveys of adjacent states. 
Discrepancies of many miles are frequent; for 
example, ‘“‘The best maps of the states of Ohio, 
Indiana, and Kentucky, constructed upon inde- 
pendent data, when put together, leave no delinea- 
tion of the Ohio River. Between the land-survey 
maps of Illinois and Missouri, the Mississippi River 
presents in places wide lakes, while in others it 
entirely disappears.” 
also adjusts the lines and points of the public 
land surveys, and furnishes the necessary data 


The transcontinental link — 


| 


JANUARY 1, 1886 | 


for the compilation of town, county, and state 
maps of the utmost precision. Nor is the fact 
lost sight of that in time it will become necessary 
to have an absolutely correct map of the entire 
area of the United States. Work of this character 
has been for years in progress, and in its continu- 
ance rests the only possibility of bringing har- 
mony into what is now utter confusion. ’ 

All who have taken even the least cognizance 
of the scientific methods systematically pursued 
by the coast survey will experience no difficulty 
in seeing that the uninterrupted exertions of 
scores of trained observers and calculators are de- 
manded in completing the thorough survey of so 
extended a field as that of the Atlantic and Gulf 
coast. Wery few outside of those actually engaged 
in such work take occasion to know the degree of 
precision sought and attained in these investiga- 
tions; nor is it a matter of common information 
that the work has so far advanced that the survey 
of the Atlantic and Gulf coast is about nine-tenths 
completed. The slightest knowledge of the neces- 
sary conditions is sufficient to show that, even 
when the entire extent of the coast has once been 
charted, a large amount of work must continually 
be done, in order to maintain the correctness of 
the charts, and ‘ Coast pilots’ or sailing-directions. 
Professor Hilgard estimates, that, in order to keep 
up this work, a force of two parties will be re- 
quired — one ashore and one afloat—in each of 
five districts between Passamaquoddy Bay and 
the Rio Grande. 

The entrance of the important harbor of New 
York is kept under annual examination, in order 
to keep track of the changes, and to control, if 
possible, their causes. A complete re-survey of the 
great thoroughfare of Long Island Sound is in 
progress, as in time great changes have taken 
place, and many localities have very much grown 
in importance. Also thorough re-surveys are pro- 
eressing in other waters as rapidly as the limited 
appropriations for this work will allow. 

The survey of the Pacific coast, between San 
Diego (the Mexican boundary) and Fuca Straits, 
with Puget Sound, is about three-fifths completed; 
and the publication of charts, sailing-directions, 
and tide-tables is proportionally advanced. The 
same considerations in regard to future re-sur- 
veys hold here equally with the Atlantic coast: 
one re-survey of San Francisco Bay was made 
about twelve years ago, and a new one is now 
strongly urged. In the territory of Alaska, no 
minute or exact surveys have yet been under- 
taken, as the condition of the country does not 
yet call for them ; but a good deal has been done 
in the way of geographical exploration and hydro- 
graphic reconnaissance; while many charts of 


SCIENCE. 9 


approximate correctness have been published, as 
well as a volume of sailing-directions. Mention 
must be made, in this connection, of the explora- 
tions of the Gulf Stream, having for their object 
the discovery of the laws which govern it, with 
the view of taking due account of it in navigation 
as an indication of the approach to our shores ; as 
also of the practical researches into the distribu- 
tion and laws of change of the earth’s magnetism, 
by which we have been enabled to ascertain the 
variation of the compass along the coasts, as well 
as over the whole country, —a knowledge equally 
important to the mariner and to the land-surveyor. 

In no department of its coast-operations is the 
practical usefulness of the survey more apparent 
than in its systematic researches and publications 
relating to the safety of navigation. Foremost 
among these are the thorough series of observa- 
tions of the tides. In addition to this, advantage 
is taken in the most practical way of all discover- 
ies and developments affecting the safety of navi- 
gation by the printing and wide circulation of the 
series of ‘notices to mariners.’ During the year 
1883-84, for example, twelve such notices were 
published as warnings to navigators against newly 
discovered or newly developed dangers. Also 
the studies of officers of the survey in the depart- 
ment of physical hydrography have led to results 
of the highest practical importance in our com- 
merce and navigation. 

In his late message to congress, the President of 
the United States alludes once more to the thread- 
bare subject of transfer of the coast and geodetic 
survey to the navy department. Three years ago 
the superintendent of the survey, in a letter to the 
secretary of the treasury, reviewed the whole 
ground in the most thorough and impartial man- 
ner, concluding with the following points in oppo- 
sition to this proposed transfer. They may be 
advantageously cited here :— 

*©1°, The present system, perfected nearly forty 
years ago, has proved thoroughly efficient, eco- 
nomical, and satisfactory to the country. It is 
wise to hold fast to that which has been proved to 
be good. 

‘¢ 2°, Itaffords to the navy all the advantages that 
can legitimately be claimed. It employs as many 
of its officers in service afloat as can be advan- 
tageously used in hydrography. The employment 
of a larger number, in the event of a transfer, 
would result in training naval officers to be geode- 
sists, topographers, chiefs of technical bureaus, and 
in withdrawing their interests and habits from the 
naval service proper. 

«<3°, The efficiency of the service would suffer by 
the loss of ambition and emulation, which exist at 
present in a high degree, but which find no stimu- 


4 | SCIENCE. 


lus in a service where no positions of responsibility 
and direction are open to civil experts, however 
ereat their attainments and devotion to the public 
service.” 

Some months subsequently, in a letter to the 
committee of the National academy of sciences, the 
superintendent added the important considerations 
that the naval officers detailed by their department 
for coast-survey duty are almost without exception 
well pleased with their service in this capacity, 
although, in reality, more arduous than the regular 
routine of the naval service in time of peace. They 
are at all times, however, perfectly under the con- 
trol of the navy department, and subject to being 
detached and ordered upon other duty. No officer 
of the navy above the rank of commander is at- 
tached to the survey, and most of the officers are 
of the grades between ensign and lieutenant. In 
this survey work they obtain a most valuable ex- 
perience, which stands them in great stead on 
foreign stations. 

The alleged duplication of work by the coast 
survey and the hydrographic office of the navy 
department is often urged as a reason for the 
transfer of the survey to the navy; but in reality 
there is no clashing. The special work of the 
hydrographic office consists in publishing charts 
of foreign coasts for the use of the navy and our 
commercial marine, as also of directing surveys on 
foreign coasts by our naval vessels when their op- 
portunities permit. The functions of the two offices 
are thus entirely different. 

The hydrographic work conducted by the coast 
survey along our own shores is not a nautical sur- 
vey, but, properly speaking, a trigonometrical sur- 
vey, in which the positions of the depths observed, 
and of rocks and shoals, are determined by the 
observation of angles upon objects on shore, which 
are known by the triangulation and topography. 
The hydrography is closely co-ordinated with 
these, and cannot be separated from them without 
losing much of its present excellence. 

Davin P. Topp. 


RECENT CHANGES IN CORNELL UNI- 
VERSITY. 

THE growth and prosperity of Cornell university 
are shown in the measures which its trustees are 
taking to enlarge and strengthen its faculty. 
The value of a university lies in its teaching 
Cornell university has been put by its 
benefactors on a firm financial basis, and the trus- 
tees are wisely preparing to employ its increased 
revenue in adding to its facilities for instruction. 
The most important of these new measures is the 
re-organization of the Sibley college of mechanical 
engineering, with Dr. R. H. Thurston as its direc- 


force. 


[Vou. VII., No. 152 


tor. Following this are the measures just consum- 
mated and announced, providing for other changes 
in the faculty. Dr. Wilson, the distinguished 
and venerable professor of moral and intellectual 
philosophy, and Professor Schackford, the professor 
of rhetoric and general literature, are retired at the 
end of the present year with liberal allowances. A 
prpfessorship of pedagogy has been established ; 
and Prof. 8. G. Williams, now occupying the chair 
of geology, is appointed to the new professorship. 
As this is a new feature in our New York colleges, 
the results of the experiment are looked to with 
great interest. Professor Williams has had an 
unusual training for such a professorship. Asa 
teacher in preparatory schools, as a superintend- 
ent of schools, and a professor in Cornell university, 
he has enjoyed an experience which will enable 
him to put himself in sympathy with those who 
are preparing themselves for teaching, and to give 
them whatever aid is possible. 

The retirement of Professor Williams from the 
chair of geology enables the trustees to consolidate 
the now separate departments of geology and 
paleontology in one, and to promote Prof. H. 8. 
Williams, who has occupied the latter chair, to the 
professorship of geology and paleontology. Other 
changes are either made or contemplated which 
will still further re-enforce the board of instruction. 
Not the least important of these changes is the in- 
crease in the salaries paid to all the principal por- 
fessors. The inadequate compensation heretofore 
allowed has cost the university in several instances 
the loss of men whom it would have been glad to 
retain. Two of the professors are to receive 
$3.200 each; eleven others, $3,000 each; and in 
other cases the stipends have been proportionately 
increased. 


THE ABBOTT COLLECTION AT THE PEA- 
BODY MUSEUM. 


THE collection of stone implements made at 
Trenton, N.J., by Dr. C. C. Abbott, now on exhi- 
bition in one of the recently opened rooms of the 
Peabody museum of archeology at Cambridge, is 
one of the most important series of the kind ever 
brought together, and one which archeologists will 
consult for all time to come, It contains more 
than twenty thousand stone implements and sev- 
eral hundred associated objects, made of bone, 
clay, and copper, with several pipes and numerous 
ornaments and carved stones. 

There are several considerations which give the 
collection exceptional importance. First, it was 
brought together from a very limited area by a ~ 
single archeologist ; all the specimens having been 
found by Dr. Abbott upon his own farm and its 


JANUARY 1, 1886.] 


immediate vicinity, with the exception of some of 
the paleolithic implements, and even these were 
found within an extreme radius of four miles. 
Second, the gatherings in this limited region have 
been so long continued and so thorough, that the 
result is a collection which shows en masse the 
work of the peoples who inhabited the Delaware 
valley at different periods, in a manner and to an 
extent never before obtained from any part of this 
country, and probably not from any other part of 
the world. Third, the collection is the same 
which formed the basis of Dr. Abbott’s volume on 
‘Primitive industry,’ and has been arranged by 
Dr. Abbott himself, under the direct supervision 
of the curator. 

As now arranged, the Abbott collection exhibits 
at one and the same time the sequence of peoples 
in the valley of the Delaware, from paleolithic 
man through the intermediate period, to the re- 
cent Indians, and the numerical proportion of the 
many forms of their implements, each in its time. 
It thus forms an exhibition at once instructive to 
the general visitor, and of great importance to the 
serious student. It is indeed doubtful whether 
any similar collection exists, where a student can 
gather so much information at sight, as here, 
where the natural pebbles from the gravel begin 
the series, and the beautifully chipped points of 
chert, jasper, and quartz, terminate it in one direc- 
tion, and the polished celts and grooved stone axes 
in the other. 

The paleolithic implements from the gravel and 
from the talus include nearly all found, some of 
them coming from a depth of thirty feet in the 
gravel; with one exception, a black flint, they are 
made of a hard, fine-grained argillite ; many are but 
slightly chipped, while others are of well-defined 
forms, similar to the paleoliths of the old world. 
With these specimens are the human skull, under 
jaw, and wisdom-tooth, found at different times 
in the same gravel as the implements. 

Following the paleoliths are the several thousand 
rude and greatly weathered points and flakes of 
argillite of various forms. The relative impor- 
tance of the different sorts to the people who used 
them is shown in an instructive way by grouping 
and heaping, so that the eye at once takes cogni- 
zance of this, while it detects at the same time the 
individuality of the makers. These points belong 
to the middle period of occupation of the valley ; 
never found in the gravel, they are, as a whole, 
much older than the mere surface specimens and 
those from graves. 

To these latter, the work of the recent Delaware 
Indians, belong the rude scrapers made by simply 
splitting a pebble, the rudely chipped agricultural 
implements of several kinds of stone, and the 


SCIENCE. 5 


] 
chipped scrapers, many of which are beautiful 


illustrations of this kind of work. These, like the 
arrow-heads, knives, and large spear-like imple- 
ments shown in an adjoining case, are made from 
jasper of different colors, as well as from chert 
and quartz, and are shown in great variety and 
number. Of the other forms of implements, 
also illustrated by many varieties of each, are 
the hammer-stones, rubbing and polishing stones, 
pitted stones, mortars and pestles, celts and axes. 

The ornamental stones are of various shapes, 
some of them simply perforated; the so-called 
gorgets are in various stages of manufacture, and 
there are several carvings representing human 
heads. <A few pipes cut out of stone illustrate the 
Delaware type of tobacco pipe, while numerous 
fragments of pottery show that they were also 
made of clay. The potsherds exhibit a consider- 
able variety of ornamentation, principally by in- 
cised lines, though many are cord-marked, and 
others have impressed designs. Two spear-heads 
of hammered native copper and a little group of 
miscellaneous objects are exhibited separately. 

Another group of specimens, not included in 
the enumeration given above, though by no means 
an unimportant part of the exhibit, are the chips 
and refuse material of an Indian workshop. This 
large mass was sifted from the dirt in a single 
spot a few feet in diameter, evidently from where 
some Indian long worked in fashioning various 
implements. In the mass are thousands of chips 
of stones of various kinds, broken specimens, 
failures, hammer-stones, and nodules of jasper 
brought to the place, but still unwrought. 

The collection and its arrangement are invalu- 
able, unique, and of extreme importance to all 
who wish to study the stone age of our Atlantic 
coast. It reflects great credit upon the industry 
and sharp-sightedness of the collector, and ex- 
hibits as well the same perspicacity and serious 
method that is a marked feature of the entire 
museum. The problem of the exhibition of arche- 
ological objects, so that they may themselves give 
the most significant and instructive lessons, with- 
out reflecting transitory theories, has found an 
excellent solution at Cambridge. 


FIRST LESSONS IN PHILOSOPHY. 


PROFESSOR DE MORGAN, in his wonderfully witty 
‘Budget of paradoxes,’ speaking of the dislike of 
most people to discriminate beyond a certain 
point, says, that, for the majority, ‘‘all such 
things as distinctions are evasions, subterfuges, 
come-offs, loop-holes, ete. They would hang a 

First lessons in philosophy, being an introduction to 


metaphysic and logic for beginners. By M. S. HANDLEY. 
New York, Scribner & Welford, 1883. 16°. 


6 SCIENCE. 


man for horse-stealing under a statute for sheep- 
stealing, and would laugh at you if you quibbled 
about the distinction between a horse and a 
sheep.” This certainly is most solemnly true, and 
is, among other things, the reason why people, as 
a rule, care so little for philosophy, the vital air of 
which is the persistent making of distinctions 
long after the saturation-point of the average 
human intellect has been reached. We all have 
our philosophies, to be sure, such as they are; but 
we all refuse to discuss them in the light of dis- 
tinctions finer than our own. Such distinctions 
are ‘cobwebs,’ ‘ hair-splittings,’ and the like; and 
we blankly ignore them with a perfectly good 
conscience. This is why no amount of criticism, 
however truly able, will shake the hold which 
certain popular philosophies have on ‘the gallery; 
for there is a gallery in philosophy, as in livelier 
spectacles. Mr. Shadworth Hodgson is certainly, 
of all English-writing philosophers, the one who 
makes the largest and most incessant demands on 
his reader’s ability to take a distinction. He dis- 
tinguishes after most of us long for rest, and he 
probably seems, in consequence, to the majority 
of those who open his pages, over-subtle and 
unreal, in spite of the extraordinary originality 
and vigor of every thing he writes. Many, to our 
knowledge, have wished that some disciple would 
come and issue his thoughts in the shape of small 
change, since they seem so little likely to become 
popular in the master’s own massive statements. 
Miss Handley has essayed this useful task in the 
thin volume before us, which we recommend to all 
who would like a glimpse into some of the main 
features of Hodgson’s system, but by no means to 
those to whom the title ‘ First lessons in philoso- 
phy * suggests a text-book for high-school use. The 
work is gracefully written in dialogue-form ; but 
the contents are too technical to be touched upon 
in our space. We must confess, that, after one 
reading, we are still in some doubt as to whether 
Miss Handley’s pages have brought Mr. Hodgson 
within range of those for whom his own are too 
abstruse. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 

A TELEGRAM from Dr. Swift, dated Dec. 27, 
announces the discovery of a comparatively bright 
telescopic comet, by Mr. W. R. Brooks, at Phelps, 
N.Y., an easterly motion being ‘strongly sus- 
pected.’ The discovery is confirmed by an obser- 
vation at Harvard on Dec. 28. The comet is cir- 
cular, about 38’in diameter, equivalent in bright- 
ness to a star of the ninth magnitude, and it 
has a strong, eccentrically placed condensation, 
but no tail. The position given by Professor 
Pickering for Dec. 28.4684, Greenwich mean time, 


[Vou. VII., No. 152 


is, R. A. 19h59m 27s ; Dec. + 4° 31’ 34”; so that 
the comet would now set, in this latitude, about 
three hours after the sun. 


— ‘Short studies from nature’ (New York, 
Cassell, 1885) is one of many books intended to 
interest general readers in the later scientific dis- 
coveries. Six of the ten chapters treat of zo- 
dlogical subjects, bats, dragon-flies, oak-apples, 
birds of passage, glow-worms, and Foraminifera. 
They are generally well written, and contain much 
that is interesting in a readable form. They treat 
mainly or entirely of English animals ; but in most 
cases the notes and description would apply 
equally well, with a change of specific name, to 
our American representatives, and be equally in- 
teresting to our American readers. There are also 
chemical and astronomical chapters, and one on 
caves. 


— Any book which will draw the attention of 
young or old to the habits of common animals 
deserves all encouragement. We have a few such 
already ; but any one who has examined other 
books of this class will find, on comparison, that 
Holder’s work (‘ Marvels of animal life,’ Scribner, 
1885), while compact, has a wider scope, and con- 
tains a large amount of fresh material. Very many 
of the animals described are not members of our 
fauna; but there are enough familiar forms described 
to encourage us to study the habits of more of our 
common animals, and to hint of the possibility of 
interesting discoveries awaiting patient observers. 
The fact that the writer has been an eye-witness of 
most which he describes, makes his work entirely 
different from the mere compilations of which 
most similar books are composed, and makes one 
almost forget while reading that he is not himself 
an eye-witness. The writer’s style is fresh and 
attractive. It willsurprise some readers to see man 
and the Pteranodon represented on plate xxxi. as 
contemporaneous. Possibly, however, the supposed 
human figure may not be that of a man: it might 
easily be almost any thing else. The plates, unfor- 
tunately, never accompany the description, but 
are the reward of patient search. 


— The prize of 500 francs left by M. A. P. de 
Candolle is offered by the Societé physique et 
(histoire naturelle, of Geneva, for the best unpub- 
lished monograph on a class or family of plants ; 
the essays written in any of the four great 
European languages or Latin, to be sent.in on 
Oct. 1, 1889. 


— A catalogue of the printed maps, plans, and 
charts in the British museum has been prepared 
by Professor Douglas, and will be issued in two 
large volumes. 


JANUARY 1, 1886.] 


— An Italian ship has been sheathed with glass 
plates, cast like iron plates, so as to fit the hull, to 
take the place of copper sheathings. The joints 
of the plates are made water-tight by the use of 
waterproof mastic. The advantages claimed for 
glass over copper are its insensibility to oxidation 
and its exemption from incrustation. 


WASHINGTON LETTER. 


AT the last meeting of the Philosophical society 
the evening was devoted entirely to the election of 
officers for the ensuing year, and the reception of 
the annual reports of the secretaries and treasurer. 
The report of the secretaries included some com- 
parisons of the work of the society in 1885 with 
that of 1884, a résumé of which will doubtless be 
of interest to many readers of Science who are con- 
nected with scientific societies in other parts of the 
country. 

The number of new members admitted in 1885 
was 20, while in the previous year 35 were added 
to the roll. The total active membership has in- 
creased from 173 in 1884, to 183 at the close of 1885. 
Sixteen meetings were held in 1885, one more than 
in the previous year. The average attendance at 
these meetings has increased from 42 in 1884, to 
48 in 1885, showing a considerably greater percent- 
age of increase than that in the active member- 
ship. The number of papers presented was the 
same in both years, being 32; while the number of 
persons taking part in the discussions increased 
from 88 to 41. The ‘general committee,’ which 
transacts most of the business of the society, con- 
sists of 17 members. The average attendance at 
the meetings of this committee was 11.9 in 1884, 
and 12.1 in 1885. 

To this exhibit ought to be added that of the 
mathematical section of the society, which held 
six meetings in 1885 with an average attendance 
of 15, these numbers being identical with those for 
the previous year. The section received 11 papers 
in 1884, and 14 in 1885. 

Altogether the showing is indicative of steady 
progress. In round numbers, it may be said to 
enroll two hundred active members, and at any of 
its meetings one is tolerably certain to find as many 
as fifty people. 

The report of the treasurer was also satisfactory, 
showing the financial condition of the society to be 
excellent. It must not be forgotten that within a 
few years three vigorous societies have ‘swarmed’ 
from this, including the anthropological, biologi- 
cal, and chemical societies of Washington, and 
that one or two of them are larger than the 
parent society. By careful attention to the 
character of the papers presented, the committee 


SCTENCE. 7 


on communications has prevented specialization, 
and has thus succeeded in retaining the support 
and loyalty of those interested in all departments 
of science. The philosophical society is not yet 
fifteen years old, but it promises to be one of the 
three or four leading scientific societies in the 
country. 

The joint committee of congress for the con- 
sideration of the scientific bureaus of the govern- 
ment continued its work up to the holiday recess. 
It is said that the geological survey was recently 
the subject of a searching investigation at its 
hands, the examination having to do principally 
with business methods and financial transactions. 
As stated in a previous letter, the recent addresses 
of the retiring presidents of some of the societies 
were devoted, in some degree, to the consideration 
of the absorbing question of the relation of the 
government to scientific work; and it is known 
that at least one member of the joint committee 
availed himself of the opportunity then afforded to 
learn something of the views of representative 
scientific men, expressed with that freedom from 
restraint which is characteristic of communications 
of that nature. The committee is expected to 
report in January. 

The ‘star-eyed goddess of reform,’ as represented 
by the auditors of the treasury department, very 
properly shows herself to be blind to the existence 
of party lines or political affiliations. Commis- 
sioner Coleman of the agricultural bureau has 
recently had an account suspended against him, 
amounting to $1,800, arising out of the purchase of 
seeds for distribution by members of congress 
among their constituents. The purchase was made 
very soon after his appointment, and appears to be 
precisely similar in character to those which gave 
rise to the much larger discrepancy in the accounts 
of his predecessor, Commissioner Loring. It will 
not be regretted if the adjustment of these ac- 
counts leads to a revolution in the manner of con- 
ducting the seed-business in the department, which 
has for many years diverted a large part of the 
annual appropriation from channels in which it 
might have been made tributary to the real prog- 
ress of agriculture. 

The friends of Dr. Emil Bessels will regret to 
learn of the loss he has sustained in the burning of 
his residence in Prince George county, Md., not far 
from Washington. The fire occurred on Christmas 
morning, and it is stated that the doctor himself 
had a narrow escape. The principal and irrepara- 
ble loss was his library, which is said to have been 
entirely destroyed. It included a large collection 
of rare and costly scientific books, valuable manu- 
scripts, and arctic charts. Z. 

Washington, D.C., Dec. 28. 


8 SCIENCE. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


+,* Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


The temperature of the moon. 


THE interesting article by Mr. Ferrel in your issue 
of Dec. 18 seems to require some words of comment 
for the general reader, who may not otherwise notice 
that the whole refiected heat (and light) of the moon 
appears to be there omitted from consideration. 
Moonlight is the ocular evidence that a part, at least, 
of the moon’s heat is iost by reflection, since what is 
light to the eye is heat to the thermoscope. In fact, 
what we see is but about one-third of what is re- 
flected ; and all of this must be subtracted from what 
the sun sends the moon before we have as a re- 
mainder the amount radiated from its surface, which 
is treated as the whole sum in the article under dis- 
cussion, 

It is there assumed that the moon loses heat by 
radiation only; but, even in this hypothesis, the 
highest temperature assigned to its sunlit surfaceis but 
little above that of boiling water. Since, then, bodies 
only begin to be visible by radiation at a red heat, it 
follows from this hypothesis that the full moon 
would always be black and invisible, —an imagi- 
nary moon, and not the moon which we see. Mr. 
Ferrel is doubtless aware of this, and in his own 
view may be supposed to be purely treating of a 
hypothetical body ; but the ordinary reader is cer- 
tainly apt not to understand the strictly limited prem- 
ises with which he starts. 

In the exactness and competence of Mr. Ferrel’s 
mathematical treatment of this or any subject he 
presents, all will agree; but the more exact the 
logical instrument, the more certain it is to deduce 
limited conclusions from limited premises. 

Without entering on any discussion of Mr. Ferrel’s 
use of Dulong and Petit’s formula, I may then say 
that to those astronomers and physicists who are en- 
gaged in the task of experimentally determining the 
actual temperature of the lunar surface, the exist- 
ence of this great amount of reflected heat is an 
enormous difficulty, for it is not until this has been 
differentiated from the radiated heat that the tem- 
perature of the actual surface is either theoretically 
or experimentally ascertainable. 

To the present Earl of Rosse belongs the credit of 
making the first attempt to do this, and, in doing 
so, to conquer those experimental difficulties which 
lie even at the threshold, and which alone are exces- 
sive; for the total amount of all the heat of both 
kinds is so minute as not to change the reading of a 
thermometer directly exposed to the rays of the full 
moon by nearly so much as the thousandth part of a 
centigrade degree. 

The writer has now been engaged for a long time 
in these researches, whose interest and importance 
to us are not to be measured by the minute amount 
of the heat in question. 

To prevent mistake, let it be stated that there never 
has at any time been any doubt but that the lunar sur- 
face radiates heat toward us, and there is scarcely 
a doubt but that this radiated heat is greater than 
the reflected. The question is, however, as to the 
amounts, and as to whether the first kind passes 
through our atmosphere as well as the second. 

This is not the place to discuss this somewhat 
recondite point; but the as yet unpublished Alle- 


[Vou. VIL, No. 152 


gheny observations, now conducted through over 
twenty lunations with the object of discriminating 
the refiected from the radiated heat by the formation 
of a lunar heat-spectrum, show that a considerable 
part of this radiated heat does pass through our 
atmosphere along with that reflected. While the 
writer differs from the conclusions of Lord Rosse as 
to the temperature of the lunar surface, it seems due 
to truth to say, that, in the particular just alluded to, 
the interpretation of Lord Rosse is sustained more 
fully than his own first one. 

Without anticipating the publication of these ex- 
periments, the reader may care to learn of one obser- 
vation made on the rare occasion when the full moon 
is partially dark ; that is, during an eclipse. In the 
lunar eclipse of Sept. 238, 1885, about eight-tenths of 
the moon’s diameter was covered by the umbra. The 
night was beautifully clear at Allegheny, and obser- 
vations were made with the bolometer on different 
parts of the lunar image formed by a concave mirror 
of twelve inches aperture, and ten feet three inches 
in focal length, which was kindly loaned for the 
occasion by Mr. J. A. Brashear. The image was a 
little over an inch in diameter, and the bolometer 
was limited by a diaphragm to an aperture of about 
three-tenths of an inch; so that any circular portion 
of the moon’s surface forming about one-eleventh of 
the whole could be examined independently of the 
rest. Previous observers have been obliged to utilize 
all the lunar rays from a large concave mirror in 
forming a very small image barely covering the 
thermopile employed; but, owing to the superior 
delicacy of the bolometer, it has thus become pos- 
sible to select small portions of a comparatively large 
lunar image for separate study, and still have heat 
enough for accurate measurement. 

Before the eclipse began, the exposure of the bo- 
lometer to the central portion of the image produced 
a galvanometer deflection of one hundred and eighty 
divisions. The deflection on the east limb of the 
moon was one hundred and sixty-four divisions ; but, 
as the eclipse advanced, the deflections here fell off 
very rapidly, the diminution being noticed before 
the penumbral shade hecame certainly visible to the 
eye. The diminution of the effect on the centre and 
west limb followed that on the east limb in time, as 
these regions were progressively covered by the 
shadow. On portions covered by the umbra the de- 
flection was very small, varying from four divisions 
soon after the beginning of immersion, to scarcely 
more than a single division of the galvanometer 
scale shortly before emersion from the umbra; so 
that the deflection was with difficulty detected. This 
last minute effect might have been due to true radia- 
tion from the darkened lunar surface, or possibly to 
diffuse and irregularly reflected heat from the surface 
of the mirror, though the method of exposure was 
calculated to eliminate this source of error as far 
as possible, —a doubt which must be resolved by 
future experiment. 

As the middle of the eclipse approached, measures 
made just outside the edge of the umbra indicated an 
increasing transmissibility by glass for the feeble 
radiant energy remaining. Thirty minutes before 
the middle of the eclipse, the transmission by glass 
for the lunar heat rays at this inner edge of the pe- 
numbra was found to be thirty-two per cent, and 
fifty-five minutes later it had increased to forty-eight 
per cent. Although these latter deflections were 
very small, the observations were apparently trust-~ 


JANUARY 1, 1886.] 


worthy. Theaverage transmission of the lunar rays 
by glass during the eclipse was about twenty-two per 
cent, and did not differ very materially from that 
for the uneclipsed moon on this day. If the increased 
transmissibility at the outer edge of the umbra be a 
real effect, it is possibly local and evanescent. 

The deflection obtained from a portion of the 
lunar surface just in advance of the umbra did not 
very materially differ from that given by a similar 
portion over which the umbra had just passed. 

Clouds, preventing further observations, began to 
form as the penumbra was about passing off. There 
were indications, however, of a recovery of heat 
nearly as rapidas the previous fall. This effect was 
shown, though in a less marked manner, by Dr. 
Boeddicker’s observations, in the eclipse of Oct. 4, 
1884, made at Lord Rosse’s observatory (see Nature, 
xxx. p. 589). 

The following are the deflections observed on each 
point during the progress of the eclipse at Allegheny : 


: : Time ! - Time : - | Time 
S| 2 | from os| 2 | from Sq] 2 | from 
mo| & : mS) € : Sol § F 
Om| se mid O3| mid Vs) = mid- 
IA~| —  leclipse A | F eclipse aA~| —  leclipse 
| h. m.| h. m,. |Cen Cb. m.| h. m. b. m.!| 
East, 164)11.53] 2.85 | tre.) 180) 12.01| 2.27 |West| 155) 12.16; 212 
- 12.26} 2.28 *© | 128) 12.44] 1.44 * 153] 12.32! 1.56 
“ 45) 12.53] 1.85 Se eth 1,06:) 1:22 ss 129] 12.58] 1 
N.E. 1.28} 1.00 SN Sa 4 ee ES A! z+ 21} 4.05| 1.87 
S.E.| 71) 3.43] 1.15 


_ The salient feature of these observations is, we 

need hardly say, the extraordinary rapidity with 

which the lunar surface parts with its heat, most of 

that which is radiated disappearing all but simul- 

taneously with that reflected. S. P. LANGLEY. 
Allegheny observatory, Bec. 23. 


Sir William Thomson to the coefficients. 


I know of no easier way to reach those for whom 
the enclosed message was especially intended than 
through the columus of Science. At the same time, 
I believe it will be read with great interest by many 
who were not of the somewhat limited number re- 
Sais to. To such, a brief explanation may be 

ue :— 

At the close of the course of lectures by Sir William 
Thomson, at Baltimore, in October, 1884, it was 
determined by those who, through the courtesy of 
the Johns Hopkins university, had enjoyed the privi- 
lege of listening to the course, to present Sir William 
with a memento of the occasion which had been, to 
them, of such unusual interest. Under the circum- 
stances, nothing could have been more fitting for this 
purpose than one of Professor Rowland’s large con- 
cave gratings, which was accordingly agreed upon. 
Several months were required for the manufacture 
and examination of a grating which was entirely 
satisfactory to Professor Rowland ; but early in the 
past summer it was completed, and transmitted to 
Sir William Thomson through the kindness of the 
secretary of the Smithsonian institution. 

Prof. George Forbes of London was present during 
the course of lectures, and Lord Rayleigh attended a 
number of them. In the equations of motion devel- 
oped in the work there appeared twenty-one coeffi- 
cients, agreeing in number nearly, if not exactly, 
with the number of persons in regular attendance 


SCIENCE. , 9 


© 


upon the lectures. This relation was quickly noticed 
by some one, and was made the basis of some humor- 
ous verses composed by the genial and witty Forbes, 
which were read at a reception given to the class by 
President Gilman, and were afterward published. 
Their title was ‘‘The lament of the twenty-one co- 
efficients in parting from each other and from their 
much-esteemed molecule.” 
The first stanza began, — 


** An aeolotropic molecule was looking at the view, 
Surrounded by his coefficients, twenty one or two;”’ 


and the whole will always possess much interest to 

those who were present. With this explanation, I 

justify the title which I have given to the following 

selections from a letter recently received from Sir 

William Thomson. T.-C. a 
Washington, D.C., Dec. 28. 


I wrote to Professor Rowland, acknowledging the 
receipt of the grating; but I ought before now to 
have thanked all the other coefficients for their kind- 
ness in giving it to me. I should feel greatly obliged 
if you would transmit to those of the coefficients who 
are in America my heartiest thanks for their great 
kindness, and say to them that the grating will bea 
permanent memorial to me of the happy three weeks 
of 1884, when we were together in Baltimore. .. . 
After the British association meeting at Aberdeen, 
I was delighted to be able to show the grating to 
some of our English appreciators, — including one of 
the coefficients, George Forbes ; and Lord Rayleigh, 
whom we may consider as, at all events, a partial 
coefficient ; and Professor Fitzgerald of Trinity col- 
lege, Dublin; Oliver Lodge of Liverpool; Glaze- 
brooke of Cambridge; and Captain Creak of the 
compass department of our admiralty, — who came 
to stay with us at Netherhall, our country house, 
for a few days, on their way south. We had no 
sunlight to work with, but we got the double sodium 
light in the first and second spectrums from a salted 
spirit-lamp flame exceedingly well, and we were all 
delighted with the result. I had never myself seen 
any thing like it before. WILLIAM THOMSON. 

The university, Glasgow, Dec. 5. 


A waste of public money. 


My attention has just been drawn to your notice in 
Science of Dec. 4, of my forthcoming report on irri- 
gation. The substance of your criticism is that quan- 
tity, and not quality, appears to have been the object 
in its compilation, — that the work should have been 
written in one volume instead of three; and you 
quote a long, redundant paragraph as a sample of the 
composition throughout. 

It is to be regretted that you undertook to criticise 
an entire report, when you had before you only some 
advance sheets of one volume, very hastily printed 
from unrevised manuscript, solely for the purpose of 
an exhibit to the legislature. which desired to know 
something of the scope of the work. 

The entire report, as ordered printed, is now under 
way ; and I believe you will find, when you receive 
a copy, a decided improvement in the literary con- 
struction which you have criticised. As for the 
general make-up of the work, —its fulness, and oc- 
casional repetition of matter under different head- 
ings, — which you do not specially refer to, but proba- 
bly have noticed, I shall have something to say at the 


10 . SCIENCE. 


proper time and place. In the mean while, the many 
kindly, encouraging, and sometimes flattering words 
of approval which I have received from persons who 
have read the ‘advance sheets’ you criticise, and 
whom I believe to be specially qualified to judge of a 
work on this subject, will sustain me in the labor of 
completing it as begun. 

You have criticised a work projected on one plan, 
and to fill a demand amongst irrigators and persons, 
from one cause or another, interested in the details 
of the subject, as though it purported to be on another 
plan, and for general circulation and sale. When the 
first volume is published, I hope to make this clear to 
you. It has always been the intention to bring the 
more important matter of general interest in this 
report within the compass of one moderately sized 
volume, to meet the demand of which you speak. 
This was the subject of a recommendation to the 
legislature, in my biennial report transmitted with 
the advance sheets of the final report ; and I am glad 
to tell you that there will be submitted to the legis- 
iature at its next session (January, 1887) a concise 
and readable report for general circulation, in addi- 
tion to the more voluminous books of reference.’ 

Wm. Ham. HALL, 
State engineer, California. 
Sacramento, Cal., Dec. 22. 


The Davenport tablet. 


As the evidence in regard to the limestone tablet 
indicates that it was a plant made to deceive the mem- 
bers of the Davenport academy, we are led to inquire 
whether the authenticity of the shale tablets rests on 
any better foundation. Accepting the statements in 
regard to their discovery as published in the Proceed- 
ings, and referring to the excellent albertypes on 
plates 1, 2, and 3, vol. ii., we notice the following 
facts calculated to arouse suspicion : — 

On the so-called ‘cremation scene,’ plate 1, vol. 
ii., are three Arabic 8’s, one so much like that on the 
limestone tablet as almost to lead to the belief that the 
two were made by one hand. Moreover, there are, 
as admitted by the finder (vol. ii. p. 223), four other 
characters on the latter identical with characters in 
the ‘ cremation scene.’ This links the two so closely 
together as to induce the belief that they belong in 
the same category, and hence that the conclusion 
reached in regard to the limestone tablet must apply to 
all the shale tablets, as the latter were found together 
in the mound known as No. 3 of the ‘Cook farm 
group.’ It is also stated in the Proceedings (vol. ii. 
p. 223), that the bird-figures on the limestone tablet 
‘‘have each a bit of quartz crystal set in for an 
eye, like the eyes of the animal figure from mound 
No. 3, . and, like those, they are held in place 
by a white cement of some kind.” This animal 
figure was found in the dirt thrown out of mound 
No. 3, from which the shale tablets were obtained 
(vol. ii. p. 256). It is therefore almost impossible to 
avoid the conclusion that all must stand or fall 
together. 

No. 3 appears to have been a double mound, the 
southern portion only having been explored in 1874; 
the northern part (in which the shale tablets were 
found), not until 1877. According to Dr. Farquharson 
(vol. i. p. 119), the part first opened contained no 
layers of shells or stones ; and no mention is made of 
an excavation or grave in the earth beneath, nor does 
the figure (No. 3, plate 2, vol. i.) show any stratifica- 


[Vou. VII., No. 152 


tion or grave. Turning to the figure of the same 
mound (vol. ii. p. 92), we find both strata and grave 
represented in this southern portion. Mr. Gass, in 
his subsequent account (vol. ii. p. 92), says some 
errors were made in the first description and illustra- 
tions ; but Dr. Farquharson says his description was 
made from Mr. Gass’s statements, and partly from 
personal observation on the spot (vol. i. p. 118). 
Attention is also called to the fact that the skeletons 
of the intrusive burial over the southern grave, as 
well as the three in it, were whole and undisturbed ; 
while over the northern grave the human bones of 
the intrusive burial were scattered through the soil, 
and with them the fragments of a brass ring; while 
in it, beneath the shell stratum, were ‘‘ fragments of 
human bones and small pieces of coal slate or bitu- 
minous shale” (Mr. Gass’s account, Proceedings, vol. 
ii. pp. 95, 96). In the plan of the mound (fig. 9, 
vol. ii. p. 93), a single skull is represented in this 
northern grave where the tablets were discovered. 
This condition of the contents is scarcely consistent 
with the idea that there had been no previous disturb- 
ance of this part of the mound. 

The tablets were not discovered until five o’clock 
in the afternoon (Jan. 10), ‘‘ covered on both sides 
with clay, on removal of which the markings were for 
the first time discovered” (vol. ii. p. 96), yet we are 
informed which side of each was upward as they lay 
in their resting-place. 

It may not be out of place to call attention to the 
fact that nearly all of the letter characters of the 
‘cremation scene,’ as represented on the albertype, 
may be found on p. 1766 of Webster’s unabridged 
dictionary, edition of 1872, or any subsequent edition, 
where the letters of the ancient alphabets of the old 
world are figured. A few, it is true, are reversed, 
and in some instances the form is slightly varied ; but 
the resemblance in most cases is very strong. The 
reader can make the comparison for himself; but I 
would call his attention to the fact that in the upper 
of the two transverse curved lines, near the right-hand 
end, the two forms of the ‘ Gallic’ O appear together, 
just as given on the page of the dictionary. He will 
also observe that in some instances a number of. 
characters in close relation on the tablet are found 
near together on the page of the dictionary ; here, 
also, we find the 8 so often used on the tablets. A 
photograph or the albertype must be used for this 
comparison. 

It is true, letters of almost any form can be found 
on this page, but it would be an anomaly to find a 
brief ancient inscription consisting of letters from 
half a dozen alphabets of widely different ages, and 
partly of the angular and partly of the cursive types. 
That this is true of this inscription, is readily seen by 
the suggested comparison. Dr. Seyfforth, in his 
attempt at an explanation, published in vol. iii. of 
the Proceedings, was forced to go to half a dozen or 
more alphabets to find the letters given in this single 
short inscription. 

The tablet represented in plate 3,vol. ii., and known 
as the ‘calendar stone,’ indicates, beyond any rea- 
sonable doubt, contact with people acquainted with 
the twelve signs of the zodiac. This is admitted by 
Dr. Farquharson (vol. ii. p. 109) and Dr. Seyfforth 
(vol. iii. p. 77), and necessarily forces us to the con- 
clusion that it is post-Columbian, or the result of 
contact, possibly at some very ancient date, with 
people of the eastern hemisphere. 

The fact that the diameter of the inner circle is 


JANUARY 1, 1886.] 


exactly two inches, of the next three and a half 
inches, and» next to the outer one five inches, ‘ cer- 
tainly has a modern look,’ as Dr. Farquharson truly 
remarks (vol. ii. p. 109). The reader is doubtless 
aware that among the illustrations in the latter part 
of the dictionary mentioned is a figure of the zodiac 
with four rings or zones (p. 1704). 

These facts, gathered from the statements and 
figures published in the Proceedings of the academy, 
are presented for consideration by our antiquarians. 
The question of the authenticity of these relics 
should, if possible, be definitely settled, as they have, 
if genuine, an important bearing on some trouble- 
some archeological problems. Cyrus THOMAS. 


Dr. Otto Meyer and the south-western tertiary. 


In the December number of the American journal 
of science, Dr. Otto Meyer publishes what purports 
to be a reply to criticisms on his attempt to prove 
that all observers previous to himself have been mis- 
taken as to the broad facts of the succession of the 
tertiary strata of the south-western states, and that 
what Lyell and the American geologists have found 
to be the top is really the bottom, and vice versa. 
This is the third of three lengthy papers devoted by 
him to the same theme; and one would naturally 
suppose that one who is allowed to occupy so much 
space in a scientific journal of such high standing 
had at least some new observations of his own to 
communicate, upon which to base so sweeping an 
assertion ; and that he had studied and candidly con- 
sidered the published work of his predecessors. His 
second paper showed the extremely limited extent of 
his own observations, and his failure to even read, 
much less study, the literature of the subject, 
from which he quoted only disjointed sentences, 
selected to suit his ideas. The three articles in the 
October number of the journal, from three observers 
whose observations he calmly sets aside as unworthy 
of confidence beside his own superior lights, expressed 
their astonishment at the cool assumption, grounded 
on such a slender basis, that pervades Dr. Meyer’s 
methods and assertions ; and they gave a few of the 
simple facts that irrefragably prove the correctness 
of the recognized succession of formations. 

In his latest article, Meyer goes even farther than 
before. He not only denies categorically that stratig- 
raphy alone, including dips, can give any certainty 
as to the natural succession of the formations, unless 
we could ‘ follow the strata foot by foot;’ but he pro- 
ceeds to pick out from the work of myself and others 
such portions as leave room for doubt in their inter- 
pretation, and upon these constructs and supports his 
fanciful fabric. He simply ignores facts pointedly 
stated, that completely overturn his whole scheme ; 
as, for instance, the paragraph in which I state the 
fact, verified innumerable times, that the sandstone 
of the Grand Gulf group is found ‘‘ overlying the Vicks- 
burg strata generally along the southern line of the 
Vicksburg group.” In the face of this statement, 
which, if he had chosen, he could easily have verified 
near the very localities examined hy him at Jackson 
and Vicksburg, and of the universal and patent fact 
that all the divisions of the Mississippi tertiary dis- 
appear beneath the drainage-level with a southward 
or south-westward dip, he presents for acceptance by 
guileless American geologists a section in which the 
Grand Gulf rocks are made the base of the tertiary. 
In referring to the re-appearance of the Jackson 


SCIENCE. 11 


shell bed at one point on the Chickasawha River, 
southward of the main belt, he entirely overlooks the 
fact that it is there directly overlaid by the most 
characteristic ‘ orbitoides limestone’ of the Vicksburg 
group, under which it disappears to southward. 
Similar methods are pursued in other cases, varied 
with elementary platitudes concerning the general 
value of lithological and paleontological characters. 
I cannot consent to cumber the columns of this or 
any otber journal with a detailed refutation of asser- 
tions founded upon such methods of procedure. 
Whenever Dr. Meyer or any one else shall come for- 
ward with any thing tangible that seems incompatible 
with the results deduced from my elaborate re- 
searches in the south-western tertiary, I am ready to 
discuss the issue ; but Iam unwilling to waste time, 
paper, and ink upon the flimsy but elastic struc- 
ture which Dr. Meyer has, in the face of known 
facts, evolved from his inner consciousness. Fortu- 
nately, the geological area which he attempts to turn 
wrong side up is now again under examination by 
competent observers, who have no hobby to ride, and 
whose results, I have reason to hope, will be made 
public before many months. In the mean time, I 
commend Dr. Meyer’s methods to the attention of 
ambitious young geologists as a conspicuous example 
of ‘ how not to do it.’ E. W. HiLGarp. 
Berkeley,,Cal., Dec. 15. 


A new meteoric iron from West Virginia. 


In your last issue appears a communication 
entitled ‘ A new meteoric iron from West Virginia,’ 
in which a meteorite said to have been found near 
Charleston, Kanawha county, W.Va., is described. 

The writer is evidently not aware that this same 
piece of iron was described in a paper read at the 
meeting of the American association for the advance- 
ment of science, held at Ann Arbor in August last. 
The transactions of that session are not yet pub- 
lished, but the title of the paper above mentioned 
was noticed in Science, vi. No. 136, p. 222, Sept. 
11, and in the American journal of science, xxx. 
No. 178, p. 326, October, 1885. No mention would 
be made of this oversight if the iron were correctly 
described, but several inaccuracies demand attention. 
When the paper was prepared, the only information 
at my command was that furnished me by Dr. H. G. 
Torrey, and was simply this: that the iron had been 
sent to‘him from Charleston, Kanawha county, W.Va., 
by Major Delafield Du Bois, who wished to have it 
assayed. The major had received it from parties 
who thought it precious metal of some kind. 

Since this first report was made, Major Du Bois 
has looked up the matter more thoroughly, visiting 
the true locality, and making many inquiries. Ata 
meeting of the New York academy of sciences, Nov. 
30, the writer read a paper, announcing the full par- 
ticulars of the finding. Owing to press of matter, 
this paper will not appear in the American journal of 
science until February, and in the New York academy 
proceedings as customarily published. I then an- 
nounced the true locality to be Jenny’s Creek, — a 
fork of the Big Sandy River, 15 miles from the 
Chatteroy railroad, 35 miles from Louisa, Ken- 
tucky, and 38 miles from Wayne Court-house, 
Wayne county, W.Va., not Kanawha county, as 
formerly announced. Your correspondent says, ‘‘ Of 
its chemical constitution and the circumstances of its 
fall, we are quite ignorant.” He further asserts that 


12 3 SCIENCE. 


the iron was devoid of any thing like a crust. I 
would repeat that the iron was found in October, 
1883, in two masses aggregating at least twenty-five 
pounds in weight, and that both these masses were 
covered with a crust. I presented an analysis of the 
iron made by Mr. James B. Mackintosh of the School 
of mines, New York, and also cuts showing two 
views of the iron, and one of the crystalline structure 
of its surfaces. The iron which I described is un- 
questionably that mentioned bythe writer in your 
last issue. 

Instead of being found near Greenbrier county, it 
was found two counties farther off, or one hundred 
miles. Hence it is scarcely credible that all these 
pieces are fragments of a meteorite which burst in 
mid-air. 

It is exceedingly important in the study of meteor- 
ites that wrong localities should not creep into print. 
If this instance were allowed to pass unnoticed, it 
would result in the recording of two distinct fails; 
i.e., one at Charleston, Kanawha county, W.Va., and 
the other at Jenny’s Creek, Wayne county, W.Va. 
The two small pieces brought to me from Wayne 
county are identical with the original piece loaned 
to me for description, and the danger of meeting 
with these remaining fragments as supposed new 
finds was touched upon in the paper read at the 
Academy of sciences. GEORGE F. Kunz, 


A national university. 


In No, 149 of Science (Dec. 11), in an article on ‘A 
national university,’ is a criticism upon that part of 
the report of Secretary Lamar recommending the 
establishment of a national university in Washington. 
The writer urges that there must be ‘* a fatal defect 
in any congressional bill to establish a university, so 
long as the principles of appointment to United States 
offices, and the tenure of those offices, remain what 
they are.” The writer is ignorant of the fact that 
we now have established in Washington, by congres- 
sional bill, the Columbia institution for the deaf and 
dumb and the Howard university. Both of these in- 
stitutions, in their present form, were established by 
congress, and are supported by yearly appropriations. 
No greater degree of permanence in tenure of office 
is found in any university of the country than in 
these, and no difficulty is experienced in finding com- 
petent and able professors and instructors. 

The next objection is, that ‘‘ the government of a 
national university would necessarily be in the hands 
of some board of officers, and the constitution of 
such a board would lead to many difficulties.” 

We supposed that all universities were in the con- 
trol of some board, and in almost every one of our 
large universities the constitution of such a board has 
led to many difficulties : the board of Yale college is 
now no exception. The Smithsonian institution is 
controlled by a board of officers appointed by con- 
gress, and it has not led to the difficulties suggested. 
The influence of sectional feeling has not been felt, 
and we doubt if any plan could have been devised 
by which more good could have been accomplished 
than has been by the board of the Smithsonian, with 
Professors Henry and Baird as its secretaries. 

The writer objects that ‘‘ the gift of such an edu- 
cation would rest in the hands of the members of 
congress, and would only place so much injurious 
patronage at their disposal.” 

There would be no necessity for any thing of this 


[Vou. VII., No. 152 


kind. Such patronage does not exist either in the Co- 
lumbia institution or the Howard university; but, even 
if it should rest in the members of congress, the results 
in analogous cases prove that the objection has no 
weight. The appointments both to West Point and 
the Naval school at Annapolis are in the gift of the 
members of congress, and there are no institutions of 
the kind in the world where abler men or better 
scholars have been graduated. These institutions. 
have educated and trained commanders of the army 
and navy, and they have in war and in peace shown 
the excellence of their education. 

The last objection is, that a national university 
would be un-American in principles. Washington, 
Jefferson, Madison, and Adams thought a national 
university was necessary. We do not understand 
how an institution which the fcunders of our country 
recommended can be considered un-American. 

There is no place in the country which possesses. 
such advantages for a national university as Wash- 
ington. Here are the Smithsonian institution with 
its various departments, the geological survey, the 
coast survey, the nautical almanac, the hydro- 
graphic office, the signal-service bureau, the national 
museum, the medical museum, the patent office, the 
libraries in the various departments, and the con- 
gressional library, — each of these bureaus presided 
over by gentlemen of the highest ability, aided by a 
corps of men the equals of those of any of our uni- 
versities ; the whole forming a nucleus for a univer- 
sity, when grouped tegether and combined, superior 
to any in the world. Washington is the capital of 
the country, and is to-day a centre of more scientific 
apparatus and more scientific men than any other 
city in the union. G. G. H. 


It is perhaps unnecessary to point out the differ- 
ence between a ‘national university’ and a univer- 
sity incorporated by act of congress. 

I think the writer of the above letter must be un- 
aware that the absolute permanence of tenure of 
office during efficiency is the one great inducement 
which leads young men of good parts to enter the 
service of such a college as Harvard. It goes with- 
out saying, that it would be out of the question to 
induce one of the full professors at Harvard, except 
for much larger pay, to give up his reasonable salary, 
his position for life, and his comparative freedom 
from the necessity of explaining his work to unsym- 
pathetic critics, to accept a position under the United 
States government, where he could, by constitutional 
provision, only be sure of his salary and place from 
year to year; whereas I know of the anxiety felt 
by instructors in colleges under city control to escape 
from their bondage to the politician. : 

It is true that there are alarge number of scientific 
men in government employ, but they are there for 
the simple reason that there is the one great market 
for their services. It has never been my fortune to 
meet with any teacher who would not prefer to be in 
the employ of a private school or college, rather than 
in that of city, state, or United States. The con- 
stant parleying with politicians which government 
employ entails is simply unbearable for many of the 
men, whose disposition leads them to choose the 
teacher’s life. 

The scientific bureaus were established by the 
United States with the view of making surveys of 
the country, and the work of scientific investigation 
is carried on at present only with the object of mak- 


JaNnuARY 1, 1886.} 


ing such surveys possible. It is a step ina radically 
new direction to introduce the prosecution of inves- 
tigation per se; and it should be well considered 
where this begins, and whether it is the proper func- 
tion of the government to prosecute such work. 
The establishment of a teaching university is a still 
greater step. 

There is further, in my opinion, no need of a 
university in Washington, as we already have as 
good an institution as could be wished at the neigh- 
boring city of Baltimore. 

An appeal to the prestige of the names of the 
statesmen of the early days of the country is always 
to be deprecated. We are suffering at the present 
time from a law passed under the hurrah raised bya 
similar appeal. L 


Some points in the evolution of the horses. 


The main facts with regard to the evolution of 
the horses have long been known, and the series of 
modifications in the limbs, skull, and molar teeth, so 
fully described, that little doubt remains as to the 
various links in the long chain. But, in tracing out 
the line of descent of any group of organisms, it is 
not only necessary to follow out the steps of progres- 
sion in a general way, but in all their details. In 
the case of fossils, this must, for the most part, be 
done by many different observers, as so much depends 
upon the fortunate discovery of good specimens. The 
present note gives a small contribution of this kind to 
the elucidation of the history of the horses. 

The earliest member of the series of which we 
know much is the Hyracotherium of Owen (Oro- 
hippus, Marsh). This little animal is quite abundant 
in the lower eocene of Wyoming, and has been very 
fully described by Professor Cope. In this genus 
(fig. 1) the incisors are arranged in a semicircle, 


ey c 
{ 
\ 


Fig. 1.— Lower incisor and 
canine series of Hyracothe- 
rium (after Cope). One-half 
natural size. 


Fie. 2.— Lower incisor and 
canine series of Anchithe- 
rium (after Kowalewsky). 


either uninterruptedly or separated by slight inter- 
vals. They are simple teeth, with sharp, chisel- 
shaped crowns. The canines are small, conical, and 
-everted. The symphysis of the lower jaw is long 
and much contracted, rounded and somewhat ex- 
panded at the end. 

The next type in the series is the Mesohippus of Pro- 
fessor Marsh, from the White River beds or lower mio- 
-cene. Although the characters which Professor Marsh 
gives as separating this form from Anchitherium are 
either inaccurate or not of generic value, Mesohippus 
must, as we shall presently see, be regarded as a dis- 
tinct genus. Here the shape of the mandibular 
‘symphysis and of the incisor teeth is very much as 
in Hyracotherium. The incisors are small, with 


SCIENCE. 13 


rather broad, chisel-shaped crowns, and without a 
trace of an invagination of the enamel. The advance 
from Hyracotherium to Mesohippus consists chiefly 
in the increased size of the animal, reduction of the 
number of digits, greater complexity of the premolar 
and molar teeth, and enlargement of the brain. 
Specimens of Mesohippus with the incisors in posi- 
tion are rather rare. The description given above 
is of a small species (No. 10,246 of the Princeton 
museum) which was obtained by the Princeton scien- 
tific expedition of 1878 at Chalk Bluffs, Colorado. 

In the upper miocene deposits of the Pacific coast 
the true Anchitherium (Miohippus, Marsh) appears. 
In this genus the incisors show an invagination of 
enamel on the grinding surface of the crown. The 
pit so formed is shallow, and comparatively soon 
wears down to a scar. I have not had an opportunity 
of examining European specimens with reference to 
this point, but the presence of the pit is clearly shown 
in Kowalewsky’s figures (Memoires de Vacademie 
imper. de St. Petersbourg, 7th ser. tome xx. pl. iii. 
figs. 55 and 57). OF fig. 57 (see fig. 2), Kowalewsky 
says, ‘‘ Les incisives mitoyennes présentent déja les 
puits en émail qui sont si charactéristiques pour les 
chevaux.” This pit, seen in its earliest stages in 
Anchitherium, goes on increasing until it reaches its 
greatest development in the recent genus Equus. It 
is of interest to see that even in this small and com- 
paratively unimportant detail we find a fresh confir- 
mation of the accuracy of previously expressed views 
as to the series of equine ancestors. If these deter- 
minations are accurate, they must, of course, hold 
good down to the minutest details. Further inves- 
tigation will undoubtedly bring more of these minor 
correspondences to light. W. B..Scorr 

Geol. mus., Princeton, N.J., Dec. 16. 


Equatorial currents in star and planetary atmos- 
pheres. 


In the ‘ Astronomical notes’ contained in the num- 
ber of Science for Dec. 11, occurs a statement in 
regard to the circulation of the earth’s atmosphere 
which seems to me to require qualification, and I 
therefore venture to call your attention toit. The 
passage in question reads as follows: ‘‘As to the 
earth, we know that the general drift of the lower 
atmospheric currents is eastward, rotating faster 
than the globe itself; but of the circulation high up 
above the clouds we knew absolutely nothing until 
the red sunsets following the Krakatoa outburst 
. . . indicated, by their successive appearances at 
different places, a probable upper equatorial current 
moving rapidly westward, i.e., rotating slower than 
the earth.” 

Now, it is well known that the eastward move- 
ment of the atmosphere is confined to the temperate 
zones, and is not observable in the polar or tropical 
regions. On the contrary, the most striking feature 
in the circulation of the atmospheres is the great 
equatorial wind-current which flows from east to 
west along the equator, and is felt beyond the tropics 
of Capricorn and Cancer. It is about 60° in width, 
and therefore covers one-half the earth’s surface. 
It is also, asI believe, the most important factor in the 
whole system of oceanic and atmospheric circulation, 
since, by the friction of its movement over the ocean 
surface, it produces the great equatorial water-cur- 
rent which is the chief, though not the only, cause of 
all the great movements of oceanic waters. The 


14 


cause of this equatorial wind-belt is probably the 
lagging-back of the loosely cohering and adhering 
atmosphere over the equatorial region, which has a 
maximum motion of rotation from west to east of 
about a thousand miles an hour. The equatorial 
wind-current has a motion westward of from five to 
ten miles an hour, but this is only relative to the sur- 
face of the earth, since it has an absolute movement 
eastward with the earth of perhaps 990 to 995 miles 
an hour. 

The lagging-back of the atmosphere over the 
tropical regions may be altogether due to its inertia, 
or is may be in part the effect of friction with that 
real but intangible medium which fills the interstel- 
lar spaces, — the luminiferous ether. Whatever the 
cause of the equatorial wind-current may be, its 
importance in the physics of the globe cannot be ex- 
aggerated. Among the other phenomena with which 
it may be credited are the red sunsets which are now 
generally believed —as stated by the editor of your 
astronomical column — to be due to the projection into 
this equatorial current of an immense volume of vol- 
eanic dust from Krakatoa, which has not only floated 
many times around the earth, but has been widely 
diffused north and south of the equator by the high 
upper currents of air that flow from the equator 
toward the poles, and constitute the other great 
factorsin atmospheric circulation. Along the ther- 
mal equator the heated air is constantly rising, and 
is replaced by the cooler and denser air flowing 
along the surface from the north and south. This, 
coming from regions where the rotation of the 
earth is much less than at the equator, reaches 
the torrid zone with a strong relative motion toward 
the west,—going slower than the earth, — and 
giving us the south-east trades of the southern side 
of the equator, and the north-east of the northern. 
The constant upward tendency of the air along the 
heated zone would retard the descent of the dust, 
and favor its suspension in the heaped-up mass of air 
which flows northward and southward from the 
equator. This air, which has an absolute eastward 
movement with the earth of perhaps 990 miles per 
hour, soon reaches a zone where the earth’s move- 
ment is less than this, and where, with reference to 
the surface, the movement is toward the north-east 
in the northern hemisphere, and south-east in the 
southern. This, as is known to many, but perhaps 
not to all, of your readers, gives us the general drift 
of the atmosphere over the United States. 

By the northward and southward flow of the 
tropical and dust-bearing air, that dust may be dif- 
fused over most of the earth’s surface before it 
settles. J. S. NEWBERRY. 

New York, Dec, 28. 


Congenital deaf-mutism. 


The chief requisite to racial experiments is isola- 
tion. A race of men is a breed, a stock, a strain that 
has been isolated long enough to fix by inheritance a 
number of characteristics. This isolation may be 
either geographical or social. Where caste prevails 
and marriage is confined to groups, the characteris- 
tics of each group will be fixed and perpetuated. 
This is social isolation, and the result is in the nature 
ofarace. At the time when there were fewer people 
on the earth, and when the allurements to commerce 
and the means of locomotion were not so numerous, 
the present races of the world were fixed. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 152° 


Prof. A. Graham Bell has on several occasions 
lately called attention to the formation of a race of 
deaf-mutes by caste isolation and intermarriage. A 
very interesting example of reaching a race of deaf- 
mutes by geographical isolation has just come to my 
notice. 

Lieut. H. T. Allen, U.S.A., lately engaged in the 
exploration of Alaska, writes me as follows :— 

‘“On two tributaries of the Koukuk River, Konoo- 
tenah and Nohoolchintnah, both emptying from the 
south, and about seventy-five miles between mouths, 
were two villages about twenty-five miles from the 
respective confluences, the upper village 66°.40’ north, 
150°.50' west. One village contained six males, the 
other five; and, of these eleven, four were deaf- 
mutes. There was a woman who could speak fairly 
intelligently to her people, but could not hear. There 
was also a boy who was a deaf-mute. The natives 
said that the mutes had never been able to speak or 
hear, and the sounds emitted had nothing in common 
with the articulations of their relatives. I can ac- 
count for the foregoing facts only by continued inter- 
marriage, which is necessitated by their isolation. 
Above the upper village there are no tribes on the 
Koukuk River, none between the Nohoolchintnah 
and Konootenah, and none for many miles below the 
latter river. The men from these villages trade at 
the station on the Yukon River, near the mouth of 
the Tananah. They claim to be Kleekots, but can 
readily converse with the natives of the Yukon from 
St. Yukon to Nulato.” O. T. Mason, 


The English sparrow. 


Two years ago I published the fact in the Ameri- 
can naturalist (September, 1883, p. 925), of the Eng- 
lish sparrow having practically driven all the native 
birds out of the beautiful parks of New Orleans, 
when, even so long ago as that, this bird was to be 
found there in numbers. I distinctly recollect hav- 
ing seen them in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1877; so 
that I think this pest has spread more rapidly than 
some of the correspondents of Science are perhaps 
aware. Of course, the most important point at issue 
now, is to devise means for so reducing their num- 
bers as to render them harmless in the future, or 
better still, if possible, to exterminate them entirely. 

The methods suggested by Mr. Ralph S. Tarr (Sci- 
ence, No. 149) are excellent so far as they go; but I 
would suggest a far more efficient weapon than the 
shot-gun, for use in the city parks, recommended by 
him. Irefer to the collecting cane now in use by 
many ornithologists in this country, with the seven- 
chambered pistol attachment. I have an excellent 
one by me now, belonging to the Smithsonian insti- 
tution, and I will guarantee that I could kill 350 
English sparrows with it in one day in New York 
City, and keep it up for every day in the year, or 
until their decreasing numbers reduced the average. 
It possesses several highly important recommenda- 
tions over the shot-gun: it makes scarcely any noise ; 
the ammunition is cheap ; no danger is run of injur- 
ing persons in a crowded city; and it would attract far 
less attention. This weapon might be placed in the 
hands of those who proved themselves experts in its 
use, or any city police force. Other persons might 
also be licensed to use it, who were willing to prac- 
tise exterminating the birds for a reward. 


R. W. SHUFELDT. 
Fort Wingate, N. Mex., Dec. 18. ‘ 


SCIENCE.—SuprpLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1886. 


THE STUDY OF GEOMETRY. 


WE have a pernicious habit in this country of 
supposing, that, because in a republic all men are 
born equal as to their rights, they are aiso born 
equal as to their abilities. We have a different 
theory in regard to horses: we know that a race- 
horse is altogether different from a dray-horse, 
and we give him a totally different kind of life 
from the beginning. We have no trouble in recog- 
nizing him: we simply inquire who were his an- 
cestors, and our expectation as to his qualities is 
carefully based upon the answer to that’ question. 
It would, perhaps, be a good plan if the young of 
the human species were divided into two groups at 
an early age, — one large and one small ; one com- 
posed of those of whom nothing more than plain 
living is expected, and the other composed of the 
race-horses, of those whose ancestors, or whose 
chance endowments, give reason to hope that they 
may give some aid to learning or to culture. 

There is, at all events, no reason why all young 
people should be taught geometry in the same 
way. For most children, a form of reasoning so 
abstract is not only repulsive, but very nearly im- 
possible of comprehension. A little may be done 
for them (or for their descendants) by giving them 
a small dose of geometry, made as plain and easy 
and direct as it can be made; but they do not need 
to know every thing that can be done with the 
straight line and circle. Life is short, and the 
whole content of geometry as known to Euclid 
is long. For most children in schools, a good 
specimen of the kind of reasoning, and a fair 
knowledge of the principal results, are all that is 
desirable. For such, a geometry like Wentworth’s 
serves a very good purpose. 

But it is a pity that the kind of geometry a per- 
son is taught should depend upon his geographical 
position near this or that kind of a school. Any 
one whose destiny is to do difficult thinking in 
after-life should have a different kind of early 
training: he should: dwell long among the geo- 
metrical concepts, should become thoroughly im- 
bued with the bare and rigid form of reasoning, 
and should have the results as familiar as his 
mother-tongue. lt is a serious loss to him if he is 
made to run over the subject with uncouth haste. 
Students of this kind will find their natural guide 


in such a text-book as Newcomb’s or Halsted’s.’ 
In neither is it the aim to give the most rapid and 
cursory system possible. Both are written from 
the stand-point of the modern idea that the geome- 
try of this world is not the only possible geometry, 
and that it is mere matter of accident that two 
parallel lines do not approach each other, and that 
two straight lines do not enclose a space. Both 
have felt the influence of the syllabus of the 
English association for the improvement of geo- 
metrical teaching. The idea of figure is shorn of 
its material content, and limited to its bounding 
lines or surfaces. The sum of two right angles is 
not regarded as a purely imaginary idea with no 
reality corresponding to it, but the ‘straight angle’ 
is allowed to piay its natural part. In Professor 
Newcomb’s book, nis favorite idea is carried out 
of leading up to new and strange conceptions by 
very slow and gradual steps: Mr. Halsted’s is in- 
tended for boys*® of much more highly developed 
minds. There are no concessions to youthful 
weakness. It is also intended for boys of well- 
developed taste in the art of book-making. It 
presents a splendor of paper and of margin which 
is far removed from the republican simplicity of 
our ancestors. 

The ancients believed that the geometrical con- 
cepts came down from heaven, but that the chief 
end of geometry was to measure the earth. We 
admit now that the concepts are, in the first 
instance, of the earth and earthy; but we have 
given an enormous development to the geometry 
of pure position, and have made it as remote from 
all possibility of application as the theory of num- 
bers itself. It is in consonance with this develop- 
ment that in both these books measurement is 
given somewhat the position of an appendix to the 
subject, instead of being made to appear as the end 
towards which all the propositions lead up. 

Mr. Halsted does an excellent thing in giving an 
introductory chapter on logic. When pure reason- 
ing is about to become the student’s daily occupa- 
tion for many months, it is a pity not to give him a 
general view of the processes involved at the start. It 


1 The elements of geometry. By GEORGE BrucE HAL- 
STED. New York, Wiley, 1885. 8°. 


2 Asa synonyme for ‘ student of geometry,’ one should, 
however, say girl with the understanding that boys are to 
be included. Geometry is chiefly studied in the high 
schools, and the high-school graduates number three girls 
to every boy. If geometry is as good a specific against bad 
reasoning as is commonly supposed, logicalness will soon 
become a feminine instead of a masculine characteristic. 


16 | SCIENCE. 


is very curious to find a compendium of logic with 
the syllogism left out. Hamlet is even less neces- 
sary to his play than the syllogism to logic. It is 
true, however, that the syllogism is an easy matter 
compared with inversion and contra-position. 
There is hardly a boy who is not greatly surprised 
to find that when he has proved that an isosceles 
triangle has two equal angles, it still remains to be 
proved that a triangle having two equal angles is 
isosceles. As De Morgan has pointed out, Euclid 
himself was apparently not aware that it follows 
every time from A implies B that non-B implies 
non-A. 

In regard to ‘his rule of inversion,’ when 
three or more propositions are involved, Mr. 
Halsted has fallen into a slight inaccuracy. In 
the first place, if the term ‘contradictory’ is to be 
applied to three terms at all, it should be used in 
the same sense as when applied to two terms; the 
three terms should together cover the whole field, 
and they should not overlap. The word is a bad 
one for this purpose, however, and it is just as well 
to keep the two properties — that of being exhaus- 
tive and that of being incompatible — distinct. 

In the second place, there is a redundancy in 
the rule as given by Mr. Halsted. From the three 
propositions, ' 

X implies x, 

Y implies y, 

Z implies z, 
it may be inferred that 

x implies X, 

y implies Y, 

z implies Z, 
provided that the subjects cover the whole field, and 
the predicates are incompatible. It is not neces- 
sary that the subjects should be known to be in- 
compatible, though it follows from the premises 
given that they are so, but also that the predicates 
are exhaustive. From the first two we have 

X Y implies x y;: 

and, since there is no x y, there cannot be any X Y 
either. 

It is very well worth while to have formulated 
the reasoning involved, instead of going through 
all the separate steps every time there is occasion 
for it, as the usual books on geometry do. 

The conclusion does not follow if it is given 
that the subjects are incompatible, and that the 
predicates together fill the universe. The nature 
of the argument is most clearly seen in space. 
Lange believes that the logical laws of thought are 
derived from space-conceptions. Suppose there is 
a table painted in various colors, but so that 

the red is all in the violet, 
the yellow is all in the blue, 
and the orange is all in the green ; 
' The letters stand for either terms or propositions. 


4, 


and suppose, also, that the red, the yellow, and the 
orange together cover the whole table, and that 
the violet, the blue, and the green do not overlap : 
it follows that 

red=violet, 

yellow=blue, 

orange=green. 

To show how a somewhat complicated argument 
can be simplified by having this type of reason- 
ing at command, we add a real illustration from 
algebra. In Descartes’ method of solution of the 
biquadratic equation, the following relations are 
seen to hold between its roots and those of the 
auxiliary cubic : — 

Roots of the 
biquadratice. 


All real 


aes a the 


implies 
ee positive. 


One positive, 
two imaginary. 
One positive, two 
equal negative. 
implies \ One positive, two 

/ unequal negative. 
But the division on the left is exhaustive, and the 
classes on the right are mutually exclusive : hence, 
by a purely logical tour de force, these propositions 
can all be inverted, and the desired inferences 
from the roots of the cubic to the roots of the 
biquadratic can be obtained at once. 

Mr. Halsted’s reviewers have pointed out before 
that he is deficient in a certain natural and 
becoming modesty. ‘Two formative years’ of his 
life is too high-sounding a phrase to be applied to 
any but a very great mathematician, like Professor 
Cayley, for instance. 


All oe per 


Two real (unequal) implies 


Two real fequal) implies 


All imaginary 


CEREBRAL EXCITABILITY AFTER DEATH. 


THE problems of brain physiology are so com- 
plex, and our means of studying them, especially 
in the human subject, so insufficient, that it is 
not to be wondered at if rather out-of-the-way 
and venturesome experiments are sometimes 
undertaken by the anxious physiologist ; as, wit- 
ness the actual stimulation of the exposed brain 
in a patient whose death seemed certain. Such 
an experiment is not apt to be repeated ; and a few 
French physicians have now wisely set to work 
to study the results of stimulating the cerebrum, 
exciting the sense-organs, and subjecting the whole 
body to a vigorous examination in the case of 
criminals who have suffered death by decapitation.’ 
Such investigations are not new; but the results 
have been, as a rule, either entirely negative, or 
brought out only a few rather obvious facts. In 
the experiments about to be described, the methods 

1 Revue scientifique, Nov. 28. By J. V. LABORDE, 


[Vou. VIL, No. 152 


Or 


ee 


JANUARY 1, 1886. } 


of experimentation have been much improved, 
mainly by keeping up the spark of life, artifi- 
cially, for a much longer time than was ever before 
accomplished. 

A dog was prepared in such a way that a trans- 
fusion of blood from its carotid artery to one of 
the carotids of the head of the decapitated crim- 
inal couid be promptly made, and thus a supply 
of living blood be made to flow through the life- 
less head, and thereby preserve the excitability 
of the nervous apparatus. Into the other carotid 
(the right) of the head defibrinated blood at a 
suitable temperature could be injected. The 
head was received seven minutes after decapita- 
tion. The difficulty of finding the carotids in 
the soft tissues, which had become sadly disfig- 
ured by the decapitation, caused a loss of ten 
minutes. A small opening in the cranium was 
then made, so as to insert a pair of electrodes on 
the frontal parietal region of the left side, — the 
presumable motor centre for the facial muscles. 
At about twenty minutes after decapitation 
the double transfusion of blood was begun. The 
result was striking : a bright color returned to the 
face, which also assumed a natural expression. 
The effect was most marked on the left side, 
which received its blood-supply direct from the 
dog. The electrodes were inserted, but no result 
followed. Thinking this might be due to a stim- 
ulation of the wrong spot, they made another 
opening in the skull, and again stimulated the 
brain. This wasfollowed bya regularand marked 
contraction of the muscles of the opposite side of 
the face, involving the orbicular and the super- 
ciliary muscles, together with a movement of the 
lower jaw, causing a strong chattering of the 
teeth. This effect could be repeated at will up 
to the 40th minute after decapitation, and, by 
increasing the current used in stimulation, to the 
49th minute. After this no movement followed 
the application of the electrodes, although the 
facial muscles could be made to contract by 
direct stimulation of the muscles. The failure 
of the first stimulation was afterwards shown to 
be due to the unusual length of.the head, thus 
causing an error of a few millimetres in the 
localization. At first the pupil could be made 
to dilate and contract by the approach or with- 
drawal of a strong light,—a fact frequently ob- 
served in previous cases. The peculiarities of the 
case are the great length of time for which the 
excitability remained, and the means employed 
for preserving this excitability, namely, the trans- 
fusion of living blood. 

An opportunity of verifying these results pre- 
sented itself in a subsequent case, but the results 
of cortical stimulation were negative. The ex- 


SCIENCE. 17 


planation was offered, that the individual had 
furiously resisted the attempts of the officers to 
put his body in position for decapitation, and that 
the resultant neuro-muscular excitability prevented 
the orderly action of the electrical stimulation. 
However, a few new results were obtained. In 
the first place, the patellar or knee reflex, obtained 
by striking the tendon, was distinctly observed on 
the body. The contraction was perfectly normal. 
Another remarkable result was this : the cephalic 
end of the medulla was stimulated in hopes of 
exciting the nucleus of the hypoglossal nerve. 
The attempt was successful, and movements of 
the tongue such as follow direct stimulation of the 
nerve were distinctly observed. 

Physiologists have not been very sanguine of 
results from this method of research ; but itseems 
that its importance has been rather underestimated. 
it will never be available for original investiga- 
tions; but it will serve as a means of verifying 
results otherwise obtained, and makes the infer- 
ence from the facts with regard to animals to 
similar conditions in man more reliable. 


PARASITISM AMONG MARINE ANIMALS. 


It is a curious fact that nearly all well-defended 
marine animals are either brilliantly colored or 
otherwise. attractive, as in the case of the sea- 
anemone, jelly-fish, and tropical shells and crabs. 
Those with little or no defence are generally 
inconspicuous, or resemble surrounding objects. 
This may be explained by supposing that by 
being inconspicuous they easily escape the notice 
of their enemies. Brilliant, well-defended animals 
have little fear of enemies, and by their bright 
colors attract curious animals within reach of 
their deadly powers. 

Many a fish in the sea instinctively avoids the 
deadly power hidden behind the brilliantly phos- 
phorescent jelly-fishes. This protective light has 
saved the jelly-fish much trouble, and is a great 
aid to it in its struggle for existence among the 
multitudes of surface animals. Through some 
curious freak in evolution, an entirely inoffensive 
cluster of animals, devoid of any protective power, 
has gained the use of this phosphorescent light, 
and, by imitating the dangerous jelly-fishes in this 
respect, sails about the surface, inspiring terror 
among surface animals that could easily devour 
them. This cluster of animals is Pyrosoma. In 
the clusters of floating seaweed in the Gulf 
Stream there are vast numbers of tiny fishes 
attired in the color of the floating weed, and that 
certainly gain protection thereby. 

The lump-fish has a sucker on its body by 
which it can attach itself to some fish of a similar 


color, and go freely about, entirely free from dan- 
ger. This is, no doubt, one way in which para- 
sitism originated. At first an animal attached 
itself, for protection, to another having the same 
color; the next step was to burrow into the ani- 
mal, and extract juices. There is a very curious 
fish that burrows in the side of another, leaving 
only a small opening out of which it can project 
its head and take food. Beyond this it does no harm 
to the fish. A curious case of parasitism is noticed 
in Penella, a copepod which burrows into the side 
of a sword-fish, and has upon its external stem a 
number of a peculiar species of barnacle, which in 
its turn has become parasitic. 

The sting of the jelly-fish is deadly to nearly 
every animal of limited size; yet there is a small 
fish that habitually lives beneath the bell of the 
jelly-fish, in the midst of flying lasso-cells, without 
being injured. It manages to pick up a very good 
living from the crumbs left by the jelly-fish. 
What benefit it is to its host is hard to understand ; 
but it is usualiy true, in such cases, that some 
service is returned. The habit of eating at the 
same table, or commensalism, is seen in many 
cases, that of the oyster-crab being a very good 
example. This crab lives within the oyster 
without offering harm, although it could easily 
destroy the oyster; but it is satisfied with what it 
gets, and leaves its friend alone. That such deadly 
powers as those possessed by jelly-fishes should 
have no effect, strange though it may seem, is 
hardly more wonderful than the power of resisting 
digestive fluids. In the stomach of a deep-sea 
sea-anemone a brightly-colored annelid is .often 
found, in the digestive cavity. Whenever the 
anemone catches a fish, the annelid shares the 
meal without any injury to the anemone. Unlike 
intestinal worms, they are never numerous enough 
to be of any injury to their host. 

This habit of one animal being dependent upon 
another for its existence receives a curious develop- 
ment in the case of deep-sea hermit-crabs and the 
sandy sea-anemones, of which Epizoanthus is an 
example. After the free-swimming stage, the 
anemone settles down upon the back of a shell 
inhabited by a hermit-crab, and begins to grow 
around the shell until it has entirely surrounded 
it, leaving only the entrance clear. The shell is 
eventually absorbed ; and as the hermit grows, the 
anemone grows to accommodate him, so that he 
does not have to seek after a new shell. Thus the 
hermit is furnished with an accommodating, com- 
fortable, and transportable house ; but, in return, 
the hermit transports the sea-anemone from place 
to place, and keeps it upright. This is a curious 
case of division of labor among the lower animals. 

There is a wide field for the study of the effects 


18 ; SCIENCE. 


¢ 
[Vou. VII., No. 152 _ 


of hereditary instinct and evolutionary changes, 
as exhibited in the cases mentioned. Indeed, it 
would seem as if the best field for the evolutionist 
lay among the most degenerate types of an order, 
viz., parasites; for in their embryonic changes 
they pass through the higher stages of the past on 
their way to their present degeneration. 

RALPH S. TARR. 


A TRIP TO THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS. 


WE left Semipalatinsk on Saturday, July 18, 
for a trip of about 1,000 versts, or 700 miles, into 
the wild mountainous region of the Altai. If you 
will draw a line on the map from the city of 
Tomsk, in a south by east direction, 600 miles or 
more, until it strikes the Chinese frontier, you will 
reach the region which I hoped to explore. The 
German travellers, Finsch and Brehm, went to 
the edge of it in 1876, but the high peaks lying 
farther to the eastward had never been seen by 
any foreigner, and had been visited by very few 
Russians. As far as the Cossack outpost known 
as the Altai Station, there was a post-road. 
Beyond that point I expected to go on horseback. 
The road runs from Semipalatinsk up the valley 
of the Irtish as far as the town of Oostkameno- 
gorsk, and then turns away into the mountains, 
descending again to the Irtish at the station of 
Bookhtarma, and finally leaving it altogether at 
Bolshe-Narimskaya. 

For 200 versts after leaving Semipalatinsk, the 
Irtish is bordered by a great rolling steppe of dry, 
yellowish grass. Here and there, where this steppe 
is irrigated by small streams running into the 
Irtish, it supports a rich vegetation ; the little val- 
leys being filled with wild roses, hollyhocks, 
golden rod, wild currant and gooseberry bushes, 
and splendid spikes, five or six feet high, of dark 
ultramarine flowers like larkspur; but generally 
the steppe is barren and sun-scorched. At Oost- 
Kamenogorsk and Oolbinsk I made the acquaint- 
ance of two very interesting colonies of political 
exiles, who received me with great friendliness 
and cordiality. 

The farther we went up the Irtish, the hotter 
became the weather, and the more barren the 
steppe, until it was easy to imagine one’s self in an 
Arabian or a North African desert. The thermom- 
eter ranged day after day from 90° to 103° F. in 
the shade; the atmosphere was suffocating ; every 
leaf and every blade of grass, as far as the eye 
could reach, had been absolutely burned dead by 
the fierce sunshine; bleaching bones of perished 
horses lay here and there by the roadside ; great 
whirling columns of sand, 100 to 150 feet in height, 
swept slowly and majestically across the sun- 


JANUARY 1, 1886.] 


scorched plain ; and we could trace the progress of 
a single Kirghis horseman five miles away by the 
cloud of dust which his horse’s hoofs raised from 
the steppe. I suffered constantly and intensely 
from the heat and thirst, and had to protect my- 
self from the fierce sunshine by swathing my 
body in four thicknesses of heavy blanket, and 
putting a big down pillow over my legs. You 
can perhaps imagine what that sunshine was, 
when I tell you that I could not hold my bare 


SCIENCE. 19 


nausea and fainting (sunstroke ?), and who advised 
me not to travel between eleven o’clock in the 
morning and four in the afternoon, when the day 
was cloudless and hot. The idea of having a sun- 


stroke in Siberia, and the suggestion not to travel 
in the middle of the day, seemed to me so pre- 
posterous that I could not restrain a smile of half 
incredulous amusement. Governor Tseklinski, the 
military governor at Semipalatinsk, subsequently 
told me that he had seen the thermometer stand 


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hand in it without pain, and that wrapping my 
body in four thicknesses of heavy blanketing gave 
me at once a sensation of coolness. Tolerably 
familiar as I was with Siberia, I little thought.when 
I left Tiumen, that I should find in it a North 
African desert with whirling sand-columns, and 
sunshine from which I should have to protect my- 
self with blankets. I almost laughed at a Russian 
Officer in Omsk who told me that the heat in the 
valley of the Irtish was often so intense as to cause 


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at 130° F. in the valley of the Irtish, with a sand- 
storm from the south, and that breathing during 
the prevalence of this simoom-like wind was at- 
tended with an almost insupportable sense of 
suffocation. Wesaw nothing so bad as that; but 
at the station of Voroninskaya, in the middle of 
the arid desert of the upper Irtish, we were over- 
taken by a furious sand-storm from the south-west 
with a temperature of 90° F. in the shade in our 
tarantass. The sand and fine hot dust were car- 


¢ 7 4 pay 
Ona heal “des. | 


20 


ried to a height of a hundred feet, and drifted past 
us in dense, suffocating clouds, hiding every thing 
from sight, and making it almost impossible to 
see or breathe. Although we were riding with 
the storm, and not against it, I literally gasped 
for breath for more than two hours ; and, when 
we reached the station of Cherem-shanka, it would 
have been hard to tell, from an inspection of our 
faces, whether we were Kirghis or Americans, — 
black men or white. Such wind, with such suffo- 
cating heat and blinding dust, I never in my life 
experienced before. 

At the station at Mala-Krasnoyarskaya we left 
the Irtish to the right, and saw it no more. Late 
that afternoon we reached the first outlying ridges 
of the great mountain-chain of the Altai, and 
began the long gradual climb to the Cossack out- 
post known as the Altai Station. Before dark on 
the following day we were riding through cool, 
elevated alpine meadows, where the fresh, green 
grass was intermingled with blue-bells, fragrant 
spireay gentians, and delicate fringed pinks, and 
where the mountain-tops over our heads were 
white a thousand feet down with freshly fallen 
snow. The change from the torrid African desert 
of the Irtish to this superb Siberian Switzerland 
was so sudden and so extraordinary as to be 
almost bewildering. At any time, and under any 
circumstances, the scenery would have seemed to 
me beautiful, but, after 2,000 versts of unbroken 
steppe, it made upon me a most profound impres- 
sion. 

We reached the Altai Station about six o’clock 
in the cool of a beautiful calm midsummer after- 
noon, and I shall never forget the enthusiastic 
delight which I felt as I rode up out of a wooded 
valley, fragrant with wild flowers, past a pictur- 
esque cluster of colored Kirghis tents, across two 
hundred yards of smooth, elevated meadow, into 
the little settlement of log-houses, and then looked 
about me at the mountains. Never, I thought, 
had I seen an alpine picture which could for a 
moment stand comparison with it. It was unsur- 
passed in my experience, and, it seemed to me, 
unsurpassable. I have seen since then the higher 
and grander peaks farther to the eastward, known 
as the Bailkee, where the Katoon River springs 
fully grown out from under enormous glaciers, 
and rushes away in a furious torrent to the Obi, 
through the wildest scenery in northern Asia ; 
but I still think, that for varied beauty, pictur- 
esqueness, and effectiveness, the mountain land- 
scape which opens before the traveller’s eyes as 
he ascends out of the valley to the Altai Station 
is unequalled. 

The station itself is a mere Cossack outpost of 
seventy or eighty log-houses standing in rows, 


SCIENCE. 


4) 
{Vou. VIL, No. 152 


with wide clean streets between, and with a quaint 
wooden church at one end. In front of every 
house in the settlement is a little enclosure, or 
front yard, filled with young birches, silver-leaf 
aspens, and flowering shrubs ; and through all of 
these yards, down each side of every street, runs a 
tinkling, gurgling stream of clear cold water from 
the melting snows on the mountains. The whole 
village, therefore, go where you will, is filled with 
the murmur of falling water; and how pleasant 
that sound is, you must travel for a month in the 
parched, sun-scorched, dust-smothered valley of 
the Irtish to fully understand. 

We remained at the Altal Station three or four 
days, making excursions into the neighboring moun- 
tains, visiting and photographing the Kirghis, and 
collecting information with regard to the region 
lying farther east which we proposed to explore. 
On Monday, July 27, we started for a journey of 
about 300 versts to the Katoonski Alps, or ‘ Bail- 
kee,’— the highest peaks of the Russian Altai. Our 
trip occupied ten days, during three of which we 
lay in camp storm-bound in the Rakhmanofski 
valley, nearly 7,000 feet above the sea. The last 
sixty versts of our journey were made with great 
difficulty and some peril, our route lying across 
tremendous mountain-ridges, and deep valleys 
with almost precipitous sides, into which we 
descended by following the course of foaming 
mountain-torrents, or clambering down ancient 
glacier moraines, over great masses of loose broken 
rocks, through swamps, jungles of bushes and 
fallen trees, and down slopes so steep that it was 
almost impossible to throw one’s body far enough 
back to keep one’s balance in the saddle ; while 
one’s horse was half the time sliding on all four 
feet, and dislodging stones, which rolled and 
bounded for half a mile downward until they 
were dashed to pieces over tremendous precipices. 
I was not inexperienced in mountain travel, hav- 
ing ridden on horseback the whole length of the 
peninsula of Kamchatka, and crossed three times 
the great range of the Caucasus ; but I must con- 
fess, that during our descents into the valleys of 
Rakhmanofski, the Black Berel, the White Berel, 
and the Katoon, my heart was in my mouth for 
two hours at atime. On any but Kirghis horses 
such descents would have been utterly impossible. 
My horse fell with me once, but I was not hurt. 
The region through which we passed is a primeval 
wilderness full of wild game. We saw marals or 
Siberian elks, wolves, wild sheep, abundant fresh 
traces of bears, chased wild goats on horseback, 
and could have shot hundreds of partridges, 
grouse, ducks, geese, herons, and eagles. The 
flora of the lower mountain valleys was extremely 
rich, varied, and luxuriant, comprising beautiful 


JANUARY 1, 1886. ] 


wild pansies, — purple, yellow, cream-white, and 
variegated, —fringed pinks, spirea, blue gentians, 
wild hollyhocks, daisies, forget-me-nots, alpine 
roses, purple Altai lilies, and scores of flowers 
that I had never before seen, many of them 
extremely brilliant, large, and showy. Of plants 
and fruits, — which with us are domesticated, but 
which in the Altai grow wild, —I noticed rhubarb, 
celery, currants (red and black), gooseberries, rasp- 
berries, strawberries and blackberries, wild cher- 
ries, crab-apples, and. wild apricots or peaches. 
Most of the berries were ripe or nearly so; and the 
wild currants, in particular, were as large and 
abundant as in an American garden. The scenery 
was extremely wild and grand, surpassing at 
times any thing that I saw in the Caucasus. 

On Saturday, Aug. 1, we reached the foot of 
the last great ridge or watershed which separated 
us from the main chain of the Katoonski Alps. 
Sunday morning we climbed about 2,000 feet to 
the summit of the last ridge, and looked over into 
the wild valley of the Katoon, out of which rise 
the ‘ Katoonski pillars,’ the highest peaks of the 
Russian Altai. I was prepared for something 
grand in the way of scenery, because I had 
already seen those peaks two or three times, at 
distances varying from 25 to 30 miles; but the 
near view from the heights above the Katoon 
so far surpassed all my anticipations, that I was 
simply overawed. It’was not beautiful, it was not 
picturesque : it was overwhelming and stupendous. 

The deep, narrow valley or gorge of the Katoon, 
which lay almost under our feet, was somewhere 
between 2,000 and 3,000 feet deep. On the other 
side of it rose far above our heads the wild, 
mighty chain of the Katoonski Alps, culminating 
just opposite us in two tremendous snowy peaks, 
whose height I estimated at 15,000 feet. Colonel 
Maiyfski, the governor of the district, has since 
told me that they are believed to be not less than 
18,000 feet in height. They were white from base 
to summit, except where the snow was broken by 
great black precipices, or pierced by sharp, rocky 
spines and crags. Down the sides of these peaks, 
from vast fields of névé above, fell enormous gla- 
ciers, the largest of them descending from the 
high saddle between the twin sumsnits in a con- 
tinuous ice-fall of at least 4,000 feet. The glacier 
on the extreme right had an almost perpendicular 
ice-fall of twelve or fifteen hundred feet, and the 
glacier on the extreme left gave birth to a torrent 
which tumbled about 800 feet with a hoarse roar 
into the deep, narrow gorge. The latter glacier 
was longitudinally subdivided by three moraines, 
which looked, from our point of view, like long, 
narrow-shaped dumps of furnace-slag or fine coal- 
dust, but which, when I afterward climbed up on 


SCIENCE. 21 


them, I found to be composed of black rocks from 
the size of my head to the size of a house, extend- 
ing four or five miles, with a width of 300 feet, 
and a height of from 25 to 75 feet above the gen- 
eral level of the glacier. The extreme summits 
of the two highest peaks were more than half 
the time hidden in clouds; but that rather added 
to, than detracted from, the wild grandeur of the 
scene, by giving mystery to the origin of the 
enormous glaciers, which at such times seemed to 
the imagination to be tumbling down from un- 
known heights in the sky through masses of roll- 
ing vapor. All the time there came up to us from 
the depths of the gorge the hoarse roar of the water- 
fall, which seemed now and then to be almost lost 
in the deeper thunder which came from the great 
glaciers, as masses of ice gave way and settled into 
new positions in the ice-falls. This thundering 
of the glaciers continues for nearly a minute at 
a time, varying in intensity, and resembling occa- 
sionally the sound of a distant but heavy and rapid 
cannonade. No movement of the ice in the falls 
was perceptible to the eyes from the point at which 
we stood; but the sullen, rumbling thunder was 
evidence enough of the mighty force of the agen- 
cies which were at work before us. 

After looking at the mountains for half an 
hour, we turned our attention to the valley of the 
Katoon beneath us, with a view to ascertaining 
whether it would be possible to get down into it, 
and reach the foot of the main glacier which gives 
birth to the Katoon River. Although the descent 
did look both difficult and dangerous, I was by no 
means satisfied that it was utterly impracticable. 
While we were discussing the question, our guide 
was making a bold and practical attempt to solve 
it. We could no longer see him from where we 
stood; but every now and then a stone or small 
bowlder, dislodged by his horse’s feet, would leap 
into sight three or four hundred feet below us, 
and go crashing down the mountain-side, clearing 
two hundred feet at every bound, and finally 
dashing itself to pieces against the rocks at the 
bottom with a noise like a distant rattling dis- 
charge of musketry. Our guide was evidently 
making progress. In a few moments he came 
into sight on a bold rocky buttress about six hun- 
dred feet below us, and shouted cheerfully, 
‘Come on! You could get down here with a 
telega’ (a Russian peasant’s cart). Inasmuch as 
one could hardly look down there without getting 
dizzy, this was a rather hyperbolical statement of 
the possibilities of the case. 

We finally reached a very steep but grassy slope, 
like the side of a Titanic embankment, down which 
we zigzagged with great discomfort, but without 
much actual danger, to the bottom of the Katoon 


22 SCIENCE. 


valley. As we rode up the gorge toward the great 
peaks, and finally, leaving our horses, climbed up 
on the principal glacier, | saw how greatly, from 
our previous elevated position, I had underesti- 
mated distances, heights, and magnitudes. The 
Katoon River, which from above had looked like 
a narrow, dirty-white ribbon, that a child could 
step across, proved to be a torrent thirty or forty 
feet wide, with a current almost deep and strong 
enough to sweep away a horse and rider. The 
main glacier, which I had taken to be about three 
hundred feet wide, proved to have a width of more 
than half a mile; and its central moraine, which 
had looked to me like a strip of black sand thirty 
feet wide, piled up in form to a height of six or 
seven feet, like a long furnace dump, proved to be 
an enormous mass of gigantic rocks three to four 
miles long, and three hundred to four hundred 
feet wide, piled up on the glacier in places to 
heights of seventy-five and eighty feet. In short, 
it was a tremendous glacier, and yet it was only 
one of eleven which I counted from the summit 
of the ridge between the Black and the White 
Berel. Seven glaciers descend from the two main 
peaks alone. 

We spent all the remainder of the day in sketch- 
ing, taking photographs, and climbing about the 
valley and the glaciers, and late in the afternoon 
returned to our camp in the valley of the White 
Berel. 

Monday we made another excursion to the crest 
of the Katoonski ridge, and succeeded in getting a 
good photograph of the two great peaks without a 
cloud. 

We returned to the Altai Station, Wednesday, 
Aug. 5, and two days later started back for 
Oost-Kamenogorsk. We were overtaken by a 
storm in the mountains between Bookhtarma and 
Alexandrofskaya; lost our way; our tarantass 
capsized into a hole about nine o’clock at night in 
the darkness; and we lay there until morning in a 
cold rain, without shelter, food, or fire. Shortly 
after daybreak help arrived from the nearest set- 
tlement; but it took eight horses and three drivers, 
two of the latter mounted, to get our tarantass to 
the next station. GEO. KENNAN. 


CURRENTS OF THE NORTH SEA. 

THE 79th supplement to Petermann’s mitthei- 
lungen is by Prof. H. Mohn, director of the mete- 
orological institute in Christiania, on ‘ Die stré- 
mungen des europiiischen Nordmeeres.’ The area 


thus designated lies between Norway, Novaya 
Zemilia, Greenland, Iceland, and Scotland, and has 
been examined by several exploring vessels, espe- 


cially by Norwegians ; so that tolerably full data as 


; 
[Vou. VII., No. 152 


to depth, temperature, and salinity, have been de- 
termined from surface to bottom. On this basis, 
Professor Mohn has attempted a new style of in- 
vestigation of its currents, fed on the south by the 
warm, dense waters of the North Atlantic ; on the 
north, by the cold, fresher waters from the polar 
seas. His method is much like that which has 
been successfully applied to the study of atmos- 
pheric currents, and it has led him to very inter- 
esting conclusions. First, the density is examined, 
and the results graphically exhibited on ten sec- 
tions. Next follow a series of detailed investiga- 
tions, summarized in six maps, showing, 1°, 
surface isotherms ; 2°, contour lines as determined 
by hydrostatic equilibrium, the North Sea thus 
appearing five centimetres higher than the ocean 
east of Iceland; 3°, the atmospheric pressure for 
the year, prevailingly low from Iceland towards 
the North Cape; 4°, the deformation of the sur- 
face of wind-formed currents by the deflective 
force arising from the earth’s rotation, which de- 
presses the central area about fifteen decimetres 
below the marginal; 5°, the same, due to both 
gravitative and wind currents; and, 6°, the sum- 
mation of all persistent deforming causes. The 
currents themselves, as thus deduced, are shown 
in a larger map; their correspondence with what 
might be inferred from the isotherms establishes 
the correctness of the work. Finally, the press- 
ure, temperature, and currents at depths of 500, 
1,000, and 1,500 fathoms, are discussed and graphi- 
cally illustrated in three pairs of maps. Taking 
this with an earlier monograph (supplement No. 
63) by the same author,-we have a very full de- 
scription of the average physical conditions of 
these northern waters. The methods employed 
by Mohn may some day be well applied to the 
American Mediterranean from the Windward 
Islands around to the Bahamas. 

W. M. Davis. 


THE venerable Professor Vilanova secured the 
indorsement of the International geological con- 
gress, at its last session, to the project of a poly- 
glot dictionary of definitions and technical terms. 
He himself cannot do more than supply the 
Spanish-French part of such a work (‘ Ensayo de 
diccionario geogrifico-geolégico,’ por Dy Juan 
Vilanova), but he hopes others will take up and 
supplement his work, until a cyclopaedia of the 
sciences is produced in which any man can 
readily find exact statements of the facts in his 
own language, and their equivalents in all other 
languages. It is an important work, and the 
congress and all geologists will doubtless help 
him to the extent of their power. 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THAT ADDICTION TO THE USE of opium is very 
much more common than is generally supposed, 
and that it is on the increase, is shown by a 
recently published brochure of Dr. Meylert (‘ Notes 
on the opium habit,’ New York, Putnam); and 
that there is a wide-spread interest in the subject, 
not confined to the medical profession, is evinced 
by the fact that this pamphlet has now reached 
its fourth edition, and that other treatises more 
pretentious have recently been published, and 
attained a circulation more or less extensive. Dr. 
Meylert attributes many deaths of patients in 
hospitals and asylums, and of soldiers on the 
march, to the sudden deprivation of opium to 
which they have been accustomed; and on this, 
and the suffering which habitués experience in 
their efforts to discontinue at once the use of 
the drug, he makes his plea for the abandonment 
of the ‘rack-and-thumbscrew ’ treatment, and the 
adoption in its place of more humane methods. 
The basis of the author’s method of cure is, that 
the opium habit is not an indulgence to be 
humored, nor a vice to be punished, but a disease 
which must be treated as other diseases are, by 
appropriate remedies. Atropia, which has become 
a favorite remedy with those who advertise rapid 
cure, does not stand the tests of experience. Coca 
and Avena sativa are not of any special value. 
The bromides of potassium and sodium, quinine, 
Cannabis indica, strychnia, hydrocyanic acid, 
chloroform, hyoscyamus, and phosphorus are the 
remedies in which the greatest reliance is placed ; 
the one or the other, or combinations of them, 
being prescribed according to the special indi- 
cation in each case. The moral treatment is not 
neglected in Dr. Meylert’s plan, and the necessity 
for implicit trust and reliance in the physician 
by the patient is not overlooked. After all, ‘the 
best test of success is success ;’ and whether the 
methods here advocated are adapted to bring 
about the desired results can only be ascertained 
by careful and patient study of a long series 
of cases. We shall watch with interest for these 
results, which should as soon as obtained be pub- 


No. 1538. — 1886. 
r 


lished, whether they speak for or against the 
methods advocated. 


IN A PAPER recently read before the American 
institute of mining engineers, Mr. A. E. Lehman 
describes some of the methods of construction 
and the uses of topographic models or relief- 
maps. Their use for educational and economic 
as well as scientific purposes is rapidly increas- 
ing, as the belief in the importance of represent- 
ing quantitatively the vertical element of topog- 
raphy gains strength. The value of the relief- 
map for all purposes, and especially for educa- 
tional uses, is seriously impaired by exaggeration 
of the vertical scale. This should be avoided 
whenever possible, and in other cases should be 
reduced to a minimum. While Mr. Lehman 
advises exaggeration, the appearance of his model 
of the Cumberland valley, wherein the exaggera- 
tion is four and five-sevenths, is a strong argument 
against it. An even stronger argument is fur- 
nished in the form of an ambitious relief-map 
of the United States, by Mr. F. H. King, and 
mentioned by Mr. Lehman. In this model the 
vertical scale is exaggerated over the horizontal 
sixty-eight and a half times; and the effect, 
especially in an abrupt mountain region, can be 
easily imagined. This map has other faults, 
which will probably limit its sphere of useful- 
ness. Another notable example of the distortion 
produced by the exaggeration of the vertical scale 
is the well-known model of the Atlantic and 
Gulf coasts, made by the U. S. coast and geodetic 
survey. That effective models can be made, 
even of extensive areas, without exaggeration of 
the vertical scale, is abundantly shown by the 
relief-maps in the national museum. 


THE RECENT MEETING of the society of natural- 
ists in Boston was a successful one, as such meet- 
ings go. The attendance was fair, considering 
the eccentric position of the place of meeting, and 
the papers were in nearly every case of distinct 
value and interest. But in spite of full attend- 
ance at the sessions, and at the dinner that closed 
the first day of meeting, there was not sufficient 
acquaintance among the members; and during 
the sessions the silence of formality settled down 


24 


so heavily, that nearly all conversational ques- 
tioning of the speakers was extinguished. The 
more experienced in such occasions maintained 
a certain amount of discussion by well-determined 
efforts to speak as often as possible; but the 
greater number felt the difference between speak- 
ing and talking, and said nothing. Inasmuch as 
it is generally agreed that the increase of personal 
acquaintance, and the pleasure of personal con- 
versation, are the best results brought about by 
such meetings, we believe it will be worth the 
while of the naturalists’ executive committee to 
make definite preparation for the accomplishment 
of these ends at Philadelphia a year hence. 


WE HAVE BEFORE US the tenth annual report of 
President Gilman to the trustees of the Johns 
Hopkins university. It is a brief but eminently 
perspicuous and comprehensive document. It is 
with no little satisfaction that the president mar- 
shals in the appendices of his report the swelling 
lists of professors, associates, lecturers, instruct- 
ors, fellows, and graduates; and the record of 
the work done during the year, as given in appen- 
dix D, is worthy of the strong force of workers. 
Perhaps the most notable event in the year was 
the delivery of a course of twenty lectures by Sir 
William Thomson of the University of Glasgow. 
No man living has made to physical science such 
valuable contributions as Sir William ; and his 
visit and lectures, therefore, were most welcome. 
The only part of the president’s report which 
seems to call for particular comment is what he 
terms ‘the group system of undergraduate stud- 
ies.’ The discussion refers particularly to the 
department of undergraduates in the university. 
With respect to them the president speaks as 
follows: ‘‘In place of a single curriculum, and 
instead of no curriculum, several parallel curricula 
have been arranged, which are assumed to be 

honorable, liberal, and difficult, and 
therefore lead to the same degree of 
bachelor of arts. They all include the study 
of (a) language and literature, (b) mathematics 
and other exact sciences, (c) historical and moral 
but the proportions of the different 
announced 


equally 
which 


science ; 
studies vary. Seven schedules are 


upon the register, one of which must be chosen 


by every undergraduate who wishes to proceed to 
the bachelor’s degree. Certain studies are com- 
mon to all these courses, that is to say, must be 


taken up by every undergraduate.” The seven 


SCIENCE. 


tt 
[Vou. VII., No. 153 


courses of study are enumerated as the clas- 
sical, the mathematical-physical, the chemical- 
biological, the physical-chemical, the Latin-math- 
ematical, the historical - political, and modern 
languages. No one can question, that, assuming 
a good entrance preparation, any one of these 
seven courses may be made the medium of a 
solid liberal education. This arrangement pre- 
sents a practical solution of the question of elec- 
tive studies for college undergraduates. It pre- 
sents to the young student several lines of study, 
any one of which may be elected and pursued to 
the bachelor’s degree. It reserves for the univer- 
sity stage of studentship the more free selection 
of studies which may safely be left to the ma- 
turer judgment of those who have reached it. 


IN ITS LAST ANNUAL REPORT, the Philadelphia 
Academy of natural sciences gives a statement 
of its growth and needs, that, it is hoped, will 
receive the attention it merits. There is urgent 
need of more extensive accommodations for the 
rapidly growing collections, many of which, such 
as the large series of rocks and fossils of the 
Pennsylvania geological survey, yet remain un- 
packed or inaccessible. The present resources of 
the society are insufficient to meet the rapidly 
growing demands of modern science. It is ear- 
nestly hoped that the contemplated extension of 
the present building may be realized, that this, 
one of the oldest, as well as most honored of 
our scientific societies, may keep pace with the 
activity elsewhere displayed in American science. 


IN CONNECTION with the recent attempts to pre- 
vent the further weathering and decay of the 
obelisk, it will not be without interest to state 
that Dr. Stelzner of Freiburg early prophesied 
the injurious effects of our climatic agencies. 
In his report upon the microscopical characters 
of the rock, undertaken at the request of Dr. 
Frazer of Philadelphia, he wrote an earnest plea 
for the preservation of the obelisk, predicting, 
that, were no preventive means adopted, it would 
crumble within a few years. In support of this 
prediction, he cited the experience with the St. 
Petersburg obelisk and the press comments on 
the one in London. This warning, however, 
owing to the objections of Lieutenant -Com- 
mander Gorringe, did not appear in the pub- 
lished report. 


JANUARY 8, 1886.] 


ON THE OCCASION of introducing his course of 
lectures at the Sorbonne, M. Ribot reviewed the 
history and aims of psychology. England, Ger- 
many, France, Italy, and the United States, by 
instituting collegiate and university chairs in this 
lepartment, and by publishing journals, books, and 
researches devoted to it, all show an increasing 
activity in this direction. According to M. Ribot, 
2 psychologist is a naturalist: his subject is a 
part of biology, and is to be treated by precisely as 
scientific and as exact methods. It is not a meta- 
physics in any sense, and is no more called upon 
(0 speculate on the nature of the soul than physics 
(0 lead us into the essence of matter. It is not a 
psychology with any religious, moral, or any other 
endency, but is a science founded on objective 
facts, true for all men alike. There areno systems 
of psychology: there is one psychology, as there 
s one chemistry. 


This psychology, however, was possible only 
after physiology had been brought to a high state 
of culture. The physiology of the nervous system, 
and especially of the brain, is the necessary basis 
for a scientific study of mind. Psychology also 
borrows from pathology, because nature pre- 
pares experiments which no man would venture 
to perform. It owes a debt to anthropology, to 
the social sciences, to culture and history. It takes 
a broad point of view, having already adopted the 
methods suggested by comparative biology and 
the evolutionary movement. The field is already 
so broad that specialists are necessary, although 
the whole development is not fifty years old. 
M. Ribot has given expression to a conviction 
which is now everywhere current, and which 
seems destined to play an important réle in the 
science of the future, in this country as well as 
elsewhere. 


GENERAL ABBOTT’S REPORT ON THE 
FLOOD ROCK EXPLOSION. 


THE advance sheets of General Abbott’s report 
to the chief of engineers on the ‘ Earth-wave at 
the destruction of Flood Rock’ have been kindly 
sent to Science, and form the basis of the follow- 
ing account : — : 

As to the destruction of the rock itself, 48,537 
pounds of dynamite No. 1, and 240,399 pounds of 
rackarock, equivalent in all to about one hundred 
and fifty tons of dynamite, were stowed away in 
the galleries within the rock, and simply a touch 


SCIENCE. 25 


on a telegraphic key by little Miss Mary Newton 
set the whole mass into instant explosion. Pho- 
tographs taken by three cameras, all exposed be- 
fore the mass of water lifted by the blast had 
reached its greatest height, indicate that all parts 
of the mine were fired at practically the same in- 
stant; and, by means of electric recording appa- 
ratus, this instant was recorded to be 115 13™ 50s.2, 
eastern standard time. It should have been at 
eleven o’clock precisely, and readers of Science are 
aware already that observations of the earth-wave 
were lost at several stations by this delay of nearly 
fourteen minutes. Concerning this, General Ab- 
bott says that if these volunteer observers who 
have criticised the delay in an unfriendly spirit 
had known how seriously it endangered the suc- 
cess of the official work intrusted to him, they 
would doubtless have taken a more charitable 
view of the matter. It was without question un- 
avoidable, and is much regretted ; but, if a similar 
opportunity ever occur again to make earth-wave 
experiments on so large a scale, it will be well, on 
the one hand, for those in charge to give official 
notice of possible delay when the appointed time 
is announced, and, on the other, for the detached 
observers to watch their instruments steadily until 
a message is sent them that the shock is over. 

One of the photographs caught the first sight of 
the earthquake produced by the explosion. The 
cameras were eleven hundred and thirty feet from 
the rock, and the first exposure was made about 
two-tenths of a second after closing the mine cir- 
cuit. The view shows that the camera was then 
still steady ; the disturbance had not quite reached 
it, but was only about one hundred and seventy- 
five feet away. The second picture was taken 
four-tenths of a second later, and by this time the 
more violent portion of the wave had passed. To 
measure the velocity of progression over greater 
distances, members of the engineer corps and 
other officers of the army were stationed at four 
points on Long Island and at West Point; and, 
besides the successful observations from these 
places. General Abbott gives records from Goat 
Island (the torpedo station at Newport, R. IL), 
Hamilton and Harvard colleges; and to these 
we may add Princeton. Accounts of the observa- 
tions made at the latter two points have already 
been given in Science. At all these stations the 
observers watched a surface of mercury in which 
the reflection of some small, well-defined object 
could be seen. The arrival of the disturbance 
shook the mercury, and caused the reflected images 
to disappear. The reports generally agree that 
the maximum of disturbance was very quickly or | 
immediately reached, and none of them express 
serious doubt of the accuracy of their determi- 


nations. The following table exhibits the re- 
sults :— 
Distance | Interval Velocity 
STATION. in of trans- in miles 
miles. mission. | per second. 
Willet’s Point, L.I.....| 8.38 8.5 0.98 
Pearsalls, A Sot 16.78 66 2.54 
Bay Shore, tO oorc 36.65 13.6 2 82 
Patchogue, Sih 48.52 — 15.4 3.15 
Goat Island. B.I.......| 144.89 | 58.8 2.46 
Harvard obs’y, Mass.. 182.68 ‘' 219.8 0.83 
. | ( 13.6 3.11 
meer Point, N.Y...:... 42,34 10.9 3.88 
| ( 10.9 3.88 
; oaay liad 3.88 
Hamilton coll., N.Y.... 174 37 1 45.2 3.86 
Princeton, N.J........ 48-4 51 0.94 


These wave velocities are any thing but accord- 
ant, and no satisfactory reason can be given for their 
variation ; but they all agree in showing velocities 
that are higher than those deduced from observa- 
tions on natural earthquakes; and from this Gen- 
eral Abbott feels confirmed, in his deductions from 
the explosions of certain torpedoes and at Hallett’s 
Point in 1876, that the more violent the initial 
shock, the higher is the velocity of transmission. 
At Flood Rock the charge was about six times as 
great as at Hallett’s Point, and the velocity was 
from two to three times as great, over essentially 
the same route. Beyond this, the generalizations 
are not satisfactory. It is true that the velocities 
through Long Island, which is largely built of un- 
consolidated drift, are, on the whole, less than the 
accordant series up the Hudson valley, through 
rock ; and the Goat Island and Harvard velocities, 
which must have been almost entirely through 
rock, seem to show a falling-off in the transmis- 
sion as the wave weakened over increasing dis- 
tance. But Hamilton is almost as far as Harvard, 
and yet its velocity is as great as at West Point ; 
and Princeton must have felt a rock-wave at a 
moderate distance, and still its velocity had about 
the rate of that at Willet’s Point and Harvard, 
which are very dissimilarly situated. It certainly 
cannot be thought that the initial velocity was 
slower than that at any later moment, except in 
so far as the nature of material traversed would 
affect it: therefore the apparent increase along 
Long Island should be looked for in the less per- 
centage of distance traversed through the drift in 
reaching the further stations. But beyond this 
suggestion, hypothesis wanders too freely; and, 
unless the stations yet to be heard from solve the 
question, the explosion at Flood Rock has hardly 
taught us more than that earth-waves are very 
complicated, and that there is yet much to learn 
about them. 


SCIHNCE. 


tt 


[Vot. VIL, No. 1538 


SUCCESS IN HATCHING THE EGGS OF 
THE COD. 


For four seasons experiments have been carried 
on for the purpose of discovering a_ practical 
method of hatching out the eggs of the cod, — one 
of the most fertile and valuable of the food-fishes 
found off our coast. During the period mentioned 
no less than forty forms of apparatus have been 
devised and operated, with varying success, by 
different persons connected with the work of the 
U.S. fish commission. Up to the present time no 
device has fulfilled the required conditions, even 
approximately, with such success as the apparatus 
just devised by H. C. Chester, superintendent of 
the Wood’s Holl station, of the commission. 

This apparatus is essentially automatic, and 
needs so little attention that one man will by its 
aid readily care for a hundred million eggs. It 
consists of a trough seven feet six inches in length, 
two feet in width, and two feet four inches in 
depth. At about one foot from either end, ver- 
tical wooden partitions, extending to within four 
inches of the bottom of the trough, are secured. This 
leaves a space about five feet six inches in length 
between the partitions. In this space six or eight 
large glass jars are supported upon a frame, with 
their tops downward. Those used for the purpose 
at Wood’s Holl are ordinary cylindrical, four- 
gallon specimen jars, with a half-inch hole drilled 
in the centre of the bottom. The stoppers of the 
jars are removed, and a single thickness of coarse 
cheese-cloth is secured over the mouth with strong 
twine. The jar is then inverted, and lowered into 
the trough, so that its bottom is about even with 
the top of the trough. Strips nailed across the top 
of the trough serve to keep the jars upright. 

The accompanying figure, showing the device in 


Jongitudinal vertical section, modified and designed 
on a somewhat smaller scale than the device now 
in use, and accommodating only four jars (two ina 
row), will enable the reader to get a clear concep- 
tion of the way in which the apparatus is used. 
The trough A is filled with unfiltered sea-water 


- January 8, 1886.] 


through the faucet 7, the water rising to the level 
of the line a, before the capacious outlet siphon s 
begins to operate. This siphon, through which 
the water runs out of the trough faster than it 
comes in at 7, soon brings the water down to the 
level of the line 6, when the siphon takes in air 
and ceases to operate, after which the trough 
again slowly fills up with water to the level of the 
line a. This process is repeated automatically, 
and as long as the water is permitted to flow 
through the device. It requires ten minutes for 
the water to rise or fall from the one ievel to the 
other ; and, since the jars have only a cloth tied 
over the mouth below, the water rises and falls to 
the same extent in them. This very slow and 
gentle rise and fall of the water inthe jars and 
trough have been found sufficient to aerate the 
eggs, and give them all the movement they need. 

The majority of the eggs in this contrivance 
float at the surface. Some, of course, remain sus- 
pended below the surface; but an exceedingly 
small percentage of the eggs ever sink and die, as 
in almost all of the other forms of apparatus 
hitherto used. The result is that the mortality is 
probably under five per cent,—a percentage of 
loss not greater than that experienced in the 
most successful treatment of shad ova. 

The freshly fertilized ova, treated with an 
abundance of good milt, are introduced into the 
hatching-device through the hole in the centre of 
the bottom of each jar by means of a glass funnel. 
Beyond an occasional siphoning-off of the sedi- 
ment on the bottom of the trough and the cloth 
covers of the jars, the eggs require no attention 
until hatched. 

Heretofore great mortality has been caused by 
the use of metal in the construction of the hatching- 
vessels and strainers. Since the adoption of glass, 
wood, and cloth as the only materials used in the 
construction of the hatching-apparatus here de- 
scribed, combined with the very gentle movement 
to which the eggs are subjected, complete success 
has been attained. The eggs oscillate up and 
down through a space of only five inches from 
the level of a to that of b, and, withal, so gently 
that they suffer no hurtful shocks of any kind 
whatever. Captain Chester’s device will doubt- 
less be used with great advantage in the propaga- 
tion of the Spanish mackerel. In twenty-four 
hours the latter would be ready to be set free 
from the apparatus; whereas it requires eleven 
or twelve days to hatch the eges of the cod, with 
the temperature of the water ranging from 45° to 
48° F, 

Each of the jars J is seventeen inches high by 
nine inches in diameter, and will hold from one- 
half to one million of cod-eggs; so that an ap- 


SCIENCE. 27 


paratus of the style shown above, and occupying 
not much over a square yard of space, would 
accommodate from two to four millions of ova, 
in four jars. 

These experiments show that violent movement 
of the eggs of the cod is of no advantage; that 
such movement is, on the contrary, injurious, if 
not mortal, when continuously maintained. The 
requisite conditions for successful hatching of this 
important food-fish having been settled, the great 
station of the fish commission at Wood’s Holl af- 
fords unlimited opportunities for conducting the 
work for at least three months of the year, during 
which time from five hundred to one thousand 
millions of eggs might readily be hatched out by 
the aid of the Chester apparatus, and set free in 
the adjacent waters. 

Since my arrival here, I have observed, that, 
some days after hatching, the larval integument 
over the head of the embryo cod is raised more 
and more from the top and sides of the brain. A 
spacious serous cavity is thus formed over the 
brain; so that, when the embryo is viewed from 
the front, it seems as if it bore a sac on the head 
almost as large as the yelk-bag formerly had 
been, attached to the top and sides of the head. 
On account of the fact that the young larvae of 
the cod seem to delight to remain near the sur- 
face, it has occurred to me that this vesicular 
sinus above the brain is of use in buoying the 
young embryos up after they have escaped from 
the egg. That this is actually true, I have every 
reason to believe from the circumstance that 
embryos a few days old never rest in the water 
in a horizontal position, but with the head upper- 
most, and the tail slanting backward and down- 
ward from it at an angle of 45°. When swim- 
ming, they move horizontally ; but at once, upon 
coming to rest, the young fish assumes a slanting 
attitude, the tail dropping down into the inclined 
position, while the head is thrown up. The large 
sinus here described was first observed by me, in 
a less developed condition, on the head of the em- 
bryo Spanish mackerel in 1880. The space in this 
sac in that species I called the supracephalic 
sinus. 

Since the foregoing was written, we have dis- 
covered that the specific gravity of the sea-water 
has a great deal to do with the healthy develop- 
ment of the eggs of the cod. By accident a 
broken valve admitted some fresh water to our 
salt-water tank, causing the specific gravity to 
fail from 1.0256 to 1.021 or 1.022. In this density 
the eggs immediately sank, causing us to lose 
over two millions. After this unfortunate ex- 
perience, and also judging from the fact that 
ever since the break in the valve has been 


98 | SCIENCE. 


mended no eggs have gone down, we have con- 

cluded that it is natural for cod-eggs to float, and 

that under no other‘ conditions will normal de- 

velopment be accomplished. JOHN A. RYDER. 
Wood's Holl, Dec. 21. 


CLOSE APPROACH OF SATURN AND u 
GEMINORUM. 


ON the night of 1886 Jan. 9 (or morning of the 
10th, civil time) there will occur a very close 
approach of the planet Saturn to the star » Gemi- 
norum, whose magnitude is given as 3.22 in the 
Harvard photometry. The figure below gives the 
relative configurations of planet and star for suc- 
cessive hours of Greenwich mean time (astronomi- 
cal) as seen in the ordinary inverting telescope. 


te E a 


a eee. ante semnereyweerere ect aevense=e 


To see it as it will appear to the naked eye, with 
an opera or field glass, or with a telescope having 
a terrestrial eyepiece, turn the diagram bottom 
upwards. At the time of nearest approach to the 
centre of the ball (a little after 21") the star will 
be about 26” from the centre, or 16” from the 
edge of the ball. For convenience the planet is 
figured as stationary, and the star as moving by 
it. Of course, the planet (as seen in the telescope) 
moves to the left, parallel to the line through the 
successive positions of the star. The dotted line 
through the planet’s centre is parallel to the earth’s 
equator, and makes an angle of 6° 35’ with the 
major axis of the rings. The time of nearest 
approach is about five hours after the transit over 
the meridian of Washington; and is well visible 
over the whole of this country, though of course 
best for the Pacific slope, where it will not be so 
far down in the west. To convert the times given 
above into the standard civil times, add 7», 64, 5h, 
and 45 respectively, subtracting 245 if necessary, 
which carries it into the civil day of Jan. 10. 
Astronomically the event is of very little impor- 
tance compared with what an actual occultation by 
the ring, or by the ring and ball, would be. A star 
as bright as this, and behind the rings, would 
offer a test we have never had yet of their possible 
transparency through interstices in the probable 
cloud of satellites. The action of the dusky ring 


# 


[Vou. VII., No. 153 


(not indicated above) would be especially interest- 
ing. <A central occultation by the ball would 
give, by means of micrometric measures and the 
duration of the occultation, a sharp test of the 
refracting power of Saturn’s atmosphere, and 
the possible semi-transparency of its upper cloud- 
surface. Sonear an approach of Saturn to a star 
as bright as the 3.22 magnitude is an exceedingly 
rare event. Assuming that the distribution of 
stars brighter than the 3.22 magnitude along 
Saturn’s path is the same as the average, we find 
that only once in 612 years will Saturn approach 
so near one of them as on 1886 Jan. 9. Of course, 
actual occultations will be still more rare, and only 
likely to occur by the ring once in about 1,730 
years, and by the ball only once in a little over 
2,000 years. So near and yet so far from an 
actual occultation is the coming event. 

H. M. Pav. 


THE CONVICT-LABOR PROBLEM. 


THE attention of philanthropists and students of 
social science, which has for a long time past been 
turned toward this subject, has been increased 
of late by the attitude of the labor agitators. 
Perhaps not more than one out of every ten thou- 
sand laboring men gives the question of convict- 
labor competition a thought, but this odd one has 
during the last decade managed to stir up a great 
deal of discussion. 

That convicts should be employed, and em- 
ployed, if possible, in a manner profitable to the 
state, is a proposition that no sane man contro- 
verts. Now, there are various ways of employing 
convicts ; and the agitators insist that one of these 
ways —the one, it so happens, which has in the 
past produced the largest revenue to the state — 
has an injurious effect upon the honest laborer by 
compelling him to submit to an unfair competi- 
tion. Strange to say, this clamor has had some 
effect ; though how sixty thousand convicts, — the 
whole number in the United States, according to 
the last census, — working as they do under pecul- 
iarly disadvantageous circumstances, and consist- — 
ing of the lowest and most ignorant classes of the 
population, can effect any appreciable competition 
with the millions of honest and free workingmen, 
it is difficult to conceive. Those who join in this 
outcry are to a great extent communists, and 
leaders of labor organizations, whose sustenance 
depends upon the amount of agitation they can 
create, together with such political aspirants as ~ 
aid them for purely selfish purposes. 

The effect of all these elements combined has 
been visible in the statute-books of several states. 
Among these is New Jersey, whose legislature 


- January 8, 1886.] 


passed a law, Feb. 21, 1884, abolishing the system 
of contracting for the labor of prisoners at so much 
per day, and followed it up with a law, dated 
April 18 of the same year, directing the introduc- 
tion of the ‘ public-account’ or ‘ piece-price’ plan, 
as the prison authorities should decide. The con- 
tract system, it was claimed, was the source of 
the unfair competition complained of, and these 
laws were passed under the agitators’ influence 
expressly to prevent such competition. 

The new law took effect on the expiration of the 
old contracts, in July, 1885, and in the reports of 
the prison officials for the current year we have a 
summary of the results obtained thus far; and, 
inasmuch as several states are having the same 
experience as New Jersey, the conclusions reached 
by her officials in this matter are of general politi- 
cal as well as scientific interest. 

The ‘ public-account’ plan was so generally dis- 
credited, that the officials adopted the other alter- 
native under the law; namely, the ‘ piece-price’ 
plan. Under this system, the contractor pays a 
fixed price per dozen, gross, or thousand for work 
done on materials furnished by him. The intro- 
duction of this radically new system occasioned 
some delay for the purchase of machinery, fitting- 
up of shops, etc., and the authorities are cautious 
enough to state that their experience of the new 
system has been too limited to admit of unqualified 
indorsement or condemnation. Nevertheless, all 
the facts and figures presented in these reports 
point in the same direction. They prove that not 
only does the state treasury lose largely by the 
change from the old contract system, but that the 
contractors are enabled to put their goods on the 
market at a less cost for manufacturing than ever 
before ; so that, as far as there is any competition 
with free labor, it is greater under the ‘ piece-price’ 
plan than it was before. This is a result which 
reflects upon the sagacity of the agitators them- 
selves; for, if their pet system can be proved in- 
jurious on so short a trial, their stock in trade is 
exhausted. 

One contractor who under the former system 
paid fifty cents per day for the labor of every con- 
vict, skilful or unskilful, who went into his shops, 
now averages less than half that sum per convict. 
In one or two cases the contractors now pay a few 
more cents per day’s labor than formerly, but this 
apparent gain results from greatly increasing the 
quantity of the work ; so that, even with an ap- 
parently similar financial result to the state, the 
product is manufactured cheaper now than under 
the contract system. 

These early conclusions from this new departure 
are interesting. They show that the labor agita- 
tors are many, and the mass of political scientists 


SCIENCE. 


29 


and humanitarians are right in upholding the 
contract system as the best and most profitable 
for the employment of convict-labor. Reasonable 
limitations to the operation of the contract system 
may very possibly be suggested by experience ; 
but these data from New Jersey ought to insure 
the rejection of the ‘ piece-price’ plan everywhere, 
or else some radical modifications in its details. 
NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 

THERE is not much to be said of the popular- 
science articles in the December magazines, for 
there are not many of them ; and what there are, are 
very popular, though quite interesting. The Atlan- 
tic adds another to the already long list of reviews 
on the recent ‘ Life of Agassiz,’ but fails to say, what 
seems tolerably obvious, that the time has not 
yet come when the value of Agassiz’s scientific 
labors, or indeed of his influence on the progress of 
natural history in the United States, can be cor- 
rectly estimated. John Burrows, in the Century, 
gives, in very readable form, some notes on bird 
enemies, — jays, owls, vermin, mice, snakes, and 
‘collectors.’ In Harpers’ magazine there is a highly 
aesthetic article called ‘ A winter walk.’ It is beau- 
tifully illustrated, and well adapted to the wants of 
ladies of scientific turn of mind. Perhaps the 
author tried to imitate Thoreau; but if he did, he 
failed. To persons interested in ornithology, Mr. 
Edward C. Bruce’s article in Lippincott’s magazine, 
on ‘ Birds of a Texan winter,’ will doubtless be en- 
tertaining. After mentioning a few of our birds 
that do not migrate, Mr. Bruce goes on to tell us 
of the northern birds he has seen in Texas during 
the winter, — plovers, herons, wild geese, etc. The 
English magazines have even less than the Ameri- 
can on natural science this month. There are 
only two articles to be mentioned. One is by 
Benjamin Kidd, in Longman’s magazine, on the 
‘Humble-bee,’ and gives some description of the 
habits of this insect, based, it would seem, largely 
on the author’s personal observation. The other 
is by W. Mattieu Williams, in the Gentleman’s 
magazine, and is called ‘Science notes.’ The 
topics dealt with are, the origin of boracic acid, 
meteoric explosions, magnetic sifting of meteor- 
ites, fireproof paper structures, the future of the 
negro, the sleep of fishes, and icebergs and 
climate. 

— The dog by which Kaufmann, who is now in 
Paris for treatment under Pasteur, was bitten, is 
shown conclusively to have been mad, a dog 
bitten by it nearly at the same time having since 
died of unmistakable rabies. 


— Prof. Edward Sitiss delivered in the Geo- 


30 


logical institute of Vienna, on Nov. 3, a lecture 
on the means of preventing explosions in coal- 
mines. Experiments have been made in the Kar- 
win colliery in order to obtain, if possible, positive 
results, and these experiments are still being con- 
tinued. It has been demonstrated that whenever 
the barometer falls, the quality and intensity of 
explosive gases increase. The Austrian govern- 
ment has directed that the weather-charts pub- 
lished shall be provided by all the managers of 
coal-mines in that kingdom, and at Karwin a reg- 
ulation is in force to the effect that at the approach 
of a barometric depression all work is to cease in 
dangerous places. 


—The ‘Report on the geology of Marion 
county, Kentucky,’ recently published, is in many 
respects a curiosity. The history, topography, and 
drainage, treated of in five pages, is followed by 
the geology in fourteen pages, archeology in five 
pages, and a list of fossils and notes on Beatricea 
in eleven pages. The following selection will 
illustrate the style of the report: ‘‘The soil from 
the disintegration of the Crab orchard shale is quite 
poor, and responds very slowly to the toils of the 
farmer; while the forest growth is very much 
dwarfed, although similar in species to that of 
the tall, well-shaped, large-sized timber-trees of the 
epoch before it. The forests originally were well 
timbered ” (p. 17). This last sentence is particu- 
larly remarkable. 


— Most of the rivers of New South Wales fall 
into the sea through sandy estuaries obstructed 
by extensive bars. The removal of these bars, 
or rather the formation of practicable channels 
through them, is of great importance to the de- 
velopment and trade of the colony. <A paper on 
this subject was read before the Royal society of 
New South Wales in June, 1884, by Mr. Walter 
Shellsbear. The formation of bars at the mouths 
of rivers is stated by the author to be mainly due 
to the action of waves in lifting large quantities 
of sand as they pass into shallow water. The 
sand is carried up the estuary by the incoming 
tide, and deposited when beyond the action of the 
waves. The ebb-tide, being unassisted by the 
waves, is unable to remove the sand, and hence 
the tendency is to close the entrance. While 
strong freshets may for a time sweep a portion 
of the obstruction away, the frequent occurrence 
of long droughts in New South Wales leaves the 
river-mouths in a very bad state. The author 
advocates the use of break-waters, jetties, and 
training dikes, more or less parallel, and running 
out into deep water, three and a half fathoms or 
more,—a depth beyond which the waves are 
stated to have no appreciable effect on the bottom. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 153 


LONDON LETTER. 

ONE of the matters which grew out of the edu- 
cation conference at the International health exhi- 
bition in London in August, 1885, some account of 
which appeared in the columns of Science, was the 
proposal for the establishment of a teaching uni- 
versity for London. The present University of 
London is mainly an examining board. In the 
case of its medical degrees, attendance upon speci- 
fied courses of instruction in one or other of the 
medical schools recognized by the university is 
compulsory. The degrees in arts, science, etc., 
may be obtained by any persons, of either sex, 
who can satisfy the examiners as to their attain- 
ments, no matter whether that knowledge has 
been acquired by private study, private tuition, or 
college attendance. In point of mere attainment, 
the London degrees rank higher than the corre- 
sponding degrees of any other university; but 
they do not imply, as those of Oxford, Cambridge, 
etc., do, that their holder has been taught in col- 
leges by men of university rank and standing, and 
according to university methods. The scheme of 
examinations laid down by the senate of the Uni- 
versity of London naturally exercises a very wide 
infiuence upon the subjects taught in schools and 
colleges all over England ; since more than two 
thousand candidates annually enter for the matric- 
ulation, or entrance examination, of the univer- 


_sity. As there is no official connection between 


the senate and examiners on the one hand, and 
the principal professors and teachers on the other, 
the latter (Some of whom are men of the greatest 
eminence and of world-wide fame) naturally feel 
aggrieved at the dominant influence which the 
university exercises over their courses of instruc- 
tion, since they are practically compelled to teach 
those subjects prescribed for examination, and 
almost those alone. Moreover, there is a growing 
feeling that the enormously wealthy guilds and 
companies of the ancient city of London will be 
shortly compelled, either by actual legislation or 
by the potent force of public opinion, to appropri- 
ate more of their funds than they at present do, 
to educational purposes. These were the two 
main ideas which led to the formation of the 
Association for the promotion of a teaching uni- 
versity for London. On this body are representa- 
tives of all the principal educational institutions 
of London, in the four great faculties of arts, 
science, laws, and medicine. Large bodies take 
time to move, and, where there is much diversity 
of opinion, it is very difficult to formulate a scheme 
which shall meet with the acceptance even of a 
bare majority. This desirable stage has not yet 
been attained. The members of the existing uni- 
versity of London, however, naturally had to con- 


JANUARY 8, 1886. ] 


sider what should be their attitude towards the 
new body. Accordingly, at a very full meeting 
of convocation (as the general body of graduates 
above a certain standing is termed) last summer, 
the whole subject was referred to a special com- 
mittee of forty (of which the present writer was a 
member), to consider and report. This committee 
appointed Lord Justice Fry its chairman, and a 
scheme was by it prepared for the re-organization 
of the existing university from the points of view 
of the new association, — a task the more easy, as 
several gentlemen were members of both bodies. 
At an adjourned meeting of ‘convocation’ held on 
Dec. 8, this scheme was rejected, and, as the 
former committee refused to act, another com- 
mittee of twenty-five was appointed to modify it 
in the sense indicated by convocation. 

The year which is now drawing to a close has 
been marked by greater losses to English biology 
than any since 1882, which witnessed the deaths 
of Mr. Darwin, Prof. Francis Balfour, and Sir 
Wyville Thomson. Prof. Morrison Watson was a 
well-known anatomist of hardly more than mid- 
dle age; while Drs. W. B. Carpenter, J. Gwyn 
Jeffreys, and T. Davidson were almost the last of 
that older school of zodlogists who are too often 
looked down upon by the younger generation 
which has been trained to minute histological 
work. Dr. Davidsen had the happiness of com- 
pleting the work to which he had devoted the 
labors of a long life ; but his two old friends have 
left much material behind them, the working-out 
of which must be completed by other hands. Dr. 
Carpenter’s loss will be severely felt by those who 
believe in the organic nature of eozoon. He had 
accumulated a very great amount of material, 
which was regarded by all to whom he had shown 
it as proving his case in the most satisfactory 
manner possible. 

An important reform has just been carried out 
at Oxford. Honor candidates in law, history, and 
science, will henceforth be excused from the clas- 
sical examination at the end of their first, or the 
beginning of their second, year, which is known 
as ‘moderations.’ The preliminary examination 
‘responsions’ can be passed before residence be- 
gins, either in the leaving examination of a public 
school or at the university itself; and men can 
therefore specialize during the whole of their uni- 
versity course, instead of having their attention 
distracted from physics, chemistry, or biology by 
the necessity of getting through ‘mods.’ This has 
long been the case at Cambridge, and is one of the 
reasons for the overflowing state of its medical 
school. 

The old public schools are also beginning for- 
mally to recognize that there are other branches 


SCIENCE. 31 


of education besides the classics. Rugby is about 
to institute a modern side; and changes in the 
same direction are being gradually introduced at 
Eton, her great rival, Harrow having long had 
something of the kind. The committee of the 
city and guilds of London institute for the ad- 
vancement of technical education have offered 
free studentships of the annual value of thirty 
pounds, tenable for three years at the central in- 
stitution, to be awarded by the head master of 
each of the principal public schools. It will bea 
matter of some interest to see what proportion of 
boys will avail themselves of these opportunities 
for obtaining the higher technical education. 

W. 
London, Dee. 17. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


x*; Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name ts in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


The moon’s atmosphere. 


My friend, Professor Langley of Allegheny, has 
recommended to me to give you an account of a phe- 
nomenon twice observed by me on the occasion of 
two occultations of Jupiter. At the moment of con- 
tact, the planet, instead of passing behind the moon, 
appeared to be projected upon the moon’s edge, until 
nearly or quite one-half of the disk of the planet 
was visible on the moon’s surface. Then suddenly 
the whole planet disappeared behind the moon, As 
this phenomenon must be due to refraction, it would 
indicate a lunar atmosphere. The instrument with 
which I observed the occultation was a telescope 
made for me by Alvan Clark, with a four-and-a-half 
inch aperture. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 

Jamaica Plain, Mass., Dec. 31. 


Demand for good maps. 


Your comments in the number for Dec. 18, on the 
character of our small maps, are to me very welcome, 
and I hope you will follow the subject up till some 
decided impression is made on the minds of the pub- 
lishers. The maps in our school geographies are, to 
me as a teacher, a constant source of vexation. In- 
distinct, incomplete, inaccurate, they baffle attempts 
at close work, and so compel, if solely depended upon, 
a very elementary grade of ,;work. The small schul- 
atlas that a German boy buys for twenty-five cents 
is worth ten times as much as our best geography 
maps. 

You spoke of old plates. I have seen within two 
years a wall-map of North America in which the 
Yukon River had not been drawn. Said map was 
shown as a sample in the office of one of our largest 
publishing-houses. 

When the German publishers bring out their work 
so perfect, it seems as if the material was provided 
for American geography-makers. Is the reason they 
do not use it because, with German lettering, the 
maps cannot be reproduced by the photographic pro- 
cess and be available? Or are they afraid of repeat- 
ing the mistake of one of our atlas-makers, who pro- 
duced a town in Africa called Elfenbein ? 

However it may be, we do need better school-maps. 


hg 


32 


They should be maps in which the various features 
of surface are clearly, carefully, and fully drawn. 
Ido not mean maps full of names, but full of fea- 
tures. To illustrate: Whereare the Alps? The Alps 
are in Switzerland ; and the schoolboy finds on his 
map ‘ Alps’ printed on the south side of that portion 
labelled ‘Switzerland.’ A good map would show at 
least four ranges there ; and proper maps of Austria, 
Italy, and France, would teach him that ‘ Alps’ is a 
generic term with at least thirteen applications in 
southern Europe. 

Norway and Sweden appear on most school-maps 
with but one or two rivers, because, I suppose, there 
is no long and large stream there important enough 
to have its name memorized ; but what an idea does 
such a map give of that country? I can count over 
sixty rivers there on a map in Andree; and enough 
of them should be drawn, even if without naming, to 
show the true character of the surface. 

Similar instances could be given by the dozen. But 
I want to take up another point. When are we to 
see ageography with an index ? Studying geography 
by the topical method, an index is well-nigh indis- 
pensable. By any method, twice as effective work 
can be done if the material can be viewed from the 
stand-point of the kind of feature, production, occu- 
pation, or race, as well as in relation to this or that 
political subdivision. 

I do not think it too much to insist on, that every 
ocean, sea, gulf, bay, strait, channel, lake, sound, 
harbor, canal, river, waterfall, bight, firth, bayou, 
roadstead, etc. ; every land feature, every product, 
occupation, language, religion, form of government, 
town and political division, — in short, every thing 
namable that has been mentioned in the text or ap- 
peared by name in the maps, — should be indexed by 
page or section, and, in case of map features, with 
latitude and longitude. 

Why, even in Morden’s ‘ Geography rectified,’ pub- 
lished in 1693, there is a copious index, not to men- 
tion later works (1809, 1831) likewise favored. 

With an index to aid him, a scholar can classify, 
compare, and infer ; and the value of the text-book 
would be doubled. 

Nor would it be difficult to mention other ways in 
which our geographies could be improved. Butif we 
can first have some better maps and an index worthy 
the name, we shall have gained much. I hope you 
will not be content with a few leaders. The matter 
is one of no slight importance. Perhaps, if our pub- 
lishers read Prince Kropotkin’s article in the Decem- 
ber number of the Nineteenth century, they would be 
inspired to do better. Let us hope they will. 


C. H. Leste. 
New York, Dec. 31. 


The temperature of the moon. 


Mr. Langley does not seem to have examined my 
condition for determining the moon’s temperature 
with sufficient care. It is true that in the equation 
a moon of maximum radiating power was assumed ; 
but it had been first shown that the temperature of 
such a moon must be the same as that of any other, 
provided the relative radiating and absorbing powers 
are the same, as is usually assumed, The equation 
is between the absolute rate of radiation and absorp- 
tion of heat, in which r, the relative radiating 
power, enters as a factor on the one side, and a, the 
relative absorbing power, on the other. If these are 
equal, of course they can be omitted, which is the 


SCIENCE. 


# 


[Vou. VIL, No. 1538 


same as using unity as the relative radiating and 
absorbing powers, and so the same as assuming that 
the moon has a maximum relative radiating and 
absorbing power. The relative radiating and absorb- 
ing powers, and the proportion of heat reflected, do 
not, therefore, come into the condition at all. It 
cannot be said with propriety that the moon loses 
heat by reflection, as stated by Mr. Langley ; for the 
reflected heat has not been appropriated by absorp- 
tion, and therefore cannot be said to be the moon’s 
heat. It has come to the moon’s surface and been 
rejected, and it has nothing to do with its tempera- 
ture. The condition which determines the static 
temperature is, that the rate with which heat is 
radiated must be exactly equal to that with which it 
is absorbed. When this is the case, there can be 
neither increase nor decrease of temperature. 

But perhaps this matter will be more readily com- 
prehended by looking at it in a less mathematical 
way. We havea mocn, say, with a surface of maxi- 
mum relative radiating and absorbing power, and 
with a temperature below the static temperature 
corresponding to the rate with which it is receiving 
heat. With this temperature, the absolute rate 
with which the moon radiates heat is less than that 
with which it is receiving and absorbing it, and the 
difference goes toward raising the temperature of 
the body. But as the temperature increases, and 
with it the rate of radiating heat, though not pro- 
portionally, it after a time rises to that temperature 
at which the rate with which heat is radiated from 
the moon is exactly equal to that with which it is 
received and absorbed by it, and its temperature 
then remains stationary. This, expressed in a math- 
ematical form, is the equation of condition. 

But now suppose that the moon’s surface is such 
that it radiates and absorbs heat at only half, or any 
other proportion, of the rate that one of maximum 
relative radiating and absorbing power does. Our 
condition is still satisfied ; for although the moon’s 
surface now is radiating heat at a rate which is only 
half, or any other assumed proportion, of what it 
was before, it is also absorbing at only the same rate, 
whatever it may be, and there is no change of tem- 


perature needed to satisfy the condition of static’ 


temperature. Hence, so far as the static tempera- 
ture of the moon is concerned, it is no matter what 
part of the heat received is absorbed, and what 
reflected ; these being complementary to each other, 
and both together equal to the heat radiated by a 
moon of maximum relative radiating power, under 
the condition of a static temperature. Of course, 
our condition for determining the temperature is not 
applicable where there is a rapid increase or decrease 
of temperature. Wo. FERREL. 

Washington, Jan. 4. 

Yankee. 

In a paper upon the origin of ‘Yankee Doodle,’ 
read lately before the New York historical society, 
Mr. George H. Moore states that the word ‘ Yankee’ 
is pure Dutch. ‘ Yankin,’ he says, in the vocabulary 
of the early New York Dutch, meant ‘to grumble, 
snarl, or yelp,’ and its derivative noun meant ‘a 
howling cur.’ 

But where did the New York Dutch get the word ? 
I think from the Indians. Peter Martyr says that 
Sebastian Cabot named the coasts of Newfoundland 
and thereabouts the land of baccalaos, because in 
the seas he found a multitude of large fish which 


ee 


JANUARY 8, 1886.] 


the natives called by that name. This word ‘ bacca- 
laos’ was used by the Basque fishermen, and meant 
‘codfish ;’ and, if the natives used it, it was only 
after they had learned it from the Basques. 

Sailors are proverbially profane, and most likely 
these sailors of the olden time made use of the name 
of the Deity, much as sailors do at the present day. 
The Basque name for God is ‘ Yainkoa,’ and no 
doubt it was frequently used by the fishermen: so 
frequently, indeed, that the Indians called the 
strangers by it, just as the little urchins of Havre 
and Dieppe now call the English tourists ‘Meestaire 
Goddam.,’ 

The Indians employed the term to indicate a 
foreigner, and from them the early colonists learned 
it. It may afterwards have passed into a word or 
term of contempt, but it had its origin in the at- 


- tempt of the Indians to pronounce the Basque word 


* Yainkoa.’ 
San Francisco, Dec. 26. 


TH. E, SLEVIN. 


‘Chinook winds.’ 


In an article by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, on the Cana- 
dian Plains, in the last number of Science, the so- 
called Chinook winds of that. portion of these plains 
adjacent to the base of the Rocky Mountains, are 
described as warm, dry winds ‘sweeping up from 
the great Utah and Columbia basins.’ In a previous 
number of Science (iv. 166) Mr. Lester F. Ward, in 
speaking of similar winds in the upper Missouri and 
Yellowstone valleys, says, ‘‘It is also a matter of 
record that the temperature on this latitude dimin- 
ishes toward the east, and that colder weather pre- 
vails in Minnesota than in Dakota, and in Dakota 
than in Montana. The people attribute this to the 
occurrence of what they denominate ‘ Chinook 
winds ;’ i.e., winds laden with moisture, and moder- 
ated in temperature from the warmer regions of the 
Pacific slope.” By the inhabitants of the region in 
which these winds occur, they are very generally 
explained as currents of air coming from the warm 
surface of the Pacific Ocean, and flowing eastward 
through the low passes in the mountains. 

Having had occasion to note the character and 
effect of these peculiar winds while engaged in geo- 
logical and exploratory work in the western part of 
the plains and in the mountains at different times 
during the last ten years, I may be pardoned for 
stating my belief that the above theories are unsatis- 
factory, and based on hasty or imperfect considera- 
tion of the facts. 

As experienced, the Chinook is a strong westerly 
wind, becoming at times almost a gale, which blows 
from the direction of the mountains out across the 
adjacent plains. It is extremely dry, and, as com- 
pared with the general winter temperature, warm. 
Such winds occur at irregular intervals during the 
winter, and are also not infrequent in the summer, 
but, being cool as compared with the average summer 
temperature, are in consequence then not commonly 
recognized by the same name. When the ground is 
covered with snow, the effect of the winds in its re- 
moval is marvellous, as, owing to the extremely de- 
siccated condition of the air, the snow may be said to 
vanish rather than to melt, the moisture being licked 
up as fast as it is produced. 

Winter winds of this character occur over a tract of 
country stretching at least as far north as the Peace 
River (north latitude 56°), and at least as far south 


SCIENCE. 


39 


as northern Montana,—a distance of about six hun- 
dred miles. In the corresponding portion of its 
length, the Cordillera belt is comparatively strict and 
narrow, the western edge of the plains being sepa- 
rated from the ocean by about four hundred miles 
only of mountainous country. In this circumstance, 
taken in connection with the moisture-laden character 
of the air along the northern part of the west coast, 
we find a clew to the correct explanation of the re- 
markable characteristics of the so-called Chinook 
wind. Itis in effect, I conceive. precisely similar to 
that of the foehn of the Alps, and is due to the great 
amount of heat rendered latent when moisture is 
evaporated or air expanded in volume, but which 
becomes again sensible on condensation of moisture 
or compression of the air. 

To meteorologists the phenomenon requires no fur- 
ther elucidation ; but asit is one which attracts much 
attention in the west, owing to its important effect 
in removing the snow from the grazing-lands, the 
following more detailed notice, written by me with 
special reference to the Peace River country, may be 
of interest (quoted, with little alteration, from the 
Report of progress, geological survey of Canada, 
1879-80, p. 77 B.): — 

‘** The pressure in the upper regions of the atmos- 
phere being so much less than in the lower, a body 
of air rising from the sea-level to the summit of a 
mountain-range must expand; and this, implying 
molecular work, results in an absorption of heat and 
consequent cooling. The amount of this cooling bas 
been estimated as about one degree centigrade for a 
hundred metres of ascent when the air is dry, but 
becomes reduced to half a degree when the tempera- 
ture has fallen to the dew-point of the atmosphere, 
and precipitation of moisture as cloud, rain, or 
snow begins; the heat resulting from this condensa- 
tion retarding to a certain degree the cooling due to 
the expansion of the air. When the air descends 
again on the farther side of the mountain-range, its 
condensation leads to an increase of sensible heat 
equal to one degree centigrade for each hundred 
metres.’ It is owing to this circumstance that places 
in the south of Greenland, on the west coast, during 
the prevalence of south-easterly winds, which blow 
over the high interior of the country, have been 
found, in winter, to experience a temperature higher 
than that of north italy or the south of France, 
though the North Atlantic Ocean, from which the 
winds come, can at this season be little above the 
freezing-point. The wind well known in the Alps 
as the foehn is another example of the same phenom- 
enon. It is thus easy to understand how the western 
plains may be flooded with dry air, but much inferior 
in temperature to that of the coast, notwithstanding 
the intervening mountain-barrier. 

The data are yet wanting for an accurate investi- 
gation of the circumstances of our west coast in this 
regard, but a general idea of the fact may be gained. 
We may assume that the air at the sea-level is prac- 
tically saturated with moisture, or already at its 
dew-point ; that in crossing the mountainous region 
the average height to which the air is carried is 
about 2,000 metres (6,560 feet), and that it descends 
to a level of about 700 metres (2,296 feet) in the Peace 
River country. The loss of sensible heat on eleva- 
tion would in this case amount to 10°C. (18° F.); the 

1 The figures are Dr. Hann’s, quoted by Hoffmeyer in the 


Danish geographical society’s journal, and reproduced in 
Nature, August, 1877. 


34 SCTENCE. 


gain on descent to the level of 700 metres, to 13°C. 
(23°.4 F.). The amount of heat lost by the air during 
its passage across the mountainous region by radia- 
tion, and contact with the snowy peaks, cannot be 
determined. It is, of course, much greater in winter 
than in summer, and depends also on the speed with 
which the current of air travels. 

Owing to the width of the mountain-barrier, the 
main result is complicated by local details ; regions 
of considerable precipitation occurring on the west- 
ern slopes of each important mountain-range, with 
subsidiary drier regions in the lea. The last of these 
regions of precipitation is that of the Rocky Moun- 
tain range properly so called, in descending from 
which a further addition of heat is made to the air, 
which then flows down as a dry and warm current 
to the east. GEORGE M. Dawson. 

Ottawa, Canada, Dec. 31. 


The Taconic controversy in a nutshell. 


The New York geologists encountered a great group 
of metamorphic, apparently successive and conform- 
able strata, extending from the Hudson River east- 
ward into New England (1836-42). 

Emmons claimed they were all older than the Pots- 
dam. and named them all Taconic. His colleagues of 
the New York survey, and their friends of the Cana- 
dian survey, regarded them all later than the Pots- 
dam, and applied to them the terms of the New 
York system up to the Medina (1842). 

Fossils were discovered in some of the eastern 
belts of this metamorphic series, and announced by 
Hall and others in 1842, rather indicating the whole 
series was post-Potsdam. 

Emmons re-examined the whole. and called atten- 
tion to an unconformable overlying of the Hudson 
River and calciferous upon the older slates of the 
true Taconic, and distinctly re-asserted the pre- 
Potsdam age of the Taconic system, from which he 
figured primordial fossils (1844). He was supported 
by Billings and Barrande, and by Colonel Jewett of 
Albany, but as time passed he was ostracized from 
geological circles. 

The authority of Barrande, however, was sufficient 
to convince the opponents of Emmons on the New 
York and Canadian surveys, and they expressed a 
willingness to abandon the use of the conflicting term, 
‘Hudson River group’ (1862). 

The Canadian geologists. however, fertile in the 
invention of devices of stratigraphic nomenclature, 
renewed the contest by two flank movements, — one 
the Huronian phalanx, aimed at the lower strata ; 
and the other, the *Quebec coffin,’ aimed at the 
overlying strata, thus rallying the whole discomfited 
cohort (1855-61). Emmons died in the midst of this 
movemeént. 

As time passed, the term ‘ Hudson River group,’ 
besmirched and hesitating. was re-babilitated by 
being shifted to new ground, — that of the Lorraine 
shales (1877). 

In Wales, Barrande had discovered the ‘ primordial 
zone’ in Sedgwick’s ‘Cambrian ;’ but, as the Sedg- 
wickian term was then under as strong a ban in 
England as ‘Taconic’ was in America, Barrande’s 
term was adopted in England, and also transferred 
to the equivalent strata in America. 

Gradually, in other places outside the Hudson val- 
ley, the primordial fauna came to light, the strata 
taking other Canadian names, — St. John’s and 


{Vou. VII., No. 153 


Acadian; these terms becoming current in the 
United States. 

Finally the existence and fossiliferous character of 
a great series of strata, occupying exactly the posi- 
tion, claimed by Emmons, and mapped by him under 
the term ‘ Taconic,’ lying below the Potsdam sand- 
stone, has been demonstrated, and is admitted by all 
geologists, 

The term ‘Quebec’ not being approved, and 
‘Huronian’ seeming to collide, the later English 
term, ‘Cambrian,’ is applied in America to this very 
horizon to which Emmons had given the name 
‘ Taconic.’ 

Some of the opponents of Emmons, re-enforced 
lately by active, younger men, revive the fossilif- 
erous character of some of the eastern belts as 
new matter, adding many interesting and valuable 
details, and begin again to fire at the old fort, long ~ 
ago abandoned by Emmons, insisting that Emmons 
is still intrenched there (1872-85). 

It seems to me that any fair-minded geologist, find- 
ing primordial fossils in the strata mapped by Em- 
mons as Taconic, lying below the Potsdam, would at 
once admit the strata to be Taconic ; just the same as, 
if he found non-Taconic fossils in an area not claimed 
as Tacgpic, except by a mistake in a preliminary 
definition (corrected by its author), he would at once 
admit those strata were not in the Taconic, and were 
not intended to be so described. 

The same mistake was made by Emmons at first 
as by his opponents. None of them imagined they 
had to deal with two different and unconformable 
formations. The strata were all either Taconic or 
Hudson River. Emmons approached them from one 
side, the primordial, and his opponents from the op- 
posite direction. Each had evidence to support his 
claim; and, viewed from his own stand-point, each 
was right. It is unfair to Emmons, and to American 
geology, to insist that this preliminary mistake 
should consign to oblivion the great fact that in 
America, and by an American geologist, was first 
discovered the primordial zone of geology. 

If the Taconic is to ‘lose its identity’ because a 
portion of the original described strata prove to be 
post-Potsdam, what shall become of the Hudson 
River, by the same reasoning, if it be treated with 
honesty, when nearly all the strata covered originally 
by it prove to be pre-Potsdam? If the strata can 
fairly be divided between the conflicting claims, as 
the structural geology of the region seems to require, 
it would be for the honor of American geology to so 
divide them. It seems, however, that the extreme 
anti-Emmons partisans will not grant sucha division, 
but insist on the utter destruction of every thing that 
smacks of Taconic. N. H. WINCHELL. 


Relics from an Indian grave. 


On the Conejo plateau in Ventura county, Cal., and 
about fifteen miles from the coast, a conical hill rises 
to the height of a hundred feet, with a base of several 
hundred feet. On the south side of this elevation, 
and stretching more than half around it, is the re- 
rains of an old Indian town, At the top of the hill 
is a circular depression, indicating the spot where 
once stood the ‘ sweat.’ or council-house, of the tribe 
that occupied this site. Near the centre of the 
crescent-shaped village is the place where the dead 
were buried. Early last month the writer examined 
this burial place, which yielded about a hundred and 


JANUARY 8, 1886.] 


fifty skeletons deposited from one to five feet below 
the surface. The usual method of sepulture prac- 
tised by the Santa Barbara stock of Indians prevailed 
here ; namely, the knees were drawn up against the 
breast, and the corpse was buried face downward. 

With the skeletons were found three ollas carved 
from crystallized talc, which were used for cooking- 
purposes ; two large sandstone mortars, finely fin- 
ished, used for triturating grain and acorns; a sand- 
stone bowl about one inch deep and six inches in 
diameter ; two conical pipes and several large beads 
of serpentine; several sheets of mica with hole 
drilled at the side ; a broken tortilla stone; several 
balls of paint; and thousands of shell and glass 
beads, wampum, ornaments, etc. Ina Haliotis shell 
(H. splendens) I found eight old fashioned flat brass 
buttons, with numerous specimens of wampum, 
manufactured from Olivella biplicata. The remains 
of a metal knife were discovered, which, with glass 
beads. buttons, and a portion of an old-fashioned 
water-bottle, shows that this piace was inhabited 
since the advent of the white man, or within the 
past three hundred and forty-three years. 

Probably the most interesting relic discovered was 
a metal fish-hook. It has a shank about four anda 


half centimetres in length, with a point about three 
and a half centimetres long, which, from its shape, 
I should judge was of Indian manufacture. An 
‘Olivella shell was scalloped or notched, leaving it 
‘somewhat in the shape of a crown. The base was 
perforated, and the shank of the hook pushed through 
it. This was doubtless intended as an attraction to 
the fish. The species is Olivella biplicata, some of 
which are very white, and, at the end of a line, 
would be nearly or quite equal in brilliancy to the 
pearl oyster-shell used by the South-Sea Islanders for 
the same purpose. By the kindness of the publisher 
of Science, an engraving of the fish-hook is presented. 
It is in a somewhat restored form, the original being 
corroded to some extent by rust. 


STEPHEN BowERs. 
San Buenaventura, Dec. 8. 


New find of fossil diatoms. 


Seeing a reference to diatoms occurring in clay 
strata in a railroad-cutting near Philadelphia, in two 
of the recent issues of Science, I wrote to Dr. 
Koenig, the discoverer, for a sample of the diatom- 
bearing clay. I received the clay promptly, and am 
delighted to be able to say, that, after a five-minutes’ 
preparation, I had the pleasure of noting a very rich 
slide containing at least thirty species of diatoms ; 


SCIENCE. oo 


the forms corresponding chiefly to the recent fresh- 
water forms, but characteristically different, as 
relates to the association of the species, when com- 
pared with the forms occurring in the sub-peat 
deposits of the eastern United States. 

My reason for making this communication is, that 
the value, interest, and importance of this new find 
of diatomaceous material has not been sufficiently 
emphasized in the two articles in Science, and might 
be overlooked by diatomists, and all who are on the 
constant lookout for new localities of fossil diatoms. 

K. M. CunnINGHAM. 


Amoeboid movement of the cell-nucleus. 


The study of the cell-nucleus has become a subject 
of such absorbing interest in biology, that we feel 
justified in asking a little of your space to make 
known what seems to us a promising field for inves- 
tigation. During the last year, in studying the blood 
of Necturus, after its removal from the body and in 
the blood-vessels, we were struck with the great size 
and distinctness of the nucleus of the white corpus- 
cles. But what seems especially interesting and 
important is the fact that the nucleus of the white 
blood-corpuscles exhibits a very marked amoeboid 
movement, both in the vessels of a curarized animal 
and on the microscopic slide. These movements are 
as vigorous and easily followed as are those of the 
cell-body ; and often both the cell-body and nucleus 
are undergoing amoeboid movement at the same 
time, the movements of the cell-body and nucleus 
seeming to be entirely independent of each other. 
From the ease with which the white corpuscles are 
obtained and observed, from the size and activity of 
the nucleus and its distinctness in the living condi- 
tion, it is confidently expected that the study of the 
white blood-corpuscle of Necturus will greatly assist 
in making more definite our knowledge of the nu- 
cleus, its so-called membrane, and the processes of 


its division. S. H. and S. P. Gage. 
Anat. lab. Cornell uniy., Dec. 25. 


English sparrows. 


In Science, Dec. 18, appeared some remarks on 
the English sparrows that do not at all agree with 
our experience here. We have many orchards and 
groves in and around our village. Many of us have 
provided boxes for wrens, martins, bluebirds, etc. 
Robins, cardinals, crimson-breasted grossbeaks, cat- 
birds, etc., are innumerable around us. <A few years 
ago some of our people, accustomed to. watch the 
many kinds of birds that frequent our court house 
grove, asked me about ‘a little bird that had just 
newly appeared in the grove.’ They said that it was 
‘* driving all the other birds away. Not content with 
merely fighting and mastery, it drove the others 
clear out of the town.” The people had been watch- 
ing them for some days, and reported that half a 
dozen birds had actually made themselves the sole 
possessors of our: melodious grove, heretofore so 
delightfully noisy with the songs of the many native 
birds. I suspected the cause, and, as soon as I saw 
the ‘strange little birds.’ pronounced them to be 
those ‘winged rats,’ the English sparrows. For 
twenty years I had kept several boxes for martins 
at my own place. About thirty pairs were making 
their homes at my doors. Suddenly I missed them, 
but the screech of a pair of English sparrows took 


36 SCIENCE. 


their place. Well, we exterminated these sparrows, 
and our birds came back. 
Oregon, Mo., Jan. 1. 


The discussion of the merits of the English sparrow, 
as shown in the contribntions to Science, indicates a 
wide difference of opinion. Some of the conclusions 
reached by your contributors are unwarranted by 
any facts based on a thorough knowledge of the 
bird’s habits as known in this country. It is very 
convenient to join in the cry of enemy, thief, pest, 
and like epithets; but that is not a scientific method 
of reaching conclusions. We want a bill of par- 
ticulars, more facts and Jess crusade against these 
‘ assisted emigrants.’ 

They are charged with driving out other birds 
from our city. My home and place of observation 
being within twenty-five miles of New York City, I 
can speak from careful observation that this charge 
has but little value in this locality. 

Very few birds care to dwell in cities, except in 
the suburbs. It is neither congenial to their taste 
nor adapted to their requirements, while the English 
sparrow is essentially a native of a city, finding 
comfortable shelter and abundant food wherever 
partially digested grain may be found, in stables or 
along the highways travelled by horses. Excepting 
in the spring and summer months, this waste ma- 
terial is the almost exclusive food of this bird. 
Now we will consider the country life of this spar- 
row, 

They are charged with destroying our crops. 
Have the farmers of this country made this com- 
plaint, or must we echo the tirade from abroad? As 
a farmer, my observation is, thet the amount of 
wheat this bird appropriates during the few days of 
harvesting is too insignificant for notice. I know of 
no other grain that is molested in the slightest degree. 
That they are large destroyers of insects during the 
summer months, every observer knows. The army- 
worm finds in the English sparrow one of its most 
vigilant enemies. As to the garden fruits, we find 
that it molests none, and kindly leaves all the cher- 
ries to the robins and cat-birds. I have many grape- 
vines trained against my buildings, with an abun- 
dance of sparrows roosting amid the clusters of 
grapes, and have wondered at the sparrow’s poor 
judgment in not tasting a single bunch. Such is my 
observation of this bird: social in its habits, appar- 
ently of the most happy disposition, but at times 
pugnacious with his relatives, which encounters are 
never fatal in their consequences. Certainly it is no 
concern of ours; for they seem to possess, in a 
remarkable degree, the spirit of forgiveness, and 
live, on the whole, in great social harmony. We 
rightly know them as pest when they soil our piazzas 
and deface our window-casings. J. D. Hicks. 

Old Westbury, N.Y. 


Equality in ability of the young of the human 
species. 


‘* We have a pernicious habit in this country of 
supposing, that... allmen. . . are born equal as 
to their abilities.” ‘‘ We have a different theory in 
regard to horses.” 

‘It would, perhaps, be a good plan, if the young of 
the human species were divided into two groups at 
an early age,—one large, and one small; one com- 
posed of those of whom nothing more than plain 


[Vou. VII., No. 153 


living is expected, and the other composed of the 
race - horses, of those whose ancestors, or whose 
chance endowments, give reason to hope that they 
may give some aid to learning or to culture. Any 
one whose destiny is to do difficult thinking in after- 
life should . . . dwell long among the geometrical 
concepts, should become thoroughly imbued with the 
bare and rigid form of reasoning, and should have 
the results as familiar as his mother-tongue.” 

A criticism of a recent book on geometry, in 
Science supplement of Jan. 1, gives occasion to the 
critic to give the above views of a topic much wider 
than that of geometry. He would differentiate the 
human species into two groups, — the race-horses and 
dray-horses,— and train them accordingly, and the 
basis of the differentiation would be ‘ancestry,’ or 
‘chance endowments.’ Suppose this had been done in 
the past, what chance is there that Watt, Stephenson, 
or Ericsson would have become known as engineers ; 
Franklin, Faraday, or Edison as electricians ; Napo- 
leon or Grant as soldiers; Lincoln or Garfield as 
statesmen ; Livingston as an explorer; Carlyle asa 
writer? Is it not notorious that most great men 
have not been descended from distinguished ances- 
tors, and that in most cases their chance endow- 
ments have not been discovered, either by them- 
selves or by their friends, until the age of manhood ? 
The habit in this country, of supposing all men born 
equal as to their abilities, has had ample justification 
in the past, and may have in the future. Among 
the poorest families in ‘the farthest west there are 
many Grants, Lincolus, or Garfields ; among tallow- 
chandlers’ clerks there are Franklins; among Scot- 
tish farmers there are Carlyles ; the poorest weavers 
may produce another Livingston ; and some obscure 
Corsican may be another Napoleon. We of the 
American branch of the Anglo-Saxon ‘race have all 
a good ancestry. Six generations back, each of us 
had thirty-two male ancestors, at least one of whom 
must have been distinguished as a king, a statesman, 
a general, a thinker, or possibly as a ‘gentlemanly 
scoundrel,’ or freebooter ; and all American babies 
are born with some ‘chance endowment,’ which, if 
given the proper environment, will develop into 
ability. But, alas! the chances are that the grow- 
ing child will not be given the proper environment. 
He may have the ancestral traits or the chance 
endowments which would lead him to be a great 
soldier, an artist, an engineer, or a farmer; and he 
will be sent to school, where all these traits or en- 
dowments will be repressed, and his education will 
tend to make him a storekeeper or a politician ; or he 
may not be sent to school at all, and ancestral 
poverty may be the cause of his remaining a coal- 
miner or a ‘farmer’s hand’ all his life, and Gray’s 
‘Elegy ’ may be used as his epitaph. 

Whether the young of the human species will de- 
velop into race-horses or dray-horses is not generally 
determinable by ancestry or by ‘ chance endowment,’ 
but rather by environment during youth and early 
manhood. The youth has the ancestry of both dray- 
horse and race-horse combined, and the ‘chance en- 
dowments’ are numerous enough to include some of the 
qualities of both. Better assume that the young are 
born equal in ability, and in their early training, be- 
ginning with the kindergarten, give them an equal 
chance to develop into mechanics, storekeepers, 
artists, farmers, or lawyers, than to differentiate 
them into the classes of race-horses and dray-horses 
at the beginning. . We Es 


SCIENCE.—Supp.emenr. 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1886. 


THE PALACE OF THE KINGS OF TIRYNS. 


‘‘THE untiring enthusiasm and liberality of one 
man have earned the gratitude of all civilized races, 
so long as the human past shall have any interest 
for mankind.” These were the words with which 
one of the most accomplished of English scholars 
welcomed the appearance of Dr. Schliemann’s 
narrative of his explorations at ancient Mykenae. 
And now we have to thank him for another 
volume,’ equalling in interest the four he has 
already given to the world of letters, and even 
surpassing them in the beauty of its mechanical 
execution. Moreover, we think he has displayed 
sound judgment in allowing his learned collabora- 
tors to contribute the major part of the text of 
the present volume, for it is by his energy and 
success as an explorer that he will be always 
remembered. He is neither a learned scholar nor 
a trained archeologist ; and, where he has relied 
solely upon his own resources in setting forth the 
results of his researches, he has frequently drawn 
conclusions which have met with but little favor at 
the hands of scholars. From similar failings the 
present work is by no means exempt: but such 
blemishes, like patches on the cheek of beauty, 
only heighten the intrinsic merits of this most 
important contribution to our knowledge of the 
ancient world; not to our knowledge of what is 
commonly understood by the phrase ‘ prehistoric 
times,’— for we think it a misnomer to call 
what he has brought to light ‘the prehistoric 
palace of the kings of Tiryns,’ who, as he thinks, 
flourished some fourteen hundred years B.C.,— 
but to our accurate comprehension of the heroic 
age of Greece, those early times about which, 
hitherto, the Homeric poems have been our only 
source of information. We may well be grateful 
to him for the light which has thus been shed 
upon many an obscure passage or questionable 
statement in those earliest records of the western 
world. But in regard to what is known in arche- 
ology as the ‘prehistoric period,’ by which is to 
be understood a certain stage in the development 
of civilization, Dr. Schliemann seems to entertain 
very misty notions. He speaks of finding in the 

1 Tiryns: the prehistoric palace of the kings of Tiryns. 
The results of the latest excavations. By Dr. HENRY SCHLIE- 


MANN. With preface by Prof. F. Adler, and contributions 
by Dr. William Dirpfeld. New York, Scribner, 1885. 4°. 


ruins of the palace arrow-heads of obsidian 
‘‘ rudely made; in fact, as rudely as the arrow- 
heads of silex found in the cave-dwellings of the 
age of the mammoth and the reindeer in the 
Dordogne, in France, and to be seen in numbers 
in the prehistoric museum at St.-Germain-en- 
Laye” (p. 78). But no such things exist as rude 
arrow-heads found in the caves of the Dordogne : 
and it is one of the commonplaces of prehistoric 
archeology that in the paleolithic period, to which 
these caves must be referred, bows and arrows 
had not yet been invented. He gives four draw- 
ings of these remarkable ‘ arrow-heads,’ which 
precisely resemble four similar objects that the 
writer picked up upon the slopes of the Acrop- 
olis at Athens. But they are only fragments 
of obsidian flakes, which are abundant upon pre- 
historic sites in Greece ; and they merely prove 
that a particular spot was occupied by man in the 
stone age. Yet the finding of these bits of stone, 
accompanied by fragments of rude, hand-made 
pottery, in the débris of the palace, furnishes our 
author his main argument to prove that it was de- 
stroyed in prehistoric times. But it is a common 
thing to find such fragments as these disseminated 
throughout the soil in the places where they occur ; 
and, although Dr. Schliemann may have come upon 
them in the earth that has accumulated above the 
ruins of the palace, their presence proves nothing 
more than the antiquity of the site, whether it be 
at Tiryns or at Athens. But Dr. Schliemann can 
actually believe that such rude arrow-heads as 
these were still in use contemporaneously with the 
occupation of the remarkable edifice he has dis- 
interred and described. His own excavations, 
however, at Mykenae had already disclosed the 
kind of stone arrow-heads employed at the close 
of the high civilization of the bronze age, — ex- 
quisitely fashioned out of obsidian, of the Solutré 
type, thin, delicate, and provided with barbs. 

So, again, he argues for a very high antiquity 
for the earliest remains he has discovered, because 
he finds among them a kind of rude, hand-made 
pottery, consisting of vessels, or portions of them, 
provided with handles pierced with two perpen- 
dicular holes for suspension ; while, of those hav- 
ing similar horizontal perforations, two examples 
only were met with. The former kind is not un- 
common in the Swiss lake-dwellings, and in some 
other localities belonging to the Neolithic period : 
and he quotes Professor Virchow as authority for 
inferring from such similarity ‘a direct connec- 


38 SCIENCE. 


tion’ between the two places (p. 64). Virchow, 
however, had many other points of resemblance 
which are wanting at Tiryns, besides this single 
one, to bring forward, between the rude, early 
pottery of the two sites he was comparing. 

The stages of civilization of the lake-dwellers of 
Switzerland and of the Homeric heroes differ as 
widely as does the dawn from high noon ; and the 
endeavor to relegate the occupants of a palace 
whose artistic decorations excite only wonder and 
admiration to the status of the age of polished 
stone, or even of the early bronze age, displays a 
singular misapprehension of the teachings of pre- 
historic archeology. 

That the huge, so-called Cyclopean walls of 
Tiryns should have inspired the belief in their 
hoar antiquity, and that around them should have 
clustered myth and iegend, is not to be wondered 
at. The strange circumstance is, that it is in the 
later writers principally that this crop should 
havesprung up. It is worthy of remark that Tiryns 
is mentioned but once in the Homeric poems, and 
that only in the ‘ Catalogue of forces,’ which by most 
scholars is regarded as a late interpolation. There 
it is characterized by an adjective which means 
‘the well-walled’ (Iliad, ii. 559), and our author 
thinks that ‘‘ Homer expresses his admiration for 
the walls by this epithet, which he bestows on 
Thebes” (p. 17). The fact is, however, that this 
word occurs in only one other passage in the 
poems, some hundred lines after its first use ; and 
there it is applied, not to Thebes, but to the an- 
cient city of Gortys, in Crete. This is the place 
where last year was discovered the longest and 
most important inscription yet known in the 
archaic Doric dialect, probably of the sixth 
century B.C. But at Gortys there are no Cyclo- 
pean walls, and we feel constrained to believe that 
the epithet was employed by the poet in both in- 
stances solely for its metrical advantages. 

Leaving, then, the Homeric poems out of the 
case, there is no question that these huge walls 
have stirred the wonder and admiration of all 
modern travellers, and many have been the at- 
tempts to account for them, and to discover who 
were their builders. We can hardly, however, 
look upon Dr. Schliemann’s as the most happy 
solution of the problem. He thinks that ‘‘ we 
may assume with great probability that they were 
built by Phoenician colonists, and the same is 
probably the case with the great prehistoric walls 
in many other parts of Greece” (p. 28). How is 
it, then, we may ask, that a precisely similar style 
of construction is to be seen in mountain fast- 
nesses in the Apennines of central Italy, where no 
foot of Phoenician trader ever penetrated, while 
no such example is to be found in Phoenicia 


[Von. VIL, No. 153 


proper, or in her greater daughter, Carthage? 
Much more probable seems to be Mr. Gladstone’s 
conjecture that they are ‘‘the handiwork of the 
great constructive race or races made up of sev- 
eral elements, who migrated into Greece, and else- 
where on the Mediterranean, from the south and 
east.” But we doubt if the key to the mystery is 
to be sought in peculiarities of construction ; since 
archeologists now are of one accord that the 
huge polygonal style of building, in all of its dif- 
ferent varieties, to the rudest of which alone the 
epithet ‘Cyclopean’ should be restricted, arose 
from the natural cleavage of the material used for 
building-purposes. 

Equally unsatisfactory seems to be Dr. Schlie- 
mann’s attempt to overthrow the established date 
of the destruction of Tiryns by the Argives, 468 
B.C., in favor of a period so much anterior to this 
as the return of the Herakleids, which he places 
at about 1100 B.C. In this, it is true, he is sus- 
tained by the authority of that most hardy of the 
investigators of ancient history, Professor Sayce, 
while Professor Mahaffy also rejects the received 
chronology. But it is certainly suggestive that 
the very passage in the Iliad (iv. 52) which is 
cited by Professor Sayce in confirmation of such a 
theory, should have been previously brought for- 
ward by another eminent iconoclast, Professor 
Paley, as equally conclusive to establish the com- 
paratively late date of the existing version of the 
Homeric poems.' But the universal consensus of 
historians, backed by the irrefragable testimony 
of the bronze serpent, which once supported the 
golden tripod dedicated by the Greeks at Delphi 
in commemoration of the battle of Plataea, and 
which is now to be seen in Constantinople, would 
seem to outweigh our author’s archeological 
evidence in support of his new view, which would 
appear to consist of a graffito in eleven archaic 
letters scratched upon a bit of ‘lustrous black 
Hellenic pottery,’ re-enforced by numerous rude 
female images, which possibly may be only arch- 
aistic, and which, at any rate, bear a striking 
resemblance to the children’s playthings found in 
the tombs at Athens. 

But enough, perhaps too much, has been said 
about our author’s theories: let us turn tosome of 


the actual gains to knowledge acquired by his — 


liberal use of the spade at Tiryns; only we must 
first enter our protest against his failure to do 
justice to his townsman, Dr. Rhaugabé. 
ring to the appearance of the site before he com- 
menced operations there, he says, *‘ Many of the 
walls were visible on the surface, and had misled 
the best archeologists, as they were assumed to be 


1 Transactions of the Cambridge philosophical society, 
xi. p. 383, 


Refer- | 


JANUARY 8, -1886. ] 


mediaeval, and it had never been imagined that 
they could be perhaps two thousand years older, 
and belong to the palace of the mythical king of 
Tiryns ” (p. 8). Who would suppose, upon reading 
this, that twenty years ago Dr. Rhaugabé, in his 
‘ History of ancient art’ (p. 63), had stated that “it 
is highly probable that these are the remains of the 
primitive palace of Proetus”? We have here an 
instance of the same self-complacency which 
manifests itself also in a remark about his ‘‘ ex- 
cavations in the prehistoric tumulus on the plain 
of Marathon, which previously had been wrongly 
regarded as the tomb of the one hundred and 
ninety-two Athenians who fell in the battle ” (p. 78). 
Dr. Schliemann seems to have never read Byron’s 
well-known verses upon Marathon and ‘the vio- 
lated tomb,’ and not to know that years ago the 
tumulus was explored by a Frenchman; which 
may, perhaps, explain why our author found so 
little in it, even if its situation itself, in a sandy 
plain hard by the water’s side, would not be suffi- 
cient to account for the disappearance of the bones 
of the heroes who were buried under it, as we may 
fairly infer from what Thucydides and Pausanias 
and Kritias tell us. 

The first decisive result of the explorations at 
Tiryns has been to establish the fact of the exist- 
ence there of two successive structures, built upon 
a limestone rock which rises to a slight eleva- 
tion above the surrounding plain. The primitive 
fortress was constructed of sun-dried bricks and 
wood, according to Professor Adler, and traces 
of the sub-structures of a huge gate-tower be- 
longing to it were discovered under the founda- 
tions of the palace (p. xii.). Remains of its walls 
built of rubble and dry mortar of clay were 
found by Dr. Dérpfeld, buried deep in débris, 
through which a trench had to be dug before 
the foundations of the terrace-wall of the upper 
citadel could be laid (p. 252). Besides these 
proofs drawn from the construction, there were 
found among its ruins numerous fragments of rude 
pottery, mostly hand-made, though in some in- 
stances showing a knowledge of the potter’s wheel, 
which presents so great a contrast in form, 
technique, and decoration, to the pottery occurring 
in the ruins of the subsequently erected Cyclopean 
palace, as to prove, in Dr. Schliemann’s judgment, 
that they are the work of totally different peoples, 
This opinion is based upon arguments derived 
from the continuity of style always to be observed 
in the art-products of the same race, even at very 
different periods, which he ascribes to Mr. Dennis, 
but which really ought to be credited to Professor 
Brizio (p. 57). 

But the crowning achievement of Dr. Schlie- 
mann’s labors has been the discovery that those 


SCIENCE. 33, 


vast walls, piled up, of huge unhewn stones, so 
massive that in the exaggerated language of 
Pausanias ‘‘a yoke of mules could not move 
the smallest of them from its place,” were raised 
for the defence of ‘a lordly house,’ of which the 
uniformity of design in its ground plan, and the 
skilful distribution and arrangement of all its 
parts, have given to the trained eye of an architect 
a most favorable impression of the builder’s talent 
and experience. It is indeed a revelation to the 
world that the high stage of civilization which the 
Homeric poems disclose was not merely a poet’s 
dream. In the glowing language of Dr. Doérpfeld, 
‘we see the mighty walls, with their towers and 
gates, and enter into the palace by the pillar- 
decked Propylaed. We recognize the men’s court, 
with its great altar, surrounded by porticos; we 
see, further, the stately Megaron, with its ante- 
room and vestibule ; we even enter the bath-room, 
and finally pass on to the women’s dwelling, with 
its separate court and numerous chambers. This 
is a picture which floats before the mind of every 
reader of Homer, — a picture which many a savant 
has endeavored to restore after the data given by 
him. All such attempts, hitherto, have been to 
some extent unsatisfactory. There always re- 
mained questions to which all the acuteness in the 
world, on the part of Homeric scholars, could give 
no answer in the words of the poet. Many of these 
riddles are now solved by the palace at Tiryns” 
(p. 192). But to attempt even the briefest résumé of 
the interesting and instructive chapter in which Dr. 
Dorpfeld has given a detailed account of the plan of 
the citadel, and the singular method of construc- 
tion of its walls, with their covered galleries and 
concealed chambers, of the arrangement of the 
approaches to it and the hitherto unknown stair- 
way conducting to the postern gate, and finally of 
the palace itself in all its several parts, and the 
building-materials employed in it, as these all 
were brought to light in the explorations of the 
summers of 1884 and 1885, —this would far ex- 
ceed the space at our command. We can only 
refer to some remarkable discoveries, which throw 
light upon the character of the civilization to 
which the building belongs, and which are most 
striking from their novelty. 

We think the series of nine plates, in which are 
depicted fragments of plastered walls, painted 
with frescos in five different colors, cannot fail to 
stir the admiration of every lover of the beautiful, 
whether he be a student of antiquity, or not. Who 
could have imagined that the palace walls, in the 
Homeric age, were ornamented with decorations 
which for beauty and grace of design, and freedom 
and boldness of execution, surpass the fresco- 
painting of our own day? What life and power 


40 SCIENCE. 


the figure-piece of the bull-tamer, leaping upon the 
back of the beast in full career, displays! The 
beautiful frieze made of slabs of alabaster, deco- 
rated with sculptured ornaments and inlaid with 
pieces of dark blue smalt, is most interesting, not 
only for its intrinsic elegance, but for the confirma- 
tion it has given to a conjecture of Helbig in ex- 
planation of one of the Homeric puzzles, the 
nature of the frieze of kyanos, which adorned the 
palace of Alkindos (Odyssey, vii. 86). This is the 
substance which Mr. Gladstone supposed to have 
been bronze, and which Mr. Evans, following the 
general opinion, has reluctantly conceded to have 
been dark blue steel, but which we now have every 
reason to believe to have been a blue glass paste. 
Another surprising discovery was the bath-room, 
containing a fragment of a bathing-tub, made of 
thick terra-cotta, and resembling in form similar 
articles in use to-day. After such a substantiation 
as this, of the numerous instances in the Homeric 
poems where mention is made of the ‘well- 
polished bathing-tubs,’ we may perhaps feel war- 
ranted in believing that in the heroic age some- 
times these were actually made of silver, like the 
two which ‘Polybus, who dwelt in Thebes in 
Egypt,’ gave to Menelaus (Odyssey, iv. 128). 
Reluctantly we lay aside this interesting volume, 
fully sharing in the regret expressed by Dr. Dorp- 
feld at the fate that must speedily overtake much 
of what has thus been brought to light after its 
sleep of centuries in the lap of mother-earth. He 
says that it is doomed to certain destruction, 
although the Greek government intends to do all 
in its power to protect the palace with a roof and 
in other ways (p. 250). But even if the material 
parts must perish, its teachings have been em- 
balmed forever for posterity in this noble volume, 
which, as we said at the outset, we owe to the 
liberality and enthusiasm of Dr. Schliemann. 


WINTER ON MOUNT WASHINGTON. 


THERE are three distinct types of winter weather 
on Mount Washington that offer good illustration 
of the control of wind over temperature. The 
most common, and certainly the one most fre- 
quently associated with the popular estimation of 
the mountain’s weather, appears with the westerly 
or north-westerly winds of considerable strength 
that blow between a centre of low barometric 
pressure lingering over the provinces or in the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a centre of high 
pressure on the lakes or in the Ohio valley. The 
sky is clear or fair, the wind blows fifty to eighty 
or more miles an hour, and the temperature falls 
to a point worthy of newspaper items. This is 
the time of hardship for the observers in the 


[Vou. VII., No. 153 


signal-service station: clearing the anemometer 
cups of the frost-work that forms on them is then 
no pleasant task; but, if not cleared, the frost-work 
fills the cups, and prevents their proper turning, 
or they become so heavy that the centrifugal 
force of their rapid whirling may tear them from 
the axle. The cold is so intense and penetrating 
with the high wind, that the stoves have to do 
their utmost to keep the station habitable. A 
conflagration at such a time would be almost 
certain death to the men, for they could not 
descend the mountain in such weather. 

On the 29th of last January there was a sample 
of this type: a storm-centre had passed the day 
before; the wind shifted from south to north- 
west, and rose to one hundred miles an hour, — 
if the records in recurring round numbers can be 
accepted as precise, — and at seven o’clock in the 
morning the temperature was — 32°. At the same 
time, the temperature at Boston was 0°; at Port- 
land, 2°; and at Montreal, — 9°. The cause of the 
extreme cold on the mountain is, first, that its 
winds come rapidly from the cold north-west, 
without having time to warm up very much on 
the way; and, second, that they are forced to rise 
more or less in passing over the mountain, and 
thus are cooled by expansion about half a degree 
for every hundred feet of ascent. In other words, 
the cold is chiefly imported, but is partly a home 
product. The temperature is not excessively low : 
it is higher than the records give for the far 
north-west, and much higher than the minima 
known in Siberia; but it is harder to bear on 
account of the terrific winds that accompany it. 
Residents in Montana and Siberia unite in having 
a good word for the calm, dry cold of their frigid 
winters, but no word of praise for the windy 
cold on Mount Washington appears in the signal- 
service reports. Other examples of this type, 
illustrated in the old reports and maps, are Dec. 
30, 1873 ; Jan. 16, 17, 25, 26, 1874. 

The second type appears when the mountain 
stands a moderate distance from a storm centre, 
generally to the east or north of it. The tempera- 
ture is then relatively high, and the weather 
cloudy or rainy. Jan. 16, 1885, will serve for an 
example of this. The storm-centre was then to 
the west of the mountain, but not far away, as 
the wind was from the south, sixty miles an hour. 
It was snowing, and the air was nearly ‘satu- 
rated’ with vapor; the air temperature at 7 A.M. 
being 29°, and the dew-point 28°. At the same 
time, the temperature at Boston was only 32°, 
while that at Portland was 24°. Montreal failed 
to report that morning, but was undoubtedly 
colder still. Now, if there is any propriety in 
averages, Mount Washington ought to be in win- 


JANUARY 8, 1886. ] 


ter fifteen or sixteen degrees colder than its neigh- 
boring sea-level stations. Here it is as much too 
warm as it was too cold in the first type. Al- 
though it is near the storm-centre, where the 
winds are supposed to ascend obliquely, the air on 
the mountain is evidently not derived from the 
low-level stations near by ; for, independently of 
the evidence furnished by the wind’s direction and 
velocity against such a conclusion, the tempera- 
tures disprove it. If a current of air ascend from 
sea-level to the top of Mount Washington, its tem- 
perature must fall at least eleven degrees, even if 
the cooling from expansion were retarded by con- 
densation of vapor through the whole ascent. The 
surface source of the wind, if it come from the 
surface at all, must therefore be sought many 
miles south of New England, in the southern 
states or on the Gulf Stream, where the tempera- 
ture is fifteen or twenty degrees higher than in 
Mount Washington latitudes. Then, as in the first 
case, the temperature on the mountain is largely a 
matter of importation; but now the cooling by 
ascent abruptly up the mountain sides, or gradu- 
ally in the cyclonic whirl, acts to destroy the im- 
_ ported characteristics of the wind, instead of to 
confirm them, as before. In the pronounced ex- 
amples of this type, when it is warmer on Mount 
Washington than at. Boston, we find illustration 
of the inversion of temperature, that is generally 
held to be peculiar to anticyclonic weather, as will 
be explained below ; and although such cases are 
not, so far as I know, characteristic of other 
mountain stations, they are not rare on Mount 
Washington. Examples may be found on the old 
maps for Dec. 3, 27, 1873; Jan. 7, 8, 27, 28, 1874. 
The warm waters of the Gulf Stream, and the 
rapid decrease of temperature with latitude along 
our eastern coast, must be chiefly responsible for 
this. Another factor of hardly less importance is 
the fivefold greater velocity of the winds at the 
height of Mount Washington over those at the 
earth’s surface. As a storm-centre draws near, 
the winds on the mountain may be derived from 
a source four or five times as distant to the south 
as that which supplies the low-level stations. 
Thus the ordinary decrease of temperature with 
height is overcome. Montreal is decidedly colder 
than the three other stations at such times ; for it 
is well to the north of the storm-centre, and draws 
its winds from northerly sources. 

The third type is one that has attracted much 
attention in Europe of late years, on account of 
the very abnormal temperatures that accompany 
it. It appears when a centre of high pressure — 
an anticyclone — passes over the mountain, and, 
when fully developed, it causes a remarkable in- 
version of weather elements. We are accustomed 


SCIENCE. 4] 


to see mountain-tops cold and cloudy, while the 
valleys about them are warmer and clear; but 
anticyclonic weather places the cold and the clouds 
in the valleys, while the peaks rise into brilliantly 
clear, warm, dry air. Dr. Hann was the first to 
give a full explanation of the facts, in 1876, and I 
follow him in this statement. In an anticyclone, 
the few lofty clouds that are observed generally 
move towards its centre ; the surface winds move 
outwards to all sides; with converging currents 
above, and diverging below, there must be a 
descending current about the centre; the descent 
is probably slow, but it undoubtedly exists. This 
type, therefore, involves the consideration of the 
temperature of air derived from regions of the 
atmosphere far above the mountain-tops. The 
first opinion that one would have of such tempera- 
ture would probably be to place it well below 
freezing, for we are all familiar with the excessive 
cold experienced in very lofty mountain ascents 
and balloon voyages. Butthisiswrong. Although 
undoubtedly cold while up aloft, air that de- 
scends from the upper regions is compressed as 
it comes under greater atmospheric weight near 
sea-level, and it is thereby warmed. A current 
coming down from a moderate altitude in sum- 
mer might be cooler than the surface air; but in 
winter it would be in practically ail cases de- 
cidedly warmer. The statement of this fact is 
not particularly new, but its recognition and 
general application are a recent progress in 
meteorology. More than forty years ago, Arago, 
Pouillet, and Babinet reported to the French 
academy that ‘‘it is proved by the investigations 
of Mr. Espy that one should not hereafter attempt 
to adduce, in the mean state of the atmosphere, a 
descending current of air as a cause of cold.” 

It is, then, to the descent of air from aloft that 
we are to look for the abnormal warmth and dry- 
ness of mountain-tops in anticyclones. It remains 
to account for the extreme cold that prevails at 
the same time in the neighboring valleys. An 
illustration of the contrast is given by Professor 
Upton in the second Bulletin of the New England 
meteorological society. On the morning of Dec. 
27, 1884, when the winds were everywhere light, 
and the pressure higher than on the days before 
or after, the temperature on Mount Washington 
was +16°; at the low-level stations north of 
Massachusetts, it was —10°, or colder. On con- 
sulting the records, I find Grafton and Littleton, 
N.H., —18°; Hanover, N.H., and Newport, Vt., 
—20°; Woodstock, Vt., —27°; Portland, Me., 
+7°. The lower cold must therefore be in spite 
of, not on account of, the down-cast current ; and 
we are forced to believe that it is caused by rapid 
cooling of the ground, and of the air close to it, by 


42 


radiation through the clear, dry air above. It is 
not at first apparent why the ground should cool 
to an excessively low temperature, while the air 
above it remains comparatively warm: it is 
because solids can cool by radiation. just as they 
can warm by absorption, much more quickly 
than gases. For this reason, the upper air 
changes its temperature but little from day to 
night; while the ground, and to a certain extent 
the air near it, have a large diurnal range. Now, 
during an anticyclone, radiation from the ground 
is rapid through the clear, dry air; thus the tem- 
perature falls very low, and the air on or near the 
earth’s surface is greatly cooled. If the descent 
of the air were rapid, radiation would not have 
time to overcome the warmth gained by compres- 
sion; and it is known, that, when the surface 
wind springs up in an anticyclonic centre, the 
temperature rises with it. But generally the 
descent is slow ; and, when near the ground, the 
down-current turns aside as a slow horizontal out- 
flow ; it becomes heavy as it is chilled, and tends 
to collect and stagnate in depressions. Ground 
fogs form when the dew-point is reached, and 
then the contrast is complete between the clear, 
pleasant weather on the peaks, and the cold, damp 
air in the valleys. In the first and second types 
the temperature is chiefly imported ; in the third 
it is essentially of local origin over the mountains. 
December, 1879, gave a famous example of an 
inversion on a large scale in Europe, and much 
was written about it. An enterprising mountain- 
climber ascended a peak in the Alps east of Lake 
Geneva on Christmas day, and was rewarded by 
rising above the dense clouds that covered the 
lake and filled the cold valleys, and finding fine, 
clear, relatively warm weather on the mountain- 
top. A few examples of such inversions must 
make our observers wish they were in a region of 
permanent high pressure, instead of in one of the 
stormiest countries of the world. WwW. MoM. D; 


JAPANESE HOUSES. 


THE opening of the empire of Japan to foreign 
intercourse has furnished more subjects of inquiry 
to the student of human development than any 
event of recent times. Here is a nation which 
has been secluded for centuries from all except 
the most insignificant external influences. Dur- 
ing this seclusion, modern European civilization, 
with its science and arts, its comforts and refine- 
ments, has virtually come into existence. In the 
mean time, the secluded nation, mainly without 

Japanese homes and their surroundings. 


S. Morse, witb illustrations by the author. 
nor, 1886 [1885]. 8°. 


By EpwArp 
Boston, Tick- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 153 


help or hindrance from its neighbors, has been 
engaged in working out the problem of its na- 
tional life in its own way. Suddenly the curtain 
is raised, and we are permitted to look in upon 
the spectacle so long in preparation. For a quarter 
of a century we have been studying the scenes 
thus revealed to us, and have not yet fully suc- 
ceeded in making out their meaning. 

That the Japanese race is one possessed of native 
vigor and resources is shown by the outcome of 
this long experiment of isolation. With all the 
disadvantages arising from the want of free for- 
eign intercourse, they have made such progress in 
the arts of civilization as to challenge our admi- 
ration. In intellectual activity, in warlike and 
chivalric achievement, in gentle and amiable 
manners, in the refinements and amenities of life, 
they may certainly bear favorable comparison 
with the most cultured races. They present to us 
a strange mixture of excellences and defects. 
While as a nation they are conspicuously brave 
and warlike, they have devised and developed few 
formidable implements of war. They have built 
great cities, and conduct a vast system of trade; 
and yet their ships and warehouses, and public 
and private buildings, seem, by the side of ours, 
fragile and temporary. They manufacture the 
most exquisite and tasteful fabrics and wares, and 
yet the mechanical appliances of their arts are 
rudimentary. 

We are thankful to any one who will help us to 
gain some insight into the character and life of 
such an interesting people. It was a most happy 
thought of Professor Morse to make a careful 
study of the Japanese house. Nothing can aid us 
more in understanding the life of the occupant 
than to describe his dwelling-place and the imple- 
ments and furniture which he gathers into it. 
Fortunately for us, the author of this book com- 
bined in himself the faculty of the scientific ob- 
server and the skill of the artist. We may safely 
say that here, for the first time, we have intelligi- 
ble sketches of the Japanese dwelling-house, and 
intelligible explanations of the uses and arrange- 
ment of its furniture. Heretofore we have had 
chiefly photographs of exteriors and gateways 
and street scenes, or, instead of that, we have 
been treated to reproductions of native Japanese 
drawings by engravers who did not understand 
the drawings. It is the experience of every 
stranger visiting this country, that, notwithstand- 
ing all that he has tried to learn from books about 
Japan, he is as much amazed at the real Japanese 
house and surroundings as if he had never seen 
an illustration of them. Professor Morse, on the 
contrary, has gone about with eyes in his head 
and a pencil in his hand, The minuteness and 


JANUARY 8, 1886.] 


accuracy of his information surprise us at every 
page. It must be confessed that it required a good 
degree of enterprise and assurance to have secured 
some of his sketches. The Japanese are a most 
amiable and polite people; but they must have 
been amazed, and perhaps amused, at the per- 
sistency with which the artist went about peering 
behind their screens, under their mats, and into 
their closets. We, however, have no reason to 
complain; for he has seen for us far more than we 
could have seen for ourselves, and has brought to 
us such a budget of facts, and such a portfolio of 
illustrations, as we could not have gathered for 
ourselves in a lifetime. 

In any country a dwelling-house is the product 
of complicated causes. Climate, the prevalence 
of destructive agencies, the character of the mate- 
rial available, the skill of the mechanics, the 
wealth of the people, the growth of artificial 
physical wants, the development of a taste for 
the beautiful and refined in life, —all these are 
potential causes in determining the character of 
the dwelling. These causes account for most of 
the peculiarities of the Japanese house, as com- 
pared with our own. From time immemorial, 
Japan has been visited by earthquakes and 
typhoons. These will explain why the Japanese 
builds his house as.low as possible, and prefers 
wood to stone. The climate is mild, and does not 
demand the formidable provision against the cold 
with which we are familiar. This may account 
for the absence of chimneys and stoves. It puz- 
zles us, however, to understand why the Japanese, 
who has shown such cleverness in the develop- 
ment of many of the arts of civilized life, has 
made so little progress in others. In 1542 the 
Portuguese landed on the southern isiands of 
Japan, and left there, among other traces of their 
visit, a number of the matchlock guns which were 
in common use in Europe at that time. After the 
lapse of more than three hundred years, you can 
see the hunter of to-day out on the hills with a 
gun which is of the identical pattern which the 
Portuguese brought thither. The Japanese gun- 
smith has found out how to make the matchlock 
a far more ornamental weapon than it was in the 
hands of the Portuguese. He has decorated the 
stock, and inlaid the barrel with gold and silver, 
and provided it with exquisite fittings; but still 
it is the same old matchlock, without a single 
effective part changed or improved. Such absence 
of progress is surprising ; but it does not surprise 
us half so much as their marked superiority in 
other and more difficult arts. In the modelling 
and decoration of pottery ; in ornamental metal- 
work ; in weaving and embroidery ; in painting, 
carving, and enamelling; in the exquisite work- 


SCIENCE. 


43 


manship of their lacquer wares, — their achieve- 
ments put them in the very first rank. 

In all these departments of industry the Japanese 
now have an acknowledged position. It has not 
been so well known that in many of the humbler 
departments their work is scarcely less to be ad- 
mired. Professor Morse has given us, in this 
volume, sufficient evidence of the excellence of 
their carpentry and joinery, of their skill in gar- 
dening, and of their cleverness in making both 
house and garden contribute not only to the 
physical comfort, but to the intellectual pleasure 
of the occupants. We are specially indebted to 
the author for exhibiting to us so clearly the in- 
ternal arrangements of a Japanese dwelling-house, 
and the domestic routine which goes on in it, and 
the evidences of comfort and refinement which 
are everywhere seen. The beautiful products of 
their ornamental arts have become familiar to us, 
and are almost as much at home in our houses as 
in theirs. But the implements of common life 
are still strange to us; and we are thankful to Pro- 
fessor Morse, who, in this book, has given us so 
much information about them. I need only men- 
tion such illustrations as those of a carpenter’s 
tools, of a thatched roof, of the interiors of 
dwelling-houses, of a kitchen range, of their 
bath-tubs and lavatories, of their candlesticks 
and lamps, of their wells and water-buckets, of 
their gardens and garden-lamps, to show how 
varied and interesting are the contents. We are 
sure that Professor Morse’s portfolio is not yet ex- 
hausted; and it only remains for us to express the 
wish that in due time he may open for us another 
instalment of his delightful wares. 


PHYSICAL EXPRESSION. 


IN the term ‘physical expression,’ Dr. Warner 
includes all those changes of form and feature 
occurring in the body which may be interpreted 
as evidences of mental action. Such changes are 
taking place constantly, and in response to all 
kinds of mental impressions. The majority of 
them are involuntary, and, so far, trustworthy, it 
being the height of art to simulate a feeling suc- 
cessfully. At first thought, it would seem that 
facial expression is the most important of these 
outward signs of inner processes; but a little 
observation will convince one that the posture 
assumed by the body, —the poise of the head and 
the position of the hands, — as well as the many 
alternations of color and of general nutrition, are 
just as striking evidences of the course of thought. 
And such changes may be permanent as well as 


Physical expression; its modes and principles. By 
FRANCIS WARNER, M.D. (International scientific series.) 
New York, Appleton, 1885. 12°. 


44 


temporary, thus displaying the general caste of 
mind as well as the transient emotion by which 
the individual is excited. The subject thus de- 
veloped by the author becomes quite extensive, 
and is exceedingly interesting. By studying it in 
animals and infants, in whom the higher mental 
control which often modifies involuntary changes 
of expression in adults is absent, by showing its 
practical application in enabling one to read char- 
acter, and by drawing from the realms of art as 
well as nature for his illustrations, Dr. Warner 
has succeeded in bringing together an entertain- 
ing series of facts, and deducing from them some 
instructive conclusions. We all believe that we 
can detect the real feelings of others in their faces, 
and that we can successfully conceal from others 
our own thoughts. How difficult both processes 
may become, and yet how fully they repay some 
study, the readers of this very pleasing work will 
learn. 

In the last chapter the author describes an 
ingenious piece of apparatus by means of which 
the motions of the hand may be graphically 
recorded in those diseases in which irregular move- 
ments occur. He has evidently made some study 
of such affections, as the facts recorded in chapter 
vii. show. How far such a chapter may be gener- 
ally appreciated in a popular work is questionable, 
as the terms employed would be intelligible only 
to physicians. But the subject would have been 
incomplete had the changes of expression incident 
to disease not been alluded to. To those who are 
curious to go into the subject more deeply than 
is possible in a popular treatise, the bibliography on 
pp. 344-346 will be of service. The work is fully 
up to the high standard maintained in this series, 
and is by no means the least interesting of the 
volumes already published. MA, SS 


REFORMS IN ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 


THE public schools of which Mr. Cotterill writes 
are British, not American, and his starting-point is 
ahead of any thing that can be proposed as an im- 
mediate goal in other countries, — ahead, at any 
rate, in this, that English public schools already, as 
a matter of fact, are nurseries of character quite as 
rauch as institutions of learning. Mr. Cotterill’s 
suggestions are mostly in the line of character. 
Health of character is for him the end of educa- 
tion. He is down on competitive examinations of 
a severe sort, would have a test of proficiency in 
bodily exercises introduced into those of the In- 
dian civil service, believes in making out-door 
exercise compulsory on all boys three days in the 


Suggested reforms in public schools. By C, C, CoTTERILL, 
M.A. Edinburgh and London, Blackwood, 1885, 12°. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 153 


week, each boy ‘changing into his flannels’ for 
the purpose, would restrict the ‘tuck-shop’ facili- 
ties the boys now have, and disbelieves in giving 
them too much help, whether intellectual or physi- 
cal. Translations, and aid from the teacher beyond 
a certain point, are in his eyes equally bad; and 
the boys ought to prepare their own cricket- 
grounds, and take care of their own play, with 
less professional aid than they now appear to get 
in the larger schools. He believes in ‘ manual 
training’ thoroughly, for a variety of reasons, not 
least among which is that it widens sympathy 
among classes. The book is a refreshing example 
of the sort of spirit the English public schools, 
even in their present ‘unreformed’ condition, ° 
engender, and increases the reader’s desire to see 
them imitated here on a larger scale than hereto- 
fore. 


THE government of Tasmania are, according to 
Nature, making arrangements upon a large scale for 
naturalizing lobsters, crabs, turbot, brill, and other 
European fishes in the waters of that country. 
The various consignments will be shipped at Plym- 
outh, and transported through the medium of the 
steamship companies trading between London and 
Hobart. An exhaustive report has been published 
by the Government of Tasmania, setting forth the 
objects in view, and giving suggestions for carry- 
ing them into effect. The report adds, that, while 
the achievement of the acclimatization of Euro- 
pean fishes would lay the foundation of new and 
very valuable fishing industries in Tasmania, it 
might also prove a highly remunerative commer- 
cial enterprise to the shipping firms under whose 
auspices the operations will be conducted. Appli- 
cations have been made in various quarters for 
supplies of fish, which have been satisfactorily re- 
sponded to. Special tanks are being prepared, as 
well as apparatus, in order to provide for the 
necessities of the fish en route, which, it is antici- 
pated, can be transmitted with little difficulty. 
The success that has hitherto attended: the accli- 
matization of certain European fishes in New Zea- 
land has had the effect of inspiring the government 
of that colony with considerable enterprise in de- 
veloping their fisheries. They are now about to 
collect the ova of Salmonidae from English waters 
in large numbers through the instrumentality of 
the National fish-culture association and other 
bodies, with a view to rearing the fry in New 
Zealand. A shipment of eggs will also shortly be 
sent to Australia, where great success has attended 
the introduction of our fishes, except in a few 
instances, when failure resulted more from mis- 
adventure than from the impracticability of the 
attempt. 


basis, stands in the way. 


OCA. 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


LIKE ALL CITIES which have not seriously 
grappled with the subject of municipal taxation, 
Baltimore has been suffering for years from the 
inequality of assessment, escape of personalty 
from taxation, the difficulty in enforcing pay- 
ment, and the practice of many persons who do 
business in the city, of residing part of the year 
in the country, and thus withdrawing personal 
property from taxation. To remedy matters, a 
commission was appointed last summer to investi- 
gate the question ; and during the past week a 
report has been made, of more than local interest. 
No opportunity was given for radical changes, as 
the state constitution, which requires that all per- 
sonal and real property shall be taxed on a uniform 
The committee favor 
the creation of sixteen city assessors, to be ap- 
pointed without regard to politics, and with a 
tenure of sufficient length to secure expert service. 
The assessors are to constantly review both real 
and personal property, and prevent evasions. 
Property is to be assessed up to its full value, and 
the system of discounts for prompt payment of 
taxes is to be abolished. On the other hand, as 
an aid to the poorer classes, taxes may be paid 
quarterly. Professor Ely of Johns Hopkins uni- 
versity, who is one of the commission, adds a 
supplemental report, looking to a change in the 
constitution. He would abandon the attempt to 
tax all personal property, and attempt only to 
reach such classes of personal property as bank 
shares, for instance, which can be assessed with- 
out discrimination. The larger proportion of per- 
sonal property should be taxed only by indirect 
means. Real estate should be taxed at one uniform 
rate; all incomes in excess of six hundred dollars 


per annum ; so, also, all rents of dwellings, taking 
as a basis three times the annual rent of dwellings, 


in lieu of miscellaneous personal taxes ; and the 

rental value of all stores, offices, manufacturing 

establishments, and other places of business, the 

rent being fixed at ten per cent. He recommends 

a special heavy taxation on retail and wholesale 

liquor-dealers, and finally favors the plan of de- 
No. 154, —1886. 


riving all state taxation from corporations and 
licenses, thus leaving real estate for local purposes. 


TYPHOID-FEVER is a disease which has too long 
been permitted to exist without a well-directed 
effort to diminish its ravages. Although the 
specific micro-organism to which it is due is not 
so definitely ascertained as in the case of tuber- 
culosis, still there are but few who question the 
relation of cause and effect between some microbe 
and the disease. It is also conceded that this germ 
is given off in the excreta of the patient, and that 
the spread of the disease is caused by the inhala- 
tion of air containing the germ, or by the imbibi- 
tion of water, milk, or other fluid which has be- 
come contaminated with the infected dejections. 
In rural districts, where the water is derived from 
wells which are often but a few feet from the out- 
house, there is no difficulty in understanding how 
the infection might pass from the vault to the 
well, and how those who partake of the water 
might contract the disease. In large towns and 
cities, however, where the water-supply is from a 
distance, and the ground from which it is obtained 
free from such contaminating influences, the propa- 
gation of the disease must be accounted for in 
some other way. Particularly is this so, when, as 
frequently happens, the disease prevails in re- 
stricted sections, and is absent elsewhere, while 
the water consumed is the same for all sections. 
Manifestly the starting-point for an investigation 
is the infected excreta, if the accepted theory is 
the true one. If these could be followed and their 
route ascertained, more especially if the course 
pursued by the infectious element could be traced, 
the mystery would disappear, and the problem be 
solved. 

Recent observations made in Brooklyn, a report 
of which has appeared in the daily press, point 
to the sewers and the drain-pipes of the houses as 
the channels by which the disease finds its way 
from one house to another, and clearly indicates 
that the plan to be pursued, based on our knowl- 
edge of the history of the disease, is to throttle it 
at the start by thoroughly disinfecting the dis- 
charges of typhoid-fever patients before they are 
thrown into the drains or into the out-houses. 


46 


Special attention has been directed in Brooklyn, 
during the past fall, to having this measure 
efficiently carried out, supplemented by repeated 
washings of the public sewers, in the districts 
specially affected, with a solution of chloride of 
lime. Shortly after these measures were inaugu- 
rated, the disease declined; but whether this was 
in any degree attributable thereto or not, cannot 
be decided until further observations are made. 
Thus far, a preliminary report only has appeared, 
but a fuller one is promised. It is well worthy 
the attention of all heaith authorities to follow 
out this or a similar plan of action; so that, if 
possible, a disease which caused in England alone 
thirty-six thousand deaths in six years, may be 
brought under control, and its spread confined 
within narrow limits. The report also recognizes 
the connection between defective plumbing and 
the spread of the disease (for, unless there were 
defects within the house, no infection could enter, 
even though the public sewers might be infected), 
and recommends the disconnection, by means of 
running traps, of all houses from the street-sewers, 
and the provision for full and free ventilation of 
both sewers and drains. Special stress is, however, 
laid upon the disinfection of the discharges within 
the house ; for, if this is thoroughly done, neither 
the house-pipes nor the public sewers can become 
infected. 


ONE OF THE MOST CURIOUS and important facts 
regarding the use of oil at sea in stormy weather 
to calm the waves is its apparent novelty to sea- 
men. When in the last extremity, some of them 
‘happen to think of oil,’ and, on trying it, find that 
the sweeping waves no longer break over their 
decks, and that the vessel rides with comparative 
ease where it labored heavily before. This is 
much as if a captain ‘happened to think of the 
rudder’ when he wished to shape a new course. 
The hydrographic office is accomplishing an ex- 
cellent work in popularizing the practical value 
of this simple means of escaping danger. 


A NEW JOURNAL is to be issued in France under 
the title Archives de lanthropologie criminelle et 
des sciences penales, The study of criminals, from 
an anthropological and a psychological point of 
view, is due to the Italian school of which M. 
Beccaria was the founder, and which is now 
ably represented by MM. Sombroso and Ferri. 
The French interest in this subject is borrowed 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 154 


from Italy, and undoubtedly the French journal 
will aid in disseminating this interesting as well 
as scientific method of studying these defective 
classes. | 


THE U.S. S. RusH sailed, Jan. 2, for the Aleu- 
tian Islands, in the hope of rescuing the crew of 
the missing whaler Amethyst, which it is thought 
might be there and in need of assistance. The 
winter climate of the Aleutians, though stormy, 
is rarely very cold, and the harbors are open all 
the year round. Most of the islands are unin- 
habited, and, from the absence of large animals, 
afford little food for a wrecked party, if cast 
ashore there. The visit of the Rush may save 
life, and prevent much suffering. The winter 
ice-line generally includes the Seal Islands, and 
it is likely that the Rush will not be pushed 
beyond the Aleutians, unless the weather be un- 
usually favorable. 


THE CITY OF MExico, for a number of months 
past, has been afflicted with a scourge of mosqui- 
toes. These insects, have prevailed to such an 
extent that they have been a constant theme of 
discussion, and have, in a number of instances, 
caused sickness, and, it is said, even death, by 
their poisonous bites. Official bulletins have been 
issued by the director of statistics, Dr. Pefiafiel, 
seeking information as to their habits, natural 
history, etc. Singularly, the species, which is a 
large one, has not been known, or at least has not 
attracted attention before the past year; and 
fears are entertained that the pest is of recent 
introduction. The varying abundance of differ- 
ent kinds of insects during different years renders 
such a view improbable ; yet it is significant that 
the present species is new to science, never having 
been described by entomologists. 


IN CONNECTION WITH the article on the Russian 
railroads in central Asia, given on another page, 
it is interesting to note the following Berlin de- 
spatch to the London Times: ‘A government cir- 
cular has been sent to all the newspapers, forbid- 
ding them to publish reports about the construction 
of military railways, the movement of troops, and _ 
other kindred matters, statements on such subjects — 
being the exclusive privilege of the official organ 
of the war minister.” A 


THAT THE PRACTICE of cremation is extending 
is to be inferred from the numerous references / 


JANUARY 15, 1886.] 


which are made to new crematories by the daily 
press of this country and Europe. In France a 
very important advance has been made, as the 
prefecture of the Seine has decided to spend 
$40,000 for a crematorium in the great Parisian 
cemetery, Pére Lachaise. Dr. G. Pini has recently 
published a book on ‘La cremation en Italie a 
létranger de 1774 jusqu’a nos jours,’ which shows 
that in Italy but little progress had been made 
until the cremation of the body of Albert Keller 
on the 22d of January, 1876, about which time a 
society of three hundred was organized at Milan, 
which published a circular giving urgent reasons 
for the practice. Thirty-one societies existed at 
the date of publication of Dr. Pini’s work, in the 
principal cities of Italy, and 394 bodies had been 
submitted to disposal by fire in the crematories 
erected by those societies, mainly in Milan, Lodi, 
Brescia, and Rome. More than three-fourths of 
this number were cremated at Milan. The chief 
point worthy of comment in the present law rela- 
tive to the Society of Milan, is its method of deal- 
ing with the only valid objection which has ever 
been urged against cremation ; namely, the possi- 
ble concealment of crime. ‘The clause in question 
reads as follows: ‘If the cause of death is ‘in- 
certaine, suspecte, imprévue, ou violente,’ the cre- 
mation of the body must be preceded by an 
autopsy.” In this country a pamphlet has re- 
cently been published by the Worcester, Mass., 
cremation society, written by Dr. Marble. His 
argument might fitly be named, as he states, ‘The 
dangers of earth-burial.’ He cites many instances 
to prove that the graveyard is an objectionable 
institution for sanitary reasons. Chief among the 
resulting evils he places the pollution of water- 
supplies. A Massachusetts act was passed in 
1885, authorizing the formation of societies for 
cremating the dead, and contains a provision for 
the prevention of the concealment of crime simi- 
lar to that in force in Milan. 


‘RAILROAD TO MERV, BOKHARA, AND 
SAMARKAND. 


WHILE the attention of the world has been en- 
gaged upon the Servian-Bulgarian disputes, the 
Russian engineers have been pushing on the Trans- 
Caspian railroad, and transforming this mysterious 
Asia into a Russian province. This road, one of 
the wonders of our age, which commences at the 
Caspian Sea, is already opened three hundred and 
eighty kilometres, to within eighty kilometres of 


SCIENCE. 


AT 


Askabad, and was to be opened to that place in 
December, 1885. 

The grading of the road is finished to Dushak, 
one hundred and fifty kilometres south-east of 
Askabad. At this point the road will branch. The 
Indian branch will be built to Saraks, about two 
hundred kilometres, where it will connect with 
the English road from Quetta, through Afghanistan, 
making the great road to India. The other branch 
will run north-east into central Asia, crossing the 
Amu Daria, and running through Bokhara to 
Samarkand. 

This line has been commenced, but it will take at 
least three years to complete it. It passes through 
Merv, and will be finished to that place next spring. 
From the Caspian Sea to Merv is about six hun- 
dred kilometres, and thence to the river Amu 
Daria is about five hundred kilometres. 

The road to Dushak crosses a small portion of 
the Great Desert from the Caspian Sea, about 
one hundred kilometres,’ to the great range of 
mountains that separate Persia from Turkestan, 
thence along the foot of this range of mountains, 
through a tolerably well-watered region, to Du- 
shak. Here it crosses the steppes of the Great 
Desert, towards those broad plains whence Attila, 
Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane led forth their 
armies to overrun Europe. 

Allthe materials for the railroad, even the wood 
for its construction, come from the interior of 
Russia. Some of the workmen come from beyond 
Smolensk in Russia, near the borders of Poland ; 
others are the war-like Tekkes and Turkomans, of 
whom nearly eight thousand have been employed 
upon the road ; while more are seeking employ- 
ment than are required. 

The horses are purchased in the steppes of 
Kirghiz, one thousand kilometres east from Merv, 
while their drivers are the Cossacks from the 
district of the Don, two thousand kilometres 
west. 

Water, which is wanting almost everywhere in 
these vast steppes, is collected in the oases. It is 
frequently muddy and sometimes salt, and is then 
purified by powerful filters, and pumped through 
pipes, which furnish it to the laborers, thirty kilo- 
metres distant. Coal and wood for fuel are 
wanting; but petroleum has been discovered in 
almost unlimited quantities, and is used for loco- 
motives and steamers. 

The Russian colony lives in ambulant villages, 
moving along as the work progresses, carrying 
with it the commissariat, stores, and offices, and 
a collection of such articles as may be required 
for the work or the workmen. The telegraph 
precedes the railroad; and already Merv, Samar- 
kand, and Bokhara are connected by wires with 


48 SCIENCE. 


St. Petersburg, and thus civilization is carried to 
the oldest of the Aryan tribes. 

The Russian merchants are opening warehouses 
along the line of the railroad, and supplying the 
inhabitants of the desert on the north, to Khiva, 
Bokhara, and Samarkand, and the Persians to the 
south. They have established entrepédts at Merv 
and Pendjeh, which are already supplying the 
inhabitants of Herat with Russian manufactures 
and stores. 

In America the locomotive carried with it the 
emigrants who inhabited and cultivated the land. 
In Asia the locomotive is retracing the paths 
which the human race trod in its early days, and 
carries with it all the wonders that the race has 
gathered up in its long journeyings. This desert 
was once the garden of the world ; but first wars, 
and then constant incursions of the Turkomans, 
have devastated it. The character of the Turko- 
mans we learn from Vambeéry, who says in one of 
his books that they ‘‘ have the well-deserved repu- 
tation of sparing nobody, and would even sell the 
prophet himself into slavery if he should fall into 
their hands ;” and in another that they have a prov- 
erb which says, ‘‘ If you see a party attacking the 
house of your father and mother, join them in 
the plunder and robbery.” Now brigandage and 
slavery have been to a large degree suppressed, 
and under the Russian rule the old irrigating 
canals will be re-opened, and this great desert, 
rich when watered, will be as densely populated 
as in the early ages. Thus the railroad will 
become the civilizer of the old world, as it has 
been of the new. GARDINER G. HUBBARD. 


GHOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 


Late news from Alaska. — A weekly news- 
paper, the Alaskan, has been started at Sitka. It 
is a neat quarto, and intended to gather informa- 
tion about the territory, and promote its develop- 
ment. It is the fourth newspaper which has 
actually been printed in Alaska, though several 
periodicals treating of Alaskan matters have been 
issued at San Francisco in past years. The Alaska 
times, a large quarto, edited by T. G. Murphy, 
appeared in May, 1868, and existed about two years 
during the military occupation. Some of the 
numbers were printed on brown paper for want 
of other material. This was followed in 1875 by 
a little folio sheet printed on the press of the 
single military company then left at Sitka, and 
named the Alaska bulletin. About seven fort- 
nightly numbers appeared; and in October, 1876, 
a similar issue, under the name of the Sitka post, 
was begun, and terminated with its fourteenth 
number, on the final removal of the troops from 


[Vou. VIL., No. 154 


Sitka. The present publication is of a more 
serious character than its predecessors, and the 
seven numbers which have reached us contain 
many items of interest which might otherwise 
have been lost. A weekly summary of the 
meteorology is furnished by the local signal officer. 
On the 12th of December, the editor notes that 
the temperature was stationary at 45° F., and he 
received a cabbage, cut that week in one of the 
local gardens, untouched by frost, and of which 
the solid head measured about fifteen inches in 
diameter. A canoe express took the weekly issue 
from Sitka to Juneau in three days, the distance 
being about 180 miles. A new town, to be called 
Edwardsville, was going up near the mines on 
Douglas Island. The Treadwell mine, though 
somewhat hampered by a scarcity of water, turned 
out $75,000 in bullion in the last month, and the 
owners were enlarging its facilities. The Silver 
Bay mines near Sitka had been taken in hand by 
a company of capitalists. The oil-works at Killis- 
noo were running to their utmost capacity, and 
sent down by the last steamer 300 tons of herring- 
oil. M. E. Hess, writing from Fort Reliance, 
says that the natives. make portages from that 
place to the Tananah River in eight days. From 
the head of the latter to the Copper River they go 
in from four to seven days. The Tananah heads 
so near the White River that the Tenan Kutchin 
Indians cross with their furs, and build a raft, on 
which they descend the White River to the Yukon, 
and the latter to Fort Reliance, where they trade, 
thus drifting about four times the direct distance 
from their homes to the fort. Mr. Hess had con- 
cluded to winter on the White River. He reports 
gold in placers and in quartz in several places, and 
also what he supposes to be nickel ore. The pro- 
spectors on the Lewis River made from $200 to 
$500 per man on the bars of that river during the 
short summer. They report the climate as re- 
sembling that of Montana. 

The Sakeis of Malay peninsula. — The last 
annual report of the British resident at Selangore, 
Malay peninsula, contains some notes on the curi- 
ous tribe called Sakeis, of whom there are about 
eight hundred persons. They are divided into 
nine sections, whose chiefs are called Batins. 
They live chiefly by collecting rubber and other 
products of the jungle. They have no ‘formal 
religion, but are very superstitious, believe in 
eood and bad auguries, consider certain birds 
sacred, and abandon any settlement where one of © 
them dies. They tattoo the arms by way of orna- 
ment, but the tattooing has no tribal or totemic 
significance. Nothing capable of being eaten 
comes amiss to them: even scorpions and snakes 
are acceptable. They kill game by darts, poisoned 


JANUARY 15, 1886.] 


with the juice of the upas-tree, projected from a 
hollow cane, and, for very large game, use a bam- 
boo bow and arrows. They live in bamboo huts 
about eight feet high, thatched with palm-leaves. 
They are ugly and timid, but inoffensive. They 
wear the hair flowing, instead of tied up as the 
Malays do, and are shorter than the latter, but 
resemble them in other physical characters. They 
are gradually becoming accustomed to Europeans; 
and one or two Malays are attached to each com- 
munity, on the part of the government, to protect 
the people from injury or imposition. 

The Malpais in Michoacan, Mexico. — Carlos 
Naulleau has visited the Malpais in Michoacan, 
Mexico, and from his account we extract the fol- 
lowing notes of interest: The Malpais is situated 
four leagues from Panindicuaro, and is a region 
four leagues long and two wide, covered with 
fantastic emissions of a now extinct volcano. The 
pinnacles and blocks resemble a ruined city, and 
are so rough and angular that one would need 
steel armor to make one’s way among them un- 
wounded. There are many caverns, natural pits, 
and shafts to be avoided. The scene is extraor- 
dinary : the twisted and sombre rocks are desti- 
tute of the smallest sign of vegetation. It is said 
that in this retreat the ancient Indians fortified 
themselves against Cortes and his followers. The 
place is a natural citadel, within which, it is 
asserted, the aborigines built themselves a town 
surrounded by a triple wall with only one entrance. 
One legend states that thousands found a refuge 
here, and that the place was twice visited by a 
pestilence, the second time only sixty persons 
escaping to Zacapu. There, in the library of the 
Franciscan fathers, the Rev. Fermin Martinez, 
who has given the subject much study, has found 
some records relating to the fugitives. Among 
the higher parts of the confused masses of lava 
are several structures formed like teocallis, sur- 
rounded with a narrow stairway, and connected 
with each other by paths made of blocks of lava. 
There are also several ruined houses in different 
places. The most remarkable teocalli measures at 
the base thirty-five by twelve varas, and is fifteen 
varas high. It has been excavated for antiquities. 
At a depth of three or four varas were found sev- 
eral small cells built of adobe, each containing a 
skeleton with a small jar of pottery, many arrow- 
heads, and a few knives made of obsidian. The 
investigations were interrupted by banditti, who 
doubtless supposed that treasures of gold or jewels 
were being secured by the diggers. 

Return of Aubry. — Aubry, who for two years 
and a half has been travelling in Shoa, Galla- and 
Somali-land, on a mission from the Ministry of 
public instruction, has safely returned to Paris. 


SCIENCE. 49 


His companion, Dr. Hamon, succumbed to fever 
on the eve of his return, and died by the Hawash 
River, between the Abyssinian mountains and the 
Gulf of Aden. Aubry was obliged to fight to 
escape the Somalis. In the confusion his collec- 
tions of zodlogy and botany were lost ; the min- 
eralogical and geological collections, however, 
were saved, as well as all his note-books, maps, 
etc. The results of his work will soon be made 
public. 


ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 


Comet 1885 V (Brooks). — We learn from Mr. 
Barnard of the Vanderbilt observatory, Nashville, 
Tenn., that he found this comet independently on 
the evening of Dec. 27, 1885, and telegraphed im- 
mediately to Swift his discovery, receiving in 
reply the announcement that he had been antici- 
pated one day by Brooks. Mr. Barnard had re- 
signed on the 30th of August, 1885, the zone 
(+ 15° to — 45°) originally allotted to him, and 
carefully watched since 1882: and it was only in 
casually devoting a few hours to the field in which 
he has been so successful that he picked up the 
new comet. An orbit computed by Chandler and 
Wendell shows that the comet is decreasing in 
brightness, having passed perihelion on Nov. 29, 
1885. 

The Lick observatory. — Professor Holden has 
written an interesting article for the Overland 
monthly, sketching the history of the observatory 
to the time of his taking charge. In regard to the 
immediate inception of astronomical work, he 
says, “It is of the first importance to find some 
means of paying the salaries of one or two ob- 
servers for the years 1886 and 1887, in order 
that the magnificent equipment may be at 
once put to its legitimate uses. No great sum 
is required, but a few thousand dollars at this 
time would be of real service.” It is stated that 
the first volume of publications of the ‘Lick ob- 
servatory of the University of California’ is now 
in course of preparation, under the direction of 
the Lick trustees, by Capt. Richard 8. Floyd and 
Professor Holden. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


We take the following from Governor Robin- 
son’s message to the Massachusetts legislature : 
‘«‘ Although no legislation seems to be needed upon 
this subject [topographical survey], it will not be 
inappropriate to emphasize the importance of the 
work, and to commend its successful prosecution 
under the direction of the state commissioners, 
acting in co-operation with the U. S. geologi- 
cal survey. During the year 1885 about two 


50 SCIENCE. 


thousand five hundred square miles, nearly one- 
third of the area of the state, have been covered. 
The cost of the field-work will very nearly cor- 
respond with the original estimate of ten dollars 
per square mile. Of the $15,000 appropriated 
last year, the sum of $12,750, or about $5.14 per 
square mile, has been expended. The United 
States has also made an outlay, by the coast and 
geodetic survey, in behalf of the commonwealth. 
of nearly $1,500 in the triangulation of the valley 
of the Connecticut River. This sum has been 
supplemented by $470.47 out of the state appro- 
priation, in the determination of the boundary- 
lines of cities and towns, for which the triangu- 
lation is the basis. The city and town boundary 
survey has been commenced in the counties of 
Suffolk, Norfolk, Plymouth, and Bristol; and it is 
expected that the work will be continued, and 
extended into other counties, during the current 
year, with all practicable despatch. I commend 
to your favorable consideration the reasonable 
requirements of the commission, in order that you 
may provide the means to meet the necessary 
outlay.” 


— The long voyage of the derelict schooner 
‘Twenty-one friends,’ as reported on the latest 
‘Pilot chart,’ now extends from March 24, off 
Hatteras, to Dec. 4, when it was entering the Bay 
of Biscay, twenty-three observations having been 
made on it during the drifting passage. 


— The American (Philadelphia) of Jan. 2 con- 
tains a readable article of a page on ‘ The New 
Jersey shore,’ describing briefly its mild climatic 
features, which make it valuable as a winter 
sanitarium as well as a summer resort. Some 
account is given of the different types of beach 
which make up the coast there, and of the 
island near Cape May known as Five-mile beach. 
Here a neglected herd of cattle ran wild several 
years, and survived the winters, unprotected and 
unfed, except in the coppice and holly groves: the 
latter are remarkably fine on this island. The 
‘ bays of Barnegat and Little Egg harbor are de- 
scribed as sunken meadows traversed by a net- 
work of submerged channels, and enclosed from 
the sea by long strips of sand beach and dunes. 


— The prizes awarded at the annual meeting of 
the French academy, on the 21st of December, were 
as follows. Geometry : for general studies on the 
problems of excavation and embankment, divided 
between Mr. Appell and Mr. Otto Ohnesorge ; to 
Mr. Emile Barbier the Francoeur prize. Mechanics : 
the grand prize of six thousand francs, for the 
progress of efficiency in naval forces, was divided 
among Messrs. Hélie and Hugoniot, for their 
treatise on experimental ballistics; Mr. Ph. Hatt, 


[Vou. VIL, No. 154 


for his ‘Suggestions on marine phenomena ;’ Mr. 
Lucy, for his geographical index ; and Mr. Doneaud 
du Plan, for various works. Other prizes were 
given to Mr. Henri Poincaré, for his mathematical 
works; Mr. Amsler-Laffon, for his construction 
of the instrument called the ‘ polar planimeter ;’ 
Mr. Bienaymé, for a work on the steam-engine ; 
Mr. Daymard, for researches on the calculation 
and graphical representation of ships; Mr. Felix 
Lucas; and to Mr. Jean-Daniel Colladon, the 
Fourneyron prize, increased to the value of three 
thousand francs, for his ‘ Theoretical and practical 
study of hydraulic accumulators, and their appli- 
cations.’ Astronomy: to Mr. Thollon, for his 
chart of the solar spectrum ; and to Dr. Spoerer, 
for his work on sun-spots. Physics: the Bordon 
prize, for researches on the origin of atmospheric 
electricity, to Mr. Edlund ; and the Lacaze prize — 
to Mr. Gernez, for various studies in chemical 
physics. Statistics : the Montyon prize was divided 
equaily between Dr. P. de Pietra-Santa, for his 
‘Contributions to the study of typhoid-fever in 
Paris ;’ and Mr. O. Keller, for his statistics of 
mineral industry, etc. Chemistry : to Mr. Prunier, 
for his researches on the carburets of the American 
petroleums, etc. ; and Messrs. R. D. Silva, G. Rous- 
seau, and Prof. A. Ditte, for various researches. 
Geology : to Mr. de Lapparent, for his memoir on 
the country of Bray; and Mr. Alfred Caraven- 
Cachin, for his ‘Geographical and geological sketch 
of the department of the Tarn.’ Botany: to 
Messrs. Dubois, Heckel, and Schlagdenhauffen, 
for various researches ; to Leclere du Sablon, for 
his researches on the hepaticae; and to Mr. Pa- 
touillard, for his work on fungi. Anatomy and 
zoology: the grand prize to Dr. Joannés Chatin, 
for his unpublished work entitled ‘ Researches on 
the tactile organs of insects and crustaceans ;’ and 
to Mr. Paul Girod, for his studies on the cephalo- 
pods. Physiology : to Mr. Duclaux and Mr. Remy, 
—the latter for his nerve studies. Medicine and 
surgery : to Dr. L. H. Farabeuf, for a treatise on 
manual operations ; Dr. Augustin Charpentier, for 
memoirs on the function of the retina; J. Reg- 
nauld and E. Villejean, for researches on the 
anaesthetic properties of formines, and their 
chloric derivatives ; to Dr. E. Gavoy, for invention 
of the instrument named ‘ cerebrotome ;’ to Mr. P. 
Redard, for his works on military transportation 
of the sick, and medical thermometry; to Dr. 
Paul Topinard, for his anthropological works ; to 
Dr. Mahé, for memoirs on the cholera; to Drs. 
L. Bouveret, Gabriel Pouchet, Emile Riviére, and 
A. Villiers, for various cholera studies; to Dr. 
Ernest Desnos, for ‘Studies of a particular cause 
of urinary retention ;’ to Dr. Grasset, for a ‘ Prac- 
tical treatise on the diseases of the nervous system.’ 


JANUARY 15, 1886.] 


Other prizes were awarded to Mr. Ch. Girard, for 
various physical and chemical works; Mr. Van 
Beneden, for researches on the development of the 
lower animals; Mr. Bourbouze (photography) ; 
Mr. Sidot (chemistry); Mr. Valson; Mr. G. H. 
Halphen (mathematics); and Mr. Sappey, for his 
work entitled ‘ Anatomy, physiology, and pathol- 
ogy of the lymphatic vessels, considered in man 
and other vertebrates.’ 


— Letters had been received at Vienna, Dec. 29, 
from Professor Lenz, of the Austro-Hungarian 
Kongo expedition, dated Ango-Ango, Oct. 31. 
He announces his departure for Stanley Pool, his 
assistant, Dr. Baumann, having succeeded in ob- 
taining at Nyombi 80 natives as porters. It is 
difficult to secure these auxiliaries. The French 
missionaries, who are also travelling up the Kongo, 
meet with even greater difficulties, their porters 
having run away. A similar misfortune has hap- 
pened to the German expedition under Lieuten- 
ants Knuth and Tappenbeck. The health of the 
members of the Austro-Hungarian expedition is 
satisfactory, although the transition from the dry 
to the rainy season is very dangerous to HKuro- 
peans. 


— Why Labberton’s ‘ Historical atlas’ (New 
York, Townsend, MacCoun) should have reached 
an ‘ eighth edition,’ is one of the mysteries of book- 
publishing in this country. The maps, many of 
them, are of the rudest description. In fact, so 
bad is the workmanship, that in some cases 
important cities are laid down miles away from 
their actual sites. Nor is the selection much 
better. There are sixteen maps of Britain, no 
less than twelve of which relate to a period an- 
terior to the reign of King Aelfrid. The last of 
the set is a map showing the Norman conquest. 
Of England since 1071, nothing is given except 
a few miserable maps in the corners of the maps 
of Europe. The Puritan revolution is utterly 
ignored. The ‘explanatory text,’ so loudly an- 
nounced on the titlepage, adds little to the worth 
of the book, while ‘the carefully selected’ bibliog- 
raphy can appear of value to those only who are 
ignorant of the literature of the subject. The 
maps showing the growth of our own country 
are based on such an inadequate knowledge of our 
history that they are little more than a mass of 
error. In fine, although the plan of the atlas is 
good, the selection and workmanship are so poor, 
that we lay it down as one of the most unsatis- 
factory books of the past year. Much better in 
_ very respect is the ‘ Standard classic atlas,’ bear- 
ing the following imprint : “ Copyright, 1885, by 
. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., publishers, New 
York and Chicago.” The maps are well drawn, 


SCIENCE. 51 


and admirably chosen. In fact, we were just 
beginning to congratulate ourselves on the ad- 
vance which American map-makers had made 
during the last few years, when suddenly our 
attention was drawn to the following words, 
attached to map 18: ‘‘Engraved by Becker’s 
patent on steel, Stationer’s Court, London.” So, 
after all, this is an English book which in some 
way or other these publishers have copyrighted. 
If such actions are legal, what need have we for 
an international copyright law? As to the book 
itself, it is a good one, and contains besides the 
maps a very useful alphabetical index, giving the 
position of about ten thousand places, with their 
ancient and modern names. 


— To judge from the statements made in the 
introduction to a treatise on ‘A system of iron 
railroad-bridges for Japan,’ by J. A. L. Waddell, 
published by the University of Tokio, many of the 
iron bridges erected by foreign contractors, and 
now in use in Japan, are of inferior construction. 
Professor Waddell, who occupies the chair of civil 
engineering at the University of Tokio, has here 
aimed to make clear to Japanese engineers the 
method of designing the class of structures men- 
tioned, and he has covered the ground in an 
extremely satisfactory manner, and with much 
minuteness of detail. The book must prove a 
great benefit to Japan by securing improved con- 
struction, and there is much in it that will be 
serviceable and suggestive to American engineers, 
even if they should not agree entirely with him 
in the discussion ; for his devices and methods 
are not always those which are commonly em- 
ployed in the United States. He analyzes in all 
its parts the American type of bridge as adapted 
to the conditions of the Japanese narrow-gauge 
railroads. He gives tables and strain-sheets, the 
préparation of which must. have required a vast 
amount of labor, and which by themselves make 
a large atlas. Some portions of the memoir have 
appeared in this country as papers submitted to 
different technical societies. It is a most agree- 
able surprise to find that the University of Tokio 
endeavors to extend its usefulness by publishing 
treatises of so eminently practical a character. 


WASHINGTON LETTER. 

SCIENCE and the scientific have in some degree 
indulged in that suspension of activity which is 
the recognized privilege of the more serious occu- 
pations during the holiday season. Some of the 
societies have suspended their meetings for a period 
of two or three weeks. When they are resumed, 
the season’s work will begin in earnest, as it is said 
that papers of considerable importance, growing 
out of the field-work of last summer, are nearly 


52 


ready for public presentation. The president of the 
National academy has spent a part of the vacation 
time in the city, largely on business connected 
with the affairs of the academy. The visit is 
timely, as it doubtless has enabled Professor Marsh, 
on various occasions, to express his views, and to 
some extent the views of the academy, on several 
questions of primary interest and importance to 
science and scientific men, which are just now 
coming before the national legislature. 

Of these, one of the earliest to be brought for- 
ward is the proposition to establish a national 
university in accordance with the provisions of a 
bill introduced by Mr. Ingalls in the senate at its 
first session after the holidays. The idea of such 
an establishment is as old as the government itself, 
and it is said to have been recommended by every 
president from George Washington down, with 
the possible exception of Lincoln, whose time was 
so occupied with matters of greater moment and 
more immediate importance as to preclude its con- 
sideration. The bill was ordered printed and to 
lie on the table. It is said that senator Ingalls in- 
tends to make an argument in its favor in the near 
future. The measure will unquestionably have 
warm friends and strong opponents. 

A leading member of the senate recently re- 
marked that experience had convinced him that 
an appropriation of fifteen hundred dollars was 
sufficient to start a national university, and cited 
in proof that some of the scientific branches of 
the government now expending nearly a million 
dollars annually, were inaugurated with appropria- 
tions of one or two thousand dollars. 

The subject of an international copyright law 
is likely to receive attention from congress at an 
early date. It was before the senate judiciary 
committee in the last congress, but in the early 
part of the present session it was referred to the 
committee on patents. It is said to be the inten- 
tion of this committee to give the subject a 
thorough consideration, and that prominent ex- 
ponents of both sides have been invited to express 
their views and arguments. The list includes 
many prominent American authors. 

An experiment in the direction of securing com- 
munication between vessels at sea by means of 
electricity will be made at some time during the 
present week in the Chesapeake Bay. A board 
of naval officers, consisting of Commander Hoff 
and Lieutenants Reeder and Meigs, has been de- 
tailed to witness the trial. They will be accom- 
panied by Prof. A. Graham Bell, who has long 
been interested in the subject, and who has him- 
self experimented upon it. 

The improvement of signalling by methods 
other than electric has for some time been under 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 154 


consideration, both in the army and the navy. A 
committee has been selected, consisting of General 
Hazen of the army, and Commander Hoff and 
Lieutenant Reeder of the navy, to report upon a 
more desirable code of signals for the service of 
the United States. It has been agreed to instruct 
a certain number of men in each of the codes 
used by the different governments of the world, 
and by a sort of competitive examination to deter- 
mine which is the best. Improvements are also 
being made in heliographic signalling. Experi- 
ments at long range with various forms of 
apparatus are about to be undertaken under the 
direction of Lieutenant Purssell, in charge of the 
division of military signalling of the signal corps. 

Although this system of signalling has come 
into almost universal use, there does not seem to 
have been any very decided advance in methods 
since the successful experiments of Moses G. Far- 
mer in 1861. The signals are made by long and 
short exposures of light, to which system the dot 
and dash alphabet of Morse is easily applicable. 
At long distances, however, and under unfavora- 
ble atmospheric conditions, it becomes difficult to 
distinguish the long from the short, and a limit 
to the rapidity of transmission is soon reached. 
Lieutenant Finley of the signal corps has recently 
constructed a heliograph in which two mirrors, 
or two sources of light, are used, separated far 
enough to be readily distinguished by the reader 
of the message. The display of one of these only, 
means a dot, while the exposure of both at the 
same instant means a dash. This method prom- 
ises to increase both the certainty and rapidity 
with which the message can be read ; but its great 
advantage is that a vastly less amount of skill 
and training will be required in its working, on 
account of the nearly complete elimination of the 
comparison of time intervals. 

In spite of the many attractions which Wash- 
ington offers to the scientific worker, it now and 
then happens that the resultant of all the forces 
is in an opposite direction. There is more or less 
that is disagreeable incident to all government 
work, and unfortunately there is a more or less 
uncertain tenure of office, so that occasionally a 
college corporation carries off a man whose ser- 
vices the government ought not to lose. A recent 
example is that of Professor Gooch of the geologi- 
cal survey, who will leave his post here to become 
professor of chemistry in Yale college. 


One or two other attempts of a similar character 
have been made within a few months; but the _ 


facilities for original research in certain direc- 


tions, which are offered here, have prevented — 


their being successful. Z. 
Washington, D.C., Jan. 11, 


a 


SS 


JANUARY 15, 1886.]| 


LONDON LETTER. 


THE application to the treasury, on behalf of 
the Marine biological association, to which refer- 
ence was made in a former letter, has been very 
successful. An intimation has been received by 
the council that their lordships propose to submit 
to the house of commons an estimate which will 
grant to the association the sum of five thousand 
pounds, to be paid. in two annual instalments, 
together with a yearly subscription of five hun- 
dred pounds for five years afterwards. This is as 
it should be, and the conditions imposed are prac- 
tically nominal, as they entirely coincide with 
the intentions of the council. The accounts are 
to be formally audited, and afterward published : 
assistance is to be given to the solution of the 
economic questions connected with the British 
fisheries; and accommodation is to be afforded 
to investigators who may desire to work out 
definite problems of marine zodlogy. A resident 
superintendent has been found in the person of 
Mr. Walter Heape, who will enter upon his duties 
with the new year, and in preparation for them 
has already visited the chief American institutions 
of the same kind. He is well known as an em- 
bryologist, and has recently received the honorary 
degree of M. A. from the University of Cambridge, 
for his services as demonstrator of animal mor- 
phology. Having been brought up to a business life 
which promised to be one of considerable success, 
he deliberately relinquished it in order to devote 
himself to scientific pursuits ; and in 1879 he was 
attracted to Cambridge by the high reputation of 
Mr. F. M: Balfour, who died three years later. But 
the impulse which Balfour had given to the study 
of morphology in the university was well sus- 
tained by his senior pupils, Sedgwick. Welldon, 
and Heape ; the latter of whom will now have the 
opportunity, in the new laboratory at Plymouth, 
of doing very much to advance his favorite 
sciences of morphology and embryology. 

A very interesting exhibition of the appliances 
used in geographical education has been recently 
opened under the supervision of the Royal geo- 
graphical society. About eighteen months ago, 
Mr. J. S. Keltie (sub-editor of Nature) was ap- 
pointed by the council of the society as an inspect- 
or of geographical education for the purpose of 
obtaining information respecting its position and 
methods by personal investigation, both in the 
United Kingdom and on the continent of Europe, 
and by correspondence as regards America. He 
has published an elaborate report, which has been 
recently issued as one of the society’s supplemen- 
tary papers; and the collection which he made 
of the various appliances used in geographical 


SCIENCE. ~~ | 53 


education is now on view. The exhibits are 
classed as follows: 1. Wall-maps; 2. Globes; 3. 
Telluria, planetaria, etc.; 4. Models and relief- 
maps; 5. Geographical pictures; 6. Atlases; 7. 
Text-books ; 8. Miscellaneous. The collection is 
one of great interest, though, as Mr. Keltie says, 
‘‘it contains specimens of all gradations of qual- 
ity. In all classes will be found objects which 
may be taken as examples of ‘ how not to do it.’” 
It is hoped that many schoolmasters may be 
induced to visit the exhibition during the Christ- 
mas holidays, and a series of conferences on the 
subject of geographical education has been ar- 
ranged. Many eminent men at both the older 
universities are desirous of seeing geography 
formally introduced as a branch of scientific 
study. The appointment of a university teacher 
in the subject was suggested at Cambridge some 
time ago. and it is rumored that a similar step 
will soon be actually taken at Oxford. Should 
this prove to be the case, there can be no doubt 
that it would have a powerful influence in im- 
proving the position of geography in the public 
schools. where it receives, as a rule, from one to 
two hours weekly of more or less perfunctory 
teaching at the hands of men who have no special 
interest in their work, even if they are not abso- 
lutely opposed to it from its taking up time which 
they would like to see devoted to classics. At 
King’s college, London, Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., 
is professor of geography. 

The fact of the comparatively slow adoption of 
the electric light in England has already been 
mentioned in these letters, although the reasons 
thereof may not have been. The chief reason is to 
be found in the restrictions upon the development 
of the industry laid down by the electric lighting 
act of 1882. Until these are relaxed, no com- 
mercial company can light a district with any 
chance of financial success, owing mainly to what 
are known as the ‘ compulsory purchase clauses.’ 
Within the last few days an official programme 
of legislation for next session has been put for- 
ward, and among the measures there named is 
a new electric lighting bill. The political pros- 
pect, however, is so disturbed, that the chances 
of any such domestic. measure becoming law this 
session are very small. 

In connection with this subject, it may be 
mentioned that there are well-founded rumors 
of a new form of battery, suitable for electric 
lighting, to which the inventors give the name 
‘primary’ battery, but which is really a modi- 
fication of the ordinary ‘secondary’ battery, for 
which it is claimed that its yield in ampére hours, 
per pound of lead, far exceeds any thing yet 
accomplished. Cells prepared in England have 


D4 


been subjected to very severe tests in Paris by 
M. Hospitalier and other well-known electricians. 

The ‘ juvenile lectures’ at the Royal institution, 
first rendered popular by Faraday in his ‘ Chem- 
istry of a candle,’ are this year being given by 
Professor Dewar, who has chosen ‘ The story of a 
meteorite’ as his subject. 

The Corporation of Liverpool has just issued the 
programme of its twenty-first winter course of 
lectures, to be given in the rotunda lecture-hall 
of the Free public library. These lectures are 
paid for by the corporation, and admission thereto 
is absolutely free. The hall holds about six- 
teen hundred, and is usually well filled by the 
‘great unwashed’ of Liverpool, on Monday, Tues- 
day, Wednesday, and Thursday of each week 
from Jan. 4 to March 11. The first lecture is 
by Mr. Wiiliam Lant Carpenter, on ‘ Temperature 
and life in the depths of the sea.’ Prof. Oliver 
Lodge, whose lecture on ‘Dust’ in Montreal will 
be remembered, and several of his colleagues in 
University college, Liverpool, as well as some of 
the professors in Stonyhurst college, are among 
the lecturers. It is greatly to be wished that other 
towns, on both sides of the Atlantic, would 
follow the example thus set. W. 

London, Dec. 23. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


+*, Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 


writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Eskimo building-snow. 


I ENCLOSE a photograph, kindly sent me by General 
Loring, of the Boston Museum of fine arts, of snow 
impacted on a telegraph-pole, by a strong gale, near 
the summit of Mount Washington. It furnishes a 
good example, near home, of the texture of snow, 
under the influence of a fierce wind and intense cold, 
and will make clear some remarks I have previously 
made in your journal regarding the use of snow 
by the Eskimo among whom I travelled. In my 
description of the igloo (snow-house) of the Innuit 
in Science during the summer of 1883, I mentioned 
that the first snows that fall are not used by the 
Eskimo of my acquaintance to build snow-houses, 
the preliminary igloos being of ice for three or four 
weeks, until the deep drifts of snow had been sub- 
jected to very low temperatures and the ‘ packing’ 
influences of strong winds. The winter weather of 
the summit of Mount Washington is in most respects 
essentially arctic. 

In the accompanying illustration we see readily the 
peculiar texture or strong ‘ binding’ power of the 
snow under those conditions of wind and cold, and it 
is now in a condition for an igloo snow-block. It is 
readily seen that it must have great cohesion to hold 
up such a heavy load on such a fragile support. 

The cohesion of snow in our latitudes (and the early 
snow of the Arctic) is of a plastic, wet, or ‘ pasty’ 
character, as shown in the making of snowballs, the 
formation of huge balls of snow on the ground as 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou VII., No. 154 


they roll along, snowmen, balling on horses’ feet, 
etc. (also shown by Mr. Williams’s letter in Science 
of March 6, 1885; Mr. Stone’s letter of May 29, 1885, 
in Science; and others to you). This is essentially 
unfit for snow-building. 

The snow fit for igloos is of a dry, almost stone- 
like character. The cutting of a thin portion from 
the side of an arctic snow-block, instead of giving a 
sheet of plastic snow as from a snowball, produces 
a shower of fine powder, exactly the same as from a 
large lump of loaf-sugar. In short, the arctic build- 
ing snow-block stands in about the same relation to 
those we would make here, as the brick just from the 
mould, and before it is dried, bears to the same object 
when burnt in the kiln, and ready for use. The arctic 
snow-blocks ring like a well-burnt brick ; and this is 
especially noticeable during intensely cold weather, 


HARDENED SNOW ON A MOUNT WASHINGTON 
TELEGRAPH-POLE. 


when I have heard a snow-block, as it was struck 
with a knife, give forth a clear, metallic, musical 
sound, not unlike the striking of a highly tempered 
bar of suspended steel with the hand, or other non- 
metallic substance. 

I remember, when my natives were building a 
snow-house on the high ‘divide’ between Back’s 
Great Fish River and Hudson’s Bay, the thermometer 
in the minus 60’s, a block of snow rolled down the 
hill for fifteen or twenty feet, and I doubt if a rolling 
guitar would have given forth many more confused 
musical tones chan the bumping block as it struck 
and bounded along down the hard, stone-like bank of 
snow. ri 

Yet it must not be inferred that this dry, com- 
pact snow has any of the characteristics of ice about 
it. It is not only much lighter than ice, but, I be- 
lieve, lighter than the plastic snow we have, certainly 
not so dense as when made into the ordinary snow- 
ball. In fact, the least quantity of ice in the snow — 
which sometimes happens — renders it more or less 
worthless for building, according to the amount. In 
the late spring, banks of snow having southern ex- 
posures, and thawing slightly about noon, only to 


JANUARY 15, 1886. ] 


freeze again, and others subject to drainage (and a 
few other causes), often have ice permeating the 
mass, sometimes in little fine needles, which make 
the mass worthless, and now and then in little crystals 
scattered through it. If these crystals are much 
larger than a pea, and more numerous than one to 
about every four square inches exposed by a section, 
the bank is rejected by the Eskimo snow-builder, 
unless others cannot be found. 

The packing of the wind and low temperature are 
needed to produce the true building-snow, and, in 
the absence of either one of these conditions, the 
action of the other seems to be worthless. As to 
temperature, this is shown by the snow not being 
good, as judged by the Eskimo, until it is ik-kee-oo- 
ad-lo (very cold) despite the fiercest gales having 
occurred. It is shown as to the wind by not finding 
good building material in deep gorges, and other 
places where the wind cannot get at the snow to pack 
it down, long after it is perfect in other localities. 
My information on these points did not comé from 
such observations, however, but directly from Eski- 
mo explanations, and I add these to corroborate 
them. I do not believe—although I do not positively 
know —that both wind and low temperature must 
come together, but both must have happened before 
the Eskimo will use the snow for building, though 
possibly the two may be independent in time. 
When I say the Eskimo will not use it, i mean as a 
usual thing and in a general way; for in his cheerless 
country he is often driven to dire expedients, and 
does many things under a sort of polar protest. 

After my detailed description of an Eskimo snow- 
house in Science, and some popular accounts in other 
periodicais, [ learned in several ways (by correspond- 
ence and from accounts given me by the editor of St. 
Nicholas) of attempts to reproduce these domiciles in 
our country having ended in failure. Of course, the 
main reason of such failures was in the !ack of knowl- 
edge to construct the igloo, the manual dexterity 
needed, it being an art which requires no small 
amount of the early life of an Eskimo to acauire to 
that perfection we often see among them; yet the 
builders who failed in their undertakings may console 
themselves with the fact that it is only in rare cases 
that the snow will be of the right texture in so low 
alatitude. The alpine districts, as Mount Washing- 
ton in the winter, and similar places, might do. 
Kbierbing (Eskimo Joe, as he was known in the United 
States), my interpreter, told me that he had built a 
few igloos in the United States for the edification of 
curious crowds, but he was only too glad not to see 
them tumble in and ruin his reputation as well as the 
house ; but, as to living in them, he would never 
have thought of it. FRED’K SCHWATKA. 

New York City. 


‘ Chinook winds.’ 


Dr. Dawson’s interesting note on the Chinook 
winds of the north-west does not fully represent the 
views on the origin of the foehn held by Dr. Hann. 
The foehn winds, and presumably the Chinook 
also, are often felt on the leeward side of a range 
before any rain falls on the windward side: there- 
fore, while the evolution of latent heat by condensing 
_ Vapor is a true and important cause of the warmth 
of the foehn in the manner indicated by Dr. Dawson, 
it is not the first or the only cause, and I think it is 
not the most efficient cause. Dr. Hann has shown 


SCIENCE. 


5D 


that the first cause of the warmth is the descent of 
air from the level of the passes and peaks in response 
to the needs of a low-pressure area on the leeward 
side of the range; and, as the temperature of the 
upper air is not greatly lower than that of the sur- 
face air in winter (the vertical decrease of temper- 
ature in the atmosphere being slow in this season), 
the descent of the upper air gives it a warmth and 
dryness that is very abnormal. The foehn is indeed, 
like our north east winds, a current that is propa- 
gated backwards; first, the air is withdrawn from 
the plains in front of the mountains by the approach 
of a low-pressure area; then the air in the valleys 
flows out over the plains; next the upper air de- 
scends from the passes into the valleys, warming as 
it falls ; finally the air rises on the farther side of the 
range, clouds form in it, rain falls from it, and it 
therefore cools slowly in its ascent; but, as soon as 
the little cloud that crosses the range is dissolved, 
the air warms rapidly in its desceat; and thus the 
foehn is established. Doubtless the last two pro- 
cesses go on together. 

_ Ihave used the accompanying figure (based on a 
diagram by Hertz) to illustrate the foehn problem : 


the full lines represent the variation of mean tem- 
perature with altitude for the year (YY’), summer 
(SS') and winter (WW’); while the broken lines are 
ordinary adiabatics, showing the change in tempera- 
ture of ascending or descending masses of air that 
are warmer than their dew-point; and the dotted 
lines are adiabatics for the retarded cooling of 
masses of air in which vapor is condensing. Now, 
in winter, when the lower air at a station one thou- 
sand feet above the sea, with a temperature of 24° F., 
(shown at 7), moves away, and is replaced by air 
that descends from an elevation of seven thousand 
feet, where its temperature is 10° (4), the latter will 
reach the ground (B) with a temperature about 42°, 
and a very low relative humidity: it is almost twenty 
degrees warmer than the air whose place it has taken. 
The descent must be rapid, or else the air will be 
much cooled on approaching the cold ground. 

A second example shows the action of rain: start- 
ing on the farther side of the mountains, with a 
temperature of 35°, suppose the air ascend five hun- 
dred feet from C to D before any condensation takes 
place ; then, clouds forming and rain failing, further 
cooling is slow, as shown by the steeper dotted line, 
DF. Where this line crosses the temperature of 
32°, there will be a brief ascent without any cooling, 
until all the cloud-particles are frozen : this is shown 
by a short vertical turn at Z, but the effect is small. 


56 | SCIENCE. 


Supposing the air rises to one thousand feet, it will 
there be cooled to 12°; then descending, as it passes 
over the range. it will at first (FG) warm as slowly 
as it cooled, until all the cloud that it carries is dis- 
solved ; the rest of the descent has a faster warming 
(GH), and the ground is reached with a temperature 
of about 43°, or 8 warmer than when the ascent 
began. 

These figures are not precise, as the diagram is 
rather hastily constructed from Hertz’s plate: but 
they serve to show how much greater a change is 
produced by the descent of the upper air than by the 
evolution of latent heat in atransmontane wind. The 
approach of the line of summer temperature (SS) to 
parallelism with the adiabatics also illustrates how 
much fainter the foehn must be in summer than in 
winter. 

The following quotation from Espy’s ‘Fourth 
meteorological report’ (1857) is of interest in this 
connection: ‘‘It is known that air, in passing over 
high mountains,... is twenty or thirty degrees 
warmer than the atmosphere is at the same height 
over plains, because in passing over them it has the 
latent caloric in it, just evolved by the condensation 
of the vapor on the windward side.” ‘‘ Air can 
never come down from a great height without being 
very dry when it reaches the surface of the earth.” 
‘“‘At the time of this hot south wind, there may be a 
great rain taking place on the other side of a moun- 
tain to the south of the observer, sending its hot air 
over above, and radiating its abnormal heat down, 
and even bringing some of the hot air down the 
slope on the north, which would be felt there as an 
excessively hot, dry air.” He also quotes Lepoy’s 
mention of a warm south-west wind at Fort Simp- 
son, east of the Rocky Mountains in British America, 
and applies the above explanation to it (pp. 146, 147, 
151), W. M. Davis. 

Cambridge, Jan. 12. 


The claimed wheat and rye hybrid. 


There is very slight botanical distinction between 
the wheat and rye genera, and hence we cculd 
scarcely select two genera between which we should 
more readily expect, a priori, a success in hybridiza- 
tion. The question, however, is, Has such a hybridi- 
zation been effected? Mr. Charles Barnard, who 
scarcely can speak as a botanist, states in the Janu- 
ary Century, p. 477, that it has taken place. As one 
who has carefully studied the published claims, and 
who has also visited the growing plants upon which 
the result is claimed, I must beg to dissent. Without 
opportunity for a careful and thorough examination 
of the various plants produced, I dare not affirm that 
such a hybridization has not been effected ; yet I do 
dare affirm that the evidence adduced is insufficient 
to establish the fact, and is sufficient to establish 
grave doubts. 

What are the facts? The flowers of the Arm- 
strong wheat were treated with pollen from rye. 
A number of variables were produced from the 
resulting seed, which, without careful botanical in- 
vestigation, have been pronounced hybrids. These 
figures were published in the Rural New- Yorker of 
Aug. 30, 1884. 

Lindley distinguishes rye from wheat by its nar- 
row glumes, and constantly twin narrow florets with 
a membranous abortion between them. In the draw- 
ings referred to, the glumes in all the figures are 


[Vou. VII., No. 154 


drawn broader than in the rye. In four of the 
figures the spikelets are distinctly those of a common 
wheat. In the fifth figure—the one called by Mr. 
Carman ‘‘a distinct grain, neither wheat nor rye, 
and as different from either as wheat is from rye, 
or rye from wheat ’’— we must look for the hybrid, 
if at all. This plant, so far as can be indistinctly 
made out from the figure, has its spikelet solitary on 
each notch of the axis, with two nearly equal 
glumes ; and the outer pale of each floret has at the 
top either a notch or angle on each side of the 
terminal point or awn, —all! the distinguishing char- 
acters of the genus Triticum. It has not the narrow 
glumes nor the constantly twin narrow florets which 
are peculiar to rye. 

What do these figures resemble, if not rye? Judg- 
ing by comparison of pictures, his No. 335 is close to 
the Froment de Saumur; his No. 336, to Froment 
Pictet ; his No. 337, to Froment de Naples; his No. 
338, to Froment blanc de Flandre; his No. 339, the 
supposed hybrid, to Froment de Pologne compact, — 
all, as figured by Heuze, in the form of the head. I 
do not mean to say by this that they are these varie- 
ties, for the material for judgment does not admit 
of such close comparison ; but I refer to these varie- 
ties, and those represented by Mr. Carman’s figures, 
as representing like types of head. 

We do not question the attempt at across. The 
variability effected is indication of the influence of a 
foreign pollen. We can explain the appearances, 
however, by an hypothesis. Under the stimulus of 
the rye pollen, atavism has resulted, whereby varie- 
ties dormant in the Armstrong wheat have made 
their appearance ; and to those unfamiliar with for- 
eign varieties, whose type appears in the progeny, 
the seedlings produced seem as if novelties, the un- 
familiar Blé de Poland being little known in this 
country. 

The whole subject is, however, too interesting a 
one to allow to pass without comment such state- 
ments as the Century article contains, and it is to be 
hoped that at some time a botanist expert in agri- 
cultural botany may have opportunity to investigate 
a series of these specimens. 

E. Lewis STURTEVANT. 


Geneva, N.Y., Jan. 6. 


Stepniak’s ‘ Russia under the tzars.’ q 


Will you kindly permit a few words of reply from | 
one of your English readers to M. Woeikof’s letter on ~ 
p. 478 of your issue for Nov. 27, 1885 ? 

We in the old country, who are watching with 
deep interest the struggle for freedom now going on 
in Russia, do not attach so much importance as your 
correspondent seems to think we should, to Stepniak’s 
personal share in the conflict: indeed, we do not — 
even care to inquire about it. The important point _ 
for us is the accuracy of the facts he has brought : 
forward. If true, they place the Russian govern- ; 
ment outside the pale of civilization, and deprive it _ 
of all right to appeal to civilized Europe against any — 
act in which the wrath and despair of its subjects 
may find vent. If false, they can easily be disproved. 
Stepniak has plainly stated names, dates, and sources —— 
of information; his book has now been fora year ~ 
before the public; and he has reiterated his charges 
through the leading organ of the English press. If 
the Russian government is maligned, why does it 
take no steps to disprove his statements ? : 

But whilst Stepniak’s allegations are confirmed by ~ 


OTS” at —w 


, 


January 15, 1886. ] 


the most reliable sources of information at our com- 
mand, they are only challenged by such bitter per- 
sonalities and trifling evasions as those indulged in 
by your correspondent. Writing with evident ani- 
mus, he can find nothing better to object to Stepni- 
ak’s crushing indictment against the whole system 
of government in his country than a quibble as to 
whether a man who escapes from the prison hospital 
can be said to escape from prison (your readers 
will find a detailed account of Prince Peter Kropot- 
kin’s escape in Stepniak’s ‘ Underground Russia’) ; 
and the ebvious truism that polite circles at St. 
Petersburg profess ignorance of cruelties, their mas- 
ter desires to conceal. 

Until some better evidence to the contrary than 
this is laid before us, we English lovers of liberty 
must consider the case against Russian despotism as 
proved ; and we shal] endeavor — not in hatred, but 
in love, toward the Russian people — to aid them by 
every means in our power in their heroic efforts to 
free themselves and theircountry. C. M. WILson. 

London, Dec. 27. 


Ruminants of the Copper-River region, Alaska. 


While on the Copper or Atnah River of Alaska, 
and its principal tributary the Chitina (Chitty, cop- 
per ; na, river), I had occasion to learn something of 
the species of ruminants inhabiting the region. Of 
the Cervidae, only two species, as far as I had occa- 
sion to learn, exist; viz., the moose, Alces machlis, 
called by the natives tenayga: and a form of the 
caribou, Rangifer tarandus, called by the natives 
honnai. 

Of the Bovidae, there were two species, one of 
which, called by the hatives tebay, I had occasion 
to carefully examine. It nearly resembled Dall’s 
mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis Dalli, Nelson), 
**found in the mountains of Alaska and southward 
into British America.” My party killed several of 
these animals, one of which, a ram, had horns twenty 
inches long and nearly straight. It was killed ona 
very high point, much above the timber-line, and in 
its fall was considerably crushed. The horns were 
similar in structure to those of the big-horn, but 
had very little curvature. I saw aspoon made from 
a tebay’s horn, which had a length of twenty-six 
inches, and measured five inches across the bowl. 
The natives informed me that some had much larger 
horns than the one that furnished material for this 
spoon. This may or may not be true. 

The head of the tebdy was much like that of a 
Southdown ram, the muzzle much less sharp than 
that of Shaw’s Ovis canadensis or Nelson’s Ovis 
canadensis Dalli. The hair, as to kind, was in no 
respect different from that of the latter animal, but 
was of a uniform white color, and by no means dirty; 
in fact, was nearly as white as his surroundings of 
snow. From the best information obtainable, I 
would class it as an equal in size to the big-horn, and 
a relative of Dall’s mountain sheep. The ram and 
one other tebay were killed on the most northerly 
tributary of the Chitina, called by us Chitistone 
(Copper-stone) River, on account of the existence 
there of copper ore. 

The natives informed us that a few miles below 
the junction of this tributary with the Chitina we 
could kill small tebaéy, and four were obtained. 
Their heads were left on the mountains, but the 
body seemed identical with that of the Chitistone 


SCIENCE. ay 


River specimens, though very much smaller. Why 
only small ones should be found at this place, in the 
latter part of April, I cannot say. The mountains 
here were not so high as farther to the east and 
north, where the large ones had been killed. The 
last tebay seen or heard of by us were near the 
source of Copper River, on the divide between it 
and the Tanana River. 

The other species of the family was a white animal 
whose pelt I frequently saw used in articles of wear- 
ing-apparel, and which, from its description, was 
probably the mountain goat, Mazama montana, 
found also on the head waters of the Yukon River 
and its upper tributaries. I saw some of these ani- 
mals at the junction of the Copper and Chitina 
rivers, on the west banks of the former, but was 
unable to obtain them. Bet. Aten! 

Lieut. 2d cavalry, U.S.A. 
Washington, Jan. 2, 


The festoon cloud. 


In the Philosophical magazine for July, 1857, Mr. 
W.S. Jevons, then assayer at the Sydney branch of 
the royal mint, had an article on the cirrous form 
of cloud (vol. xiv. 22-35), and gave therein the best 
early account that I have met with of a peculiar 
form of cloud, since commonly called the ‘festoon’ 
or ‘pocky’ cloud. He says these forms are often 
to be seen on the under surface of dense cirro-stratus 
clouds, ‘ especially at the front or tail of a thunder- 
cloud.” Sometimes these dropping portions of cloud, 
or ‘droplets,’ as he calls them, seem to come into 
contact with dry air, when their well-defined form 
is destroyed, and a fibrous or fur-like appearance 
only remains. ‘They appear to be truly portions of 
subsiding cloud.’ An accompanying ‘imaginary 
section of a thunder-cloud near Sydney’ nicely illus- 
trates their attitude, but not their form. 

The earliest valuable figure of the festoon cloud is 
presented in an article by A. Mitchell, on weather 
prognosties in Scotland, in the Edinburgh New philo- 
sophical journal (xviii. 1865, 221), where it is copied 
from a drawing by the Rev. C. Clouston: it is prob- 
ably the same figure that is given in a work by the 
latter author, ‘ An explanation of the popular weather 
prognostics of Scotland,’ etc. (Edinburgh, 1867) ; 
but this I have not seen. The drawing shows the 
cloud to be distinctly convex downwards, the sepa- 
rate festoons being grouped together somewhat like 
the adjacent grapes on a bunch; and it is spoken of 
as a sure sign of stormy weather. Its relative rarity 
may be estimated from a note by Symons, the vet- 
eran English observer, in his Meteorological maga- 
zine for July, 1868. He first saw it early in the 
morning of a June day in 1858, just before a violent 
thunder-storm ; then during the succeeding ten years 
he never saw it, or heard of its being seen, till he 
came upon the book above mentioned. He said it 
looked like ‘ bags of sand,’ but does not refer to it as 
a falling cloud. 

Poey, a lifelong student of cloud-forms, sent a 
brief nots to Nature (Oct. 19, 1871, p. 489), in which 
he speaks of this cloud as a new form, and gives a 
rough figure of it: he considers it very rare, having 
seen it but twice in his life, both times suspended 
from the pallio-cirrus of thunder storms, — once in 
Washington, D.C.; again in Beloit, Wis. This note 
brought out several others ; among them one signed 
‘J.,’ evidently by Jevons, calling attention to his 


58 . SCIENCE. 


early account; another by Scott, in the Quarterly 
journal of the royal meteorological society (i. 1873, 
55-59), in which most of these references are men- 
tioned. 

Further attention to the festoons is given in Poey’s 
little book, ‘Comment on observe les nuages pour 
prévoir le temps’ (Paris, 1879, 86), and in Ley’s 
review of it in Nature (Jan. 1, 1880, 210). The 
former calls it ‘globo-cirrus,’ and traces its first 
mention back to Lamarck in 1804; but Poey finds 
only twenty records of the cloud that he can recog- 
nize, seventeen of them being connected with storms. 
Ley calls the festoons mammato-cumulus and mam- 
mato-cirrus, figuring both kinds, and noting that 
they are certainly not common, although not nearly 
so rare as is usually supposed. Abercrombie notes 
that the festoons result from the failure of the 
ascensional current that is commonly associated with 
showers and squalls (Nature, May 24, 1884). 

My object in writing is to ask if the cloud is com- 
monly seen in this country, and if itis then generally 
associated with the’ cirro-stratus of thunder-storms, 
or with the larger storms that are so unfortunate as 
to have no special name, unless we call them ‘ areas 
of low barometer.’ Mv note books record the festoon 
clouds twice in Montana in 1883, twice during the 
past summer of 1885 in Connecticut and New York 
(all these being in the cirro-stratus cover of the after- 
part of thunder-storms), again here in Cambridge, 
on Dec. 18, 1885, about noon, in the pallio-cirrus 
sheet attending one of the above-named ‘areas,’ and 
at a distinctly greater altitude than the low scud 
and intermediate cirro-stratus clouds that soon closed 
in, and gave us rain in the afternoon. They seemed 
in all cases to be gently falling cloud-masses of 
films, resembling the forms that ink may take when 
dropped into water ; and, when watched attentively, 
they could be seen to descend and dissolve away. 
Are they as rare as the notes by Symons and Poey 
would lead us to think ? W. M. Davis. 

Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 5. 


Topographical models or relief-maps. 


I must personally thank you for your good words in 
behalf of non-exaggerated reliefs in your last issue, 
p. 24. Ihave had a long experience in this kind of 
work, and never found a case which required the 
vertical scale to be exaggerated. No relief of the 
surface is too delicate to escape the buman eye when 
represented with sufficient skill and care in model- 
ling. The demand for exaggeration in arelief comes 
from those who will not spend a sufficient amount 
of time and pains upon the intermediate contour 
curves, or from those who have not trained them- 
selves in drawing from objects. The habit of 
exaggerating the relief excuses itself at first on the 
plea that common people cannot appreciate heights 
when true to nature, but the fact is that the difficulty 
is felt by the modeller himself ; and when the habit 
is once formed, it becomes incurable. If a relief- 
map be not true to nature, what is the good of it? 
Geologists have been forced to abandon exaggerated 
cross-sections ; why should they permit relief-map 
makers to revive the discarded error, and put the 
representation of the whole in antagonism to the 
representation of the parts ? 

About the year 1865 or 1866 I made a wooden 
model of one of our lower Silurian limestone valleys, 
with its bounding ridges, about 20 miles long. The 


¢ 
[Vou. VII., No. 154 


model was about 18” by 36”, in 12 bars of wood, each 
18" long by 8” wide. On each side of each bar I 
painted the corresponding section of the valley, with 
its limonite horizons, and faults. The model still ex- 
ists. My purpose was first to get correct ideas of the 
country structure for my own work, and then to 
exhibit my conclusions to the Pennsylvania railroad 
company, who employed me. The reliefs in the val- 
ley were very low; but they were perfectly legible 
to the eye of alayman. What would have been the 
fate of my side-sections had I used an exaggerated 
vertical scale ? 

In 1865 I made a model of the underground of the 
Plymouth anthracite mine, with its remarkable vet- 
tical fault, from levels which I took in the mine. 
What good would this have been had I used a differ- 
ent vertical scale ? 

I have myself made models on several plans; the 
most satisfactory, but the most laborious, being to 
draw a good many cross-sections on the same vertical 
and horizontal scale, along parallel lines, as nearly 
as possible at right angles to the general strike ; then 
cut strips of wood, lead, zinc, or stiff paper (I have 
used all four) to represent the cross-sections; set 
these up in their places; fill in with wax or plaster ; 
and finally tool the surface thus obtained. I prefer 
this method to the common one of jigging out the 
contour curves, and filling the terraces between them 
with slopes of wax. The latter method is easier and 
less costly ; but it is sure to make the modeller slov- 
enly in his geological representation, and it is a pow- 
erful seduction towards exaggeration of the vertical 
scale. Beginners and ‘earnest scholars ought not to 
be allowed to use this method until they have been 
drilled to accuracy, and to love the true natural 
aspect, by the compulsion of the method of cross- 
sections. I never see a false relief-map without 
indignation. and a touch of the contempt we feel for 
all anachronisms. J. P. LEsLey. 

Philadelphia. Jan. 10, 


The cherry tortrix. 


This insect, Cacoecia cerasivorana Fitch, was very 
common in Michigan the past summer. The most 
interesting thing about it is the large web or tent 
which it spins, and in which it usually stays. As 
it needs more food, it ‘ ropes in’ new twigs, and thus 
has fresh foliage right at hand. I found that these 
little caterpillars would deflect a shrub, an inch or 
more in diameter, several inches, that its leafy 
branches might be brought into its tent. How do 
these little larvae exert so much force? I know that 
entomologists usually say it is by the pulling of the 
hundreds of larvae as they move their heads back 
and forth in the operation of spinning ; but I do not 
see how they can pull. As they touch their mouth 
to the web or twig, the liquid secretion adheres, and 
quickly hardens into a tough thread ; but the larvae 
do not seem to draw, nor is it certain that the thread 
would be strong enough so early in its formation to 
draw with any force. From very careful observation 
in the laboratory, I was led to believe that it was due 
to the contracting force of the many hardening silk 
threads that brought the large twigs together. These 
larvae are smooth, and must find the web a great 
protection. The teeth on the chrysalides are of great 
service in enabling them to push out of the tents, 
just as the moths are to issue. A. J. Cook. 


Lansing, Mich. 


SCIENCE.—SupPLEMENT. — 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1886. 


THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY. 


CONSIDERING the interest which is everywhere 
awakened in face of the coming determined agi- 
tation for an eight-hour day, the pamphlet by 
H. W. Fabian, on ‘Der gesetzliche achtstundige 
normal-arbeitstag’ (Social science publishing 
company, New York), is quite opportune. It 
constitutes the first number of a cheap series 
devoted to economic and social questions. Apart 
from its purpose of concentrating certain facts 
concerning the development of legislation on this 
subject, it is perhaps noticeable as indicating the 
diffusion of the writing and theories of Marx. 
His philosophy is accepted as laying the basis for 
state action in economic matters. It is a debated 
question, even among the labor-leaders, as_ to 
whether they will be able to carry into successful 
6peration their plan for the general adoption of 
the eight-hour day on May 1, 1886. This is the 
date determined upon by the federation of labor 
unions of the United States and Canada. Such 
a thorough-going undertaking has immense diffi- 
culties before it, if it is managed simply as an 
economic movement. Many trades are not thor- 
oughly organized; large numbers of workmen 
have no savings ; and of course, if a general strike 
in all industries be resorted to, there could be 
little hope of mutual aid. Again: the system of 
piece-work is a standing obstacle. This is seen 
in the case of cigar-makers who work in tenement- 
houses. Mr. Fabian, therefore, urges the neces- 
sity of combined political action : economic forces 
alone are not sufficient. Those who are perplexed 
and possibly exasperated by this movement should 
make themselves familiar with the history of the 
labor-day. Even so conservative an investigator 
as Thorold Rogers has shown, that, in battling 
for the eight-hour day, the workman is only 
claiming his inheritance which he possessed less 
than five centuries ago. The demand is not a 
radical one; and no question was ever more 
temperately discussed than this at the recent 
Washington labor congress. For more than a 
quarter of a century the working-day in Aus- 
tralia has been of but eight hours ; and last April 
the anniversary of its introduction was celebrated 
by artisans, manufacturers, and government offi- 
cials. All these united in a declaration of its 
success. Bay. 


SHELL-FISH IN CONNECTICUT. 

THE ‘ Fifth report of the shell-fish commissioners 
of the state of Connecticut.’ for 1885, shows that 
the total area of oyster-grounds, for which appli- 
cation has been made to the commission (or their 
predecessors in certain places, the town committees) 
exceeds a hundred and twenty-four thousand acres. 
This, it is understood, excludes all natural beds 
or property owned by towns for the common bene- 
fit. Of the total, nearly eighty thousand acres 
have already been granted, of which sixteen 
thousand two hundred are under cultivation. 
Such portions of the remainder as are held for 
speculation, and not cultivated, revert to the state 
after five years, at the order of court, on a 
proper showing. In 1885 there were four hundred 
and twenty-three tax-paying cultivators, and the 
nominal price fixed on the grounds has yielded 
the state over fifty thousand dollars. The com- 
missioners recommend the repeal of that section 
of the law which excludes non-residents from its 
privileges ; as the local oyster-growers have had 
full opportunity for securing such lands as they 
could use, and, ignorantly or intentionally, non- 
residents have secured ownership through a 
merely fictitious compliance with the letter of 
the law. Of taxes levied, all but fifty-five dollars 
have been collected ; the tax produced nearly eight 
thousand dollars the present year, and nearly 
eighteen thousand dollars during the entire three 
years. Much available ground still remains open 
to designation. 

The experience of cultivators shows, that with 
proper dredging vigilantly kept up, and a suitable 
state supervision of the natural beds, the starfish 
may be kept under so as to do but little damage. 
A new pest was reported in the worm Sabellaria 
vulgaris Verrili, which builds interlocking sand- 
tubes with great rapidity, which, when numerous 
enough, smother the oysters on which they rest. 
One bed containing seventy-eight thousand bushels 
was nearly destroyed in this way: but it seems 
that such a result is very rare, as no further 
serious damage from this cause has been reported, 
and it is possible the loss in question was over- 
estimated. 

The oyster-fleet of 1885 comprised 49 steamers, 
with a capacity of 50,525 bushels. 

Mr. Bogart, the efficient engineer of the comis- 
sion, reports on his part of the work, which is 
chiefly occupied with the survey of the state 
oyster-grounds, and the determination of bound- 


60 SCIENCE. 


aries of private claims, — often a difficult task, 
owing to their distance from shore. 

The laws relating to shell-fish, passed since the 
date of the last report, are appended. The only 
one of general importance makes the rights to 
oyster-grounds personal estate, and not realty, in 
settling property of deceased owners. 

The example of the state of Connecticut, in full 
accordance with the business sagacity which char- 
acterizes her citizens, might well be followed by 
other states even more deeply interested in oyster- 
culture. The natural beds of Maryland and Vir- 
ginia are being rapidly destroyed for commercial 
purposes, and only a prompt attention to the 
subject can secure their rescue from impending 
destruction. 


DATE OF VINTAGE. 


M. ANGOT contributes a long discussion of the 
date of vintage in France to the annals of the 


¢ 


|Vou. VIL, No. 154 


they show no persistent deterioration of climate. 
4°, No relation is found between the date of. vin- 
tage and the sun-spot cycle. 5°. Abundant vin- 
tages occur in rather warm years, with nearly 
normal rainfall: they are less dependent on a con- 
currence of favorable conditions than on the 
absence of frosts, hail, diseases of the vines, etc. 
6°. Years of good wine have a notable high tem- 
perature from June to September, and generally 
a slightly deficient rainfall. 7°. Years of poor 
wine are cool in the summer, with rain a little 
above the normal. Since 1880, detailed obser- 
vations have been made on the vintage in France, 
and in future it will be regularly discussed. 

The accompanying cuts are reduced from An- 
got’s plates. Fig. 1 shows the budding of the 
vine in spring-time, as determined by the arrival 
of the mean diurnal temperature of 9° C. (48° F.), 
which is provisionally accepted as the time of the 
beginning of its vegetation. The position of this 
isotherm for every ten days of February, March, 


Fie, 1. 


Bureau central météorologique for 1883, issued with 
date of 1885. His data for some stations reach back 
to the fourteenth century, and, for a good number, 
back well into the eighteenth century. His con- 
clusions may be briefly summarized as follows : 
1°. The date of vintage varies greatly from year 
to year, and may in a single country differ by 
more than seventy days in different years. 2°. 
The date of maturity depends chiefly on the vines 
having received a certain quantity of heat, well 
determined for each species. 3°. Slight variations 
in the mean date of vintage are found ; but these 
variations are unlike in neighboring regions, and 


Fic. 2. 


and April, is given by heavy lines; for some 
intermediate dates, by finer lines. The epoch of 
vintage in the autumn is similarly expressed in 
Fig. 2. 

The same author has also attacked the distribu- 
tion of heat on the earth as directly furnished by 
the sun, giving the basis of what Hann calls the 
solar climate. Meech is most frequently quoted 
on this question, and Ferrel has lately discussed 
it; Angot adds the consideration of various co- 
efficients of atmospheric transparence, and thus 
makes a step from the theoretical towards the 
actual. For example: according to Meech, the 


January 15, 1886. ] 


heat received in twenty-four hours from the sun 
on the summer solstice is not greatest at latitude 
234°, where the sun is vertical, but has two 
maxima farther north, — one at 48°; the other 
and greater at the pole, with a faint minimum 
at 66°; because the sunshine at the pole through 
twenty-four hours, at a constant altitude of 234°, 
is greater than the sunshine in the twelve-hour 
day at the tropic, with the sun vertical only at 
noon. But this gives a very erroneous idea of the 
temperatures at these latitudes. Now, on the as- 
sumption that two or three tenths of a vertical 
ray are absorbed by the atmosphere, Angot finds 
the maximum of heat received at the bottom of the 
atmosphere on the solstice has its maximum at 
35°; farther north, the heat received diminishes 
continuously to the pole, rapidly at first, then 
slowly beyond the polar circle; and this is fairly 
conformable to the distribution of temperature. 
An interesting calculation shows, that, on account 
of our less distance from the sun in December 
than in June, the latitude circle about 24° north, 
and not the equator, receives the same amount of 
heat on the two solstices : the equator, therefore, 
belongs in this respect to the southern hemisphere. 
The memoir is illustrated by an instructive series 
of curves showing the distribution of heat over 
the earth at numerous dates. ia Oa B 


SODA AND POTASH IN THE FAR WEST. 


In view of the large quantities of soda and pot- 


ash in various forms that are imported into this — 


country, it is surprising that the abundant sup- 
plies of these alkalies within our own borders are 
not more extensively utilized. 

It is probably known to all American geologists 
that there are extensive deposits of the chloride, 
sulphate, and carbonate of soda at many points in 
the arid regions of the far west, which may be 
had for the trouble of gathering. These deposits 
occur in the desiccated beds of ancient lakes in 
Nevada, Arizona, western Utah, and portions of 
California and New Mexico. There are certain 
lakes, also, which are valuable brines. 

In the basins where evaporation has been nearly 
or quite complete, the alkaline salts occur either 
at the surface, when they appear like fields of 
snow frequently many square miles in extent, or 
they may be concealed beneath the layers of fine 
mud known as playa deposits. Again, large areas 
in Nevada and Arizona are white with alkaline 
salts that have been brought to the surface in solu- 
tion, and deposited when the waters evaporated. 
These efflorescences are frequently rich in sodium 
carbonate, sulphate, and borate, and have been 
utilized to a limited extent at a few localities. 


SCIENCE. 61 


The lakes of the far west which are likely to 
become of commercial value on account of the 
alkaline salts they contain are Great Salt Lake, 
Utah; the Soda Lakes, near Ragtown, Nevada ; 
Mono and Owen’s lakes, California: and Summer 
and Abert lakes, in Oregon. All of these are 
without outlet, and owe their high percentage of 
mineral matter to the concentration by evapora- 
tion of the waters of streams and springs with 
which they are supplied. Their chemical compo- 
sition is shown in the following table : — 


5 


Sol QR oD as fxd 
ON (eA a Ae 
b = 6 S 2 
z e S = ~ 
ae ee ia) Wea 
yi 3s .& (SEE eS os 
CONSTITUENTS. elo £2 se ie HZ 
eS a i A eee 
B es RS - : 
9 Ss ° fa] 
s | 8 g pps 
) = ° 
Soa Oe 6) Ge ae ee 49.690 | 40.919} 18.100} 21 650 2.773 
PPOvasniumi (KK) Sco cece eee 2.407 2.3557 1.111 2.751 | 10.637 
Wal chimi(Ca) Roos sos she wos 0255) hese 0.278 | trace |...:.---. 
Magnesium (Mg)............ 8.780 | 0.245] 0.125] trace! 0.(02 
Herein (Wb) 5. arcetrens none tracert Albee trace |....-.-- 
Whlorine: (Cli. cae qusea wa cone: 83.946 | 40.851} 11.610] 18.44u 8.220 
PSFOMIUNG (SL). ccie estes sacicaiels EEACA ete ser [lo sec TA Se odacer 
Carbonic acid (CO,).........J6-..+-.: 16.854 | 11.465 | 13.140] 4.547 
Sulphuric) *8(SO,)ac<cccs sn 9.858 | 11.857} 6.520 9.362; 0.497 
IELTS a AL (fl EX On) USS kG peden| (asdeenu| boscedes trace |---.---- 
Nitric GSE) bec ceiiaoal lone Peaialc ccrcseen feta trace |--++-+--- 
Boracic VEE ON esate trace} 0.286] 0.153) trace |---.---. 
STILE (GTO) Sie bgbcdnd0c0 ed sosates 0.278 0.268 0.164; 0.064 
oN Ere WGN O09) 16 Se 5 Sood -Saedesag) jcooedecoHace ode ¢ trace |-+--.-- 
Total parts per thousand | 149.936 i. | 49.630 | 60.507 | 26.740 


1 Analysis by Prof. O. D. Allen, U. S. geol. explor. of the 40th 
par., vol. li. p. 435. 

2 Analysis by Dr. T. M. Chatard, Bull. No. 9, U.S. geol. surv., p. 25. 

3 Ibid., p. 26. 

4 Analysis by Dr. Oscar Loew, Ann. rep. chief of eng., U.S.A., 
1876, p. 190. 

5 Analysis by Dr. F. W. Taylor, Fourth ann. rep., U. S. geol. 
surv., 1882-83, p. 454. 


It is safe to predict that Great Salt Lake will 
not only be of great value in the near future on 
account of the immense quantities of common 
salt it is capable of producing, but also for the 
sodium sulphate it contains. When the temper- 
ature of the lake-water is reduced to 20° F., the 
separation of sodium sulphate takes place as a 
flocculent precipitate, which increases in quantity 
with decrease of temperature. This should sug- 
gest to manufacturers a method of obtaining the 
salt in a pure state and on a large scale. When 
the temperature of Great Salt Lake is lowered on 
the approach of winter, its waters become opales- 
cent, owing to the precipitation of sodium sul- 
phate in an extremely finely divided state. During 
the winter months the temperature of the air in the 
region of the lake sometimes falls to 20° cr more 
below 0° F., and at such times the separation of 
sodium sulphate takes place on an immense scale, 
and it is thrown up on the shore in thousands 


62 SCIENCE. 


of tons. The amount that could be gathered at 
such times is practically unlimited. As railroads 
now touch the shore of the lake, the problem of 
supplying this salt to manufacturers is simplified. 

The Soda Lakes, situated on the Carson desert, 
Nevada, about fourteen miles east of Wadsworth, 
have already been utilized as a source of sodium 
carbonate, which is being shipped to San Fran- 
cisco. These lakes occupy the craters of extinct 
volcanoes, and the mineral matter they contain 
has been derived mainly from the leaching of the 
lapilli and lacustral deposits surrounding them. 

Mono and Owen’s lakes are now quite accessible 
by rail, and are capable of furnishing immense 
quantities of sodium sulphate and carbonate. From 
data obtained during a recent survey of Mono 
Lake, it has been estimated that it contains, 


8,998,856 tons. 
73,524,285 


Potassium chloride (KCl)........... 
Sodium chloride (NaCl)............. 
Sodium sulphate (Na.SO,.).......... 40,636,089 ‘* 
Sodium carbonate (Na,CO,)........ 78,649,194 ‘* 


Total of salts in lake........ 2... 209,238,488 °° 


It has been estimated by Dr. Oscar Loew that 
Owen’s Lake contains about twenty-two million 
tons of sodium carbonate, and a little less than 
one-third of this amount of sodium sulphate. 

Summer and Abert lakes, situated in southern 
Oregon, are remote from railways, but are ex- 
tremely valuable brines on account of the potash 
salts they contain. These lakes occupy depressions 
in the bed of an ancient lake of large size, now 
nearly desiccated, and are very similar in charac- 
ter. Abert Lake alone has been analyzed, but it 
is probable that its companion has nearly an iden- 
tical composition. Abert Lake is about fifteen 
miles long by five miles broad, and has an average 
depth (varying with the seasons) of approximately 


ten feet. Summer Lake is perhaps a third larger, 
and is also shallow; but its average depth is un- 
known. The percentage of potassium salts in 


Abert Lake is greater than in any other lake the 
composition of which has been published, amount- 
ing to five-sevenths of the total of solids in 
solution. 

With these abundant resources at hand, the 
alkali industry of the far west unquestionably has 
a great future; and it is to be hoped that it will 
soon receive the attention that its importance 
demands. I. C. RUSSELL. 


CHOLERA MORTALITY IN EUROPE DUR- 
ING 1885. 

CHOLERA as an epidemic has now for some 
time almost entirely disappeared from southern 
Europe, and hence the following results of the 
serious outbreak of the past year, from the Lancet 


[Vou. VII., No. 154 


of Dec. 26, will be of interest: From the mainland 
no further record of cholera is forthcoming ; but 
in the Christina Islands to the south, near the 
mouth of the Guadiana River, recurrences of the 
disease are still said to take place. The actual 
number of deaths recorded in the provinces and 
cities named is less than that which really oc- 
curred ; for the official lists were not published 
with sufficient regularity to insure accurate rec- 
ords day by day, and outbreaks in some localities 
were never announced at all. The following is 
the list of places attacked, with their respective 
cholera mortalities ; the capitals of the several 
provinces being, except where otherwise noted, 
included for statistical purposes within their 
provinces : — 


Locality. Deaths. Locality. Deate 
Province of Castellon.. 4582 Province of Zamora.... 451 
yolonet: -13400 SOL ects 521 
Be Madrid.... 2228 oe Ciudad Real 905 
te Murcia.... 3580 ee Barcelona. 791 
es Saragossa. 10954 ee Lerida.... 821 
et Cuenca.... 2877 te Gerona.... 215 
et Alicante .. 4361 ue Navarre... 2691 
ee Toledo.... 2289 se Valladolid. 1482 
x Teruel.... 4932 KS Guadalajara 261 
SL Tarragona, 1258 # Logrono... 541 
ve Albacete.. 2047 s Burgos.... 199 
« Jean ...... 1398 sf Huesca... 69 
Se Badajoz... 337 f Palencia... 374 
se Segovia... 351 us Santander. 194 
i Cadiz..... 368 re Salamanca 84 
oe Granada... 9162 | Aranjuez, pr. of Toledo 835 
se Cordova. . 825 Gibraltar (English).. 24 
aS Almeria... 2514 Gibraltar (Spanish lines) 191 
BS Malaga.... 635 } 


In France the disease was all but limited to 
Marseilles and Toulon, and to scattered cases in 
the south, until November, when an outbreak 
occurred in Brittany, Brest and its immediate 
neighborhood being affected. The total cholera 
deaths at Marseilles were just short of 1,000, and 
at Toulon just short of 200. The number at Brest 
has not been made known. In Italy only scat- 
tered cases occurred at several places on the main- 
land; but in the city and province of Palermo, 
in the island of Sicily, a considerable epidemic 
occurred, the total mortality there reaching at 
least 2,430. There was also a rumor of cases as 
late as the present month in the province of 
Venice. 


BURMAH, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 


Mr. HoLt HALLETT, in a recent address before 
the London Society of arts, on ‘ Burmah,’. said : 
In these days, with foreign competition get- 
ting keener every day, and hostile tariffs not only 
shutting the Europeon markets against us, but in 
a lesser degree American and English colonies 
also, with the race for fresh colonies and new 
markets among European powers, it is of im- 
portance that we should avail ourselves of our 
present opportunity for an inland connection and 


JANUARY 15, 1886. ] 


commercial alliance with Indo-China and China, 
and thus acquire new markets of transcendent 
promise. 

Burmah and the Burmese Shan states are 
highly favored by their geographical position. 
They lie in the course of the monsoons, and are 
gifted for the most part with a plentiful rainfall. 

The Irrawaddy is a river which discharges about 
420,000,000 metric tons of water during the year. 
The river is about 900 miles in length, the last 240 
being in British territory. As far south as Akouk- 
toung its bed is rocky ; farther down it is sandy 
and muddy. New sand-banks are continually 
forming, and old ones being removed, which 
renders it necessary for the steamers plying be- 
tween Rangoon, Mandalay, and Bhamo, to have a 
service of pilots upon the river. in the rainy 
season, steamers and large boats enter the main 
river from Rangoon by the Pan-Hlaing Creek ; 
but during the dry season they have to descend 
the Rangoon River for some distance, and proceed 
by different routes into the Irrawaddy. 

The Khyeng-dwen is navigable for the largest 
boats plying on the Irrawaddy, and for steamers 
certainly as far north as Kendat, and most likely 
as far as the rapids which occur a little above the 
junction of the Ooroo River. A great deal of grain 
is grown in the lower portion of Khyeng-dwen 
valley, and likewise in that of the Ooroo, near 
the sources of which are the serpentine mines. 
The lower portion of the river passes through a 
broad, populous, and fertile champaign, and pre- 
sents an almost continuous horizon of palmyra- 
groves, always in Burmah a sign of population 
and culture. From these there is a considerable 
manufacture of palm sugar. The sugarcane is 
generally used by the Burmese merely for munch- 
ing ; but, according to Colonel Yule, a little sugar 
is made from the cane in the neighborhood of Ava. 

Bhamo, on the course of the Irrawaddy, is 
the entrepdét of trade for north-western Yunnan, 
and will certainly become under our rule a place 
of great importance, as it is the terminus of the 
shortest caravan routes into western China. For 
some time it was proposed by many of our officials 
to improve the caravan route by the construction 
of a wheeled road, and even a railway ; but sub- 
sequent explorations have shown that although 
~Bhamo, which is 430 feet above sea-level, is only 
250 miles distant in a direct line from Talifu, yet 
railway would have to be 600 miles in length to 
connect these places. The cost of a railway con- 
nection by this route would be at least four times 
as great as that proposed by Mr. Colquhoun and 
_ mInyself, which, besides, has the great advantage of 
terminating at a seaport instead of at a town 840 
miles up a river, of opening up the whole of cen- 


. 


SCIENCE. 63 


tral Indo-China, and of passing through a much 
more fertile and better populated region than 
would be traversed by the other route. Bhamo 
will no doubt, before long, be joined by rail, via 
Mandalay, to our Rangoon and Tounghoo railway. 
and subsequently to the Indian system at Dibru- 
garh ; thus tapping the whole of the passes lead- 
ing from the west of the Shan states, and com- 
pleting one of the schemes long ago proposed by 
my colleague and myself. 

The inhabitants of Burmah, owing to the excel- 
lence of the climate, are robust and healthy look- 
ing. They attain the average length of human 
life, and children especially thrive in the country. 
The registration returns show that in Burmah the 
deaths of children under five years of age are in 
the proportion of 27 to 85 of the total deaths at all 
ages, whereas in England they are 40 per cent. 
Concerning the characteristics and peculiarities of 
the Burman, much need not be said. His virtues, 
which are many, and his failings, which are not a 
few, are much the same here as in every part of 
his extensive country. He here, as elsewhere, dis- 
plays much spasmodic energy and general lazi- 
ness; much love of feasts and shows: much dis- 
regard of the sacredness of human life, and much 
tenderness for the lives of inferior members of the 
animal kingdom: much arrogance and incon- 
siderateness when placed in high position; and 
last, though not least, much general truthfulness, 
and, among unsophisticated villagers, the very 
un-oriental trait of being quite unable to tell a spe- 
cious falsehood, —a trait which is as honorable to 
himself as it is agreeable to those who have the : 
government of his country. His occupations are 
cultivation on a small scale and petty trading. 
Actual poverty is almost unknown, but riches are 
never accumulated. The Burman is strongly dis- 
tinguished from the Indian races by his love of 
sport and amusement, and his strong turn for the 
ridiculous. The Burman is in every way a marked 
contrast to the Hindoo. Their women-folk mix 
freely in all social gatherings on perfectly equal 
terms, and form a very important factor in society. 

Proceeding to speak of British Burmah, Mr. 
Hallett said that only one-half of the area of that 
country is culturable, and only one-seventh of 
that half is under cultivation. Taking the present 
population at 4,000,000, there is room for 24,000.- 
000 more without overcrowding the province. 
Even now about 1,000,000 tons of rice are exported 
every year, after feeding the population, cattle, 
and elephants. 

It is therefore certain, that, if all the reclaimable 
waste lands were brought into tillage, Burmah 
would be unrivalled as a granary. The population 
of British Burmah has increased from 2,747,141 in 


64 SCIENCE. 


1872, to 3,736,771 in 1883. Trade has more than 
kept pace with the advance of population and 
revenue, as the following figures will show: In 
1874 the imports were £1,859,095, and in 1883, 
£3,772,887. In 1874 the exports were £3,480,407, 
and in 1883, £7,089,525. The relative increase of 
the imports is somewhat greater than the increase 
in exports; but, with the balance of trade so 
strongly in favor of the province, its capacity as a 
consumer of British manufactures is very im- 
perfectly measured by the actual value of the im- 
ports. Again: the comparatively small amount 
of those imports demonstrates conclusively that 
upper Burmah has acted as an effectual and insur- 
mountable barrier between the port of Rangoon 
and those illimitable commercial requirements of 
western China and the Shan states which it has 
been the hope of the government and merchants 
alike to ascertain and to satisfy. Rice repre- 
sents 80 per cent of the total exports. The other 
chief exports are teak, cotton, jade, petroleum, 
spices, tobacco, hides, horns, ivory, India-rubber, 
shellac, cutch, and drugs. Of these, teak forms 
7 per cent of the total exports, and cotton 24 per 
cent. 

The statistics of the province show that one of 
the chief wants is population, —a want which 
our connection with India and China would make 
it easy for Madras, Bengal, and China to supply, 
thus adding materially to the producing capacity 
and general prosperity of the province. 


SOME RECENT TEXT-BOOKS ON METHODS 
IN MICROSCOPIC ANATOMY. 


THE rapidity of the improvements recently 
made in methods devised for carrying on all kinds 


of zodlogical investigations has resulted in the 


establishment of journals largely, or even exclu- 
sively, devoted to the diffusion of information in 
technic. The amount of valuable experience 
already acquired over a field much broader than 
that covered by the older text-books on histology 
has rendered it imperative that the sources of this 
widely scattered information should be syste- 
matically reviewed with the purpose of collecting 
its important and really valuable elements, and 
putting them into a shape convenient for use both 
by beginners and by such investigators as are 
wise enough not to waste time by remaining con- 
tent with the scanty methods and appliances of 
twenty, or even ten, years ago. 

The value of the text-book which summarizes 
the present acquisitions in this field will depend 
upon several things, but principally upon the 
critical knowledge and experience which its au- 


[Vou. VII., No. 154 


thor brings to bear on the selection of material, 
and the method of treating his subject. 

Since the publication of the first part of Fol’s 
‘ Lehrbuch der vergleichenden mikroskopischen 
anatomie,’’ in 1884, there have appeared several 
books having this general purpose in view. The 
immediate aims of the three mentioned below ” 
are not quite identical: each fills a place not fully 
occupied by either of the others. The first is 
primarily intended for the beginner, to whom 
sources of difficulty and their remedies are ex- 
plained ; the third, while intended first of all for 
‘the instructed anatomist,’ also aims to be of use 
to the beginner ; the second takes a middle ground 
between the other two, in that it does not aim to 
be ‘an exhaustive treatise of the subject in any of 
its aspects,’ but endeavors to meet ‘the every-day 
needs of a zodlogical laboratory.’ 

In asmall pamphlet of about forty pages, Kiken- 
thal has brought together concise practical direc- 
tions covering the more important of the recent 
technical methods employed by zodlogists. The 
statement in the preface that this little book con- 
tains nothing essentially new is realized. At the 
same time, it meets very satisfactorily the needs 
of a beginner: for the selections made are, on the 
whole, judicious; and the descriptions, though 
brief, are intelligible and to the point. About 
one-third of the book is devoted to the processes 
(illustrated) of embedding (chloroform-paraffine), 
sectioning, and affixing sections; but the space 
devoted to embedding in gum, albumen, and cel- 
loidin, is too brief to be of much service. Its 
compact and unpretending form puts this little 
pamphlet within easy reach of every beginner, 
and those to whom German is no impediment 
will find it serviceable. 

Whitman’s work is an immediate outgrowth — 
from his editorial labors, in connection with the 
department of microscopy in the American natu- _ 
ralist ; but it is much more than a compilation of — 
matter already published there. Although the 
book is called ‘ Methods in microscopical anatomy,’ 
etc., its scope is somewhat broader than that of the — 
two other works, for ‘material and methods’ — 
sums up the author’s view of the needs of the — 
zoMlogical laboratory ; and upon both points he — 
aims to be of service. } , 

Part i. deals with general methods, which are _ 


1 For a review of Fol’s book see Science, vol, v. p. 510. 7. 


2 Die mikroskopische technik im zoologischen praktikum. 
Von Dr. WiLLyY KUEKENTHAL. Jena, Fischer, 1885, 16°. 

Methods of research in microscopical anatomy and em- — 
bryology. By CHARLES Otis WHITMAN. Boston, Cassino, | 
1885. 8°. : 

The microtomist’s vade-mecum; a hand-book of the meth- — 
ods of microscopic anatomy. By ARTHUR BoLLEs LEE, — 
Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1885. 12°. | 


‘ 
A 
_— 
of 
, 


JANUARY 15, 1886.] 


introduced by a few pages intended to orient the 
beginner as to the proper sequence of steps in the 
more difficult work, and to acquaint him with 
the facts and underlying reasons connected with 
killing, hardening, and staining. The chapter on 
reagents (preservative, macerating, decalcifying, 
etc.) is followed by methods of staining, metallic 
impregnations, and bleaching. Microtomes, to- 
gether with their auxiliaries and methods of 
embedding (freely illustrated), occupy two chap- 
ters, and the remaining three of the first part are 
devoted to methods of fixing serial sections, to 
mounting media, etc. 

The second part, which occupies about half the 
volume, contains some matter not previously pub- 
lished. About fifty pages are devoted to ‘em- 
bryological methods.’ This chapter furnishes 
much valuable information, but the arrangement 
leaves the impression that it is the result of fortu- 
itous reading rather than a methodical search for 
the most valuable things within the scope of the 
topic. The chapter on ‘Times and places of ovu- 
lation’ serves at least to call attention to the de- 
sirability of a more extensive compilation of the 
facts hitherto published on this subject, as a 
means of aiding less experienced students in 
their search for embryological material. The 
methods employed in studying karyokinesis during 
cell-division and in the preparation of nervous 
tissue are considered ‘separately from ‘ Histological 
methods,’ without any very apparent reason. The 
important methods of reconstructing the object 
from microscopic sections introduced by His, 
Born, and others, form the concluding chapter, 
which is followed by an appendix principally 
devoted to recent methods of injecting. 

Although not exhaustive, nor perhaps sym- 
metrically planned, both the matter and the man- 
ner of the book commend it to every advanced 
and advancing zodlogist as well as to beginners ; 
and it is for that very reason that one interested in 
real scientific progress the more regrets to see a 
publisher possessed of the idea that his interests 
demand the production of a book twice as bulky 
and twice as expensive as it need be. 

Lee’s book is the outcome of a more pretentious 
undertaking. The author has desired to produce 
‘a concise but complete account of all the methods 
of preparation that have been recommended as 
useful for the purpose of microscopic anatomy.’ 
Whatever opinion one may entertain about the 
desirability of a manual framed on so catholic a 
plan, it must be admitted that the author has 
brought together an immense amount of material 
In a compact and handy form, which goes far 
toward saying it will get used; for the book- 
maker who makes books for any but people of 


~ 


SCIENCE. 65 


superfluous leisure, must make them so that they 
can be consulted without waste of time. 

Notwithstanding a natural prejudice which one 
experiences when an author declines to use his 
judgment for the reader’s benefit, it must be 
granted that Lee’s work is not edited without 
discrimination, for the brief but valuable intro- 
ductions which precede the more important topics 
show that the author is fully alive to the prin- 
ciples underlying manipulations. The citation of 
the sources of the formulae gives to the student 
the requisite opportunity for ready verification 
and control, and the plan of using serial numbers 
to indicate the successive sections of the book is 
economical both for author and reader. The latter 
would have been spared much time, if a column 
for page-references had been added in the index. 

The ‘ vade-mecum’ is practically without illus- 
trations, and, although supposed to be ‘ exhaus- 
tive,’ appears to have ignored the important aids 
to killing animals in a distended and natural con- 
dition which are afforded by certain stupefying 
reagents, such as nicotine, chloral hydrate, etc. 

The author defends the nature of his publica- 
tion — from which ‘‘no process having any claim 
to scientific status has been rejected, nor any (he 
trusts) unwittingly omitted” —on the ground 
that (though ‘‘a large proportion of the formulae 
are quite superseded in modern practice’) ‘‘ some 
one or other of them may perhaps serve, in 
some way that cannot now be foreseen, to sug- 
gest some new method of value ;” and he enforces 
his opinion by reference to the history of the use 
of corrosive sublimate. He, however, uses the 
knife (and how could he fail to’) when he comes 
to the matter of ‘cements and varnishes.’ The 
magnitude of the undertaking has also compelled 
him to modify his original plan of making the 
second part traverse the entire field of histology 
and microscopic zodtomy, ‘‘ giving the student 
detailed instructions for the examination of all 
structures that have hitherto been studied, and 
thus making him entirely independent of all help 
from a teacher.” 

The author, therefore, limits himself in the 
special part to about one-fourth of his four hun- 
dred pages, and considers in it ‘only very special 
cases,’ such as cell-division, the microtomy of the 
human brain, etc. The histclogical part of the 
field has received much the larger share of atten- 
tion, — the nervous system, nerve terminations, 
sense-organs, being very fully treated, —and the 
embryological only a fragmentary consideration. 
For this reason and others, the works of Lee and 
Whitman supplement each other in such a way 
that no one actively engaged in microscopic 
work can afford to dispense with either. 


66 SCIENCE. 


COOKING AND DIETING. 


It was the privilege of the writer of this notice 
in August, 1884, to listen to a lecture on the 
chemistry of cookery, given at one of the confer- 
ences at the health exhibition in London, by the 
genial and enthusiastic author of the volume first 
named. After having personally urged the im- 
mediate publication in America, in book form, of 
his papers then appearing in the Popular science 
monthly, it can only be possible for the present 
writer to urge American readers to avail them- 
selves of so much valuable information and sound 
sense, served up with so much entertainment as 
Mr. Williams furnishes in his manner of presenta- 
tion, — a manner well calculated to catch the popu- 
lar eye, but which at first glance may prejudice 
the scientific reader. A critical reading from the 
stand-point of a cookery chemist, as well as from 
that of a chemical cook, has failed to reveal any 
errors of statement as to the present condition of 
scientific knowledge on the subject of cookery. 
There are many doubtful points, it is true ; but they 
are well stated in the volume before us, and the 
lines on which further research is needed are 
clearly indicated. The author, himself a living 
exemplification of the fact that good cookery al- 
lows good health and good spirits, is a chemist and 
metallurgist, a student yet, though he is rather past 
middle life. He shows himself well acquainted 
with laboratory methods of experimentation, and 
also with practical cooking. 

In Mrs. Henderson's book one is startled to find 
recommended as ‘diet for the sick’ a slice of 
Boston brownbread, with cream, for breakfast ; 
fricassee of chicken, with potatoes 4 la créme, for 
dinner; macaroni and tomato-sauce, with pear 
compote, for tea. Evidently the author means by 
the sick, invalids and convalescents, people with 
delicate appetites which need to be tempted by 
dainty service and pleasant flavors. The book is 
not one for the hospital nurse, but for the lady com- 
panion of invalids and elderly people. who cannot 
take exercise. The recipes seem to be excellent, 
and the directions for serving so as to increase the 
enjoyment of the food are admirable in points too 
often overlooked. The author has endeavored to 
incorporate the latest theories of diet into the cook- 
book with an enthusiasm which may prove to be 
well founded, and which may not. Grape-juice 
and hot water have become pretty well established : 
peptonized foods, koumiss, and whole wheat are 


The chemistry of cookery. 
New York, Appleton, 1885, 12°, 


By W. Matrievu WILLIAMS, 


Diet for the sick. A treatise on the values of foods, their 
application to special conditions of health and disease, and 
on the best methods of their preparation. By Mrs, MAry 
F. HENDERSON, New York, Harper, 1885. 12°. 


[Vou. VII., No. 154 _ 


less certain to hold their own. While the practical 
part of the book is so worthy of praise, it is to be 
regretted that the first chapter on the chemical 
composition of foods had not been omitted, or at 
least revised by a chemist. 


Last April Mrs. Caroline Dall delivered an 
address in Washington, D.C., before the Shak- 
speare club of that city, on which occasion she 
refuted certain statements made by Mr. Donnelly 
respecting the ‘ cipher,’ and various assertions of 
other parties relative to the ancestry, education, 
and character of the poet. These replies have 
now been embodied in a volume of some two 
hundred pages, entitled ‘What we really know 
about Shakspeare’ (Boston, Roberts, 1885). The 
author declares that she has endeavored to pre- 
pare a work which will show at a glance such 
facts pertaining to Shakspeare’s history as are 
substantiated by contemporary testimonials and ex- 
isting documents. In this she has admirably suc- 
ceeded ; but, as her book is intended principally 
for the use of beginners, it might be as well not 
to confuse them with theories such as those re- 
specting Anne Hathaway’s parentage, and her 
husband’s travels in Germany and Italy. How- 
ever, aside from afew minor speculations of this 
nature, the work is an admirable one, which can- 
not fail to assist the student by reason of its 
concise chronological arrangement, and the ex- 
cellent index which terminates the volume. Those 
who are familiar with the plan of Mr. Tweddell’s 
work, published some thirty years ago, will ap- 
preciate the labors of Mrs. Dall; and, in view of 
this fact, we sincerely trust that Mr. Halliwell- 
Phillipps will forgive her for misspelling his name 
whenever she has had occasion to quote it. 


In Grand Lake, Sandy Lake, and other ~ 
bodies of fresh water in Newfoundland, seals are 
known to breed in abundance, never visiting 
the sea. Like habits are said to be found in these — 
animals inhabiting Lake Baikal in central Asia, 
twelve hundred and eighty feet above sea-level. 
In a pamphlet by Mr. Harvey, entitled ‘Across 


Newfoundland,’ the author is of the belief that é | 


these fresh-water lakes of Newfoundland have — 
undergone a gradual change from a previous © 
brackish or salty condition, and that the inhabit-_ 
ants have by degrees adapted themselves to their _ 
changed conditions. Grounds for this belief are — 
afforded by the fact that other large bodies of 
salt water in Newfoundland are during periods of 
the year cut off from the sea, and might readily 
become permanently separated. 


PGs ran F. 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


Dr. PERSIFOR FRAZER of Philadelphia has re- 
cently applied composite photography to test- 
ing the genuineness of signatures. He first ob- 
tained by composite photography a standard 
signature, and then he compared this with the 
signature in dispute. In the case of the composites 
of the heads on coins, or of portraits, it is tacitly 
assumed that the variation observed is due to a 
difference of the subject at different times, or to 
the different impression which the same subject 
makes on different artists. In the case of hand- 
writing, however, the will-power of the writer 
attempts to reproduce exactly a certain combina- 
tion of symbols in the same order as that usually 
performed ; but the accidental physical obstacles 
or mental influences render this impossible. A 
priori, it would seem likely that a composite of 
a larger number of signatures would show an 
individuality little less distinct than the race, 
family, or pathological characteristics which thus 
far it has been the aim of those who have used 
this method to portray. In point of fact it turns 
out to be the case; but what was not foreseen is 
equally true ; viz., that the very variations which 
appear on the plate, either as very faint lines or 
as blurs, furnish the most valuable aid in deter- 
mining whether or not two pieces of writing are 
by the same hand. On examining carefully each 
letter of a composite made from a large number 
of signatures, it is found that the variations in 
writing a letter at different times, are confined to 
certain of its parts, and are not distributed equally 
over the entire field. Thus not only is there more 
uniformity in letters and parts of letters which lie 
close to the line, but in the upper loops, dots, and 
crosses, the tendency in all cases thus far ex- 
amined is towards variation in one, or at most 
two, directions; and these are restricted more 
than one would suppose, who regards without 
critical analysis the writings from which the com- 
posites were made. It would be premature at this 
time to say with what certainty one might tell, 
after an extensive experience of the use of this 
sort of analysis, that two writings were or were 

No. 155. — 1886. 


not by the same hand. But the great gain, after 
all, is not altogether in the certainty which the 
method renders possible (though this cannot be 
ignored), but in the fact that it removes the judg- 
ment on affairs as delicate and often as important 
as the identification of handwriting from the pos- 
sible bias of personal expert opinion, and allows 
the testimony of the photograph to be weighed by 
judge and jury like any other testimony. So far 
as Dr. Frazer has yet been able to observe, it is im- 
possible to write naturally the signature, or even 
the hand, of any other person, without showing 
numerous discrepancies with the composite plate. 
The essential requisites to making the plate are of 
course aS many signatures as possible, about which 
there can be no suspicion. In order to make the 
letters overlap as much as possible, it is some- 
times found necessary to photograph them at dif- 
ferent distances from the camera. It is a curious 
fact, that, when a man is obliged to restrict his 
whole signature to a space less than that to which 
he is accustomed, he will insensibly make a change, 
which is usually a close approximation to a re- 
duced scale. 

IN THE NUMBER of Science for last week we 
noticed the railroad running across the deserts 
of Asia towards Merv and Bokhara. This week 
we wish to call attention to the first well-devel- 
oped plan for the construction of a railway con- 
necting the interior of Africa with the Atlantic 
Ocean. On the 23d of December, 1885, an agree- 
ment was made at Brussels, between the inde- 
pendent state of Kongo, and delegates from the 
Kongo railway company of Manchester, granting 
to this company the right to construct a railway 
to connect the upper and lower Kongo. The 
delegates of the English company were Messrs. 
Hutton, M.P., president of Manchester chamber 
of commerce ; Mackinnon, director of the British- 
Indian steam navigation company ; and Stanley. 
The directors of the railway company are the 
three delegates before mentioned; and Messrs. 
Adamson, president of the ship-canal to connect 
Manchester with Liverpool; Jacob Bright ; Lord 
Egerton ; Sir James Ferguson, M.P., and former 
governor of Bombay ; W. H. Houldsworth, M.P.; 
and H. M. Steinthal of Manchester. The capital 


68 SCIENCE. 


will be five million dollars, and subscriptions will 
be immediately opened in the capitals of the four 
states which signed the general act of the confer- 
ence at Berlin. The railroad will be constructed 
within the territory of the state of Kongo, either 
on the south side of the river, between the frontier 
and Leopoldville, or in two sections, — one on the 
right bank of the river, and the other on the left. 


LIEUTENANT TAUNT of the U.S. navy recently 
arrived in London from the Kongo, where he has 
been on a mission for the government. Mr. Tis- 
dell’s report of a visit to the lower Kongo, in 
which he painted so black a picture of unsuccess 
and sterility, will be fresh in the memory of our 
readers. The report which Lieutenant Taunt has 
to render bears a very different complexion : he 
did not content himself with a hurried visit to 
Vivi and Stanley Pool, but went as far as Stanley 
Falls. He describes the lower Kongo as in the 
main barren, but even there relieved by fertile 
spots. The administration of the Kongo state is 
severely criticised. Lieutenant Taunt finds that 
in the lower Kongo the officials do not retain their 
offices long enough: this is presumably to be 
credited to the extremely unhealthy climate, 
although no such reason is given by Lieutenant 
Taunt. On the upper Kongo he found the 
officials better contented, and the administration 
more satisfactory. It is understood that there is 
no prospect of Mr. Stanley proceeding to the 
Kongo in the near future ; and there is a tendency 
to withdraw all officials notof Belgian nationality. 
Sir Francis de Winton has retired, and has been 
succeeded by N. Janssen. These changes may 
result in doing away with the jealousies formerly 
existing among the officials of different national- 
ities. 


THE DECLINE OF CHOLERA in southern Europe 
has afforded ground for the hope that the epidemic 
had nearly ceased, or at least that the worst was 
over. From recent news, however, it appears 
that there yet exists cause for apprehension. The 
disease has broken out in the provinces of Cadiz 
and Malaga, and quarantine has been established 
at several seaports. It has approached the fron- 
tiers of Portugal, and it is very possible, if not 
probable, that it may break out with its previous 
intensity in the spring. Not only in Portugal, 
but in various provinces of Spain, evidence seems 
to indicate that the end of the epidemic is not yet. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 155_ 


ON ANOTHER PAGE will be found the proceed- 
ings of the first meeting of the Indiana academy 
of sciences. This society enters upon its existence 
under auspicious circumstances, and its future 
progress will be watched with interest. The list 
of names of the officers or participants, as given, 
includes not a few of men of acknowledged 
ability ; and there certainly seems to be sufficient 
material among the scientific workers of Indiana 
to make the academy a success. Other state 
academies have led a feeble existence, from lack 
of material or proper management; may it be 
hoped that the future of the present one will be 
brighter. 


) 

THE COMPETITION OF CONVICT LABOR. 
' 

: 

r 

4 


{ 
: 


Back of all the discussion as to the various 
methods of employing convicts, one of which was 
commented on in a recent number of this journal 
(Science, No. 153, p. 28), lies the complaint that 
any method whatsoever of utilizing convict labor, 
save in the work about the prisons, results in a 
competition with free labor which is unfair and 
injurious. ‘ 

The idea that this competition really exists in 
an appreciable amount has taken possession of 
so many minds, that we offer a few statistics on 
the subject. It may at once be admitted, that 
were all the 60,000 convicts in this country em- 
ployed in a single industry, under one scheme of 
management, the effect would be that an enormous 
addition would be made to the productive capacity 
of that industry, and consequently prices might 
fall, and a reduction of wages result. But this 
hypothesis is as far from the truth as possible. 

In 1879 Col. Carroll D. Wright (‘ Eleventh an- 
nual report of the Massachusetts bureau of the statis- 
tics of labor,’ p. 112) stated that such convicts as © 
were employed at any kind of labor whatsoever 
throughout the whole United States were 40,122 — 
in number, and were distributed among 129 penal " 
institutions. Of this number, 23,524 — 22,288 males — 
and 1,236 females — were employed in 108 kinds ~ 
of industries requiring skilled labor; 11,668 — — 
11,450 males and 218 females — were employed in 
25 kinds of industries requiring unskilled labor; _ 
the remaining 4,930 were employed in prison — 
duties. These 23,524 convicts, employed in pro- — 
ductive skilled work in the prisons of the United — 
States, were competing (ibid., p. 114) with 666,625 — 
workmen employed in the same states upon the. 
same kind of work, and with 1,269,240 in the © 
whole United States engaged in the same produc- — 
tive industries that were carried on in the prisons: — 
therefore the percentage of convicts to free laborers — 
was 1.83. 


JANUARY 22, 1886.] 


Small as this makes the force of the competition 
appear, the real effect is smaller still. The com- 
peting power of the prisons was, as appears above, 
23,524 convicts. But, relying on the most scien- 
tific tests and measures that the English prison 
managers have been able to apply to the productive 
force of convict labor, we find that it takes the 
labor of two convicts to equal that of one free 
laborer (see ‘Report of the superintendent of 
state prisons of the state of New York for the year 
1884,’ p. 24). This results, of course, from the low 
mental] and moral equipment of the average con- 
vict, as well as from the peculiar conditions under 
which prison labor is carried on. As it is a well- 
known fact that the artisans in the United States 
accomplish more work in a given time than their 
European competitors do, it will be necessary to 
allow for a somewhat higher standard of convict 
labor. Putting this allowance at 10 per cent, we 
find that the productive labor of an American 
convict is 60 per cent of that of the free workman. 

Therefore, while the percentage of convicts to 
free laborers was 1.83, the competitive productive 
power of the former was only three-fifths of that, 
or-1.1 per cent. And it is this minute percentage 
of competition that has caused all the hue and 
cry against convict labor. 

In a recent paper on ‘The rate of wages,’ Mr. 
Edward Atkinson of Boston, basing his statistics 
on the census of 1880, states that 17,400,000 per- 
sons are engaged in some gainful occupation. Of 
this number, 150,000 are in government employ : 
so there remain 17,250,000 producers, who, by 
exchanging products with others, also obtain the 
means of living, and thereby become consumers. 
1.050,000 of these are engaged in mental rather 
than manual work ; such are clergymen, lawyers, 
teachers, artists, chemists, engineers, officials of 
banks, railroads, insurance companies and corpo- 
rations, merchants, traders, and dealers. When 
these are deducted, we have a remainder of 16,- 
200,000, who constitute the actual working-class. 
7,000,000 of these are farmers and farm-laborers, 
and the rest are artisans, mechanics, clerks, 
laborers, operatives, domestic servants, and 
other wage earners. The products vf the me- 
chanical industries of the United States amount 
to more than five thousand million dollars an- 
ually. The total product of the state prisons of 
the country is not over twenty millions per annum, 
or two-fifths of one per cent of the whole manu- 
factured products of the country ; and this figure 
is obtained by taking prison labor at a valuation 
of two dollars per day, —the average price for 
labor outside of prisons. As the convicts earn, on 
an average, only forty cents a day, their earn- 
ings represent a product of less than one-fifth 


SCIENCE. 69 


of one per cent of the products of the United 
States. 

We are convinced that those who participate in 
the crusade against the employment of convicts 
in productive industries on the ground of unfair 
competition with free labor, are innocent of any 
acquaintance with the facts and figures that bear 
on the question. NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER. 


THE NEW VOLCANO IN THE PACIFIC. 


THE New Zealand herald of Nov. 3 contained 
the following account of the recently reported 
new volcano in the Pacific :— 

‘« Tn yesterday’s paper we stated the news brought 
by the schooner Maile, that a new and vast volcano 
had arisen in the Pacific Ocean. A correspondent 
in Tonga, dating Oct. 19, gives the following par- 
ticulars: ‘At daylight on the 13th of this month 
(October) we observed dense volumes of steam, 
smoke, and clouds, ascending in a N. N. W. direc- 
tion. At one o’clock P.M. on the same day pro- 
ceeded in the Sandfly in that direction, having on 
board the Premier, Mr. Baker, Mrs. Baker, two 
Misses Baker, Mr. 8. W. E. Baker, Miss Tuckow, 
Dr. Buckland, Rev. Mr. Watkin, Mr. F. Watkin, 
Mr. Wilson, Mr. 8S. Roberts, Prince Liponie, Chief 
Tongi, and several others ; sailed sufficiently close 
that evening to see that it was a submarine vol- 
canic eruption. Considering it not prudent to 
approach it any closer, night coming on, and think- 
ing there might possibly be a set of currents 
towards it, shortened sail, and worked to wind- 
ward of it, keeping it at a respectable and com- 
fortable distance from us during the night. In 
the morning at daylight made sail with a fresh 
breeze from #. 8S. E. About eight A.M. my judg- 
ment was, we were about 14 to 2 miles from the 
crater, it bearing then about N. W. I have not 
words to express my admiration and wonder at 
its changing splendor. Eruptions take place every 
one or two minutes, changing its appearance 
every second like a dissolving view. I can only 
say it was one of the most awfully grand sights I 
ever witnessed in all my life on the high seas. 
And now for the position, as near as I have been 
able to calculate at present, of the island that has 
been thrown up by this volcanic eruption. Itis 
on the 8. E. edge of Culebras reef, as placed on 
the chart by H. M.S. Falcon in 1865, and N. N. 
W. iW. magnetic, 14 to 15 miles from the island 
of Honga Tonga. As to the size or extent of the 
island thrown up, I am at present unable to state 
correctly, there being so much steam and clouds 
hanging about and over it; but I should imagine, 
from what little I could see of it, that it was from 
2to 3 miles long, S. W. and N. E.; height about 


70 


60 ft.; lat., 20° 21’S.; long., 175° 28’ W. position 
of Sandfly Island, for we saw it rise. Got back 
again just too late to enter the reefs to Tonga. 
Anchored at Nukualofa at ten A.M. on the 15th. 
We had lovely weather all the time, a nice S. E. 
wind, and every one seemed highly gratified with 
what he had seen.’” 


THE RECENT COLD WAVE. 


THE accompanying minute maps are reduced 
from daily weather-charts published by the signal 
service, and represent certain features of the 
weather during the passage of the recent severe 
cold wave. The series of six maps (figs. 1 and 2), 
designed to show the changes of temperature from 
Jan. 7 to Jan. 12, are crossed by a heavy line that 
marks the altitude of 0° F. as determined by the 
observations at 7 A.M. on successive mornings. 


Fia. 


To the north of it, the dotted area extends to the 
isotherm of 30° below zero; the space shaded with 
lines, farther north, being colder still. The un- 
shaded part of the maps contains the tempera- 
tures between 0° and 30° above: the next belt 
covers temperatures from 80° to 50°; and ina few 
of the maps, temperatures above 50° appear in the 
extreme south. 

On the morning of Jan. 7, a storm-centre of 
moderate intensity lay in southern Texas, having 
come across northern Mexico from the Pacific ; at 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 155 


the same time an area of high pressure, with very _ 
low temperatures, stood in the far north-west. 
As is stated by Lieutenant Woodruff in his recent 
note on cold-waves, areas of high pressure extend 
to the south and east with their low temperatures, 
while the antecedent storm-centres move off to the 
north-east. The wave here considered belongs to 
the third of Woodruff’s classes, inasmuch as it first 
spread southward to Texas, and then east and north- 
eastward to the Atlantic coast. On Jan. 8, when 
the storm-centre was near Mobile, a fine ‘ norther,’ 
suchas would have delighted Redfield, swept down 
the plains to the Gulf, and Galveston was only ~ 
about ten degrees warmer than Duluth. The zero 
isotherm stood just west of the Mississippi, run- 
ning nearly north and south for about seven hun- 
dred miles. During the next three days, while 
the storm moved off over Labrador, the cold wave 
crept up the Ohio valley, where the temperature © 


then stood distinctly lower than in Michigan, two — 
hundred miles farther north. At last, on Jan. 11 _ 
and 12, the zero isotherm turned well north over 7 
the plains as more moderate temperatures re- 
turned. 4 

The most interesting phase of this spell of — 
weather was doubtless that presented on the — 
morning of Jan. 9, when the storm had developed — 
into a true cyclone, with nearly circular isobars, 
and remarkably low pressure at its centre in 
southern New Jersey. At this time the barometer 


JANUARY 22, 1886. ] 


at Philadelphia read (reduced to sea-level) 28.69 ; 
it was 30.81 in the anticyclonic centre near Lake 
Winnipeg, a difference of over two inches in only 


Fie, 3. 


1,400 miles. This is illustrated in fig. 3, which 
gives the isobars for every even tenth of an inch; 
it shows also the area (dotted) over which snow 
was falling at this time; and the storm-track is 
traced by a heavy broken line, with a cross and a 
date to mark the place of the centre at seven 
o'clock in the morning while it lay within our 
territory. The numerous wrecks along our coast 
attest the violence of the winds at this time. 
When the monthly weather review for January 
comes out, we shall hope to find a detailed ac- 
count of this storm, especially from those stations 
along the coast that lay close on the path of its 
centre. 

Fig. 4, for the same date, is designed to illus- 
trate the extraordinarily low temperatures brought 
by the cold wave in the rear of the cyclone. The 


mean temperatures for January are taken from 
Lieutenant Greely’s monograph (1881), and drawn 
in broken lines for every ten degrees. By com- 
paring these with the six temperature maps above, 
the amount of departure from the normal may be 
estimated. The departure for Jan. 9 is given by 
two shaded areas, showing a depression of thirty 
and forty degrees respectively; this depression 
being calculated from the mean J anuary tempera- 
ture at 7 A.M., as given in the chief signal officer’s 


SCIENCE. 


ae: 


report for 1884. The temperatures reached in the 
southern states on this and the following days are 
in all cases close to the recorded minimum of 
earlier years, and in many cases are lower than 
any thing known in the signal-service stations 
there. Altogether, the storm and the cold wave 
are perfect examples of their unpleasant kind. 

WY oi 1; 


AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHEOLOGY. 


THE fourth number of the American journal of 
archeology, which has just appeared in Baltimore, 
completes the first volume, and fully sustains the 
high expectations which were entertained of its 
management. Nearly five hundred pages, illus- 
trated by eleven plates and sixteen figures, have 
been given to the subscribers; but the quality of 
the articles is more noteworthy than the quantity. 
No other archeological journal of any country 
affords so comprehensive a view of the progress 
of investigation and discussion. All important 
reviews and monographs and books are noticed 
by competent readers and critics, whose names 
are appended as authority for the statements 
which are presented. The proceedings of soci- 
eties are also recorded. Although chiefly con- 
cerned with the archeology of civilized nations, 
prehistoric remains are not neglected; but the 
effort is made to represent in one journal all the 
varied movements of the science. The managing 
editor, A. L. Frothingham, jun., Ph.D., by his 
complete familiarity with the French, Italian, and 
German languages, and by his long residence in 
Rome, has become acquainted with the leading 
authorities, and has been able to secure their en- 
couragement, and to a considerable extent their 
co-operation in his undertaking. A list of those 
Europeans who have already made, or who have 
promised at an early day to make, contributions 
to the American journal of archeology, includes 
the names of such well-known persons as Piper of 
Berlin ; Reber of Munich ; Michaelis of Strassburg ; 
Schreiber of Leipzig ; Ramsay of Oxford ; Babelon, 
Reinach, Mintz, and de Marsy, of Paris; de Rossi, 
Marucchi, and Helbig, of Rome; Hildebrand of 
Stockholm ; Lambros of Athens ; and many more. 
Many of our countrymen are also enlisted in the 
enterprise. 

With such an array of names, a good series of 
papers would of course be expected, and the re- 
sult has been satisfactory. In the latest number 
the most noteworthy article is, perhaps, that of 
Professor Merriam, on that remarkable code re- 
cently discovered at Gortynia in Crete. So long 
ago as 1857, an inscribed stone, built into the 
walls of a mill on the banks of the Cretan river 


72 SCIENCE. 


Lethaios, was discovered by M. Thenon, and 
afterwards transferred to the Louvre. Its mean- 
ing was deciphered by M. Bréal in 1878. In 1884, 
Halbherr, a pupil of Comparetti, discovered on 
the same site four columns, with additional parts 
of the inscription. A few months later eight 
more columns were disclosed by Fabricius. Dr. 
Halbherr returned again last summer to his task, 
but no additional inscriptions were found. The 
text thus gradually brought out is now printed 
with a translation, and with critical comments, 
by Professor Merriam, who comes to the con- 
clusion that the inscription is probably of the 
period of Solon. Our space will not permit a 
fuller account of this wonderful monument, in- 
teresting not only to archeologists, but to students 
of historical law and the history of civilization. 
Professor Merriam is to continue his discussion 
in the following number of the journal. 

S. Reinach, lately in the French school at 
Athens, describes a beautiful statue of Artemis, 
lately discovered, and now in the Tchinley-Kiosk 
museum in Constantinople. The editor, Dr. 
Frothingham, has an illustrated article on the 
revival of sculpture in Europe in the thirteenth 
century, and begins a series of notes on Christian 
mosaics. The other main article is by Mr. W. H. 
Holmes, on the monoliths of San Juan Teotihua- 
can, Mex. Our notice would be incomplete if 
it did not include a reference to a second article 
by Reinach on the base of an archaic bronze 
statue from Mount Ptous, which has an interest- 
ing and enigmatical inscription. Babelon’s ar- 
ticle, running through fifteen pages, on Greek 
and Roman numismatics, is also full of interest. 
But, valuable as are all these special papers, many 
readers will find still greater advantage in having 
at command, in a single number of this journal, 
forty-three pages of archeological news from all 
parts of the world, including fresh intelligence 
even from Cambodia and Hindustan. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

Color-sense of the Fijians. — Schwarzbach 
writes from Sydney in regard to the color-sense 
of the Fijians, which he has been investigating. 
They have no abstract word for color, but merely 
color-names. They have one name for black, 
which also includes all shades of blue, one for red 
and reddish tints, for white, for green, and for 
yellow. When asked to define more exactly some 
intermediate tint, they use some such phrase as 
‘it is like a bird.’ Having examined over two 
thousand Hottentots, Malays, Melanesians, Austra- 
lians, Maoris, and Polynesians for color-blindness, 
not a single instance was found; and the writer 


{[Vou. VII., No. 155 


believes it to be confined to the white race, and a 
defect due to influences connected with civilized 
life. 

Some local dialects. — Pinart states that the use 
of the Aino tongue on the Kurile Islands, already 
affected by the Aleut population brought there by — 
the Russian fur company, has become practically 
extinct except on Iterup and Urup, the two prin- 
cipal islands. Since the cession of the group by 
Russia to Japan, the influx of Japanese has been 
such as to greatly dilute the already sparse popu- — 
lation ; and it is also said that on the island of 
Yesso the use of the Aino tongue is rapidly de- 
clining, while mixture of blood by marriage with 
the Japanese is on the increase. The same au- 
thority announces that in the midst of the moun- 
tains of the Sierra Tutotepec, in Mexico, especially 
at the village of Huehuetta, is a tribe known as 
the Tepehuas, or mountaineers, but who call them- 
selves Ulmeca. These people, M. Pinart believes, 
speak a dialect essentially similar to the Totonak, 
and are probably the last remnant of the Olmek 
people referred to by early writers. There are 
about four thousand of them, and their manners 
and customs are peculiar in many respects. 

Slavery in Madagascar. — In connection with 
a discussion of the condition of society in Madagas- 
car, some interesting details have recently been 
made public in regard to slavery on that island. 
It appears that somewhat more than half of the 
population of four millions are in a state of servi- 
tude. Though the slave-trade has been prohibited, 
and the individuals brought from Mozambique for 
sale have been freed hy royal edict, there is still 
in the outlying districts a surreptitious trade in 
slaves, supposed to amount to several thousand 
per annum. Of the people recognized as slaves — 
there are two classes, — those of the Hova race, ( 
who have become so by the action of law, which — 
prescribes slavery as a punishment for various — 
misdemeanors and for bankruptcy ; and the An- — 
dovos, who are prisoners of war taken in the con- — 
flicts between the Hovas and other indigenes. — 
There are no plantations, and field-work as a — 
regular labor is almost unknown. The free Hovas 
are not permitted to marry slaves ; and, on the | 
other hand, those of the slaves who have become 
so on account of debt, etc., are not permitted to — 
marry among the Andovos, who are regarded by — 
them as much their inferiors. Slavery with the © 
Hovas takes mostly the patriarchal form. Apart. | 
from those employed as workmen or domesti¢ — 
servants, many are practically free, only beimg | 
required to pay tribute, as of a fagot, for instance, 
on the Hova New-Year. Those who live with | 
their masters eat at the same board, converse 
freely with them, and frequently use such terms — 


=" 


BY i, ‘ 


JANUARY 22, 1886.] 


of address as would be literally appropriate only 
from children of the master of the house. Many 
have houses and farms of their own, giving a 
share of the crop to the master, who can, but 
rarely does, claim the whole of it. Slaves can 
use their earnings to buy their freedom if they 
can accumulate enough to do so, and they are 
frequently owners of other slaves. They generally 
make their own bargains for wages if they go out 
as porters or domestics, and reckon with their 
owner themselves. The condition of the slaves is 
much harder, however, among the Sakalavas, in 
the north-east part of the island, — a tribe hostile 
to the Hovas, and still pagans, by an alleged 
treaty with whom the French have acquired those 
‘rights’ which they have for some years been 
vainly endeavoring to enforce upon the Hovas. 
With the latter, since their conversion to Chris- 
tianity, a gradual and important amelioration has 
taken place in the matter of slave-holding, and the 
families of criminals are now no longer liable to be 
sold into a state of servitude. 


ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 


The zodiacal light. — Professor Searle of Har- 
vard college observatory, in a paper recently 
published, has continued his interesting investi- 
gations on the zodiacal light. This peculiar 
phenomenon is supposed to be due to finely 
divided matter of some kind illuminated either 
by direct sunlight or by the result of electrical or 
chemical action. This matter may be only a por- 
tion of the atmosphere or of some cosmical mass 
more or less homogeneous, but illumination is 
presumed to be confined within certain limits ; 
and the difficult task of the observer has been to 
attempt to define these limits. As a result of 
the present inquiry, there would seem to be reason 
to think, that after allowing for atmospheric 
absorption, which probably affects the apparent 
position largely, the zodiacal light, as seen during 
the second half of the nineteenth century, has 
had a more northern latitude near the longitude 
180° than near the longitude 0°. Furthermore, 
from a careful study of the distribution of the 
stars in the Durchmusterung, Professor Searle 
shows, that, ‘‘upon the meteoric theory of the 
zodiacal light, it is to be expected that a con- 
tinuous zodiacal band should be present ; but the 
- question of its actual visibility is complicated by 
the slight maxima of stellar density which are 
Situated along those parts of the ecliptic most 
Teadily accessible to observation from stations 
in the northern hemisphere.” And finally, from 
an examination of the elements of the first 237 
asteroids, it would seem that the belt of sky 


ie 


SCIENCE. 73 


occupied by the projections of their orbits pre- 
sents certain peculiarities which correspond to 
those of the zodiacal light, and suggest the 
hypothesis that the light may be partly due to 
minute objects circulating in orbits like those of 
the smaller planets. 

U. S. naval observatory. — Vol. xxix. of the 
publications of the Naval observatory, now in 
press, will contain, in addition to the regular 
series of astronomical and meteorological obser- 
vations for 1882, a valuable appendix by Professor 
Hall on the orbit of Iapetus, the outer satellite of 
Saturn; an appendix by Professor Harkness on 
the fiexure of transit instruments; and a third 
appendix by Commander A. D. Brown, giving 
the observations of the partial solar eclipse of 
1885 March 16, made at the observatory, and also 
observations made by several volunteer parties 
near the line where the annular phase was visible. 

Lord Rosse’s observatory, Birr castle. — We 
have recently received two papers communicated 
by the Earl of Rosse to the Royal Dublin society, 
and reprinted from vol. ili. (second series) of the 
Scientific transactions of the society. The first 
of these papers is a series of notes by Dr. Boed- 
dicker, on the aspect of the planet Mars in 1884, 
accompanied by a lithographed plate giving thir- 
teen sketches of the markings on the planet’s sur- 
face. The second paper is also by Dr. Boeddicker, 
and contains the results of observations made on 
the changes of heat from the moon during the 
total eclipse of 1884 Oct. 4. From these observa- 
tions it would appear that the amount of heat 
radiated to us from the moon itself, as distin- 
guished from that merely reflected or diffused 
by it, is almost insensible; and the minimum of 
the heat effect falis decidedly later than the 
minimum of illumination. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


FoR many years the exorbitant tax on salt 
in India has oppressed the lower classes, almost 
extinguishing some branches of industry. The 
Indian government has at last become alive to 
certain objections to the present rates of the salt- 
tax; namely, that cattle are stinted of a supply 
of salt, and that the same duty is charged on salt 
employed in manufactures or agriculture as for 
that used for other purposes. Experiments, for 
some time unsuccessful, have been prosecuted 
with a view of discovering a process whereby salt, 
while still useful for manufactures and agricul- 
ture, could be rendered unfit for human consump- 
tion. The government has now offered a reward, 
not exceeding five thousand rupees, to the inven- 
tor of a process satisfying the following condi- 


74 SCIENCE. 


tions: first, that its cost shall not exceed four 
annas per eighty pounds; and, secondly, that the 
preparation shall be such that edible salt cannot 
be extracted from it by the ordinary processes 
used by native salt-workers. 


— The vaccine from revaccinated children is of 
doubtful protective potency, according to the ob- 
servations of M. Blot, recently reported to the 
Académie de médecine. 


— According to La nature of Jan. 2, an inter- 
esting ethnological discovery has just been made 
at Dampont, near Paris. An ancient burial-place 
of the polished-stone age has been there exhumed, 
and found to contain various portions of skeletons, 
implements, pottery, etc. Three crania had been 
trepanned, and so skilfully that it appears like 
the work of a surgeon. 


— Within late years surgical operations upon 
the stomach for the extirpation of tumors or the 
removal of foreign bodies have been attempted a 
number of times, but almost invariably with un- 
favorable results. A case, the second on record, 
is just reported from England, where a large mass 
of hair, weighing about a pound, was removed 
from the stomach of a young lady, through an in- 
cision five inches in length, with recovery. 


— Two editions of Coulter’s ‘Rocky Mountain 
botany’ (New York, Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co.) are offered to the public: one of them is 
uniform with Gray’s manual of the botany of the 
eastern United States; the other is printed on 
thin, strong paper, and bound in a flexible and 
durable cover for the needs of the tourist. Of the 
merits of the work, it is of course too early to 
speak. The special descriptions which have been 
carefully and laboriously brought into a compen- 
dious arrangement for practical use by every day 
students, must now be subjected to criticism in 
the fields and parks, and on the siopes of the 
mountains of the central chain. It will not 
be surprising if some of the work done in the 
study will have to be modified by repeated ex- 
aminations of the specimens in their homes. But, 
so far as a careful inspection of the attractive 
pages of this volume can at present show, the 
work has been conscientiously and thoroughly 
done, and is a substantial boon to our students of 
botany. 

— The preparation of a new geological map 
of France, on the scale of 1: 500,000, has been 
undertaken by Messrs. G. Vasseur and L. Carez, 
according to Comptes rendus of Dec. 28. The first 
parts have been already presented to the academy. 
The work will comprise forty-eight parts, and will 
require five years for its completion. Five plates 


[Vou. VII., No. 155 


are already printed, mostly of the northern regions. 
Each large stratigraphic group will be represented 
by a single color, with shadings for the subdivis- 
ions, as proposed by the international congress at 
Bologne. The work will be accompanied by a 
volume of explanatory text. 


— The university of Basle, Switzerland, pos- 
sesses a human skeleton, prepared in 1543 by the 
founder of anatomy, Andreas Vesalius. It is the 
only known relic of this greatest of all human 
anatomists ; which fact, together with its great 
age, makes it especially precious. In the times of 
Vesalius the dissection of the human body was 
permitted by the authorities only with the greatest 
reluctance ; and the history of the present skeleton, 
as recently given by Professor Roth, is particularly 
interesting. On the 12th of May, 1548, the body of 
one Jacob Karrer, who had been beheaded, was 
handed over to the university for dissection by 
Vesalius. Not for two years had such an oppor- 
tunity occurred, and one can imagine the interest 
with which for many days the students and 
teachers followed the words and demonstrations of 
the great master. At the completion of the dis- 
section the skeleton was prepared by his own 
hands, and presented to the university. It was in 
this year that his great work on human anatomy, 
the foundation of the modern science, appeared. 
Who knows how much we are indebted to this 
very subject for the discovery of much that is 
taught to-day, — discoveries for which the author 
was condemned to death, and escaped oniy to die 
in exile from starvation ? 


— The trustees of Cornell university have filled 
the newly established Sage professorship of ethics 
and philosophy by the election of Prof. J. Goold 
Schurmann, Ph.D., at present professor of philos- 
ophy at Dalhousie college, Halifax, N.S. Pro- — 
fessor Schurmann is thirty-two years of age, and _ 
has studied at London, Edinburgh, and in Ger- — 
many. As Hibbert travelling scholar, he collected — 
the materials for an essay on ‘ Kautian ethics and _ 
the ethics of evolution,’ which attracted some : 


attention among specialists in philosophy when — 
it was published, in 1881. 


— Prof. Charles E. Hamlin, of the Agassiz muse-_ 
um of natural history, died at Cambridge, Jan. 3, 
aged about sixty years. | 


— Prof. A. M. Mayer, by the use of a simple ~ 
form of vitroscope with electric registration of 
seconds, has reached some valuable and interest- 
ing results as to the conditions and limits of 
accuracy in this method for determining the rate 
of standard forks (Mem. nat. acad. sc., iii.). He has 
also investigated the amount of change in the 


JANUARY 22, 1886.] 


rate of a fork caused by changes in temperature, 
in the amplitude of vibration, and by the pressure 
of the style against the paper on which the vibra- 
tions are recorded. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


x*+ Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


An early prediction of the decay of the obelisk. 


I Give below a translation of a portion of a letter 
from Dr. Alfred Stelzner of St. Petersburg. 

‘* At first I wanted to add to my remarks a com- 
parison between the New York Needle and the Alex- 
ander column in St. Petersburg ; for the rock of both 
is very much alike: it agrees even down to the 
occurrence of handsome little zircon crystals. This 
comparison would have been made but that it would 
have been a mournful and unpleasant croak in the 
triumphant report of Mr. Gorringe, and therefore it 
had to be abandoned ; but privately let it at least be 
put on record. You know, perhaps, that the Alexan- 
der column in St. Petersburg was transported from Fin- 
land to St. Petersburg in the thirties of this century 
at a senseless cost, and, with the assistance of thou- 
sands of men, was erected, — a monument for eternal 
ages, which should remind the beholder of a Russian 
monarch. But even in afew years the granite did 
sad honor to its Finnish name of ‘ Rappakivi,’ i.e., 
the lazy-stone. The granite commenced to weather, 
and weathered merrily on in spite of all technical 
and scientific commissions ; and one can well say that 
the years of the proud monument are numbered. It 
is possible that they chose unsound stone, and that 
they shook it about too much; so that, in quarrying 
and transporting it, it became filled with little clefts, 
and thus gave free play to its disintegration. But 
General Helmersen explains the affair differently. 
The granite, he says. contains many large felspar 
crystals. But the felspar is triclinic, and therefore 
expands, under the great differences of temperature 
between the St. Petersburg summer and winter, dif- 
ferently in the directions of its three axes: hence 
comes the crumbling, owing to the unequal molecular 
movement throughout the entire mass of the mono- 
lith. If this explanation is correct, then from the 
similarity of the rocks from Finland and Syene, and 
the great differences between the summer and winter 
temperature which exist also in New York, an unsus- 
pected danger threatens the old Egyptian monolith, 
which has always hitherto stood in a mild and equa- 
ble climate. Perhaps, also, it will succumb to the 
weakness of old age, for the London Needle of Cleo- 
patra is said to be beginning already to crumble in its 
new home. You may regard this statement as pessi- 
mistic, but a knowledge of the experiences made else- 
where will not injure the New-Yorkers. Perhaps it 
will lead them to cover up the Needle there with bad 
conductors of heat during the winter, and thus pre- 
serve the venerable old stone monument. In any 
case, you will agree with me that this comparison 
should be taken into consideration ; but it will not do 
to insert it into Mr. Gorringe’s book, where it would 
produce a discordant tone. But it is worthy of con- 
sideration. . . . Thus I wrote in 1882, and I regret 
that I was not mistaken. But the children of the 
tropics, be they palms or granite columns, will not 
stand a northern winter in the open air. For the 


SCIENCE. 15 


rest, one will interest himself now more than formerly 
in the observations which have been made in other 
places. I take the liberty, therefore, of calling your 
attention to the memoir by Struve: ‘ The Alexander 
monument and the Rappakivi. A contribution to the 
better knowledge of the Finnish granites. St. Peters- 
burg, 1863-64.’ ” PF. R. 


Sea-level and ocean-currents. 


The recent important determination of the coast 
and geodetic survey, by levelling up the Mississippi 
valley and across to the Atlantic coast, that the mean 
level of the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the 
Mississippi is about one metre higher than that of 
New York harbor; and the similar result obtained by 
Bourdalone, by levelling across France, namely, that 
the mean level of the harbor of Brest is 1.02 metres 
higher than that of the Mediterranean at Marseilles, 
—furnish an interesting subject fur study, and im- 
portant facts for explanation by physical geographers. 
If, as it seems, the surface of the ocean is not level 
and at rest, what are the forces which cause it to 
deviate from a perfect level, and to have ascending 
and descending gradients in different parts, and cur- 
rents running in various directions ? 

There are two principal causes for this disturbance 
of sea-level, — the one, the difference of level between 
the equatorial and polar regions, arising from a 
difference of temperature of the sea in the two 
regions; and the other, the deflecting force depending 
upon the earth’s rotation. The first is the real cause 
of disturbance, the latter being simply a modifying 
influence of the effects of the former, which changes, 
or tends to change, the directions of motion, but does 
not give any addition of real force. 

According to Mr. Croll (Climate and time), as 
deduced from the soundings of the Challenger ex- 
pedition, if the water of the upper strata were pre- 
vented from flowing away toward the poles, the level 
of the ocean at the equator, on account of its greater 
temperature. would be 4.5 feet higher than the level 
at the parallel of greatest diversity of sea-water, 
a little beyond the polar circle. This greater upward 
expansion in the equatorial region, however, does not 
change the pressure at the bottom of the sea; and 
its initial effect is to give rise in the upper strata 
to gradients of pressure decreasing from the equator 
toward the poles. This causes a flow of the water of 
these strata from the equatorial to the polar regions, 
and this decreases a little the pressure at sea-bettom 
in the former, and increases it in the latter, and 
consequently gives rise toa gradient of decreasing 
pressure, and an under-current, from the polar 
regions toward the equator. Hence there is now an 
interchanging circulation, a motion of the water of 
the upper strata from the equatorial region toward 
the poles, a very gradual settling-down of the water 
in the higher latitudes, a return toward the equator in 
the lower strata, and a very gradual rising-up again 
in the lower latitudes. 

If the earth had no motion of rotation on its axis, 
this would be simply a vertical circulation without 
any motion either east or west. But, in eonsequence 
of the deflecting force of the earth’s rotation, the 
water of the upper strata, in flowing from the lower 
latitudes toward the poles, is deflected eastward; and 
it retains this eastward motion until it has settled 
down in the higher latitudes into the lower strata, 
and has returned, perhaps, to the parallel of 35° or 30°, 


76 SCIENCE. 


by which time the deflecting force due to the earth’s 
rotation — always to the right in the northern hemi- 
sphere, and the contrary in the southern — has over- 
come the eastward motion, and it now begins to 
assume a westerly component of motion. Hence, 
where there is an interchanging motion between the 
equator and the poles, the effect of the earth’s rota- 
tion is torsionary, tending to give rise to an eastward 
motion in the higher latitudes, and a westerly one in 
the lower latitudes ; extending, where there are no 
interruptions from continents, all around the globe. 
The relation between these must be such that the 
action of the former, by means of friction on the sea- 
bottom, shall not have any greater tendency to turn 
the earth eastward on its axis than that of the latter 
to turn it the other way: for no change in the 
velocity of the earth’s rotation can arise from the 
action of forces simply in the plane of the meridian, 
which are the only real forces here, those arising 
from the earth’s rotation being simply modifying in- 
fluences. Since the action by means of friction upon 
the sea-bottom in the higher latitudes, which tends to 
turn the earth from west to east, is much nearer the 
axis of rotation than that in the lower latitudes, 
which tends to turn it the other way, the eastward 
motion in the former is more rapid than the west- 
ward one in the latter. 

In the real case of nature, in which a continuous 
motion either east or west all around the globe is in- 
terfered with by the continents, the tendency to such 
motions gives rise to various deflections by the conti- 
nents. For instance: in the North Atlantic the ten- 
dency to flow eastward in the middle and higher 
latitudes causes a slight heaping-up of the water, and 
a rise of surface level adjacent to the coast of Europe, 
and a drawing-away of the water and a depression 
of sea-level along the north-east coast of the United 
States. As the water of the upper strata, however, 
is thus pressed over against the coast of Europe, 
its surface does not assume a gradient of static equi- 
librium ; for the water, in consequence of the raising 
of the sea-level on the coast of Europe, and especially 
of France, is disposed of in three ways: one part is 
deflected around to the left along the coast of Nor- 
way, around by Spitzbergen and the east coast of 
Greenland ; another to the right, down by the Canary 
and Cape Verde islands in the region adjacent to the 
north-west coast of Africa; and a small part flows 
back westward under the upper strata as their water 
is forced eastward. The latter is small on account 
of the great pressure and friction on the sea-bottom, 
which does not have its counterpart in the upper 
strata. 

It is important to inquire here what amount of 
motion of the water of the upper strata toward the 
pole, arising from difference of temperature between 
the equator and the pole, is required to cause, by 
means of the deflecting force of the earth’s rotation, 
the necessary pressure toward the coast of Europe, 
and raising of sea-level adjacent to it, to account for 
the observed difference of sea-level between Brest 
and Marseilles, and the observed resulting currents. 
The gradient of the ocean’s surface corresponding to 
any given velocity of the water in any direction, in 
the case of static equilibrium, may be obtained from 
the following little table, in which the gradients are 
given in feet per 100 miles, for a velocity of one 
mile in twenty-four hours, the ascending gradient in 
the northern hemisphere being always at right angles 
to the right of the direction of mation : — 


Latitude, | Gradient. Latitude. | Gradient. 
| | 
Feet. Feet. 
oe | 0.000 50° 0.101 
10 .023 69 114 
20 | 045 70 123 
30 066 80 129 
40 | 085 90 131 


From this table, it is seen that a velocity of four 
miles per day of the water of the upper strata toward 
the pole, on the latitude of 45°, would cause a gradient 
of about 0.36 of a foot in 100 miles, or about 10 feet 
between New York and Brest, in case of a static 
equilibrium. But of course, for reasons already 
given, there would not be really this difference, — 
perhaps only about half of it; but this would be 
sufficient to account for the observed differences of 
sea-level between Brest and Marseilles, and the Gulf 
of Mexico and New York harbor ; the surface of the 
ocean adjacent to the coast of France being about 
25 feel above mean level, and that adjacent to New 
York as much below. The velocity above, of 4 miles 
in 24 hours, would give a very gentle and almost 
imperceptible current, and would not be at all greater 
than, as we have reason to think, it is. 

We have, then, an ascending gradient from the 
north-east coast of the United States across to the 
coast of Europe, over which the water of the upper 
strata is impelled, until it arrives on the east side of 
the Atlantic, by the deflecting force arising from the 
earth’s rotation and the poleward motion of the 
water of the upper strata. From the raised sea level 
here there is down-grade on the one hand, around by 
the north-west coast of Africa, across the Atlantic in 
the lower latitudes to the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of 
Mexico, and thence to the low surface-level on the 
west side of the Atlantic: and, on the other hand, 
around along the coast of Norway, and by Spitz- 
bergen and the east coast of Greenland, to the same 
region of depressed sea-level ; both tending to fill up 
the partial vacuum, as it is being continually main- 
tained by the drawing-away of the waters, as ex- 
plained above. The general descending gradient 
from the equator toward the pole, due to a difference 
of temperature, tends to decrease the gradient from 
the coast of France down by the north-west coast of 
Africa, and consequently the strength of the current ; 
but the same increases the gradient and the strength 
of the current on the opposite side from the Caribbean 
Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Hence the latter is 
greater than the former. 

As a wide and gently flowing river, when it is con- 
tracted into a narrow pass, becomes a rapid stream, 
so the flow of the warm water from the Caribbean 
Sea and the Gulf to the region of depressed ocean sur- 
face adjacent to New York, being forced to pass 
mostly through the Strait of Florida, becomes, in- 
stead of a wide area of very gentle flow, as it would 
be if it were not for the West India Islands, and 
especially Cuba, a comparatively very narrow and 
rapid stream, ‘a river in the midst of the ocean.’ As 
this river of warm water flows northward, it tends, 
by the effect of the earth’s rotation toward the right, 
and as the current from the east coast of Greenland 
flows southward it is likewise deflected to the right, 
toward the American coast. Hence, having very 
different temperatures, and being deflected to con- 


[Vou. VIL, No. 155 


JANUARY 22, 1886.] 


trary sides, there is no tendency to mix together ; but 
the division between the two, called the ‘ cold wall,’ 
is nearly a vertical plane. This is the whole mystery 
of the Gulf Stream and of the cold wall. 

The level of the Mediterranean Sea at Marseilles is 
undoubtedly a little lower than that of the Strait of 
Gibraltar and of the ocean generally adjacent to the 
north-western coast of Africa; so that the latter is 
about on a level with the western extreme of the Gulf 
of Mexico, there being a little down-grade across to 
the West Indies, and then a little ascending grade to 
the coast of Mexico to check the westward motion, 
and to deflect the current around toward the north. 
The difference, therefore, between the ocean-level at 
New York and Brest is probably about five feet. 

There is another theory, the wind-theory, which is 
thought by some to explain satisfactorily all the cur- 
rents of the ocean. It may be well to examine a 
little here the claims of this theory, and especially to 
consider whether it is adequate to explain the 
recently observed differences of sea-level. The west- 
ward component of the trade-winds, by this theory, 
raises the level of the Gulf of Mexico, and depresses 
the sea-level on the north-west coast of Africa as 
much ; and the eastward and north-eastward motion 
of the air in the middle latitudes drives the water 
toward the coast of Europe, and so causes a depres- 
sion of the sea-level on the American coast, and a 
raising of it on the coast of Europe. It is readily 
Seen that this would give precisely the same system 
of circulation, and tend to cause the same differences 
of level between the Gulf of Mexico and New York 
harbor, and between the harbors of Brest and Mar- 
seilles, as the other theory. But it is well known 
that ordinary winds have very little effect in chan- 
ging sea-level, except in very shallow water. 

According to the Report of the chief of engineers 
(1876, part ili. p. 76), by the mean of all observations, 
the difference of mean level of Lake Ontario, at 
either end, with north-east, east, and south-east 
winds, and with south-west, west, and north-west 
winds, is only 0.05 of a foot, and hence the average 
effect of either class of winds on the surface level is 
less than one-third of an inch. 

Again, if the trade-winds cause a raising of the 
sea-level in the Gulf of Mexico by a half-metre, they 
must depress the sea-level on the Pacific coast of 
Mexico about the same amount, and so there would 
be a difference of level of about one metre on the two 
sides. But by the levellings for the Nicaragua ship- 
canal, the elevation of the surface of Lake Nicaragua 
was found to be exactly 107 feet above mean tide of 
either ocean. Hence the trade-winds have no sensible 
effect in changing sea-level. 

Furthermore, if the trade-winds can have so great 
an effect as is claimed for them, then the still stronger 
westerly winds, which usually prevail in the middle 
latitudes of the North Atlantic, should change the 
difference of sea-level between New York and Brest 


‘at least as much ; and if so, there would have to be a 


considerable annual inequality in the height of sea- 
level; for the westerly winds are much more prev- 
alent, and blow very much more strongly during the 
winter than during the summer season. There ought, 
therefore, to be a change of the height of sea level of 
more than one foot, higher in winter and lower in 
Summer, on the east side of the Atlantic, and the 
reverse on the other. But no such inequality is 
observed on either side. Mean sea level is two or 
more inches higher, on both sides, in summer than in 


SCTENCE. 


ut 


winter, which is evidently due to the difference of 
temperature of the sea-water in the two seasons, and 
there is no apparent effect whatever arising from an 
increase of the strength of the winds. The only 
inference from this is that the strongest winds have 
no sensible effect. 

A contipuous wind, for some time in any direction, 
evidently causes mere surface currents of considerable 
velocity ; but if they could even explain the strong 
and deep flowing currents, such as the Gulf Stream, 
it is evident, from what is shown above, that they 
cannot account for the great differences of sea-level 
which have been shown to exist by recent levellings. 

Wm. FERREL. 
Washington, Jan. 18. 


Oil on troubled waters. 


I do not know much about the sea, and so perhaps 
you will wonder the less at my expressing incredulity 
with reference to the reports of the extraordinary 
effect of ‘oil on troubled waters,’ to which you seem 
to give unqualified assent in your notes and com- 
ments of Jan. 15. 

It is indeed remarkable that seamen should have 
overlooked this important aid to navigation, if, as 
you declare, its efficiency in calming the waves is as 
obvious as the use of the rudder in shaping a new 
course; for sailors are not usually slow to adopt 
notions favorable to the existence of prodigies and 
marvels. 

But, if the newspaper accounts of the matter are 
to be believed, it strikes me that the hydrographic 
office has quite outdone every other politico-scientific 
bureau in the propagation of startling generalizations 
from very flimsy details. For example: one of its 
witnesses testifies that in 1863, when off Sydney 
Head, he encountered a terrific gale, followed by a 
tremendous sea, in which his ship was making water, 
and was in danger of wreck, and that he at first tried 
oil upon the waves by ‘ jerking it out’ over the side 
of the vessel, through a hole in the cork of a bottle ; 
but finding that when employed in this way it blew 
about the stem of the ship, and not into the sea, he 
made use of ‘ the oil-bag,’ into which he put about 
half a gallon, tying the neck tight, and towing it 
astern. After a short time, he says, ‘‘ the effect was 
wonderful; for what was a very heavy-running and 
dangerous sea was reduced, by the use of the oil, into 
what a seaman would call ‘ blind rollers,’ quite harm- 
less to a ship.” He asserts that in this manner he 
ran his half-sinking vessel from Sydney Head to Port 
Stephens, a distance of sixty-eight miles, in eight 
hours and a half, on a consumption of two gallons 
and a half of oil, although he considers that his way 
of using it was wasteful. Hissubsequent experiences 
convinced him that a ship could run in any sea with 
safety for twenty-four hours on a consumption of 
five gallons of oil. 

It is hardly surpricing, that, as soon as the hydro- 
graphic office began spreading such sailors’ yarns as 
this, other captains should have felt the necessity of 
keeping abreast of the times in nautical science by 
publishing their similar experiences. Accordingly the 
skipper of the schooner J. B. Atkinson announces, 
that, on the 25th and 26th of December, his vessel 
was saved from utter destruction off Cape Hatteras 
by bags of oil, which he also towed astern; and still 
later, the captain of the steamer Lucy P. Miller, 
running between Philadelphia and Nassau, writes to 


78 SCIENCE. 


the chief hydrographic officer that he, too, was in 
imminent danger in a heavy gale on the 26th of 
December, but that, having read what the hydro- 
graphic office had said about using oil, he ‘‘ placed a 
bag in each closet forward, and Jet her go south- 
south-east,” the effect of which was that he shipped 
no more water. 

After all this, I should not wonder if some Jack 
tar, a little more imaginative than the rest, should 
outrun all competitors by reporting to the hydro- 
graphic office that he had quelled the raging deep 
merely by carrying a bottle or two of oil in the ship’s 
locker ; just as Hahnemann finally found that it 
was not necessary actually to take his medicine, but 
that, if the patient only smelled of the phial in which 
it was contained, it accomplished the same result. 

Now, I should seriously like to know whether there 
is any more credible evidence that oil has a quieting 
influence upon the ocean than the kind of trash the 
newspapers are publishing as coming from the hydro- 
graphic office. CoH, Cox. 

New York, Jan. 18. 


[Our correspondent assumes a very grave respon- 
sibility in trying to throw discredit on the efforts of 
the hydrographic office to render less dangerous the 
very hazardous vocation of the sailor. The efficacy 
of the use of oil to smooth the rough waters has been 
known for centuries, and the seamen of all countries 
have been in the habit of resorting to it when the 
necessity has arisen, although, for the reasons given 
below, not as freely as would be desirable. The 
evidence accumulated by the hydrographic office, 
through its branches in the seaboard cities, is the 
result of the first systematic attempt ever made by 
any government to collect such information, and to 
disseminate it, in the widest possible manner, among 
the class most interested. Many seamen have used 
it with success ; and most, having heard of its value 
ever since boyhood, have always intended to use it 
on occasion. It must be borne in mind, however, 
that there is much to be done on board a ship under- 
going all the vicissitudes incident to a yale of wind ; 
and, unless the captain has had previous experience, 
he is not likely to think of experimenting when there 
is so much to do which he knows to be necessary. 
Seamen, also, though given to the telling of ‘ yarns,’ 
are slow to believe them, a very harsh and trying 
experience making this class most incredulous and 
conservative. 

The life-saving services of this country and Great 
Britain have made experiments with a view to demon- 
strating the usefulness of oil in quelling the surf, 
The results, however, have been unsatisfactory ; yet 
this investigation led them incidentaliy into the subject 
of its usefulness off shore with most satisfactory re- 
sults. The report to the superintendent of the U.S. 
life-saving service in 1883, of a committee appointed 
to examine this matter, states in conclusion, ‘‘ The 
majority of the printed statements herewith, assum- 
ing them to be authentic, together with all verbal 
statements made by mariners who have used it, fur- 
nish conclusive evidence that in deep water oil has a 
calming effect upon a rough sea,” 

In an article published in the Nineteenth century 
for April, 1882, Mr. C. F. Gordon Cumming states 
that ‘‘ it is now many years since I first endeavored 
to call public attention to the simple precaution.” 
‘Though the casting of vil on troubled waters has 
been so persistently regarded merely as a poetical 


(Vou. VIL, No. 155 


figure of speech, notes of its actual use have oc zasion- 
ally appeared in books of travel;” and, again, ‘‘It 
has been reserved for the nineteenth century to find 
the practical application of the observations made by 
Pliny eighteen hundred years ago.” The corre- 
spondent’s confessed want of knowledge of the sea 
leads him very properly to make inquiries in regard 
to its ‘prodigies and marvels;’ but his sympathy 
should restrain him from decrying any attempt to 


. benefit a class which, on the whole, gets a very 


small share of the substantial comforts of life.— Eb. } 


The following is a letter received at the Boston 
branch of the hydrographic office : — 

On Novy. 28, 1885, I left Boston for London, deep 
with general cargo, and cattle and sheep on the upper 
deck. At 8.380 pM. of Dec.4 we were caught ina 
heavy storm at W. N. W., bar. 29 20. The first hour 
of the storm no canvass could stand it. In lat. 44° 
38 and long. 48° 28’ W., ship running under bare 
poles, the sea was then so high and dangerous, I 
resolved to try the use of oil, having had it brought 
to my notice by information on your chart. I got 
two common gunny-bags and a good wad of oakum 
wrung out in paint-oil, and hung over each quarter, 
just dipping in the water, also one over by the scup- 
pers in the midships. At 10 p.m. I got the lower 
topsail set, and continued to run until noon next day. 
By the racing of the engines my engineer reported to 
me that he could not run much longer, as the packing 
of the gland of the high-pressure engine was all worn 
out. Ithen got two more farther forward with a 
hand in each water-closet forward, dropping oil 
through ; by this means she kept steady on her course, 
engines stopped, and sailing 6 knots, while the 
engineer did his work comfortably. I landed the 
whole of my cattle alive at Deptford, and never broke 
any of the cattle-pens. 

The use of oil Istrongly recommend in an emer- 
gency : asmali drip is of no use. Iused one gallon 
per hour, and had the watch continually going round 
attending one bag after another. 

The result you know, and I hope it will be of use to 
shipmasters. KENNETH DoYLE, Master. 


Furness line, SS, Stockholm City, 
Boston, Jan. 17. 


The Taconic controversy in a nutshell. 


In Science, No. 158, Prof. N. H. Winchell, in 
writing under the above head, presents a very timely 
demurrer against the injustice done tothe memory of 
Professor Emmons in ignoring the name ‘ Taconic,’ 
and substituting ‘Cambrian,’ and several other des- 
ignations, for pre-Potsdam formations other than 
Archaean. 

In referring to recent studies of rocks that have 
been claimed as part of the Taconic by Emmons, 
Professor Winchell writes, ‘‘Some of the opponents 
of Emmons, re-enforced lately by active, younger 
men, revive the fossiliferous character of some of the 
eastern belts as new matter, adding many interesting 
and valuable details, and begin again to fire at the 
old fort long ago abandoned by Emmons, insisting 
that Emmons is still intrenched there (1872-85).” 

I have several reasons for thinking that I have 
been understood to have taken a stand as part of 
the re-enforcement, because of my having recently 
published a paper on the subject mentioned, and en- 
titled ‘‘On the occurrence of fossils in the ‘ Hudson 


; 
: 
: 
7 
{ 


Oe ee 


JANUARY 22, 1886. | 


River’ slates in Orange county, N.Y., and else- 
where.” ! 

In this paper I described the finding of Trenton 
fossils in slates that Emmons had always considered 
to be of Taconic age ; and Professor Mather’s” state- 
ment that the remains of ‘ Testacea’ were found at 
certain localities in these states appears to have been 
overlooked in Emmons’s latest discussion of the sub- 
ject (likewise in that of Dr. Hunt”). Im calling 
attention to the nature of these remains, and adding 
a new locality, with descriptions of the structure of 
the beds, I was only presenting bare statements of 
facts ; but, in consideration of the Taconic theory, I 
employed the words * Fossils in the Hudson River 
slates,’ etec., rather than ‘ Trenton fossils in the 
Taconian argillite.’ in my title. 

It can be readily understood how isolated patches 
of Utica slates could extend along the Hudson valley 
as far south as noted by Booth ;* but my observations, 
together with those of Dale,’ show the occurrence of 
Trenton fossils in beds at several widely separated 
points in the slate belt (I have discovered other 
localities since my paper), and point to the age of the 
great mass of these slates as post-Potsdam. An 
examination of the relations at Rock Tavern and at 
Sugar Loaf plainly proves that the fossiliferous beds 
are not isolated patches, and that neither are they 
superficial layers enclosed in synclinal folds, nor 
brought to their present positions by faulting. 

_ In this connection it may be well to state that for 

some time the writer has been engaged upon a very 
detailed study of the structure of these slates, and 
the associated limestones and other formations. 
Many paleontological and stratigraphical discoveries 
have been made which will solve some of the prob- 
lems of their ages and relations. A portion of the 
results of this work will be ready for publication 
early in the next summer. 


Nextson H. Darton. 
Brooklyn, N.Y. 


The temperature of the moon. 


I hope that Professor Ferrel and I have no real 
ground of dispute: I may at least think so, since he 
does not deny that he begins by speaking of a certain 
body endowed by hypothesis with peculiar properties ; 
such, for instance, as imply invisibility. Professor 
Ferrel, as I now understand him, explains that this 
implication is non-essential, and merely an analytical 
device to explain what would take place on a certain 
sphere, on which (by hypothesis still) the relative 
radiating and absorbing powers of every part are 
not merely proportional for any given ray, but to 
be safely treated as absolutely and without restric- 
tion equal, — a sphere on which, instead of physical 
approximations, we have absolute truths, which, like 
the axioms of Euclid, can be safely pushed to their 
extremest consequences. 

This sphere it is my complaint that Professor 
Ferrel identifies with the moon, though it also seems 
to be a homogeneous body, not a world of irregular 
surface and structure; a body freed from changes of 
temperature, and which (unless infinitely conduct- 
ible) would appear to need, not to alter its distance 
from the sun or rotate on its axis, —an absolutely 

1 Amer. journ. se, (8d ser.), xxx. p. 452, 1885. 

2 Final report, 1843, p. 369. 

3 The Taconic question, Trans, Roy. soc. Canada, vol. i. 

* Amer, journ. sc. (8d ser.), xxvi. p. 380, 1883. 

® Ibid., xvii. p. 57, 1879. 


SCIENCE. 79 


airless body ; and so on, through a really endless list 
of limitations, which we should find, on scrutiny, la- 
tent in his premises. Under these limitations, I do not 
dispute any of his conclusions ; nor, when I say that 
no actual body in nature does exist under them, 
do I at all deny his right to consider one which 
by hypothesis shall do so, nor the interest of such 
an inquiry. I only call the reader’s attention to 
the undoubted fact that the real moon exists 
under quite other ones. While I do not for a 
moment admit that the temperature of the real 
moon is independent of the amount of heat which 
it rejects by reflection, I can readily agree that 
it might be quite immaterial to the temperature 
of this hypothetical moon. I have no disposition 
to treat such an hypothesis as idle: I acknowledge 
its interest, and, I may add, its utility, if employed 
under clearly recognized limitations. 

I recognize with respect the accuracy of the logical 
process always at Professor Ferrel’s command ; but, 
I repeat, the more accurate it is, the more certain it 
is to deduce only such conclusions as are implicitly 
contained in its premises. 

Though he himself refers in part to these limita- 
tions at the outset, the general reader may certainly 
require to be reminded that they are not embraced 
in Professor Ferrel’s conclusions, which may well be 
deduced from commenly made assumptions, by cor- 
rect reasoning, as to a hypothetical moon, and yet 
not apply without limitation to the real one which 
we see waxing and waning in the sky. This is all I 
have to say, and I leave to Professor Ferrel the last 
word in this friendly controversy if he chooses to 
add it. S. P. LANGLEY. 


Allegheny observatory, Jan. 12. 


Demand for good maps. 


I am very glad that you have taken upon yourself 
to criticise our maps and the map-makers’ methods, 
and sincerely hope that you may succeed in so stir- 
ring up the publishers that they will feel compelled to 
abandon the habit of servilely copying ancient, and 
ofttimes obsolete examples. I have been seriously 
inconvenienced at times, particularly when giving 
instruction in geography, by the outrageous careless- 
ness, not to say gross ignorance, displayed by our 
leading cartographical institutions. 

I heartily concur in what Mr. C. H. Leete says con- 
cerning the German maps. We are far indeed from 
their standard. Why is it? It is no exaggeration 
to say that the cheap German school-atias, to which 
Mr. Leete refers, is much more reliable, and more 
nearly up to date, even in the geography of the 
United States of America, than the most expensive 
of our home productions. 

Some years ago the travelling agent of one of our 
leading map-publishing houses called upon me, and 
insisted upon showing me their latest atlas, revised 
and corrected to date. I gave him every opportunity 
to explain the superior excellence of his wares, and, 
after he had had his say for over half an hour, I showed 
him that most of his maps were exact copies of those 
published from five to twenty-five years previously, 
the only apparent change being in the shades and 
elaboration of colors. Why, actually, though this 
was scarcely five years ago, the map of New York 
city showed the ‘ Crystal Palace’! Even where de- 
tails appeared to fill in former blanks. more than 
one-third were mere guesses, and about as good 


80 SCIENCE. 


guesses as the * Golden City,’ Colorado, to which you 
called attention some time ago. 

J. Kine GoopRIcu. 
Smithson. inst., Washington, Jan. 13. 


Cliff-picture in Colorado. 


The accompanying print is from a photograph of a 
remarkable formation which may be deemed worthy 
of mention. The original photographic print was 
sent to the military academy, about twelve years 
ago, by Capt. (then Lieut.) George S. Anderson, sixth 
U.S. cavalry. I have lately obtained from Captain 
Anderson the following statement in regard to the 
object. His statement is from memory, after the 
lapse of a dozen years; but it is not probable that 
there is any material error in it, as he went to con- 
siderable trouble to secure the photograph. The 
natural picture is on the face of the sandstone cliff 
forming the west bluff of the Purgatoire River, 
Colorado, twenty miles from its mouth, and twenty- 
five miles from Fort Lyons. The total height of the 
cliff at the point is about seventy feet above the bed 
of the river. The picture is about thirty-five feet 
above the stream, with twenty-five feet of vertical 
cliff above it. The talus of the cliff extends up about 
thirty feet, so that there are about five feet of vertical 
wall between the picture and the loose rock below. 


fe 


oo rs COQ ET 


The extreme length of the picture is at Jeast seven 
feet. The cliff is composed of brownish-red sand- 
stone: the picture at the surface is of a much darker 
color, which color gradually passes into the uniform 
color of the rock, at a distance of 24” or 3" from sur- 
face, as shown by detachable fragments. Copies of 
the photograph were sent, at the time it was taken, 
to Prof. Joseph Henry, Professor Dana, and to 
Darwin. Professor Henry asked, ‘‘Can it be any 
thing else than a work of Indian art?’ Professor 
Dana thought the color due to iron stains, and the 
outline accidental. Darwin hesitated to express an 
opinion, but dissented from Professor Dana. Colonel 
Kendrick, formerly professor at the military acad- 
emy, expressed the same opinion as did Professor 
Dana. 

The figure is remarkably distinct and well defined 
for the result of accident; but, if Professor Henry’s 
idea be rejected, there seems no other explanation. 


S. E. TIrnuMAn. 
West Point, N.Y. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 155 


The English sparrow. 


A European ornithological journal recently con- 
tained the following testimony in regard to the spar- 
row (Pyrgita domestica), from the pen of Dr. Schleh, 
professor of agriculture at the College of agriculture, 
Herford, Germany. Dr. Schleh has paid a great 
deal of attention to this matter, and believes the 
sparrow a pest on the continent, voluminous evidence 
of which he is said to have brought forward in his 
small treatise entitled ‘Der nutze und schaden des 
sperlings (P. domesticus) im haushalte der natur.’ 

By examining the crops of a great number of 
nestling sparrows sent to him from different parts of 
the country, he found that young sparrows, while 
in the nest and for a week after having left it, sub- 
sist entirely on insects, grubs, etc. Two weeks after 
leaving the nest, their food still consists of 43 per 
cent of animal food ; a week later of 31 per cent, and 
after that age of only 19 per cent, of animal in- 
gredients. But as soon as they become independent 
of their parents, they prefer seeds, and subsist almost 
entirely on grain, fruit, and the buds of trees. Dr. 
Schleh, however, mentions some interesting in- 
stances regarding some specimens which seemed to 
have a peculiar taste for the seeds of weeds which 
often become a great plague to the agriculturist. In 
one crop he found the considerable number of 821 
whole seeds of Stellaria media (Vill.), in another 48 
seeds of Atriplex patulum (L.), in a third 66 seeds of 
Setaria verticillata. Some individuals also have a 
special liking for certain insects. Thus he found in 
one crop 90 specimens of Haltica affinis (Gyll.): four 
other sparrows had eaten almost nothing else but a 
certain kind of beetle, Anisoplia fructicola (F.). 

ERNEST INGERSOLL. 


Equality in ability of the young of the human 
species. 


The review of a recent work on geometry, in 
Science, Jan. 1, is very justly criticised by W. R. in 
the number for Jan. 8. 

Nothing is more fallacious than that ancestors 
have much to do with natural endowments: en- 
vironment has much, and pre-natal influences 
probably most of all, in determining mental qualities. 
Physical traits are to some extent traceable to an- 
cestry ; but the whole history of the race, and of our 
country in particular, is a refutation of the much 
studied hereditary genius, or transmitted mental 
quality. 

Even the writer’s comparison is unfortunate. 
Nothing seems more like chance than the develop- 
ment of arace-horse. When the truth is known of 
our most celebrated mile-in-two-fourteen trotters, 
they will be found to have been picked up here and 
there from the peddler’s cart or from the farm. 
Their qualities accidentally discovered, and fictitious 
pedigrees made up for them, they have never left a 
racing progeny behind them. 

I fully agree with N. E. in saying, ‘‘ Better assume 
that the young are born equal in ability, and in their 
early training... give them an equal chance to de- 
velop into mechanics, store-keepers, artists, farmers, 
or lawyers ;” but by all means give them a chance to 
follow the bent of their intellect as soon as they are 
old enough to differentiate it, as, for instance, in their 
college courses. P. J. FARNSWORTH. 


Clinton, Io., Jan, 12. 


SCIENCE.-SuppLeMent. 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1886. 


THE COLLAPSE OF THE THEOSOPHISTS. 


THE greater part of the last number of the Pro- 
ceedings of the Society for psychical research ' is 
taken up with the report of the committee ap- 
pointed to investigate the famous Theosophical 
society. 

For the information of those of our readers who 

have not followed the history of this society, a 
brief explanation will be necessary. The Theo- 
sophica! society was formed in New York in 1875, 
by Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky, for, it 
was asserted, philanthropic and literary purposes. 
Three years afterwards its seat of operations was 
removed to India, and among the better class 
of natives it seems to have gained not a few 
followers. 
' The evidence adduced before this committee of 
investigation — which included Prof. Henry Sidg- 
wick and Messrs. F. W. H. Myers and Edmund 
Gurney —-claims the existence in Thibet of a 
brotherhood whosé members have acquired a 
power over nature which enables them to perform 
wonders beyond the reach of ordinary men. 
Madame Blavatsky asserts herself a chela, or 
disciple of this brotherhood, the members of which 
are spoken of as mahatmas, who are said to have 
taken a great interest in the Theosophical society, 
and to have performed many marvels in connec- 
tion with it. They are said to be able to cause 
apparitions of themselves in places where their 
bodies are not, to communicate intelligently with 
those whom they thus visit, and to perceive what is 
going on where their phantasm appears. This phan- 
tasmal appearance the theosophists denominate 
the ‘astral form.’ The theosophists also brought 
forward evidence in support of another class of 
phenomena, including the transportation, even 
through solid matter, of ponderable objects, in- 
cluding letters, and of what the theosophists regard 
as their duplication, together with what is called 
‘precipitation’ of handwriting and drawings on 
previously blank paper. 

Because of the peculiar nature of the evidence, 
and the great improbability of the production of 
the alleged phenomena, it was decided to send a 
trusted observer to India, who should make a 
thorough examination of the persons involved, and 


1 Proceedings of the Society for psychical research, part 
ix., December, 1885. London, Triibner, 1885. 8°. 


of places in which these remarkable occurrences 
took place. Therefore, a member of the com- 
mittee, Mr. R. Hodgson, B.A., of St. John’s 
college, Cambridge, proceeded to India in Decem- 
ber, 1884, and carried on his investigations for 
three months. 

On hearing Mr. Hodgson’s report, which is ap- 
pended to the report of the committee, and care- 
fully weighing all the evidence before them, the 
committee unanimously reports : — 

**1, She [Madame Blavatsky] has been engaged 
in a long-continued combination with other per- 
sons to produce by ordinary means a series of ap- 
parent marvels for the support of the theosophic 
movement. 

*¢2. That, in particular, the shrine at Adyar, 
through which letters purporting to come from 
mahatmas were received, was elaborately arranged 
with a view to the secret insertion of letters and 
other objects through a sliding panel at the back, 
and regularly used for the purpose by Madame 
Blavatsky or her agents. 

**3. That there is consequently a very strong 
general presumption that all the marvellous nar- 
ratives put forward as evidence of the existence 
and occult power of the mahatmas are to be ex- 
plained as due either (a) to deliberate deception 
carried out by or at the instigation of Madame 
Blavatsky, or (b) to spontaneous illusion, or hallu- 
cination, or unconscious misrepresentation or in- 
vention on the part of the witnesses.” 

And, as the committee regards it as a waste 
of time to further prolong the investigation, 
many sober-minded readers will regard it as 
a foolish waste, that so much time has been 
already spent in the matter. But it must be 
recollected that this society was gaining ground 
and support, and was imposing on thousands 
of impressionable and credulous people. To them 
it is a real act of benevolence that this bubble 
has been pricked once and for all, and in a 
scientific way. As to Madame Blavatsky, a mere 
reading of the pages of evidence compels an agree- 
ment with the committee, who say, in conclusion, 
‘“We regard her neither as the mouthpiece of 
hidden seers nor as a mere vulgar adventuress : 
we think she has achieved a title to permanent 
remembrance as one of the most accom- 
plished, ingenious, and interesting impostors in 
history.” 

In addition to the report of this committee, of 
which the preceding is a summary, this volume of 


82 SCIENCE. 


the Proceedings contains an interesting essay on 
‘Some higher aspects of mesmerism,’ by Messrs. 
F, W. H. Myers and Edmund Gurney, who treat 
of the existence, limits, and varieties of mesmer- 
ism as a therapeutical agency; and a further 
report on ‘ Thought-transferrence,’ with numerous 
statistics and diagrams, by Malcolm Guthrie, J.P. 
While many of Mr. Guthrie’s experiments are 
novel, and as arule more difficult than usual, yet 
they are of the same general character as those 
with which those who have followed the progress 
of the societies for psychical research, both in Eng- 
Jand and in this country, are already familiar. 
NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER. 


GIANTS AND DWARFS. 


THE above title is prefixed to a series of articles ' 
recently published, but is, however, somewhat 
misleading. What is attempted is, not the con- 
sideration of the causes and consequences of ab- 
normal deviations in height in the human species, 
but a presentation of the differences resulting from 
the absolute size of an animal, —a sort of ‘animal 
mechanics,’ which, in the author’s opinion, is to 
become an important chapter of morphological 
science, The speculations presented are not with- 
out some value and considerable ingenuity : but 
they are characterized by a passion for reducing 
every thing to mechanical terms in a way which 
does not fit biological facts; by a peculiar anthro- 
pomorphic point of view, which gauges the actions 
of animals as though the animals were men; and 
by an avoidance of evolutionary principles, which 
one would think would be especially important in 
this connection. Perhaps it will not be altogether 
without interest to sketch very briefly the author's 
methods and his conclusions. 

If a body is ten times smaller in one dimen- 
sion, say in height, than another, and is to 
retain the same shape as the first, all linear di- 
mensions will be reduced to 1-10, all surface dimen- 
sions to 1-100, and all solid dimensions to 1-1000, of 
their size in the original body. For brevity’s sake, 
we will call an animal of average size a meso- 
animal (Me); an animal 1-10 as large will be a 
micro-animal (Mi); one 10 times as large, a 
macro-animal (Ma). Keeping these statements 
in mind, we will review the differences which 
would be caused in the several vital systems by 
a reduction of an animal to 1-10 its size. 

Beginning with the skeleton. We will measure 
the strength of a bone by the multiple of the 
weight of the animal necessary to crush it. Now, 
as the strength of a beam (the bone) varies (1) as 


+ K, Fuchs, Kosmos, 1885, ii., Nos, 3, 4, 5, 


| Vout. VII, No. 155 


the square of the thickness, (2) directly as the 
breadth, (8) inversely with the length, if the 
bone is reduced 1-10 in length, breadth, and thick- 


~ ness, it can carry 1-100 of its former weight, while 


it has been reduced 1-1000 in volume; i.e., it is 
relatively 10 times stronger than the large bone. 
If the tooth of a meso-dog can just bear the dog’s 
weight, then the tooth of a micro-dog can carry 
10 micro-dogs ; or, if it is to carry its own weight, 
it can become 1-5 smaller in cross-section. The 
smaller an animal, the more tender, weak, and 
soft may its skeleton be to satisfy its needs. This 
principle accounts for the presence of teeth in 
micro-animals of such a shape as would be use- 
less in meso-animals. 

Next the muscles. If 1,000 micro-animals were 
to jump against one meso-animal, each Mi would 
jump as high as the Me; for relatively equal 
muscles, with a single contraction, do relatively 
equal work. But altogether they will do abso- 
lutely as much work as the Me. The jump will 
depend on the ratio of the muscular system avail- 
able for jumping-purposes to the whole body. A 
thousand small muscles will lift 10 times as much 
as one muscle 1,000 times its weight. Moreover, 
the small muscles would contract quicker than 
the large one. If one meso-man can throw stones 
the size of his fist for a distance of 50 of his own 
steps in 1 second, then a micro-man could throw 
stones the size of his fist for a distance of 500 of 
his own steps in 1-10 of asecond. <A micro-girl 
would knit a stocking of an equal number of 
meshes in 1-10 the time required by a meso-girl. 

Again, take walking. The vibration of the 


1 
leg of the micro-man will take about 4 (a) of 


the vibration-time of the leg of the meso-man. The 
small man will walk very rapidly ; but, as fatigue 
depends on the number of contractions, he will 
tire easily, will be out of breath soon, and will have 
covered very little distance. If we reduced our 
man by 1-100, the walking would be so rapid as to 
give forth a low tone; and if to 1-1000, the vibra- 
tion of his legs would give a shrill note. Hand- 
shaking would take the form of a gentle chirp. 
The micro-man is evidently at a great disad- 
vantage in walking: this can only be remedied 
by giving him different locomotive organs and 
a different mode of locomotion. If we give 
him very long extra legs on each side, and 
put his body between them, he will be able to 
overcome the inertia of his body much more 
readily ; he will be able to resist small shocks 
without shifting to a great extent the centre of 
gravity ; and he will acquire a hopping gait, 
which is much better suited to small animals. 
In short, he will approximate the arthropod, in 


JANUARY 22, 1886. ] 


particular the insect type. This proposition that 
the arthropod form is best adapted for small 
animals, and the mammalian form for large 
ones, is one of the points insisted upon through- 
out. 

Amongst other differences are the following: 
The nervous impulses would be conducted to the 
centre in 1-10 the time, and his reflex movements 
and reactions would be quicker. A water-rat can 
see the blaze of a gun and dip under the water 
before the shot has time to reach it. With regard 
to warmth, it is shown that the body surface of 
a small animal gives off more heat proportionately 
than that of a large one: hence small birds have 
a thick covering, or, again, the small animals 
become cold-blooded. 

But we will leave this part of the subject to con- 
sider what may be called a micro-psychology. Some 
rather curious conclusions are drawn with regard 
to the sense of sight. _ While the same amount of 
light will affect the retina of the meso- and the 
micro-man, nevertheless, owing to the difference 
in convergence of the two eyes (upon which de- 
pends the inference of distance), the micro-man 
will judge things to be smaller and nearer than 
the meso-man. His horizon would be much 
more limited, and in seeking an object he 
would be less apt to find it. 

As to hearing. As micro-animals live in a condi- 
tion where a constant noise is present, they acquire 
special organs for making loud noises, such as are 
found on the legs of some insects ; while, of course, 
their hearing is less available to them than in the 
case of larger animals. 

The general principle with regard to the nervous 
system is this: as the amount of nervous matter 
necessary to the needs of a small animal is pro- 
portionately much smaller than in a larger animal, 
such nervous matter becomes available for other 
purposes, and thus very fine sensibility to small 
physical variations, and the development of pecul- 
lar sense-organs, become possible. Eyes and ears 
are multiplied, touch-organs of various kinds be- 
come numerous, and there is more room for 
variability than in higher animals. 

This theory makes it probable that small animals 
are endowed with a sensibility for fine discrimina- 
tions of temperature, barometric pressure, moist- 
ure, and so forth, which is unknown to us; and 
thus we account for the observation that animals 
take cognizance of the approach of a storm before 
man does. 

With regard to psychic life, the following state- 
ments will be of importance: the micro-animal 
‘procures its food for a given period with less 
trouble than a meso-animal, it builds its house in 
amuch shorter time, it foresees natural changes 


i 


SCIENCE. 83 


much better, and its movements are quicker. 
The result will be far-reaching forethought by 
means of house-building and harvesting instincts. 
Any act desirable for the moment, the meso- 
animal will be apt to neglect on account of the 
bother of doing it. A man sees a spot on his 
writing-desk for years, and never cleans it up; he 
decides to learn by heart a table of constants which 
has to be looked up with trouble each time, but 
never does it. This dread of labor causes most 
kinds of negiect. But with the micro-animal the act 
follows the word; there is no trouble, and thus 
much annoyance and danger to health are avoided. 
In the case of approaching danger, say of a storm, 
a meso- and a micro-animal will act very differ- 
ently. The meso-animal recognizes the danger 
only when it is near, is flurried and frightened, 
has no time to build a shelter, and must seek a 
chance one. The micro-animal knows that the 
danger is not very near, that he has ample time to 
build a shelter, and need not trust to chance. And 
thus we see why many of the smaller animals 
prefer to build a new nest, to protecting or 
finding an old one, it is so readily done. By 
arguments which it would be difficult to repro- 
duce, the conclusion is reached that the train of 
thought of this micro-animal is related to that of 
the meso-animal somewhat as a minuet to an 
opera of Wagner’s, or a frieze pattern to a painting 
by Kaulbach; also that his conceptions would 
tend to be mathematical and regular. But in 
general it may be said that in psychic life the 
meso-man would have the advantage of the 
micro-man. 

This very partial account of these speculations 
will, perhaps, serve to show their general ten- 
dency. They certainly belong to a class of think- 
ing which is rather foreign to recent thought, but 
bring with them a suggestiveness which makes 
the problem discussed a very interesting one. The 
most serious objection is that very little attempt is 
made to show that the theory fits the facts 
(which might easily have been done), and more 
attention is paid to select facts that seem to fit the 
theory. As particularly worthy of consideration, 
may be noted the argument that when propor- 
tionately less of a certain tissue is needed for 
actual sustenance of the animal, more of it be- 
comes disposable, and is subject to variation. It 
would seem possible that some valuable facts 
might be attained by a careful experimental study 
of the problems suggested by these theoretical con- 
siderations ; and while they will not be sufficient, 
as they have been to our author, to rear upon 
them a whole physiology, a whole zoélogy, and a 
whole psychology, they will do a unique service 
to science. 


84 


THE RACES OF BRITAIN. 


It is the praiseworthy custom of the Welsh 
national Eisteddfod to offer prizes for essays 
upon some topic relating to the ancient national 
life. This has produced excellent results in many 
directions, especially in the encouragement thus 
bestowed upon ethnological studies. Among the 
substantial fruits of such competitions are to be 
reckoned an able study by Mr. Luke Owen Pike on 
‘The English and their origin,’ and Dr. Thomas 
Nicholas’s valuable treatise upon ‘The pedigree of 
the English people,’ which in 1878 had reached its 
fifth edition. To neither of these learned works, 
however, was the great prize awarded. It was 
bestowed upon an essay presented by Dr. Beddoe, 
the late president of the Anthropological society 
of London, which has just been published, in 
an expanded form, in the volume now before 
us. 

Differing from previous works, like those just 
alluded to, and Professor Rhys’s ‘Celtic Britain,’ 
which are principally based upon historical and 
linguistic investigations, this is made up, to a large 
extent, of tables, maps, and plates compiled from 
the author’s personal observations on color and 
stature, conducted on a large scale. 

Dr. Beddoe’s system is founded essentially upon 
the belief that permanence of color of the hair 
and eyes is most indicative of racial differences. 
The opposite opinion seems to have prevailed, 
ever since the days of Galen and of Celsus down to 
quite a recent date, that the color of the hair de- 
pends simply upon temperature and latitude. Our 
author’s method separates eyes into three sorts, — 
light, intermediate or neutral, and dark. This dis- 
tinction is founded as much upon shade as color. 
They are further subdivided into five classes, in ac- 
cordance with the color of the associated hair ; 
viz., red, fair, brown, dark, and black. Thus is de- 
rived, as a ready means of comparing the colors of 
two peoples or localities, the ‘index of nigrescence,’ 
by ‘“‘ taking 100 of eacb, and subtracting the number 
of the red- and the fair-haired persons from that 
of the dark-haired, together with twice the black- 
haired.” This gives a number which compendi- 
ously represents this tendency. The black is 
doubled in order ‘‘ to give its proper value to the 
greater tendency to melanosity shown thereby ; 
while brown (chestnut) is regarded as neutral.” 
This method Dr. Beddoe believes to be preferable 
to that of Virchow, which notes only the per- 
centages of the pure blond type (blue eyes and fair 
hair) and of the pure brunette type (brown eyes and 
dark hair), and pays but little attention to other 

The races of Britain: a contribution to the anthropology 


of western Europe. By Joann Beppor, M.D., F.R.S., 
Bristol, Arrowsmith ; London, Triibner, 1885, 8°. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 155 


combinations, which are regarded as results of 
crossing. 

As a striking example of the great value of the 
color of the hair as a test of race, he instances one 
of the most distinct anthropological frontiers of 
EKurope,— a real ethnic division along the line that 
separates the Flemish tongue, which represents 
a German stock, on the north, and the Walloon, 
descending from an ancient Belgic race, on the 
south, The difference in the physiognomy of the 
two peoples is very marked ; but such tests as head- 
measurements and stature fail, while that of the 
color of the hair everywhere holds good. So, too, 
as proving that the color of the hair does not de- 
pend upon latitude and temperature, be brings 
forward the example of the occurrence among the 
dark-haired Italian race of two centres of com- 
parative fairness, — one in the north-western part 
of the valley of the Po, the other in the region lying 
between Terracina and Naples. 

But Dr. Beddoe had by no means confined his 
attention to observations upon the hair and the 
eyes. In the absence of ‘ sufficient osseous ma- 
terial in the museums for determining the form 
and size of the skull,”.he has measured a con- 
siderable number of living British heads. He 
gives an amusing account of the way in which he 
obtained a series of head-measurements in Kerry, 
without running the risk of fatiguing or irritating 
the subjects. The people there have large heads, 
but are of low intelligence, with a great deal of 
cunning and suspicion. The travelling party con- 
sisted of four, and, ‘‘ whenever a likely little squad 
of natives was encountered, the two archeologists 
got up a dispute about the relative size and shape 
of their own heads, which I was called in to settle 


with the calipers. The unsuspecting Irishmen usu- | 


ally entered keenly into the debate, and, before the 
little drama had been finished, were equally betting 
on the sizes of their own heads, and begging to 
have their wagers determined in the same manner.” 

So far as concerns the survival of the prehistoric 
races in Great Britain, Dr. Beddoe accepts the proba- 


bility of Boyd Dawkins’s theory that the paleolithic — 


people were the ancestors, or at least the near rela- 


tions, of certain still existing Mongoloid races, par- — 


ticularly of the Eskimo. In this opinion, however, 


he is opposed by the eminent Hunterian lecturer, — 


Professor Flower, who, in his president’s address, 
delivered last January before the Anthropological 
institute of Great Britain, argued that the Eski- 
mo are probably of comparatively late origin, on 
the ground of their being such an intensely 
specialized race. But our author thinks he has 
sufficient ground for assuming the existence of — 
traces of some Mongoloid race in the modern popu-_ 
lation of Wales and the west of England. He in- 


4 Sheet tg 
————— 


_— 


= 


sh 


JANUARY 22, 1886. ] 


stances in particular the examples he has noted of 
the oblique or Chinese eye, and of prognathism, or 
prominence of the jaws. The latter peculiarity, 
by itself, would not be of much value if it were 
not for the great similarity in other respects that 
exists among the individuals in whom it is mani- 
fested. But prognathism by no means implies a 
low type of humanity, and it is remarked by our 
author that eloquence, or at least readiness of 
speech, seems to be a general characteristic of it. 

For the neolithic period, while accepting in a 
broad way Thurnam’s formula, ‘ Long barrows, 
long heads; round barrows. round heads,’ Dr. 
Beddoe cannot allow that this represents accu- 
rately the character of the entire population. He 
believes that the distinctive practice of dolmen- 
building was established in Britain by a pure long- 
headed race, while the broad-headed people were 
the introducers of bronze. ‘* Whencesoever they 
came, the men of the British bronze race were 
richly endowed physically. They were, as a rule, 
tall and stalwart; their brains were large, and 
their features, if somewhat harsh and coarse, 
must have been manly and commanding.” It has 
been objected to this type, that the great develop- 
ment of the brows, and the transverse furrow on 
the forehead above, are shared by the Australian 
and other savage races. But it is well established 
that such points of likeness as these to the anthro- 
poid apes are distributed variously among the 
different races of mankind, and that no one of 
them, taken by itself, implies intellectual or moral 
inferiority. Certainly,” says Dr. Beddoe, ‘‘the 
British bronze type is found frequently — I should 
say with disproportionate frequency — among 
our best as well as our ablest and strongest men.” 

But at the bronze period the mass of the popula- 
tion cannot be regarded as belonging to this type. 
Their skulls present a shape intermediate between 
those of the long barrows, and those of the round 
barrows, — a form for which Wilson has proposed 
the name of ‘pear-shaped,’ and our author the 
one, not very satisfactory to himself, of ‘coffin- 
Shaped.’ This type may be the result of a partial 
fusion of the two races, or it may have been im- 
ported, already made, by the very numerous 
invaders from Belgic Gaul. It has usually been 
styled the Keltic type, but Broca thinks that the 
name of Kelt ought to be restricted to the race 
that predominated in old Keltic Gaul, from 
Bretagne to Savoy. Their short, thick-set figures, 
and large, broad heads, are very different from the 
ancient British type, whose general distribution 
_ throughout the three kingdoms tells strongly 
against its being a late importation. 

Such was the population of Britain at the time 
of the Roman conquest, composed of several strata, 


SCTHNCE. ee 


unequally distributed, of a Keltic-speaking race, 
some Bryothonic, others Gaelic, in dialect. This 
ancient British race belonged to the tall, blond 
stock of northern Europe, rather than to Broca’s 
Keltic race; and they probably greatly resembled 
in appearance the provincials carved upon the 
sarcophagus of the Roman prefect Jovinus, — 
now preserved in the Museum of the Hotel de 
Ville, at Reims, — who are conspicuously different 
in features from the modern Germans. This race 
was superposed upon a foundation principally 
made up of the dolichocephalic dark race of 
southern Europe, the so-called Iberian, which is 
still strongly represented in the north of Scotland 
and in Ireland ; but no Germans, to be recognized 
as such by speech as well as person, had probably 
as yet entered Britain. 

The Roman conquest, however, had no material 
effect in changing the character of the population. 
Far different was it with the Anglo-Saxon inva- 
sions that followed upon its abandonment by the 
Romans. The most important chapter in the 
volume is naturally devoted to a careful review of 
the various theories as to the origin of the dif- 
ferent invading tribes, and to a thorough study of 
the evidence of all kinds that might tend to shed 
light upon the process of ‘the making of Eng- 
land,’ — ethnological and linguistic, as well as that 
derived from laws and social institutions. We 
have space to touch, and that only in the briefest 
manner, upon one or two of the points discussed. 

Our author’s researches are quite in accord with 
the conclusions reached by Senator Hoar in a 
paper read last spring before the American anti- 
quarian society, in regard to the origin of the 
Yankee of caricature, the typical Uncle Sam, and 
Brother Jonathan, ‘‘ with his long, loosely-set limbs, 
his sharp nose and chin, his high cheek-bones, his 
narrow shoulders and high head.” Dr. Beddoe 
paints this Yankee portrait to the life, when he is 
describing the true Frisian type, to be seen in the 
people dwelling around the Zuyder Zee, who are 
very different in their appearance from their 
neighbors the Hollanders. He proves that dif- 
ferences existed, physical as well as dialectic, be- 
tween the ancient Frisians and the Saxons; and 
he shows that the county of Kent was the first to 
be invaded by the Frisians and their neighbors 
the Jutes. So the main object of Senator Hoar's 
paper is to show the obligations of New England 
to Kent for much of its laws and social institu- 
tions, and the strong physical resemblance of the 
people of the two regions. Dr. Beddoe also brings 
out the notable likeness between the people of 
Boston, in Lincolnshire, and the frequenters of 
the Antwerp market. Inno considerable town in 
England is the index of nigrescence so low. In one 


86 SCIENCE. 


particular. however, Dr. Beddoe differs from Senator 
Hoar ; that is, in respect tothe origin of the custom 
of gavelkind, by which the land of the father de- 
scends to all his sons in equal portions, — a custom 
adopted by our ancestors from the usage of Kent, 
and which has had a most important effect upon 
our history in fostering democratic institutions. 
Our author believes that this institution was de- 
rived from the Kymric branch of the ancient 
Britons, and not the Germans, and that the term 
can be best explained by the Welsh language. 

Great differences of opinion prevail among 
recent writers as to the consequences of the 
Anglo-Saxon conquest of England, hinging mainly 
upon the degree of credibility attached by them to 
the statements of the old British chronicler, Gil- 
das. Some hold with Freeman and Green that 
the ancient race was mostly exterminated; while 
Nicholas, and the Keltic school in general, are 
equally convinced that the British element pre- 
dominates in the modern English people. Our 
author's conclusions upon this interesting subject 
may be summed up as follows: About the middle 
of the fifth century certain German tribes, invad- 
ing the country, settled some districts almost ex- 
clusively, making serfs of some portion of the 
prior population, and forcing the remainder to the 
west and the south. They uprooted Christianity, 
and changed to a great degree the local nomen- 
clature. But they adopted, or allowed to remain, 
many usages relating to the land, and they inter- 
married largely with the native women ; so that 
their descendants exhibit changes in physical type 
which approximate them somewhat to the original 
inhabitants. In language the most important and 
necessary words, particularly among the verbs, are 
Teutonic; so are most of the grammatical forms 
and rules ; and so, also, is the pronunciation. 

The Danes, in the latter part of the ninth 
century, by their invasions, gave a strong Scandi- 
navian tinge to the eastern counties of England, 
and made themselves exclusive masters of the 
islands around Scotland: in other parts of the 
country their influence is not marked. 

But the Norman conquest, although it did not 
at once introduce any very large accession to the 
population, undoubtedly produced the type that is 
still the prevailing one among the upper classes of 
England. Our author finds, by an examination of 
the color-tints of portraits of the nobility, a prev- 
alence of dark hues, even more marked in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than in the 
nineteenth, The severity of the conquest was 
chiefly felt in Yorkshire and parts of Lancashire, 
where the Anglo-Danish population was nearly 
destroyed. In other parts of the country no per- 
manent change in the physical type or racial ele- 


[Vov. VIL, No. 155 


ments seems to have resulted from it. In this 
branch of his inquiries, Dr. Beddoe has drawn, 
principally from Domesday book and other medi- 
aeval records, interesting and useful inferences, 
which we regret not to be able to quote. 

We will conclude by calling especial attention 
to three exceedingly well executed plates, in which 
are represented living faces, which, in the judg- 
ment of our author, reproduce the various types 
of ‘ the races of Britain.’ His remark about ‘the 
singular beauty of the women of Devonshire’ 
seems fully warranted. He Wii 


THE CAUSATION OF PULMONARY CON- 


SUMPTION. 


SCARCELY four years have elapsed since the 
important discovery of the tubercle-bacillus by 
Koch was announced. Many then thought that 
the key to the various problems of pulmona- 
ry consumption was close at hand, if not in our 
actual possession. Certainly therefrom a new 
impetus has been received in the study of these 
problems, — an impetus that may eventually bring 
about their solution ; but so far this discovery has 
added but little to our actual knowledge of the 
causation of this most insidious disease. 

This bacillus is readily and definitely distin- 
guished from other allied micro-organisms. It 
seems to be present in tubercles wherever found, 
and is usually apparent in the sputum of con- 
sumptives ; in some few cases it is believed to 
have been detected in the sputum when no signs 
of the disease were discovered; and other cases 
are known where the most careful examinations 
have failed to detect them, though tubercles were 
unquestionably present. Still the evidence so far 
is only negative. We may, without doing violence 
to the facts, assume that the bacillus Kochi is a 
constant accompaniment of tuberculous disease. 
They are remarkable for their vitality : decom- 
posed or even dried sputum containing them re- 
tains all the powers of the fresh microbe, even 
after months have elapsed. Inoculated into the 
tissue of animals, either in the fresh state or after 
cultivation, they almost invariably produce tuber- 
culous disease, though never the ordinary chronic 
consumption, but quick consumption, or miliary 
tuberculosis, which is held to be distinct ‘in its 
nature. From these facts the conclusion would 
seem self-evident that floating particles of dried 
sputa, or at least when freshly thrown off from 
the diseased subject, might easily enter the lungs 
of healthy persons, and reproduce the disease. 
Unfortunately clinical evidence does not support — 
this a priori deduction. Recent observations de- 
monstrate that food impregnated with tubercu- 


JANUARY 22, 1886.] 


lous matter will produce corresponding disease 
in the intestine and other abdominal viscera. A 
number of dogs, subjected for several weeks to 
an atmosphere surcharged with particles of sputa, 
became tuberculous, but the evidence is not con- 
vincing. 

The possibility of tubercular inoculation has 
been known for years. To Koch is due the credit 
of discovering wherein the peculiar agency con- 
sisted. 

The contagiousness of pulmonary consump- 
tion has been believed for more than a century, 
and still is accepted by many physicians. Dr. 
Hermann Brehmer, upon whose extensive work ' 
the present article is based, warmly contests these 
views, and, it must be admitted, with ability. He, 
in brief, endeavors to prove that pulmonary 
chronic consumption is never produced by the 
bacilli, and is neither contagious, nor, strictly 
speaking, hereditary. As the director for more 
than thirty years, of a private institution for the 
treatment of consumptives, he has been able to 
study nearly twelve thousand cases, chiefly drawn 
from the better classes. Certainly conclusions 
based upon such ample clinical material are en- 
titled to our consideration. 

Though some adherents of the bacilli theory of 
contagion have believed that these organisms are 
directly hereditary, lying latent for a longer or 
shorter period, to finally take on activity, yet 
such a view seems wholly improbable, if not 
absurd. Thus it is apparent, in what is considered 
hereditary consumption, that that which is entailed 
upon the offspring of consumptive parents is not 
the disease itself, but merely the disposition to the 
disease, — the consumptive habitus. If such a 
predisposition exist, as it unquestionably does, 
wherein does the true causation lie? Not in the 


bacilli, for they merely find a soil already prepared | 


for their reception, and isolation does not appear 
to affect the chances of such predisposed persons 
becoming diseased. A sound, healthy person 
never becomes infected by the bacilli, at least 
never in the form of chronic pulmonary consump- 
tion, and the possibility in any other is not yet 
proven. It is only those in whom a predisposition 
exists — a consumptive habitus — who acquire the 


disease. What, then, is the true causation of the 
ordinary phthisis? This the author endeavors to 
show. 


He has shown from the researches of Rokitansky, 
and his own, that the lungs of consumptives are 
abnormally large, and the heart and abdominal 
viscera are abnormally small. Thus the lungs do 

1 Die aetiologie der chronischen lungenschwindsucht, 


vom standpunkt der klinischen erfahrung. Von HERMANN 
BREHMER, sen. Berlin, Hirschwald, 1885. 8°. 


SCIENCE. ' BE 


not receive their due amount of nourishment, and 
become the foci of disease, where the bacilli 
readily and easily find a lodging-place. This view 
may appear startling, yet it seems well sustained. 
The flat-breasted person of consumptive tendency 
has the lungs, not small, as is generally sup- 
posed, but elongated and large; the heart not 
merely atrophied, but actually lessened in capacity 
and power. Thus the relation between the normal 
heart and lung is about one to six; but in many 
consumptives so great a discrepancy as one to 
twelve may exist. The relation between the lungs 
and heart may consist not only in the former being 
too large, or the latter too small, but both may be 
actually normal so far as size is concerned, and 
the evil be found in abnormally small pulmonary 
arteries. Not only does the heart show physical 
incapacity, but it is functionally weakened, pal- 
pitation always existing toa greater or less degree 
in consumptives. Whatever may be the exact 
relation between these organs, the result is invari- 
ably the same, — deficient nutrition to the tissue 
of the lungs. Rarely are the abdominal viscera 
enlarged, and almost constantly it is found that 
consumptives have never been hearty eaters. A 
person with large breast, and its accompanying 
small lungs, an enlarged and powerful heart, well- 
developed abdominal viscera, and a hearty appetite, 
rarely, if ever, becomes consumptive. 

Here, then, is the ultimate cause of the disease, 
—impaired nutrition. This impaired nutrition 
may be the resultant of various antecedent causes. 
First, and most important of all, is that due to 
heredity or prenatal life. Instances are too numer- 
ous to require argument, that acquired peculiar- 
ities may be and are transmitted to offspring. 
Impaired vitality, from whatever cause it may be 
due, re-appears often in the child. When such 
impaired vitality consists in the predisposing ab- 
normal correlation of lungs, heart, and viscera, 
the fuel is prepared that only needs the match to 
start into active flame. The question here is of 
the greatest moment, — Were the tubercle-bacillus 
no longer in existence, would tuberculous disease 
become extinct ? 

A predisposing cause of but little less impor- 
tance is that of the exhausted vitality in the 
mother, due to too frequently repeated gestation, 
—a cause that not only affects children of later 
births, but retro-acts strongly upon the mother. 
Thus it is that the later descendants of large and 
numerous families are more disposed to ccnsump- 
tion. Again: lack of nutrition in childhood, 
whereby the healthy and normal development of 
the alimentary and arterial systems is retarded, 
produces a like disposition. 

Injuries to the lung, in some instances, have 


85 


been thought to be an exciting cause; but such 
cases are due, the author believes, to the partial 
stagnation of the blood in the lung. In such rare 
cases where the disease first appears in the right 
lung, the author believes it to be owing to some 
malformation or aneurism, whereby this lung 
receives a less quantity of blood than the left. 

Dr. Brehmer gives a history of five hundred 
cases in full, —cases in the offspring of non-con- 
sumptive ancestry, of those suffering under scrofu- 
lous or allied evils, and cases due to heredity. 
Other interesting results are perceived from the 
study of these cases. An unquestionable inter- 
relationship appears between consumption, men- 
tal derangement, epilepsy, and deaf-mutism. The 
researches of Professor Bell upon deaf-mutism 
have, the present writer believes, substantiated 
the relationship of this last defect with other 
defects, and also show its heredity. May not all 
these proceed from the same general cause, — 
the transmission from parent to child of abnormal 
or deficient organs, which are ultimately due to 
impaired nutrition or unfavorable environment ? 
That such effects do not follow deprivation 
alone, is apparent. Too great culture or luxu- 
rious habits certainly seem to be exciting causes. 
How much they are owing to nervous influence 
is a problem of interest. It is a well-established 
fact that wild animals kept in confinement are 
especially liable to phthisis. The most highly 
bred strains of domestic stock are likewise prone 
to tuberculous disease. 

That consumption is contagious in the ordinary 
sense of the word, the author emphatically de- 
nies. It is true that the bacilli are rarely found 
in the atmosphere, except in large hospitals, where 
many cases of the disease are treated; but the 
author contends that a person not predisposed 
may expose himself with the utmost impunity to 
the contagia without becoming infected. As an 
evidence, is adduced the fact that in Gdbersberg, 
during the last forty years, many thousand cases 
have been treated; nevertheless, the mortality 
from this cause among the inhabitants of the 
place has actually decreased by about fifty per 
cent from that of the preceding forty years. 
A century ago, in Naples and in Portugal, legal 
enactments placed this disease under the most rig- 
orous ban. It was looked upon and treated as one 
of the worst pestilential diseases, and every thing 
connected with it pronounced unclean and danger- 
ous. For fifty-six years were these rigorous laws 
enforced, to the great discomfort of the people, 
but without result : there was no decrease in con- 
sumption. He disclaims the prevalent opinion 
that married people will contract the disease from 
one another. Indeed, according to his experience, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 155" 


it is very rarely indeed that both husband and 
wife die of consumption. lt is worthy of note, 
however, that whenever facts seem to warrant 
the assumption of contagion between husband 
and wife, it is usually the wife who suffers. 

The author believes that the operation of all 
these causes is such that morphological changes are 
brought about, enabling one years, even decades, 
in advance, to predict with great probability 
which members of a given family wiil be afflicted 
with pulmonary consumption, and which will 
remain healthy. When acquired peculiarities 
through generations have become fixed, then, and 
in this sense only, does pulmonary consumption 
become hereditary. 

Shouid these views of the causation of consump- 
tion be sustained, the question of contagion, or 
rather non-contagion, in another decade will no 
longer be disputed, and then the possibility of the 
conveyance of phthisis from man to man, in any 
other way than by direct inoculation, will be 
looked upon only as a superstition. When such 
definite conclusions have been reached, we will at 
last be in a position to study rationally the all- 
important probiem of prevention and treatment. 

: N.. Wag 


AN important investigation into the chemical 
constitution of the venom of the Indian cobra 
(Naja tripudians) formed, says the Lancet, the 
subject of a paper read before the Royal society, 
on Dec. 16, by Dr. R. Norris Wolfenden. It has 
been alleged that the venom of this snake contains 
an alkaloid and a principle known as ‘ cobric acid.’ 
Dr. Wolfenden has been unable to verify either of 
these assertions ; indeed, he denies the existence 
of both substances. He further shows that the 
venom loses its power when the albuminous bodies 
are removed or otherwise rendered inert. Mix- 
tures containing the cobra poison, when treated 
with metallic salts that precipitate albumen, were — 
found harmless. Wolfenden, like Weir Mitchell 
and Reichert, has found three poisonous pro- 
teids in the venom. The largest quantity of 
proteid was a globulin that had asphyxiating 
properties ; and a smaller quantity of syntonin, 
possessing similar properties, was also detected. 
A form of serum albumen existed in minute pro- 
portions, and this was ascertained to have remark- 
able powers, paralyzing small animals. It has been ! 
objected that the possession of poisonous qualities — 


1 
ta 


by a serum albumen is a unique fact, but Schmidt- 
7 


Mulheim and Albertoni bave found ordinary pep-— 
causing various nervous disturbances, lowering 
the blood-pressure, and preventing the coagula-— 
tion of the blood. 


. 
- 


tones to be toxic when injected into the blood, — 


4 
d 
\ 
- 


7 

: 
1 

4 
} 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

THE ATTITUDE of Professor Newcomb towards 
the alleged discoveries in regard to thought-trans- 
ferrence is one of extreme intellectual dissent, and 
will necessarily accentuate the impression of ex- 
ceedingly great conservatism, which already pre- 
vails in regard to the American society for 
psychical research. His presidential address was 
essentially a frank though delicate denial, not 
only of the results concerning telepathy claimed 
by the English society, but also of the utility 
of pursuing any investigations upon the subject 
further. There appear, however, certain flaws 
in his argument, which are sufficient to prevent 
one from bluntly adopting his conclusion. He 
places much emphasis, for instance, on the ex- 
treme rarity of thought-transferrence in the ordi- 
nary course of life, and implies somewhat sar- 
castically that it ought to be much more frequent. 
To a physiologist, however, the possibilities appear 
differently : it is quite conceivable that telepathic 
irritations are extremely feeble, and are accord- 
ingly usually completely obliterated by the ordi- 
nary and much stronger irritations of daily life ; 
just as the feeble sensations from the stars are 
obliterated by sunlight, so that, as aptly remarked 
by Dr. Bowditch, a man conscicus only during the 
day would not discover tke stars. Again, he 
states that telepathy is communication between 
two minds without the intervention of any physi- 
calagency. This certainly cannot be accepted as 
a correct definition; for telepathy means com- 
munication through other than the usually known 
sensory processes, and there is nothing in the 
hypothesis to exclude all physical agencies. So 
long as the physicists have to acknowledge action 
at a distance of gravity and electric induction, it 
is certainly no dishonor to any intellect to accede 
to the possibility of the action at a distance of 
mind, sufficiently to consider that possibility 
worthy of investigation, even though he has 
little expectation (and most scientific men have 
very little) of a positive result. We have alluded 
to the weak points of Professor Newcomb’s ad- 
dress: the two strongest points are in criticism 
of the work of the English society. He finds 

No. 156.— 1886, 


fault very justly with their failure to ascertain 
the influence of varying conditions on thought- 
transferrence ; and he further makes the very 
acute observation that in the reproductions of the 
drawings, though the lines are faulty, they always 
join perfectly, as would be the case with the work 
of a poor draughtsman who could see ; and this, too, 
in the drawings made blindfold. The inference, 
which Professor Newcomb refrains from making, 
is, of course, that the person did see, and there 
was some trickery. By way of general criticism 
of the English society’s work, we may frankly 
say that it is like that of amateurs and enthusiasts, 
and bears the character of such work, especially 
because it fails to deal rigidly and skilfully with 
the problems as they appear to professional physi- 
ologists and psychologists. 


THE TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT of the Massa- 
chusetts commissioners of inland fisheries gives 
some facts of interest on the fisheries of that state. 
In many places, where the culture of land-locked 
salmon had been deemed a failure, the fish has 
appeared in numbers. Of the river-salmon there 
has been an increased run in the Merrimack River 
the past year, and, were it not for the depredations 
that have been committed, the river would now 
be self-sustaining. In Maine the salmon-fisheries 
have been greatly increased, and the catch for the 
past season is said to be the largest for fifty years. 
Shad-hatching was continued at North Andover, 
with good results. The river was found to be full 
of male shad from one to two years old. These 
young males return with the mature females, 
while the females do not return till they are three 
or four years old. Owing to the prejudice that 
existed, the artificial hatching of shad was aban- 
doned for several years, with the result, that, on 
the Connecticut River, the value of the shad- 
fisheries fell off more than fifty per cent on the 
upper waters, and twenty-five on the lower. The 
resumption of hatching, however, has prevented 
further decrease, and an improvement is expected 
next year. Hitherto but little has been done for 
the cultivation of the carp in Massachusetts, 
under the impression that the state was too far 
north for such to be successful. That the idea is 
erroneous is clearly shown by several large ponds 
in the state, already heavily stocked with this fish. 


90 


In the autumn of 1881, sixty-seven carp were 
placed in a pond near Worcester: they have 
grown and bred very rapidly, without especial 
- care having been given to them; so that the pond 
is now full of fish from four to twenty-five inches 
in length, and weighing as high as sixteen pounds. 
The most important fact connected with the other 
fisheries is the decrease in the catch of some of 
the more valuable kinds, such as the striped bass, 
Spanish mackerel, and bluefish ; the last especially 
has everywhere been found less abundant than in 
recent years. 

A MOVEMENT is before congress to establish a 
commission to determine the feasibility and value 
of inoculation with the causative agent of yellow- 
fever as a preventive of that disease. Dr. Walcott, 
president of the American public health associa- 
tion, and Dr. Holt, president of the Louisiana 
state board of health, appeared before the senate 
committee on epidemic diseases last week in this 
interest, accompanied by Drs. Billings, Toner, and 
Smart, of Washington. It is proposed to establish 
a commission to go to Mexico and South America 
to investigate the system of inoculation of Freire 
and Carmona, whose experiments have proved so 
successful in those countries, and also to investi- 
gate the principles of Pasteur, Koch, and others, 
in their special application to yellow-fever. The 
proposed bill will be reported favorably to the 
senate, and there is strong reason to hope for 
similar action in the house. The plan offers the 
possible emancipation of the people living in 
yellow-fever districts from the dominion of a 
pestilence which frequently costs tens of thou- 
sands of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars. 


THE EXTREMELY COLD WEATHER at the south 
during the present season has strengthened the 
popular impression that the region in question is 
subjected to greater ranges of temperature and a 
less equable distribution of rainfall than formerly. 
With a view of testing the correctness of this 
impression, the Alabama weather-service has col- 
lected from the early Spanish, French, and colonial 
records, a mass of references to the weather. This 
‘record of the weather’ goes back to 1701, when it 
was recorded by one of the French officials resi- 
dent in Louisiana, that ‘‘ the water has been so 
intensely cold that water poured in a tumbler to 
rinse it froze instantaneously.” The records of 
1711, 1718, and 1723, refer to destructive floods in 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VII., No. 156 


the lower Mississippi ; and in 1732 a hurricane is 
reported in Louisiana which ‘‘ destroyed the crops, 
resulting in extreme scarcity of provisions.” A 
number of references to hurricanes are given in 
the record ; but, in ali probability, they were of 
the same local nature as the tornadoes of the 
present day. The record is published as ‘ Special 
paper of the Alabama weather-service No. 1,’ and 
is evidence that the service is desirous of doing its 
share toward adding to the valuable meteorological 
literature of the day. The editor of the ‘record’ 
is, however, an historian as well as a meteorolo- 
gist, as he opens his work with a sketch of the 
early history of the Gulf states, and, under the 
date 1736, says nothing of floods, cold, or winds, 
but does tell us of ‘‘ Bienville’s expedition through 
Mobile, up the Bigbee River to Old Town Creek, 
thence north-west to the Chickasaw villages a few 
miles north-west of Tupelo, where the battle of 
Ackia was fought and the French badly defeated. 
Near the same spot D’Andreville shared a similar 
fate in 1753; and DeSoto, in March, 1541, fared 
but little better.” Is not this an unnecessary 
mixing of sciences ? ; 


‘© A DEBT OF $135,000 encumbers the Cincinnati 
zoOlogical gardens, and it is announced that they 
must be sold unless the business-men of the city 
come to the rescue. A system of private sub- 
scriptions is proposed by the managers, whereby 
there is a faint hope of securing a longer lease of 
life.” In such words is the announcement made 
in the daily press of the present condition and 
probable fate of the Cincinnati gardens. In 
Science of Nov. 13, we referred to the financial 
difficulties of the Philadelphia zodlogical garden. 
It is certainly greatly to be regretted that suffi- 
cient support cannot be obtained in this country 
for these institutions. Boston and Washington 
are anxious to have zodlogical gardens; but the 
projectors will receive little encouragement from 
the financial history of those now in existence. 


IN VIEW OF THE RECENT announcement that the 
faculty of Harvard college has decided to again 
allow the students to take part in intercollegiate 
football matches, it is interesting to note the fre- 
quent cases of football accidents to which the Lan- 
cet calls attention. That paper states that on Jan. 
11 an inquest was held at Bridgewater, England, 
on the body of William Poole, aged twenty, who 
came by his death from injuries received whilst 


JANUARY 29, 1886. | 


playing in a football match on Dec. 28. The de- 
ceased, who was playing a very fast game, slipped 
and fell, and at the same time received a severe 
kick, probably in the abdomen, while several other 
players fell upon him. His death resulted from 
hemorrhage, arising from injuries to the internal 
organs. The Lancet goes on to say, ‘‘If proof of 
this [the dangerous character of the game as played 
in England] be wanted, it is furnished by the fact 
that this is at least the third fatal accident directly 
due to football already recorded thus early in the 
season.” 


THE HEAVY MORTALITY among the Baptist 
missionaries in the Kongo country has led Dr. 
Prosser James to write a series of letters, embody- 
ing descriptions of the principal diseases of tropical 
countries. These letters are entitled ‘Health on 
the Kongo,’ and are intended for circulation 
among the missionaries and the station officials 
of the Kongo Free State. It is to be hoped that 
Dr. James has in this way contributed to the weli- 
being of the voluntary exiles in central Africa. 
Mr. Stanley still persists, that, with care, a European 
may successfully resist the inroads of the malarial 
influences to which he subjects himself on emi- 
grating to the banks of that river; and every 
particle of wisdom which it is possible to impart 
on how to travelin Africa, how to locate a station, 
how to eat, dress, work, and sleep, must be a god- 
send to the adventurers. It is just such informa- 
tion that the letters are intended to give. 


AT THE LAST ANNUAL meeting of the trustees of 
the Mount Auburn cemetery of Boston, Mass., it 
was voted that the trustees consider the expediency 
of establishing a crematorium, or of adopting any 
other method of taking care of the dead so that 
the sanitary law shall not be violated. The com- 
mittee appointed, consisting of Mr. Roger Wolcott 
and Dr. R. M. Hodges, report that the acts of 
incorporation of the cemetery only permitted 
interment. Cremation has been legalized by the 
legislature of Massachusetts during the past year, 
and the cemetery will be prepared to receive for 
sepulture the ashes resulting from the process of 
incineration, and would prepare depositories above 
ground, or columbaria in the hill-sides, for the 
reception and preservation of urns and other 
memorials. These actions of the legislature and 
trustees are worthy of note, as showing the wide 
interest cremation is now attracting in America, 
as well as in Europe. 


SCTENCE. 


9] 


RECENT PSYCHICAL RESEARCHES. 


THE American society for psychical research 
held its annual meeting on Jan. 11 last, at Boston, 
the headquarters of the society. There has been 
a steady and rapid growth in the number of asso- 
ciates; and, as the various committees are now 
well organized and at work, it is hoped that the 
society will display still greater vitality in the 
future. This fair prospect has, however, been 
disturbed in one respect by the president of the 
society, Prof. Simon Newcomb, whose address was 
read at the meeting. He devoted his attention to 
the work that has been done upon thought-trans- 
ferrence, especially by the original English society, 
and endeavored to discredit the investigations and 
conclusions published by the English committee. 
In brief, Professor Newcomb’s position is, that the 
phenomena of thought-transferrence, as heretofore 
recorded, are very rare and quite unexplained. 
Now, they may be due, he says, either to an un- 
known law of nature displayed under conditions 
we cannot control, or else to special circum- 
stances which are unknown to us. In the former 
case we might compare the phenomena with those 
of electricity, which were at first rare, obscure, 
and beyond our control. Professor Newcomb, 
however, turns all his arguments in favor of the 
second alternative ; but, as briefly indicated in our 
comments this week, his logic is open to criticism. 
The length of the address precludes a fuller discus- 
sion of it before its publication. 

Dr. H. P. Bowditch gave an informal account 
of some experiments, which indicated to a slight 
extent the power of reproducing drawings by 
thought-transferrence. Dr. C. S. Minot presented 
the results of an analysis of the figures obtained 
from the attempts to transfer the thought of a 
single digit from one person’s mind to another’s. 
Jt was noticed in the returns of experiments 
that there was one case in which the person 
guessed a larger number of digits correctly than 
was probable on mere chance. Now, it so hap- 
pened that this person displayed the, presumably 
unconscious, habit of guessing the digits by skip- 
ping irregularly by two or three numbers from 0. 
1, or 2, up to 8 or 9, and then back again. When, 
therefore, the thousand digits upon his record of 
guesses were tabulated, the result was obtained, 
that, upon the average, the fourth digit guessed 
by him before a 9 was 3.3; the third, 3.4; the 
second, 4.2; the first, 5.4. After a9 he guessed 
down the scale with equal regularity. No other 
person showed this peculiarity: hence it was 
evident that this guesser had followed out his 
personal psychological bent, and had not been 
reading the mind of the agent, who had thought 


92 


of the digit to be guessed. This confirmed the 
conclusion otherwise reached, that this case of 
success, called case E in the first report of the 
‘committee on thought-transferrence, was the 
effect of coincidence. It was further shown that 
this same person had marked preferences for 
certain digits, as is seen in the following table : — 


BP PN EF Ehren scat. ine are esate area aie aistoisi ier. Sul wh sD, 2 Cees Sh 10 
Number of times guessed....97 92 122 117 106 101 112 90 85 78 


The order of preference then was, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 
1, 8, 9, 0. Moveover, in this series, 532 odd num- 
bers stand against 478 even ones. That the num- 
ber-habit, or the tendency to guess certain digits 
over-often, is actual and constant, was proven by 
the fact that these idiosyncrasies were shown in 
each set of 100, although made at various times. 
Similar examinations of the digits guessed by other 
experimenters showed in every case a more or less 
marked and constant number-habit, distinct for 
each individual, thus giving more evidence that in 
every instance there had been an absence of mind- 
reading. Putting about 9,000 guesses by thirteen 
persons together, and averaging them, it was found 
that the digits are to be ranked in the following 
order of preference, which is certainly very curious : 
3, Dd, 4, 6, 2, 7, 8,9, 1,0. About as many prefer 
odd as even numbers; but most persons prefer 
one or the other. Thus one guesses 466 odd and 
534 even, but another 526 odd and 574 even. It 
is evident that the power of unconscious habit 
extends into details the most minute, and plays a 
much greater réle in our mental life than is com- 
monly admitted. 

Professor Royce, on behalf of the committee on 
apparitions, announced the completion of a cir- 
cular asking for the communication of stories to 
the committee. The speaker’s remarks well ex- 
pressed the attitude of the committee, which is 
sufficiently unlike that of the corresponding Eng- 
lish committee to deserve mention. The starting- 
point is the viewing of the experiences in question 
as actual psychological facts; in going further, 
the tendency will be, at least on Professor Royce’s 
part, to study how far these experiences are gov- 
erned by the dictates of folk-lore, and to elim- 
inate those stories which belong in the already 
well-known class of hallucinations. The search 
for an objective basis for the experience, for a 
specific external cause, is incidental only, and 
must follow after the exclusion of cases explicable 
by folk-lore hallucinations, etc. The English in- 
vestigators wish too obviously and too eagerly to 
demonstrate the objective foundation of appari- 
tions, and so have quite omitted to subject their 
material to the study which must come first, if 
the work is to be sound. Apparently they already 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 156 


accept an apparition seen by several persons as a 
bona-fide ghost, at least very probably. It need 
hardly be pointed out that the position taken by 
Professor Royce is much higher, his attitude more 
scientific, than this. The result of the commit- 
tees’ labor will therefore be awaited with great 
interest. 

The meeting closed with some remarkable ex- 
periments by Dr. William James, who mesmerized 
Mr. Carnegie, one of the committee on hypnotism. 
While the latter was in the trance, Dr. James told 
him he could not see the chairman, with the effect 
of rendering him blind to that officer. Placing a 
prism in front of Mr. Carnegie’s eye, so as to 
produce two images on his retina, Dr. James 
asked what he saw. The answer showed that he 
saw only one chairman, and therefore remained 
blind to one of the two images. This is believed 
to be quite a new fact in hypnotism. To show 
that although the subject adopts any suggestions 
made to him as to his sensory images, no matter 
how false the suggestion, yet he has extreme 
delicacy of perception, the following experiment 
was made : the subject was made to see an imagi- 
nary photograph of President Cleveland on a 
blank sheet of paper ; the photograph was made, 
in the subject’s vision, to leave the sheet of paper 
and travel round the room ; behind Mr. Carnegie’s 
back the paper was turned upside down; the 
photograph was now made to seem to Mr. Car- 
negie to return to the paper, which was handed 
to him; he immediately turned it about -to its 
previous position. Thus an hypnotic subject can 
be made to believe in a sensation which is unreal, 
and yet can distinguish between the two ends of 
a blank piece of paper. Of course, the interest of 
these experiments is genuine only for those who 
have faith in the honesty of the two gentlemen. 
Those who do not wish to believe, may remain 
agnostic; but even they have to submit to the 
truth when experiments are made with animals. 
It may be added incidentally that Dr. Minot, in 
his studies on the growth of animals, habitually, 
he informs me, hypnotized his hens upon the 
scale-pan to keep them still while being weighed, 
—a useful practical application of hypnotism. 

VaR 


THE AMERICAN ENGINEERS’ MEETING. 


THE annual meeting of the American society of 
civil engineers was held in New York, Jan. 20-21. 
The last meeting of this society was held at Deer 
Park, Md., on June 24-26. At that meeting, it 
was reported, more business was transacted and 
more discussion elicited than at any previous con- 
vention of the society. It was a meeting in a 


" 


JANUARY 29, 1886. ] 


small, out-of-the-way place, and the opportunities 
_ for having a good time were insignificant. The 
meeting in New York was apparently of a differ- 
ent character, very possibly not less beneficial to 
the members. Wednesday was devoted to the 
routine business of the society and the discussion 
of papers; but on Thursday the members of the 
society took advantage of the invitation of the 
managers of the new Croton aqueduct, and made 
an excursion of inspection along the line of the 
work, 

Two prizes were awarded at the meeting, — one 
for a paper by Mr. Elliot C. Clarke of Boston, on 
a report on cement tests; and the other to Mr. 
A. M. Wellington, for a paper on experiments on 
journal friction at low velocities. The committee 
on uniform standard time reported encouraging 
progress, and stated that seventy-one managers of 
railways in America have favorably considered 
the twenty-four o’clock system, and that the 
Canadian Pacific railway has adopted it, and has 
changed its time-tables, its clocks, and the em- 
ployees’ watches, to adapt them to the new stand- 
ard. 

At the last meeting, Prof. T. Egleston of Colum- 
bia college presented a paper on the cause and 
prevention of the decay of building-stone. At this 
meeting Professor Egleston had something to say 
in regard to the disintegration of the’ surface of 
the obelisk in Central park, and took ground simi- 
lar to that of Mr. Arnold Hague, whose views 
were published in Science for Dec. 11, and held 
that the disintegration was due to the great 
changes in temperature to which the obelisk is 
now exposed, and that the coating of paraftine 
might arrest the decay, but that nothing short of 
housing would stop it entirely. He stated that 
granite will absorb about one per cent of moisture, 
but that he had found that specimens from the 
side of the obelisk in London will absorb over 
seven per cent, this increase being due to its disin- 
tegrated condition. So far as the paraffine keeps 
out moisture, and thus prevents the formation of 
ice in the cracks, it would aid in the preservation 
of the stone. 

Dr. Rothwell exhibited a system for submarine 
tunnelling. The company which Dr. Rothwell 
represents is contemplating tunnelling the North- 
umberland Straits to Prince Edward Island, 
which is now often cut off from all communica- 
tion with the rest of the world for a month at a 
time, on account of the ice. 

The next meeting of the society will probably be 
in or near Denver. The officers for 1886 are: 
president, Henry Flad ; vice-presidents, T. F. Row- 
land, T. C. Keefer. The secretary and librarian, 
John Bogart, was re-elected. 


Pr 


SCIENCE. 93 


ACCESSIONS TO THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


THE most complete catalogue ever printed of 
the Catlin collection of Indian paintings, now in 
the national museum, will shortly be issued, and 
will be profusely illustrated. The manuscript is 
now in the hands of the printer. This catalogue 
will form an appendix to the ‘Report of the 
national museum for the half-year ending July 30, 
1885.’ 

The national museum has recently received 
from Paris four life-sized models of Africans, 
executed by Jules Hebert,—-a Wolof, from Cape 
Verde; a Bambarra, from the upper Niger; a 
Soumali, from Cape Gardafui; and a Masai, from 
Lake Victoria Nyanza. These models are clad in 
native costume, and form a very attractive group 
in the museum. 

An interesting example of the manner in which 
the Eskimo amuse themselves is afforded by a 
collection of twenty-five ivory carved figures, 
made by Mr. J. W. Johnson at Fort Alexander, 
Alaska. The group represents the game, ‘the tug 
of war.’ Two Eskimo on a raised platform are 
pulling at a drum-hoop, each one trying to dis- 
lodge the other from his position. A group of 
musicians are playing instruments in the fore- 
ground, and the spectators are located on the 
sides, enjoying the fun. The effect is very spirited, 
and the whole scene exhibits rare ingenuity. 

One of the old tally-sticks used by the bank of 
England to keep account of loans, before the 
present system of banking was invented, has 
recently been acquired by the museum. This 
specimen bears the date of 1776, and represents a 
hundred thousand pounds of a loan made at that 
time. The stick is about four feet in length, and 
notches are cut on both sides of it. The stick is 
then split, the government holding one half, and 
the creditor the other. It is impossible to make 
any change in the condition of the loan by either 
party, because the notches on the two sticks would 
no longer fit, and thus fraud would be detected. 


WORTHLESS BAYONETS. 


THE examination of bayonets at Aldershot has 
revealed a state of affairs which is disgraceful to 
the English war-office, and most discouraging for 
the public. Three regiments have submitted their 
bayonets to the test, —the first Royal Lancashire, 
the second West Riding, and the first Seaforth 
Highlanders. All turned out very badly, but the 
badness was not uniform. Out of 700 bayonets 
belonging to the West Riding regiment, 55 broke 
under test, and 180 were found soft and otherwise 
defective, giving an average of failures of a little 


94 SCIENCE. 


over 33 per cent. The Seaforth Highlanders were 
a little better off, 169 of their bayonets and some 
_ sergeants’ swords being condemned. The Lan- 
cashire regiment had 600 bayonets examined, of 
which 223, or rather more than 37 per cent, were 
found to be unfit for use. Altogether 2,000 
bayonets were tested, out of which 611 had to 
be condemned. This number, taken at random 
from the regiments which happen at the moment 
to garrison Aldershot, is sufficiently large to be 
considered a fair sample of the whole supply of 
bayonets to the British army. 

The London Times reaches the very unpleasant 
conclusion that three bayonets in every ten, or, to 
be accurate, 3,055 bayonets in every 10,000, now 
in the hands of the British army in all parts of 
the world, will fail the English soldiers in the hour 
of need. Or, to put it another way, England, 
which spends such enormous sums upon its army, 
may reckon that it has at this moment an entire 
army corps supposed to be fit to go anywhere and 
do any thing, equipped with weapons which will 
double up like a pewter spoon under the impact 
of a fanatical Arab. 

Nor is even this all. The public may be excused 
for entertaining some suspicions as to the quality 
of the bayonets which have passed the test. How 
many of them, the Times asks, have just escaped 
condemnation, and how many are in fact what 
they are in theory, and what the English govern- 
ment pays to make them, — the best article that 
can be produced alike as to material and work- 
manship? It would be decidedly curious were 
there no intermediate grades to be found between 
a first-class weapon and one visibly and unmis- 
takably worthless. The probability is that there 
are many; and until there exist assurances to the 
contrary, much more convincing than any yet 
produced, men of business will be disposed to 
doubt whether the percentage of unexceptionable 
bayonets is as great as that of downright bad ones. 


FARTHEST NORTH. 


TAKING all things into consideration, the Greely 
expedition was the most unfortunate expedition 
that ever entered the Arctic. Newfoundland was 
scarcely lost to sight when the men began to 
grumble about their food. Before the Proteus 
left Lady Franklin Bay, the second in command 
quarrelled with his chief. Unfortunately he failed 
to catch the returning steamer, and remained to 
add a gloom to the terrible gloom of the arctic 
night, and to add one more to the useless sacrifice 

Farthest north ; or, The life and explorations of James 


Booth Lockwood, of the Greely arctic expedition. By 
CHARLES LANMAN. New York, Appleton, 1885. 16°. 


é 


(VoL. VIL, No. 156% 


on Cape Sabine. He soon found a confederate in 
the naturalist, and the two rarely spoke to Greely 
and Lockwood, the other occupants of the officers’ 
quarters. Kislingbury and Pavy are both dead. 
We hope that Major Greely will go to the bottom 
of this matter, and tell us the true cause of so 
much discontent. 

The next great misfortune which overtook the 
expedition was the death by starvation of the 
greater part of the force. owing either to the 
criminal negligence, or no less criminal ignorance, 
of those who had the relief in charge. The bodies 
of the dead heroes were brought to this country ; 
but, before they were laid at rest, a noisy celebra- 
tion was held in honor of the survivors. All 
honor to Brainerd, to Greely and the rest, but 
surely they would have preferred to have had 
better taste displayed in the matter. And now 
one of the foremost men of that party, a man 
whose name will forever rank with that of Payer 
in the annals of arctic discovery, has been most 
signally unfortunate in his biographer. No doubt, 
Mr. Lanman, if he had taken the time and 
care, and had possessed the requisite knowledge, 
might have written a good book; but the haste 
with which the present volume has been stuck 
together is apparent on every page. Whatis still — 
more to be regretted is the omission of facts and — 
descriptions which would have been interesting — 
and useful to those familiar with the story of | 
arctic exploration. Nevertheless, Mr. Lanman 
has printed many passages from Lockwood’s jour- 
nal, and there is much in them worth reading and 
thinking about. 

The most noticeable thing in the book is the 
ease with which Lockwood, Brainerd, and the 
Eskimo Fredericks accomplished a journey to do 
a portion of which had cost Beaumont and his 
Englishmen so much suffering and disease. Why 
did the scurvy attack Beaumont’s party, while 
leaving Lockwood, and in fact the whole expedi- 
tion, entirely free? Surely no one will ever ques- 
tion Beaumont’s energy and pluck. But why did 
he fail where Lockwood succeeded? It seems to 
us that this would be a profitable subject for the 
pens of Commander (now Captain) Markham, and 
his cousin (not brother, as Mr. Lanman says), the 
well-known secretary of the Royal geographical 
society, Clements R. Markham, — more profitable, 
indeed, than the assertions that Lockwood did not 
go farther north than Markham, and farther north 
and east than Beaumont. Lockwood thought that 
the weight of Beaumont’s travelling equipment 
was enough to have used up any men. For our 
part, it seems probable that the cause lay deeper, 
and should be looked for in the difference between 
the winter quarters and diet of the two sets of men. 


JANUARY 29, 1886. ] 


Another interesting statement is the following, 
from Lockwood’s diary, as to the relative merits 
of Kane and Hayes: ‘‘ Have been reading Kane 
and his travels. He is my beau ideal of an arctic 
traveller. Hayes does not compare with 
him. Though beautifully written, there is an air 
of exaggeration about Hayes’s book which de- 
stroys its interest. Dr. Pavy, who has hitherto 
been the advocate of Hayes, since his return from 
Carl Ritter Bay, seems to have changed his mind 
about him, and now agrees with Greely and me 
that Hayes never reached Cape Lieber. To have 
done so, he must have performed in part of his 
journey ninety-six miles in fourteen hours, — an 
impossibility.” This, be it understood, is from 
Lockwood’s diary as given by Lanman. The 
volume further contains a good portrait of the 
explorer, a poor map of his explorations, and no 
index. 


THURSTON ’S MATERIALS OF CONSTRUC- 
TION. 


THIS work, the author states in his preface, is 
an abridgment of the larger work by the same 
author, entitled ‘ Materials of engineering.’ 

It contains in a compact form for ready refer- 
ence a large amount of valuable information con- 
cerning the properties of materials used in engi- 
neering constructions, and is undoubtedly one: of 
the most complete works of the kind yet pub- 
lished in this country. 

Students and practical engineers can hardly 
find any compilation better suited to supplement 
their theoretical text-books on the mechanics of 
engineering constructions than this. The work is 
not free, however, from some of the imperfections 
and faults which have characterized nearly all 
books of this kind, heretofore produced, by Eng- 
lish and American authors. The title which is 
given to a text-book is perhaps of little conse- 
quence in itself; but under the titles ‘ Theory of 
strains,’ ‘Strength of materials,’ ‘Mechanics of 
materials,’ etc., we have a variety of works, some 
of which are devoted to the exposition and demon- 
stration of the theorems of applied mechanics 
relating to the action of external forces upon the 
parts of structures, and the resistances which 
oppose such forces, with a minimum amount of 
space devoted to the properties of the materials 
used ; and in others the properties of materials, 
more or less fully treated, with a minimum 
amount of demonstration of mechanics so applied, 
but with working formulas, either introduced 
without demonstration or from experiments, — em- 
pirical formulas, — largely interspersed. This min- 


Text-book of the materials of construction. By R. H. 
THuRstToN. New York, Wiley, 1885. 8°. 


SCIENCE. 


95 


gling of engineering constants and descriptions of 
the properties of materials with both demon- 
strated and empirical formulas, 1s perhaps neces- 
sary in such a work as that of Professor Thurston ; 
but it requires great discrimination and art to 
accomplish this satisfactorily. The handbooks of 
Trautwine and Haswell are exceedingly useful 
works of this character. Professor Thurston aims 
to goa step farther in his formulas and explana- 
tions; but the mixing-up of theoretical demon- 
strations and formulas without demonstration is a 
fault in a text-book for students. 

Some subjects are treated at great length, while 
others receive less notice; as, for example, those 
connected with metallurgy on the one hand, and 
the non-metallic materials on the other. 

The introduction of pictures of a few of our 
most common trees, etc., in illustrations of tim- 
ber, are out of place, and affect the character and 
dignity of the work, as such imperfect illustra- 
tions of familiar objects, seen almost daily and 
hourly in nature, are apt to prejudice the reader 
against the author. 

Notwithstanding these defects, however, the 
work is a very valuable contribution to engineer- 
ing as a book of reference for nearly all impor- 
tant questions connected with the properties of 
materials. 

EXPLORATIONS IN ALASKA BY 

BROTHERS KRAUSE. 


AMONG explorations in Alaska of late years, not 
purely for geographical purposes, the journey of 
the brothers Krause, under the auspices of the 
Bremen geographical society, holds a prominent 
and worthy place. Its progress was noted and its 
results chronicled from time to time in our pages. 
Numerous papers by the travellers themselves have 
appeared in European journals, the last being an 
account of the brachiopods and lamellibranchiate 
mollusks collected in Bering Sea and Strait, by 
Dr. Arthur Krause. Kurtz, Peters, von Martens, 
Reinhard, Hartlaub, Miller, Meyer, Richters, Arz- 
runi, Poppe, and Kirchenpauer have reported from 
time to time on the natural history, mineralogy, 
and ethnology of the expedition. The volume 
under review is a consensus of all available infor- 
mation, both historical and recent, relating to the 
very interesting group of aborigines which occupy 
the greater part of the Alexander archipelago, with 
outlying villages as far north-west as the Copper 
River. It does not pretend to monographic com- 

Die Tlinkit-Indianer. Ergebnisse einer reise nach der 
nordwestkiiste von Amerika und der Berings-strasse, aus- 
gefiihrt im auftrage der Bremer geographischen gesellschaft 
in den jahren 1880-81, durch die Doctoren Arthur und Aurel 


Krause, geschildert von Dr. AUREL KRAUSE. Jena, Coste- 
noble, 1885. 164420 p.,illustr. 8°. 


THE 


96 SCIENCE. 


pleteness, which would require far more profound 
and exhaustive studies, and much more time, than 
any one has yet found opportunity to give to it; 
_ but for the observations of the Messrs. Krause and 
their predecessors in the same field it is nearly 
exhaustive, and by far the most complete and 
satisfactory account of these people anywhere to 
be found. In the interest of our own students of 
anthropology, it would seem that an English trans- 
lation would be extremely useful. 

The volume opens with a sketch of the journey 
made by the expedition, followed by an historical 
résumé of previous explorations. This is succeeded 
by an account of the characteristics of the region 
inhabited by the Tlinkit, a chapter on their his- 
tory, nomenclature, clans, totemic and tribal rela- 
tions, and the position of their chiefs. The fourth 
chapter treats of their villages, houses, festivals, 
seasonal migrations, the practice of labretifery, 
native art (well-illustrated), and _ slave-holding. 
Then comes an account of their domestic life and 
customs, shamanism, and dances. A chapter is 
devoted to the Haida and other adjacent tribes, 
and another to the history of Russian and other 
missions among them. Lastly, we have a review 
of the language from a grammatical stand-point, 
a vocabulary, a bibliography of the literature of 
the whole topic, and an index. 

The work is carefully and thoroughly done, and 
will be extremely useful and interesting to stu- 
dents of American anthropology. Since the min- 
ers and the missions, the navy and the mercantile 
element, are introducing all the changes which 
come with the van of civilization. it would be well, 
if, with this volume for a starting-point, the rapidly 
vanishing features of the Tlinkit culture could be 
permanently and monographically recorded before, 
as in somany other cases, it istoolate. Whatever 
be done in this direction, we shall owe to Dr. 
Krause and his brother a debt of gratitude for the 
record which they have secured and made avail- 
able, and to the society which made their investi- 
gations possible. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 


A mythical Danish island. —On Danish maps 
near the east coast of the island of Bornholm, in 
the Baltic, a little island may be found named 
Christians6. This is an error, for there never has 
been any such island there. It seems that about 
twenty kilometres from Bornholm is a little group 
of three islets, call Christiansholm, Frederiksholm, 
and Griisholm, where long since were some forti- 
fications, now in ruins, called Christians6. How 
this name has been transferred to a mythical 
islet on the coast of Bornholm is a mystery. 


[Vou. VII., No. 156 


A study of the Danube.—T. de Wogan has 
recently made a canoe voyage on the Danube, 
and has made a study of its sources. It appears 
that the river has a total length of 2,840 kilo- 
metres, and a total fall of 678 metres. The spring 
in the garden of Prince Furstenberg, which has 
long been considered the source of the river, and 
is so entitled on a monument at the spot, which 
has been adorned at great expense by the prince, 
is only one of several springs in the same region, 
either of which has an equal claim to be so con- 
sidered. In the early part of its course, the river 
loses much water through subterranean passages 
reached by fissures in its bed. These have been 
described by Dr. A. Knop, whose experiments 
have been repeated with confirmatory results by 
de Wogan. 

The condition of Borneo, —T. Burls has visited 
the ancient capital of Borneo, the town of Bruni. 
It is situated on a river with muddy banks, about 
twelve miles from the sea. The houses are poor 
and small: they are built on piles, and thatched 
with palm-leaves. The sultan, alleged to be more 
than a hundred years old, has recently married a 
girl of fifteen, who is his one hundred and sixtieth 
wife. His territory has been the seat of several 
recent insurrections, which he has been powerless 
to suppress ; and it is only a question of whether 
the authorities of Sarawak or those of the North 
Borneo company shall take possession of the re- 
bellious districts. More than twenty British sub- 
jects of Sarawak were recently killed by the rebels 
on the Trusan River not far from Bruni. 

South American investigations. — André Bres- 
son has recently published a statistical and geo- 
graphical work on Bolivia. Manuel Uribe Angel 
has just issued a work on the general geography 
and history of the state of Antioquia, with maps 
and twelve plates of antiquities, carvings, pottery, 
and inscriptions of a date anterior to the Spanish 
conquest. It contains very curious and important 
ethnological and linguistic material, beside valu- 
able geographical documents relating to the little- 
known mountainous region traversed by the Rio 
Cauca, and bounded by Bolivia and Tolima from 
the Magdalena to the Atrato. 

Travels in Laos.—The explorations of Dr. Neis 
in Laos during 1883-84 are recently published in 
more detail than the original accounts gave. 
Apart from their additions to cartography, they 
contain interesting notes. On reaching the Nam-u 
River, which he was the first to explore, some 
singular caves were observed. One is in a peaked 
hill, and is reached by steps cut in the rock. The 
second, near by but at a greater height, is difficult 
of access, but well repays a visit. The door with 
which its entrance is furnished is hung between 


JANUARY 29, 1886. ] 


two enormous stalactites. It opens into a passage 
about twenty-five feet long, after which the cave 
enlarges to a great hall seventy feet in diameter, 
and with a tolerably level floor. The roof could 
not be distinguished by the light of the explorers’ 
six candles. Everywhere the stalagmitic deposits 
assumed the most curious forms, such as draperies 
and figures. Every corner was filled with figures 
of Buddha, some in wood, many in bronze, some 
very large ones built of brick covered with care- 
fully gilded cement. An attack of fever, due to 
the chill of the cave atmosphere, was ascribed by 
the guides to the anger of a cave deity. A sacri- 
fice to him, and a large dose of quinine, restored 
the doctor’s health for the time. Below the vil- 
lage of Pak-u are some rapids called Keng Luang, 
where for some distance the river is encumbered 
with numerous blocks of stone. On approaching 
these, the traveller could hardly believe his eyes, 
as the rocks seemed to present carved figures. On 
@ nearer approach, they were seen to represent 
buffaloes, elephants, tigers, crocodiles, and even 
human figures or groups of immodest character. 
The natural form of the rock had always been 
utilized, and at fifty paces or so the figures were 
perfectly recognizable (much less so on a closer 
inspection), except the eyes, which appeared to 
have been recently recut, probably at the annual 
feast of waters, recehtly over. Neither the boat- 
men nor the inhabitants of the village near by, 
where the party camped, would give any explana- 
tion of these carvings, or even talk about them. 
In this village around the pagodas, a sort of 
carpet-gardening had been practised, plants form- 
ing the outline of various figures ; and the trees 
of the river-bank had been cut into the form of 
statues. One group very ingeniously trimmed 
represented an elephant: a vine had been care- 
fully trained to form the trunk. On some rocks 
near by were pictures of five personages, of which 
two had had the hair and beard recently touched 
up. No explanation could be had of the use or 
purport of these things. Above the village of 
Kok-han was a hill eight or nine hundred feet 
high, called the elephant mountain, very well 
recalling a couchant elephant. The eye, due toa 
bare spot on the hillside, appeared to be carefully 
kept in order by the local priests. The mountain- 
eers of this region do a good business in rice, 
cotton, tobacco, lac, gold-dust, and the astringent 
bark which the Laotians mix with their betel. 
These people, in talking with each other, do not 
say, ‘From what district (or town) do you come ?’ 
but ‘What water do you drink?’ all tribes, towns, 
etc., being denominated according to the stream 
or brook by which they are situated. The villages 
of these mountaineers are generally on some small 


. 


SCIENCE. 97 


hiliock which is surrounded by a palisade, the 
several houses being elevated on piles for greater 
security. These people are called Khas. When 
a stranger comes, he is always offered a sort of 
beer made of rice. The first to drink is to be the 
first of the company to die. In cases where great 
deference is intended, the whole household drink 
before offering to the guest. They appear to be- 
long to one, probably aboriginal, race with the 
Mois and other tribes of the Indo-Chinese moun- 
tains. They are intelligent, brave, and active, 
and do not fear the Hos, or Chinese pirates, who 
descend upon and devastate the Laotian villages, 
and are the terror of these people. At a large 
town, Muong-son, Dr. Neis found the river liter- 
ally covered with rafts, upon which regular houses 
were built. Even the governing mandarin lived 
on a raft. On the alarm being given, all were 
ready to cut their hawsers and float down stream 
to avoid the dreaded Hos. The Laotians, being 
much less numerous than the Khas, have given 
up growing rice in the exposed districts, and pur- 
chase it from Khas, giving tin and earthenware, 
cotton and woollen cloth, and tools in exchange. 
To grow a crop they said would be a certain 
means of inviting a raid of Hos. Owing to the 
troubled state of the country, the explorer was 
obliged, after doing much important work, to 
retire, and fortunately reached Bangkok in safety, 
with all his notes, maps, and collections. 
Explorations in Perak. — Interesting notes on 
the tin-mining of the peninsula of Malacca have 
been made public by Errington de la Croix, who 
has spent several years there in his quality of 
mining engineer. The tin is derived from the 
débris of granitoid rocks, which form the backbone 
of the peninsula. The mineral grains are very 
pure, separated by sluicing from the gravel, of 
which they form about six per cent : the washed 
product contains sixty-five to seventy per cent of 
pure tin. The work is entirely performed by 
coolies. The native inhabitants of the country, 
Sakayas and Malays, do no work; indeed, hardly 
exert themselves sufficientiy to plant fruit-trees 
and rice to afford more than a subsistence for 
themselves. Many are fishers, some hunting is 
done, and a few domestic fowl and pigs are kept. 
The Chinese have adopted the Malay superstitions 
in regard to the spirits supposed to guard the 
mines. The visitor must take off his shoes and 
close his umbrella, or the spirit of the mine will 
decamp and take all the ore with him. At each 
locality the surface soil is stripped off, and the 
gravel is excavated to a depth of about twenty- 
five feet in open cuts. At each mine is a small 
altar to the divinity of the place, on which the 
Chinese make offerings of fruit and tea, and 


98 SCIENCE. [Vou. VIL, No. 156. 


explode bombs in honor of the spirit. Here and 
there are curious vertical-sided buttes of lime- 
stone, generally too steep for ascent, — the rem- 
nants of a sedimentary deposit which seems. to 
have once covered large areas. At the base of 
one of these are usually found grottos, affording 
interesting crystalline formations and pleistocene 
fossils. The country is largely covered with 
dense forests, patches of jungle, marshes, and a 
few natural clearings. The forests are nearly 
devoid of life: few flowers, and those nearly 
colorless, are found. Birds and mammals are 
absent, and are to be found only in the clearings, 
where are immense troops of wild boars, large 
pythons, deer, and the carnivores which prey upon 
them. The chief pest is the leech, of which two 
kinds are found. One inhabits wet places ; the 
other, the shrubbery. The latter seem to have 
acute perceptions. At the least sound they are 
on the qui vive, and raise themselves on the 
branches, waving their bodies about, ready for 
attack. They are an inch to an inch and a half 
in length, and very slender, making their way 
through loosely woven fabrics or under the cloth- 
ing with ease. The bite continues to bleed, and 
often forms angry sores which are long in healing. 
Travel is generally performed on elephants, if by 
land. Mr. Errington testifies with astonishment 
to the intellectual capacity of these animals, and 
declares that all the stories he has heard in regard 
to their intelligence fall below the reality. The 
last few years have witnessed a wonderful advance 
in the product of tin from thisregion. Under the 
enlightened protectorate of Great Britain, and the 
enactment of more favorable laws, the product 
has risen from two thousand tons in 1876, to over 
seven thousand tons of bar tin per annum in 1883, 
Large and well-built towns have arisen ; and the 
future of the country is bright, and only needs the 
introduction of sufficient labor and suitable agri- 
cultural methods to be put on a permanently 
prosperous basis. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 

THE reports of the annual conference of 
librarians, which was held last sumnaer at Lake 
George, extend through one hundred and seventy 
pages, a double number, of the Library journal. 
Amid a great deal of matter which relates simply 
to technical administration, and is therefore of in- 
terest to librarians only, there are several papers 
which will be useful to all those readers who have 
occasion to consult a public collection of books. 
Among the latter may be mentioned an account of 
the printing of the British museum catalogue, which 
is furnished by Mr. Richard Garnett of the museum. 


Seventy-eight volumes, representing two hundred 
and ninety-five manuscript volumes of the mu- 
seum, are printed already, fifty-eight of which — 
are the letters A and B: twenty are from Virgil 
to Z. Extra copies of certain articles have been 
issued for separate sale; e.g., ‘ Aesop,’ ‘ Aeschy- 
lus,’ ‘America,’ ‘ Aristotle,’ ‘Bacon,’ ‘ Horace,’ 
‘Byron,’ ‘Swedenborg.’ The great articles 
‘Academies’ and ‘ Periodical literature’ are nearly 
completed. ‘ Bible’ is commencea, and it is hoped 
that ‘Shakspeare,’ ‘Homer,’ ‘Liturgies,’ and 
‘Dante’ will follow at an early date. The cata- 
logue, if completed, will be the largest catalogue 
in the world. Another noteworthy article, of a 
very different character, is that of F. B. Perkins 
of San Francisco, on the ‘Free public library, its 
purposes and its abuses.’ R. R. Bowker and T. H. 
McKee discuss the U. S. government publications 
and their distribution, —two instructive papers ; 
K.M. Barton of Worcester advocates the distribution 
of duplicates; and W. F. Poole gives some excel- 
lent hints with respect to small library buildings. 
There are also several annual reports on catalogu- 
ing, college libraries, reading for the young, ete. 
There are no public officers in the country more ~ 
co-operative and obliging than the librarians. 
Their desire to promcte in every way the use of 
the collections intrusted to their charge is most 
commendable. They are rarely paid adequately, 
and are often overworked; but it is upon their 
skill, their enthusiasm, their learning, and their 
courtesy, that investigators, teachers, scholars, 
and writers of every class depend. The rapid in- 
crease of composition in this country is due to 
them in no small degree, and we predict that in 
the next five and twenty years there will be a 
corresponding growth in erudition. 


— Prof. C.S. Sargent has republished in pamphlet 
form his excellent sketch of the career and work 
of Dr. Asa Gray, which was printed in the New 
York Sun on the seventy-fifth anniversary of his 
birth. It is the fullest and best account of his 
work which has been published, and full of inter- 
est for every one. 


— Dr. Edward Laurens Mark has been appointed 
Hersey professor of anatomy in Harvard college. 
The place has been vacant since the death of Dr. 
Jeffries Wyman. | 


— A Winnipeg despatch tothe Chicago Tribune, 
dated 17th instant, says: The explorations on the 
line of the proposed Hudson Bay railway from _ 
the north-east end of Lake Winnipeg to Hudson — 
Bay, along the course of the Nelson River, have 
been completed; and Major Jarvis, with his party, — 
reached Selkirk Saturday evening. ‘The party . 


¥ 


- January 29, 1886.] 


proceeded to Norway House in the middle of 
October last, and started from there in canoes, 
but were frozen in when only twenty-five miles 
on their journey, and had to abandon the canoes 
and use sleighs, drawn by men, as the means of 
transport. Great delay was experienced at first, 
owing to the larger lakes being still open, as well 
‘as some of the rivers, which necessitated a good 
deal of portaging, and cutting of roads through 
the woods. Oxford House was reached Nov. 9, 
the party having followed the usual boat route 
thus far ; and from this point the real work of the 
exploration commenced. The country was thor- 
oughly examined from the north side of Oxford 
Lake to the mouth of Nelson River in as nearly a 
direct line as possible, and the party arrived at 
York Factory, Nov. 30. On the return journey 
the line chosen as the result of the previous exam- 
ination was followed and marked out. Sound- 
ings and sections were made at the crossings of 
the various rivers, and a careful estimate made 
of the amount necessary to build the line. Major 
Jarvis touched at Oxford House again Dec. 17. 
and from that point, following the north shore of 
Oxford Lake, returned direct to Sea River Falls, 
on the east branch of the Nelson River, about 
twenty miles below Norway House. The whole 
of the proposed railway from Sea River to the 
terminus chosen at the mouth of the Nelson 
River, a distance of about three hundred and ten 
miles, has been actually traversed on foot and 
thoroughly explored, and the result may be briefly 
summed up as follows: the line is quite practi- 
cable, the rock and earth work being light, with 
no heavy bridging, nor any work of an excep- 
tional character. It may, indeed, be considered an 
easy line to construct, the country generally being 
level, and with a sand or gravel formation. The 
only rock met with was at the southern end of 
the line. The timber is not of large size, but 
enough was found for all immediate requirements. 
The Nelson River terminus is very favorably situ- 
ated, being large, flat, well drained, and about 
ten feet above high water. Major Jarvis was 
accompanied by R. J. Money, civil engineer, 
assistant to Mr. Shelford, the well-known Eng- 
lish engineer. Mr. Money is also perfectly satisfied 
with the feasibility of the scheme. The total 
distance walked over was upwards of a thousand 
miles, 


— The fish commission steamer Albatross will 
leave Washington, as soon as the ice in the river 
disappears, for Norfolk, Va., where she will 
undergo a few necessary repairs, and thence sail 
for the Bahama Islands, where several months 
will be passed in scientific research and hydro- 


SCIENCE. ao 


graphic work. An efficient corps of naval officers 
and scientific experts will accompany the ship, 
among whom are the following: Lieut.-Com- 
mander Z. L. Tanner, commanding; Lieut. H. S. 
Waring ; Lieut. B. O. Scott ; Ensign W.S. Hogg ; 
Ensign W.S. Benson ; Surgeon J. M. Flint ; Passed 
Assistant Engineer G. W. Baird ; paymaster, C. D. 
Mansfield ; chief naturalist, Mr. J. E. Benedict ; 
assistant naturalists, Mr. Thomas Lee and Mr. 
Willard Nye. 


— The gratifying success of hatching cod arti- 
ficially at Wood’s Holl, recently attained by the 
U. S. fish commission, marks a new era in fish- 
culture. It is now the intention of Professor 
Baird to attempt the acclimatization of the codfish 
in the Gulf of Mexico, and to this end one million 
of young cod will pass through Washington during 
the present week en route to Pensacola, Fla., to be 
placed in the Gulf of Mexico. 


— Considerable interest attaches to the country 
around Commander Islands and Kamtchatka. Dr. 
Leonhard Stejneger of the Smithsonian institution 
visited this region in 1882-83, and also visited the 
territory worked over by Steller, bringing back 
with him many relics of that expedition, and also 
portions of skeletons of the extinct sea-cow, and 
of a vast number of birds and cetaceans. The 
results are interestingly told in Bulletin No. 29 of 
the national museum, which contains 382 pages, 
and eight colored lithographic plates from sketches 
by the author. 


— Bulletin No. 30, ‘ Bibliography of publications 
relating to collection of fossil invertebrates in the 
national museum,’ by John Belknap Marcou, will 
be issued in about two weeks. It contains a com- 
plete list of the writings of F. B. Meek, C. A. 
White, and Charles D. Walcott, and is an impor- 
tant contribution to this branch of science. 


— The fifth annual ensilage congress met in 
New York, Jan. 20. There were about two hun- 
dred persons present as delegates from all parts 
of the United States. The opening address was 
delivered by Mr. Edward Atkinson of Boston, 
who was followed by 8. C. Smith of St. Albans, 
Vt., Orlando B. Potter, and James B. Brown. 


— The chemical division of the U.S. geological 
survey is conducting a series of interesting experi- 
ments with newly acquired material, under the 
supervision of Prof. F. W. Clarke, who is about 
completing an investigation of minerals from 
Litchfield, Me. Among the minerals there exist- 
ing, a new species of the zeolite family has been 
found, to which Professor Clarke has given the 
name of hydronephelite. Messrs. Gooch and Whit- 


100 


field are engaged in an investigation of the geyser 
waters of the Yellowstone park; Mr. R. B. Riggs 
is making a series of analyses of the lepidolites of 
Maine, and is also analyzing an undescribed me- 
teoric iron from the collection in the national 
museum ; Mr. Hillebrand is engaged on minerals 
and rocks from Colorado; and Mr. Chatard is at 
work upon the associates of corundum from North 
Carolina, and upon the water of Mono Lake, Cali- 
fornia. 


—A change has been made in the time of 
issuing the Smithsonian and national museum 
reports. Heretofore these reports covered the 
calendar year; but the board of regents of the 
Smithsonian institution have recently directed 
that the reports shall hereafter correspond to the 
fiscal year extending from July to the end of the 
following June inclusive. The reports from Jan. 1, 
1885, to June 30, 1885, are now about ready for 
the printer; the report of the secretary of the 
Smithsonian institution to the board of regents, 
for the first half of 1885, being already published 
in pamphlet form. 


— Bulletin No. 28 of the national museum, 
recently issued, is W. G. Binney’s ‘ Manual of 
American land-shells,’ which is an enlarged and 
revised edition of the * Land and fresh-water 
shells of North America,’ part i., published in 
1869, to which subsequently described species are 
added. 


— The Botanical gazette for January contains 
a heliotype engraving of Professor Gray, with a 
sketch of his life by Prof. C. R. Barnes. Other 
articles of interest in this number are by Professor 
Coulter, on the ‘ Pollen-spore of Tradescantia ;’ 
J.C. Arthur, upon a new fungus infesting the 
clover-leaf beetle, Phytonomus punctatus; a new 
species of Anemone, by Professor Gray, etc. 


— The first number of the monthly Journal of 
the Trenton natural history society contains a 
number of short, readable articles, mostly on 
animal and plant habits. 


—— The joint commission appointed by the last 
congress to consider the propriety of consolidating 
the scientific bureaus of the government have 
concluded the examination of witnesses, and will 
shortly submit their report. While their recom- 
mendations are not definitely known, it is probable 
some sort of re-organization will be advised with 
regard to the signal service, and it may be en- 
tirely separated from the army. General Sheridan 
is authority for the statement that the army 
does not need this wing of its service, and that 
there is no objection to placing it under civil 
control. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 156 


—In Science, vii. p. 75, in the letter entitled 
‘ An early prediction of the decay of the obelisk,’ 
second line, ‘St. Petersburg’ should read ‘ Frei- 
berg.’ 


—In Science, vii. p. 75, in the letter entitled 
‘Sea-level and ocean-currents,’ seventh line, 
‘ Bourdaione’ should read ‘ Bourdaloue ;’ thirty- 
third line, ‘diversity’ should read ‘ density ;’ 
p. 76, second column, thirteenth line, ‘ 25 feel’ 
shouid read ‘ 2.5 feet.’ 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


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


The festoon cloud. 


In Science, vii. p. 57, Prof. W. M. Davis, after 
giving a description of a form of cloud designated 
‘festoon’ cloud, asks if the cloud is commonly seen 
in this country. I have seen the form of cloud 
described at least as often as a dozen times within 
the last six years ; but, on account of not having my 
records at hand, I cannot give the dates. 

I have seen the cloud once or twice associated with 
thunder-storms, but most. frequently with the stratus- 
cloud accompanying ‘areas of low pressure,’ or 
cyclones. . 

The appearance presented to me is that of a cloud- 
stratum with an irregular base, in contrast with the 
level base usually seen. 

The cloud then presents an appearance as if fes- 
toons were hung from it, which are sometimes some- 
what circular and rounded, at other times irregular. 

The explanation given that they are due to the 
slow descent of cloud-matter, due to the failure of an 
ascending current, is, no doubt, the correct one. 

H. Heim CLAYTON. 


. Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 24. 


Text-books on methods in microscopic anatomy. 


The review of Dr. Whitman’s ‘ Methods in micro- 
scopical anatomy,’ in Science (No. 154, p. 64), seems 
to me not quite just, in that itimplies that the author 
has been negligent in the performance of his task, 
particularly in regard to that part of it which most 
gives value to his work; namely, the chapter on 
embryological methods. 
a careful summary, the outcome of much laborious 
and painstaking search, so that we have for the 
first time a compact presentation of a large number 
of special methods for the handling of embryological 
material. It is true that it is not exhaustive, — Iam 
grateful that it is not, — but it contains most of the 
best results of experience in the difficult art.of pre- 


paring eggs and embryos of many kinds for micro- — 


scopical examination. And since it is just in this 


direction of microscopical embryology that the most — 


earnest and capable zodlogical energies are now 
turned, I feel that Dr. Whitman has done science 


good service by the valuable critical compilation iH 


made in the chapter referred to. Now, I wish to find 


fault with your reviewer because he says that ‘‘the — 
arrangement [of this chapter] leaves the impression — 
that it is the result of fortuitous reading rather than — 
a methodical search for the most valuable things — 


In this the author has given — 


JANUARY 29, 1886.] 


within the scope of the topic.”’ The sentence 
astonishes me, and leads me to inquire what wes the 
basis of the opinion ; for it does not appear to be in 
the chapter itself. the arrangement of which is 
intelligent and intelligible, and certainly not based 
on mere fortuitous reading. The author of the 
book, if he has read the review, must, one would 
think, feel mortified to have such a bald accusation 
of negligence brought against him: Itrust, there- 
fore, that you will publish this letter, to show that at 
least one worker in this field places a higher value 
upon his volume than your reviewer does, with his 
paucity of commendation. 

CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT. 
Boston, Mass., Jan. 20. 

Tam under great obligation to Dr. Minot for the 
kindness he has done me in calling attention to the 
injustice of my recent review of Dr. Whitman's book. 
I am myself astonished at it, and cannot comprehend 
how I could have made so unfair a statement when 
T intended no injustice. 

I said, ‘‘ This chapter furnishes much valuable in- 
formation, but the arrangement leaves the impression 
that it is the result of fortuitous reading rather than 
a methodical search for the most valuable things 
within the scope of the topic.” 

The sentence as it stands Jeaves me indorsing what, 
it occurred to me, might be the inference of one who 
simply looked at the arrangement of the chapter as 
made up of the separate consideration of so many 
isolated animals —e.g., Clepsine, Spirorbis borealis, 
Myzostoma, Sagitta, etc. — instead of classes of ani- 
mals. What I should have added was, that such an 
impression would be entirely misleading. I had not 
the least idea of making that impression represent my 
opinion, but quite the reverse, for it was in direct 
opposition to my positive knowledge ; no one, perhaps, 
realizing better than I that the author’s work had 
been of the most painstaking and discriminating 
kind. In my estimation, moreover, there was no 
zcGlogist in this country who possessed in so great a 
degree the experience and the other qualifications 
necessary to the successful handling of this topic. 

As regards the general tone of the criticism, I can 
only say that the esteem in which I hold the author 
made me distrustful of my ability to praise his work 
judiciously, and that in avoiding one extreme I have 
fallen into the error of the opposite, and appear only 
to criticise where there is much more that I ought to 
have praised. EDWARD L. Mark. 

Cambridge, Jan. 25. 


Cost of scientific books. 


A goodly proportion of the book-notices in your 
periodical contain a statement to the effect that the 
publisher has been too profuse in his paper ; that he 
ought to use a poorer and thinner quality, and sell 
the book at half the price. This betrays a lamen- 
table ignorance on the part of your critics, and, 
besides, conveys a very erroneous impression. Paper 
is a very inconsiderable item in the cost of manufac- 
turing a book. It is a good-sized volume which, 
without the covers, will weigh four pounds, and 
paper as goed as that in most of the books criticised 
costs only ten cents a pound. The utmost that could 
be saved by lightening and cheapening would be a 


third in weight, and two cents a pound in price, 


: 


thus reducing the cost of the paper of a four-pound 
book from forty to twenty-four cents, certainly not 


An 


SCIENCE. 


101 


enough reduction to allow the price of the book to be 
reduced from four to two dollars. 

The cost of the plates is the greatest item in the 
production of a book, and the ruling price for this 
work is eighty cents per thousand ‘ems’ (a page of 
Packard’s ‘Zoélogy’ contains about a thousand 
‘ems’). Then all the cost of corrections, other than 
mere typographical errors, and the cost of making 
up the pages and inserting the cuts. are all charged 
as time-work. The cost of corrections in scientific 
work is enormous, and I have known it to amount to 
one and a half times the original cost of composition. 
A fair average for the plates for a book with the 
same page and type as that of Packard’s ‘ Zodlogy’ 
would be a dollar and a half a page. This must be 
considered in settling the price of a book. 

Finally, the sale of strictly technical books is very 
limited. An edition of five hundred is a good aver- 
age ; and, were the price reduced to half the ruling 
price, the sales would not be increased ten per cent. 
As it is, they little more than repay the cost of pub- 
lication, and the reduction so earnestly and igno- 
rantly prayed for by your critics would involve the 
publisher in a considerable pecuniary loss on every 
strictly scientific book issued ; and a few failures of 
that sort would make them refuse all scientific books. 

I do not wish to be understood as defending the 
prices put on all publications ; for some the charge is 
clearly extortionate: but, so far as I at present 
recall, not one of those thus criticised in your columns 
has a price higher than was necessary to reimburse 
the publisher for his outlay, and pay him a fair 
amount for his labor in publishing, advertising, and 
selling the work. I hope in future your critics will 
omit any reference to this feature in their fault- 
finding. J. S. KINGSLEY. 

Malden, Mass., Jan. 19. 


Oil on troubled waters. 


I feel that I must offer a few words of rejoinder to 
your comments on my letter of Jan. 18, because I can- 
not admit that there is any grave responsibility in- 
volved in my inquiring for the proofs of an alleged 
scientific theory, or any lack of feeling implied in my 
protesting against a disposition to hold out a mis- 
leading hope to ‘ the toilers of the sea.’ 

I have not tried to throw discredit on any well- 
directed effort to render less dangerous the hazardous 
vocation of the sailor: I have simply attempted to 
raise a note of caution against false inductions and 
specious generalizations. I look upon this as a ques- 
tion of science, not of sentiment; and I have been 
accustomed to regard science as a matter of hard, 
clear facts, and keen, cold logic. 

It may possibly be that the hydrographic office is 
affording substantial comfort to the mariner’s gen- 
erally cheerless life by disseminating the fables and 
traditions of the sea; but, if so, it is a purely literary 
undertaking, not a scientific one. It may while 
away an otherwise tedious hour or two on shipboard 
to read, in effect, that a half-barrel of oil sprinkled 
over the entire course between New York and Liver- 
pool will insure a safe voyage at any time and in any 
weather ; or that a half-gallon, poured upon oakum, 
tied tight in a bag, and towed at the stern of a 
vessel, will reduce the mountainous billows, ease the 
strained sails and cordage, brace the bending spars 
and timbers, and bring welcome, peace, and quiet 
where all before was wild confusion and danger. 


102 


But, to a cool-headed landsman, this will appear so 
astoundingly incredible, that nothing short of the 
most searching scientific investigation and rigid ex- 
periment can give it even a tinge of probability. 
Hither this apparently transcendent miracle is capa- 
ble of a rational explanation and demonstration, or 
it is a myth and a delusion. To my mind, the use of 
the oil-bag upon the ocean is strongly suggestive of 
the idea of applying a liver-pad to a cyclone. 

It is of no avail to quote Pliny or other mere 
chroniclers, ancient or modern, or to pile up the in- 
exact and awe-inspired tales of seafaring men. I 
admit that the history of the notion is interesting, 
like the history of the acceptance of any other 
prodigy ; but there is a wide difference between the 
progress and persistence of a belief and its scientific 
truthfulness. 

Now, I do not pretend to have seen all the evidence 
which the hydrographic office has collected or pub- 
lished on this subject, and I shall not undertake to 
say that relatively large masses of oil, spread upon 
comparatively small bodies of water, may not, under 
some circumstances, modify or prevent the formation 
of waves. But that oil filtered into the raging and 
turbulent deep at the rate of a quart per hour, — or 
even a gallon per hour, as reported in the letter 
printed by you last week, — should prove to be an 
adequate cause for the marvellous effects attributed 
to it, is, to me at least, a thing utterly and absolutely 
inconceivable ; and I confess to a disturbance of my 
faith in any institution that gives such stories 
credence or currency. Co. Cox. 

New York, Jan. 24. 


The collapse of the theosophists. 


Permit me to take exception to the article entitled 
‘The collapse of the theosophists’ in your issue of 
yesterday. 

Ihave no contention with any statement, correct 
or otherwise, which the article contains, and offer no 
argument pro or con ; but I beg to be allowed to use 
this occasion to protest against and to obviate the 
prevalent misconception that ‘Blavatsky’ and ‘the- 
osophy’ are synonymous terms, or that either the 
manners or morals of any individual theosophist 
necessarily represent the methods, objects, and pur- 
poses of the theosophical society. 

In my judgment, the * collapse of the theosophists’ 
is a prediction much safer to make after than before 
the event: there being, to my knowledge, no organ- 
ized body of psychical researchers in the world less 
likely to verify any such prophecy. 

Evuiotr Cours, F.T.S., 
President Gnostic branch, T.S., 
President Amer. B. of C., T.S., 
Member Exec. C. of India. 
Washington, D.C., Jan. 23. 


Nectar-secreting plant-lice. 


Oregon is the place for nectar-secreting plant-lice. 
During the past fall I received twigs of spruce and 
willow from that state, which, though not more than 
six inches long, contained at least a tablespoonful 
of crystallized sugar, which was both pleasant and 
sweet. This insect is a species of Aphis, and though 
possibly not equal to the bee, or to the manufacturer 
of our best cane-sugar, in her power to form an 
excellent article of sugar does surpass greatly the 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. VIL, No. 156 


glucose factories in the quality of the product which 
she turns out. A. J. Coox. 


Sea-level and ocean-currents. 


The value of the conclusions arrived at by Profes- 
sor Ferrel in his article in Science, No. 155, headed 
‘Sea-level and ocean-currents,’ depends largely upon 
a statement made by him; viz., ‘‘ The recent im- 
portant determination of the coast and geodetic sur- 
vey by levelling up the Mississippi valley and across 
to the Atlantic coast, that the mean level of the Gulf 
of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi is about 
one metre higher than that of New York harbor.” 

An item so important in ocean dynamics for com- 
parison of facts with theories should be known to be 
most unquestionably correct. lam not aware of any 
official publication of the coast and geodetic survey 
to which the above statement could be credited, and, 
what is more, such a line of spirit-levels has never, 
to this day, been executed by the survey. Probably 
a paper read before the American association at the 
Philadelphia meeting in September, 1884, gave rise 
to the supposed fact. On p. 446 (vol. ii.) of its Pro- 
ceedings, we find, ‘‘ Height of bench-mark at St. 
Louis above mean tide at Sandy Hook 3 feet” (sic), 
and, ‘‘ Precise line of levels from Gulf, by Mississippi 
River commission, along the river, shows an eleva- 
tion of the Gulf of Mexico, near the mouth of the 
Mississippi above mean tide at Sandy Hook, of about 
40 inches.” Here the responsibility is placed on the 
commission. 

By permission of the superintendent of the survey, 
I make the following extract from a report by me, 
dated May 24, 1883: — 

Metres. 


1. Height of coast and geodetic survey bench-mark 
at the St. Louis bridge above the average or half- 
tide level of the Atlantic at Sandy Hook, N.J., as 
ascertained from six years of tidal observations. 126.91 

2. This bench-mark was placed at the same level as 
the so-called St. Louis city ‘ directrix.’ 

3. From precise levels executed by the Mississippi 
River commission and the U. 8. lake survey, St. 
Louis city directrix above the Greenville, Miss., 
bench-mark (on bank building), according to 
letter from commission dated May 18, 1883...... 

4, By coast and geodetic survey levels, Greenville 
bench-mark above the Hampson bench-mark at 
Carrollton, (Lia: 52. Was den sees ton cath sekiieaeee 

5. From Humphreys and Abbot’s work on the Mis- 
sissippi River (1861), p. 110, it appears that the 
Hampson mark is’8:06 feet OF... 2. os aes ase 0 nee 
above the level of Lake Pontchartrain, which is 
said to be at the same level as Lake Borgne and 
Baroy St. Philip, and hence with that of the 
Gulf. ; 


Putting these figures together, it would appear 
that the Gulf level is about one metre above the 
level of the Atlantic at New York. The report 
further comments on this result: ‘‘ While there is 
nothing impossible in this result, the difference is 
greater than I [the present writer] expected from the 
conditions of the case, but it may possibly be greatly 
reduced when precise data come to hand ; and, in 
particular, more evidence is desirable as to the con- 
nection of the Hampson mark with the average Gulf 
level. We have no checks at present.” ; 
It is evident that no probable error can be assigned 
to the alleged difference, and that the amount itself 
is greatly in need of confirmation, which it is hoped 
will soon be reached through the direct line of levels” 
started by the coast and geodetic survey to run from _ 
its Illinois line to the shore of the ‘ogres Scum 

A.S. @ 


86.185 


37.267 


2.456 


SCIENCE.—SuppLEMENT. | 


FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1886. 


PROFESSOR LADD ON THE YALE CUR- 
RICULUM. 

WE presented in Science (vi. p. 499) a synopsis 
of Professor Palmer’s article on recent changes at 
Harvard. We now give an abstract of an article 
from the same journal, the Andover review, on 
the question of electives, etc., at New Haven, by 
Professor Ladd of Yale. 

The new education, as brought to our notice 
afresh by Professor Palmer, claims to have dis- 
covered that the methods of education in vogue 
for centuries have been radically wrong: it has 
organized a college on a wholly new basis. 

But the proposed scheme, though revolutionary, 
and seeming to contradict experience, does not 
the less merit consideration. Before placing our 
faith in it, however, we ask, What experience can 
it boast? What trial has it had at Harvard? We 
answer, A trial for two years; for only during 
that short period have youths in the first half of 
their university course been placed completely 
under the elective system; and it is to this exten- 
sion of the system that opposition is chiefly made. 
More than a generation is necessary to prove the 
final outcome of such great changes. Is, then, 
the experience of a single university, during but 
a moiety of its course, to be considered as suffi- 
cient ? 

But we shall be glad to examine the arguments 
so well presented and so courteously urged by 
Professor Palmer, and to compare the tabulated 
results of the new with those of the older method. 
Harvard has been chosen as the only thorough 
representative of the new education; and it is 
fitting that Yale should be selected to compare 
with it, partly because, as a teacher there, I am 
best acquainted with it; and partly because it is 
the leading representative of more conservative 
tendencies in education. 

But let me first state some points in which I 
agree with Professor Palmer. I, too, hold that the 
world of science and learning has greatly pro- 
gressed of late, and that both the matter and 
method of education must therefore also change. 
Sciences and modern lauguages must be taught, 
and the ancient classics take a relatively lower 
place than formerly. But all the best institutions 
recognize and act on these facts and truths. 
Within twenty-five years, Yale has made such 


progress that much of its education may be styled 
‘new.’ Then, again, along with Professor Palmer, 
I would measure the success of education by high 
ethical standards. But do the statistics given 
show that the new education uplifts character as 
no other training can? We think we can show 
that thev go rather to prove the contrary. We 
shall, then, take up, in the order that commends 
itself to us, the various points adduced by Pro- 
fessor Palmer. 

It is urged, that, under the new education, the 
student’s ideal of a ‘ gentleman’ has been enlarged 
and elevated. Hazing, and such practices, are no 
longer ‘good form’ at Harvard. We answer, that 
it is even so at Yale, where a marked improve- 
ment in these regards has been going on for the 
past twenty-five years. Of other institutions also, 
to a certain extent, the same is true. The causes 
of this improvement are not owing to any peculiar 
method of education, but to the gradual ameliora- 
tion of customs due toa higher civilization ; to the 
different attitude assumed by parents and teachers 
towards the young; to wiser dealings with stu- 
dents on the part of college faculties ; and, lastly, 
to the influence of well-regulated athletic sports 
in giving an outlet for the surplus vitality of the 
youth. 

But it is claimed that the new education is very 
popular. The growth of Harvard under it has 
been very great, both in numbers and resources. 
But, we ask, has it received these generous gifts 
as tokens of approval of the elective system? 
Have not other colleges also received very bounti- 
ful gifts? During the last fourteen years, Yale 
has received, either from gifts or by bequest, more 
than two and a half millions, while its library 
has increased by eighty-three thousand volumes. 
Though this sum does not equal that received by 
Harvard during the same time, yet it tends to 
throw doubt on the prestige of the new education 
with the long purses of the country. 

The increase of students certainly does show 
popular favor. We admit that the new education 
would be likely to be popular with youths of 
eighteen. But Yale, too, shows remarkable 
erowth during the past twenty-five years. The 
average number of undergraduates has been as 
follows : 1861-65, 533 ; 1866-70, 610; 1871-75, 704 ; 
1876-80, 745; 1880-84, 792. Besides, no other 
college has rejected so large a per cent of candi- 
dates for admission, or sent away so many for 
failing to keep up to its standard of scholarship. 


104 


We find, too, from the last statistics, that more 
than 55 per cent of the students at Harvard were 
from the state in which it is situated, while less 
than 382 per cent of the Yale undergraduates are 
from Connecticut. The new education is, at all 
events, not yet cosmopolitan. 

Let us next compare Harvard and Yale in the 
very important point of attendance at college 
recitations, etc. Professor Palmer thinks it cred- 
itable to the members of the last senior class at 
Harvard that they ‘had cared to stay away’ at 
only 16 per cent of all the recitations. At Yale 
this term, for the seven weeks for which the 
record is complete, the freshman class showed but 
3.7 per cent of absences. In this record are 
counted absences from all causes whatsoever : it 
includes the absence of one student through sick- 
ness for forty-eight days. The absences in the 
sophomore class were but a little more than 3.3 
per cent. Moreover, all tardiness at a recitation 
beyond five minutes, and all egresses, count as 
absences; as does also presence at a recitation, 
while wishing to be excused from answering. 
Freshmen and sophomores are allowed but six 
absences during a term, to cover all such causes 
as sports, attention to friends, etc. ; and yet they 
did not avail themselves of more than three- 
fourths of these absences. The junior and senior 
classes, which are allowed eight absences in a 
term, showed, during the period of seven weeks, 
an irregularity of 5.5 and 6 per cent respectively. 
We may add that the showing for the whoie term 
would probably be better than for the first seven 
weeks of it. 

We see, then, that the irregularity of the Har- 
vard student is from a little less than three to 
five times as great as that of the average Yale 
student. The difference is surely very significant 
as showing the working of the two systems. 

Alluding to the ‘charge of ‘soft’ courses,” 
‘* which,” he says, ‘‘is one of the stock objections 
to the elective system,” Professor Palmer shows 
us what wise courses the juniors and seniors of 
Harvard choose. I regret that we are not told 
how the freshmen exercise their right of option. 
So far as I can judge, the choices of the Yale 
juniors and seniors display more taste for hard 
work than is the result under the new system. 
No course in classics or in the higher mathematics 
was a favorite with the two upper classes at Har- 
vard in 1883-84, while 54 juniors and 181 seniors 
are reported in ‘fine arts,’ for this year. At Yale 
this term, however, 53 choices of courses in higher 
mathematics, and 179 in classics, have been made, 
The student who has been at regular hard work 
during his first two years, will be likely to enjoy 
it in his last two. 


SCIENCE. 


[Voxt. VII., No. 156 


Another excellency ascribed by Professor Palmer 
to the new education is, that under its influence 
the standard of ‘decent scholarship’ is steadily 
rising. To prove this, he cites the marks received 
by the average Harvard student during the differ- 
ent years since 1874-75. We frankly state that 
we think such a criterion most unreliable. The 
students’ marks are higher under the elective 
system, but largely because the teacher, as well 
as the pupil, is known by his marks; and many 
students choose their elective because of this fact. 
Under that system it would be a better test of a 
pupil’s real merits to inquire what courses he 
takes under teachers that give hard work and low 
marks. 

The new education is also credited with having 
effected an improvement in the spirit and work 
of the instructors themselves. We accept Pro- 
fessor Palmer’s testimony as conclusive on this 
point. But in other colleges besides Harvard are 
to be found the spirit and method which he justly 
praises ; and without them no one should be an 
instructor under any system. May not, also, a 
method that makes so much depend on the favor 
of those taught, develop: methods of instruction 
not conducive to the highest efficiency ? 

I may remark here that I cannot share the per- 
sonal experience of Professor Palmer, when he, on 
looking back upon his college days, feels that more 
than half of his studies should have been different. 
My studies at college were wholly prescribed, but 
they have been none the less of use to me on that 
account. They have taught me to work hard, and 
to do patiently every task set before me; and this 
I would not give for all to be gained from the 
elective courses of either Harvard or Yale. 

But the real matter of disagreement between 
Professor Palmer and myself is, ‘“‘why the 
elective system should be begun as early as the 
freshman year.” This, he says, lack of room pre- 
cludes him from discussing; adding, ‘‘and it 
hardly needs proving.” But here, in my opinion, 
he is wrong. Yale, with many other colleges, 
allows much choice to students in their last two 
years ; juniors elect eight-fifteenths, and seniors 
four-fifths, of their studies. No choice, except 
that between French and German, is permitted in 
the first two years. Why, then, am I opposed 
to the extension given to the elective system at 
Harvard? Why draw the line between sophomores 
and juniors, rather than at the entrance upon the 
freshman year? Why prescribe any courses for 
the last two years ? 

The question is simply one of drawing lines. 
We think, that, after two years’ drill at college, 
the youth can more wisely select his studies than 
at entrance. Professor Palmer thinks that the 


OO Ee 


JANUARY 29, 1886.] 


choice should be made all at once, and that at the 
time when the boy leaves home; that from that 
time onward he should have the entire decision. 
We hold, on the contrary, that he should first de- 
velop somewhat in his new surroundings, learn 
better how to study, and what the different courses 
are, before he has the grave task of deciding. 
Moreover, a headlong plunge into freedom is not a 
good thing. I still think, also, that an educated 
man should enjoy a good training in the five great 
branches of human knowledge, — in mathematics ; 
in language, including literature; in physical 
science ; in the history of his race ; in philosophy. 
Because, then, I do not think that the new educa- 
tion draws the line in the right place, I am opposed 
to its extreme measures. 

One argument of Professor Palmer hardly ad- 
mits of statistics. He thinks the type of manliness 
at Harvard higher than that to be found at colleges 
that have not so fully adopted the elective system. 
I reply, that I do not believe the men at Yale 
yield in manliness to those of any college. 

My ideal of cultured manliness in the under- 
graduate agrees with that of Professor Palmer : as 
to how best to realize it, we differ. In my opinion, 
he gives too little weight to the great ethical law 
of habit, and to the value of the pressure of im- 
mediate necessity. We want to train the young 
to choose right spontaneously, but none of us live 
solely under the influence of high and remote 
ideals. Under a system of education, which 
kindly but firmly invites men to ‘ choose right,’ in 
view of consequences that come closely home to 
them, the best characters will be formed. 

Having now pretty fully traversed the ground 
of Professor Palmer’s arguments from experience, 
I wish, in closing, to express, on behalf of the ma- 
jority of educationists, the fears — honest and 
strong fears — which they feel as to the ultimate 
results of the new education. 

We fear that the new education will increase the 
tendency to shallowness, already great enough in 
American student life. We have already too 
much smattering of many knowledges. The chief 
remedy must be to pursue certain topics with per- 
sistence and thoroughness. If the average Ameri- 
can boy, on entering college, had had the discipline 
afforded by the drill of a German gymnasium, he 
might more safely judge for himself. Two years 
more of continued study of certain prescribed 
subjects whatever these may be —is certainly 
little enough to require of him. 

We are afraid of the effects of the new educa- 
_ tion on the academies of the country. They have 
been gradually improving under the increased re- 
quirements of the colleges; but how shall they 
meet the demands made by boys, who, under the 


M 


SCIENCE. 


105 


new education, may enter college in so many dif- 
ferent ways? What interest, also, will boys take 
in mathematics and the ancient classics, when 
these are liable to be abandoned so soon as they 
have attained free election? 

We are afraid of the effects of the new educa- 
tion on the higher education of the country, which 
has been constantly rising for years. The new 
methods, in themselves considered, are better than 
the old : and the new learning and science are, of 
course, far richer than those of the past. But, in 
order to introduce these, is it necessary to take the 
direct control from the older and wiser, and leave 
it to the choice of the inexperienced? Such a 
course will, in certain lines, destroy all connected 
and steady discipline in higher education. 

Finally, in spite of Professor Palmer’s argu- 
ments, we are afraid of the effects of the new edu- 
cation on the character of the youth. 

We think we have shown, that in every respect, 
except that of securing $175,000 instead of $250,- 
000 a year, and of making a smaller percentage of 
annual gain in numbers, the results of the system 
in vogue at Yale are equal or superior to those at 
Harvard. We need much more light, both from 
reason and observation, before preferring the new 
education to one which is, in our judgment, wiser, 
though both new and old. 

THE LEVELLING OF SIBERIA. 

THE publication of the results of the Siberian 
levelling, the largest of the kind yet made, is at 
last ended. The survey originated in the Imperial 
Russian geographical society, which petitioned the 
Russian government to grant the necessary means, 
setting forth the want of an accurate knowledge of 
the height above sea-level of a great part of Siberia. 
The preliminary results were known in 1878, and 
gave a much greater height for Lake Baikal than 
was expected. The detailed calculations were de- 
layed from different reasons, among which were 
the long illness and death of Mr. Moschkow, to 
whom was intrusted the greater part of the work. 
It was afterwards given to W. Fuss, who ended it. 
The whole length of the levelling from Zwerigo- 
lowskaja on the Tobol to Lake Baikal is 3087.1 versts 
(2,040 English statute miles). Unfortunately the 
starting-point is not connected by levelling with 
the Black or Baltic seas, but by triangulation only, 
so that an uncertainty of perhaps thirty or even 
forty feet remains. The results are shown in the 
accompanying profile. 

Gen. A. Tillo has the direction of different leve!- 
lings under the ministry of public works. In 1884 
the mean level of Lake Ladoga over the Gulf of 
Finland was determined, and found to be 16.3 


106 


‘soqoul %J% 0} SETI OFO'Z JO O[BOS B UO SeDUBYSIP [BJUOZIIO 


‘[BylVg ORV] 0} [OGOT, 043 UO BleYSMO[OSIIOMZ WoIg 


‘Your [ OF Jez QOE JO BTVOS B UO JUOMAINSBEMT [BOIIIOA 


“ONITIGDAGT NVIUHEIS AO SLTASAY 


SCIHNCE. 


—i— we ee oe ee Tabol_Rwer, ok 
wae Zwerigolowsku jay 
i oes onan sea met See VORESAE lavel. 


a ae Betazon Kolywan & "Tomsk. 


at — — — — — — Se Tom River at Tomek 


SS — —Plateaus between, Vivers. j 


1200° 


(4007 
Ls SLO0 5. 
es 


4049" 


‘ 
fa g000% 


- ee 
==497L = i = rs 


~— ~~ -— -Yenasei Risreat Kansnojursls, 


————-~~-Eask of Krasno jars 


——<—>-( - wm 


F River Ud ok NixfendinsKe 


Sa roe ae Highest point. 
4:0 miles Cart of Nisthanfinsh. 


——~“E 


Badvonont Irkusak © Lake Dallal, 


TakeBatkol 2010 m. froin Starting point 


[Vout. VII., No. 156 


English feet, while the formerly admitted height 
was 66 feet. Such a great difference from the 
formerly admitted height is startling, yet the new 
figures are the result of so accurate and well- 
checked operations and calculations that their re- 
sult cannot be doubted. According to the new 
determination, the slope of the Neva is about the 
same as that of the Volga in its middle course, 
while the formerly admitted heights made it four 
times greater. To have another check on the 
height of Lake Ladoga, the barometric means of 
H. Schlusselburg were compared with those of St. 
Petersburg for a mean of eight years. The differ- 
ence of level of the Ladoga and Gulf of Finland, 
determined barometrically, is but 8.6 feet ; that is, 
less by 7.7 feet than that determined by levelling. 
If we suppose both series of observations to be 
equally accurate, and the instrumental error de- 
termined with the greatest precision, this would 
prove that the mean pressure rises toward the 
east, —a result quite consistent with the general 
course of the isobars in Russia; but the difference 
is rather too large for so small a distance. 

Lakes Husen and Onega have also been levelled, 
and the figures for them will shortly be published. 
Their height was also found to be smaller than 
formerly admitted. A. WOEIKOF. 


POPULAR .PSYCHOLOGY, 


SOCRATES, Cicero tells us, called down philos- 
ophy from heaven to earth, and introduced it 
into the cities and houses of men. In each stage 
of the development of a science an essential step 
is the diffusion of the general tendencies and 
results obtained amongst the intelligent public. 
Nowadays, when each branch of study must 
make good its claim to a place on the curriculum, 
it is more than ever necessary to acquaint the 
cultured and powerful public with the general 
problems and broad outlines of your science. 
Thus it has come about that a certain class of 
scientific men have almost made _ themselves 
specialists on the topic of popular science. It 
is largely to them that the public looks for their 
scientific enlightenment. <A larger and more im- 
portant class of popular scientists, very fortu- 
nately, are the masters of science themselves. 
When such men as Huxley and Helmholtz pre- 
pare with their own hands the scientific food for 
the public mind, there really must be an inade- 
quate power of reception of such knowledge, if a 
healthful, wide-spread activity in science is not 
the result. 

Psychology, since it has received the impulse 
which has made ‘ physiological psychology’ a 
common description of it, has made sufficient 


JANUARY 29, 1886. ] 


progress to be able now to give in a popular 
dress an account of its aims, its problems, its 
methods, and its results. It is fortunate that 
Professor Wundt, whose name perhaps, more than 
that of any other person, has become associated 
with this modern movement, has given his time 
to a more or less popular exposition’ of a few 
departments of this diffuse subject. The devel- 
opment of experimental psychology has been such 
a rapid one, that already one must be a specialist 
in one department of it. To some extent Pro- 
fessor Wundt has confined his essays to an ac- 
count of work done in his own laboratory, while 
another portion of the book presents views upon 
those general problems, interesting to every gen- 
eration of mankind, which seem to him most 
adequate and scientific. 

In an essay on the problems of experimental 
psychology, he contrasts the method of this sci- 
ence with that of metaphysics, with which it is 
historically closely connected, and defends it from 
the attacks and prejudices of its opponents. On 
the one hand, the metaphysicians raise the cry 
that it is only ‘crude empiricism,’ a mere atten- 
tion to natural phenomena, a lower field of work, 
perhaps good enough for those who are willing 
to enroll themselves in such a cause; while the 
nobler, higher flights of pure philosophy, where 
every problem finds its solution worked out with 
a wonderful ease and regularity, are widely open 
to him. On the other hand, the exact scientists 
regard this new aspirant for a place amongst the 
sciences with a suspicious distrust of the justness 
of its claim. The best answer to the first is to 
prove to him that many of the problems discussed, 
pro and con, by various metaphysical schools, 
can be brought into the laboratory and solved 
there with the aid of suitably devised apparatus. 
The answer to the latter will be a demonstration 
that within natural limits the same regularity 
and predictability that characterizes his own 
work, also holds in experimental psychology. 
In other words, it is the ‘measurement of psychic 
processes’ (the subject of the next essay) that 
forms one of the main problems. 

The beginning of all culture is a clock. Where 
the conditions of life are so primitive that a time 
standard is unnecessary, there can be little mental 
development. For measuring time, man need not 
invent an apparatus, but has only to learn to tell 
time on the world-clock, the movements of the 
heavenly bodies. But it is to be noted that time, 
though objectively measured, is really a psychic 
process ; for our perception of time is not changed 
when the clock stops, but is changed when we fall 
asleep. One by one the measurements of physical 
By W. Wunpt. 


| Essays. Leipzig, Engelmann, 1885. 


SCIENCE. 


107 


phenomena are required, and last comes the utili- 
zation of these physical measurements for measur- 
ing the psychic processes. The first time sense is 
the flow of sense impressions ; the last step is to 
turn back and measure these impressions. Some 
sort of philosophy or psychology appears early in 
history ; then come the great advances of physics ; 
in the last stage, a psycho-physics. 

Perhaps it is only a coincidence that it really 
was a branch of physical science, astronomy, that 
performed the first experiment which led to the long 
series of studies of psychic time. Even a martyr 
can be pointed out in this cause ; for it is told that 
an observer at Greenwich, whose observations 
were unusually slow, was often boxed on the ears 
for this peculiarity, and afterwards discharged. 
Twenty years later Bessel saved the honor of our 
martyr by pointing out that each person had a 
‘personal equation’ of his own; that it took an 
appreciable time to record an observation after it 
was made, which time differed in different indi- 
viduals. If we were asked to press a key as soon 
as we saw an expected flash of light, it would 
seem to us that the reaction was instantaneous. 
But still ordinarily it takes from an eighth toa 
sixth of a second. About a half toa tenth of a 
second is taken up in central brain processes, while 
the rest is used in conducting the impression to 
and from the brain. If, instead of reacting when 
we saw the light, it was agreed that the reaction 
should take place only after the color of the light 
had been perceived, the additional time necessary 
for perceiving this color might be called the ‘ dis- 
tinction’ time, and would vary from a twentieth to 
a fiftieth of a second. In this way the time neces- 
sary for hearing syllables, words, seeing colors, fig- 
ures, pictures, letters, and so on, and understand- 
ing them, is open to measurement, and the relative 
time required for these operations marks their com- 
plexity. Again: we can agree, that, if you see a 
blue light, you are to react with the right hand ; 
if a red, with the left. Here is, first, the time for 
perceiving a light already measured, then the time 
to distinguish its blueness or redness, also meas- 
ured, and then the ‘choice’ time necessary for 
selecting the appropriate hand for the color seen. 
This last psychic process takes about as long as the 
‘distinction’ time. Of course, it depends on the 
number of reactions from which the choice is to 
be made. If it is one of two, the time would be a 
tenth of a second; if one of ten (sey, the ten 
fingers), the time would be half a second. A 
rather curious result of these observations is, that 
it takes almost as long to perceive a single letter as 
it does to perceive a one- or two-syllable word, 
which shows that the word is perceived as a 
whole, not as a combination of letters, — that it is 


108 


the psychic unit. The next step takes us still 
further into the nature of mind by measuring the 
time necessary for one idea to call up another 
related to it in any way,—‘association time.’ 
This process is evidently a more complicated one, 
a higher function, and takes a longer time, about 
half to three-fourths of a second. Individual dif- 
ferences are very great here, and we are at the 
beginning of those mental qualities which in their 
extremes distinguish the genius from the dullard. 
Not only the time, but the kind of association, is 
characteristic of the individual. The direction of 
one’s associations is as good a clew to his character 
as can readily be gotten. If we limit the subject 
to one kind of association, for instance, what the 
logicians call ‘ subsumation’ (that is, for example, 
if the word is ‘horse,’ the associated word must 
include horse as ‘ quedruped,’ ‘animal’), the time is 
longer by about a tenth of a second than unre- 
stricted association time. 

Another very curious resuit which was wrought 
out in Professor Wundt’s laboratory is the peculiar 
effect of attention, which actually makes you hear 
or see a thing before the thing is there to be heard 
or seen. If you are to observe opposite what 
stroke of a graduated circle an indicator attached 
to a pendulum is swinging when a bell strikes, 
then, after the interval between the beginning of 
the swing and the ringing of the bell has become 
fixed in your mind, you will anticipate the stroke 
of the bell, and make it ring a fraction of a second 
before it really sounds. But a further discussion 
of this question would carry us too far. It has 
been shown, that, compared with such motions as 
light, sound, or electricity, nerve-conduction is 
slow, and those nerve processes associated with 
the more complex sensations and perceptions very 
slow indeed; that by measuring these times we 
will obtain a graded scale of the complexity of 
some of the simpler mental processes, and gain a 
deeper insight into their nature. 

This essay has been selected because it repre- 
sents, perhaps, the mere strictly original part of 
the book better than any other. Most of the 
others are inspired by new points of view, as, for 
example, the one on language, which takes its 
basis from the observations on the development of 
language in children and deaf-mutes. 

From the English side comes an attempt to give 
ina popular form the results of studying the insane 
and deranged as far as such study bears on cer- 
tain peculiar historical and psychological facts. ’ 
One general topic in which the author is deeply 
interested is the hallucinations of eminent histori- 
cal characters. The list of these is so strikingly 

' The bloton the brain : studies in history and psychology. 
By W. W. [reLAND, M.D. New York, Putnam, 1886, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 156 


large, if one is willing to take into account very 
small deviations in mental soundness, that it has 
led to the thesis (old as Aristotle) that genius and 
insanity are closely allied. But the cases treated 
by Dr. Ireland are only those in which this 
hallucination gave character and motive to the 
life of the individual. The peculiar mental con- 
dition of Mohammed, Swedenborg. and Joan of 
Are, are graphically and instructively presented : 
they form a welcome contribution to the psy- 
chology of greatness. In this connection may be 
mentioned a work on genius,’ recently published, 
which, though it makes no claims to be, and is 
not, a scientific book, touches with a somewhat 
literary motive on this topic. The writer has 
made a strong statement of the vanities of eminent 
men; not of men of genius, however, in any 
proper sense. 

Another peculiar malady which the flesh of the 
great is heir to, is the ‘insanity of power.’ The 
proposition is, that persons in positions in which all 
their wishes and whims can be put into deeds at 
once, are liable to become intoxicated with this 
omnipotence, and to indulge in morbid and cruel 
practices. The horrible spectacles which the reign 
of the Claudian-Julian family of emperors at 
Rome, reaching the climax in Nero, presented to 
the world, shows the terrible force of this disease, 
and its hereditary nature. The reigns of Ivan the 
Terrible in Russia, and of Mohammed Toghluk in 
India, are other examples of the debasing effects 
of unchecked power, while the hereditary neurosis 
of the royal family of Spain illustrates the special 
dangers to which these select families are subject. 

Another line of interest with Dr. Ireland is the 
study of the relation of the two sides of the body. 
As the main motor nerves cross from the brain to 
the opposite side, we are right-handed and left- 
headed. This predominance of the left hemisphere 
of the brain is an indication that the two hemi- 
spheres only in part are one, and in part are two. 
Have we one brain or two brains? is, then, not at 
all an unnecessary question. The peculiar phe- 
nomenon of mirror-writing (i.e., of writing from 
right to left, so that when reflected in a mirror it 
appears normal), which appears in children and 
some forms of insanity, has attracted notice to this 
question. The results as yet are not very definite. 
Other psychological curiosities, such as sympa- 
thetic insanity, which makes whole families go 
insane at once, peculiar fixed ideas, and so on, are 
treated in a popular way. The book will not say 
much that is new, but gives in a very readable 
form an interesting account of some of the 
modern phases of psychological thought. J. J. 


1 Insanity and vanity of genius. By KATE SANBORN, 


New York, 1886. 


) 


JANUARY 29, 1886.] 


IRON CONFERENCE AT ST. PETERSBURG. 


THE meetings of the Russian iron and coal 
trades conference at St. Petersburg have been 
marked, says Engineering, by an acrimonious dis- 
cussion between the representatives of the older 
Ural establishments and the newer ones in the 
Baltic provinces and South Russia. The former 
date from the time of Peter the Great, when that 
monarch, by generous and _ well-directed state 
support, gave such an impulse to the charcoal iron 
trade that Russia became the leading iron-pro- 
ducing country in Europe. For a considerable 
period pig-iron was one of the principal products 
Russia exported to this country. In the beginning 
of the century, however, mineral coal began to 
prove a formidable competitor to charcoal in 
smelting-operations ; and ultimately the tables 
were turned, and Russia received most of her iron 
from England, instead of supplying her with it. 
This revolution was marked by the collapse of 
the Ural iron industry, the ruin of which was 
accelerated by the wasteful destruction of the 
forests, and the extravagance of descendants of 
the iron-masters enriched by the support of Peter 
the Great. Twenty years ago the Russian govern- 
ment wanted to encourage the manufacture of 
rails, etc., for the home railways, and, finding the 
Ural firms disorganized and ruined, created a new 
industry at St. Petersburg, Briansk, etc., by giving 
large and lucrative contracts to a number of 
Russian and foreign capitalists. As coal and 
iron do not exist in the immediate vicinity of the 
Baltic, these new ventures were dependent upon 
foreign iron and coal for their sustenance, and 
have never been other than weaklings since their 
birth. The government is now tired of continually 
altering the tariff, and giving subsidies to these 
undertakings; and the attitude of neutrality it 
has taken up has had the effect of placing most of 
them more or less on the verge of ruin: hence the 
delegates representing them have been vehement 
in their demands for support; and, the support 
they want being precisely the opposite of that 
which would revive the Ural iron trade, the battle 
between the ‘ independent works’ (i.e., using only 
Russian iron and fuel, as in the Urals) and the 


‘dependent works,’ which cannot exist without 


foreign iron and coal, has been a tough one, 
accompanied by scenes of personal and undigni- 
fied wrangling. It is hardly possible for the 
government to support one without injuring the 
other; and, as both are equally rotten, it is 
angrily disposed towards each of the industrial 
parties. Probably no branch of Russian trade has 
‘milked’ the financial resources of the govern- 
ment more than the iron trade; and prosperity 


et 


SCIENCE. 


109 


and progress have attended so few of its efforts, 
that the government is almost tired of dispensing 
its support. 


LONGEVITY. 


It has been stated, with some degree of reason, 
says the Lancet, that the maximum age attainable 
by man has risen somewhat during the present 
century over that recorded in former ages. In 
judging of such statement, some allowance for 
error must be made. The exact statistical calcu- 
lations of our day should not, in fairness, be mar- 
shalled against the round numbers of less accurate 
traditions. The fact remains, nevertheless, that 
the limit of seventy years is now very frequently 
passed. Fourscore may even be reached by some 
without excessive labor and sorrow, and we have 
among us nonagenarians who carry on with still 
respectable proficiency the activities of their 
prime. Such effective longevity is a bright spot 
in the history of our advancing civilization. Its 
comparative frequency, and its association with 
different physical types, suggest a certain gener- 
ality in its origin, and encourage the hope that it 
may be, in some measure at least, dependent on 
personal conduct. It has been stated that no such 
condition can influence the length of life after 
middle age. After that period, inherited vital 
force is the only potential factor. To some ex- 
tent this may be granted. If we fix an average 
of conduct, and suppose that a number of persons 
conform to it, we should certainly find the purest 
and most powerful constitutional types outlive the 
others. For instance: a gouty tendency does not 
enhance the prospects of old age. A rheumatic 
one is little better in this respect. The scrofulous 
are heavily weighted in the race of life by the 
chances of several infirmities. Nervous persons, 
again, are wiry, and may live through much 
trouble in virtue of their elastic tenacity. Then 
there are nondescript diatheses, which, except in 
their remote history, present no definite physical 
bias. Theoretically, these are most likely to fur- 
nish, under ordinary usages, the old men of a 
given time. 

It will be at once evident, however, that these 
are general statements, and that an unlikely indi- 
vidual will often exceed his own expectation of 
life, and by care, or from the suitability of his 
circumstances, will reach old age. In weighing 
the value of constitutional tendencies, moreover, 
another nearly related quality should be con- 
sidered. This is disposition. The mind of a man 
must be more or less of the nature of his body, 
and accordingly we expect to find, and do find, 
that mental habit reflects in preferences, varia- 


110 


tions, rate of action, and the like, the type of 
processes in the lower tissues. So far disposition 
is merely a part of constitution ; and cheerfulness, 
hope, apathy, or gloom are only expressions of 
physical change. That all such qualities react 
upon the body in such a way as to influence its 
vitality, is undoubted. On the other hand, they 
may certainly be overruled by the action of the 
will, so as to be no longer mere bodily impulses, 
but trained servants of a governing intellect. 
They may thus acquire a compensatory value in 
correcting faults of constitution, and strengthen 
in proportion the tenure of life. 

This brings us to the sphere of intelligent effort. 
There can be no doubt, in our opinion, that there 
is much room for exercise of private Judgment 
and energy in seeking the prolongation of one’s 
own life. If there is any known diathetic fault, 
this implies a law of one’s being which will repay 
in a gain of vitality the man who recognizes it, 
and guides himself accordingly. The doctrine of 
the ‘survival of the fittest’ does not work itself out 
by blind chance, or without evident design, even 
among the lowest forms of life. Much less is it 
to be believed that man is unable so to adjust his 
circumstances to his needs as to continue to live 
after a certain mean period. The weaker will 
sometimes prove himself the more tenacious of 
life by observing rational methods of living, of 
which the more robust is careless. Moderation 
has probably more to do with success in this 
respect than any thing else. To eat sufficiently, 
and drink stimulants sparingly, to alternate work 
with adequate rest, and to meet worries heartily, 
will afford to every one the best chance of arriving 
at a ripe old age. 


SomME interesting particulars of the German 
universities have recently been published by the 
London illustrated news. There are, it appears, 
twenty-nine now existing, including those in the 
Austrian empire and Switzerland, and the Russo- 
German university of Dorpat. Twelve have ceased 
to exist, with only one exception during the first 
sixteen years of the present century. The oldest 
is Prague (1348); the youngest, Czernowitz (1875). 
Six have been founded during the present century, 
among them four of the most important, —. Berlin, 
Bonn, Munich, and Zurich. The number of stu- 
dents in the universities belonging to the German 
empire has risen from 14,808 in 1830, to 23,207 in 
1883; but the percentage to the population is 
exactly the same. This percentage had declined 
very greatly during the intervening epoch, but 
has been rapidly recovering itself since the reno- 
vation of the German empire in 1871. The per- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 156 


centage of students of Catholic theology has 
declined during these fifty-three years from 12 
to 3, mainly owing to the establishment of semi- 
naries under direct Episcopal control. Protestant 
theology also exhibits a falling-off in percentage 
from 27 to 13, but the actual number of students 
is diminished only by a fourth. Jurisprudence 
has gained in number, but suffered in percentage. 
Medicine has more than doubled its numbers, and 
philosophy nearly quadrupled them, the percent- 
age of the two united being 52, against 32 in 18380. 
The students of the exact sciences in the philo- 
sophical faculty are now 387 per cent, against 13 
per cent in 1841. 


IT has been estimated, says the New York medi- 
cal record, that one-half the adult men of Ameri- 
can birth living in our cities are bald-headed. The 
estimate is not exaggerated, if it is applied to 
persons above the age of thirty, and it may be 
rather under the mark. If, now, it be conceded 
that one-half of our American business and pro- 
fessional men are bald at the present time, it 
would be interesting to speculate as to the con- 
dition of the heads of their descendants some 
hundreds of years from now. The probabilities 
point toward a race of hairless Americans, for 
baldness is extremely liable to be propagated in 
the male line, and to appear a little earlier in each 
generation. The American nation is threatened 
with the catastrophe of a universal alopecia. The 
cause is usually imputed to the excessive strain 
and ceaseless mental and physical activity to 
which our methods of business and modes of 
living conduce. From the visitors’ gallery of the 


stock exchange, for example, one views a mob of — 


shining pates, belonging, as a rule, to rather 
young men. 


The much neglected scalp should be thoroughly — 


cleansed at certain intervals. It should be care- 
fully and regularly examined, and if it be 


unhealthy, dry, and scurvy, the proper applica-— 
The wearing of | 


tions should be made to it. 
unventilated hats is one of the greatest sources of 
failure of nutrition of the hair, and these must be — 
avoided. The beard never falls out, because it 
gets plenty of sunlight and air. These are what 
the hair of the scalp needs also. Women are less 


bald than men, because, for one reason, their 


scalps are better ventilated. In fine, civilization - 
has made the hair-producing organs of the scalp 
delicate and feeble. They have to be nursed and 
cared for, or they atrophy and disappear. 


Americans who do not wish to lose their hair — 
before they are forty must begin to look after their | 


scalps before they are twenty. 


Young — 


4 


4 


t 


ST CE. 


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1826. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THE INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW has re- 
ceived new interest by the introduction of Senator 
Hawley’s recent bill. It is remarkable with what 
unanimity the better class of authors, periodicals, 
and publishers have long sought unavailingly the 
passage of such a bill. In the recent hearing 
before the senate committee, a number of our 
most prominent authors spoke in favor of the 
passage of some law on international copyright. 
Prominent among those who favored the meas- 
ures were the Rev. Dr. Crosby, Mr. Henry Holt, 
Mr. George Ticknor Curtis, Mr. H. E. Scudder, 
Mr. James Russell Lowell, Mr. Estes, Mr. Samuel 
Clemens, and others. A memorial signed by over 
two hundred prominent authors was also pre- 
sented. The arguments used by these gentlemen 
were, that the present system of copyright law 
was not only disadvantageous, but dishonest and 
unjust; that it worked to the great disadvantage 
of American authors, and prevented the publi- 
cation of many meritorious works ; that it made 
books dearer, and lowered our literary taste. Mr. 
Lowell was satisfied that the reading public of 
America being much larger, and the demand for 
cheap books greater, the result of a copyright 
law would be the transfer of the great bulk of 
the book-trade to America. Of course, in the 
passage of such a law, measures should be insti- 
tuted to protect those who have been encouraged 
under our laws to become pirates of foreign 
books. Some, among whom Mr. Clemens may 
be mentioned, urged that the bill should require 
all foreign books to be printed here. 


THIS COUNTRY IS NOT ALONE in its trouble with 
the silver question. At the meeting of the coun- 
cil at Calcutta on Jan. 11, the most diverse views 
were expressed as to the influence the deprecia- 
tion of silver has had in benefiting the trade of 
monometallic (silver) India. On this subject pub- 
lic opinion is said to be hopelessly divided. Speak- 
ing generally, the commercial men are inclined to 
agree with Mr. Steel’s view, which he upheld at 
the council meeting, that India is a distinct gainer 

No, 157. — 1886. 


by the depreciation; while the rest of the com- 
munity, following the lead of Sir A. Colvin, Mr. 
Hope, and Mr. Evans, attribute the extension of 
trade to other causes, and regard the continued 
depreciation of silver as a most serious danger, 
calling for careful consideration and prompt ac- 
tion on the part of the home government. 

THE GREAT DECREASE in the numbers of many of 
our birds during late years, brought about in the 
interests of fashion or other mercenary motives, 
or through malicious wantonness, has induced 
the Ornithological union to appoint a committee, 
composed of a number of our leading ornitholo- 
gists, on the ‘ protection of North American birds,’ 
whose object shall be the gathering of informa- 
tion on the subjects of their destruction and pro- 
tection. The committee will welcome informa- 
tion from any source, and those interested are 
urged to address such to the officers or members. 
The secretary is Mr. E. P. Bicknell of New York. 

THE INVESTIGATIONS in economic ornithology 
began under the department of agriculture, July 
1, 1885, and have already been successful in 
bringing together a very large amount of useful 
material. The scope of the inquiry is, briefly, 
the collection of all information leading to a 
thorough knowledge of the inter-relation of birds 
and agriculture, and concerns both the food- 
habits and the migration and geographical distri- 
bution of North American birds. About fourteen 
hundred observers are scattered all over the 
country. Prof. W. W. Cook, superintendent of 
the Mississippi valley district has prepared a 
report which is the most valuable contribution 
ever made to the subject of bird-migration. It 
is now in the hands of the printer. The Eng- 
lish sparrow exerts a more marked effect upon 
the interests of the country than any other species 
of bird. The unprecedented increase and spread 
of this naturalized exotic, taken in connection with 
the extent of its ravages in certain districts, is 
regarded with grave apprehension. The study of 
this little pest developed the fact. that while it 
does sometimes eat grasshoppers, cicadae, and 
other insects, the sum of its injurious qualities 
probably exceeds and outweighs the sum of its 


112 


benefits. The Ornithological union has hopes that 
congress, during the coming session, will provide 
means for the proper extension of the inquiry. 
The practical bearings of the investigations are 
not obscure. When the limitations of the several 
faunal areas have been ascertained with sufficient 
exactness, it will be possible to predict the course 
which an injurious insect will pursue in extend- 
ing its march from the point where its first dev- 
astations are committed; and farmers may be 
thus forewarned, so that those living in districts 
likely to be infested can plant different crops, 
and thus be saved large pecuniary loss, while 
those living just outside will derive increased 
revenue from the particular crop affected. 


THOSE WHO DO NOT as yet feel sure of M. de 
Lesseps’ ability to carry through his canal from 
ocean to ocean will be surprised to learn that he 
is aiready planning to take part in the long-dis- 
cussed project of an African inland sea. On the 
20th of January a meeting was held in Paris by 
the promoters of the North African inland sea 
scheme, at which M. de Lesseps stated that Cap- 
tain Landas was about to survey the Tunisian 
oases, and that on his own return from Panama, 
by April at latest, the company would be formally 
constituted. 


RECENT NUMBERS OF THE Rundschau illustrate 
some aspects of psychological activity to which 
the German public are giving attention. Profes- 
sor Golz contributes a lengthy but very well 
written article on brain localization. Professor 
Golz is generally regarded as an extreme ‘ anti- 
localizationist.’ Perhaps the present article em- 
bodies his later convictions, in which, though not 
yielding his former position, he has stated it in a 
way that allies his opinions with those of other 
experimenters. He calls his article ‘ Modern 
phrenology,’ comparing the modern attempt to 
mark off the cortex of the brain into functional 
areas to the attempts of Gall and Spurzheim to 
correlate mental faculties with cranial formations. 
The cortex is not, according to his views, a mosaic 
of sensory and motor areas, such as Ferrier, and 
especially Munk, would have us believe. The 
experiments do not bear out that conclusion: for 
the loss of motion and sensation following the 
extirpation of certain brain areas is not perma- 
nent; the function is regained if the animal 


survives. In many cases the animals have not 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Vil. No. tae 


been kept long enough. The lack of certainty 
that the underlying fibres have not been stimu- 
lated is another objection. Moreover, there is no 
part of the cortex of which you can say that its 
removal must cause the loss of sensation or of 
motion. Not even Broca’s convolution, the 
close relation of which to the language centre has 
always been a firm support to the localizers, is 
exempt from this criticism. Professor Golz de- 
votes the main part of his paper to a critical 
review ; in conclusion, however, he suggests what 
he considers to be the true relation of cortex to 
function. Flourens thought that the whole cortex 
was alike in significance: modern ‘localizers’ 
hold that no two parts are functionally alike. 


The true view lies between the two. If we 
compare the cortex to a map, Flourens would 
make no distinction between one part of the map 
and another. The ‘localizers’ mark it off into 
countries ; i.e.,-political divisions, with sharp, dis- 
tinct boundaries. Professor Golz would mark his 
map off like those which represent the distribution 
of plants. In one part the vine would have its 
centre ; in another, rice; in a third, barley: but 
each would have some vine, some rice, and some 
barley, although there would be places which would 
have neither. The boundaries between the regions 
are loose: we have a focus, but it is not a point. 
These views are certainly rational, and coincide 
almost exactly with Lunani’s and Exner’s results. 
Perhaps it is not too hazardous to say that a strict 
localization of function can no longer be upheld. 


In the last number, Professor Preyer warns the 
German public against accepting the results of the 
English society for psychic research as regards 
telepathic communication. He explains away the 
facts upon which their conclusions are based by 
showing a neglect of the sources of error, In 
guessing what was being written in another room, 
the errors made were of such a nature as would 
occur if the hand had been seen (not errors in the 
hearing of the words): hence, as the girl who did 
the guessing was alone in the next room, Professor 
Preyer ascribes the telepathy to the keyhole. He 
certainly has made out a strong case, and, what is 
more important, has shown that the English so- 
ciety has not made its case nearly strong enough 
to found upon it so alarming an hypothesis as the — 
communication of mind with mind without the 
use of the ordinary channels of sensation. 


} 


re 


‘now presents itself. 


FEBRUARY 5, 1886. ] 


AT A MEETING of the Cosmos club of Washing- 
ton on Monday, Feb. 1, it was- decided to pur- 
chase the ‘ Wilkes’ property, on the corner of 
Madison Place and H Street, a few doors north of 
the present quarters of the club. The club pro- 
poses to build an assembly-room, to be used for 
receptions and for meetings of scientific societies. 
The resolution to purchase the property was 
passed unanimously, and is a move in the right 
direction. The present quarters are very limited, 
and, as the club is growing so rapidly. pressing 
need was felt for more room. The newly ac- 
quired property is situated in one of the most 
desirable localities in the city, and will afford the 
club many conveniences and comforts hitherto 
denied them. 


AMERICAN FISHERY INTERESIS. 


THE fisheries-treaty question, which is now the 
subject of so much discussion, is a very com- 
plicated one; and it is not at all surprising that 
the secretary of state, following . traditionary 
policy of more than a hundred years’ standing, 
and acting upon the long-established theory that 
participation in the’fishery privileges of Canadian 
waters is of great value, should have failed to 
satisfy the expectations of the New England fisher- 
men, who know so well that these privileges have 
long been valueiess. A general impression seems 
to exist that our fishing-fleet no longer visits the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, only because there has 
been a temporary desertion of those waters by the 
species of fish which they seek. Such, also, is the 
idea of the Canadians. In his recent article in the 
North American review, Lord Lorne patronizingly 
suggests to his ‘ good friends’ across the line that 
they should not be too hasty in throwing aside 
the right to fish in English waters, because the 
fish may before long return in their former abun- 
dance. 

As a matter of fact, the abundance of fish in the 
Gulf has very little to do with the question as it 
Since 1871, when the Wash- 
ington treaty was negotiated, a complete revolu- 
tion has taken place, both in the fisheries and the 
fish trade of the United States; and, strangely 
enough, this revolution was effected chiefly in the 
Six years which intervened between the completion 


_ of this treaty and the meeting in 1877 of the Hali- 


fax convention, by which $5,500,000 were awarded 
to Great Britain as a compensation for a concession 
to our fishermen, which had ceased to be of value 


SCIENCE. 


113 


to them, in addition to the remission of duties on 
Canadian fish, which during the period of fourteen 
years have amounted to several millions of dol- 
lars. Our government has thus, unintentionally 
of course, been paying each year a large subsidy to 
the fisheries of British North America, and devel- 
oping the Canadian fisheries at the expense of 
our own ; and Canadian competition has become 
so great that our fishermen feel that they have a 
strong claim upon the government for some kind 
of protection. The fishermen therefore demand 
that the duty upon Canadian fish be restored, and 
that their own privileges shall be based upon the 
provisions of the treaty of 1818, which will again 
go into effect, if no new treaty arrangements are 
made. Our dealers in cured fish, on the other 
hand, mindful of the profits of handling the 
product of the Canadian fisheries, are clamorous 
for a continuance of the present free-trade policy. 

The revolution in the American fisheries is so 
extensive that it can scarcely be discussed in a 
notice so brief as this. One of the principal 
changes is the adoption of the purse-seine in the 
mackerel fishery, by which the fish are caught 
far out at sea and in immense quantities by en- 
closing them in an immense bag of netting. 
Formerly they were taken solely with hooks by 
the ‘chumming’ process. This was in the best days 
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence mackerel fishery, 
when hundreds of American vessels would fre- 
quently lie side by side, throwing overboard vast 
quantities of oily, mushy bait, by which the 
schools of fish were enticed within reach. There 
is no reason to doubt that mackerel were as 
abundant then as now off our own coast, but the 
old method of fishing was not so well adapted to 
our waters. The purse-seine, on the other hand, 
cannot be used advantageously in the Gulf, nor is 
there any necessity for our fishermen to go so far 
from home for their fish. There does not appear 
to be any probability that our fishermen will ever 
return to the old methods. ‘Chumming mackerel’ 
is essentially a lost art. 

Another feature in the revolution is the in- 
troduction of improved methods of marketing 
fresh fish. With the extensive refrigerating 
establishments now in operation, and the facilities 
for rapid transmission of sea-fish inland, the de- 
mand for salted fish is relatively very much less 
than it was fifteen years ago. Then, too, the 
immense competition produced by the free entry 
of Canadian fish has lowered the price of cured 
fish, until a very decided depreciation in its 


114 


quality has resulted, with a consequent decrease 
in demand. 

The present condition of the sea-fisheries of 
New England is a deplorable one. Whatever is 
to be done for their amendment, it is to be hoped 
that our diplomatists will not suppose that they 
will profit by the privileges of free fishing in 
Canadian waters. 


ELEMENTARY SCIENCE-TEACHING. 


FROM all sides comes the advice to study science. 
Teach science to children, put it in the kinder- 
garten, double the amount of it at college, and 
foster it at the universities. The opinion seems to 
be current, that, by introducing a branch of science 
on the school curriculum, the magic effect is to be 
won. To give children objects to handle, to see, to 
describe, and to puzzle over, is certainly an excel- 
lent discipline. 

But the far-famed benefits to be derived from 
science do not centre there, nor is it with the 
methods of teaching science that fault is to be 
found. The methods have been carefully worked 
out: models, diagrams, specimens, excursions,— all 
are pressed into service; and, though the results 
of this world-wide scientific movement have been 
great beyond all expectation, one will readily ac- 
cept the statement that elementary science-teach- 
ing — excepting to elementary learners, children 
just beginning their school education—is not 
always gratifying work. To school-children who 
have already received their formative training, — 
who have swallowed, perhaps digested to a greater 
or less extent, the usual doses of book-learning, — 
whose minds have been set in the rut of an arbi- 
trary bookish study method, the introduction of a 
science course often brings more pain than pleas- 
ure. 

A case in point recently came under my notice. 
At aschool for girls, an able and interesting lec- 
turer gave a course in physiology. The lectures 
were illustrated, and well-directed efforts were 
made to make things clear. Recently an examina- 
tion was held, and perhaps it will be worth while 
sampling some of the more characteristic answers 
to the questions then asked. The stomach is put 
‘in the chest,’ or ‘is covered by a muscular bag 
called the pericardium,’ or ‘is mostly on the left 
side, just south of the heart.’ The authority for 
the last statement also showed an indignant sur- 
prise at being told that her heart was nothing but 
a muscle. Another anatomical fact not yet rec- 
ognized by the text-books is that ‘the scapula has 
no shape.’ ‘ Capillaries are small particles in the 
blood,’ or ‘are depressions in the arteries, and they 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. VIL; No.-1sT 


change the fatty parts into blood.’ Some feats of 
swallowing and digesting are described. ‘The 
food passes from the mouth through the blood to 
the stomach,’ or ‘is attracted downwards, and 
then your Adam’s apple slips over it:’ ‘it passes 
first to the small, then to the large, intestine.’ 
The surgery is also peculiar. When an artery is 
partly cut, you are advised ‘to cut it open so as to 
prevent the loss of too much blood,’ or ‘ to cut it 
entirely so as to allow it to coagulate.’ The terms, 
too, are caught up inexactly and without defi- 
nite ideas: ‘ vains,’ ‘ venus.’ ‘ gaul,’ ‘ color-bone,’ 
‘clerical’ (for ‘ cervical’), ‘ ablutions’ (for ‘ albu- 
men’), ‘humerous’ (for ‘humerus’). By a pecul- 
iar association of ideas, the young lady respon- 
sible for the last innovation states that this bone 
is commonly called the ‘crazy’ bone. 

On the whole, the answers were very good. 
Those given above are purposely selected for their 
peculiarity. The girls too, with some exceptions 
(mostly from twelve to sixteen years of age), took 
great interest in the subject. Nor is the school to 
blame. The early training of these girls was en- 
tirely opposed to these new methods of teaching. 
It is not the science that is strange to them ; but 
there is a struggle going on in their minds parallel 
to the battle between the ‘new’ and the ‘old’ 
educationalists in the reviews. This leads to a 
confusion of thought, a muddled-headedness, which 
perhaps is the most characteristic feature of the 
above answers. The whole moral can be summed 
up in one phrase. It is not in the direction of 
science-teaching, but of scientific teaching (and 
that, too, from the cradle onward), that the future 
of education is to develop. 

With the above experience fresh in mind, I came 
upon a second example of elementary science- 
teaching, of a most ingenious kind. It is nothing 
less than an attempt to give to children an account 
of the physiology of the brain (Frank Bellew, 
St. Nicholas, February, 1886). The ‘firm of Big 
Brain, Little Brain & Co.’ tends to the business af- 
fairs of the body. The cerebrum is the adminis- 
trative department. There the head of the firm, 
old Big Brain, sits at his desk surrounded by pa- 
pers and all the appliances of a modern business- 
office. At one side is a telegraph-key to bones ; on 
the other, pigeon-holes and register cases. Below 
him, on one side, is Little Brain, (the cerebellum), 
a little elf tending to the machine ; on the other, 
the ganglia, or gang of five clerks on high stools. 
These put down the accumulated expenses of Big 
Brain, and do the book-keeping. One of the little 
band is in the office receiving an order from Big 
Brain. In the middle is the Bridge (Pons), keeping 
up a continual clatter of telegraph-keys, trans- 
mitting messages from one part of the brain to 


a? 


FEBRUARY 5, 1886.] 


another, in all directions; and still farther down 
is Medulla. He has charge of the life department, 
and keeps working the bellows, and running the 
fire of life. And through this allegory you are to 
‘know more about the contents of your knowl- 
edge-box than you did before.’ Only a reading of 
the article itself, and an enjoyment of the grotesque 
illustration, will convey an idea of its extreme 
clearness ; and, after such a reading, no excuse 
will be necessary for calling attention to this effort 
as an illustration of modern elementary science- 
teaching. JOSEPH JASTROW. 


TOTAL-ABSTINENCE TEACHING IN THE 
SCHOOLS. 


In 1884 the legislature of the state of New York, 
in response to forty thousand petitions, passed an 
act by which all schools supported by public 
money or under state control are required to in- 
struct their pupils in physiology and hygiene, 
‘* with special reference to the effects of alcoholic 
drinks, stimulants, and narcotics, upon the human 
“system,” and prohibiting the granting of a certifi- 
cate to any person to teach in the public schools 
except after passing a satisfactory examination in 
physiology and hygiene with special reference to 
the effects of alcoholic drinks, ete. A similar law 
has been passed in at least fourteen states of the 
union. This action, it is claimed, is due to the 
Woman’s Christian temperance union. 

It was at one time questioned whether such a 
law was constitutional, and how far it could be 
enforced. The state superintendent, W. B. Rug- 
gles, in a letter to Commissioner Perrigo, at Pots- 
dam, says that it is the duty of the local school 
authorities to provide for such instruction; the 
duty of the teachers to give the instruction; and 
the duty of parents to cause their children to con- 
form to the course of study in these subjects, as in 
any other studies prescribed under the law. He 
goes still further, in declaring that a persistent re- 
fusal of a pupil to receive instruction in physiology 
or hygiene may justify the school authorities in 
excluding such pupil from the benefits of the 
public schools. A similar question has arisen in 
reference to the vaccination law in the state of 
New York, passed in 1860. In that law the legis- 
lature distinctly authorizes and directs the exclu- 
sion from the public schools of children not pro- 
tected from small-pox; and, so far as we know, 
this power and duty have never been abridged or 
questioned by the courts. It would seem, there- 
fore, that the conditions under which children 
may participate in the benefits to be derived from 
being educated at the public expense are lawfully 
within the power of: the legislature to prescribe, 


SCIENCE. 


115 


provided always that constitutional provisions are 
not violated. 

The immediate result of the passage of these 
compulsory laws has been to cause a remodelling 
of the text-books of physiology and hygiene in 
order to meet the requirements of the legislatures. 
Some of these have been but little changed, except 
to be enlarged by a few chapters on alcohol and 
tobacco; while others have been entirely rewritten 
with the special object of making them conform 
to the new demands. It is the opinion of at least 
one lawyer, reputed to stand high in his profes- 
sion, that the main object of these statutes is to 
provide for scientific temperance instruction in the 
schools ; that the use of works on physiology and 
hygiene is a mere method of accomplishing this 
result; and that any instruction which, while 
making physiology and hygiene its leading fea- 
ture, only incidentally bears upon alcohol and 
narcotics, is not a compliance with the law, and 
therefore school authorities are only justified in 
using as text-books those which make the effects 
of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics upon 
the human system their special object. If this 
opinion is correct, very many of the books which 
have been recommended for introduction into the’ 
schools since these compulsory laws were passed 
would be discarded, as they are primarily works 
on physiology and hygiene, and secondarily teach 
temperance. The number of books which have 
thus far appeared to meet the new demand 
exceeds twenty. 

One of the most prominent temperance writers 
thus explains the failure of temperance move- 
ments hitherto, and points out what he thinks to 
be the hope of the future. 

‘*The temperance efforts of the past failed 
because all temperance decrees proceeded from 
the sovereign, and were as changeable as his 
whims and caprices, and also because it was not 
known that alcohol was always a poison. The 
modern temperance movement is based on knowl- 
edge and on a sentiment of fellowship and fra- 
ternity. The great advance made in physiological 
science has been applied to the study of the effects 
of alcohol upon the human system, and from this 
the most beneficial results may be expected. 
Based upon the statement of Tschokke, that all 
laws are powerless for extinguishing an evil 
which has taken root in the life of the people, 
it is from the people itself that the reform of 
morals must proceed, but no government is strong 
enough to bring it about.” ' 

It is as yet too early to judge of the wisdom of 
this new departure. The teachers themselves 
must first be taught ; and the movement towards 


1 Gustafson, in ‘ The foundation of death.’ 


116 


temperance reform will therefore practically be- 
gin in the normal schools, to spread thence to all 
the public schools throughout the various states in 
which these compulsory laws have been enacted. 
The receptivity of the young mind is greater than 
most persons are aware of; and while, at first 
thought, the instructions of pupils of the age of 
six years as to the effects of alcohol and tobacco 
would not seem to promise very great results, still 
more may be accomplished than would be antici- 
pated. Inasmuch as the end aimed at, if reached, 
would contribute beyond all calculation to the 
prosperity and welfare of the human race, the 
experiment is one which should receive every aid 
and encouragement possible. It would not be 
strange if the enforcement of the law demon- 
strated defects: when these become evident, they 
can be remedied. If legislators passed no law 
until it was perfect, the country would be deprived 
of much useful and needed legislation. D. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 

COMMISSIONER COLMAN of the agricultural de- 
partment left for St. Louis on Monday to pre- 
side over the conventions of the National sugar 
association and the Mississippi valley dairymen’s 
association, which are to be held this and next 
week. At the latter convention the commissioner 
proposes to show the delegates the progress he is 
endeavoring to make in the investigations of the 
adulteration of food, especially of dairy products. 
Professor Taylor, the microscopist of the depart- 
ment, who claims to have discovered an unfailing 
test for pure butter as compared with the counter- 
feit article, will be present, and by means of a 
magic lantern and a series of micro-photograpbs 
will explain the discoveries, and make an address. 
It is understood that the department is not ready 
to indorse these discoveries as being absolutely 
without question; but the commissioner thinks 
that the convention is entitled to such information 
as he can furnish, and that the country ought to 
have the benefit of such suggestions as Professor 
Taylor has to make. 

—A letter from Panama, under date of Jan. 
24, states that a government commission, con- 
sisting of Professor Rockstrock and Mr. Walker, 
has been sent from Guatemala to report upon the 
probability of an outbreak of the Pacaya volcano. 
The report of these gentlemen announces the total 
destruction of the village of San Vicente Pacaya. 
Some forty-four tiled-roof houses completely col- 
lapsed, making such a cloud of dust as to create a 
belief that a new crater had opened. The hot 
springs surrounding Lake Amatillan emit a larger 
volume of water, at a higher temperature, than 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 157 


usual. The crater of Pacaya remains unchanged, 
while that of Fuego has been very lively. 


— The invention of Mr. Edison for sending and 
receiving messages on a moving train was success- 
fully tested, Feb. 1, on the Staten Island railroad. 
The operator sat in the middle of the centre car 
of the train, before a desk furnished with a Morse 
telegraphic key. He held a telephone at each ear. 
Under the desk was a battery. From this a 
ground wire was connected with the car-axle and 
the rail. Another wire passed through the key 
and to the roof of the car, which was connected 
with the roofs of the other cars by short pieces of 
copper wire. Parallel with the railroad were the 
telegraph wires of the Baltimore and Ohio com- 
pany. The induction between the metal roof and 
the telegraph wires was sufficient to allow of the 
reception by telephone of Morse signals. 


— Professor Fuchs, in his twentieth annual re- 
port on the seismological events of 1884, gives 123 
shocks of earthquakes, distributed in time as fol- 
lows: winter, 57. (Dec., 19; Jan., 28; Feb., 10); 
spring, 24 (March, 13; April, 7; May, 4); summer, 
21 (June, 5; July, 9; Aug., 7); autumn, 21 (Sept., 8; 
Oct., 1; Nov., 12). Those deserving individual men- 
tion are, March 24, in upper and central Slavonia, 
where in Diakovar and other places numerous 
buildings suffered injury; April 22, in England; 
May 138, in Crevassa, where a church and other 
buildings were destroyed ; May 19, on the Persian 
Gulf, in which two hundred persons fell victims 
by the overthrow of their houses; Aug. 10, in the 
eastern United States; and the Spanish earth- 
quakes in December. In regard to the last, Dr. 
Fuchs believes the centrum was not a point, but 
a line parallel to the Sierras Tejeda and Almijara ; 
nor does he think they were of greater importance 
than those of Belluno in 1873, of Agram in 1880, 
and of Chios in 1881. There was very little vol- 
canic activity throughout the year, and that only 
in Aetna, Vesuvius, and St. Augustin, in Alaska. 


— Mr. R. L. Harris has lately read a paper on 
two Daft electric motors, used on the Baltimore 
street-railways, before the American society of 
civil engineers : he reports both of these motors as 
being very successful in all weathers and condi- 
tions of the track. The grades are very steep for 
motors, reaching three hundred and thirty feet per 
mile in some places; nevertheless these motors 
have at no time failed to pull overloaded cars 
with perfect ease. These motors do the work of 
fifteen horses each, at an average daily running 
expense of $4.62 for fuel and attendance. 


— The recent experiments of the Franklin in- 
stitute, upon incandescent and are lights, give the 


FEBRUARY-95, 1886.] 


following averages: one pound of anthracite 
burned under a good boiler yields, in the incan- 
descent system of lighting, about 40 candles; the 
same weight of coal gives from the naked arc- 
light abovt 158 candles; ordinarily arc-lights are 
shaded so as to lose about one-half their intensity, 
so that only 80 candles per pound of coal are 
available ; one pound of bituminous coal will yield 
from five to six cubic feet of illuminating-gas ; 
this gas will, in the standard argand burner, 
yield from 14 to 17 candles. Iluminating-gas is 
burned at once in the simplest manner, and the 
amount of machinery and care required by electric 
lighting offsets its greater economy of fuel, light 
for light. There is little room for improvement 
in dynamos, but the most important economies 
will arise from more skilful use and design of the 
steam-engines required to drive the dynamos. 
The steam-engine, although much the senior of 
the dynamo in the list of inventions, is not nearly 
so well understood. It is but very recently that 
the laws of condensation and expansion of steam 
in the engine actually at work have been grasped, 
and our limitations so clearly defined as to point 
out the logical way to greater economies, and pre- 
vent us from attempting economy under impos- 
sible conditions. 


— The photograph of the normal solar spec- 
trum, made by Prof. H. A. Rowland at the Johns 
Hopkins university, Baltimore, is now complete 
from wave-length 3680 to 5790; and the portion 
above 3680 to the extremity of the ultra-violet, 
wave-iength about 3100, is nearly ready. Nega- 
tives have also been prepared down to and includ- 
ing B, and it is possible they may be prepared for 
publication. The plates, seven in number, all 
contain two strips of the spectrum, except No. 2, 
which contains three. They are three feet long 
and one foot wide. These can now all be fur- 
nished to order except No. 2, the negative of 
which is being made. The plates will be delivered 
in Baltimore or New York, or will be sent by 
express or mail, securely packed, at the charge 
and risk of the purchaser, at the following net 
prices : the set of seven plates, unmounted, $10; 
mounted on cloth, $12; single plates, $2 each; 
mounted on cloth, $2.25. 


—A telegram from Guayaquil, of Jan. 20, an- 
nounces that indications of an earthquake were 
observed in Chimbo contemporary with a _ re- 
newed outbreak of the Cotopaxi volcano. 


— There are good reasons for supposing that a 
bill will pass both houses of congress, appropriat- 
ing fifteen thousand dollars annually to Cornell 
university for the establishment of an agricultural 
experiment-station at that institution. 


Pa 


SCIENCE. 


117 


— The Norwegian ship Ferdinand at Philadel- 
phia reports that near midnight of Jan. 8, in lati- 
tude 38° 20’ north, longitude 71° 20’ west, during 
a severe storm of rain and wind, the night being 
very dark, all the yard-arms and mastheads 
were suddenly lighted up with St. Elmo’s fire, 
having the appearance of bright lanterns. The 
phenomenon lasted about three minutes. 


— The opening of the third electrical exhibition 
at St. Petersburg, which took place on Jan. 1, is 
attracting much attention among the people, 
especially that portion devoted to the telephone. 
The exhibition is said to be noteworthy for the 
novelty, variety, and number of its objects. For 
illumination, all the known systems of electrical 
lighting are employed. 


— The Kélnische zeitung for Jan. 14 states that 
at the preceding meeting of the Vienna geographi- 
cal society was announced the discovery, by Dr. 
Stapf, of a hitherto unknown lake in the Persian 
desert. The lake, according to Dr. Stapf, is at 
least forty kilometres long, and is probably of 
recent origin. According to information obtained 
from Mohammedan sources, it appears that the 
lake dried up after a previous existence, and later 
re-appeared. The water is to a very considerable 
degree alkaline. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


x*; Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


The competition of convict labor. 


THE two articles which have appeared in Science on 
this problem (vii. Nos. 153 and 155) by Mr. N. M. 
Butler treat this subject after the manner of that 
system or school of political economy which is taught 
in the colleges, and which rules in business. Its aim 
and end is profit. It is science ‘for revenue only,’ 
and it ignores morality or humanity. It judges all 
human activity by the standard of profitableness. 
In reference to this particular question, Mr. Butler 
formulates that stand-point very characteristically 
by the following initiatory axiomatic phrase: ‘‘ That 
convicts should be employed, if possible, in a manner 
profitable to the state, is a proposition that no sane 
man controverts.” 

To be sure, any thing humane is sentimental non- 
sense to this school ; and any thing so ‘ unbusinesslike ’ 
as the greatest of virtues, charity, is insanity. But 
this form of ‘insanity’ is increasing rapidly in the 
world, and developing a new school of political econ- 
omy, whose central principle is to further the welfare 
of all men. From the stand-point of that school, a 
prison should not be a slave-pen for grinding out 
‘profit’ to the state, but either a refuge for moral 
cripples or a school for those who lack the moral 
training necessary to make them good citizens. 

About the cause of the agitation of this question 
among workingmen, Mr. Butler makes some state- 


118 


ments which are apt to be misleading. He ascribes 
it to a few isolated individuals and to sustenance- 
seeking agitators. The facts are, that whole groups, 
trades, have directly been affected wherever prison 
labor has entered the market. The statement which 
contractors are said to make, that convict labor at 
fifty cents a day is not cheaper than free labor, is 
not to be believed except upon the most positive evi- 
dence, for the prisoners are driven and tortured to 
daily perform a set task ; and that this is not an aver- 
age half-day work is pretty safe to surmise. 

As to the selfish ‘ agitator,’ he is the great bug-a- 
boo of those who do not know him, or whose interests 
are threatened by him. The truth is, that his is a 
losing business : he is persecuted, blacklisted, hunted, 
and misunderstood and denounced; and that he 
still remains true to what he deems his duty is a 
trait that should be honored by all who can appre- 
ciate an unselfish action. 

The real stand-point of the humane school and its 
agitators is, that ‘prison labor must go,’ in so far as 
it is directed to the production of wares for the 
general market. The piece-price plan and similar 
tub-to-the-whale measures will not stop this agitation. 
The employment of prisoners towards their own sup- 
port directly, as food-raising, prison-building, etc., 
or their employment on public improvements, is the 
only thing that will divert the rapidly increasing 
political activity of workingmen as a class from this 
‘ agitation.’ E. LANGERFELD. 


Your correspondent misses entirely the tenor of 
the articles referred to. They were not written 
from the stand-point of any school of political econ- 
omy whatsoever, but from the stand-point of prac- 
tical ethics. That convicts are to be subjected to 
reformatory and ennobling influences is a truism 
which my articles took for granted. That idleness 
is an ennobling influence, that productive labor on 
the part of convicts is of no injury to the community, 
were the two points which I was concerned to es- 
tablish. Dogmatic statements in regard to competi- 
tion of convict with free labor cannot stand in the face 
of the figures adduced in the second article (Science, 
vii. p. 68), which were in every case official. Having 
established the fact that convicts are best employed 
in productive industries, it only remains to determine 
from the facts, not theories, which of the systems is 
the best. This is, I claim, the contract system, when 
it is properly administered. The question of prison 
labor is a large one, and, in the articles criticised 
by your correspondent, but a small portion of it was 
touched upon. NicHoLas Murray BUTLER. 


A tornado brood in Hampshire county, Mass. 


The facts recently published, showing the wide dis- 
tribution of tornadoes along the south-eastern border 
of a stormy area of low barometer, and the further 
evidence that they occur with special frequency but 
at no fixed points in certain regions, throw no light 
on observations made incidentally by me during a 
residence at Amherst, Mass., from 1870 to nearly 1880. 
I write this with the hope that persons in the central 
and western parts of Hampshire county, Mass., will 
for several years make and record observations of a 
storm breeding-place to be now described, and note 
the day and hour, so that the results can be compared 
with a series of signal-service weather-maps. Some 
immediate comparison can also be made by noting 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII, No. 157 


down at the time the newspaper signal-office report. 
I have something to say, also, of the peculiar storm 
a Marat Vi that destroyed Northampton bridge in 
1877. 

My house at Amherst, on ‘ Mount Pleasant,’ com- 
manded the Connecticut River valley for nearly the 
entire width of Massachusetts. Directly west of me, 
on a line with the foot of the steepest northern slope 
of Mount Warner, but west of the river, was what I 
may term a ‘cloud nursery ;’ not that I remember 
it as conspicuously originating clouds in a fair sky, 
but rather and very often as strengthening, enlar- 
ging, darkening, any floating cumulus or cumulo- 
stratus, and seemingly arresting and holding it there 
until it became sometimes a rain-cloud, and, in three 
or four instances, a tornado. It seemed to be over 
or little beyond the hills west of Hatfield. My im- 
pression was, that it must be somewhat beyond; 
namely, over the Mill River valley in the vicinity of 
Williamsburg. The hills thereabout are not high, not 
as high as others visible in the Green Mountain 
range, beyond and to the north. My theory is, that 
warm, moist, southerly winds all the way from Con- 
necticut, through the wide valley of Southwick, West- 
field, Southampton, were thrown upward in the nar- 
rowing Mill River valley, which runs north- north-west 
from Northampton, and so moisture was condensed 
in the upper air, the upward current at times inviting 
toward it a tornado inrush of colder air. 

Certainly it was just there that two tornadoes by 
day, and probably one in the evening, originated, 
Sept. 4, 1878. The apparently stationary cloud had 
been for some time increasing and darkening, when, 
soon after noon, I noticed a portion of it hanging 
down like the inverted crown of a low-crowned hat ; 
and, not long after, the cloud seemed to begin a 
movement towards the north-east, until, as it ap- 
proached Whately, the increasing downward projec- 
tion became ragged at the edges, and two opposite 
motions of the wisps indicated a whirl. For a 
moment an ascending funnel from the Connecticut 
River, near Sunderland, met the descending one from 
the cloud; and, soon after, the now large and wild 
whirl struck a shoulder of Mount Toby, levelling a 
strip of forest, and doing much damage in the vil- 
lage of Long Plain, bounded up the hills east of that, 
and nothing more was seen or heard of it. The 
second tornado, an hour later, starting from the 
same centre, was less threatening in appearance, 
passed over North Amherst, about seven miles south 
of the first, and reached the earth only as a harmless 
gust of wind. A third fell on Northampton at 8 P.m., 
prostrating many of its grandest elms. There was a 
fourth, somewhat destructive, at Granby, Mass., just 
south of the Holyoke range, at 5 P.M , simultaneous 
with the one that moved over North Amherst. This 
one at Granby, originating at another point in Hamp- 
shire county, and the fact that my pocket-diary notes 
a storm and violent wind visible in the far north on 
the following day, suggest some general conditions in 
the atmosphere favorable to tornadoes, but do not 
alter the fact that I saw ordinary clouds increase 
on a day of seemingly ordinary weather, at the spot 
mentioned, and convert themselves into tornadoes at 
1 and 3 o’clock on the day named. 

That there may be another local centre south of 
the Holyoke range, in the region of Granby, is prob- 
able from the fact that in 1872, Aug. 16, there was 
an isolated tornado at Wilbraham and Longmeadow. 
My note-book, in this connection, only speaks of 


i 


FEBRUARY: 5, 1886. | 


heavy rain the 14th and 15th, and on the 16th 
records ‘rain about every P.M. this summer.’ 

The remarkable gust of rain and wind that 
wrecked the long bridge over the Connecticut River, 
and many fine elms there and in Hadley, June 14, 
1877, began as the usual darkening of more or less 
general and ordinary cumulo-stratus at the same 
centre near Williamsburg. It seemed hardly moving. 
with a slight sheet of rain, for a while, and then I 
noticed its rather rapid increase of size and motion. 
It expanded south-east, in shape like a ploughshare, 
and its accelerated movement down the hill-slopes 
toward Northampton became exciting to witness. 
There was nothing like a downward-reaching funnel ; 
but the whole rain-cloud was near to the earth, and, 
for a while before reaching the river-bridge. there 
were, in front of the cloud, wisps of cloud that 
moved rapidly upward, backward, and downward, as 
if around a horizontal axis. After passing Hadley, 
it exhibited no features different from a common 
rain-cloud, and passed off over the Holyoke range. 

Files of signal-service weather-maps may be con- 
sulted for the days above mentioned ; and citizens of 
Northampton may recall enough to show whence the 
tornado came on the evening of Sept. 4, 1878. The 
hotel on Mount Holyoke would be an excellent post 
of observation to exactly locate and watch the cloud- 
intensifying spot above described. 

: H. W. PARKER. 
Grinnell, Io. 


Tadpoles in winter. 

A few days ago one of my students brought me 
three large tadpoles, seven centimetres in length, 
from a well in a depression in an open field. The 
well overflows in the spring of the year, and the 
water this winter has been quite cold, yet the tad- 
poles do not seem torpid at all, but swim freely 
about. 

I had always supposed that these animals could 
only live in the warmer months of the year, and 
would like to know if any readers of Science have 
ever found them alive during the winter. 


HM. Tit.. 
Watertown, N.Y., Jan. 30. 


A menument to de Saussure. 


The month of August, 1887. is the centenary of the 
ascent of Mont Blanc by de Saussure, the first to ac- 
complish it after Jacques Balmont, the guide, whose 
success of the previous year had been stimulated by 
de Saussure’s offer of a prize for the discovery of a 
practicable route. 

The commune of Chamonix, with the co-operation 
of the French alpine club and others, proposes to 
erect a monument to the eminent geologist, physicist, 
and explorer. American contributions toward this 
object will show our appreciation of the character of 
the man, and the value of his work. 

The Appalachian mountain club, in response to 
solicitation from the French society, will take pleas- 
ure in transmitting donations, which may be sent to 
the corresponding secretary, Prof. Charles E. Fay, 
at the club-room. Owing to delay in receiving the 
invitation, replies must be immediate, as the lists 
are open abroad only until the close of the present 
month. J. RAYNER EDMANDS, 

President. 
The Appalachian mountain club, 
7 Park Street, Boston, Mass., Feb. 2. 


SCIENCE. 


119 


The Davenport tablets. 

In the issues of your journal for Dec. 25 and Jan. 
1, Rev. Cyrus Thomas, of the Bureau of ethnology, 
directs attention to the Davenport tablets, and seri- 
ously questions their authenticity. In entering upon 
this undertaking, Professor Thomas stated, that, to 
properly discuss the question of their genuineness, 
‘*a personal inspection of the relics, and a thorough 
investigation of all the circumstances attending their 
discovery, should be made;” and then he added, ‘‘ I 
do not claim to be thus prepared.” Probably no 
writer ever before set out to prepare a piece of ‘ de- 
structive criticism’ with so frank a confession of his 
disqualification for the task. 

In his arraignment of our relics, Prcfessor Thomas 
charges upon them these grave offences : that on the 
limestone tablet the sun is represented with a face, 
and that the artist has carved thereon the ‘ Arabic 8’ 
and the ‘Roman numerals viii;’ that on the shale 
tablets there are also ‘ three Arabic 8’s ;’ that nearly 
all of the letter characters of the ‘cremation scene’ 
may be found on p. 1766 of Webster’s Unabridged 
dictionary, edition of 1872; and that the two forms 
of the * Gallic O’ appear together on the tablet just 
as given on the page of the dictionary. These are 
fair specimens of the arguments by which Professor 
Thomas attempts to controvert the unimpeached 
statements of the discoverers. The resemblances in- 
dicated are so trivial and purely fanciful as to 
scarcely attain the level of serious criticism. If Pro- 
fessor Thomas will take the Grave Creek tablet, or 
even the famous Rosetta stone, and sit down before 
them with his ‘ Webster’s Unabridged,’ he will find 
no end of similar resemblances. A single glance, for 
instance, at the Grave Creek tiblet will reveal the 
‘ Arabic 4,’ twice repeated, and he will find his argu- 
ments equally forcible if applied to it. In answer to 
the accusation that the sun appears with a face, it 
may be said that this is not uncommon in Indian 
pictography. 

In his impeachment of the limestone tablet, Profes- 
sor Thomas then advances this argument: ‘** The 
simple fact that the vault under the pile of loose 
stones was empty, save the presence of the relic, 
appears to absolutely forbid the idea of age. It is 
well known to all who have taken any part in exca- 
vating, that the water running down through earth, 
and a pile of stones beneath, will at length fill all the 
crevices with earth, and, in fact, all places not her- 
metically sealed.” 

It will be noticed that Professor Thomas speaks of 
this limestone tablet being ‘under a pile of loose 
stones,’ which is an inaccurate statement, inasmuch 
as the vault wherein it was placed was entirely cov- 
ered by a limestone slab, now in the museum of the 
academy. Therefore, so far as any direct descent of 
water was concerned, this vault was practically 
‘hermetically sealed.’ If water entered at all, it 
must have been horizontally through the wall of 
loose stones at the sides. The crevices in this wall 
were filled with decayed shells, and, as most of the 
water falling upon a mound would pass off on the 
surface, the small amount of moisture absorbed into 
its substance would not ‘ run down through the earth’ 
at all, but instead would slowly percolate from grain 
to grain of sand or clay, which, having no current 
like ‘running water,’ could transport little or no 
earth. Apparently no good reason can be given why 
a vault so protected from above, as well as at the 
sides, could not remain empty for ages. 


120 


The literature of archeology, it will be found, fur- 
nishes strong support to this conclusion. For want 
of space, only a single brief reference will be made 
at this time. Dr. Joseph Jones, in describing a 
mound opposite the city of Nashville, says, ‘‘ This 
stone grave. which was about two feet beneath the 
surface, had been constructed with such care that 
little or no earth had fallen in, and the skeleton 
rested, as it were, in a perfect vault.” According to 
Professor Thomas, the fact that this grave was un- 
filled with earth would indicate that the ‘ corpse’ 
was a modern plant, placed there for purposes of 
deception. 

Professor Thomas then cites, as a witness against 
us, one of our own members, a Mr. A.S. Tiffany. It 
is therefore proper to state that this venerable gentle- 
man has a grievance against the academy. During 
the preparations of its first volume of Proceedings, 
Mr. Tiffany presented for publication a geological 
paper containing a list of the fossils found in this 
vicinity, which, after careful examination, was, for 
good and sufficient reasons, declined. This so 
offended him that he withdrew from active partici- 
pation in its proceedings, and ever since has never 
missed an opportunity to defame his old associates, 
and denounce its management. It is only necessary 
to add that he is not an archeologist, was not present 
at the discovery of the tablet, never examined the 
mound from which it was taken, and hence his 
mere opinion can have no scientific value. 

Nevertheless, Professor Thomas makes this secret 
letter of Mr. Tiffany’s the corner-stone of his argu- 
ment. As I have before me a copy of this letter, 
received through the courtesy of Professor Thomas, 
I speak advisedly when I state that the quotation 
used by him is not correctly given. There are in 
it no less than four alterations of the text. The 
original indicates illiteracy, whereas the quotation as 
given by Professor Thomas has all the polish of his 
own excellent composition. Professor Thomas, more- 
over, seeks to create the impression, that, inasmuch 
as Mr. Tiffany was a prominent and active member 
of our academy, therefore his opinions as stated in 
this letter should be received as authority ; and yet, 
strange to say, in the very last sentence of this same 
letter, Mr. Tiffany announced his separation from the 
academy, and his determination to have nothing 
more to do with it. Noris thisall. In this identical 
letter, Mr. Tiffany wrote as follows concerning the 
shale tablets : ‘‘ Those shale tablets, I have the utmost 
confidence that they are genuine. I examined the 
situation when they were first obtained.” Mr. Tiffany 
never examined the mound from which the limestone 
tablet was taken, but still he is ‘certain’ it is a 
fraud : this Professor Thomas quotes. Mr. Tiffany 
did examine the mound from which the shale tablets 
were taken, and pronounces them genuine: this 
Professor Thomas omits. I am therefore compelled 
to pronounce the use made of this letter by Professor 
Thomas as unfair, and his quotations from it as 
garbled. I would not willingly do him any injustice, 
and hence now call upon him to publish this letter 
verbatim et literatim. If he will have a facsimile of 
it prepared by photograph or any other process, and 
furnished to Science for publication, I am prepared 
to say that such publication would not only destroy 
its value as authority, but would subject Professor 
Thomas himself to censure in resorting to such 
sources for scientific material. To facilitate such 
publication, I will add, that, if it involves expense 


SCIENCE. 


oi. 


[Vou. VII., No. 157 


not properly belonging to the bureau, I will engage to 
deposit with the editor of Science the necessary 
amount to meet it. Iam of course unable to make 
any such publication myself, inasmuch as the original 
letter is in the possession of Professor Thomas, and 
no copy can do it justice. 

Before closing this paper I desire to add a few ob- 
servations concerning the shale tablets. In order to 
secure a thorough investigation of their merits, they 
were sent, soon after their discovery, to the Smith- 
sonian institution, where they remained during a 
session of the national academy, and were then in- 
spected by its members. In a letter bearing date 
April 11, 1877, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, secretary of 
the Smithsonian institution, in acknowledging the 
receipt of the tablets, said of them, ‘‘ There seems 


every indication of genuineness in the specimens, - 


and the discovery is certainly one of very high inter- 
est ;” and after a more careful inspection of them, 
and their exhibition to the members of the national 
academy, the tablets were returned to Davenport ; 
and in his letter bearing date May 31, 1877, Professor 
Baird thus states his conclusions thereon: ‘‘ Most of 
the persons who examined them, among whom were 
Professor Haldemann, Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, and 
others, were of the opinion that they were unques- 
tionably of great antiquity, the absolute period of 
which could not, of course, be measured. The simi- 
larity in the weathering of the inscriptions to that of 
the rest of the tablets gave them this impression.” 
With this favorable indorsement of such men as Prof. 
Spencer F. Baird, Professor Haldemann, and Lewis 
H. Morgan, the Davenport academy felt secure in 
the position it had assumed, and thereupon published 
its discovery to the scientific world. 

In a recent correspondence with Professor Thomas, 
I learned of his intention to write these papers against 
the authenticity of the relics in question, and I then 
submitted to him that it would be manifestly unfair 
to do so without some previous investigation. I even 
brought the matter before our academy, and had this 
resolution adopted, and personally transmitted the 
same to Professor Thomas at Washington : — 

‘‘Whereas the correspondence of Prof. Cyrus 
Thomas with President Charles E. Putnam has been 
submitted to the academy, therefore be it resolved, 
that the academy extends a cordial invitation to 
Prof. Cyrus Thomas, previous to his proposed publi- 
cation, to visit its museum, inspect the relics under 
discussion in the correspondence, examine the mounds 
where they were discovered, interview the finders, 
and investigate all available evidence.” 

This invitation certainly indicated confidence in 
the genuineness of our relics, and our willingness to 
have them subjected to the most searching scrutiny. 
The invitation. however, was, on behalf of the 
bureau, curtly declined, and on the part of Professor 
Thomas indefinitely postponed. Apparently our 
Washington friends are so anxious to condemn, they 
are afraid to investigate. CHARLES E. PuTNaAM, 

President Davenport academy of sciences. 
Davenport, Io., Jan. 15. 


Topographical models or relief-maps. 


In Nos. 153 and 154 of Science, reference is made 
to the use of exaggerated vertical scales in the con- 


struction of relief-maps or topographical models; _ 


and, as you have been good enough to refer to a piece 
of work in this line done by myself and wife, — but 


which is as yet private property in my study, and not 


i la i 


Fesruary 5, 1886.] 


upon the market, as might be inferred from your 
criticism, —I trust I may be allowed a word relating 
thereto. 

There are various uses for topographical models, 
and that for which they are designed must necessarily 
govern their construction. While the technical geolo- 
gist, in considering orographic questions, finds it un- 
desirable to exaggerate the vertical scale of his cross- 
sections, such profiles would be absolutely useless in 
the actual construction of a railroad. It should be 
equally evident that the needs of school-cbildren un- 
der sixteen years, and those of the field geologist, are 
not necessarily met by identical appliances. The 
construction of suitable topographical models for use 
in the common schools is educationally of the utmost 
importance, and, now that the matter has been re- 
ferred to, I hope it may receive the consideration it 
demands. Almost every great physiographic and 
commercial problem requires the pupil to see his lo- 
cality and state in its vertical relations to other states 
and countries ; and how best to enable him to do this, 
is not solved by Professor Lesley’s dictum. 

What we need to-day for educational purposes, as 
I see it, is an accurate topographic model of every 
state in the union, constructed in such proportions as 
will enable the pupils, in their respective schools, to 
use it as a working-plan for the making of a larger 
model of their state. This mapshould not be isolated. 
The pupil must see it in its horizontal and vertical 
relationships to other states. Now, to meet these de- 
mands, a relief-map of the United States is required, 
in which both the horizontal and vertical elements 
for each state may be measured with sufficient accu- 
racy and facility by tke pupil. Such a model must 
be portable, very strong, and extremely cheap. I 
emphasize the last, because, unless they are cheap, 
the schools needing them most cannot have them. 
Now, a model of the United States might be con- 
structed, as Professor Lesley suggests, but it would 
be useless for topographic purposes if made of any 
portable size. Our own map has the horizontal! scale 
sixty-five miles to the inch, and itis certainly as large 
as can be conveniently handled in the average school- 
room. But taking the Grand Cafion district as an 
example of what might be done with both scales 
alike, using Mr. Dutton’s profile, extending from 
the Markagunt plateau southward across the Grand 


Cafion, for data, we should have the following pro- 
file :— 


1. Markagunt plateau ....... 10,568 feet above sea-level, or .0295 inch. 
2. North bank of Parunuweap 4,659 *‘ below ( “ sO01g8 SS 
3. Depth of bed of stream... 1,250 ‘ oOo () ee $¢00abi"'s* 
4. Height of Vermillion Cliffs 1.818 ‘‘ above(2) ‘ 0053) 38 
5. Foot of Vermillion Cliffs.. 1,363 *‘ beow(4) ‘ se 00age 
6. Brink of Permian terrace. 1,022 ‘* above(5) ‘* * {0080's $5 
Memons OF Cliff. .......-..-..25 568 ‘* below (6) ‘ “20016, 3 
8. Brink of second terrace.... 1.022 ‘* above(7) ‘ $*" 0030)" 
9. Foot of second terrace..... 1.931 ‘‘ below(8) * pac! Yad 
10. Brink of Grand Canon.... 113 ‘ above(9) ‘ £00045 
li. Bed of Colorado,.......... 1,363 “ below (10) ‘‘ ** 0040 <“ 


These figures are a sufficient proof of the impracti- 
cability of making a model of any large section of 
country without exaggerating the vertical scale, to 
say nothing of cheaply reproducing it with any degree 
of accuracy. Our map, constructed with the hori- 
zontal scale 5,000 feet to the inch, that is, the same 
as the vertical, would be about 16 rods long and 9 
rods wide. Were it constructed with the vertical 
scale the same as the horizontal, Mount Whitney 
would be but .044 of an inch high; Mount Washing- 
ton, .018 of an inch ; and the highest point in Wis- 
consin, .0053 of an inch. Our model has attached to 


i 


SCIENCE. , 121 


it one of the summits of the White Mountains, both 
scales alike, covering a rectangle 9 by 5 inches, and 
shows in itself just what the effect of exaggeration 
is. For my part, when I think of a mountain valley 
represented on the model, I think of it as 65 times 
wider than it is in the model; and I believe that 
pupils, if properly taught, will doso. F. H. Kine. 
River Falls, Wis. 


A national university. 


The issue of Science for Dec. 11, 1885, contains an 
article on ‘A national university,’ with such refer- 
ence to my connection with the action of the Na- 
tional educational association on this subject, some 
years ago, as may be thought to demand my atten- 
tion. 

In so far as the article in question deals with the 
National educational association and its committee 
on a national university, it is almost wholly devoid 
of truth, as I proceed to show, with such fulness as a 
reasonable allotment of space will allow. 

1. How does the author of that article know 
‘‘there is no evidence that the committee ever did 
any active work”? The assertion is a bold one, un- 
tempered by any qualification whatever. And yet 
the chairman of that committee, having first sought 
to bring the originator of this and other misrepre- 
sentations before the bar of the national association, 
at Detroit, in 1874, that he might then and there be 
openly confuted, himself appeared with procf that a 
large amount of work, in conference, by correspond- 
ence, and by the repeated printing and circulation of 
successive draughts of a bill, had been done by it, all 
through a period of years. 

2. There is equal falsity in the statement that ‘‘ Dr. 
Hoyt, although chairman of the committee of the 
national association, had never been able to get that 
committee together, and it [the bill] was therefore 
essentially a bill presented by a private citizen.” 
Probably there never was a meeting of any commit- 
tee, composed, as this was, of members from each 
and every state in the union, at which every member 
was present ; but to say, on this account, that a com- 
mittee, many of whose members had repeatedly con- 
ferred with each other on the subjeet assigned them, 
never had a meeting, would be a use of terms of 
which no reasonable person would approve. As a 
matter of fact, the members of the committee who 
attended the sessions of the association during the 
years in question conferred with each other; while 
all of the members were repeatedly communicated 
with, and had a voice in the matter under considera- 
tion, as truly as though every one had been present 
at the meetings. Moreover, every report of the com- 
mittee so agreed upon by conference and correspond- 
ence, and presented to the association, was adopted 
by that great body without one dissenting voice. 
And, as for the bill at length presented to congress, 
it was as truly matured by the committee as any bill 
was ever matured by avy committee; for the three 
successive tentative draughts of it, each embodying 
some new amendment or amendments, generally con- 
curred in, were severally sent to every member of 
the committee, for renewed consideration. More 
than this, copies of the bill, as amended from time 
to time, were also sent toa large number of other 
learned gentlemen and statesmen throughout the 
land, for their criticism and suggestions. 

While, therefore, the bill was drawn by the chair- 


122 


man (after years of careful study of university 
education, and a critical inspection of every impor- 
tant university in the world) and received but few 
modifications, as the result of its successive rounds, 
it was prepared by authority of the national associa- 
tion, and also embodied the consensus of a still larger 
number of persons deeply interested in the effort 
thus made to advance the interests of university 
education in America. In a word, it was a bill 
authorized and practically approved by the national 
association, and no amount of pettifogging can efface 
the record of the almost unprecedented unanimity 
with which it was so authorized and approved. 

3. Again: notbing could be more astonishingly 
false than the statement that ‘‘ neither bill [the one 
under consideration and another one presented dur- 
ing the same session of congress] was supported by 
anybody in any way.” For the records of the house 
of representatives will show that the bill matured by 
the national university committee was not only fully 
considered by the committee on education and labor 
of that honorable body, but was at length reported 
in a strong and able manner with the unanimous 
recommendation that it pass, as will app»ar from the 
concluding passage of the report as published by the 
house : — 

‘Tf, then, it be true, as the committee have briefly 
endeavored to show, that our country is at present 
wanting in the facilities for the highest culture in 
many departments of learning; andif it be true that 
a central university, besides meeting this demand, 
would quicken, strengthen, and systematize the schools 
of the country from the lowest to the highest; that 
it would increase the amount and the love of pure 
learning, now too little appreciated by our people, 
and so improve the intellectual and social status of 
the nation ; that it would tend to homogeneity of 
sentiment, and thus strengthen the unity and 
patriotism of the people; that by gathering at its 
seat distinguished savants, not only of our own but 
other lands, it would eventually make of our national 
capital the intellectual centre of the world, and so 
help the United States of America to rank first and 
highest among the enlightened nations of the earth, — 
then is it most manifestly the duty of congress to 
establish and amply eadow such a university at the 
earliest possible day. 

‘“The committee therefore affirm their approval 
of the bill, and recommend its passage by the house.” 

4. Last of all, I call attention to the sublime self- 
complacency with which, in the face of all his super- 
ficialitv of inquiry and flippancy of statement, the 
writer under notice deals with the able and learned 
secretary of the interior and with the merits of the 
national university question ; telling us gravely, as 
a final settlement of the whole matter, that. ‘‘ by all 
the would-be benefactors of American education, 
many of the difficulties in the way of establishing a 
national university have been overlooked.” And 
this the dictum of a writer who, in a discussion 
involving matters of personal justice as well as of 
public interest, has been content to rely on ex-parte 
testimony, — this his ex-cathedra condemnation of a 
proposition first made by Washington, afterwards 
supported by a number of his most distinguished 
successors in the presidential office, and still more 
recently approved by such statesmen as Sumner, 
Howe, Schurz, Hoar, Ingalls, and Lamar; by such 
men of science as Agassiz, Peirce, Shaler, Henry, 
and Baird; by the heads of nearly all the univer- 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. VIL, No. 157 


sities of the United States; and by the largest asso- 
ciation of educators in the world. 

After this extraordinary manifestation, it does 
not seem worth while to descant upon our critic’s 
notions concerning the evils of ‘ free education’ and 
of what he is pleased to call ‘the paternal govern- 
ment.’ The demonstration of their unsoundness has 
been so often made, in the past, by educators who 
are indeed leaders, that it need not be repeated, 
unless there should at length appear some real 
‘leader of education’ bold enough to express like 
‘un-American principles.’ Up to this time, so far 
as I know, but one man in the United States, 
especially entitled by his position to be heard on the 
subject of a national university, has declared against 
the measure. Nor is it easy to see why any liberal- 
minded friend of American education should oppose 
the general proposition to found and amply endow 
one great institution for post graduate work, planted 
in the midst of the many important scientific estab- 
lishments, as weli as lbraries, provided by the gov- 
ernment, and so planned as to sustain helpful rela- 
tions to all the universities, colleges, and common 
schools of the country. Joun W. Hoyt. 

Cheyenne, W. T., Jan. 11. 


Temperature of the moon. 


My first communication on the temperature of the 
moon was regarded as supplementary and confirma- 
tory, and not controversial; my second one, as a 
correction of an erroneous view of my position too 
hastily formed. Something further here seems 
necessary with regard to my ‘hypothetical moon,’ 
‘an absolutely airless body’ with ‘equal relative 
radiating and absorbing powers,’ and the ‘ endless 
list of limitations.’ Unfortunately this is a subject, 
in whatever way we look at it, in which hypotheses 
not altogether certain have to be adopted, and in 
which we have to be satisfied with approximate re- 
sults, subject to limitations. But my hypothetical 
moon is very much like the real moon as it has come 
to me from physicists and astronomers. More than 
a quarter of a century ago, Stewart established the 
equality of the radiating and absorbing powers for 
each kind of heat-ray, and so, of course, for all col- 
lectively. But this was from experiments in which 
there was not much difference between the temper- 
ature of the absorbing body and the body from which 
the heat was radiated ; and this law has been ex- 
tended, without sufficient warrant, to all cases, how- 
ever great this difference of temperature. Professor 


Tait, less than two years since (‘ Heat,’ 1884), in giv- — 


ing the usual definition of the equality of radiating 
and absorbing powers, adds the conditions of a dark 
body and of equality of temperatures, but imme- 
diately after adds, ‘*‘ We assume, with probability, 
that these latter conditions are not necessary.” 

In my paper on the ‘Temperature of the atmos- 
phere and the earth’s surface’ (Professional paper of 
the signal-service, No. 13), I thought it best to make 


a distinction between the heat received from the — i 
sun and that from terrestrial bodies of ordinary 


temperature. This was suggested by experiments 
made by De la Provostage and Desains, from which 
it appeared that polished metals reflected more, an 

consequently absorbed less, of the heat received from 
the sun, than from a Locatelli lamp. Accordingly, 
throughout that paper, a is used to represent the 
absorbing power of a body for heat from terrestr1 


} 
; 


Fesruary 5; 1886 | 


bodies of ordinary temperatures, and ag for that 
from the sun ; and this distinction is made through- 
out, in all the numerous equations into which the 
radiated heat of the sun enters. 

The necessity for this, which at the time was con- 
sidered only highly probable, is now fully shown by 
Mr. Langley’s recent very interesting and important 
experiments on invisible heat spectra (Amer. journ. 
sc., January, 1886). It requires a glance only at the 
graphic representation of his results (plate ili.) to see 
that when the temperatures of the bodies differ, the 
absorbing power of the body of lower temperature, 
for the heat of a body cf higher temperature, is 
greater than the radiating power at the end of the 
spectrum of short wave-lengths, and the reverse at 
the other end. Hence, where there is selective ab- 
sorption, as there usually is more or less where any 
part of the heat is reflected, the radiating and ab- 
sorbing powers of a body. for the heat-rays as a 
whole, may not be equal. If the reflected heat were 
considerable, and mostly of the rays of either end of 
the spectrum, the difference might be considerable. 
The amount of Leat reflected by the moon is probably 
much less than that radiated, and the white light of 
the moon does not indicate that there is much, if 
any, selective reflection. There cannot, therefore, be 
much difference between the radiating and absorbing 
power of the moon for the sun’s heat-rays taken col- 
lectively. The little difference which there may be 
would, of course, affect my result slightly. If the 
absorbing power were a little greater than the radi- 
ating power, then the temperature of the moon 
would have to be a little higher to radiate as much 
heat as it receives and absorbs. It is seen from 
what precedes that the possible inequality of radiat- 
ing and absorbing powers has not been overiooked, 
and was provided for in my paper referred to above, 
at a time when there was scarcely a suspicion with 
regard to the general applicability of the law. But 
its greatest possible effect on my result was con- 
sidered of too little consequence to refer to in a 
short communication on a matter in which, at best, 
we can expect only approximate results. It is true 
that the equality of the radiating and absorbing 
powers was one of my conditions, and that the result 
is strictly true only for this assumed equality, and 
that this is therefore one of the ‘limitations.’ But 
it does not seem that the ‘airless body’ should be put 
into the ‘ endless list ;’ for I think that astronomers 
are very nearly, if not quite, unanimous in the opin- 
ion that the moon has no atmosphere which can 
sensibly affect its radiations. 

My conditions, strictly, are for mean or stationary 
temperatures only; but they are applicable without 
sensible error to the case of the varying distance of 
the moon, on account of the slowness with which the 
distance and the corresponding temperature change. 
With regard to the lunar diurnal variations, the con- 
ditions determine nothing more than the limit beyond 
which the maximum temperature of any part of the 
moon’s disk cannot go; but this is all that has been 
claimed. If the method is not of general application, 
or the results deduced extremely accurate, I think 
they are not to be despised where we, as yet, know 
Searcely any thing. The laws of Kepler were im- 
portant in his time, notwithstanding they did not 
take into account the ‘ endless list’ of perturbations. 

I am sorry Mr. Langley has resolved to have 


_ nothing more to say on these interesting subjects, 


for there are many things, somewhat in common 


SCIENCE. 


123 


with our separate lines of research, which I would 
like to discuss in a candid and friendly manner. 


Wm. FERREL. 
Washington, Jan. 28. 


Professor Newcomb’s address before the Ameri- 
can society for psychical research. 


In your editorial note of Jan. 29, on Professor 
Newcomb’s presidential address to the American 
society for psychical research, reference is made to 
his ‘ very acute observation’ that in certain draw- 
ings published by the English society as apparent 
results of thought-transferrence, ‘‘ the lines join per- 
fectly, as would be the case with the work of a 
draughtsman who could see, and this too in the 
drawings made blindfold.” You go on to say that 
‘the natural inference is that there was some 
trickery ;’ and you add, that the English society’s 
work ‘bears the character of that of amateurs and 
enthusiasts.’ I think you ought, in justice, to let 
your readers know that the drawings particularly 
referred to in the address were five in number. Of 
the series to which three of these belong, it is con- 
spicuously said, in the accompanying report, that, 
‘as regards the bandage round his eyes,’ the 
draughtsman ‘sometimes pulls it down before he 
begins to draw.’ The two other drawings belong to 
a series which the report says were executed while 
the draughtsman ‘remained blindfolded.’ But, if 
Professor Newcomb will himself try to reproduce 
these drawings with his eyes closed, he may perhaps 
be led to agree that their accuracy can hardly be 
deemed to fall outside the range attainable by the 
muscular sense alone, especially if aided by a little 
practice. To brand as dupes and enthusiasts (on the 
strength of this single ‘acute observation’) a set of 
gentlemen as careful as these English investigators 
have proved to be, seems to me singularly unjust. 


WILLIAM JAMES. 
Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 30. 


Death of Father Gaetano Chierici. 


Prehistoric archeology in Italy has just met with a 
most serious loss in the sudden death, on the 8th of 
last month, of Father Gaetano Chierici, professor in 
the college at Reggio, in Emilia, and director of the 
admirable Museum of antiquities, in that city. In 
association with Professor Strobel of Parma, and 
Professor Pigorini, director of the Ethnographic mu- 
seum, at Rome, he founded, and has continued to 
edit, the Bulletino di paletnologia Italiana, a monthly 
journal of prehistoric science, now entering upon its 
twelfth year. Indefatigable in his prehistoric explo- 
rations, he is best known for his investigations of 
the remarkable Terremares of Emilia, which have 
established the existence of the age of bronze in that 
country. His last work was to superintend the exca- 
vation and transport to Reggio of several tombs from 
avery ancient cemetery discovered at Renedello, 
near Brescia. This seems to belong to a period of 
transition from the age of polished stone to a time 
when weapons of copper were used, anterior to the 
age of bronze. Chierici believed that they are re- 
mains of the aucient, obscure Pelasgic race. 

It is proposed to place a simple bust to the memory 
of this modest and learned ecclesiastic in the museum 
which he so admirably arranged and illustrated, and 
of which he deserves to be called the founder. Con- 


tributions for this purpose are asked of Italian pale- 

ethnologists, and of sach foreign friends as may 

choose to forward their offerings to Professor Pelli- 

grino Strobel, at Parma. Henry W. Haynes. 
Boston, Feb. 1. 


The moon’s atmosphere. 


I would be glad if James Freeman Clarke would 
explain the projection of a planet on the moon’s face 
by the refraction of an atmosphere, as implied in his 
letter to Science of Jan. 8. Would not the rays from 
the planet pass through the atmosphere in a curve, 
and reach the eye of the observer in a tangent to 
that curve at the point where it leaves the atmos- 
phere? If so, then, as this tangent would lie without 
the moon’s disk, the planet could not, by refraction, 
appear projected upon it. W. G. BLIsH. 

Niles, Mich., Jan. 21. 


After reading the question by Mr. Blish in regard 
to the phenomenon described by me, viz., of the pro- 
jection of the disk of Jupiter on the face of the moon 
at the momeut of occultation, I addressed notes to 
Prof. Edward C. Pickering of Harvard observatory, 
and Prof. B. A. Gould, asking for their opinions in 
the matter. Both have kindly answered me, and I 
transmit a portion of their letters for publication. 
It will be seen that they agree in the main with Mr. 
Blish, that refraction by a lunar atmosphere can 
hardly explain the phenomenon. 

JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 
Jamaica Plain, Mass., Feb. 1. 
[From Professor Pickering.] 


‘““A homogeneous and quiet lunar atmosphere 
would pretty certainly not account for the apparent 
projection of a star or planet on the disk of the 
moon, although a disturbance in the atmosphere, 
either of the moon or of the earth, might momenta- 
rily confuse the images viewed through it. I should 
prefer explaining the phenomenon by the physiologi- 
cal effect of irradiation, which increases the apparent 
size of bright objects, and so might make two disks 
seem to overlap each other when they were merely 
tangent.” 

[From Professor Gould.] 


‘The phenomenon which you observed, is, 1 am 
inclined to believe, by no means an uncommon one, 
although, as is natural, the published accounts of it 
relate chiefly to bright fixed stars, rather than to 
planets. 

‘‘T fear that refraction by a hypothetical atmos- 
phere would not explain the phenomenon adequately, 
although it seems to me that Mr. Blish has overstated 
his case, and that the ray emerging from the atmos- 
phere would not necessarily be tangent to the curve 
at the point of emergence. Turning to Herschel’s 
‘Outlines of astronomy,’ —a convenient though not 
altogether trustworthy book, —I find the same phe- 
nomenon mentioned in a footnote to art. 414. He 
speaks of it as an ‘ optical illusion,’ which perhaps it 
is; but calling it by that name does not explain it. 
I myself have seen it, and believe that it has 
been noted by most observers of occultations, and I 
have seen attempts to explain it by ‘ irradiation’ and 
by indentations in the moon’s limb ; but I have never 
seen any explanation which has appeared to me 
satisfactory. It belongs to the same class of phe- 
nomena as the ‘black ligament,’ seen when an in- 
ferior planet transits the solar disk. This has never, 


SCIENCE. 


a 
{Vou. VIL, No. 157 


to my knowledge, been 


satisfactorily explained 
either.” : 


Festoon clouds of a tornado. 


The clouds so termed by your recent correspondent 
were more strikingly exhibited than I remember ever 
to have seen them, on the 17th of June, 1882. They 
formed the under surface of the high advanced sheet 
overhanging the memorable tornado that destroyed 
Iowa college and one-third of the town of Grinnell. 
Other terms referred to by your correspondent more 
properly describe the appearance, such as sand-bags, 
droplets, mammillary cloud, or they might be spoken 
of as innumerable filled pockets hanging from the 
under surface of the sheet. It was first seen by me 
in the western sky at 7 P.m., after a bright sultry 
day. Near 8 p.m. the whole west was filled with 
heavy clouds transfused with gold. A fierce thunder- 
storm followed, and passed by. Immediately after 
this there was a dead calm for a brief time, and 
then, at 8.45 p.m., the sudden destructive funnel- 
cloud. It was a local storm, traced a hundred miles, 
more or less. 

Since then I have watched every threatening sky, 
and have noticed the same phenomenon, less strik- 
ingly shown, in at least a dozen instances, alike in 
local or limited thunder gusts, widely extended 
storms, and in rainless skies overspread by wild- — 
looking clouds. A splendid exhibition of the last 
mentioned was seen at sunset last summer. The 
whole sky was overcast by gilded cloud showing the © 
‘sand-bag’ feature, but in larger bags, either abso- 
jutely so, or because drifting at a medium cloud- 
height and overhead. No evidence of rain, nor any 
unusual! surface winds, preceded, attended, or followed 
on this occasion. H. WE 

Grinnell, Io. 


Death-rates among college graduates. 


The recent death of Charles W. Sanborn of New 
Hampshire is the occasion for calling attention to a 
remarkable fact. 

His death is the first that has occurred in the Dart- 
mouth college class of 1872. Sixty-nine men gradu- 
ated, and for thirteen and one half years their num- 
ber has continued unbroken by death. The Chandler 
scientific class of the same year early lost one man 
from eleven who graduated. 

The deaths in the two preceding and nine succeed- 
ing classes to 1872 are recorded as follows : — 


Class. No. graduated. | Deaths since graduation, — 
== = = = = — —— — 
1870 50 11 
1871 68 9 
1873 71 4 
1874 63 5 
1875 48 1 
1876 69 4 
1877 54 2 
1878 74 | 3 
1879 46 8 
1880 48* 1 
1881 49 3 


* One died just before commencement, and received — 
degree post obit., but is not included here. { 
Epwin J, BARTLETT, 

Jan, 28, 


_ Serve them for subsequent use. 
_ by drying, which is an uncertain way, and results 


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1886. 


FISH AND FAMINE IN INDIA. 


FAMINE seems to threaten with destruction the 
people of no part of the world so often as that of 
India ; and the query has often arisen in the mind 
of the writer why the fish-food of that great em- 
pire was not utilized in its prevention to a greater 
extent. The vast peninsula of Hindostan is sur- 
rounded by tropical seas; its shores are low, and 
indented by lagoons; its interior is penetrated by 
great rivers ; its list of edible fishes is an exceed- 
ingly long one. It would seem as though more 
account ought to be made of this food-supply 
than appears to be the case. 

Fishermen have formed a separate caste in India 
from earliest times. Originally it was subdivided 
into those who pursued their calling in the open 
sea, and those who fished inland waters; but 
now this distinction is lost in most districts. The 
remains of a patriarchal organization of the caste 
—in whose history many figures prominent 
politically may be recalled —still exist, for the 
fishermen acknowledge several hereditary chiefs, 
each of whom exercises priestly control over a 
wide extent of coast, and is a final referee in all 
caste or family disputes. Subsidiary to them are 
lesser chiefs over groups of villages, and elective 
headmen presiding each over a single hamlet. 
These chiefs decide disputes, are present at mar- 
riages and religious ceremonies, often arrange the 
work of the village, collect government dues, and 
receive fines and fees, much of which the lower 
officers must pass on to their superiors. 

The general degeneracy of the sea-fishing in- 
terest caused the Indian government recently to 
set on foot an investigation, which was placed in 
the hands of Dr. Francis Day, who recounted his 
results in an intelligent paper read before the late 
fisheries exhibition in London. It appears from 


this that the key to comparative prosperity or 


misery among this class of the population is found 
in the word ‘salt.’ The only object of getting 


_ sea-fish, which go in schools, and may be captured 


in large quantities at a time (beyond the trifle 
able to be consumed fresh on the shore), is to pre- 
This can be done 


in greater or less putridity, or by the use of salt. 


Salt has not only been made from sea-water by 
Native methods since ancient times, but in certain 


regions of the coast, as in western Madras, saline 
earths are found which form an imperfect sub- 
stitute. 

Former British rulers placed a heavy tax not 
only on the importation and manufacture of good 
salt, but even taxed the collection of the poor 
salt-earth : these impositions varied in different 
districts, and in some have been removed. Sur- 
veying the whole seacoast, it is now seen that 
wherever salt was dear, except in a few places 
supported by a brisk local demand (as in the 
vicinity of large cities), the fish-curer’s trade was 
destroyed, and hence the fishermen were greatly 
depressed, decreasing in numbers, and seeking to 
become boatmen or sailors; that fish salted with 
taxed or monopoly salt was simply a luxury for 
the rich, and valuable as an export, so that the 
poor had to consume their fish putrid, or save it 
for a short time by immersing it in sea-water and 
drying in the sun; and that which is prepared 
with the salt-earth keeps badly, and predisposes 
the consumer to disease. The unmistakable re- 
sult of this tax has been to discourage and 
lessen, if not wholly to ruin, a large proportion 
of the food-producing population of the empire. 
Moreover, it has brought about not only this 
special harm, but harm to the general public, 
whose food-supply is thus not only greatly di- 
minished, but is put at an abnormally high price, 
since all the fishermen have now sunken into the 
hands of the money-lenders to whose advances of 
capital they owe their ability to do any thing 
at all, and to whom the whole catch must be 
turned over as soon as taken. 

The fresh-water fishes differ in many respects 
from marine ones. Wherever any quantity of 
fresh water exists in the east, fishes are certain 
to be found, all the way from sea-level to near 
the summit of high mountains. In India this 
is particularly true, and the people fish in rivers, 
lakes, irrigation canals, tanks, ditches, swamps, 
and inundated fields; and, as fishing is a less 
laborious occupation than agriculture, the pursuit 
is in high favor in those ease-loving latitudes. 

In olden times, under native rule, the fisheries 
were held as royalties, and mostly were let out to 
contractors, who retained the sole right to sell 
fish, but issued licenses, on payment, permitting 
families to catch for their own use. Remains of 
this custom, in one form or another, still exist. 
Along the Himalayas, in the Kangra and other 
districts, the petty rajahs adopted another plan, 


126 


selling licenses to supply the markets, and also 
to catch with small nets for table use. This was 
the plan in Burmah also, while the erection of 
weirs was greatly restricted, or, in some regions, 
prohibited altogether. 

Under British rule these regulations have lost 
force, and notions once distinct as to fishing 
privileges and rights have become confused. At 
first fishermen and fishing implements were both 
taxed, besides the leasing fees of the fishing- 
grounds. Gradually these were removed, and 
many fisheries were made free ; but this intended 
boon has proved an evil, as was the case with 
the sea-fisheries. Now the inland fisheries are 
open to all. When whole districts were let to 
contractors, they were not so short-sighted as to 
permit indiscriminate destruction ; but now every- 
body does as he likes, when he likes, and how he 
likes. Every device that can be thought of is 
called into use. As soon as the monsoon has set 
in, and the fry begin to move, women and children 
daily search for them in all the sheltered spots 
to which they retire for rest or hiding. Nets that 
would not let a mosquito pass, and even solid 
cloths, are used for raking out the last one of 
these fingerlings. So soon as fish commence 
moving up the rivers for the purpose of breeding, 
so soon begins the work of destruction, aided by 
every implement of capture which human in- 
genuity can invent, not even excepting the scoop- 
ing-up of whole deposits of fresh ova, and the 
wholesale poisoning of streams. When the few 
agile survivors have succeeded in running the 
gauntlet of weirs, traps, wicker baskets, and 
nets, of every size and shape, these are all re- 
versed, and set in waiting for their return to the 
sea. The rod-fishing for mahaseer, the principal 
game-fish of northern India, is utterly ruined in 
many districts. Even fishes’ eggs do not escape the 
general hunt to which the persecuted finny-tribes 
are subjected ; for these are collected to be made 
into cakes, which are thought a great delicacy. 

The result of all this heedlessness and indis- 
criminate destruction is already apparent, and is 
at last exciting the anxious attention of the rulers 
of India. The professional fishermen of the em- 
pire have decreased in numbers, and their villages 
are declining into deeper and deeper poverty. In 
the markets fish-food commands a higher rate than 
naturally belongs to it, and there is prospect of its 
steady rise. The longer this goes on, the more 
fish becomes a luxury for the rich, instead of a 
common resource for the poor, as seems to be its 
natural level; and it affords to other nations, as 
well as India, an example of the poor policy of 
placing no restrictions upon the harvest of sea 
and river. ERNEST INGERSOLL. 


SCIENCE. 


— 


[Vout. VII., No. 157 


THE MOUSE-PLAGUE OF BRAZIL. 


It is well known that the fauna of America, 
especially that of the higher animals, presents a 
large number of peculiar types. Not only many 
of the lesser groups, but sometimes whole families 
of cosmopolitan orders, such as apes, opossums, 
etc., we find distinctly separated from those of the 
old world by some general peculiarity. The in- 
digenous mice of America differ from those of the 
eastern hemisphere in some features of dentition, 
and also show a considerable variance in their 
habits. 

The larger number of all the native species be- 
long to asingle genus, Hesperomys, of which in 
Brazil a dozen or more are known, differing in size 
from that of the ordinary mouse to that of the 
largest rat. They do not invade dwellings except 
under unusual circumstances, but mostly live in 
burrows of greater or less extent ; some not less 
than seven or eight feet in length, widened at the 
end into a large excavation or chamber, which is 
filled with grass. They are omnivorous in their 
habits, feeding indifferently upon grass, seeds, and 
flesh. Their enemies are numerous, the more im- 
portant of which are various snakes, and espe- 
cially the tiger-cat and fox. <A large dipterous in- 
sect, a bot-fly, is also parasitic upon many, the 
larvae of which are as large as the end of one’s 
finger, and burrow beneath the skin. 

Under ordinary circumstances they are not at 
all abundant, so that at times naturalists can 
secure specimens of many species only with dif- 
ficulty. The almost inconceivable increase and 


_ abundance during certain years, to such an extent 


that they become a national calamity, is thus the 
more remarkable. In the colony of Lourengo one 
of these remarkable visitations has thus been de- 
scribed.’ In the months of May and June, 1876, 
they suddenly appeared in enormous numbers. 
They invaded the maize-fields in such great num- 
bers that the corn seemed literally alive with them, 
destroying in a few days every thing that was 
edible ; and where, but a short time before, bushels 
of grain might have been harvested, not an ear 
remained, and the noise produced by their nib- 
bling and climbing was audible for a considerable 
distance. After the corn-fields were devastated, 
the potatoes next received their attention. Only 
the largest were eaten in the ground: such as 


were transportable were carried away, and hidden 


in hollow trees or other retreats for future use. 
Gourds and pumpkins, even the hardest, were 
enawed through and eaten. Of green food, such 
as clover, oats, barley, not a leaf was left standing: 


1 Zur kenntniss der brasilianischen miuse und méuse- 
plagen. Dr, H. von Ibring, Kosmos, December, 1885, 


FEBRUARY'5, 1886. } 


even weeds were cut down, and the inner parts 
eaten out. 

In the houses the struggle for existence of these 
long-tailed invaders was truly amazing. In many 
of the dwellings hundreds were killed in a single 
day. The cats could contribute but little aid, fight- 
ing such a plague ; for not only were many of the 
rats so large that it would have been an unequal 
contest, but by their great number they drove the 
cats actually from the houses, not to return until 
the plague was passed. Nothing, except what was 
composed of iron, stone, or glass, was spared from 
their destructiveness : furniture, clothes, hats, 
boots, books, —every thing bore the traces of 
their teeth. They gnawed the hoofs of cows and 
horses in the stables, literally ate up fatted hogs, 
and often bit away the hair of persons during sleep. 
They penetrated all apartments, and gnawed 
their way through boards and walls of houses. 
Ditches that were dug about granaries did not suf- 
fice: the mice would climb over each other in 
some corner or other, and thus reach the top. 

The foregoing account of one occurrence in 
Lourengo will suffice to show to what an extent 
‘the plague reaches. The same province had suf- 
fered similarly in 1848 and 1863, and in all proba- 
bility will again in 1889. Our astonishment at the 
strange appearance’ and disappearance of such 
swarms of animal life is greatly increased when 
we perceive in what a close relation of cause and 
effect it stands with the presence or absence of 
food-supply ; and probably nowhere among the 
vertebrate animals is the relation more apparent 
than here. 

This food-supply is derived from the seeds of a 
large bamboo-grass (Taquary or Cresciuma) grow- 
ing throughout Brazil. This grass grows in dense 
thickets to the height of thirty or forty feet, and 
bears a very large quantity of seed. Its natural 
history is remarkable. At regular intervals, vary- 
ing in the different species from six to thirty 
years, it matures and blooms, and then disap- 
pears. Yet more remarkable is the uniformity with 
which it attains maturity throughout an entire 
province, if not the whole southern part of Brazil. 

Similar plagues, though far less in extent, have 
occurred in Europe, in which the field-mice un- 
accountably appeared in greatly increased num- 
bers. One may well think what would be the 
result were these little, almost insignificant 
creatures. everywhere in such wise to take the 
ascendency. When one considers that on an aver- 
age of every one or two months from five to eight 
young are born, and that these young become 
mature in a few months themselves, he will not 
be surprised to know that a single pair of the com- 
mon field-mice, in the course of a single summer, 


SCIENCE. 


127 


would increase to twenty-three thousand individ- 
uals. Could all the conditions which now keep 
them in check be removed, every living thing 
upon the earth would be consumed in a half- 
dozen years. 


BEE-HIVES AND BEE-HABITS. 


ONE of the substantial improvements in bee- 
hives made in the last few years is the arrange- 
ment whereby the frames holding the combs can 
be quickly and easily turned up side down. The 
best arrangement of the several tried is where the 
rectangular frame holding the comb revolves on 
pivots fastened at the central point of the end- 
bars, within a half-frame just enough larger to 
permit the full frame to turn. The half-frame 
has the projecting top-bar of the usual Langstroth 
frame, and the half end-bars receive the pivots 
of the inner frame at their lower ends. Two 
years’ experience shows me that these frames are 
a success. 

But why this inversion of frames and combs in 
the hives? As is well known, bees only attach 
their combs firmly at top and upper portions of 
the lateral edges. It is probable that in past ages 
our honey-bees attached their combs to limbs of 
trees, as Apis dorsata does to-day, and as our 
honey-bees do in exceptional cases: hence the 
strong instinct to attach firmly above, slightly at 
the sides, and not at all below. By inverting the 
frames we take advantage of this habit, and 
secure firm attachment on all sides, thus making 
the combs secure for shipping, and less apt to 
break out when we are extracting or manipu- 
lating them for any purpose. 

Another invariable habit with bees is to place 
their brood below the honey in the combs. Thus 
we always find honey at the top of the comb, and 
the brood at the bottom. Every bee-keeper is 
also aware that it is not always easy to induce 
the bees to leave the brood-chamber below, and 
pass to the sections above, when we desire to 
secure the comb-honey. But it is found, that if 
we invert our frames just as the honey harvest 
commences, thus throwing the honey below the 
brood, the bees at once, true to their instinct, 
pass into the sections, as they wish honey 
above their brood; and so we not only get the 
freshly gathered stores, but the honey previously 
stored in the brood-chamber carried into the 
sections above, just where we desire it, and all 
space below vacated for the brood, which is also 
desirable. 

Not only is it desirable to invert the brood- 
frames, but the sections as well. This secures 
more firm attachment of the combs in the sec- 


128 


tions, and hastens the filling and capping, which 
is always more quickly and speedily done at the 
. top than at the bottom. It is more than likely 
that the future hive will be so constructed that 
the entire hive, as well as the crate holding the 
sections, can be inverted at pleasure. This will 
give all the advantages named above with the 
least possible expense of time. The changing of 
the comb does no injury in any way, and is 
thought, by those who have tried it most, to 
prevent swarming. Turning the combs over 
causes the bees to tear down the queen-cells. 

The late Mr. Samuel Wagoner suggested that 
the laying of fecundated eggs (those which de- 
velop into females) or unfecundated (those which 
produce drones) was automatic, and not an act of 
volition. The small worker-cells, he said, would 
compress the queen’s abdomen, and thus force 
the sperm-cells from the spermatheca, and the 
eggs would be impregnated. The larger drone- 
cells would fail to exert this necessary com- 
pression, and so the eggs would pass unfecun- 
dated. 

Bee-keepers now generally think that the queen 
is nosuch machine. Why the muscular apparatus 
connected with the spermatheca, except that it is 
to be used voluntarily to extrude the spermatozoa 
as the queen may desire? Sometimes worker- 
cells just started receive eggs which always de- 
velop into worker or female bees. Here the cells 
could not compress the queen’s abdomen. The 
queen also lays fecundated eggs in the queen- 
cells, which are larger even than the cells which 
receive the unfecundated eggs, —the so-called 
drone-cells. That this act of adding or with- 
holding the sperm-cells from the eggs is an act 
of volition on the part of the queen, is further 
proved in the fact that young queens, just be- 
ginning to lay, often scatter drone-eggs here and 
there in worker or the small cells. These, of 
course, produce drones, which only vary from 
the usual drones in their smaller size, which is 
necessitated by the smaller cells. This is obvi- 
ously a mistake, and seldom occurs after the first 
two or three days of the queen’s life. Now, may. 
we not consider this the result of inexperience, 
the mistake of a novice? The queen has never 
yet used the complex muscular apparatus of the 
spermatheca, and at first fails in her attempt to 
work it satisfactorily. Soon she gains by ex- 
perience, and makes no more failures. To assert 
this is no more irrational than to say that a 
colt will stumble and fall when it first begins to 
walk. 

The observations of Sir John Lubbock and 
others as to wasps bear directly on this question. 
He finds that the mother-wasp invariably stocks 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 157 


the cell where the unimpregnated egg — the one 
that is to produce the male, which is considera- 
bly smaller than the female —is deposited with 
a less number of insects than the one where 
the impregnated egg which is to develop into a 
female is placed. Here we see that the mother- 
wasp not only knows the kind of an egg she is 
to lay, but she provisions the cells with exact 
reference to the necessities of the case. As the 
wasp puts just so many insects in each cell, it is 
evident that she has learned to count. Who shall 
be so prejudiced as to say that her waspship 
does not consider her act in laying the special 
egg, and does not think and plan her maternal 
acts looking to the larders of her yet unborn? 
We all know how close the relationship between 
wasps and bees is. Now, if a wasp realizes what 
she is doing as she adds or withholds the sperm- 
cells, to such an extent that it influences her daily 
acts, and modifies her performance of daily duties, 
who shall say that the queen-bee, of higher devel- 
opment and structure, does not think upon her 
acts as she places the eggs in worker or drone 
cells? Here, then, is another proof that egg-lay- 
ing with the queen is a matter of intelligent vo- 
lition; and far be it from me to say that the 
queen does not consider the size of her home, 
the size of her family, and the condition of her 
larder, as she passes in stately mein over the 
combs, stocking the worker or drone cells as 
circumstances dictate. If such volition and dis- 
cretion are exercised, it makes plain many pecul- 
iarities noticed in studying bees. It makes it 
easy to understand why there is so much varia- 
tion as to the swarming-habit, drone-production, 
ete., of different colonies of bees. Each queen 
has her own notions. A. J. Cook. 


LEGIBILITY OF LETTERS 
ALPHABET. 


Mr. JAMES CATTELL has recently published in 
Mind the results of studies upon brain and eye 
inertia, of which the following will be found of 
interest. Some alphabets are harder to see than 
others, and the different letters of the same aipha- 
bet are not equally legible. Reading is one of 
the largest factors in our modern life, but at the 
same time a thoroughly artificial act. Here, as 
everywhere in nature, the organism shows its 
power of accommodating itself to its environment ; 
but the large percentage of children who become 
shortsighted and weak-eyed, and suffer from head- 
aches, gives us sharp warning, and puts us on 
our guard, lest these diseases become hereditary. 
Considering the immense tension put, of neces- 
sity, upon eye and brain, it is of the most vital 


OF THE 


FEBRUARY: 0, 1886. | 


importance to relieve them by using the printed 
symbols which can be read with the least ef- 
fort and strain. Experiments are not necessary 
to show that books (especially school - books) 
should be printed in large, clear type; but 
experiments may lead us to determine the most 
favorable type. It seems probable that the use 
of two varieties of letters, capital and small, is 
more of a hurt than help to theeye and brain. All 
ornaments on the letters hinder : consequently the 
German type is injurious. The simplest geometri- 
cal forms seem the easiest tosee. The lines must 
not be too thin. We seem to judge the letters 
from the thick lines, and it is doubtful whether 
it is advantageous to use thin and thick lines 
in printing. From all these considerations, it 
seems that our printing-press has not improved 
on the alphabet used by the Romans. ‘Our 
punctuation-marks are hard to see, and, I think, 


quite useless. It seems to me far better to replace 
(or, at all events, supplement) them by spaces 
between the words, corresponding in length to 
the pauses in the thought, or, what is the same 
thing, to the pauses which should be made in 
reading the passage aloud. Such a method of 
indicating to the eye the pauses in the sense would 
not only make reading easier, but would teach us 
to think more clearly. 

‘“‘As I have already stated, not only are some 
types harder to see than others, but the different 
letters in the same alphabet are not equally 
legible.” It was found that certain letters were 
usually correctly read, whereas others were usu- 
ally misread or not seen at all. Fifty-four series 
were made with the capital Latin letters: conse- 


SCIENCE. 


129 


quently each letter was used 270 times. Out of 
this number of trials, W was seen 241 times, # 
only 68 times. The relative legibility of the dif- 
ferent letters is clearly shown in the figure, in 
which the ordinates are taken proportional to the 
number of times each letter was read correctly 
out of the 270 trials. 

Certain letters, as S and C, are hard to recognize 
in themselves; others are mistaken for letters 
similar in form, as in the case of O, Q, G, and C. 
The great disadvantage of having in our alphabet 
letters needlessly difficult to see will be evident 
to every one. ‘‘If I should give the probable time 
wasted each day through a single letter, as LH, 
being needlessly illegible, it would seem almost 
incredible; and, if we could calculate the neces- 
sary strain put upon eye and brain, it would be 
still more appalling.” Now that we know which 
letters are the most illegible, it is to be hoped that 
some attempt will be made to modify them. Our 
entire alphabet and orthography need recasting : 
we have several altogether useless letters (C, Q, 
and X), and there are numerous sounds for which 
no letters exist. In modifying the present letters, 
or introducing new forms, simplicity and dis- 
tinctness must be sought after, and experiments 
such as these will be the best test. 

‘* Hxperiments made on the small letters show a 
similar difference in their legibility. Out of a 
hundred trials, d was read correctly 87 times, s 
only 28 times. The order of distinctness for the 
small letters is as follows ; d, k, m,q, h, 6, p, w, u, 
gs 20a 2 1,50, fs ts Gy. 2; -Yb es tgs Cis. 
As in the case of the capital letters, some letters 
are hard to see (especially s, g, c, and #) owing 
to their form; others are misread, because there 
are certain pairs and groups in which the letters 
are similar. A group of this sort is made up of 
the slim letters 7, 7, 7, f, t, which are constantly 
mistaken the one for the other. It would not per- 
haps be impossible to put 4 in the place of /, and 
the dot should be left away from 7 (as in Greek). 
It seems absurd, that, in printing, ink and lead 
should be used to wear out the eye and brain. I 
have made similar determinations for the capital 
and small German letters, but these should be 
given up. Scientific works are now generally 
printed in the Latin type, and it is to be hoped 
that it will soon be adopted altogether. At 
present, however, it is impossible to get the books 
most read (Goethe, for example) in Latin type.” 


BLONDES AND BRUNETTES IN GERMANY. 


WITHIN the last few years the German govern- 
ment has authorized a commission, at the head of 
which is Professor Virchow, to collect statistics in 


130 


the interests of anthropology on the relative propor- 
tions and geographical distribution of blondes and 
_ brunettes in the German empire. Before the An- 
thropological congress at Carlsruhe, Professor Vir- 
chow gave an account of the results of these obser- 
vations, illustrating his remarks by diagrams. An 
account of the study, together with the illustrations, 
will appear in full in Germany. 

The study included all children of school age 
throughout Germany. Those only were classed as 
blondes who had light hair, blue eyes, and a fair 
complexion. The brunettes included those who 
had black hair and eyes, though the complexion 
might be more or less fair. All others were 
classed as mixed, including those with gray eyes. 
It is to be regretted that the same method was not 
followed in Belgium, where similar studies had 
been in progress, so that a direct comparison could 
be made. 

Thirty-two per cent, or almost a third of the 
German youth, are blondes; 14 per cent are bru- 
nettes; while all the rest, 54 per cent, must be 
classed as mixed. This mixture is not a homo- 
geneous one, but includes all intermediate varie- 
ties. One class of the German population forms 
a decided exception to these averages, viz., the 
Jews. Jewish children show only 11 per cent of 
blondes, but 42 per cent of brunettes. Their greater 
purity of race is shown by the small ratio of the 
mixed class amongst them. The blond type is 
particularly prevalent in Oldenburg and the neigh- 
boring more northerly communities : it is rarest in 
eastern Bavaria and in Alsace. A canton (Wildes- 
hausen) in Oldenburg has 56 per cent of its popu- 
lation blondes, while Roding, a town in the second 
group, has only 9 per cent, a difference of 47 per 
cent. The former has only 4 brunettes to each 100 
inhabitants, while a southern town in Alsace has as 
many as 31 to 100. The distribution of the blond 
type is much wider than that of the brunette 
type, which is only a secondary type. <A canton 
in Wurtemberg shows the largest ratio of the 
mixed class, 60 per cent, while Pomerania shows 
the smallest, 40 per cent. The same contrast be- 
tween the north and the south is shown in Belgium 
and in Switzerland. In southern Austria the bru- 
nette type is especially marked, but here the 
mixture with the Slavic people adds a complica- 
tion. 

What is the origin of this dark race amongst 
the Germans? Ancient writers describe them as 
having fair hair and eyes. One can assume that 
the immigrating races were of two types, —blondes 
and brunettes. But this would not account for 
the present geographical distribution, or perhaps 
a gradual transformation has taken place: this is 
improbable, because the climatic and other differ- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL., No. 157 


ences between north and south Germany are not 
sufficient to bring about such marked differences. 
The true explanation is suggested by the large 
proportion of the mixed class. The Germans were 
blondes, and spread to the east and south as such ; 
but in Switzerland and Alsace they encountered a 
dark race, which was not expelled, but forced a 
mixture with the conquering race. The gray eyes 
are an indication of this great mixture of types, 
and not a mark of a third type. The questions 
regarding the brunette type must be resolved into 
a series of secondary problems connected with the 
general development of all the types. It must 
also be remembered that the characteristics by 
which the Germans have been described are not 
peculiar to them, but are common to other anthro- 
pologically different nations, of which the Finns 
are an example. Professor Virchow expressed the 
opinion that a comparative study of this question 
in different European nations would be of great 
importance. 


DEFORMITIES OF BONES AMONG THE 
ANCIENT PERUVIANS. 


NEARLY fifty years ago Dr. v. Tschudi, in the 
disinterment of a number of Indian graves in the 
vicinity of Lima, found one containing the parts 
of three skeletons, in which the bones showed 
peculiar deformities, due to disease. The graves 
were near the famed temple of Pachacamac ; 
and from the position, as well as the associated 
objects, Tschudi determined them to belong to 
one of the earlier epochs of the Incas, in the thir- 
teenth century of the Christian era. From the 
accounts given by the native Indians, Tschudi 
learned of other graves, farther south, in which 
numerous skeletons with similar deformities had 
been found, and from which he concluded that 
persons thus afflicted had been buried together, as 
has been more recently done with the bodies of 
those dying from cholera. 

These specimens were studied a few years later by 
Zschokke, who found the deformations so different 
from those produced by other known causes, that 
he pronounced the disease a new one. Very re- 
cently, however, the bones have come under the 
examination of Professor Virchow,' who has de- 
termined the cause to have been the affection 
described under the name of ‘multiple exostosis.’ 
This disease is one of the rarest known, and has 
only been recently studied and described, It is 
due to abnormal development, and appears most 
frequently near the ends of the long bones, re- 
sulting in remarkable growths, sometimes as 

1 Ueber krankhaft veriinderte knochen alter Peruaner, 


von Rud, Virchow, Sitzungberichte d. k. preussischen akad. 
d. wissenschaften, 1885, p. 1129. 


FEBRUARY 5, 1886.] 


spongy masses, at other times as long, firm, ivory 
processes of the most varied shapes, several inches 
or more in length. The disease is more or less 
hereditary, nevertheless its apparent frequency 
among the ancient Incas is interesting. 

Of more especial interest, however, is the re- 
lation which Virchow surmises to exist between 
this multiple exostosis and the bony growths 
found with remarkable frequency in the ear- 
canals of the ancient Peruvian crania. Nearly 
two scores of specimens have been described, 
in which either one or both auditory canals were 
more or less filled with bony growths, usually 
near the middle. As in nearly all these cases the 
peculiar flattening or elongation of the occipital 
region occurs to a greater or less extent, some 
have assigned this as the cause. Others have 
thought that the custom, so common among the 
Incas and other non-civilized races, of wearing 
rings or large disks of metal in the fleshy ear, had 
produced the affection. To both of these views Vir- 
chow objects. Not only have cases been observed 
among the North American Indians where there 
is no cranial deformation, but in the Incas them- 
selves deformed skulis without, and undeformed 
skulls with, the exostosis, are known. The very 
common custom among many races of the present 
day, of wearing foreign substances in the ears, is 
not known to produce this result. The author 
believes them to be due to abnormal ossification, 
of a nature either closely related to, or identical 
with, that in other parts of the skeleton. Why 
this disease should have occurred with such 
greater frequency among this race we do not 
know, and we can only speculate upon the extent 
that it affected the audition. The effects of the 
disease must have been produced in childhood, 
probably early. In many cases the auditory canal 
is entirely closed on one or both sides, in others 
much narrowed. That it must have diminished 
the power of hearing, is evident. To what extent 
absolute deafness was caused, one cannot say. 


LARGE VERSUS SMALL TELESCOPES. 


THE critical observer can hardly fail to have 
noticed, during the past few years, the setting-in 
of a slight reaction against the monster telescopes 
and their capacity for advanced astronomical 
work. Perhaps this is not better defined at present 
than a tendency to reaction merely ; and it seems 
to have had its origin mainly with a few pos- 
sessors of medium-sized instruments, who, per- 
haps, had failed in their efforts to procure larger 
ones. Any astronomer who has had experience 
in the adaptation of different kinds of observa- 
tional work to the varying capacity of different 


A 


SCIENCE. 


131 


instruments knows very well that there is work 
enough of a sort which the largest telescopes only 
are fitted to perform in the best manner; and he 
also recognizes the fact that in other times of re- 
search, which are happily by no means exhausted, 
the small telescopes have many advantages over 
the large ones. But these relate rather to the 
mechanical than to the optical parts of the tele- 
scope. 

It is not too much to say that the methods pecul- 
iar to the opticians of the present day have ad- 
vanced the construction of the telescope to a degree 
of perfection which far surpasses the apparent 
possibilities of observational astronomy in other 
directions. If the optician gives the astronomer a 
practically perfect instrument, and the latter finds 
its performance disappointing, one or other of 
three things will be true: either he has set it 
up in a bad atmosphere, or the work to which 
he has put the instrument is ill adapted to its 
size, or (it is a good thing for every ambitious 
fledgling to institute this modest though often 
disastrous inquiry) the trouble resides in the cere- 
bro-optical apparatus just outside the eye-piece. 
The first of these conditions appears in a fair way 
to be partially removed in the early future by the 
building of mountain observatories in regions 
where great steadiness of the upper atmosphere is 
insured ; the second gradually removes itself with 
every new experience; while the third constitutes 
a very serious obstacle to the progress of the 
sciences ; for what can the conscientious astronomer 
do with the work of a bad observer? He hesitates 
to mingle bad observations with good ones, for he 
cannot tell how much the accuracy of the final 
result may be impaired ; nor does he like to reject 
the bad ones, because his work is then open to the 
charge of incompleteness; and, besides, the bad 
observer makes it an invariable rule to omit all 
data which might help the theoretical astronomer 
to find out just how bad his observations are. 

Until lately, those who have been discussing in 
astronomical journals the relative merits of large 
and of small telescopes have quite overlooked the 
astonishing variation in the eye-power of different 
observers. As a general rule, —and for a very 
obvious reason, — the large telescopes come into 
the possession of the best observers, while the 
weaker eyes and heads must continue their use of 
the smaller instruments. Notwithstanding this 
natural result of evolution, the lesser telescope 
sometimes seems to have the greater advantage. 
While fully realizing the superior power of the 
great telescope, the observer using it has learned 
to be very cautious in pronouncing upon what he 
sees: but the imaginative amateur is bound by no 
such restrictions; he is free to conceive what 


132 


ought to be there, points to his spy-glass, and, lo! 
there it is. If, then, a trained observer with a 
larger telescope fails to verify his marvel, what 
better proof is needed that the great telescope is 
ineffective? It is an axiom in astronomy, that, 
when once a discovery is made with a large tele- 
scope, the object can always be seen with a smaller 
one. This presumes, of course, that the same ob- 
server uses the two instruments, and that he 
knows where to look and what to look for with 
the smaller one. And this in no wise constitutes 
an argument for equality of the small telescope 
with the larger; for with a good atmosphere, and 
the superior telescopes now made, it is never true 
that the nature of any celestial object can be made 
out with a small telescope which a larger one will 
fail to show more satisfactorily. Taken in connec- 
tion with the attempts of late years, so far suc- 
cessful, to set up powerful telescopes on mountain 
elevations where a correspondingly perfect atmos- 
phere is obtained, the future of the monster tele- 
scope is most hopeful. D, Ree. 


MAKING A NEW MERV OASIS. 


THE Russians have fixed their minds, says En- 
gineering, on a new enterprise, well calculated 
to set on edge the teeth of English and Indian 
statesmen. This is no other than the formation 
of a new oasis, as large as that of Merv, along 
the new frontier to the Oxus, which the Afghan 
delimitation commission will delineate as soon 
as the spring weather enables it to quit its 
winter quarters at Tchamshambe. Briefly, the 
scheme, which is said to be a sober engineering 
design, complete in all details, and drawn up on 
the spot by the surveyors of General Annenkoff, 
the constructor of the Transcaspian railway, pro- 
vides for cutting the bank of the Oxus near 
Tchardjni, and allowing the water to flow afresh 
through some ancient channels running in the 
direction of Merv. 

There is no particular novelty in the idea, the 
oasis of Khiva being formed entirely of country 
irrigated by an elaborate system of canals running 
out from the Oxus near its entrance into the Aral 
Sea, while the Merv oasis is of a similar character, 
and uses up all the water of the Murghab. The 
channels, we have said, already run into the 
desert near Tchardjni; and a careful series of 
levels, taken during the autumn, show, that if the 
bank of the river be cut, and the channels cleared 
of drift in one or two places, the water will run 
freely for sixty or seventy miles. The nomads 
can then be left to manage the rest of the business 
themselves ; for the natives of Merv and Khiva 
are extremely clever in making irrigation canals, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 157 


and they would speedily establish a network, and 
convert the clayey expanse now devoid of vege- | 
tation into a green oasis, as fertile as any in 
central Asia. 

Readers of O’Donovan’s and Marvin’s books on 
Merv will not have forgotten, that as far as the 
Turcomans convey water from the Murghab, 
there amazing productiveness prevails, although 
immediately beyond is a desert. All that is 
reaily needed, therefore, is to withdraw from the 
Oxus a sufficient quantity of water (and Annen- 
koff’s calculations show that abundance can be 
spared), and a year would be sufficient to create 
an oasis capable of supporting a quarter of a 
million people. In that case Russia could march 
troops from Askabad and Merv to the farthest 
parts of Turkestan, and despatch the Tashkent 
and Samarcand forces through Bokhara to Merv 
and Sarakhs in return, without having any desert 
to traverse, and the communications along the 
new frontier would be perfect. As the cost 
would be only £160,000, no doubt whatever is 
entertained in Russia that Annenkoff’s proposal 
will be accepted. 


Dr. ARISTIDES BREZINA of Vienna has pub- 
lished a catalogue of the fine collection of meteor- 
ites in the Hofkabinet.. The richest collections 
of meteorites are those of the museums of London, 
Vienna, Paris, and Calcutta. On May 1, 1885, the 
Vienna collection contained representations of 358 
genuine falls. Dr. Brezina accompanies his cata- 
logue by a valuable essay on the origin and classi- 
fication of meteorites, and by a map of the world 
showing the localities in which the Vienna speci- 
mens have been found. 


— The Revue sud-américaine of Dec. 30 an- 
nounces the organization of a new scientific 
society in Paris under the name, ‘ Académie de 
Amérique latine.’ The academy will be divided 
into four sections, as follows: social and political ; 
historical and literary ; geographical and ethno- 
graphical ; economical, commercial, and financial. 
It will be devoted solely to the Latin nations of 
America, and the membership will be unlimited. 
It will publish a bulletin in the French, Spanish, 
and Portuguese languages. . 


— Extended researches by F. Emich (Central- 
blatt fiir agrik. chemie) show that the purification 
of natural waters is effected almost wholly by 
organic agencies; the chemical action of ozone, 
peroxide of hydrogen, and the oxidation from the 
air, exerting but a feeble influence. This was 
proved by experiments made upon water in which 
the germs had been destroyed by boiling. 


a 


SCTEN CE. 


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THE CALIFORNIA TROUT (Salmo iridea), which 
inhabits a restricted geographical range on the 
west coast, has been extensively introduced into 
the streams of the eastern and middle states 
through the agency of the U. S. fish commission. 
In the spring of 1880, ten thousand eggs of this 
species were allotted to the Missouri fish com- 
mission. These were hatched out at the state 
hatchery, and the fry planted in the head waters 
of the Gasconade, Osage, and other streams of 
south-west Missouri having their sources in the 
elear, cold, large, flowing springs that abound in 
the Ozark Hills. Three thousand were planted in 
the head waters of Spring River, a tributary of 
the Arkansas. A careful inspection of the stream, 
made in the summer of 1885, by the commissioner 
of fisheries for Missouri, and others, who were 
familiar with the rainbow trout, showed the 
presence of at least three generations resulting 
from the original plant. The largest in size 
weighed between four and five pounds; those of 
the second size measured from fifteen to seventeen 
inches in length; while the immediate sources 
of the stream swarmed with thousands of the 
young trout from four to five inches in length. 
Accepting the indications of success thus afforded, 
the U. S. commissioner of fisheries is now matur- 
ing plans on an extensive scale for introducing 
the rainbow trout into the head waters of all the 
streams of Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian 
Territory, which have their sources in the Ozark 
Hills. The area to be colonized is more extensive 
than the famed Adirondack region of New York, 
which is now the paradise of sportsmen. The 
streams are clear and cold, the temperature of 
the waters not rising above 58° F. in the heat of 
summer. They have every characteristic of good 
trout-streams, and experiment has shown their 
eminent adaptation to this purpose. We wonder 


_ that nature has neglected so inviting a field, yet 


we are informed by the state commissioner of 

Missouri that no native species of trout is found 

in any of the streams that rise in the Ozark 

range. The explanation will probably be found 
No. 158. — 1886, 


when we know accurately the history of the de- 
velopment of the surface features of the interior 
of the continent during the post-pliocene. Be 
this as it may, it seems to have devolved upon the 
U. S. commission to enter upon and utilize 
nature’s neglected opportunities. 


LIEUTENANT DYER of the U. S. hydrographic 
office has compiled from the ‘ Monthly pilot charts’ 
a hundred or more accounts by sailors of the use of 
oil to lessen the dangerous effects of the ‘combing’ 
of heavy seas during gales of wind. The hydro- 
graphic office has so far only aimed to record the 
experiences of mariners as reported at that office, 
and has not taken any decided ground as to the 
merits of the controversy. The mass of evidence 
collected is sufficient, however, to warrant the 
careful testing of this claim of the efficacy of 
oil in stilling troubled waters, and the government 
should at an early day detail some officer, and 
supply him with a vessel, that proper experiments 
may be made. So far as the sailors’ yarns go, it 
appears that mineral oils are not so effective as 
vegetable or animal oils; and it is interesting to 
note that their evidence has led some of the in- 
surance ccmpanies and steamship lines to insist 
upon the use of oil when occasion should require. 

RELIGION IN COLLEGES is a subject at present 
attracting considerable interest from the attitude 
which Harvard has assumed regarding it. In an 
animated discussion between Presidents Eliot and 
McCosh, at the last meeting of the Nineteenth 
century club, the former took the view that the 
unsectarian college was the most useful, but by 
no means the only useful kind in a country with 
no established church and no dominant sect; 
while Dr. McCosh argued in favor of the retention 
of religion in colleges on account of both public 
and individual benefit. Against the sectarian 
institutions, said President Eliot, objection is 
urged first on the ground that they perpetuate 
class distinctions, that they foster  intoler- 
ance and narrow-mindedness, and that they do 
not inculcate strength of character. These objec- 
tions will, of course, apply strongly only to the | 
positive class, where of all the teachers and 
students is required a rigid conformance with the 


134 


religious observances. The far larger number of 
institutions, however, occupy a position inter- 
mediate between this positive, thorough-going 
denominationalism and unsectarianism ; and the 
objection brought against such is that their posi- 
tion is doubtful and uncertain, and their ambi- 
guity a positive evil. The advantage of the un- 
sectarian school, such as Harvard, is that its 
position is unmistakable, and a voluntary activity 
in religious matters is stimulated, while no attack 
is made on the student’s faith. The officers and 
teachers are appointed without reference to de- 
nomination, and students are free to go to church 
or not. It has the disadvantage of not possessing 
the entire support of any denomination, and hence 
suffers a loss of power. It appears to be in- 
different to religion, though in reality it is not. 
On the other hand, Dr. McCosh argued that 
morality could not be taught effectively in an 
institution without the aid of religion ; that when 
religion is not honored in a college, agnosticism 
will prevail among the students; that religion 
gives higher aims and nobler ambitions, while its 
absence destroys zeal and activity. He also held 
that the period of college life was that in which 
moral and religious guidance was most needed. 
He knew that it was possible to retain a lively 
interest in religion without sacrifice of tolerance 
and religious freedom. 


THE EXTENSION OF COPYRIGHT. 


THE eighth clause of the eighth section of the 
constitution of the United States grants to con- 
gress the power ‘‘to promote the progress of 
science and useful arts, by securing for limited 
times to authors and inventors the exclusive 
right to their respective writings and discoveries.” 
The effort now making to revise the copyright 
law looks to an enlargement of the operation of 
this clause. Heretofore, by ‘authors’ the law has 
meant only ‘citizens of the United States, or 
residents therein.’ It is now proposed in effect to 
strike out this limitation, and give ‘ exclusive 
right’ ‘ for limited times’ to all authors who may 
comply with the conditions of the statute per- 
taining to copyright. 

At a recent hearing before the senate committee 
on patents, I offered what seemed to me the sim- 
plest, most direct, and most reasonable practical 
solution of the problems involved in international 
copyright, and a careful consideration of all the 
plans proposed has only confirmed my confidence 
in the method which I outlined. This method sup- 
poses the present law, now applicable to citizens 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 158 


of the United States only, to be extended to any 
alien who will accept the conditions under which 
an American author lives. The American author 
must enter the title of his book in the office of 
the librarian of congress; he must publish his 
book in this country, recording upon every copy 
the fact that he has taken out copyright; and 
within ten days of publication he must deposit 
two copies of his book in the library of congress. 
Then only is his title in his literary property com- 
plete. 

I would ask nothing more and nothing less of 
the foreigner. I would require him to record 
his title, to publish his book here, and to deposit 
his two copies in the library of congress within ten 
days of publication, and then I would give him 
all the protection which the law gives to the 
American author. No one should be allowed to 
print his book except his own agent, and no 
copies from other countries should be allowed to 
come in to interfere with the edition copyrighted 
and published here. 

Probably none of the advocates of international 
copyright would seriously object to this method 
as regards the entry of the title and the deposit of 
the two copies. There are some, however, who 
claim that the foreigner shall not have im- 
posed upon him the condition which rests upon 
the native author, of publication in this country. 
Why not? It is said that we have been unjust 
to the foreign author, and that now this injustice 
is working the greater injury to the American 
author. It is to repair the wrong that we now 
propose an amendment of the statute. The only 
rational reparation is one which will put the two 
authors on an equality. We ask that the English 
author shall accept the conditions of the American 
author in America. We are perfectly willing to 
concede that the American author shall submit to 
the conditions of the English author in England. 

This solution of the copyright problem is not 
more based upon theoretical fitness than it is upon 
practical experience. In the absence of any in- 
ternational legal arrangement, there has grown 
up of late years, between England and America, 
an international business arrangement. An 
American author to-day may secure protection 
for his book in England by publishing there 
twenty-four hours earlier than he publishes in 
this country. An English author may secure a 
quasi protection for his book on this side by pub- 
lishing here at the same time as he publishes in 
his own country. The distinction in the two 
cases must be noticed. By English custom, forti- 
fied, I think, by a decision of a minor court, an 
American author’s book which has appeared in 
England a day earlier than in the author’s coun- 


FEBRUARY 12, 1886. ] 


try, is so far protected that no other publisher 
than the one with whom the author has arranged 
can bring it out. There is no such law, nor even 
any such custom, in this country. But so great 
an advantage has an American publisher over his 
competitors, when by previous arrangement he is 
enabled to bring out an American edition of an 
English book simultaneously with its appearance 
abroad, that he rarely hesitates to take the risk, 
and he pays the English author or his representa- 
tive well for this advantage of simultaneous pub- 
lication. 

Now, what the Englishman is doing for us 
under cover of a strong custom, and so far un- 
disputed law, let us do for him under sanction of 
a statute ; and the problem is so far solved that we 
may safely leave all petty details to be adjusted by 
the laws of trade between the two countries, and 
the interests of the parties chiefly concerned. Si- 
multaneous publication, then, in the two countries, 
is the fairest way out of our difficulties. It is so 
far compulsory that it makes the best foreign 
thought as immediately available in America as in 
Europe. It compels the publisher and author not 
to suit their own convenience, but to study the 
demands of two continents ; and ‘the progress of 
science’ will receive by such a course an impetus 
which no method, planned for the advantage of 
the author alone, or the publisher alone, or the 
people alone, can possibly give. 


H. E. SCUDDER. 


INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 


‘* THE question of copyright, like most questions 
of civil prudence, is neither black nor white, but 
gray.” Sosaid Mr. Macaulay. Mr. Lowell says it 
is a question of robbery; the American copyright 
league, a question of piracy. Those who use these 
epithets base their assertions upon the ground that 
an author has a broader, more extensive right of 
property in his publications than in other property. 
That a man has property in the production of his 
brain which ought to be protected is admitted ; but 
tae extent of that protection must depend upon the 
public interest. 

Scruton, in his book entitled ‘ Laws of literary 
property,’ published in 1883 in London, says, 
‘** Utilitarianism is the groundwork of the science 
and art of legislation, and therefore the reason 
which justifies the enactment of any particular 
law is the ultimate benefit to result to the commu- 
nity from its conformity to such a law.” This 
claim of property in books, asmade by Mr. Lowell 
and the league, is of modern origin, and was not 
made until the early part of the last century, long 
after the introduction of printing, and is not recog- 


SCIENCE. 


135 


nized by any civilized government. Grants inthe 
nature of copyright were first made to printers, to 
encourage the multiplication of books, and were 
subsequently made for the benefit of the authors. 
In England the courts have decided that, at com- 
mon law, an author had no right of property in his 
publications, and that whatever rights he has have 
been created by statute law. 

Our constitution provides that congress shall 
have power ‘‘to promote science and the useful 
arts by securing for limited times to authors 
and inventors the exclusive right to their re- 
spective writings and discoveries.” The powers 
of congress are more limited than those of the par- 
liament of: Great Britain, which are not restricted 
by any constitution; and many grants which in 
England have been made ‘for the benefit of 
authors,’ would in this country have been uncon- 
stitutional. Every copyright is a monopoly. This 
proposition has been admitted by some of our 
authors, but denied by others who were probably 
ignorant of the meaning of the word. A monopoly 
is ‘an exclusive trading privilege :’ it is ‘‘ the sole 
right or power of selling something ; the full com- 
mand over the sale of any thing; a grant from the 
sovereign to some one individual, of the sole right 
of making and selling some one commodity.” 

Every monopoly must be construed strictly, and 
should not be extended where reasonable doubt 
exists against the right. If authors limited their 
claims of property in the productions of their brains 
to the manuscript ora printed copy, noone would 
dispute their right to hold or lease or sell it ; but they 
claim much more, —the monopoly of publication 
and selling, the exclusive right of multiplying 
copies everywhere and in every tongue and for all 
time, and they appeal to the government for aid in 
enforcing this right. Every nation has repudi- 
ated this claim as contrary to the interests of the 
public, and granted only such limited rights as 
it judged expedient. 

General Hawley, who introduced the bill favored 
by the league, which gave the foreign author per- 
mission to publish abroad or in this country, 
realizing the weight of the objections made by the 
publisher and printer, that it would result in 
transferring the printing of all international copy- 
righted books to foreign countries, proposed an 
amendment to his bill, providing that every 
foreign book copyrighted in this country should 
be printed and published here. If the view 
of the league is correct, this amendment robs 
the foreign author of a part of his property 
by depriving him of the privilege of selecting 
the time or place of publication, or choosing his 
publisher. The tendency of this amendment 
would be to increase the cost of copyrighted books, 


156 


as the foreign edition, if made large enough to sup- 
ply both countries, could be sold much cheaper 
here than a new edition printed in this country. 
It is asserted that this difficulty would be obviated 
by the tariff laws, as there is a duty of twenty-five 
per cent on books ; but this is offset by duties on 
paper, type, ink, and other materials that enter 
into the composition of a book, and also by cheaper 
foreign labor. 

There is apparently a wide-spread desire for an 
international copyright ; but, so far as my obser- 
vation extends, this wish is confined to English 
and American authors, or solely to parties who have 
a direct interest in the matter. England favors 
it because she will receive much greater benefit 
from our international copyright than America from 
an English international act, as ten English books 
are sold here for every American book sold there. 
A careful consideration of the whole subject will 
show that each country favors such legislation as 
is most conducive to its interest, and that the 
judgment of every author and publisher upon this 
subject is influenced, even if insensibly to himself, 
by the same motive. These authors and pub- 
lishers are interested witnesses; and I believe 
there is not a single disinterested witness among 
those who have appeared before congress, favor- 
ing this measure. 

This interest does not affect all authors alike ; 
for some write because they cannot help writing, 
some for the purpose of benefiting the public, 
others for fame, while only a few write simply for 
money. Many of our old authors wrote before any 
copyright existed, and some of our best living au- 
thors would have written if we had no such laws. 
But authors cannot live on fame, and, like other 
workers, should be fully and amply compensated. 

The copyright is of much less direct value, either 
to the public or authors, than is generally sup- 
posed. It is only the best authors who would 
suffer if we had no copyright. Mr. Holt, one of 
our largest publishers, states, that, out of every 
five publications, one is a failure; three barely 
pay the cost of publication ; while the fifth, be- 
sides paying its cost, defrays the general expenses 
of the business belonging to the five books, and 
a profit to the publisher and author. 

The indirect benefit is much greater ; for the 
successful book is generally known to,all, and in- 
cites authors to write and booksellers to publish. 
Special and scientific books often have few readers, 
and yet are of greater public benefit than more 
popular works. These are published in the expec- 
tation that the slow and steady sale during the 
life of the monopoly will pay the cost, and yield 
some profit and some fame to the author. How 
far this monopoly should be extended, and whether 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 158 


foreigners should enjoy it, are questions of expe- 
diency, and not of right. Wherever such exten- 
sions will promote science and the arts, they should 
be granted. 

The direct benefits of international copyright 
are much less than those from our own copyright 
laws, while the direct injury will be very great, 
as is shown by the arguments in its favor. The 
reasons assigned by the league, at the hearing 
before the senate committee for an international 
act are :— 

First, that it would increase the price of foreign 
books, and stay the flood of cheap literature that 
now deluges the land; second, that it would increase 
the demand for American works, raise their price, 
and thereby benefit the American author. 

The opinions varied in regard to the increase in 
the price of foreign books that would be caused 
by an international copyright, though all agreed 
that the publication of cheap editions of new 
books would be discontinued. «I requested a book- 
seller of New York to prepare a list of a consider- 
able number of choice English books, exclusive of 
special and scientific books and works of fiction, 
with the prices of the foreign edition in London 
and New York, and of the reprint in this country. 
The aggregate price of 42 books in London was 
$339 ; of the same editions in New York, $545.80 ; 
of the reprint, $140.90. The average cost per 
copy was $8.07 in London; $12.90, same edition, 
in New York; $3.35 for the reprint. Many of 
these books have been reprinted in cheap editions 
at from ten to twenty cents per volume. If the 
act proposed by the league were passed, and the 
books published in London and sent here for 
sale, the prices would be regulated by the prices 
in London ; for, if it were considerably lower here, 
the books would be sent back to England for sale. 
If published here, either by a London or Ameri- 
can house, the price would not much exceed the 
price of American books of the same class. 

Mr. J. R. Lowell, on the second day of the hear- 
ing, gave it as his opinion that the price of Ameri- 
can books would not be raised, as the increased 
demand, when the cheap reprints were stopped, 
would yield sufficient profit to the publisher at the 
old price. ie 

Mr. Holt, a publisher of New York, and Mr. 
Estes, a bookseller of Boston, agreed that the cheap 
reprints had reduced the demand for American 
books so largely that the inducement to write was 
insufficient. 

In answer to these statements, it was shown, 
that, notwithstanding the great depression in all 


kinds of business for two or three years, the num- 


ber of copyrighted books had increased from 8,000 
in 1876, to 10,000 in 1885, or twenty-five per cent 


| UmrtCst—<‘ Cé;C;O™SOOCOCNM TT lll See 


ia oe . si 


Feprcary 12, 1886.] 


in nine years, showing the same ratio of increase 
with our population, and that the books copy- 
righted in America exceed those copyrighted in 
Great Britain. 

These figures prove conclusively that the cheap 
foreign literature has increased the demand for 
American books by enlarging the circle of read- 
ers and cultivating a taste for reading; that an 
international copyright must, as all its advocates 
admit, increase the price of foreign books, cut off 
the supply of cheap literature, and thereby check 
the growing desire for reading: that it would 
therefore be a tax on knowledge, and would 
neither be for the interests of the people nor of 
the American authors, and will not promote 
science and the useful arts. 

GARDINER G. HUBBARD. 


A NEW ROUTE TO SOUTH-WESTERN 
CHINA. 

Mr. HOLT 8. HALLETT’S studies and explorations 
have revolutionized our ideas with regard to the 
geography of Indo-China. It was only six years 
ago that Archibald Ross Colquhoun was an un- 
known engineer in the public works department 
of British Burmah. He became interested in the 
geography of Indo-China, and accompanied an 
expedition sent by the Indian government to 
Zimmeé in northern Siam. The information 
gathered on that journey is embodied in his 
*‘ Amongst the Shans.’ This trip only whetted his 
appetite for adventure, and in the winter of 1881-82 
he crossed southern China from Canton to Man- 
dalay. His intention had been to connect this ex- 
ploration with that made on the Zimmé expedition. 
The local Chinese officials, however, placed so 
many obstacles in his path, that, when almost 
within sight of the boundary separating the 
Shan states from Yunnan, he was obliged to 
turn back and to make the best of his way to 
Mandalay by the comparatively well-known route 
via Tali-fu and Bamo. As he was about to lead 
another expedition to the Shan country, he was 
sent by the London Times as a war correspondent 
to Tonquin. Unable tocarry out his explorations 
in person, he found a worthy coadjutor in Mr. 
Hallett, a practised surveyor, who had been for 
years in charge of some of the most important 
divisions of British Burmah. The object these 
two men had in view was the finding of a 
practicable railway-route connecting India and 
some British seaport with the fertile portions of 
south-western China. 

Indo-China —as the south-eastern section of 
Asia, lying to the south of China proper, is now 
conveniently termed —is divided into three great 
natural divisions, —the western, drained by the 


i 


SCIENCE. 


137 


Trawaddy, Sittang, and Salwen, into the Bay of 
Bengal; the central, by the Meh-Kong or Cambo- 
dia River, and by the Meh-Nam, a river of Bang- 
kok, into the Gulf of Siam; and the eastern, by 
the Son-tai, or Red River of Tonquin, into the Gulf 
of Tonquin. The valley of the Irawaddy is sep- 
arated from that of the Salwen by a vast moun- 
tain-chain, while the eastern and central divisions 
are separated by a range or backbone running 
from the Tibetan plateau to the Malay peninsula. 
The lowest level of this latter range is in the lati- 
tude of Maulmain, a British seaport situated on 
the estuary of the Salwen. Now, as the most 
fertile portion of Yunnan is in the central divis- 
ion, obviously the best route for reaching it lies 
in crossing this great mountain-range in the lati- 
tude of Maulmain. This was the first conclusion 
at which the explorers arrived. 

It is true that the line via Bamo and Tali-fu 
had hitherto been the favorite route. But, as Mr. 
Hallett points out,’ although the distance between 
those two towns in a direct line is only two hun- 
dred and fifty miles, the shortest practicable route 
for a railway would be very nearly six hundred 
miles in length ; and even then four passes be- 
tween eight thousand and nine thousand feet 
above sea-level would have to be crossed. 

Mr. Hallett’s plan consists, then, in a railway 
running from Bangkok, the capital of Siam, up 
the Meh-Nam to its junction with the Meh-Ping ; 
thence up the Meh-Ping by Raheng, where the 
line from Maulmain would come in, to a point 
near the confluence of the Meh-Ping and the Meh- 
Wung; then up the latter river, and across the 
water-parting between the Meh-Nam system and 
the Meh-Kong or Cambodia River, to the Meh- 
Kong at Kiang-Hsen, a town near the boundary 
between the Siamese and Burmese Shan states ; 
thence over the plain bordering the Meh-Kong to 
Kiang-Hung, a town within fifty miles of Ssumao, 
a Chinese frontier town where Colquhoun was 
turned back. 

The southern portion of this route was well 
known, owing in a great measure to the efforts of 
the American missionaries in Siam. Mr. Hallett’s 
task, therefore, was to connect their explorations 
with those of Colquhoun. He carried to his work 
the skill of a practical engineer, and his surveys 
were made with such splendid precision that the 
cartographer of the Geographical society was able 
to construct an excellent map of northern Siam, 
which is reproduced in this number of Science. 

Of course, there are several objections to this 
proposed route. It can be only indirectly con- 

1 “Exploration survey for a railway connection between 


India, Siam, and China” (Proc. roy. geogr. soc., January, 
1886). 


138 


nected with the Indian railway system by a line 
via Mandalay, the Chinwin valley, and a some- 
what difficult mountain-pass. Then, again, the 
proposed route lies almost wholly within Siamese 
territory. But the government of Siam lives in 
great dread of French encroachments, and would 
probably welcome the English. At any rate, the 
Shans everywhere assisted Mr. Hallett, and ex- 
pressed the greatest anxiety for better communi- 
cations. Finally, it would tap only a portion of 
Yunnan, and would depend to a great extent for 
success on the building of railroads by Chinese 
themselves. 

It must not be supposed that Mr. Hallett spent 
all his time in taking altitudes and other survey- 
ing work. He kept his eyes wide open, and has 
added vastly to our knowledge of the resources 
of Siam and of Siamese ethnology. In short, to 
use the words of Mr. Colquhoun, his work ‘‘ has 
shed a bright ray of light upon a hitherto dark 
blot in our geographical knowlege, central Indo- 
China.” EDWARD CHANNING. 


LONDON LETTER. 


THE British association for the advancement 
of science wil] meet in Birmingham on Wednes- 
day, Sept. 1, under the presidency of Sir William 
Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., of the McGill university, 
Montreal. It wiil derive more than usual interest 
and importance from the exhibition of local 
manufactures within a radius of fifteen miles of 
the city, which is to be held in connection with 
it. The association has meet thrice previously in 
Birmingham, —in 1838, 1849, and 1865, — and on 
each occasion such an exhibition was held. To 
the example of the first of these are due all inter- 
national and other exhibitions since conducted on 
so large a scale. 

The names of the royal commissioners on the 
working of the elementary education act of 1869 
have just been published. The list comprises 
twenty-two names, all of those interested from 
various points of view, in the working of the act. 
The present government deserves great credit for 
the constitution of the personnel of the commis- 
sion, which is a very strong one, all the chief 
religious, social, and political interests being well 
represented thereon. Sir John Lubbock is per- 
haps the strongest and most influential advocate 
for a place for pure science as an instrument of 
education, that could be found. His utterances 
thereon always command the respect of the house 
of commons and of the country. Sir Bernard 
Samuelson represents technical education; Mr. 
Samuel Rathbone (chairman of Liverpool school 
board), the official school board; Mr. Thomas 


SCIENCE. . 


[Vou. VIL, No. 158 


Heller, the body of teachers; and so on. Until 
this commission has reported, no legislation on 
the subject is likely to take place, although for a 
long time a feeling has been growing in the public 
mind that changes are necessary. 

One result of the present educational system is 
that young persons leave the elementary schools at 
the ages of twelve or thirteen, and in the majority 
of instances go to work during the whole or a por- 
tion of the day, and scarcely ever pursue their 
education further. Inquiries set on foot by Canon 
Percival in Bristol, for example, elicited the fact 
that not five per cent of the children who thus 
leave school continue their education, in the scho- 
lastic sense of the term. To meet this difficulty, a 
system of evening classes has been devised, differ- 
ing from such ordinary classes, inasmuch as the 
instruction is recreative, scientific, and practical. 
Attractive methods of teaching and demonstration 
are employed, in which the optical lantern has a 
large share. To Dr. Paton of Nottingham is 
mainly due the initiative of this movement, which 
was inaugurated for London at a crowded meet- 
ing held at the Mansion House on Jan. 16, pre- 
sided over by the lord mayor, attended by the 
Princess Louise, and addressed by representatives 
of ali shades of theological, political, and social 
position, from the Bishop of London and Mr. 
Mundella (who gave some startling figures as to 
the compulsory attendance on evening-schools in 
Germany) to representative workingmen. It was 
stated that in London alone there were nearly 
half a million (420,000) young persons to whom the 
scheme would apply. 

An important change in the matriculation ex- 
amination of the University of London was, on 
Tuesday, Jan. 19, recommended to the senate by 
convocation, which, on the motion of Mr. W. L. 
Carpenter, B.A., B.Sc., adopted the report of a 
committee upon the subject. Hitherto three sci- 
entific subjects have been compulsory, — mathe- 
matics, natural philosophy (so called), and chem- 
istry, and no alternatives were allowed. Under 
the proposed scheme, the ‘natural philosophy’ is 
subdivided, and a portion only is made compul- 
sory. It is headed ‘mechanics,’ and the syllabus 
comprises those elementary but fundamental no- 
tions of statics, dynamics, etc., which are at the 
basis of all science. A candidate is then allowed 
an option between three branches of experimental 
science; viz., chemistry, heat and light, magne- 
tism and electricity. Chemistry, therefore, ceases 
to be a compulsory subject (a change which may 
meet with the outcry directed some years ago 
against the abolition of Greek as a compulsory 
subject), while encouragement is given to the 
study of other branches of physics. 


Fesrvary 12, 1886.] 


Two very wonderful engineering works have 
just been brought to a conclusion, both of the 
same character,—tunnels under rivers. The 
smaller, but the one of more interest to Ameri- 
cans probably, is that under the Mersey, between 
Liverpool and Birkenhead, which was opened a 
few days ago by the Prince of Wales. On the 
morning preceding the opening, trains passed 
from James Street station on the Liverpool side, 
to Hamilton Square station on the Birkenhead 
side, in three minutes and a half. From the spot 
in the centre, where the mayors of Liverpool and 
Birkenhead many months ago shook hands over a 
piece of red tape, the tunnel extends two hundred 
and fifty yards in each direction in a perfectly 
straight line. The Severn tunnel is a much more 
gigantic work. Astheriver estuary is more than two 
miles wide, and from seventy to eighty feet deep, 
the subaqueous tunnel itself, and its approaches. 
extend to four miles in length. It has been con- 
structed solely by the Great western railway com- 
pany, at a total cost of nearly nine million dollars 
(£1,750,000), and its purpose is to facilitate the 
transfer of coal from the South Wales coal-field to 
Southampton, and other places in the south and 
west of England. Recently coal raised at Aber- 
dare in the morning, was shipped at Southampton 
(on mail steamers, etc.) in the evening. The tun- 
nel is not yet opened for passenger traffic. The 
greatest difficulty in its construction; arose from 
the intrusion of water, not from the Severn alone, 
but from springs in the Pennant grit and other 
geological strata, two or three miles away. The 
source of this water, in the early days of the tun- 
nel construction (1877-78) was first shown by the 
present writer. 

The scientiiic relief fund, which is held in trust 
by the president and council of the Royal society, 
is likely to receive a very welcome addition to its 
resources from Sir William Armstrong. The ex- 
istence of the fund dates from 1859, and is in great 
measure due to the exertions of the late Mr. Gas- 
siot. The interest is applied to the relief, under 
certain conditions, of such scientific men or their 
families as may from time to time require assist- 
ance. Since January, 1861, when the first grant 
was made, about £4,600 have been distributed in 
nearly one hundred grants. The present amount 
of the trust is £7,000, and Sir William Armstrong 
is very anxious to see it raised to £20,000. He 
therefore proposes himself to give half the sum 
required, provided that the fellows, with the 
assistants, if necessary, of other friends of science 
outside of the society, will raise the remaining 
£6,500. Several contributions towards this end 
have already been promised, and it is hoped that 
there will be no difficulty in making up the sum 


ry 


SCIENCE. 


139 


required, as the present income of the fund is by 


no means equal to the demands upon it. W. 
London, Jan. 24. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE recent unusual cold weather in Florida, 
which caused so much injury to fruit-trees, is 
said to have destroyed in some places large num- 
bers of fish in the shaliow waters, benumbing 
them, and permitting them to be cast on the 
beaches in windrows. 


— Dr. J. W. McLaughlin, president of the Texas 
state microscopical society, claims to have dis- 
covered sphero-bacteria in that peculiar southern 
disease known as dengue, or ‘break-bone’ fever, 
and further to have isolated and cultivated them. 


—It is interesting to note, that, at a recent 
meeting of the Royal geographical society, Ad- 
miral Sir Leopold McClintock said that ‘‘it was a 
companion of Major Greely, the late lamented 
Lieut. Lockwood, who had made the nearest ap- 
proach to the north pole yet accomplished.” 


— We call attention to a new map of the Kon- 
go, corrected up to October, 1885, that has just 
been issued by Letts, Son, & Co., of London. The 
topography is laid down in great detail, the scale 
being 45 miles to the inch. 


— The German parliament has again appropri- 
ated 30,000 marks, or about $7,500, to assist Dr. 
Dohrn’s zodlogical institution at Naples. 


— The New York Herald of Feb. 5 states that 
M. de Jousselin, commander of the steamship St. 
Laurent, reports observing on his last easterly 
voyage a magnificent aurora borealis far out on 
the ocean. The St. Laurent was at the time in 
latitude 44° 20’ north, longitude 57° 3’ west. The 
brilliant phenomenon extended from west-north- 
west almost to north-east, the luminous rays, 
white and red, mounting up to about seventy 
degrees above the horizon, and stars of the first 
magnitude were visible through the blue rays. 
The observations show that the aurora occurred 
in connection with a cloud-covered sky and in the 
rear of a storm which had a short time previously 
passed the steamer. 


—The progress of psychical research has been 
most marked in England, but has not failed to 
attract attention in Germany, France, and the 
United States. A journal especially devoted to the 
historical and experimental ‘‘ begrindung der 
iibersinnlichen weltanschauung auf monistischer 
grundlage,” has been established in Germany. 
The journal is called Sphinx, and will be issued 
monthly by L. Fernau of Leipzig. Dr. T. U. 


140 


Hiubbe-Schleiden is the editor, and associated with 
him are Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.G.S., Prof. 
W. F. Barrett of Trinity college, Dublin, and 
Prof. Elliott Coues of Washington. 

— Those interested in psychical research may 
be interested to know that the Proceedings of the 
American society are on sale with Cupples, Up- 
ham & Co., at thirty-five cents each. 


— An international copyright law has never been 
defeated in either house of congress, nor has one 
been discussed in either since Henry Clay, in 1837, 
brought in the first bill of the kind. Now and 
then there have been hearings before congressional 
committees; and a favorable report was made in 
1868, which was never acted on, however; and an 
unfavorable report, based on the narrow view of 
the constitutional power of congress, was later 
made by Senator Morrill of Maine. In the last 
congress the Dorsheimer bill for international 
copyright, pure and simple, without any condi- 
tions requiring the printing in this country of 
copyrighted books, was favorably reported, but 
congress adjourned without action. Before the 
present congress, there are now two bills, — one 
offered by Senator Hawley, similar to the Dors- 
heimer bill; and the other by Senator Chace, 
which is intended to favor the manufacturing 
interests. 


—Prof. E. D. Cope is now engaged upon a 
‘Catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Cen- 
tral America and Mexico,’ which is shortly to be 
issued. It will be the most important and com- 
plete contribution ever published on the amphib- 
ians of these two countries. 


— The commerce committees of both houses of 
congress have decided to report favorably the bill 
proposing to send a commission to Mexico and 
South America to investigate the question of yel- 
low-fever inoculation. Two of the members of the 
commission will be selected from the government 
service, and a third will be chosen from civil life. 


— The annual report of the National academy 
of sciences for the past year was submitted to the 
senate on Monday, Feb. 8. 


— The U. S. geological survey has at present 
but two exploring parties in the field, owing to 
the severity of the winter. One of these is in 
western Georgia, engaged in studying the south- 
ern extension of the archean formations, under 
the charge of Professor Pumpelly ; the other, under 
the direction of Mr. Garlick, is making a topograph- 
ical survey of the valley of the Gila, California. 
Experience has shown that winter is the best time 
to work in this field. 


— Readers of Science, old and new, may be in- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 158 


terested in some brief statistics concerning the pa- 
per, drawn from the editor’s books. During the 
nearly three years since its establishment, up to 
January, 1886, payments of greater or less amounts 
have been made for contributions to the columns of 
the paper to four hundred and twenty-seven different 
persons outside the editorial office. Of course, this 
number would be materially increased if contribu- 
tors who have not been paid were to be included in 
the list. The numberof persons who have repeated- 
ly furnished contributions on direct request of the 
editors is one hundred and forty-four. These 
facts furnish distinct evidence of the place that 
Science is taking in American literature, and of the 
breadth of the field it cultivates. 


— The twenty-third bulletin of the U. S. geo- 
logical survey, by Messrs. R. D. Irving and T. C. 
Chamberlin, treats of the relation of the Kewee- 
naw series and the Potsdam sandstones. Geolo- 
gists have held very different views concerning 
the relation of these beds, as the readers of Science 
will remember, from the discussion in vol. i. The 
writers give a clear exposition of their views, with 
full descriptions and history of the subject, illus- 
trated by a number of excellent engravings. Their 
conclusions, briefly, are as follows. The Kewee- 
naw series very greatly antedated, in its formation, 
the Potsdam sandstone, and occupied a lapse of 
time immensely vaster, and was a period charac- 
terized by some of the most remarkable displays 
of igneous activity of which the world has been a 
witness. They were succeeded by a long interval 
of erosion, before the close of which a longitudinal 
fault was developed along the face of the present 
trappean terrane. Subsequently they were sub- 
merged beneath the Potsdam seas, and the eastern 
sandstone was laid down unconformably against 
and upon the Keweenaw series. Later, after the 
deposition and erosion of the Trenton, and possibly 
other members of the Silurian, minor faulting 
took place along the old break. Should these in- 
genious conclusions be sustained, an important 
change must be made in the stratigraphy of the 
lower Silurian. In any event, the work is to be 
commended for the clearness with which the facts 
are presented and the conclusions drawn. 


— The last annual report on the vital statistics 
of Selma, Ala., gives some interesting facts in 
regard to the death-rate and disease among the 
whites and blacks. The population of the city is 
a little less than ten thousand, more than one-half 
of which are negroes. The death-rate from all 
causes for 1885 among the whites was 15.1 per 
thousand, while among the blacks it was 28.65. 
Malarial fever was three times, consumption four 
times, meningitis and Bright’s disease, twice, as 


1, 


make another copy. 


ie 


Fepsrvuary 12, 1886.] 


fatal among the blacks as among the whites; 
while diphtheria, singularly, was three times as 
fatal to the whites as to the blacks. 


— The New York academy of sciences an- 
nounces a lecture, free to the public, at the 
library building of Columbia college, on March 8, 
by Prof. George F. Barker, on ‘ Radiant matter.’ 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


x*+ Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. 
writer's nane is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


International geological congress at Berlin. 


Tsend you the following from a paper on the ‘ Third 
session of the International geological congress’ 
(Journ. math. phys. nat. sc., Lisbon), sent me by the 
author, Mr. Paul Choffat, one of the most important 
and independent members of the late congress. His 
strictures are only too just, and his criticisms are 
well worthy of attention. 

After briefly sketching the incidents connected with 
the origin and the assembling of this congress, 
already familiar, M. Choffat remarks, ‘‘ A goodly 
number of the 255 persons, representing 17 countries, 
came to make a scientifico-artistic visit to Berlin, or 
to make numerous acquaintances among their con- 
freres. These must have been completely satisfied ; 
but it is otherwise with those who came to hear 
treated the subjects which formed the end of the 
congress. These, I fancy, will unanimously agree 
that this end was a little neglected.” He reminds 
bis readers how important it is, and how much time 
it saves, to discuss questions among representatives 
of different countries where the answer comes at 
once, instead of waiting for months, or even years ; 
and he complains that half of the afternoon sessions 
were devoted to scientific communications on subjects 
not particularly interesting to the congress, and 
which will be more profitable to those who read than 
to those who heard them. ‘‘Granting that there 
was an average of an hour and a half to each seance, 
in the four consecrated to debate there was a total 
of six hours.” He complains that the report of the 
sessions at Zurich and Foix simply stated that a num- 
ber of answers had been received, both from the 
national committees and from men of science acting 
spontaneously, but that the nature of these answers 
and the names of the savants were not given. In 
answer to the reproach of the international commit- 
tees’ report, that many national committees had not 
furnished the material that was expected of them, 
he says that the reason of this is plain, and unfortu- 
nately exists yet : it is, that the limits of the divisions 
have not been fixed ; and, after taking the trouble to 
send a map made on this or that division, one is in 
danger of receiving it back again with the request to 
In the last four seances, which 
ought to have been devoted to the discussion of ques- 
tions of nomenclature, only the point of view of the 
Map was considered. This ought to furnish those 
who look upon the map as simply a first edition, to 
Serve as a basis for the discussions of future con- 
gresses, food for reflection. He thinks that the first 


The 


_ mistake was to commence the publication of a map 


without settling the principles on which it should be 
based. He gives the following summary of the con- 
stitution of the three congresses thus far held: Paris, 
194 Frenchmen and 110 foreigners, representing 20 
countries ; Bologna, 149 Italians and 75 foreigners, 


SCIENCE. 


14] 


from 16 countries; Berlin, 163 Germans and 92 
foreigners, representing 17 countries. ‘‘ What geo- 
logist would sacrifice his convictions to such a 
heterogeneous assemblage?” He thinks that not 
only ought the number of those voting to be much 
reduced, but they should not vote by countries. In- 
stead of this, he proposes that they should vote by 
geological basins, and that the voters should there- 
fore be different for every geological question raised. 
He concedes that it would be very difficult, if not im- 
possible, to create such a bureau or bureaus ; but he 
thinks that some approach to it might be made, even 
if voting was not permitted, but the subject was 
elucidated by the longest and freest discussion of 
each subject possible. Finally, he thinks that a great 
centre ought not to be chosen for the place of meet- 
ing of the congress, as the distractions are too great, 
and therefore he isin favor of Professor Hughes’s 
proposition (which, however, was voted down) to 
hold the next session in Cambridge instead of Lon- 
don. M. Choffat concludes this somewhat dissatis- 
fied commentary on the congress by acknowledging, 
that, ‘‘in spite of all the weak points of the three 
sessions of the congress, they have done much for the 
science of geology directly and indirectly ;” and as 
an example of the latter influence he points to the 
splendid map of France, on a scale of 1: 500,000, 
undertaken by geologists who have not any official 
mandate, and yet have not shrunk from the task of 
its publication. 

Permit me to replace by my full name the first two 
letters of it, signed to the translation of Stelzner’s 
letter in your issue of Jan. 22. 


PERSIFOR FRAZER. 
Philadelphia, Feb, 3. 


Cliff-picture in Colorado. 


Professor Tillman’s note on a cliff-picture in Colo- 
rado (Science, vii. p. 80) leads me to send this 
account of the same object from notes made on the 
spot in August, 1871, and published in Old and new, 
a Boston magazine, since discontinued, in December 
of that year :— 

The Bear Rock is a comparatively smooth face of 
a sandstone bluff that extends about sixty feet above 
the water, from which it is distant a hundred or more 
yards. Upon the exposed surface of the rock, about 
ten feet from the bottom of the cliff, is an excellent 
life-size representation, in profile, of a three-year-old 
cinnamon bear. The figure is dark brown, approach- 
ing black, being darker on the anterior half. The 
outline is distinct and perfect, unless exception may 
be taken to a slight blurring at the bottom of the 
hind-feet and a somewhat pronounced excess of the 
claws of the fore-feet. From the tail to the nose the 
length is about six feet, and the height at the shoul- 
ders is about three and a half feet. These are merely 
approximate dimensions ; the writer having no facili- 
ties for exact measurement at the time of his inspec- 
tion, Aug. 8, 1871. The legs are all visible, and the 
head points straight to the front, as if just about to 
take, or just having taken, a step. The fore feet are 
on aslightly higher plane than the hind ones, as if on 
rising ground. The expression is one of surprise 
and alarm: the head is thrust forward and slightly 
upward, the ears are sharply cocked forward as if 
on the alert, and the whole attitude displays the 
utmost fidelity tu that of a bear in some excitement 
and apprehension. There is no room for a moment’s 
doubt as to the animal, or the state of mind in which 


142 


itis. The figure is of full size, but, until scrutinized, 
appears smaller, being dwarfed by the magnitude 
of the rock on which it is depicted. . The 
Indians look upon it as great or strong ‘ medicine.’ 
Beads and broken arrows are still to be found below 
it and in the crevices near by. apparently placed 
there as propitiatory offerings. Deep gashes in the 
subjacent sandstone show where the savages have 
for a long period sharpened their knives in its 
presence, while rudely carved, not painted, figures 
on the rocks are apparently the autographs or 
totems of individuals or bands. The popular ex- 
planation among the white settlersis, that it has been 
painted bythe Indians. This is inconceivable by those 
having any intimate knowledge of them, from the 
utter absence of artistic skill among the savages, as 
shown by the almost unintelligible hieroglyphics 
near at hand, and from their want of famiharity 
with paint as durable as this pigment. The fidelity 
to nature of this figure is utterly beyond any ability 
ever known to be exhibited by them. It has been 
suggested that it was painted by the Spaniards, who 
explored this region, and described this river as 
Rio del Animas in what is now nearly a traditionary 
period. But, if a conceivable motive could be sup- 
plied, there are local reasons why no artist would 
place a picture just where this is found. 

The surface on which it is depicted is slightly 
irregular and roughened, while an absolutely smooth 
one can be found afew feet above; and, as the exist- 
ing figure is so far from the ground as to require a 
staging from which to be painted, the same staging 
could easily have been carried up the small addi- 
tional height required. There is no reason why the 
figure should be slanting, in the absence of the acces- 
sory of sloping ground. Ap artist who had the skill 
to create this could have made a much more effective 


picture by giving it a somewhat different posture, or . 


by adding a figure or two. A deep yellow stain or 
vein in the stone runs longitudinally through the 
figure, marring it as a work of art. This would have 
been avoided by placing it a little higher up, or it 
might have been obscured by the use of more color 
directly upon it. A small portion of the rock, where 
the color is deepest, was removed some time ago; 
and, having been carefully ground to powder, it was 
burned without the smell or any sensible sign of paint 
being elicited. 

To the mind of the writer it is clear that the object 
is not artificial ; but these details are mentioned that 
those who have no opportunity for personal inspec- 
tion may have some basis of judgment. If this 
reasoning is correct, of course the figure has been 
placed there by some natural cause, and the most 
probable seems to be lightning. ... It would 
appear that a bear had taken shelter under the some- 
what overhanging ledge, or had simply stopped near 
by at the time, and, while startled at the close display 
of lightning, was by that agency depicted upon the 
solid wall. If not, what is the explanation? At 
places where the rock has scaled, the color shows to 
the depth of one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch, 
according to the closeness of its texture. White 
barbarians are already destroying this natural curi- 
osity. It affords a tempting mark to passing ranch- 
men, and it is fast being destroyed by their well- 
aimed shots. Others, in sympathy with that vandal- 
ism that befouls the fairest monuments of civilization, 
chip off convenient projections, and pencil their httle 
names on the fresher rock beneath. What the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 158 


superstition of the red savage has preserved, the 
irrational iconoclasm of his white brother destroys. 
The writer, since preparing this paper, has been told 
that a scientific party visited the Bear Rock in 1867, 
and attributed the picture to electricity. 

The light spots in the reduced print from Captain 
Anderson’s photograph show the scaling due to 
violence. The original picture, of which I have a 
copy, shows many bullet-marks not reproduced in the 
reduction. The outline of the upper part of the neck 
in the reduction does not closely follow the curve of 
the original, and the comparative coloring of the 
fore quarters is too intense. It is said that there is a 
somewhat similar picture of another animal about 
fifty miles farther up the Purgatoire ; but this I have 
not seen, nor have had definitely described. 

I am not prepared to defend the suggestion of 
electrical agency made above, and I believe scientific 
opinion would not accept it. Buta careful study of 
the object in situ, on more than one occasion, con- 
vinces me that it is not the result of human agency, 
and it certainly is the accurate outline of a bear. 

Davids’ Island, N.Y., Jan, 30. 
ALFRED A. WOODHULL. 


A scientific corps for the army and navy. 


In the army, as well as in the navy, we have sev- 
eral corps or departments which have a greater or 
less claim to being called scientific. Since the earli- 
est days in the history of our army and navy, we 
have also had men of the highest scientific attain- 
ments appear in the line of these two organizations. 
But the question may be asked now, Is not the time 
approaching when we should have, strictly speaking, 
a scientific corps for these two institutions of the 
public service? Their past history goes to show 
that every twenty or twenty-five years, either one, 
produces a limited number of men, who, through 
their writings and influence, compel us to recognize 
them as scientific leaders in certain lines of research, 
and among the ablest of those concerned in the 
progress of learning and the advancement of knowl- 
edge. 

It is not the object of this letter, nor will the space 
admit of it, to refer, either by name or deed, to any 
of these persons. A moment’s reflection on the part 
of any scientific man will recall to his mind whom 
they are, both the living and the dead, many of the 
works of either are imperishable. Our country does 
not stand alone in this matter, for we find the same 
applies to the military organizations of other na- 
tions. With ourselves, however, it seems to me that 
without any particular legislative violence, much 
might be accomplished whereby the country would 
derive a greater amount of benefit from such men, 
and the national credit for wise and sound legislation 
be considerably augmented. 

The formation of a scientific corps, open to the 
recognized scientists of either army or navy, would 
remove many of the present existing disabilities that _ 
these persons have now to contend against. Then 
should the scientific bureaus of the government ever 
be grouped as a department of science, the way will 
be properly opened for the work of these men, and 
they will naturally gravitate to their proper spheres 
of action, without conflicting with laws that can 
easily be construed to send them elsewhere. 

To better show the wisdom of the step proposed, 
and the reasons why science should recommend it for 


FEBRUARY 12, 1886. ] 


her own sake and good name, let me lay before you 
one or two examples demonstrating how the disad- 
vantages I refer to, are due entirely to existing laws, 
and what we would gain by the change in them. A 
very excellent procedure on the part of the govern- 
ment is now in force, which consists in sending, at 
stated times, a certain number of midshipmen of the 
navy to the Smithsonian institution. Here steps 
are taken to instruct them in marine zoélogy or other 
matters from which science may be furthered some 
day, as the opportunities of these young men may 
afford. Those only are chosen who appear to prom- 
ise the most, so far as the object in view is con- 
cerned. In the long-run, and after all degrees of 
success of this scheme have reveaied themselves, we 
may obtain, sooner or later, in this way, a man who 
is really a naturalist in every sense of the word. If 
I am not mistaken this has already been done, for I 
have sufficient acquaintance with the young man to 
say so. He has produced excellent work, published 
some creditable things, and described several new 
species. Now no law strictly defines the disposition 
that shall be made of this one success, in a hundred 
perhaps, but worse than this, it is more than likely 
that the operation of the ordinary military impedi- 
menta will defeat, in a very short space of time, 
what is really a splendid investment on the part of 
the government. If it falls to his lot to be placed 
aboard of a man-of-war, under some one who has no 
appreciation of the importance of such things, and 
he makes the attempt to utilize his knowledge, it is 
again more than likely that he will be told that if he 
wishes to follow such-pursuits he had better resign. 
This proposition is discreditable, I think, any way we 
look at it, for surely the navy will gain a greater de- 
gree of respect for having among their number one 
who shows ability in any particular line of research, 
and it certainly seems that the government fails in 
its duty in not turning such a person to the best ac- 
count, to say nothing of the interest it would pay her 
on the original investment. 

Precisely the same impedimenta constantly con- 
front the scientific investigator in the army, and my 
observations upon all that such workers have to con- 
tend against in civil life, lead me to believe upon 
comparison, that they can never entertain any con- 
ception of the thousand and one contrivances that 
surround him, to defeat, and in no way further, his 
efforts. Not that such persons would object to any 
thing that the struggle for existence might impose 
in the natural order of things, when one grows the 
wiser and the better for the test, but the distractions 
Trefer to, are exceedingly pernicious, and of a far 
more serious character. Say, however, an ordnance 
officer wins his reputation as a pathologist, and just 
such parallel cases have occurred, and always will 
occur, what happens? — why in some roundabout 
way we soon find him in the laboratory, but unfortu- 


| nately with an order over his head directing his re- 


turn to the arsenal. Now this is bad, for if he goes 
back to the arsenal the habit of his mind, in spite of 
his personal integrity, will prevent him from being 
a good ordnance officer, while on the other hand, the 
government has abundant need of efficient patholo- 
gists, and here is one perhaps whose fame is world- 
wide. If he be retained in the laboratory the pres- 
_ ent law demands that he do good work by stealth, 
which is very bad for the investigator. and not a 
_ creditable thing for the country, for we should be 
_ enabled to do such things entirely above board. and 


SCIENCE. 


143 


be able to express our pride in them as a people, 
without apology, besides. 

It would be superfluous in me to attempt to point 
out the least part of the incalculable benefit that the 
work of these scientists has been to their country, in 
the vast majority of instances, nay, to the world at 
large, and I must believe that the establishment of 
the scientific corps, that I suggest, would be a step 
in the right direction. 

To say one of the smallest things in its favor, it 
would obviate the necessity of the recurrence of the 
ridiculous farce we were, as a nation, unavoidably 
guilty of, in offering Lieutenant Greely after his 
arduous expedition, a position in the quartermaster’s 
department,— or such things happening, as occurred 
only a short time ago, an officer being reported to 
his department commander, because he was found 
guilty of pursuing lines of research foreign to his 
duties, and publishing the results of his investigations, 
notwithstanding the fact that it was proven that 
said duties had not been neglected in consequence. 

The number of officers composing this corps should 
be limited to thirty, and transfers to it from other 
departments or the line, should be made only upon 
the consent of the officer. Officers should be allowed, 
however, to apply for such a transfer, and such ap- 
plication should be given due consideration by the 
National academy of sciences, which constitutes the 
highest advisory body to the government we have to 
decide such matters. 

If the individual is found worthy of such distinc- 
tion, and his work passes the required test as now 
applied by the academy, and he be willing, then the 
transfer should be effected at the earliest practicable 
date. R. W. SHUFELDT. 

Fort Wingate, N. Mex., Jan. 25. 


Science and Lord Bacon. 


A year ago the honorable Ignatius Donelly appeared 
in Washington with a documentary proof that the 
plays of Shakspeare were written by Lord Bacon. I 
did not hear Mr. Donelly’s lecture, but several ladies 
informed me that they believed there was ‘ something 
in it.’ As ‘ Bacon’s essays’ was one of the first books 
I bought and read, it occurred to me to examine his 
scientific work ; but there is very little, and his sin- 
gle experiment appears to have been the stuffing a 
fowl with snow, which brought on the chill that 
caused his death. It seems to me that Bacon’s ser- 
vices to science have been greatly overestimated, and 
that Macaulay’s declamation on this point is as absurd 
as Mr. Basil Montague’s arguments to prove that his 
hero never took bribes. A writer of so much intelli- 
gence as Bacon, and yet one who ridiculed the Coperni- 
can theory after the discoveries of Galileo, could have 
had but little scientific spirit ; although it is to be re- 
membered that the England of his day was far behind 
Italy and France in scientific knowledge. Can it be 
that in this matter we have been imposed on by the 
fustian of English writers, of cyclopedias and school- 
books ? AsaPH HALL. 


The competitien of convict labor. 


In his reply to my criticism of his views on the 
convict-labor problem, Mr. Butler denies that he 
consciously stands on the grounds of the ruling order 
of political economy. He holds that his stand-point is 
that of ‘practical ethics’ (Science, vii. No. 157). 


144 


What is that? There are differing schools or codes of 
ethics both in theory and practice, and the only 
sense that the term ‘practical’ can be used in rela- 
tion to ethics is that it may designate the kind of 
ethics in practice in the time and place in question. 
This in our country and time, and special field 
involved, is the ruling order of political economy. 
This is the practised one as opposed to the professed 
one, which is Christian, and most decidedly different 
from the former. 

He defends this questionable position with equally 
questionable figures. There are no ‘ official’ figures 
compiled by any such men as our practical politicians 
(especially in matters where they may be assumed to 
be interested) which any scientific man would accept 
as evidence to controvert the constancy of the order 
of nature. The assumption that contractors would 
hire convicts in trades which are plentifully manned 
by free laborers, except for the one reason, greater 
cheapness, involves just such an infraction in the 
order of nature as is expressed in the commonplace 
reference to water running up hill. 

But even so, says Mr. Butler, the total proportion 
of convict labor to free is only 1.1 per cent. ‘‘ And 
it is this minute percentage of competition that has 
caused al] the hue and cry against convict labor.” 

This is a peculiarly misleading way of ‘ treating’ 
the figures. The pressure of convict competition 
has been felt in certain trades of certain localities, 
such as shoe and hat making of the state of New York. 
There the percentage has been large enough to 
injure both employers and employed, and, if Mr. 
Butler wishes to show the causelessness of the ‘ hue 
and cry,’ he ought to show the percentage in special 
trades and localities. A shoemaker does not compete 
with a tinsmith, nor does the purely local trade of 
one locality interfere with that of another. 

It is true, however, that even the unaffected trades 
have taken up the ‘hue and cry;’ and that is 
because their ethics differ from the ‘ ruling school,’ 
where the principle, ‘every one for himself,’ is 
held, and instead of that their ethical doctrine is, 
‘an injury to one is the concern of all.’ 

EK. LANGERFELD. 


Amongst a number of inferences, the above com- 
munication contains one statement, and that not 
bearing on the question of the general merits of the 
contract system, but on its application to the hat and 
shoe trades in the state of New York. Whether any 
modification of the system in this point of its applica- 
tion is advisable, experience must determine ; perhaps 
a restriction as to the number of convicts to be em- 
ployed in any one industry would be desirable. 

The official figures as far as these two industries 
are concerned are as follows. In 1879, 320 convicts 
were employed in making hats in the state of New 
York, while 5,267 free workmen were engaged in 
the same industry; thus the competitive force of 
the convict labor was about 4 per cent. In 1879, 
1,927 convicts — 1,885 males and 42 females — were 
ermployed in New York prisons (at Sing Sing, Auburn, 
and Clinton prisons, at the penitentiaries at Albany, 
Brooklyn, Rochester, and Blackwell’s Island, and at 
the western house of refuge at Rochester) in the 
manufacture of boots and shoes. According to the 
census of 1880, 26,261 is the number of free laborers 
at boot and shoe making in New York state. This 
shows the competitive force of the convicts’ labor in 
this instance to be something over 4 per cent. This 
amount is still small, though considerably greater 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 158 


than the figure (1.1) which we found to represent 
the competitive force of all the convict labor in the 
United States, without regard to particular industries. 

Your correspondent has selected that example in 


‘which competition is greatest, but even then 4 per 


cent is the highest figure reached, and surely it is not 
so very formidable. I have had some hesitation in 
adducing fresh figures, for fear that they may be 
summarily rejected as useless, because they do not fit 
in with some person’s ideas as to how the ‘ course of 
nature ’ ought to go. 

NicHoLas Murray BUTLER. 


The festoon cloud. 


I have been much interested in the recent articles 
in Science on festoon clouds. In August, 1884, I 
witnessed a remarkable exhibition of this description 
over Vineyard Sound, between the shoulder of Cape 
Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. It was in the morn- 
ing, about nine or ten o’clock. The sky was over- 
cast with clouds betokening a shower. A thunder- 
cloud was in the north-west, from which occasional 
mutterings were heard. High over the water wasa 
dark cloud, from which depended portions of the 
cloud like great curtains. These depending portions 
grew lighter in color, and thinner in texture, until, 
when within about one hundred feet from the water, 
they frayed out into a fringe-like appearance. 
Between these curtains the atmosphere was com- 
paratively clear, up to the dark cloud above; but, as 
the depending portions approached the dark cloud, 
they grew in dimension and density, forming arches 
from one to the other. The dark cloud extended 
south-west and north-east in the direction of the 
axis of Vineyard Sound, but the depending clouds 
were at right angles to this direction. I secured a 
sailboat, and sailed underneath these clouds, and the 
display was truly wonderful. The fringing of the 
lower portion of the depending clouds was very 
beautiful, and the high arches between were impres- 
sive. This exhibition was followed by a severe thun- 
der-storm, as I remember. There seemed to be 
currents of air of different temperatures, but, in the 
absence of instruments, I was unable to make any 
record of this. I recall that the wind was unsteady 
and shifting at the surface, which required careful 
management of the boat. J. M. ALLEN. 

Hartford, Conn., Feb. 6. 


Correction of thermometers for pressure. 


Imperfect instruments, faulty methods, and per- 
sonal errors have caused the introduction of a great 
many inaccuracies in scientific literature, and entailed 
great labor in their correction and the repetition of 
experiments. ‘This is especially true in the case of 
physical constants. It is manifest that in this work 
of redetermination the most painstaking accuracy 
should be aimed at, and every possible source of error 
avoided. Otherwise the work must be repeated at 


some future day, and our theories based upon un- 


certain constants will have but little force. 

It occurred to one of us (Dr. Venable) that a source 
of error in thermometric readings, not generally cor- 
rected for, might lie in the effect of pressure upon 
the glass bulb containing the mercury. No reference 
to any such corrections could be found in the books 
at our command, and we resorted to experiment to 
test the amount of the possible error. 

A few experiments, carried out with some fine 


FEBRUARY 12, 1886.] 


Geissler thermometers, showed for a spherical bulb 
an increase of 0.16, and for a cylindrical bulb an in- 
crease of 0.27, of a degree Fahrenheit, for an addi- 
tional atmosphere of pressure. Clearly, the amount 
of increase will depend upon the nature of the glass 
bulb, its thickness, size, and shape. 

Many observations on vapor-pressure, on boiling- 
points under increased or diminished pressure, me- 
teorological observations at unusually high stations 
or in mines, are subject to this correction; and, 
as no general correction will be satisfactory, each 
thermometer wili have to be separately tested. 

We have written to the signal-service bureau for 
information on this subject, and find that they * have 
the matter under consideration,’ and are making ex- 
periments. Besides, we have been referred to papers 
by Loewy in Proceedings of the Royal society, 1869, 
and by Marck, International bureau of weights and 
measures. 

We write now to point out this source of error to 
readers of Science who may not have noticed it, and 
to ask if any can refer us to further memoirs and 
observations on the subject. F. P. VENABLE. 

J. W. GORE. 


University of North Carolina, Jan. 23. 


Is the dodo an extinct bird ? 


Since the publication of an article of mine upon the 
origin of birds, which appeared in the Century maga- 
zine for January, 1886, there have come to me a 
number of interesting letters questioning the fact 
that the dodo is entirely extinct. From among them 
I select one recently received from Dr. William Barr 
of Bovina, Miss. My correspondent tells me that he 
clipped not long ago, from an English newspaper, the 
following item: ‘‘ Mr. Manley Hopkins, consul-gen- 
eral of Hawaii, writes to an English journal, ‘ By my 
papers received from Hawaii, I observe that among 
some birds brought by the schooner Fanny from 
the Samoan group was a single specimen of that rara 
avis in terra, the dodo. Iam sure your readers will 
be interested to hear that this bird, supposed to have 
become extinct more than a century ago, stili lingers 
in the little-explored Samoan Islands of the South 
Pacific.’ ” 

A number of continental naturalists, who, no 
doubt, have arrived at their opinions through the 
rumors brought home by explorers, have predicted 
that the dodo will some day be found to be one of the 
forms of the existing avifauna of the island of Mada- 
gascar. R. W. SHUFELDT. 

Fort Wingate, N. Mex., Jan. 20. 


Evidences of glacial action on the shores of 
Lake Superior. 


Evidences of glacial action are abundant about 
Peninsula Harbor, on the north shore of Lake 
Superior. The tops of the low islands, and of the 
hills along the shore, are rounded in a striking 
manner. Below the surface of the water well- 
preserved grooves and scratches extend in a general 
‘north-east and south-west direction. The crevices 
in the granite rock which extend across the glacial 
markings have their northerly sides nearly intact, 
while the sides opposite are considerably worn. Where 
the crevice extends in about the same direction as 
the glacial mark, both of its sides are gouged out. 


SCIENCE. 


145 


On Verte Island, Nipigon Bay, Lake Superior, a 
well-preserved beach of water-worn pebbles lies, as 
near as could be determined by rough measurement, 
two hundred and eighty feet above the present level 
of the bay. A, A. CROZIER. 

Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 26. 


Professor Newcomb’s address before the Ameri- 
can society for psychical research. 


In view of the utterances in the last two numbers of 
Science, called forth by my address before the Ameri- 
can society for psychical research, some comment by 
me may not be inappropriate. 

Of the two criticisms upon my address, which are 
put forth in the comments of Jan. 22, one seems to 
me well founded. It is that directed against my 
definition of thought-transferrence as something 
which is supposed to take place without any physical 
connection between the acting and the percipient 
minds. Science correctly points out that the absence 
of a physical medium of transfer is not implied in 
the doctrine of transferrence. But, while con- 
ceding this, I wish to point out that this error no 
more affects my conclusions than a typographical 
error would. The point to which my whole discourse 
was actually directed was that of thought-trans- 
ferrence through any hitherto unrecognized channel, 
whether material or not. In other words, I inquired 
whether the observed phenomena required the ad- 
mission of any new law of nature in order to explain 
them. 

Your other criticism is in these words: ‘* He places 
much emphasis, for instance, on the extreme rarity 
of thought-transferrence in the ordinary course of 
life, and implies, somewhat sarcastically, that it 
ought to be much more frequent.” 

I can find in my written paper no justification for 
any such remark, and cannot even guess what pas- 
sage it refers to. I did, indeed, point out the well- 
known and obvious fact that very rare phenomena 
become frequent when we learn how they are pro- 
duced, or how they may be observed, and remarked, 
that, were thought-transferrence real, we should 
expect to learn how to produce it at pleasure as its 
conditions became better known. The great fact 
which I pointed outis this: after three years of pains- 
taking labor by the English society, and one year of 
our Own, no one shows us how to produce or observe 
thought-transferrence, nor indeed tells us any thing 
about it that we did not know before. 

Professor James’s remarks in Science of Feb. 5, 
are directed mainly to certain reflections upon the 
English society, for which I am not responsible to 
any further extent than as having made the remark 
which led tothem. At the same time the question 
seems to me not devoid of interest. The ground 
which I take is, that the parts of the reproduced 
figures made by blindfolded percipients fit together 
in a way which could scarcely have been possible 
unless the percipient either saw the drawing he was 
making or had a knowledge of his work by some 
agency unknown to science. Professor James is not 
ready to concede this, but apparently claims that the 
muscular sense would have proved a sufficient guide, 
and suggests that I try the experiment myself. I 
beg leave to assure him that I did not venture on my 
conclusions until I had tried it. I cannot make any 
such drawings as those given on pp. 89 and 95 of the 
Proceedings of the English society by the muscular 


146 


sense. I should be interested to know from Professor 
James, whose superior knowledge of this subject I of 
course recognize, if others can do better, and if any 
blindfolded draughtsman at his command can make 
consecutively four such pictures as those on p. 95 
with entire success, or can draw five lines out of six 
through the angles of an invisible hexagon as accu- 
rately as is done on p.89. If so, my remark has no 
particular point. If not so, but if it be considered 
that the draughtsman must have seen the picture as 
he was drawing it, then the fact will be more valu- 
able for what it suggests than for what it proves. It 
will suggest the question why the committee who 
conducted the experiments laid such stress on the 
percipient being blindfolded when he could in fact 
see. S. NEWCOMB. 


Sea-level and ocean-currents. 


One has so little practice in differing from Profes- 
sor Ferre] that it is difficult to know how to begin ; 
but there are some points in his recent letter on ‘Sea- 
level and ocean-currents’ (Science, Jan. 22) that do 
not carry conviction. The first is, that the small 
head of water resulting from the superficial differ- 
ence in temperature of the ocean in high and low 
latitudes should be as effective as he claims it to be 
in producing ocean-currents, and especially in pro- 
ducing the existing surface currents whose circuits 
seem to be so nearly completed without descending 
to great depths; for the supposition that there is a 
gradual rising-up of deep water at the equator in 
any thing like sufficient volume to feed the currents 
that flow thence towards the poles is not warranted 
by the known distribution of surface or deep-water 
temperatures. Professor Ferrel ascribes the origin 
of the southward return current from France past 
the African islands to an elevation of the sea-level 
on the western coast of Europe, where it is heaped 
up by the eastward pressure of the North Atlantic 
drift ; but the homologue of this current in the South 
Atlantic is a well-marked stream that turns towards 
the equator, although it finds no land-barrier to its 
eastward passage beyond the Cape of Good Hope. 
According to the convectional theory, it is not needed 
at the equator, for the water that it supplies to the 
Gulf of Guinea ought to rise there from the abysses : 
it seems preferable to refer it to the winds, with 
which it accords very well, provided there is reason 
for thinking that the winds could carry it. 

The effect of the winds seems to be visible in chan- 
ging the direction of the currents in the Indian Ocean 
with the changes of the monsoons, and in altering 
the area of the counter-current of the equatorial At- 
lantic as the position of the trade-winds shifts with 
the seasons. A brief examination of Strachan’s 
charts of the ‘Currents and surface temperature of 
the North Atlantic Ocean,’ published by the British 
meteorological committee, 1872, shows the mean 
velocity of the return current between Portugal and 
the Azores (latitude 37°.5 to 40°) to be seventeen 
miles a day in the four cold months, and only nine 
miles for the hot months. The winter average is 
based on forty-one determinations; the summer 
average, on ninety-eight. 

The sufficiency of prevailing winds to establish 
deep currents has been discussed by Zéppritz, with 
results that are approved so far as I have read. His 
paper on ‘Hydrodynamic problems in reference to 
ocean-currents’ (Wiedemann’s Annalen, iii., 1878, 


SCIENCE. 


‘half this velocity at a depth of 100 metres; 


ki 
‘ » 


[Vou. VIL, No. 158 


582) furnishes a basis for the following statements. If 
an ocean of great depth acquire a certain velocity of 
motion at the surface, it will take 239 years to gain 
at the 
same depth, even a tenth of the surface velocity will 
not be reached for 41 years; at a depth of ten metres 
the times will be 2.39 and 0.41 years. But, given 
sufficient time, the effect of a continuous horizontal 
surface motion will be felt to the bottom, the velocity 
finally attainable decreasing with the increase of 
depth. From this it appears that the effect of any 
variations from the prevailing forces (winds) applied 
at the surface will be propagated downwards very 
slowly, and that below a very moderate depth the 
motion of the greater mass of the current will de- 
pend on the mean direction and velocity of motion 
in the surface water. To establish the currents as 
they now exist would require something like 100,000 
years (pp. 598, 601, 607). According to Zéppritz, 
therefore, we should not expect to find significant — 
changes of level in Lake Ontario as a result of our 
frequently shifting easterly and westerly winds; nor | 
in the Atlantic, on account of the difference in the 
velocity of the wind, winter and summer. The atti- 
tude of the greater mass of water must be in both 
cases adjusted to the action of the mean annual — 
winds. In view of these and other reasons, it does 
not seem probable that the ‘ strongest winds have no 
sensible effect’ on the ocean-level and the ocean- 
currents. Doubtless both gravitative convection and 
wind friction have a share in causing the surface | 
currents, but the latter has the larger. ; 
W. M. Davis. 


Cambridge, Jan. 31. 


Association of sound and color. 


A friend who is peculiarly sensitive to music tells 
me that in listening to an orchestra he invariably sees 
a brilliant yellow star when the triangle is struck, 
and a bluish green circle (hollow) at the clash of the 
cymbals. As I understand him, these appear instan- 
taneously, and then fade out little by little. I should 
be glad to know whether any of the readers of Science 
have similar experiences. BRADFORD TORREY. 

Boston, Feb. 9. 


Tadpoles in winter. 


In response to the inquiry of H. M. Hill in Science, 
vii. No. 157, I would say that for the last ten years 
we have been able to get tadpoles in the small streams ~ 
on the Ithaca flats just before they were covered with — 
ice in the autumn, and as soon as the ice had disap- 
peared in the spring. There has been no trouble in 
keeping them alive in an aquarium in the laboratory 
through the winter. Those so kept have trans- 
formed, and have proved to be tadpoles of Rana 
catesbiana, the common bullfrog. S. H. Gaae. 

Anat. lab. Cornell university, Feb. 8. 


In the frozen marshes surrounding Fresh Pond, | 
Cambridge, I saw a large number of tadpoles under ‘ 
the ice, and in the clear water around the edges, — 
about the last of January. The weather for afew 
days previous had been very warm for winter, but 
this had been preceded by very cold weather. I had — 
always supposed, as your correspondent, Mr. oe 
does, that they were only found in warm weather 
and I was considerably puzzled. Wm. A. ForD. 

Boston, Feb. 9. 


ior _ 
——$——————[—£—<£_£—£_=_[—[_=_ ———— 
PARTS OF 


BURMAH, SIAM anp tax SHAN STATES 


illustrating the explorations of 
HOLT. S.HALLETT, CE. 


Abbreviations. 
B. Ban or Village 1. Loi. Mountain 
Ch. Cheung Canal M. Mch..River 
HilMuay~ Stream. W. Wat. Temple 
Anovent Cities are shown in hairline. 
Aufhork Route =~ 
Proposed. Railway mmm 
SCALE oF ENGLISH miLes 


100° 
= 
NEN UATION OR MEH NAM ft. 


Paileruum Charngherei- 


B Tong Max Ow 
B 


Ti Pak Wyant yh pike Niun 


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BTo Wat My ncn pra 

Talat Kow et i 
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MuangAug Tang 4, 


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Reproduced from the Proceeding of the Royo! Geasrophioal Swity for J es A 


- ; ; a : SCIENCE; February 1 


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SCIENCE.—SuprpLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1886. 


PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 


ProF. W. ROBERTSON SMITH, in his ‘ Kinship 
and marriage in early Arabia’ (Cambridge, Uni- 
versity press, 1885), may be regarded as having 
given the latest contribution to the controversy 
going on between those who uphold the opinions of 
the late Lewis H. Morgan in regard to the origin of 
human society and the primitive form of mar- 
riage, and those who support the views of the late 
John F. McLennan upon these subjects. To ex- 
plain fully in what these differences consist would 
require too much space, so that we must content 
ourselves with stating some of the main points of 
disagreement. 

Mr. Morgan, in his ‘ Ancient society,’ main- 
tained that the primitive family, which succeeded 
to a condition of promiscuous intercourse, was a 
consanguine one, founded on the intermarriage of 
brothers and sisters ina group. This was followed 
by the Punaluan or Hawaiian family, in which 
several sisters or brothers had groups of husbands 
or wives in common, who were not necessarily of 
From this sprung the Malayan system of 
relationship, in which all blood-relations fall under 
the heads either of parent and child, of grand- 
parent and grandchild, or of brother and sister. 
Besides these, the relations by marriage were also 
recognized. In course of time a second system of 
relationship grew up, the Turanian, and the form 
found on this continent, to which he has given the 
name of the Ganowanian. This second system 
was based upon Punaluan marriage, accompanied 
by a division of the tribe into gentes. The gens 
comprised all those who have sprung from the 
same mother, and intermarriage in it was pro- 
hibited. The Turanian system of relationship in- 
cluded, in addition to the terms used in the Malay- 
an, also words for uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, 
and cousin ; and it recognized also the connections 
by marriage. The Malayan and the Turanian 
Systems are called by Morgan classificatory, as 
distinguished from that in use among ourselves, 
which he calls the descriptive system. 

Mr. McLennan, on the other hand, in his ‘ Primi- 
tive marriage,’ criticised this view of the origin of 
the classificatory systems very severely as ‘ utterly 
unscientific,’ and argued that such a system can- 
not be one of blood-ties at all, but that it is merely 


o 


a mode of addressing persons. In it the terms 
‘son’ and ‘daughter’ do not imply descent from 
the same mother or father, and the relationship of 
the child to its mother is completely ignored. The 
phenomena presented by such a system he under- 
took to explain as having originated from what he 
believed to be the oldest form of marriage, that of 
Nair polyandry, by which several unrelated men 
have a wife in common. This custom arose from 
the practice, in the earliest times, of female in- 
fanticide on account of the difficulty of subsist- 
ence. Thus a scarcity of women was occasioned, 
from which originated the general habit of pro- 
curing wives by capture from neighboring hostile 
tribes. From this custom sprung the usage of 
exogamy, by which intermarriage within the tribe 
was prohibited. Under Nair polyandry the only 
idea of blood-relationship conceivable would be 
through females, as the uncertainty of fatherhood 
would prevent the acknowledgment of kinship 
through males. Gradually there was developed a 
higher form of polyandry, the Thibetan, by which 
several brothers have a wife in common. The 
recognition of kinship through males having thus 
become possible, an explanation of the terms used 
in the classificatory system is not far to seek. 

To this criticism and explanation Mr. Morgan 
replied by denying the general prevalence of either 
Nair or Thibetan polygamy, or of exogamy asa 
tribal custem, which he insisted was restricted to 
the gentes within the tribe. He argued, that, in 
the archaic form of the gens, descent was limited 
to the female line, and that this is what is really 
meant by McLennan’s ‘ kinship through females 
only ;’ and he insisted that McLennan’s hypothesis 
is utterly insufficient to account for the origin of 
the classificatory system, while ridiculing the idea 
that this could be a system of addresses instead of 
a system of consanguinity and affinity. 

The discussion was now taken up by Messrs. 
Fison and Howitt in ‘ Kamilaroi and Kurnai,’ a 
work upon the organization and primitive mar- 
riage customs of certain Australian tribes, and in 
a review of ‘ Primitive marriage’ by Mr. Fison, in 
the Popular science monthly for June, 1880; in 
both of which Morgan’s views were stoutly and 
elaborately maintained. 

Shortly after, Mr. John McLennan having died, 
his brother Donald continued the discussion, on his 
side, by a review of ‘Kamilaroi and Kurnai’ in 
Nature, April 21, 1881, in which he attempted to 
refute Mr. Fison’s objections to his brother’s opin- 


148 


ions, and endeavored to prove that the former's 
views were based upon incorrect information. 
The argument was continued by his publication 
last year of a supplementary volume, based upon 
his late brother’s papers, entitled ‘ The patriarchal 
theory,’ written in opposition to the views upon 
this subject of Sir Henry Maine. In the preface 
he states that his brother had intended to present 
in greater detail the proofs of his theory of the 
origin of exogamy. He believed that it grew out 
of the system called ‘totemism,’ which had been 
outlined by him in three essays on ‘ The worship 
of animals and plants,’ published in the Fort- 
nighily review in 1869-70. From totemism came 
exogamy, arising from the scarcity of women ; 
and this must have originated in societies ac- 
knowledging no kinship except through women. 
From this condition there has been a gradual prog- 
ress by evolution, with varying degrees of rapidity 
among different people, but involving the recogni- 
tion of kinship through males. As bearing upon 
the question of the scarcity of women, the late Mr. 
McLennan had already made a large collection of 
instances of the prevalence of infanticide and 
kindred practices. 

Such being the present state of the controversy, 
as we said at the outset, the volume now before 
us, upon ‘ Kinship and marriage in early Arabia,’ 
must be regarded as the last contribution to it. It 
upholds in the most uncompromising fashion the 
McLennan side. The learned author of the celebrated 
lectures upon ‘The Old Testament and the Jewish 
Church’ and upon ‘ The prophets of Israel,’ in the 
discharge of his duties as lord-almoner’s professor 
of Arabic in the University of Cambridge, had 
occasion to study thoroughly the laws of marriage 
and of tribal organization which prevailed in 
Arabia at the time of Mohammed. He became 
fully satisfied that the system of male kinship 
there had been preceded by one of kinship 
through women only, and that changes in the 
tribal system went hand in hand with the change 
in the system of kinship. He is also convinced 
that the correspondence of the Arabian facts with 
this general theory proves that the system of 
totemism and the law of exogamy once prevailed 
among the Arabs, and that the general principles of 
the hypothesis laid down by McLennan in ‘ Primi- 
tive marriage’ cannot be shaken. The results 
thus derived he believes have ‘‘a very important 
bearing on the most fundamental problems of 
Arabian history, and on the genesis of Islam itself.” 
All who are interested in the history of the 
early institutions of mankind must welcome such 
a learned and novel explanation of the primitive 
type of Semitic religion, and of the consequences 
that have flowed from it. 


SCIENCE. 


ES, 


[Vou. VII., No. 158 


The opinion has generally prevailed that the 
deities of the primitive tribes must be identified 
with the heavenly bodies; but our author proves 
that this was not the earliest form of tribal 
religion. The Arabs retained a tribal constitution 
longer than the other Semites, and we know much 
more about it than about that of any other tribe. 
In its primitive form it was a totem tribe ; that is, 
one in which the belief that all its members are of 
one blood was associated with the religious con- 
viction that the life of the tribe was in some 
mysterious way derived from some animal or 
plant. ‘‘There is reason to think,” he remarks, 
‘‘that in early times totem tribesmen generally 
bore on their bodies a mark of their totem, and 
that this is the true explanation not only of tattoo- 
ing, but of the many strange deformations of the 
teeth, skull, and the like, which savages inflict on 
themselves and their children” (p. 187). So he 
would explain the ‘mark’ set on Cain by Jehovah 
as ‘‘the tribal mark, which every man bore on his 
person, and without which the ancient form of 
blood-feud, as the affair of the whole stock, how- 
ever scattered, and not of near relatives alone, 
could hardly have been worked” (p. 216). The most 
important evidence of the feeling, involved in the 
totem religion, that a man’s totem animal is of 
one race with himself, is derived from the doctrine 
of forbidden foods. ‘‘ A prohibition to eat the flesh 
of an animal of a certain species, that has its 
ground, not in natural loathing, but in religious 
horror and reverence, implies that something 
divine is ascribed to every animal of the species. 
And what seems to us to be natural loathing often 
turns out, in the case of primitive peoples, to 
be based on a religious taboo, and to have its 
origin, not in feelings of contemptuous disgust, but 
of reverential dread. . . . Unclean animals, whom 
it was pollution to eat, were simply holy animals” 
(p. 807). Many of their most ancient tribal names 
are taken from animals, of which our author gives 
an explanatory list of more than thirty. Such — 
names the genealogists usually seek to explain as — 
derived from an eponymous ancestor. But the 
history of paternity among the Arabs makes it 
clear that ancient stock-names were not de- 
rived from fathers; for the system of stoeks was 
in existence, and they must have had names, long 
before the idea of fatherhood had been developed. 

Three forms of marriage were known among 
the Arabs in antiquity: Mot’a marriage, which 
was a temporary arrangement for a fixed time ; 
Beena marriage, a development of the system of 
Nair polyandry, where the husband settled among 
the wife’s kindred ; and Baal marriage, which was 
probably unknown before the Semitic dispersion, in 
which the husband took the wife to his own home, — 


FEBRUARY 12, 1886.]| 


becoming her ‘lord and master.’ 
was common at the time of Mohammed, and was 
with difficulty, if at all, abolished by him. Under 
it, as well as under Beena marriage, kinship could 
have been reckoned only through females. Before 
Baal marriage was established, a kind of Thibetan 
polyandry had prevailed, which he,calls Baal 
polyandry, in which the husbands were all of one 
stock. From this arose the habit of acknowledging 
kinship through males. This Baal polyandry had 
grown out of the custom of marriage by capture, 
which was older than that of marriage by pur- 
chase, and continued after the latter custom had 
sprung up. In Baal marriage, of course, whether 
constituted by capture or by contract, the children 
would be regarded as belonging to the blood of 
the father. 

We regret that we cannot allude to many other 
important subjects, especially that of the pro- 
hibited degrees, from which useful light may be 
derived upon the problems of early kinship, as 
well as to numerous excursuses in the notes upon 
interesting archeological topics. We can only 
refer general students of early society, as well as 
all who are interested in old Arabia, to this 
valuable work, which, having been expanded and 
rewritten from a course of university lectures 
delivered in 1885, contains the last word in the 
important controversy of which we have attempted 
to sketch the outline. H.W. . 


THE OIL-WELLS OF BAKU. 


BAKU is a seaport town of the Apsheron penin- 
sula, in the Caspian Sea, in the most southern part 
of the Russian territory. The adjacent region has 
long attracted the attention of the surrounding 
nations, on account of the naphtha with which the 
soil is impregnated. The inflammable gases issu- 
ing from the ground rendered the locality sacred in 
the eyes of the Parsees, or fire-worshippers, who 
have long resorted to it from distant places. The 
peninsula is an arid waste; and one of the most 
serious difficulties encountered is the scarcity of 


water, both for mechanical and dietetic uses. The 
centre of the oil-industry, according to F. Vasilieff, 


| 


as given in the Proceedings of the Institution of 
civil engineers, does not exceed four and a half 
Square miles in area, which forms, indeed, the 
centre of the whole oil-bearing region of the 
Caucasus. 

The earliest oil-wells date back for centuries. A 


_ Persian inscription has been found which fixes the 


date of one of them at 1594. After the cession of 
the country to the Russians in 1813, the oil- 
industry was under the control of the govern- 
ment, and up to 1873 the entire revenue derived 


SCIENCE. 


The first kind’ 


149 


from this source did not exceed fifty thousand 
dollars. The manufacture of kerosene commenced 
in 1858, after which the industry began to develop 
slowly ; but within the last fifteen years it has in- 
creased with greater activity. At that time land 
was sold at auction, and brought as high as five 
thousand dollars per acre. The old crude methods 
and shallow wells were abandoned, and at present 
there are more than five hundred borings. The 
yield has now reached a million tons per annum. 

The naphtha-bearing strata, three of which are 
so far known, belong to the lower miocene forma- 
tion. They dip at an angle of from 20° to 40°, 
and are composed of sand, calcareous clays, marls, 
and in places compact sandstone, often of great 
thickness. Organic remains are wholly absent. 
The naphtha-bearing sands are in a semi-fluid con- 
dition, and, when brought to the surface, give off 
carburetted-hydrogen gas. Not only do these sands 
give much trouble, but the salt water associated 
with them makes the driving of bore-wells diffi- 
cult. 

The plateau is a hundred and forty feet above 
the surface of the Caspian Sea, and the bores 
reach as deep as six or seven hundred feet. The 
depth, however, depends upon the yield and the 
quality of the oil. At first the oil does not reach 
high in the borings ; but, as the depth increases, it 
rises, and at last is forced out by the pent-up 
gases. 

A naphtha-fountain differs very much from one 
of water. The oil, on leaving the pipe, is broken 
up into many jets, which scatter in all directions. 
The larger part, on account of the liberation of the 
occluded gases, is shattered into the finest spray. 
Together with the oil, there is ejected an immense 
quantity of sand, stones, lumps of clay, some of 
the pieces being very large. This condition of 
things is explained by the high pressure of the 
gases, which has been measured in closed bore- 
pipes, and found to range between fifty and three 
hundred pounds per square inch. In the year 
1888 two fountains played simultaneously to a 
height of between two hundred and fifty and 
three hundred and fifty feet. When a fountain 
breaks out, the boarding of the boring-turret is 
soon torn off, stones are thrown up to a great 
height, and it is dangerous to approach the bore, 
especially from the circumstance that the naphtha 
spray has an inebriating effect on the workmen. 
A cloud of naphtha hovers over the fountain, and 
is carried to great distances by the winds, covering 
every thing it passes over with a light film of oil. 
The sand thrown up forms a hillock round the well, 
often rising to twenty-eight feet in height. The 
bursting-forth of a fountain is accompanied by 
loud noises and a trembling of the earth. Millions 


150 


of tons of oil have been lost from an inability to 
direct it into reservoirs, which are frequently not 
even prepared before the need of them arises. 
Some fountains are intermittent, and play from 
one to two or three hours at a time, and then cease 
for a day or so. These are the most convenient, 
as they give plenty of time to arrange for collect- 
ing the oil. In some cases the action has to be 
started by withdrawing a few scoops of oil from 
the bore, and thus disturbing the subterranean 
equilibrium. 

Continuous fountains sooner or later become 
intermittent, and then, like the latter, settle 
down into ordinary wells, from which the oil 
must be raised by the usual methods. The jet 
sent out of a bore-pipe appears urged forward by 
a rapid succession of pulsations; but periods of 
quiet may be noted, during which the fountain 
seems to gather up its strength for an extra ener- 
getic effort. The height of the jet varies with the 
intensity of the pulsations. A continuous fountain 
may yield over thirty-three hundred tons of oil, 
and require the labor of a hundred men to collect 
and store it in reservoirs. The daily yield would 
be worth five hundred dollars, the cost of labor 
being from seventy-five to a hundred dollars. 

The condition of the oil is such, that, when no 
longer forced out by internal agencies, it must be 
removed from the bores by means of scoops: 
hence the bore-holes have to be large, usually 
sixteen inches in diameter, and, having to be 
maintained at that diameter throughout, must be 
lined with bore-pipes. The cost of these bore- 
pipes is a serious item, in a well of six hundred 
feet in depth costing twenty-five hundred dollars, 
while the expense of sinking the bore amounts to 
about five thousand dollars. 

The owners of allotments are free to sink their 
bore-holes where they like: hence they are mostly 
sunk along the boundaries of the plots, and not at 
the points which the lay of the strata would indi- 
cate to be the most advantageous. The reason for 
this is, that each proprietor considers, that by 
sinking a bore near his neighbor’s plot, if he suc- 
ceed, he will get his own oil and a good deal of his 
neighbor’s also. His neighbor is actuated by the 
same motives: hence the allotments have the ap- 
pearance of fortified places, being surrounded by 
works, and unoccupied over the greater portion of 
their inner areas. Naturally, if a bore be excep- 
tionally successful, a large number of additional 
ones are at once driven, and the yield of each is 
in consequence reduced. 

The mean produce of the one hundred wells now 
in action is given at thirty-two tons per well per 
day, from March to November. The average cost of 
production is about twelve dollars per ton, nearly 


SCIENCE. 


a 


[Vou. VII., No. 158 


five per cent of which is due to the scarcity of 
water. 

A commission appointed by the government 
reports that a pipe-line from Baku to Batoum on 
the Black Sea is indispensable for the higher 
development of this industry, as at present not 
one-half of the valuable products are obtainable. 
The commission, however, thinks that the under- 
taking should be left to private enterprise. The 
Transcaucasian railway will in a measure aid in 
the transportation. 


RATIO OF INCREASE OF HEIGHT TO IN- 
CREASE OF BULK IN THE CHILD. 


SOME remarkable observations, we learn from 
the Lancet, have been recently made by the Rev. 
Malling Hansen, principal of the Danish institu- 
tion for the deaf and dumb, on the progressive 
increase in height and weight of children, one 
hundred and thirty of whom were under his 
charge. Of these, seventy-two were boys and 
fifty-eight girls, and they were weighed in batches 
of twenty, four times daily, —in the morning, 
before dinner, after dinner, and at bed- time. 
Each child was measured once a day. The 
weighings and measurements extended over a 
period of three years, and the results showed that 
the increase in the bulk and height of the body 
does not proceed at a uniform rate throughout 
the year. Three distinct periods, with some 
minor variations, were observed. In regard to 
bulk, the maximum period extends from August 
until December; the period of equipoise lasts from 
December until about the middle of April; and 
then follows the minimum period until August. 
In regard to height, the maximum period corre- 
sponds to the minimum period of increase in 
bulk. In September and October a child grows 
only a fifth of what it did in June and July. So 
it appears that during the autumn and the begin- 
ning of winter the child accumulates bulk, but 
the height is stationary. In the early summer, 
on the other hand, the bulk remains nearly un- 
changed, but the vital force and nourishment are 
expended to the benefit of height. When the 
body works for bulk, there is rest for growth, and — 
vice versa. Mr. Hansen has observed a similar 
ratio of increase of bulk to increase of height in 
trees. In regard to the minor variations observed, 
it is probable that they are dependent, in part at — 
least, upon the external temperature ; so that, i 
when this runs up, there is marked increase in ~ 
weight, while a diminution of weight occurs with 
a fall of temperature. 

Mr. Hansen’s observations are undoubtedly of — 
considerable importance. Similar ones have been 


FEBRUARY 12, 1886. ] 


made by Dr. W. R. Miller, surgeon to the West 
Riding convict prison. Dr. Miller experimented 
on about four thousand prisoners for thirteen 
years, and obtained results that differ sensibly 
from those of Mr. Hansen; for he found that the 
season of maximum increase in weight in adults 
is from: April to August, and the period of mini- 
mum increase in adults from September to March. 
Dr. Miller found the body became heavier in 
summer, and lighter in winter; and he attributes 
the loss of weight to the more active excretion of 
carbonic-acid gas in the colder months. 


DIFFERENT PHYSIOLOGICAL SENSES FOR 
HEAT AND COLD. 


IN connection with the researches of Professor 
Hall and Dr. Donaldson of Johns Hopkins uni- 
versity, recently given in Mind, it will be of 
interest to state that Mr. A. Herzen has lately 
published in the Archiv fiir physiologie! the 
results of a series of experiments showing that 
the physiological sense of cold is differenc from 
that of heat. His attention was first directed to 
the subject by a simple incident, the verification 
of which may be readily made by any observer. 
Awakening one night, he found one of his arms 
lying without the bed-clothes, ‘alseep ;’ in touch- 
ing it with the other hand, he perceived a distinct 
sensibility to warmth, while that of touch was 
gone. Bringing his arm, however, in contact with 
cold substances, he was surprised to find no sensa- 
tion. 

Pursuing the subject further, he produced arti- 
ficially this condition of semi-paralysis by the com- 
pression of nerve-trunks, and by experimentation 
discovered that the sensibility to cold remained a 
short time after tactile impressions had disap- 
peared, and that the sensibility to warmth re- 
mained much longer, but not quite as long as the 
power of detecting pain ; also that the impressions of 
warmth require more time for transmission to the 
brain than those of cold, bearing, in fact, the same 
relations to each other as the sense of pain does to 
that of cold. These results were further supple- 
mented by observations on a person with complete 
and permanent tactile anaesthesia of the legs, but 
in whom the sense of pain remained normal. The 
subject was able to distinguish quite well the 
differences in temperature between 150° F. and 
81° F., which was the normal temperature of the 
surface of the leg. Below the latter temperature, 
however, no sensation was produced, not even by 
the contact of ice on the inner side of the thigh. 
Other cases showed the same peculiarities, in which, 


1 Ueber die spaltung des temperatursinnes in zwei geson- 
derte sinne, xxxviii. p. 93, December, 1885. 


SCIENCE. 


151 


with the disappearance of tactile sensibility, the 
susceptibility to cold was also lost, while that to 
warmth yet remained. 

Vivisection experiments upon cats and dogs 
lead the author to the following conclusions: 1. 
The so-called sense of heat and cold is composed 
in reality of two senses quite independent both 
anatomically and physiologically ; 2. Observations 
on healthy and diseased subjects show that the 
sensations of heat and cold are transmitted 
through different nerves, by different routes, and 
to different brain-centres; 3. The gyrus sig- 
moideus contains the centre (or the centripetal 
branches leading thereto) of touch and cold percep- 
tions; 4. These sense-perceptions are transmitted 
through the posterior columns of the_spinal cord, 
while those of the senses of pain and warmth are 
conveyed through the gray substance. 

Although the senses of cold and touch on the one 
hand, and heat and pain on the other, seem to be 
more nearly related, yet one cannot unite them, 
or consider the different perceptibilities of heat 
and cold mere modifications of those of touch 
and heat. The researches of Blix and others 
have demonstrated the existence of separated, 
isolated, irregularly distributed points upon the 
body, of which one may be only sensible to cold, 
another to warmth, and a third to touch. Doubt- 
less most persons have noticed the different de- 
grees of susceptibility of different parts of the 
body to heat and cold: the author points out 
striking examples of such. 


RAINFALL IN SOUTH AFRICA.’ 


LITTLE has been known until recently on the 
subject of rainfall in South Africa, taken broadly 
over the whole country, although observers have 
for many years been keeping records at isolated 
stations. There has been for many years a meteor- 
ological commission in existence at Cape Town ; 
and in the report for 1883 an interesting table was 
published, giving the means, monthly and yearly, 
at all stations where records have been kept for at 
least five years, with the altitude above sea-level, 
and the latitude and longitude for each station. 

From these data Mr. Tripp has prepared a map 
of South Africa, with the idea of showing the dis- 
tribution of the total yearly rainfall. The curves 
divide the area into districts, where the mean 
yearly rainfall is — 


(1) Under 5 inches. 
(2)2rom. co, 

(3) oe 10 cc 

(4) ss 20 

(5) Above 30 ‘“ 


There are doubtless, particularly along the moun- 


1 Abstract of an article by William B. Tripp, in Symons’s 
meteorological magazine. 


to 10 inches. 
ot 20 ot 


80 


152 


tain ranges, many wet strips and spots where no 
definite records are kept, and which therefore 
cannot at present be shown on the map. Multipli- 
cation of records, as well as general local knowl- 
edge, will, no doubt, reveal many such places. 
South Africa may be described as a central 
tableland, rising in successive terraces from the 
seacoast. The country has been subject to great 
erosion from water; and the mountains with 
which the country is studded, and the deep val- 
leys, locally termed ‘kloofs,’ with which it is in- 
tersected, are principally due to this cause. In 


some cases the hills are covered with forests, but 
generally they are now denuded of such covering. 
Where the streams take their rise in an area de- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 158 


winter half of the year from April to September, 
than in the summer half from October to March 5 
May, June, and July being the wettest months, 
and the north-west the general rain-bearing wind. 
On the eastern side, however, the fall is greater in 
the summer half, March and February being the 
wettest months, and the south-east the rain-bear- 
ing wind. On the south-east coast the dividing- 
line between these two different characteristics 
appears to run out to sea very nearly at Port 
Alfred, where the fall in both halves of the year 
appears to be very nearly identical, that in the 
summer half being rather the greater of the 
two. 

Mr. Tripp resided and kept records for some 


O 


re6 
% 


2 


es 
"eo 
+. 
~~ 
25 


* 
Y oO 


S 


Re 


OM 
a 


SCALE OF RAINFALL 
§ Inches tude 


5 
i 
IS 


it 5 to 10 Inches 


wtw20 » KS 
Z0towU 3, 
Above 30Inches Gs |} ——__—_—__— 


LG f G) 2 _2 


nuded of forest, their volumes are highly variable, 
their beds being dry for, in some cases, three hun- 
dred days in the year ; their only existence being, 
in fact, as torrents after sudden thunder-storms. 
When, however, it fortunately happens that the 
streams take their rise in an area still largely 
clothed with forests, they are frequently perennial. 

The climate over such a large tract of country 
as South Africa varies, of course, considerably. 
The rainfall varies from 2 inches to 50 or 60 
inches doubtless, and perhaps more in some of the 
mountain districts: in the north-west corner of 
Natal it is considerably over 30 inches. Dividing 
the country according to the half-yearly distribu- 
tion of rainfall, we find that on the western and 
southern sides the fall is generally greater in the 


oS 80 
iS 
aes 
ox ge 
Map of 
showing the 
MEAN ANNUAL RAINFALL 
William 8. Tripp. 
MiInst CE. F.R Met-Soc. 
ENGLISH MILES 4 26 
50 100 200 aco" 
AY =A 310 3) 3/4 
Sus fords GooghE stably 


years at King William’s Town, in the eastern 
province, where, on a total of 283 days, from 
June, 1880, to May, 1883, 70 inches of rain were 
registered, 30.25 inches of which (recorded on 242 
days) were made up of falls under 0.50 of an inch, 
19.88 inches (on 28 days) from 0.50 of an inch to 1 
inch, and 19.87 inches (on 13 days) of falls of from 
1 inch or upwards, in twenty-four hours. The 
heaviest fall on any one day was 2.04 inches, and 
the next heaviest fall was 3.11 inches, in forty- 
eight hours. 

Although this record proves that the rains are 
moderate and tolerably distributed, and do not all 
occur in sudden storms, yet the author has heard 
accounts of sudden falls there of a very different 
character. and most disastrous in their results. 


. 


FEBRUARY 12, 1886.] 


FACSIMILE OF THE ANTILEGOMENA. 


THE Johns Hopkins publication agency an- 
nounces a reproduction in phototype of seventeen 
pages of a Syriac manuscript containing the 
epistles known as ‘Antilegomena.’ These are to 
be published under the editorial supervision of 
Prof. Isaac H. Hall, Ph.D., with brief descriptive 
notes by the editor. This manuscript consists of 
the Acts and Catholic epistles, and the Pauline 
epistles, followed by Hebrews; together with 
tables to find Easter, etc. (arranged for the Seleu- 
cid era), tables of ecclesiastical lessons, and a 
poem at the end, giving a history of the genesis 
of the manuscript. Its chief peculiarity consists 
in its containing seven Catholic epistles, while 
ordinary Syriac manuscripts have but three; 2 
Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude being commonly 
rejected by the Syrians, and very rarely found 
among them. The version is Peshitto, except for 
these commonly rejected epistles, in which is 
followed the version usually printed. Each book, 
except the several Catholic epistles (and they as a 
whole), has its proemium from Gregory Bar He- 
braeus, and its title and subscription. The manu- 
script is provided throughout with the Syrian 
sections and church. lessons, and is dated at the 
end. Grammatical and other annotations occur 
frequently in the margins. The careful writing 
and pointing, as well as the superior character of 
the text, with the matters narrated in the poem 
at the end, show the work to be that of a critical 
Syrian scholar, and not of a mere copyist. Two 
notes by the contemporary corrector appear on 
leaves toward the end. The printed editions of 
the rejected epistles all rest on one inferior Bod- 
leian manuscript, and particularly upon its editio 
princeps, published by Edward Pococke (Leyden, 
Elzevir) in 1630. This has hitherto been varied in 
later editions only by editorial conjecture. This 
is the second manuscript of these epistles ever 
given to the public, and doubles the available 
critical material, though a few other manuscripts 
of various ages are known to exist, some copied 
from the printed editions. The selected pages 
are: 1. A page containing the end of one of the 
tables of lessons, with a contemporary Arabic 
note respecting the origin and character of the 
manuscript; 2. The first page of Acts, with title 
and proemium, showing the general appearance 
and external characteristics of the manuscript ; 3. 
The leaves which contain the Antilegomena mat- 
ter,—-2 Peter, 2 and 38 John, and Jude (with 
them, of course, the end of 1 Peter, i John, and 
the beginning of Romans, with general proemium 
to the Pauline epistles and that to Romans); 4. 
The last page of the manuscript proper, end and 


SCIENCE. 


153 


subscription to Hebrews, and date of manuscript, 
with note of contemporary corrector; 5. Two 
pages containing the poem above referred to; in 
all, seventeen phototype pages, each on a separate 
leaf, besides additional pages containing appropri- 
ate descriptive and explanatory matter. 


EDUCATIONAL BOOKS AND REPORTS. 


A BATCH of educational pamphlets has been 
accumulating on our table, and we believe that a 
reference to their contents will be of interest to 
the readers of Science. 

In the beautifully printed parchment series of 
Keagan Paul & Co., Lord Iddesleigh (Sir S. North- 
cote) has given a complete report of the entertain- 
ing lecture which he delivered as the first of a 
series of addresses to the students of the University 
of Edinburgh, Nov. 3, 1885. He discusses desultory 
reading, its pleasures, dangers, and uses. The 
theme is not new, but after Maurice, and Carlyle, 
and Lowell, and Fmerson, and many more who 
have recorded their experience, these fresh state- 
ments on ‘the friendship of books’ are well worth 
reading. They suggested to the London Spectator 
of Jan. 2 a racy editorial, quite worth perusal. 

The former cabinet-minister, Rt. Hon. G. J. 
Goschen, M.P., has collected seven of his addresses 
on educational and economical themes. That 
upon the cultivation of the imagination was re- 
printed long ago in Littell. The second, on mental 
training and useful knowledge, points out the 
danger of science-teaching; namely, that the 
teachers will endeavor to impart facts rather than 
to set the scholar thinking. The third, higher 
education for workingmen, is an explanation of 
the purposes of the London society for the exten- 
sion of university teaching, and an endeavor to 
awaken a love of study among _ bread-winners. 
The lecture is most encouraging in its account of 
the success of popular concerts and lectures in 
London. The rest of the volume reiates to eco- 
nomics. 

The University of Cambridge has published the 
report of a syndicate on popular lectures, written 
by Rev. W. M. Ede of St. John’s college. It re- 
views the work of the university extension scheme, 
and points out the obstacles which that work has 
encountered, and the danger of its degenerating 
into a mere lecturing scheme. The tone of the 
report is encouraging, and its frank exhibition of 
the conditions of failure and of success makes it 
suggestive to Americans who are endeavoring by 
like methods to carry instruction to those classes 
in the community who are at hard work during 
many hours each day. 

This is the period when most of the reports ap- 


154 


pear which are given to the public on the part of 
- universities and cclleges. Among those which 
have reached us, that of Columbia college may 
first be named, which is dated as far back as May 
5. President Barnard discusses the working of 
the elective system, and says that the study which 
has commanded the preference of the largest 
number in the classes where there is freedom of 
choice is Greek, while mathematics commands 
the preference of the smaller number. It should 
be borne in mind that this refers to the academical 
or classical department, not to the School of mines, 
where those young men are most likely to go who 
are adverse to Greek and inclined to mathematics. 
Of those electing. one-half elect French, one-third 
German, and one-seventh Spanish. The library, 
which a short time ago was forty-seventh in mag- 
nitude among collections in the United States, is 
now twentieth, and connected with it there is a 
school for the education of librarians. The School 
of mines, in its new accommodations, is more use- 
ful than ever, but the tendency to overwork is so 
strong that the faculty are considering important 
modifications of the courses. 

President Walker, of the Massachusetts in- 
stitute of technology, shows that the number of 
students has increased from 302 in 1881-82, to 
609 in 1885-86,—a truly wonderrul advance. 
They come from thirty-three states, and their 
average age is eighteen years and two months. 
He exhibits the value of the system of receiving 
young men as ‘special students,’—a_ practice 
which elsewhere has led to inconveniences and 
difficulties. 

In the University of Michigan, President Angell 
expresses regret that there are less students than 
formerly from homes without that state, and justly 
says that the institution wiil suffer if its cos- 
mopolitan character is lost. He strongly com- 
mends the working of the elective system, and 
makes a vigorous, and we hope an irresistible, 
appeal for continued liberality in the development 
of the university. 

The annual report of the University of California 
is prepared by the secretary of the regents, J. H. 
C. Bonté ; and while it contains all the informa- 
tion which can be desired, and much more than 
is commonly given, it indicates the lack of a co- 
ordinating mind. The new president, Prof. E. 8. 
Holden, entered upon his duties after the report 
was issued, and the result of his oversight will be 
seen a year hence. The report indicates great 
generosity in the endowment of the university. 
Its funds for general purposes amount to $1,678,- 
386, besides the site, the buildings, and certain 
property not yet available, estimated at more than 
a million of dollars. In addition to all this, there 


SCIENCE. 


| Vou. VII, No. 158 


is the great Lick gift, for an observatory, and 
smaller endowments for medicine and law. 

The full reports of Governor Stanford’s gift in- 
dicate that his purposes are by no means so 
definite as were at first supposed, and it may be 
hoped that his mind is still open for suggestions 
which will tend toward important modifications 
in the original instrument. 

Col. H. B. Sprague, !ate of Boston, has become 
president of Mills college for women, in California, 
and his inaugural address is a glowing review of - 
the various subjects which tend to constitute a 
liberal education. 


NEW BOOKS. 
‘ HOUSEHOLD economy,’ published under the 
direction of the Kitchen garden association (New 
York, Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co.), is 
intended to supply a want long felt by almost 
every class of society, that of a clear, concise, 
and systematic text-book on those duties which 
‘‘always have claimed, and probably always will 
claim, the main thought and time of the vast 
majority of women.” ——‘ Food-materials and their 
adulterations,’ by Ellen H. Richards (Boston, Estes 
& Lauriat), is a little work intended for the intelli- 
gent housewife. The author disclaims novelty or 
originality. In some places the work is too 
technical for the readers whom the author would | 
reach, and, as in the analysis of milk, some errors 
have slipped in; nevertheless the work will serve 
a very useful purpose, containing as it does a 
description of the principal food-materials and 
their adulterations, and at times hints on their 
culinary preparation. —— ‘ Nature’s teaching,’ by 
J. G. Wood (Boston, Roberts), is designed ‘‘ to 
show the close connection between nature and 
human inventions, and that there is scarcely an 
invention of man that has not its prototype in 
nature.” The author has there grouped a long 
series of parallels under the heads ‘ Nautical,’ 
‘War and _ hunting, ‘ Architecture,’ ‘ Tools,’ 
‘Optics,’ ‘Useful arts,’ and ‘ Acoustics.’ But 
often the merest resemblance of some natural 
growth to some human contrivance causes their 
association, when one has but the remotest con- 
nection with, or suggestiveness toward, the other. 
‘A handbook to the national museum at 
Washington’ (New York, Brentano brothers) 
will be a useful guide to the extensive scientific 
collections of the national museum now on exhibi- 
tion. It is interspersed with a large number of 
engravings, mostly good, which, together with 
the numerous explanatory notes, will give t 
work an independent value. It was prepared by 
Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, whose pleasant literary style 
is well known. 3 


SO RECINT FE... 


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


Mr. J. SCOTT KELTIE’S REPORT (Supplementary 
papers, Royal geographical society, part iv.), as 
inspector of geographical education, should be read 
by all who are interested in the cause of sound 
education. As to England, he says the situation 
of geographical education is best summed up in 
the words of an educational authority, whose 
name is not given : (1) ‘‘ In universities it is nil ; (2) 
in public schools, very nearly nil; and when it is 
attempted, it is given to the most incompetent 
master, and he has a wretched set of maps ; (3) it 
is required for the public services, and taught, I 
do not know how, by crammers ; (4) the only 
places where geography is systematically taught 
in England are the training colleges and the board- 
schools, with now, and for the last few years, 
some few good high and middle-class schools.” 
This is due mainly to the fact that the study of 
geography does not ‘pay.’ There is no demand 
for high-grade teachers, as there are no pro- 
fessors or readers of geography in the universi- 
ties. It has no real place in the examinations 
upon which so much depends in England, and 
therefore the teachers in some of the best schools 
actually advise their pupils not to study geography. 
How different in Germany, in France, and even in 
Spain! Considering the candid way in which the 
inspector has spoken of the English schools, it is 
perhaps fortunate that our worthy ex-commis- 
sioner of education was unable to furnish him 
with any information concerning the study of 
geography in American schools. 


As a part of his duty, Mr. Kelsie made a collec- 
tion of appliances used in geographical education 
throughout the world. These were placed on ex- 
hibition, and a catalogue issued. Here, again, 
the Germans led, as, indeed, one who has used 
Stanford’s and Reimer’s maps side by side in the 
Class-room would have expected. In his explora- 
tions for such material, the inspector had many 
Strange experiences ; as, for instance, at one of the 
oldest and most celebrated English public schools he 

No. 159. — 1886, 


found only two maps, — “‘ one a large map of the 
Dominion of Canada, presented by the high com- 
missioner, ornamenting one of the passages; and 
another wretched school wall-map, exhumed, after 
much searching, from a remote recess.” In con- 
trast to this, he prints a list of the appliances used 
in teaching geography in the Frankfort Wohler- 
schule, and in other German schools. In the 
above-named school there are in actual use one 
hundred and seven maps, pictures, models, and 
atlases. The exhibition was designed to illustrate 
the actual condition of things ; ‘‘ and, therefore, in 
all classes,” according to Mr. Keltie, “will be 
found objects which may be taken as examples of 
‘how not to do it.’” Most of these were of Eng- 
lish make. It is a curious commentary on our 
own methods, and especially on our publishers of 
educational works, that of the 305 maps, globes, 
models, relief-maps, etc., not one came from this 
side of the Atlantic. There were 163 atlases, but 
not a single atlas bore the imprint of an American 
publisher. Among the 229 text-books, only three 
— Miss Hale’s ‘Methods of teaching geography, 
Hopkins’s ‘ Handbook of the earth,’ and Swinton’s 
‘Complete course ’— were of American manufac- 
ture. And on the whole the exhibition was not 
one of which either Englishmen or Americans 
should be proud. 


SCIENCE AND THE STATE is the subject of a 
recent article by Dr. Shufeldt in Mind in nature, 
wherein he makes some very pertinent criticisms 
upon the heterogeneous condition of the national 
scientific work and the desirability of its greater 
unification. He proposes a scheme whereby this 
may be effected ; viz., that a department of sci- 
ence should be created by congress, the head of 
which should be a cabinet officer, to be designated 
as the secretary of science, and to be chosen from 
the National academy of sciences; that this de- 
partment should be divided into eleven bureaus,— 
agriculture, biology, chemistry, education, eth- 
nology, geology, geodesy and surveying, meteo- 
rology, military and civil engineering, sanitary 
science, and industry ; and that all appointments 
should be made by the National academy of 
sciences, and approved by the president of 
the United States. For the accommodation of 


156 


this department of science, he would have a 
large building erected, and liberal appropriations 
made. We doubt the entire feasibility of such a 
-scheme. In the first place, to restrict the presi- 
dent in the choice of members of his cabinet to 
any given body of men, no matter how eminent 
that body may be, is simply out of the question ; 
nor would this restriction be desirable. Members 
of the National academy are such because they 
are eminent specialists, and a specialist should be 
the last to control a department of this kind. 
Dr. Shufeldt also proposes, that commissioned 
army and navy officers who show scientific abili- 
ties should be encouraged and provided for by 
the government: this, too, has certain objections. 
Why the United States should hold out induce- 
ments to its commissioned officers to abandon 
the duties for which they were appointed, one 
cannot see. A surgeon or lieutenant of artillery 
has certain specific duties for which he enjoys 
a salary and future competency. By all means, 
he should be encouraged to excel in those duties, 
and he should not be discouraged in any other 
commendable work that he may undertake with- 
out detriment to them; but should government 
hold out direct reasons for him to become an 
archeologist, a philologist, a naturalist, or a phys- 
icist? Are army officers government wards, or 
government servants? and why should they have 
greater inducements to become Sanscrit scholars, 
chemists, and comparative anatomists, than the 
general public? 


THE GREAT COST of elaborate printed catalogues, 
in which many of our wealthier libraries are now 
indulging, suggests the desirability of a scheme 
of co-operative cataloguing, which is stated at 
some length in this week’s number of The nation, 
by Mr. Fletcher, the librarian at Amherst. He 
calls attention to the fact that nearly all our 
considerable libraries are making, or keeping up, 
elaborate catalogues, which are, to a large extent, 
repetitions of one another. As the suggestion of 
an experienced librarian, we incline to attach 
considerable significance to his saying that a very 
large share of the present cataloguing expense 
borne by these libraries is ‘‘ wasted in the redupli- 
cation of that which ought to be done once for all. 

. Already this system of elaborate cataloguing, 
repeating itself in scores, even hundreds, of libra- 
ries, is breaking down of its own weight.” Mr. 
Fletcher regards co-operation as furnishing the only 


SCIENCE. 


aa 


[Vou. VII., No. 159 


solution of this important question, —a solution, 
too, ‘‘ capable of meeting the needs of the twen- 


‘tieth century, when our libraries will be numbered 


by thousands, and the volumes in scores of them 
by millions. . . . The time must soon come when 
the libraries will no longer undertake to provide 
subject catalogues of their own. The author 
catalogues will necessarily be kept up, as each 
library must have a list of its books. But in 
place of the subject catalogues we shall have 
printed bibliographies of subjects, issued, for the 
most part, periodically, and serving equally for 
one library or another.” These bibliographies 
may often indicate which libraries contain the 
rarer publications, on the plan admirably executed 
in Dr. Bolton’s list of scientific periodicals, lately 
issued by the Smithsonian institution. Such a 
scheme of bibliographies and subject-indexes is 
unquestionably feasible, and Mr. Fletcher thinks 
it furnishes the only possible solution of the prob- 
lem. It is to be hoped that the directors of our 
public and college libraries will show themselves 
ready to co-operate in whatever manner the co- 
operation committee of the American library 
association, of which Mr. Fletcher is the chair- 
man, may decide upon. The committee invite 
any suggestions which may assist in forwarding 
the proposed reform. 


THE LEADING SPIRITS of the theosophical socic’ 7 
are evidently undismayed by the testimony against 
their honesty and candor, as adduced in the inves- 
tigation carried on under the auspices of the 
English society for psychical research. <A protest 
is now commenced against the conclusions of 
that investigation, prepared by A. P. Sinnett and 
Madame Blavatsky. The report of the psychical 
research society was noticed in Science (vol. vii. — 
p. 81); and any effectual protest against conclu- — 
sions so clear and decided as those of that report — 
must be accompanied by the strongest evidence 
possible. 


PROGRESS IN INDIA. 


THE possibility of any national movement { 
among the natives of India, looking toward state 
organization and self-government, has scarcely — 
ever been accepted by her rulers and other civilized - 
nations. Recent developments, however, seem 7 
to indicate that the Indian capacity has been 
underrated. A correspondent of the London 
Times states that the Bombay leaders have lately 


FEBRUARY 19, 1886.] 


given proof of their organizing power. They 
brought together a national congress composed of 
delegates from every political society of any im- 
portance throughout the country. Seventy-one 
members met together; twenty-nine great districts 
sent spokesmen. The whole of India was repre- 
sented, from Madras to Lahore, from Bombay to 
Calcutta. 

For the first time, perhaps, since the world be- 
gan, Indiaasa nation met together. Its congeries 
of races, its diversity of castes, all seemed to find 
common ground in their political aspirations. 
Only one great race was conspicuous by its ab- 
sence; the Mohammedans of India were not 
there. They remained steadfast in their habitual 
separation. They certainly do not yield to either 
Hindoo or Parsee in their capacity for develop- 
ment, but they persistently refuse to act in com- 
mon with the rest of the Indian subjects. Not 
only in their religion, but in their schools, and 
almost all their colleges, and all their daily life, 
they maintain an almost haughty reserve. The 
reason is not hard to find. They cannot forget 
that less than two centuries ago they were the 
dominant race, while their present rivals in pro- 
gress only counted as so many millions of tax- 
paying units who contributed each his mite to 
swell the glory of Islam. 

But in spite of the absence of the followers of 
the prophet, this was a great representative meet- 
ing. The delegates were mostly lawyers, school- 
masters, and newspaper editors, but there were 
some notable exceptions, Even supposing these 
three professions alone provided the delegates, the 
meeting would fairly represent the education and 
intellectual power of India. Not aword was said 
of social reform ; all they discussed, and all they 
demanded, was political power and _ political 
changes ; a tone of most absolute loyalty pervaded 
all the proceedings. Education and material 
prosperity. order,.security, and good government, 
were all incidentally mentioned as causes of 
gratitude towards the present rulers. But such 
allusions were only by the way. Every desire 
was concentrated on political advancement and an 
immense increase of the share at present given to 


_ the natives of India in the government of their 
own country. The question of their ability to 


govern themselves was never even touched upon by 
the wisest of the speakers. Though there was much 


_ crude talk, much of that haste which only makes 


delay, and that ignorance which demands prema- 
ture concessions, and too implicit reliance upon 
_ legislative powers, there was also much of most 
_ noble aspiration, and a sense of patriotism and 
_ national unity, which is a new departure in the 
_ races of the east. 


; 


SCIENCE. 


157 


PREJEVALSKY’S EXPLORATIONS IN MON- 
GOLIA. 


THE renowned traveller and explorer, Colonel 
Prejevalsky, to whom a reference is made in our 
St. Petersburg letter, arrived there on his re- 
turn journey from Mongolia, the earlier part of 
the present month. A correspondent of the 
London Times says that this expedition of Colonel 
Prejevalsky, lasting two years, and costing over 
43,000 roubles of government money, has been 
the most remarkable one ever undertaken in the 
wilds of Mongolia and Tibet. The intrepid ex- 
plorer, as his published letters have already shown, 
literally fought his way into these inhospitable 
regions, at the head of a well-armed party of thir- 
teen Cossacks, four grenadiers, and a host of other 
attendants; and, as he stated at Moscow, more 
than one hundred natives, who at different times 
waylaid the explorers, were made to feel the 
deadly effects of the Berdan rifle-fire. The exact 
numbers of the killed and wounded were stated in 
the extremely interesting letters addressed to the 
Grand Duke, at various stages of the journey. 
This is scientific exploration with a vengeance, and 
goes beyond any thing that Mr. Stanley did with 
his ‘six-shooter’ among the negroes of Africa. 

In the last of the above-mentioned series of 
letters, the colonel also expressed the ardent wish 
of the Mongolian natives to be taken under 
Russian protection, and shielded from Chinese op- 
pression. The same idea he has again impressed 
upon his friends, in answer to their many in- 
quiries, as they greeted the tall, sun-burnt 
traveller. The Viedomosti, referring to this, says, 
‘«*«Among the natives visited by Colonel Preje- 
valsky there exists a deep conviction that sooner 
or later the ‘great white czar’ will enter their 
country and take them under his domination. At 
one place the explorer showed a portrait of the 
emperor to one of the natives, who went into 
raptures over it, and soon large crowds of in- 
habitants, with women and children from the 
neighboring districts, gathered round the colonel 
and implored him to show them the likeness of 
the ‘ white czar.’” 

The regions visited by Colonel Prejevalsky are 
generally supposed to be, nominally at least, 
within the dominions of the emperor of China. 
No wonder, therefore, that rumors of a protest 
have come from Peking. The grenadiers who 
accompanied the expedition have been promoted, 
and, besides receiving pecuniary gratifications, 
have had their portraits distributed throughout 
the regiment. Colonel Prejevalsky has given a 
number of Russian names to newly-discovered 
places, such as the ‘ Moscow-Chain,’ the ‘ Kremlin 


158 


Rock,’ and the ‘ Czar-liberator’s Mountain.’ One 
hundred and fifty photographs and sketches were 
taken, and a large number of geological and other 
specimens were collected. The expedition will 
no doubt have important scientific, and perhaps 
other results. 


THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 


THE plan of this volume is the same as that of 
its predecessors, comprising, first, the summary 
report of the director; second, brief administra- 
tive reports of the chiefs of divisions on the work 
accomplished in the several departments of the 
survey, with brief itineraries of the field-parties ; 
and, third, the accompanying papers, which make 
up the main part of the volume, and are the only 
feature of permanent interest or value. These 
papers are the monographs or final reports finished 
during the year. The longer monographs appear 
here in abstract form only, being, like the more 
fragmentary bulletins, published separately for the 
use of specialists. But, although the annual volume 
is not a perfect résumé of the survey, it is wisely 
designed to present all the results of interest to the 
general reader. 

The principal feature of Major Powell's sum- 
mary report for 1882-83 is the preliminary state- 
ment of the proposed topographical and geological 
map of the United States, with the accompanying 
map showing the, for the most part, very limited 
areas which have been surveyed under the author- 
ity of the various states and of the general gov- 
ernment, on a scale suitable for the present pur- 
pose. The scale adopted for the proposed map is 
1: 250,000, or about four miles to the inch, with 
contour lines for every twenty-five to two hundred 
feet, according to the character of the topography. 
It is proposed to publish this general map in atlas 
sheets, each being composed of one degree of 
longitude by one of latitude, in areas bounded by 
parallels and meridians. 

Although the administrative reports indicate a 
larger amount of topographic and geologic work 
than for any previous year, the published results 
are comparatively meagre, the monographic por- 
tion of this volume falling decidedly below the 
average in extent, if notin general interest. The 
most important paper has only an indirect rela- 
tion to the geology of the United States. This is 
Captain Dutton’s able memoir on the volcanoes of 
the Hawaiian Islands. This work was not done 
at the expense of the survey, nor in anticipation 
of the annexation of the island kingdom to this 

1 Fourth annual report of the U.S. geological survey to 


the secretary of the interior (1882-83). By J. W. Powe tu. 
Washington, Government, 1884, §°. 


SCIENCE. 


| 


{[Vou. VII., No. 159 


country, but simply as a preparation for the study 


‘of the gigantic lava-flows of the Cascade Range 


in northern California and Oregon, —a work upon 
which Captain Dutton has since been engaged. 
Hence criticism of the survey for extending its 
operations beyond its legitimate field is forestalled, 
and the publication of this valuable contribution 
to our knowledge of the noblest of living vol- 
canoes will undoubtedly be justified by the light 
which it will throw upon the volcanic phenomena 
of our north-western territories ; for, while these 
are unparalleled among the eruptions of historic 
times, the evident liquidity and the vast volume 
of the lava plainly suggest the stupendous flows 
of Hawaii as the proper preparatory field of the 
student who would bring to their investigation the 
best comparisons that modern volcanism affords. 

It is impossible here to do justice to the graphic 
descriptive chapters, which fully sustain the repu- 
tation achieved by the author for the bold and 
discriminating portrayal of geologic phenomena, 
in his reports on the plateau country and the 
Grand Cafion. But the highly important and 
original chapter on the volcanic problem may not 
be disposed of so summarily. Captain Dutton 
has here gathered together the principal facts and 
conclusions reached in his study of Mauna Loa 
and Kilauea, with a view to ascertaining whether 
they shed any new light upon the dark prob- 
lem of the volcano. He goes to the root of the 
matter at once by calling attention to the fact that 
the volcano is essentially a heat problem, and that 
the final solution to be sought is an explanation 
of the origin of this heat and its modes of action. 

The universal postulate that the earth’s interior 
is throughout in a state of incandescence is ac- 
cepted as a matter of course; but the question as 
to whether it is mainly liquid or solid is regarded 
as still in abeyance, and the determination of this 
point is not considered essential to the discussion 
of the volcanic problem. Against the view that 
the penetration of water to the seat of the internal 
fires is the cause of volcanic action, two objections 
are urged. 1°. The access of cold water would 
cool, and probably solidify, the lava. It might be 
claimed on the other side, however, that the water 
must be itself very hot before it reaches the lava, 
and that aqueo-igneous liquefaction takes place at 
much lower temperatures than dry fusion. The 
vaporization of the water would, however, absorb 
a large amount of heat. 2°. But this last consid- 
eration is rendered unimportant by the second 
objection ; viz., that liquid water cannot pass the 
isogeotherm of 772° F. (the temperature of its 
critical point), and hence must be vaporized long 
before it reaches the lava. 

That aqueous vapor may penetrate to the reser- 


FEBRUARY 19, 1886. ] 


voirs of liquid rock and be absorbed by it, as any 
gas would be by a liquid, is regarded as entirely 
possibie, and not improbable. But great emphasis 
is preperly laid upon the fact that this gradual 
absorption of hot vapor by hot lava would not 
create any tendency in the lava to explode or 
erupt, unless accompanied by a diminution of 
pressure or increase of temperature; and it is 
demonstrated at considerable length that no 
changes of temperature or pressure in the magma, 
of sufficient magnitude to merit consideration, are 
possible : consequently the balance of probability 
is regarded as inclining decidedly against the 
hypothesis that water is the cause of volcanic ac- 
tion. It does not appear, however, that Captain 
Dutton has taken any account of the important 
consideration, that, by the rising of the isogeo- 
therms, water-impregnated portions of the earth’s 
crust may conceivably attain a high degree of 
liquidity and expansive force; i.e., be made 
eruptible. 

The hypothesis that volcanic energy is due to 
the penetration of oxygen to the unoxidized earth- 
matter below the crust is also rejected, mainly 
because it appears to be insusceptible of proof or 
disproof, postulating conditions beyond the reach 
of argument, but partly on account of the diffi- 
culty of finding a sufficient amount of oxygen. 
The statement, however, that some naturalists 
imagine that the earth’s interior is imperfectly 
oxidized is certainly unwarranted, in view of the 
fact that basic lavas contain metallic iron and a 
vast amount of iron in a low state of oxidation. 

Mallet’s theory, that volcanic heat results from 
the mechanical crushing of the rocks when the 
crust yields to the powerful horizontal pressure 
due to the cooling of the interior, and mountain- 
ranges, rock-folds, and faults are produced, shares 
the same fate ; chiefly because it is now probable 
that the cooling of the earth has been up to this 
time comparatively superficial, the infra-crustal 
regions being still as hot as ever. But Captain 
Dutton’s argument is not conclusive, since he has 
simply shown that the corrugation of the crust 
must be ascribed to some other cause, such as the 
diminution of the earth’s oblateness in consequence 
of the retardation of its rotation by tidal friction. 
The corrugation itself is an unquestioned fact, 
and, however produced, must have been attended 
by an enormous development of heat. 

The fourth hypothesis examined assumes a local 
development of heat in the earth by unknown 
causes. This cuts the Gordian knot instead of 
untying it, but is rejected because its conditions 
preclude all discussions of its validity or adequacy. 
Relief of pressure would greatly promote the 
liquefaction and elastic expansion of lavas; but 


SCIENCE. 


159 


this is unconditionally rejected as a cause of erup- 
tions, since denudation, the only cause of di- 
minished pressure which Captain Dutton recog- 
nizes, cannot be correlated in its distribution with 
active volcanoes. 

Having thus discredited all hypotheses of the 
origin of volcanic heat heretofore proposed, Cap- 
tain Dutton advances no new view, but coolly de- 
molishes our hope with the statement that Mauna 
Loa and Kilauea do not throw any more light 
upon the general problem than other volcanoes. 
He proceeds to show, however, that in other direc- 
tions they have contributed something to our 
knowledge of volcanism. They are at once the 
largest and most active of volcanoes, activity 
being measured by the outflow of lava, and dissi- 
pation of energy. They agree with active volcanoes 
in general in standing on an area of elevation. 
That Hawaii has risen nearly three thousand feet 
in comparatively recent times, is regarded as 
clearly proved by the elevated beaches and ter- 
races. The problem of the causes of elevatory 
movements is then attacked, and the numerous 
hypotheses are reduced to two alternative proposi- 
tions ; viz., the elevated portion of the earth has 
experienced an increase of matter, or it has 
undergone expansion. While local increments of 
mass are not ignored, the expansion hypothesis is 
accepted as the one agreeing best with the ob- 
served facts; and the tangential thrusts of the 
earth’s crust are definitively rejected as a primary 
cause of vertical movements. Our author wisely 
refrains, however, from estimating what propor- 
tion of the altitude of the Alps and other mountain- 
ranges is due to the crumpling of their strata ; this 
crumpling being unquestionably due to horizontal 
thrusts, and amounting in the Alps, according to 
Heim, to seventy-four horizontal miles. Hawaii, 
we are told, floats high because of the lightness 
of this part of the earth’s crust, its relatively low 
density being due in part to its high temperature, 
and in part to the porosity of the lava, and the 
numerous and often large tunnels by which the 
entire island appears to be honeycombed. But no 
calculation is given of the increase of temperature 
required in a thin crust, with a reasonable co- 
efficient of expansion, to produce an elevation of 
two or three miles in a non-volcanic region. It is 
not easy to see how the expansion hypothesis can 
survive application to really important instances 
of elevation. 

Captain Dutton regards the Hawaiian volcanoes 
as immense columns of liquid lava wita their ac- 
cumulated overflows ; and the upper ends of these 
columns, whether frozen over or exposing fiery 
lakes to the sky, are believed to be fundamentally 
unlike the craters of ordinary volcanoes. The 


160 


term ‘caldera’ is proposed and used as a general 
name for volcanic orifices of the Hawaiian type. 
As the column of lava gradually melts away the 
enclosing rocks, the caldera is enlarged by the 
falling-in of the surface, and it is not in any case 
due to explosions. Mauna Loa and Kilauea are 
clearly independent volcanoes; and we have no 
reliable indications that their activity is diminish- 
ing. The vast antiquity of the Hawaiian volca- 
noes is plainly shown, not only by their magni- 
tude, but also by the wonderful progress of the 
agents of erosion, especially in those islands where 
the volcanic fires are now extinct. This is one of 
the principal topics discussed in the chapters on 
Maui and Oahu. 

The abstract of the report by Mr. J. S. Curtis on 
the mining geology of the Eureka district, Nevada, 
supplements that by Mr. Arnold Hague on the 
general geology of the same district in the pre- 
ceding volume. It is accompanied by sections of 
the principal workings, and discusses exhaustively 
the characteristics and probable origin of these 
singular ore-deposits, which had yielded sixty 
millions of dollars up to the close of 1882. 

Following this is a short but useful chapter on 
popular fallacies regarding precious metal ore- 
deposits by Mr. Albert Williams, jun. Dr. C. A. 
White’s review of the Ostreidae of North America, 
with an appendix by Mr. Heilprin, and thirty- 
eight plates, describes in simple yet scientific 
language all the known fossil species and the 
single living species of the Atlantic coast. A 
second appendix by Mr. Ryder, with eleven 
plates, is devoted to an interesting sketch of the 
life-history of the oyster. 

The volume concludes with Mr. I. C. Russell’s 
geological reconnaissance in southern Oregon, 
with two maps and sixteen small sections. This 
is a short but highly interesting account of the 
extreme northern part of the Great Basin, which 
is shown to possess the same structural and 
climatic features as the basin of Lake Lahontan, 
which bounds it on the south, and was described 
by the author in the annual report for 1881-82. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 


Missionary maps. —The establishments of Les 
missions catholiques at Lyon, France, have issued 
an atlas containing data collected by the Catholic 
missionaries in various parts of the world. Beside 
the general maps, which resemble those of any 
good elementary atlas, there are some thirty de- 
tailed maps which have appeared from time to 
time in the organ of the missionary bodies. 
Numerous important additions to geography have 
been made by the missionaries; and, in bringing 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 159 


‘them together in convenient form, the atlas meets 


areal need. They appeared first in German, with 
explanatory text by Father O. Werner, and have 
been translated into French, with additions, by 
Valerien Groffier. 

A newly discovered affluent of the Kongo. — 
The despatches from the Cape of Good Hope state 
that the expedition under Lieutenant Wissmann 
has discovered a new affluent of the Kongo, which 
will have an important bearing on the opening-up 
of the lower Kongo basin. Wissmann is on his 
way to Europe with the details. The new river is 
a powerful stream, over five hundred miles in 
length, between the equator and Stanley Pool. It 
is eight miles wide at its mouth, and quite deep. 
There were no obstacles to its navigation and the 
Pogge Falls, in the Tapende country, latitude 6° 
south, and longitude 22° east. Lake Lincoln, to 
be found on some charts, does not exist : the only 
lake encountered was Lake Leopold II., near the 
Kongo. The journey was made in large canoes 
constructed by the expedition, and a way was 
forced through the territory of savage cannibal 
tribes, who, if armed with guns instead of arrows, 
would have prevented their passage. In a single 
day as many as five conflicts took place, and sev- 
eral of the party were wounded, though none were 
killed. The journey was accomplished by Lieuten- 
ants Wissmann and Miiller, a physician, artificer, 
and forty-six natives. The ferocity of the natives 
is accounted for by the fact that they had never 
seen white men or fire-arms. More details will 
soon be accessible. Meanwhile it seems more 
likely that the river is one of those which have 
been known only by report, rather than an entirely 
new discovery. The country is reported to be 
fertile, producing palm-oil, sugarcane, rice, and 
other tropical products. 

Explorations in Central South America. — De 
Brettes sends a short note on his recent travels in 
the unexplored part of the southern district of the 
Gran Chaco, which began last March, and lasted 
forty-four days. He discovered a large salt lake 
(along which his party travelled nine days, and the 
west shore of which is estimated to be one hun- 
dred and thirteen miles long), also three rivers, 
running in a northerly direction, supposed to be 
tributaries of the Rio Vermejo. The south Chaco 
is flat, covered with thorns, mimosas, and tall 
herbage. The natives are hypocritical and cruel, 
and live in utter barbarism. After penetrating 
two hundred and twenty miles into the unknown 
region, the explorers were obliged by fever to re- 
trace their steps to Corrientes. A new expedition 
was in contemplation. 

Restoration of Lake Moeris. — The investiga- 
tions of Mr. Cope Whitehouse in regard to the 


Fepruary 19, 1886. ] 


site of the ancient Lake Moeris in Egypt have 
been so fruitful that the Egyptian government has 
taken the matter in hand, and it is believed, that, 
by a small expenditure, the surplus waters of Bahr 
Yussef can be directed into the now dry depres- 
sion. Preliminary surveys are in progress to de- 
termine the practicability and expense of restor- 
ing a state of things very exactly described by 
Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny, as having existed in 
past ages. 

Ancient Arabic inscription in the Sahara.— 
Le Chatelier furnishes an account of what may 
prove to be an important inscription in an artifi- 
cial cavern at Timissao, near the wells and on the 
right bank of the wady of the same name, in the 
Sahara. The wady, coming from the south, turns 
here toward the west. Its banks are of conglom- 
erate, in two horizontal beds, separated by a bed 
of gray schist in vertical layers. These schists 
have been dug out for a distance of over two hun- 
dred feet, forming a sort of gallery fifteen feet 
wide and six or seven feet high. The inner wall 
of the gallery is occupied by an inscription in Tifi- 
nakh lettering, the characters incised, and painted 
with red ochre. A more modern inscription in 
Arabic is simply painted on the roof. At the 
further end are some archaic incised figures on the 
wall, including those of five horses. The accounts 
seem to be truthful, though derived from the na- 
tives; and, if so, the deciphering of the inscrip- 
tions would be of great interest. 


ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 


Eclipse of the sun, 1886, Aug. 28-29.—-A bill has 
been introduced in congress, by Mr. Thomas of 
Illinois, to enable the secretary of the navy to fit 
out an expedition to observe the total eclipse of the 
sun which occurs on the 29th of August next. The 
sum of ten thousand dollars is appropriated for 
defraying the expenses of the expedition ; and the 
secretary is authorized to detail a naval vessel to 
transport the party to a point near Benguela, on 
the west coast of Africa, almost the only seaport 
which is near the central line of totality. The bill 
was introduced in the house of representatives on 
the 11th of January, but has not yet come up for 
consideration <A similar bill introduced in the 
senate has been favorably reported by the com- 
mittee on naval affairs. It will be remembered 
that this eclipse is of rather more than ordinary 
interest on account of the long duration of 
totality, —4™ 41s near Benguela. Another interest- 
ing circumstance has been noticed by Dr. Herz of 
Vienna, in the fact that at totality two stars, 47p 
Leonis and 49 Leonis, are close to the sun, the 
latter within the corona. Itis suggested, that. by 


SCIENCE. 


161 


means of measurements upon these two stars, 
something may be learned in regard to the re- 
fracting power of this peculiar atmosphere of the 
sun. The total phase will be visible in the West 
Indies; but the sun will not be in a good position 
for observation. According to Nature, at Car- 
riacou, the largest of the Grenadine Islands, 
totality commences at 192 11™ 45s local mean 
time, and lasts 3™ 21s; the sun’s altitude being 
20°. 

Comet 1886 . . . (Barnard).— According to 
an ephemeris published by Mr. H. V. Egbert of 
the Dudley observatory, we may look for this 
comet to become quite a bright object during the 
early morning-hours in the latter part of May. 
Mr. Egbert’s calculation shows that the comet on 
the 20th of May will be 360 times as bright as it 
was when discovered by Mr. Barnard, Dec. 3. Its 
position will be R. A., 22 53™; decl., + 20° 26’; 
that is, it will appear above our horizon about an 
hour before the sun. 


ST. PETERSBURG LETTER. 


THE last number (9) of the Journal of the Rus- 
sian physico-chemical society contains an elaborate 
paper, by K. Kraewitch, on the relation between 
the elasticity and density of the air in a rarified 
condition. His experiments on the velocity of 
sound show, that at a temperature of 17.5° C., 
the velocity decreased from 3830 metres, at a 
pressure of 761 millimetres, to 171 metres, at a 
pressure of 2.6 millimetres. At a pressure of 280 
millimetres, the velocity is about the same as the 
mean air pressure; but it diminishes rapidly be- 
low 280 millimetres. He concluded that gases 
below this pressure do not obey the Boyle-Mari- 
otte law. 

At the general meeting of the physico-chemical 
society in December, the coming eclipse of Aug. 
18, 1887, was discussed. Prof. 8. P. Glasenap 
showed a map on which the path of the total 
eclipse was marked. As it traverses an immense 
extent of Russia from Kiev to south-eastern 
Transbaikalia, and appears also on the shores of 
the great ocean at Possiet harbor, and as a total 
eclipse will not appear in Russia for thirty-six 
years after 1887, he concluded that the best use 
should be made of the opportunities offered by 
the eclipse to study different problems relating to 
solar physics. Prof. N. G. Egoroff followed with 
a communication on the corona and the opportu- 
nities offered by the eclipse for its study. The 
last paper was by Prof. A. Woeikof, on the mete- 
orological side of the question. Observations on 
the amount of cloud prevalent in the region show 
a cloudiness of about 51; that is, half the sky is 


162 


clouded on the average, from the western part of 
the totality to Lake Baikal, the region on both 
sides of the Ural Mountains excepted, where it is 
above 6. Probably the conditions will be a little 
better than those indicated, as the eclipse will take 
place in the later morning hours, when cloudiness 
is somewhat less than in early morning and the 
afternoon. In southern Transbaikalia the cloudi- 
ness is even less. There is no doubt, according to 
Woeikof, that, if the observing parties are well dis- 
tributed on the path of the eclipse, some of them 
will certainly have good atmospherical conditions, 
it being impossible that the sky be everywhere 
overcast on so extensive a territory. The great 
interest of barometric observations during the 
eclipse was then dwelt on, and the subject illus- 
trated by the results of the American expedition 
to the Caroline Islands. The results would be 
especially important as bearing on the theory of 
the daily variation of air pressure. 

At the annual meeting of the Academy of 
sciences, Jan. 10, the most interesting feature was 
a report on the progress and future prospects of 
the expedition to the New Siberian Islands under 
Dr. Bunge. It was to begin with an exploration 
of the Yana Basin. Among other matters, some 
results of last year’s observations at Werkhojansk 
were mentioned. The mean temperature of Jan- 
uary, 1885, was — 52°.7 C. (— 62°.9 F.) and the 
minimum — 68° C, ( — 90°.4 F.). Thus the low 
mean winter temperature at this place is more 
than confirmed by new and reliable observations, 
and it has the coldest winter weather yet known 
on our globe. 

Colonel Prejevalsky has not yet arrived at St. 
Petersburg. He is to lecture at Moscow to-day on 
his last travels. 

The annual meeting of the geographical society 
was held to-day. It was principally devoted to a 
review of the year’s work of the society by the 
secretary. The annual awards followed. The 
highest, the Constantine medal, was awarded to 
N. D. Jurgens, the chief of the Russian Lena ex- 
pedition. The Liitke medal was awarded to Colo- 
nel Pewtsow for his extensive travels and explo- 
rations in Mongolia; the great medai of the section 
of statistics, to Terestchenko, for his statistical 
description of several districts of the government 
of Poltava ; the great medal of the ethnographical 
section, to Dmitrowsky, for his translation, with 
numerous additions of Otono Kigoro’s Japanese 
account of Korea. The small gold medals were 
awarded to W. N. Mainow, for his anthropologi- 
cal and ethnographical description of the Mordwa 
(a Finnish tribe of eastern European Russia) ; to 
W. Fuss, for the calculation of the results of the 
Siberian levelling; to Prof. R. E. Lenz, for his 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou, VIL, No. 159 


useful work as president of the section of physical 
geography for seven years; and to Mielberg, for 
magnetical observation at Tiflis in connection 
with the polar stations. 

The next number of the Iswestia of the society 
will contain an important work of Gen. A. A. 
Tillo on the level of Lakes Ladoga, Husen, and 
Onega. In round numbers, the first was found to 
be five metres, the second eighteen, the last thirty- 
five metres, above the mean level of the Gulf of 
Finland. This is considerably less than admitted 
till now. For the altitude of Lake Ladoga, a 
height of about twenty metres was generally 
received; and for Onega, seventy metres. 

When the results of the levelling of Lake La- 
doga were first calculated, they were received 
with distrust, and a levelling on another road 
was made; but the result was confirmed. Other 
levellings are begun by the Ministry of public 
works, under the direction of General Tillo, 
among others, on the upper Volga. The general 
result is to make the level of the waters lower 
than they were admitted to be till now. 

A movement is under way for establishing a 
female medical school at St. Petersburg. A few 
years ago, ladies received instruction at one of 
the military hospitals, and some of the graduates 
are practising with honor. Later this instruction 
ceased, as the minister of war would not con- 
tinue the subsidy given before, nor allow the use 
of the buildings. Now the matter is under dis- 
cussion in the duma (city assembly) of St. Peters- 
burg. There are also private subscriptions for 
this end, and lately the great importance of 
female physicans is especially insisted upon for 
central Asia and eastern Transcaucasia; that is, 
provinces where the great mass of the people are 
Mohammedans. Q.. Bi. 

St. Petersburg, Jan. 17. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 

THE subject of bird-protection is receiving in- 
creased attention in England. A ‘ bird-protection 
league’ has been organized through the instru- 
mentality of Mr. G. A. Musgreave, F.R.G.S., the 
members of which pledge themselves neither to 
purchase birds of beautiful plumage nor to shoot 
rare birds. 

— The council of the Practical naturalists’ so- 
ciety of England have appointed Dr. J. W. 
Williams to make a survey of British bird-migra- 
tion, and prepare a list of migratory species, in- 
cluding those rare and extinct. 

—In connection with some letters which have 
recently appeared in these columns, the following 
sentences from Mr. Keltie’s report will be of inter- 


Frepruary 19, 1886. | 


est: ‘‘ Good large reliefs of limited areas, in which 
the two scales are as nearly as possible the same, 
are, in my opinion, of great service in geographi- 
cal teaching: but relief-maps of large areas, con- 
structed and colored as I have seen some of those 
much advertised in this country [England] by un- 
skilled mechanics, in which the scale of altitude 
is indefinitely magnified, are exceedingly mis- 
chievous.” 


—The valuable collections of mesozoic and 
czenozoic invertebrate paleontology, in the pos- 
session of the national museum, have been ar- 
ranged for reference and study. They consist of 
the material obtained by all of the earlier explora- 
tions of the west, and the various geological sur- 
veys, as well as the numerous contributions to the 
Smithsonian institution. Heretofore these collec- 
tions have been practically inaccessible, owing to 
their deranged condition. Over fifteen hundred 
figured types are included in this material ; anda 
preliminary catalogue has already been issued. 


— Bulletin 31 of the national museum, Mono- 
graph of the Syrphidae, by Dr. Williston of New 
Haven, will shortly be issued. 


— The recent purchase of new quarters for the 
Cosmos club of Washington has had a marked 
effect on the number of applicants for membership. 
The quota of members composing the club (250) 
will be speedily filled. 


— Of the three colleges — Columbia, Harvard, 
and University of Pennsylvania —that received 
the benefit of the Tyndall fund, Columbia has 
been the first to act. Her trustees have recently 
drawn up a series of regulations in regard to the 
John Tyndall fellowship. The fellow, who is to 
be appointed on the recommendation of the presi- 
dent and professors in the scientific department, 
must pursue a course of study and research in ex- 
perimental physics for the term of one year, and 
he may be re-appointed. The first incumbent of 
the fellowship is Michael Pupin, who graduated 
at Columbia in 1883 with honors, and has since his 
graduation been studying mathematics and physics 
at Cambridge, England. 


— The fish commission will publish a census of 
the fisheries of the great lakes; and a corps of 
clerks is now busily engaged in preparing the 
tabulated statements of the results‘of the investi- 
gations made last year. The commission is also 
trying to institute a more systematic method of 
recording the statistics of the sea-fisheries, and, in 
co-operation with the treasury department, has 
issued circulars to collectors of customs at various 
ports, requesting them to obtain from the masters 


SCIENCE. 


163 


of fishing-vessels facts and figures concerning the 
sea-fisheries in which they are engaged. 


— Mr. Charles A. Ashburner, geologist in charge 
of the Pennsylvania survey, has been invited to 
deliver a lecture on the geology and mining of 
petroleum and natural gas before the engineering 
society at Columbia School of mines, Friday, Feb. 
26. The lecture will be illustrated by maps, 
charts, and lantern-slides, and will embody the 
results of the state survey up to date. 


— The U. S. hydrographic office issues a weekly 
supplement to the monthly pilot chart of the 
North Atlantic ocean, which will be of special 
value to coasters. It contains accounts of every 
obstruction and danger along the coast, and other 
matters of interest to seamen, relating to naviga- 
tion, such as changes in lights or buoys. These 
bulletins are posted in all the seaport cities ; and 
the maritime community is invited to send any 
information of value to the central office at Wash- 
ington, or to any of the branch offices at Boston, 
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, 
and San Francisco. The object of the hydro- 
graphic office is to place within reach of sailors, at 
no expense to them, such information as cannot 
be collected profitably by an individual, but which 
the government can readily gather, at no addi- 
tional cost, through agencies already established. 


— The preparation and preservation of anatomi- 
cal specimens have always been more or less un- 
satisfactory in museum collections. The U. S. 
army and medical museum has recently, under 
the supervision of Dr. J. S. Billings, instituted a 
number of important improvements in these re- 
spects. Frozen sections, made of bodies with the 
organs in natural relation—a method practised 
in Europe for a number of years — are placed in 
special dishes or bowls, resembling ordinary wash- 
bowls with the top ground off, attached to a colored 
background of plaster-of-Paris. A glass cover is 
then cemented over the bowl, and through a 
small aperture the space is filled quite full with the 
preservative fluid. The colors of the tissues are 
preserved nearly as in life, by special means, and 
the whole preparation gives a naturalness not pos- 
sible of attainment by any other method. An- 
other feature, which has been devised at the 
museum, is a series of sections of the typical crania 
of the vertebrated animals. The object of this 
collection is to show the relationship of the bones 
which enter into the formation of the skull. 
These sections are made in a longitudinal-vertical 
direction, and the corresponding bones are painted 
the same color. Thus, in the series presented, the 
student can determine at a glance the relative 
state of development of any particular bone, from 


164 


that of a fish to that of a human being. The sec- 
tions are then mounted, one set displaying the 
structure of the internal part of the cranium, the 
other representing the bones as they appear from 
the outside. 


— The ‘Geological railway guide’ that was in 
course of revision for an enlarged second edition 
by the late James Macfarlane at the time of his 
death, is now in the hands of his son, James 
R. Macfarlane, 100 Diamond Street, Pittsburgh, 
Penn., who will edit and publish the work at an 
early date. Judging by the sample sheet, from 
which extracts were given in Science some months 
ago, the new edition will give a large amount of 
information directly useful to the travelling geolo- 
gist, and will be a fitting memorial of its pro- 
jector. 

— In a discussion of the temperature of Munich 
by Erk, in the annual volume containing the ob- 
servations of the Bavarian meteorological stations, 
the corrections are computed to reduce the mean 
of certain ordinary hours of observation to the 
true mean of the day. For the mean of 7.2 and 
twice 9, the reduction is —0°.02 C., varying from 
+0°.14 in October, to —0°.16 in May and July; for 
8.2 and twice 10, itis —0°.06, varying from +0°.04 
in October, to —0°.17 in April and May ; for the 
mean of maximum and minimum it is —0°.08, vary- 
ing from 0°.00 in December, to —0°.30 in October. 
Similar corrections have been made for a few 
places in this country. Additional ones are needed 
for many more stations, on account of the consid- 
erable diversity of hours of observation still pre- 
vailing among amateur meteorologists, on whom 
much of the knowledge of our climatology de- 
pends. 


— Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, the eminent nat- 
uralist, says the Boston Beacon, is quietly plan- 
ning an early visit to this country. He intends 
to pass some time in California, but may possibly 
accept a few invitations to lecture. 


— The Geographisches jahrbuch has just pub- 
lished interesting statistics in regard to the societies 
and publications devoted to geographical research. 
Those who have not been especially interested in 
these studies will be surprised to learn that there 
now exist, throughout the world, ninety-four active 
geographical societies, with a membership of nearly 
fifty thousand. This does not include fifty-eight 
societies in which geographical researches are 
subordinated to others. The entire income of 
these societies amounts to more than a quarter of 
million dollars annually, most of which is spent 
in the publication of transactions or in the further- 
ance of explorations. Of these ninety-four soci- 
eties, France has twenty-six, with a membership 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 159 


of eighteen thousand; Germany, twenty - four, 
with nine thousand members ; Italy and Switzer- 
land, six each, with three thousand members ; 
Great Britain and her colonies, five, with five 
thousand members and an income of nearly sev- 
enty-five thousand dollars; the United States, 
two, with fifteen hundred members. A hundred 
and twenty-six periodicals are devoted to geogra- 
phy, of which forty-two are published in French ; 
thirty-eight in German; eight in Russian ; seven 
in Italian ; six each in English, Spanish, and Por- 
tuguese; and one each in Danish, Hungarian, 
Swedish, Roumanian, and Japanese. 


— The French academy, says the Révue bota- 
nique, has recently announced the discovery of 
the entire efficacy of sulphate of copper in the de- 
struction of Peronospora viticola, the American 
fungus or mildew of vines, the great scourge of 
vineyards over large areas of the United States. 


— The Manchester philosophical and literary 
society possesses, says the Chemical news, a mi- 
croscopic slide containing the Lord’s prayer, writ- 
ten within the space of the four-hundred-and- 
five-thousandth part of an inch. To find this 
minute speck requires the exercise of much pa- 
tience, as it is not only necessary to have just the 
right kind of illumination, but the focus of the 
lens must be on the true surface of the glass on 
which the object is written. When once seen 
with a low power, it is not difficult to find with 
the same power; but with the half-inch and 
higher powers it is always a trial of patience, 
even when the position of the object has been 
carefully registered with a lower power, and you 
are sure that the object is central in the field. 
Perhaps with the achromatic condenser some of 
the difficulty may be removed. This wonderfully 
minute object was written, or rather engraved, by 
Mr. Webb, years ago, by the aid of an instru- 
ment now in the possession of the society. Webb 
was accustomed to write the Lord’s prayer in 
spaces of the five-hundredth to the ten-thousandth 
of an inch, and, as has been seen, to the four- 
hundred-and-five-thousandth. 


—A writer in a late number of Ciel et terre 
states, that under the most favorable conditions, 
from the summit of the Dole (altitude, 1,678 
metres), all the summits of the Alps are easily 
visible, from that of Pelvoux (4,000 metres), sev- 
enty-eight miles to the south, to the peak of 
Siintis (2,504 metres), clearly outlined in white 
against the deep blue of the horizon, one hundred 
and three miles distant. The view thus embraces 
all the peaks of the chain of the Alps for an ex- 
tent of more than one hundred and fifty miles. 
Contrary to that which has been observed in 


ee 


FEBRUARY 19, 1886.] 


lower altitudes, the writer asserts that the time 
is generally more favorable for vision in the after- 
noon, and that it is at sunset that one obtains the 
best views in the Alps. 


—The geographical society of Lisbon has re- 
cently published a list of the journals in the 
Portuguese provinces, printed in that language. 
This list includes the names of nineteen in An- 
gola, six at Cape Verde, seven in China, two in 
Guinea, fifteen in English India, seventy-two in 
Portuguese India, seventeen in Macao and Timor, 
ten in Mozambique, and three in the island of St. 
Thomas. In addition, seventeen are published in 
Portugal, which are devoted to the interests of the 
foreign Portuguese provinces. 


—Interesting experiments have lately been 
made by Dr. Parsons, we learn from Health, on 
disinfection of clothes and bedding by heat. 
These experiments, among other points, have 
shown what degree of heat, and duration of 
exposure, are necessary under different condi- 
tions (e.g., of moisture and dryness) in order to 
destroy with certainty the germs of infectious 
disease. The net results of Dr. Parsons’s experi- 
ments on this head are as follows: with the ex- 
ception of spore-bearing cultivations of the bacil- 
lus of splenic-fever, all the infective materials 
reported on were destroyed by an hour’s exposure 
to dry heat of 220° F., or five minutes’ exposure 
to steam at 212° F. Spores (or the reproductive 
particles) of this bacillus required for destruction 
four hours’ exposure to dry heat of 220° F., or 
one hour’s exposure to dry heat of 245° F., but 
were destroyed by five minutes’ exposure to a 
heat of 212° F. in steam or boiling water. It may 
therefore be assumed that the germs of the or- 
dinary infectious diseases cannot withstand an 
exposure of an hour to dry heat of 220° F., or an 
exposure of five minutes to boiling water or steam 
of 212° F. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


x*, Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name is in all cases required as proof of gcod faith. 


Did Dr. Hayes reach Cape Lieber in his arctic 
exploration of 1861? 


THIS question has given rise to much controversy of 
late years; and, for the sake of truth, it is highly 
desirable that it should be satisfactorily answered, 
although this could only be definitely done by the dis- 
covery of the cairn, with its enclosed statement, de- 
posited by Dr. Hayes at the highest latitude reached 
by him. 

The writer believes he can throw some little light 
on the question, from the fact that he had the original 
records before him, worked up the astronomical ob- 
servations (Smithsonian Contributions to knowledge, 
No. 196, February, 1865), and constructed the chart 
of the expedition, under the doctor’s immediate 


SCIENCE. 


165 


direction, from the materials prepared by him. A 
tracing of this chart, upon which Dr. Hayes first 
assigned and wrote the geograpbical names, and 
with his signature attached, is still in my possession. 
It is reproduced in the work quoted above. 

The west coast of Kennedy Channel was first seen 
and remarkably well outlined by Morton, of the 
Kane expedition, in June, 1854, and has since been 
passed and repassed by many explorers: we may 
therefore take, for the purpose of comparison and 
reference, the latest excellent delineation as given on 
the chart (No. 962) issued by the hydrographic office 
of the navy, in February, 1885, and which is supposed 
to embody our best geographical knowledge within 
its region. 

We shall first collate Dr. Hayes’s narrative (‘The 
open polar sea,’ New York, 1867) with this chart, 
and see where this will land us. The dates of this 
part of the narrative are unfortunately very scanty, 
and need identification in order to trace the progress 
and position of the party from day to day. Dr. 
Hayes reached the western coast of the Kane basin 
May 6, 1854, while a member of the Kane expedition, 
at or near Cape Frazer, in latitude 79° 45. Page 
336 (of the narrative) he says. *‘ Our camp was made 
near the farthest point reached by me in 1804.” 
This was on May 14, 1861, as identified by me by 
means of the astronomical latitude recorded for that 
day (p. 20 of the ‘ Physical observations,’ etc., of the 
Smithsonian publication). The resulting latitude, 
80° 06’, appears, therefore, too high in comparison 
with our chart. Dr. Hayes there found his old flag- 
staff still standing, and remarks, ‘We were now 
within Kennedy Channel,’ and is struck with the 
circumstance (p. 339) that no land was visible to the 
eastward, as he could easily have seen fifty or sixty 
miles in the clear atmosphere; here he concludes 
that Kennedy Channel must be much wider, and 
assigns to it a width of over thirty miles, when in 
reality it is but twenty nautical miles. He was then 
fully forty nautical miles south of the entrance of 
the channel (which is at Cape Lawrence), and looked 
out on the Kane basin, instead, as he supposed, 
toward the eastern shore of the channel. 

Here, then, at the very outset, we meet with what 
we must now regard a mistake, the influence of which 
may have injuriously biassed his judgment as to the 
extent of his further progress. The next day (May 
15) his strongest man, Jensen, broke completely 
down, and was left at Jensen’s camp. Thisis south of 
Seoresby Bay, since this deep bay (p. 343) was passed 
on May 16. On this day he believed himself to be in 
a higher latitude than Morton had reached, which 
was about 80° 30’. On May 18 he appears to have 
been in the vicinity of Cape Collinson. Apparently 
no mention is made, in the narrative, of the crossing 
of Richardson Bay; but on May 18 he was finally 
arrested by a large bay, twenty miles in length (pp. 
346-348). This, according to our chart, could have 
been no other than Rawlings Bay: here its southern 
cape, known as Cape Good, in latitude 80° 16’, would 
consequently mark his highest point reached. Be- 
tween Rawlings and Lady Franklin bays there is no 
other long bay. That named after Carl Ritter is 
apparently not over two or three miles in length; 
and Lady Franklin Bay does not fit the description of 
his highest bay, inasmuch as its head could not be 
seen from Cape Lieber, not even the point where the 
bay divides into two long fiords. This comparison, 
then, would lead to the conclusion that he never 


166 


entered Kennedy Channel at all, and that bis supposed 
Cape Lieber was in reality Cape Good, always pro- 
vided that our comparison chart is fully to be trusted. 

Opposed to this conclusion of a material contrac- 
tion of the route, we have, in the first place, the 
-explorer’s own assertion on the spot, and he ought to 
know how far he had gone. The paper placed by 
him in a bottle buried in the cairn gives his highest 
latitude as 81° 35° (p. 351 of the narrative), — an 
opinion to which he ever afterwards strenuously 
adhered ; secondly, we have his chart, with his track 
extended to the southern cape of Lady Franklin Bay, 
and which is supported by his astronomically deter- 
mined latitude on May 17, at Farthest camp, in 81° 
314’ (see p. 20 Smithsonian publication). Those who 
believe that he fell short of his asserted position must 
discredit this last observation. Indeed, the com- 
parison of the result of this latitude observation 
with the next one, which gave the latitude 79° 583’ 
(ibid., p. 20), taken May 20, on his return, the day after 
he left his highest point, has furnished material for 
criticism (by Dr. Bessels), as it appeared incredible 
that so long a distance should or could have been 
traversed ina single day. Yet we should remember 
that arguments based upon speed alone are rather 
treacherous: thus it took Hayes forty-six days to 
reach his highest point on the outward trip, and but 
fifteen days to return thence to the schooner. It is 
true he had to carry a heavy Joad when setting out ; 
but this is compensated by the retardment due to 
physical weakness of the party, both men and beasts, 
during their return. No journal was kept by the 
leader on the home-trip, his whole energy being 
required to save himself and party; and his prostra- 
tion was such, that he lost the day of the week by 
one (as he stated to me), and had to recover the date 
on his arrival] on board ship. He also bad the mis- 
fortune of having his chronometer run down during 
a prolonged sleep when near his Cape Lieber. 

It is not surprising, that, under these cireum- 
stances, his observation at Farthest camp should be 
defective ; but it is particularly unfortunate that he 
left no means of knowing how he determined his 
meridian, his practice being to observe but a single 
altitude of the sun. It is highly probable that the 
observation was made with the sun in some other 
vertical than that of the meridian, hence was at a 
lower altitude. and consequently gave an abnormally 
high latitude for his place. May he not have esti- 
mated the time of the meridian passage, and mis- 
taken the direction of the north and south line? Itis 
noteworthy that he greatly misplaced the direction of 
the western shore (and axis) of Kennedy Channel, 
which is about N, 30° E., while his chart makes it 
trend nearly due north (N. 5° E.). 

It may be asked, How could Hayes locate on his 
chart, with approximate correctness, the western 
shore-line as high as 82° 15’ (Cape Union), supposing 
him to have been unable to cross Rawlings Bay? To 
this it might be replied, that this shore had already 
been traced by Morton up to this northern limit (see 
chart in vol. i. of Kane’s ‘ Explorations,’ Philadelphia, 
1856). 

Without pretending to give a conclusive reply to 
the question at the head of this article, I shall con- 
tent myself with having pointed out the nature of 
the difficulties which beset it ; and, while the balance 
of probability seems to point to a decision unfavor- 
able to the claim, 1 entertain the hope that some 
future explorer may discover the rough but sufficient 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 159 


monument by which alone a positive and just decision 
can be arrived at. 

An extract from Lockwood’s diary, given on p. 95: 
of Science, No, 156, stating that he, as well as Dr. 
Pavy and Major Greely. agreed in the opinion that 
Hayes never reached Cape Lieber, induced me to 
examine the subject anew, with the result as given 
above. CHARLES A. SCHOTT. 

Washington, Feb. 7. 


An open letter. 


Prof. Simon Newcoms, President of the American 
society for psychical research. 

DEAR Sir, — The writer of the accompanying com- 
munication has misapprehended the function of the 
Society of naturalists: but the phenomena he de- 
scribes fortunately fall within the purview of the 
association over whose deliberations you preside, 
and I therefore commit it to your hands. 

Very respectfully, 
G. K. GILBERT. 


Mr. G. K. GILBERT, President of the American society 
of naturalists, Washington. 


For the good of science, and in the interest of 
humanity, I address your worship, entering at once 
upon my subject. 

At the meetings of a spiritualistic society, the 
members of which bear an unimpeachable character, 
during the course of about three years of daily ex- 
periments by means of the spirit-table, the self-called 
spirits that were evoked have dictated a treatise, 
and now demand that it be given to the press, and 
bear the title ‘Spiritualistic apocalypse,’ asserting 
that such publication is necessary for humanity. 

In this dictation it is established and explained, 
with marvellous clearness, learning, and scientific 
language, what is ‘ power’ and what is ‘force.’ and 
how these two perform their functions in harmony 
through eternity and through space. Next there is 
established the fact of a living magnetic current, 
which will give occasion for new discoveries, and a 
metaphysics of social harmony, with absolutely new 
arguments, on which it will be well for society to 
reflect seriously. Moral science is lighted up in its 
true profile, and not from the utilitarian side, Reli- 
gions are placed in the position which they deserve, 
and indirectly the true religion is pointed out. There 
are weighty political prophecies; one of them, a very 
beautiful one, having been dictated by a spirit who 
said he was General George Washington. There are 
useful counsels for organic social reforms, learned 
astronomic communications, and surprising explana- 
tions of fundamental theologic philosophy. Physics, 
chemistry, and algebra are largely, and with critical 
judgment, employed in the development of the theo- 
rems thus estabhshed. There are instructive dia- 
logues and trilogues among spirits of diverse nature 
and degree, but identical in substance. Finally, the 
virtual necessity of the why and how of their exist- 
ence is explained. This, in brief, is what the self- 
called spirits have dictated, and what they wish 
humanity to know. 

My companions and friends, before publishing this 
collection, in order to have some fact that might 
induce persons to read it and reflect on it, under the 
influence of a firm assurance that it is not the off- 
spring of our own minds, have asked the dictating 
spirits’ permission to invite other experimenters to 


Fesruary 19, 1886.] 


inquire, by means of their mediums, whether what has 
been dictated to us has really been dictated by them, 
and whether its publication has been demanded. In 
obtaining this permission we were assured that the 
spirits would everywhere assert the truth of the fact. 
In case this event should take place, your worship will 
understand its weight and importance; and this is 
the reason why I, always in the name of science and 
humanity, ask you to bring together under your 
supervision competent and honest persons, and, em- 
ploying known spiritualistic mediums, to call forth 
the spirits and ask them :— 

1. Is it true that at Catania a perfectible spirit, by 
order of his prime spirit, has dictated a work which 
he wishes to be called ‘ Spiritualistic apocalypse’ ? 

2. Are the premises established, and the conse- 
quences deduced, from the theories and principles 
dictated in this work the true ones ? 

3. Will this work be useful to humanity? And, 
further, all other questions which may be thought 
necessary to ascertain the truth. 

I likewise pray and authorize you, in the name of 
my friends, to invite other scientific societies, and 
individual men of science, to make similar experi- 
ments, with the request that you will have the kind- 
ness to communicate to us the answers obtained. 

In the hope of soon having the honor of seeing 
your handwriting, 

I remain with all respect and obedience, 
Yours devotedly, 
; ANTONINO ScAvVo VITA. 
Catania (Sicily), Jan. 20. 


Montana climate. 


The interesting notes of Dr. Dawson and Mr. Davis 
on the origin of the Chinook winds of the north-west 
are undoubtedly correct. Their characteristics are 
exactly those of the foehn. But Dr. Dawson limits 
the range of these winds too much. They extend at 
least as far south as the great western bend of the 
Rocky Mountain divide, north of Henry’s Lake; and 
their tempering influences reach to the extreme 
boundary of Montana. 

In recent climatological articles in Science, I notice 
several misleading references to ‘ Montana climate,’ 
as if it were comparable, in steady, extreme cold, to 
the winters of Siberia, or even Canada. This is far 
from being the case. There is no such thing as a 
‘Montana climate.’ The climate of Port Assiniboine 
and Glendive is one thing, while that of Bozeman and 
Helena is quite another. Here seems to be the bat- 
tle-ground between the cold waves descending from 
British America, and the temperate western currents 
from the Pacific. Changes are sometimes very sud- 
den from temperatures far below zero to above the 
freezing-point, and vice versa, as one or the other 
gets the upper hand; but many a cold wave which 
extends from the mouth of the Yellowstone to the 
Atlantic is deflected by the pressure from the west, 
so as not to be felt in central Montana. The recent 
severe storm, for instance, kept entirely east of us. 
On Feb, 2, the minimum at Assiniboine was — 16° ; 
at Benton, — 1°; at St. Paul, — 26°; while it was 
+ 15° at Helena, and + 33° at Bozeman. It was calm 
and mild here, and not till two days later did the ther- 
mometer reach the freezing-point at Benton. Mild 
weather has since prevaiied throughout Montana. 

The ouly extreme cold weather experienced here 
was during the January storm on the Pacific, when 


SCIENCE. 


167 


we had a week of below-zero weather, with a very 
low thermometer, — something very unusual here, 
and altogether unaccountable to me, until I learned 
of the storm on the coast. 

If it were not for the warm Pacific currents, our win- 
ter climate would probably be arctic ; but those cur- 
rents make it usually far milder and more enjoyable 
than at corresponding latitudes farther east. In 1885, 
when during February and March one blizzard suc- 
ceeded another from Dakota to the seaboard, I gath- 
ered buttercups (Ranunculus glaberrimus) in bloom 
at Bozeman on March 15 ; and on April 5 I gathered 
more than half a dozen species of flowers (Ammoni 
patens, Douglassia montana. Phlox canescens, Fritil- 
laria pudica, Synthyris, Townsendia, etc.) on a 
mountain side, at an altitude of about six thousand 
feet near the Bozeman tunnel, the highest point on 
the Northern Pacific railroad. 

I send you enclosed specimens of what I gathered 
yesterday (Feb. 7): Ranunculus glaberrimus with 
well-advanced buds, well-developed catkins of alder, 
and catkins of willow and quaking asp, showing the 
white, silky covering. P. Koc. 

Bozeman, Montana, Feb. 8. 


Oil on troubled waters. 


During a portion of the years 1839-41, the writer, 
as a boy, got an experience of life on the ocean in 
New Bedford whalers (two of them). Though a boy, 
I was noted for ‘seeing every thing.’ Being between 
decks one day, whilst the vessel was lying to in a 
storm, I observed, that, with every lea-lurch, the 
weather-seams opened, and let in the daylight and 
frequently much water. It seemed to me a danger- 
ous condition, and I hastened to report to the officer 
‘of the deck,’ ‘on deck,’ or ‘of the watch.’ He 
only laughed at me, and told me to rig the pump and 
pump her out, if I thought she was sinking. He said, 
‘*The way they make a whaler is to buy a worn-out 
merchantman, put a new deck on and new sticks 
in her, and send her out as a new vessel; and you 
know what the Bible says about putting new and old 
together? Well, it oftens happens in such cases that 
the old hull sinks, and the deck and spars sail on as 
though nothing had happened Oh! we get used to 
that.” 

That I knew to be ‘a yarn;’ but when I sawa 
‘“merchantman’ laboring in a sea that was not very 
bad for a whaler, and learned that the life of a 
‘merchantman’ was much shorter than a whaler’s, I 
wanted to know why, for it seemed to me that there 
must be a reason for it. I found, for one thing, that 
whalers always made better weather than merchant- 
men, when they were in company; that seas would 
not break in our wake, that would in the wake of a 
merchantman ; that the wake of a whaler was per- 
sistent, whilst that of a merchantman was rather 
evanescent ; and that placid waters, or ‘ short seas,’ 
are the rule on ‘cruising ground,’ when whales are 
about. All ‘whalers’ have their decks, at times, 
reeking with oil; and, although the decks are 
‘washed down’ daily, it takes a great many wash- 
ings to free them from all the oil; and much that 
goes out of the scuppers clings to the sides of the 
vessel to be gradually washed off by the sea. 

A little oil goes a great way on a car-wheel to 
relieve friction, and it does in that case what it does 
on waterinastorm. I think rain acts in the same 
way in beating down waves. The drops roll to land- 


168 


ward, and in rolling react upon the waves, each a 
little ; but the aggregate is enough. 
Gro. F,. WATERS. 


The competition of convict-labor. 


In my criticisms of Mr. Butler’s articles on this 
competition, I have shown that his method of stating 
the figures in totals, regardless whether these totals 
are in that relation which is the question at issue, 
namely in competition, is irrelevant. 

Now, in his last rejoinder (Science, vii. No. 158), he 
brings some figures which are relevant in showing 
this relation in two trades in New York, — hat and 
shoe making. In the former, for the year 1879, the 
ratio was 320 convicts to 5,267 free workers in the 
first trade, and 1,927 convicts to 26,261 in the second. 
The first ratio, he says, is ‘about 4 per cent,’ and 
the second ‘ something over 4 per cent.’ In addition 
to questionable ethics and statistics already dis- 
played, he now introduces very questionable arith- 
metic; for in reality the first ratio is 6 45 per cent, 
and the second 7.88. One who thus figures may well 
have, as he says, *‘ some hesitation in adducing fresh 
figures’ (‘fresh’ in the sense of new, of course), ‘ for 
fear they may be summarily rejected as useless.’ 
True, Mr. Butler, but not for the reason you give, — 
‘* because they do not fit in some person’s idea of how 
the ‘course of nature’ ought to go.” No ‘ person’ 
has said or implied any thing about ‘ought’ in 
relation to the ‘course of nature’ or any other 
relation. 

Those who are organizing the working-classes into 
a political party, to obtain what they deem justice, 
are in earnest. Only one who has not felt the dread- 
ful sensation of being unable to sell his labor, when 
that is necessary to sustain life, can realize the bitter- 
ness and pain of such a situation. For every convict 
whose labor-product is sold in the market, a free la- 
borer becomes superfluous, and therefore fewer work, 
or all are laid off temporarily, in that branch into 
which the convict is introduced. Here the ‘ political 
economist’ of the prevailing order says, ‘ Find some- 
thing else to do.” In most cases it is impossible. 

There is another evil effect on free labor, resulting 
from prison-labor competition under any form ; and 
that is, the effect it has to lower the rate of wages 
in any branch it enters. It must gain its market by 
underselling free-labor products ; and however small 
the percentage, both as to its amount and of the 
decrease of its price, it lowers the standard of prices, 
including wages, in that entire branch. 

To the workingman, a market for his labor is neces- 
sary to life: to the state, a profit from the prison is 
not essential. 

Shylock, surely not an insane humanitarian, truly 
says, ‘‘He takes my life who from me takes the 
means whereby I live.” E. LANGERFELD. 


Is the dodo an extinct bird? 


Have the recent excursions in theosophy, of my 
young friend Dr. Shufeldt (see Mind in nature, 
January and February), spoilt a very promising 
ornithologist to the extent of making him mistake a 
live Samoan tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigi- 
rostris) for the astral body or the projection of the 
double of a perfunct dodo (Didus ineptus) 4 

ELxLiotr Cougs. 
Smithsonian inst., Feb. 14. 


SCIENCE. 


ba 


[Vou. VII., No. 159 


Corrections of thermometers for pressure. 


The letter of Messrs. Venable and Gore in the last 
number of Science, on the effect of pressure on ther- 
mometers, contains a reference to the signal service, 
of such a character as to deserve a brief notice. It 
comes near leaving the impression that the service 
has just begun to consider a phenomenon which has 
been well known to most meteorologists, and to all 
engaged in accurate thermometric research, for more 
than fifty years. The letter, to which reply was sent 
from the office of the chief signal officer, made 
inquiry as to whether the service had ever published 
any thing on the subject, how thermometers used on 
Mt. Washington and Pike’s Peak were compared with 
standards, and requesting information on the sub- 
ject. The particular phase of the question which 
the service has ‘had under consideration’ was, 
whether the effect on the thermometers used in the 
service was sufficient to justify the application of a 
correction. To this end, some experiments had been 
made, the results of which were communicated to 
the writer of the letter. The correction necessary 
for Pike’s Peak, which is the most elevaced station 
from which the service receives reports, amounts to 
a few hundredths of a degree; and the propriety of 
its use is doubtful. The references quoted by the 
writers of the letter in Science were furnished them 
by the chief signal officer in his reply ; the paper 
of Loewy and the memoir of Marck being quoted as 
among the latest. and most complete. The phenome- 
non has by no means escaped the attention of 
writers. Among works likely to be easy of access, 
it will be found noticed in the ‘American cyclopedia,’ 
‘Johnson’s cyclopedia,’ Deschanel’s ‘ Natural philos- 
ophy,’ Balfour Stewart’s ‘ Heat,’ and doubtless many 
others of that class. It is noticed in numerous 
reports of the British association, especially in the 
reports of the committee on underground tempera- 
tures. One of the earliest investigations of the sub- 
ject was by Egen (Pogg. ann. 1827). Sir William 
Thomson considered it, and provided against it, in 
1850, in his verification of Prof. James Thomson’s 
prediction of. the lowering of the freezing-point by 
pressure. Professor Rowland considered it, and 
allowed for it, in his research on the mechanical 
equivalent of heat. In Nature (1873-74) it was 
much discussed ; and of course it has been a matter 
of vital importance in all modern deep-sea tempera- 
ture-work, in the reports of which it receives full dis- 
cussion. SIG. 

Washington, D.C., Feb. 15. 


Tadpoles in winter. 


I have frequently observed tadpoles during winter, 
in ponds that were entirely frozen over, swimming 
about underneath the ice. Most of them were of 
large size: I remember none being less than three 
or four centimetres in length. 

Although, in this latitude, most of the frog-spawn 
is deposited during the first warm weather of spring, 
and the hatchings of these spawns develop into frogs 
before the following winter, yet spawns occasionally 
occur in late summer or early fall; and the hatch- 
ings of these late deposits fail to mature within the 
same season, and consequently, in favored localities, 
live until the following spring, when they transform 


into frogs. C. C. GREEN. 
Mdidleport, O., Feb. 10. 


= 


——————— 


~SCIENCE.—SuppPLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1886. 


VIRCHOW ON ACCLIMATIZATION. 


AT the congress of German naturalists and 
physicians held at Strasburg, Professor Virchow, 
the eminent pathologist, delivered an address on 
‘ Acclimatization and the Europeans in the col- 
onies,’ of which the following is an abstract. 

In these days of colonization, in which large 
numbers of human beings leave their homes and 
settle in foreign lands, under strange and un- 
accustomed conditions, the subject of the probable 
influence of such change upon themselves and 
their descendants becomes highly important from 
a practical point of view. The key to this problem 
is in the hands of physicians. With one or two 
notable exceptions, the subject has been neglected 
by scientific men. An opinion is current, and is 
often believed by those who send out colonies, 
that man is able to adapt himself to living on any 
part of the earth; that he is cosmopolitan in the 
widest sense. This view has allied itself to the 
monogenetic theory, which believes in the original 
common origin of all mankind from one pair, 
because thus this cosmopolitanism would simply 
be the return to former conditions. It was the 
changes from this primitive condition which 
caused the variations in the races of men. 

Pathology is to be regarded, not simply as the 
study of the action of accidental causes upon 
man, which change*his normal condition, but as 
necessary a science as physiology. Every biologi- 
cal science, zodlogy, botany, must have its pathol- 
ogy. It is a method of research, an experiment 
in vivisection which nature has made for us with- 
out shedding a drop of blood. From this point of 
view, all deviations, at first perhaps accidental, 
which become fixed by heredity, belong to the 
field of the pathologist. That such pathological 
variations are possible, one case is sufficient to 
show. A woman had a congenital defect of the 
arm, in which the radius was bent in a peculiar 
position, and the thumb of each hand was want- 
ing. This woman’s child was affected precisely in 
the same way, except that on one hand the thumb 
was in a rudimentary condition. In neither case 
was there an injury, but the accidental variation 
was transmitted. The question of the permanent 
acquisition of these pathological traits is a more 
difficult one. 


The effects of a new climate upon the emigrant 
are well known, and are greater as the conditions 
of his new home differ more radically from those 
of his mother-country. A sort of new growth 
must take place, a new adaptation to the environ- 
ment. A prominent symptom is a feeling of 
languor, which lasts for days, weeks, or even 
months. Two kinds of disease are apt to beset the 
emigrant: the first is the climatic indisposition 
already mentioned ; the second, the real climatic 
disease. The life of the individual is then in dan- 
ger, until the question is decided whether his body 
has the power of adopting the new conditions or 
not. It is on this point that clinical observations 
in different countries are needed. In this organic 
transformation of the individual the fate of his 
descendants is involved. It is here that ethnol- 
ogists become interested to find proofs for their 
theories that small variations become fixed and 
lead to racial differences. Experimental evidence 
on this point is still wanting. 

The question of greatest interest to us is, To 
what extent has the white race, in its historic 
evolution, shown the power of adaptation? The 
white race is not a simple one, and distinctions 
must be made. The Semitic, as opposed to the 
Aryan branch, has a very great superiority in this 
respect. Again, the southern nations — Span- 
iards, Portuguese, Sicilians — have a greater pow- 
er of adaptation than the northerners. In the 
colonization of the Antilles, the attempts of the 
English and French have been more or less disas- 
trous, while those of the Spaniards have been 
quite successful. The general proposition, which 
is only a provisional one, seems to be that a 
southern people can emigrate to an equatorial 
region without danger. The readiness with which 
a population mixes with another is also of impor- 
tance. The more southern Aryan peoples more 
easily assimilate with the Semitic element than 
the northern ones. This Semitic element, which 
appears early in the Phoenician expeditions to 
foreign lands, is best suited for founding per- 
manent colonies. To this day, relics of the settle- 
ments all along the coast of the Mediterranean, 
made by Semitic people, can be traced. 

Those white races which cannot become accli- 
matized without great loss may be called vulner- 
able, and the regions of the globe which are open 
to them are very limited. 

North America is one of these favorable regions. 
The French were able to found a flourishing and 


170 


active colony in so cold a country as Canada. 
The United States, with its mixture of nationali- 
ties, is another such region. The acclimatization, 
however, is not brought about without consider- 
able change in the mental life and characteristics 
of the people. The Yankee is strikingly different 
from the Englishman. 
longevity of a colony is the relative birth-rate and 
mortality as compared with that in the mother- 
country. The general result is, that, the farther 
south we go into the tropical countries, the lower 
does the reproductive power of the colony become, 
until in a few generations sterility is more and 
more prevalent. Of this the Creoles are a good 
example. The special cause of this degeneration 
has been regarded by physicians as a lack of the 
formation of blood, a general anaemia. This ex- 
planation, however, is not final; and a further 
cause, such as the presence of micro-organisms 
in the water, is to be looked for. The great 
prevalence of liver-disease in such cases offers a 
valuable clew. 

It is considerations such as these which make 
us feel the want of thorough scientific research of 
the conditions which control the foundation of 
colonies. When these are known, it will no longer 
be necessary to make sacrifices of thousands of 
men in an idle attempt to make inhabitable some 
desolate unfavorable region. The order of na- 
tional adaptability to new environment we have 
made out to be, first, the Jews; then the Span- 
iards, Portuguese, etc. ; then the southern French 
and the northern French ; and lastly the Germans. 
The remarkable immunity of the Jews is a ques- 
tion of great interest. What share in this pecul- 
iarity is due to their peculiar hygiene, choice of 
food, devotion to the home sentiment or to their 
occupation, is an open question. 


THE TRADE IN SPURIOUS MEXICAN 
ANTIQUITIES. 


THE present is a museum-making era, and fu- 
ture generations are perhaps to be congratulated 
that such is the case; but this wide-spread fancy 
for hunting and hoarding relics has given rise to 
minor features greatly to be deplored. The in- 
creased demand has given a considerable money 
value to antiquities ; and this has led to many at- 
tempts, on the part of dishonest persons, to supply 
the market by fraudulent means. To such a degree 
of perfection has the imitation of some varieties of 
relics been carried, that detection is next to im- 
possible. Doubtless in time most of the spurious 
pieces will be detected and thrown out; but in the 
mean time they will have made an impression 
upon literature, and upon the receptive mind of 


SCIENCE. 


The real sign of the 


[Vou. VII., No. 159 


the public, that is most difficult to eradicate. In 
view of these facts, it would seem to be the duty 
of interested persons to publish, at the earliest 
opportunity, all reliable information tending to 
expose frauds and correct erroneous impressions. 

It is perhaps in stone, and especially in steatite, 
that frauds are most frequently attempted ; but 
the potter’s art has not escaped, and most of our 
collections contain specimens illustrating the skill 
of the modern artisan and the carelessness of 
collectors. Although we need not go beyond our 
own borders for illustrations of this statement, I 
wish here to call attention to some examples from 
Mexico. In pre-Columbian times the native potter 
of that country had reached a high degree of skill ~ 
in the handling of clay; and Spanish influence 
has not been sufficiently strong to greatly change 
the methods, or restrict the manufacture. It is 
very easy, therefore, for the native artisan to 
imitate any of the older forms of ware ; and there 
is no doubt that in many cases he has done so for 
the purpose of deceiving. A renewed impetus 
has been given to this fraudulent practice by the 
influx of tourists consequent upon the completion 
of numerous railways. 

The variety most frequently imitated is a soft, 
dark ware, sometimes ferruginous, but generally 
almost black. The forms are varied, including 
vases, statuettes, pipes, whistles, and _ spindle- 
whorls, all of which are profusely ornamented. 
One notable form is a vase modelled in dark clay, 
and bristling with a superabundance of figures in 
relief, which give a castellated effect. A large 
piece recently acquired by the national museum 
was designated a ‘miniature stone fort’ by the 
collector, and a second piece could as readily be 
called a Chinese pagoda in clay. 

The body of these vases is usually a short, up- 
right cylinder, mounted upon three feet, and is 
profusely decorated with incised patterns and 
with a variety of ornaments, including human 
and animal figures in the round. <A row of fig- 
ures surrounds the rim, giving a _ battlemented 
effect ; and a high conical lid, surmounted by a 
human figure, is usualiy added. The body of the 
vessel is modelled by hand ; and the flatter portions 
of the surface are rudely polished, and covered 
with incised patterns. The attached figures are 
formed separately in moulds, and afterwards. set 
into their places. Certain parts are further elab- 
orated by means of figured stamps. After fin- 
ishing, the vases are prepared for mar«xet by 
burial for a short time in the moist earth, or, 
more frequently perhaps, by simply washing 
them with a thin solution of clay. The deposit 
of clay is afterwards partially wiped off, leaving 
the lines and depressions filled with the light-— 


FEBRUARY 19, 1886. | 


colored deposit. So clever are these fellows, that 
the vessels are sometimes slightly mutilated be- 
fore they are submitted to this finishing process. 

This ware may be purchased at any of the relic- 
shops in the city of Mexico; but San Juan Teoti- 
huacan seems to be the headquarters of the traffic. 
In passing back and forth by the railway, I found 
that each train was met by one or more of the 
venders, who were careful to expose but a limited 
number of pieces, and that this method of sale 
was systematically practised. Wishing to secure 
a piece, I waited until the train was about to move 
off, when I held out a silver dollar, and the vase 
shown in the accompanying figure was quickly in 
my possession. The price asked was five dollars, 
and in the city of Mexico would have been three 
times that amount. At the rate of purchase indi- 
cated by my experience at San Juan, at least one 
piece per day was carried away by tourists, mak- 
ing hundreds each year. It is not wonderful, 
therefore, that museums in all parts of the world 
are becoming well stocked with this class of 
Mexican antiquities. Oddly enough, no such 
ware is found among the antiquities of the locali- 
ty ; and none, so far as I know, occur on the site 
of any ancient Aztec or Toltec settlement. Not- 
withstanding this fact, the venders do not hesitate 
to assign definite localities to the relics, and to 
give full accounts of their discovery. One of the 
national museum’s pieces is said to have been dis- 
covered by workmen in digging a well fifty feet 
beneath the surface; and another, an excellent 
lithograph of which appears in the Zeitschrift fiir 
eithnologie for 1882, is reported to have been found 
in a cavern at San Juan Teotihuacan. 

The ease with which such pieces can be ob- 
tained should convince collectors that something 
is wrong ; but a close examination of the specimen 
generally yields much additional evidence. It is 
well known that any article buried for a long time 
in the earth will be thoroughly discolored, and 
that every crack and cavity having the least con- 
nection with the surface will be completely filled 
with sediment ; but in many cases it will be found 
that in spurious pieces the doctoring with washes 
of clay has been too hasty, and that small patches, 
especially in unexposed places, are not in the least 
discolored. An attractive whistling vase of com- 
plicated structure, recently purchased by an 
American resident of Mexico, was found, upon 
close examination of obscure parts, to have come 
but recently from the furnace. 

It should be observed that earthenware similar 
in type to these modern examples, but not bearing 
the same evidence of recent manufacture, is given 
a prominent place in the Mexican national mu- 
seum; but I am unable to secure any information 


SCIENCE. 


171i 


in regard to its pedigree. It is evident that this 
dark, ornate pottery does not all belong to the im- 
mediate present ; but no one seems to be able to 
say just when or where its manufacture began. 

An American officer engaged in the Mexican 
war brought back a number of fine pieces now on 
exhibition in the U.S. national museum. They 
are said to have been dug up near the village of 
Texcoco. Well-authenticated Texcocan pieces re- 
semble this dark pottery in color and texture more 
closely than any other; and it is possible that 
here it was originally made. 

It is perhaps doubtful if any of the elaborate 


EXAMPLE OF MODERN-ANTIQUE MEXICAN VASE (HEIGHT, 11 IN.). 


pieces (now so numerous in collections) in which 
stamps have been freely used, and which have 
been in whole or in part cast in moulds, date 
back to pre-Columbian times. The whole genius 
of aboriginal methods of procedure goes to dis- 
credit them. All the wonderful specimens of 
earthenware known to have been recovered from 
ancient sites, however complex in structure, or 
ornate in embellishment, are modelled by the hand 
alone, without the aid of such devices. If this 
statement shall prove to be too broad, the error 
will be in the right direction if it leads to the 


172 


critical inspection of all reputed antiquities bear- 
ing the marks of these un-American methods of 
manufacture. 

If the methods are questionable, the spirit is 
more so. True native art is consistent: each part 
bears an intelligible relation to all other parts. 
It will be seen by reference to my illustration that 
these vases are not even imitations of genuine 
work, but compositions made up of unrelated 
parts (derived, may be, from ancient art), and 
thrown together without rhyme or reason. Fraud 
is stamped upon every contour, and written in 
every line. W. H. HOLMEs. 


HAST GREENLAND ESKIMO. 


ANTHROPOLOGISTS have been waiting with great 
interest the information which Lieutenant Holm 
has to convey regarding the wild Eskimo of East 
Greenland, only recently known, and among whom 
he was the first civilized man to penetrate. He 
remained among them last winter ; and an exhibi- 
tion has just been made at Copenhagen of the eth- 
nological objects which were procured from them. 
These people live about the bay of Augmagsalik. 
In the various settlements there were, in the winter 
of 1884-85, 548 souls, of whom 413 are situated 
near the above bay, and the rest on the coast be- 
tween Fingmiamiut and Pernstorff fiord. There 
are 247 males and 301 females, who possess 142 
kayaks and 33 umiaks, or large skin boats. The 
language is the same as that of the west coast ; 
but the voices of the east coast people are more 
soft and agreeable. Their habit is erect, the face 
characteristic, the nose more prominent than with 
the other Eskimo. Their religion and legends 
agree exactly with those of the western coast. 

They wear dressed skin in summer, fur clothing 
in winter. Their boots are double; and in winter 
both inside socks and boots are made of fur on the 
inner side. Bear-skins are the most prized. 
Caps are made of white or blue fox-skin with the 
tail left hanging behind. Pretty embroidery and 
inlaid party-colored fur are in use, as is a sort of 
wooden shade against sun and rain. Combs of 
musk-ox horn are cut out with shark’s teeth, and 
used to confine the hair, which is often knotted on 
top of the head. Clothing is only worn out of 
doors; within the huts the women wear a breech 
clout, while the others are entirely naked up to 
their fourteenth year, when the boys are given a 
pair of breeches as a sign of maturity. The 
greatest desire of the women is to have a son, and 
a marriage is not regarded as complete until the 
wife has become a mother. In order that the 
child may be a boy, the women are made to dance 
in a way to make a figure of eight on the floor: this, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 159 


if rigorously followed, should determine the sex of 
the expected infant. As in north-west America, 
boys are often married to old women; but the tie 
does not hold unless children are the result. Some 
men have two wives, so as to have two rowers in 
their boat. Only one unmarried woman was met 
with. The men frequently exchange wives; and 
the possession of male children is considered excel- 
lent luck, whether a woman be married or not. 
Salutation is by rubbing noses. Men of sixty 
years of age are very rare. When an individual 
is seriously ill, he consents, if his relatives request 
it, to end his sufferings by throwing himself into 
the sea. It is rare that a sick person is put to 
death, except in cases of disordered intellect. The 
dead whose ancestors have perished in the sea are 
thrown into the sea. Others are interred, or laid 
on land and their bodies covered with stones, 
With them are put their most precious treasures. 
The friends and relatives express grief in different 
ways, — howling, weeping, and so on, that the 
soul of the dead man be not grieved by neglect. 
If the deceased bore the name of a thing or ani- 
mal, the name is no longer used, which causes 
some confusion in the language. 

They know very little of fishing. Even the sal- 
mon are taken with a spear. Their weapons are 
arrows, lances, and harpoons, pointed with bone 
or iron. The latter is obtained by traffic with the 
southern natives, or from wreckage. They make 
knives and needles of it, as well as arrow-points. 
Needles and beads are much in request. Collars 
are made for dress occasions by fastening fish 
vertebrae on strips of dressed intestine, as on a 
ribbon. They are very ingenious in wood-carving, 
and their wooden articles are ornamented with 
inlaid bits of white bone or stone. They carve 
representations of parts of the coast in wood ; and 
among the articles brought home by Lieutenant 
Holm was a collection representing, in wood, the 
parts of the adjacent coast. These carvings are so 
good, that the members of the expedition recog- 
nized from one of them an island which they had 
not previously seen. Toys are also carved with 
great accuracy and neatness. The children have 
and dress dolls, play with toy bears, sledges, etc., 
—all well executed. 

Fire is obtained by means of the fire-drill, and 
is caught on the dry moss which serves for wicks 
in their great stone lamps, which both heat and 
cook for the household. 

There is a good deal of driftwood thrown on 
this coast. The autumn and early winter are 
mild, in the present case above 37° F. It was 
only in the month of February that the sea became 
ice-bound : it remained so until the end of June. 
In general the coast is free for navigation during 


Frsruary 19, 1886. | 


July, August, and September. The winds ex- 
perienced were chiefly from the north-east. 


THE POPULATION OF LONDON. 


THE growth of this huge city presents a problem 
full of interest, says Engineering, and not without 
anxiety to those who are responsible for its gov- 
ernment. It has already attained a population 
which overshadows that of every other city, both 
ancient and modern, and which, indeed, surpasses 
that of many a kingdom whose actions are now 
watched with concern by the leading statesmen of 
Europe. Scotland, Switzerland, and the Australa- 
sian colonies each contains less souls than London, 
while Norway, Servia, Greece, and Denmark can 
scarcely boast half so many. The famous cities of 
the world look small by comparison. Paris, Ber- 
lin, and Brussels cannot together equal the sum of 
its multitude, nor New York, Brooklyn, Hoboken, 
and Jersey City two-thirds of it. And the greater 
part of this aggregation of human beings has been 
gathered together within very recent times. 

Since the commencement of the century the 
number of inhabitants has quadrupled, rising 
from 958,863 in 1801, to 3,816,483 in 1881 ; and the 
question to be answered is, how long will the 
attraction which London possesses for the people 
of the provinces and of foreign lands continue, and 
how long can it find accommodation for the yearly 
influx? When the attraction ceases, it is safe to 
predict the beginning of the end ; for, as soon as the 
metropolis no longer draws to itself the best men 
from every part of the country, it will lose its 
supremacy, and other places will rival it, each 
being its superior in some department. But there 
is a sense in which London must in time become 
fixed, and incapable of further expansion. The 
area of the registration district is not likely to be 
extended, and consequently a time must arrive, if 
the growth be maintained, when it will be com- 
pletely filled, and all additions must be confined to 
the surrounding district, the greater London, the 
size of which no one can foretell. 

The length of time which will be occupied in 
filling the present metropolitan area formed one of 
the principal topics lately dealt with by Mr. Price- 
Williams in a paper on ‘The population of Lon- 
don, 1801 to 1881,’ recently read before the Statis- 
tical society. In this he traced the variation of 
the population in each district decade by decade, 
showing how many have attained a maximum, 
and then declined to be stationary at a point which 
appears to represent their permanent capability. 
The total area of London is 75,334 acres, or, 
omitting those occupied by water, 74,427 acres. 
Mr. Price-Williams estimates the maximum pos- 


SCIENCE. 


173 


sible population within the metropolitan registra- 
tion area at about 7,000,000, or about ninety-four 
people per acre, and that it will require thirty-six 
years for the density to be acquired over the entire 
area, assuming that the average rate of increase of 
population, which has obtained during the last 
eighty years, namely, 18.86 per cent per decade, 
to be maintained in the future. He points out, 
however, that the percentage of increase has been 
falling since 1851, and is now only 17.28 per cent ; 
so that it is possible, or indeed probable, that the 
term of years mentioned by him may be exceeded. 

Mr. Price-Williams bases his calculations on the 
capacity of the metropolis by observing that in all 
parts some area gets filled, and then in a little 
time the population decreases to a point which 
may be considered as a constant at which it will 
be maintained. In the districts which are com- 
pletely built over, the tendency is for the popula- 
tion to be displaced by shops, offices, and the like ; 
and thus it may safely be affirmed that in such 
parts the maximum will never be reached again. 
In the outlying districts there is generally some 
part which may be taken as fairly characteristic 
of the whole, and may be used as a basis for cal- 
culation. 

The commencement of the marked increase 
coincided with the institution of the railways, 
which rendered it possible to persons to live at a 
distance and get backwards and forwards with 
facility. It is an interesting problem to consider 
how much further the system of suburban resi- 
dence will be extended. Already there are signs 
that a part of the population is finding that it is 
not worth while to take a long journey to reside 
in a street which only differs from the street in 
which their business is conducted by being worse 
paved and lighted. The inhabitants which con- 
stitute ‘society’ always congregated in town, and 
now the rapid erection of mansions let out in flats 
testifies that their superior convenience and better 
sanitary arrangements serve as an equivalent to 
the fresher air of the country. If the co-operative 
system of housekeeping were to become general, it 
would greatly modify the estimate as to the pos- 
sible maximum population. The average density 
of Paris is more than double that of London, and 
yet the streets are brighter and cleaner. The 
question probably turns more upon the prevention 
of smoke than upon any thing else. If the fog and 
gloom could be removed, and free access provided 
for the sunlight, there is no pleasanter or healthier 
place to live than the west end of London ; and 
many who now endure, morning and evening, 
forty minutes’ journey through choking tunnels, 
and walk long distances to railway termini, would 
stay in town if they could be relieved from the de- 


174 


pression which is the accompaniment of a murky 
atmosphere. 


WASTE IN WHEAT-CROPS. 


InN most of the wheat-producing regions of North 


America a yield of thirty bushels per acre is ex- 
ceptional, and one of forty or more, remarkable or 
extraordinary. Most farmers are content to get a 
return of fifteen or eighteen bushels, and only 
twelve and one-half is the average yield through- 
out the United States. The usual increase is thus 
only about ten or twelve fold, and only very ex- 
ceptionally thirty or more fold. Doubtless most 
persons who have given the subject any attention 
wonder why it is that among all farm products 
the return should be so small for the amount of 
seedsown. In a late number of the Contemporary 
review, Dr. Paley has discussed this subject, and 
brought out a number of interesting facts. 

A single grain of wheat will produce from five 
to seven ear-bearing stalks : experiments seem to 
show that the latter is the normal number. The 
single blade ‘spears’ first into three, then into five 
or more side-shoots, every one of which, separated 
and transplanted by hand, will form a new plant. 
Each ear contains, on fairly good land, from fifty 
to sixty, sometimes even seventy, grains. Three 
or four of the terminal grains are generally 
smaller, or otherwise defective, and are rejected 
in winnowing and screening the wheat. But as 
a fair average, on a moderate estimate, a single 
grain can produce three hundred, and there is a 
possibility of four hundred, or even more. This 
means, of course, that every bushel sown can, 
theoretically at least, yield three hundred bushels ; 
but, as we have seen, the actual yield is only a 
small portion of this. 

In tracing, then, the bushel sown to the twelve 
or fifteen bushels that come into the farmer’s 
granary, we have to inquire what proportion of 
the seed germinates, how much of it is de- 
stroyed by birds, mice, insects, and how much 
grain is shed from over-ripeness, or lost in harvest- 
ing and threshing. A very considerable quantity, 
without doubt, is the aggregate loss from these 
causes combined. Still the immense difference 
between the quantity that can be, and theoreti- 
cally ought to be, produced, and that which actu- 
ally goes into the wheat-bin, remains to be ac- 
counted for. The loss of grain in the various 
processes of harvesting evidently must be much 
greater than is commonly supposed. If one take 
a ripe wheat-ear, and strike it on a table, he will 
see some grains fall out; and, if he examine 
where a wheat-sheaf has fallen, he will find not a 
few kernels that have been shed. Certainly the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 159 


‘volunteer’ growths after harvesting are sufficient 
evidence of waste. 

To ascertain, with something like accuracy, the 
actual produce of the wheat-plant, Dr. Paley 
planted a small piece of garden-ground, of moder- 
ate wheat-growing quality, with three separate 
parcels, each of fifty average wheat-grains. Of 
these three parcels, the first (A) was sown broad- 
cast ; the second (B) was set in two rows, after the 
manner of drilled wheat; the third (C) in separate 
grains six inches apart,—all carefully covered 
with earth. Besides these, he planted twelve grains 
three and a half inches deep (D), and three grains 
in each of three holes, one inch deep(E). Of group 
A, twenty-five came up, and produced one plant 
of three stalks, six of four, three of five, seven of 
seven, and three of nine, with a total of one hun- 
dred and forty-eight ear-bearing stalks; of B, 
thirty plants grew, giving two of two stalks, eight 
of three, one of four, ten of five, six of seven, two 
of ten, and one of eleven, with a total of one hun- 
dred and fifty-one; of C, thirty-two plants grew, 
producing a total of one hundred and forty-eight 
ear-bearing stalks ; of D, not a single one germi- 
nated ; and of E, only one, which did not thrive 
well. The nearness of the totals of the first three 
is remarkable. If thus we estimate an average of 
three stalks from each grain sown, and for each 
ear fifty sound grains, we should have a yield of 
one hundred and fifty fold. 

What, then, are the reasons of such an extraor- 
dinary difference between theory and practice? 
Besides the various kinds of blight, such as smut 
and mildew, affecting the straw or the ear, and 
greatly diminishing the production, there are other 
causes why wheat is said to thresh out badly, 
which are less visible while the crop is standing. 
One of these is the partial filling of the ear: there 
is more chaff than there should be in proportion to 
the grain. There is a popular idea about the 
wheat-plant which is entirely erroneous. It is 
thought, that, if high winds prevail while the 
wheat is in flower, the anthers, which are seen 
dangling from the ears, will be blown off, and the 
grain will not set through the loss of pollen. Year 
after year we see this stated in agricultural papers 
and grain reports. But the fact is, these anthers, 
when protruded, have already performed the office 
of impregnation, which takes place within. the 
closed glumes. The ‘flowers’ seen hanging down 
are exhausted anthers, and wholly useless. The 
following experiments seem conclusive proof of 
this. Let one gather a dozen green wheat-ears 
from a plant that is just beginning to flower, and 
keep them for an hour or two in a warm room in a 
glass of water. The anthers may then be watched 
in succession in the very act of being protruded 


a 


) 


FEBRUARY 19, 1886. ] 


through the tips of the glumes, which open just a 
little to let the thread-like filament hang out, and 
then close up tightly. One should then remove 
the ovary, with stamens and pistil, of a plant just 
about to flower, and, by breathing on them gently, 
the anthers will be seen to burst with a spasmodic 
motion, scattering the pollen in part upon the 
pistil. Immediately after the bursting of the 
anthers, the filament becomes restless, and begins 
to move. Contrary to the usual nature of this 
organ in plants, it is elastic; and one may watch 
it increasing to the length of half an inch, carry- 
ing with it, as it creeps along, the now empty and 
useless anthers. These observations will prove 
that the filament does not expand till after the 
discharge of the pollen, and consequently that the 
ovaries have been already fructified when the 
wheat is in flower. 

This exceptional elasticity of the filament is a 
wonderful fact. Its purpose is to make room 
within the narrow seed-case for the enlarged grain 
by ejecting the used-up organs of the inflorescence. 
Occasionally, in a ripe wheat-ear, it will be found 
that they have not been got rid of, but lie shriv- 
elled and crushed up within the glumes. 

‘In social plants, which, like wheat, naturally 
grow best when they grow by themselves to the 
exclusion of others, the great law of ‘the survival 
of the fittest’ will ever be in active operation. 
Many feeble plants will die out, or dwindle to a 
stage only short of extinction, thrust out of exist- 
ence by more vigorous neighbors. 

The foregoing observations seem to prove that 
much yet remains to be studied in the habits of 
the wheat-plant before we shall arrive at a scien- 
tific knowledge of wheat-raising. To prepare the 
right soil (for too rich soil produces stalk to the loss 
of seed), to sow most judiciously, to withstand 
the injuries of mildew, insects, birds, etc., to pre- 
vent loss in harvesting or threshing,— all are prob- 
lems that deserve more attention than they have 
received, in order that the usual yield of fifteen 
bushels may be increased toward the possible one 
hundred and fifty. 


POISONOUS MUSSELS FROM IMPURE 
WATERS. 


THE not infrequent occurrence of poisoning 
from eating mussels makes the discovery of any 
facts concerning the causation of such poisonous 
qualities a subject of special interest. In the fol- 
lowing, gathered from several recent German 
publications, it appears that impure waters will 
produce such effects, and hence it impresses the 


_ necessity of careful sewerage regulations upon 


such seaport cities where food-supplies are de- 


SCIENCE. 


175 


rived more or less from the immediately ad- 
jacent waters. 

In Wilhelmshaven, a city of north Germany, a 
few months ago, a large number of people were 
suddenly taken sick after having eaten of the 
common edible mussel of Europe and North 
America (Mytilus edulis), obtained from the har- 
bor. Several thus poisoned died from the effects, 
in one case within a few hours. 

The subject has attracted much attention 
throughout Germany, both from the public and 
a number of scientific men. It was ascertained 
later that the mussels of this harbor, when trans- 
ferred to other waters, lost their poisonous nature ; 
and, vice versa, harmless mussels, placed in the 
harbor, in a week or two acquired poisonous 
qualities. From the report by Professor MOébius, 
of his researches upon the subject, it appears that: 
the basin or harbor of Wilhelmshaven is closed 
in by a breakwater, so that the water becomes 
stagnant and unfreshened by the tides, the break- 
water only being opened at high tides to allow 
the entrance of ships. The sewerage of the city is 
not discharged into the harbor, but into the open 
sea, and all ships are prohibited from throwing 
matter into the water that could cause pollution ; 
nevertheless the stagnating water, as will be seen, 
is impure, and highly dangerous in its effects upon 
animal life. The only fishes that live in the har- 
bor are eels and whiting. Others that find en- 
trance at the opening of the sluice-gates soon lose 
their activity, and can be easily caught in the 
hand ; even the eels in summer are observed in 
a weakened condition swimming sluggishly near 
the surface. 

Numerous and repeated experiments showed 
that the mussels, when freshly taken from the 
water and cooked, possessed a most virulent 
poison, killing rabbits in from two to ten min- 
utes. It was also shown that these mussels, 
taken from situations where the currents of 
outside water entered, were not at all poisonous. 
Hence it is evident that the water of the harbor 
contains qualities that render the mussels poison- 
ovs without appearing to injure them. 

The researches of Professor Virchow and Dr. 
Wolff have shown that the poisonous nature was 
not due to decomposition. The mussels, when 
freshly taken from the water, gave no external 
signs of disease. From the extended studies of 
the latter author, however, as given in the last 
number of Virchow’s Archiv, it appears that all 
portions of the body were inert except the liver, 
and that in every case rabbits and guinea-pigs 
inoculated with a portion of this organ died in 
from two to twenty minutes. The liver is a 
large, yellowish brown, soft body, enclosing the 


176 


stomach on the upper side, and involved in nu- 
merous loops of the intestine. There seems to be 
no doubt that the poison lay in this part ex- 
clusively. Changes of size, color, and fatty de- 
generation were affirmed by Coldstream to exist 
in the liver when of a poisonous nature, but Dr. 
Wolff says that none of these changes are sufii- 
ciently constant to base a positive decision upon 
them. The last-named writer does not believe 
that the poison is due to any foreign substance, 
such as copper, etc., in the organ, but that it 
originates there. Virchow has shown the re- 
semblance between the action of this poison and 
that from fishes, which not seldom occurs; and it 
is not at all improbable that many cases of the 
latter are due to the ingestion of the liver. 

The symptoms of the mussel-poisoning were of 
three different kinds, — exanthematous (dermal 
eruptions), choleraic, and paralytic. On rabbits, 
experiments only produced paralysis and loss of 
power, with increasing difficulty in respiration, 
ending in death. 

It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine 
in any given case whether a mussel is dangerous 
or not; and Dr. Wolff, therefore, advises that this 
food should be avoided as much as possible, at 
least when one does not know whence it is ob- 
tained. Under all circumstances the liver should 
not be eaten. It has further been ascertained. 
however, that the poison is rendered inert by 
cooking the shell-fish in a solution of soda. 


NEW BOOKS. 

‘ WATER-METERS,’ by R. E. Browne (New York, 
Van Nostrand), is one of the well-known science 
series, and gives a description of certain me- 
chanical devices. The book will be of service to 
hydraulic engineers. ‘The preservation of 
timber by the use of antiseptics,’ by 8S. B. Bolton 
(New York, Van Nostrand), is another of the 
series, and contains a reprint of a paper read be- 
fore the English institution of civil engineers. - 
‘Rameses the Great,’ from the French of F. De 
Lanoye (New York, Scribner), is a history of 
Egypt thirty-three hundred years ago, and at- 
tempts to picture Egyptian life of that date. 
‘The phenomena and laws of heat,’ by A. Cazin 
(New York, Scribner), is a popular account of the 
modern theory of heat, based upon experimental 
results. The author avoids referring to heat as a 
mode of motion, or trying to give any conception 
of what its ultimate nature may be. ‘The in- 
telligence of animals,’ by E. Menault (New York, 
Scribner), contains descriptions of the intellectual 
manifestations displayed among various insects, 
fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals, interspersed 
with numerous anecdotes of their intelligence, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 159 


It contains a number of illustrations of varying 
excellency, and will be of more especial interest 
to a younger class of readers. ‘A farmer’s 
view of a protective tariff,” by Isaac W. Griscom 
(Woodbury, N.J., The author), is a farmer’s plea 
for free trade. It is written in a more sober and 
judicious spirit than characterizes many of the 
pamphlets belonging to the tariff discussion. He 
denies that the agriculturist is getting any more 
for his products than before the civil war. No 
system of protection can have much influence 
upon the prices of those staples of agriculture of 
which the country produces more than it con- 
sumes; and the law of equalization of profits 
will quickly modify the prices of such crops 
as are supposed not to depend for their price 
on a distant market. ‘La photographie 
appliquée a Vhistoire naturelle, by M. Trutat 
(Paris, Gauthier-Villars), contains an _ intelli- 
gent and fresh account of the apparatus and 
methods for photography of natural-history ob- 
jects, illustrated with fifty-eight woodcuts. <A 
number of phototype plates are given, showing 
both the excellences and defects of photography 
for the production of natural-history figures. The 
work lacks conciseness, and contains considerable 
matter in zodlogy and botany not germane to the 
subject under consideration. The author, also, is 
rather too strongly prejudiced in favor of the 
merits of photography to be an altogether safe 
guide. ‘Chemical tables for schools and 
science classes,’ by A. H. Scott-White (New York, 
Scribner & Welford), purports to be a text-book 
for examinations in which a knowledge of ele- 
mentary analysis is required. The book is the 
outgrowth of the difficulty found by the author in 
having notes satisfactorily taken. 


THE German quinquennial census, on the 1st 
of December last, so far as the published returns 
reach, gives a decided increase of the city popula- 
tions. Berlin, especially, shows an unexpected 
growth. This city, which now numbers 1,316,382 
inhabitants, ranks as the third European city in 
size; and this does not include the close-lying 
suburbs. Since 1880 the increase has been over 
sixteen per cent, and within twenty years the city 
has doubled in size. A few of the other more 
important cities show the following populations : 
Breslau, 298,893, an increase of 15,981; Munich, 
260,005, with 30,082 increase ; Dresden, 245,550, 
with 24,732 : Leipzig, 170,076, with 20,995 ; Frank- 
fort, 153,765, with 17,934. Some of the middle 
German towns have grown remarkably, not a few 
showing an increase of from twenty to forty per 
cent. Only a single city has fallen off in popula- 
tion, Ausbach, which has a loss of 0.15 per cent. 


SCIENCE. | 


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


PROFESSOR FREDERICQ of the University of 
Ghent, who has previously published essays on 
the modes of teaching history in Germany and 
in France, has recently issued a pamphlet on the 
study of history at the English and Scotch uni- 
versities. At the latter he finds that little or no 
university instruction in history is given, but 
passes much favorable criticism on the methods 
in the historical schools of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. Professor Fredericq makes one remark 
that we may well take home to ourselves; and 
that is, that the English universities provide no 
adequate education in what the Germans call 
* Quellenstudie.’ Anyone who has seen an his- 
torical seminar at a German university knows 
what an important part of historical instruction is 
made up by the study of chronology, paleog- 
raphy, and documents: in fact, the study of 
authorities forms the basis of all historical teach- 
ing in Germany. Edward A. Freeman, in his 
inaugural lecture, on ‘ The office of the historical 
professor,’ delivered at Oxford in the autumn of 
1884, touched upon this point, and announced his 
intention of giving much attention to the study 
of authorities. It is well known that Professor 
Seeley of Cambridge, and Prof. S. R. Gardiner also, 
have not failed of their duty in this particular ; 
but with them we fear that the list ends. And 
in America we have until lately almost entirely 
overlooked this essential in historical knowledge. 
But the Johns Hopkins university, and, in a less 
degree, Columbia college, are pursuing the right 
method; and at both the historical student is 
taught to estimate and handle original materials, 
not merely stuffed with facts and dates at second- 
hand. It is only in this way that the student can 
ever obtain any thing more than a superficial 
knowledge of his subject, and come thoroughly 
in contact with the times he is investigating. It 
is not too much to say that the study of history 
without historical method is empty, and historical 
method is the greatest part of the study of history. 
If Professor Fredericq ever includes America in 
his investigations, we fear that the list of historical 

No, 160.— 1886, 


teachers who appreciate the value of ‘Quellen- 
studie’ wili be even smaller than in England. 


Mr. BRADFORD LESLIE, in a paper read before 
the British institution of civil engineers, ‘On an 
improved method of lighting vessels under way 
at night,’ attempts to solve the difficult problem 
of enabling ships which are rapidly approaching 
at night, to determine their respective courses in 
time to manoeuvre with safety. To secure this 
result, many arrangements of lights have been 
proposed, but none, we believe, exactly like that 
suggested by Mr. Leslie. His plan, in general, is 
for a steamer to carry three white lights forward 
(two for a sailing-vessel),— one at the masthead, 
one on the forestay, and one on the stem; the 
three in line, and making an angle of 45° with the 
horizon. These would be plainly visible for 
eight or nine miles through a forward arc of 
220°, or from two points abaft the beam on each 
side. It is evident that the course of the ship, 
under favorable circumstances, could be known 
always by observing the divergence between the 
line of the lights and the vertical. This angle 
decreases from 45°, for a course at right angles to 
the observer, to 0° when the ship is approaching 
head on. The latter, and those which approxi- 
mate to it, are obviously the most critical courses, 
for which this system is especially valuable. The 
apparent angle of the line of lights with the ver- 
tical coincides nearly enough, for all practical 
purposes, up to 20°, or about two points, with the 
angle between the course of the approaching ship 
and the line of vision. This fact is of great value 
when there is no time to determine angles, either 
by plotting or calculation. It is not proposed 
to abandon the use of the colored side-lights, 
although, if the arrangement were entirely satis- 
factory in practice, they would be no longer ne- 
cessary. The most serious obstacle to the success 
of this plan is the rolling and heeling motion of 
the ship, to which Mr. Leslie refers, but which, we 
believe, he underestimates. The principle involved 
in his suggestion is not new. It has been already 
proposed to arrange the masthead and side-lights 
to form an equilateral triangle in a plane parallel to 
the midship section, and also to place the masthead 
light so far aft that the line through it and either 


178 


of the side-lights should make an angle of 45° 
with the horizon. The system which has received 
the most attention, however, is known as that of 
the double side-lights. Various arrangements of 
these have been proposed, but all include the use 
of two lights on each side, in different positions 
with respect to each other, and at different dis- 
tances apart. The subject of lighting ships, and 
also that of ‘the rules of the road,’ should be 
referred to an international commission, whose 
recommendations should be accepted and rigidly 
enforced by all maritime nations. 

THE STUDY OF THE POLITICAL SCIENCES has made 
great progress of late in this country. Columbia, 
Cornell, and the University of Michigan, have 
established special schools of political science, all 
of which are successful; special attention is paid 
to these subjects at Harvard and Johns Hopkins; 
and the historical, economic, and social science 
associations, which have sprung up during the 
last decade, with their published proceedings, have 
all contributed to stimulate an interest in the 
scientific treatment of history, law, and econom- 
ics. The latest advance in this field is the estab- 
lishment of the Political science quarterly, edited 
by the faculty of political science of Columbia 
college, and published by Ginn & Co. The first 
number of this new quarterly will appear in 
March, and it will furnish a field for the discus- 
sion of all questions — historic, economic, or legal 
— which concern the organization of the state, 
the evolution of law, the relation of states one to 
another, and the relation of government to the 
individual. The quarterly will demand no polit- 
ical or economic orthodoxy, but will admit all 
articles within its scope which are at once scien- 
tific and of general interest. A feature of the 
publication will be its bibliography, which will 
be very complete and elaborate. The great suc- 
cess of the Johns Hopkins series of studies in 
historical and political science has doubtless led 
the Columbia professors to the establishment of 
this journal; and there is every prospect that it, 
too, will meet with favor. The whole develop- 
ment of which the above are the indications is a 
It betokens the intro- 
duction and application of scientific tests and 
methods in a domain which has in the past been 
too fruitful of partisan strife and dissensions. 


healthy and vigorous one, 


In 1880 A SITE was purchased for a new naval 
observatory a short distance beyond Georgetown, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vox.. Vi. No. 160 


in the District of Columbia; but no appropriation 
has yet been made for erecting the necessary 
buildings, and removing the instruments from the 
present location. On account of this delay the 
secretary of the navy, in April, 1885, called upon 
the National academy of sciences for an expression 
of opinion as to the advisability of proceeding 
promptly with the erection of a new naval obser- 
vatory ; and the reply of the committee of the 
academy is contained at length in a letter from 
the secretary of the navy, just published as 
Executive document No. 67. The conclusions of 
the committee we give in the language of the 
report. This report is signed by F. A. P. Barnard, 
A. Graham Bell, J. D. Dana, S. P. Langley, Theo- 
dore Lyman, E. C. Pickering, C. A. Young. 1. It 
is advisable to proceed promptly with the erection 
of a new observatory upon the site purchased in 
1880 for this purpose. 2. It is advisable that the 
observatory so erected shall be, and shall be styled, 
as the present observatory was styled originally, 
the ‘ National observatory of the United States,’ 
and that it shall be under civilian administration. 
3. It is advisable that the instruments in the 
present observatory, with the exception of the 
26-inch telescope, the transit circles, and the 
prime vertical transit, shall be transferred to 
the observatory at Annapolis, with such members 
of the astronomical staff as may be required to 
operate them ; also that such books of the library 
as relate chiefly to navigation shall take the same 
destination ; the instruments above particularly 
specified, with the remainder of the library, being 
reserved as part of the equipment of the new 
national observatory, to which also the remaining 
officers of the astronomical staff shall be assigned 
for duty. 4. It is advisable that the observatory 
at Annapolis shall be enlarged, if necessary, and 
adapted to subserve as effectually as possible the 
wants of the naval service, whether practical, 
scientific, or educational; that it shall be under 
the direction of the department of the navy, and 
shall be styled the ‘Naval observatory of the 
United States.’ The grounds upon which. this 
decision is based are set forth in the document to 
which we have referred; and numerous letters 
are appended, from astronomers and others, in 
regard to the administration of the observatory, 
and from physicians of Washington, upon the 
healthfulness of the portion of the city in which 
the observatory is at present situated. It will be 
seen immediately that this report is intended to 
favor the establishment of an observatory worthy 


FEBRUARY 26, 1886.] 


of the country, and the placing its control in the 
hands of those who have made astronomy their 
life-work. The navy will be provided, if the rec- 
ommendations are carried out, with an observatory 
well suited to its special needs, and would be 
relieved from the task of supervising work in 
which it has no interest aside from that felt in 
scientific work in general. 


CRATER LAKE, OREGON, A PROPOSED 
NATIONAL RESERVATION. 


In the heart of the Cascade Range there is a 
little sheet of water which is destined to take 
high rank among the wonders of the world. Itis 
a unique phenomenon, taken as a whole, though 
some of its component features, taken singly, may 
not be unexampled. The lake is about seven and 
one-half miles long and five miles wide. Its shape 
is very nearly elliptical, without bays or promon- 
tories. It is girt about by a complete circuit of 
cliffs, nowhere affording an outlet. These cliffs 
rise to altitudes varying from 900 to 2,200 feet 
above the water, and, though generally too steep 
to be either ascended or descended, have in some 
places an inclination low enough to render such a 
feat possible, though difficult. They plunge at 
once into deep water, and never afford a wide 
margin for standing or walking room at the wa- 
ter’s edge. In a few places, however, the rains 
have scoured gulleys in the wall; and, where 
these debouch upon the lake surface, may be 
found narrow spaces for lodgement. No consid- 
erable stream or brook has been discovered flow- 
ing into the lake as yet; but a few springs yield 
little rills of water in the faces of the walls. 
Others and larger ones may come to light when 
the lake is more minutely explored. Neither is 
there any visible outlet. It is certain, however, 
that there must be a mode of escape for the 
water; and, as itis not above ground, it must 
needs be below ground, for the evaporation here 
is less than the precipitation. 

Near the south-western margin, about half a 
mile from the shore, there rises out of the water 
a cinder-cone. Its height is between 600 and 700 
feet. It is quite perfect and typical in form, 
having the usual cup or hopper in its summit, and 
as yet it is not perceptibly eroded. It is well cov- 
ered with timber, and, notwithstanding its per- 
fect preservation, it cannot be regarded as being, 
in the historic sense, a recent creation. From 
its base two streams of lava stretch out towards 
the great wall, but do not reach it. The insula- 
tion of the cone and its lavas is still complete. 

The beauty and majesty of the scene are inde- 
scribable. As the visitor reaches the brink of the 


SCIENCE. 


179 


cliff, he suddenly sees below him an expanse of 
ultramarine blue of a richness and _ intensity 
which he has probably never seen before, and 
will not be likely to see again. Lake Tahoe may 
rival this color, but cannot surpass it. It is 
deeper and richer than the blue of the sky above 
on the clearest day. Just at the margin of the 
lake it shades into a turquoise, which is, if possi- 
ble, more beautiful still. Ordinarily the water 
surface is mirror-like, and reflects an inverted 
image of the surrounding cliffs in detail. Very 
majestic, too, are the great environing walls. On 
the west side they reach their greatest altitude, 
rising almost vertically more than 2,000 feet 
above the water. It is difficult to compare this 
scene with any other in the world, for there is 
none that sufficiently resembles it ; but, in a gen- 
eral way, it may be said that it is of the same 
order of impressiveness and beauty as the Yosem- 
ite valley. It was touching to see the worthy 
but untutored people, who had ridden a hun- 
dred miles in freight-wagons to behold it, vainly 
striving to keep back tears as they poured forth 
their exclamations of wonder and joy akin to 
pain. Nor was it less so to see so cultivated and 
learned a man as my companion hardly able to 
command himself to speak with his customary 
calmness. 

To the geologist this remarkable feature is not 
less impressive than it is to the lover of the beau- 
tiful; for, almost at the first glance, it reveals 
something which would probably escape the eye 
of the mere tourist. This broad depression was 
once filled and occupied by a large voicanic cone, 
rising far above the loftiest point of its encircling 
walls. 

The proof is simple and conclusive. Whoever 
has studied a large volcanic cone, composed of 
lavas piled sheet upon sheet around a central ori- 
fice, and which has been subject to long-con- 
tinued erosion, will be able to recall some general 
facts as to the ravines and water-courses which 
have been scoured in its flanks. As we approach 
such a mountain, we observe the ravines opening 
upon the plain, or gentle slope, around its base, 
with huge buttresses between them, sometimes 
rounded and broad, sometimes narrow and knife- 
edged, according as the spaces between ravines 
are great or small. As we ascend the bed of 
any one of them, we observe that it grows 
deeper and deeper, while the intervening but- 
tresses rise higher and higher, until a maxi- 
mum depth is reached. Farther up, the de- 
clivity of the bed becomes greater, lateral streams 
come in, the ravine branches repeatedly, and up 
near the summit it resolves itself intoa plexus of 
small rills, all embraced in an amphitheatre, 


180 


above which the culminating peak rises sharply. 
Each portion of the length of the ravine has its 
characteristic features or habitus; and, however 
irregular these minuter details may be, they sel- 
dom mask or obscure the characteristics of the 
larger ones. 

Imagine, then, a great volcanic cone, on which 
erosion has made considerable though not ex- 
treme progress, to be truncated at about one-third 
to one-half the height above the base, the upper 
half or two-thirds of the altitude removed, and 
a vast depression excavated in the remaining 
portion. The steep wall-faces of this excavation 
would cut the buttresses and ravines a little be- 
low the maximum depths of the latter. The 
crest-line at the edge of the pit, as we followed 
around its periphery, would rise sharply to go 
over the buttresses, and descend as sharply to cross 
the beds of the old ravines, making it a jagged 
edge. It is so at Crater Lake. As we ascend 
the ravines, we find them growing deeper and 
steeper, until at last their upper courses are sud- 
denly cut off at the brink of the great pit. On 
either hand rises the old buttresses many hun- 
dreds, sometimes more than a thousand, feet 
above us. The imagination only can picture the 
restoration of the missing pile and the upward 
continuation of the great ridges and furrows now 
ending so strangely, and otherwise unaccounta- 
bly, upon the brink of this deep gulf. Whether 
the mountain culminated in a sharp and lofty 
cone like Mt. Pitt and Mt. Scott to the south of it, 
and Mt. Thielson to the north, or was a somewhat 
flatter structure like Union Peak to the east of it, 
is more doubtful. The general configuration of 
the ravines, and the absence of large masses of 
tuff, or fragmental ejecta, in the original pile, indi- 
cate the flatter, or dome-like form ; and this is de- 
cidedly the prevailing form of mountains in the 
Cascade Range, though many sharp peaks are 
scattered among them. What dire catastrophe 
has destroyed this cone ? 

Great pit-craters, or, as I have termed them 
elsewhere, ‘ calderas,’ are not very common. Still 
they exist in several parts of the world; and of 
some of them we know the history, or may infer 
it with considerable confidence. 

There are three or four large ones in the Ha- 
waiian Islands. One is on the summit of Mauna 
Loa; a second is the famous Kilauea; and the 
largest and most wonderful of all is the immense 
caldera of Haleakala, on the island of Maui. But 
none of them are so large as Crater Lake, nor so 
deep. The origin of these I have endeavored to 
explain in a paper on the Hawaiian volcanoes, 
published in the ‘Fourth annual report of the 
U.S. geological survey.’ In the correctness of this 


SCTHNCE. 


‘has held it up, sinks in. 


[Vou. VIL, Nov-t6@ 


explanation I feel great confidence. The evidence 
of it is summed up in the paper referred to. 
These ‘ craters,’ or calderas as they are there called, 
appear to have been formed gradually. through the 
melting of the cores of the mountains by super- 
heated lavas (i.e., lavas of higher temperature 
than is necessary for the fusion of their materi- 
als), rising from great depths in the earth through 
volcanic pipes. The peculiarities of the Hawaiian 
lavas are the absence or rarity of explosive or 
violent action, their high temperature and great 
liquidity. They rise in the volcanic pipes. and 
remain stationary at a certain altitude; and in 
Kilauea they maintain large lakes of lava open to 
the sky in a state of continuous fusion. But be- 
neath the floor of the caldera they form lakes of 
still greater extent. Eruptions occur from time 
to time; but the lavas, instead of overflowing 
from the summit of the volcanic pile, burst out 
miles away from it, and far down the gently 
sloping sides of the cone at levels thousands of 
feet lower than the crater. The lavas beneath 
the caldera are drained ; and the upper portion of 
the mountain, robbed of the liquid support which 
The surface-rocks, 
being vesicular or spongy, are light enough to 
float on the liquid lava so long as the latter main- 
tains its level in the stand-pipe; but, when the 
liquid is tapped off through a lateral vent in the 
mountain-side, the upper crust settles, as would 
the ice in a pond when the water is drained from 
beneath it. The evidence of this action at Ki- 
lauea, on Mauna Loa, and still more emphatic- 
ally on Haleakala. is very clear and unmistakable. 

But there is another class of calderas, formed 
by a mode of ivoleanic action which is in the 
strongest possible contrast with the foregoing ; 
and we are not left in any doubt as to its general 
nature, for it has been witnessed and reported 
upon by competent authority. In the islands of 
the East Indian archipelago, stretching from the 
Straits of Sunda eastward to the island of Timor, 
is found a chain of volcanoes comprising hun- 
dreds of individual cones. During the period of 
occupation of these islands by the Dutch, numer- 
ous eruptions have occurred ; and the most char- 
acteristic feature of them has been their terrible 
and devastating energy. Some of the volcanoes 
are truncated cones, with large calderas in. their 
summits. Two of them have been formed 
within the historic period, and accounts of their 
formation have been preserved. One of these, 
in the summit of the volcano Papandayang, on 
the island of Java, was formed in 1772, by an 
explosion rivalling in destructiveness and energy 
the outbreak of Krakatoa in 1883. The other is— 
found in the summit of the volcano Tomboro, on 


FEBRUARY: 26, 1886. ] 


the island of Sumbawa, and the date of its 
formation was 1815. The incidents of this last 
eruption were investigated by Dr. Junghuhn, 
whose work on the volcanoes of the East Indies 
is now a classic one in the annals of volcanism. 
Judging from his account, this must have been 
the most energetic and destructive explosion 
of which any authentic account has been pre- 
served, surpassing greatly that of Krakatoa. 
Prior to the outbreak, Tomboro was a shapely 
cone, rising a few miles from the shore to an alti- 
tude of more than 9,000 feet. In a single night 
the upper 5,000 feet was blown into fragments, 
which were scattered over thousands of square 
miles of sea and land; while the volcanic dust 
darkened the air over a million square miles of 
island and ocean. Many months afterward, 
when the scene could be visited, Tomboro was a 
mere stump of a mountain, with a large crater in 
the place of the cone which had been blown 
away. Other instances of a similar nature might 
be mentioned, but the foregoing may suffice. 

We have, then, examples of depressions similar 
to that of Crater Lake produced by two very dif- 
ferent modes of action. To which of them may 
we refer the origin of the magnificent crater of 
the Cascades? Just at present a confident answer 
cannot be given; for the ground has not been 
sufficiently studied. The facts brought to light by 
the first hasty reconnaissance seemed to indicate 
the explosive action, rather than the quiet method 
of subterranean fusion. But it is best to await 
the results of a more critical examination before 
committing ourselves to any opinion. It may be 
well, however, to state such facts as have already 
come to light, as well as some general considera- 
tions pertinent to the subject, and let them pass 
for what they are worth. 

1°. In the Hawaiian calderas the evidences of 
sinkage are conspicuous. They are not confined 
to the deeper floors of the pits, but are also seen 
in the partial subsidence of great blocks or slices 
of the walls immediately enclosing them, and in 
| irregular sunken spots in their vicinity, also in 
the marks of powerful shearing or faulting action 
in the walls themselves. They appear to be cor- 
related to the remarkably quiet habits of the 
Hawaiian volcanoes, to their habitual modes of 
eruption, and to the special structure of the vol- 
canic piles, which do not rise in steep conical 
peaks, but are very broad and flat. At Crater 
Lake, neither in the walls themselves, nor in the 
\ immediate neighborhood back of the crest-line, 
| have any traces of sinkage been observed as yet. 
Nothing can at present be pointed out which sug- 
| gests the Hawaiian mode of origin, beyond the 
fact that a vast crater is before us. The general 


SCIENCE. 


181 


structure and habits of the Cascade volcanoes are 
indicative of a more vigorous style of volcanic 
action than the Hawaiian. 

2°. Crater Lake is the centre, and, without much 
doubt, the source, of an extraordinary quantity of 
andesitic pumice and tuff, which is scattered far 
and wide over a circle of country ranging from 
40 to 60 miles in diameter. It often lies in beds 
several hundred feet deep, and covering hundreds 
of square miles. This pumice is not such as is 
often seen in some lava streams, but consists of 
rounded masses and pellets which seldom exceed 
a cubic foot in volume, and grade down to fine, 
light sand. It is the kind which is blown violently 
from a volcano during eruption, and projected high 
in air, to fall in showers over the surrounding 
country. It is found on the loftiest peaks and 
mountains anywhere within 20 miles of the lake, 
and assuredly did not emanate from the peaks on 
which it now lies. Vast quantities of it have been 
gathered up by the rains and streams (for it is 
lighter than cork), and swept eastward into the 
broad basins of Klamath Marsh and Klamath 
Lake, or carried westward through the Rogue 
River into the Pacific. The finer lapilli and sand 
have been consolidated into beds, which flank the 
eastern slope of the Cascades, and are also found 
west of its divide in the flatter spaces beyond the 
base of the truncated pile which holds the crater. 
These are well exposed in the walls of little box- 
cafions two or three hundred feet deep, and the 
tuff weathers out into pleasing columnar forms. 
The tuff is older than the pumice, for, wherever 
the two were seen together, the tuff was under- 
most. This light fragmental material, its wide 
distribution in every direction, with the lake as 
the centre of dispersion, the very light and 
highly vesicular character of the pumice,— all 
indicate that at some time Crater Lake has been 
the scene of some sort of very energetic volcanic 
action. 

3°. But there is a weak point in the argument. 
If a large cone, composed of solid lavas such as are 
now seen in the walls of the lake basin, has been 
blown into rubble, and the fragments hurled far 
and wide over the surrounding country, ought we 
not to be able to recognize them in vast abundance 
in the vicinity? Most certainly we ought to. 
And yet in close proximity to the lake no frag- 
ments were noted, except such as we always ex- 
pect to find at the foot of steep spurs and ridges 
of volcanic rock, and which have broken down 
from them in the ordinary course of weathering. 
This absence of the corpus delicti is a serious dif- 
ficulty in the way of a speedy conclusion that the 
mountain was blown up by any such summary 
proceeding as Tomboro or Krakatoa, and indicates 


182 


the importance of further search after evidences 
_ of ingulfment. 

Regarding the age of the caldera, it would be 
premature to offer any opinion, beyond the vague 
and general statement, that it is certainly many 
thousands of years old. There is abundant rea- 
son to hope, however, that further examination 
will throw some light on this question. We can- 
not, indeed, expect to reach any estimate of its age 
in terms of years and centuries; and our hope 
must be confined to that of fixing its relative age 
in terms of the geological calendar. Viewed in 
that relation, it may be said with equal confidence 
that its age is not great. C. E. DUTTON. 


THE FISH-CULTURAL STATION AT 
GLOUCESTER, MASS. 


WE are informed that it is the intention of Pro- 
fessor Baird, the U. S. commissioner of fisheries, 
now that methods and apparatus for hatching 
successfully the buoyant eggs of the cod, halibut, 
and other marine species have been devised, to 
prosecute the work on as extensive a scale as the 
means at the command of the commissioner will 
permit. 

Gloucester, being the centre of the cod and 
halibut fisheries, furnishes unusual facilities for 
procuring an abundant supply of eggs within 
easy and convenient reach of the station, and has 
therefore been selected as the most advantageous 
location, for the extensive fish-cultural work with 
the marine species, now projected by the U.S. 
commissioner. The commission steamer, the 
Fish Hawk, thoroughly equipped for hatching- 
work, has been ordered to Gloucester, and will 
take her position in the outer harbor, at some 
convenient point where the anchorage is safe, the 
water pure and free from sediment, and of suffi- 
cient density to insure the buoyancy of the eggs 
during incubation. 

All the usual methods for collecting eggs will 
be resorted to, and, in addition, it is expected to 
interest the fishermen themselves in the work of 
collecting by paying a reasonable price for im- 
pregnated eggs delivered at the station. Experi- 
mental investigations will also be made to deter- 
mine the practicability of forwarding impregnated 
eggs from Gloucester to Wood's Holl and other 
stations to be hatched. The species which will 
chiefly engage the attention of the experts of the 
commission are the cod, halibut, haddock, herring, 
and the mackerel. 

The results of the work with the halibut will be 
watched with special interest, both by fish-cul- 
turists and by those who are engaged in the fisher- 
ies. This fish is even more prolific than the cod- 


SCIENCE. 


¢ 
[VoL. VII., No. 160 


fish. Once in extraordinary abundance in Massa- 
chusetts and Ipswich bays, it has, within the 
memory of man, been almost exterminated in 
the area referred to. Have the conditions changed 
so as to determine the migration of the species to 
more congenial waters, or has man, by his direct 
agency in the fisheries, effected the extermination, 
over a given area, of a marine species of such 
marvellous fecundity? This is a question to 
which the work of the commission promises, in 
a few years, to furnish a satisfactory answer. 


GREELYS THREE YEARS OF ARCTIC 
SERVICE. 

THE name and fame of Lieut. A. W. Greely of the 
U.S. army now belong to the history of geographi- 
cal research and of undaunted heroism. The pages 
of this journal have so often referred to his arctic 
explorations that it would be superfluous to review 
again the thrilling incidents of his perilous voyage. 
The scientific world is well aware that he was sent 
by the U. S. government as the leader of an expe- 
dition which was to co-operate with many kindred 
parties in the observation of physical phenomena 
in the extreme north ; that this arduous enterprise 
was not for the gratification of personal or national 
pride by extending the coast-lines of the northern 
chart, or by carrying the flag a little nearer to the 
pole than it had ever been borne before; that it 
was not for the purpose of adding renown to the 
army, or glory to the explorers, but to help in 
solving important problems in terrestrial physics 
by a series of exact, patient, long-continued, and 
carefully recorded observations in the ice-bound 
regions of the north. 

As long ago as 1875, Lieutenant Weyprecht of 
the Austrian navy, who had won experience and 
distinction in arctic researches, succeeded in call- 
ing the attention of the civilized world to the idea 
that future voyages should not be planned with 
reference to the increase of our knowledge of 
geographical boundaries, but rather to the ascer- 
tainment of scientific facts, by contemporaneous 
observations in well-chosen stations at the north, 
under the concerted actions of the most experienced 
men and the most enlightened governments. AS 
a result of the acceptance of this idea, fourteen 
stations were established by eleven co-operating 
nations ; namely, Austria, Denmark, France, Ger- 
many, Great Britain, Holland, Norway, Russia, 
Sweden, and the United States. Many astronom- 
ical observatories in different parts of the globe 
lent their aid to the project, so that the number of 


Three years of arctic service. An account of the Lady 
Franklin Bay expedition of 1881-84, and the attainment of 
the farthest north. By ApoLpaus W. GREELY. 2 vols. 
New York, Scribner, 1886, 8°. 


-» 


FEBRUARY 26, 1886. ] 


stations observing in concert was more than forty. 


Seven hundred men, in all, were exposed to the 
dangers of arctic life; but so skilful were the 
arrangements that no man perished, with the un- 
fortunate exception of some who were connected 


with the Lady Franklin Bay expedition, and not 
they until after their appointed duties had been 
successfully completed. The results of all these 


efforts are gradually becoming the possession of 


the scientific world. It will take a long while to 
reduce the observations and to publish them in 


SCIENCE. | 


183 


Lady Franklin Bay expedition, Lieutenant Greely, 
although not a seaman, had some unusual quali- 
fications. He had entered the army at the age of 
seventeen, and endured the privationsand dangers 
of the civil war. After peace was established, he 
continued in the army as one of the officers of the 
signal service, and thus became expert in the kind 
of observations to be made at the north. His 
physical, intellectual, and moral qualities, as the 
sequel proved, were adequate to his great responsi- 
bilities, and, although disaster has cast a gloom 


BERING SEA 


ng LAWRENOE 


Sa. 


_ proper form, and longer still to discover the laws 
which are suggested by the recorded phenomena ; 
_ but the work projected has been done, and well 
_ done, and mankind will reap the benefits. Whether 
_ the results are more or less, Lieutenant Greely is 
right in saying that the work of the International 


polar commission will live in history, if only asan 
_ epoch in modern civilization, marked by the union 
of eleven great nations in planning and execut- 
_ ing for strictly scientific purposes so expensive and 
dangerous a work. 
| For the services which were required in the 


ARCTIC REGIONS, SHOWING LOCATION OF CIRCUMPOLAR STATIONS, 1881-83. 


[Reproduced through the courtesy of Charles Scribner’s Sons.] 


over the close of his voyage, his conduct of the 
work intrusted to him deserves the highest praise ; 
and the modest record which he has now published 
exhibits with great accuracy and comprehensive- 
ness the various aspects of his expedition. His 
pages bear the stamp of trustworthiness. There 
is no boasting, no self-laudation, no concealment 
of the embarrassments which beset the party. 
There is a generous recognition of the parts which 
were performed by all his brave associates. There 
is a careful record of experiences which may be 
useful to other navigators. There are preliminary 


184 


announcements of the scientific work of the ex- 
pedition. There is no attempt at fine writing, even 
- in those chapters which refer to most thrilling in- 
cidents ; but throughout the volume may be traced 
the hand of a calm, observing, fair-minded, and 
unostentatious lover of the truth. 

In thinking of the results of the Lady Franklin 
Bay expedition, the popular applause will com- 
monly be given to the bravery of Lockwood and 
Brainard, who in May, 1882, attained the highest 
latitude yet reached by man (83° 23.8’ north’). 
Lockwood, unfortunately, died before the rescue 
of the expedition. Brainard came home, and, 
after eight years’ service in the ranks, remains 
a sergeant, when his record would have gained 
him a commission at once in any other service in 
the world. 

Another important reconnaissance was accom- 
plished by Lockwood in a prolonged tour across 
Grinnell Land, where a remarkable series of fertile 
valleys was found, in which herds of musk-oxen 
pasture. Over a hundred of these animals were 
killed, and two hundred others were seen. The 
glaciers of Grinnell Land are extraordinary. On 
the shores of Lake Hazen, Greely discovered what 
he believes to have been the most northerly per- 
manent habitation of man that is known, though 
the inhabitants thereof have vanished. 

The physical observations proposed by the Ham- 
burg polar conference were maintained from July 
1, 1881, until June 21, 1884,-—forty hours before 
the rescue of the survivors. Observations as to 
atmospheric pressure, temperature, and dew-point ; 
direction and force of the wind ; quantity, kind, 
and movement of clouds; the aurora, and the 
state of the weather,—were made hourly after 
Fort Conger was reached. Of the magnetometer 
(by which the declination of the magnetic needle 
was noted) there were ten hourly readings, 
except on the Ist and 15th of every month, when 
the readings were much more frequent. The 
magnetic inclination or dip was also observed, but 
the instrument was so poor that the value of the 
record is seriously impaired. Tidal observations, 
which promise to be of much value, were like- 
wise made. Great pains were taken to secure 
accurate observations of the pendulum as a con- 
tribution to geodesy. Air samples were secured, 
but abandoned on the retreat. The velocity of 
sound at low temperatures was noted. Each day 
there were 526 recorded observations, — 264 mag- 
netic, 234 meteorological, and 28 tidal. Careful 
memoranda were made upon the diet of the mem- 
bers of the party, and upon all the circumstances 
which tended to keep up their health; and the 
chapter on hygiene and routine is by no means 

1 Markham’s highest point in 1876 was 83° 20’ 26’. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 160 


the least important in the volumes. Geological, 
paleontological, zodlogical, botanical, and ethno- 
logical facts were noted whenever there was op- 
portunity to collect such information. On all 
these points the appendixes are very full. 

It only remains for us to add that these volumes 
are printed in a most attractive manner, and that 
the illustrations and maps are abundant and satis- 
factory. In all respects the book is a credit to the 
author and the publishers. We purposely avoid 
here all comment on the cause of the sad failure 
to relieve at the appointed time the party, and all 
questions in respect to the imperfections of the 
outfit. There was a sad lack of thorough atten- 
tion to some details, —a lack which has greatly 
impaired the satisfaction with which the expedi- 
tion would otherwise have been regarded. But 
Greely and his brave comrades have borne their 
part nobly, and we trust that a grateful republic 
will ponder the words with which these volumes 
close, and act, through congress, before it is too 
late. 

‘‘No man of. the party has received promotion, 
except such temporary advancement as my per- 
sonal urging could secure. Two men, with broken 
health, have adventured their private fortunes ; and 
one, a most self-sacrificing, soldierly, temperate, 
and loyal man, lies, as these lines are penned, 
helpless in a city hospital, aided by private charity, 
his pension not even awarded. Even the meagre 
allowances originally promised for arctic service 
have not been fully paid, and the widows of the 
dead are generally as yet unrecognized. 

‘‘Our great country in these days asks not in 
vain for its sons to venture their lives for any idea 
which may subserve its interests or enhance its 
greatness. I trust that posterity may never mourn 
the decadence of that indomitable American spirit 
which in this generation fought out to the bitter 
end its great civil war, and made it seem an easy 
thing in time of peace to penetrate the heart 
of Africa, to perish in the Lena Delta; to die at 
Sabine, or to attain the farthest north.” 


LONDON LETTER. 


Au friends of scientific education, as well as a 
wider circle, hail with the greatest satisfaction the 
appointment of Sir Lyon Playfair, the present 
president of the British association for the ad- 
vancement of science, to the post which is practi- 
cally minister of education under Mr. Gladstone's 
government, which has just been constituted. 
For many years Sir Lyon Playfair was chairman 
of committees of the house of commons, and at 
one time he held the position of postmaster-gen- 
eral in a former government. It is often re- 


FEBRUARY 26, 1886 ] 


marked, with some justice, that in the formation 
of an English government, from political and 
party considerations, the round men get put into 
the square holes, and vice versa. In the present 
appointment it is pre-eminently a case of the 
round man being fitted into the round hole. Prob- 
ably no man in the house, with the possible ex- 
ception of Sir John Lubbock, M.P. for the Univer- 
sity of London, is listened to with more respect on 
educational questions than Sir Lyon Playfair. 

Mr. D. Morris has been appointed to the post of 
assistant director of the Royal gardens, Kew, as 
successor to Prof. W. T. Thistleton Dyer, who be- 
came director on the resignation of Sir Joseph 
Hooker. Mr. Morris has spent some years in 
Jamaica as director of the public gardens and 
plantations, and has brought both the gardens at 
Kingston, and the cinchona plantations, to a very 
high state of efficiency. 

Two new lectureships in biology have been 
lately established at the University of Edinburgh. 
The present occupant of the natural history chair 
is Prof. J. Corsar Ewart, whose work in connec- 
. tion with the fishery board for Scotland is well 
known; and Mr. George Brook, who has for 
some time past been making investigations upon 
fish ova for the same board, has been appointed 
as lecturer upon comparative embryology. Still 
“more recently another lectureship has been en- 
dowed by Lord Rosebery. Mr. E. J. Romanes, 
I.R.S., has accepted the post, and in the course of 
the next five years will deliver thirty lectures on 
the philosophy of natural history. The University 
of Aberdeen is losing its professor of physiology, 
Dr. William Sterling having been called to Owens 
college, Manchester, as the successor of Dr. Gam- 
gee, who is about to devote himself to professional 
work in a more southern climate than that of 
Manchester. Mr. Gilbert C. Bourne has just re- 
turned from the Chagos. Archipelago, where he 
has been spending the last six months in zodlogi- 
cal work. He has made extensive collections of 
the terrestrial fauna and flora, and also of the 
corals, some of which are prcbably new, while he 
has also devoted some time to embryological re- 
search. 

At the last meeting of the Society of telegraph 
engineers and electricians, a very remarkable pa- 
per was read by the president, Prof. D. E. Hughes, 
F.R.S., as his inaugural address, on ‘ Self-induc- 
tion of an electriccurrent in relation to the nature 
and form of its conductor.” The researches were 
made with a combination of the author’s induc- 
tion-balance, with a Wheatstone bridge, called an 
‘induction bridge.’ Among the practical points 
resulting from these researches may be mentioned 
a very decided verdict in favor of the ribbon form 


SCIENCE. 


185 


of lightning conductor, a solid rod of iron being 
regarded by the author as the worst possible form. 
Another point hitherto little understood, but first. 
pointed out by Mr. W. H. Preece at the Aberdeen 
(1885) meeting of the British association, was 
cleared up; viz., why, when an iron and a copper 
wire of equal resistance and static capacity were 
used for telegraphing between London and New- 
castle, 278 miles, there was an increase of speed 
in the copper line of 12.9 per cent as compared 
with the iron. The discussion on this paper to- 
morrow evening is looked forward to with great 
interest. W. 
London, Feb. 10. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 

IN order to give an opportunity for definite and 
systematic effort by all those who believe that 
our birds ought to be protected, the Forest and 
stream has recently founded the Audubon society. 
Membership in this society is to be free to every- 
one who is willing to assist in forwarding any one 
of the three objects for which it is established. 
These objects are to prevent so far as possible 
(1) the killing of any wild bird not used for food, 
(2) the destruction of the nests or eggs of any wild 
bird, and (8) the wearing of feathers as ornaments. 
The work to be done by the Audubon society is 
auxiliary to that which is being done by the 
American ornithologists’ union committee, and 
will consist largely of matters of detail, to which 
this committee could not attend. The manage- 
ment of the society for the present will be in the 
hands of a member of this committee. Branches 
of this association will be established all over the 
country. The work of the Forest and strea ’ 
is only preliminary. As soon as the society shall 
have attained a respectable membership, -an and, be 
on a firm footing, it-will be turned over to its” 
members for final organization. In order that this 
may take place as speedily as possible, it is hoped 
that all interested in bird-protection will send in 
for membership their own names, as well as those 
of any others whom they think likely to assist. 
To all such, free circulars containing information 
will be sent for distribution. Names should be 
sent without delay to Forest and stream, 40 Park 
Row, New York, N.Y. 


— The commission appointed to consider the 
question of consolidating several of the scientific 
bureaus of the government are progressing slowly 
with their work, and a report is not looked for 
within several months. It is authoritatively 
learned that the signal office is the chief obstacle 
in the way of any proposed change, and of an 
early settlement of this important question. A 


ie able 
valuable for the 1 
-varer. forms, and for its completeness of authent 


186 


strenuous effort will be made by those interested 
in this service, to prevent a consolidation, or any 
curtailment of its powers. The temper of the 
commission is decidedly in favor of consolidating 
some of the scientific bureaus, and a reeommenda- 
tion to this effect may confidently be looked for. 


—It is proposed to establish a permanent ex- 
position in Washington, preparatory to a world’s 
exposition in 1892 to celebrate the fourth centen- 
nial of the discovery of America. 


—A bill is now before congress to extend the 
reports of the signal service for the relief of 
farmers. It is proposed to forecast ‘‘ cold waves, 
rains, storms, and marked inclemencies” of the 
weather, by establishing danger-signals at tele- 
graph-stations all over the country. 


— The exploration of the ancient mounds 
in Manitoba promises interesting results. It ap- 
pears from surveys made during the past sum- 
mer that the northern limits of the mound-build- 
ers lie beyond the Red River of the North. Along 
this river and Lake Winnipeg, mounds were found 
identical in structure with the famous ones of the 
Ohio and Mississippi valleys. 


— An act of incorporation, establishing a zo6- 
logical society in Washington, was passed in 1870; 
but nothing, so far, has been accomplished toward 
carrying into effect the provisions of its charter. 
Mr. P. T. Barnum now proposes to establish a 
zoological garden there, if congress will grant the 
use of thirty acres of the reclaimed lands on the 
flats for the purpose, and the privileges vested in 
this society. He offers to expend $200,000 in im- 
proving and beautifying the garden. 


— The mineralogical collectic 
ER Spam i la is sa) a. ie 
private one n existence. — 


id perfection 
species. It includes, according to Mr. Kunz, over 
10,500 specimens, 


—It appears that Columbia college was not the 
first to act upon the Tyndall scholarship (not 
‘ fellowship’), as stated in the last issue of Science. 
Harvard college took action in regard to the mat- 
ter nearly three months ago, and at that time 
appointed Mr. H. H. Brogan, of the class of 1885, 
as the first incumbent. He was in Europe at the 
time, and began his studies immediately. 


—Jacob v. Tschudi, the well-known South 
American traveller, archeologist, and naturalist, 
died Jan. 25, at St. Gall, Switzerland, aged sixty- 
eight. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL., No. 260 


— Preparations for the international horticul- 
tural exposition at Dresden, Germany, which will 
be held next May, are progressing rapidly. The 


chief exhibition-hall will comprise nearly 24,000 


square feet of space; and there will be, in addi- 
tion, another building, with more than double 
the superficial area, to contain the more delicate 
plants. 


— An interesting fact in connection with the 
trephining of an Inca skull, recently described in 
the Proceedings of the national museum, is re- 
called by Mr. J. W. Taylor of Roxbury, Mass., 
who states that Dr. Rink, during his travels in 
Labrador, recorded the story of an Eskimo family 
that lived near a people who built their houses of 
bowlders. The latter were hostile to the Eskimo, 
and, when they took them prisoners, they put 
them to death by boring a hole in their foreheads 
with these stones. 


— The importance of bacteriological studies has 
been recognized by the U. S. army and medical 
museum by the institution of extended laboratory 
work in the cultivation of the various forms and 
varieties of these microscopic organisms. Especial 
pains have been taken by Dr. Billings, the curator, 
to introduce all the latest methods and apparatus, 
so that the facilities are now quite equal to those 
of foreign laboratories. Solid culture media only 
are employed, as gelatine, blood-serum, potato, 
bread, and agar agar; and excellent results have 
been attained in the culture of the principal patho- 
genic forms. Many specimens are on exhibition, 
illustrating the germs of various diseases. The 
chromogenic forms are seen growing upon slices 
of potato, and represent almost every tint of the 
rainbow. The value of such laboratory work at 
; sent time 18 unquestionably great. 


' ‘he entire number of kooks published in the 
ied States during 1885, as compiled by the 
sh hers’ eee ounts to 4,030, a decrease of 
of 1884. In education and 
Be 9s there were 225, a decrease of 2; medical 
science and hygiene, 188, a decrease of 21; social 
and political science, 163, a decrease of 5; physi- 
cal and mathematical science, 92, a decrease of 
42; mental and moral philosophy, 25, an increase 
of 6. The loss has been greatest in works on 
science and the useful arts, and the greatest gains 
were on religious, theological, and juvenile works. 
The largest number of works, 934, as usual, were 
of fiction, with theological, law, and juvenile 
books coming next, each with about 400. 


— The Museum of hygiene at Washington con- 
tains a metallic burial-casket similar to that sent 
to Siberia to receive the body of Captain De Long, 
who perished at the Lena in October, 1881. These 


FEBRUARY, 26, 1886. ] 


caskets are designed to preserve the body in nearly 
a natural state by excluding the air. The body is 
surrounded with ground cork, and the lid of the 
casket is carefully cemented with white lead ; it 
is then wrapped in a layer of thick felt, and placed 
in a tightly constructed pine case, which is com- 
pletely filled with the ground cork. The seams of 
the pine box are carefully covered with white 
lead, and the whole is enveloped in another thick 
wrapping of felt ; over the latter is a covering of 
burlap, secured by stout cords; outside is a pine 
crate. These caskets are believed to be the best 
ever made for the preservation of the dead; and 
the great success achieved in the transportation of 
the remains of De Long and his companions would 
seem to indicate their entire feasibility for general 
use in similar instances, or where bodies are to be 
transported long distances through many climatic 
changes. 


— The herbarium of the national museum at 
Washington now embraces over 25,000 specimens, 
representing 17,000 species, and is established upon 

-a broad basis, which admits of almost unlimited 
expansion. The North American flora is repre- 
sented by about 7,000 species, contributed by Ward, 
Canby, Havard, and others, and is constantly in- 
creasing. The herbarium is also rich in European 
species, the gift for the most part of the authori- 
ties at Kew, and chiefly from the collections of 
George Curling Joad and J. Gay. This material, 
however. represents only a small portion of the 
national herbarium, the greater part of which is 
yet at the department of agriculture, where the 
government collections were formerly deposited 
before the erection of the national museum build- 
ing. Case-room is provided, and the cana 


numbers for order and genus on each genus- co er. 
The herbarium is placed in immediate connection 
with the department of fossil plants, and under 
the same curatorship. It is intended that ail 
duplicate material shall represent either additional 
parts of plants or widely different localities, as 
illustrating their geographical range, local varia- 
tion, etc. Other duplicates will, however. be 
utilized in effecting exchanges for species not 
represented. 


— The Berichte der deutschen botanischen gesell- 
schaft contains the interesting results of a number 
of experiments recently made by Strasburg upon 
the grafting of solanaceous plants. Jimson-weed 
(Datura stramonium) and ‘ wintercherry ’ (Physalis 


SCIENCE. 


187 


alkengi) were ingrafted upon potato-stocks, with 
immediate union ; and with the tobacco-plant less 
speedy though equally successful results were 
derived. Grafting deadly nightshade (Atropa bel- 
ladonna) and henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) was 
accomplished with more difficulty. Other attempts 
also succeeded in ingrafting the potato upon the 
nightshade (Solanum nigrum), tobacco, and win- 
tercherry, though with less ease. Not only were 
union and growth secured between these different 
solanaceous plants, but also between the potato 
and Schizanthus Grahami, a Chilian scrophula- 
rian plant, upon which the potato-fungus grows. 
The development in this last, however, was feeble. 
In none of these experiments did there appear to 
result any modifying influence upon the stock. 
The potato produced tubers as usual, though there 
appears to have been a greater number of irregular 
forms. With the jimson-weed the tubers were 
well developed, but no seeds were produced. On 
the other hand, tobacco-plants fructified abun- 
dantly, with only a sparse growth of tubers. 
Reserve material does not seem to be sufficient 
to admit of. both seeds and tubers together. 
Potato-plants grafted on others seemed to pos- 
sess a superabundance of reserve material, how- 
ever, resulting in the growth of tubers of the size 
of a walnut, in the axils of the leaves. The 
‘eyes’ of these tubers, it is interesting to state, 
developed leaves of considerable size. This growth 
of tubers above ground has been previously ob- 
served in the potato-plant, where the stem had 
been crushed close to the surface. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Tee required as pra aggees Saith. 
level and Se 


as 


C oming the inertia of the water, and 
caus: esent ocean- currents. Of course, dur- 
ing a latter part of this long period, after their 
effect had extended down to the bottom of the ocean, 

a part of their force was spent in overcoming the 
friction over the bottom, and toward the last a very 
small part only in accelerating the motion. But ac- 
cording to the same authority, after 239 years, while 
the whole force of the winds was spent upon the iner- 
tia of the water, only one-half the surface velocity 
was communicated to the stratum at the depth of 100 
metres; and so at the depth of a few hundred metres 
there was yet very little velocity. The greatest sur- 
face velocities in the open sea, supposed to be due to 
the winds, are, on the average, not more than ten 
miles per day. The whole amount of momentum, 

therefore, caused by the action of the winds, is only 
about equal to that of a stratum 100 metres in depth, 

with a velocity of ten miles per day, the amount of 
momentum below 100 metres in depth being about 
necessary to reduce that above 100 metres to the mo- 


* Ce ee erie are requested to be as brief as possible. The , 


1 | to Zoppritz, the winds were oasis 


‘., 


x lage diminish 


Pst Railes, instead of 5.1 feet, as at the surface. 


& 


188 


mentum, corresponding to that of a uniform velocity - 


of ten miles per day for all the strata. We can only 
judge of the force of the winds, as exerted upon the 
surface of the ocean, by the amount of momentum 
produced ina given time ; and, from the small amount 
of momentum produced in so long a time, this force 
must be very small. 

Let us now examine the effects of gravity as called 
into play by the gradients of the strata of equal 
pressure, arising from unequal upward expansions 
due to differences of temperature. Referring to my 
notes upon this subject, I make the following extracts 
from a larger table, in which the temperatures and 
the upward expansions are given for three stations at 
the given depths in the first column : — 


Lat, 37° 


| 
: LAT, 23°.2 N ONE 
Saar ia caning | Lona. 38°.7 W, | Lona. 41°.7 W. 
FATHOMS, 
‘Temp. Expan. poate: Bxpan, pomp ‘Expan. 
0 25°.5C.| 5.1ft. | 22° .2C.| 7st. PARIS KOR tose die 
50 UG a7 9 — = —_ -— 
100.) 25.1 3.2 19 .4 5.8 1b fast) Deth 
200) = j|\ Bevel satstal ol ak bets) 4.6 15) 9 5.2 
300 Bak 2.4 11 .4 3.6 15 .6 4.0 
400 | 4 .6 AS Tala | la 0 2.8 Uh 3.9 
560 3 8 1.8 6.5 2.3 8 .2 2.3 
600 4 _0 1.6 5 .4 2.0 51.3 1.9 
700 3.9 1,4 4 .8 1.8 4 .8 er 
800 | 3.9 1.2 ae | 1.6 3.4 1.6 
920 3.4 ial 4 0 1.5 3 .2 1.5 
OOO Pl ae see 1,0 s 5 1.4 3 .2 1.4 
1500) |\,2:28 0.6 2 .6 0.9 Sti 0.9 


The temperatures are e the means of six Sahiits 
of the Challenger expedition, as given by Dr. Croll; 
and the upward expansion, computed from Dr. 
Hann’s formula for the density of sea-water, is that 
arising from the differences of temperature at the 
different depths, and that of the maximum density 
of sea-water in the polar regions. The temperatures at 
eae bottom of the stations, ranging in depth from 

2,500 to 2,700 fathoms, were a little less than 2°. 
The upward expansion of the surface at the equator 
is a little greater than that of Dr. Croll (4.5 feet), 
obtained by means of Muncke’s tables, but the differ- 
ence is of no consequence. 

It is seen that the ee and BE ex- 

ly n surfa mn 


latter are sma lower depths 
har aa 3 are 
thee yay titude of maximum say’ 
3, 000 ‘om ° 7 then ra 
s dient o h 


The 
force, therefore, down this average gradient, of the 
whole mass, is to that of gravity about as unity is to 
18,000,000. It is readily found, from computation, 
that this force down this small gradient would give 
to the whole mass, in four days, a velocity of ten 
miles per day. According to Zéppritz, the whole 
action of the winds in 239 years produced only this 
amount of velocity on a surface stratum of 100 metres 
in depth, say one-fiftieth part of the whole depth. 
To produce an amount of momentum, therefore, 
equal to that of the whole ocean, with a velocity of 
ten miles per day, would require nearly 12,000 years. 
Comparing, now, four days with 12,000 years, we get 
an approximate idea of the relative strengths of the 
two forces, for these must be inversely as the times 
required to produce a given amount of momentum. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 160 


The force of the winds upon the ocean, therefore, in 
comparison with the gravitation force, is almost in- 
finitely small, if Z6ppritz’s results are to be accepted. 
But I have never accepted these, and therefore 
regard this simply as a very strong argumentum ad 
hominem on the subject to anyone who accepts 
them, and also maintains that the winds have any 
sensible effect in causing ocean-currents. Of course, 
avery small force, with time enough, will produce 
any given amount of momentum ; and so the winds, 
in time, could have caused an amount of motion 
equal to that observed in the ocean, if no other forces 
had been in operation ; but with other forces many 
times greater, causing both vertical and horizontal 
circulations, of course the effects of the infinitely 
small force would be entirely lost. 

In the flowing of rivers down a gradient, knowing 
the gradient and the mass, we have a measure of the 
force required to overcome the friction ; aud thus, 
from the known depth and velocity, it is easy to 
obtain approximately the value of the friction-con- 
stant. From any considerations of this kind I have 
never been able to obtain a friction-constant nearly 
so small as that assumed by Zéppritz, and therefore 
think it is many times too small as applied to rivers 
or ocean-currents. 

If we assume that the winds can cause the given 
amount of momentum in one year, instead of 12,000, 
we still have their force upon the ocean nearly 100 
times less than the gravitation force; and I think 
good judgment in the matter would decide that a 
year, at least, would be required for the slight action 
of the gentle winds blowing over the ocean to give 
an amount of momentum equal to that of the whole 
mass, with a velocity of ten miles per hour. I cannot 
think, therefore, that the effect of the winds is more 
than one-hundredth part of that of the gravitation 
force. 

Professor Davis seems to think that the gravitation 
force is too small, even allowing it a long time to act, 
to move the whole mass of the ocean. But the 
greatest tidal gradients with reference to the result- 
ants of gravitation and lunar forces, are little, if 
any, greater than that of fifteen feet in 5,000 miles ; 
yet these move the whole mass of the ocean to the 
bottom back and forth twice a day, causing regular 
‘ations and depressions of the surface, now high 
r, and six hours after, low water. The maxi- 
tidal velocities for all depths amount to a 


=e 
w 
my 


locity of nearly a mile per day. Ido not think a 
_quarter-diurnal reversal of the directions of the 


s would give rise to reversed velocities of that 
,ount toa stratum of the depth of ten metres; and 
so the effect of the winds would be about 150 times 
less than that of the tidal forces, which are about 
the same as those of the gradients arising from the 
differences of temperature. 

The regular gradients from the equator to the 
polar regions must be regarded as the initial ones, 
and consequently the forces arising from them, as 
the forces which overcome the inertia of the water 
before the final motions have been fully established. 
But the directions of the initial motions are very 
much modified by the deflecting forces of the earth’s 
rotation, and the distribution of the temperature dis- 
turbances somewhat changed. An interesting exam- 
ple of this kind is indicated by the temperatures of 
the last two stations of the preceding table, from 
which it is seen, that, in the region of the Sargossa 
Sea, the high temperatures extend down to greater 


Frsruary 26, 1886.] 


depths, and the consequent upward expansions are 
greater. This is caused by the gyratory motion of 
the water around this region. The deflecting force of 
the earth’s rotation arising from this motion, being 
on all sides to the right of the direction of motion, 
drives the surface water, together with the seaweed 
from all sides, into this region; so that there is a little 
heaping-up of the water in this region above that 
caused by the greater upward expansion: and this 
causes a settling-down and a flowing-out at all sides 
below, where the gyratory velocity, on account of 
greater friction, is less, and the consequent inward 
pressure toward the central part less, than they are 
above. This carries the warm surface water down- 
ward, and makes the average temperature for all 
depths and the upward expansion greater here than 
in the surrounding parts ; and this, togetber with the 
slight accumulation of the mass in the region of the 
Sargossa Sea, raises its level several feet. 

Where wind drives the water against a barrier or 
shore, as in the case of Lake Ontario or the Atlantic 
Ocean, regular progressive currents from top to bot- 
tom in the same direction cannot be established ; but 
the surface water which is driven forward must 
return below, or at the sides if the wind blows over 
the middle part only. In such cases the greatest 
change of sea-level takes place soon after the winds 
begin to blow in any given direction, while the whole 
force is spent upon a comparatively thin stratum. It 
is well known that winds blowing over a very shal- 
low stratum of water, or along the length of a very 
shallow canal, may produce a considerable change of 
level; whereas, if the depth were considerable, the 
change would be but little. At first, while the whole 
force of the wind is spent upon the surface water of 
a lake or ocean, the great body of undisturbed water 
below is the same as so much solid matter. But after 
the surface water has been driven to one side, and 
the pressure there increased, which gives rise to the 
return current below,— when this has been fully estab- 
lished, the difference of sea-level at the two sides or 
ends, from and to which the wind blows, is less. 


W. FERREL. 
Washington, D.C., Feb. 1%. 


The Davenport tablets. 


Please allow me to trouble you once more, and 
finally, in reference to the Davenport tablets. 

Mr. Putnam says, ‘‘ If Professor Thomas will take 
the Grave Creek tablet, or even the famous Rosetta 
stone, and sit down before them with his Webster’s 
* Unabridged,’ he will find no end of similar resem- 
blances.” Very true, as the alphabets used on the 
Rosetta stone are some of those given by Webster, 
and the characters on the Grave Creek tablet have 
been taken from half a dozen different alphabets, 
which is one of the chief reasons why it is generally 
rejected by modern archeologists (see Dr. Wilson’s 
scathing criticism in his ‘Prehistoric man,’ third 
edition, vol. ii. pp. 99-111). 

Mr. Putnam’s criticism of Mr. Tiffany’s letter, on 
account of illiteracy, is in strange contrast with the 
records of the Davenport academy, which show that 
Mr. Tiffany was ore of its four original organizers 
(Proc., vol. vi. p. 1), was a member of the museum 
committee, was one of the board of trustees named 
in the constitution and articles of incorporation, was 
a member of the committee on finance (Proc., vol. i. 
pp. 4, 7, and 8), was more than once selected as one 


SCIENCE. 


189 


of acommittee of three to draught resolutions (Proc., 
vol, i. pp. 23 and 71), was one of a committee of two 
appointed to take steps toward erecting a building, 
was for some years treasurer of the academy (Proc., 
vol. i. p. 67), and did considerable mound-explor- 
ing, for which special credit is given in the presi- 
dent’s annual address of 1876. 

It is true that in the letter, from which I quoted 
only so much as touched upon the points then under 
discussion, Mr. Tiffany expresses entire confidence 
in the shale tablets, which is proof that his expres- 
sion of doubt in regard to the ‘limestone tablet’ 
was not for the purpose of ‘ defaming his old asso- 
ciates,’ but because the evidence satisfied him it was 
a plant. 

In answer to Mr. Putnam's singular philosophy 
respecting the entrance of water into the little vault 
where the limestone tablet was found, it is only 
necessary to refer to the figure and description of 
mound 11, heretofore given. As neither cement, 
plastering, clay, nor mortar was used, it would 
have been, as every mound-explorer knows, a mira- 
cle if water had failed to enter the vault, and, in the 
course of centuries, fill it with dirt. Moreover, in 
the course of time the superincumbent weight would 
have pressed the slab which covered the vault down 
upon the tablet. 

Archeologists, so far as they have spoken, have, 
almost without exception, indicated in their published 
works a want of faith in these tablets. Short, in his 
‘North Americans of antiquity’ (p. 40), says, ‘‘ The 
above conjectures as to the significance of the repre- 
sentations on these tablets are based upon the suppo- 
sition that they are genuine, and not the work of an 
impostor, of which we cannot refrain from expressing 
a slight suspicion.” Rev. J. P. MacLean, speaking 
of the cremation scene, says, ‘‘ Among the cabalistic 
characters, the word ‘ town’ stands out in bold lines, 
and the figure ‘8’ appears in rude shape among 
other marks. The picture of a face occurs in the 
sun, resembling the face of a European. The artist 
has overdone his work: it needs no further investi- 
gation” (‘ Mound-builders,’ p. 116). Yet Mr. Mac- 
Lean is one of two (Dr. Willis De Haas is the other), 
of whom Mr. Putnam remarks in his recent annual 
address to the academy, as published in the local 
papers, ‘‘ There are thus no more competent arche- 
ologists in the country.” Mr. Peet, in the American 
antiquarian of July, 1878, expresses the same opin- 
ion as Mr. MacLean. Prof. M. C. Read, in the 
American antiquarian of April-July, 1882, ex- 
presses a doubt as to their authenticity, based upon 
the characters they bear. Dr. E. Schmidt, in an 
article entitled ‘ The mound-builders and their rela- 
tion to the historical Indians’ (Kosmos, 1884, p. 146), 
remarks, ‘‘It is hardly necessary to be pointed out 
that none of the notorious tablets are without sus- 
picion, and that all which have been subjected to 
earnest investigation have turned out to be gross 
forgeries.” It appears from these notices that I am 
not alone in expressing doubt as to the authenticity 
of these tablets. 

Notwithstanding the kind invitation of the acad- 
emy to visit their museum and inspect the tablets, I 
preferred, for the present, to base my arguments on 
the publications of the academy (the albertypes in- 
cluded) and the statements of its members, as this 
avoided'recourse to personal judgment, and appealed 
only to what is beforethe public. Even the extracts 
from Mr. Tiffany’s and Mr. Pratt’s letters were in 


190 


confirmation of Mr. Harrison’s published account of 
the finding of the limestone tablet. If this evidence 
leads to the conclusion that these relics are modern 
productions, as I believe it does, there is no necessity 
_for the present of ‘further investigation,’—a con- 
clusion Mr. MacLean seems to have reached while 
writing his ‘ Mound-builders.’ Cyrus THOMAS. 


The claimed wheat and rye hybrid. 


In Science of Jan. 15 appears an article from Dr. 
Sturtevant, which, to save words, I will call a criti- 
cism of an account of my rye and wheat hybrids, pub- 
lished in the Century magazine of last January by 
Charles Barnard. Mr. Barnard, after an examina- 
tion of the plants at my place last summer, gives 
their history, accepting, without question, their 
hybrid origin. Dr. Sturtevant, who also examined 
them last summer. begs to dissent. He considers 
the evidence adduced only ‘sufficient to establish 
grave doubts.’ 

While we were on our way to the plots, Dr. Sturte- 
vant remarked that he wanted me to know that he 
was ‘incredulous as to the wholething.’ While we 
were returning, he said, ‘‘ lam convinced that they 
are hybrids, but I question whether they will not be 
found to be distinctly either wheat orrye.” In the 
Science article referred to, he next states that he has 
compared the pictures of a few of these heads which 
appeared in the Rural New- Yorker with those of five 
old varieties which he mentions, and finds them 
closely alike. Then he remarks that he does not 
question the ‘attempt at across.’ The ‘ variability 
effected is,’ he admits, ‘ indicative of a foreign pollen.’ 
This variability, which he believes not to be due to 
hybridization, the doctor explains by an ‘ hypothesis.’ 
It is that under the stimulus of the rye poilen, 
atavism has resulted, whereby varieties dormant in 
the wheat (female) plant have made their appearance. 
Finally he expresses the hope that some one, expert 
in agricultural botany, may ‘ investigate a series of 
these specimens.’ 

Dr. Sturtevant, though he states that he has care- 
fully studied the ‘ published claims,’ has apparently 
overlooked the published fact that specimens of these 
hybrids have been sent to no less than six well- 
known botanists, several of whom have replied that 
they were evidently hybrids, while others replied 
to the effect that the hybridization was a most inter- 
esting fact, etc. 

Now, if we emasculate the florets of a head of 
wheat while the anthers are immature, and repeat- 
edly apply rye pollen, and thus succeed in attaining 
ten grains, from which, in three years, at least fifty 
different varieties appear, differing as widely as any 
known wheats differ from each other, while some of 
them resemble rye more than wheat, can anyone 
reasonably doubt that a hybridization was effected ? 
Why assume any thing else whatever? What does 
Dr. Sturtevant mean by ascribing such changes to 
the ‘stimulus of foreign pollen’ as something differ- 
ent from the sexual effect of foreign pollen? Sup- 
pose atavism is shown in some of these: does it not 
prove, all the same, that hybridization was effected ? 
A hybrid may show all, some, or none of the 
characteristics of either parent, and still be a hybrid, 
as has often been revealed in the later seedling pro- 
geny. 

In drawing resemblances between the pictures in 
the Rural New-Yor‘er an1 those of which he speaks, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 160 


the doctor, very likely, forgets an important fact ; 
viz., that in many of the heads of the plants most 
resembling rye, the spikelets bear but two kernels, 
while many are wholly abortive. Again : the botani- 
cal relationship is marked not only by narrower 
glumes, by fewer florets and grains, but by the fact 
that the culms beneath the head for an inch or so 
are hairy,—a characteristic that never occurs on 
wheat culms. The color of both the culms and leaves 
is also distinctly lighter (more glaucous) than that of 
wheat, and the habit of the young plant is that of 
rye. EK. S. CARMAN. 


A recent ice-storm. 


The trees in central Massachusetts, along the line 
of the Boston and Albany railroad from Worcester 
to Spencer, suffered severely from the weight of ice 
formed upon them during the storm of Feb. 11-13, 
that caused the recent destructive floods. It was 
noticeable that the trees which exposed the largest 
surface for the attachment of ice did not suffer most: 
the pines with their green needles, and the oaks with 
their dead leaves, generally escaped injury ; and the 
slender birches were saved by bending instead of 
breaking. But from five to twenty per cent of the 
other deciduous trees were more or less hurt. The 
side limbs were not often broken: it was nearly 
always the vertical top-stems that sustained the most 
injury, apparently because their natural position was 
farthest from that into which the weight of the 
clinging ice forced them. 

Can some of your readers furnish direct observa- 
tional evidence to show why the pines and leafy oaks 
escaped, while the bare trees were so much damaged ? 


W. M. Davis. 
Cambridge, Feb. 20. 


Corrections of thermometers for pressure. 


If any of your readers interpreted our reference in 
Science, Feb. 12, to a letter from the signal office, as 
your correspondent, Sig., feared they might do, we 
regret it, and are glad that the import of that letter 
has been fully explained. We are well aware that 
many of our text-books on heat refer to the effect of 
pressure on the thermometer, and state how to pre- 
vent itin some instances. The effect of appreciable 
changes of pressure on the thermometer seemed to 
us to be sufficient to demand correction in all accu- 
rate thermometric work. If such corrections are 
generally made, they are omitted in the report of 
experiments. F, P. VENABLE. 


J. W. GORE. 
University of North Carolina, Feb. 22. 


Is the dodo an extinct bird P 


Referring to Dr. Shufeldt’s article (Science, vii. 145) 
respecting the supposed present existence of the 
dodo, it may be desirable to state, for the benefit of 
those who are not already aware of the fact, that the 
so-called dodo from Samoa, mentioned in the clipping 
‘from an English newspaper,’ is not the dodo at all, 
but the dodo-pigeon, Didunculus strigirostris, a living 
specimen of which was last year presented to the 
national museum by Dr. T. Canisius, ex-consul of the 
United States at Samoa. This specimen was, at latest 
account, thriving in the zodlogical garden at Phila-_ 
delphia. Ropert RipGway. 

Smithson. inst., Feb. 15. 


. atory, 


SCIENCE.—SuPPLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1886. 


THE PRESENT WHOLESALE DESTRUC- 
TION OF BIRD-LIFE IN THE UNITED 
STATES. 


IN the bird-world, as elsewhere, the struggle for 
existence, even under natural conditions, is a se- 
vere one, undue increase being held well in check. 
Birds, and their eggs and young, are not only the 
natural prey of many predaceous mammals and 
reptiles, but also of predaceous birds. Squirrels, 
spermophiles, and mice, although not in a strict 
sense rapacious, are among the worst natural 
enemies of the smaller birds, whose eggs and 
young they seek and devour with avidity; 
while many birds not usually classed as pred- 
as the jays, crows, grackles, cuckoos, 
and some others, wage unremitted warfare upon 
the eggs and young of the weaker species. The 
elements are also far more destructive of bird-life 
than is commonly recognized. Late cold storms 
in spring destroy many of the early migrants, 
sometimes nearly exterminating certain species 
over considerable areas where they had become 
prematurely settled for the season. The unusual 
southward extension of severe cold waves and 
heavy snow-falls, such as have marked the present 
winter, are destructive to the bird-life of the re- 
gions thus exceptionally visited. During the mi- 
grations, both in the fall and spring, immense 
numbers of birds are sometimes caught by storms, 
and blown far out to sea and drowned, or perish 
in attempts to cross the larger inland lakes. There 
is abundant evidence to show that the annual de- 
struction of birds by the elements alone must 
prove a severe check upon their increase. But all 
this is a part of nature’s routine, which has char- 
acterized past ages as well as the present, and 
which, so far as we know, may be only the natu- 
ral and necessary check upon undue increase. It 
is only when man comes upon the scene that 
nature’s balance is seriously disturbed. 

Man’s destructive influence is to some extent 
unavoidable, but in far greater part selfish and 
wanton. The removal of forests, the drainage of 
Swamps and marshes, the conversion of wild lands 
into farms, and the countless changes incident to 
the settlement of a country, destroy the haunts 
and the means of subsistence of numerous forms 
of animal life, and practically result in their ex- 


termination over vast areas. The birds, particu- 
larly the larger species, suffer in common with 
vertebrate life in general. Electric-light towers, 
light-houses, and light-ships are also a fruitful 
and modern source of disaster to birds, particu- 
larly during their migrations, when, in thick 
weather, thousands upon thousands kill them- 
selves by dashing against these alluring obstruc- 
tions. Telegraph-wires contribute also largely to 
the destruction of bird-life. While the destruc- 
tion by these agencies is greatly to be regretted, 
it is not directly chargeable to cupidity and heart- 
lessness, as is the far greater slaughter of birds in 
obedience to the dictates of fashion, presently to 
be detailed. 

The history of this country, as is well known, is 
the record of unparalleled destruction of the larger 
forms of animal life. Much of this destruction, 
it is true, was unavoidable, sooner or later. But 
it is no less true that the extirpation of our larger 
game animals has been needlessly hastened by 
what may be fairly termed a disgraceful greed for 
slaughter, —in part by ‘pot-hunting’ on a grand 
scale, in part for the mere desire to kill something, 
—the so-called ‘love of sport.’ The fate of exter- 
mination, which, to the shame of our country, has 
already practically overtaken the bison, and will 
sooner or later prove the fate of all of our larger 
game-mammals and not a few of our game-birds, 
will, if a halt be not speedily called by en- 
lightened public opinion, overtake scores of our 
song-birds, and the majority of our graceful and 
harmless, if somewhat less ‘ beneficial,’ sea and 
shore birds. 

The decrease in our song and shore birds is al- 
ready attracting attention ; and the protest against 
it, which reaches us from many and widely dis- 
tant parts of the country, is not only painful evi- 
dence of this decrease, but gives hope that the 
wave of destruction, which of late years has moved 
on in ever-increasing volume, has at last reached 
its limit of extension, and that its recession will 
be rapid and permanent. But to secure this re- 
sult, the friends of the birds — the public at large 
— must be thoroughly aroused as to the magni- 
tude of the evil, and enlightened as to its causes 
and the means for its retrenchment. It is there- 
fore the purpose of the present series of papers to 
throw some light upon the extent, the purposes, 
and the methods of the present wholesale slaugh- 
ter of our native birds. 

Birds are killed for food, for ‘sport,’ for natural- 


192 


history specimens, to stuff as objects of curiosity 
or ornament, and for personal decoration. The 
birds killed for food are, of course, mainly the com- 
monly so-called game-birds, — pigeons, grouse of 
various kinds, ducks and geese, and the great 
horde of smaller waders, known as ‘ peeps,’ snipes, 
plovers, rails, etc. The slaughter of these has 
been so improvident, and their decrease of late so 
marked, that they are now more or less cared for 
by the numerous game-protective associations, but 
are still, in the main, very inadequately guarded. 
In addition to the birds commonly recognized as 
game-birds, many song-birds are hunted for food, 
notably the reed-bird, or bobolink, the robin, the 
meadow-lark, the blackbird, and the flicker, and, 
in some localities, all the larger song-birds. This 
is particularly the case in portions of the south, 
where strings of small birds may be seen sus- 
pended in the game-stalls. In March of last year, 
a well-known ornithologist reports finding in 
the market at Norfolk, Va., hundreds of wood- 
peckers and song-birds exposed for sale as food, 
the list of species including not only robins, 
meadow-larks, and blackbirds, but many kinds of 
sparrows and thrushes, and even warblers, vireos, 
and wax-wings. While some of the stalls had 
each from three hundred to four hundred small 
birds, others would have but a dozen or two. 
‘* Nearly all the venders were colored people, and 
doubtless most of the birds were captured by the 
same class.” This ‘daily exhibition in southern 
markets’ indicates an immense destruction of 
northern-breeding song-birds which resort to the 
southern states for a winter home. 


As shown in a subsequent paper of this Sup- 


plement, the eggs of many species of terns, gulls, 
plovers, and other marsh and shore breeding 
species, are systematically taken for use as food, 
the egg-hunting business being prosecuted to such 
an extent as to prove a serious cause of decrease of 
the species thus persecuted, while the value as food, 
of the eggs thus destroyed, is too trivial to be for an 
instant regarded as of serious importance. The 
havoc described below by Mr. Sennett as wrought 
in Texas prevails all along our coast-lines; and 
many localities might be cited where the destruc- 
tion is equally sweeping, as on the Pacific coast 
and at frequent points on the Atlantic coast from 
Florida to Labrador, — wherever, in fact, the birds 
occur in sufficient numbers to render such whole- 
sale plundering practicable. The marsh-breeding 
rails are at some localities subject to similar 
persecution. At one locality on Long Island, I 
am informed, a ‘ bay-man,’ who keeps a house of 
entertainment for sportsmen during ‘ the season,’ 
supplies his table for weeks at a time with the eggs 
of the rails that breed numerously in his vicinity, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 160 


—in strange conflict, too, with his own interests, 
since, by destroying the eggs of the rails, he ‘ kills 
the goose that lays the golden egg’ for the rail- 
shooting season. 

In general, the game and quasi-game birds are 
killed for sport rather than for gain or for their 
intrinsic value as food: exception, however, is to 
be made of the ‘ professional’ or ‘market’ gun- 
ners, by whom the ranks of the water-fowl are so 
fearfully thinned, and who often resort to any 
wholesale method of slaughter their ingenuity 
may be able to devise. But the slaughter of our 


birds in general is doubtless largely due to the © 


mere fascination of ‘shooting.’ Many song-birds 
are killed ‘for sport’ by the ‘small boy’ and the 
idler, whose highest ambition in life is to possess a 
gun, and whose ‘game’ may be any wild animal 
that can run or fly, and wears fur or feathers. 
Some slight depredation on the small fruits of the 
garden, or on field-crops, is ample pretext for a 
war of extermination on robins, catbirds and 
thrashers, jays and chewinks, as well as black- 
birds and crows, and the birds so unfortunate as 
to fall into the category of hawks and owls, not- 
withstanding the fact that every one of these 


species is in reality a friend. Yet the slaughter | 


is winked at, if not actually encouraged, by 
those who are most injured by it; while the 
‘general public’ of the districts where such 
practices prevail are either too ignorant of the 
real harm done, or too apathetic, to raise any 
serious protest. 

Among the important agencies in bird-destruc- 
tion is the ‘bad small boy’— and in the ornith- 
ological sense his name is legion —of both town 
and country. Bird-nest robbing is one of the 
besetting sins—one of the marks of ‘natural 
depravity ’—of the average small boy, who fails 
to appreciate the cruelty of systematically robbing 
every nest within reach, and of stoning those that 
are otherwise inaccessible. To him the birds 
themselves, too, are also a fair target for a stone, 
a sling, a catapult, or a ‘pea-shooter:’ to the 
latter many a sparrow, a thrush, or warbler falls 
a victim. Says a recent writer on the subject of 
bird-destruction, ‘‘ Two ten-year-old lads in that 
quiet and moral hamlet [Bridgehampton, Long 
Island] confessed this autumn, that with pea- 
shooters they had killed during the season fifty 
robins and other birds which frequent the gar- 
dens, orchards, and cemetery. Such boys exist 
all over the United States, and war on birds as 
things made to be killed. . The pea-shooter 


gives no sound, and can be carried in the vest-_ 


pocket ; but so destructive is it in the hands of a 
skilful child, that the legislatures of some of the 
western states were obliged to pass laws making 


Fesruary 26, 1886. ] 


the sale of the thing a misdemeanor, and punishing 
the possession or use of it.” 

Perhaps equally, possibly more destructive, and 
certainly more reprehensible, is the newly-arrived 
‘foreign-born citizen,’ who, to demonstrate to him- 
self that he has really reached the ‘land of the 
free,’ equips himself with a cheap shot-gun, some 
bird-traps, clap-nets, or drugged grain, one or 
all, and hies himself to the nearest haunt of birds 
for indiscriminate, often very quiet, slaughter or 
capture. Of course, only a few of our guests from 
foreign shores either possess or indulge in this 
propensity ; but in the neighborhood of our larger 
cities, notably on Long Island, and elsewhere near 
New York, the destruction of bird-life thus ef- 
fected, we are credibly informed, is startlingly 
large. 

The destruction of birds by taxidermists, and 
for alleged ‘scientific purposes,’ has justly at- 
tracted attention, and has unjustly brought into 
disrepute the legitimate collecting of both eggs 
and birds for scientific use; but much of this 
alleged scientific collecting is illegitimate, being 
really done under false colors, or wrongly attrib- 
uted to science. Of the birds killed or mounted 
by taxidermists, some, not unfrequently a large 
part, are for museums or private cabinets : another 
large share is put “up for parlor or hall orna- 
ments, either as groups or singly. All this, by 
a little license, may be allowed as legitimate, or 
at least not seriously reprehensible. But, unfortu- 
nately, the average taxidermist has too often an 
unsavory alliance with the milliner, and, in addi- 
tion to his legitimate work, is allured into catering 
on a large scale to the ‘hat-trade.’ Although a 
few of them are too high-principled and too much 
the naturalist at heart, to thus prostitute their 
calling, taxidermists as a class are at present in 
deserved disrepute, and are to a large degree re- 
sponsible for much of the public and mistaken 
criticism of scientific collecting. This criticism is 
perhaps more especially directed against the ‘ egg- 
collector,’ who ranges in calibre and purpose from 
the schoolboy, who gathers eggs as he does postage- 
stamps or ‘ show-cards,’ — for the mere purpose of 
‘making a collection,’ —to the intelligent odlogist 
or ornithologist, who gathers his eggs in sets, pre- 
pares them with great care, with the strictest 
regard to correct identification, and in series 
sufficient to show the range of variation — often 
considerable —in eggs of the same species, and 
takes a few additional sets for exchange. He may 
have in the aggregate a large collection, number- 
ing hundreds of species, and thousands of speci- 
mens ; but in general the same species is not laid 
under serious requisition, and the sets are gathered 
at considerable intervals of time and from a large 


SCIENCE. 


Ty. 


area of country. <A squad of street-urchins set 
loose in the suburbs will often destroy as many 
nests in a single morning’s foray as a collector 
gathering for strictly scientific purposes would 
take in a whole season, and with far more harm- 
ful results, because local and sweeping. Much of 
the egg-collecting by schoolboys should be stopped, 
and can be easily checked under proper statutory 
regulations, as will be explained later in a paper 
on bird-legislation. 

The scientific collector, as already intimated, 
is charged, in some quarters, with the ‘lion’s 
share’ of the responsibility for the decrease of 
our song-birds; with what justice, or rather 
injustice, may be easily shown, for the neces- 
sary statistics are not difficult to obtain. The 
catalogue of the ornithological department of the 
national museum numbers rather less than 110,000 
bird-skins. This record covers nearly half a 
century, and the number of specimens is four 
times greater than that of any other museum in this 
country ; while the aggregate number of all our 
other public museums would probably not greatly 
exceed this number. But to make a liberal esti- 
mate, with the chance for error on the side of 
exaggeration, we will allow 300,000 birds for the 
public museums of North America, one-half of 
which, or nearly one-half, are of foreign origin, or 
not North American. To revert to the national 
museum collection, it should be stated, that, while 
only part of the specimens are North American, — 
say about two-thirds, — they represent the work 
of many individuals, extending over a third of a 
century, and over the whole continent, from 
Alaska and Hudson Bay to Mexico and Florida, 
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Further- 
more, this number — 110,000, more or less — is not 
the number now in the national collection, which 
is far less than this, thousands and thousands of 
specimens having been distributed in past years to 
other museums in this country and abroad. 

So far the public museums: now in relation to 
private cabinets of bird-skins. Of these it is safe 
to say there are hundreds scattered throughout 
the country, containing from three hundred to five 
or six hundred specimens each, with a few, easily 
counted on the fingers of the two hands, if not on 
a single hand, numbering five or six thousand 
each, with possibly two approaching ten thousand 
each. Probably 150,000 would be a liberal esti- 
mate for the number of North American bird- 
skins in private cabinets, but, again to throw the 
error on the side of exaggeration, iet us say 300,- 
000, — not, however, taken in a single year, but 
the result of all the collecting up to the present 
time, and covering all parts of the continent. 
Add this number to the number of birds in our 


A SCIENCE. 


public museums, less those of foreign origin, and | 


we have, allowing our exaggerated estimates to be 
true, less than 500,000 as the number of North 
American birds thus far sacrificed for science. 
The few thousand that have been sent to other 
countries in exchange for foreign birds can safely 
be included under the above estimate, which is at 
least a third above the actual number. 

We have now passed briefly in review all the 
agencies and objects affecting the decrease of 
our birds, save one, and that the most important 
—many times exceeding all the others together, 
—the most heartless and the least defensible, 
namely, the sacrifice of birds to fashion, for hat 
ornamentation and personal decoration. Start- 
ling as this assertion may seem, its demonstration 
is easy. 

In this country of 50,000,000 inhabitants, half, 
or 25,000,000, may be said to belong to what some 
one has forcibly termed the ‘dead-bird wearing 
gender,’ of whom at least 10,000,000 are not only 
of the bird-wearing age, but — judging from what 
we see on our streets, in public assemblies and 
public conveyances — also of bird-wearing proclivi- 
ties. Different individuals of this class vary 
greatly in their ideas of style and quantity in the 
way of what constitutes a proper decoration for 
that part of the person the Indian delights to orna- 
ment with plumes of various kinds of wild fowl. 
Some are content with a single bird, if a large one, 
mounted nearly entire: others prefer several small 
ones, —a group of three or four to half a dozen ; 
or the heads and wings of even a greater number. 
Others, still, will content themselves with a few 
wings fancifully dyed and bespangled, or a 
wreath of grebe ‘fur,’ usually dyed, and not un- 
frequently set off with egret-plumes. In the aver- 
age, however, there must be an incongruous 
assemblage made up of parts of various birds, or 
several entire birds, representing at least a num- 
ber of individuals. But let us say that these 10,- 
000,000 bird-wearers have but a single bird each, 
that taese birds may be ‘made over’ so as to do 
service for more than a single season; and still 
what an annual sacrifice of bird-life is entailed ! 
Can it be placed at less than 5,000,000 ?— ten times 
more than the number of specimens extant in all 
our scientific collections, private and public to- 
gether, and probably a thousand times greater 
than the annual destruction of birds (including 
also eggs) for scientific purposes. 

Fortunately, perhaps, the supply of bird-skins 
for decorative purposes is not all drawn from a 
single country, the whole world being laid under 
tribute. The ornithologist recognizes in the het- 
erogeneous groups of birds on women’s hats, met 
with on every hand, a great preponderance of 


[Vou. VII., No. 160 


North American species ; but with them are many 
of the common birds of Europe, and a far greater 
variety from South America, and many from 
Africa, Australia, New Guinea, and India. But, 
on the other hand, it is well known that our own 
birds are exported in immense numbers to Europe ; 
but, whether the exportation exceeds the importa- 
tion, it is impossible to determine, from lack of 
proper statistics. 

With the foregoing facts before us in regard to 


_ the annual destruction of our birds, it is noe longer 


surprising that many species, and even genera, of 
birds, are fast disappearing from our midst. Con- 
sidering that this slaughter has been waged for 
years, but with rapid increase year by year, is it 
not rather a wonder that so many birds are still 
left ? 

The extent to which this destruction is carried 
on, and in what ways, in the immediate vicinity 
of New York, is indicated in a subsequent article 
of this series, by Mr. Dutcher. But the slaughter 
extends in greater or less degree throughout 
the country. The destruction of 40,000 terns in 
a single season on Cape Cod for exportation, a 
million rails and reed-birds (bobolinks) killed in a 
single month near Philadelphia, are facts that may 
well furnish food for reflection. The swamps and 
marshes of Florida are well known to have re- 
cently become depopulated of their egrets and 
herons, while the state at large has been for years 
a favorite slaughter-ground of the milliner’s emis- 
saries. The present winter parties organized and 
equipped in this interest are said to be prose- 
cuting the same wholesale warfare against the - 
birds at various points along the whole gulf- 
coast. 

But why, some may be supposed to ask, should 
the slaughter be interfered with? Does it not yield 
profit to many an impecunious idler, who receives 
so much per head from the ‘ taxidermist’ for the 
freshly killed bird? Do not their preparation 
and manufacture into the gaudy or otherwise 
untasteful hat-gear give employment to many a 
needy hand, and add materially to the milliner’s 
gains? Why is not their use for personal decora- 
tion, @ la sauvage, as legitimate and defensible as 
their use for food, with the added advantage of 
being able to utilize decoratively a great many 
species otherwise of no commercial value? Why 
should we be anxious to preserve our birds? Are 
they, when alive, of any practical value, or do 
they contribute in any way to our pleasure or 
well-being ? 

In regard to the first of these inquiries, the men 
and boys really get little more in the average for 
the raw material than enough to pay them for 
their powder and shot: it is the ‘sport’ that 


S 


FEBRUARY 26, 1886. | 


affords them their real reward. The middle-men, 
—the skinners and manufacturers,—and an oc- 
casional professional gunner, make most of the 
profit, which must be more or less considerable to 
induce them to run the gauntlet of public opinion 
and the occasional risks of prosecution in their 
illegal enterprises. The milliner shares, of course, 
in the profits of the trade in such supplies; but, if 
birds were not used to such an extent, other and 
more fitting decorations would be adopted in their 
place, and their business would not suffer. 

Respecting the latter inquiries, birds may be 
said to have a practical value of high importance 
and an aesthetic value not easily overestimated. 
Birds in general are the friends of man, and it is 
doubtful whether a single species can be named 
which is not more beneficial than harmful. The 
great mass of our smaller birds, numbering hun- 
dreds of species, are the natural checks upon the 
undue multiplication of insect-pests. Many of 
them rarely make use of other than insect-food, 
while all, as shown by scientific investigations 
already made, depend largely or wholly, during 
‘considerable periods of the year, upon an insect- 
diet. Even the ill-reputed hawks and owls prey 
upon field-mice, grasshoppers, and other noxious 
insects or vermin, some never molesting the 
farmer’s poultry, and others only exceptionally. 
In the present general summary of the subject, it 
may be sufficient to say, that, while the beneficial 
qualities of birds vary widely with the species, 
none can be set down as proven to be unmiti- 
gatedly injurious. With the decrease of birds at 
any point is noted an increase of insects, especially 
of kinds injurious to agriculture. The relation of 
birds to agriculture has been studied as yet but 
imperfectly; but results could be cited which 
would go far to substantiate the above statement 
of their general utility. It is a matter for con- 
gratulation, that the investigation of the subject 
has now been systematically entered upon by the 
department of agriculture at Washington, under 
the supervision of experts especially fitted for the 
work. 

Birds, considered aesthetically, are among the 
most graceful in movement and form, and the 
most beautiful and attractive in coloration, of 
nature’s many gifts to man. Add to this their 
vivacity, their melodious voices and unceasing 
activity, — charms shared in only small degree by 
any other forms of life, — and can we well say that 
we are prepared to see them exterminated in behalf 
of fashion, or to gratify a depraved taste? Says a 
recent writer, ‘“‘ A garden without flowers, child- 
hood without laughter, an orchard without blos- 
soms, a sky without color, roses without perfume, 
are the analogues of « country without song-birds. 


SCIENCE. 


195 


And the United States are going straight and swift 
into that desert condition.” 

Indeed, as previously noted, there is already an 
encouraging recognition of that fact. Here and 
there bird-protective associations are being formed, 
and more care is taken to secure proper bird-pro- 
tective legislation; but the public at large is still 
too apathetic, or too ignorant of the real state of 
the case, to insist upon, and support by proper 
public sentiment, the enforcement of legislative 
acts already on our statute-books. The American 
ornithologists’ union has moved in the matter by 
the appointment of a large and active committee 
on bird-protection, which is at present bending its 
energies toward the diffusion of information among 
the people, in the hope of awakening a healthy sen- 
timent on the subject, and is also working to secure 
not only more effective and intelligent legislation, 
but the proper enforcement of the laws enacted 
in behalf of birds. This, too, notwithstanding a 
recent writer in a popular magazine characterized 
ornithologists as being among the worst enemies 
birds have, and to whose egg-collecting and bird- 
stuffing propensities was principally attributed the 
woful decrease of our song-birds ! 

In England the same rage for hat decoration 
with dead birds has gone so far that anti-plumage- 
wearing societies have already been established by 
the more intelligent women of that country ; and it 
has already been suggested, apparently independ- 
ently of any similar action abroad, by ladies 
themselves, that the women of this country throw 
their influence in a similar way against the bar- 
barous custom of using birds for personal decora- 
tions. Much could doubtless be done in behalf of 
the birds in this way; for, once let it come to 
be considered vulgar and in ‘bad form’ to thus 
decorate one’s person, and the power of fashion 
would be a mighty weapon in defence of the 
birds. 

Of all the means that may be devised for check- 
ing the present wholesale bird-slaughter, the 
awakening of a proper public sentiment cannot 
fail of being the most powerful. Without this, 
all other means would prove, to a great degree, 
ineffectual. Laws, however good, cannot be 
enforced unless backed by public opinion. To 
arouse this, it seems only necessary to enlighten 
the community respecting the nature, the enor- 
mity, and the leading cause of this great evil. 
The following articles are intended to amplify 
and elaborate points merely hinted at in this 
general statement— to give a bill of particulars 
for certain special localities, and of certain phases, 
of this great slaughter of the innocents, and to 
show the methods adopted by some of the miscre- 
ants engaged in it. J. A. ALLEN. 


196 


DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS FOR MILLINERY — 


PURPOSES. 

It is difficult to gather the actual statistics of 
bird-slaughter for millinery purposes, since it can 
be done only at the expense of much time and 
labor. Wesee on every hand —in shop-windows, 
on the street, in the cars, and everywhere where 
women are seen —evidence of its enormous ex- 
tent. We know also that it is carried on more 
or less almost everywhere, but especially in the 
neighborhood of the larger cities, or at points 
within easy access from them, and also at various 
distant points, which are visited by the millinery 
taxidermists or their agents for the express pur- 
pose of supplying the demands of the hat-trade in 
bird-skins. At present only a few specific details 
can be given, relating to only a few localities ; but 
these may be taken as illustrative of what actually 
occurs at many points, respecting which the facts 
are known only ina general way. For many of 
the data here given, we are indebted to statements 
published from time to time in Forest and stream, 
the well-known New York weekly journal devoted 
to field-sports and natural history. In an editorial 
on ‘The destruction of small birds,’ published 
a short time since (March 6, 1884), occurs the 
following: ‘‘We know, for example, of one 
dealer . . . who, during a three-months’ trip to 
the coast of South Carolina last spring, prepared no 
less than 11,018 bird-skins. A considerable num- 
ber of the birds killed were, of course, too much 
mutilated for preparation, so that the total number 
of the slain would be much greater than the num- 
ber given. The person referred to states that he 
handles, on an average, 30,000 skins per annum, of 
which the greater part are cut up for millinery 
purposes.” The same article, in referring to the 
destruction of birds for millinery purposes on Long 
Island, states, that, during the short period of four 
months, 70,000 were supplied to the New York 
dealers from a single village. 

A writer in the Baltimore Sun, of about the 
same date, gives some account of the destruction 
of birds at Cobb’s Island, on the coast of Virginia. 
He says, ‘‘An enterprising woman from New 
York has contracted with a Paris millinery firm 
to deliver during this summer 40,000 or more skins 
of birds at forty cents apiece. With several taxi- 
dermists she was carrying out the contract, having 
engaged young and old to kill birds of different 
kinds, and paying them ten cents for each specimen 
not too much mutilated for millinery purposes. .. . 
The birds comprised in this wholesale slaughter 
are mainly the different species of gulls and terns, 
or sea-swallows, of which many species in large 
numbers could formerly be found upon this island. 
But now only few of these graceful birds remain 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No, 166 


upon Cobb’s Island itself; and the pot-hunters, or 
rather skin-hunters, have to go to some distance to 
carry out their cruel scheme. If we consider, that, 
with each old bird killed,— and only old birds have > 
a suitable plumage,— also many of the young birds, 
still unable to take care of themselves, are doomed 
to starvation, this wholesale slaughter becomes still 
more infamous and criminal.” 

Cobb’s Island was formerly one of the most noted 
resorts of the terns, smaller gulls, and other shore- 
breeding birds along our whole coast; but recent 
visitors to the island report that the once popu- 
lous colonies of these birds have been almost 
completely exterminated by the wholesale slaugh- 
ter referred to by the writer of the foregoing 
extract. 

Similar butchery has been carried on along the 
sandy shores of Cape Cod, also formerly a noted 
resort of these birds; it being reported that 40,000 
terns were killed there in a single season by one 
party for the hat-trade. At points where, a few 
years since, these beautiful birds filled the air with 
their graceful forms and snowy plumage, now only 
a few pairs remain. 

The same sad havoc has been wrought with the 
egrets and herons along our southern shores, the 
statistics of which, could they be presented, would 
be of startling magnitude. We only know that 
colonies numbering hundreds, and even thousands, 
of pairs, have been simply annihilated — wholly 
wiped out of existence—in supplying the ex- 
haustless demand for egret-plumes. The heronries 
of Florida suffered first and most severely ; later 
the slaughter was extended to other portions of the 
Gulf coast. As an instance of the scale on which 
these operations are carried, it may be mentioned 
that one of our well-known ornithologists, while 
on an exploring tour in Texas, heard an 
agent of the millinery trade soliciting a sportsman 
to procure for him the plumes of 10,000 white 
egrets. Although, in the present case, the sports- 
man had too much humanity to become the 
abettor of such a heartless scheme, the incident 
serves to show on what a grand scale the 
destruction of these birds is attempted; and 
doubtless the agent did not fail of eventually 
securing his coveted plunder. 

Among the birds most in favor for hat decoration 
are the various species of grebes, whose soft, furry 
plumage is particularly adapted to the purpose, 
being of durable texture, pleasing in effect, and 
susceptible of being readily dyed any desired tint. 
Grebes are used to such an extent, that the source 
of the abundant supply was not at first evident, 
owing to the comparative scarcity of the birds in 
the Atlantic states. It is found, however, that the 
supply is derived from the far west, mainly from 


FEBRUARY 26, 1886. ] 


the Pacific slope, where these birds are more 
abundant, and whence their skins are brought 
east in bales, like the peltries of the furrier, or the 
‘robes’ of the bison. The number must range 
far into the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands 
annually. 

Among the smaller birds it is naturally the 
brighter colored species that furnish most of the 
victims, especially the orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks, 
cedar wax-wings, bluebirds, meadow-larks, and 
golden-winged woodpeckers. No even approxi- 
mate estimate can be given of the number sacrificed. 
Only their conspicuous abundance on hats and 
bonnets, and their greatly decreased numbers, 
attest the slaughter to which they are subjected. 
But scarcely a bird can be named — from the rarest 
to the commonest, from the plainest of the spar- 
rows to the most gorgeously arrayed denizens of the 
orchard and forest, from the tiniest warblers and 
humming-birds to jays, kingfishers, cuckoos, and 
the larger woodpeckers, and even ptarmigans and 
grouse (in fragments or entire), and the largest of 
the shore-birds, with bills half a foot in length (an 
outré and grotesque effect seeming to be some- 
times especially sought) — that is not to be met with 
as an appendage of the female head-dress. 

The assemblage of diverse and incongruous 
forms sometimes met with on the same hat is 
often striking in the extreme; birds from the 
opposite ends of the earth, and of the ornithologi- 
cal scale of classification, being brought into most 
inharmonious combination, viewed even from the 
artistic stand-point. Bearing on this subject, and 
illustrating the range of taste in such matters, as 
well as the extent to which birds are used for hat 
embellishment, may be given the following inven- 
tory, furnished by an ornithological friend, of 
what recently met his eye in a Madison Avenue 
horse-car in this city. The car contained thirteen 
women, of whom eleven wore birds, as follows: 
(1) heads and wings of three European starlings ; 
(2) an entire bird (species unknown), of foreign 
origin; (8) seven warblers, representing four 
species ; (4) a large tern; (5) the heads and wings 
of three shore-larks ; (6) the wings of seven shore- 
larks, and grass-finches ; (7) one-half of a gallinule ; 
(8) a small tern ; (9) a turtle-dove ; (10) a vireo and 
a yellow-breasted chat ; (11) ostrich-plumes. That 
this exhibition was by no means exceptional as to 
number or variety is obvious to any one who has 
given close attention to the ornithological displays 
one daily meets with in street-cars and else- 
where, wherever he may travel. 

Advertisements in newspapers, by milliners, of 
the stock in hand, also give some suggestions of 
the extent of the traffic in wings and bird-skins ; it 
being not uncommon to see thousands of wings 


SCIENCE. 


197 


(plain or fancy, in natural colors or dyed), as well as 
thousands of bird-skins (mounted or made up) and 
thousands of plumes (dyed or plain), advertised by 
a single dealer, while the dealers themselves num- 
ber hundreds, if not thousands, in each of our 
larger cities. Add to these the smaller shops, in 
country and city, throughout the land, and we 
get at least some comprehension of the extent of 
the traffic in birds by the milliners, and the support 
they receive from the feminine portion of our 
population. 

Respecting the traffic abroad, we learn from an 
English authority, that there were sold in one 
auction-store in London, during the four months 
ending April, 1885, 404,464 West Indian and 
Brazilian bird-skins, and 356,389 East Indian, be- 
sides thousands of Impeyan pheasants and birds- 
of-paradise. 


DESTRUCTION OF BIRD-LIFE IN 
VICINITY OF NEW YORK. 


THE 


To such an extent has the recent fashion of 
using birds for hat ornaments been carried, that 
the waters and beaches in this vicinity have been 
entirely depopulated of their birds. On the coast- 
line of Long Island the slaughter has been carried 
to such a degree, that where, a few years since, 
thousands and thousands of terns were gracefully 
sailing over the surf-beaten shore and the wind- 
rippled bays, now one is rarely to be seen. 

The demand for sea-birds of white or delicate 
shades of color was so great, that many of the 
professional gunners and market-shooters gave up 
their usual shooting to enter upon what has proved 
to be a war of extermination. So long as the 
taxidermists who work for milliners in the large 
cities would take all the birds that could be sup- 
plied, the gunners were shooting day after day, 
from daylight until dark. 

In the spring of 1884 the writer met a taxider- 
mist from New York city, who was then on a 
trip along the south side of Long Island, for the 
purpose of making contracts with the gunners to 
supply him with a certain number of birds in the 
flesh, per day. He had facilities for making up 
three hundred skins daily, and was trying to 
arrange to get that number of birds. In answer 
to an inquiry as to whether he could finda market 
for such a number of skins in New York, he 
replied that he had no local trade, but that his 
stock was entirely for export to France. 

Between Coney Island and Fire Island inlet 
there are many marshes, meadows, and low-lying 
islands, which for years have been the breeding- 
places of thousands of common terns or sea- 
swallows; and on the sandy beaches the least 


198 


tern and piping plover laid their eggs, and hatched 
their young. Now this long stretch of country is 
as a waste place, for the hand of the destroyer 
has left but lone remnants of what was once a 
teeming colony. 

The small hamlet of Seaford is near the centre 
of this district, and has contributed largely toward 
the extermination of the sea-swallows. One of 
the most active gunners of this place informed the 
writer that he and his associates had, during the 
early summer of 1883, sent to market over three 
thousand terns. The slaughter of these thousands 
for hat ornamentation is in itself a great evil; but 
when we consider that the fifteen hundred pairs 
killed would have each produced an average of 
two young, or an aggregate of three thousand 
additional birds during the season, it becomes 
evident that the wrong is far-reaching. 

In the vicinity of Moriches, L.I., the same 
character of marsh prevails, and the same de- 
struction of seabird-life has been carried on. One 
of the resident gunners states that the terns are 
now practically exterminated, while a few years 
since it would have been an easy matter to shoot 
fifty birds during a forenoon. An observer at 
the eastern end of Long Island informs me that 
the ‘summer gulls’ (common terns) have greatly 
decreased in numbers, and the few that are left 
have become very wild, and difficult of approach. 

The sportsman-poet, Isaac McLellan of Green- 
port, L.I., in a recent communication, states as 
follows : ‘* There are many gunners (not sportsmen) 
whose whole business seems to be to kill off the 
little vocalists, solely for the sake of disposing of 
their skins and feathers for the ornamentation of 
ladies’ bonnets. If those good women only knew 
of the destruction of bird-life that their love for 
finery occasions, I think they would make it 
unfashionable to wear the feathers of murdered 
birds. These gunners point their weapons chiefly 
at the gulls that haunt our shores, and I hear that 
they sell them by thousands to the New York 
dealers, at good prices. Formerly I used to see 
these pretty flutterers in countless flocks along the 
bay and seashores, but now they seem to be almost 
extinct. The bluefish fishermen tell me that this 
is a serious evil to them, as formerly, when they 
saw these hovering flocks, they knew that the 
bluefish were there, and could be easily secured. 


These bird-exterminators also declare bloody war’ 


against most other fine-plumaged birds, and 
gather in the robin, the oriole, the blackbird, the 
meadow-lark, catbird, and nearly all other kinds 
of birds.” 

As already intimated, the slaughter is not con- 
fined to sea-birds alone, but is waged with the 
same destructive force against the more beautiful 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 160 


of the land-birds. One gunner informed me that 
during the winter of 1883 he shot for a middle-man 
over a thousand cedar-birds (Ampelis cedrorum). 
If they had been permitted to live until the next 
season of reproduction, it is fair to assume that 
each pair would have reared an average of five 
young, or an aggregate of twenty-five hundred 
birds. It is a well-known fact that cedar-birds 
are very voracious eaters, and feed almost exclu- 
sively, during some months of the year, on the 
span-worm, canker-worm, and small caterpillars. 
The damage done the agricultural interests of the 
country by the destruction of these birds is enor- 
mous; but, when we multiply it by the hundreds 
of thousands that have been shot for the same pur- 
pose, the damage is beyond calculation. 

An observer in Long Island City states, that, in 
his vicinity, every bird of bright plumage, such as 
warblers, woodpeckers, thrushes, orioles, etc., is 
shot for millinery purposes. In New Jersey the 
same wholesale destruction of bird-life was carried 
on, until, as I am informed by the Hon. John 
W. Griggs, president of the New Jersey senate, 
‘“The complaint came up from all parts of the 
state, of the decrease in the number of song and 
shore birds. Representation was made to me that 
certain persons had contracts to furnish birds by 
the thousands to taxidermists in Philade]phia and 
New York, and that they proposed to gather their 
skins in New Jersey. The bill introduced into 
our legislature for the protection of the birds, 
passed with only one negative vote, and the effect 
in my own locality [Paterson] has been excellent.” 

Another informant states, that, during the 
summer of 1882, taxidermists were stationed at 
Barnegat and Beach Haven, N.J., purchasing from 
the natives every thing in the nature of a sea- 
bird. Terns of all kinds brought ten cents each, 
and shore-birds the same price. Many of the bay- 
men gave up sailing pleasure-parties, and became 
gunners, because this business was more remunera- 
tive; as high as fifty dollars, representing five 
hundred lifeless birds, being made in a week by 
some. ‘*One cannot help noticing now the 
scarcity of terns on the New Jersey coast, and it 
is all owing to the merciless destruction.” Besides 
the birds already mentioned as being immolated on 
the altar of fashion, thousands of crows, purple 
grackles (commonly known as crow blackbirds), 
red-winged blackbirds, and snow-buntings, are 
used for this purpose. 

A New York taxidermist informed me that he 
had in his shop thirty thousand bird-skins of the 
species just mentioned, made up expressly for 
millinery purposes. Should the gunners and taxi- 
dermists bear the whole blame? I think not, as 
they are only supplying the demand created by 


FEBRUARY 26, 1886 ] 


the female love of ornament. Take up any daily 
or fashion paper, and one can see such items as the 
following, clipped from the New York Sun of Dec. 
13 and 20, 1885: ‘*‘ Miss Brady looked extremely 
well in white, with a whole nest of sparkling, 
scintillating birds in her hair, which it would have 
puzzled an ornithologist to classify,” and ‘‘ Mrs. 
Stanton Whitney had her gown of unrelieved black 
looped up with blackbirds: and a winged creature, 
so dusky that it could have been intended for noth- 
ing but a crow, reposed among the curls and braids 
of her hair.” It is said, ‘ Where ignorance is bliss,’ 
tis folly to be wise.” Perhaps, if the lady in ques- 
tion could have seen the crow during its lifetime 
perched upon and feeding on the decaying carcass 
of a horse. she might have objected to the associa- 
tion. 

On the other hand we quote from the London 
Truth an item showing the humanity of England’s 
queen: ‘‘I am glad to hear that the queen con- 
templates issuing a ukase censuring the barbar- 
ous fashion which so many women have lately 
adopted, of wearing the bodies of birds, or parts of 
their bodies, in bonnets and hats and on dresses. 
‘Her majesty strongly disapproves of this practice, 
which of late has greatly increased, which is 
daily increasing, and which most assuredly ought 
to be abolished.” 

As long as the ladies continue to demand bird- 
skins for ornamenta! purposes, so long will the 
gunners and taxidermists undertake to supply the 
market, therefore the initiative in the movement 
for the protection of birds must be with the 
‘wives, sweethearts, and mothers,’ and not alone 
with the laws and lawmakers. 

WILLIAM DUTCHER. 


DESTRUCTiON OF THE EGGS OF BIRDS 
FOR FOOD. 


FEW persons living at a distance from the sea- 
shore have any idea of the immense destruction 
of bird-life by residents of the coast, who make 
the systematic and wholesale robbery of water- 
birds of their eggs a yearly pastime. A thought- 
less and relentless warfare has been waged, 
until extermination of all bird-life on our shores 
stares us in the face. This destruction has been 
carried to such an extent, that many of our water- 
birds, such as gulis, terns, herons, and shore-birds, 
have become scarce where formerly numberless 
thousands added life and beauty to our harbors 
and beaches. The shooting of these beautiful and 
graceful ornaments of our water-ways for mil- 
linery purposes is undeniably one cause of their 
decrease ; but, great as is this cause, it is in no 
degree comparable to the destruction made by the 


SCIENCE. 


199 


so-called ‘eggers,’ in their annual forays in the 
name of food-hunting. 

My scientific explorations during the last ten 
years have taken me to many of the breeding- 
places of various species of water-birds ; and some 
facts which have come under my observation, 
illustrating how the few birds still to be found 
along our extensive coast-lines are gradually suc- 
cumbing to the slaughter, may prove of interest. 
There is probably not a port, pass, or bay on the 
entire coast of Texas, whose inhabitants do not 
regularly devote several days each year to what 
they term ‘egging.” As soon as the ‘scouts’ or 
fishermen report the birds established, and laying 
their eggs on the islands and secluded beaches, all 
work is suspended, every craft is pressed into 
service, and everybody is off to assist in the 
ghastly sport at the breeding-grounds. Arrived 
at the desired locality, the first day’s work is that 
of thoroughly destroying every egg already laid ; 
and this ruthless sacrifice of thousands of eggs 
is made before any are secured by the robbers, 
that they may avoid carrying away any partially 
incubated ones. Returning to their boats after 
this work of destruction, the perpetrators remain 
in hiding, or quietly sail about the lagoons, until 
the next day, by which time the distracted birds 
that had not laid their full complement of eggs 
when frightened away by the intruders, and who 
had meantime been hard pressed to deposit their 
treasures, will have laid many thousands of eggs 
in the very face of destruction. Two or three 
days are now devoted to gathering the freshly- 
laid eggs, and to stowing them away in barrels 
and tubs in the boats. All eggs, from an inch in 
diameter upwards, are taken, excepting, perhaps, 
those of the pelican, whose eggs are too fishy for 
any stomach. I have known of boats which 
came a distance of over a hundred miles to 
gather these eggs, cruising from reef to reef 
until they had secured a good load. For days 
after the return from these expeditions, the shops 
along the coast expose quantities of bird’s eggs 
for sale, which are disposed of cheaply, according 
to size. As these eggs of wild birds are much 
more fragile than those of domestic fowls, a very 
large proportion of them are broken by the rough 
handling they receive before they reach the mar- 
kets. No doubt more eggs are thus wasted 
than are eaten; and. unless one is familiar with 
the breeding-places of these birds, no idea can 
be formed of the appalling extent of this yearly 
destruction. JI examined, before the eggers had 
reached it, one of a group of grassy islands or 
flats, about the size of a city block, on which 
were breeding not less than ten thousand birds, 
consisting chiefly of gulls, terns, and herons: 


200 


and, as each pair lays three or four eggs, here 
were at least fifteen or twenty thousand eggs on 
one small island. Now, when one remembers that 
there are hundreds and probably thousands of 
‘such resorts, where the birds are annually robbed, 
what must be the havoc, the cruelty, and the un- 
warrantable sacrifice of these harmless birds! 
Is it any wonder that the birds are shy, and hate 
the very sight of man? Is it not about time that 
the bird’s side of the question was not only de- 
fended, but strenuously championed? The effect 
of this heartless and cold-blooded trampling upon 
the domestic instincts of birds is not calculated to 
encourage amicable and social relations between 
them and man, but quite the contrary, as the 
following observation will show. 

I have seen laughing gulls, and royal and 
Caspian terns, upon being driven from their nests, 
deliberately dash at, and destroy with their bills, 
every egg exposed in the vicinity of their nests, 
not excepting those of their own species. Their 
very nature seems changed by this heartless per- 
secution ; or, recognizing the purpose of man’s 
invasion, they intelligently and _ deliberately 
attempt to thwart his purposes by destroying the 
prize he covets. Such is the influence man exerts 
over these intelligent and persecuted birds, instead 
of making friendly advances to them, and by 
kindness encouraging in them their naturally 
docile and amiable propensities. How strongly in 
contrast is this with the pleasant sight at Geneva, 
Switzerland, where happy crowds of visitors 
delight in giving crumbs to the friendly gulls that 
flock about the bridges, feeding almost from the 
very hands of the people! There is no reason why 
the gulls, terns, herons, and other water-birds 
should not constitute one of the chief attractions 
at our seaside resorts, enlivening them with their 
grace and beauty. 

In regard to the profits of the ‘ egging business,’ 
I doubt if even the most successful ‘egger’ can 
make as much money as he would have done had 
he stuck to his regular and much more praise- 
worthy occupation. The quality of wild bird’s 
eggs is inferior to that of the eggs of the domestic 
fowl, and consequently their price is low, and 
frequently barrels of them are thrown away as 
unsalable. This destruction, therefore, has no 
excuse in necessity as a source of food-supply. 

If a tithe of the truth were known throughout 
the country at large, concerning the sacrifice of 
bird-life in the names of ‘ business,’ ‘enterprise,’ 
‘food,’ ‘sport,’ and what not, from Maine to 
Mexico, and from California to Alaska, there would 
be such a cry of remonstrance as would make the 
bird-destroyers hang their heads for shame. 

Another fact not generally known beyond the 


SCIENCE. 


[Voxr. VII., No. 160 


scene of its occurrence, relating, however, to 
the destruction of young birds, rather than to 
eggs, may be here stated, which for devilish 
‘enterprise ’ exceeds any thing that has ever come 
under my notice. In 1877, and also in 1878, while 
studying the birds about Corpus Christi Bay, 
Texas, I examined a low grass-flat called Pelican 
Island, so named on account of the numbers of 
brown pelicans that had for years taken it for 
their breeding-place, to the exclusion of all other 
species. Here many thousands of these great 
birds were tending their eggs and young, breeding 
in such numbers that one could step or jump 
from nest to nest, over nearly, if not quite, every 
square yard of the island. Four years later I 
cruised over the same course, and noticed that 
the pelicans had deserted this grassy island entirely, 
and were scattered, in diminished numbers, on 
other islands which were not occupied by them 
when I made my former trips. On inquiring into 
the cause of this change, I learned from prominent 
citizens, that two or three enterprising (?) men 
had conceived the idea of making their fortunes 
from pelican-oil, and had erected ‘ trying-out’ 
shanties on the mainland. They went to the 
island in question in large boats, and carried off 
cargoes of young pelicans in all stages of growth, 
and boiled them up for their oil. The only satis- 
faction I could get from the history of this experi- 
ment was, that the men could not sell the oil, and 
had nothing but their nefarious labor for their 
pains. Think of the enormous sacrifice of life for 
a foolish experiment! This heartless slaughter 
is hardly equalled in cruelty by the so-called sport 
of the union troops during the war against 
secession, who, while idly lying in transports off 
the passes along the coast, amused themselves by 
fastening a fish to a plank which was so weighted 
as to be quite submerged : they would then watch 
the pelicans dive for the fish, while bets were 
freely interchanged as to the probability of the bird 
getting a broken neck, with the odds decidedly 
in favor of the death of the pelican. Instances 
without number might be given to show that man, 
unchecked by law, will ruthlessly destroy the 
very things most useful to him if preserved and 
protected. 

The question may be asked, What are pelicans, 
cormorants, gulls, terns, and herons good for? It 
may be answered, If for nothing else, they are 
good to look at and to give life and beauty to the 
shores and bays. They most assuredly do no 
harm : on the contrary, they are the scavengers of 
the shoal waters of our shores, as the buzzards 
are of the land ; and if it were not that the water- 
birds keep in check the superabundance of almost 
valueless fishes and other animals that multiply in 


Fresruary 26, 1886.] 


prodigious numbers in the shallow waters, 
especially in warm climates, such a stench would 
arise from the excess which would necessarily be 
washed up on the shores, that all human existence 
about the bays would be out of the question. 
Nature admirably provides a check to an over- 
supply, as well as a protection to those weak in 
numbers, and, if mankind interferes too much 
with the harmony, retribution will surely follow. 
Many of our birds are fast going the way of the 
bison, never to return. If men were not held in 
check by public opinion and the necessary laws, 
our land would soon be as barren of all animal 
life as are the plains of bisons. In our greed, 
destructiveness, and lack of thought for our 
future comfort and happiness, we are not so very 
far in advance of the South-Sea islander, who 
plants his cocoanut, and has not the patience to 
let it grow, and yield a thousand-fold, but soon 
digs it up and eats it, fearing lest he lose it alto- 
gether, and then wonders why other islands are 
more favored than his own. GEO. B. SENNETT. 


THE RELATION OF BIRDS TO AGRI- 
CULTURE. 


THE utility of the so-called insectivorous birds — 
by which are commonly meant species which feed 
almost exclusively upon insects, like wood-peck- 
ers, fly-catchers, swallows, vireos, warblers, and, 
in less degree, the thrushes — has never been seri- 
ously questioned. The extent, however, to which 
other species subsist upon an insect-diet is not 
generally known or even suspected. Recent inves- 
tigations respecting the food-habits of many of 
our birds show some surprising results, highly 
favorable to the species investigated. It has been 
found, for example, that all birds are to a large 
degree insectivorous, including hawks and owls, 
and even plovers and sandpipers. Professor 
Aughey, in his report on the food of the birds of 
Nebraska, published in one of the reports of the 
U. 8. entomological commission, calls special at- 
tention to the importance of not only these birds, 
but the different species of the grouse family, as a 
check upon the grasshopper-scourge. 

The great importance of the smaller birds in 
general, including the song-birds, as a check upon 
the undue increase of insect-life, and consequently 
the desirability of their strenuous protection, being 
well-nigh universally conceded, attention will be 
briefly called to certain species hitherto more or 
less generally under ban as injurious to agricul- 
ture, and whose destruction is considered praise- 
worthy. Foremost in this category are hawks, 
owls, crows, and jays. The robin, the brown- 
thrasher, the catbird, the chewink, and the various 


SCIENCE. 201 


kinds of blackbirds, are also excluded from pro- 
tection under the bird-laws of most of the 
states. Crows are accused, with some justice, of 
depredations upon the young corn, and of now 
and then robbing a stray hen’s nest, or of gobbling 
up a young chicken. These last enumerated mis- 
demeanors are exceptional, too rare even to re- 
quire formal notice. The depredations upon the 
young corn are easily guarded against, as a small 
quantity of grain thrown upon the ground is 
greatly preferred by the crows to the few kernels 
they can acquire by pulling that which has been 
planted. Many farmers, indeed, consider it much 
more to their interest to feed the crows for a few 
days than to destroy them, recognizing the fact 
that at all other times they are among their best 
allies ; their food consisting largely of grasshop- 
pers, cut-worms, and other noxious insects. Why 
the jays have been tabooed is hard to explain, 
their pilferings being at most of a trivial charac- 
ter, while, as destroyers of noxious insects, no birds, 
it may be safely said, are more important. The 
other species named above (aside from the hawks 
and owls) are well known to levy tribute on the 
small fruits of the garden, tbe robin particularly, 
to a somewhat serious extent; while the catbird, 
brown-thrasher, and chewink not unfrequently 
pull the corn planted near the thickets they in- 
habit. Otherwise these species are among the 
most useful of our birds, whose services are to 
such an extent recognized, that opinion is divided — 
even among those who suffer most frcm their dep- 
redations — on the subject of whether or not they 
are, during the short period of the fruit-season. 
to be treated as outlaws. In certain portions of 
the country, particularly in the south, the depre- 
dations of the blackbirds upon the grain and rice- 
fields are of serious character ; but throughout at 
least three-fourths of the states there is certainly 
no good reason for destroying these otherwise use- 
ful birds. 

Hawks and owls, from time immemorial, have 
been treated as foes, and legitimate targets for the 
rifle or shot-gun on all occasions ; their destruction 
having been not unfrequently encouraged by the 
offer of bounties from the public treasury for 
their heads. Of late, frequent protests have been 
raised against this indiscriminate slaughter. 
These protests come mainly from ornithologists 
who have studied their food-habits, and become 
convinced that their destruction is not only unne- 
cessary, but unwise. A number of published pro- 
tests might be here cited, did space permit, based 
on actual knowledge of the facts in the case, and 
giving statistics of the contents of stomachs of 
many examples of different species of birds of 
prey. Only a few of the statistics at hand can 


202 


be here presented. Mr. B. H. Warren, a well- 
known ornithologist, in a paper entitled ‘ What 
hawks eat,’ published in a recent report of the 
Pennsylvania board of agriculture, states, respect- 
ing the red-tailed hawk (Buteo borealis), — the 
‘hen-hawk’ par eacellence ot eastern North 
America, — that an examination of the stomachs 
of one hundred and one examples of this species 
‘‘revealed in eighty-one chiefly mice and small 
quadrupeds, also some small birds ; nine, chickens ; 
three, quail; two, rabbits ; one, a part of a skunk ; 
one, a red squirrel ; one, a gray squirrel; three, 
snakes.” In thestomachs of thirty-four red-shoul- 
dered hawks (B. lineatus) examined were found, 
in twenty-three, mice, small quadrupeds, grass- 
hoppers, and coleopterous insects ; in nine, frogs 
and insects ; in the remaining two, small birds, 
hair, and orthopterous insects. Of twelve broad- 
winged hawks (B. latissimus), four contained 
mice ; three, small birds ; four, frogs ; one, cray- 
fish and insects. The contents of the stomachs of 
twenty-nine sparrow-hawks (Falco sparverius) was, 
in fifteen cases, principally mice with traces of 
various insects; in six, grasshoppers; in two, 
coleoptera and grasshoppers ; two, meadow-larks ; 
four, sparrows. Nine rough-legged hawks (Archi- 
buteo lagopus sancti-johannis) examined had all 
fed exclusively upon field-mice. Of eleven marsh- 
hawks (Circus hudsonius), the stomachs of five 
contained mice; of two, small birds; of three, 
frogs; the other, grasshoppers and rabbit’s hair. 

The hawks of the genus Accipiter, on the other 
hand, present a bad record; fourteen out of twenty- 
four Cooper’s hawks (A. Cooperi) being found to 
contain chickens, seven others, birds, and three, 
only mice and insects. Of sharp-shinned hawks 
(A. velox), four out of fifteen contained chickens ; 
nine, small birds; one, mice; and one, insects. 
On the other hand, it is known that several other 
species of the hawk family feed almost exclusively 
upon insects, mice, snakes, and frogs. 

Careful examination of the contents of stomachs 
of owls, of which the results have been published, 
show that field-mice constitute their principal 
food, and that grasshoppers and other insects 
enter largely into the diet of all the smaller 
species. The larger species add to their usual 
fare of mice and the smaller mammals, many 
grouse and rabbits. 

In short, enough is known of the regimen of 
our rapacious birds to show that they are only ex- 
ceptionally harmful to the farmer; their infrequent 
raids — mostly by a few species — on the poultry 
being much more than offset by their destruction 
of mice, grasshoppers, and other injurious 
insects. 

In this connection, reference may be appropri- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 160 


ately made to the letters from farmers and fruit- 
growers, as well as bird-lovers, from various parts 
of the country, addressed to the committee of the 
American ornithologists’ union on bird-protection, 
detailing the vast injury they recognize as result- 
ing to agriculture from the present wholesale 
slaughter of birds. An extract from a letter from 
a farmer in Dexter, Mich., will indicate the gen- 
eral purport of these communications. ‘‘ The 
destruction of birds has been and is carried on 
here to such an extent that it is hardly possible to 
raise any kind of fruit; even the grapes, as well as 
the apples, being too wormy for use or sale. 
Boys, and even sires of families, but not men, go 
out and shoot swallows, robins, larks, ete. It 
makes no difference if they are nesting ; and many 
a nest of young birds have starved on account of 
their parents being shot. And the small boy with 
his sling-shot destroys many —and all for the 
desire to murder. . There is a law to pro- 
hibit all this ; but those who could enforce it take 
no interest in the matter. Not a single person 
saves the skins for gain: the birds are thrown 
away, or left where they fall. I have protested 
against the cruelty, but to no purpose, except in 
a few instances. The game and bird laws should 
be enforced by men appointed for the purpose, 
who should receive a salary, so that they may 
make it a business.” 


BIRD-LAWS. 


Most of the states and territories have on their 
statute-books laws for the protection of game and 
fish, regulating the season of hunting and fishing, 
and providing penalties for the taking of game or 
fish during certain portions of each year, or, in 
particular cases, for a series of years. These laws 
are intended, in most cases, to give protection to 
‘useful’ birds, in addition to the game-birds, and 
their nests and eggs, at all seasons. In general, 
these laws are crude and unsatisfactory so far as 
they relate to supposed useful birds, and also in 
relation to many others which are either pro- 
tected merely during certain months, or not at 
all, as is the case with many of the marsh and 
shore inhabiting species, such as the herons, terns, 
gulls, etc. Most of the laws exclude from protec- 
tion all hawks and owls, crows, jays, and black- 
birds. and, in some cases, robins and other kinds 
of song-birds, woodpeckers, etc. A few of the 
laws make provision for collecting birds and their 
eggs for scientific purposes, often in a lax way, 
but oecasionally, as in Maine, with considerable 
stringency; while the new bird-law of New Jersey 
prohibits the destruction of song-birds, their nests 
or eggs, for any purpose whatever. Defective as 


FEBRUARY 26, 1886. ] 


the present laws now generally are, they would, 
if thoroughly enforced, prevent the disgraceful 
slaughter now so general, and untrammelled by 
any legal interference. As already so many times 
reiterated in this series of papers, the fault is not 
so much lack of laws, or inadequate legislation, as 
the absence of nearly all effort to interpose any 
obstacles, legal or otherwise, in the way of free 
slaughter. So apathetic is the public in all that 
relates to bird-protection, that prosecution under 
the bird-protection statutes requires, on the part 
of the prosecutor, a considerable amount of moral 
courage to face the frown of public opinion. the 
malignment of motive, and the enmities such 
prosecution is sure to engender. 

None of the bird-laws are above improvement, 
even in so far as they relate to the protection of 
game-birds ; but, in respect to the non-game birds, 
nearly all require more or less change. [If possible, 
it would be well to have uniform laws throughout 
all the states and territories, varying only in re- 
spect to the time of the close season, and such 
other points as difference of season, kind of game 
to be especially protected, etc., according to local 
conditions. At present, certain birds are protected 
in some states which are outlawed in others, or 
are treated as game-birds in some, and not so 
treated in others. 

Birds, as regards legislation, may well be di- 
vided into two classes, —game-birds, and birds 
which are not such; and the laws relating to each 
class should be separate and distinct. The game- 
birds should be left to the care of sportsmen and 
game-protective associations, since self-interest on 
the part of the more intelligent sportsmen will 
dictate more or less wise legislation for the pres- 
ervation of the birds on which their sport depends. 
But in respect to game-birds, public opinion should 
be so far enlightened as to secure the enforce- 
ment of proper legislative enactments ; which is 
notoriously not the case at present. All other 
birds should be left to the care of bird-lovers and 
humanitarians, who should see that proper laws 
for their preservation are not only enacted, but 
duly enforced. As already shown in preceding 
pages of this Supplement, those who know best, 
from having scientifically investigated the subject, 
are convinced that none of our native birds should 
be outlawed as unqualifiedly, or even to any 
serious degree, injurious. A few exceptions might 
be made, were it practicable ; but, in the general 
ignorance of legislators and of the public general- 
ly, — or their inability to make proper distinction 
through inability to recognize by proper names 
one kind of hawk, for instance, from another, — 
the safe way is to attempt no such discrimination 
in legislation. The slight harm resulting from 


SCIENCE. 


203 


protecting half a dozen species more or less harm- 
ful would be more than offset by the indiscrimi- 
nate destruction which wouid necessarily result 
from such a loophole. 

The reason for keeping legislation respecting 
game-birds distinct from that relating to the other 
species is mainly to avoid conflict of interests 
respecting such legislation, which is more or less 
sure to follow in any attempt at combined legis- 
lation respecting ail birds in one act. Sports- 
men’s clubs and game-protective associations in 
attempting to provide proper game-laws often 
find strong opponents in the game-dealers and 
market-gunners, who often succeed in defeating 
judicious legislation. If all birds are treated 
under the same act, attempts to improve the por- 
tions of such acts as relate to useful birds are 
often prevented through opposition to certain 
clauses of the game-sections obnoxious to pot- 
hunters and game-dealers, as has recently been 
the case with attempted judicious amendments to 
the bird-laws in the state of Massachusetts. 

There should also be some provision for collect- 
ing birds, their nests and eggs, for scientific pur- 
poses, in behalf of our natural history museums 
and of scientific progress in ornithology. As 
already shown in these articles, the birds de- 
stroyed in the interest of science, notwithstanding 
the outcry to the contrary from certain sources, 
are relatively few in comparison to the number 
destroyed for millinery and other mercenary 
purposes, —so small as not to materially affect the 
decrease of any species. But such license, unless 
rigidly guarded, is liable to abuse, and should be 
hedged about with every practicable safeguard. 
The number of such licenses issued in any state 
should be very small; they should be granted 
with strictest regard to the fitness of the recipient 
to be allowed such a favor; and their abuse or 
misuse made a misdemeanor subject to severe 
penalties. Obviously, the power to grant them 
should, so far as possible, be vested in persons 
having some knowledge of ornithology, or who 
are able to recognize the difference between col- 
lecting birds for scientific purposes and as ‘ curiosi- 
ties,’ or for traffic other than strictly in the interest 
of science. It should be further understood that 
these licenses grant no immunity from the ordi- 
nary laws of trespass, or laws against the use of 
tire-arms at improper times or places, or in viola- 
tion of any of the provisions of game-protective 
acts. The system of issuing such licenses has 
needlessly been brought into disrepute through 
the gross ignorance and apathy of the general 
public as to their real purpose and limitations. 
For most of the abuses of the system there is 
already abundant remedy. Any person holding 


204 


such a license, who uses it as a shield against prcs- 
ecution for illegal or indiscriminate slaughter of 
birds for any and all purposes, is successful only 
to such extent as the ignorance or apathy of the 
community among which his misdeeds are com- 
mitted happen to give him immunity. The fault 
is not in reality chargeable to the law, or the sys- 
tem permitting the granting of certificates for 
scientific collecting. In this matter, as in all else 
relating to bird-destruction, all that is necessary 
to prevent abuses is a proper comprehension of the 
laws relating to the subject, and a public senti- 
ment not only favorable to their enforcement, but 
watchful against any infringement of their pro- 
visions. 

With a desire to bring about more intelligent, 
uniform, and desirable legislation for the protec- 
tion everywhere, and at all times, of all birds not 
properly to be regarded as game-birds, the Ameri- 
can ornithologists’ union committee on _ bird- 
protection have had under careful consideration a 
draught of a bird-law drawn with special reference 
to its fitness for general adoption throughout the 
United States and the British Provinces, and with 
regard to just what birds should be so protected. 
It is intended as a guide or model, which may 
serve as a basis for legislation. From its perti- 
nence in the present connection, it is given below 
in full. . Possibly some additional provisions may 
still be desirable, relating especially to the desig- 
nation of certain officers to secure its strict observ- 
ance. the amount of the fine, and whether or not 
a part of the fine should go to the complainant, — 
features, however, that doubtless may be safely 
left to legislative discretion. 

[AN ACT FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS 
AND EGGS.|]| 

SecTIon 1,— Any person who shall, within the state of 
, kill any wild bird other than a game-bird, or pur- 
chase, offer. or expose for sale any such wild bird, after it 
has been killed, shall for each offence be subject to a fine of 
five dollars, or imprisoumeut for ten days, or both, at the 
discretion of the court. For the purposes of this act the 
following only shall be considered game-birds. The Ana- 
tidae, commonly known as swans, geese, brant, and river 
and sea ducks; the Rallidae, commonly known as rails, 
coots, mud-hens, and gallinules; the Limicolae, commonly 


known as ore-birds, plovers, surf-birds, snipe, woodcock;, 
sandpipers, tatlers, and curlews ; the Gallinae, commonly 


known as wild turkeys, grouse, prairie-chickens, pheasants, 


partridges, and quails, 

secr. 2.— Any persou who shall. within the state of ; 
take or needlessly destroy the nest or the eggs of any wild 
bird, shall be subject for each offence toa fine of five dollars, 
or imprisonment for ten days, or both, at ths discretion of 
the court. 

Sect. 3.— Sections 1 and 2 of this act shall not apply to 
any person holding a certificate giving the right to take 
birds, and their nests and eggs, for scientific purposes, as 
provided for in section 4 of this act. 

Sect. 4. — Certificates may be granted by [here follow the 
names of the persons, if any, duly authorized by this act to 
grant such certificates], or by any incorporated society of 
natural history in the state, through such persons or 


SCTH NCE. 


[Vou. VII., No..160 


officers as said society may designate, to any properly 
accrsdited person of the age of eighteen years or upward, 
permitting the holder thereof to collect birds, their nests 
or eggs, for strictly scientific purposes only. In order to 
obtain such certificate, the applicant for the same must 
present to the person or persons haying the power to grant 
said certificate, written testimonials from two well-known 
scientific men, certifying to the good character and fitness 
of said applicant to be intrusted with such privilege ; must 
pay to said persons or officers one dollar to defray the 
necessary expenses attending the granting of such certifi- 
cates ; and must file with said persons or officers a properly 
executed bond, in the sum of two hundred dollars, signed 
by two responsible citizens of the state as sureties. This 
bond shall be forfeited to the state, and the certificate 
become void. upon proof that the holder of such a certifi- 
cate has killed any bird, or taken the nest or eggs of any 
bird, for other than the purposes named in sections 3 
and 4 of this act, and shall be further subject for each . 
such offence to the penalties provided therefor in sections 
1 and 2 of this act. 

Sect. 5.— The certificates authorized by this act shall be 
in force for one year only from the date of their issue, ard 
shall not be transferable. 

Sect. 6.—The English or European house-sparrow 
(Passer domesticus) is not included among the birds pro- 
tected by this act. 

Sect. 7.— All acts, or parts of acts, heretofore passed, 
inconsistent with or contrary to the provisions of this act, 
are hereby repealed. 

Sect. 8.— This act shall take effect upon its passage. 


AN APPEAL TO THE WOMEN OF THE 
COUNTRY IN BEHALF OF THE BIRDS. 


THE relation of the women of the country to 
the present lamentable destruction of bird-life has 
been several times alluded to in the foregoing 
pages ; but the matter is so important, it demands 
more formal notice in the present connection. 
The destruction of millions of birds annually 
results from the present fashion of wearing birds 
on hats and bonnets. The women who wear them, 
and give countenance to the fashion, have doubt- 
less done so thoughtlessly, as regards the serious 
destruction of bird-life thereby entailed, and 
without any appreciation of its extent or its 
results, considered from a practical stand-point. 
Until recently, very rarely has attention been 
called to the matter, or the facts in the case been 
adequately set forth. They have therefore sinned, 
for the most part, unwittingly, and are thus not 
seriously chargeable with blame. But the case 
is now different, and ignorance can no longer 
be urged in palliation of a barbarous fashion. Ob- 
viously it is only necessary to call the attention of 
intelligent women to the subject, as now pre- 
sented, to enlist their sympathies and their efforts 
in suppression of the milliner’s traffic in bird- 
skins. As a recent writer(Mr. E. P. Bicknell, 
secretary of the A. O. U. committee on bird- 
protection) in the Evening post of this city has not 
only forcibly appealed to the women in behalf of 
the birds, but suggested to them certain desirable 
lines of action, this brief reference to the subject 


Fresruary 26, 1886.] 


may well be concluded with a few pertinent ex- 
tracts from the article in question. 

**So long as demand continues, the supply will 
come. Law of itself can be of little, perhaps of 
no ultimate, avail. It may give check; but this 
tide of destruction it is powerless to stay. The 
demand will be met; the offenders will find it 
worth while to dare the law. One thing only 
will stop this cruelty, — the disapprobation of 
fashion. It is our women who hold this great 
power. Let our women say the word, and hun- 
dreds of thousands of bird-lives every year will 
be preserved. And, until woman does use her in- 
fluence, it is vain to hope that this nameless sacri- 
fice will cease until it has worked out its own end, 
and the birds are gone. . . . It is earnestly hoped 
that the ladies of this city can be led to see this 
matter in its true light, and to take some pro- 
nounced stand in behalf of the birds, and against 
the prevailing fashions. 

‘Tt is known that even now birds are not worn 
by some, on grounds of humanity. Yet little is 
to be expected from individuals challenging the 
fashion : concert of action is needed. The senti- 
ment of humanity once widely aroused, the birds 
are safe. Surely those who unthinkingly have 
been the sustaining cause of a great cruelty will not 
refuse their influence in abating it, now that they 
are awakened to the truth. Already word comes 
from London, that women are taking up the work 
there. Can we do less? It needs only united 
action, sustained by resolution and sincerity of 
purpose, to crush a painful wrong, —truly a bar- 
barism, — and to achieve a humane work so far- 
reaching in its effects as to outsweep the span of 
our own generation, and promise a blessing to 
those who will come after.” 

There are aiready in England, it may be added, 
two societies organized expressly in aid of the 
preservation of birds ‘in Great Britain and all 
other parts of the world.’ The Selborne society, 
originated by George Arthur Musgrave of London, 
appeals to Englishwomen “‘ to forswear the present 
fashion of wearing foreign or English bird-skins. 
Our country women are asked to inaugurate a return 
to a mode which, though half forgotten now, is 
assuredly more becoming to the wearer than tro- 
phies of robins and sandpipers.” Lady Mount 
Temple is not only a member of the plumage sec- 
tion of the Selborne society, but has written a vigor- 
ous protest against the fashion of wearing dead 
birds on dresses, bonnets, and hats. The section is 
under the patronage of her Royal Highness the 
Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, and 
numbers among its membership twenty ladies of 
title, and also Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, 
Sir Frederick Leighton, and Rev. F. O. Morris. 


SCIENCE. 205 


THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION 
COMMITTEE ON BIRD-PROTECTION. 


THE American ornithologists’ union committee 
was recently organized in New York city with the 
following membership: Mr. George B. Sennett, 
chairman ; Mr. Eugene P. Bicknell, secretary ; 
Mr. William Dutcher, treasurer ; Mr. J. A. Allen, 
Dr. J. B. Holder, Dr. George Bird Grinnell, and 
Mr. L. 8. Foster, all of New York city; Mr. 
Wiliam Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. ; Mr. Monta- 
gue Chamberlain, St. John, N.B. ; Col. N. S. Goss, 
Topeka, Kan. 

The committee is desirous of collecting facts and 
statistics bearing upon the subject of the destruc- 
tion of our birds, and will welcome information 
from any source. It also extends the promise 
of its hearty co-operation to all persons or 
societies who may be interested in the protection 
of birds. 

The headquarters of the committee are at the 
American museum of natural history, Central 
Park, New York city, where the officers or any of 
the members may be addressed. 


THE Third report of the Cornell university 
experiment-station, 1883-84 and 1884-85 (Ithaca, 
N. Y., Andrus & Church, 1885, 39 p., 8°), con- 
tains an account of work done in the years 1882-— 
85 chiefly by Professors Roberts and Caldwell. 
Although the experiments are comparatively sim- 
ple, and show plainly that they were made in the 
intervals of other duties, they still show a de- 
gree of insight and accuracy in plan and execu- 
tion, and are reported with a clearness of state- 
ment which we sometimes look for in vain in 
more pretentious reports. We may mention par- 
ticularly Professor Roberts’s determinations of 
the value of stable-manure, and Professor Cald- 
well’s comparisons of the chemical composition 
and nutritive effect of certain rations for cattle. 
The subject of the first-named experiment is one 
which has usually been treated deductively, and 
hence these experiments are of interest not only 
in their direct application to farm practice, but 
because they serve to a certain extent to justify 
the deductions of science. The feeding-experi- 
ments show the uncertainty attaching to the use 
of the so-called ‘ feeding-standards’ or ‘ standard 
rations’ which have been somewhat widely recom- 
mended by writers on agricultural science. Evi- 
dence seems to be accumulating that these stand- 
ards, in their present form, are very uncertain 
guides, and that, even if not based on false prem- 
ises, they require great modifications before they 
can be made of much use to those most needing 
the information. 


206 SCIENCE. [Vou. VII, No. 160 


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SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


IT SEEMS PROBABLE that in the latter part of 
April, and first part of May, we are to have the 
unusual spectacle of two fine comets visible at the 
same time. We have already mentioned the in- 
creasing brightness of Barnard’s comet, and we 
now learn, from Dr. Oppenheim’s study of the 
comet discovered by Fabry at the Paris observa- 
tory on Dec. 1, that this comet will greatly sur- 
pass Barnard’s in brilliancy. It will be seen in 
the north, and its position will be very similar to 
that of the brilliant comet of 1881. For a short 
time it will not set at all in our latitude, but will 
remain visible throughout the night. The comet 
is now visible in a moderate-sized telescope, and is 
increasing slowly in brightness. About April 1 
the increase will become more rapid, and by the 
middle or latter part of that month it will un- 
doubtedly become visible to the naked eye. Its 
maximum brightness, over six hundred times as 
bright as when it was discovered, will be reached 
about the first of May, when it will be situated in 
the sky, not far from Barnard’s comet; and by 
the end of May it will have passed south of the 
equator, becoming again a telescopic object. An- 
other favorable circumstance is noted in the fact, 
that, when the comet is at its brightest, there will 
be no moon +o detract from its splendor. Dr. 
Weiss points out the possibility that on the 26th 
or 27th of April the comet may be between us 
and the sun, and may consequently be projected 
on the sun’s disk. 


THE ANNUAL REPORT of the managers and 
superintendent of the reformatory at Elmira to 
the New York legislature is not a very large 
document, but every page of it is of the greatest 
interest. It is the record of the progress of an 
attempt, not merely to confine and punish crimi- 
nals, but to reform them, and to make good and 
useful citizens out of a class of men usually given 
over altogether by society as dangerous. It will 
be remembered that this institution was founded 
in 1870; and it was then enacted, that, at the 
discretion of the court, any male criminal between 

No. 161.— 1886, 


the ages of sixteen and thirty, who had not pre- 
viously been sentenced to a state prison in this or 
any other country, might be sent to it; and by 
the provisions of the act the managers were made 
a reforming and not a merely punishing body. 
No criminal was to be confined for a longer period 
than the legal term of the sentence for the crime 
of which he was convicted; but he might be 
released at any time after six months’ confine- 
ment, if, in the judgment of the managers of the 
institution, he was sufficiently reformed to be 
trusted with his freedom. How well Mr. Z. R. 
Brockway, the superintendent, has succeeded in 
his task of reformation, is well known to students 
of our penal institutions, and the many problems 
connected with them. But we believe that the 
general public will hardly be prepared to hear the 
facts and figures adduced in the present report. 


Mr. Brockway believes that the common incen- 
tives to crime are ignorance, improvidence, and 
indigence ; and he undertakes to employ the time 
during which the prisoners are confined, in en- 
deavoring to remove and guard against these 
incentives. To ignorance he opposes education ; 
to improvidence and indigence, voluntary earning 
and saving; and he calls these ‘‘ indispensable 
elements in any rational, effective, reformative 
system of prison management.” The details of 
the scheme of instruction, as given in this report, 
are marvellous, especially those concerning the 
English literature class, which is a new feature, 
and one called into being in order to fill in the 
gap between the hours of compulsory labor and 
compulsory study, —a period ‘‘in which inmates 
returning to their accustomed thoughts often 
return, at the same time, to their former selves ; 
so that much labor was lost, and injury derived.” 
Imagine five hundred felons intently poring over 
‘Hamlet,’ the ‘Canterbury tales,’ ‘ Rasselas,’ 
Bacon’s ‘ Essays,’ Browning’s ‘Rabbi ben Ezra,’ 
—names selected at random from a long list of 
works studied! This sounds very fanciful ; but, 
as a matter of fact, the results are very practical. 
The reformatory keeps accurate statistics regard- 
ing its inmates; and, of the 2,061 prisoners 
handled under the act of 1877, the state has pro- 
tection against 1,878, or 91.1 per cent; and it is 


208 


unprotected against only 183, or 8.9 per cent. Of 
the former number, 658 are still in custody at the 
reformatory, 109 were released and sent out of 
the state, 11 were absolutely released as satisfac- 
tory without any parole, and 735 were released 
after parole. 


Mr. Brockway, in another set of tables, esti- 
mates that 81.2 per cent of the whole number 
paroled are reformed, and that only 16.3 per cent 
returned to criminal practices or contact. This is 
a wonderful showing, and betokens a departure 
in prison theory and practice that should before 
long become general. Under this system the 
state does not lock its offenders up for a certain 
time, and then take its chances with them; but 
it employs the months of confinement in guard- 
ing itself against the future. On the consequent 
advantages to the criminal and to society, not a 
word need be wasted. An interesting and valuable 
appendix to the present report is a series of charts, 
prepared by Mr. Brockway, to show graphically 
the fluctuations in the course and progress toward 
release, of one thousand prisoners under the re- 
formatory system. They show some curious cases 
of what may be called ‘reversals to type,’ and are 
valuable as psychological and ethical studies. The 
average population of the institution in 1885 was 
647 ; the average period of detention of the present 
inmates was 16.9 months ; and the average deten- 
tion before parole, and of the whole number pa- 
roled to date, was 20.7 months. 


THE COMMITTEE of the national academy, to 
which was referred the question of a new naval 
observatory, as mentioned in our last week’s issue, 
was called upon by the secretary of the navy for 
an opinion on two other questions of consider- 
able interest to astronomers: viz., the expediency 
of making the change in the beginning of the 
astronomical day from midnight to noon, as rec- 
ommended by the meridian conference; and as 
to the advisability of asking congress to make an 
appropriation for the observation of the total solar 
eclipse of Aug. 28-29. In regard to the astro- 
nomical day, the committee recommends that the 
change should be made as soon as sufficient concert 
of action can be secured among the leading as- 
tronomers and astronomical establishments of the 
civilized world,—‘in 1890 if possible; if not, in 
1900.’ This conclusion is reached, in view of the 
general consensus of the astronomers of this coun- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 161 


try in favor of the change, and the adhesion to the 
same view of so important an institution as the 
Royal observatory of England. 


In regard to the observation of the eclipse, the 
committee is not in favor of calling upon congress 
for an appropriation, on the ground, mainly, that 
there would not probably be sufficient time to 
make such preparation of instruments and ob- 
servers as to insure results commensurate with the 
magnitude of the undertaking. The report says, 
‘Tn addition to the observation of the sun itself, 
and the luminous phenomena attending it, it is 
desirable to obtain photographic maps of all the 
surrounding region, to the distance of at least ten 
or fifteen degrees from the sun, for the purpose of 
finally setting at rest the still mooted question of 
an intra-mercurial planet. It is true that the as- 
tronomical world is at present disposed generally 
to discredit the existence of such a body ; yet the 
evidence on the subject, up to this time, is mainly 
negative, as it must always continue to be, so long 
as it depends upon direct vision. In a photo- 
graphic map taken during total eclipse of the sun, 
of the whole region within which such a planet 
must necessarily be confined, the object, if present, 
must present itself, and could not fail to be recog- 
nized.” 


RAILWAY COMPANIES have become so impor- 
tant a part of our industrial organization, and 
the power they wield is so great, that the right 
adjustment of their relations to individuals and 
to the public at large is imperatively necessary. 
Troubles are constantly arising between the com- 
panies themselves, between the companies and 
shippers, and between the companies and their 
employees, leading oftentimes to a great disturb- 
ance of the national industry. <A railroad ‘ war’ 
is raging at this very moment among the trans- 
continental lines at the west; and it is only a 
short time since a dispute between corporations 
and their workmen almost paralyzed the business 
of Galveston. How such disputes can best be 
settled, — whether by state regulation, by arbi- 
tration, or by leaving the evil to work its own 
cure, —is the question before us deserving notice. 
We would call attention to a certain distinction 
which prevails in the matter, and which is liable 
to be insufficiently attended to. The state may 
interfere with the making and execution of con- 
tracts for either of two purposes, — for the sake 
of the contracting parties or of one of them, or 


_ 


Marc# 5, 1886.] 


for the sake of third parties or of the general 
public. A contract between two parties may 
have an important effect on the rights and inter- 
ests of persons who are noway concerned with 
the making of it, and in such cases it has long 
been the custom for the state to interfere for the 
protection of those persons. Such cases often 
arise in relation to common carriers. For in- 
stance: if a railway company charges one shipper 
a higher price for carrying freight than it charges 
another for the very same service, it does injus- 
tice to the party against whom the discrimination 
is made; hence recent decisions of the federal 
courts have declared such discrimination to be 
unlawful. 


THE MEETING of the American economic asso- 
ciation, held on Saturday last in this city, indi- 
cated that the interests of the association are being 
wisely provided for, and that the plans under 
preparation are in the interest of true science. It 
showed itself cautious, and gave no countenance 
to the establishment of a newer creed with fresh 
dogmatic utterances. In the deliberations the 
prominent fact stood out that the purpose of the 
society must be in method. Scientific method of 
investigation is the great need of economics at the 
present time, and it is to this department of work 
that this new association can unfalteringly com- 
mit itself. The patient collection and analysis of 
facts is a necessity which requires no apology in 
these days of confusing arguments drawn from 
insufficient statisticai and social data. The coun- 
cil, however, assembled for practical work, and 
took a step forward in the development of the 
usefulness of the society by admitting the Con- 
necticut valley economic association into its mem- 
bership. This force, of about seventy-five mem- 
bers, is located chiefly at Springfield, Mass., and 
is a local society recently founded, and modelled 
after the constitution of the larger association. 
It was also determined to publish at an early date 
one or two monographs, as well as the secretary's 
report, which will shortly be in print. 


= 


GEOGRAPHY-TEACHING IN GERMANY. 


In the matter of geographical education, Ger- 
many may be taken as the model which other 
European countries are following, so far as their 
special circumstances will permit. It is true that 
teachers like Dr. Lehman and Professor Wagner 
are not satisfied with the position yet attained in 


SCIENCE. 


209 


German schools. But to the eyes of Mr. Keltie, 
accustomed as they were to the methods and appli- 
ances of English schools, Germany seemed very 
far ahead. He therefore devoted a considerabie 
portion of his ‘report,’ recently published by the 
Royal geographical society, to a description of 
what we may call the German system of geo- 
graphical education, According to him, the ideal 
aimed at, and indeed being rapidly carried out, is 
to have one continuous course of geographical in- 
struction from the first year in the primary school 
up to the university. 

The preliminary stage, or what is known in 
Germany as heimatskunde, combined with or pre- 
ceded by actual observation, is met with in nearly 
ali the primary schools and in the preparatory 
classes of the higher schools. There are no text- 
books in this early stage, except for the teacher, 
the pupil obtaining his ideas from actual observa- 
tion or practice. The instruction begins with the 
student’s home surroundings, and proceeds out- 
wards from the town to the district, then to the 
province, Germany, Europe, and, finally, the world 
in general. At the outset the pupils are given a 
mastery of the cardinal points, the course of the 
sun in the heavens, and similar elementary no- 
tions. This is done, not by compelling him to 
commit the compass-card to memory, but by get- 
ting him to find the direction of his own house 
from the schoolroom, and by encouraging him to 
apply a few simple ideas in his daily walks and 
games. The next step is to teach him how to 
read a map. Here, again, his local knowledge is 
utilized. A map of his own town is procured, 
and he learns how to trace his own homeward 
path, and to find out the direction of some well- 
known buildings. Then he often visits, map in 
hand, the surrounding country, and thus learns 
the actual meaning of this or that geographical 
symbol. Often these excursions are extended to 
distant points of interest. Many teachers think 
that students acquire this faculty of map-reading 
best by learning how to use the geographical 
symbols themselves, or, in other words, by prac- 
tice in map-drawing ; but, wherever this method 
is followed, it is insisted on that the drawing is 
done, not to produce a work of art, but solely to 
familiarize the pupil with contour lines, mountain- 
shading, and other similar signs. In some schools 
the pupils build up the relief of a country with 
sand; in others the contour lines are reproduced 
in card-board, and the relief is built up with great 
exactness. When the maps are well made, as most 
modern German maps are, no better way to teach 
the meaning of geographical symbols could be 
devised. But the conditions must be favorable ; 
and, above all, maps with unusual symbols, such 


210 


as water-partings indicated by black lines, should 

never be used in the schoolroom., 

The young German does not leave his geography 
behind when he leaves the primary school. Far 
from it, as, in the gymnasia and realschulen, 
geography is taught for two hours a week through- 
out the whole course, except that, in some gym- 
nasia (classical schools), the last two years are 
devoted to other subjects. What is actually taught 
may be gathered from the following summary of 
the programme of the realschule of the first order 
at Leipzig : — 

Sexta (lowest class). — Leading principles of physical geog- 
raphy, general view of the earth, geography of Sax- 
ony, exercises in map reading and drawing. 

Quinta.— Advanced instruction in the above branches, 
Germany taking the place of Saxony as the special 
subject. 

Quarta. — Revision of the work of the two previous years, 
extra-European continents. 

Tertia.— Germany, both physical and political, map- 
drawing. 

Unter secunda.— Foreign European countries and their 
colonies. 

Ober secunda.— Extra European continents, especially as 
to their physical conditions. 

Unter prima, — Astronomical geography. 

Ober prima.— Revision of the whole field, astronomical 
geography. 


As to methods, Mr. Keltie was impressed by the 
fact that the teaching of geography was a much 
more lively operation on the continent than in 
England. In Germany the teacher counts for a 
great deal; the text-book, for very little. There 
is almost no lesson-hearing; the text-book, when 
used, simply furnishing a text for the teacher's 
explanations. No attempt is made to crowd the 
lessons with minute details—no long lists of names; 
no tables of statistics, of population of cities, 
lengths of rivers, or heights of mountains. The 
memorizing is confined to the leading principles, 
facts, and features. In fine, when a German boy 
leaves the higher school for business or the uni- 
versity, he carries with him a sound working 
knowledge of geography. 

Of course, there could not be such good teaching 
without good teachers ; and it is a fact to be noted, 
that, at the present moment, the leading universi- 
ties of Germany set out to train teachers of 
geography exactly as they do teachers of history, 
archeology, or botany. A dozen years ago this 
was not so, as nearly all the twelve professorships 
of geography have been founded since 1873. Now, 
however, geography is on an equal footing with 
other branches in more than half of the German 
universities. At Goettingen, for example, a man 
may take his doctorate, with geography as his 
special subject. Then, too, there are examinations 
for the right of teaching (facultas docendi) geog- 
raphy in the higher schools. These examinations 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VII., No. 161 


are of two degrees or stages: 1°, for the right to 
teach in the lower classes ; and, 2°, for the right to 
give instruction to the highest classes. The course 
for this last examination extends over two years. 
The candidate must attend a systematic series of 
lectures on the facts and principles of geography. 
At the tibungen, or exercises for advanced stu- 
dents, practice in the best methods of teaching is 
afforded. Special investigations are encouraged by 
some professors, as, for instance, by Rein at Bonn, 
and Richthofen at Leipzig. Mr. Keltie ‘assisted’ 
at one of these practice-courses, and was evidently 
surprised at the excellence of the work presented. 
There is no doubt, that, as the supply of well- 
trained teachers becomes more ample, the teaching 
of geography will be still further improved. What 
has already been accomplished is well set forth in 
the following sentence from the recent ‘memorial’ 
of the Royal geographical society : — 

‘* An impartial comparison of the literary results 
of English and German travel at the present day 
seems to show that the educational advantages 
which we ask for in England, and which are 
attainable in Germany, have there borne their 
actual fruit in developing and directing the powers 
of observation in German travellers.” 


METEOROLOGICAL CONFERENCE. 


ON invitation of the chief signal officer, U.S. 
army, representatives of a number of the state 
weather services met in Washington on Feb. 23 
and 24, to consider the relation of state services to 
the signal service, matters of observation, display 
of local weather-signals, and related topics. The 
meeting was opened by General Hazen, chief sig- 
nal officer. Prof. T. C. Mendenhall of the signal 
office was then chosen chairman, and Prof. W. M. 
Davis was appointed secretary. Four sessions 
were held in the lecture-room of the national mu- 
seum, and the following action was taken. 

The conference recommends that the volunteer 
observers of the state weather services should 
make their regular thermometric observations at 
7 AM., 2and9P.M. When maximum and mini- 
mum thermometers are used, they should be read 
at the latest hour of observation in the day, pref- 
erably at 9 P.M. Observers of rainfall are advised 
to use the new form of rain-gauge adopted by the 
signal service, or to follow this pattern as nearly 
as possible. The gauge should, when practicable, 
be placed with the collecting-edge one foot above 
the ground, and should stand at least twice as far 
from adjacent objects, such as trees, buildings, 
fences, etc., as the height of these objects. The 
conference disapproves of placing rain-gauges on 
the roofs of buildings. 


—- 


Marcu 5, 1886.] 


Committees were appointed as follows: Messrs. 
Dunwoody, Meil, and Upton, to prepare forms for 
records to be used by state services and volunteer 
observers ; Messrs. Davis, Thomas, Mell, Dunwoody, 
and Woodruff, to report on a system of weather- 
signals for local display throughout the country ; 
Messrs. Mendenhall, Fuertes, Dunwoody, Upton, 
and Payne, to consider pians for a permanent 
organization of the conference. 

The attendance at the conference represented so 
many parts of the country, that its recommenda- 
tions will doubtless have due weight in securing 
the desirable end of uniform methods of work in 
the state services now in operation, and in those 
yet to be formed. Among the members of the signal 
service, there were present Professor Mendenhall, 
Lieutenants Dunwoody, Woodruff, Finley, Walshe, 
and Day, Professors Ferrel, Abbe, Hazen, Russell, 
and Marvin, and Mr. McAdie. The state services 
were represented by Professor Thomas of Ohio, 
Professor Payne of Minnesota, Professor Young 
of Nevada, Professor Mell of Alabama, Messrs. 
Henderson and Redding of the bureau of agri- 
culture, Georgia, Professors Upton and Davis and 
Messrs. Rotch and Ellsworth of New England, and 
Professor Huston of Indiana. Professor Fuertes 
of Cornell university, and Mr. Gillingham of Vir- 
ginia, volunteer observers of the signal service, 
were also present. 

The conference adjourned, to meet again at the 
call of the committee on permanent organization. 

At the meeting of the committee on permanent 
organization, held after the adjournment of the 
conference, it was decided to organize under the 
name of the ‘Association of local weather services,’ 
and to hold meetings annually in February. The 
object of the association is to encourage and pro- 
mote the mutual co-operation of the local weather 
services and the general weather service of the 
United States. Its membership is limited to the 
officers of local services or duly appointed delegates, 
together with representatives from the chief offices. 


METHOD OF STATING RESULTS OF 
WATER-— ANALYSES. 


THE Chemical society of Washington, at the 
meeting of Nov. 12, 1885, appointed a committee 
to consider the present state of water-analyses, 
and to present a method of stating analyses 
adapted for general use, in order that those here- 
after published may be readily compared with 
each other and with future work. This commit- 
tee reported Feb. 11, 1886, and was authorized to 
prepare an abstract for publication, in order to 
call the attention of chemists to the subject. 

The society earnestly recommends the adoption 


SCIENCE. 


211 


of the scheme which is herewith briefly presented. 
The full text of the report will be published in the 
next bulletin of the society. 

Water-analyses are usually made to answer one 
of three questions: viz., 1°, Is the water useful 
medicinally ? 2°, Is it injurious to health? and, 
3°, Is it suitable for manufacturing purposes? 
Many books relating to water were published 
during the eighteenth century, but accurate 
chemical analysis was not attempted until about 
1820. As the earlier analyses were isolated, rare, 
and made for special purposes, the form of the 
statement was of little importance, if it was only 
intelligible. At the present time. however, water- 
analyses are very numerous. An examination of 
about a thousand shows some forty-two methods 
of stating quantitative results, there being some- 
times three different ratios in the report of one 
analysis. Such discrepancies render comparisons 
difficuit and laborious. 

The various methods of statement may be 
classified under the following general forms : — 

1°. Grains per imperial gallon of 10 pounds, or 
70,000 grains. 

2°. Grains per U. S. or wine gallon of 58.372+ 
grains. 

3°. Decimally, as parts per 100, 1,000, 100,000, 
or 1,000,000. 

4°, Asso many grams or milligrams per litre. 

The last two would be identical if all waters 
had the same density ; but as the densities of sea- 
water, mineral waters, etc., are much above that 
of pure water, it is plain that the third and fourth 
modes are not comparable. 

The committee therefore unanimously recom- 
mends — 

1°. That water-analyses be uniformly reported, 
according to the decimal system, in parts per 
million, or milligrams per kilogram, with the 
temperature stated, and that Clark’s scale of 
degrees of hardness, and all other systems, be 
abandoned. 

2°. That all analyses be stated in terms of the 
radicals found. 

3°. That the constituent radicals be arranged in 
the order of the usual electro-chemical series, the 
positive radicals first. 

4°, That the combination deemed most prob- 
able by the chemist should be stated in symbols 
as well as by name. 

The abandonment of Clark’s scale has been 
recommended by Wanklyn and Chapman; and 
the recommendation made by the committee does 
not involve the disuse of his method, but merely 
the bringing of it into accord with the decimal 
system,—the changing from grains per gallon to 
milligrams per kilogram. 


212 


The last conclusion (No. 4) was deemed desirable 
from the frequent confusion in the statement of 
the iron salts and of the carbon oxides. 

The committee is unanimously of the opinion 
that analyses in the form recommended will prove 
quite as acceptable to boards of health and to 
the public in general, for whom such analyses 
are often made, as if presented in the mixed 
and irregular forms commonly adopted. 

The committee also feels sure that the people in 
general are better able to form a definite idea of 
the character of a water from a report stated in 
parts per 100, parts per 1,000,000, etc., than from 
one expressed as grains per gallon, the latter 
being a ratio wholly unfamiliar to any but those 
in the medical or pharmaceutical professions. 

A. C. PEALE, M.D. 
Ww. H. SEAMAN, M.D. 
CuHas. H. WHITE, M.D. 


PARIS LETTER. 


MANY interesting scientific events have lately 
attracted attention here. The limits of my present 
letter will not permit me to speak of them all, and 
I will therefore confine myself to the most im- 
portant ones. 

The appointment of Mr. Mathias Duval to the 
professorship of histology in the medical school 
is one that does not meet entire approval. Mr. 
Duval is certainly an able man, and one much 
liked by his students ; but it cannot be said that 
he is well fitted for the task he has assumed. He 
is much more proficient in anatomy and physi- 
ology than in histology. It had been hoped that 
the faculty of medicine would appoint to this pro- 
fessorship an histologist of known reputation, 
such as Mr. Malassez. There will be, however, 
one good result of Mr. Duval’s appointment : his- 
tology will undoubtedly be taught in a clear and 
precise manner, which had never been the case 
under C. Robin’s instruction. Mr. Duval is an 
excellent vulgarisateur, and thoroughly under- 
stands teaching. His students will certainly learn 
histology much better than they have hitherto. 

With this accession to the faculty, however, 
the resignation by Mr. Vulpian, of his appointment 
as médecin des hépitaux, is much regretted by his 
pupils. His reasons are not very wellknown. It 
has been stated that he did so in order to devote 
more attention to his patients; but the truth is, 
he has not much practice, and the greater part of 
his time is given to laboratory work. He has 
recently been asked to accept the appointment as 
secretaire perpétuel of the Academy of sciences, in 
the event of Mr. Jamin’s death (which occurred 
yesterday), and it may be that he has thus sought 


SCIENCE. 


[Voxt. VII., No. 161 


opportunity to devote himself to this very absorb- 
ing task by resigning his other arduous occupa- 
tions. 

Mr. Paul Bert took his departure from Paris for 
Tonquin yesterday evening. Monday last he 
made aspeech at the meeting of the Academy of 
sciences, bidding adieu in rather pathetic tones. 
The academy, however, reciprocated neither his 
real or assumed feelings nor his speech. One can- 
not but wonder at the general approval of Mr. 
Bert’s mission to Tonquin. He himself is over- 
flowing with happiness. His friends are sure he 
will do well, and be of use in Tonquin. His ene- 
mies — and they are not few — are convinced that 
he will commit some great blunder, and kill him- 
self politically. They, however, feel a great relief 
in the fact that they will be rid of him for some 
time. Everybody is satisfied, even the Academy 
of sciences, who listened to his last speech with 
much coldness, as though to impress upon him 
their lack of interest in politicians. It certainly 
is a strange and unusual occurrence, in France at 
least, for a scientific man to become a politician, 
though it must in justice be said that Mr. Bert is 
aman of much intelligence; and, should he fail, 
it will be due rather to his temper than to his lack 
of ability. 

A new French scientific periodical, the Archives 
Slaves de biologie, has recently made its appear- 
ance. It is published by Messrs. Richet & Men- 
delssohn, and will be devoted to the more im- 
portant scientific works that are published in Rus- 
sian, Tcheque, and other kindred languages. It 
will comprise original communications in French, 
or translations from the Russian, with reviews of 
the latest works on biological sciences in general. 
The first number contains more than three hun- 
dred pages of large octavo size, including origi- 
nal memoirs by Fritsch, on recently discovered 
human crania; of Godlewski, on Pocta and Wier- 
zejski on fossil and living sponges; of Dani- 
lewsky and Kowalewsky, on Nawalichin and 
Botkine ; and of many others, on various medi- 
cal and physiological subjects. The remaining 
pages are filled with reviews and critical notes on 
the recent biological work in the Russian and 
kindred languages, from such writers as Men- 
delssohn, de Varigny, Danysz, Halperine, and 
others. The project is certainly a very com- 
mendable one, to thus gather up in a single jour- 
nal all the scientific work of a country ; and in 
this particular case the idea is all the better, from 
the fact that Slavonic savants do not all write in 
the same language, and that their scientific pa- 
pers are not commonly met with. It is very likely 
that the periodical will be successful, filling as it — 
does such a useful field. The example of the 


Marca 5, 1886.] 


Archives Italiennes de biologie is certainly en- 
couraging, and we doubt not that the present 
journal will be as favorably received. 

The unveiling of Claude Bernard’s statue, 
erected in front of the College de France, took 
place somedays ago. The ceremony was attended 
by very few persons, owing to the inclemency of 
the weather. Addresses were made by Mr. Ber- 
thelot, Mr. Renan, Paul Bert, and Mr. Dastre. 
Mr. Renan is of a very humorous turn of mind, 
and has a way of causing amusement at the ex- 
pense of others,—a way that is very pleasant 
when it does not concern one’s self. Speaking of 
P. Bert as one of the pupils of Claude Bernard, 
he said that Mr. Bert would also have his statue, 
some day or other, near that of Bernard. Mr. 
Bert took this in all seriousness, and with much 
thankfulness, thinking that he certainly deserved 
this honor. All except himself, however, per- 
ceived the point of Mr. Renan’s remarks. Jokes 
should not be too refined; otherwise they may miss 
their mark, as did the present one. The best ad- 
dresses were those of P. Bert and Mr. Renan. 
That of Mr. Berthelot was rather long, and Mr. 
Dastre did not say any thing new or interesting. 

A month or so ago I had the opportunity of see- 
ing Mr. Chevreul at the meeting of the French 
academy, where Bertrand was pronouncing his 
discours Ve réception, which was answered by 
Pasteur. Mr. Chevreui is very well preserved, 
and does not appear as old as he really is. He had 
an inclination twice or thrice during the meeting 
to take a little nap, but he struggled successfully 
against it. One or two allusions to his old age, 
and to his long, fruitful career as a chemist, re- 
ceived much applause. A person who has known 
him well for a long time says that he is certainly 
not weaker in intellect than he was eight or ten 
years ago; but, contrary to the general fact that 
old people recollect better, events that have trans- 
pired during their youth than later ones, Mr. 
Chevreul speaks only of hisexperiments on colors, 
not caring to talk at all of his very important and 
useful discoveries on the corps gras, on soap, 


candies, etc., which he seems to forget. Me 
Paris, Feb. 13. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Mr. PASTEUR, according to a telegram to the 
New York Herald, read on Monday last a paper 
before the French academy of sciences, giving the 
results of his methods of treatment for hydro- 
phobia. Three hundred and fifty persons have 
been treated, including twelve Americans, all of 
them successfully, except one, who was not 
brought to the laboratory till thirty-seven days 


SCIENCE. 


213 


after having been bitten. During the six years 
preceding 1885, in the department of the Seine, 
517 persons had been bitten by mad dogs, from 
which there resulted 81 deaths, or about one out 
of every six bitten. It is proposed to open an 
international establishment at Paris for the inocu- 
lation treatment, and already funds are being 
largely subscribed. 


— The dog by which the Newark children, who 
were sent to Paris for treatment, were bitten, was 
evidently not mad. The dog, it will be remem- 
bered, was killed at the time; but seven others 
which were bitten by it have been kept under the 
closest surveillance, and have shown no indica- 
tions whatever of hydrophobia. They have been 
released. 


—TIn our issue of Feb. 19, in mentioning Miss 
Crocker’s ‘ Methods of teaching geography,’ an 
unfortunate slip of the pen made us give Miss Hale 
the credit of its authorship. It was written by 
Miss Lucretia Crocker, and is in every way a most 
creditable piece of work. 


— The ‘ Forum’ (New York, Forwm publishing 
Co.) is the title of a new monthly magazine, edited 
by Lorettus S. Metcalf, the former managing 
editor of the North American review. The maga- 
zine will address itself to the mass of intelligent 
people, and will discuss subjects that concern all 
classes alike, — in morals, in education, in govern- 
ment, in religion. The first number, for March, 
contains articles by Prof. Alexander Winchell (on 
Science and the state), James Parton, E. P. Whip- 
ple, Drs. R. H. Newton, E. E. Hale, A. Cleveland 
Coxe, W. A. Hammond, M. J. Savage, and Howard 
Crosby. 

—A new polar expedition, says Das Ausland, 
under the leadership of Dr. Bunge and Baron Toll, 
has been organized for the zodlogical and topo- 
graphical investigation of the islands of New Si- 
beria. The expedition will reach its destination 
the coming spring. 

— The American economic association held a 
business-meeting in New York, Feb. 27, President 
A. Walker in the chair. The next meeting will 
be next autumn, at a date not yet fixed upon. 


— A bill limiting the hunting of deer or the sale 
of venison in the state of New York to the period 
between Aug. 15 and Nov. 1, has been passed by 
the assembly. The bill also prohibits the trans- 
portation of dead deer by railroad companies, ex- 
cept that the bodies of two deer killed by a sports- 
man may be taken to his home by him in the 
limited period stated. 


—The Naturwissenschaftliche rundschau (Braun- 
schweig, Vieweg & Sohn) is a new eight-paged 


214 


weekly periodical, devoted to the ‘ gesammtge- 
biete der naturwissenschaften.’ The first numbers 
are mostly filled with abstracts and reviews. 


— The London Daily telegraph states that an 
effort is at last being made to disinter the Sphinx. 
The work of exhumation is intrusted to Brugsch 
Bey, brother of the distinguished archeologist, 
who will carry out a plan formed by Signor Mas- 
pero. About 20,000 cubic metres of sand must be 
cleared away. To expedite this task a little tram- 
way has been constructed, and 150 laborers are 
engaged for the more mechanical portion of the 
toil. About Easter the work is expected to be 
completed. Then, when the rock out of which 
the statue has been hewn is laid bare, a broad 
circular walk will be constructed around it, and a 
high wall built to guard against future encroach- 
ments of desert sands. 


—A correspondent of the New York Herald 
says that it is very probable that Mr. Rousseau, 
who was sent by the French government to in- 
spect the Panama canal, must report that the 
present enterprise is inevitably to be changed from 
a sea-level canal to a canal with locks, if it is ever 
to be finished by the present company, thereby 
not merely falsifying M. de Lesseps’s assurances a 
hundred times reiterated, but also the very basis 
of the preference given to the Panama route over 
that of Nicaragua. Regular subscriptions to the 
funds are exhausted, and it is proposed to raise a 
hundred or more million dollars by a national 
lottery. 


— It is expected that the Grecian canal, con- 
necting the gulfs of Corinth and Aegina, will be 
completed by the end of the present year. The 
canal will be less than three miles in length, but 
the deepest cuttings are nearly two hundred and 
fifty feet in depth. The canal will admit the 
passage of the largest ships, and will shorten the 
sea distance between the Adriatic and the levant 
a hundred and thirty miles. 


— In a recent paper the eminent French savant, 
Alphonse de Candolle, reproduces with approving 
comments the arguments of Prof. A. Graham Bell 
upon the production of a race of deaf-mutes in the 
United States. In commenting upon the methods 
proposed to prevent this result, he adds that the 
English language is the least favorable of all for 
spoken use among deaf-mutes, as the movements 
of the lips are more often replaced by an accentua- 
tion or intonation that does not produce any visible 
effect. The vowels are articulated less clearly than, 
and are not so sharply differentiated from each 
other as, in the other chief European languages. 
The French has very few words, such as de and 


SCIENCE. 


[Voxu. VII., No. 161 


crac, in which the lips do not take part in the 
pronunciation, while in English numerous sounds, 
as of n, th, andh, are formed almost wholly by the 
action of the tongue. This is confirmed by the 
experience of inteiligent deaf-mutes. Mr. Can- 
dolle suggests, in addition to the views of Pro- 
fessor Bell, that, independently of deaf-mutism, 
marriage between first-cousins should be wholly 
prohibited. He also asks whether greater care 
given to new-born infants would not materially 
diminish the number of deaf persons. 


—A new edition of ‘ Berghaus’ physikalischer 
atlas’ is announced, to be completed in twenty- 
five lieferungen, the first of which will appear 
about the middle of the present month. The work 
is prepared wholly anew, by the co-operation of 
Drs. Drude, Gerland, Hann, Hartlaub, Neumayer, 
and Zittel. 

— The bird-destroying ‘slung-shot’ boy is not 
an eastern innovation. A writer in the Santa 
Barbara, Cal., Press deplores the evil that he has 
grown to be in the west, in the destruction of the 
native birds for millinery purposes. 


— The following works are announced by the 
Smithsonian institution to be now in press: 
‘Scientific writings of Joseph Henry ;’ ‘ Flora of 
North America.’ by Asa Gray; ‘Guesde collec- 
tions of antiquities,’ by O. T. Mason; ‘Annual 
report for 1884 ;’ ‘ Paleontological bibliographies,’ 
by J. B. Marcou; + Bulletin of the Washington 
philosophical society,’ vol. vii., for 1885; and the 
different reports of progress in 1885: viz., in 
chemistry, by H. C. Bolton; in geography, by 
J. K. Goodrich ; in seismology and vulcanology, 
by C. G. Rockwood. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Oil on troubled waters. 


One of the most curious things in connection with 
the use of oil on troubled waters is the frequency 
with which it appears as a new discovery. Those 
who would dismiss the subject with a contemptuous 
sneer at the credulity of people imposed upon by 
sailors’ yarns know little of the prolonged attention 
the matter has received in the past, and of the hon- 
ored scientific men who have studied the problem. 
There is no room here to quote the many observations 
at hand, but only to sum them up, and to present 
the explanation that has met with most favor. ~~ 

The earliest reference at hand in English is found 
in Cavallo’s ‘ Philosophy’ (fourth American edition, 
1879, p. 209). The author points out that oil spreads 
‘instantly’ over water; that the wind has little 
effect in raising waves on the surface of oil, or of 
water covered with a film of oil ; and that from early 
times this fact has been utilized in stilling the waves 
of the sea. The experiments of Franklin and others 
are cited. , 

In Gehler’s ‘ Physikalisches wérterbuch’ (Berlin, 


Marca 5, 1886.] 


1837, band vi. p. 1750 ff.) there is a good presenta- 
tion of the subject, and many facts are cited. Most 
of them are drawn, however, from the thirty-page 
discussion in Weber's ‘ Wellenlehre’ (1825). Here 
one finds quotations from Aristotle, Plutarch, and 
Pliny, which show that in early times the power of 
oil to quiet, and so render more transparent, the sur- 
face of water, was known. References are made to 
other and later writers, and to the facts collected by 
Franklin ; and details are given of experiments made 
by him (Phil. trans., lxiv., 1774), and later by the 
Webers. 

From all these data. as well as from the recent 
observations reported in Science (especially vii. p. 
134), it seems that the effect of the oil-film is to 
diminish the ‘ combing’ of the waves, and to prevent. 
in part at least, the formation of small waves, and 
the growth and sharpening of the crests of the large 
ones by the continued action of the wind. The 
exaggerated popular notion that the great waves are 
quieted seems to be erroneous. The only known 
ways of destroying in the open sea the energy of a 
wave once formed are by fluid friction, by rain, and 
by an opposing wind. But we must not under- 
estimate the advantage of preventing the piling-up, 
on a wave already dangerously high, of another only 
a few inches high. On the well-known principle of 
superposition, it must sometimes happen that the 
crests of waves belonging to two or more systems 
-will coincide. The resultant wave is then higher, 
and exposes more surface to the wind ; and the crest, 
being sharper, is more easily blown off by the wind : 
So, as the wave is likely to run faster than the ship, 
it may break over her in a way that would not hap- 
pen if it were only a little lJower,— if only one of its 
smaller components could be suppressed. 

It is further to be borne in mind, in seeking an 
explanation for the indisputable and useful effect of 
oil, that, as the passage of a wave is the transfer of 
energy but not of matter, the oil will not be carried 
onward by the wave; and that, if the formation of 
new waves over a given large surface could be pre- 
vented, the old ones would speedily pass out of it, 
and those coming into this surface from beyond 
would not be increased, but would decrease some- 
what, because of the fluid friction. 

The practical problem, therefore, before the ship- 
master, is to find some means, 1°, of preventing the 
formation of new waves, or the growth of old ones, 
over a given surface to the windward of his ship, 
and, 2°, of making this surface as large as possible. 
He solves it more or less completely by the use of 
oil; and now we seek an explanation of the action 
of oil from the physicist. 

The German physicists of the first part of this 
century followed pretty generally the view attributed 
originally to Aristotle, and elaborated by Franklin ; 
the Webers subscribe to it ; and Miincke, in ‘ Gebler,’ 
says it is generally held : in a word, the friction of 
the wind is less on the oil than onthe water. Stated 
in this way, however, the sentence is almost sure to 
convey a false impression. We know of absolutely 
no proof that this is true. if taken with its obvious 
meaning; but the truth it embodies is simply, that, 
owing to the interposition of the oil-film, the force 
of the wind is not communicated to the water ; and 
this can be explained in a way consistent with mod- 
ern physical notions. Franklin had pointed out how 
a ripple raised by the wind gets higher, broader, and 
longer at each successive vibration [and therefore 


SCIENCE. 


215 


travels faster]: he compares the effect of the wind 
to the setting of a heavy church-bell to swinging, by 
properly timed impulses of a finger. He thinks the 
adhesion between the oil and water is so slight Gf, 
indeed, the repulsion be not strong enough to main- 
tain the film at a small distance from the water) that 
the film can be moved a little by the wind without 
disturbing the water. He suggests, further, that 
the wind can ‘catch’ hold of the large wave better 
when this is covered with ripples, while, if it be oiled, 
the wind may press it down. The Webers add some- 
thing with reference to the resolution of the force of 
the wind, which seems not quite sound in theory ; 
and Miincke has something to say about a slight bind- 
ing of the surface of the water by the oil. 

But some properties of fluids unknown to the 
earlier physicists have a bearing on the present prob- 
lem. Thus Daniell, in his ‘ Principles of physics’ (p. 
247), says, under the title ‘ Superficial viscosity,’ ‘* To 
the same cause [superficial tenacity] we must at- 
tribute the smoothing of the surface of a rough sea 
when oil is poured upon it: the new surface has 
great superficial tenacity and small superficial ten- 
sion, and is not readily broken up into surf.” The 
bearing of this may be shown thus. Imagine a per- 
fectly calm lake : a wind strikes it, and it is covered 
with wavelets. It is not the increase of pressure 
over the lake that causes the waves. but slight differ- 
ences of pressure between neighboring points, due to 
the fact that the winds flow more or less in gusts, 
not steadily. If the surface were solid, or very vis- 
cous, like mucilage or thick oil, the momentary force 
due to the difference of pressure would cease to act 
before any sensible movement could take place. The 
effect would be the same in kind, though differing in 
amount, however thin the film, or slightly viscous the 
oil may be ; but we should remember that the super- 
ficial viscosity which is effective here is usually 
greater than the viscosity calculated from experi- 
ments where a considerable volume of the liquid is 
used. The effect, too, would be the same in kind, 
though the sea were rough instead of calm. We see, 
then, that an oil-film, by its viscosity (as well as by 
slipping over the water, if Franklin’s view is cor- 
rect), delays the action of the wind’s force on the 
water for so long a time, that the force may have 
ceased to act before any movement begins, and then 
no work is done by the wind on the water. Thus, in 
an extreme case, no new waves are formed, and those 
driven on by the wind through the oil-covered sur- 
face do not have their crests continually elevated and 
sharpened till they are ready to break. 

What might happen in an extreme case does hap- 
pen, to some extent, in every case where oil is used 
on the water. Thus the wake of a ship generally 
shows a surface covered with bubbles more persistent 
than usual, and comparatively free from small waves, 
both effects being probably due to the traces of oil 
coming from bilge-water, the cook’s galley, etc. 
Where a ship is driven before the wind, and the 
waves are running faster than the ship, if oil is being 
used, it is evident that the wind has to pass over a 
long oil-covered surface, and the effect of the oil 
will be especially favorable. Since it is essential to 
this explanation that the oil be spread to the wind- 
ward, little benefit is to be expected from the use of 
oil on waves coming from a distant storm ; nor when 
the wind is ahead, unless means can be used to throw 
the oil a long distance ahead. 

If this explanation be correct, as we believe it to 


216 


be, there is no violation of the fundamental law of 
modern physics,—no destruction of energy. 

The second practical problem is to cover as large 
a surface as possible with the viscous fluid. Fortu- 
nately this can be done easily in accordance with 
principles explained in many modern treatises on 
capillarity : for the surface tension of the film between 
water and air is so much greater than the sum of 
the tensions, oil-water and oil-air, that a drop of oil 
is very rapidly drawn out over an enormous surface. 
If this paper were not already so long, some numeri- 
cal data might be given. The preference shown for 
animal or vegetable oils over mineral oils (Science, 
vii. 1383) is probably justified by the smaller surface 
tension and greater viscosity of the former; though 
it may be noted, that, the greater the viscosity, the 
slower the oil will spread, other things remaining the 
same, 

To render complete the explanation of this inter- 
esting and at first sight puzzling action of oil, experi- 
ments are needed by physicists in the laboratory, 
where for various oils the several physical properties 
above named shall be measured, and also experiments 
and observations at sea when wind and waves are 
moderate enough to be measured, and the captain 
may go in any desired direction without danger. A 
few days’ observations, where the conditions can be 
controlled, would be worth hundreds of the desultory 
reports which the hydrographic Office is wisely col- 
lecting. CHARLES K. WEAD. 


Professor Thorell and the American Silurian 
scorpion. 


Professor Thorell, who is perhaps the best authority 
upon the Scorpionidae, both recent and fossil, has 
rather severely taken to task some of my statements 
and determinations in connection with the recently 
discovered American Silurian scorpion (see American 
naturalist for March, 1886, p. 269). In fact, so 
sharp and pungent are some of his remarks, that a 
person reading them would naturally infer, that, in 
Professor Thorell’s opinion, I was hardly capable of 
making a reliable observation, at least not upon a 
scorpion. He has shown his good nature, however, 
in the outstart, by admitting that the specimen is 
really a scorpion, and not a Eurypteroid, —a con- 
clusion the exact contrary of that jumped to by one 
critic upon reading the first announcement of its dis- 
covery. For this concession Professor Thorell has 
my heartiest thanks. In his further criticisms, how- 
ever, he is much less lenient, and I wish to briefly 
notice his objections in their order. 

After making the above-mentioned admission, Pro- 
fessor Thorell proceeds to deal with the six ventral 
plates of this, what he calls, ‘rather badly preserved 
fossil.’ In my description in the American museum 
bulletin, I mention that the specimen is ‘ greatly 
compressed ;’ that the ‘dorsal crust is preserved 
over about two-thirds of the surface,’ mentioning 
the parts ; and that ‘‘ over the rest of the prae-ab- 
domen and what remains of the post-abdomen or 
tail, parts of the first five segments, the inside 
of the ventral crust is exposed.” This feature of 
the specimen has, I fear, misled Professor Thorell, 
and caused him to fall into an error, into which, if 
he had known the nature of the preservation of the 
fossils (Eurypteroids) found in the formations from 
which the scorpion was obtained, he probably would 
not have fallen. The specimen is greatly compressed 


SCIENCE. 


| Vou. VII., No. 161 


vertically, as are all the fossils in the same rock. 
Along the left side of the abdomen there is a line of 
fracture, to the right of which the substance of 
the dorsal plates, and the filling between them, to 
the ventral plates below, has been removed in split- 
ting the rock, and probably left on the other part. 
Along this line the thickness between the two sides 
of the fossil (dorsal and ventral) is about a twentieth 
of an inch or less. In speaking of this feature, Pro- 
fessor Thorell says, ‘‘The whole upper side of the 
abdomen is broken or cracked longitudinally,” and 
that the articulations of the ventral parts are *’ all 
direct continuations of the articulations between the 
dorsals.” Neither of these assertions is entirely true. 
The abdomen is partially removed, but not ‘ cracked’ 
in the sense in which he uses the term; and the 
articulations between the joints of the ventral plates 
are not ‘ direct continuations’ of those of the dorsal. 
Besides this, the overlapping of the plates show 
directly which is dorsal, and which is ventral; and 
no zodlogist would be apt to make the mistake. If 
we examine the abdomen of a beetle, roach, or 
scorpion, on the exterior, we find the anterior plates 
all overlapping those behind, both dorsally and ven- 
trally : but, if we take off the crust and examine the 
inside, we find the reverse to be the case; that is, 
the anterior edge of the plates overlaps the one an- 
terior to it. Now, this is precisely what is seen on 
this specimen: on the left side the anterior plates 
overlap those behind, while on the right side the 
posterior overlap those in front; and the surface of 
the plates is concave, while on the left side they are 
convex ; so that a mistake is nearly impossible. Pro- 
fessor Thorell’s statement, that, if his interpretation 
of this character is the right one, ‘“‘the want of 
spiracles on the plates needs no furth°r explanation,” 
is therefore of no value, as he reasons from false 
premises: all his conclusions based upon his assumed 
features fall to the ground, and the want of spiracles 
is yet unexplained. There are six of these ventral 
plates plainly seen, extending from beneath the dor- 
sals. Neither is the specimen a ‘rather badly pre- 
served fossil,’ but instead an exceedingly well pre- 
served and distinct one, as far as the parts existed 
when the specimen was embedded. 

In a footnote to his observations on the above 
structure, Professor Thorell states, that, ‘* even if the 
plates in question really were ventral plates, the first 
(or sixth when counted from behind forward) would 
seem, from its position, to correspond to the anterior 
half of the first ventral in the ordinary scorpions, 
and not to the small plate situated between the 
pectoral combs.” On this statement I will make no 
comment, further than to say that I have failed to 
find, in the living species which I have examined, 
any case where the first (or anterior) ventral plate 
is even apparently articulated to the third ventral 
plate, or has the lateral width of this one. 

Professor Thorell next goes on to say that ‘‘ Mr. 
Whitfield thinks, that, whereas modern scorpions 
carry the tail (post-abdomen) arched upward over 
the back, Proscorpius, and also Palaeophonus, car- 
ried it in the opposite way. or curved downward.” 
He says, ‘‘ This would indeed be a character of 
fundamental importance for distinguishing the Silu- 
rion scorpions from all other members of the group,” 
but that to him it is ‘‘impossible to find any strin- 
gent reason for adopting this strange hypothesis,” 
and that it would cause ‘‘the animal's gait to be 
exceedingly difficult and awkward if it were to walk 


;=™ eee 


Marca 5, 1886.] 


with its tail curved under its body.” I never inti- 
mated that it walked with its tail curved under its 
body; this is his own suggestion: but I cannot see 
why the animal might not walk with its tail straight- 
ened out behind. as well as to curve it over the 
back ; in fact, the latter position seems much the 
more awkward of the two. As to stinging its prey 
after having caught it between the hands of its 
palpi, it might experience a little trouble : hence the 
necessity of the development of a more elevated 
feature by way of adaptation of parts to purposes. 
There must be a period in the life of a scorpion when 
the tail first assumes this elevated feature; for as 
Professor Thorell admits, just before birth in the 
living forms, the tail is curved downward. If the 
bend is downward then, when is it turned upward ? 
and why, in these early forms, might not this em- 
bryonic feature be prolonged to a later or more 
advanced age? Wasps and similar insects bend 
their bodies downward in stinging their prey, and 
are not particularly awkward, as I have often ex- 
perienced. The ridges on the upper and lower sur- 
faces of the tail-joints differ in all living scorpions 
which I have examined, and readily show which is 
dorsal, and which is ventral. Those seen on this 
specimen have the character of the vertral or lower 
side (inside as to curvature), and not ‘‘the same 
form and sculpture of the dorsal plates, or parts of 
‘these segments or joints in ordinary scorpions,” as 
’ Professor Thorell wrongly asserts. They diverge at 
the anterior end. and converge at the posterior end. 
The very slight displacement of the tail segments is 
not sufficient to warrant the assumption that the 
entire tail has been turned over, although such may 
possibly be the case, but is not at all probable. I 
stated the fact of displacement in my description, 
and based my reasoning upon the improbability of 
its having been turned over. Of course, if it isturned 
over, my inferences are faulty. But has it been ? 
I think not. 

Professor Thorell next attacks the two poor little 
claws in the most pitiless manner, notwithstanding 
the animal has but one foot to show. This he holds 
out in the most appealing manner to the observer, 
entirely distinct, and free from interference by the 
other limbs, and with the two claws widely spread, 
as if in an effort to prevent disputation. Professor 
Thore!l’s remarks, in his effort to reason away one of 
these claws upon an assumption as to what a Silurian 
scorpion ought to be, partake so much of the charac- 
ter of ‘special pleading,’ that I do not feel called 
upon to make a very extended attempt at refutation. 
The specimen is so very distinct and positive in tbis 
. respect, that I shall only say, in reply to Professor 
Thorell, that he can rest assured the specimen is not 
broken, or in any way mutilated in this part ; that 
there are certainly two processes of almost equal 
size, the longer being only perceptibly narrower at its 
base, under a high magnification, than its mate ; that 
the two processes are situated on the end of the 
joint behind, and not on the side of the end, in 
the position of a spine. Now, these prccesses he 
can call spines, or parts of a broken limb, or by any 
other name : they still remain claws to every appear- 
ance, are in the right position, and were undoubtedly 
used as such by the animal. In my examination of 
the specimen, I have made no assumption and manu- 
factured no feature, simply taking the specimen as 
it is, without tinkering or dressing. I have had, in 
the matter of the double claw, the opinion, after 


SCIENCE. 217 


examination, of many good observers, only one of 
whom failed to assert positively the existence of a 
double claw. That one exception, after a very cur- 
sory examination of only a very few minutes, gave 
no direct opinion. 

After speaking of the transverse furrow across the 
base of the cephalothorax, Professor Thorell men- 
tions ‘the small size of the eyes’ as a feature in 
which this specimen differs from the Eoscorpionidae, 
and states that ‘‘in this particular it more resembles 
Dr. Hunter’s and Mr. Peach’s Scotch Paleophonus ” 
I am not aware that the eyes of Dr. Hunter’s and 
Mr. Peach’s Scotch Palaeophonus have been actually 
observed so as to know their exact size. The speci- 
men lies with the ventral side up, the eyes being 
embedded in the rcck below, but. according to Mr. 
Peach, ‘‘ are seen pressed up through the cuticle of 
the gullet,” and would naturally appear somewhat 
larger than they really were in life, owing to the lift- 
ing of the cuticle over them. Consequently I do not 
see the force of the comparison. 

Professor Thorell believes Proscorpius forms a 
‘good peculiar genus,’ as ‘‘characterized by the 
somewhat trilobed anterior margin of the cepbalo- 
thorax,” —a feature which I should not consider as 
of more than spacific value,—‘‘ and more especially by 
the shape of the fingers of the mandibles, which, if 
they really had such a form in the living animal as 
they, from Mr. Whitfield’s figures, appear to have, 
differ materially from those of Palaeophonus and 
all other known scorpions.” I am sorry Professor 
Thorell has not told us how they differ ; then we 
should have had a basis of comparison. My figures 
of the mandible, three of which I gave, besides that 
in place on the enlarged figure in plate 19 (which, by 
the way, is not a drawing, but a print direct from a 
photograph of the specimen), were given to show the 
uncertainty of this part. They can be verified, how- 
ever, by reference to that figure. 

As to Professor Thorell’s opinion of the systematic 
position and relation of this American fossil scorpion, 
which he has based upon a lack of knowledge of the 
specimen, and the assumption of characters and 
faults which it does not possess, I shall say nothing, 
as it rests entirely on the existence of a single or 
double claw. But as to his ‘‘ additional reason to 
those given above for removing Proscorpius from the 
carboniferous Eoscorpionidae, and for referring this 
genus to the Apoxypodes, fam. Palaeophonidae,” 
which he says ‘‘ may be found in its being, geologi- 
cally speaking, almost contemporary with the Palaeo- 
phoni,” I should object to make geological position 
even an ‘ additional reason’ for zodlogical classifi- 
cation. 

Regarding the aquatic nature of the animal, there 
can be no certainty. The apparent total absence of 
stigmata, vet unexplained. leads one to inquire how 
they breathed, even if aquatic. The same may be 
asked of its aquatic associates in the rock, Euryp- 
terus and Pterygotus, which show neither stigmata 
nor branchiae ; but their aquatic character is not 
questioned. That it should be any thing so ‘ very 
strange,’ that a connecting-link between a small and 
a large form, like the scorpion on the one hand, and 
the Pterygoti on the other, should be found in ‘*‘ such 
a little creature as the Proscorpius Osbornii,” I 
think few will admit ; nor are all the Eurypteri and 
Pterygoti so very ‘ gigantic’ as his language would 
indicate. R. P. WHITFIELD. 

Amer. mus. nat. hist., New York City. 


218 


The language of the Bilhoola in British 
Columbia. 


The Bilhoola tribe inhabits the district of Dean 
Inlet and Bentinok Arm, and is surrounded by tribes 
of the Kwakiool family. Their language, as those of 
the neighboring tribes, is very little known: there- 
fore the following remarks, imperfect though they 
be, may be of interest. The material was collected 
by me from some individuals of this tribe who were 
brought to Germany by Capt. A. Jacobson, and staid 
for a fortnight at Berlin. 

The most remarkable peculiarity of the language 
is, that words in connection cannot be expressed ex- 
cept by the help of certain prefixes much resembling 
an article. The most common of these are ti and ua. 
For instance: ‘large,’ shg (sh pronounced almost 
like ch in the German ich) ; ‘stone,’ tht (h like ch in 
the Scotch loch); ‘ large stone,’ ti shg ti Uht. 

The plural of nouns is formed in different ways, 
either by reduplication of the initial sound or by the 
ending uks. In some instances I found pi and tj. 
Frequently the singular serves also for the plural. 
It seems that the cases are only expressed by the po- 
sition of the word in the sentence. 


The personal pronoun is — 


SINGULAR. PLURAL, 
1st person, ens 1st person, th ’mitl’ 
2d e ino 2d es th ’optl’ 
Bd <3 t ’aish 3d a t ’auts 


The possessive pronoun is formed in two ways: it 
is either derived from the personal pronoun, and 
connected with the noun by ti in the singular, and 
ua in the plural (for instance: enstl ’ti ?nah, ‘my 
head ;’ th ’mitl ’ua sotl’, ‘our house’), or it is ex- 
pressed by a suffix (t ’nah-stsh, ‘my head ;’ sotl’tlsh, 
‘our house ’). 

The flexion of the verb is quite remarkable. It 
is either formed by a personal pronoun and the stem 
of the verb, both being connected by ti or some 
other prefix, or by suffixes. Besides, the pronoun 
can be repeated after the verb: for example , — 


ens ti tl’ap ) 
th ’apsts rL20. 
th ’apsts ti ens j 


The suffixes are identical with the possessive suf- 
fixes of the noun. 

The objective flexion of the verb bears the features 
of having originated by agglutination of the pro- 
noun to the verb; for example, ksh’, sh sino, ‘I see 
you ;’ ksh ’sh titl,’ ‘ We see them.’ 

I could not find any distinct traces of the tenses 
being expressed by suffixes or by prefixes. An itera- 
tive is formed by the prefix atl’; a locative, by nu. 

The principal colors are red, yellow, and blue, the 
limit between the latter two being indefinite. Green 
is sometimes called yellow, sometimes blue; viz., 
similar to the one or the other. 

The names of the numbers are formed according 
to the quinary-vigesimal system: 6 is 5+ 1; 11is 10 
+1; 20, one man, i.e., the number of fingers and 
toes ; 40, two men, ete. 

The vocabulary bears only a very slight resem- 
blance to that of the Kwakiool and the Selish. As 
far as I know, the grammar much resembles that of 
the Bilballa. 

The traditions and customs of this people are al- 
most identical with those of the Tlinkit and their 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 161 


other neighbors, though in their details there may be 
some differences. FRANZ Boas. 
Berlin, Feb. 5. 


Discomforts arising from sponge spicules in pond- 
soils. 

Near Monticello, in this state, are numerous ponds 
and sloughs, many of which have been drained and 
brought under cultivation. The soil is of the typical 
humus character, containing no clay and but very 
little sand. For ages, perhaps, each summer has 
produced its rank growth of aquatic plants, and each 
autumn has laid this growth beneath the rippling 
surface of the pond, to be protected from thorough 
decomposition by its waters: consequently, when 
the hand of improvement removes the water, a rich 
bed of vegetable matter is brought to the sun and 
air. Such situations are peculiarly favorable for the 
cultivation of corn, and large yields may be pro- 
duced ; but in the cultivation of the crop a most 
annoying difficulty is encountered. In bright, warm 
days, the workmen in these fields experience a dis- 
tressing itching in those parts of the body where 
there is rubbing or chafing of the boots or clothing. 
I cannot better describe this sensation than by com- 
paring it with the pain occasioned by the attack of 
a flock of mosquitoes upon the affected parts. It is 
almost unbearable, and some persons are obliged to 
stop work and seek relief. Usually by taking a bath 
and cooling the body the irritation ceases ; but, if it 
again be heated by over-exertion, the pain is renewed. 
Such a condition will last for about two days. 

On microscopic examination, we found among the 
particles of sand and vegetable matter numerous 
spindle-shaped, sharp-pointed bodies. Some were 
hooked and curved; some broken in the middle, 
making one end blunt; some were covered thickly 
with spines. These have been identified as diatoms 
and fresh-water sponge spicules. The bodies are of 
a siliceous character, for they are not destroyed by 
ignition, nor attacked by hydrochloric acid. Since 
fresh-water sponges are quite abundant in many 
ponds, their remains form a conspicuous part of the 
soil. 

Having thus ascertained the cause of the irrita- 
tion, it is not difficult to understand its production. 
A fine impalpable dust always rises from the soil 
when it is being cultivated. This penetrates the 
clothing, and finds its way to those parts of the body 
where there is friction between the skin and clothing. 
The backward and forward motion of the cloth 
causes the spicules to work their way into the skin far 
enough to irritate the nerves and produce the pain. 
The increased circulation due to active exercise in- 
creases the sensitiveness of the skin, and hence the 
pain is greater under such conditions. 

No remedy has as yet suggested itself. The best 
preventive is wearing such clothing as will most 
nearly exclude the dust. As the spicules are com- 
posed of one of the most enduring substances, they 
will not be removed from the soil by the usual 
changes taking place in it. Wind and cultivation 
may disseminate them so that they will be far less 
troublesome, but it will be a slow process. Alto- 
gether, the outlook for the comfortable cultivation of 
these pond-soils is not encouraging ; and, if the large 
crops which they are capable of producing are ob- 
tained, much annoyance and inconvenience must be 
endured. S. T. ViRDEN. 


Purdue university, Lafayette, Ind., 
Feb. 20. 


Marca 5, 1886. | 


Preliminary description of a new species of 
Aplodontia (A. major sp. nov., ‘ California 
show’tl,’ ‘mountain beaver ’). 


I have received from one of my collectors eight 
specimens of a new species of Aplodontia captured 
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in Placer county, 
Cal. It may be distinguished from the only pre- 
viously known species of the family by the following 
diagnosis : — 

Length, about 400 mm. ; hind-foot with claws, 
about 60 mm. ; height of ear, about 8 mm.— Pelage, 
comparatively coarse and harsh; hairs of flanks, 
elongated beyond those of the surrounding parts, 
forming on each side a more or less pronounced oval 
patch, from 60 to 80 mm. in length and from 40 to 
60 mm. in breadth, which terminates abruptly about 
opposite the hip joint, and which is most marked in 
specimens not fully adult. Color: Whiskers, black ; 
back, grizzled grayish-brown, the tint of the brown 
being that of a dilute bistre ; hairs at base and under 
fur, very dark plumbeous: rump and belly, grizzled 
mouse-gray, sometimes faintly and _ superficially 
washed with very dilute brown; a distinct patch of 
white in the anal region; tip of nose, sooty-brown, 
which color sometimes extends backwards in a nar- 
row stripe almost to a point midway between the 
eyes. Cranial characters: The skull is much larger 
and heavier than that of A. rufa, and the occipital 
rest is more highly developed ; the zygomatic arches 
are more bowed outward; the nasal bones are 
broadest at or near their anterior ends instead of 
some distance posteriorly; and the ratio of the 
upper molar series of teeth to the basilar length is 
decidedly less than in A. rufa. 

There are several other cranial differences which 
will be discussed at length, together with the ani- 
mal’s affinities with ‘ var. Californicus’ of Peters, in 
a paper soon to be published. 7 

C. Hart MERRIAM. 


International copyright. 


While always an enthusiastic advocate of an in- 
ternational copyright as a matter of abstract justice 
to British authors, I have never been able to satisfy 
myself of the constitutional right of congress to en- 
act a separate bill for the purpose of effecting one. 

The constitution of the United States is a grant of 
power. Among other powers granted by it to con- 
gress is (art. I., sec. 8) that of promoting ‘‘ the prog- 
ress of science and useful arts by securing for limited 
times to authors and inventors the right to their re- 
spective writings and discoveries.” This congress 
has already done. The question now presented is, 
therefore, 

1. Has congress exhausted such powers under the 
constitution, and, if not, has it still power to legislate 
as to the degree of protection accorded authors and 
inventors, by enacting a statute to protect British 
authors, which statute (let it be admitted) will indi- 
rectly increase the profits of the American ‘author 
and inventor’ ? 

This question being disposed of, nothing further 
need be said as to the power ; but a word might be 
added as to the merits of the question. 

2. It is one of the legal necessities of our imperfect 
state that every individual, in selecting his vocation, 
assumes and subjects himself to the risks and dan- 
gers of that vocation ; as, for example, an employee 


SCIENCE. 


219 


of a railroad company, other things being equal, can- 
not recover of the company for injuries received in 
the course of his legitimate employment by it. Now, 
the author, in selecting authorship as a vocation, ac- 
cepts a risk which may, perhaps, be stated categori- 
eally ; viz.,while it is doubtless true that, 1°, an idea 
is property. it is equally true that, 2°, the form of 
words in which an idea is expressed is also property; 
but it is absolutely impossible to protect the idea 
when unclothed in words. The utmost the law can 
do is to protect the expression of the idea. 

Now. the disability—the risk and danger of 
authorship which the author accepts— arises from 
the fact that it is possible to clothe an idea in any 
number of different forms of words. Let us suppose 
that A expresses an idea, absolutely original with 
himself, as follows: ‘The sun gives warmth to the 
earth.’ Let us suppose that B sees this in print, and 
steals it deliberately, putting it thus: ‘The orb of 
day diffuses its heat over our planet.’ It is evident 
enough that uo statute or court can refuse protection 
to either or both Aand B: forno court could try the 
question of priority of the abstract conception, and, 
even if it could, it could not protect that abstract 
conception separated from a statement of it in words ; 
and B’s statement is in words as well as A’s. To ob- 
tain a patent, an oath and a contract are necessary. 
The applicant must first make oath to the originality 
of his invention, and, secondly, make a contract with 
the government ; viz., that, on his part, he will fully 
and frankly state in his specifications the methods 
and processes by which he produces useful results, so 
plainly that anyone understanding the language 
could do the same, and that in exchange for these 
specifications, the government, on its part, will ac- 
cord hima limited protection in the use of them for 
the inventor’s sole profit. But the author of a 
poem, novel, or treatise, makes no oath of originality, 
and enters into no contract. He merely states the 
name and makes profert of his production ; and the 
government takes notice, and shifts the burden of 
proof in his favor; that is to say, provides, that, if 
the author thereafter sue for an infringement, he 
need only plead his copyright, while it is for the de- 
fendant to attack. 

It was this course of reasoning which led me, ten 
years ago (in a treatise on the laws of copyright), 
to say, that, unless there could be devised a law 
against paraphrase and plagiarism, copyright statutes 
were of very little practical importance, since a para- 
phrase of a work was fully as much entitled to copy- 
right as the work itself. Is international legislation 
expedient to protect property so practically publici 
juris ? 

There is another phase of the question which I cer- 
tainly do not care to press, but on which a consensus 
of opinion might be unfavorable to a statute of inter- 
national copyright with England (though not, of 
course, with France, Germany, or other non-English 
speaking nations). 

3. Is there any citizen of the United States, not at 
present a writer of poems, novels, or other literary 
matter, who would become one if there were an in- 
ternational copyright with England? Of course, if 
we can demonstrate that the divine call to write 
poems or novels is at present largely suppressed in 
our people by fears that they will be obliged to pub- 
lish at their own expense, or that publishers will 
only pay them ten per cent ; if it can be proved that 
this nation is suffering, and in extremis, for lack of 


220 


poems, romances. or general reading-matter, — it is 
the right and duty of congress, under the general 
urgency clauses of the constitution, to at once enact 
statutes for the public welfare and relief. 

It has never been denied, I think, that, in times of 
great dearth or stress or suffering, extraordinary 
powers can be construed into that clause, for the gen- 
eral good of the whole people. 

It seems to me, however, that there is no doubt 
possible but that congress would have power to sim- 
ply amend its present copyright act by substituting 
the word ‘person’ for the words ‘citizen of the 
United States,’ which would at once give a perfect 
and absolute international copyright, and the best 
one possible ; since any new and separate act would 
at once be brought before the courts for construc- 
tion, whereas the word ‘person’ could hardly need 
judicial interpretation. This was the plan suggested 
by me in 1875, and I have seen no reason to depart 
from it since. APPLETON MoRGAN. 


A recent ice-storm, 


In answer to the question of Mr. W. M. Davis, 
printed on p. 190 of Science (vii. No. 160), I would 
suggest the following, deduced from observations of 
the effects of many similar storms, though the par- 
ticular storm referred to, of Feb. 11-18, did not 
trouble the trees so much in this neighborhood as 
farther inland and farther north; for the tempera- 
ture near Boston was not quite low enough to form 
much ice at that time. 

Pine-trees make branches nearly at right angles 
with their trunks, and these branches become more 
and more pendant in their habit as they grow older. 
It follows, that, when an old tree is loaded down 
with ice, the branches can bend downward till they 
rest part of their weight on those below, and the 
lowest ones on the ground, without any abrupt bend- 
ing at any one point. Moreover, pine wood, when 
alive, is quite tough, and will bear a good deal of 
distortion without fracture. The same reasons op- 
erate to protect our other coniferous trees of the 
spruce and fir tribes. 

The white-oaks, although peculiar in retaining a 
good deal of their last year’s foliage in winter, and 
carrying thereby a heavy load of ice on such occa- 
sions, have a prodigiously strong fibre, and, when 
alive, the branches possess great toughness. Any- 
ove who has tried to break a small limb from a living 
white-oak tree knows that it 1s nearly impossible. 
The white-oaks of Worcester county, Mass., are 
famed for the hardness and toughness of their wood, 
which is fully twice as strong to resist fracture while 
green as that of the white-oaks of the western states, 
though probably similar to the same kind of oaks 
growing near the same latitude, and as near the sea 
in other states. 

On the other band, the maples, elms, ashes, beeches, 
and many other deciduous trees which abound in the 
district referred to by Mr. Davis, make branches 
that pursue an upward direction, and continue to 
bifurcate, as they grow upward, at small angles 
both with one another and with the parent stem 
or trunk; while their fibre lacks toughness, i.e., is 
easily split in most cases. When these upright 
branches bend downward with the load of ice, the 
mechanical problem is quite different from that ex- 
isting in the pines and spruces: for, as the branches 
of these evergreens become more and more pendant, 


SCIHE NCE. 


[Von VIL, No. 161 


their centres of gravity, after getting below their 
point of origin, as they soon do, approach the trunk, 
and therefore exert less and less leverage the more 
they bend: while in the case of a beech, ash, maple, 
or elm tree, the centres of gravity of the upright 
branches depart from the vertical line of the trunk 
or point of bifurcation, and gain in leverage to effect 
fracture as they bend down, till they pass the hori- 
zontal; and then resistance to splitting is so feeble, 
that they often split at the fork before getting down 
as far as a horizontal position. 

Among ornamental trees are some of peculiarly 
weak fibre which suffer extremely from ice-breakage. 
Such is the Virgilia lutea, of which I have some large 
specimens thus mutilated, though still very beautiful 
trees in June. Epwp. S. PHILBRICK. 

Brookline, Mass., March 1. 


Habits of batrachians. 


I have been unable to obtain information regarding 
the habits of the Amphiumidae of the United States,— 
Cryptobranchus or Menopoma, Amphiuma, Necturus, 
Siren, etc. (hellbenders, mudpuppies, etc.). Can any 
of the readers of Science tell where and when they 
are common, their larval habits, egg-laying habits 
and seasons, etc. ? GEORGE Baovr. 

Yale coll. museum, New Haven, Conn. 


A tornado brood in Hampshire county, Mass. 


I find some additional notes, made at the time, 
from which it appears that the storm resulting in the 
destruction of Northampton bridge, June 14, 1877, 
exhibited at first a whirl in the shape of a huge um- 
brella hanging from the main cloud, the convexity 
upward: its destructive career may therefore be 
interpreted as a tornado. [I find, also, notes of a 
tornado at Westfield, July 9 of the same year. This 
was reported as coming down the gorge of the West- 
field River, and thus confirms my view of the origin 
of the tornadoes I described (Science, Feb. 5) as hav- 
ing their point of departure over the Mill River 
branch-valley. fa gh me So 


‘Marvels of animal life.’ 


In a notice of ‘Marvels of animal life,’ in Science 
of Jan. 1, your reviewer says, ‘‘ It will surprise some 
readers to see man and the Pteranodon represented 
on plate 31 as contemporaneous.” The human figure 
was introduced in the cut merely to give young 
people some idea of the size of the animal, and was 
intended to have no other significance, the omission 
of this explanation in the text being an oversight. 

C. F. HoLper. 
Pasadena, Cal., Feb. 17. 


The competition of convict labor. 


In reading Mr. Langerfeld’s letter in Science of 
Feb. 19, one point occurs to me. He finds fault with 
my arithmetic. Now, I made it clear in one of the 
earlier articles that the competing power of convicts 
was in this country only about sixty per cent of what 
their numerical strength would seem to give them. 
In my letter printed in your issue of ¥eb,. 12, all this 
was taken for granted, as I was unwilling to cumber 
your space with a repetition. 

NicHoLtas Murray Butler. 
New York, Feb, 25. 


SCIENCE.—SuprpLEMENT. 


On the freedom of contract. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1826. 


REGULATION OF CONTRACTS. 

THE present age is fertile in economical problems, 
due, in the main, to the great improvements in 
production and distribution, and to the consequent 
changes in the organization of business enterprise. 
Among the questions that have thus arisen, and 
are now demanding solution, one of the most im- 
portant is that of the regulation of contracts by 
state authority. It is held by some that the mak- 
ing of contracts should be free from legal control, 
and that the state should confine itself to enfor- 
cing the due performance of them after they are 
made. Others maintain that in the present con- 
dition of industry, with immense masses of capital 
concentrated in a single hand, or in a single board 
of control, the interference of the state is some- 
times needed for the protection of the weaker 
party to the contract, or of the general public. 
We have witnessed in recent years an example of 
state interference with contracts on a great scale 
in the Irish land law. This measure not only 
released the tenants from some portion of their 
accumulated debts, after the manner of a bank- 
ruptcy law, but it also provided certain tribunals to 
fix rents for the future. No greater interference 
with freedom of contract has occurred in modern 
times, and the example thus set may have im- 
portant results in the future. We Americans 
have not as yet any land question of this sort to 
deal with; but cases are constantly arising in 
which the question of regulating contracts ap- 
pears, and the consideration of it, therefore, can- 
not begin too early. We bespeak our readers’ 
attention to the accompanying essays and to the 
important subject of which they treat. 


HOW FAR HAVE MODERN IMPROVEMENTS 
IN PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORTATION 
CHANGED THE PRINCIPLE THAT MEN 
SHOULD BE LEFT FREE TO MAKE 
THEIR OWN BARGAINS ¢ 

I. 
THERE has been a time in the history of almost 
every civilized race when a man had a right to 
bargain himself into slavery, if he chose, and 


this right was repeatedly exercised. But such 
bargains were so clearly against public policy that 
they were done away with long before slavery as 
an institution was abolished. 

Where two parties to a transaction do not meet 
on equal terms, free contract may be the surest 
means of destroying freedom. Freedom, as far as 
it exists, is the right to do as one pleases with him- 
self or certain objects: free contract is the right 
to limit that right. There are many instances in 
which more free contract now, means less freedom 
forever after. Self-enslavement was an extreme 
case, and belongs to past history ; but there are 
many others which involve the same principles in 
practical shape to-day. 

For instance: common carriers try to make 
special contracts which shall relieve them from 
common-law responsibility, and put the shipper 
at a disadvantage in various ways. The courts 
refuse to enforce such contracts. The law not 
only assumes that the parties to the contract meant 
a great many things which they never thought of : 
it sometimes insists that they did not mean certain 
things which they actually said and wrote. The 
courts are guided by considerations of public policy 
in interpreting transactions, and enforcing con- 
tracts. A right of every man to make his own 
bargains, apart from and above such considera- 
tions, never has existed, and in a highly organized 
society it is hardly possible to conceive how it ever 
could exist. 

The practical question is, Where shall we draw 
the line? And the point with which we are imme- 
diately concerned is this, Have there been any 
industrial changes which make it seem desirabie 
to draw the line differently to-day from what we 
should have done half a century ago? 

To this question it is safe to answer, Yes. The 
growth of large permanent investments under 
concentrated management has developed a whole 
system of new conditions affecting liability, dis- 
crimination, and pooling. The old laws applied to 
the new facts produce in many cases an effect 
quite contrary to that which was designed: hence 
the demand for new laws, and for new interpreta- 
tions of existing laws. 

The growth of large investments of this kind 
dates from about 1815. Three causes combined to 


222 


favor this growth. The steam-engine gave the 
large establishment its motive power ; the modern 
transportation system widened its market; the 
development of the joint-stock principle gave it 
the chance to secure the requisite capital from a 
number of small investors. Under these circum- 
stances we have seen factories displace home 
industry, and large factories crowd out small ones ; 
we have seen turnpikes give place to local rail- 
roads, and local railroads consolidate into vast 
systems. The factory or the railroad may be 
owned by a large number of stockholders, but it is 
controlled by a small number of managers. Each 
factory or railroad is managed as a unit, against a 
large number of employees on the one hand, or 
a large number of shippers on the other. This 
seriously affects the truth of the assumptions on 
which the system of free contract is based. 

It has been assumed, that, under a system of free 
contract, competition would take care of prices, 
and responsibility would take care of itself. But, 
as a matter of fact, the large concerns have 
managed to lessen their responsibility as their 
power increased ; while competition has become 
so uncertain or spasmodic in its action as not to do 
the work which was expected of it. Each of these 
points requires detailed explanation. 

In the first place, the way in which these masses 
of property are held tends to lessen the responsi- 
bility of the management. 

When a man manages a private business of his 
own, he is personally liable for all the debts which 
may be incurred. When he puts his money into 
the stock of a corporation, he is Jiable only to a 
limited extent. His personal risk is greatly re- 
duced. But this is not all. As corporations grow 
larger and larger, the proportion of the stock- 
holders who can take any active part in the man- 
agement is constantly reduced. The managers 
become a distinct body, — an inside ring, whose 
interests may at times diverge from the true inter- 
ests of the property. This is especially the case 
where most of the capital has actually been fur- 
nished by bondholders, to whom the management 
is not even nominally responsible. Where a man 
is handling property of his own, he may be trusted 
to pursue a more conservative policy : where he is 
handling property of other men, to whom he feels 
little or no direct responsibility, his policy will 
often be speculative in the worst sense of the word. 
While the railroad inflation schemes of 1882 are 
fresh in our minds, there is no need of going into 
detailed illustrations of this fact. 

As long as the chance for making money out of 
such abuses exceeds the chance for holding the 
management responsible, self-interest will furnish 
no cure. And these abuses are clearly fostered by 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VII., No. 161 


unlimited freedom of contract on the part of man- 
agers. The doctrine of ultra viresis a sound though 
somewhat clumsy protest against such freedom. 
The English principle, rigidly forbidding the direct- 
ors to have a personal interest in contracts with 
the corporation, is equally sound. Even the most. 
strenuous advocates of non-interference must rec- 
ognize the necessity of some such restrictions on 
corporate management. 

There are special reasons why it is easy for a large 
concern to evade much of its responsibility to its 
employees. 
an illustration. 

Fifty years ago it was usually not hard to 
place the responsibility, in case of injury, in the 
conduct of any business. The employer worked 
among the men. 
sulted in injury, it was his fault; if he allowed 


the machinery to become grossly defective under 


his own eye, it was his fault. Otherwise the fault 
was with the men to whom the accident occurred. 


To-day all this has changed. The employer no. 


longer works among the men. 
his orders direct. 
see the defects as they arise. If an order results 
in accident, it is easy for the employer to shift 
the responsibility upon a subordinate. 
chinery becomes defective, it is easy to prove that 


He no longer gives 


the employee had the chance to see it when the 
employer was not within a hundred yards of the 


spot. Even when the processes are dangerous, 
and are known to be dangerous, the employer can: 
frequently relieve himself of all responsibility. 


The time when the accident occurs will usually be- 


determined by the negligence of some employee. 
A momentary inadvertence puts a special strain 


upon the already weakened machinery. A catas- 


trophe follows, and a number of men are injured. 
But the employer can show that his machinery 
was no worse than that of other factories ; that it 
was the negligence of some employee that occa- 
sioned the disaster; that the men knew what 
risks they were running, and must take the con- 
sequences. 


This illustrates the danger of unrestricted bar-. 


gain. It is held that the man who accepts employ- 
ment in an industry which has been dangerously 
managed, tacitly bargains to take the consequences. 


The employer is practically relieved from legal 


responsibility. And yet morally he is the responsi- 
ble party. To a far greater degree than the 
employee, he has the knowledge and the power 
which should prevent the disaster. 
ables him to shift his responsibility upon the 
weaker party. It will not do to say that the 
employee takes his own risks. It is not a question 


between employer and employee alone: it is a. 


The matter of accidents will serve as. 


If he gave an order which re-- 


He no longer has the chance to 


If the ma- 


The law en-- 


Ee 


Marcu 5,. 1886. ] 


question in which the whole community7has an 
interest. If a man is morally responsible for the 
injury to another, and we allow him to be relieved 
of legal responsibility, we strain the basis of public 
opinion on which the enforcement of law rests. 
This fact is being gradually recognized. The Eng- 
lish employers’ liability act of 1880 corrects some 
of the worst abuses of the principle of ‘ negli- 
gence of fellow-servant ;’ and a recent decision of 
the supreme court does much the same thing for 
the United States. 

It is not merely against their employees that 
large concerns can relieve themselves of responsi- 
bility. The case of carriers’ contracts has been 
already alluded to. Were it not for the opposition 
of the courts, such a concern could throw responsi- 
bility for damage upon the shipper as easily as upon 
the employee. In spite of all the courts can do, 
the carrier’s position is so much stronger than that 
of the individual shippers, that he can often dic- 
tate his own terms in this respect. 

This brings us face to face with the other 
element in our position,— the fact, that, in the 
every-day dealings between a large concern and its 
individual customers, free competition does not 
and can not readily exist. 

1. As a matter of fact, it does not. The local 
shipper, bargaining -for rates with a railroad, has 
no help from competition to protect him against 
mistakes of the manager. In an indirect way he 
receives some help, because it is against the inter- 
est of the railroad manager to discourage business 
along his route by higher rates than his competi- 
tors offer. But practically this principle is violated 
in thousands of instances, and competition affords 
no relief. Unless the manager makes his rates so 
high everywhere as to tempt a parallel road into 
the field, no amount of individual injustice will 
work its own cure. The local shipper does not 
enjoy free competition. Even if the supply of 
transportation facilities is more than adequate to 
meet the demand, the supply is monopolized, while 
the demand is not. The competition is all one- 
sided. 

It is much the same way with a large factory 
dealing with unorganized employees, especially if 
the employee is so situated that he cannot readily 
change his residence. And it is so, to a far greater 
extent than we are wont to suspect, in the produc- 
tion and sale of ‘manufactured goods. A few 
instances, like the Standard oil company, have 
become notorious, and have withdrawn attention 
from the rest ; but the number of industries where 
a pool or division of the field has been carried out 
is really very large. It is rare that for a weak 
individual, dealing with a strong organization, 
competition exists in any thing but name. 


SCIENCE. 


223 


2. As a matter of theory, competition cannot 
produce the effects which have been expected of 
it. It tends to keep down profits, and limit average 
rates ; but it does not prevent disastrous fluctua- 
tions, or protect the weaker individuals. Rather, it 
harms them by causing discrimination in favor of 
the stronger and more unscrupulous. This is one 
respect in which the industries of to-day differ 
from those of a century ago. The larger the per- 
manent investment, the less good and more harm 
competition can do. What was nearly right for a 
bank or store, is partly wrong for a factory, and 
almost wholly wrong for a railroad. 

The expenses of a railroad (and the same sort of 
reasoning might be applied to a factory) are of 
two kinds,—fixed charges and operating expenses. 
Under the former head we include interest on the 
investment, deterioration, and the various ad- 
ministrative expenses which are involved in the 
conduct of the business as a whole. Under the 
latter head we include train and station service, 
fuel, and the various items of expense involved in 
doing each individual piece of business. Fixed 
charges, as the name implies, vary but little as 
the volume of business increases or diminishes : 
operating expenses are nearly proportional to the 
volume of business. 

In order to attract new capital into the business, 
rates must be high enough to pay not merely 
operating expenses, but fixed charges on both old 
and new capital. But, when capital is once invest- 
ed, it can afford to make rates hardly above the 
level of operating expenses rather than lose a given 
piece of business. This ‘ fighting rate ’ may be only 
one-half or one-third of a rate which would pay 
fixed charges. Pig iron in England in 1873 was 
three times as high as in 1878. Railroad rates, 
on the other hand, have varied as much as this 
within a single year. 

The old theory of competition said, ‘‘Such fluc- 
tuations cannot take place, because new capital 
will come in when rates are above cost, and old 
capital will withdraw when rates are below cost.” 
The trouble with this theory, as applied to modern 
industry, is twofold: 1. Where there is a great 
deal of fixed capital, it can only come in slowly, 
and only withdraw slowly; 2. More important still, 
the rate at which it pays to come in is very much 
higher than the rate at which it pays to go out. 
Cost of service is calculated on two distinct bases, 
one of which includes fixed charges, while the 
other does not. The former may be two or three 
times as high as the latter. The difference is sufti- 
cient to give the chance for a commercial crisis 
or for outrageous discrimination. 

Competition, if it exists at all, must exist either 
everywhere or somewhere. In the former case 


224 


there is nothing to pay fixed charges, and it means 
ruin to the investors. In the latter case the points 
which have no competition are made to pay 
something toward the fixed charges, while the 
others do not. This is discrimination. 

Wholesale discrimination, and wholesale sacrifice 
of interest, are both misfortunes to the community. 
The customers cannot endure the former; the in- 
vestors cannot endure the latter: the community 
cannot afford to tolerate either. In each case 
competition is carried to the point where it en- 
courages the unfittest rather than the fittest. 
Under a system of discrimination, it is the more 
unscrupulous man who gets the low rates. Under 
a system of cut-throat competition, it is the black- 
mailer who reaps the advantage. Capital is in- 
vested, not for the sake of its earning-power, but 
for the sake of speculative manipulation and 
fraudulent contracts. 

Both these points have been to some extent recog- 
nized by the public authorities. The doctrine of 
the ‘reserved police power of the state,’ awkwardly 
as it has been sometimes defined, is part of the 
law of the land, and is unquestionably sound in 
principle. It is clearly recognized under this doc- 
trine that there are many cases where competition 
either does not exist, or, at any rate, does not pro- 
tect against abuses of industrial power, and that 
in such cases the state is justified in interfering. 
Of late, the interferences have been more and 
more directed against cases of discrimination as 
such, rather than extortion. For the protection 
of the investor, less has been actually established ; 
but the events of the last five years have shownso 
clearly the danger of free competition of capital 
in the hands of irresponsible managers, that the 
necessity of some such protection is beginning to 
be quite generally admitted. 

Most of the actual limitation of competition has 
been done without the aid of the law, and to a 
large extent in defiance of the law. A pooling 
contract, or, in fact, almost any combination 
of capitalists or laborers which may have the ef- 
fect of limiting competition, has been placed on 
the same level with a gambling contract. It was 
void from the beginning: the law could not en- 
force it. Whatever may be thought of the desir- 
ableness of such combinations, there can be no 
doubt that this state of the law made them worse 
than they otherwise would have been. A com- 
bination to which the law will not lend its aid, 
almost necessarily pursues a short-sighted policy. 
The worst features of the system of combination 
are intensified. 

That such combinations will exist, whatever 
our laws on the subject, has become quite obvious. 
That unregulated competition sometimes produces 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. VIL, No. 162 


the worst results, is also obvious. Why not allow 
voluntary regulation of such competition within 
certain limits, and hold the combination respon- 
sible for abuses which may arise? An open, 
responsible, perhaps incorporated combination of 
capital or labor is in many respects better to deal 
with than a secret and lawless one. Such pub- 
licity would increase the power of combinations 
for good ; while the chance for evil, whether by a 
‘corner’ or a ‘ boycott,’ would be greatly dimin- 
ished by responsibility. There is a clearly per- 
ceptible movement of public opinion in this direc- 
tion. How far it will carry us remains to be seen. 
In England they have gone much farther than we 
have, and the results seem to be good. On the 
continent they have gone much further than in 
England. As far as concerns railroad policy, it is 
safe to say that the continental states have adopted 
the principle that the only way to prevent the 
abuse of free competition is to recognize combi- 
nation, and hold each combination responsible for 
what it does. 

The successive points may be summed up as 
follows :— 

1. The present century has witnessed a rapid 
concentration of industrial power in a few hands. 

2. Where power has been thus concentrated, 
responsibility has been lessened ; where contract is 
nominally free, the stronger party can shift the 
responsibility upon the weaker. 

3. An individual dealing with a large concern 
cannot rely on free competition to protect him. 
Sometimes it does not exist, and sometimes it 
can not. 

And the practical conclusion is, that it is a 
great deal more important to put the responsibil- 
ity upon the shoulders of the men who have the 
power, than to insist upon a nominal freedom 
which does not correspond to the facts. 

This paper is not intended as a plea for exten- 
sion of government activity. Such extension is 
threatened from every quarter, and it involves the 
most serious dangers, both political and moral. 
To argue in favor of unrestricted freedom of 
contract is simply to court such danger. Allow 
the employer to exempt himself from responsi- 
bility, and you drive the community into a system 
of factory inspection. Allow the railroad to make 
arbitrary differences in its charges, and you fur- 
nish the most powerful argument in favor of 
state railroad ownership. To try to preserve 
freedom by chafing at the restrictions of public 
policy is simply suicidal. 

For a nation to enjoy political liberty, it was 
necessary for its members to resign some of their 
former lawless independence : the alternative was 
despotism. To enjoy industrial liberty, it will be 


Marcu 5, 1886.] 


necessary to resign the claim to industrial law- 
lessness : the alternative is socialism. 
ARTHUR T. HADLEY. 


Il. 


THIS is a question in speculative jurisprudence. 
In old times we never should have thought of 
debating such a question. It is, however, far 
from being a silly question in the times on which 
we have fallen. It brings out, upon the arena of 
debate, the major premise of a number of projects 
and doctrines which are now advocated ; and we 
know that the fallacies lurk most in the assump- 
tions of the major premise. It isalsoa significant 
fact that we are forced to discuss speculative 
questions where speculation has no business, just 
when speculation is condemned in its proper do- 
main, and when the true uses of history are 
ignored by those who want to use history out of 
its sphere. 

Status and contract, regulation and freedom, 
combination and competition, are the jurispruden- 
tial, the constitutional, and the economic facets 
of the same thing. Each couplet is complete in 
-itself, and its parts are entirely complementary, as 
much so as heat and cold. Hence, if we narrow 
the field of contract, we shall extend that of 
status. We shall create new rights derived from 
the new status, either for all citizens or for the 
classes affected (e.g., the poor, debtors, employees, 
tenants), to which there will be no corresponding 
obligations: and we shall correspondingly extend 
the range of torts. We shall in like manner shift 
the adjustment of freedom and regulation now 
existing in our constitutional law, diminishing 
individual responsibility, and increasing collective 
responsibility, in the same degree. 

What, then, are the facts upon which we are 
invited to enter upon such a reconstruction of the 
whole body of jural relations on which our society 
is built ? 

For the last three hundred years the best 
thought and labor of civilized men has been de- 
voted to the effort to produce civil institutions 
which would guarantee to each individual the ex- 
clusive use of all his own powers for the pursuit 
of his own ends; i.e.; happiness, as he understands 
it, and the equality of all before the law. Sucha 
thing as an economically free man cannot exist, 
because our life on earth is held in conditions 
which we can modify only within narrow limits 
at best. The last hundred years, however, have 
seen a growth of our power over the harsh condi- 
tions of life by a development of the arts, which 
we never tire of glorifying. This development of 
the arts has made necessary a new and very wide 


SCIENCE. 


225 


organization of mankind for industrial purposes : 
it has produced a great demand for talent in the 
way of organizing and executive ability, and it 
has given enormous importance to capital (plant. 
tools, and machinery). The new organization is 
necessarily impersonal, automatic, and mechanical. 
The effect of liberty, combined with the new 
development of the arts, has been to surround 
every man in our society with a great range of 
new chances, from the chance of becoming a 
gang-boss to that of becoming a great captain of 
industry. Formerly a man might rise, it is true. 
but the chances of doing so were limited to sol- 
diers, priests, and royal favorites. A century ago, 
of two weavers, one might be a better workman 
than the other. He could profit by his superiority 
only within narrow limits. To-day one might 
remain an operative, and the other become a 
great manufacturer. The modern state has, in 
effect, thrown open the chances of success to all, 
in the faith that thus the maximum of industrial 
power would be developed for all, and that the 
maximum of individual happiness would be at- 
tained for each. 

In large measure the aim of fifty or a hundred 
years ago has been realized ; but when we aim to 
go on and realize it still more completely, by a 
fuller realization of liberty to win, and security to 
have and hold, we are met by a reaction. Weare 
told that liberty does not produce an ideal society, 
and that there are yet thousands of poor, unfortu- 
nate, and unhappy. There are no pure and un- 
alloyed results of this so much boasted progress. 
If liberty has opened chances of wide improve- 
ment and advance for the better and the best, it 
has opened chances of deterioration for the weak 
and unfortunate, equally great and as terrible as 
the others are glorious. If society has offered 
chances and given security to the captains of 
industry, it has only created a new order of 
nobles — plutocrats, in fact ; and the effect of the 
development of talent has only been to bring con- 
trol of the industrial organization into the hands 
of a few powerful men, who can readily combine 
to seek selfish ends, and supplant competition by 
combination. 

Everyone knows that there is some measure of 
truth in all this. It is by no means strange that 
it should be exaggerated and enhanced by the 
partial interpretations and incorrect generaliza- 
tions which are sure to be made under such 
circumstances. How could it be expected that 
the world should go on at the rate of the last cen- 
tury, and that some should not get dizzy and 
frightened at the speed? How could it be expected 
that all should keep their heads cool, and their 
judgment sound, so as to interpret correctly all 


226 


the confused and perplexing phenomena of such a 
period of transition and confusion? We are on 
trial, really, as to whether we can appreciate and 
deserve our inheritance of institutions, rights, 
powers, and opportunities. The great test prob- 
‘lem of our time is whether we can now, after 
overthrowing all the old privileges, hold steadily 
the balance of truth and justice, so as not to create 
new privileged classes in the new rulers of society. 
The impatience and derision with which the most 
sober appeals, and the most justifiable demands to 
know what is meant and whither we are being 
led, are met, is not re-assuring. The _ phrase- 
makers and the sentimentalists seem to have the 
control for the moment. 

It is true that men have attached hopes of easy 
and universal happiness to progress which were 
doomed to disappointment. It is true that the 
new development brings new tasks and new diffi- 
culties. All development will do so to the end of 
time. It is true that the great plutocrats and 
captains of industry have now great power, and 
that, like all others who have ever held power, 
they may abuse it. It does follow, truly, that ap- 
propriate developments of our institutions will be 
called for to meet the new difficulties. The 
proper solution of all such cases must be found as 
they arise one by one. It is a vicious and mis- 
chievous procedure to anticipate them, to speculate 
about them, and to lay down broad principles in 
advance by which to solve them. It is as vicious 
in political science as casuistry is in morals, 

There are three very common assertions in re- 
gard to the effects of modern improvements which 
I hold to be incorrect in fact. 

1. It is often asserted that progress has made 
the poor poorer, and that it has crushed down 
those who are worst off to a position worse than 
that which they formerly occupied. This is an 
historical assertion, and is quite different from the 
other assertion with which it is often connected, 
that our least well-to-do classes are not ideally 
well off. The advance-guard of our society is far 
ahead of any grade of physical well-being which 
men have ever before enjoyed, and the distance 
between our advance-guard and our rear-guard 
is far greater than ever before; but the rear- 
guard is far ahead of any position which the rear- 
guard ever occupied before. From this statement 
the victims of industrial folly or vice must be ex- 
cluded. At no time has any large mass of men 
enjoyed such command of the conditions of ma- 
terial welfare as is now enjoyed by the mass of 
men in the great civilized states. This is the 
only proper measure of social achievements, not 
any ideal. If anyone thinks that this could be 
gained without any alloy of incidental trouble and 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 161 


difficulty, he must have little experience in the 
observation of human affairs. 

2. It is sometimes asserted that the chief result 
of progress is to offer more chances for gambling 
speculation. On the contrary, the result of the 
improvements in production and transportation 
has been to reduce the irrational element in trade 
and industry to rationality. There are nospecula- 
tors in the United States to-day who are any bolder 
than Bingham and the two Morrises, and the mer- 
chants of the commercial war period, and the land 
speculators of old times. It is erroneously asserted 
that the great gains in wages of superintendence 
come from speculation. If that were true, they 
would, like all gambling gains on pure luck, ulti- 
mately average zero. The great gains of the su- 
perintendent, which are popularly called specula- 
tive, come from reducing the irrational element of 
luck to rationality, by investigation of facts, saga- 
city in judging the market, and calculation of 
probable results. 

3. It is asserted that progress has given the cap- 
tains of industry control of the labor market. 
Taking good and bad times together, it is im- 
possible to say who has the control of the labor 
market, employer or employee, because neither 
of them has it. Each needs the other. As the 
times change, the need of one for the other may 
become greater, and one or the other becomes 
stronger in the market accordingly. 

Having thus cleared the ground and got the 
case before us, let us attempt a more specific reply 
to the question proposed. 

1. The great use of history is to verify and rec- 
tify our deductions by a continual reference of 
them to facts of observation; but a further use of 
history and sociology is to train the judgment to 
an instinct or sagacity for the estimate of the con- 
ditions under which, and the limits within which, 
we can take measures for an end which we judge 
expedient. This instinct or sagacity can be ex- 
pressed in certain maxims, but the maxims are in- 
elastic, and fail to carry the very element which 
is most important. The finest example of this is 
the maxim laissez-faire. For purposes of instruc- 
tion, and for those who are not in the way of 
forming the instinct described by independent 
study, the maxim is of the greatest value. In any 
case, and for anybody, the lessons of history take 
form in general habits of thought, points of view, 
and prejudices. Now, if I read history aright, it 
warns us against all such rash and empirical inter- 
ferences with rights, interests, and institutions, as 
are proposed under our question. The cases, if 
let alone, develop their own corrective forces, or 
what we thought a great danger proves to owe 
all its terror to our short-sighted misjudgment. 


Marca 5, 1886.] 


‘Will not the confusion solve itself? Will not our 
interference only intensify the confusion? The 
case which we are discussing stands before us as 
one especially calling for stern common sense. 
The problem has already been made far worse by 
rash and ill-trained speculations about it. False 
notions have been scattered, and impossible hopes 
excited, making ultimately successful and fortu- 
nate solution far more difficult. 

2. If I understand the teachings of history and 
sociology, they show that it is not possible for any 
civil authority to select points at which, or narrow 
lines upon which, it can act upon the social organ- 
ism only once, or only from time to time, and 
thereby impose upon the energies of the people a 
direction toward ends selected by the political 
authority, and diverging somewhat from the ends 
which self-interest would have led the same people 
to choose; self-interest being nothing but the 
rational procedure which leads a man to make up 
his mind what he wants, and to try to get it by 
appropriate means. If a political authority tries 
to do this, its subjects try to save their inter- 
ests, and defeat its purposes, if they can. Hence, 
either the state fails of its purpose, or it has to 
‘constantly extend the scope of its control. I hold 
that an interference with freedom of contract 
would either fail of what is attempted by it, or 
would force a restoration of all that coercive 
power and comprehensive regulation in the state 
which it has been the work of three hundred 
years to break down. The socialists describe com- 
petition as the war of all upon all, —a description 
of it which has neither truth nor sense ; but, if 
the course which [I have just described should be 
taken by a modern democratic state, it would 
realize the tyranny of a majority over the indi- 
vidual,— the true socialistic tyranny, the most 
powerful, far-reaching, cruel, and terrific tyranny 
that could exist amongst men. 

do. Any interference with free contract would 
lower the existing organization of society, be- 
cause it would render insecure those manifold 
relations of rights and interests by which the 
organization of society is kept up. Society, how- 
ever, keeps up its present rate of production only 
by virtue of all the existing organization. If the 
organization should be lowered, the production 
would be lowered. If the relations of landlord 
and tenant, lender and borrower, employer and 
employee, are rendered insecure or indefinite, and 
if a man who enters into those relations may 
jeopardize his property and his rights, or find his 
contracts subject to revision by outside and irre- 
sponsible interference, few persons will venture to 
enter into those relations. Industrial power to-day 
depends upon the subdivisions and combination of 


SCIENCE. 


227 


all these relationships. To destroy or impair them 
would be to lower the efficiency of capital. dimin- 
ish production, impoverish us all, and, finally, either 
lower the population, or reduce a large part of it 
to distress. 

If there is to be any interference with freedom 
of contract, it may be brought to bear either upon 
the making of the contract or on the interpretation 
and solution of it. 

Generally speaking, a man does not want any 
interference with the formation of his contract. 
When two men make a contract, they do it be- 
cause both of them expect to gain by it. One of 
them would therefore be just as much opposed to 
any interference with it as the other. If, however, 
one of the parties felt himself weak in the negoti- 
ation, and desired the intervention of some third 
party in his behalf, it is plain that it would be 
necessary to add some coercion to make the second 
party to the contract consent to go into it at all 
on the imposed terms. The usury law is a case in 
point. It has always been impossible to make it 
work successfully, because there is necessary to its 
successful operation a further stipulation, that any- 
one who has capital shall lend it to anybody who 
wants it at the prescribed rate. So with regard to 
arbitration on wages. If it should attempt to de- 
cide what wages ought to be paid, it would still be 
necessary to enact that the employer must employ 
the employee at those wages. 

4, If the interference is to be exerted on the 
interpretation and solution of contracts, it must 
be general in its terms, and apply to specific antici- 
pated groups of cases. No such legislation can be 
framed which will not be harsh and mischievous 
to agreat degree. The bankruptcy law is already 
a case of it, and no bankruptcy law has ever been 
devised which does not work with great friction 
and great injustice on the special cases to which it 
is applied. The only excuse for a bankruptcy law 
is the otherwise insoluble nature of the case. 

5. I have debated the question as if an inter- 
ference with freedom of contract for adult men 
was possible ; but the argument shows that it is 
not possible. If there are any difficulties already 
clearly defined as consequences of modern im- 
provements, they consist in chances for combina- 
tion. The correct inference is, that what is needed 
is to take measures, if any, to restore free compe- 
tition. What we want is not less of it, but more 
of it. Our welfare lies in maintaining it, and 
warding off interferences with it. If we intro- 
duce any form of interference with it by law or 
by administrative intervention, we shall open the 
door to all sorts of corruption. There is no pos- 
sible rule or principle of interference. Interfer- 
ence has no tests or guaranties. It must necessarily 


228 


degenerate into patronage, favoritism, sycophancy, 
and intrigue. It is only necessary to notice the 
doctrines which are affirmed and the propositions 
which are put forward now, by the advocates of 
interference, to perceive the full extent of this 
- danger. The views and propositions to which we 
are treated contain all possible assumptions as to 
facts, and all conceivable variety of views, whims, 
and fads, about social affairs. Which of these 
schools or tendencies would get the upper hand, 
if our laws and institutions allowed anybody to 
impose his notions on his neighbor’s interest? 
Any system of interference is necessarily arbi- 
trary, and puts terrible power in the hands of the 
administrative authority, whatever it is. The 
value of laissez-faire and free competition is not 
that that system gives any guaranties of ideal 
result, or promises to fulfil any optimistic expec- 
tations, but that it throws out arbitrary action, 
and leaves rights and interests to be adjusted by 
their own collision and struggle, until they find 
their true resultant in the facts and conditions of 
the case. This is said to develop egoism in each 
of the parties to the struggle: but, if history 
teaches any thing, it is, that, under the system of 
interference, the regulator, whoever he is, devel- 
ops his egoism at the expense of both the original 
parties to the struggle. A democratic or socialistic 
committee will surely prove no new device in 
that respect. 

6. If it is true that we are going through a social 
evolution which is about to produce great trans- 
formations in society, especially as regards the 
distribution of political and industrial power, that 
is the strongest possible reason why all the people 
who are ready at once with their notions about 
what this evolution is going to produce, or ought 
to produce, should be most carefully prevented 
from meddling with it; and why, on the other 
hand, the evolution should be allowed to work 
itself out freely, that we may see what it is, or is 
to produce. 

7. I believe that it is a complete mistake to 
interpret the course of things which we see as 
inoving towards more regulation. The one 
supreme characteristic of our time is the thirst 
of the individual for material comfort and lux- 
ury. The socialists themselves bear strongest 
witness to it. The whole motive of their doctrine 
and work is that some people have not succeeded 
in this great pursuit of all. They demand a share, 
or a bigger share, in what? Nothing but the mate- 
rial enjoyments won by modern industry. The 
destructive work which is on foot is all aimed at 
the vested interests which secure some in enjoy- 
ment of goods, although they contribute no present 
work to the productive effort of society. But that 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 162 


very temper which leads to, or allows, that de- 
struction of vested interests, wili support all rights 
which are based on contribution to the productive 
effort. The result will be ‘the survival of the 
fittest’ in its most pitiless form. The contest which 
is often described as between labor and capital 
is really between those who have and those who 
have not. Plenty of laborers are to be found 
amongst those who have. 

8. At the very time when it is proposed that our 
legislatures shall widen their functions, and assume 
more and more of the duties and reponsibilities of 
the old police and bureaucratic despotisms, those 
legislatures are showing themselves less and less 
fit for such functions. While the tasks grow larger 
and more complicated, the legislatures are less fit 
by their membership and organization to deal with 
the tasks, and every indication is that they will 
become still less so. They fail more and more under 
the dominion of plutocrats; and, the wider the 
functions they have, the more will it be possible 
for plutocrats: to attain their ends by legislative 
corruption. Hence greater governmental func- 
tions would simply enhance the greatest evil we 
have to fear. Our legislatures also depart con- 
stantly more and more from the character of great 
councils, deliberating for the public and general 
good, and tend more to the character of assem- 
blies of the representatives of local and industrial 
interests, who are compromising and adjusting 
their conflicting interests, by a method which sim- 
ply consists in combining for their own advantage 
against those who are not on hand to fight their 
battle on the legislative arena. Such, in a higher 
degree, would be the only effect of subjecting more 
interests to legislative control. 

It is one of the fashionable fads to suppose that 
there is in the community an active principle of 
‘distributive justice’ which is available to take 
the place of supply and demand in regulating 
rights and interests. It is sufficient to point to 
political affairs as a test of the force, value, and 
availability of such a sentiment. If a jury cannot 
do justice in a petty criminal case without all the 
apparatus and procedure of the court to instruct 
and guide them, how cana popular and unguided 
sentiment be available to decide the most delicate 
questions of rights and interests ? ; 

There is one direction in which modern progress 
has already developed a need for new institutions 
or the modification of old ones; that is, to con- 
nect with liberty suitable and equivalent guaran- 
ties of responsibility. It may not be going 
beyond the limits of the subject to point out, in 
closing, the line upon which fruitful reform effort 
may be made by those who desire to work for 
reform. W. G. SUMNER. 


, 


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sane < 
5 : Lda ENg v 

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ae br is 
ns : sy: “gs 
SCEEWN C E. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THE ENGLISH JOURNALS contain an abstract of 
an interesting paper read before the Statistical 
society, on Feb. 17, by Dr. W. Ogle, on ‘‘ Suicides 
in England and Wales in relation to age, sex, sea- 
son, and occupation.” The proportion of suicides 
is 72 annually per million persons living. The 
suicide-rate increases rapidly until after middle 
life, but, in the more advanced age periods, again 
diminishes. The maximum rate is in the 55-65 
years period, when it reaches 251 per million. 
The male rate is far higher than the female, with 
the exception of the period between 15 and 20 
years of age, when the female rate is slightly in 
advance. The occupations in which suicide-rates 
are lowest are those which imply rough manual 
labor, carried on mostly out of doors. The occu- 
pations with the highest suicide-rates are those 
which are sedentary, like the learned professions, 
and also such as notoriously lead to intemperance. 
As regards farmers, suicides nearly doubled in the 
two years 1879-80, when agricultural distress was 
most acute; and simultaneously with this rise in 
their suicide-rate there was a corresponding rise 
in their registered bankruptcies. The amount of 
suicides varies with the seasons, forming a regular 
annual curve, of which the minimum is in Decem- 
ber, and the maximum in June. The commonest 
method of suicide is hanging ; then follow in order 
drowning, cutting or stabbing, poisoning, shoot- 
ing. Women, however, select drowning before 
hanging, and poisoning before cutting or stabbing. 
Women take any poison indifferently : men choose 
painless and sure preparations. The choice of 
method is also affected by age, the young showing 
a comparative preference for drowning, poisoning, 
and shooting ; by occupation, men preferring the 
instruments of their trades ; by season, drowning 
being avoided in cold months. 


Mr. W. A. Dun has contributed an article on ‘A 
local weather bureau’ to The present, a monthly 
periodical published in Cincinnati. He contends 
that the signal service needs more observers, more 
Stations, more frequent localized weather fore- 

No. 162. — 1886, 


casts in less ambiguous language, and_ better 
means of diffusing their predictions ; and, further, 
that the predictions as received from Washington 
should be open to amendment by competent ob- 
servers in the various districts of the country, 
who have the advantage of seeing the local con- 
ditions, and being experienced in the peculiarities 
of their region. The suggestions are worthy of 
attention, as they come from a writer in sym- 
pathy with the success of the weather bureau, and 
not from one of the numerous irresponsible and 
ignorant critics of the service. The attempt to 
carry out some such plan as here suggested is to 
be made by the meteorological department of the 
Cincinnati society of natural history, that was or- 
ganized lastautumn. Its progress will be watched 
with interest. 


RESTRICTIONS HAVE RECENTLY been proposed, 
limiting the hours of instruction in philosophy 
for students in the Austrian gymnasia. Most of 
the instruction in psychology, logic, and ethics, 
in German gymnasia, where it is still retained, is 
poor, traditional, and along the old-school ruts of 
Herbartism, as an inspection of the many school 
manuals shows. In the hands of many university 
professors, philosophy is degenerating in Ger- 
many. The historical methods so in vogue a 
decade ago, are still attractive to many students, 
but constantly less so; while the interminable 
changes rung on Kant’s familiar problems have 
well been called the pure survival in modern 
form of scholasticism, till the cry is already heard 
from extreme neologists, that, instead of going 
back to Kant, he must be forgotten, if academic 
philosophy is ever to have a needed regeneration. 
Many students have become so practical that they 
cannot hear the word ‘philosophy’ without a 
grin, so current have become caricatures of its 
nature. The new scientific methods it has as- 
sumed may yield gradual amelioration of this 
state of affairs. ‘Systems’ should be left to decay, 
and metaphysics be seen to belong to science no 
less than to philosophy. One special object or 
result of philosophy is to make men uncertain 
where they once thought they knew. If young 
men are so taught that the great open questions 
whence flow all intellectual interests are closed 


230 


up, they had better know no philosophy at all; 
and those instructors who use their department 
to establish certainties in those matters where the 
most honest and wise men differ, are they who 
have brought it into its present disgrace. The 
same problem is sure, sooner or later, to arise in 
this country. Trustees and other college authori- 
ties are already beginning to ask whether, in the 
competition of many fresher and more vital in- 
terests, our old philosophical chairs cannot be at 
least reconstructed, and be made more practical 
in an ethical way. It is at least certain that 
those who intend to represent this department in 
our colleges in the future, must place themselves 
on far more scientific and ethico-practical foun- 
dation in the preliminary training they give them- 
selves than ever before, whatever philosophic 
convictions they may cherish. One of the saddest 
illustrations of educational over-supply in our 
land at present, is the number of bright and able 
young men, well trained at home and abroad in 
the philosophical discipline from the slowly dis- 
solving stand-point of the theory of knowledge, 
who can find no employment,.on the one hand, 
and, on the other, the number of academic insti- 
tutions now vainly seeking instructors in this 
department, embued with a more practical and 
a more scientific spirit and method. 


LATE NEWS FROM SPAIN conveys definite intelli- 
gence of the recurrence of cholera, a number of 
fatal cases having been reported from Tarifa, in 
the southernmost part of the peninsula. We hear 
but little at present of the probability of the ap- 
pearance of this dread epidemic in the United 
States, yet those who are acquainted with the 
histories of previous invasions need not be re- 
minded that our danger is by no means past. Its 
duration in Europe is not limited to two or three 
years. The epidemic of 1829 was not extinguished 
till 1836, and the one of i847 extended into the 
winter of 1855-56, while that of 1865 did not 
disappear till 1873. Already the disease has 
effected a landing in the western hemisphere, at 
Cayenne; and our immunity, so far, is doubtless 
due to the fact that our largest immigration has 
not been derived from the parts of Europe where 
the disease has been prevalent. In a recent report 
of an inspection of the Atlantic and Gulf quar- 
antines, made under the direction of the Ili- 
nois state board of health, Dr. J. H. Rauch has 
given it as his conviction that the epidemic may 


SCIENCE. 


[ Vou. Yits. No. 142 | 


be effectually excluded from the United States by 
an intelligent use of the agencies still at our com- 
mand. Cholera has never yet been kept out of 
this country after becoming epidemic in Europe, 
but the possibility of excluding it is a subject 
that should properly engage the attention of 
national authority. The control of quarantine 
has hitherto remained entirely under state juris- 
diction ; but in the face of such an epidemic, 
threatening the whole nation, the matter of rigid 
quarantine is not one of local importance, and 
should not be relegated to local authorities. 


The spread of the disease in Spain, dependent, 
as it is now being clearly seen, largely upon a 
lack of proper sanitary measures, furnishes a 
lesson that should not be lost. Of all the large 
towns in Spain, none suffered so severely as 
Granada. The river Genil, which passes through 
this city, has, a few miles above, near its con- 
fluence with the Aguas Blancas, a number of 
large paper-mills situated upon its banks, through 
which a part or all of its waters pass. A large 
part of Granada is dependent upon this river for 
its supply of water, notwithstanding the fact. 
that, when it reaches the city, it is manifestly 
impure from the contamination by the mills. The 
filthy rags used in the manufacture of paper at 
these mills were imported from the province of 
Valencia, where cholera had been prevalent for 
some time; and the first cases at Granada oc- 
curred in the districts supplied by the Genil. 
Possibly there is no connection between these two 
facts. yet it is hard to believe that they do not 
stand in some relation to each other, and further 
evidence seems almost conclusive. After Granada 
had itself become a source of infection, the sewer- 
age discharged into the river carried the disease 
through the province of Granada, and even into 
the province of Cordova. Village after village 
along the banks became successively invaded by 
the dread disease, with the single exception of 
the town of Loja, with its twelve thousand in- 
habitants, where alone the people derived their 
drinking - water supply from different sources, 
The fatal effects resulting from river-poilution 
are apparent, not only from this, but other 
illustrations throughout Spain, and the warning 
conveyed should not go unheeded. 


THAT DREADED SCOURGE of European vineyards, 
the Phylloxera, for which, as well as for the al- 


Marca 12, 1886.] 


most as injurious grapevine mildew, certainly no 
debt of gratitude is owed to North America, not- 
withstanding stringent laws, is widely extending 
the fields of its devastation. A correspondent of 
Nature states that it has already made its appear- 
ance in the vineyards of Cape Colony. Ina few 
places the pest has been found in swarms, and 
efforts are being made to stamp it out, or at least 
hold it in check. Unfortunately the habits of the 
insect are such that it is hardly possible that the 
calamity threatening the grape-growing interests 
there can be wholly averted. 


THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY. 


THE report of the National academy of sciences 
upon the naval observatory demands attention, 
not only from all interested in scientific affairs, 
but from those who desire only to see good ad- 
ministration. In reading the report, the first 
question to present itself to the mind of the candid 
inquirer would be, How does it happen that the 
national observatory of the country has remained 
so long under the direction of superintendents 
who were not astronomers, and whose profession 
has little direct relation to its work? A partial 
answer to this question, from the naval point of 
view, is found in letters addressed to President 
Barnard by the present superintendent, and pub- 
lished as an appendix to the report. In justice to 
Commodore Belknap, we must say that his argu- 
ments bear rather upon the question of the use- 
fulness of the institution to the navy than upon 
that we have just suggested ; but the two are so 
closely related, that, in answering one, he evi- 
dently intends to answer the other. It will there- 
fore be interesting to examine his arguments, and 
note their bearings upon the several points at issue. 

Commodore Belknap cites seven kinds of ser- 
vices which the observatory renders to the navy. 
A very slight consideration will, however, show 
that every one of these services could be rendered 
as well or far better by a national observatory 
under civilian authority; and, indeed, by an 
establishment far more modest in its outfit than 
even the present naval observatory, to say noth- 
ing of the projected new one. The navy-yards 
could get their time from the nearest railway-sta- 
tion with ample accuracy for business purposes. 
Naval ships in port could compare their chronome- 
ters with signals from a national observatory as 
well as the mercantile marine could, and any 
Superiority for naval purposes which might in- 


SCIENCE. 


231 


vest a time-signal tapped over the wires by the 
hand of a commissioned officer might fairly be 
deemed counterbalanced by the skill of a civilian 
astronomer trained in this special business. The 
naval chronometers could be kept, tested, and 
rated at least as thoroughly at a national observa- 
tory as they are at the present naval observatory. 
Indeed, this is actually done at the Greenwich ob- 
servatory, for all the chronometers purchased for 
the British navy. It could be better done at the 
Brooklyn navy-yard, whence most ships take their 
departure, by erecting and equipping a little ob- 
servatory for this purpose at a cost of ten or 
fifteen thousand dollars, thus saving the expense, 
and danger to the rates of chronometers, incurred 
by transporting them back and forth between New 
York and Washington. 

That officers who had never worked in an 
observatory till they went to take charge of one 
would not find their task smooth sailing, is to be 
expected ; but we should never have anticipated 
such a picture of difficulties of administration as 
is held up by Commodore Belknap in one of his 
letters which appears in this report.. It seems that 
Prof. Newcomb, in a letter to President Barnard, 
drew attention to the curious fact, that during the 
first twenty years of the existence of the observa- 
tory, when two instruments, the transit and the 
mural circle, were required to completely deter- 
mine the position of a star, there was no concert 
of action between the observers with these instru- 
ments by which they should observe the same 
stars. Commenting on this subject, Commodore 
Belknap remarks, ‘‘It may be considered as an 
ideal state of things where two men of equal age 
and upon equal footing (with no military ideas of 
subordination) can engage in work upon two in- 
struments, with but one clock and one chrono- 
graph between them, and have every thing go 
smoothly and without jealousy. The abandon- 
ment of the too ambitious programme first laid 
down was a matter of necessity, which it is 
probable no one regretted more than the super- 
intendent.” 

To appreciate this picture, we have to reflect 
that only one of the observers needed a chrono- 
graph, and that the only use either of them had 
to make of the clock was to look at it. Weare 
therefore led to infer, as the outcome of forty 
years’ experience, that under naval discipline it is 
not found possible for two civilian astronomers to 
take their time from the same clock without fric- 
tion and jealousy; that in consequence a well- 


232 


planned but too ambitious programme of work, 
involving a concert of action between two such 
observers, had to be abandoned; and that the 
work of forming a star-catalogue had to be post- 
poned until it could be done with a single instru- 
ment. 

We have no grounds for challenging the ac- 
curacy of this statement. Two opposite conclu- 
sions are, however, drawn from it. The view taken 
by the naval superintendents is, in brief, this: if 
line-officers of the navy, trained from youth in 
the art of managing men and making them work 
together, cannot get two men to work in the same 
room, observe the same stars, and look at the 
same clock, what would be the result of intrust- 
ing such a task to a civilian astronomer untrained 
in naval discipline ? No organization would last 
a week under such a régime. The view of the 
civilian astronomer is, that all the trouble is a 
necessary consequence of placing the work in 
charge of a man who knows nothing about its 
execution. Between these views we leave our 
readers to decide for themselves. 

The commodore alludes to the ‘so-called scien- 
tific men of the country’ who want a national 
observatory, in terms which do not strike us as 
happily chosen. He tells these misguided men 
that ‘the navy will take no_ responsibility’ 
for their observatory, in a tone which evidently 
implies that the threatened absence of this re- 
sponsibility would impress them with a deep 
sense of their rashness. Whether the commo- 
dore’s threat will have this effect is a question for 
future consideration, and we shall dismiss the 
subject with a single remark. It has often been 
said that there is hardly a graduate of the naval 
academy who is not ready, with great alacrity and 
at a moment’s notice, to take charge of the coast 
survey, the fish commission, or any other scien- 
tific work, without any consciousness that he is 
undertaking a more formidable task than stand- 
ing watch on the deck of a ship. We have al- 
ways looked upon this statement as a humorous 
exaggeration; but it is hardly possible to read 
Commodore Belknap’s utterances without a feel- 
ing that the remark may have more truth in it 
than we had supposed. 

THE SWAMPS 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


THE conditions which have determined the oc- 
cupation of land in the United States differ widely 
from those which have controlled the settlement 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No 162 


of most other countries. In other states there 
have been political or geographical limits which 
have greatly restrained the movements of popu- 
lation. In this country there has been, from the 
beginning to the present day, an abundance of 
good, readily subjugable land awaiting the settler. 
It is evident, however, that within this decade we 
pass from this old condition where excellent land 
was to be had for the asking. Before 1890 all 
such fields will have been occupied. There will 
be no more rich frontier lands ready to welcome 
the immigrant: therefore the tide of immigration 
will be turned upon the areas which have been 
passed in the swift westward movement of our 
population. These neglected districts are of great 
extent and very varied nature. They consist, 
in part, of land which is somewhat less fertile 
than the best soils, but which in every other 
respect is fit for tillage. In larger part, how- 
ever, these unoccupied districts, which constitute 
the land-reserves of the United States, afford 
soils which contain the elements required for the 
most profitable crops; but they are rendered in- 
fertile by an excess or a deficiency of water. In 
the arid but irrigable regions, and in the inun- 
dated or swamp lands, we have a very large 
tillable area which may be won to agriculture ; 
and, when so won, these lands will afford re- 
sources of the utmost importance to the people. 

In his report on the lands of the arid region of 
the United States, published in 1879, Major J. W. 
Powell has given an admirable account of those 
districts where the soils suffer from a deficiency 
of water, and in the preface to that report he 
notes the importance of the class of inundated 
lands ; but so far, no detailed studies of the latter 
class of lands have been prepared. Recently, 
however, Major Powell has organized a division 
of the U.S. geological survey, which is charged 
with a careful inquiry into the geological history 
and physical conditions of the swamps and other 
inundated lands of the country. 

A preliminary study of the field has shown 
the remarkable fact, that, owing to the abun- 
dance of cheap land which could be easily won to 
tillage, we have left untouched, in the region east 
of the Mississippi, districts of easily drained 
swamp-lands amounting to more than fifty thou- 
sand square miles of area. These lands have the 
same nature as those which, in England and the 
states of northern Europe, were drained centuries 
ago, and now afford the most fertile fields of those 
countries. The inundated lands of the seaboard 
region of the United States, as well as the lands 
of the lower Mississippi, remain in the state in 
which they were when first seen by men, while 
the similar areas in England were long ago won 


- 


Marcu 12, 1886.] 


to the state of the most fertile fields of that 
country. 

Our American inundated lands are divisible 
into several classes, determined by the condition 
of their origin. Of these, the most important are 
the tide-water marshes, the lacustrine swamps of 
the glaciated district, the delta swamps of the 
Mississippi, and the class of wet lands or upland 
swamps where the marshy condition is due to the 
action of plants in retaining water under the 
surfaces of considerable districts. The formation 
of the sponge-like sphagnum-peat has been well 
described ; but it is evident that a very large part 
of the southern swamps of the United States are 
essentially climbing bogs, though the retention 
of the moisture is due, not, as in the north, to 
the mosses, but to the close-growing, flowering 
plants, principally to the common cane. 

Preliminary studies of the great area of fresh- 
water marshes, extending from the mouth of the 
James River to the south of Albemarle Sound, 
show, that, in that district, this class of marshes 
covers an area of about four thousand square 
miles. Throughout this district the peaty deposit 
is generally thin, not usually exceeding four feet 
in thickness, thus permitting the roots of the trees 
to force their way to the subsoil below the decay- 
ing vegetable matter. 

The surface of the swamp, as well as the sub- 
stratum on which it rests, is generally inclined 
towards the natural drainage of the country to 
the amount of two feet to the mile. The water is 
retained by the dense mat of stems, roots, and 
decaying fragments of plants, which are so closely 
interlaced that the friction in the interstices pre- 
vents the speedy outflow of the rainfall. 

This class of marshes can be easily and cheaply 
drained, and, when so improved, they afford 
exceedingly rich soils. 
of these vast morasses. some hundred thousand 
acres have been won to culture. These lands are 
remarkably fertile; and I am told that they often 
yield fifty bushels of shelled maize to the acre, 
and that they endure tillage for a period of many 
years without fertilizing. 

It seems likely that cf these easily reclaimed 
upland morasses, resembling the Dismal Swamp, 
there is a total area, in the southern states, of not 
less than twenty-five thousand square miles. To 
these might be added the lands which are subject 
to serious inundations from rivers, which prob- 
ably amount to something like eight thousand 
Square miles. 

In the northern states the area of improvable 
Swamp-land is less extensive, but there is not 
a state in which they do not constitute an impor- 
tant part of the land-reserve which the coming 


Along the outer margins: 


SCIENCE. | 233 


generation will be glad to use. It is easy to see, 
that. in these inundated lands of the United 
States. we may find fields which will give a larger 
return to the husbandman than those now tilled 
in any state of the union; and, furthermore, 
that, with the rapid increase in our population, 
it is none too soon for us to be considering the 
aspects of this portion of our domain. It is clear 
that the national survey can, by a proper study of 
these swamp-districts of the country, so deter- 
mine their condition as to prepare the way for the 
engineer. The aim will be to ascertain their 
extent, the conditions determining their value for 
tillage, and the best method of approaching the 
economic questions which they present. Even 
where these swamps may be unprofitable for 
agricultural use, it may often be found that they 
are admirably adapted for timber-culture. The 
juniper (Cupressus thyoides) and the bald cypress 
(Taxodium disticum) are particularly suited to this 
form of forest-culture. 

The scientific aspects of the American swamps, 
their relation to the changes of level of the con- 
tinent, the ways in which their deposits were 
accumulated, cannot be considered in this place. 
My aim at present is to call attention to the great 
economic importance of this field of inquiry. 

N. S. SHALER. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 


Russian Lapland. — Charles Rabot, during the 
past summer, obtained interesting details on the 
Kola peninsula, which lies westward from the 
White Sea and between it and the Arctic Ocean, in 
Russian Lapland. This regionis very little known, 
and large blanks occur in the best charts. The 
country is rather monotonous, covered with forests, 
and dotted with lakes, some of which attain a 
large size. Imandra is a hundred and forty kilo- 
metres broad, surrounded by grand scenery, and 
hemmed in by two mountain-chains, which reach 
about three thousand feet in height, Umbdek, on 
the east, being a little the higher. There are no 
glaciers, but permanent snow exists on the peaks. 
After the Caucasus, this region contains the 
highest elevations of Kuropean Russia, and presents 
a desolate, barren, and impressive aspect. The 
lakes are very shallow: the greatest depth of 
Imandra does not exceed fifteen or eighteen feet, 
from which it shoals to a few inches. It contains 
many wooded islets.. From this lake the explorer 
went to the Arctic shores, and crossed the unex- 
plored region which extends westward from the 
lake. Here, where the maps indicate a flat coun- 
try, he found a rugged region, bristling with 
mountains exceeding three thousand feet in height. 


234 


Between the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean the 
traveller found three series of ranges, separated by 
depressions covered with forests, marshes, and 
lakes. The Russian Lapps were well-made people, 
averaging over five feet in height. The people 
and officials everywhere gave him every assistance. 

Precursors of Columbus. — Prof. Guido Cora 
reviews ‘The precursors of Columbus’ in a late 
number of the bulletin of the Italian geographical 
society. After an interesting résumé, he concludes 
that to Columbus is unquestionably due the open- 
ing of a new world to humanity as represented by 
civilized races; that the name of America is de- 
rived from some aboriginal word picked up by the 
companions of Columbus; that the precursors of 
Columbus, in their voyages toward America, were 
merely in search of wealth or prompted by a 
spirit of adventure, and not instigated by scien- 
tific prevision or the result of study of probabili- 
ties; that it is certain that the Scandinavians, 
Basques, and probably also the Irish, had reached 
American shores before Columbus; while to the 
brothers Zeno are due important charts and docu- 
ments from which the previous discovery of 
America might be inferred. 

Poliakoff’s ‘ Journey in Sakhalin.’ — A transla- 
tion of Poliakoff’s ‘ Journey in Sakhalin in 1881-82° 
has been made by Professor Arzruni, and published 
by Asher & Co. This forms a sort of monograph 
of the products, industries, and people of this 
little-known island, and is well worthy the atten- 
tion of ethnologists and geographers. It contains 
especially rich contributions to the anthropology, 
mineral products, fisheries, and geography. The 
Ainos, who inhabit the southern portion, are ex- 
haustively treated of. As the original documents 
are largely in Russian, this may be said to be for 
most students the first effective publication of the 
material. 

Pilcomayo expedition to Bolivia. —Some news 
has been received from the latest expedition 
of M. Thouar, who is endeavoring to find a trade- 
route, via the Pilcomayo, between Bolivia and the 
Argentine states. He left Assumption Sept. 28, 
with an escort of twenty-eight experienced sol- 
diers, two months’ provisions, and a sufficient 
pumber of horses, mules, etc. A volunteer, Mr. 
Wilfrid Gilbert, accompanied the party. Major 
Feilberg, as mentioned by us at the time, recently 
ascended the river by water, finding a minimum 
of six feet of water in the channel up to Lambara, 
a point two hundred and fifty-five miles from the 
mouth of the Pilcomayo. Here the party was 
arrested by the rapids, over which there were not 
more than two feet of water, rendering navigation 
impossible, and deciding the return of the expedi- 
tion. Since then an Argentine column, com- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 162 


) 


manded by Captain Gomenzorro, has raided the 
borders of the river, killed or routed the peo- 
ple of the Toba tribe, living on its banks, and 
brought back a good deal of plunder and a few 
prisoners. Defeats of this kind, however, have not 
hitherto had much effect on the Tobas, beyond 
causing them to retreat temporarily into their 
jungles. They have avenged, as in the case of 
Crevaux, on other white men, the destruction 
visited on their villages. With this unpromising 
state of things, Thouar’s plan of ascending the 
river by land, with the above-mentioned smal] 
escort, for the purpose of investigating the rapids 
and determining whether any improvement of 
the river at that point is possible, seems almost 
foolhardy ; and it is to be regretted that the coun- 
sel of those who advised an expedition by water 
was not adopted. 


LONDON LETTER. 


THE University of Cambridge has just suffered 
a severe loss by the death of its librarian, Mr. 
Henry Bradshaw, senior fellow of King’s college. 
The present efficiency of the university library is 
almost entirely due to his untiring efforts during 
the many years that he was at its head. His 
bibliographical investigations were remarkable 
for their accuracy, and were carried out witha 
truly scientific precision, while he took a special 
interest in that department of his duties which 
was connected with the literature of systematic 
zoology. Others will follow him in the post of 
university librarian ; but it is not given to many 
men to be so truly mourned as Mr. Bradshaw is 
by the many generations of Cambridge men who 
knew and loved him. The terms of the univer- 
sity statutes require that the post shall be filled 
within a fortnight of its becoming vacant; and it 
is probable that the choice of the electors will fall 
upon Prof. W. Robertson Smith, the editor of the 
‘ Encyclopaedia Britannica,’ who is so well known 
in the subject of Old-Testament criticism. He is 
a fellow of Christ’s college, and lord-almoner’s 
reader in Arabic to the university. 

The school of engineering at Cambridge has 
been making considerable progress of late years 
under the direction of Prof. James Stuart, M. P. 
for Hackney ; and it is now proposed to institute 
a tripos examination in engineering, which should 
be combined to some extent with the natural 
sciences tripos, and would include a very consid- 
erable amount of practical work, together with 
some of the higher branches of mathematics. 

Honor candidates who find a difficulty in math- 
ematics need no longer be troubled with them 
among the ‘additional subjects’ of the previous 


- 


Marca 12, 1886.] 


examination, which are incumbent upon all who 
propose to enter for a tripos, for French and Ger- 
man have been introduced as alternative subjects. 
This will be a great boon tothe classical men, who 
have hitherto been obliged to pass a mathemati- 
cal examination before they could get classical 
honors. In fact, the ‘additional subjects’ of the 
‘Little Go’ are merely a relic of the time when 
candidates for honors in any subject had first of 
all to graduate in mathematics ; and the result of 
this was that many of the best classical men con- 
tented themselves with ordinary degrees. Now, 
however, all this is changed, and their path to 
distinction is much easier than it used to be. 

A movement of the same kind is on foot in the 
University of London also. Ata recent meeting 
of convocation (to which all graduates of a cer- 
tain standing have the right to belong) a com- 
mittee was appointed to consider the desirability 
of the establishment of degrees in engineering. 
The first meeting of this committee is to be held 
to-day. It is within the knowledge of the present 
writer, that many well-established engineers are 
feeling the want of a knowledge of electricity, 
and hence it seems desirable, that, for any degree 
in engineering, a theoretical as well as practical 
acquaintance with electricity should be exacted 
from all candidates. 

Probably the most complete private electric 
installation in the-world is now to be found at 
the house of Sir David Salomons, Bart, at Tun- 
bridge Wells, about thirty miles south-east of 
London. On several occasions lately, he has 
kindly invited parties of leading electricians and 
engineers to inspect it, and most hospitably en- 
tertained them there. The boilers, steam-engines, 
generating-dynamos, etc., are all in duplicate; 
and opening out of the room containing those, is 
a large and very complete series of the E. P. S. 
storage-batteries. Under ordinary circumstances, 
the engine does not run more than six or eight 
hours daily. In asort of annex to the house is a 
magnificent private workshop, with lathes, saws, 
planing-machines, and all sorts of ‘tools.’ The 
whole of these are worked from two or three 
motors, which put in motion the overhead shaft- 
ing. Many thousand pounds must have been 
spent upon this unique installation. 

The discussion upon Prof. D. E. Hughes’s paper, 
upon ‘The self-induction of an electric current 
in relation to the nature and form of its conduc- 
tor,” was concluded last night at the Society of 
telegraph engineers and electricians. During the 
three evenings devoted to it, Lord Rayleigh, Prof. 
George Forbes, Professor Ayrton, Dr. Hopkinson, 
Prof. S. P. Thompson, Dr. Fleming, Mr. Frank 
Pope of New York, Mr. Preece, and many others 


SCIENCE. 


235 


expressed their sense of the very great value, in- 
genuity, and originality, of Professor Hughes’s 
researches, —an opinion which was universally 
re-echoed in conversation among the members 
generally. Great applause greeted the proposal 
with which Dr. Fleming (of the Edison light com- 
pany) closed a very effective speech, to call the 
co-efficient of the unit of self-induction a 
‘Hughes.’ Both Mr. Frank Pope and Mr. Preece, 
as practical telegraphists, pointed out how the 
experimental results now obtained by Professor 
Hughes provided a clear explanation of certain re- 
markable facts observed in telegraphy ; and Mr. 
Preece paid a warm tribute to Professor Hughes’s 
ingenuity by pointing out, that, whereas the 
speaker had had to erect a pair of lines two hun- 
dred and seventy-eight miles in length to com- 
pare the telegraphic speed of iron and copper 
wires, Professor Hughes’s wonderfully ingenious 
and delicate induction-bridge had enabled him to 
predict the same result from experiments upon 
only ten inches of wire. Perhaps the most im- 
portant practical feature in the paper was that 
self-induction in iron wire could be cured by 
stranding the wire ; but all of the results are a 
remarkable illustration of science enriched by 
practice. W. 
London, Feb. 26. 


BOSTON LETTER. 


THE topographical survey of Massachusetts, 
undertaken by the state in conjunction with the 
U. S. geological survey, has now been in progress 
for a year and a half, and about 3,250 square 
miles have been surveyed, or somewhat less than 
half the state. The parts already covered include 
the extreme western border of the state, embra- 
cing our highest elevations; two central sections, 
—one at the Connecticut, and the other around 
Worcester ; the region about Boston ; and almost 
the whole of the area to the south of it, lying to 
the east of Rhode Island, the character of which 
is very different from other parts of the state, 
hardly any parts of it being commanded by ele- 
vated positions. Hence, in surveying this, the 
plane-table has been laid aside, and the whole 
district has been mapped by traverse work; the 
courses of the streams, and the shore-lines of the 
open water spaces, being worked in by a winter 
party taking advantage of the ice. There is also 
a little completed patch in the extreme north- 
eastern corner of the state. 

According to an estimate made by the commis- 
sioners of the survey, the cost of the work the 
past season has varied from about eight to nine- 
teen dollars per square mile, and an average of a 


236 


little over ten dollars. By request of the com- 
mission, the U. S. coast survey has also aided the 
work by extending its triangulation over about 
nine hundred square miles during the past season, 
at a cost of a little less than two dollars a square 
mile, about a fourth of which has been borne by 
the state. 

A year ago the state appropriated nine thousand 
dollars to enable the commissioners to take ad- 
vantage of the progress of the present survey to 
determine by triangulation the boundary-lines of 
all the towns of the commonwealth. A com- 
mencement of the work was made the past sea- 
son, only to discover that the estimate of the 
expense, based on the irregularities shown in 
the boundary outlines as given in the old state 
map, —the only possible basis for a calculation, — 
was far too little; probably at least double the 
original estimate will be required. As less than 
twenty-five hundred dollars have been expended, 
the abandonment of the scheme would be no 
severe financial loss ; but the commissioners right- 
ly urge its continuance under a doubled appro- 
priation, as, when completed, it will form the 
best basis for a cadastral or property survey yet 
provided by any state in the country. This is 
only one of a number of ways in which our 
legislators are beginning to learn what it costs 
not to have a good state map, and there can be 
little doubt that they will be witty enough to 
carry the intended boundaries survey to com- 
pletion. 

Among the numerous partly executed plans for 
the improvement of Boston, its schemes of public 
parks hold a prominent place. The recent death 
of Hon. Elizur Wright has called attention anew 
to his proposal to establish a forest-preserve with- 
in easy reach of Boston, in the wild and little- 
inhabited region known as the Middlesex Fells, — 
a region belonging to some half-dozen munici- 
palities, and situated on the Charlestown or 
northern side of Boston, not half a dozen miles 
from the city. On the opposite side, progress is 
making in the Arnold arboretum, which now 
forms part of the Boston park system, where 
definite plans, long maturing, are being put into 
execution. It is proposed to form two distinct 
collections of growing trees,— one for display ; 
and one, less permanent, for investigation and 
experiment. The plan of the former contem- 
plates, among other things, that each hardy-tree 
species of eastern America shall be represented by 
an individual planted so as to secure the maxi- 
mum growth attainable here, and also by a group 
of from six to twenty-five individuals selected 
to show variations of character and habit, and 
planted so as to secure expression in mass rather 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 162 


than perfect individual development. The rep- 
resentation of no species will therefore depend 
on the life of one tree, and the natural behavior 
of our principal trees will also be illustrated. 

The Appalachian Mountain club celebrated its 
decennial anniversary last Friday by a dinner at 
the Parker House; Prof. E. C. Pickering, whom 
every one recognizes as the founder of the club, 
presiding. As a first experiment of the kind, it 
proved a great success. About one hundred and 
twenty-five members were present, about equally 
divided between ladies and gentlemen, and sat to 
a late hour. After dinner, speeches were made 
by Profs. W. H. Brewer of New Haven and C. A. 
Young of Princeton, and by many of the home 
members, with letters from those who could not 
be present. The club may well be proud of what 
it has accomplished, having succeeded in obtain- 
ing a paying membership of considerably over 
six hundred in these ten years, and in publishing 
more than three volumes of Appalachia,—a 
journal which, with its two sides of mountain 
exploration and geographical science, holds a 
somewhat unique and enviable place in literature. 
A new number is announced to appear imme- 
diately. 

It is announced that the liberality and co- 
operation of the Woman’s education association 
will enable the Boston society of natural history 
to open its seaside laboratory at Annisquam to 
students, during the coming summer, from June 
15 to Aug. 15, 1886. Mr. B. H. Van Vleck, an 
assistant in the laboratory of the society, will have 
charge of the instruction. % 

Boston, March 8, 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE danger of poisoning from arsenic in wall- 
papers is a subject attracting considerable atten- 
tion in Boston. At a public meeting the past 
week, called for its consideration, a draught of a bill 
was submitted, prohibiting the manufacture and 
sale of such papers when they contain more than 
one-fourteenth of a grain of arsenic to the square 
yard. A number of cases of illness from this cause 
were reported, as also the death of one child from 
the wearing of stockings colored by arsenic. 


—A resolution has been introduced in the 
senate, empowering the superintendent of ‘the 
Coast and geodetic survey to loan any instrument 
or instruments named in a list to any college or 
incorporated institution of learning in the United 
States, to be retained by such college or institution 
until the dissolution thereof, whereupon such in-: 
strument or instruments shall, if existing, be re- 
turned to said survey. 


Marca 12, 1886. ] 


—The house committee on agriculture has re- 
ported favorably a bill to establish agricultural 
experiment-stations in connection with the colleges 
in the several states. The object and duty of these 
stations are to conduct original researches or verify 
experiments on the physiology of plants and ani- 
mals ; the chemical composition of useful plants ; 
analysis of soils and water ; the composition and 
digestibility of different kinds of food for domestic 
animals; the scientific and economic questions 
involved in the production of butter and cheese, 
etc. The appropriation sought is $15,000 a year 
for each state, or $570,000 in all. Similar experi- 
mental stations have been conducted in Europe 
with great success for the last thirty years, and at 
the end of 1884 there were one hundred and forty- 
eight in existence there. There are now nine 
stations in this country. 


—It has been decided to abandon the govern- 
mental tea-farms recently established, as they have 
not been productive of good results. 


— The Prince of Monaco, it is reported, pro- 
poses the attempt to ascertain the course of the 
Gulf Stream by means of submerged floats, which 
will not be subjected to the influence of the winds. 
It is also said that the co-operation of the British 
authorities has been asked in the scheme. 


—A recent London telegram announces that 
Mount Etna is in~a state of eruption. It is 
supposed that lava is issuing from the crater, 
but the dense mist prevents observations. Slight 
shocks of earthquakes have been felt in the imme- 
diate vicinity, and stones and cinders are continu- 
ally being thrown out. 


— Active steps are being taken for the founding 
of a Hebrew university in New York City. It is 
proposed to make it a thoroughly orthodox secta- 
rian institution, chiefly with the object of educat- 
ing young men for the ministry. In addition to 
voluntary subscriptions, it has been proposed to 
rely upon a tax on the different Jewish congre- 
gations. 


— Prof. A. C. Merriam of Columbia college, 
whose editions of Herodotus and the Odyssey, 
and more particularly his investigations in Greek 
archeology, have gained him a foremost place 
among the classical scholars of this country, has 
been elected director of the American school at 
Athens, for the year 1887-88. While in Greece, 
Professor Merriam will pay particular attention to 
archeology, especially Cyprian. 


—The cost of small-pox to Tennessee is esti- 
mated by the State board of health to have been 
nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
during the past five years. 


SCIENCE. 


237 


— Russian papers have lately been discussing 
the project of a canal between the Sea of Azov 
and the Caspian Sea, with speculations upon the 
probable effects of the higher water-level of the 
former. The shores of the Caspian Sea are low, 
and there is a question whether or not they would 
be inundated. 


— An article by G. L. Kittredge in a late num- 
ber of the American journal of philology describes 
a singular custom among the Greeks. An ancient 
Greek, if he murdered a man, sometimes mutilated 
his victim in a peculiar way, known as pac yarilen, 
or arm-pitting. The extremities of the hands 
were cut off, strung together, and fastened under 
the arm-pits of the corpse by a band or girdle 
round the neck. There are two main theories as 
to the purpose. According to the one, the wac- 
yarigew was a part of the ddociwoc. The cut-off 
extremities were the azapy7 of the victim, a sin- 
offering to the infernal gods to expiate the mur- 
der. According to the other, the mutilation of the 
body was supposed to effect a corresponding mu- 
tilation of the soul; so that the shade, deprived of 
its limbs, would be powerless to take vengeance 
on the criminal. It is the latter view that the 
writer advocates, formed on the basis of a close 
examination of the loci classici, and next by a 
long array of evidence from the history of culture. 


— An extract from a letter recently received at 
the hydrographic office from the master of the 
Russian bark Preciosa, at New Orleans, states, 
that ‘‘on the 26th of January, at six A.M., the 
vessel being in latitude 17° 04’ north, longitude 
69° 07’ west, running with all sails set, steering 
west, speed ten knots, wind fresh, north-east, I 
felt what I considered to be a strong earthshock. 
It threw the vessel over a good deal, and at the 
same time we shipped a heavy sea, although the 
vessel was in ballast, and the water had been 
smooth all the morning. It only lasted for a few 
seconds, and, directly after, the wind went to the 
south-east, and died away; afterwards it was 
nearly calm for the three following days.” 


—We would call the attention of amateur 
astronomers to a very convenient collection of 
ephemerides, etc., contained in the ‘companion’ 
to The observatory, for 1886. Positions for the 
sun, moon, and major planets, are given at suit- 
able epochs, with ephemerides for the satellites of 
the planets, and in many cases for physical obser- 
vations. There are also lists of double and varia- 
ble stars, test objects, remarkable nebulae and 
clusters, etc.. all made easily accessible and in- 
telligible. 


— The Transactions of the seismological society 


238 


of Japan, vol. viii. 1885, contains a long paper 
by Professor Milne, in which he has collected a 
detailed description of ten series of experiments 
carried on at different times from 1881 to 1884, for 
the purpose of investigating phenomena connected 
with earth vibrations. The experiments were all 
performed in or near the city of Tokio, and con- 
sisted in originating artificial earth vibrations, 
usually by dropping a heavy weight or by ex- 
ploding dynamite, and then studying the circum- 
stances of their propagation by means of the 
various selsmographs which have been devised 
by himself or his co-workers in Japanese seis- 
mometry. It appears that the first effect upon a 
seismograph with a single index is an impulse in 
a normal direction ; and, similarly, a bracket seis- 
mograph arranged to indicate normal motion be- 
gins its indications before a similar seismograph 
indicating transverse motion, implying that the 
normal wave travels more rapidly than the trans- 
verse. Near to an origin, the normal motion is first 
outwards, then inwards, and the motion inwards 
is greater and more rapid than the motion out- 
wards ; while, at a distance from an origin, the 
first motion may be inwards, and the two phases 
are practically of equal amplitude. Roughly speak- 
ing, the amplitude of normal motion is inversely 
as the distance from the origin. The laws of 
transverse motion are practically the same with 
those of normal motion, but less pronounced. 
Near to an origin, the amplitude of the transverse 
motion is less, but the period greater, than that of 
the normal motion. The velocity of transmission 
obtained varies from two hundred to six hundred 
feet, which is much less than the velocities ob- 
tained by Mallet and by Abbott. 


— Uhler’s check-list of the Hemiptera heter- 
optera, or true bugs, of North America, recently 
published, contains 1,448 species, distributed among 
425 genera, or an average of 3.6 species to each 
genus. Classification here, as in some other 
branches of entomology, appears to have been 
carried too far, though doubtless many more 
species yet remain to be discovered. 


— Drs. D. E. Salmon and T. B. Smith have just 
published (Proc. biol. soc. of Washington, vol. iii.) 
a remarkable discovery, made by them, of a new 
method of producing immunity from contagious 
diseases. By experimenting upon pigeons, they 
were able to establish an immunity from the dis- 
ease known as swine-plague, by the inoculation of 
solutions in which the pathogenic bacteria had 
been cultivated, and afterwards destroyed by heat. 
The conclusions they reach are as follows: 1°. 
Immunity is the result of the exposure of the 
bioplasm of the animal body to the chemical 


SCIENCE. 


{[Voxr. VII., No. 162 


products of the growth of the specific microbes 
which constitute the virus of contagious fevers ; 
2°. These particular chemical products are pro- 
duced by the growth of the microbes in suitable 
culture-liquids in the laboratory, as well as in the 
liquids and tissues of the body; 3°. Immunity 
may be produced by introducing into the animal 
body such chemical products as have been pro- 
duced in the laboratory. 


— Professor Davidson, in a paper on the temper- 
ature of the water of Golden Gate, in Bulletin No. 
4 of the California academy of sciences, states, 
that, from a mean of nearly ten years’ observa- 
tions, the lowest temperature is for the month of 
January, 50°.49 F.; and the highest for the month 
of September, 59°.68 F. The average range is 
thus only nine degrees, and the extreme range has 
only been thirteen degrees. The temperature of 
the air follows closely that of the water ; and it is 
the uniformity of the latter’s temperature along 
the Pacific coast, and its coldness, which con- 
spire with the north-west winds of summer to 
cause the peculiar foggy conditions which prevail. 


— In the Proceedings of the Linnean society of 
New South Wales, Dr. Lendenfeld reports upon 
a sponge destructive to oyster-culture. Large 
areas of oyster-beds in the Clarence River were 
destroyed by their attaching themselves to the 
shells, preventing the formation of spat. With 
the destruction of the beds the sponge disappeared. 
The latter he describes under the name Chalinula 
Coxii. 

— Examination of the cheese, which some time 
ago caused the sudden and severe illness of several 
hundred persons in Michigan, has shown the 
poisonous character to be due to a peculiar crystal- 
lizable substance, or ptomaine, of an intensely 
cheesy odor, to which the discoverer, Dr. V. C. 
Vaughan, has given the name of ‘ Tyrotoxicon’ 
(Zeitschr. f. physiol. chemie, x. 146, 1886). 


—Dr. Ten Kate, the anthropologist, has been 
pursuing his investigations in Dutch and British 
Guiana, and intends to extend them into Vene- 
zuela and Florida, chiefly with reference to the 
Carib Indians. He has already measured, in a 
very detailed manner, one hundred and six in- 
dividuals of the Arrowak and other tribes, wood 
negroes and métis. 


— Major Powell has submitted to the commis- 
sion investigating the question of the proposed 
consolidation of the various scientific bureaus his 
reply to the recent strictures of Professor Agassiz 
upon the work of the geological survey. The let- 
ters have not yet been made public, and are to be 
printed in connection with the testimony taken 


Marcu 12, 1886.] 


before the committee now investigating the sub- 
ject. 


— The Abbe Laflamme. of the University Laval 
at Quebec, has lately read an essay on the physi- 
cal geography of the Saguenay, before the society 
of geography in that city. He first describes the 
actual geographic form of the district, and then 
discusses its geological history, even from Ar- 
chaean times, with special reference to the forma- 
tion of the old limestones that lie in basins on the 
crystalline rocks as an early chapter, and to the 
glacial invasion as a later one. The present dis- 
charge of Lake St. John is recognized as post- 
glacial; the old outlet being more or less ob- 
structed by drift, and in part occupied by Lake 
Kenogami. The deep gorge of the lower Sag- 
uenay is attributed to ordinary erosive action 
through long geological periods; and the canon 
of the Colorado is called recent in comparison 
with it. 

— The programme for the first half of the course 
of weekly lectures at the national museum is as 
follows: Saturday, March6, Mr. William Hallock, 
The geysers of the Yellowstone; Friday, March 
12. Prof. William Harkness, How the solar system 
is measured; Saturday, March 20, Prof. T. C. 
Mendenhall, The nature of sound: Saturday, 
March 27, Prof. F. W. Clarke, The chemistry of 
coal; Saturday, April 3, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 
The migration of birds. 


— The bill now before congress, providing that 
from and after March 4, 1892, the metric system 
shall be exclusively employed in the several de- 
partments of the government, was favored by the 
Boston society of civil engineers, at their meeting 
the past week. 


— An account of a singular habit in the cicada 
is related and illustrated by J. S. Newberry 
in the School of mines quarterly. In Rahway, 
N.J., a house had been built and a cellar dug in 
an orchard some time before the appearance of a 
brood of cicadas. The unused cellar was opened 
about the time of their advent, and the bottom 
was found to be thickly set with mud-cones or 
tubes from six to eight inches high and an inch 
or more in diameter, each of which had been 
formed by the pupa of a cicada that had emerged 
from the earth beneath the cellar. Finding a dark 
chamber, and apparently desiring to work up to 
daylight, the cicadas had taken the moist clay 
and of this formed pellets, with which the tubes 
were built up, apparently with the purpose of 
bridging over the vacancy, and thus reaching the 
surface. The tops of all were closed; but, on 
breaking some of them, the pupae were seen, both 
in the hole in the ground and in the cone. After 


SCIENCE. 239 


the cellar was opened, and light admitted, they 
stopped building, and made holes in the tops of the 
cones for exit. The author further remarks that 
in these facts there is evidence of the exercise of 
intelligence in the cicada, and a judicious adapta- 
tion of means to an end in circumstances that, it 
would seem, must have been without precedent in 
the experience of that or any preceding generation, 
and therefore for which no education of ancestors 
could have given a preparation. It is possible 
that the pupa of the cicada is sometimes embar- 
rassed, in its ascent to the surface by water, by 
too wet or too dry sand or mud; but it is hardly 
possible to imagine circumstances where the con- 
struction of a tunnel would be necessary. There 
seems to be no adequate explanation of the phe- 
nomena that will bring them within the scope of 
the theory according to which all our organs and 
faculties are the result of formative influences 
progressively developed through a long line of 
ancestors. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


atx Corresyondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Bishop’s ring during solar eclipses. 

THE persistent visibility of Bishop’s ring —the 
dusky reddish ring around the sun — gives interest 
to the following extract from Langley’s ‘ Report on 
the Mount Whitney expedition,’ which recounts ob- 
servations made at his camp, at an elevation of about 
twelve thousand feet, on Aug. 19, 1881. ‘‘ The sky 
to-day, as always, is of the most deep violet-blue, 
such as we never, under any circumstances, see 
near the sea-level. . . . Carrying a screen in the 
hand between the eye and the sun, till the eye is 
shaded from the direct rays, it can foilow this blue 
up to the edge of the solar disk without finding in it 
any loss of the deep violet or any milkiness as it 
approaches the limb. . . . It had been part of my 
object to make an effort to see the solar corona by 
directly cutting off the sun’s light by a very distant 
cliff. . . . On the south of the camp was a range 
of cliffs running nearly east and west, and whose 
perpendicular wall rose from one thousand to two 
thousand feet. I found that I could choose a position 
on the north of the cliff, along whose edge the sun 
was moving horizontally ; so that the shadow was 
fixed as regards the observer, and so sharp, that, 
though I must have been over a quarter of a mile 
from the portion of the cliff casting it, I could, with- 
out moving my place, and by only a slight motion of 
the head, put the eye in or out of view of the sun’s 
north limb. The rocks were, in these circumstances, 
lined with a brilliant silver edge, due to diffraction. 
This I had anticipated, but now I saw, what could 
not be seen by screening the sun with a near object, 
that the sky really did not maintain the same violet- 
blue up to the sun, but that a fine coma was seen 
about it of about 4° diameter, nearly uniform, 
though it was sensibly brighter through the diameter 
of 14°. Upon bringing to bear upon it an excellent 
portable telescope, magnifying about thirty times, I 
found it was composed of motes in the sunbeam, be- 


240 


tween the diffracting edge and the observer’s eye” 
(Signal service, professional paper, xv. p. 41). 

So explicit a description as this from a well- 
practised observer confirms the testimony of Euro- 
pean specialists in sky colors, and leaves no question 
whatever that Bishop's ring did not then encircle the 
sun. And yet, in the summer of 1884, it was so 
strongly colored as to attract attention from the 
guides in the Alps, and to call for special description 
from more scientific mountain climbers. It was gen- 
erally visible on clear days in the winter of 1884 - 
85, and on many favorable occasions through the 
following summer. During this winter, it has seemed 
to me to be generally less distinct than a year ago; 
but the most brilliant display that I ever recorded 
was shortly after noon on the 2d of last November, 
when the sun was hidden by a rather heavy sheet 
of cirro-stratus cloud, while the western sky was clear. 
The glaring and brassy central area was then en- 
closed by a ring of strong reddish-gold color, fifteen 
to twenty degrees from the sun; next came the deli- 
cate rosy or purplish pink, and at last the ordinary 
blue of the sky. The colors were wonderfully vivid. 

Many if not most observers of the ring attribute it 
to diffraction on particles of some sort derived from 
the eruption of Krakatoa ; and, while this hypothesis 
has much to recommend it, it cannot be denied that 
the continued visibility of the ring puts a severe 
strain on it. It is not to be wondered at that the 
cosmic origin of the colors has its advocates, and 
hence a method of determining the altitude at which 
the diffracting particles float is of especial value. 

Dr. Zenker of Berlin has a pertinent article on the 
question in a recent number of the Meteorologische 
zeitschrift (Berlin, ii. 1885, 400-406), in which he 
discusses the effect that the altitude of the diffract- 
ing layer of dust will have on the visibility of the 
ring during total solar eclipses. And as a total solar 
eclipse, visible in South America and on the Lesser 
Antilles, will occur about half-past seven in the 
morning of the 29th of next August, we would re- 
quest especial attention to this matter from astrono- 
mers who may go down to observe it. Dr. Zenker 
gives directions for observations on or near the cen- 
tral line of the moon’s shadow, and shows how they 
may lead to the desired determination: for it is 
evident, that. if the diffracting dust were all within 
a few miles of the earth’s surface, the colors of the 
ring would fade away in a few seconds after the dis- 
appearance of the sun ; while, if the dust lie far out- 
side of the atmosphere, some portion of the ring 
might remain visible during the whole eclipse. This 
question will deserve a share of the watchfulness 
generally given to the solar corona and infra-mercu- 
rial planets. W,, M. Di 


A trap-door spider at work. 


A trap door spider, Cteniza Californica, which 
came from California in September, was put in a 
box with earth, and soon made a nest with a perfect 
door. She was found one morning occupying a hole 
three-quarters of an inch in diameter and deep 
enough to completely hide her, around which the 
ground had been cleared and smoothed, so that it 
was somewhat lower than the general level. Un- 
fortunately, as this part of the work was done during 
the night, she accomplished it unobserved. She 
probably cleared the ground, however, as she had 
done on a former occasion, when she was seen to 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 162 


walk slowly sideways, with all the feet on one side 
held together, turning slightly at the same time, and 
sweeping all rubbish and coarser bits of earth before 
her. In digging the hole, she threw the earth toa 
distance, as was shown by numerous little irregular 
lumps of earth scattered over some moss at the 
farther side of the box. Later the spider was seen 
to dispose of more in the same manner, but it was 
done so quickly that the exact motion could not be- 
distinguished. 

During the day she busied herself in the burrow, 
apparently treading against the sides, in order to 
make a compact wall. At night she rested, and 
nothing more was done until the following evening, 
when she commenced to build a straight ridge or rim 
of earth at one side of the hole. She brought up as 
much earth as could be carried under the mandibles, 
and placed it on top of this rim. When it had been 
secured by several strokes of the fangs, the spider 
turned, and rubbed the spinnerets over the spot, and 
afterwards all along the edge. The spinnerets were 
applied directly to the surface, and were used not 
only to produce the silk, but also to smooth and 
model the edge. 

This process was repeated until the rim was about 
a quarter of an inch in height, when the spider left 
it, and commenced a similar one on the opposite edge 
of the hole. Here she worked, as before, until she 
had made a ridge about half as high as the other, 
when she returned to the first, and during the next 
hour added to them both alternately. At the end of 
that time, she brought up the first load of earth 
which was not used in building, and deposited it as 
far away as she could reach, without leaving the 
burrow. As she withdrew, she turned, and attached 
a line of web to the edge of the second rim, by which 
it was pulled over the opening after she had dis- 
appeared from sight. Henceforth it was necessary 
to lift and turn back this rim (or flap, as it might 
now be called, to distinguish it from the true door) 
whenever she came up, unless, as sometimes hap- 
pened, she had neglected to pull it down. 

In the mean time, the first rim, which was to be- 
come the true door, had been gradually enlarged ; 
but another hour elapsed before any attempt was 
made to pull it down. The spider then fastened a 
line to the upper edge, by which, after a long and 
steady pull from helow, the structure was dragged 
over the opening, which it only half covered. It was 
immediately raised, and carefully re-adjusted in an 
upright position. After another half-hour, devoted 
to adding more earth to the two rims alternately, the 
first was again drawn down; but, being still too 
small, it was once more returned to the old position, 
and the work of enlargement continued. As nothing 
but persistence in this course seemed necessary to 
complete the door, the spider was allowed to work 
the rest of the night without supervision. 

In the morning the spider had vanished, The en- 
trance of the nest was closed, and the depression 
around it filled, so that its position was perfectly eon- 
cealed. Naturally, it was supposed that the door was 
finished; but the next night proved this conclusion to 
be erroneous. When the spider was visited at three 
A.M., the door covered only three-quarters of the 
opening, and she was still employed in adding earth 
to the edge. During the day the entrance had evi- 
dently been closed by the true door and the flap, used 
together as a double or folding door, one side being 
much larger than the other. The flap, no longer 


Marcu 12, 1886.] 


needed as a cover, was now turned back and pushed 
away, the opening thereby being considerably en- 
larged. More earth was subsequently placed over 
and around it, until it was completely hidden, and 
rendered useless. Before morning the true door had 
attained the necessary size, and the lining had been 
added to it; but the lining of the burrow was not en- 
tirely completed until some days later. 

A piece cut from this door showed it to be a layer 
of earth with a single lining; while an old nest which 
came with the spider,and which she presumably made, 
was provided with a door having nine linings, each of 
the eight lower ones enclosing a rim of earth, by 
which the door had been enlarged. 

Mary T. PALMER. 


The destruction of birds. 


™ In view of what has already been said regarding 
the manifold ways in which our wild birds are being 
effectually diminished, something more should be 
added in reference to a practice which has long pre- 
vailed in the southern tier of states, including Mary- 
land. I refer tothe systematic shooting of thousands 
of song-birds in spring and fall to satisfy a market 
demand. In the city of Baltimore alone the destruc- 
tion of robins forms a periodic business of no little 
profit or extent. A visit to any of the large markets 
at the seasons specified, where they are a constant 
feature of the game-stalls, will verify this statement. 
Rice-birds (bobolinks, as we know them farther 
north), golden-winged woodpeckers, red-winged star- 
lings, and cedar-birds (the last chiefly in winter) 
share a like fate. 

Our complaint is directed against the destruction, 
for purposes of food, of one and all these species, 
but especially the robin. It may be legitimate to de- 
stroy the rice-bird and starling at the time and place 
of their devastation, but this does not sanction their 
slaughter in districts where rice does not grow, and 
the species are beneficial to crops. If practical or- 
nithologists are not wholly in the wrong, it is neither 
wise nor legitimate to destroy the robin under any 
circumstances. The robin nests familiarly in and 
about gardens and orchards in large numbers when 
unmolested, rearing two and sometimes three broods, 
of four or five young each, in the season ; and although 
he makes raids oftentimes into the strawberries, 
cherries, and other small fruits, it is a cheap toll for 
the incalculable services which he has previously 
rendered. Instead, however, of being protected by 
laws generally prevalent, they are but partially pro- 
tected during their breeding-season in the north, to be 
killed on the spring and fall migrations. 

Notwithstanding the great productiveness of a spe- 
cies, its numbers must be very materially diminished 
by the thousands, and probably tens of thousands, 
annually shot down for the market. It should also 
be remembered that the destruction of these birds in 
spring is particularly fatal, since with each pair thus 
killed we kill the possible young of the same year. 

The human and brute enemies of the birds have 
been amply aJluded to, but I have seen no reference 
to the trade in skins and eggs which has rapidly 
grown up in the past few years. In obscure corners 
of most cities of considerable size, persons may be 
found who deal in birds’ skins and eggs, old coins, 
postage-stamps, and various other specialties, con- 
ducting a largely juvenile trade through the post. 
Their bulletins are now sown broadcast, especially 
among the boys’ boarding-schools of the country. 


SCIENCE. 


241 


They offer tempting exchanges, premiums in eggs 
to the largest buyer, and give the price of eggs singly 
or in ‘sets.’ In most cases there is no identification, 
no date or locality given, so that the scientific value 
is usually lost. With such educating influences as 
these, how can we expect the thoughtless small boy, 
and better class of older boys at schools, to regard 
egg-nesting as any thing more than harmless employ- 
ment, to be carried on as extensively as that of 
stamp-collecting, only with much less method? In 
framing laws to protect the birds, would it not be 
well to prohibit the sale of their eggs and skins for 
all such amateur and pseudo-scientific purposes ? 

Furthermore, with all these human and brute ene- 
mies with which our native birds have to contend, 
what possible excuse can be found for adding a still 
more deadly and effectual agent, — the business-like 
slaughter of useful species for food? If, indeed, the 
game-market was understocked, other birds might be 
had which are not to be commended as highly for 
either song or utility. 

People who encourage this kind of traffic, in respect 
to the robin at least, are either thoughtlessly or wil- 
fully robbing our lawns and orchards of one of its 
heartiest and most cheerful songsters, and agricul- 
ture of an indispensable friend and ally. F.H. H. 


Baltimore, March 1. 


In a recent number of the Indianapolis Times there 
appeared an article on bird-destruction, contain- 
ing the following extracts given by a well-known 
taxidermist of that city. They will not only serve as 
additional evidence of the destruction of birds for 
personal adornment, but also bring into notice, in 
this regard, a portion of our country which has not 
yet been mentioned, and will give the evidence of 
one who should be posted concerning that which he 
tells. 

‘‘Tt is a very inexpensive and simple thing to 
mount birds for millinery purposes, and the number 
who can engage in it is so large that no county in 
the state is free from the ornithological murderer. 
If the present rate of destruction is continued, which 
is equivalent to saying that if the fashion in milli- 
nery does not change, the state will be depopulated 
of its birds in five years. I have lately spent whole 
days in the woods without seeing a bird, except the 
unspeakable sparrow. Last year there were shipped 
from this city 5,000 bird-skins collected from the 
Ohio valley, chiefly from Indiana. Now, suppose 
that half of these birds were females: they would 
lay, on an average, five eggs each in a season, —a 
total of 12,500 eggs. Of these, 10.000 probably 
would hatch. Added to the 5,000 birds killed, here 
is represented a yearly destruction of 15,000 birds, 
—a sacrifice to fashion. 

‘¢Tt is important to note that this represents only 
the slaughter of the fashionable birds. Styles change. 
A year ago blackbirds for women’s hats were in 
great demand, and thousands of them were killed. 
Now there is no market for blackbirds. Each of the 
5,000 birds sent out of the state during the year 1885 
was in style; that is, was either a jay, yellow-ham- 
mer, cedar-bird, or an owl. These birds are shot 
and skinned, and the skins allowed to dry before 
shipment. One man to whom I sent birds this week 
shipped 75,000 skins of American birds to France, 
and each year he duplicates this shipment. But the 
most of the American birds are sold at home. They 
are sent to the Long Island factories, where the skins 


242 


are steamed until pliable, when they are dressed and 
colored. Often the small, cheap birds are cut up, 
and the parts patched together in imitation of some 
pretentious songster. The dyeing is a secret process ; 
and the birds are so manipulated, that often a Hoosier 
jay is palmed off as the rarest warbler of the tropics. 
This year, owls promise to become popular west. 
East they are already worn by the leaders of fashion. 
You may look for them upon the streets here soon. 

‘“The profits of this business are very large. The 
Indianapolis collectors pay from seven to twenty-five 
cents each for the skins of jays and yellow-hammers, 
and from twenty-five cents to a dollar for owls. An 
expert skinner can prepare from fifteen to twenty- 
five an hour ; and, if birds are easily found, he easily, 
therefore, makes money at the business. Prepared 
for the milliners, the birds (exclusive of owls) cost, 
on an average. from twenty-five to forty cents: they 
are sold to milliners at from a dollar to a dollar and 
a half, and the milliners retail them at two dollars 
and three dollars and a half. At the factories cheap 
labor is employed. Girls at two dollars and three 
dollars a week are competent to do all that is required 
in preparing the birds for use.” 

There are some statements in the above which I 
doubt; but, having no statistics to the contrary at 
hand, I have given them without comment. 

The law of Indiana for the protection of its song- 
birds is farcical in its language, and is rarely enforced. 
It enumerates the species which are intended to be 
protected ; but so many English birds are included, 
that one is forced to smile at the very thought of it. 


Amos W. BUTLER. 
Brookville, Ind., March 1. 


A recent ice-storm. 


I think that the answer given by Mr. Philbrick 
(Science, vii. 220), concerning the injury done to 
trees during the ice-storm of Feb. 11-13, is hardly 
sufficient to account for the facts. So far as I have 
been able to learn, the damage was most severe in 
localities along the coast, north of Boston. In this 
immediate vicinity the mutilation was excessive. The 
poplars suffered by far the most, and the elms sus- 
tained nearly as great injury, and after them would 
come the red-oaks, pitch-pines, maples, and white- 
pines. The birches were little affected, and the apples 
and horse-chestnuts not at all. In some cases the 
poplar trunks were left nearly bare. The uppermost 
limbs of the elms sustained greater injury than those 
lower down, as Mr. Davis indicated. I attribute 
that mainly to their position. They caught and held 
so much of the rain, as it fell, that the accumulation 
of ice was much less on the branches beneath. My 
observations have not shown much splitting at the 
point of bifurcation. A careful examination of an 
extensive area has shown that most of the broken 
limbs of the elms were twisted off, with splintering 
of the wood for several inches, and only occasionally 
one was found which had been broken off squarely. 
It seems clear that this result was brought about by 
a want of symmetry in the horizontal subdivisions of 
the branches. When such branches were well loaded 
with ice, gravity not only bent them downwards, but 
also produced a considerable torsional effect at a point 
usually quite near their union with the trunk. The 
apples and the horse-chestnuts seem to have escaped 
by reason of the fewness of their small limbs. 

L. A. LEE. 


Bowdoin college, Brunswick, Me., March 6. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 162 


Apropos to Pteranodon and Homo. 


Professor Holder’s explanation that the human 
figure was simply put with Pteranodon for the sake 
of comparison of size, reminds me that some years 
ago I got from the cretaceous deposit of my neighbor- 
hood enough fossil material to diagnose a new species 
of reptile, which, although with powerful paddles, 
was almost pythonic in structure, and warranted the 
belief that the animal was hardly less than twenty- 
five feet long. As an Irish digger had struck upon 
the relics, and the too general habit is to destroy 
rather than save these finds, I succeeded in enthus- 
ing the laborers by drawing a restoration of this 
‘sea-serpent,’ to their amazement. This the boss 
digger had framed and suspended in his cottage. To 
my sorrow, the thing made me famous, for it became 
so much talked about that reporters came from the 
great city. A pictorial journal sent an artist, who 
borrowed my crude sketch, and elaborated it under 
his own conceptions. Judge of my surprise when, 
with full credit to my name, the said journal ap- 
peared with an account of the resurrected ancient 
sea-serpent, and an engraving of the same, sporting 
in the ocean, and in the distance a three-masted ship 
in full sail! As in Professor Holder’s case, there 
was no explanation given that the ship ‘‘ was intro- 
duced in the cut to give people some idea of the size 
of the animal.” SAMUEL LocKwoop. 

Freehold, N.J., March 5. 


Is the dodo an extinct bird? 


Has the guardianship of the ‘mysteries of theos- 
ophy,’ or his concern for the social organism of the 
world, lest they escape him (see Washington Weekly 
star, Nov. 20. 1885), so far rendered my aged friend, 
Dr. Coues, insensible to the progress of American 
ornithology, or current ornithological literature, as 
to have him overlook the fact, that, twenty days 
previous to my propounding the above question in 
Science, I had ,said in the Century magazine, ‘‘ Of 
all the birds extirpated within the last few centuries, 
none can claim an equal share of interest with the 
famous dodo” (January, 1886) ? 

Since I published my opinion in the Century, many. 
many people —not naturalists, but those who take 
interest in such things—have asked me whether 
science was absolutely certain of the extinction of 
the dodo, as many quite recent popular works upon 
natural history have it that it may still be found in 
Madagascar. It was for these estimable people that 
Iasked the question in Science; and fortunate in- 
deed are they, that it has been answered for them 
by one of the leading ornithologists of this country. 
and in whose opinion, upon this point at least, I 
have most certainly always concurred. 

R. W. SHUFELDT. 
Fort Wingate, N. Mex., Feb. 25. 


Chinook winds. 


Warm west winds answering to the ‘ Chinook’ 
winds occur as far south as southern Colorado, 
though I have seldom beard the name ‘ Chinook’ 
applied to them in this region. They are here often 
called Pacific winds, also ‘snow-eaters’ and ‘zeph- 
yrs.’ They are the most violent winds we have at 
this place, as we are sheltered from the northers. 

G. H. STONE. 


Colorado Springs. 


oe ae ee -_ 9 


SCIENCE.—SuprLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1886. 


THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS AS SEEN FROM 
THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 


THE foot-hills of the Canadian Rockies are not 
like those of thesouth, — huge piles of sandstones, 
bristling with ‘monuments,’ and hirsute with sparse 
forest. After a few smooth, grassy benches and 
rounded hills, here come precipitous ranges of 
real mountains, scarcely less imposing than those 
of the central mass. Trees among the outer 
benches are rare. You see some willows, a hem- 
lock, and the stubbed Pinus albicollis, which is 
not good as timber. Near Calgary the first of 
the magnificent Douglas spruces present them- 
selves, — those gigantic and valuable timber-trees, 
for which the north-west coast is famous. They 
are of small size here, and stand in little clumps 
in the ravines. 

The Rocky Mountains at this point have trended 
so far westward, that here they are overtaken only 
in the meridian of Salt Lake. The first line of 
heights is a rank of bluffs with almost vertical 
faces, each ledge marked by well-kept snow, which 
stretches away northward in orderly array. This is 
the Palliser range. The most prominent point of it 
is a forward-set peak visible from a wide radius of 
plains. In shape it is like a pretty tall stump, or 
the lower half of a lighthouse, and is called the 
Devils Head; but the Indians, with better dis- 
cernment, say it is the Devil’s neck, and have a 
story about the disappearance of the head it once 
sustained. Behind the Palliser is the slaty Saw- 
back range, from beyond which comes the Bow 
River, through deep cuttings. 

In these foot-hills lives a small Indian tribe, of 
Dakotan stock, termed Stonies, who are fine-look- 
ing fellows and good hunters. They came there 
within a generation or two, and never go out on 
the plains except in war-raids against the Crees or 
the half-breeds, to whom they have given much 
trouble. The Hudson’s Bay company set up its 
southernmost trading-post among them a few 
years ago, called the Old Bow Fort; and close by 
they now live on a reservation, the station for 
which is Morleyville. 

Though the mountains here seem grand enough, 
_ having a sublimity not easily equalled among any 
of the loftier ranges southward, yet they must be 
spoken of as ‘depressed* north of the boundary, 
since the tallest peaks do not much exceed 11,000 


feet above the sea, and none of the passes are 
over half that. There are several fine passes over 
the first range, between the parallels of 49° and 
53°. The southern one is Kootenay, much used 
formerly by the Indians, then Howse’s, then that 
where the Kananaskas heads, then the one taken 
by the Canadian Pacific railway up the Bow and 
across to the valley of the Kicking Horse, and 
lastly the Yeilow-head, or Leather pass under lati- 
tude 53°. Many of the principal peaks in this range 
were long ago named Balfour, Forbes, Hooker, 
and Brown, by the lamented botanist Douglas, 
after English men of science. 

The breadth of the Rocky Mountain system (six 
hundred miles) in the middle United States is nar- 
rowed northward, until in Canada it consists 
of three compact serrations. The easternmost 
bounds the plains, and stretches from the sources 
of the Missouri to those of the Peace and the 
Yukon. Its eastern face presents a bold front ; 
but its western flank is more broken up, and, not 
far from the boundary line, gives source in two 
‘mother-lakes’ to the mighty Columbia, which 
thence flows northward in a powerful stream until 
it has passed the fifty-second paraliel, nearly two 
hundred miles north-west of its starting-point. 
Then the mountains upon its left break down; and 
the Columbia, turning sharply around their head, 
moves straight southward on its course to the sea. 
Stretching north and south between Kootenay 
lakes and the great bending of the Columbia, 
stands the magnificent second range of mountains, 
— the Selkirks. 

The course of the Columbia after it has turned 
southward around the head of the Selkirks is beset 
by lofty walls as before, for west of its banks rises 
a third chain, called the Gold range, whose farther 
slopes feed the Fraser and Okinakane. Thus three 
unexplored, lofty, and glacial ranges of moun- 
tains, and two first-class river-crossings, opposed 
themselves to the engineers of this railway when 
the northern route was abandoned and the present 
line accepted. 

The profile of the Rockies seen at the eastern 
entrance is extremely irregular. There is no 
stately line of granite domes, nor bristling quartz- 
ite peaks, nor symmetrical volcanic cones: the 
sky rests upon a jagged wall, every elevation 
having some angular and abrupt form quite unlike 
its neighbor. 

All this grandeur of outline, which gives a 
tenfold savage aspect, is intensified by the excess 


244 


of snow and ice borne winter and summer upon 
their naked heads,—the most striking fact in 
their scenery, a description of which cannot be 
attempted here. 

The Bow River, at the point where it breaks 
through its ‘ gates,’ is a swift, deep stream of pea- 
green water. We follow it for several miles 
through a low forest, which occupies a large 
valley parallel with the main range, and between 
it and an outlying one, which is somewhat analo- 
gous to the parks of Colorado. Near the southern 
end of this valley is the station Banff, — the 
locality of a huge sulphur-spring. This occupies 
a pit which has a chimney-like entrance, and 
broadens below into a chamber of considerable 
size. In the bottom of this boils up a powerful 
spring strongly impregnated with sulphur, and 
almost too hot for bathing. The interior of the 
cavity abounds in masses of crystals, splinter-like, 
brittle, translucent amber in color, and extremely 
beautiful, which, fortunately, are carefully pro- 
tected by the owner. That the spring was for- 
merly more copious, is shown by the oven-shaped 
tank it has built up more than forty feet above 
the present surface of the water. 

Just beyond the impressive berg named Castle 
Mountain, which, like most of its fellows, has as 
many curious forms as you can find changed 
points of view, in the valley of the Bow River, 
the traveller gets sight of the first of the great 
glaciers which are a distinguishing feature of the 
scenery in the Rocky Mountains of British Colum- 
bia. It is a broad, crescent-shaped river of ice, 
the farther part of which is concealed behind the 
lofty yellow cliffs hemming it in. You seem to be 
almost on a level with it, and near at hand; but 
it is a dozen or more miles away, and fully fifteen 
hundred feet above you. 

The forest is not noteworthy until the top of the 
pass (altitude about five thousand feet) is reached, 
when the eye gazes across miles of magnificent 
evergreens, filling the great depression through 
which the young Kicking Horse rushes from 
cataract to cataract, down to the westward. 
The Cathedral and Mount Stephen represent the 
supreme heights of the continental divide at this 
point. They are magnificent mountains, and sur- 
rounded by scores like them, unspeakably pre- 
cipitous, rugged, and noble. On every side, as 
you make your way along, stand great cliffs, 
bearing prodigious weights of clear ice or almost 
equally solid and glittering masses of snow. In 
spite of this ruggedness, the gradient adopted by 
the railway is surprisingly low, and trains will 
be able to run at great speed; a schedule al- 
lowing only seventy-two hours between Montreal 
and the Pacific going into operation next May. 


SCTE NCE. 


[Von. VIL, No. 162 


It is rather farther down from the summit on 
the western side than on the eastern. The exit is 
made through a narrow cafon, picturesquely 
filled by the turbulent stream; and beyond, with 
the grandest surprise, you emerge upon the valley 
of the Columbia, and are face to face with the 
long, splendid range of the Selkirks. 

Crossing the Columbia on a fine truss-bridge, 
the railway runs down its margin, close under 
the steep, wooded foot-hills of the Selkirks. Sev- 
eral miles below, it turns into the narrow gateway 
through which the Beaver finds a straitened exit 
(like all the streams of this region), and ascends 
its gorges by ingenious engineering to the summit 
of the range, thirty-four miles (by rail) west of the 
Donald crossing, and 4,350 feet above the sea. 

The principal difficulty in construction, along 
this part of the line, was occasioned by the many 
torrents which come down the very steep moun- 
tain-side, often in splendid cascades. To span 
these fierce torrents by bridges or culverts which 
should not fail, required great skill and liberal 
expenditure. 

Among these bridges is the loftiest wooden 
structure of its kind in the world. It crosses 
Stony Creek,—a noisy rill at the bottom of a 
V-shaped channel cut deeply into the soft rock of 
the hillside ; and the track is no less than 295 feet 
above the water. This bridge is supported upon 
two towers of wooden crib-work, erected upon 
masonry the foundations of which are solid rock 
75 feet below the surface. This bridge is about 
750 feet long, cost $250,000, and was built in a 
very short time. It is exceeded in height by only 
one railway-bridge in the world,—the iron one 
lately put up at Kinzua, Penn. 

The approach to the summit is through a nar- 
row passage between enormous precipices, down 
one of which pitches a waterfall several hundred 
feet in unbroken height, white and dusty like 
snow ; and at the summit the glacier of which it 
is the outlet comes into view. 

This glacier has an area of several miles, and 
its head cannot be seen from the pass. It is 
wedge-shaped, and in August was so dusty white, 
where the surface had been honey-combed by the 
sun, or powdered by the frequent storms, that it 
was not easy to say where it ceased and the in- 
clined snowbanks lying under the shelter of the 
huge black combing began. Streaks, patches, and 
marbling of vivid blue (or, in some lights, green) 
could always be detected, however, where the 
solid ice was exposed ; and the whole picture was 
irresistibly attractive. The foot of this glacier is 
approximately 7,350 feet above the sea, and is 
overlooked by Carroll’s and two or three neigh- 
boring peaks, towering three thousand feet higher. 


Marca 12, 1886. | 


A little to the westward are other smaller and 
more easily accessible ice-masses, which plainly 
show a recent retreat; and two miles west of the 
summit one comes into view of the greatest of 
the visible Selkirk glaciers. It is overlooked by 
the stately monolith of Syndicate Peak, and the ice 
comes curving down to within a mile of the rail- 
way, feeding a copious stream. It is only about 
a thousand feet above the level of the rails ; and, 
when a trail has been cut through the thickets in 
the ravine, it will be very easily reached, though 
one should no more attempt to go upon it without 
proper ice-creepers, ropes, etc., than he would in 
the Swiss Alps. I predict that the Agassiz glacier, 
if I may so name it, will be as famous an object 
of adventurous pilgrimage in a few years as any 
in Europe. ERNEST INGERSOLL. 


THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN RACES AND 
TYPES. 


ONE of the most inexplicable subjects in the 
evolution of man has been his racial persistency. 
The teachings of Agassiz are yet familiar, and the 
thorough and abundant testimony of Morton, 
Nott, and Gliddon has demonstrated the per- 
manency of the great races of mankind. The 
peculiar physiognomy of the Jew stands out as 
clearly in the early Egyptian records as at the 
present day. Food, ‘climate, the most diverse en- 
vironmental conditions, all appear to cause but 
little modification in racial type. The evidence 
from his earliest known periods of existence 
throws but little light upon his immediate origin, 
and the opponents of evolution have long found 
great satisfaction in the few proofs of lower 
affinity that his fossil remains present. Certain- 
ly there must have been factors in his earliest 
development that we have not yet taken into 
account. When and where did the African, the 
Caucasian, the Malayan races first become fixed, 
and why have the causes that long ago led to 
their differentiation ceased to be active? An 
answer to this question, deserving consideration, 
has lately been attempted by Moritz Wagner 
(Kosmos, 1886, p. 238). 

It has long been recognized that one of the 
strongest factors in the artificial production of 
new varieties is in-and-in breeding, — the re- 
peated crossing, within narrow limits, of the pro- 
geny of related parents. It is rarely in any other 
way that the impression of peculiarities can be 
combined and not antagonized in the offspring. 
All breeders or growers are aware that the or- 
ganism, be it vegetable or animal, acquires with 
every such repetition greater plasticity and capa- 
bility of change, and that it can arrive at a con- 


SCIENCE. 


245 


siderable degree of differentiation only when free 
crossing is hindered or prevented for a sufficient 
length of time for these variations to become 
fixed, and not dissipated. In nature, strong proof 
of the same law is afforded by the faunal 
and floral peculiarities of regions isolated by nat- 
ural barriers. The Galapagos and the Hawaiian 
islands, notwithstanding the uniformity of cli- 
mates and general conditions, show striking diver- 
sities in animal and plant life among themselves, 
—the result of crossing among nearly related 
forms. Isolation, from whatever cause it may be 
due, throughout all animal and vegetable life, 
brings almost inevitably variation, due to the 
limitation of crossing, and the consequent fixa- 
tion of characters. 

But, in both of these respects, man has, in all 
his known history, been strikingly at variance with 
all other members of both the animal and vege- 
table kingdoms. In him alone, among all living 
creatures, exists the instinctive aversion to cross- 
ing between near blood-relations, — an aversion 
that predominates in every grade of civilization, 
from the cultivated races to the Eskimo, Hotten- 
tot, or Australian. Indeed, among the lowest 
tribes, the aversion is often strongest, and incest 
not unfrequently is punished by death. Most 
assuredly, man will not form an exception to a law 
so potent for change among other animals; and 
we see, in this custom of marriage between those 
unrelated, the most important factor in the pro- 
duction of varieties removed, and we can under- 
stand the difficulty of the formation of new races. 
The very acceptance of man’s origin recognizes 
the certainty that some time in his development 
this instinct has been acquired. In the earliest 
period it did not exist, and he was then subject to 
the same laws of variation as the ape and the dog. 
It was to this period that the chief divisions of 
mankind evidently date. 

Every thing goes to indicate that man’s origin 
extends back far into the pliocene age ; and evi- 
dently in his early stages he differed little, in his 
habits, from wild animals of the forest. Without 
clothes and habitation, he depended upon the free 
gifts of nature for food and shelter, without 
family instincts, and, what seems to be a neces- 
sary concomitant, without any sexual aversions 
whatever. With the great climatic changes of 
the glacial period, all this was changed. The 
struggle for existence became bitter: sustenance, 
shelter, and clothes had then to be acquired by 
the exercise of brain and hand. Migrations to 
the most favored and isolated locations were the 
inevitable result, and the necessity of protection 
of offspring became the contingency of existence. 
Family life took the place of more brutal instincts, 


246 


and the child remained longer dependent upon 
the parent. But with the constant association of 
near relatives an aversion was acquired to close 
intermarriage, resulting in the custom, or rather 
instinct, that now characterizes all classes of man- 
kind. The chief factor of change thus ceased its 
operation, but the formation of races had already 
occurred. 

Thus the author would account for those primi- 
tive and wide divergences that must once have 
taken place. With his development and acqui- 
sition of language, man became the most cos- 
mopolitan of animals; tendency to further diver- 
gence was checked, and is now rather toward 
homogeneity. Anthropologists are fast recogniz- 
ing the futility of separating tribes and classes by 
cranial classification. Very great variations are 
found between dolichocephalic and brachycephalic 
types among all civilized or uncivilized races. 
The pure Germanic race of the blond type is dis- 
appearing, as Virchow has shown, and greater 
racial uniformity is becoming apparent. The 
larger part of the German people is a mixture 
between the light-skinned indigenous race and the 
dark-skinned Indo-European races. Free crossing 
prevents the further formation of striking changes; 
but, with the development of civilization, a new 
and subordinate factor is taking, in a measure, 
its place,—that of national and social caste, 
which tends to the formation of minor variations. 
The peasant and the noble, the Jew, the German, 
Frenchman, or Englishman, —all are differen- 
tiated by very tangible characters, the result of 
partially restricted crossing, from social causes. 
Thus in man’s history we see the unrestricted 
crossing of bestiality, fruitful in change ; the ac- 
quired humane instincts averse to pairing between 
blood-relations, and eager for remote and strange 
mates ; and, finally, the prejudices of social and 
political castes that lead to the formation of minor 
variations, 


AN OLD-FASHIONED BOOK. 


THIS volume seems to be in its principal features 
an abridged translation of Weber’s ‘ Lehrbuch der 
weltgeschichte,’ to which, indeed, Dr. Fisher ac- 
knowledges his great indebtedness, especially as 
to ancient and mediaeval history. As to the need 
of some such book as the one under review, there 
can be no question, Teachers still, even in many 


of our best colleges, use the old mechanical 
method of teaching history. We call it the 
mechanical method with no intention of dis- 


crediting it; for there is no doubt but that, in the 
case of the great majority of our history teachers, 


Outlines of universal history. By G. P. Fisher. New 
York, Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., 1885, 12°. 


SCTENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 162 


the safest way is to put a good book into the 
hands of the student, and make him commit to 
memory sO many pages a week. To be sure, he 
forgets most of his facts as soon as possible after 
the examination. But, on the other hand, if the 
book is a good one, he has learned very few things 
which will have to be carefully unlearned in after- 
life. The best example that occurs to us, of the 
working of this system, is with regard to the teach- 
ing of botany in one of our smaller sectarian col- 
leges not so very many years ago. The text-book 
was large, and well supplied with poor pictures. 
The class came in regularly: they could not be 
absent without excuse. As soon as the man in 
charge had satisfied himself that all were present, 
he said to N. or M., ‘Proceed.’ N. or M. pro- 
ceeded to recite from memory the opening para- 
graph of the day’s lesson. When the man in 
charge thought he had recited enough, he ordered 


another boy to ‘ proceed.’ Then came reviews and. 


second reviews. At the end of the term or year 
the boys knew the book by heart. As they had 
never analyzed a flower, or applied the knowl- 
edge thus gained in any way, their botanical wis- 
dom was very slight. To this day, most of them 
know absolutely nothing of botany, though still 
able to recite page after page of the large and 
very dry text-book. So it is with history. A 
man may know a hundred dates. He may know, 
for instance, that Magna Charta was signed by 
King John on June 15, 1215; but if he knows 
nothing about the document itself, what it meant, 
who drew it up and why, under what circum- 
stances it was signed and why, he may be said to 
know nothing about the most interesting document 
in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race. He may 
know, too, that the first perfect parliament was 
summoned by Edward I.; but, if he knows no 
more, he may with truth be said to be utterly 
ignorant of an event which John Richard Green 
has denominated ‘the most important event in 
English history.’ Still, books giving such gen- 
eral knowledge of the world’s history have their 
place. 

Professor Fisher bas undoubtedly put much 
time and labor into the making of this book. Por- 
tions of it are well done — exceedingly well done. 
It is also very well proportioned, and in its ar- 
rangement no fault can be found. We are con- 
scious, too, of the enormous labor involved in get- 
ting out such a work. But all these considerations 
only add to our regret that Dr. Fisher did not use 
still more care in his original writing, and exer- 
cise very much more vigilance in his proof-read- 
ing; then he might have produced a book that 
would have remained the standard work, of its 
size, for a very long time. 


Let us call attention to — | 


a a = ~—— 


— ‘a — 


Marca 12, 1886.] 


a few errors, which, though trifling in themselves, 
have given us a distrust of the whole book, and 
especially of that portion dealing with modern 
history. 

The first sentence is from p. 295, and is as fol- 
lows : ‘‘ John (surnamed Sansterre or Lackland, a 
name given to younger sons who died before they 
were old enough to hold fiefs) was chosen king.” 
Of course, this statement is absurd. It is singular 
that Professor Fisher should not have seen it ; for 
the definition is correctly given by Miss Thompson, 
whose admirable ‘ History of England’ the author 
seems to have read with some care: ‘John, 
surnamed Sansterre or Lackland (a name given to 
younger sons whose fathers died before they were 
of age to hold fiefs).” Then, again, take the fol- 
lowing from p. 315. The author has been speak- 
ing of Llewellyn, and goes on to say, that, ‘‘ when 
a rebellion broke out several years later, Wales 
was conquered, and the leader of the rebellion exe- 
cuted (1273).” Now, of course, the author knows 
that Llewellyn was killed in a chance skirmish, 
and that it was his brother David who was exe- 
cuted in 1288, not 1273; but he should have said 
so. Then, too, on the very next page (316), the 
date 1292, which is assigned to the defeat of War- 
renne by Wallace at Stirling Bridge, should be 
1297; while on the following page (317) Isabel is 
said to have returned from France, bent on the 
overthrow of her husband, Edward II., in 1325, in- 
stead of 1326. Now, here, on three successive 
pages, are three dates — and three very important 
dates — wrongly given. No doubt they are mis- 
prints, or mere siips of the pen; but the greatest 
care should have been taken to prevent just such 
errors. It must not be supposed that such failings 
are confined to this part of the book, or to English 
history, as, in whichever direction we have turned, 
the same want of care has been observed. In 
American history, in European history, and even 
in ancient history, similar errors have been found. 

The sections devoted to the history of the people 
—to the literature, theology, art, etc., of the dif- 
ferent periods — are good as far as they go. The 
maps of classical times are mainly printed from 
the same plates as those in the ‘ Standard classical 
atlas,’ issued by the same publishers (Science, vii. 
p. 51): those relating to more modern events, 
while not so large, are clear and fairly accurate. 
The most serious omission in this part of the book 
is the lack of a map showing the partitions of Po- 
land. Taken altogether, the maps add something 
to the value of the work. So, too, do the various 
genealogical tables ; while the little bibliographies, 
though very general, will serve to start the inquir- 
ing student in the right direction. It is to be re- 
gretted that an insufficient index impairs what- 


SCIENCE. 247 


ever usefulness as a work of reference the volume 
might otherwise have had. 


COMPARATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF JEWISH 
ABILITY. 


THE pronounced racial characteristics of the 
Jewish people, with their remarkable persistency 
of type, have always rendered them a favorite 
subject for ethnological study. The peculiar 
environments in which they have been placed, 
and the almost constant persecution to which they 
have been subjected, have certainly given their 
impression to the mental characteristics of the 
race, and in many respects we see these as sharply 
portrayed as the peculiar physiognomic cast. 

Mr. Joseph Jacobs has recently published (Jour- 
nal of the anthropological institute of Great 
Britain and Ireland, February, 1886) an analysis 
of the characteristics of more than thirty thou- 
sand eminent men with especial reference to the 
Jewish race. The conclusions he arrives at are 
of the greatest interest, and in some cases unex- 
pected from the crude inductions of common ex- 
perience. 

Jews have no distinction whatever as agricul- 
turists, engravers, sailors, and sovereigns. They 
are less distinguished than Europeans generally, 
as authors, divines, engineers, soldiers, statesmen, 
and travellers, but approximately their equal as 
antiquaries, architects, artists, lawyers, natural 
scientists, political economists, scientists, and 
sculptors. They seem to have superiority as 
actors, chess-players, doctors, merchants (chiefly 


- financiers), metaphysicians, musicians, poets, and 


philologists. One would, however, have expected 
a much larger contingent of lawyers and political 
economists than is actually found, and art is bet- 
ter represented among them than one would sup- 
pose. The sciences also, both biological and exact, 
show a greater equality than most people would 
expect. As regards the former, of course 
Jews have no Darwin. It took England a hun- 
dred and eighty years after Newton before she 
could produce a Darwin: and as the Britishers 
are five times as many as the Jews, even includ- 
ing those of Russia, it would take, on the same 
showing, nine hundred years before they could 
produce another Spinoza; or even, supposing the 
double superiority to be true, four hundred and 
fifty years would be needed. But, even in the 
lower ranks of biology, Jews have done and are 
doing good work. Bernstein, Cohn, Remak, 
Rosenthal, and Valentin as physiologists, Cohn- 
heim, Hirsch, Liebreich, Lombroso, and Traube as 
pathologists, will be recognized ; while F. Cohn is 
perhaps the third greatest botanist in Germany. It 


248 


is in abstract science, mathematics and astronomy, 
that Jews show to more advantage. The history 
of pure mathematics during this century would 
show large blanks if the names of Jacobi, Syl- 
vester, Kronecker, and Cremona, were removed. 
In astronomy we have the cluster of Herschels, 
Goldschmidt (who discovered fourteen asteroids in 
the ‘fifties’ and ‘sixties.’ when such discoveries 
were not an every-day occurrence), and W. Meyer- 
beer (brother of the musician, and author of the 
first great chart of the moon). Altogether, then, 
we must conclude that Jews take their full share 
in the scientific work of the day. In Sir John 
Lubbock’s ‘ Jubilee speech at York,’ we find eight 
Jewish names out of the two hundred and eighty- 
nine who are mentioned as contributing to the last 
fifty years of science: this is considerably above 
their proper proportion, even when including the 
Russian Jews. Again: in M. de Candolle’s book, 
‘ Histoire de science,’ there are ten Jews holding 
sixteen out of the eight hundred and twenty-four 
chairs as foreign members of the scientific acade- 
mies, which fact he uses as a test of scientific 
ability. This is just the right proportion, the 
Jews of Europe being seven out of three hundred 
and thirty-three million. 

Less surprise will be felt at the subjects in 
which Jews seem to show superiority. In acting, 
a profession better recognized on the continent 
than here, —and the same may be said of medi- 
cine,—in Austria, one may say ubi tres medici 
duo Judaei. The Jewish merchants who get into 
the dictionaries are, of course, the great financiers. 
But it is chiefly in music and philology that Jewish 
superiority is most marked: in music there seems 
to be six times, and in philology nine times, as 
much Jewish talent as European. For the 
former, besides the great names of Mendelssohn, 
Halévy, Meyerbeer, and Rubinstein, already men- 
tioned, we have many lesser lights, like Sir Julius 
Benedict, Sir M. Costa, F. Cowen, Joachim, Pan- 
line Lucca, Moscheles, and Sir A. Sullivan. Eng- 
lish music, to say the least, would be almost non- 
existent without these Jewish names. Even more 
striking is the number of Jewish names distin- 
guished in philology. These are not alone con- 
nected with oriental and Semitic philology, like 
Benfey and Oppert; but they count a goodly 
number of classical scholars, -- Bernays, Bern- 
hardy, Lehrs, Friedliinder, and H. Weil, to whom 
we may add Freund, the author of the Latin dic- 
tionary, which is the basis of all those used in 
England. The names of Lazarus and Steinthal 
are known wherever the principles of philology 
are studied. In modern languages, too, Jews 
have done good work. Sanders has done for Ger- 
man what Littré did for French; and a Jew, the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 162 


well-known Ollendorff, may claim to have taught 
languages to the largest number of people by the 
clumsiest method of teaching. 

If we may venture to inquire into the causes of 
the Jewish superiority established on these some- 
what hypothetical grounds, there are various 
reasons which can be given. We have to take 
account of their residence in cities, always more 
conducive to the life intellectual. From this, 
too, follows their addiction to commerce as dis- 
tinguished from industry ; and as the former im- 
plies headwork, and the latter handicraft, mental 
capacity must be aided by this fact. The care 
Jews give to their children’s education is well 
known, and must help. All Jewish boys bave 
hitherto had to learn Hebrew, as well as the ver- 
nacular, and this must further mental progress. 
Dissenters generaliy seem more intellectual, be- 
cause they have early to think out their differ- 
ences from the generality. In the case of Jews, 
persecution, when not too severe, has probably 
aided in bringing out their best powers: to a high- 
spirited race, persecution, when there is a hope of 
overcoming it, isa spur to action. The solidarity 
of Jews, and the aid they willingly give to young 
men of promise, assist in developing whatever 
talent there may be in the community. The 
happy home-life of the Jewish people, and the 
practical and undogmatic character of their re- 
ligion, together with the absence of a priesthcod, 
have contributed to give the corpus sanum, and 
thus the mens sana. Jewish reason has never 
been in fetters ; and finally the weaker members of 
each generation have been weeded out by persecu- 
tion, which tempted or forced them to embrace 
Christianity, and thus contemporary Jews are the 
survival of a long process of unnatural selection, 
which has seemingly fitted them excellently for 
the struggle for intellectual existence. 

Turning from these general causes, it would be 
of interest to discover the reasons for the special 
ability of Jews in music, mathematics, metaphys- 
ics, philology, and finance. The chief cause of 
the musical pre-eminence of Jews, lies, in all prob- 
ability, in the home-character of their religion, 
which necessarily makes music a part of every 
Jewish home; this, too, was the only direction in 
which their artistic sensibilities could be gratified. 
Jewish philology is in part due to their frequent 
change of country, and also to the fact that they 
have had an additional sacred language besides 
the vernacular. As regards finance, the Jews 
have had their greatness thrust upon them: the 
world forced them to become financiers centuries 
before finance became a power, and must not com- 
plain if Jews now profit by their start in financial 
experience. Altogether, the productions of Jewish 


Marcu 12, 1886.] 


intellect -strike one as being predominantly ab- 
stract, —a result, doubtless, of their long life in 
cities, and exclusion from nature on the one side, 
and from the education which lies in handicrafts on 
the other. We may expect great mathematicians 
and philosophers from them, but not great in- 
ventors, biologists, or painters, till they have had 
time to throw off the effects of their long seclu- 
sion from nature. 


RECENT CHALLENGER REPORTS. 

Report on the Schizopoda (vol. xiii.). By Prof. G.O. Sars, 
London, Government, 1885. 4°. 

THE Schizopoda and Cumacea collected during 
the voyage of the Challenger were placed in the 
hands of Professor Sars of Christiania for ex- 
amination and description, and very wisely, for he 
had done more to elucidate these groups than all 
other authors combined. This report, by far the 
most important addition yet made to our knowl- 
edge of the Schizopoda, more than justifies the 
English authorities in intrusting certain portions 
of the Challenger collections to foreign natural- 
ists. Fifty-seven species of Schizopoda, repre- 
senting twenty-one genera, are here fully de- 
‘scribed and very carefully and elaborately figured 
by the author himself, who says very truly that 
the collection ‘‘ has turned out extremely rich, 
and of very special interest ;” but this result is 
undoubtedly very largely due to the great care 
with which Professor Sars has examined the mis- 
cellaneous material collected in surface-nets, and 
submitted to him. Forty-six of the fifty-seven 
species were first made known by the Challenger 
expedition, and the elaborate working-out of this 
large number of new forms from widely different 
regions and depths affords most important new 
material for discussing the proper subdivision of 
the Schizopoda and their relation to the other 
Crustacea. 

Professor Sars, I am glad to see, regards the 
Schizopoda as a suborder distinct from but closely 
allied to the Decapoda proper, and retains with 
them the Euphausiidae, in spite of Dr. Boas’ argu- 
ments that they should be regarded as.a distinct 
order. He also shows that the genus Eucopia, 
which has been referred to the Penaeidea by Dana 
and Bate, is a true schizopod, though representing 
adistinct family. Thus we have four families of 
Schizopoda : Lophogastridae, Eucopiidae, Euphau- 
slidae, and Mysidae. 

The Lophogastridae, which, previous to the 
Challenger expedition, was represented by a 
single genus, is here augmented by the remarkable 
genus Gnathophausia and two new genera. Of 
Gnathophausia, which was first made known by 
Willemoes-Suhm during the progress of the ex- 


_ pas 


SCIENCE. 


249 


pedition, and contains the largest known schizo- 
pods, no less than nine species are here described, 
one of them over six inches in length. The 
anatomy of the genus iscarefully worked out, and 
its affinities to Lophogaster well shown. All the 
species of the family appear to be inhabitants of 
deep water. 

The account of the Euphausiidae is the most 
important and interesting part of the work. 
Nearly all the species of this family are pelagic 
in habits: and Professor Sars’ careful examination 
of the surface collections made on the expedition 
has not only added largely to the number of 
species made known, but has enabled him to bring 
together and describe many of the post-embryonal 
stages of several of the forms. Twenty-eight 
species representing eight genera of the family 
are described, and twenty-three of the species 
and four of the genera are new. The entire 
anatomy of several species is worked out, and 
the articular appendages of nearly all of them 
are figured in detail. Under the genus Euphau- 
sia, the peculiar eye-like organs situated on or 
between the bases of the legs are very carefully 
described, and apparently well shown to be lumi- 
nous, and not visual organs. Although many of 
the species of the family are often taken in the 
greatest abundance, egg-bearing females are only 
very rarely seen; and, until very recently, noth- 
ing was positively known in regard to the manner 
of carrying the eggs, a single long-ago-recorded 
observation of Bell being somewhat doubtful. 
Professor Sars, however, has now found species 
of several different genera, carrying masses of 
eggs beneath the body in the same position as in 
other Schizopoda, though not enclosed in a pouch 
formed of lamelliform appendages, thus confirm- 
ing Bell’s observations and those of the present 
writer, published in 1884. 

In the chapter on the development of the 
Euphausiidae, post-embryonal stages of species 
of Nyctiphanes, Euphausia, Thysanopoda, and 
Nematosceles, are carefully made out, and fully 
described and figured; and this is all accom- 
plished with what is usually regarded as the ref- 
use from the surface-collecting net. These in- 
vestigations fully confirm the observations of 
Claus, Sars himself, Metschnikoff, and the present 
writer, and show that the typical Euphausiidae 
are hatched, like barnacles and copepods, as true 
nauplii, with unsegmented body, no compound 
eyes, and only three pairs of appendages, and 
that they pass through a long series of inter- 
mediate stages to the adult condition. Sars re- 
gards this nauplial development as characteristic 
of all the Euphausiidae, which seems somewhat 
doubtful when we consider the small number and 


250 


enormous size of the eggs of one of the species 
of Stylocheiron here described. 

The Mysidae were far better known than the 
other Schizopoda, and the account of the Chal- 
lenger species is consequently less important than 
that of the other families; still sixteen species 
belonging to nine genera are described. A short 
appendix contains descriptions of four ecto- and 
two endo-parasites of species described in the re- 
port. 

The fact that the work was written in a lan- 
guage foreign to the author is scarcely noticeable, 
and errors are rare. A few mistakes have re- 
sulted from changes and additions during the 
progress of the work, as the failure to change 
the generic name of Amblyops australis on p. 12, 
and the incorrect statement of the number of 
genera and species on pp. 63 and 172. 

The numerous excellent plates bear the impress 
of a Stockholm lithographer, and add to the in- 
ternational character of the work. 

S. I. SMITH. 


Lamellibranchiata (vol. xiii.) By EbDGAR A. SMITH. 


London, Government, 1885. 4°. 

THE report on the bivalve mollusks consists al- 
most exclusively of a list of the various species 
comprised in the collection, with such remarks as 
appeared to be of interest, and of the descriptions 
and figures of the species new to science. The 
anatomical work on those species of which the 
soft parts were preserved has been placed in other 
hands, and is not yet published. The Rev. R. 
Boog Watson retains the gastropods and solen- 
oconchs, but, after doing certain preliminary 
work, concluded to relinquish the present group, 
which was very appropriately placed in the hands 
of Mr. Smith, well known to all students of the 
invertebrates as the courteous and hard-working 
assistant in charge of the Mollusca of the British 
museum. 

The Challenger collection of lamellibranchs 
was obtained from the dredgings at some hundred 
and fifteen stations, and comprises about five 
hundred species, of which four hundred and 
fifteen were found in water less than two hun- 
dred fathoms deep, nine in water over two 
thousand fathoms deep, and the remainder at 
intermediate depths. The greater part of the 
collection, therefore, is not of an abyssal char- 
acter, and, in fact, forms an important contri- 
bution to the fauna of the Southern Ocean, and 
especially Australian waters ; but the portion re- 
lating to the deep-sea forms is, of course, the 
most interesting and biologically most important, 
and will prove indispensable to all students of 
that branch of biology. The plates are excellent, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 162 


and the proof-reading good, though we notice the 
references to plate vii., in the text, all read plate 
viii. A few species which came in at the last 
moment are represented by woodcuts in the text. 

The collection shows that no special student of 
the Mollusca accompanied the expedition ; for the 
opportunities were so great, that a qualified col- 
lector would certainly have done much better, 
both as to the number of species collected and 
in regard to their biography. It must be remem- 
bered that the Challenger party worked with 
much less perfect instruments and methods than 
are at present available, and that the loss of time 
incurred by the use of rope in dredging is doubt- 
less accountable for the washing-out of many 
valuable specimens which actually got into their 
dredges. Mr. Smith is quite conservative in his 
estimation of what constitutes a genus, but we 
are inclined to agree in his decision that only one 
new generic group is represented in the collection. 
This is called Silenia, and is distinguished from 
Lyonsiella by both anatomical and conchological 
characters. It was found in the deep water of 
the South Atlantic. The general considerations 
of the report are brief. The remarkable sporadic 


appearance of several forms in widely separated 


localities (Red Sea and Fiji Islands, Canaries and 
North Pacific, Australia and West Indies, and the 
like) is instructively commented upon, though 
perhaps none of the cases are more remarkable 
than the recent discovery of Pecten pleuronectes 
by the U.S. fish commission in the West Indies. 
The wide bathymetrical distribution of certain 
species, shown for the West Indies in the pre- 
liminary notes on the Blake mollusks, is fully 
confirmed for other regions by the Challenger 
collection ; e.g., Lima multicostata in two thou- 
sand and in one thousand and seventy-five fath- 
oms. Neaera, Arca, and Amussium were among 
the most frequent and most characteristic forms 
of the deeper water. Callocardia appeared in 
very deep water, in about the same latitude, in 
both the Atlantic and Pacific. On the whole, 
Mr. Smith concludes that the lamellibranchiate 
fauna of the deeps possesses no special or extraor- 
dinary character. The species are fewer than in 
shallower water. and new or peculiar forms are 
still more exceptional. No special modification 
of color, epidermis, or weight, seems to be corre- 
lated with existence in the benthal zone; for 
most of the species found there belong to 
genera whose representatives are thin and pale, 
whether they are found in deep or shallow water. 
A tabular exhibit of the distribution in depth 
and area, of the deep-water species, would have 
been a valuable addition to the report, which has 
an excellent index to the text and plates. 


SCIENCE. 


; 


FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


‘THE GEOLOGY of the Pittsburgh coal-region’ is 
the title of an interesting paper, recently published, 
by Professor Lesley. The amount of coal in the 
Pittsburgh region is estimated at about thirty 
billion tons, —an amount practically inexhausti- 
ble, at least for centuries. During 1884, eleven 
million tons were taken from the Pittsburgh bed, 
— an output of about sixty per cent of the whole 
bituminous coal-production of the state, and 
about thirty-three per cent of the shipments of 
anthracite. Concerning oil and gas, however, 
the author has very different views. He says, 
‘*T take the opportunity to express my opinion in 
the strongest terms, that the amazing exhibition 
of oil and gas which has characterized the last 
twenty years, and will probably characterize the 
“next ten or twenty years, is nevertheless, not only 
geologically but historically, a temporary and 
vanishing phenomenon — one which young men 
will live to see come to its natural end. And this 
opinion I do not entertain in any loose or unrea- 
sonable form; it is the result of both an active 
and a thoughtful acquaintance with the subject.” 


THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY REGISTER for 1885-86, 
which has just appeared, shows an institution in 
a high state of efficiency. There are upwards of 
60 professors, assistants, instructors, and similar 
officers, and 638 students. Of this number, 604 
are undergraduates ; and the marked difference 
in numbers between the upper and lower classes 
may be taken as evidence of the rapidly increas- 
ing popularity and efficiency of the university. 
As against 84 seniors and 97 juniors, there are 162 
sophomores and 239 freshmen. The former fig- 
ures are those of Amherst, Williams, and Brown, 
while the latter are not far away from those of 
Harvard. That this magnificent increase is due 
to a liberal policy and the judicious use of a large 
endowment, cannot for a moment be doubted; 
but it seems strange to find in this great univer- 
sity so important a department as that of political 
economy represented by an associate professor 
only, and the whole instruction in philosophy 

No, 163.— 1886, 


devolving upon one man. We are aware that 
Professor Schumann has been called to this de- 
partment at Cornell, and will begin his work next 
autumn ; but at that time Professor Wilson will, 
we understand, retire from active duty, and phi- 
losophy will yet have but a single representative. 
The rapidly widening provinces of psychology 
and ethics have long since made it impossible 
for a man who must also teach the history of 
philosophy and logic to keep up with their prog- 
ress; and it is strange that so few of our great 
colleges seem to recognize this fact. Harvard 
and Princeton seem to us the only two colleges 
in which the philosophical encyclopaedia is at all 
adequately represented. 


BOTANICAL INSTRUCTION IN THIS 
COUNTRY. 


By a slow evolutionary process, botanical in- 
struction appears to be undergoing a radical 
change in the United States, which concerns 
both its nature and methods. Whereas only a 
few years ago botany, as a college study, dealt 
chiefly with the flowering plants and vascular 
cryptogams, its scope has broadened, even in the 
limited undergraduate curriculum, so that the 
graduate of to-day is supposed to have been 
taught more or less about each of the principal 
groups of plants, from the lowest to the highest, 
if he has studied botany at all. With this change 
has come an earnest effort to make his knowl- 
edge a working-knowledge, obtained in the labora- 
tory so far as essentials are concerned, and merely 
rounded out in the lecture-room. That Harvard 
university should be prominent in planning and 
introducing these changes is not surprising, for 
nowhere has botanical research and instruction 
been so favored in the possession of the neces- 
sary means and of talented leaders in different 
branches of the growing subject. 

A good library and herbarium form an admir- 
able basis for much systematic work and for a 
certain class of instruction, but they must needs 
be supplemented by a garden and museum if the 
latter is to meet the modern requirements. Bo- 
tanical gardens are established either to aid in the 
introduction of valuable economic plants, or as 


252 


means of education. Several of the largest gar- 
dens owe their origin primarily to the first cause, 
though they have proved valuable educational 
agents, and may ultimately have come to be 
used chiefly for instruction and research; but a 
considerable number are the property of colleges, 
and were from the first intended to subserve 
educational ends. The garden at Cambridge is of 
this class ; and the report of its director, just pub- 
lished, shows that it is growing in usefulness. 
Beside the general collection of plants that every 
well-regulated garden is supposed to contain, the 
Cambridge garden is working toward extensive 
special collections to illustrate economic botany 
and the general morphology of phenogams. The 
groups in the latter, which can well be copied on 
a smaller scale, even where the name of ‘ botanic 
garden’ would appear pretentious, are arranged 
in substantially the order laid down in the com- 
mon text-books of botany, so that the different 
forms of leaves, flower-clusters, and flowers, can 
be easily recognized by any pupil. In connection 
with the economic plants— intended to exhibit 
variation under domestication by large suites of 
varieties of such plants as the cabbage, etc., and to 
promote the cultivation of vegetables that have 
come to be prized in Europe, though strangers to 
our tables— should be mentioned the large eco- 
nomic collection of trees in the Arnold arboretum 
at Jamiaca Plain, which is now reported by its 
director, Dr. Sargent, to be definitely planned so 
as to include a general collection of the native 
trees of eastern Massachusetts, and the most valu- 
able species from other localities, planted singly, 
to admit of the maximum growth of each species, 
and also in groups, chosen so as to represent its 
main varieties, and calculated to show its mass- 
characters. This loosely planted general collec- 
tion, arranged for the definite purpose of object- 
teaching, is supplemented by a more compact 
experimental and working collection, intended to 
supply material for study, and especially to re- 
ceive doubtfully hardy or valuable species and 
transitory horticultural forms. 

While Harvard — the oldest and strongest bo- 
tanical centre of the country — is thus giving 
evidence of large resources and progressive intelli- 
gence, the fact that similar steps are taking in 
other sections of the country is not to be over- 
looked, and is even more indicative of progress, 
since it implies a wide-spread interest in better 
instruction and better research in botany. It is 
very desirable that this feeling may become more 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. VIL, No. 163 


prevalent, and receive the financial backing that 
is necessary if it is to count for much. 

So far as experimental work is concerned, per- 
sons who know that there is a botanic garden at 
Washington, enjoying the patronage of the gov- 
ernment, might expect much from it, did not the 
majority of them know, at the same time, that it 
is so circumstanced as to improve its past record 
very little until the policy of its management is 
radically changed. Until then, such work must 
be done elsewhere ; and it is being undertaken by 
the experiment-stations and agricultural colleges 
of several states enthusiastically, if, in most cases, 
with too limited resources. Meantime new gardens 
are being established and developed under hopeful 
auspices. The most prominent of these are the 
newly created Montreal garden, and the private 
garden of Mr. Henry Shaw of St. Louis, which 
has recently been placed in relation with the chair 
of botany of Washington university, and will, it is 
understood, be so amply endowed by its founder 
as to become within a few years, if properly de- 
veloped, a leading centre for research, experiment, 
and instruction in pure and applied botany. 

That these movements indicate a growing recog- 
nition of the needs of botany and a disposition to 
meet them, is suggested by rumors of similar steps 
soon to be taken in other quarters; so that the 
outlook for botanical and horticultural work of 
a high grade is more promising than at any time 
in the past. What is most to be feared, is that ill- 
advised influence may place the facilities for this 
work in incompetent hands, with the result not 
only of temporary delay, but of permanent dis- 
aster. This danger can be avoided only by proper 
care in the first instance, both in selecting men 
and in planning work. 


DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS IN THE SOUTH 
PACIFIC. 


THE navy department has received a letter from 
Commander A. 8S. Barker, U.S.N., dated Dec. 18, 
1885, at Sandy Point, Magellan Straits, in which 
he reports having made a series of deep-sea sound- 
ings from Wellington, New Zealand, across the 
South Pacific to the Straits of Magellan. Fifty- 
seven casts were taken during the passage, from 
Nov. 6 to Dec. 16, over a distance of forty-five 
hundred nautical miles. The passage was made 
across that part of the ocean where strong 
westerly winds prevail, and many of the sound- 
ings were taken under trying circumstances. A 
few gales were encountered, but only one severe 


Marcu 19, 1886. ] 


storm; and not a single cast was missed, from 
180° west to the Straits. 

The sounding-machine used was Sigsbee’s im- 
provement on Thomson’s, and was mounted on 
the starboard end of the bridge, which is just for- 
ward of the smokestack. The soundings were 
taken head to sea, the wind a little on star- 
board bow ; the ship was easily kept in this posi- 
tion by spanker, main topsail, and by working 
the engines slowly. The seas were too heavy to 
sound stern to wind, as was done by the Tuscarora 
when she did such excellent work under Com- 
mander Belknap. 

This line of soundings, running as it does very 
close to the ice-limit, was chosen by the hydro- 
graphic office with a view of completing for the 


Wioaes 


b 


a 
qi i 


SCIENCE. 


253 


gation. The energies of the hydrographic office 
should be directed to clearing up the paths of 
commerce by searching for reported dangers, and 
this can only be done thoroughly by means of 
deep-sea soundings. The scientific consideration 
of the ocean-bed will naturally follow. 

This line of soundings of Commander Barker 
would seem to show that the main bed of the 
South Pacific commences just south of Chatham 
Island, the depth increasing very rapidly for the 
first 800 miles, until 3,002 fathoms is reached, in 
longitude 170° west. Beyond this point the pro- 
file shows no remarkable irregularities except in 
longitude 150° west, where there is a depth of 
2,915 fathoms, with 2,650 fathoms and 2,506 
fathoms on each side. From longitude 135° west 


DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS BY THE U.S, S. ENTERPRISE. 
From Wellington, New Zealand, across the South Pacific to the Straits of Magellan. 


present the deep-sea survey of the lower South 
Pacific. 

In 1875 the Challenger ran a line of soundings 
in about 40° south latitude. Between this and 
the line run by the Enterprise, the German ship 
Gazelle, in 1875, also executed a series of sound- 
ings, with somewhat greater intervals between 
than those of the two lines already mentioned. 
These three series give a fair idea of the general 
depths in this part of the Pacific, and will prob- 
ably be sufficient for all purposes for some time to 
come. North of the Challenger’s line, however, 
over the entire Pacific, lines of soundings should 
be run in all directions, and at short distances 
_ apart ; and the hydrographic office has laid out a 
plan by means of which this can be done from 
time to time, by our war ships, most economically 
and effectively, to accomplish the practical result 
of determining the existence of dangers to navi- 


the depths decrease quite regularly until 118° 
west is reached, where the least depth, 1,562 fath- 
oms, was found. Beyond this the depths increase 
again quite regularly to the base of the continent. 

This rise in the ocean-bed would point to the 
possible existence of a ridge running generally 
north and south, and limited, as far as known, by 
Easter Island, in latitude 27° 09’ south, longitude 
109° 25’ west, and Dougherty or Keates Island in 
latitude 59° 21’ south, and longitude 119° 07’ west. 
This ridge is also indicated by a sounding of 1,600 
fathoms, taken by the Challenger in latitude 38° 
43’ south, longitude 112° 31’ west. 

The lines of soundings taken by the Challenger 
and the Gazelle from 100° to 150° west run gen- 
erally parallel to that of the Enterprise, and show 
a remarkable uniformity in the depths along the 
Same meridian in the belt of the South Pacific, 
between latitude 40° and 50° south, 


254 


The surface temperatures agree with the results 
of previous observations for the same seasons and 
latitudes. Itis to be regretted that no tempera- 
tures below the surface were obtainable, on ac- 
count of the absence of deep-sea thermometers ; 
but as the Enterprise is a cruising ship of war, 
and is not fitted especially for this kind of work, 
Commander Barker and the officers are deserving 
of great commendation for the valuable results 
accomplished. When the specimens of the bot- 
tom arrive, they will be sent to the Smithsonian 
institution for examination and discussion. 


J. R. BARTLETT. 
U.S. hydrographic office, March 8. 


THE DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL IN NEW 
ENGLAND, FEB. 10-14, 1886. 


THE rainstorm which cccurred in the eastern 
part of the United States between the 10th and 
14th of February of the present year was very 
severe in the southern part of New England. 
The amount of rain surpassed that of any pre- 
ceding storm on record in that portion of New 
England where it was the greatest. In addition, 
there was a large quantity of snow and ice upon 
the ground, which was melted, and swelled the 
amount of water pouring into the rivers, thus 
causing most disastrous floods. 

The meteorological conditions which attended 
this remarkable rainstorm are deserving of atten- 
tion. On the morning of Feb. 11, the press- 
ure in the eastern part of the United States was 
' unusually high. At Anticosti Island the barom- 
eter (reduced to sea-level) indicated 30.01 inches ; 
in New England the pressure ranged from 30.9 
inches on the eastern border, to 30.6 on the 
western ; while a trough of relatively low press- 
ure, 30.0 inches, extended from the Gulf of 
Mexico to the lake region. Light rains were 
falling along the eastern front of this trough in 
the central states, heavy rains upon the Middle 
Atlantic coast, and the storm was just beginning 
in New England. During the day a centre of 
depression gradually developed in the central 
states, and the pressure began to fall. The fall 
was very rapid on the 12th ; and on the morning 
of the 13th the pressure ranged from 29.8 to 29.6 
inches in New England, with the centre of the 
depression, 29.45 inches, over Lake Ontario. 
During the 13th the storm-centre advanced rap- 
idly down the St. Lawrence valley, but the rain- 
fall had ceased to be excessive. On the 12th, the 
day on which the greatest rainfall was noted, the 
pressure conditions were peculiar. A careful 
charting of the barometric observations made by 
the U.S. signal service shows that in the morning 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 163 


a well-developed centre of low pressure existed in 
Indiana, moving northerly. In the afternoon a 
secondary depression formed on the Atlantic coast, 
which at ten P.M. was central at Washington. At 
seven A.M. of the 18th but one centre existed,— 
over Lake Ontario. The heaviest rainfall, there- 
fore, occurred simultaneously with the develop- 
ment of a secondary barometric depression, 
south-west of New England. In its development 
the barometer fell rapidly. Between seven A.M. 
of the 12th and seven A.M. of the 18th, the fall 
was 0.54 of an inch at New York, 0.57 at New 
London, and 0.60 at Boston. 

No peculiarities were noted in the other condi- 
tions. The temperature remained very nearly 
stationary during the 11th and 12th at a few 
degrees above the freezing-point, but rose on 
the night of the 12th and the morning of the 13th 
to above 50° F. 

The region covered by the greatest rainfall 
includes the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
and the eastern portion of Massachusetts. As 
there are many observers of rainfall in this region, 
it has been possible to determine the distribution 
of the rainfall with considerable approach to 
accuracy. The special reports collected by the 
New England meteorological society from one 
hundred and thirty-two observers show, that, in a 
region covering more than one-half of Rhode 
Island and the south-eastern part of Connecticut, 
over eight inches of rain fell. The amount 
diminishes rapidly west and east of this region, 
about two and one-half inches having fallen on 
Cape Cod, and less than one inch in the north- 
western part of Massachusetts. The region of 
heaviest rainfall is situated about two hundred 
miles north-east of the position of the centre of 
barometric depression on the afternoon of the 
12th. 

In order to give a general idea of the extent of 
territory covered by the rainfall, the following 
estimate has been made by the help of the ac- 
companying map. The estimate includes the 
land-surface only. 


Amount of rainfall. Area in square miles. 


OVP CMON OR i. iis 0s a neta Gam 750 
Between 7 and 8 inches........... 750 
Ry), Ga Mira peer | 1,500 
RE O88 Tr HS 1,850 
~ Par? * hie SrA ca Serer oaltts 2,750 


The above embraces about five-ninths of the 
total area of the states of Massachusetts, Rhode 


. 


SCIENCE. 255 
report of Desmond Fitz Gerald, C.E., referring to 


Island, and Connecticut. If we assume that the 
rainfall increased uniformly within the limits of | the Boston water-works :— 
‘«The water passing over our lowest dam in the 


this area, the total amount of water which fell 


Marca 19, 1886. ] 


“9 


70° 


ot 
ot 
gos 
ee 
Ca 


46° 


* 
Pp 
wo 


== es = = 


ok oe 
) 
' 


RAINFALL © NEW ENGLAND 
February [0-14, 1886 


a 


first four days (12th—15th) was 5,120,000,000 gal- 
lons, the equivalent of four inches of rain over 


from the clouds upon this portion of New Eng- 
the whole watershed. The maximum flow was 


land exceeded 750,000,000,000 gallons. In this 
connection the following may be quoted from the 


256 


on the 13th, viz., 2,000,000,000 gallons in twenty- 
four hours, on seventy-eight square miles of 
watershed. We have no records showing a 
greater amount: the nearest approach was March 
26, 1876, when the freshet was nearly as great.” 

The form of precipitation was almost wholly 
rain, a little snow or hail having occurred at its 
beginning at a few places only. The rainfall was 
nearly continuous for about two days and a half, 
but was not of equal severity. Indeed, the 
greater part of the fall occurred in twenty-four 
hours, as is indicated by the following table, 
which contains the times of beginning and end- 
ing of the rain, the total amount, and the amount 
during a specified interval of twenty-four hours. 
Similar records could be given from many other 
stations. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 163 


were duly chronicled by the daily press; but it is 
worthy of note, that, from the geographical posi- 
tion of the flooded region, the damage was con- 
fined to a relatively small area. The rivers were 
affected only near their mouths, while a similar 
rainfall in the northern portion of New England 
would have caused wide-spread destruction. 

The meteorological records of former years have 
been consulted for similar instances of excessive 
rainfall. At Providence, which is in the area of 
maximum rainfall, there are continuous records 
since 1832, kept until 1876 by the late Rev. Dr. Cas- 
well, and since that time by the city engineer. 
There is no instance on record of a. rainfall of 
eight inches, though one exceeding seven inches 
was noted in July, 1834; and during the week 
March 20-26, 1876, the amount of 17.66 inches 


“Rainfall 


| 3 Interval of 24 hours during heaviest 
Station. Time of beginning. | Time of ending. ae ; in 
| Hs rainfall. Peer ee 
Inches. Inches. 
New 4Vork: (24.25) Lith, 10.30 a.m. 13th, noon 3.41 lith, 11.00 a.m. to 12th, 11.00 a.m. 2.99 
New London...... 11th, 6.00 a.m. 18th, 4.20 P.M. 8.93 1ith, 11.00 p.m. ** 12th, 11.00 P.M. 6.66 
Providence, ......: 11th, 1.00 a.m. 13th, 11.30 p.m. 8.13 12th, 7.00 a.m. “* 13th, 7.00, A:m- 5.65 
BOSHGM Sie. ch. 20 =r llth, 7.45 a.m. 13th, 2.45 P.M. 5.62 ‘11th, 11.00 p.m. ‘* 12th, 11.00 P.M. 4.45 
Newburyport...... 10th, 5.30 P.M. 13th, 10.3) P.M. 4.78 11th, 9.00 p.m. ‘‘ 12th, 9.00 P.M. 3.30 


The immense amount of water which thus fell 
in a few hours was of itself amply sufficient to 
cause disastrous freshets, but it was largely aug- 
mented by the snow and ice on the ground. The 
depth of the snow at the beginning of the rain 
has been variously estimated. In a few places 
there was none on the ground, but in the greater 
part of the region it was found to a depth of from 
two to fifteen inches. This was wholly melted, 
and added to the rain as it forced its way over the 
frozen ground to the rivers. The amount thus 
added can only be conjectured ; for the snow was 
in many places quite compact, and at the ground 
there was a thick layer of ice. Several persons 
have independently estimated that the equivalent 
of two inches of water was obtained from the 
snow and ice. This estimate is not excessive, and 
may be adopted for the region where the rainfall 
was greatest. 

An amount of water, therefore, exceeding ten 
inches in depth in the maximum area, sought the 
streams and caused their overflow, with disastrous 
results. Noattempt need be made to estimate the 
damage to railways, public highways, manufac- 
tories, and private property, the details of which 


was recorded. It is probably safe to say that 
in Rhode Island no rainfall has been hereto- 
fore recorded of so large amount in a single 
storm, but there may be records of equally severe 
storms in other parts of New England; and one 
which occurred in Connecticut Oct. 3 and 4, 1869, 
was still more severe.’ In this storm there were 
reported at Hartford 8.48, Colebrook 8.44, Middle- 
town 9.37, and Canton 12.35 inches. 

The following table contains the total amounts 
recorded by observers who have kindly responded 
to the request for their observations. The accom- 
panying map contains the lines of equal rainfall 
drawn from the observations. The numbers upon 
the map correspond with those of the several sta- 
tions in the table. It was found impracticable to 
print the amount of rainfall at each station on ac- 
count of the small size of the map. The lines 
have been drawn freely, and do not follow closely 
every individual record. In charting rainfall 
records, which depend so largely upon the loca- 
tion of gauges and the local topography, this is 
impossible ; but it will be seen, from a comparison 


1 See paper by James B. Francis, C.E., in Transactions 
of the American society of engineers, August, 1878. 


Marca 19, 1886.] 


of the values of the table with the lines upon the 
map, that in this case the individual records are 
quite fairly represented. 


=a) S 
Station. = | Station. = 
[any | fo) 
NEW BRUNSWICK. I lan OD cai sSeiaeels ake «Su oies areas deee 
MUM CSUs 7) ONIN ann croc acc ciale' 2.46 59.. Leominster... ...... 3.50 
MAINE. oo: sone: Pisint = 5c. 5.88 
9 ; Bar Harbor, @........- 3.50 | 61 ; BOWL Gis cas tee owe: 4.36 
~ Gar Harbor, Di... 3.70 | | BLowellsioe. 2 kit oad: 4.54 
Fe ESPIGLCEON veciecse serene -| 2.40 || MW GLOW 555 acres stevie Bank 
AS BuCENCIO. soos cscs... Mata lil Ode Layne soe, eee 3: 5.68 
rR DOPE! Jac:scinisssa'oe's +3 1,54 |\| 64... Medford... ...:,.<ex «02 5.58 
Gy sHaaphield. 52.00 ..0c5c5: Beet Gabe MGINOSN. Asch esc oes 5.60 
Cee GAO MEP ooo occ cs actees eet alils Ole MEN LODO . ce cts cen cna 4.04 
gor al reais vee we et ie cere Sea emeren et ees 5.60 
PACS G A eee <0. | PNEOHSONG 655 whic acs hom 3.80 
MEM OREHO NS. Moos 0a. acces 1.85 |! 69..Mount Nonotuck ...| 2.31 
ai Rortland Pes, 3.5 ccs care 3.07 || 70..Mystic Lake......... 5.64 
12..Sebago Lake .......... 2.38 || 71..Mystic station....... 5.11 
Me SOIOI oe cao ceca soske 1.65 || %2..Nantucket........... 1.82 
14 ped HAMPSHIRE. an Wiewt oe Bedford........ 4.51 
SSOONCORG 252 scics ces aces pas 74..Newburyport........ 4.78 
Bete ERO OR o) ccictore'as'cnays'sie’e -| 3.50 | %5..Northampton........ 2.46 
Pie RaP REDON sess orate <</c0 1.08 || %6..North Beverly....... 7.66 
iM. Hanover... ..\...<(¢ Senn OG |) Cf: Northfield 22.33 2.2... aN: 
ite ag 1 2240) || = ¢8... Princeton. ¢..255-. 6: 4.07 
ge ih 10 ee 0.46 79..Provincetown........| 2.65 
20 ; Manchester, @......... 3.4071 |) ‘S00. Quincy . 2... ses.72<<- 5.54 
Manchester, D......... S65 Ob sROWeS Soe odin. 0.70 
21..Meredith Centre....... Ta Oec SAENY, —Akise cc ck ccs 6.21 
2 ATGALS SLO Fe 3.71 || 83..South Hingham..... 6.51 
Pere WRIDOIGi cae ce ccc caes 1.12 || 84..Springfield .......... 2.97 
bs. WIARHBES oc 08 conve oo 1s 1.95 || __ (Taunton, @.......... 6.83 
VERMONT. [ |) Som EDAUNtON. On cccnco.. 6.53 
a) SEAGLICNOTO’. ces cies ses 1.57 || Y EAUNLOH VOI6 vic icc sais 6.91 
iq PROTEIN GOD, v0 ciciecjscc eas 0.33 || 86..Waltham............ 6.08 
is CONAPIObEO. ca oii se cee 0.60 || 87..Wellesley............ 5.70 
. iiaerg 3 ee eae eee 88. - Westborough eee 4.63 
BIEDIRES Gti ey atte lela sis, ols a's : wo WV CSLV RIO. i. 06d. 40K 4.93 
30..Jacksonville........... 1.61 || 90..Williamstown....... 0.99 
SLicLunenburehs- icc... 0.35 || 91..Winchester......... 5.45 
32..Mariborough.......... 1.39 || g9§ Worcester,a... .... 4,7 
ee Betaatettocters sens te | ~~ (Worcester, b........ 5.29 
SSS ELON : RHODE ISLAND. 
ap Se sae eee oe a -Block Island!........ 6.22 
ee DC OLRM. 2e cals dais mcmied ce : weMGnSasle es oa. kee. 7.69 
Ee MRNSOR tie cc ihcie's 0.95 || ¥%5..Narragensett Pier!..| 7.95 
MASSACHUSETTS. 96..Olneyville......... mre Ses 
38 ; Amberst)@< ..<..00% SS eole66 1) (..Pawtucket...... ; 
 ( Amherst, Dies oe sa 2.35 || ae rien, iv. 
39..Beverly Farms........ 6.60 Providence, b, 3 ; 
ereecene Hill. Pa cidsnn wae dare 6.18 99 | Woonsocket, @...... 6.7 
44 RDON CEE, coastternsie ae 5.62 Woonsocket, b....... 6.28 
RRO Goss 5 ints 5.76 CONNECTICUT. 
ee Binsaeas See | 20s CORNGOT ce cenes<nese 3.08 
Cambridge, Bb .. . ....| 5.63 || 101..Collinsville.......... 3.28 
45..Chestnut Hill.......... 6.09 || 102 Hartford, a. 5. . 225. 4.32 
Be CCHICOPOOs oocase (sc wees 3.24 ; iHartiords OF ta.) 6 4.63 
ES MOORCORGL EL secon cc css 4,90 103..Lake Konomoc...... 6.17 
Concord: 0252524 .225.. 4.59 104..Middletown ......... 5.30 
46. .COLUit....5..-...0s0. 000 2.79 || 105..New Haven! ........ 3.84 
FER CU PBIONG ee eheteiee e 5K «aie e 0.50 106..New London}... ....] 8.93 
ERE Deira ft) 6 Ei PAO6nh! 10%: ONorfollkes .06.c0s0s 1.68 
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50 { Fitchburg, @........... 3.42 109. VOlUNtOWN = <.0¢0060 | 8.00 
Fitchburg, b........... 3.52 110..Wallingford......... 5.85 
51..Framingham.......... 4.64 || NEW YORK. 
ae ele saloieieiaia:aveigjs aye ae Alipany 2 ooo ee es es cici| 0.77 
POUOUS Gio ode caduren cere > BS Brooklyn'sss.3 shes 6h: 3.39 
53 SPOUANE On caae. hac clee oc 3.54 113..Lebanon Springs....| 0.84 
Met EIOLVOKO.. 0.00... docu: 2.62 || 114..Menands............ 0.87 
Mae HOpKINtON:: 2... 56055. 4.76 || 445 § New York, a@........ 3.41 
56..Lake Cochituate...... 4.95 || -°° 7 New York, b!........ 4.10 
TIGRIS TG a 4.31 ‘| 116..Setauket............. 4,76 


WINSLOW UPTON. 


SOME WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT 
SURVEYS. 


THE work of the topographical department of 
the geological survey during the past fiscal year 
shows an increase of thirty-nine per cent over that 
of the previous season, —a result due mainly to 
the increased experience and efficiency of the men 
engaged in its prosecution. The following state- 

1 Station of U.S, signal service. 


SCIENCE. 


257 


ment presents in brief form the progress made 
during the past year, the area being given in 
square miies: Appalachian section, 22,080; Mis- 
souri, 20,000; Cascade, 10,400; Texas, 8,000; 
Arizona, 8,000; Yellowstone Park, 3,600; Gold 
Belt, 2,400; Massachusetts, 2,500; New Jersey, 
1,500; total, 78,480. Of the maps intended to 
show the topographic survey of the United 
States, 88,000 miles have already been completed, 
and the proof-sheets issued, giving the results in 
Alabama, Missouri, Texas, Utah, and Montana. 
Additional work of the department, covering 
82,000 square miles, is now in the engraver’s 
hands, embracing the following states: Virginia, 
West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, New 
Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada. The scale 
of publication of the survey of Massachusetts and 
New Jersey is about one mile to the inch; in the 
South Appalachian section, Gold Belt, Yellowstone 
National Park, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas, two 
miles ; and in Arizona, Oregon, and northern Cal- 
ifornia, four miles. The draughtsmen of the 
office have been mainly employed upon work of 
the originally compiled map of the United States, 
and the compilation of the map of New York to 
serve as a basis for the geologic map. 

Major Powell has just received a collection of 
objects illustrating the character of the Oraibi 
Indians of north-eastern Arizona, consisting of 
ancient pottery, war-clubs, ancient clothing, musi- 
cal instruments, and the wooden implements used 
by them in making fire in connection with their 
religious rites. There is also a large collection of 
bone, horn, and stone implements, among the last 
being many fetiches and carved animals employed 
in their religious ceremonies. There are also sev- 
eral objects used by these Indians in their mar- 
riage and funeral rites, the uses of which have 
been previously unknown. The material gathered 
is especially valuable and interesting, as so little is 
known of these Indian tribes who were first vis- 
ited by Major Powell about ten years ago. 

In the archeological investigations in the 
south-west, about the ruins of Cafion de Chelly in 
Arizona, among the curious things unearthed by 
an exploring party of the geological survey were 
several fragmentary ears of corn, with one com- 
plete and well-developed ear. The latter was 
found in a grave with a mummified child. It 
resembles a common ear of red corn, although 
somewhat smaller ; and the grains, even at the 
present time, are well developed, and fit closely 
over the entire cob. The antiquity of this corn 
can be determined as far back as six hundred 
years. The ruins in which the corn was found 
are in the same state of preservation as they were 
when Coronado first visited this country in 1540. 


258 


The traditions of the present tribes, as well as the 
archeological evidences in connection with its 
discovery, all attest its great antiquity. As corn 
is supposed to be a native of this continent, its 
discovery under these peculiar circumstances will 
aid in throwing considerable light on its origin 
and history. 


HEALTH OF NEW YORK DURING FEB- 
EROARY. 


ON the opposite page will be found a graphic 


representation of the daily mortality in the city of 
New York for the month of February, together 
with certain meteorological data for the same 
period. The deaths are those from all causes, 
those from a few of the prominent causes which 
are constantly at work in all populous centres, 
and those of children under five years of age. 
These statistics are furnished to Science through 
the courtesy of Dr. John T. Nagle, of the board of 
health. The large number of those who die after 
having just commenced to live is a striking fea- 
ture here, as it is in all reports of mortality. That 
the number is as low as it is, is accounted for by 
the few deaths which at this season of the year 
are caused by diarrhoeal affections; for seven 
days in the month there having been no deaths 
due to this form of disease, and in eleven days 
only one death each day, while the highest was 
but two deaths. When the spring has fairly set 
in, and the warm days appear, we shall expect to 
see this condition change, the disease assuming a 
more prominent place among the death factors, 
until, during the intense heat of the midsummer, 
it will overtop them all, and carry off its victims 
by thescores. Scarlet-fever was, during the month, 
a little more active as a cause of death than the 
diarrhoeal diseases ; and yet the difference was so 
slight that the lines representing the mortality 
from these two affections cross each other repeat- 
edly, and often coincide. Consumption occupies 
the most prominent position in the diagram, —a 
disease which has prevailed in all communities for 
ages, and which has been the subject of as much 
study and experimental research as, perhaps, any 
disease which affects the human race, and yet one 
which still ravages the world, and appears only 
in a slight degree to be amenable to treatment. 
Much has been done by sanitarians to point out 
the influences under which it thrives, and the 
means to be adopted to lessen its prevalence ; and 
it is more than probable, that, if the advice which 
has been so freely given were to be put into prac- 
tice, the number of deaths would be greatly re- 
duced. 

The meteorological data are obtained from the 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. VII., No. 163 


observatory in Central Park, through the kindness 
of Director Daniel Draper, Ph.D. The instruments 
from which these observations are made are placed 
fifty-three feet above the ground, and ninety-seven 
feet above the sea. The daily mean humidity is 
obtained from readings taken at seven A.M., two 
and nine P.M. The ‘rainfall’ recorded on the 4th 
as .10 of an inch was in reality 5 inches of snow ; 
the .01 of an inch on the 6th was also snow, which 
fell to the amount of one-quarter of an inch. 
These, as is usual, have been reduced to water, 
and so recorded. February will be remembered 
as a month in which the thermometer fell to a 
very low point, —4° F. on the 5th; while on the 
previous day it was at 0°, and on the 6th but three 
degrees above that point. 


a a ee 


RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION. 


Mr. HADLEY’S book deserves high praise. It is 
clear, scholarly, well written, well arranged, tem- 
perate and impartial, and yet vigorous and out- 
spoken. It supplies a need which Mr. C. F. 
Adams’s book on railroads filled with great, even 
though incomplete, success, for matters as they 
stood ten years ago,— the need of a compact dis- 
cussion of what the railroad problem is, and what 
it means. It gives a brief history of the growth of 
the railroad system, points out the problems and 
evils that are now before us, and discusses the 
solutions ‘and remedies. There are excellent 
chapters on the railroad experience of other coun- 
tries, and abundant references to the literature of 
the subject. The book may be strongly recom- 
mended, both to those who are specially interested 
in railroads and the railway problem, and to the 
general reader who wishes to inform himself on 
one of the most important of public questions. It 
is much to be wished that studies of: this kind 
should be read, and not only read, but bought. 
We have by far not enough of intelligent and 
careful investigation of our industrial and political 
problems ; and it is a regrettable fact that the publi- 
cation of such investigations has not been found, 
as a rule, to be profitable to the publishing-houses, 
not to mention the authors. The growing impor- 
tance of such questions, the arousing of public 
attention to them, the increasing number of 
thoughtful men who wish information, ought to 
give a widening circle of readers of books like Mr. 
Hadley’s. re 

The most important conclusion which the reader 
who approaches the problem through this book 
will reach —the conclusion which enforces itself 
on anyone who gives intelligent study to the sub- 


Railroad transportation, its history and its laws, By 
ArtTHuUR T. Haptey. New York, Putnam, 1885. 8°, 


Ken) 
ON 


SCIENCE. 


Marca 19, 1886. ] 


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260 


ject, but which, unfortunately, has impressed it- 
self but little on the public mind—is, that there 
is no one solution of the railroad problem, and no 
one remedy for the evils which exist. The prob- 
lem is a vast and complicated one: in truth, there 
is not any one problem. There are a number of 
different problems: and it is not the least of the 
merits of this book that it clearly distinguishes 
them. Perhaps the best part of the book is the 
discussion of the most difficult of them all, —the 
question of railroad-rates. Mr. Hadley makes 
a plea, unanswerable in its essentials, in favor of 
the much-maligned and much-abused principle of 
charging ‘ what the traffic will bear.’ 

Some things we have learned on these prob- 
lems ; but a great deal more must be learned, and 
learned chiefiy from experience, before the rail- 
road system settles down into a permanent form. 
For example, it is pretty well agreed, even in this 
land of non-interference, that government regula- 
tion in some form is desirable. Almost every 
state in the union has its railroad commission. 
But how far public interference shall go, is quite 
an open question. There are those who believe 
that it should go far, and that the tendency is and 
should be toward eventual state ownership and 
management. German economists have adopted 
this view pretty generally, and they have follow- 
ers in this country. They may be right; but ex- 
perience up to the present time is by no means 
clear in favor of their view. Mr. Hadley, in his 
chapters on the railroad experience of European 
countries, and especially in his concluding chapter 
on the resuits of state railroad management, shows 
that, even in continental Europe, the question of 
state railroads is by no means settled. Only in 
Prussia is state management an established fact. 
and apparently a success. But in Prussia the con- 
ditions are peculiarly favorable; and even there 
the future must be awaited, before we can judge 
of the system. How far public regulation can go 
and ought to go in this country, at the present 
time, is still more an open question. Mr. Hadley 
evidently believes that a federal railroad commis- 
sion is pretty sure to come in the future, and _ be- 
lieves it to be desirable. But he does not commit 
himself as to the extent of the powers it should 
have, although he presents strong reasons for its 
having, at least at first, only advisory, and not 
judicial or administrative powers, 

In his chapter on competition and combination, 
Mr. Hadley expresses strongly his opinion that the 
economic principles which apply to most forms of 
production and trade do not apply to railroads. 
In fact, he says that the law of competition, as 
laid down by Ricardo and his followers, is ‘ false 
in theory,’ so far as railroads are concerned. I 


SCIENCE. 


sS 


[Vou. VIL, No. 163 


must confess that this seems to me to be over- 
straining the matter. Whether one considers the 
theory to be false, depends very much on what 
is one’s conception of it. Correctly stated, the 
theory of Ricardo and of ‘ orthodox’ economists, 
simply says that, given such and such premises, 
such and such conclusions follow. If the prem- 
ises do not correspond to facts, the theory does not 
apply. Perhaps it ‘breaks down ;’ but does it be- 
come ‘false in theory’? No doubt the premises 
correspond, in important respects, to facts, in a 
less degree in the case of railroads than in almost 
any other branch of industry. The theory, then, 
fails to apply in a corresponding degree, and we 
must approach the economic problem from other 
points of view. But Mr. Hadley himself points 
out that the theory is by no means without its 
force and application, even in railroad matters. 
He tells us in one place that, ‘‘ where the profits 
of an existing concern are high enough to tempt 
it, a competitor will come into the field” (p. 103), 
and refers to the West shore road as a conspicu- 
ous instance. And elsewhere he tells us that 
when the legislature of Wisconsin, by the Potter 
law, fixed rates at unremunerative figures, rail- 
road construction stopped, facilities on existing 
roads could not be kept up, and the state was com- 
pelled to repeal the law. ‘The laws of trade 
could not be violated with impunity” (p. 135). Are 
not these applications of Ricardoan laws, at least 
after some rough fashion? No doubt we cannot 
solve all economic problems by these laws, and no 
doubt, in some directions, the development of in- 
dustry in modern times requires us to apply them 
more and more cautiously. But we should not 
therefore throw them entirely overboard, as if 
they did not yield us any help at all. 

But this is a question which interests chiefly the 
economic student: and perhaps, after all, it is only 
a question of choice of language. There is no 
ground for substantial difference with what Mr. 
Hadley has to say in his chapter on competition 
and combination. There, and throughout the 
book, are the marks of thorough study and clear- 
headed thinking. F, W. TAUSSIG. 


MINOR BOOK NOTICES. 


Reiseerinnerungen aus Algerien und Tunis. Von Dr. W. 
KosBe.t. Frankfurt-am-Main, Diesterweg, 1885. . 8°. 

It is curious to contrast this ponderous and 
thoroughly scientific work of a German physician 
with that of the vivacious Monsieur Melon, which 
we noticed some time ago, — the one so chatty and — 
superficial, the other so dull and accurate. We 
read the Frenchman’s book, and cast it away with- : 
out the slightest thought of ever looking at it 


Marca 19, 1886.] 


again. We laid Dr. Kobelt’s volume aside with 
the intention of referring to it whenever any 
thing is wanted concerning Algeria and Tunis. 
No doubt the Germans have a lack of perspective. 
To many of them a fact is a fact, to be investi- 
gated and recorded : and their books are therefore 
often wearying in the extreme. But, after all, 
they do the work. They accomplish results which 
never have been and never will be accomplished 
by the French method of grabbing at whatever 
is picturesque and entertaining, and fiinging the 
rest contemptuously aside. In the present volume 
the author has done his work conscientiously and 
well. Portions of it are dreary reading; but there 
are many interesting chapters. Especially worthy 
of mention are three chapters on the ethnology of 
the countries visited, — the eighth, on Algeria and 
its inhabitants; the eleventh, dealing with the 
Kabyles ; and the twenty-third, on the Tunisians. 
His route was via Marseilles; and the first chap- 
ter, describing that city, is one of the very best in 
the book. In short, American travellers who in- 
tend writing up their journeyings would do weil 
to imitate in some measure the methods of Dr. 
Kobelt. The volume is well illustrated, both with 
photographs of scenery and of natives. It con- 
tains also an appendix of considerable value, 
by Dr. O. Boettger, describing the reptiles and 
amphibia collected by the author in North Africa. 
Besides the lack of an index, the volume is defi- 
cient in that it contains no map. This is the 
more to be regretted, as the learned doctor's route 
is by no means easy to follow on any but a recent 
German map of Algeria and Tunis, and recent 
German maps of those regions are to be found in 
this country only in our larger libraries. 

Roémische chronologie. 

mer, 1885. 8°. 

In his ‘ Roman chronology’ Dr. Holzapfel aims 
at correcting Roman dates, as commonly given, 
by a minute process, which, at least as regards the 
earliest dates, is certainly its own best refutation. 
He deals also with the various Roman eras in cur- 
rent use among the ancients. Finally, he attempts 
to give a detailed account of ‘the course of the 
Roman calendar down to the time of Caesar’s re- 
form.” In 1859, Theodor Mommsen, guided by a 
practical good sense, which Dr. Holzapfel hardly 
possesses, dealt with all these questions in his 
‘Roman chronology.’ Though in many details 
Mommsen’s conclusions can no longer be accepted, 
notably as regards the chronological significance 
of the appointment of a dictator clavi figendi 
causa, it is still true that Mommsen’s book is the 
best upon the subject. The cardinal fault of Dr. 
Holzapfel’s work is, that it is inextricably in- 
comprehensible without the unremitting labor of 


Von L. HOLzAPFEL. Leipzig, Teub- 


SCTENCE. 


261 


constant reference to what has been written by 
others. The reader is distressed by a needless clat- 
ter of controversy, which seems to indicate that 
Dr. Holzapfel does not sufficiently trust his own 
conclusions. All who are not actually bearing the 
brunt of the chronological fray will find this book 
unrefreshing and confusing ; and those who are 
well read in the whole subject may well pause 
before tormenting themselves with our author’s 
argumentations. The bovk is conspicuously lack- 
ing in neatness of statement. There is no sense 
of proportion, no prospective. The ‘ peasants’ 
calendar ’ and the business year of ten months are 
practically ignored. And yet what could be of 
more importance than the former, in any account 
of the conditions which made Caesar’s reformed 
calendar a possibility as well as a necessity? It is 
to be lamented that Dr. Holzapfel could not find 
time to make his book both shorter and more com- 
plete. This ‘ Roman chronology,’ with its tediously 
paraded controversies and its sophomoric list of 
emendations, ostentatiously placed at the end, is 
an overgrown ‘ doctor’s dissertation’ rather than a 
desirable book of reference. 
A_ text-book of inorganic chemistry. By VicToR VON 
RIcHTER. Authorized translation by Edgar F. Smith. 


2d American from the 4th German ed. Philadelphia, 
Blakiston, 1835. 16°. 


THAT Professor Smith’s translation of Richter’s 
useful text-book of inorganic chemistry has passed 
to a second edition, is perhaps sufficient testimony 
to its value. Much has been rewritten, and some 
new matter incorporated ; but the work would 
have gained in clearness and smoothness if more 
attention had been paid to the rendering of the 
sense, rather than the phraseology, of the original. 
Spectrum analysis. By Sir HENRY E, Roscoe. 4th ed. by 


the author and by Arthur Schuster, Ph.D., F.R.S. 
New York, Macmillan, 1886. §°. 


THE fourth edition of Roscoe’s ‘Lectures on 
spectrum analysis,’ wholly revised, almost wholly 
rewritten, and including concise accounts of such 
recent advances of importance in spectroscopy as 
lend themselves to popular treatment, follows 
closely the plan and arrangement of its predeces- 
sors, and appears in the same elegant guise. The 
character and scope of the work are too well 
known to need extended comment. 


ST. PETERSBURG LETTER. 


On the 11th of February there was a special 
meeting of the Geographical society, in honor of 
N. M. Prjevalsky. The large hall of the Michael 
palace, where the meeting was held, was crowded 
by a distinguished audience. In a short prelim- 
inary address, the vice-president, P. P. Semenow, 
spoke of the merits of the traveller, and reminded 


262 


his hearers that in his absence this time, Prjevalsky 
had received two of the highest honors conferred 
on travellers, —the Vega medal of Sweden, and 
the gold medal of the Italian geographical society. 

It is impossible to see and hear the celebrated 
traveller without being struck with his fitness to 
do so difficult and extraordinary a work. With 
an iron constitution, a rare force of will, the still 
rarer faculty to command, and communicate his 
euthusiasm to the picked men who followed him, 
it was possible for the small band of twenty Rus- 
sians to explore thousands of miles in the heart of 
Asia, on the higbest plateaus of our globe, amid 
the greatest hardships and often dangers. 

In going to so distant a country and one so diffi- 
cult to explore, the personal comforts of the trav- 
ellers had to be sacrificed, their stock of food 
consisting of dzamba (wheat or barley flour roasted) 
and brick-tea, animal food being furnished by the 
chase. Their principal baggage consisted of arms 
and ammunition, as their safety, as well as the 
success of their zoological collections, was depend- 
ent upon them. Perhaps the greatest hardship 
encountered by the expedition was the want of 
good fuel with which to warm themselves, cook 
their food, and make tea. The greater part of 
the countries traversed is treeless, and dried dung 
the only fuel. This is tolerable in winter, spring, 
and autumn, when the wind is from the north. 
Then Thibet is generally dry ; but in summer it 
rains nearly every day, and snows sometimes, and 
the air is rather humid. 

The principal results of this fourth expedition 
of Prjevalsky consist in an extension of the sur- 
veys westward from north-eastern Thibet to coun- 
tries absolutely unknown. Now they are con- 
nected by lines of surveys eastward to Prjevalsky’s 
former road-surveys, northward to Lake Lop-Nor., 
and westward to the existing Russian and English 
surveys in Chinese Turkestan. This expedition 
has proved that very high chains of mountains, 
with peaks over twenty thousand feet high, rise 
southward from the lower northern plateaus of 
high Asia (as Zaidam, the basin of the Tarim, etc.), 
and that these mountains trend from west to east, 
there being no meridional chains. There are no 
large glaciers in the greater part of these moun- 
tains, but there are enormous ones on the northern 
slope of the Kiria chain (so named from the city 
and oasis at their foot, in Chinese Turkestan). 

The annual commencement of the St. Peters- 
burg university was held Feb. 20, in the large 
university hall. The report was read by Professor 
Wassiliewsky, and began, as usual, with necro- 
logical notes on deceased professors or honorary 
members of the university. The chief remarks 
were devoted to the celebrated historian of Russia, 


SCIENCE. 


Professor Kostomarow, and to N. W. Kalatschow, 
an eminent archeologist. Statistical notices fol- 
lowed. The number of students by faculties, was, 
compared with the last two years — 


Physico- =! | . 

oO 8 = 2 

mathematical. ) = se 
Year.|_ Tatar es as Law. | Totals. 

Mathe- | Natural Ro = bo 

matical. | sciences. | mS Os 
1884 534 568 253 57 834 2,246 
1885 485 552 268 76 906 2,282 
1886 531 437 252 79 981 2,230 


It is seen from this table that the university has 
a large number of students; and this is the more 
remarkable, since it has no medical faculty, and 
this faculty in other Russian universities has more 
than one-third of all the students. The most 
notable feature of the changes in the last two 
years is the increase in the number of law stu- 
dents. By far the larger number of Russian stu- 
dents, after passing their examinations, enter the 
state service; and law studies are preferred, as 
giving a better opening than the other faculties. 
The decrease of the students in natural science is 
caused by the easier admission into the Medico- 
chirurgical academy and higher technical schools. 
A few years ago this academy abolished its first 
two ‘courses,’ which gave a general preparation 
in natural sciences, retaining only the last three 
special courses. Thus the medical students were 
compelled first to enter one of the Russian univer- 
sities ; and the medical faculty at Moscow, and 
the section of natural sciences at St. Petersburg, 
were crowded far beyond their available room 
and means of their existing museums and labo- 
ratories. The return to the old system at the 
Medico-chirurgical academy, and the somewhat 
easier admission at some of the technical schools, 
have freed the university of a great number of 
such students, to the profit of the others. 

Then followed a lecture by Professor Woeikof, 
‘On the cooling of the globe in connection with 
the distribution of temperatures in the solid crust 
of the globe and the ocean;” after which the 
rector, Professor Andreiewsky, mentioned the 
medals and other marks of distinction received 
by the students. Besides these, the university 
awarded one of the Tljenkow premiums of five 


hundred rubles to P. T. Brounow, for his works 


(Von. VIL, No. 163 9 


on cyclones and anticyclones in Russia, one of 


which has been printed in the Proceedings of the 
Geographical society. 
It is interesting to mention a feature of Russian 


Marca 19, 1886.] 


university life which is developed nowhere so 
much as at St. Petersburg : it is the large number 
of students who receive ‘stipends’ (scholarships). 
About one-fourth of the students (in all, 577) re- 
ceive regular scholarships; and, as those of the 
first year are excluded from them, the percentage 
is much higher in the three later years. The 
yearly expenses of the university in 1885 were 
four hundred and thirty-five thousand rubles. 


O. E. 
St. Petersburg, Feb. 26. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 

THE Rev. W. C. Winslow, 429 Beacon Street, 
Boston, treasurer and vice-president of the Egypt 
exploration fund for America, writes as follows : 
‘¢ The invaluable labors of our society in the Delta 
were successfully resumed in December. The 
splendid results of 1883-84 and 1884-85, for classical, 
historical, and biblical elucidation and illustration, 
are familiar to scholars and to a large portion of 
the reading public. The work is in the hands of 
masters ; but these labors cannot go on without 
continued support. To those who contribute so 
small a sum as five dollars the elaborate memoir 
of the season, annual reports, etc., are sent. The 
book ‘Naucratis’ (forty plates and plans) is in 
preparation ; ‘ Tanis II.’ (Zoan) will follow. The 
officers and the committee all give their services 
gratuitously. To all interested a circular and 
other information will be gladly furnished by the 
treasurer.” 


— The winter habitat of the mackerel is not yet 
definitely ascertained. It is interesting, therefore, 
to place upon record the fact, noted in the cir- 
cular of the Boston fish bureau of March 5, that 
the schooner Fitz J. Babson of Gloucester was 
struck by a heavy sea on the 27th of February, 
when about twenty miles north of Georges 
Banks. When the water had disappeared, eight 
mackerel were found flipping about the deck. 
The spring mackerel fleet is being fitted out some- 
what earlier than has been usual in former years, 
on account of this indication of the proximity of 
-the mackerei schools to the coast. 


—A committee of geologists and naturalists 
invite subscriptions to a monument to Oswald 
Heer, whose death two years and a half ago 
closed the work of one of the most eminent 
naturalists of this century. It will take the form 
of a marbie bust on a stone pedestal, to be placed 
under cover in the Botanic garden at Zurich. 
One thousand dollars are desired, and those will- 
ing to contribute are invited to send their con- 
tributions to Dr. C. Schréter, Professor, Hot- 
tingen, Zurich, before the first of May next, or to 


SCIENCE. 


263 


the editor of Science, 47 Lafayette Place, New 
York, who will see that they are forwarded. 


—Dr. Austin Flint, the most celebrated of 
American physicians, died in New York, March 
13, aged seventy-four. Probably no one person 
has ever exerted so great an influence in medical 
education, and in the medical profession of Amer- 
ica, as has Dr. Flint through his text-books and 
teachings. 

— Professor Ward’s ‘Sketch of paleobotany’ 
(Fifth annual report, U.S. geol. surv.) is an excel- 
lent work, and one to which the title does not do 
justice. The work comprises biographical sketches 
of twenty-two of the most eminent leaders of the 
science, followed by a ‘sketch’ of the early his- 
tory and subsequent progress of paleobotany, 
which must have involved a large amount of 
labor. After this follows a discussion of the classifi- 
cation of fossil botany. Between eight and nine 
thousand species of fossil plants are now known, 
two of which are from the Cambrian, nearly 
fifteen hundred from the carboniferous, and over 
three thousand from the miocene, with only sixty- 
nine from the trias, and less than four hundred 
older than the carboniferous. In his introductory 
remarks upon the inter-relation of geology, paleo- 
botany, and botany, the author expresses surprise 
that the mutual dependence of botany and paleo- 
botany has received so little recognition among 
scientific men, and presents the importance of 
studying fossil and living plants together. Cer- 
tainly with this view every naturalist ought hear- 
tily to concur. What he complains of in fossil 
botany has been unfortunately too true in other 
branches of paleontology. 

— Mr. Gilbert’s report on the ‘ Topographic 
features of lake shores,’ in the ‘ Fifth annual re- 
port of the geological survey,’ is of especial 
interest from the author’s wide experience on the 
‘fossil’ shore-lines of the evaporated lakes of the 
Great Basin, and from his studies of the former 
expansion of Lake Ontario, now in progress. The 
several topographic forms are well defined, and 
illustrated by maps and views. The plates of the 
Cup Butte and other portions of the old Bonne- 
ville shore-line in Utah are particularly valuable. 
A large share of shore-work is attributed to the 
waves and littoral currents of great storms, just 
as the greater part of river-channel topography is . 
determined by the heavy and exceptional floods. 
The bars at the western end of Lake Superior are 
adduced in illustration of the statement that the 
greatest waves, and not the prevailing winds, of 
a shore, will define its topography. 


— Mr. Westwood Oliver, with the assistance of 
a number of astronomers, has in preparation a 


264 


practical manual of ‘Astronomical work for 
amateurs,’ the aim of which will be to help the 
possessors of limited instrumental means to turn 
their attention to astronomical researches of real 
scientific utility, special attention being directed 
to the comparatively new fields of spectroscopy 
and celestial photography. The book will be pub- 
lished by Messrs. Longmans & Co. Mr. Oliver, 
in the mean time, invites suggestions from prac- 
tical workers, which may be sent to him at Loch- 
winnoch, Scotland. 


— ‘ The weather journal’ (Cincinnati, S. S. Bass- 
ler) is the title of a new weekly paper to be de- 
voted to the general meteorology of the eastern 
United States, illustrated by tri-daily charts of 
the movements of the atmosphere and the distri- 
bution of atmospheric pressure and temperature. 


— The wealth and richness of the illustrations 
of Mr. I. C. Russell’s ‘Recent glaciers of the 
United States’ (Fifth annual report, U.S. geol. 
surv.) would alone give his work value, but they 
serve only to embellish what without them is a 
very interesting treatise. Some of the engravings 
of Mounts Shasta and Dana are especially strik- 
ing. One is surprised to learn of the extent to 
which glaciers occur in the United States through- 
out the northern Sierra Nevada and Rocky moun- 
tains, while in the Cascade Mountains are numer- 
ous ones, flowing through narrow defiles and 
over precipices, and, as the author says, by no 
means unworthy of comparison with the ice-fields 
of Switzerland and Scandinavia. In Alaska the 
catalogue is still further extended, embracing 
numerous examples of alpine glaciers as magnifi- 
cent as any in the world. 


— Professor Chamberlin’s paper, in the ‘ Fifth 
annual report of the U. 8. geological survey,’ on 
artesian wells, is one that cannot help but be of 
practical value. It was the author’s aim to in- 
clude in convenient form such information rela- 
tive to the qualifying conditions of artesian wells 
as may be capable of brief, general statement, 
and may seem to be serviceable alike to citizen, 
driller, and geologist ; and he has evidently suc- 
ceeded. 


—Some novel and interesting applications of 
instantaneous photography to the study of the 
movements of the heart and intestines have re- 
cently been made by Dr. W. G. Thompson, 
Photographs of rabbits’, pigeons’, cats’, and frogs’ 
hearts were made in different stages of systole and 
diastole, showing the action more clearly and ac- 
curately than is possible by other methods. In 
addition to the value of such in physiological 
teaching, the most practical application of the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 163 


method will be the illustration of the changes in 
the form of the heart and intestines produced by 
drugs ; and the author believes the process may 
be further extended to the study of the contrac- 
tions of the stomach, bladder, and diaphragm, 
and other viscera. . 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


x*x Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name is in ali cases required as proof of good jaith. 


The trade in spurious Mexican antiquities. 


A NOTE supplementary to my paper on Mexican 
pottery, published in your issue of Feb. 19, may be 
of interest to'a number of readers. 

The fradulent specimens referred to reach this 
country in two ways,—through the agency of 
travellers who purchased them in Mexico, and 
through traders who ship them to New York in 
large lots. From recent observations I have reached 
the conclusion that there are now in the collections 
of this country specimens valued at many thousands 
of dollars, yet which, since they are fraudulent and 
in every way vicious, are not worth the trouble of 
breaking up and casting away. Peru is hardly less 
fully represented, as the factories in that country 
have been at work for a number of years. 

The detection of modern work is in many cases a 
difficult matter, but in others a decision is easily 
reached. With reference to the Peruvian frauds, it 
may be taken for granted that new-looking speci- 


mens are new, and, besides, that many old-appear- 


ing pieces are new. If exterior appearances are not 
sufficient to satisfy the collector as to the age of 
suspected pieces, let him break some very narrow- 
necked vessel, either of the light terra-cotta colored or 
of the black ware, and he will probably find that the 
inside is innocent of any stain of age. 

I may add that objects of stone from both of these 
countries need careful inspection. 


W. H. Homes. 
Washington, D.C. 


The anachronisms of pictures. 


The articles of Professors Holder and Lockwood 
(Science, vii. 220 and 242) remind me of what I saw 
many years ago in one of the ladies’ magazines, —a 
picture of the embarkation of the Pilgrims from 
Delft Haven, with steamships at anchor in the bay. 
An enterprising artist!—only about two hundred 
years ahead of his time, and the picture probably 
“drawn by our artist on the spot.’ C..G3 

Homer, N.Y. 


Is the dodo an extinct bird? 


It is very improbable that the dodo has been found 
in the Samoan Islands, alive or fossil. It inhabited 
the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon in thé Indian 
Ocean. The bird alluded to by Mr. Hopkins as still 
living in Samoa is probably the Didunculus, a speci- 
men of which I well remember in the collection of _ 
Sir William Jardine, the famous ornithologist. Sir ~ 
William thought the Didunculus was allied to the 
dodo and the pigeon. W.S. Symonps. 

The camp, Sunningdale, Feb. 29. 


SCIENCE.—SuPPLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1886. 


VIEWS OF ECONOMISTS ON THE SILVER 
PROBLEM. 


i. 


Wuat laws should congress enact, regulating 
the coinage of silver at the present juncture? To 
this question, nakedly put, I am obliged to answer 
that I do not know. The reason I do not know is, 
that I am not in possession of the minute knowl- 
edge necessary to enable me to give a satisfactory 
answer to the question. It is extremely necessary 
to the smooth and orderly course of business that 
the current dollar, when measured in terms of 
human labor, should vary as little as possible 
from year to year and from generation to gener- 
ation. If we compare the value of the gold ina 
gold dollar with the value of the silver in a silver 
dollar, we shall find that the former, instead of 
being equal to or less than the latter, as it was up 
to 1873, is twenty-five per cent greater. Taking 
gold as a standard, the value of the silver ina 
dollar has fallen twenty per cent. Taking silver 
as the standard, gold has appreciated twenty-five 
per cent. If the silver dollar is the least variable 
one, then silver coinage should be free, provided 
that the proper quantity of silver is put into the 
dollar; otherwise gold should be the standard. 
Thus the first question which meets us is whether 
the silver or the gold standard is the least variable, 
when measured in terms of human labor. 

Now, this is a question of fact, to be settled, not 
by speculation or by abstract reasoning, but by a 
careful and exhaustive analysis of manufactures, 
prices, wages, and industry, not only in this 
country, but in the leading countries of the 
world. Without this analysis, nothing I could 
say on the subject would be final. It would 
take me a year, and would require help from 
a great number of experts, to make the neces- 
sary statistical investigation ; and I have not the 
time to dothis. When considering the problem, I 
feel as if on board a ship in a narrow channel, on a 
dark night, listening to adiscussion among the sail- 
ors as to whether they shall steer to the right or 
left. If they ask me what they shall do, I answer, 
that the only way I see to proceed is to take sound- 
ings from point to point until they determine, as 
nearly as possible, where the middle of the 


channel is, and then to follow it as closely as 
they can. 

Have I, then, no impression or views whatever 
on the subject? I reply, that I have no views so 
well founded but that I would like better ones 
before advising action. My impressions I am 
ready to give, with the proviso that I retain the 
right to reverse them to-morrow if any new 
light of a nature to change them is thrown on the 
subject. 

Firstly, to begin with the subject in its more 
remote and general bearings, I am of opinion that 
a dollar composed of a fixed weight of either of 
the precious metals will not serve the purposes of 
the world’s business indefinitely. The increase 
of wealth must. it seems to me, make gold more 
valuable, unless the supply is continually in- 
creased. Without being able to give an exhaus- 
tive investigation of the subject, the impression 
which I have derived from statistical tables is, 
that the consumption of gold in the arts the 
world over is now fully equal to the annual 
supply, and is continually increasing. If the lat- 
ter is not increased, the former will speedily 
exceed it, and then the stock of gold on hand, 
and available for money, will slowly diminish. 
The necessary result will be an appreciation harm- 
ful to the standard. 

Secondly, although I look upon this apprecia- 
tion as inevitable at some future time, the weight 
of evidence seems to me to be in favor of the 
view that it has not yet commenced, or at least 
has not taken place in a serious degree. It is true 
that this statement runs counter to the impressions 
which one derives from tables of prices, and 
especially from the tables published from time to 
time by the London Economist; but there is a 
defect in these tables which has not been suffi- 
ciently taken account of. The prices are mostly 
those of metals, grains, and other comparatively 
raw materials, which are made and sold on a 
large scale. Now, the production of these staples 
has been enormously increased in late years by 
the opening-up of new sources of supply, and the 
invention of improved methods of extraction and 
production. Besides, they represent but a small 
fraction of the total product of human labor. 
They cannot, therefore, afford us the required 
basis of comparison. 

What we should principally depend upon are 
those articles in whose production no great im- 
provement has been made. We should also take 


266 


them in proportion to the quantities produced or 
consumed. About a year ago I made an approxi- 
mate determination of this kind, with the follow- 
ing result : a certain collection of the necessaries 
of life, representing a nearly fixed amount of 
human labor, had the following values at different 
periods : * — 
In 1876 the collection was worth $111.66 


ee 1880 “ec t. “sé ee 98,27 
6c 1884 be 73 6s ts 101.33 


Assuming that the absolute value of the above- 
mentioned collection of the necessaries of life, 
measured in terms of human labor, remains in- 
variable, and that it is the standard dollar which 
changes value, then we see that the latter did 
really appreciate between 1876 and 1880, but 
slightly depreciated between 1880 and 1884. 

Another test is afforded by the price of a house, 
because, taking it altogether, it requires as much 
labor to build a house now as it did ten or twenty 
years ago. ‘So far as I can learn, the cost of such 
a building is higher now than it was ten years 
ago, and has not diminished any for several years 
past. I conclude, therefore, that house-builders 
in general can, on the average, earn as many 
standard gold dollars now in a day as they ever 
did. 

A third test is afforded by the rate of wages. 
Professor Hadley’s ‘Connecticut labor report’ 
shows that in Connecticut the rate of wages was 
the same in 1885 as in 1880: hence Connecticut 
operatives earn as many gold dollars now as they 
did in 1880. 

Up to the present time we have actually had 
the gold standard, since the value of our silver 
dollars has been kept up to that standard by 
restricting their coinage. Were we to make the 
coinage of silver free on the present basis, it would 
cause a sudden and disastrous fall of twenty per 
cent in the standard. It is clear to me that this 
should not be permitted. If any more silver is 
coined, each dollar should contain a dollar’s worth 
of metal, as measured by the standard which has 
prevailed during the past ten years; that is, the 
dollar should contain about 520 grains of standard 
or 468 of pure silver. I think all parties might 
well agree on this policy for the present. But 
they should all unite in demanding the creation 
of a government commission, composed of men 
wholly above the ordinary influence of politics, 
to determine how the standard dollar is actually 
changing when compared with human labor, and 
to make known the results of their investigation 
from time to time. SIMON NEWCOMB. 


1 The table on which this is founded is given in my Prin- 
ciples of political economy, p. 211. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 163 


i. 

THE so-called ‘ silver question’ is one of the most 
complicated and difficult issues in our politics now 
pressing for solution. It has excited an immense 
amount of debate which has been partisan and 
ignorant, even beyond the ordinary run of political 
discussion. This arises from a number of circum- 
stances, two of which are especially important ; 
viz., (1) that the decision of the matter involves 
pecuniary interests of enormous extent, and (2) 
that some of the most important facts necessary 
to an intelligent decision are not attainable by any 
means now within our reach. The lack of accu- 
rate knowledge has led many to indulge in the 
most unwarranted flights of fancy, while the feel- 
ing that one line of action or the other might in- 
terfere with vested interests has lent the personal 
element so visible in all debates on the subject. 

I can do but little, in the space accorded me, 
toward discussing the question in its broader as- 
pect, and shall therefore limit myself to a criticism 
of some of the most common arguments advanced 
by those who oppose the re-establishment in this 
and other countries of the so-called double stand- 
ard. 

1. The attempt is made, by those who oppose the 
re-establishment of the so-called double standard, 
to cast a slur upon their opponents by representing 
them as quacks who desire to try dangerous ex- 
periments on the body of a healthy patient. This 
is very good rhetoric, but very poor science. It is 
only within about fifteen years that any general 
experiment has been made in the civilized world to 
substitute a single gold standard for the so-called 
double standard. Since that time it would seem 
as if there were but one phenomenon common to 
all civilized nations, and that is. commercial and 
industrial depression, — depression in which pro- 
tection and free-trade countries, republics and 
monarchies, small and large states, manufactur- 
ing and agricultural communities, have alike - 
shared. Labor difficulties, agricultural ruin, com- 
mercial decay, form the subject of numerous re- 
ports and commissions in all European countries. 
In a word, the patient is not in a healthy condi- 
tion at all. In fact, it would appear, on a close 
examination, as if he were in a very bad way in- 
deed ; and it is not by any means clear that his 
present sad state is not greatly aggravated by the 
attempt which the gold doctors made some fifteen 
years ago to discard the treatment which had 
prevailed in this sphere for centuries previous. 
So far, then, from being open to the charge of 
wishing to make unnecessary experiments, the 
silver doctors may claim that they merely ask for 
a return to a course of life under which the in- 
dustry of the world had developed up to 1870, 


Marcu 19, 1886.] 


and from which the gold doctors persuaded the 
world to depart at that time, with the unsatis- 
factory result now before us. 

2. The attempt is also made to make the advo- 
cates of bimetallism in this country appear as 
favoring a breach of faith. This is, of course, a 
serious charge, and is deserving of careful con- 
sideration. We began in this country with the 
system of so-called double standard under which 
a man might pay his debts, either in gold at the 
rate of 24.75 grains of pure gold to the dollar, or 
in silver at the rate of 371.25 grains of pure silver 
to the dollar. This plan continued until 1834, 
when the amount of pure gold was changed to 
23.20, and in 1837 to 23.22, silver remaining un- 
changed. It was expected, of course, that under 
this system the debtor would use the cheapest 
metal, and would pay in gold or silver, according 
as it was easier for him to get 285.22 grains of gold 
or 371.25 grains of silver in the form of dollars. 
This device was deliberately adopted in 1794, after 
full discussion, as being calculated to further the 
monetary and industrial interests of the country 
by keeping up the supply of money. It was con- 
tinued without change until 1873. Asa result of 
the change in valuation of the gold coin in 1834, 
it was cheaper for the debtor to pay his obliga- 
tions in gold than in silver; and the latter metal 
disappeared from circulation, leaving a currency, 
so far as it was metallic, of gold alone, if we 
except the token-silver currency, which was a 
legal tender only to five dollars. 

In 18783 this option of paying either in gold or 
silver was taken from the debtor by a modification 
of our coinage laws. About the same time the 
value of silver began to fall. Under a metallic 
currency, this would have led to the payment of 
debts in silver, if the law conferring the option of 
paying debts in either silver or gold had not been 
repealed in 1873. All debts contracted prior to 
1873 had been contracted under this option. This 
option was a part of the contract ; and the debtor 
had a perfect right to complain if the law inter- 
fered to take it away, and thereby practically 
increase the burden of his obligation. Legally 
speaking, then, the debtor had the right to insist 
that he should have the option of paying in silver ; 
and all talk about the debtor trying to evade his 
obligations, or taking refuge behind the law, and 
therefore deserving reprobation, is not to the 
point. He is simply trying to do what our laws 
encouraged him to do up to 1873, with the idea 
that his taking advantage of the law would fur- 
ther all interests in the country by forcing a re- 
course to the cheaper metal when one of them 
became too dear. . 

The case is still further complicated by the fact 


SCIENCE. 


267 


that the general demonetization of silver hastened 
its fall in price, thus widening the distance be- 
tween the value of gold and silver. The creditor 
class pointed to this great disparity, which they 
had themselves increased by their influence in 
government, as a proof of the great injustice 
which would be dene by continuing the option of 
paying in silver. The debtors answered, that, if 
they had been allowed to exercise the option which 
existed when the debt was contracted, this would 
have been done as soon as silver was the least bit 
lower than gold, and the consequent use of silver 
would have prevented its fall. The argument, so far 
as the case of creditor vs. debtor is concerned, may 
be considered about even. The creditor is always 
trying to induce the government to adopt a policy 
(i.e., to try experiments) which will increase the 
burden of existing obligations; and when any 
attempt is made to force the government to give 
up such a policy once adopted, the creditor in- 
dulges in much loud talk about the danger of 
experimenting with the currency, and interfering 
with vested interests, and frightening away capital, 
etc. The debtor takes the opposite ground ex- 
actly ; and one may be set over against the other 
with the remark that the money-lending class has 
never been so distinguished for truth-loving or 
disinterestedness, that we are justified in accept- 
ing their statement of the case to the extent which 
is characteristic of our industrial society. 

3. Looking at the question from the stand-point 
of the permanent interest of society as distin- 
guished from the immediate relation of debtor 
and creditor, it is certainly not by any means 
proven that we have yet reached such a stage of 
economic development as would enable us to get 
along with gold alone in our currency. A per- 
sistent and continued fall in prices is the same 
disturbing influence in our social and industrial 
economy, whether it come from a scarcity of 
gold or a contraction of credit ; to which latter 
cause some monometallists ascribe the late fall in 
prices. The attempt is made to cast a slur upon 
the ‘silverites’ by calling them inflationists, as if 
to be an inflationist were the greatest of monetary 
sins. It would seem to be a sin of the same kind, 
and of even greater magnitude, to be a contrac- 
tionist, since a policy of slow contraction in the 
world’s currency is certainly productive of far 
more harm to the world’s economy than the pro- 
cess of slow inflation which might occur under 
the action of a so-called double standard. 

It is agreed by most economists that the ideal 
money will be stable in value. Many economists 
think that by a double standard a greater fixity of 
value may be attained than by a single standard. 
The fluctuations may be more numerous, but will 


268 


not beso great. All agree that we have not yet found 
an ideal standard in this respect. Every material 
which has ever been adopted as money varies in 
value continually, either falling or rising, and thus 
causing a consequent shifting of property from the 
hands of one class to another, and practically pro- 
ducing the same results as a contraction or infla- 
tion of the money-supply. We must choose, then, 
between an appreciating or depreciating standard, 
between a policy of contraction or one of inflation. 
This is purely a practical question, and is one 
mainly of degree. A high degree of inflation may 
be more injurious than alow degree of contraction. 
But as between a ten per cent contraction, for in- 
stance, and a ten per cent inflation, of the world’s 
metallic currency at the present time, I have no 
hesitation in giving it as my opinion that the 
former would be of enormously greater damage to 
our modern society than the latter. This is, of 
course, a very different question from that involved 
in the contraction or inflation of the paper cur- 
rency of a single country. 

A system of contraction, an appreciating world 
currency, means, under ordinary circumstances, 
a world-wide industrial depression. It means an in- 
creasing burden of debt, ‘‘the cherishing of a for- 
tune made at the expense of a fortune making,” the 
encouragement of the non-productive at the expense 
of the productive classes, the injuring of those 
who live by current labor for the benefit of those 
living on past labor, the giving to the past a firm 
grip on the throat of the present ; it means, in a 
word, stagnation of business, idleness and poverty, 
to the full extent of the influence of changes in 
the currency on trade and industry. 

4. It is claimed that such an inflation of the 
currency as would result from a return to the 
double standard would injure the wage-receiving 
class. There is little doubt that the laborers 
would be among the last classes in the community 
to adapt themselves to the inevitable change 
incident to an inflation of the currency. Wages 
would be among the last things to rise. Still there 
are worse things than a failure of wages to rise 
correspondingly to rise in cost of living ; as, for 
instance, falling wages, and diminishing oppor- 
tunity to receive any wages at all, which has been 
rather a characteristic of the last dozen years the 
world over. 

5. It is sometimes said, that, if we are to go 
back to a double standard, we should at least take 
the market ratio now prevailing, and increase the 
amount of the silver in the dollar proportionally. 
This would not be advisable, for the simple fact 
that it is highly probable that much of the present 
depreciation of silver, if we allow that it has depre- 
ciated at all, is owing to the fact that it has been 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 165 


discarded from the circulation. Restoring it to its 
old place by the side of gold will tend to restore 
its value, and to adopt the ratio now prevailing 
would be likely to prove a gross mistake. Neither 
a due respect for pecuniary obligations, nor a 
proper regard for the facts of history, would allow 
any such compromise. 

6. Finally, we may say that the whole question 
is discussed too much from the supposed immediate 
effect of a restoration of silver, and not enough 
from its permanent tendencies. It is claimed that 
a return to a double standard will end in a com- 
mercial crisis, in which values will be enormously 
disturbed, and the whole industrial world will be 
thrown into confusion. Even if this be granted, 
it does not by any means prove that we should 
not return to the old system, since the evil effects 
of continuing the present policy may be infinitely 
greater. Stagnation of business, increase of bur- 
dens on the productive classes, by a continued 
appreciation of debts, are likely to prove more 
ruinous by far to national welfare than the specu- 
lation, disturbance of value, and scaling of debts, 
incident to the comparatively slight inflation 
which would follow a restoration of the silver 
standard, even at the old ratio, provided it were 
general. K. J. JAMES. 


II. 


1. Ir was supposed by many people that the act 
of Feb. 28, 1878, by the terms of which the pres- 
ent coinage of silver dollars is continued, would 
keep up the price of silver, which by that year 
had fallen from the old and normal price of about 
60d. per ounce (English standard, 37-40 fine) to 
52 9-16d., indicating a change in the ratio of gold 
to silver from about 1:15.5 to 1:17.92. Of course, 
the Bland bill was not passed solely by congress- 
men who had this opinion,’ since it was also advo- 
cated by inflationists and silver-owners. But I pro- 
pose to address those who, without any improper 
or pecuniary interest involved, believe that the 
use of silver on a large scale by the United States 
is desirable. These are honest people, and deserve 
something else than invective. They believed 
that the action of the United States would aid 
somewhat in restoring the value of silver, and 
they felt, and still feel, that the disuse of silver 
was a great calamity to the vast world of industry 
here and abroad. 

Now, what has been the effect on the value of 
silver, of the coinage of $24,000,000 a year by the 
United States since 1878? Has it raised the value 
of silver? No, not in the least. On the contrary, 

1 [have given somewhat fully the reasons which brought 


about the passage of this act, in my History of bimetallism in 
the United States, chap. xiii. 


Marca 19, 1886. | 


silver has continued to fall in price since our legis- 
lation, until it is now permanently selling at as low 
a price as has ever been recorded, even in the excep- 
tional period of July, 1876. The lowest point ever 
reached in the silver panic of 1876 for a few days 
was 46 3-4d. per ounce; but since September, 1885, 
it has steadily remained about or a little below 
that point. In other words, silver has fallen about 
eleven per cent more since the act of 1878 was 
passed. The supposed effect of that legislation, 
then, has never been produced, and the act ought 
not to be retained on the ground that the coinage 
of $24,000.000 a year can prevent the decline in 
the value of silver. 

2. It will be said, however, by some, that this 
decline in the price of silver is a decline relatively 
to gold alone, and that since the values of articles 
other than silver have also fallen, relatively to gold, 
since 1873, we must declare that the value of gold 
has increased, and that the value of silver has not 
fallen. Now, no one can deny, that, when gold 
prices fall, the value of gold is increased : that 
has happened even when the supply of gold was 
rapidly increasing, as in the panic year of 1857, 
But I cannot think that there is any evidence to 
show that the fall of prices since 1873 has been 
due to the scarcity of gold, as has been asserted. 
If gold has greater purchasing-power owing to a 
fall of prices, that does not necessarily imply any 
conclusion whatever as to the scarcity of gold for 
the uses of trade. To say that, because prices rise 
or fall, there is a greater or less quantity of metal- 
lic money capable of being used, is, in my opinion, 
to commit a grave economic error. It certainly 
overlooks the practical business habits of the com- 
mercial world. While impossible to offer full 
reasons in so brief a paper in favor of my position, 
{ can at least outline my ideas in a general way. 

3. Prices at any given time are quite as much 
the result of credit as of the quantity of metallic 
money. As J. 5S. Mill said, ‘“‘In a state of com- 
merce in which much credit is habitually given, 
general prices at any moment depend much more 
upon the state of credit than upon the quantity of 
money.” When credit in its various forms is ex- 
panded in a time of commercial activity just pre- 
ceding a crisis, we all know to what great heights 
the prices of almost all articles can be carried. 
Purchasing-power in any form, whether money or 
credit, is used to buy goods, and is not caused by 
the existence of a few speculators, but by the state 
of mind throughout the community. And we 
know also, that, when the crisis comes, prices fall 
irrespective of the quantity of money. Of such 
changes, however, an objector might say that they 
are temporary, while the fall of prices since 1873 
has been so prolonged that it cannot be due to 


SCIENCE. 


269 


temporary causes. But varieties of credit-de- 
vices, by which goods are exchanged against each 
other without the use of metallic (or even paper) 
money, continue in permanent use. I can only 
mention one of these by way of illustration, — the 
check system. Receiving $10,000 in money, as 
a manufacturer of cotton goods, I deposit it to 
my order in a bank. When I want to pay 
B for raw cotton, I send him a check for 
$10,000. B now owns the right to draw the 
deposit, and he pays C by a check for $10,000 for 
machinery ; and D and E follow the same method 
of payment. During this procedure no money 
has been drawn, but the deposit served as the 
basis for transactions to the amount of, perhaps, 
$50,000 or more. The check, as a credit-device, 
was purchasing-power, and, when offered for 
goods, affected prices as much as the offer of 
gold would have done; and, as transactions in- 
crease with the growth of wealth and population, 
goods are exchanged for each other without the 
use of money by such devices as the check and 
clearing-house system, through the aid of banks, to 
a surprising amount. In New York alone, goods 
are exchanged for each other annually through 
the clearing-house, of a value much greater than 
that of the whole national debt of the United 
States (the sum exclusive of clearing-house bal- 
ances, which are paid in money), without the use 
of a single cent of money, either gold, silver, or 
paper. This shows, briefly, how absurd it is to sup- 
pose that the amount of gold ought to increase in 
proportion to the increase of population or wealth : 
for in prosperous years the clearings increase ; 
that is, the more the goods to be exchanged, the 
more the system is used. I cannot have space in 
this paper to discuss this in full, nor refer to the 
prevalence of the system on the continent of 
Europe. 

What I wish to illustrate is, that the level of 
prices depends, not solely on the quantity of 
money, nor on credit, but on both combined, and 
that a change in prices does not imply a change in 
the quantity of money. I have referred only to 
checks. There are many other forms of credit 
in constant and general use, such as bills of ex- 
change, paper money, and book credit (or ‘trust,’ 
as it is sometimes called in retail buying), and 
ali have a great influence on prices. If prices 
fall, that single phenomenon, therefore, does not 
convince me that gold is scarce ; and I do not see 
how it can convince anyone else. 

4, There is good evidence, moreover, to show, 
that, in the period when it was claimed that 
gold was appreciating because of its scarcity, 
there was no lack whatever of gold. This is to be 
found in the rate of discount at the Bank of Eng- 


270 


land and at the great banks of the continent. As 
every banker knows, whenever there is an evident 
disposition to draw gold from the bank reserves 
of Europe, the withdrawals of specie lower the 
proportion of the reserves to the immediate lia- 
bilities (which are, except at the Bank of France, 
chiefly deposits). This alteration requires such an 
increase in the rate of discount as will ward off 
some of the demands for new loans, and allow the 
stream of maturing loans to fill up the reserves. 
The rise in the bank-rate is an evidence of a fear 
that the gold reserve is too low, or may fall too 
low. The London financial market is the chief 
one of the world, and the Bank of England rate is 
its sensitive barometer. What were the facts? In 
the four years from 1874 to 1877 (inclusive), during 
which year silver fell so exceptionally, the rate of 
discount at the Bank of England averaged 3 1-8 per 
cent. There was no evidence whatever of a diffi- 
culty on the part of any great bank in keeping a 
plentiful supply of gold in its cash reserves ; and 
yet during this time Germany was supplying her- 
self with $400,000,000 of gold to carry out her cur- 
rency reform, and France was accumulating about 
$180,000,000, in addition to her previous stock, in 
order to resume specie payments (Dec. 31, 1877). 

It may be said in reply that the rate of discount 
does not depend on the supply of money, but on 
the supply of loanable funds. This, in the long- 
run, is true; but if, during this period, there had 
been any scarcity of gold, any deficiency of the 
quantity in comparison with the demand for it, it 
is inconceivable that during the process of ‘ grasp- 
ing’ for it there should have been no serious 
change in the rates of discount. 

5. Not only does there appear to be no evidence 
of a scarcity of gold since 1873, as shown by the 
absence of any difficulty experienced by the banks 
in collecting and keeping sufficient reserves (while 
in the United States never in the history of the 
national banks have they held larger gold reserves 
than of late), but the facts of the production of gold 
since 1850 give every reason to suppose that there 
is an abundance now in existence. The facts of 
production may be briefly summed up as follows : — 


{000,000 omITTED.]} 


| Per cent. 


Period, Gold. Silver. Per cent. 
1493-1850 $3,314 43 9 $6,742 74.4 
| 
1851-1883 4,233 56.1 2.318 25.6 
Total $7,547 100. $9,060 100. 


It will appear from this that in the 33 years 
since 1850, and to 1884, not only was the produc- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII, No. 163 


tion of gold equal to all that produced in the 358 
years from the discovery of America to 1850, but 
it was even greater by almost a third. And it is 
more than probable that the existing stock’ in 1848 
was not only doubled, but one-half more than 
doubled. To 1840 the annual production of gold 
was about $14,000,000, roughly speaking ; in 1841- 
1850, $38,000,000 ; while in 1881-1884 it averaged 
about $100,000,000. In the exceptional years be- 
tween 1850 and 1860 the production was greater 
than itisnow; but it is still two and a half times 
what it was in 1848. 

In short, there is not the least doubt inmy mind 
that this very abundance of gold was the cause of 
the fall in the value of silver. Both metals being 
in use for money, when the better became more 
plentiful, it drove the poorer out of use, — just as 
steel rails are driving out iron rails on our railways, 
— because gold is a better and more reliable tool of 
exchange than silver. On the ground, therefore, 
of a scarcity of gold, there is no reason whatever, 
in my opinion, why the coinage of silver should 
be continued. The theory that there is a vacuum 
created by the lack of gold, and which must be 
filled by the coinage of silver in order to prevent 
prices from falling, is certainly not tenable. 

6. The fall of prices can be explained by causes 
wholly independent of the quantity of gold in 
existence, and connected with the contraction of 
credit, the fall of profits due to increased compe- 
tition in certain branches of industry, large pro- 
duction, and the introduction of new processes and 
improved machinery; and, unless it were absolutely 
certain that the silver men were correct, it would be 
a bold and unwarranted act of theirs, on the basis of 
a mere fanciful supposition in regard to the dear- 
ness of gold, to experiment on the finances of a 
great country when a blunder might involve disas- 
ter to our whole business prosperity. To lead us 
to a single silver standard, on the mere theory that 
gold has ‘gone up,’ is a piece of statesmanship 
which should be treated with unequivocal con- 
demnation. Even before we come to the single 
silver standard, the uncertainty in regard to what 
the future may bring forth, caused by the contin- 
ued coinage of silver dollars, is injurious to all 
legitimate business calculations. Uncertainty and 
distrust destroy all initiative. The silver-money 
doctors are dealing with a very complicated organ- 
ism, and, if their diagnosis is incorrect, persistence 
in their rude treatment will be of serious damage 
to the financial body. 

J. LAURENCE LAUGHLIN. 


« 

1 Newmarch estimates the existing stock in 1848 at $2,716,- 
000,000 of gold, and $3,880,000,000 of silver. Such estimates, 
however, are only of the nature of guesses: there is noth- 
ing accurate about them. 


A 


Marca 19, 1886. ] 


THE SENSE OF TOUCH, AND THE TEACH- 
ING OF THE BLIND. 


THE sense of touch is one of the most complex 
which we possess, and one not well understood. 
Recent physiological studies have shown its inde- 
pendence of others that have long been associated 
with it. Thesenses of heat, cold, pain, and touch, 
bear intimate relations, but nevertheless are dis- 
tinct; and a more perfect knowledge of their 
different phases must lead to a better understand- 
ing of many peculiarities among the blind. 

Professor Soret, says the Spectator, taking up 
the psychological branch of the subject, has tried 
to find out how far the sense of touch may be 
made to convey to the sightless an idea of the 
beautiful: for as a deaf musician may enjoy 
music despite his deafness, so may a blind man 
find pleasure in beauty of form notwithstanding 
his blindness. In the one case, the pleasure comes 
from the rhythm, or rather from sonorous vibra- 
tions in the air, produced by the playing; in the 
other, from the symmetry and regularity of the 
object handled. ‘‘ When music is going on, I 
feel something here,” said to M. Soret a deaf-mute 
who enjoyed operas, putting his hand on his 
stomach. The blind, even those born blind, as 
Professor Soret has ascertained by inquiries 
among the inmates of the blind-asylum of Lau- 
sanne, have the same love of symmetry as the 
deaf. The girl-embroiderers attach much impor- 
tance to the perfect regularity of the designs 
which they are required to repeat in their work. 
The basket-makers insist on the willow withes 
they use being all straight and of the same length. 
Imperfections in the things they handle are, to 
the blind, indications of ugliness. They like 
evenness of surface, and regularity of shape: a 
cracked pot, a rough table, or a broken chair 
causes them positive discomfort. 

But to create in the mind of a person born 
blind an artistic idea, involves a measure of 
psychological development which it is very diffi- 
cult to impart, and requires from both teacher 
and scholar great patience and long-sustained 
effort. The imagination,—the faculty of repre- 
sentation, as it has been called, —though partly 
inborn, is much more the result of a long series of 
automatic experiments in which all the senses 
co-operate, mutually controlling and correcting 
each other. This faculty is naturally less devel- 
oped with the sightless than the seeing. If even 
many educated people, who from their youth 
upwards have been reading books and seeing pic- 
tures, find it hard to realize to themselves scenes 
they have never beheld, how much harder must it 
be for the blind to identify this or that outline 


F 


SCIENCE. 


271 


with beauty, or the reverse! At the sight of a 
picture or a design, we straightway and without 
effort represent to ourselves the object delineated 
in all its three dimensions. It never occurs to us 
to think that the horse, or the man, or the moun- 
tain, is nothing more than a combination of colors 
laid on a flat piece of canvas. The mere feeling 
of a picture, albeit in relief, cannot convey the 
same impression as an ordinary painting ; for, to 
the blind, perspective and foreshortening must 
be mysteries so profound as to be hardly capa- 
ble of comprehension. Nevertheless the difficulty 
is not insurmountable. Professor Soret mentions 
the case of a blind rustic, accustomed to horses, 
who, without help, succeeded in selecting from 
a number of other designs, in relief, the figure 
of the animal with which he was most familiar. 
A youth of quick apprehension, and vivid though 
undeveloped imaginative power, he had handled 
horses in his father’s or his master’s stable until 
he had mentally created an ideal horse so like the 
original, that he was able to recognize by his 
fingers its counterfeit presentment. Another 
boy, born blind, but thoroughly educated, was 
able to pick out a bird; yet he admitted, that, un- 
less he had previously handJed a stuffed specimen, 
he would have had great difficulty in identifying 
the figure, and realizing what the original was 
like. In other words, mere description is not 
enough : a biind man cannot mentally see a thing, 
or even recognize it when laid in a touchable form 
before him, unless he has first familiarized him- 
self, by actual experience, with its outward shape. 

It would thus seem that the faculty we call 
‘imagination’ depends nearly altogether on the 
sense of sight. If we have seen a hill, we may 
have an idea of what a mountain is like ; by see- 
ing a lake, we get a notion of the sea: but, if we 
never saw either a tree or the picture of one, not 
all the word-painting that was ever penned would 
convey any true or adequate idea of an ordinary 
wood, much less of the wondrous beauty and 
bewildering grandeur of a tropical forest. We 
should be so far blind; and the blind can image 
to themselves only that which they can feel with 
their hands. All the same, thanks to their innate 
love of rhythm and regularity, they can be taught, 
through the sense of touch, to appreciate shapeli- 
ness, to find an aesthetic pleasure in sculptures. 
in certain of the decorative arts, and in raised 
pictures. They may even learn not only to recog- 
nize their friends by feeling their features, but to 
single out a pretty woman and a handsome man. 
As to this, Professor Soret relates an amusing and 
suggestive anecdote. Some time ago, three pro- 
fessors made a visit to the Lausanne asylum. 
One was a stalwart and handsome Swede, with a 


272 


splendid head; the second, an exceptionally ugly 
Swiss, with a head ‘that left a good deal to be 
desired ;’ the third, an average mortal of ordinary 
appearance. Among the inmates of the asylum 
was a poor deaf-mute of the name of Meystre, 
blind from his birth, but highly impressionable, 
and quick to distinguish between shapes that con- 
formed to his ideal of the beautiful and those that 
did not. The feeling of a deformed or mutilated 
man, for instance, would sometimes draw from 
him signs of compassion and sympathy ; at others, 
strange grimaces and mocking laughter. On being 
told to examine the three visitors, Meystre showed 
great admiration for the Swede; but, on passing 
to the Swiss, he seemed greatly amused, indulged 
in his usual mocking laughter, and by his gestures 
made it understood that he thought the man had 
no back to his head, which he seemed to consider 
an excellent joke. The result of the third exami- 
nation was negative. It produced no sign either 
of satisfaction or displeasure. 

These facts seem to show, and in Professor 
Soret’s opinion prove beyond a doubt, that, so far 
as the ‘human form divine’ is concerned, the 
blind possess the same ideal of beauty as those 
who see, and that this ideal is innate; and he is 
anxious that those who have charge of the sight- 
less should make every effort to cultivate their 
aesthetic taste; that by means of cardboard 
models in relief, and other expedients, they should 
be familiarized with the highest types of human 
beauty, which occupy so large a place in all litera- 
tures. By this widening of their conceptions, they 
would be enabled to understand allusions and 
descriptions in poetry and elsewhere, which at 
present they must find utterly incomprehensible. 
The better to accomplish this object, Professor 
Soret has drawn up a complete programme; and 
seeing how hard life is for the blind, and from 
how many pleasures they are debarred, we may 
heartily applaud this effort to ameliorate their 
sufferings by opening to them new horizons, and 
wish it every success. 


PUBLIC HEALTH IMPROVEMENT IN 
ENGLAND. 


THE death-rate in England and Wales in 1885 
again fell, says the Lancet, to 19.0 per 1000 of the 
estimated population, and excepting only the 
year 1881, when it was 18.9, was lower than in 
any previous year since civil registration came 
into operation in 1837. The registrar-general’s 
quarterly return, relating to the last three months 
of 1885, calls attention to the fact that the death- 
rate in each of the five years 1881-85 was consid- 
erably lower than the rate recorded in any year 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 168 


prior to 1881. The mean rate in the first half of 
the current decennium (1881-90) did not exceed 
19.3 per 1000, showing a further decline from 20.8, 
the mean rate in the preceding five years 1876-80 ; 
whereas, in the preceding forty years of civil regis- 
tration, the mean annual death-rate was 22.3, 
and the lowest rate in any quinquennium was 21.4 
in 1841-45. This marked reduction in the English 
death-rate has now been maintained for ten years, 
and has been much greater in the second than in 
the first half of that period. It cannot, in the 
interest of further health progress, be too con- 
stantly borne in mind that the commencement of 
this period of reduced death-rate was coincident 
with the coming into full operation of the public 
health acts of 1872 and 1875. 

The effect of this reduced death-rate upon the 
numbers and longevity of the English people is 
phenomenal. The registrar-general points out 
that the reduction in the last five years implies 
that ‘‘more than 281,000 persons in England and 
Wales survived that period, whose deaths wouid 
have been recorded had the mean rate of mor- 
tality been equal to that prevailing in the ten 
years 1871-80,” in the latter half of which period 
the improvement in the public health had already 
set in. With regard to the increased longevity of 
the population, Mr. Noel Humphreys, in a paper 
read before the Statistical society in 1883, showed 
that the effect of a reduction in the mean death- 
rate from 22.5 in 1838-54, to 20.8 in 1876-80, 
would be to add two years to the mean duration 
of life of every male, and three years and a half to 
that of every female born. 


PROFESSOR GRABER has made an extensive 
series of experiments on the degree and localiza- 
tion of the sense of smell in insects, etc., from 
among the results of which the following will be 
found of interest (Journ. roy. micr. soc.). Odors 
are perceived by many invertebrates, such as mol- 
lusks, insects, etc., with extreme rapidity, some- 
times in one-third of a second, and even through 
an intervening layer of water a half-millimetre in 
thickness. This sensitiveness is very much greater 
than was exhibited by the vertebrates experimented 
upon (reptiles, birds). Insects deprived of their 
antennae are still able to smell, but in varying 
degrees in different insects and for different 
odors, some fine odors being apparently perceptible 
only through the antennae. Perception of smell 
through the stigmata or respiratory organs is not 
rapid nor important, though such has often been 
maintained. In some cases the palpi of the mouth- 
organs are more sensitive than the antennae, and 
therefore the latter cannot be considered as being 
alone the organs of smell. 


h 


ee 


SCHENGE. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


A REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1884 was made to the 
New York legislature early in 1885 by Prof. James 
Hall, state geologist: it was accompanied by a 
large preliminary geological map of the state, 
compiled by Mr. W. J. McGee, of the U.S. geo- 
logical survey, from all available material which 
was of special value on account of its candid de- 
parture from the usual form of geological maps 
in coloring only those areas that had been pretty 
well studied, and leaving the rest conspicuously 
blank. There is no question that the publication 
of such a map would be an incentive to local 
investigation by explicitly pointing out where it 
is especially needed ; and Professor Hall seems to 
have made this clear to the legislature, as it was 
ordered to be published by a resolution of the 
senate and assembly, and an appropriation was 
made for this purpose. But a note added to the 
report in November states that the governor has 
vetoed this item in the supply bill, and thus the 
appearance of the map has been indefinitely post- 
poned,—a most regrettable piece of political 
economy. The same report contains a geological 
map of Ontario county, with accompanying text, 
giving a brief outline of its geological succes- 
sion, by Professor J. M. Clarke. Apart from the 
valuable local details of stratigraphy, it excites 
our interest from the indication it gives of the 
true physical relations of some of the north and 
south lakes of western New York, —called the 
‘finger-lakes ’ by Chamberlin, — which the author 
refers to briefly as lying in separate preglacial 
valleys. When the ice of glacial times was break- 
ing up in these valleys, ‘‘ which had then had, no 
doubt, a long previous existence as valleys of 
water erosion,” they discharged their waters into 
a basin where the town of Naples now stands, 
whence a southward overflow was found by the 
Conhocton* River. A little distance west of 
Canandaigua Lake, another valley is shown on 
the map, now filled with alluvium, but equal 
in size to the average of those near by, now 
occupied by lakes. It would thus appear that 
the northern edge of the Devonian plateau of 

No. 164.— 1886, 


r ¢ 


western New York is pretty well dissected by 
valleys of the ordinary type, in only some of 
which lakes are caught. The more numerous 
these valleys, the less aid need be called for from 
glacial erosion in originating them. 


THE REPORT OF OBSERVATIONS of the annular 
eclipse of the sun, March 15-16, 1885, by Com- 
mander A. D. Brown and Ensign A. G. Winter- 
halter, U.S.N., has been issued as Appendix II. 
to the Washington observations for 1882. At 
least, we suppose that this appendix belongs to 
the volume of observations issued by the U. S. 
naval observatory, for it was received from the 
superintendent of that institution. The titlepage, 
however, simply states that it is ‘ Appendix II., 
1882,’ and the reader must learn from other 
sources to what publication it belongs. Unfor- 
tunately this omission, trivial in itself, is indic- 
ative of the character of the paper. It begins 
with a jerk, ends abruptly, and throughout re- 
sembles patchwork in which the pieces are fitted 
together with little regard for symmetry.  Be- 
ginning with the preliminary circular calling for 
observations from volunteers in the north-west, 
it next describes the preparations for photographic 
work at Washington, and gives the number of 
plates exposed, with a few comments on the 
success attained. Then follow the contact and 
transit observations made at the observatory. 
Returning to the volunteers in the north-west, 
the authors give the reports in full, with two 
sketches showing the relative positions of the 
stations. The thread of the Washington nar- 
rative is then resumed (without the slightest in- 
timation that the scene has been changed), the 
measurements of the photographs are given in 
detail, and a: reproduction, by phototype process, 
of one of the negatives, closes the report. While 
the faults of arrangement are quite glaring, there 
are other defects which provoke criticism. Thus, 
two kinds of plates were used, collodion and 
gelatine, having different degrees of sensitiveness ; 
but we are frankly told, though the reason there- 
for is not stated, that the slide was arranged for 
the former only, and that in consequence the 
latter were necessarily over-exposed. Again, the 
observations are only partially discussed, and we 


274 


are left in the dark as to their accuracy or utility. 
The reports of the volunteer observers show the 
lack of careful editing by the compilers. We 
are told at the beginning that the photographic 
work was undertaken at the request of Professor 
Newcomb, for certain investigations he was pur- 
suing. It would have been wiser to have turned 
over to him at once the observations made, 
instead of publishing them in their present crude 
form. The publication is certainly not to the 
credit of the institution from which it proceeds. 
We should hardly have devoted as much space to 
the above report, had it not been published at 
a time when the status of the observatory is 
under discussion. If it indicates the character 
of the scientific work which is done by naval 
officers under naval management, the position 
of the committee of the National academy, that 
it would be unwise to build a new naval obser- 
vatory, is amply confirmed. Contrast with this 
weak paper the appendix which precedes it in the 
same volume,—‘The orbit of Iapetus,’ by Pro- 
fessor Hall, a model of scientific writing, — and 
further comment is unnecessary. The paper also 
emphasizes the need of a scientific head for the 
observatory. If under the present management 
such a publication is allowed to see the light, and 
thus make the institution the laughing-stock of 
the scientific world, it is time the management 
was changed. 


THE PRIZE offered a year ago by H. H. Warner 
of Rochester, for ‘the best three-thousand-word 
paper’ on the brilliant sunsets of 1883-84, has 
lately been awarded. The judges were Professors 
Kirkwood of Bloomington, [ll., Harrington of Ann 
Arbor, Mich., and Stone of Virginia; and their 
opinion of the essays was so high that Mr. Warner 
was induced largely to increase the awards. 
Meteorologists will universally read with satis- 
faction that Kiessling of Hamburg received the 
first prize of two hundred dollars. Other prizes 
were given to J. E. Clark of York, England, H. 
C. Maine of Rochester, N.Y., and Rev. Sereno 
C. Bishop of Honolulu; the last is now well 
known in connection with his early observation 
of the new solar corona, which is now generally 
called after him. It is further stated in the 
tochester Democrat and chronicle, that a ‘special 
Warner medal of honor’ will be awarded to Pro- 
fessor Abbe of the signal service, Professor Upton 
of Brown university, Prof. H. A. Hazen of the 
signal service, Professor Davis of Harvard col- 


SCTE NCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 164 


lege, Mr. F. Cowle of Lauriston, Tasmania, and 
Rev. R. Graham of Errol, Scotland. Mr. War- 
ner’s extension of his first offer of a single prize, 
so that there should be a more general recognition 
of the efforts made by a number of the com- 
petitors, is characteristic of his generosity, already 
well known to astronomers from his hundred- 
dollar prize for the discovery of new comets. It 
is said to be his intention to publish the sunset 
essays as soon as they can be put into shape for 
the printer. 


A VERY GREAT INTEREST attaches to the brief 
notice of the new objectives of Dr. Carl Zeiss of 
Jena, by Dr. H. van MHeurck, director of the 
botanical gardens at Antwerp. The success of 
Zeiss’s experiments to discover a new glass which 
should give more perfect objectives than it is pos- 
sible to make with crown and flint glass has ap- 
parently exceeded expectation, almost surpassed 
the highest hopes ; for, according to van Heurck, 
the new homogeneous immersion + objective, with 
a numerical aperture of 1.4, manufactured by 
Zeiss from the new glass, excels the best English 
lenses in the perfection of its sharp definition : 
‘¢ The images are of wonderful clearness, and the 
objective has a greater resolving power than any 
that we have had hitherto. With the vertical 
illuminator, Amphipleura argenteum is resolved 
into pearls, not merely at some points, but over 
the whole surface, and with such sharpness that 
they may be counted. No doubt this objective 
will show us, in many diatoms, details which have 
hitherto escaped observers. Bacteria will proba- 
bly exhibit details of structure as yet unknown, 
and which will perhaps enable us to better dif- 
ferentiate the species.” We have heard from 
other sources equal praise of the new objective, 
which seems to surpass the present much admired 
— we might almost say beloved — oil immersions, 
as these surpass the water immersions. It will be 
remembered that Professor Abbe, the son-in-law 
of Dr. Zeiss, pointed out, in 1878, that we could 
not hope for any considerable improvement in ob- 
jectives until we should have some better materials 
than crown and flint glass. Since then the German 
government appropriated twenty-five thousand 
marks to enable Zeiss to make experiments in 
manufacturing new glasses suitable for lenses. 
All scientific men will rejoice that the experi-— 
ments have had such a very successful result. 
We trust that the new objectives and oculars will 
soon be upon the market. 


Marcu 26, 1886. ] 


THE EUROPEAN COLONIES AND THEIR 
TRADE. 


THE large commerce between Great Britain and 
her colonies has, especially within the last ten or 
fifteen years, attracted the attention of the other 
European countries. They have watched with 
covetous eyes its steady increase and the rapid 
growth of the English mercantile marine, and 
have studied the policy which has either made the 
colonies of England self-supporting, or, where 
the expenses exceeded the revenues, pay tribute 
to London bankers in the form of interest at high 
rates on colonial loans. 

Attempting to follow England’s example, France 
and Germany have founded colonies, hoping to 
realize from them large commercial returns. In- 
stead of this, the commerce with the colonies 
they have established has heen very limited, 
and the outlays involved have imposed a heavy 
burden upon the home treasury. Even Algiers, 
the most prosperous of the colonies established 
by France, has been a constant and increasing 
expense. The attempt to establish a French col- 
ony in Madagascar has been abandoned, while 
that in Tonquin has only been maintained by the 
constant presence of a large army. The war 
with China, in which France became involved 
through the attempt to establish this colony, has 
caused a great drain on France, both of men and 
money ; and, even at the present time, there is 
such a constant turmoil in northern Tonquin, that 
further demands of credit and fresh drafts of 
soldiers must constantly be made. This state of 
affairs will probably cause the overthrow of the 
ministry, if not of the republic; and the ministry 
have sought to avert their fate by sending M. 
Bert, a former minister of instruction, as gov- 
ernor, with full power in civil and military 
matters. It is asserted, and the facts seem to 
corroborate the statement, that the expense of 
maintaining the colonies of France, including the 
support of the required armies, largely exceeds 
the total value of the commerce, including both 
imports and exports; that the death-rate is in 
excess of the births; and that the French popu- 
lation is only maintained by draining France of 
her most enterprising citizens. These facts have 
become so overwhelming, that a party has re- 
cently been formed in France, advocating the 
| abandonment of all her foreign possessions. 
Germany recently took possession of an exten- 


SCIENCE. 


275 


sive territory on the south-western coast of Africa ; 
but a rainless climate and a barren soil have proved 
insurmountable obstacles even to German thrift. 
Another German colony has been established on 
the east coast, west of Zanzibar, between the sec- 
ond and fifth degrees of north latitude, extending 
westerly into the interior. Several large rivers 
flow through this territory, rising in the moun- 
tain-range which separates the ocean from Lake 
Tanganyika. In the upland country the climate 
is probably healthy, and the soil rich. The Ger- 
mans have also a small colony at Cameroon, on 
the west coast, under the equator; but here the 
natives have opposed the settlers, and their prog- 
ress consequently has been slow. Of the com- 
merce of German colonies, however, nothing is 
known, as no official returns have been pub- 
lished. 

Italy has recently established a colony at Mas- 
sowah, upon the Red Sea, with the result, thus 
far, of an increased deficit in the treasury. The 
Netherlands retains a part of its possessions in 
Asia; Spain and Portugal, a portion of the 
immense territory they formerly held in Africa 
and in America; and Denmark, her hold upon 
Greenland, Iceland, and three islands in the West 
Indies. The cost of maintaining these domains 
exceeds the revenue; but the deficit is small, and 
fully compensated by the commercial advantages 
derived from them. Belgium and Austria, on 
the other hand, have no foreign possessions. 
The Kongo Free States, which had their origin 
in Belgium, are a private enterprise of King Leo- 
pold II., and have been supported from his private 
purse. The cost of their maintenance has hitherto 
been very heavy, and must continue to increase, 
until the railroad around the falls between Vivi 
and Stanley Pool is constructed. allowing of the 
creation of trade with central Africa, and the 
consequent tax levies to defray the expenses of 
the undertaking. 

Russia can hardly be said to have any colonies. 
The vast regions in Asia which have been settled 
by her people, willingly or unwillingly, should be 
looked upon as but natural expansions of her 
dominions; and little is known, either of their 
cost to the state, or the extent of their commerce. 

Austro-Hungary alone, of the European coun- 
tries, remains to be considered, and that kingdom 
is little more than a.congery of colonies. Eleven 
different languages are spoken within its borders, 
and the people of this heterogeneous empire have 


276 


no desire to colonize other regions than those 
taken from Turkey. 

The following tables are of much interest. 
They show that eighty per cent of the colonial 
territory held by Europe belongs to Great Britain, 
that over eighty per cent of the entire commerce 
is with Great Britain, while the territory of its 
colonies is sixty times as large as that of Great 
Britain itself. 


SCIENCE. 


Territory. 
Surface in square kilometres. ee 
centages. 
Countries. SSS 
| Mother- | - Moth. ; 
| country. Colonies. Potel, Pac: Col’s. 
eae | 
England...| 312,639 20,552,574 | 20,865,218 | 1.5 | 98.5 
Portugal .. 89,297 | 1,827,259 | 1,916,556 | 4.7 | 95.3 
Netherl’ds.| 32,745 1,767,748 1,800,493 1.8 | 98.2 
France aa 528,393 990,825 1,519,218 | 34.8 | 65.2 
Spain .....<.. | 499,570 429,085 928,655 | 53.3 | 46.2 
Denmark... | 35,686 225,564 261,250 | 13.7 | 86.3 
Total....! 1,498,330 | 25,793,055 | 27,291,885 | 5.5 | 94.5 
Population. 
Population in 1881. poe 
centages. 
Countries. = ae 
Mother- | . Moth.| 
| country. Colonies. | Total coun, |C°l’s 
England...) 35,153,780 | 213,918,000 249,071,000 | 14.1 | 85.9 
Netherl’ds.| 4,172.991 | 26,841,597 | 31,014,588 | 13.5 | 86.5 
France ....| 37.672,048 8,722,857 | 46,394,905 | 81.2 | 18.9 
re) OS ee 16,350,874 8,175,467 | 24,526,341 | 66.7 | 33.3 
Portugal...| 4,160,315 3,723,967 | 7,884,282 | 52.8 | 47.2 
Denmark.. 1,969,045 127,122 | 2,096,167 | 91.8 | 8.2 
Total....| 99,479,053 j 261,509,010 ' 360,988,063 | 27.6 | 72.4 
Trade. 
| AgSke 
Commerce | Commerce of | 5 Hy WS. 
| oO ad 
of the the colonies | — a8 = 8 
Countries. & Sow 
| mother-coun- with the Sen ae 
tr th t Bhs” qe 
y. ‘moth.-country.| © oom 58 
England .......| 17,884.275,000 | 4,658,950,000 26 .00 
BYANGD 975i; 5 s'sa 10,636,500.000 526,400,000 4 95 
Netherlands... 4,428, 450,000 200, 200,000 4.50 
Spain.... .....| 1,371,150,000 128,800,000 9.39 
Denmark...... 598,950 000 | 22,500,000 2.46 
Portugal...... 391,950,000 7,925, 000 2.02 
Total........| 35,311,275,000 | 5,544,775,000 | 15.70 


GARDINER G. HUBBARD. 


[Vou. VII., No. 164 


THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 


As apart of the evidence before the commis- 
sion considering the organization of the govern- 
ment scientific bureaus, there was recently pre- 
sented a letter from Mr. Alexander Agassiz, in 
which he took occasion to censure the work of 
the geological survey, and to condemn to some 
extent its existence as a government institution. 

One question raised by Mr. Agassiz is whether 
the work carried on by the survey should not be 
left to individual enterprise. In answer to this, 
Major Powell, in a reply addressed to the com- 
mission, calls attention to the large expenditures 
required for such work, and adds, that he has no 
knowledge of any case where private institutions, 
such as colleges or societies, have undertaken to 
do field-work in topography and geology. To 
some extent individuals, notably a few college 
professors, have made geological excursions in the 
field, and have accumulated valuable material. 

The principal publications in this country on 
geology and paleontology, however, have con- 
tained the results of investigations carried on at 
the expense of the general or state governments ; 


and the publication of such results, on account of | 


the cost of the plates required, is far beyond the 
resources of private institutions. To show the 
relation between the official publications and 
those at private expense, Major Powell presents 
some figures collected from the material in the 
library of the geological survey. They do not 
represent the entire body of publication, but it is 
believed that they fairly give the ratio of official 
to private matter. These figures show 105,775 
pages on general geology published by the govern- 
ment, to 15,139 pages published by private parties. 
The ratio of geological maps is about the same; 
and, comparing the amount of governmental 
with the amount of private publications in pale- 
ontology, the ratio of number of pages is 18,151 
to 13,916; the number of plates being as 2,858 
to 769. 

The publications of the survey contain the 
writings of nearly all our best geologists ; and it 
is thought by Major Powell that a wide distribu- 
tion of its scientific reports, placing them at the 
disposal of one or two libraries in each county in 


the country, would tend to make the results of the — 


investigations as available as they should be. 


It has been especially fortunate for the survey — 


that there exists in the Comstock, Eureka, and 


Leadville mining districts vast shafts and galleries — 


which have allowed of an unparalleled study of 
problems in economic geology ; and great credit is 
due to the survey for having taken advantage of 
these opportunities. As the law establishing the 


Marcu 26, 1886. ] 


survey especially requires that economic work 
should be done, and as the primary function of 
the survey is the performance of such work, it is 
evident that this class of investigation has been 
carried on strictly in obedience to the law, and in 
fulfilment of its purpose. 

The annual output of the mines of the United 
States aggregates in value about $425,000,000 ; 
and, while the economic results of the survey have 
largely been devoted to this industry, the needs of 
the agricultural community have not been forgot- 
ten. At present investigations are going on of 
the flood-plain valleys of the great rivers, like that 
of the Mississippi, for the purpose of determining 
the conditions under which they can be redeemed ; 
and, on the other hand, of the great arid regions, 
to determine by what means they may be more 
economically fertilized by irrigation ; and, again, 
of the coast marshes and interior swamps, to learn 
the possibility of their utilization by drainage. 
In the prosecution of its topographical work, the 
survey is constructing a map of the forests of the 
country ; and in its study of the structural geology 
it is revealing the conditions under which artesian 
wells may be discovered, and prognosticating the 
areas where such wells may be constructed. In 
the study of the interior hydrography of the 
country, the survey is developing the conditions 
under which our towns may obtain a supply of 
healthful water ; and, in this connection, the calls 
upon the survey for information are many and 
rapidly multiplying. It is hardly necessary to 
add, that, in the construction of a topographic 
map of the United States, the people are supplied 
with a knowledge of the natural routes for the 
highways of commerce. It will thus be seen that 
the work of the survey has practical relations with 
all the industries of the people, and that it is pre- 
eminently designed to promote their welfare. 


THE RAILWAY TO CENTRAL ASIA. 


UNDER the direction of General Annenkoff, the 
Transcaspian railway has made remarkable prog- 
ress. At the beginning of the present year it 
extended from Mikhailovsk, on the bay of the 
Same name, to Ghiaurs, a small station some 
miles beyond Askabad. From thence to Merv 
the road-bed is finished, and the stations and 
bridges are constructing. It is expected that 
trains will run to Merv this spring, and that by 
midsummer the road will be completed to the 
Amu Daria at Charjui, a total distance of one 
thousand and forty-one kilometres. The harbor 
at Mikhailovsk is very shallow, and the deep water 
at Krasnovodsk is too distant; but another spot 
has been found, twenty-four kilometres from 


SCIENCE. 


. sufficient quantity, 


277 


Mikhailovsk, where, by a moderate amount of 
dredging, the largest vessels of the Caspian can 
come up to a jetty now building. For the other 
end of the line, to connect with the railway, 
steamers of a special type are being constructed, 
suited to cope with the swift and shallow waters 
of the Amu Daria. The difficulty presented 
by drifting sands in the desert is to be met by 
introducing plants, already tested for such pur- 
poses in the arid regions of Algeria; and at the 
principal stations large quantities of them are 
already being set out in propagating-houses. 

This enterprise is a military road, built and 
designed by officers of the war ministry, assisted 
by soldiers, Tartars from the Caucasus, and 
Turkomans and other inhabitants of the region. 
The chief difficulty has not been the sands of the 
desert, but the want of water; the existing wells 
being far apart, brackish, and hardly sufficient 
for the ordinary purposes of the caravans. How- 
ever, it has been determined by experiment, that, 
at a certain depth in the soil, water exists in 
and increases at greater 
depths. Artesian wells will therefore be dug, 
the machinery for which is already on the ground. 
The worst part of the line determined upon is the 
desert which extends some two hundred kilo- 
metres eastward from the Merv oasis. This, 
though arid and sandy, produces a growth, some- 
times almost a wood, of the ‘saxaul’ (Haloxylon 
ammodendron) and other nearly related shrubs, 
which only disappear at a distance of some forty 
kilometres from the Amu Daria. 

After passing the lesser desert near Mikhailovsk, 
and reaching the station at Kizil Arvat, the rail- 
way takes a direction parallel to the Kopeth 
range, which coincides with the borders of Persia. 
It crosses the Akhal oasis, and passes under the 
walls of Geok Tepe a few yards from the spot 
where the assault was made by which the fortress 
was carried. The most important station is Ask- 
abad, a flourishing town only three years old, 
but already enjoying an important commerce 
with North Khorassan. Farther on, the line 
passes the Persian village of Lutfabad at a dis- 
tance of two kilometres, and enters the Attek 
oasis, now beginning to revive under the security 
afforded by Russian rule. Duchak, at 391 kilo- 
metres from Kizil Arvat, is the most southern 
point of the line, from which diverge the routes to 
Séraks, Heshed, and Herat. Here the road turns 
toward Merv, and enters the desert in a north- 
westerly direction. There are no brooks or 
springs, but from the mountains to the south-east 
come two rivers of importance,—the Tajand or 
Hari-Rud, and the Murghab. The former is dry 
in winter, but in summer has twice the volume 


278 


of the Murghab. To the north-west both rivers 
are lost in the sands of the desert. The Hari-Rud 
is crossed by a bridge ninety-seven yards long. 
From this point it was formerly a distance of 
ninety kilometres to the nearest fresh water, but 
this has been diminished to forty-eight kilometres 
by a canal constructed by Colonel Alikhanoff dur- 
ing the past season. This diverts part of the 
water of the Murghab, but it was found im- 
practicable to extend it further. The latter river, 
unlike the Hari-Rud, does not dry up, but carries 
in winter seventy-five cubic metres per second 
as against three hundred in summer. It contains 
about two per cent of earthy matter, amounting, 
for the annual epoch of floods, to about fifty 
million cubic metres of mud, which is spread by 
the innumerable irrigating canals over the surface 
of the Merv oasis. The destruction in 1784, of the 
great dike of Sultan Bend, much diminished the 
irrigated and fertile area. The Russian govern- 
ment has reserved sixty thousand rubles to re- 
build this dike, and it is expected that nearly four 
hundred thousand acres will be reclaimed by this 
work, and, in time, nearly four times as much 
more. This land, when irrigated, is of extreme 
fertility, wheat producing a crop of one hundred 
bushels for every bushel sown. Merv is growing 
rapidly : town lots of a certain size are given 
away, on condition that the receiver builds upon 
them at once. The streets are wide, with broad 
footwalks, planted with trees, and bordered with 
small canals. The oasis is confidently expected to 
develop largely in the near future. 


PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDY OF STELLAR 
SPECTRA. 


THE study of stellar spectra by means of pho- 
tography was one of the most important investiga- 
tions undertaken by the late Prot. Henry Draper. 
He was actively engaged in this research during 
the last years of his life. His plans included an 
extensive investigation, one object of which was to 
catalogue and classify the stars by their spectra. 
Mrs. Draper has made provision, at the observatory 
of Harvard college, for continuing these researches 
as a memorial to her husband. The results al- 
ready obtained, with the aid of an appropriation 
from the Bache fund, permit the form of the 
new investigation to be definitely stated. The 
part of the sky to be surveyed is that extending 
from the north pole to the parallel of thirty de- 
grees south declination. Each photograph will be 
exposed for about one hour, and will include a 
region ten degrees square. The telescope em- 
ployed has an aperture of twenty centimetres 
(eight inches), and a focal length of a hundred 


SCTENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 164 


and seventeen centimetres (forty-four inches). The 
object-glass is covered by a prism, and the result- 
ing spectrum of each star in the region photo- 
graphed has a length of about one centimetre, 
which enables the character of the spectra of stars 
from the fifth to the eighth magnitude to be 
determined. A inodification of the apparatus is 
employed for the brighter stars. 

Meanwhile, experiments are in progress with 
the fifteen-inch equatorial, with the object of 
representing the spectra of some typical stars upon 
a large scale. The spectra so far obtained are 
about six centimetres in length, and exhibit much 
well-defined detail. Additional experiments will 
be tried with a spectroscope provided with a slit, 
as well as with the simple prism hitherto em- 
ployed, in order to secure the best possible 
definition. The present results encourage the 
expectation that the movements of stars in the 
line of sight may be better determined by the 
photographic method than by direct observations. 

To keep the astronomical public informed of the 
progress made in this work, specimens of the 
photographs obtained will be gratuitously dis- 
tributed from time to time. The first of these 
distributions will probably be made in a few 
weeks. Owing to the expense of providing a large 
number of copies, it is desirable to limit the dis- 
tribution, so far as possible, to those who are inter- 
ested in this class of work. It is also desired, 
however, to send the specimens to all who will 
find them of value from the scientific point of 
view. Requests should be sent to the Harvard 
college observatory by any one desirous of receiv- 
ing the specimens. EDWARD C, PICKERING. 


THE HUDSON BAY ROUTE TO EUROPE. 


Last year there appeared in Science (vol. v. No. 
110) an account of the Hudson Bay expedition of 
1884, accompanied by a track-chart showing the 
route followed. Lieutenant Gordon’s official re- 
port of his last summer’s trip to the bay, to 
relieve the observers at the stations established 
in the strait in 1884, is included in the annual 
report of the Canadian department of marine, 
lately submitted to the Dominion parliament. It 
is in narrative form, and contains little new in- 
formation, the results of the observations con- 
ducted at the several stations being reserved for 
publication as a separate report so soon as they 
shall have been reduced to proper form, 

Lieutenant Gordon, after promising details of 
the observations at an early date, concludes his 
report with the following remarks on the pros- 
pects of navigating the strait : ‘‘ The reports go to 
show that the ice set fast in the western end of 


—-_— = a — 


re ee Se kU 


Marcxu 26, 1886.] 


the straits during the last week of October, 1884, 
and that for all practical purposes of navigation 
the straits remained closed at this point till the 
early part of June in the present year. In June 
a good deal of open water was seen at different 
times, but the pack would close up again, and 
remain in that condition for several days at a 
time. 

‘*From a consideration of these reports, I am 
of the opinion that it might have been possible to 
pass through the straits during the early part of 
this July. The same date of closing as shown by 
the observations last year would give a season of 
navigation rather less than four months for the 
individual season. 

‘It should, however, be stated, that the move- 
ments of ice this spring were evidently much 
later than those of last year; for in the month 
of August this year we met with vast quantities 
of heavy ice, and in the same month last year 
comparatively little was seen. On the Labrador 
coast and at Churchill the report was the same, — 
that the ice was unusually late in leaving this 
year. 

**T was informed by a captain who had made a 
number of voyages through Hudson’s Straits, 
that he had seen the straits clear of ice in June, 
but that it was a rare occurrence. The fact, how- 
ever, that the straits had been clear at this time, 
shows that there is a’ great variability in the dates 
of the opening of navigation.” 

The above conclusions scarcely seem to justify 
the building of a railway from Winnipeg to 
Churchill, —a scheme so seriously contemplated, 
that one or more companies have been organized, 
an extensive preliminary survey made, proving 
_the feasibility of the route, and the requisite 
capital actually promised ; while one of the en- 
gineers has gone so far as to assert that the bay 
and strait were navigable for properly constructed 
vessels all the year round. 

The observers at all the stations report that the 
huts were warm and comfortable, the food good 
and sufficient, and their health, except in the 
instances mentioned, excellent. The weather was 
not nearly so severe as expected, the thermom- 
eter never going so low as it often does in 
inhabited portions of the north-west. 


THE PANAMA CANAL. 


IT has been reported in the daily papers from 
time to time, during some months, that matters 
at the Isthmus of Panama were in a bad shape, 
that the funds previously subscribed and loaned 
were nearly exhausted, and that but a small por- 
tion of the necessary excavation had been com- 


SCIENCE. 


279 


pleted. Apparently to counteract the impression 
made on the public mind by these statements, 
M. de Lesseps, on his brief visit of inspection of 
the work in progress on the canal, from which 
he has just sailed for France, was accompanied 
by delegates from various commercial cities of 
Europe and this country, and an engineer was 
also despatched by the French government to re- 
port upon the state of affairs, before a decision 
should be made in regard to the advisability of 
allowing a further sum of money to be raised 
and borrowed for the canal. 

In the supplement to No. 148 of Science (vol. 
vi.) there appeared a notice of the recent book 
by J. C. Rodrigues, on the Panama canal, which, 
from his point of view, showed that the canal 
construction had been shamefully mismanaged 
from the start, and that failure and bankruptcy 
were imminent. There has just issued from the 
press another work’ on the same subject, written 
by one who has had a large, if not the largest, 
share in the preliminary investigations, in the de- 
liberations of the canal congress, and in obtaining 
the territorial and other concessions, and has had 
the best of opportunities for knowing about the 
progress of the work, — Commander Lucien N. 
B. Wyse. As will be inferred from the sub-title, 
the author aims to give an exhaustive account of 
the matter, from the very earliest explorations, 
through the discussion of the several proposed 
routes, a critical analysis of the points for and 
against the eleven most promising lines, an ac- 
count of the political and business negotiations 
with other countries, the concessions secured, and 
the views and arguments of the United States 
authorities, down to the present state of the work 
(October, 1885), the money already expended and 
the future prospects. The admirable map which 
Commander Wyse gives, of that portion of Cen- 
tral America and the isthmus in which lie his sev- 
eral projected routes, is reproduced with this issue 
of Science, and the accompanying profiles show 
in metres the elevation of the ground over the 
different lines. The book contains also a plan of 
the Panama canal as it is to be when completed, 
and some ninety woodcuts of isthmian scenes and 
views of the canal-works. 

The volume is very handsomely printed ; and a 
person, whether interested or not in the canal, 
will find the opening portion, describing the 
scenery, the flora and fauna, the geological forma- 
tions, the climate, the inhabitants, and the mode 
of life in that part of the world, very reada- 
ble. Space will not permit the giving of an ab- 

1 Le canal de Panama, Visthme américain; explorations; 


comparison des traces étudiés; négociations ; etat des tra- 
vaux. Par LucIEN N. B. Wyse. Paris, Hachette, 1886. 8°. 


280 


stract of his account of the explorations, in which 


many parties were occupied for a long period and 
over a great extent of territory. Nor can more 
than mention be made of the eleven plans, by dif- 
ferent explorers, discussed in detail : viz., — 


1°, By Commodore Shufeldt and Mr. Fuertes, at Tehuan- 
tepec, 280 kilometres, all to be excavated, and 140 
locks. 

2°. By Childs, revised by Commandant Lull and Mr. Men- 
ocal, at Nicaragua, 292 kilometres, 195 of which are to 
be excavated, Lake Nicaragua and 21 locks. 

3°. By.,Commandant Lull, at Panama, 72 kilometres, all to 
be excavated, with 25 locks and a canal-bridge over 
the Chagres River. 

4°, By Wyse, Reclus, and Sosa, at Panama, 75 kilometres, 
all to be excavated, a sea-level canal, with or without 
a tunnel, and now under construction. 

5°. By Wyse, Reclus, and de Lépinay, at Panama, 72 kilo- 
metres, 50 of which are to be excavated, with 11 locks 
and an artificial lake in valleys of Chagres and Rio 
Grande. 

6°. By McDougal, Commandant Selfridge, Wyse, Reclus, 
and Sosa, at San Blas, 53 kilometres, 42 of which are 
to be excavated, level canal with tunnel of 15 kilo- 
metres, 

7°. By Wyse, etc., at Darien, 125 kilometres, 74 of which 
are to be excavated, level canal with tunnel of 17 kilo- 
metres. 

8°, By Wyse, etc., at Darien, 235 kilometres, 128 of which 
are to be excavated, with 22 locks and tunnel of 2 
kilometres. 

9°. By Trautwine, Kennish, Michler, etc., at Choco, 2J0 
kilometres, 90 of which are to be excavated, level 
canal with 2 tunnels of 3 and 8 kilometres. 

10°. By Commandant Selfridge and Mr. Collins, at Choco, 
290 kilometres, 50 of which are to be excavated, with 
22 locks and tunnel of 6 kilometres, 

11°. By the same, the same, modified to 2 locks and tunnel 
of 6 kilometres. 


It will be interesting to see how the author’s 
opinions of the past conduct of the work on the 
canal, the present material and financial condi- 
tion, and the future prospects for completion, 
compare with the views of Mr. Rodrigues, al- 
ready referred to. But in weighing the state- 
ments it will be well to bear in mind that the 
author has written this book, as he states in his 
dedicatory letter, to establish the facts for his 
family’s sake, that he was the originator of the 
plans and route adopted, and the negotiator of the 
concessions obtained, —facts which otherwise 
seemed likely to be obscured by the strong per- 
sonality of de Lesseps. He desires also, by pre- 
senting his original plans, to absolve himself from 
blame for errors committed by others. He ac- 
knowledges that between the session of the Paris 
congress in 1879, and the organization of the 
canal company in 1880, a coldness sprang up be- 
tween M. de Lesseps and himself, and that his 
appointment as director-general was withdrawn. 

He states, that, in order to have some official 
acquainted with the business in hand, the place 
of superior agent at the isthmus, with duties but 
poorly defined, was given to his old friend and 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VII., No. 164 


collaborator, M. Reclus, who initiated the enter- 
prise in January, 1881, began the clearing, the 
final studies, the assembling of plant, buildings, 
etc., built a large landing at the north entrance, 
and erected a general hospital at Panama. He 
was succeeded in June, 1882, by M. Verbrugghe, 
and later by M. Richier, under whom was begun 
the first digging of the canal proper. This ad- 
ministration was not a success; and when, in 
1883, M. Dingler was appointed director, he abol- 
ished the office of superior agent. The oversight 
of the work, already too negligent, became quite 
inefficient ; and to-day, four years and a half from 
the beginning, matters are in a bad shape. The 
appointment of Engineer Hutin, first as sub- 
director and then as chief engineer, is not suffi- 
cient, despite the good-will which he brings to his 
position, to remedy the evil already done. 

In October, 1885, the following was the state of 
affairs: there has been moved a total of from 
sixteen to seventeen million cubic metres of earth, 
twelve millions only being from the canal proper, 
and eighty-eight millions are still to be excavated. 
Besides, there have been prepared buildings and 
stables on an extravagant scale, farms and gardens 
at great expense around headquarters, railroad 
branches, field hospitals, and roads, three of 
which he says are of but little use except for 
pleasure-riding by idle employees. Considerable 
labor has been expended on the Atlantic side. The 
best organized works are at Emperador; while 
at Culebra, a very important section, as will be 
seen by the profile, the reverse is the fact, and the 
amount already excavated is far out of proportion 
with the vast quantity which yet remains in place. 
On the Pacific slope the work is less advanced. 
He claims that at Culebra, by an injudicious de- 
viation from his line, the management has in- 
creased the depth of cut from eighty metres to 
a hundred and nine metres. <A vast quantity of 
tools, machinery, and materials, has been col- 
lected, and some fine workshops have been or- 
ganized. Many of the excavators and dredges 
have caused trouble, delays, and breakdowns, 
while difficulties with the temporary tracks and 
cars for moving earth are frequent. The question 
of the protection of the canal from the dangerous 
floods of the Chagres River by means of a dam 
and large storage-reservoir has not been settled in 
the last three years. What he thinks of the pres- 
ent management may be inferred from his ex- 
pression, une administration méticuleusement pa- 
perassicre. 

The company has received half of its capital 
stock, a hundred and fifty million francs, besides 
four hundred million, in round numbers, in obli- 
gations of three different types. It has on hand 


Marcu 26, 1886. | 


something over sixty million francs, and the re- 
maining half of its capital, with which to pay for 
the excavation of eighty-eight million cubic 
metres. From eighteen months to two years have 
been lost through lack of discipline and ill-directed 
efforts. If we judged only from the earth already 
moved, there would be required to complete the 
work four thousand million frances and thirty-six 
years. But the expense and time spent in getting 
ready, the acquisition of property, and the col- 
lection of materials, must be considered. There 
have been wasted in useless works, too high 
prices, and absurd contracts, a hundred and 
fifty million francs. The errors committed by 
the direction will amount, at the time of com- 
pletion, to a loss of about three hundred and fifty 
million francs, to which ought to be added a large 
share of the ninety-four million frances paid for 
the Panama railroad, since the better terms he 
had negotiated with the railroad company were 
set aside. 

He still adheres to and defends his original 
estimate of a hundred and five million cubic 
metres of earth as the quantity needful to be 
moved, provided the useless plans for the devia- 
‘tion of the Chagres, and the formation of a great 
interior port near Corrozal, are given up. The 
treatment he would apply to the river is that of 
one large dam and a number of smaller ones 
along its course. The earth has proved of good 
quality for retaining a slope, is deeper, and there 
is less rock and of a less hard nature than was 
anticipated. By a reformation of methods of 
administration and work, by the employment of 
experienced contractors, by carrying out no un- 
necessary projects, by push and energy, he esti- 
mates that it is possible to finish the canal in six 
years. The company must raise, for the eighty- 
eight million cubic metres of excavation, at five 
and a half francs per metre, four hundred and 
eighty-four million francs, and seventy-five millions 
for accessory works, and one hundred millions for 
discount, interest, etc., less certain savings which 
can be made; in all, about six hundred million 
francs. By proper and rigorous economy he be- 
lieves that the total cost can be brought to twelve 
hundred million francs. 

We find, further, that he calls attention anew 
to his alternative project at Panama, with ten or 
eleven locks, the fifth in the preceding enumera- 
tion, as offering a cheaper and a quicker solution 
of the problem in which the company is now 
engaged. Current rumor would seem to indicate 
_ that the company was leaning towards such a 
way of extricating itself from its present difficul- 
ties, even with an abandonment of the chief 
argument in favor of the Panama route, — that 


SCIENCE. 


281 


it would be a sea-level canal like the Suez canal, 
without locks. 

He closes with a discussion of the mercantile 
advantages to be derived from the canal, and the 
revenue from which to repay the great outlay 
cited above. 


LONDON LETTER. 


IN the first of this series of letters, allusion was 
made to the frightfully unsanitary condition of 
the river Lea, in one of the London suburbs. 
From’ the upper part of this, water is still drawn 
for the metropolitan supply, while enormous 
quantities of sewage, etc., are allowed to drain 
into it lower down in its course. A few days ago 
a public meeting was held at the Mansion house, 
London, under the presidency of the lord mayor, 
in aid of the ‘‘ National society to secure effective 
legislation against river-pollution.” The attorney- 
general, Sir C. Russell, M.P., moved the following 
resolution: ‘‘That the speedy purification of our 
rivers would, in the opinion of this meeting, 
effect a great reform long urgently needed, and 
of vital importance to the general health and wel- 
fare of the community.” There were two defects 
in the existing law : first, it was only permissive 
instead of compulsory ; second, its powers could 
only be put in force by the sanitary authorities, 
who in some instances had been the main offend- 
ers. He would like to see the law so amended 
that no sewage-pollution should be allowed, under 
any circumstances, to enter any river, — at least, 
up to the point of its reaching the sea or a great 
estuary, —and he did not think the difficulty of 
making the law effective to that extent would 
prove very serious. Reform in the case of the 
river Lea would be a pioneer of reform in the case 
of other rivers; and, if the responsibility of deal- 
ing with sewage were placed on communities, the 
question would very soon be settled. From what 
came under the notice of the present writer dur- 
ing his recent visits to America, he thinks these 
weighty words should not be without due warn- 
ing to various parts of the states and Canada. 

The exceptional length and severity of the pres- 
ent winter are universal topics of conversation. 
For some days there has been skating in the Lon- 
don parks, — an event without precedent, for the 
second week in March. On the nights of Satur- 
day and Sunday, March 6 and 7, the minimum 
temperature registered by screened thermometers 
(verified at Kew) near Stoke-on-Trent, in the mid- 
land districts of England, was 7° F. The next 
lowest temperature recorded in March was 18°, 
on March 18, 1845;. and, according to Mr. 
Glaisher’s Greenwich tables, that was the coldest 


282 


day for the sixty years from 1814 to 1873. Over 
the greater part of the British Islands, this Feb- 
ruary was one of the coldest Februarys on record ; 
the Greenwich mean being 33°.8, or 6°.8 below 
the average, while through Great Britain gen- 
erally, from the Grampians to the Channel, the 
mean temperatures were from 5° to 7° below the 
monthly averages. Severe snow-storms blocked 
the lines on the east coast in the first few days of 
March, and also in North Wales, as many as thirty 
trains being snowed up between Newcastle and 
Berwick alone. 

It has long been observed, that, for every degree 
below the average temperature in any week, a 
definite increase takes place in the average num- 
ber of deaths, chiefly among elderly people. 
Among recent victims, two may be mentioned, — 
the famous Scotch naturalist, Mr. C. W. Peach, 
who was a most remarkable example of the irre- 
pressible instinct of a true lover of nature; and 
Dr. Storrar, for many years chairman of con- 
vocation of the University of London. To him 
the medical graduates of that university owe far 
more than most of them are aware of. In the 
early days of the university, nearly half a century 
ago, its degrees were, for various reasons, looked 
on with much suspicion, and the other medical 
bodies in authority were inclined to deny any 
status whatever to the new graduates; in fact, 
attempts were made to prevent them from enga- 
ging in ordinary medical practice. Dr. Storrar 
sacrificed his own professional prospects in order 
to fight this question, and at the present day the 
London university degrees in medicine rank as 
the highest which it is possible to obtain. 

The engineering tripos at Cambridge, alluded to 
in a former letter, has now been fairly established, 
and the chief regulations in connection therewith 
appeared in the university intelligence of the 
Times a few days ago. Inquiries as to the desira- 
bility of establishing degrees in engineering have 
been issued on behalf of the University of Lon- 
don. 

The annual report of the director of the French 
agricultural department on the proceedings of the 
Phylloxera commission has just been published. 
It has been decided that none of the processes 
made known during the year 1885 entitle the in- 
ventors to the prize offered by the government, 
and accordingly the old remedies continue to be 
recommended. These are, 1°, submersion, which 
was applied in 1885 to 24,329 hectares; 2°, carbon 
disulphide, to 40,585; and, 3°, potassium sulpho- 
carbonate, to 5,227. American vines which have 
been planted now replace those destroyed, over a 
surface of 72,362 hectares. The surface which 
has resisted the attacks of the insect is about 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 164 


twenty-two per cent of the whole surface suffer- 
ing from the disease. 

The hydrophobia scare is still sufficient to keep 
the muzzles on the unfortunate dogs. Questioned 
last night in the house of commons by Sir Henry 
Roscoe on the subject of M. Pasteur’s cure for 
this terrible disease, Mr. Chamberlain replied, on 
behalf of the government, that he hoped to be 
able to arrange for such an investigation as would 
enable a just estimate to be formed of M. Pasteur’s 
method, and its applicability in this country. In 
a recent paper read before the French academy of 
medicine, M. Pasteur gave details of three hun- 
dred and fifty cases, all of which, with one ex- 
ception, he had treated successfully ; and he has, 
whenever possible, secured certificates from doc- 
tors and veterinary surgeons as to the existence 
of rabies in the animals concerned. M. Pasteur 
hopes soon to turn his attention to diphtheria. 


London, March 13. 


- 


VIENNA LETTER. 


THE struggle between gas and electricity as 
means of lighting has reached a new stage in the 
invention of Dr. Auer of Welsbach, Austria, a 
young Vienna chemist who has been experiment- 
ing at Professor Lieben’s laboratory. The princi- 
ple of Dr. Auer’s invention is no new one. Every 
one knows the Drummond light, in which a cylin- 
der of lime is brought to incandescence by a 
burning mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. But, 
in all previous attempts of this kind, a tempera- 
ture was required too high for ordinary use. Dr. 
Auer has found a substance — the composition of 
which he unfortunately keeps a secret — which 
becomes incandescent at the temperature of a 
Bunsen burner. His lamp consists of such a 
burner, surrounded by a common lamp-cylinder, 
in the flame of which is hung a hollow cylinder 
of thin ‘ organtine’ impregnated with a metallic 
salt solution. By the action of the flame, the 
organic matter of the ‘organtine’ is destroyed ; 
the salt is converted into an oxide ; and a white, 
very elastic, porous cylinder remains, which be- 
comes incandescent. Dr. Auer’s lamp has given, 
according to recent measurements, a luminous 
power of twenty candles at a gas-supply of fifty- 
six litres per hour. 

A very important discovery, both for practical 
and theoretical medicine, has been made here by 
Mr. Ernst Freund, a pupil of Prof. E. Ludwig, at 
Professor Stricker’s laboratory. From earlier ex- 
periments, it is known that blood does not coagu- 
late so long as it is contained within the living 
healthy vessels ; though clotting occurs whenever 
the vessels are injured, or have lost their vitality, 


Marca 26, 1886.] 


according to experiments made by Durante and 
by Zahn. In a short time (in man in three 
minutes) after the blood is withdrawn from the 
veins, or after death, coagulation of the blood 
commences. Coagulation can be hindered or sus- 
pended in various ways, such as contact with 
living healthy vessels (Lister, Bruecke), exposure 
to low temperature (at 0° C.), or by the addition 
of solutions of certain neutral salts (sodium chlo- 
ride, sulphate, carbonate ; magnesium sulphate, 
etc.). If peptone is mixed with the blood, its 
clotting is suspended ; and Dr. Haycraft of Edin- 
burgh has kept it fluid for a longer time by adding 
an aqueous extract prepared from the intestines of 
leeches. It may be also noted that a German 
physiologist, Professor Gruenhagen, some time 
ago observed that blood, if collected in glycerine, 
remained fluid so long as a mixture did not take 
place. 

Now, Mr. Freund has found a very simple 
method to prevent the coagulation. He collected 
the blood, drawn from the vein of an animal, 
under oil, and it remained fluid for many days. 
In further experiments it was found, that, in 
arterial blood collected in a glass vessel whose 
walls were continuously coated with a film of vas- 
eline, the fibrine did not separate, even when 
stirred or agitated with a vaseline-coated glass 
rod ; but, as soon as the blood was poured into an 
ordinary receptacle; the fibrine was immediately 
coagulated. It was further observed by Freund 
that the presence of minute foreign bodies, such 
as particles of dust, was sufficient to produce clot- 
ting. These experiments were made, both at ordi- 
nary temperatures and at that of the body, with 
equal success. In one of the experiments which I 
had the opportunity of seeing, a glass tube coated 
with oil was inserted into the carotid artery of a 
dog, while a dry tube was connected with the 
crural artery of the same animal. The blood in 
the latter was clotted in fifteen minutes ; but the 
pulsations of the blood column in the oiled tube 
were perceptible for more than two hours and a 
half. Fresh blood contained in fish-bladders, or 
parchment tubes, which had been previously soaked 
in a 0.6 per cent solution of chloride of sodium, 
and afterwards covered with a like solution, re- 
mained fluid for many days. 

Mr. Freund has made a preliminary communica- 
tion on his researches, which will be continued in 
an early number of the Wiener medicinische jahr- 
biicher. LGR Os 

Vienna, Feb. 16. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 
THE teachers’ course in chemistry at Harvard 
during the summer of 1886 will be under the di- 


SCIENCE. 


283 


rection of Dr. Comey, and will open July 5, and 
close Aug. 14. Instruction will be given in gen- 
eral chemistry, qualitative analysis, quantitative 
analysis, and organic chemistry. A course in 
mineralogy will also be given. The fee for the 
course is twenty-five dollars. An additional 
charge, which has averaged from five to six dol- 
lars, is made for the material and apparatus con- 
sumed by each student. The summer classes are 
offered the same facilities for laboratory work as 
are open to students during the academic year. 
The college library is open for the use cf students 
in these courses. For further information address 
Arthur M. Comey, Harvard chemical laboratory, 
Cambridge, Mass. 


— On the 23d of September, 1882, Friedrich 
Wohler died, in his eighty-third year, one of the 
last and one of the most eminent of the chemists 
whose lives and labors connected the early forma- 
tive age of the science with that of its recent 
wide expansion. As investigator and teacher, as 
author and scientific correspondent, he deserved, 
as few have done of those who have passed away 
in our time, that his memory be held in honor by 
those who care for the science of chemistry. Soon 
after his death a movement was begun in Ger- 
many, originating with the German chemical 
society, for the collection of an adequate sum of 
money with which to erect in Géttingen a statue 
to Wohler, as a permanent monument, on the 
spot where most of his life’s work was done. The 
subscription has reached the sum of about four 
thousand dollars, but this is not yet sufficient for 
the purpose in view. The co-operation of Ameri- 
can chemists has recently been asked by a mem- 
ber of the local committee in Gottingen, in a let- 
ter addressed to one of the undersigned, who have 
formed a committee for the United States in order 
to give practical shape to action in this country. 
Contributions may be sent to any one of the fol- 
lowing: James C. Booth, U.S. mint, Philadel- 
phia; J. W. Mallet (chairman), University of Vir- 
ginia: C. F. Chandler, Columbia college, New 
York: H. B. Nason, Rensselaer polytechnic in- 
stitute, Troy ; F. Frerichs, Mallinckrodt chemical 
works, St. Louis; Tra Remsen (secretary and 
treasurer), Johns Hopkins university; Wolcott 
Gibbs, Cambridge ; W. B. Rising, University of 
California, Berkeley ; E.P. Harris, Amherst, Mass. ; 
S. P. Sadtler, University of Pennsylvania, Phila- 
delphia ; J. W. Langley, Ann Arbor ; C. U. Shep- 
ard, jun., Charleston, 8.C. ; F. Mahla, corner 21st 
Street and Stewart Avenue, Chicago; Eugene A. 
Smith, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. 


— Four additional sheets of the New Jersey 
topographical map are lately issued, making ten 


284 


now published out of the total seventeen. The 
unfinished sheets cover the inland area of the 
state, along the lower Delaware. The arrange- 
ment of the map sheets was illustrated in Science 
(vii. No. 155). A map of the whole state, five 
inches to a mile, will form an eighteenth sheet. 


— The fifth annual report of the U. S. geologi- 
cal survey, just issued, contains a number of valu- 
able works by well-known authors, and is richly 
illustrated by excellent engravings. In addition 
to the papers already noticed, there is one by Prof. 
O. C. Marsh, on the gigantic mammals of the 
order Dinocerata, — an abstract of his volume on 
the same subject, already published,— and one 
by R. D. Irving, entitled ‘‘ Preliminary paper on 
an investigation of the archaean formation of the 
north-western states,” which contains the results 
of field and laboratory investigation of the prob- 
lems of correlation, structure, and genesis. 


— Professor Koch of Berlin is issuing a Zeit- 
schrift fiir hygiene, for the publication of his own 
researches, which have hitherto been made public 
in the official documents of the imperial health 
office, as well as for the publication of the results 
of investigations undertaken under his direction 
in the Hygienic institute lately established in con- 
nection with the university. 


— After many denials, it is again authoritatively 
announced that Professor Du Bois-Reymond is at 
work on a history of natural science in the nine- 
teenth century. 

— The strips of papyrus that were taken from 
an Egyptian excavation several years ago, and 
placed in the Berlin museum, are said to contain 
parts of the great work of Aristotle on adminis- 
tration, and, in particular, passages from the most 
valuable part of that work, — that treating of the 
civil administration of Athens. 


—J.H. Darwin, son of the late Charles Dar- 
win, is understood to have his father’s biography 
nearly ready for publication. It is believed that 
the book will contain much of interest concerning 
the naturalist’s domestic life. and his methods of 
carrying on his investigations and researches. 


— At the last meeting of the Academy of politi- 
cal science, Columbia eollege, Hon. John Jay 
Knox, ex-comptroller of the treasury, read a valu- 
able paper on ‘ Legal tender in the United States.’ 
It is not improbable that Mr. Knox’s paper will be 
published in an early number of the new Political 
science quarterly. 

— The annual report of the Connecticut agri- 
cultural experiment-station, for 1885, deals almost 
wholly with analyses of feeding-stuffs and ferti- 
lizers. The laws of Connecticut require analyses 


SCTE NCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 164 


to be made of all commercial fertilizers annually. 
The results of such, accomplished at this station 
in past years, have been of real value to the farm- 
ers and gardeners throughout the state. The 
larger part of the matter upon food-stuffs is com- 
piled, though evidently useful. The originai por- 
tion, however, is not inconsiderable. In these re- 
ports one is impressed with the almost purely 
chemical nature of the work accomplished ; and 
the personnel of the station is composed wholly of 
chemists. While there can be no question of the 
great importance of agricultural chemistry, it 
certainly seems that the work of an agricultural 
experiment-station should not be so exclusively 
limited. One must think that a botanist and 
entomologist would be a desirable accession to 
the already able staff. 


— Messrs. Romanoffski and Mushketoff have 
published a geological map of Russian Turkestan 
in six sheets, on a scale of 1: 1,260,000. Besides 
surface geology, this chart shows ‘the area oc- 
cupied by ancient and modern glaciers, the loca- 
tion of mines, and the altitude of all important 
points. 


— There have been received to date at this of- 
fice the following subscriptions to the Heer memo- 
rial: Prof. Jules Marcou, five dollars; Prof. Asa 
Gray, five dollars; Mr. 8S. H. Scudder, five dollars. 


—The next annual session of the National 
academy of sciences will be held in Washington, 
at the national museum, commencing Tuesday, 
April 20, at 11 A.M. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


«*, Corresyondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Certain questions relating to national endow- 
ment of research in this country, and their 
importance. 


We have before us for our consideration at the 
present time, in this country, anumber of questions 
of the highest import to science, of which it may be 
said that they are as yet in a formative stage. By 
this is meant, that the United States, as now repre- 
senting one of the distinct nations of the world, has 
not yet expressed a national opinion upon them, after 
the manner usually adopted by nations for express- 
ing opinions which may be said to be national, and 
which the nation stands willing to defend in opposi- 
tion to the opinions of other peoples. Of the sev- 
eral questions that I refer to, none can claim greater 
weight than that one which takes into consideration 
the extent to which our government should endow 
scientific research. 

This is really a point in political economy of the 
utmost importance, as it affects the national welfare, 
and has much to do with the formation of the na- 
tional character. To those who have watched the 
growth, and approach towards a decision, of this: 
issue during the past twenty-five years, the fact 


Marcu 26, 1886.] 


must now be evident that we have arrived at that 
point when we must soon decide upon the attitude 
we are to assume in regard to it. 

When all the elements of civilization have been in 
operation for over a century in a new country like 
ours, and when we come to study the final result, 
there is no better criterion of the success of that 
civilization than the relative number and the emi- 
nence of the leaders in the sciences, arts, and in- 
dustries that it has produced. 

We have many such leaders, and they must be re- 
garded as the best fruits of our civilization ; while 
their works, or the effects of their works, will always 
measure the degree of respect that we are held in by 
other nations. 

To-day the problem which is contained in that 
chapter of political economy which deals with the 
question of the nation’s placing to the best use these 
fruits of her civilization, is one of the highest im- 
portance, and is yet to be rigidly applied, for it is 
still tossed upon the waves of varying opinion 
created in the minds of men. 

During the various stages of development of this 
principle in our country, the government at different 
times, and under different influences, has assumed an 
attitude towards it varying all the way from open 
hostility to the very verge of that method of treat- 
ment employed by King Frederick of Denmark, in 
the case of Tycho Brahe, three hundred years ago. 

Aside from our great problems of education, there 
stands the equally vital question to us, which may be 
expressed in its broadest sense as the question of 
national endowment of research. This is one that 
naturally resolves itself into two general phases, 
which are quite distinct. The first is, taken in the 
light of a productive expenditure, to what extent 
should the government assist scientific researchers in 
private life; and, secondly, to what extent should 
she encourage it among those directly in the govern- 
ment employ. 

Touching the first of these questions, I shall have 
but little to say ; and such as it is, is mainly prompted 
by the aims and purposes of that act which has just 
passed the senate, known as the ‘ Blair educational 
bill.’ This provides that the enormous sum of 
seventy-nine million dollars of money be appro- 
priated from the national treasury for distribution 
among the states and territories ‘‘ in that proportion 
which the whole number of persons in each, who, 
being of the age of ten years and over, cannot write, 
bears to the whole number of such persons in the 
United States.” Now, this step not only presupposes 
that this country claims the right of voting away 
public means to such ends, but that she actually in- 
tends to act upon thatsupposition. In my own opin- 
ion, the nation does hold just such aright; but as 
well-meaning as the purposes of this bill are, in view 
of the excellent school advantages all over this 
country for all classes and conditions, would not the 
state be equally well served, if not better, by the 
treasury appropriating a similar sum to be used, by 
methods now well known to us, towards the develop- 
ment of an American Pasteur, or a Priestley, or an- 
other Agassiz, a Longfellow or a Fulton? Has any 
one any doubt as to which appropriation would ad- 
vance the national and the people’s interest the 
more? I believe the ends of all education are best 
met by the latter means of expenditure and endow- 
ment. I stand on the side of the king of Denmark, 
in his principle as applied to Tycho Brahe. 


SCIENCE. 


285 


In taking up the remaining side of the question, — 
i.e., the extent to which the government should 
recognize and further the researches of those per- 
sons in her employ who have from time to time 
demonstrated their peculiar fitness to perform cer- 
tain work,—TI will, before discussing the subject, 
formulate a few well-known and established princi- 
ples. These are as follows : — 

1°. Both present and past history teaches us, that, 
in those rare instances where persons of high attain- 
ments, or even genius, have been enabled through 
government endowment to devote all their energies 
to their special line of investigation, the result has 
been of incalculable benefit to mankind for all 
time. 

2°. That one of the inherent characteristics of the 
pursuit of knowledge is its inability to maintain itself 
commercially, and that, in all cases wherein the re- 
searcher is not financially provided for, it must of 
necessity be linked with some other occupation. 

3°. That the published results of the labors of 
investigators are only of the highest standard and 
worth when the investigator has been enabled to 
pursue his researches with a mind absolutely re- 
lieved from pecuniary worry, and an absolute assur- 
ance of his being undisturbed, in any way, in the 
field of his investigations. 

4°, That, to make actual progress in learning, the 
investigator must have the means at his disposal of 
thoroughly acquainting himself with every thing 
that has been previously made known by former 
workers through their published results; then any 
new facts he contributes in his special calling may be 
considered as contributions to knowledge. 

Aided by these principles, let us now see what the 
government can effect with her bibliographers who 
are upon lighthouse duty, anatomists in recruiting 
officers, bacteriologists in charge of the library, pathol- 
ogists as ordnance officers, and geologists in charge 
of the hospitals. There is no question but that the 
government possesses both the right and the power 
to apply any one of these distinguished gentlemen 
to demonstrate the first principle ; and will any one 
question the gain that would follow, to knowledge, 
humanity, and the nation, by removing the bacteri- 
ologist from the library and placing him in the labo- 
ratory, where perhaps several thousand dollars’ 
worth of instruments may be awaiting him ? 

The position of the majority of such scientists in 
the services fulfils the second principle ; and, in any 
event, the government would have no trouble on that 
score, as she can retain in her service anyone as 
long as they please to remain. 

It is equaily evident that both of the last princi- 
ples can be carried out by the government with the 
greatest ease, and without any additional outlay. 
The pay of any government officer is always sufficient 
to support him ; and we ail know that the govern- 
ment lacks neither opportunity, libraries, material, 
or the power of lifting from off the shoulders of 
her scientific workers all but the most necessary 
restraints. Of course, beyond the opportunities 
afforded by the national libraries, the fulfilment of 
the fourth principle remains entirely with the scien- 
tist himself. 

Now, these exceedingly simple requirements are 
all that is necessary for this government to put into 
execution, in order to carry out and place in opera- 
tion the grandest of all social schemes, the most 
powerful impulse to the progress of knowledge, and 


286 


the most complete realization of the ends of all edu- 
cation; yet how rarely is a step ever taken in the 
direction of putting into execution these four princi- 
ples, and how often are they violated entirely ! 

Even to-day, as in years gone by, we find the scien- 
tist placed in charge of hospitals full of sick men, 
and with the lives of women and children in his hands 
besides, when he can see with his own eyes that 
every time he is called to attend, as physician, upon 
the sick, his very presence is detrimental to their 
recovery, while his painful attempts to demon- 
strate to those about him that he is trying to do his 
full duty, only results in total lack of confidence on 
the part of all the friends, relatives, and attendants, 
who draw a sigh of relief when he has left the room, 
and scrutinize his rather vague directions with sus- 
picion. 

The same applies to ali the other incongruities that 
I cited above; and examples of every one of them 
for the last thirty years could and still can be found 
at any time represented in the government, and in 
most instances require a radical change, to say noth- 
ing of the benefits that would result to humanity for 
all time. R. W. SHUFELDT. 

Fort Wingate, N. Mex., March 14. 


The silver problem. 


It is generally taken for granted in arguments on 
this and finance or money problems generally, that 
the state of business, industry, or economic prosperity, 
of the nations as they now exist, depends in a very 
large measure on the substance of which their money 
ismade. Stagnation, crises, and all the baneful con- 
sequences thereof, are ascribed to the money system 
without any intelligent reason. 

Money is any thing whcse exchange value serves 
as a standard for measuring the exchange value of 
other things or of services. It follows that the best 
money is that whose exchange value is most fixed 
and unvarying. By a ‘survival of the fittest’ pro- 
cess, gold now has gained its place as the money! st 
fitted for our present economic system; i.e., the 
exploitation or capitalistic system. 

The customary blunder of the finance tinkers and 
thinkers is to ascribe the evil results of the present 
economic system to the money or finance department 
thereof. This they never do intelligently or clearly, 
and never can, because that relation does not 
exist : hence the confusion and general intellectual 
bankruptcy that prevails on this issue. In the 
prevailing capitalistic system, money and all other 
exchange values are permitted to become private 
property. The producers of exchange values have 
to give them over to a middleman (capitalist), who 
compels them to do that by the power of the state, 
which upholds him therein by upholding him as 
owner of the means of production. But the pro- 
ducers are by this process exploited (fleeced) by 
this third party. For example: a shoemaker and 
tailor would, if free to make their exchange di- 
rectly, exchange, say, three pairs of shoes for two 
coats. But the middleman (capitalist) fleeces both by 
keeping for himself as much as he possibly can of the 
labor-products of both, without giving any thing in 
return. He gives the tailor in money the exchange 
value of only one pair of shoes in exchange for the 
two coats, and the shoemaker only the exchange 
value in money of one coat for the three pairs of 
shoes: consequently, by the hocus-pocus of the 


SCIENCE. 


money system, he is ‘in’ one coat and two pairs of 
shoes. This right to be ‘in’ is his ‘legal’ or 
‘vested’ right, — his ‘ profit.’ The producers may 
deem it a ‘ vested wrong,’ and a great many are be- 
ginning to think that way. 

Besides being a ‘shaving’ system, it is also a ‘com- 
petitive’ system; that is, those workingmen get the 
‘ prize,’ work‘and wages, who will live in the meanest 
and cheapest manner; that is, who work for the 
lowest price, or, in other words, who wili consume 
the least. The capitalist gets the prize, ‘ profit,’ who 
has the most integrated and differentiated means of 
production along with the cheapest labor; that is, 
who can produce the quickest and most. On one 
side, the consuming power is decreased; on the 
other, the producing power is being increased ; and 
in the middle both are fleeced. The result is this 
remarkably anomalous spectacle of people who are 
willing to work suffering from want because there is 
too much produced, and *non-producers consuming 
enormously. 

Herein, and not in the money department, is the real 
‘root of the evil.’ Only a remedy that goes to this 
root, that is, in the root-sense of the word, radical, 
will cure the evil. This remedy is socialism. 

Cas, FIELD. 


A swindler abroad again. 


A person has been operating in Illinois and lowa, 
representing himself to be Prof. H. S. Williams at 
some points, and Professor Oelrich at others ; in all 
cases, so far as heard from, assuming to be con- 
nected with the faculty of Cornell university. His 
modus operandi is to borrow scientific works, money, 
and paleontological specimens, and contract with 
colleges to furnish series of fossils illustrative of 
American geology. He is an expert in classifying 
fossils, and his method of work is strongly suggestive 
of the individual who duped many scientific workers 
last year under the alias of Lesquereux. He has 
worked his games at Galesburg, IIl., Burlington, 
Mount Pleasant, Ottumwa, and Oskaloosa, Io., being 
at the latter place March 8 last. He is undersized, a 
man of from thirty to thirty-five years of age, light 
hair, beard, and mustache, and apparently having no 
use of his right arm, though this defect may have 
been simulated. H. D. CRAWFORD. 


Ottumwa, Io., March 18. 


Reports of the National academy of sciences. 


From inquiries which I have received, there 
appears to be a general misunderstanding concerning 
the reports made by committees of the National 
academy of sciences. It is assumed by the public 
that these reports have been examined and approved 
by the academy, and therefore that they express the 
opinion of that body. This is a mistake. Generally 
a report is not submitted to the academy for discus- 
sion, and it must be understood to represent only the 
opinion of the committee who sign the report. An 
example will be found in a late report, published as 
senate document No. 67 (forty-ninth congress, first 


session), in which it is recommended to change the © 


beginning of the astronomical day from noon to mid- 

night. Probably a majority of the astronomers of 

the academy would oppose such a change if they 

were permitted to speak. AsapH HALL, 
March 18. 


[Vou. VII., No. 164 


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FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1886. 


EDUCATIONAL TENDENCIES IN JAPAN 
AND IN AMERICA. 


It has for some time past been a cause of 
wonder that the bureau of education has been 
able to do so much and so good work with the 
limited means at its disposal, and receiving but 
slight recognition from the other governmental 
departments. Two recent circulars of this bureau 
will, by their great interest and value, serve to in- 
crease this wonder. 

One of them deals with education in Japan.’ 
The population of the empire in 1882 was 37,041,- 
368, and the school population, comprising all 
children between the ages of six and fourteen, 
made up 5,750,946 of this number. 

Education is given more official consideration in 
Japan than here, for it constitutes one of the ten 
departments of the privy council, and has a min- 
ister allotted specially to it. The school organiza- 
tion follows closely the division of the empire for 
administrative purposes into nine circuits and 
eighty-four provinces. A school committee is 
organized in each minor civil division, ward or 
village ; and it conducts all business relating to 
school attendance, the establishment and mainte- 
nance of schools, etc., within its jurisdiction. The 
tenure of such a committee is not less than four 
years, and it is composed of men selected by the 
governor of the province, from a list nominated to 
him by the citizens of the school district. A com- 
mitteeman must be over twenty years of age, a 
property-holder, and a bona fide resident of the 
district from which he is nominated. The di- 
rectors, librarians, professors, and teachers are 
appointed and dismissed in various ways, accord- 
ing to the importance of their office. Some are 
appointed and dismissed by the emperor himself, 
others by the prime minister on the recommenda- 
tion of the minister of education, others by the 
minister of education himself. Their salaries range 
from 4,800 yen (one yen is equivalent to 85.8 cents) 
in the case of a rector or a professor of highest 
grade, to 540 yen or less in the case of an ordinary 
teacher. 

Education has been under government super- 


1 Circulars of information of the bureau of education. 


ee % “a Education in Japan. Washington, Government, 


vision in Japan since 270 A.D., but it was in the 
years from 1868 to 1871, following the political 
reform of the country, that it was placed on its 
present footing. The present educational code 
only dates from 1880. The school system com- 
prises kindergarten, elementary schools, middle 
schools, and a university at Tokio. There are also 
female schools, commercial and industrial schools. 
and normal schools for the training of teachers. 
Nineteen libraries and four museums of high rank 
are under the control of the department. Students 
are frequently sent abroad to complete courses 
of study, fifty having been so sent since 1875. 
Twenty-two such students are abroad at present, 
seventeen of whom are in Germany. The school 
funds are raised as part of the national taxes, and 
the lands occupied by schools are usually govern- 
ment lands: when they do not belong to the gov- 
ernment, they are exempt from taxation. In 1881 
the educational expenses of the empire amounted 
to 6,591,878.123 yen,— about 36 per cent of the 
total expenditure. 8.8 per cent of the entire popu- 
lation were under instruction in 1883 in 30,156 
elementary schools, engaging the services of 24,- 
605 teachers, 1,878 assistant teachers, and 64,017 
pupil teachers. 

The second of the reports to which we have 
referred is no less replete with information than 
the former, but from its character it contains more 
that is suggestive. It was drawn up by the late 
Charles O. Thompson, Ph.D., of Terre Haute, 
Ind., and is an essay on technical instruction in 
Europe.' 

Into the details of this report space forbids us to 
enter, but it is a valuable compendium of the sys- 
tem and methods of technical instruction in the 
various countries of Europe. America is by no 
means deficient in recognizing the importance of 
technical schools; but we need to learn all we can 
on this subject, and call to our aid, when attain- 
able, the experience of other countries, for techni- 
cal education bids fair to be the education of the 
future. In our development of free education we 
have tended to overestimate the dignity of the 
professions and to underestimate the dignity of 
the trades. From Germany comes the cry that 
there are too many educated men, and not enough 
places for them; and in our large cities we see 


1 Circulars of information of the bureau of education. 
No. 3, 1885. A review of the reports of the British royal 
commissioners on technical instruction, with notes, by the 
late Charles O. Thompson. Washington, Government, 
1885. 8°. 


288 


hundreds more lawyers and doctors than can ob- 
tain a decent living. 

The remedy for all this must lie largely in tech- 
nical education. Teach a trade and the practical 
application of principles, and inculcate the lesson 
that no calling is dignified in itself, but it becomes 
what those who follow it choose to make it. We 
believe that Professor Thompson’s essay is a posi- 
tive contribution to our knowledge of this subject, 
and therefore should be carefully studied by all 
who are interested in education. 


NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER. 


THE CHARACTERS OF CHILDREN AS EVI- 
DENCED BY THEIR POWERS OF OBSER- 
VATION. 


THE study of the powers of observation in 
children has been seldom attempted in a sys- 
tematic way; and yet, with the tendencies and 
aims of modern education, there can scarcely be 
any subject from which might be expected more 
fruitful results. Professor Farlow, in his recent 
address before the Society of naturalists, has as- 
serted that the schools, in the last six or seven 
years, have made no perceptible progress in de- 
veloping these powers, and that, so far as ele- 
mentary training is concerned, we are about 
where we were ten years ago. Furthermore, in 
his own experience, he finds that the tendency of 
education, in the lower schools at least, is to im- 
pair, rather than to sharpen, the natural powers 
in this respect. Considering how important an 
element of successful work, in most careers, this 
faculty is, one cannot fail to appreciate the value 
of experiments that may throw light upon 
remediable mental defects, or upon mental excel- 
lences, in childhood. 

At the suggestion of Mr. Francis Galton, Mrs. 
Sophia Bryant, D.Sc., has recently * attempted 
a series of such experiments, the results of which, 
though subject to fallacies, will point out a fruit- 
ful line of investigation. 

Her method was the analysis of the character- 
istics evinced in the description of given objects 
by a number of school-children, all of whom 
were of the same age (thirteen years), and un- 
known to her. For this purpose they were al- 
lowed to remain for about ten minutes in a room 
which they did not know, and were then required 
to write a description of it. The one first de- 
scribed was a schoolroom, having certain features 
in common with other schoolrooms familiar to the 
children, but having certain others peculiar to it- 
self, and a sufficient amount of ornament, in pic- 


1 Journ. anthropol. inst, of Great Britain and Ireland, 
xv. 338, February, 1866. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 164 


tures and otherwise, to redeem it from being quite 
prosaic. The results of her analyses were after 
wards compared with the characteristics as given 
by the children’s teachers; from which compari- 
sons, in many cases, striking agreements were 
found. Of course, in such experiments, as the 
author rightly says, only repeated and varied 
trials can eliminate the chances of error; and 
much less weight should be attached to negative — 
than to positive results. The points thus brought 
out were as follows :— 

1°. In the perception of an object a logical dis- 
tinction is made between the sense-impression and 
the apprehension of it by the mind, as between 
the passive and active factors of perception. Ap- 
prehension is essentially the bringing of the new 
into relation with the old, and thus interpreting 
the new by means of the old. 

In the ratio of these two factors of perception 
to each other, there were found signs of great 
variety. Impressions were sometimes numerous 
and faithful where the power of giving them a 
meaning, and thus perceiving them fully, was 
clearly very slight, or at least inoperative. In 
such cases the perception was what would be 
ordinarily called unintelligent. In other cases the 
impressions either made, or at any rate dwelt 
upon, were fewer, but the apprehension of them 
was very complete. This completeness of appre-— 
hension or understanding occasionally passed be- 
yond the limits of full and accurate perception 
into pure inference. Sometimes the inference 
was correct, and that not by chance, since it had 
the marks of having been cautiously conducted. 
Such little phrases as ‘ I suppose,’ or ‘it is likely,” 
are tell-tales here, as marking off the cautious 
from the reckless thinker. This latter person was 
betrayed also by a very unmistakable hastiness of 
inference, which in the bad cases degenerated into. 
actual false perception. For instance: the name 
‘“C. W.’ in the corner of a picture was reported as 
‘M. W.,’ this being the name of a girl in school 
whom the young observer knew very. well. 

It was found, as indeed might naturally be ex 
pected, that the false perceivers were nearly al 
ways ready apprehenders, who, apparently digress 
ing into actual inference, inferred carelessly, and 
projected their false inferences into false percep 
tions. The carelessness of such inference is of ¢ 
very simple character : the impressions to the test 
of which the inference should be brought are 
there, and it is not brought to the test. This 
argues absence of the impulse to criticise, whic 
is the basis of accurate habits of thought. Feeble 
ness of the impressions is, it must be admitted, 4 
negative cause for the false perceptions, since the — 
test is thus kept in the background ; but it is only 


- 


Marcu 26, 1886.] 


a negative cause, since, if the critical impulse 
were really strong, the inference would be chal- 
lenged at least, even if it could not be corrected. 
In judgments, however, as to character-tests, it 
would be necessary to estimate this negative 
cause as otherwise indicated, and allow for it be- 
fore deciding on the degree of the critical defect. 

2°. In the second place, differences were ob- 
served in the degree of orderliness with which 
perceptions are marshalled, and in the general 
notion of order which characterizes any particu- 
lar observer. 

Out of twenty observers, eight gave evidence 
of no noticeable interest in order at all: the ob- 
jects appeared to have been observed haphazard, 
as far as their relation to one another logically, or 
in place, went. On the other hand, seven descrip- 
tions were as orderly as they could well be ex- 
pected to be ; while to three, half marks were 
given, and to one two-fifths. In most of the or- 
derly descriptions the order chosen was that of 
place, —the order of the inventory round the 
room, some starting from the door, some from 
the opposite point, and some from the clock in the 
middle. In one or two the order was logical; 
i.e., the order of what may be called the idea of 
the room, as in one paper which begins, ‘‘ The 
first thing that strikes you are the rows of desks 
and girls.” In another set of papers, describing 
a more ornamental kind of a room, signs were 
found of a third kind of order, sometimes very 
strong, —the order, namely, of aesthetic effects ; 
the order in space, and in idea too, being subor- 
dinated to the order in feeling for the beautiful. 

3°. Great differences in color-interest were also 
observable, since some took pains to describe colors 
fully, while others took no notice of color at all, 
or very little. In the same way, any marked in- 
terest in form was also shown ; though in the ex- 
periments under consideration no call was made 
upon the form-interest so strong as to test defect 
by the absence of response. 

4°. One other characteristic, and a most im- 
portant one, came out into strong relief in a few 
cases. This is the tendency to substitute feeling 
for thinking, to apprehend impressions as the 
minimum of idea with the maximum of emotion, 
which may be called, for simplicity, over-emotion- 
alism. An over-emotional person perceives ob- 
jects habitually as sources of feeling ; and that is, 
of course, equivalent to not properly perceiving 
them at all. Now when, in the description of a 
room, a child tells you that it is very beautiful, and 
there are lovely curiains, and the sweetest flowers, 
and pretty ornaments, it may be considered an 
evident mark of over-emotionalism, and should, 
in the educational interest, recommend a whole- 


SCIENCE. 


289 


, 


some diet of ideas accordingly. The negative de- 
fect —for, after all, it is a defect—of under- 
emotionalism is, like all negative defects, difficult 
to test; but the freedom from defect reveals itself 
every now and then in little touches that are very 
Gubtle. 

In other observations made, a picture was used 
as atest. The same contrasts as before were to 
some extent brought out in the various descrip- 
tions of the picture ; but there was occasion for 
another set of contrasts in these cases, and these 
contrasts came out decidedly. To see a picture in 
the full sense is to understand its meaning, and in 
the interpretation of meaning there is abundant 
scope for the most varied play of imagination, 
whether checked by faithful observation or not. 
Just as the perception of an object resolves itself 
into the two factors of impression and apprehen- 
sion, so the observation of a complex of objects 
resolves itself into the two factors of perception 
and explanation by means of appropriate fetches 
of the constructive imagination. Now, in some 
children there was found abundant and accurate 
perceptive detail, with something like the min- 
imum of constructive explanation. In others the 
opposite extreme was manifest, explanation good, 
and details little dwelt upon or even described 
with imperfect accuracy. Between these ex- 
tremes the two factors were combined in various 
ratios, including the ratio of equality character- 
istic of the well-balanced type of mind. 

Again, varieties in the nature of the imagina- 
tive play, which suggested well-marked contrasts 
of general character, were observed. Sometimes 
the play of imagination was almost purely intel- 
lectual, strictly subordinated to the purpose of 
fetching ideas for the explanation of observations. 
This may be called the logical or intellectual 
imagination. In other cases the fetch of imagi- 
nation was not so much after ideas to construe 
with, as after feelings to luxuriate in: the ideas 
are overpowered in a mass of vague associated 
emotion. This, if it can be called imagination at 
all, may be marked out as the emotional variety ; 
and a touch of it is not, of course, out of place 
in describing an object like a picture, which has 
distinct aesthetic bearings. But most striking of 
all were the examples of dramatic imagination, 
which were not rare: here the picture is lost in 
the story which it is interpreted as meant to 
tell; the picture becomes the occasion for a de- 
parture into story-land, instead of remaining, 
as in the first case, the main fact, solely for the 
explanation of which such departures are at all 
allowed, and by which they are limited. Besides 
these marked cases, there were doubtful cases, 
and cases negative altogether. Sometimes, too, 


290 


the play of imagination was markedly careless, 
and uncontrolled by the inward critic, as compared 
with the good cases in which it showed itself 
sober and self-controlled. 

As the author says, the sources of error in such 
observations as these are very numerous; but 
from repeated observations by many observers, 
carefully collated, these errors may be in a great 
measure eliminated, and substantial results ar- 
rived at, of whose practical bearing there can be 
little doubt. 


OBSERVATIONS UPON DIGESTION IN THE 
HUMAN STOMACH. 


DIRECT observations on digestion in the human 
stomach have been very seldom made, as opportu- 
nities for such cannot often occur. Those by 
Beaumont many years ago are familiar to every 
student of physiology, and, notwithstanding their 
lack of completeness and their many imperfec- 
tions, they served a very useful purpose in ex- 
plaining many of the processes whereby digestion 
is affected in this organ. These observations have 
been supplemented by others ; but the results of 
modern physiological researches have been such, 
that renewed opportunities to make such direct 
observations must be of great value. Such a one 
occurred within the past year in the person of 
Heinrich Baud, a healthy young man twenty-eight 
years of age, into whose stomach, in consequence 
of a stricture of the oesophagus that prevented the 
passage of all food, a surgical opening five centi- 
metres in length was made. The case passed into 
the hands of Mr. A. Herzen, the well-known physi- 
ologist, who improved the opportunity to make 
a series of experiments upon the digestibility of 
certain foods and upon the behavior of the gas- 
tric juices (Kosmos, 1885, ii. 1, 4). The pepsin 
secreted by the patient was of unusual quantity, 
and, what has hitherto never been observed in 
similar cases, or through the artificial fistulas of 
dogs or other animals, there was a changeable but 
often considerable quantity of bile present. These 
circumstances, however, though complicating the 
experiments, did not especially affect the results, 

The author’s methods of experimenting were as 
follows: a substantial meal was given to the 
patient at 7 o’clock in the evening, and nothing 
further was permitted to enter his stomach till the 
next morning, when experiments at 6 o’clock were 
begun, first upon the empty organ. After an 
examination of the juices therein contained, there 
was introduced the albumen from three hard- 
boiled eggs, with two to three hundred grams of 
water, together with three small silken nets, each 
containing eight small pellets of albumen, uniform 


SCIENCE. 


(Von, VIL, No. 164 


in size, and regular in shape, and which could be 
easily withdrawn for examination. These observa- 
tions through the fistula were made hourly, and 
one of the nets with its contents removed. 

Remarkable and unaccountable conditions were 
found in which the albumen remained one or even 
two hours in the stomach without undergoing any 
perceptible change, notwithstanding the presence 
of ferment, with which it was impregnated. In 
these cases the albumen pellets usually retained in 
their substance precisely the requisite quantity of 
pepsin for their solution, which, under favorable 
circumstances afterwards, exactly sufficed to 
digest them. This furnishes evidence that the 
pepsin does not act through simple contact alone, 
and that a given quantity of it can dissolve 
only a given quantity of albumen, and that con- 
sequently the pepsin, by the exercise of its diges- 
tive activity, loses its entire potency. 

Observations directed toward the ascertainment 
of the time required for the stomach-juices to 
impregnate coagulated albumen showed that they 
penetrated about one millimetre during the first 
hour and three millimetres within the second. It 
was also learned that the acids were much more 
active than the pepsin in penetrating the substance. 
This last fact furnishes a new proof of the presence 
of a free acid in the stomach-juices. The juices, 
however, at such opportunities as it was possible 
to examine them, were sometimes found to be of 
a neutral reaction. But, in order to test the 
action of acid and ferment further, he introduced 
at times a quantity of soda to neutralize the 
acid ; without, however, materially affecting the 
activity of the pepsin, although it appeared to 
somewhat diminish it. It therefore results that 
pepsin exerts its digestive power almost wholly 
independently of the acid. The reverse of this, 
as may be expected, was also found true, — that 
the acids penetrated the albumen in the absence of 
the pepsin, and, when the pieces of albumen were 
small, a sufficient quantity was absorbed to digest 
them. : 

Another series of researches was made upon the 
fluids of the stomach, from which it was found, 
that, on the mornings after fasting, the secretion 
usually was small, while at such times following 
the ingestion, during the night, of milk or any 
fluids containing alchohol, the secretion was 
greater. During the first hours of digestion the 
quantity held a definite relation to the volume of 
substances introduced, while in the fifth hour the 
quantity was always more abundant, about three 
or four hundred grams. The first secretion of the 
morning was in general a somewhat thick, very 
stringy, more or less clear fluid, which resembled 
the white of an egg; that obtained during the 


a: 


Marcu 26, 1886.] 


process of digestion was less thick and less stringy ; 
while that of the fifth hour was turbid, thin, and 
little or not at all stringy. 

Of the hundred and forty-two specimens ex- 
amined, one hundred and seven showed a yellow 
or green color, more or less intense, and which 
indicated the presence of bile. It is worthy of 
note, that, despite the almost constant presence of 
bile in the stomach, the digestion was not per- 
ceptibly disturbed, and analyses of the contents of 
the stomach during different hours of digestion 
clearly proved that the activity of the fluids was 
not impaired by its presence. It was also observed 
that the entrance of bile into the stomach partook 
of a sort of periodicity, a less quantity being found 
during the first two hours of digestion than at the 
time either before or after, and that the quantity 
was still less during active digestion, when fluids, 
especially beer, were taken in. 

The hydrochloric acid of the juices during 
digestion was found, in a mean of eighty-seven 
examinations, to be from 1.8 to 1.9 per cent in 
weight of the entire quantity,—a somewhat 
higher percentage than that given by Richet. 
The acidity gradually increased during the first 
hours of digestion, reaching its maximum at the 
third hour, from which time it gradually de- 
creased. A few times the juices were found neu- 
tral, and the highest acidity attained was 4.2 per 
cent. 

Since Dr. Koch has shown that an acidity 
equivalent to two per cent of the gastric juices 
suffices to destroy the cholera microbe, it has been 
recommended that table-salt should be employed 
during cholera epidemics to increase the quantity 
of acid in the gastric juice, and thus prevent the 
entrance of these germs into the alimentary canal ; 
but from a series of experiments it was ascer- 
tained that the direct reverse was the result, and 
that the larger the quantity of salt introduced, 


the more considerable and permanent was the de- - 


crease of the acidity, so much so that at times the 
juices were rendered entirely neutral. Contrary 
to the opinions which have been expressed by 
physiologists, that salt increased the activity of the 
secretion of pepsin, experiments seemed to prove 
that it hindered such secretion, and when large 
quantities were taken, either into the stomach or 
by injection, the stomach digestion was most im- 
paired. Mr. Herzen, however, would by no means 
deny the probability that salt injected directly 
into the blood increases the secretion of pepsin. 
On the other hand, it was established that the 
introduction, either by the stomach or the rectum, 
of some good peptogenic substance, such as broths 
or dextrine, uniformly hastened digestion in the 
stomach, and that this resulted independently of 


SCIENCE. 


291 


the increase of acidity, and despite the frequent 
presence in the stomach of the contents of the 
duodenum. In other words, the digestion may be 
hastened, and a richer secretion of pepsin brought 
about, by their use; while others, such as tea, 
wines, and grape-sugar, produce no effect what- 
ever. Of the practical results of such observations, 
corroborating and adding to, as they do, conclu- 
sions previously and in other ways arrived at, 
there can be no doubt. Those who would aid an 
impaired digestion may seek in certain foods, 
such as broths, stale bread, milk or coffee, taken 
a while before regular meals, efficient helps ; while 
alcoholic drinks, and especially the sour wines, 
sugars, and others, may be not only of no use, but 
even actually prejudicial. To the child and the 
invalid the results are no less useful, 


BLINDNESS IN RUSSIA. 


AT the first congress of Russian doctors, which 
was held in January last, many important papers 
were read, followed by discussions of considerable 
interest, some of the most eminent members of 
the profession from the different provinces and 
universities of the empire taking part in them. 
A very striking contribution to the study of social 
and sanitary questions, says the Lancet, was 
afforded by a paper by Dr. A. T. Skrebitski, on 
the ‘ Distribution and statistics of blindness in 
Russia.” The data employed were chiefly those 
collected by the military authorities who have to 
examine young men as they become liable to ser- 
vice inthe army. Taking the total for the five 
years 1879 to 1883, the number examined was 
1,388,761, of whom 13,686, or almost one per cent, 
were blind in one or both eyes. In certain dis- 
tricts the proportion was much higher than the 
average ; and some of the largest, or rather most 
populous, provinces seem to have presented the 
greater proportion of the blind: thus in that of 
Kieff, which sent up almost the largest number 
of recruits, — namely, 43,118, — no less than 660, 
or 1 in every 65, were found to be blind in one or 
both eyes. The smallest proportion of blind was 
found in Archangel, where it was 1 in 390; but 
even this is far above the proportion in other 
European countries. 

To make the comparison with the statistics of 
other countries, it is necessary to subtract the 
number of those blind in one eye, which in Russia 
is found to be only a fifth of the total blind : thus, 
we may consider that four-fifths of the 13,686 re- 
cruits returned as blind were blind in both eyes, 
so that the ratio of totally blind is about 1 to 
125. The ratio in England and Ireland is 1 to 
1,015, and that in several other European coun- 


292 


tries is still lower, being 1 to 1,406 in Saxony. and 
1 to 1,429 in Denmark. Dr. Skrebitski’s paper 
attracted a considerable amount of attention from 
the lay press, the Novosti remarking, ‘‘ We have 
surpassed Europe not only in mental but in physi- 
cal blindness.” To any foreigner, however, who 
reads the Russian medical journals, the valuable 
original communications with which they liter- 
ally teem would appear to indicate the reverse of 
‘ blindness,’ in the Russian scientific world at all 
events. 


BANCROFT’S HISTORY OF ALASKA. 


THE history of Alaska, up to the time of the 
American purchase, has two divisions into which 
it naturally falls,—the period of independent 
Russian traders, fighting and competing on every 
hand; and the period of organized monopoly, which 
succeeded that competitive anarchy. Explora- 
tions of a rude sort, the vices of the semi-civilized 
Cossacks, and the rage for wealth represented by 
sea-otter skins, went hand inhand. A myriad of 
petty traders, bold, energetic, lustful, and avari- 
cious, after the return of Bering’s expedition, 
swarmed upon the Aleutian Islands, trading, 
hunting and robbing the natives, occasionally 
being slaughtered in return. 

Of this period, with the causes which led to it, 
and its consequences for Russia and for America, 
Mr. Bancroft gives an extremely full and almost 
interesting account. Parts of it are dramatic: 
but the annals of so many petty expeditions with 
the same object, and almost always substantially 
similar results, cannot but be rather monotonous. 
Though much of the material is of only approxi- 
mate accuracy, and derived from scattered and 
unverifiable copies of old records long destroyed, 
Mr. Bancroft has given what would seem to be 
by far the best account extant, and one not likely 
to be improved upon. 

Of the second period we have also a remarkably 
full and acceptable account of the formation, 
fortunes, and fate of the monopoly known as the 
Russian American company, and of Alexander 
Baranoff, the man of all others characteristic of 
the Russian occupation of Alaska, the Peter the 
Great of the territory. Of history in its widest 
sense, the grasp of underlying motives, —the re- 
action of European politics, the growth of the 
United States, and other large forces upon the 
springs which governed events on the north-west 
coast,—there is little: the volume is rather 
materials for history, than history. But it is for 

he Russian period a very full, and in the main 


History of Alaska, 1730-1885. By Hupert Howe Ban- 
CROFT. San Francisco, Bancroft, 1886. 8°. 


SCTHNCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 1 


sufficiently accurate, chronicle of events. Of the 
period succeeding the purchase (a much more 
difficult task) less can be said in praise. A 
similar division of this epoch will by its future 
historian be found applicable. The era of violent | 
and unrestrained competition in this case, how- | 
ever, lasted only two or three years; while the 
monopoly which succeeded, though more confined 
in scope than that of the Russian company, does 
not differ in its essential characters, and is still in 
operation. The chronicle of events since 1867 is © 
full, but by no means complete. The scientific — 
investigations, which have been a marked feature — 
in the recent development of the territory, are © 
very unequally treated, and many of them pass 
with a bare mention; others are ignored alto- 
gether; while a disproportionate space is given to 
the petty affairs of the trade-monopoly above 
referred to. There are numerous errors of detail ; 
and the just reprobation of misgovernment and 
lawlessness, which the (mostly foreign) fur-traders 
under American sovereignty should share with the 
still viler authors of the early Russian trade, 
seems to have been reserved for the former in 
unreasonable proportion. This period, however, 
is so much nearer the historian, so many of the 
actors in it are still in the active pursuit of their 
business, and the passions and prejudices engen- 
dered by recent rivalry are still so hot, that histori- 
cal impartiality is not to be expected. 

Mr. Bancroft recognizes the wealth of the terri- 
tory, and gives an excellent account of its hardly 
touched resources, other than the fur-trade. He 
very justly and severely criticises the inaction of 
congress, which has left the territory at the 
mercy of law-breakers for more than fifteen years, 
has only recently accorded a merely nominal 
and almost impotent form of government, and in 
the past has saddled upon the inhabitants, in lieu 
of the law they had a right to, a succession of 
corrupt or inefficient petty officials. The book 
has an excellent index, and numerous small 
sketch-maps in the text. The general map of the 
territory is bad, out of date, and in nomenclature 
discrepant with itself and with text, beside con- 
taining several inexcusable and wholly origin 
blunders. 


OCEANA. 


SiR ARTHUR HELPS once said that when Lor 
Palmerston was forming a new ministry, not s 
very many years ago, he was at loss for a colonial” 
secretary. This name and that was suggested 
and thrown aside. At last the noble lord sai 


Oceana; or, England and her colonies. By JAMES ANTHO Y 
FroupE. New York, Scribner, 1886. 8°. 


- 


is 


| = 


Marcu 26, 1886.] 


«TI suppose I must take the thing myself. Come 
up stairs with me, Helps, when the council is 
over. Weill look at the maps, and you shall 
show me where these places are.” It occurred to 
Mr. Froude that it would be a good thing not 
merely to find out where the colonies were, but 
to make a tour among them, to talk to their lead- 
ing men, see their countries and what they were 
doing there, learn their feelings, and correct what- 
ever erroneous impressions he himself shared in 
common with his countrymen. He sailed for 
Melbourne in the beginning of December, 1884, in 
the new steamship Australasian ; and on the 16th of 
May, 1885, he landed at Liverpool from the decks 
of the Etruria, on her first return vogage from 
New York. in this volume the events of that trip 
around the world are most charmingly narrated. 
His first encounter, however, was with an inhab- 
itant of an island much nearer Downing Street 
than New Zealand. He thus narrates the inci- 
dent: ‘‘I saw an Irishman in the unmistakable 
national costume, the coat-seams gaping, the 
trousers in holes at the knees, the battered hat, 
the humorous glimmering in the eyes. I made 
acquaintance with him, gave him a pipe and 
some tobacco, for he had lost his own, and 
tempted him to talk.” The man, who had prob- 
ably never heard of Mr. Froude or his books, 
opened his heart to him. After describing how 
the Manx men had come down and taken all the 
herring in his neighborhood (for it seems that 
he was a fisherman), he went on: ‘‘ And then 
there was the bit of land’—here he paused a 
moment, and then continued, ‘‘Thim banks was 
the ruin of me. _ [had rather had to do with the 
worst landlord that ever was in Ireland than with 
thim banks. There isnomercyinthem. They'll 
have the skin from off your back.” Poor fellow! 
No sooner had he got fixity of tenure than he had 
borrowed money on the strength of it, and the 
result was emigration to the antipodes. ‘‘ How 
many hundreds of thousands of his countrymen 
will travel the same road ?”’ queries our author. 
A few hours only were devoted to the Cape of 
Good Hope; for Mr. Froude had sojourned there 
ten years before, and had seen all of the mis- 
government of that colony that he desired. 
Adelaide was merely glanced at, but a long and 
interesting visit was paid to Meibourne and 
Sydney. A trip was taken to Ballarat, Bendigo, 
and other points in the interior of Victoria. Every- 
where he was well treated, and everywhere he 
Saw nothing to blame and much to praise. He 
was in a land where patriotism was not ‘a senti- 
ment to be laughed at—not, as Johnson defined 
it, ‘ the last refuge of a scoundrel,’ but an ac- 
tive passion.” He predicts a glorious future 


SCIENCE. 


293 


for Australia. People wrote to him afterwards 
that he had purposely been shown the bright side 
of things, ‘‘that we let ourselves be flattered, be 
deluded, etc. Very likely. There was mud as 
well as gold in the alluvial mines. The manager 
pointed out the gold to us, and left the mud un- 
pointed out. The question was not of the mud at 
all, but of the quality and quantity of the gold. 
If there is gold, and much of it, that is the point. 
The mud may be taken for granted.” Rather a 
dangerous method of investigation, one would 
say, and a method the pursuing of which has 
destroyed much of our faith in Mr. Froude’s 
deductions. 

He next passed over to New Zealand, this time 
in an American steamer. But though the captain 
and the steamer were American, the crew was not. 
Indeed, our author, puzzled to make out what 
they were, asked the captain how he had picked 
them up. ‘I makea rule,” the captain replied, 
‘to take no English, no Scotch, no Irish, no 
Americans. They go ashore in harbor, get drunk, 
get into prison, give me nothing but trouble. It 
is the same with them all, my people and yours 
equally.” He preferred Danes, Norwegians, Ger- 
mans, Swedes, and Chinamen. It took five days 
to make the voyage from Sydney to Auckland. 
Then followed a month mainly devoted to sight- 
seeing in the wonderful volcanic interior of the 
North Island. This part of the book is well illus- 
trated, and we remember no better description of 
the last retreat of the Maori. In fact, it makes 
one wish that the author had devoted more of his 
time to descriptive writing, and less to historical 
dissertations. 

From Auckland he voyaged to San Francisco 
via Honolulu. It is always pleasant to hear one’s 
country and countrymen praised, and Mr. Froude 
has been by no means stingy of praise when 
speaking of us. ‘‘The Americans,” he declares, 
‘‘are the English reproduced in a new sphere. 
What they have done, we can do. The Americans 
are a generation before us in the growth of de- 
mocracy, and events have proved that democracy 
does not mean disunion.” But all the desirable 
results were not brought about by the spirit por- 
trayed in the following sentence. He has been 
speaking of the scheme for a real imperial par- 
liament (something akin to our congress) to take 
charge of the ‘foreign and colonial policy’ of a 
federated British empire, — Oceana, —and says, 
‘* Of all the amateur propositions hitherto brought 
forward, this of a federal parliament is the most 
chimerical and absurd.” Why? it may be asked. 
Because the English house of commons is omnipo- 
tent, is the reply. ‘‘ Who is to persuade it to abdi- 
cate half its functions, and construct a superior 


294 


authority which would reduce it to the level of a 
municipal board?” It may be safe to say, that, 
until the English house of commons does consent 
to divide its authority with some kind of a legis- 
lative body in which the Englishmen who happen 
to live in Canada and Australia shall have a voice, 
every scheme for an ‘Oceana’ will prove ‘ chi- 
merical and absurd.’ 


MINOR BOOK NOTICES. 


New theories of matter and force. By WILLIAM BARLOW. 
London, Sampson Low & Co., 1885. 8°. 

Most theorists, in seeking to escape from the 
difficulties in the way of an adequate conception 
of the luminiferous ether, would hesitate to em- 
brace a theory which involved either the denial of 
the conservation of matter or the acceptance of 
the emission theory of ight; and yet the author 
of ‘New theories of matter and force’ has no 
craven fear of either or both of these conclusions. 
Ordinary matter, he conceives, is a mixture of two 
hypothetical ethers in a highly condensed state. 
The properties of these ethers are peculiar. Both 
have inertia, and, when unrestrained, expand in- 
definitely like gases. One is more compressible 
than the other, and cohesion in each is propor- 
tioned to the density. To avoid all appearance of 
action at a distance, this cohesion is not supposed 
to be an attraction, but rather a clinging-together 
of contiguous particles. This seems to require 
these ethers to be continuous; but this is no 
serious embarrassment to our author, who finds 
no difficulty in reconciling perfect continuity of 
substance with any desired degree of compressi- 
bility. Owing to the diminution of the cohesion 
with the density, these ethers have the remarka- 
ble property that the expansive force increases as 
the volume becomes greater. By means of these 
two ethers we have the fundamental machinery 
for the complete explanation of matter, gravita- 
tion, light, heat, and electricity. The greater part 
of the book is devoted to the application of the 
theory throughout the whole realm of physics, 
supplementary hypotheses being courageously in- 
troduced when necessary. The main phenomena of 
light are explained by a combination of the wave 
and emission theories, as interpreted in the light 
of two ethers. It is much to be regretted that the 
author, before publishing his theory, did not sub- 
ject it to a scrutiny at least as rigid as that which 
led him to reject the accepted views. The scien- 
tific imagination has an important use when 
stimulated by knowledge and guided by reason ; 
but before we lightly cast aside those theories 


which are the result of the most profound 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 164 


thought, not of one mind, but of many, and 
which have been slowly elaborating during patient 
years, and set up in their stead our own brief con- 
ceits, we may well pause and consider. 


The determination of rock-forming minerals. By Dr. EUGEN 
Hussak. Translated by Dr. E.G. Smith. New York, 
Wiley, 1886. 16°. 

THIS is a work of which we cannot speak 
favorably. Dr. Smith’s evident lack of acquaint- 
ance, both theoretical and practical, with the sub- 
ject, has compelled him to make a close literal 
translation from the original; and, as would be © 
expected, numerous errors have thus crept in, in 
addition to the many in the original. The whole — 
spirit of the German language is such that close 
translations of technical works are rarely happy — 
in their results—certainly never, except when 
one is most thoroughly familiar with both the 
language and the subject under consideration. 
It is very much to be doubted whether Dr. Smith 
possesses either of these qualifications ; otherwise 
he would never have made such errors as ‘the 
entrance face of the light’ (eintrittsfldche) for 
‘plane of incidence,’ and ‘ shell-formed’ (schalen- 
JSormig) for * zonal.’ 


Along Alaska’s great river. By FREDERICK SCHWATKA, | 
New York, Cassell, 1885. &°. 


THis excellently illustrated volume describes 
the journey of Lieutenant Schwatka’s exploring- — 
party from Portland, Ore., through the beautiful 
inland passage along the north-west coast of 
America, as far as Sitka in Alaska, thence over- 
land to the head waters of the Yukon River, 
which was explored with considerable accuracy 
by his expedition as far as Fort Yukon. Schwat- 
ka’s raft-journey down the Yukon, and _ his 
explorations in that region, have been often re- 
ferred to in these columns. Capt. C. W. Ray- 
mond, of the engineer corps of the army, had 
surveyed and charted the Yukon River from 
Fort Yukon to its mouth, about a thousand miles, 
as early as 1869, and Schwatka pays a deserved 
tribute to the accuracy of that officer’s work. In 
fact, the large chart of reference accompanying 
the volume appears to be a reduced copy of Ray- 
mond’s chart, which is said to be the best in ex- 
istence of that part of the great river. It is to be 
regretted that Schwatka’s time for this explora- 
tion was limited to one short summer, and that 
his arrival at St. Michael’s had to be so arranged 
as to anticipate the departure of the last vesse 
going south from that point in the fall. Otherwise 
it is almost certain that he would have explored 
a much wider region, thus adding much to ou 
knowledge of that almost unknown America 
territory. 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THE SUBJECT of agricultural experimentation is 
coming more and more to the front, both by the 
multiplication of state experiment stations, and 
through the endeavor to secure national aid. But, 
while the making of experiments in increasing num- 
bers appears to be assured for the immediate future, 
the more important subject of the interpretation 
of experiments appears to receive but little consid- 
eration. It seems to be assumed, that, once an 
experiment is honestly made, its teachings will 
be so obvious that he who runs may read. Asa 
matter of fact, however, the correct interpreta- 
tion of the results of an agricultural experiment 
(we speak now of scientific experiments) is a 
matter of no little difficulty, and is deserving of 
equal attention with the making of the experi- 
ment. We are glad to note that the director of 
the New York experiment-station, in his last re- 
port, which we notice in another column, em- 
phasizes the importance of a proper method of 
interpretation and of the application of the doc- 
trine of chances. In the strictest sense of the 
word, no agricultural experiment can as yet be 
called scientific, because in none do we so fully 
understand the conditions as to properly control 
them. In all experiments with plants or animals, 
we have to reckon with the individual peculiari- 
ties of the organism; and, except under the most 
favoring conditions, there are other conditions 
which cannot be accurately controlled or allowed 
for. As a consequence, the final result of such 
an experiment, or series of experiments, is a proba- 
bility, greater or less as may be, that a certain 
law holds. The subject is too broad a one to be 
discussed here; but we are convinced, that in 
proportion as agricultural experimenters learn to 
distinguish clearly just what and how much their 
experiments really prove, will they be in condi- 
dition to make more rapid and certain progress in 
knowledge. 


A CONTEMPLATIVE and retrospective naturalist 
ean hardly escape the curious fantasy that the 
very term ‘fishes’ may become altogether ob- 

No, 165. — 1886, 


solete, unless, indeed, it survives in the future as 
an historical reminiscence of the time when men 
thought there were ‘fishes.’ In fact, the word 
has lost by successive trimmings a large share of 
its ancient scope; for it is only by generous 
etymological tolerance that we graciously permit 
ourselves to still talk of the invertebrate cray-fish 
and shell-fish as fish at all, and we feel a com- 
fortable sense of sustained politeness towards our 
more ignorant ancestors, while we order the 
waiter to fetch us some of the same tid-bit fishes. 
Then we learned to extend our linguistic purism 
to the very vertebrates, and became wise with 
the knowledge that those evident fishes, the por- 
poises and the whales, are not fishes at all. But 
the taste for lopping off the meaning from an 
innocent word had grown by indulgence; and so, 
having cut off the top of the fishes of our fathers, 
we turned to the bottom, which we added in our 
own day, and removed Amphioxus. We are 
quite agreed that the poor creature is not even a 
fish. Just at present we apparently are making 
ready for another discardment. The progress of 
science is rendering it clear that the sturgeon and 
his congeners — the ganoids all — are more nearly 
related to the amphibians than to the true fishes. 
Their development in the ovum is very closely 
similar to that of the frog and newt, and differs 
strikingly from that of the bony fishes and sharks. 
In the structure of the adults, too, the indications 
point to the same affinity. Of course, if the 
ganoids go, the dipnoans must go too, as every 
one will admit. Now appears Monsieur Fulliquet 
with a valuable study of the brain of one of the 
latter, Protopterus, and discovers that it is quite 
like that of an amphibian, and not at all like that 
of a true fish. Our perplexity fairly reaches its 
climax, and we wonderingly ask, Is any fish 
really a fish? If we can forecast the progress 
of the future by that of the past, we must answer, 
No. 


THAT SOME PORTIONS of New South Wales are 
not desirable as permanent places of abode year 
in and year out, may be judged from the fact that 
during the past three years thirteen million sheep 
have died from want of water. It is maintained 
by some that the recent drought was by no means 


296 


unprecedented. The Darling River, in 1839, was 
merely a chain of water-holes; and again, ten 
years later, it was but little better ; in 1851 the 
river was so dry that grass had grown in it, and 
in fact it was the only feeding-ground available; 
in 1863 and 1865, and again in 1868, the water 
was very low. In 1870 the great wet season 
began, and it was this superabundance of rain 
which led to the overstocking of the country and 
the consequent disaster. It is clear that those 
who occupy the western part of the colony have 
to encounter some very bad seasons, intermixed 
with some very good ones; and arrangements 
should be made by which the stock which in wet 
years may be supported, may be transferred to 
more favorable regions when the grazing fails, or 
to abattoirs, where it can be killed, and turned 
into canned or frozen meat. There now seems to 
be some hope for a return of rain, as the natives 
are reported to be moving to higher ground, and 
the white ants are said to have commenced build- 
ing their curious elevated dwellings, which serve 
them as places of refuge during wet weather. 
These two indications are referred to by Aus- 
tralian journals as unfailing evidences of a prob- 
able change in the weather. 


PERHAPS IN NO OTHER branch of zodlogy has 
the instability of nomenclature become more bur- 
densome than in ornithology. He who, after a 
lapse of even a few years, attempts to renew his 
acquaintance with our bird fauna, is depressed and 
disheartened by the innumerable strange names 
and tedious lists of synonymes that he everywhere 
encounters. The Ornithologists’ union has recently 
published a new check-list of North American 
birds that calls attention forcibly to this evil, but 
which also contains an excellent code of the prin- 
ciples and canons of zodlogical nomenclature, that, 
it is hoped, will be of some avail in lessening it. 
The committee appointed to draught this code was 
composed of five of our best students of vertebrate 
zoology, and may thus fairly represent the views 
held by the great body of zodlogists. The most im- 
portant of the principles therein laid down are: the 
strict and rigid enforcement of the lex prioritatis, 
without any ‘statute limitations’ whatever of time ; 
that a ‘synonyme once is a synonyme always,’ 
and that the same name cannot be retained for 
more than one genus in the animal kingdom ; 
that a generic or subgeneric name may be based 
upon a designated recognizably described species ; 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. VII., No. 165 


and that the original orthography of a name is to 
be rigidly preserved, unless a typographical error 
is evident. With most of these principles zodl- 
ogists in general will agree. The necessity of — 
inflexibility in the law of priority has steadily 
become more and more apparent; there is no 
mean position that does not admit of all manner 
of abuses, and the same may be said of the use of 
names that have once been synonymes. The last- — 
mentioned principle is also a very important one. | 
In entomology at least, and especially among 
many German purists, infractions of this safe rule 
have become in many cases almost unendurable. 
Those who, in their zeal for philological rules, 
amend, alter, or even reject names altogether, 
forget that nomenclature is not the end, but — 
the means, of science. The Greek might write 
aiwoppayia, but the modern zodlogical classicist 
would insist upon haematorrhagia. The principle, 
however, that virtually admits catalogue generic 
names to recognition, will, we believe, receive 
vigorous protest from many zodlogists, as sub- 
versive of the essential rule that a species or genus 
must be described in order to be accepted. A 
specific description does not necessarily contain 
higher characters, and such characters must be 
given before a generic name can obtain currency. 
Students in distant parts of the world cannot 
depend upon specimens. A tyro can say such 
and such a species belongs to another genus, and 
give it a name, but it requires scientific discrim- 
ination to point out reasons. As well give to the 
bird-specimen No. 999 in the national museum a 
specific name, and leave the student to find out 
the characters as best he can. Ornithologists 
sometimes forget that rules applicable to their 
much-studied class may be intolerable in less- 
known groups. 


PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA. 


THE place Mr. Pasteur now occupies in the minds 
of the world affords a striking example of the ex 
tremes to which the popular judgment is liable. 
On the one hand, we have in the ‘ Pasteur insti 
tute’ an organization which proposes to put the 
new method of curing hydrophobia into operatior 
on the largest scale in all civilized countries. At 
the other extreme we hear from many points the 
cry that all of Pasteur’s pretensions are fraudu- 
lent. These extreme views are equally unwar 
rantable. and equally illustrative of the lack © 
sober judgment with which the world receives 


APRIL 2, 1886.] 


such attempts as those of the eminent chemist 
and philanthropist. The sober-minded man should 
encourage every form of research designed to 
promote the interests of humanity ; but he should 
it the same time reserve his judgment until suffi- 
cient data are at hand for reaching a well-ground- 
2d conclusion. 

The efficacy of any method of treating hydro- 
phobia must be extremely difficult to test in a 
way which shall be at all conclusive. The first 
difficulty we meet in reaching a conclusion arises 
from the extreme rarity of the disease. The 
number of readers of these lines who have ever 
had personal knowledge of a case of hydrophobia 
is probably very small. In the returns of the last 
census eighty deaths are reported from this cause 
in the United States. But we should regard this 
number as an extreme limit rather than as a 
well-established quantity, owing to the possibility 
of other forms of disease being mistaken for 
hydrophobia. On the other hand, the number of 
persons who are actually bitten by dogs which, 
for aught they know, might have been rabid, is 
very great. It is certainly to be estimated by 
thousands, and perhaps by tens of thousands. It 
becomes apparently much greater when, as during 
the past year, the public mind is excited on the 
subject. In such a case it is difficult to ascertain, 
to the entire satisfaction of the injured person, 
that any dog which may have bitten him was not 
rabid. The result is, that it is rarely possible to 
select any injured person as probably being inocu- 
lated with rabies. Of the persons brought into an 
institute for treatment, it may be assumed that 
only a small percentage would, under any circum- 
stances, develop the actual disease. 

Pasteur’s supposed success cannot, therefore, be 
established as a fact until we have more complete 
evidence of the circumstances attending the in- 
juries, and especially of the rabid character of 
the animals which have bitten his patients. Even 
of the well-established cases of bites by rabid 
dogs, only a minority ever develop into actual 
rabies, and this minority may require many 
months for the graver symptoms to appear. The 
t certain conclusion must therefore be founded 
on statistics in which the evidence that the ani- 
mal was rabid shall be conclusive, and in which 
very result shall be included. A table showing 
he termination of all cases treated, and of all 
imilar cases not treated, will ultimately be con- 
lusive, and nothing less will serve the purpose. 
the efficacy of the treatment cannot be disproved 


SCIENCE. 


297 


by occasional cases of failure, unless it is shown 
that these cases approximate in number those in 
which no fatal symptoms are ever developed. 
This also must depend upon the results of a 
statistical investigation. 

No doubt, a profound impression has recently 
been made by the failure of the treatment in the 
eases of the party of Russians bitten by mad 
wolves ; but this failure only shows that the treat- 
ment may fail in such extreme cases as these, 
which seem to have been unusually severe. It is 
quite conceivable that a process which would be 
entirely successful in cases so mild as to require 
several months for their development would prove 
useless when the quantity of virus injected was 
so great as to lead speedily to a fatal termination. 
It is significant that the first Russian to succumb 
was bitten by an animal so ferocious that one of 
its teeth was left deeply embedded in the flesh of 
its victim. 

If the final conclusion should be against the 
efficacy of inoculation, are we to denounce the 
propounder of the treatment as a pretender? By 
no means. He will still be entitled to all the 
credit which society owes to aman who makes an 
honest attempt to promote its welfare. The char- 
acter of the great experimenter is above sus- 
picion; and the knowledge which he acquires, if 
not useful in one direction, may be useful in an- 
other. Let us, then, wish him well, and, if he 
fails, let us still award him the credit due to the 
spirit which inspired his efforts. 


THE MALARIAL GERM OF LAVERAN. 


DURING a recent visit to Rome, the writer had 
an opportunity to see, for the first time, a most 
interesting blood-parasite, which was first de- 
scribed several years since by Laveran, a medical 
officer in the French army. Extended researches 
made in Algeria had convinced Laveran of the 
constant presence of this parasite in the blood of 
persons suffering from malarial fevers, and that 
it is not found in the blood of healthy persons, or 
in that of those suffering from other diseases ; 
also that it disappears from the blood under the 
administration of quinine, which is recognized as 
having a specific curative effect in diseases of this 
class. 

There are many circumstances connected with 
the causation of the malarial fevers which make 
it appear probable that they are due, either di- 
rectly or indirectly, to a living organism which 
finds its normal habitat in marshy places, and 


298 


multiplies abundantly at certain seasons of the 
year, when conditions are favorable as to tem- 
perature, etc. 

The general belief among physicians that there 
is a malarial germ, is, perhaps, the reason for the 
somewhat numerous pseudo - discoveries which 
have been announced. The most recent of these 
is the Bacillus malariae of Klebs and Tomassi- 
Crudeli. These gentlemen, in 1879, made re- 
searches in the vicinity of Rome, as a result 
of which they announced the discovery of a 
bacillus which they believed to be the veritable 
malarial germ. The evidence upon which their 
claim was based was obtained by experiments 
upon rabbits. The writer, in 1880, repeated their 
inoculation experiments with material obtained 
from the swamps in the vicinity of New Orleans, 
and showed that the fever which results from 
such inoculations does not correspond with the 
typical malarial fevers of man, and is, in fact, 
simply a form of septicaemia. 

Nevertheless the Bacillus malariae received con- 
siderable credit in this country and in Europe, 
and many physicians were disposed to place it in 
the category of demonstrated disease-germs. On 
the other hand, the claim of Laveran received 
comparatively little attention. Among those who 
presented evidence in support of the malarial 
germ of Klebs and Crudeli was Professor Marchi- 
afava of Rome. This gentleman has since con- 
tinued his researches with reference to the cau- 
sation of the malarial fevers, and finds himself 
compelled to abandon the Bacillus malariae. In- 
deed, I found no one in Rome who any longer 
attaches faith to this alleged discovery. Butasa 
result of very extended observations, made in 
association with Dr. Celli of Rome, Marchiafava 
now fully confirms Laveran as to the presence of 
an amoeboid organism in the blood of patients 
suffering from malarial fever. Similar testimony 
had previously been given by Richard, a French 
army surgeon, who had excellent opportunities 
for such researches at Philippsville in Algeria. 
Space will not permit me to give a detailed ac- 
count of the researches of these gentlemen, or 
of the different forms in which the parasite is 
said to present itself. The accounts show that 
it differs from all disease-germs heretofore dis- 
covered, inasmuch as it does not belong to the 
bacteria, and is not even a vegetable parasite. 
It is an extremely minute amoeboid organism, 
which is found free in the blood, or in the in- 
terior of the red blood-corpuscles (Marchiafava 
and Celli), or attached to them (Laveran and 
Richard). ina certain stage of its development 
it possesses from one to three or four flagella, and 
is endowed with active movements. But all of 


SCIENCE. 


‘Spirito Hospital with Dr, Celli, a case was selecte 


[Vou. VIL, No. 165 


the observers agree that this form is not very 
frequently encountered. Marchiafava and Celli 
only observed the flagellate organisms in four 
cases out of forty-two, in which the blood was 
carefully examined. 

The accompanying figure is copied from the 


Figs, 1-20 represent the changes in form which occurred in 
a plasmodium, contained in a red blood-corpuscle, dur 
ing a period of twenty minutes. Figs. 21-27 give some 
other forms which the plasmodia, both with and with 
out pigment, may assume. Fig. 28 represents a motion 
less plasmodium which is emerging from a red blood 
corpuscle (the blood was examined after the attack of 
fever and the administration of quinine). 


latest paper ' by the gentlemen last mentioned 
and represents the parasite as seen in the interio 
of the red blood-corpuscles. < 

As mentioned at the outset, the writer ha 
ocular evidence of the presence of such an amoe 
boid organism in the blood of a patient suffering 
from a malarial fever, during a recent visit 
Rome. Passing through the wards of the Sant 


1 ‘Weitere untersuchungen iiber die malariainfection 
in Friedliinder’s Forschritte der medicin, Dec. 15, 1885. 


re 
APRIL 2, 1886.] 


which had not yet been subjected to medication, 
and in which a febrile paroxysm had just been 
inaugurated. A drop of blood from the patient’s 
finger was brought directly under the microscope, 
and Dr. Marchiafava soon succeeded in demon- 
strating to me in a most satisfactory manner the 
presence, in several red blood-corpuscles, of the 
organism referred to. I saw the amoeboid move- 
ments very distinctly, and cannot doubt that the 
extremely minute, transparent, and apparently 
structureless mass which I was looking at was, 
in truth, a living organism. 

The space at my disposal will not permit me to 
review the evidence in favor of the supposed cau- 
sative réle of this blood-parasite. It is evident 
that further researches will be required before 
this can be accepted as definitely settled ; but I 
must call attention to the fact that all of the 
observers mentioned testify that granules of 
black pigment are frequently found in the in- 
terior of the parasite (figs. 26 and 27). Patholo- 
gists have long since recognized the presence of 
similar pigment in the blood and in various or- 
gans as a distinguishing characteristic of malarial 
disease ; and it has been generally agreed that this 
pigment has, in some way, had its origin from 
the haemoglobin of the red _ blood- corpuscles. 
These, by some agency, are destroyed in large 
numbers during a malarial paroxysm. This has 
been proved by actual counting of the number 
of corpuscles in a given quantity of blood drawn 
before and after the paroxysms, and is made 
apparent by the rapidly developed anaemia which 
results from malarial attacks. 

Marchiafava and Celli propose to call this or- 
ganism Plasmodium malariae. Laveran has 
abandoned the name first suggested by him — Os- 
ciliaria malariae —for the reason that it might 
lead to the mistaken supposition that the parasite 
in question belongs to the Oscillatoriaceae, a fam- 
ily of confervoid algae: we are therefore at liber- 
ty to accept the name suggested by Marchiafava 
and Celli, until such time, at least, as the life- 
history of the parasite has been worked out, and 
its proper relations determined. 

Finally, we may mention that Marchiafava and 
Celli report several cases in which they have been 
successful in producing characteristic attacks of 
malarial fever by injecting into the circulation of 
persons free from such disease a small amount 
of blood drawn from the veins of a patient suffer- 
ing from a malarial attack. In these cases the 
presence of the blood-parasite described was veri- 
fied in the blood used for the inoculation, and 
subsequently in the blood of the inoculated in- 

ividual when he was seized with an intermittent 

ever as a result of such inoculation. It is also 


SCIENCE. 


299 


stated that the parasite disappeared from the blood 
under the influence of the administration of quin- 
ine, by which the induced malarial disease was 
promptly cured. GEORGE M. STERNBERG. 


A TRADE-ROUTE BETWEEN BOLIVIA 
AND THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 


THOUAR, whose departure for a new explora- 
tion of the Pilcomayo we have already noted, 
announces his safe return and successful accom- 
plishment of the work attempted. The party, 
comprising twenty-three men, and two officers of 
the Argentine army, and a volunteer, Mr. Wil- 
frid Gillibert, left Fotheringham on the 5th of 
October, and reached the locality called El 
Dorado, two miles above the rapids, Nov. 12. 
Several encounters with the Indians had previous- 
ly taken place, but here the explorers came upon 
a perfect ant-hill of Tobas. There were over two 
hundred huts, and about fifteen hundred Indians, 
against whom a victorious combat was waged, 
the Toba chief falling early in the conflict. After 
the fight, the explorers remained in camp on the 
spot for six days, minutely examining the obstruc- 
tions in the river, and making canoes, with which, 
on the 18th of November, they started down the 
river, reaching the Paraguay Dec. 5, after two 
months of great hardship. They lost one man 
killed, and three disabled by wounds or dysentery. 

The object of the exploration was to determine 
the character of the obstructions to navigation 
reported by Major Feilberg, and therefore the 
possibility of using the Pilcomayo as a commer- 
cial highway between Bolivia and the Argentine 
Confederation. In brief, the conclusion reached 
by Thouar is, that the so-called rapids are not of 
a serious character, being composed of soft ter- 
tiary rock, easily removed, and, even as they are, 
not impassable; since Father Patifio ascended 
them with his boats in 1721, and safely reached 
the borders of Bolivia. The depth of the river up 
to this point, at low water, averages eight feet; 
and beyond it, nearly five feet, with a rise in 
fiood-time of over twenty feet. There are com- 
paratively few snags or sand-banks. The channel, 
in floods, is clearly marked by the lines of high 
trees which border it, even when the plains be- 
yond the channel are flooded. The channel is 
about thirty yards wide, and the current averages 
two miles an hour. Steamers of two hundred 
tons, drawing not over two feet and a half of 
water, could ascend the river to the Bolivian mis- 
sion of Solano at any stage of the water. On the 
strength of this favorable report, an international 
committee has been formed, composed of Bolivian 
and Argentine officials, engineers and capitalists, 


300 


to open the route to commerce. The boundary is 
to be determined, and then operations will com- 
mence at once. 

The services of M. Thouar have been recognized 
by the Bolivian congress, which has voted him a 
gold medal, five square leagues of land, and thirty 
thousand francs, for the publication of his maps 
and reports. The Argentine government has 
promoted the officers of his escort, and given a 
month’s extra pay to the private soldiers. The 
explorer himself will devote himself to the per- 
fection of the methods projected for the promo- 
tion of commerce on the Pilcomayo. 


SURF ACE-COLLECTING ON THE ALBA- 
TROSS. 


DURING the past year surface-collecting has 
been very successfully carried on by the fish- 
commission steamer Albatross, and not only have 
many additions been made to the surface-fauna 
off our coast, but, what is at least of equal im- 
portance, rare forms have been taken in numbers 
sufficient for detailed microscopic study. 

The nets chiefly employed in this work are ten 
feet long and of half-inch mesh ; their mouths are 
four feet in diameter. The outer two-thirds are 
lined with a fine webbing, and the end is closed 
by several turns of stout lashing put on with care, 
to protect these linings from strain. They are 
suspended from the swinging booms, and, five- 
eighths submerged, towed at the rate of two knots 
an hour; each net, under these conditions, strain- 
ing nearly twelve thousand gallons of water per 
minute. They are not, of course, adapted to the 
capture of the smallest forms of life, for which 
purpose fine silk nets of much less diameter are 
employed. 

As might be supposed, the amount of material 
taken in this way is large. When surface-life is 
at all abundant, surface-fish and the young of 
some bottom-fish, the mature and immature forms 
of crustacea, various pelagic forms of mollusca, 
and jelly-fish of all sizes, are represented in the 
average haul. 

Perhaps special mention should be made of the 
capture of argonauts and of several species of file- 
fish (Balistidae). Argonauta argo has been taken 
a number of times clinging to gulf-weed; anda 
fine specimen of another species of argonaut was 
taken from the under surface of a jelly-fish, to 
which it tenaciously clung. Unsuccessful efforts 
have been made to bring in alive argonauts cap- 
tured during the short summer cruises of the 
steamer from Wood’s Holl, Mass.: perhaps failure 
was due to the change from the warm water of 


SCIENCE. 


[Vout. VII., No. 165 


the Gulf-Stream region to the cold water inshore. 
In an aquarium these animals swim about with a 
slow, undulating, rhythmic motion, sometimes 
holding themselves poised for a while, and then, 
by a sudden turn of the siphon, darting with ease 
in any desired direction. When swimming, the 
expanded and partially transparent membrane of 
the dorsal arm adheres so smoothly to the side of 
the shell, that it requires close observation in a 
strong light to detect the fact that it is covered. 

The file-fish is found under gulf-weed, and is’ 
captured when the ship slows down for dredging 
or sounding. A specimen of this fish three inches 
and a half long, together with a piece of drift- 
wood covered with barnacles (Lepas), was placed 
in an aquarium. It immediately began to prey 
upon the barnacles thus: holding itself in readi- 
ness, it waited for the intended victim fully to 
extend its cirri, which the fish then, by a sudden 
onslaught, seized, and, backing swiftly away, 
dragged the greater portion of the animal from its 
shell. The attack of the fish was not always well- 
timed, and, failing in its purpose, its solid jaws 
brought up with a sharp click against the closed 
shell within which the coveted morsel had safely 
retreated. 

Science has already noted the fact that the 
electric light is an important aid in surface-collect- 
ing. A single Edison-light bulb protected by a 
wire cage, and furnished on the upper side with a 
shade, is lowered a few inches under water by an 
insulated cable, which is then made fast. Light, 
silk bolting-cloth scoop-nets, fastened to long 
bamboo poles, are held in readiness above the 
illuminated area. The larger part of the material 
collected by these nets, especially in shallow 
water, is composed of small crustacea and worms, 
which the light often attracts in swarms. 

At Wood’s Holl, small schools of herring 
(Clupea) frequented the lighted area to devour the 
sexual form of certain worms (Nereis limbata and 
N. megalops). A number of specimens of this 
fish were taken with flies improvised to resemble 
these worms. The argonaut has been captured 
under the light, probably by accident. Squids, 
however, appear in numbers, apparently allured 
from some distance. The flying-fish often swims 
sluggishly towards the light, its wing-like pectoral 
fins more or less extended on the surface of the 
water, and quite motionless. If startled, it rises 
instantly in the air, and disappears in the dark- 
ness like a frightened bird. When taken un- 
harmed from the scoop-net, it exhibits a wing- 
movement like that of the humming-bird or 
sphinx-moth, and seems to demonstrate its claim 
to true flight. 

With the abundant material for close structural 


Aprit 2, 1886.] 


study secured by these combined methods, it is to 
be hoped that we soon shall be as well acquainted 
with the surface-fauna off our coast as we now 
are with the bottom-fauna. 
JAMES E. BENEDICT, 
Resident naturalist of the Albatross. 


EARTHQUAKE OBSERVATIONS. 


THE occurrence of an earthquake, although not 
such an uncommon event in this country as most 
people suppose, rarely finds observers alert 
enough to make observations which, when sifted 
of hearsay and ambiguity, contain facts of much 
value to science either as to quantity or quality. 
As a guide to the information desired, it would be 
well to bear in mind the list of questions adopted 
in the circular to be issued by the U. S. geological 
survey, as follows : — 

1. Was an earthquake shock felt at your place 
on the day of ,18 ? (A negative an- 
swer is as important as an affirmative one.) 

_ 2. At what hour, minute, and second of stand- 
-ard time was it felt ? 

3. How long did its perceptible motion con- 
tinue ? 

4, Was it accompanied by any unusual noise? 
If so, describe it. - 

5. Was more than one shock felt? 
many? 

6. Which of the following measures of intensity 
would best describe what happened in your 
vicinity? No. 1. Very light, noticed by a few 
persons, not generally felt; No. 2. Light, felt by 
the majority of persons, rattling windows and 
crockery ; No. 3. Moderate, sufficient to set sus- 
pended objects, chandeliers, etc., swinging or to 
overthrow light objects; No. 4. Strong, sufficient 
to crack the plaster in houses or to throw down 
some bricks from chimneys; No. 5. Severe, over- 
throwing chimneys, and injuring the walls of 
houses. 

7. Do you know of any other cause for what 
happened than an earthquake ? 

This list was proposed by Capt. C. E. Dutton, 
in charge of the division of volcanic geology, with 
the advice of Profs. C. G. Rockwood, T. C. 
Mendenhall, W. M. Davis, and H. M. Paul. A 
negative answer to the first question, from an 
observer near the disturbed region, is of course 
valuable as showing the limits of the disturbance. 
The second question, as to the time, is the most 
important of all; and an immediate comparison 
of the time-piece used, with standard time at 
the nearest railway-station or elsewhere, is par- 
ticularly desirable. 


If so, how 


SCIENCE. 


30] 


Experiments are now being made as to the 
best form of seismoscope for the use of selected 
observers, while more refined observations with 
seismograph and chronograph can of course only 
be undertaken where there are special facilities, 
as at regular observatories, etc. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 


Uape Indians of the Amazon. — We derive 
from Henri Coudreau some interesting notes on 
the ancient race of Amazonian Indians known as 
the Uapé. These people are generally below the 
average height of Europeans, and their complexion 
varies from light brown to something like a choco- 
late tint. Their hair is black and smooth; with 
rare exceptions, reddish or even blond. They 
possess a personal odor almost as strong and dis- 
agreeable as in some Africans, but which is not 
due to want of cleanliness, as they bathe several 
times a day. Though quiet in their manners, they 
are very independent in their habits, and when 
intoxicated, which often occurs, are insolent, vio- 
lent, and cruel. They have religious and secular 
festivals called respectively ‘cachiri’ and ‘dabu- 
curi.’ These consist chiefly of dancing and in- 
dulgence in intoxicating preparations of coca, 
wild hemp, and other herbs, and ceremonial 
tobacco-smoking. The cachiri-drink is made in a 
canoe-shaped wooden vessel, around which both 
sexes dance in a sort of procession, each individual 
putting his right hand on the shoulder of the per- 
son preceding him. The line is led by the chief 
singing, while the rest join in a refrain. They 
are deceitful and perfidious, and do not hesitate to 
use poison against ememies. The drug is extracted 
from a species of arum, and, in small doses, pro- 
duces death by anaemia and innutrition after a 
month or two: strong doses produce immediate 
insanity. Their food comprises game, fish, fruits, 
and manioc-farina ; they are very fond of several 
sorts of large ants. Their houses are built of 
wood, long, with a door at each end, thatched, 
and accommodating as many as fifteen families 
under one roof. They are generally dirty and ill- 
smelling. The furniture consists of hammocks, 
pottery, trunks of Brazilian manufacture, and a 
variety of odds and ends, beside their weapons, 
nets, and baskets. At one side is a small shed, 
where the farina is cooked on a hearth. There is 
often a small flotilla of canoes belonging to the in- 
habitants. These people make excellent canoes, 
some of which are large enough to seat thirty 
people, and sell readily for a handsome price at 
the Brazilian towns. The most singular of their 
industries is that by which they obtain salt. A 
plant grows in the district of Caruri, a stout herb 


302 


a foot and a half high, which is pulled up and 
burned, and the ashes leached with boiling water. 
On this an abundant scum arises, which is re- 
moved and dried. This is the salt which, white 
at first, afterward becomes grayish. It is a little 
bitter, but replaces ordinary salt for all purposes. 
It is curious that such uncivilized people should 
have discovered such a process. 

The newly discovered affluent of the Kongo. — 
The river traversed by Lieutenant Wissmann, to 
which reference was made in a late number of 
Science (vii., 160), proves, as we suspected, to be 
one long indicated on the charts, partly under the 
name of Ikelemba. It is called by Wissmann the 
Kassai, and at different points is named the Zaire, 
the Maneme, and the Kwa. It receives near its 
mouth the waters of the Kwango and the drainage 
of Lake Leopold II. It has a navigable length of 
about four hundred miles through a rich region 
with many probably navigable branches. Hip- 
popotami were very abundant, in some places 
obstructing canoe navigation; eighty-two were 
counted in one herd. The mouth of the Kassai 
does not indicate the importance of the stream, 
which is probably the reason why it has not 
sooner been explored. According to Lieutenant 
Wissmann, the commercial future of the whole 
Kongo state depends upon the construction of a 
railway from Vivi to the upper Kongo valley. 


PARIS LETTER. 


SINCE my preceding letter, some very interesting 
facts have been made known in different sittings 
of the Academy of sciences or other learned soci- 
eties. But I must begin by repairing an omission 
in my last letter, and mention Professor Verneuil’s 
paper concerning phthisis. As it is generally con- 
ceded at present that phthisis is a parasitical 
disease, M. Verneuil prcposes that a fund be 
especially raised for the purpose of studying the 
Bacillus tuberculosis, to try and find out some 
scientific and methodical way of fighting this 
microbe. M. Verneuil’s letter has been published 
in the Gazette hebdomadaire and in many other 
papers ; but I do not think that much money has 
been yet raised. M. Verneuil is no micrographer, 
and has never studied any bacillus or bacterium. 
His idea is a very good one, but he is not the man, 
nor does his name carry the weight necessary to 
make the idea work a long way in the world. 

At the last meeting of the Société de psycho- 
logie physiologique, I listened to an interesting note 
by MM. Richet, Ferrari, and Hericourt, concern- 
ing the way in which the handwriting varies 
according to the suggested mental states of hyp- 
notized persons. For instance, if such a person is 


SCIENCE, 


[Vou. VII., No. 165 


told that he is Napoleon, and asked to write a let- 
ter, he writes one, in a handwriting entirely differ- 
ent from his own, in which a graphologist easily 
recognizes the signs of a certain mental state which 
is generally supposed to have been that of Napo- 
leon ; when told that he is a miser, he writes in a 
close, short, economical handwriting, in the way 
misers write, according to graphologists ; as a peas- 
ant, he writes in a drawling, ugly hand. The con- 
clusion drawn by these gentlemen is, that graphol- 
ogy is a real science, and that its main features 
are correct, generally speaking. After all, there 
is nothing wonderful in the fact that handwriting 
can be and is influenced by the mental state, as is 
the case in physiognomy, attitude, and movements. 
The papers of MM. Richet, Ferrari, and Hericourt, 
will be published in the Revue philosophique, and 
their experiments are being continued. 

A fortnight ago, the Société geologique began 
a series of conferences, to be held now and then at 
the ordinary meetings of the society. The open- 
ing address was made by M. A. de Lapparent, the 
well-known author of a very good book on geology, 
a text-book for French students. The subject was 
‘The form of the earth,’ and M. de Lapparent 
communicated very interesting facts on the ques- 
tion. The most important, which is also the one 
that contributes the most to give to the earth a 
very irregular form, is the attraction which conti- 
nents and even islands exert on water, as they do on 
the pendulum, resulting, as has been proved and 
measured, inan accumulation of sea-waters around 
continents. Thus the continents are all situated at 
the tops of hills of water ; and to go from Europe 
to America, the ship has first to go down hill, 
then to cross a valley, and finally to climb another 
hill. Of course, this is an exaggerated figure ; 
but, if the world were flat instead of round, the 
case would be exactly such as I have just said, for 
it has been calculated by some that between two 
continents the sea-level, in the middle, may be a 
thousand metres below the level the sea ought to 
have, and would have if there were no continents 
to attract it. As a curious and interesting confir- 
mation of this attraction of seas by continents, it 
has been noticed that when Vesuvius is in eruption, 
and consequently when the mountain itself is 
denser on account of ascending and issuing lavas, 
the sea-level of Naples rises in a sufficiently well- 
marked manner. 

M. de Lapparent, who does not think that there 
is any great motion in continents, and does not 
much believe in the sinking of some and the 
emersion of others, tries to explain the fact fre- 
quently met with, of sea-level and sea-beaches 


standing many hundreds of feet above the actual — 
Suppose a 


sea-level, in the following manner. 


<< 


APRIL 2, 1886. ] 


large country without any ice at all, — no 
glaciers nor icebergs: the sea will take a given 
level around such a country. But suppose that 
for some reason or another this country gets 
covered with snow and ice, as is the case in polar 
regions : the sea-level will rise, because the con- 
tinent will be denser, and will attract the sea 
with more force. But if half of the ice melt, 
the sea-level will be lower: if it melt entirely, 
the waters will re-assume their first level. We 
should then find on the seacoast three levels, — 
the actual one; one very high up, say a hundred 
yards; and another one halfway down. This 
explanation may perhaps be accepted for some 
countries, but it seems doubtful that it applies to 
all cases; and the theory of slow emersion and 
immersion of continents and islands —some of 
them, at least — cannot yet be overthrown. The 
conference of M. de Lapparent will be published 
in the Bulletin of the geological society, and a 
review of it is to come out shortly in Nature. 

The principal event of the last month has been 
Pasteur’s paper, read at the Academy of sciences 
the ist of March, concerning the cure of rabies. 
The meeting was a very fine one. Some persons 
had heard it rumored that Pasteur was to speak, 
and to communicate very interesting facts, so the 
room was quite full. M. Gosselin, who had been 
sick for some time,-came ; and nearly everybody 
was there, except M. Chevreul, who was yet 
obliged to stay at home on account of the bad 
weather aud a slight illness. M. Pasteur’s note 
was a very long one, but it was listened to with 
great attention ; and at the conclusion enthusiastic 
applause went up from every hand. M. Vulpian 
rose immediately after, and proposed that a vacci- 
nal dispensary be erected for the purpose of admit- 
ting all persons bitten by rabid dogs, and having 
them cured by M. Pasteur and his assistants. The 
fact is, that it is necessary to be able to receive all 
persons, French or strangers, who desire Pasteur’s 
assistance, and to have some sort of hospital. 
M. Vulpian’s proposal was greeted with many 
cheers, and M. Pasteur quite approved it. The 
results of Pasteur’s 350 first experiments on the 
cure of rabies in mankind are certainly very en- 
couraging, and the subscribers are sending a good 
deal of money. Pasteur is sure to have all the 
money that is necessary, and will certainly use it 
well. He wishes to investigate now the question 
of diphtheria, and to try and find out the way of 
preventing or fighting it. It is to be hoped also 
that tuberculosis may catch hisattention. Tuber- 
culosis is far deadlier than cholera, diphtheria, and 
rabies put together. 

Apropos of cholera, M. Rochefontaine, who was 
director of Professor Vulpian’s laboratory, died a 


SCIENCE. 


303 


few days ago. It will be remembered that Dr. 
Rochefontaine tried last year an experiment on 
the etiology of cholera, swallowing a pill in which 
choleraic dejections and bacilli formed the promi- 
nent feature. He recovered, and some months 
ago he began again, in another manner, inoculat- 
ing bacilli under theskin. It is, however, believed 
here that these experiments were very detri- 
mental to his health, and that his sudden death, 
in the course of a very mild illness, may have 
been the consequence of them. Professor Vul- 
pian made a very heartfelt and appropriate speech 
at the burial. Rochefontaine has been during 
seventeen years the préparateur and the assistant 
of M. Vulpian : he was, in fact, his only pupil, as 
concerns experimental physiology, and his death 
is a very serious blow to Vulpian, who will cer- 
tainly not find so experienced an assistant to help 
him. 

M. A. Gautier, the professor of organic chemis- 
try in the faculté de médecine, pupil and succes- 
sor of Wirtz, has recently published a very in- 
teresting paper, read before the Academy of 
medicine, concerning ptomaines and leucomaines. 
Leucomaines are alkaloids very similar to ptoma- 
ines, but they are formed in the living body and 
during life, instead of developing after death. 
They are very poisonous. In the next letter, I 
shall perhaps be able to give more information on 
this point. ; 

The Concours d’agrégation at the Medical 
school was finished yesterday evening at half-past 
six, after some two months’ duration. The can- 
didates who have been admitted are MM. Brissand 
and Ballet, two of Charcot’s pupils, neither of the 
best nor of the worst; M. Dejérine, Vulpian’s 
pupil, very well known by quite a number of 
papers and contributions on nervous pathology and 
physiology — he certainly is the best man of the 
four in the estimation of all, and is a very good 
recruit for the faculty ; M. Chauffard, son of the 
well-known spiritualist professor, who died some 
years ago—he has no works to speak for him, 
being yet very young, but his concours was a very 
brilliant one. V. 

Paris, March 17. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


ON the 25th of March, 1826, Alvan Clark, the 
senior member of the famous firm of telescope- 
makers, was united in marriage to Miss Maria 
Pease, and the venerable couple are still living, 
the former at the age of eighty-two, and the latter 
seventy-eight. A reception was given in honor 
of the sixtieth anniversary of their marriage. 
During the past year Mr. Clark has painted three 


304 


large portraits in oil, —of his two sons, Alvan 
and George, and of a grandson. Portrait-paint- 
ing was Mr. Clark’s profession till he was forty 
years of age, when, by trying to assist one of his 
sons, then a student, in the grinding of a reflect- 
or for a telescope he was making for his own 
use, his attention was first directed to the grinding 
of optical surfaces as a business. 


— Captain Eden of the British schooner Storm 
king, bound from Utilla to New Orleans, reports 
on Thursday, March 11, passing over a submarine 
mineral-oil spring, bubbling and rippling all 
around the vessel, and extending out over one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred yards. This 
was in latitude 25° 48’ north, longitude 86° 20’ 
west, about two hundred and fifty miles south- 
east of the passes. At 11 A.M. they were over the 
spring proper, and at 11.30 A.M. outside the cir- 
cumference of the oil-circle. It is supposed that 
this spring is the oil-cargo of a foundered vessel, 
which, breaking through the casks, caused this 
peculiar marine freak, or that it may be a natural 
phenomenon. 


— The Railroad gazette cites one of the longest 
times in which fire has been kept in a furnace 
without the addition of fuel. A furnace belong- 
ing to the Kemble iron and coal company at Rid- 
dlesburg, Penn., was banked up and hermetically 
sealed in November, 1884, fire being left in. On 
March 5, 1886, the furnace was opened, after be- 
ing closed for nearly sixteen months. The fire 
was found to be still burning, the coke glowing 
brightly, and, on the admission of air, soon be- 
came hot enough to melt cinder. It was started 
as easily as if it had been standing but a week. 


—A railroad company in southern Kansas has 
established a large artificial plantation of forest- 
trees to supply their future needs. Over a square 
mile of land near Farlington has been planted 
with young saplings of the catalpa and ailantus. 
The prospective success of their experiment has 
brought about the similar planting of another 
equal area. These trees are of rapid growth, and 
are valuable for ties and fencing-material. 


— The first international congress of hydrology 
and climatology will convene the 1st of October 
next at Biarritz, and will last eight days. Com- 
munications and inquiries may be addressed to 
the Viscount de Chasteigner, at Biarritz. 


—The March number of the Johns Hopkins 
university circulars contains abstracts of several 
scientific papers of value, read before the scientific 
and philological association of the university, as 
follows : ‘ Instantaneous photographs of the heart 
and intestines in motion,’ by Dr. Thompson; ‘On 


SCIENCE. ° 


q 


(Vou. VIL., No. 165 


the antiseptic action of acids,’ by Mr. Duggan ; 
and on ‘Speech mixture in French Canada,’ by 
Mr. Elliott. 


— The next volume of the ‘ Encyclopaedia 
Britannica’ will be issued about the middle of this 
month. Among the principal articles will be 
‘Psychology,’ by Mr. J. Ward; ‘ Railways,’ by 
Messrs. D. K. Clark, A. T. Hadley, A. M. Welling- 
ton, and 8. W. Dunning ; ‘ Anima! reproduction,’ 
by Mr. P. Geddes ; ‘ Vegetable reproduction,’ by 
S. H. Vines; ‘ Reptiles,’ by Dr. A. Gimnther and 
St. G. Mivart ;‘ Respiration,’ by Prof. A. Gamgee: 
‘ River-engineering,’ by L. F. Vernon-Harcourt ; 
and ‘Roman topography and archeology,’ by J. 
H. Middleton. 


— The k. k. naturhistorischen hofmuseum at 
Vienna has begun the publication of annalen, 
under the editorship of Dr. Franz v. Hauer, the 
superintendent. The first number, lately issued, 
contains a report for the year 1885, which will be 
of interest to those concerned in the management 
of museums. The personnel of this important 
museum includes many names, such as Pelzeln, 
Rogenhofer, Fuchs, Brezina, Brauer, Marenzeller, 
Heger, Szombathy, and others, more or less widely 
known as eminent scientific men. Altogether the 
staff of curators, assistants, and servants, numbers 
forty-four. The next number will appear in May, 
and will contain zodélogical, botanical, and min- 
eralogical papers by Steindachner, Kohl, Beck, 
Brezina, and others. 


— A new enterprise of considerable importance 
is announced in Germany. It is the issuance of a 
Handbuch der klassischen alterthumswissenschaft 
in systematischer darstellung, which will deal 
with the entire field of classical philology and 
archeology, with especial reference to the history, 
method, and bibliography of the respective de- 
partments. The work will be complete in seven 
volumes,—of which three parts, comprising a 
volume and a half, have already appeared, — 
and is edited by Professor Miller of Erlangen, as- 
sisted by Professors Blass of Kiel, Brugmann of 
Freiburg, Busset of Kiel, von Christ of Munich, 
Hiibner of Berlin, Jordan of K6nigsberg, Lolling 
of Athens, Niese of Breslau, Nissen of Bonn, 
Reifferschied of Breslau, Schiller of Giessen, 
Schanz of Wirzburg, von Urlichs of Wirzburg, 
and Windelband of Strasburg. 


interest and value. 


—We have received a translation into the — 
German, of Auchincloss’s well-known work on ~ 
The original — 
was published by Van Nostrand in 1869, and a — 


second edition in 1883. It has been a standard a 


valve-gearing of steam-engines, 


This array of dis- 
tinguished names ought to insure a work of great 


a ee eee 


ind 7 Pe 


J 
P 


Arrit 2, 1886.] : 


treatise on the subject in this country, and, with 
Zeuner and Blaha in Europe, has given the engi- 
neer exceedingly valuable methods of treatment 
of all problems arising in the designing and 
adjustment of the slide-valve. The work, both 
of author and publisher, is well done; and our 
German friends are to be congratulated upon hav- 
ing so good a reproduction of what has long been 
considered in the United States, in many respects, 
an exceptionally valuable treatise. 


—Mr. S. S. Bassler, of the Cincinnati com- 
mercial gazette, has lately published a timely lit- 
tle pocket-pamphlet entitled ‘The weather chart,’ 
in which he illustrates the types of areas of high 
and low pressure that cross our country, and con- 
trol its weather, by small sketch-maps for recent 
dates, still in the minds of his readers. The ob- 
ject of the essay is a good one, and the examples 
are well chosen; but we regret that more care is 
not taken to secure accuracy in its explanatory 
statements. It is very questionable whether cor- 
rect ideas can be gathered from such phrases as, 
**Could we go beyond the limits of the atmos- 
phere, and look down upon its surface, we should 
see a constant succession of hills, valleys, plains, 
and areas of tempestuous cross-waves.” It is true 
that in the lower atmosphere the imaginary 
isobaric surfaces would be thus deformed, in ac- 
cordance with changes in temperature and den- 
sity of air; but there is every probability that 
these irregularities are all smoothed out long 
before the limits of the atmosphere are reached. 
And it is to be regretted that one who has done 
so much good work in popularizing his favorite 
study should degrade its terminology by the fre- 
quent use of such words as ‘high’ and ‘low,’ in- 
stead of the better ones ‘ anti-cyclonic’ and ‘cy- 
clonic systems,’ which appear but a few times. 


— Robert Oppenheim of Berlin announces a 
‘Fuhrer fiir forschungsreisende’ by Dr. F. v. 
Richthofen. This book is intended as a guide for 
travellers in making observations of interest in 
physical geography or geology. It is intended 
especially for those who, without special knowl- 
edge in those sciences, yet have some acquaintance 
with their rudiments. 


— The following works of interest to scientific 
readers have been announced : ‘ Creation or evolu- 
tion,’ by George Ticknor Curtis (Appleton) ; ‘ Fresh- 
water fishes of Europe, a history of the genera, 
Species, structure, habits, etc.,? by H. G. Seeley 
(Cassell) ; ‘ Electric lighting.’ translated from the 
German (Cupples, Upham & Co.); ‘Can matter 
think?’ by Elliott Coues (Estes & Lauriat); 
‘Geological studies,’ by Alex. Winchell (Griggs & 
Co.) ; ‘ Builders’ work and builders’ trades,’ by H. 


< SOLE NOT. 


305 


C. Seddon (Lippincott) ; ‘ Avoidance of collisions 
at sea,’ by W. Bainbridge (Van Nostrand); ‘The 
luminiferous ether,’ by Volsen Wood (Van Nos- 
trand); ‘Evolution of to-day,’ by H. W. Conn 
(Putnam) ; Anthony and Brackett’s ‘ Text-book of 
physics ’ (Wiley); ‘Arctic explorations in the 
nineteenth century, from Ross to Greely’ (Allison) ; 
‘At home in Fiji,’ by Gcerdon Cumming, new 
edition (Armstrong); ‘Persia, the land of the 
Imans,’ by James Bassett (Scribner) ; ‘ The Kilima- 
Njaro expedition, scientific exploration in eastern 
equatorial Africa,’ by H. H. Johnstone (Scribner) ; 
‘ What young people should know,’ revised edition, 
by B. G. Wilder (Estes & Lauriat); ‘ A history of 
education,’ by F. v. N. Painter (Appleton); ‘A 
science of mind,’ by J. H. Seelye (Ginn & Co.) ; 
‘The philosophy of wealth,’ by J. B. Clark (Ginn 
& Co.); ‘Our government,’ by J. Macy (Ginn & 
Co.) ; ‘General geology for high-schools and col- 
leges,’ by N.S. Shaler (Heath) ; ‘Guides for science 
teaching,’ four volumes (insects, fishes and frogs, 
birds, and mammals), by Alpheus Hyatt (Heath) ; 
‘Introduction to the study of philosophy,’ by G. 
Stanley Hall (Heath); ‘ Modern petrography,’ by 
George H. Williams (Heath) ; ‘ Industrial training,’ 
by C. M. Woodward (Heath); ‘ A handbook of 
plant dissection,’ by J. C. Arthur, C. R. Barnes, 
and J. M. Coulter (Henry Holt); ‘The calculus,’ 
by Simon Newcomb (Henry Holt); ‘ Elementary 
zodlogy,’ by A. S. Packard (Henry Holt) ; ‘ Wood’s 
medicinal plants,’ American edition, by Charles 
Rice (Wood) ; ‘ The railways and the republic,’ by 
James F. Hudson (Harper); ‘Society, its pecul- 
iarities, practices, and problems,’ by G. C. Lori- 
mer (Funk & Wagnaills); ‘Essays on finance, 
wages. and trade,’ by R. Giffen (Putnam) ; ‘Theism 
and evolution,’ by J. S. Van Dyke (Armstrong) ; 
‘ University education,’ by G. S. Morris (Andrews & 
Witherby) ; ‘Educational value of different studies,’ 
by W.H. Payne (Andrews & Witherby) ; ‘ Mineral 
physiology and physiography,’ by T. Sterry 
Hunt (Cassino) ; ‘ Methods of teaching and study- 
ing natural science,’ edited by G. Stanley Hall 
(Heath). 


— The future bears every mark that distin- 
euishes publications of its class. The system on 
which its author, C. C. Blake of Richland, Kan., 
bases his ‘‘ calculation of the coming weather 
through astronomical mathematics,” is modestly 
entitled ‘Cosmogony,’ and in the April number of 
the paper its explanation goes so far as concluding 
that there is no such thing as matter, and motion 
only exists. By a vague series of inconsequences, 
it is shown that the earth is built up by gradual 
accretion of rays fromthe sun: ‘ it is the gradual 
growth of the earth by absorption from the sun 


306 


that is the cause of the secular acceleration of the 
moon, which the best of astronomers have not 
been able to account for.” The egotistical self- 
sacrifice that pervades the sheet is more pitiful 
than its teachings are dangerous. 


— The weather journal, issued weekly at Cincin- 
nati, by S. S. Bassler, the weather editor of the 
Commercial gazette of that city, is quite unlike 
most journals afflicted with meteorological titles 
in this country: it has nothing to say about cos- 
mogony, or the influence of Saturn, but gains its 
high value from a set of twenty-one little maps in 
each issue, giving the isobars and something of 
the winds, temperature, and precipitation, three 
times for every day of the week of its publication, 
constructed according to the signal-service obser- 
vations. Although too small to contain much 
detail, the maps show with sufficient clearness 
where the centres of high and low pressure are 
to be found, and the accompanying text is 
designed to explain the simpler principles of 
weather forecasting on this basis. We trust it 
may secure the large circulation that it weil 
deserves, and that the maps may at the same time 
gain somewhat in clearness of execution in 
response to the requests of numerous subscribers. 


— The first annual summary of observations 
made at the Blue Hill meteorological observatory, 
near Boston, was lately issued by Mr. Rotch. It 
contains a detailed statement of monthly and 
annual means, extremes, and ranges for 1885, 
placed side by side with similar records from the 
Boston signal office, ten miles north of, and five 
hundred feet lower than, the observatory. The 
mean annual values of several elements are as 
follows: pressure (reduced to 32°, sea-level and 
standard gravity), 29’.962 and 29.964; tempera- 
ture, 44°.4 and 47°.1; total wind movement 166, 
110, and 102,829 miles; total precipitation, 39.00 
and 46.85 inches. Mr. Rotch is contributing a 
series of articles on the mountain meteorological 
stations of Europe to the current numbers of the 
American meteorological journal that will prove 
of much value to students in this country, not 
only by informing them where high-level obser- 
vations are made, but also by directing them to 
the publications in which they are recorded and 
discussed. 


—The general detailed map of the United 
States, proposed and already begun by the U. S. 
geological survey, will be upon the scale of about 
four miles to the inch, with contour lines for every 
twenty-five to two hundred feet, according to 
the nature of the topography. It is proposed to 
issue this map in atlas sheets, each composed of 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 165° 


one degree of latitude by one of longitude, 
bounded by parallels and meridians. 


— The first number of the International record 
of charities and correction, edited by Mr. F. H. 
Wines, and published by Putnam’s Sons, has been 
received. The Record aims to make popular the 
literature of the subject to which it is devoted, to 
interest the public in such questions, and to show 
‘‘what progress is making in the struggle for the 
relief of human suffering, and the elevation of 
the race.” The general subject which will be dis- 
cussed in its columns is ‘social evils, their causes 
and remedy.’ The editor names as the five great 
evils with which humanity has to contend, poverty, 
ignorance, disease, vice, crime. 


— A local hurricane at Murraysville, Penn., on 
March 21, which caused considerable damage to 
property, has been ascribed to the heat produced 
by the conflagration at the large gas-well there. 


— The French consulting committee of hygi- 
ene, we learn from Nature, recently advised the 
prohibition of the use of vaseline for butter in 
food-preparations. The effects of vaseline on the 
system, however, seemed to require fuller exam- 
ination, and Dr. Dubois has made some experi- 
ments in regard to it. Two dogs were fed ex- 
clusively on soup in which the usual fat was 
entirely replaced with vaseline: one of them 
absorbed twenty-five grams of vaseline a day 
for ten days: the other fifteen grams (this would 
correspond, in the case of an average man, to one 
hundred grams and sixty grams _ respectively). 
With this diet the animals even slightly increased 
in weight. Their general state was good: there 
was no loss of appetite, nor vomiting, nor diarrhoea. 
In general, it may be said that the carburets of 
hydrogen forming vaseline, though they favor 
neither oxidation nor saponification like fats, are 
readily tolerated in the alimentary canal, at least 
in the case of dogs. Further experiments will 
show if a prolonged use of the substance is 
equally innocuous, 


— The report of Mr. Hodgson to the Society of 
psychical research, denouncing the theosophists 
and Madame Blavatsky, has been replied to, says 
the London Graphic, by Mr. A. P. Sinnett, in a 
pamphlet called ‘‘ The ‘occult world phenomena’ 
and the Society for psychical research” (Redway). 
It is not, it does not indeed pretend to be, a com- 
plete answer to the many points raised by Mr. 
Hodgson. There is no attempt, for example, to 
explain the existence of the damning Coulomb 
letters. But Mr. Sinnett scores some points 
against his adversary, and his pamphlet is to be 
followed by some memoirs of Madame Blavatsky, 


Aprit 2, 1886.] 


which may contain further refutations. Madame 
Blavatsky herself appends to the pamphlet a brief 
and indignant denial of the grave charges which 
have been made against her. 


— The success of the U. S. fish commission has 
caused complaints in England of the negligence 
of that government in matters pertaining to 
the fishing interests. The Athenaewm states that 
at the present moment there is not in the three 
kingdoms one scientific naturalist employed by 
the government to whom it has the right to apply 
for information on fishery questions. It is now 
said to be the intention of the government, how- 
ever, to forma new fisheries board or commission. 


—Caustic lime, ground fine, and consolidated 
by a pressure of forty tons into cartridges two 
inches and a half in diameter, is used in some col- 
lieries for getting coal, where gunpowder would 
be dangerous. After the holes are drilled in the 
face of the coal, an iron tube half an inch in 
diameter, with a small groove externally on the 
upper side, and several perforations, is inserted 
the whole length of the hole. The cartridges, 
which have a groove to fit the tube, are then in- 
serted and lightly rammed, and the hole tamped. 
A small force-pump injects through the tube a 
quantity of water equal in bulk to the lime. The 
water escapes through the perforations and along 
the groove, saturating the whole, and driving out 
the air. The tube is then closed by a tap to pre- 
vent the escape of the steam, which, by its force, 
cracks the coal away from the roof, and then fol- 
lows the expansion of the lime. 


— A system of irrigation is on trial in Colorado, 
in which the water is conducted through pipes, 
laid a little below the surface several feet apart, 
and having small holes at intervals on the upper 
side to permit of the escape of the water, which 
percolates through and thoroughly moistens the 
soil. The advantages are claimed, that the sur- 
face of the soil is not chilled by flooding, and that 
the ground is not subsequently baked by the hot 
sun. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


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


Phylloxera. 

Wuat evidence have we on the following points in 
regard to phylloxera ? — 

First, was it well known as a pest in this country 
before its introduction abroad ? 

Second, when and how did it reach Europe ? 

Third, why is it more injurious in Europe than in 
its native habitat ? and 

Fourth, is there any reason to suppose that the 
pest will be mitigated by natural causes as time goes 
on ? A.M. D. 

New York. March 29. 


SCIENCE. 


307 


Certain questions relating to national endow- 
ment of research in this country, and their 
importance. 


I have read with interest Dr. Shufeldt’s arguments 
in Science, favoring endowment of research, and the 
recognition on the part of the government ‘‘ of those 
persons in her employ who have from time to time 
demonstrated their fitness to perform certain work,” 
but I would like to ask the talented author why he 
would restrict this recognition to those in the govern- 
ment’s employ. or why, indeed, there should be any 
distinction made between such men and other able 
men in civil life. The physician who finds that he is 
far better qualified for some other pursuit than that 
of medicine gives up his profession, and accepts a 
position where his talents can be better applied. Is 
not the same resource left for army officers? Dr. 
Shufeldt will hardly claim a monopoly of talent in 
government employ; then why are not the many 
struggling students of science in civil life who have 
shown evidence of their fitness to perform certain 
work equally entitled to recognition? By all means, 
if such a scheme is feasible, endow or assist original 
research, but put all citizens absolutely on the same 
level. While one may sympathize with the talented 
officers who are compelled to undergo wearisome 
drudgery not akin to their tastes or inclination, it 
cannot be forgotten that there are many other 
equally talented scientific men who have to struggle 
without even the assurance of a comfortable salary. 
Endow research, but let the endowment be impartial. 

W582, 


New Haven, Conn., March 27. 


The anachronisms of pictures. 


Supplementing your recent publications touching 
the above-named subject, an example interesting to 
geographical botanists may be recorded among the 
existing curiosities of the national capitol. 

The senate committee in charge of the fine arts 
has secured a picture representing a well-known 
incident in the life of Columbus, that occurred in old 
Spain anterior to the discoverer’s first trans-Atlantic 
voyage. This picture is hung at the head of the 
marble stairway near the seats reserved in the 
senate hall for the ambassadors of foreign powers. 
It proclaims to the world that the plant (the Opun- 
tia [cactus of Linneus] ficus indica, or prickly pear) 
which has figured in Mexican patriotic symbolism 
from time out of mind, and which holds the most 
prominent place in the oldest of Aztec legends, — the 
plant which Mexico regenerate has chosen as an em- 
blem sanctified by association and antiquity, and has 
placed upon her banner and her dollar, — this sena- 
torial picture proclaims that this cactus, so dear to 
the patriotic Mexican heart, is not originally Mexi- 
can, but that it was a possession of the usurper, and 
in pre-Columbian times grew by the dusty wayside 
in old Spain. That it had not reached Europe at the 
date of the incident represented in the picture, there 
can be no doubt. 

I would refer the student to Alfonse de Candolle’s 
work, ‘ Origin of cultivated plants’ (Appleton, 1885), 
p. 275. Speaking of the Opuntia ficus indica, the 
eminent botanist says, ‘‘It was one of the first plants 
which the Spaniards introduced into the old world, 
both into Europe and Asia. Its singular appearance 
was the more striking that no other species belonging 


308 


to the family had before been seen.” Should the 

student wish to investigate still further, he will find 

in de Candolle’s treatise the names of several Spanish 

and other authorities. NOopPAL, 
New York, March 29. 


Schwatka’s Along Alaska’s great river. 


The author of the review of Schwatka’s work on 
the Yukon (p. 294) is evidently ill-informed as to the 
history and present state of the mapping of that 
river. when he states that Raymond ‘surveyed’ it from 
Fort Yukon to its mouth, and supposes that the map 
of Raymond is the ‘ best in existence’ of the lower 
Yukon. It is probable that he derives his impression 
from Schwatka’s work; that gentleman, like many 
military men, preferring to ignore or affect contempt 
of any work done outside of military circles. The 
fact is, that Raymond’s map has at present merely 
an historical value, and was originally merely one 
step in the many by which an approximate sketch of 
the course of that great stream has been arrived at. 
The first explorations were by the Russians, and are 
summarized in the map of Zogoskin, which, for the 
part included in it (except at the mouth of the river), 
has not been materially changed by any one, though 
positions have been better determined, and details 
added or subtracted. The river between the end of 
the Zogoskin map and Fort Yukon, and the delta, 
were mapped by the Western union telegraph expe- 
dition, whose work as to detail is fuller than any 
thing subsequent. They also sketched the upper 
river, but it was reserved for Raymond to correct 
the astronomical positions of important points, and 
thus modify the general course ; to Schwatka and 
Krause, to furnish better details of the Lewis branch 
and head waters; to Nelson, to do the same for the 
delta, and Lieutenant Allen for the Tananah water- 
shed. The credit due to each cannot be monopolized 
by any man or set of men, and it does not impair any 
man’s reputation to do justly by his forerunners. 

Wm. H. DALL. 


Smithsonian institution, 
March 27. 


A swindler abroad again. 


Please give place to an advertisement of a fraud 
who has just left Oskaloosa. He came on the 6th, 
remained six days, and left without having caused 
sufficient suspicion for any one to say any thing. He 
professes to be Prof. Henry S. Williams of Cornell 
university, N. Y., a captain on the retired list of the 
U. S. army, — retired for disabilities resulting from 
wounds received from the Indians three days after 
General Custer fell. He is now representing the 
Smithsonian institution as a sort of an examiner, 
looking after books and specimens deposited at 
different places. He also represents that Cornell has 
a fund which makes it possible for them to sell for 
fifty dollars a set of fossils equal to sets sold by Ward 
for eight hundred and fifty dollars, and that they only 
want five dollars cash to pay for boxing and labelling, 
the remainder to be paid from time to time in local 
fossils, for which reasonable prices will be allowed. 
He contracted two sets here, but received the five 
dollars on but one of them. 

He is about five feet eight inches high, weighs 
about one hundred and forty pounds, carries his right 
arm as though stiff, wears a glove on that hand, has 
light-brown straight hair, mustache, blue eyes, a 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 165 


large head with prominent forehead, so that his eyes 
seem a little sunken, and uses tobacco and whiskey 
tolerably freely for a professional man. We know 
he has a whole right arm and hand, and it is quite 
possible nothing is the matter with it. He talks very 
freely and accurately of fossils, books, and men, can 
give minute details of events in Indian warfare of 
ten and more years ago, which some of our citizens 
know to be literally true. He spends his money very 
freely, and seems to have plenty of it. 

There is a general feeling that he worked some 
one for one hundred and eighty dollars, but, if so, 
whoever it was will not tell it. The amount is in- 


dicated, because it is rumored he draws one hundred 


and eighty dollars per month from thearmy. I can- 
not find who started it. If he has not done so, he 
certainly missed a good chance. A despatch from 
Humboldt to the Des Moines Register says he has 
been there and got about one hundred dollars. 


Erasmus HAWORTH. 
Penn college, Oskaloosa, Io., 
March 24. 


Bancroft’s History of Alaska. 


In your review of Bancroft’s ‘ Alaska,’ published 
yesterday, you speak of the transfer of that region, 
and the surrender of the despotic sway of the Russian 
American company, only to be renewed by one of 
our own, or, to use your words, ‘‘ while the monopoly 
which succeeded, though more confined in scope than 
that of the Russian company, does not differ in its 
essential details, and is still in operation.” 

The entire area of Alaska is to-day, and has been 
since the purchase, open and free to all comers, in so 
far as the fur-trade is concerned, with the single 
exception of that reservation of the government for 
the protection of the seal-iife on the Pribylov Islands, 
in Bering Sea: these small islets are completely 
isolated, and far removed from contact with the 
trade of that region, and are practically unknown. to 
everybody outside of their narrow limits, except the 
officers of the government and the employees of the 
A. C..Co. 

Competing traders are found at every little post 
in Alaska to-day where the fur-trade will warrant 
the establishment of the smallest trader and his out- 
fit. There never has been the slightest interference 
with the prosecution of the fur-trade in Alaska since 
1867 by any monopoly whatsoever. 

Henry W. ELLIOTT. 
Smithsonian institution, March 27. 

[The statements of the above letter, in so far as 
they are accurate, are theoretically true: the state- 
ment of the reviewer, in his judgment, better repre- 
sents the social and commercial facts, as regards the 
whole territory, except the small area about Sitka.— 
REv. | 


Names of the Canadian Rocky Mountain peaks. 


An error in my article, printed in Science, vii. No. 
162, is kindly pointed out by Dr. George M. Dawson 
of the Canadian geological survey, which I am glad 
to correct for your readers. Dr. Dawson tells me 
that the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, Hooker, Bal- 
four, Brown, etc., were not named by the botanist 
Douglas, as I stated, but by Dr. Hector, now in 
charge of the geological survey of New Zealand, who 
in 1857-59 was attached to Captain Palliser’s expedi- 
tion into the north-west. ERNEST INGERSOLL. 

New Haven, March 25, 


i A 


psychologiques. 


SCIENCE.SuppLeMent. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1886. 


INDUCED SOMNAMBULISM. 


THE activity with which the study of mental 
phenomena, and especially of hypnotism, is now 
being pursued, is remarkable. Constantly publi- 
cations are being brought to our notice, dealing 
with these popular topics, either in a literary, an 
empirical, or scientific way. Among the last to 
claim attention is a little work’ by Prof. H. 
Beaunis of the faculty of medicine at Nancy, who 
has attempted to apply to the study of induced 
somnambulism scientific experimental methods. 
His work deals with the question from both 
physiological and psychological points of view, 
and treats of both mental and physical conditions. 
The substance of his more important observations 
and deductions, in the concluding chapters, is here 
presented. 

What is the mental state of the hypnotized per- 
son during sleep? Is the intelligence active, and 
are the thoughts of the subject engaged? Ob- 
servations seem to show that there is an absolute 
repose of the thoughts, except when under the 
influence of external impressions. When a hypno- 
tized subject is asked of what he is thinking, the 
response is nearly always, ‘Of nothing.’ There is 
a state of intellectual inertia, or, better, of intel- 
lectual repose, in accord with the physical aspect 
of the hypnotized person : the body is immovable, 
the features impassible, with a general expression 
of calmness and tranquillity rarely attained in 
ordinary sleep. There are evidently no dreams 
nor thoughts of any kind; for those subjects who 
recoliect very well whatever has transpired in 
some previous like condition recall nothing of an 
hypnotic sleep during which there have been 
received no external impressions. 

Thus, contrary to the opinion of many physi- 
cians, undisturbed hypnotic sleep may be regarded 
as more recuperative ; and from the observations 
made, both by the author and Dr. Liébeault, a 
part of the therapeutic effects produced by hypno- 
tism may be attributed to the beneficial character 
of the induced sleep. It is often asked whether, 
in ordinary sleep, the brain remains inactive, and 
many reasons have been given to prove the con- 
trary. Facts, however, seem to show, that, when 


1 Le somnambulisme provoqué, études physiologiques et 
Paris, Bailliére, 1886. 12°. 


it is profound, the brain is really as inactive as in 
the induced sleep. 

This inertia of thought is, however, only a 
conditional one in hypnotism: the merest sug- 
gestion, a single word pronounced by the hypno- 
tizer, suffices to produce an activity that may be 
very highly developed, sometimes even more than 
in the normal state. The judgment of the hypno- 
tized person is good, and in general he reasons 
correctly and logically. ‘‘ That which is the most 
striking,” says Dr. Liébeault, ‘‘is his power of 
deduction : whatever may be the result of his 
intellectual elaboration, his train of reasoning is 
logical and rapid.” It seems, then, incorrect to 
consider the hypnotized person as an unconscious 
machine, incapable of reasoning and of judgment, 
as Pitres has done. It is true, he lacks the im- 
pelling motive; but impulsion once given, the 
intellectual machine is set in motion with more 
regularity and precision than in the waking state 
even. 

The author says, however, that he has never 
observed the marvellous phenomena admitted by 
certain magnetizers, such as mental divination, 
second sight, prophetic powers, etc. The subjects 
were never able to divine the nature of an object 
enclosed in the hand, nor to tell one’s thoughts, or 
events that had transpired unknown to them. In 
regard to predictions, the same was likewise true : 
a subject was never able to announce any event 
in advance in which the prediction was realized. 
A fact which the author has tested many times, 
and which seems to admit of no doubt, is that cer- 
tain subjects are able to recognize by the touch, 
or at least without the aid of sight or hearing, the 
sex and approximate age of persons with whom 
they come in contact ; and in many cases the sub- 
ject was able to designate immediately, upon see- 
ing persons unknown to them, the nature and 
location of maladies under which they were suf- 
fering. All such facts of hypnotism, however 
strange they appear, may be explained by an 
increased activity of the senses, by an excessive 
sensorial sensitiveness, such as is known to occur 
in the somnambulist. 

There is one point of special interest in the 
mental state of the hypnotized person which the 
author examined with care. Will the somnambu- 
list prevaricate or lie while in that condition? 
According to Pitres, certain subjects during the 
hypnotic state falsify voluntarily and knowingly ; 
but such cases were never observed by the author. 


310 


Sometimes they would refuse to reply to questions, 
or would hesitate in answering, but in no case did 
he ever know of their telling a downright false- 
hood. Were it possible to test those naturally 
vicious, the results might be different; and it 
would be of great interest to examine, in this re- 
spect, the professional criminal. The hypnotized 
person, in fine, is entirely open, not only in his 
actions, but also in his most intimate thoughts and 
sentiments: every thing appears — vices, faults, 
virtues, passions — with entire simplicity and the 
most complete naiveté. 

One of the most difficult problems in induced 
somnambulism is that of the relation existing be- 
tween the subject and the hypnotizer. No matter 
how profound the sleep may be, the subject un- 
derstands all that is said to him by the hypnotizer, 
though he may not understand that which is 
addressed by the latter to a third person. This 
relation is established through any or all of the 
senses. Though the hypnotizer may use the 
utmost precaution not to reveal his presence in 
taking the hand of the subject, he will immedi- 
ately be recognized, and the subject will obey the 
impressions conveyed. Should the subject’s arm 
be raised, it will remain in any given position, 
though, if done by a third person, it will fall im- 
mediately inert. Let passes be made in his imme- 
diate proximity, either in front or behind, and the 
subject will recognize whether they are done by 
the hypnotizer or some strange person. Can this 
be attributed to a superexcitation of the tactile 
sensibility ? One cannot say. If the subject is 
asked how he knows who it is that makes these 
passes, he invariably replies, that he feels him. A 
subject may be placed en rapport with a third 
person by the simple command of the hypnotizer, 
when he will obey him with the same implicit- 
ness. 

In what, then, does this singular phenomenon 
of the relation between hypnotizer and hypnotized 
consist? Noizet and Bertrand, together with Dr. 
Liébeault, accept the explanation of this affinity or 
relation as the result of the attention given to the 
hypnotizer by the subject while being placed in 
that condition, and that it does not differ from 
that seen every day in ordinary sleep. A mother 
sleeping near the cradle of her child does not cease 
to watch over it, and, though insensible to the 
loudest tones, is conscious of the lightest cry of 
her infant. By this hypothesis the imagination of 
the subject produces the effect, and there is no 
special relation, physical or physiological, between 
hypnotizer and hypnotized. The subject, says 
Carpenter, is possessed by a preconceived convic- 
tion that one particular individual is destined to 
exercise upon him an especial influence, and that 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 165 


it is the effect of a predominant idea suggested, 
directly or indirectly, by the magnetizer himself. 
Persons who hypnotize themselves for the first 
time, and without placing their thoughts especially 
upon any one person, are apt to receive the im- 
pressions of any by-stander. 

Although certain facts seem to substantiate 

these views, there are others which are not easily 
explained by them, and which seem to indicate 
some real relation between hypnotizer and hypno- 
tized. 
Any attempt to explain these varied phenomena, 
or to establish some general theory of induced 
somnambulism, is yet premature; nor will the 
solution of the problem be possible till the func- 
tions of the brain, and especially the physiology 
of natural sleep, are better known than they are 
at present. One may, however, seek solutions of 
particular groups of phenomena. 

By many authors most of the phenomena are 
explained by the concentration of attention, — the 
concentration of thought. It is well known that 
the mind may exert a most remarkable power 
over the organism, controlling or producing the 
most lively sensations of pain, and even causing 
sickness or death; but attention or concentra- 
tion gives no real explanation. According to 
Durand de Gros, the essential feature is the sus- 
pension of all mental activity, except in some one 
direction; and, as nervous force continues to 
accumulate in the brain, there results a nervous 
congestion. The direction of this force in any one 
particular course, or to any sensorial organ, aug- 
ments the activity in an extraordinary degree. 

This influence of the attention and the concen- 
tration of thought in the phenomena of hypnotism 
may be readily accepted, especially so far as they 
concern the sensations ; but there are facts that 
are not easily explained by them. One may un- 
derstand that a hypnotized person, under the 
influence of an immediate impression, may believe 
that he sees or hears an absent person; but how 
can the fact be explained that the subject will see 
or hear him at a certain time, a week or more 
distant, when he has been so told by the hypno- 
tizer? Does the hallucination rest wholly in abey- 
ance during these days, to re-appear at a fixed 


time? Has there been a concentration of thought — 


during all this time? vl 
There are also other facts that must be taken 

into consideration. 

thought cause certain physiological phenomena, 


hypnotic state? Neither the will alone, nor sug- 


gestions from without, seem to be sufficient to ; 


How does concentration of 
such as variations in the beating of the heart, _ 
redness and congestion of the skin, the production — 
of blisters, etc., which are known to occur in the — 


- 


o 


q 
} 


| 


APRIL 2, 1886. | 


explain them. There must be some modification 
of the cerebral innervation, a receptivity and an 
aptitude very different from those in the normal 
state. 

A distinct and strong impression must be made 
upon the somnambulist in order to command his 
attention, — a nervous shock arresting the course 
of his thoughts. This cerebral shock, if it may 
be so expressed, seems to be the sine qua non of 
success : it produces a sort of cerebral modifica- 
tion, some particular unknown state, without 
which impressions can have no effect. It is of 
interest to inquire whether we do not find analo- 
gous physiological or pathological states. There 
would seem to be certain features of surgical 
shock following severe operations, and causing 
singular conditions of mental alienation, that are 
similar; and is there not also a resemblance shown 
in the condition of deep mental abstraction wit- 
nessed in some persons? The characteristic trait 
of all these different conditions is a momentary 
suspension, more or less complete, of cerebral 
activity. This suspension may present all varying 
degrees, from the profound collapse following sur- 
gical operation, to the simple mental distraction. 


THE NATURE OF SO-CALLED DOUBLE 
CONSCIOUSNESS AND TRIPLE CON- 
SCIOUSNESS. ~ 


THERE is a rather widely spread impression that 
human beings can be subjects of double conscious- 
ness, and can lead two separate lives, in each of 
which the individual has a distinct set of personal 
characteristics. Illustrations of this supposed 
psychological possibility are found in many recent 
works of fiction, notably in the ‘ Archibald Mal- 
maison’ of Julian Hawthorne, and ‘Called back’ 
of Hugh Conway. Some medico-legal interest has 
also been attached to the question in a number of 
instances. Having had one case somewhat of this 
character under observation, I have been led to 
examine the matter critically. 

There are on record in French, German, Eng- 
lish, and American medical literature only seven- 
teen cases whose history in any way entitles them 
to come under the designation of cases of double 
consciousness. Most of them were reported from 
forty to sixty years ago, and without very 
great accuracy in detail. An examination of all 
these histories, and the study of cases allied to 
them, lead one very positively to the conclusion 
that such a thing as a true double consciousness, 
or dual life, does not exist. There are several 
striking instances in which persons have lived an 
apparently double life, but in each case the second 
life represented simply a partial activity of the 


SCIHNCE. 


dll 


patient’s brain. In the second and morbid state 
a portion, viz., the higher volitional centres, have 
their activity inhibited, the mind is dull, the 
disposition apathetic, and memory of the past is 
gone. Indeed, this loss of the faculty by which 
stored-up impressions of the past are revivified is 
the main psychological feature of some cases. 

In 1845 Dr. Skae reported the case of a lawyer, 
of whom he said, ‘‘ He appears to have a double 
consciousness, a sort of twofold existence, one 
half of which he spends in the rational and intelli- 
gent discharge of his duties ; the other, in a state 
of helpless hypochondriasis, almost amounting to 
complete aberration.” His attacks occurred every 
other day. In the classical case reported by Azam, 
the patient, in one mental state, was dull, apa- 
thetic, and little better than an automaton, show- 
ing here, again, that it was a condition in which 
some of her mental faculties were suspended. A 
Kentucky farmer twenty-three years old was acci- 
dentally struck on the head with a hammer. He 
was unconscious for several hours, but recovered, 
and seemed as well as ever. He married, and 
had children, but, after eight years, began to 
show signs of insanity. He was trephined, and 
his mental faculties were completely restored ; but 
the whole eight years since the blow on his head 
was a complete blank. He did not know his wife, 
or children, or any of his later associates. This 
was not so much a case of double consciousness, 
though so reported, as of loss of memory. 

The theory that the two mental states corre- 
spond with special activity of one side or the 
other side of the brain, is not at all tenable, be- 
cause, if for no other reason, one of the cerebral 
hemispheres may be almost entirely destroyed, 
or its connecting commissure may be injured or 
absent without producing any such phenomenon 
as double consciousness, or a change in person- 
ality. Besides, there have been at least two cases 
reported in which three different mental states 
occurred. One of them was recently reported by 
J. Voisin. A young man suffering from hysteria 
major had an attack of amnesia, or loss of mem- 
ory, lasting for a year: there was entire forgetful- 
ness of his past, a change in his character and 
demeanor. This state could be artificially changed 
into a third state by hypnotizing him, after which 
he would return to his second or abnormal state. 
After being restored to his normal mind for a year, 
he had another attack of amnesia, lasting three 
months, and during this time he remembered only 
what had happened in his previous attack. 

States of double or triple consciousness are 
either disorders of memory, or instances of suspen- 
sion of the higher volitional powers, being then 
cases of hypnotism or of the epileptic automatic 


312 


state. Double consciousness or triple consciousness 
never occurs in healthy people, but only in the 
hysterical, epileptic, insane, or in those who have 
had severe shocks or injuries to the head. Dram- 
atists and writers of fiction should bear this in 
mind, if they wish to cling to the realities. 


CHARLES L. DANA, M.D. 


FOOD-ACCESSORIES: THEIR INFLUENCE 
ON DIGESTION. 


THE results of experimental inquiries on the 
subject of foods and food-digestion, when scientifi- 
cally conducted,cannot help being of great practical 
importance to man, so intimately is his physical 
perfection and intellectual activity dependent upon 
his alimentation. Among the results of certain 
experiments on this subject by Sir W. Roberts, 
as given in the Nineteenth century, the following 
will be found of interest. 

Man, as the author says, is a very complex 
feeder: he has departed, in the course of his 
civilization, very widely from the monotonous 
uniformity of diet observed in animals in the 
wild state. Not only does he differ from other 
animals in cooking his food, but he adds to his 
food a greater or less number of condiments for the 
purpose of increasing its flavor and attractiveness ; 
but, above and beyond this, the complexity of his 
food-habits is greatly increased by the custom of 
partaking, in considerable quantity, of certain 
stimulants and restoratives, such as tea, coffee, 
cocoa, and the various alcoholic beverages, which 
have become essential to his social comfort, if not 
to his physical well-being. 

But the generalized food-customs of mankind 
are not to be viewed as random practices adopted 
to please the palate or gratify our idle or vicious 
appetite. These customs must be regarded as the 
outcome of profound instincts, which correspond 
to important wants of the human economy. They 
are the fruit of colossal experience, accumulated 
through successive generations. They have the 
same weight and significance as other kindred 
facts of natural history, and are fitted to yield to 
observation and study lessons of the highest scien- 
tific and practical value. 

First, with respect to the action of ardent spirits 
on digestion, experiments were made with ‘ proof- 
spirit,’ and with brandy, Scotch whiskey, and gin ; 
and the conclusion is, that, so far as salivary di- 
gestion is concerned, these spirits, when used in 
moderation and well diluted, as they usually are 
when employed dietetically, rather promote than 
retard this part of the digestive process ; and this 
they do by causing an increased flow of saliva. 


SCIENCE. 


[Voxr. VII., No. 165 


The proportion must not, however, much exceed 
five per cent; and gin seems to be less injurious 
than either brandy or whiskey. It was noticed 
in these experiments that both of these interfered 
with the digestive process, precipitating the starch 
more readily, altogether out of proportion to the 
amount of alcohol they contained, and brandy 
was worse than whiskey ; and this circumstance 
appears to be due to certain ethers and volatile 
oils in them; and brandy contains a trace of 
tannin, which has an intensely retarding influ- 
ence on salivary digestion. Even very small 
quantities of the stronger and lighter wines — 
sherry, hock, claret, and port — exercise a power- 
ful retarding influence on salivary digestion. 
This is due to the acid — not the alcohol — they 
contain, and if this acid be neutralized, as it often 
is in practice, by mixing with the wine some 
effervescent alkaline water, the disturbing effect 
on salivary digestion is removed. 

In the case of vinegar, it was found that 1 part 
in 5,000 sensibly retarded this process, a pro- 
portion of 1 in 1,000 rendered it very slow, and of 
1 in 500 arrested it completely ; so that, when acid 
salads are taken with bread, the effect of the acid 
is to prevent any salivary digestion of the latter, 
—a matter of little moment to a person with a 
vigorous digestion, but to a feeble dyspeptic one 
of some importance. There is a very wide-spread 
belief that drinking vinegar is an efficacious 
means of avoiding getting fat; and this popular 
belief would appear, from these experimental 
observations, to be well founded. If the vinegar 
be taken at the same time as farinaceous food, 
it will greatly interfere with its digestion and 
assimilation. 

Effervescent table-waters, if they consist simply 
of pure water charged with carbonic acid, exer- 
cise a considerable retarding influence on salivary 
digestion ; but if they also contain alkaline car- 
bonates, as most of the table-waters of commerce 
do, the presence of the alkali quite removes this 
retarding effect. 

With regard to ‘peptic’ digestion, the results 
are still more surprising. It was found that with 
ten per cent and under, of proof-spirit, there was 
no appreciable retardation, and only a slight re- 


tardation with twenty per cent; but with large 
percentages it was very different, and with fifty — 
per cent the digestive ferment was almost para-_ 


lyzed. It was also observed that the weaker 


forms of alcoholic drinks (wines and beer) differed — | 
greatly in the influence on peptic digestion from ~ 


that of the distilled spirits. They retarded it alto- 
gether out of proportion to the quantity of alcohol 
they contained. Port and sherry exercised a great 


retarding effect. Even in the proportion of twenty — 


f 


) 
. 


AFRIL 2, 1886.] 


per cent, sherry trebled the time in which diges- 
tion was completed. It should further be borne 
in mind that this wine also retards greatly 
salivary digestion. Sherry, then, is injurious for 
persons of feeble digestive powers. With hock, 
claret, and champagne, it was also ascertained 
that their retarding effect on digestion was out 
of proportion to the alcohol contained in them ; 
but champagne was found to have a markedly 
less retarding effect than hock and claret, due 
apparently to the mechanical effects of its effer- 
vescent qualities. The quantity of claret and 
hock often consumed by many persons at meals 
must exercise a considerable retarding effect on 
peptic digestion ; but small quantities of these 
wines (and even of sherry) may not produce any 
appreciable retarding effect, but act as pure stim- 
ulants. 

With regard to malt liquors it was observed, as 
with wines, that they retarded peptic digestion in 
a degree altogether out of proportion to the 
amount of alcohol contained in them ; and, when 
taken in large quantities, they must greatly 
retard the digestion, especially of farinaceous 
food. 

Tea, coffee, and cocoa were found to exert vary- 
ing degrees of influence on the salivary digestion. 
The medium strength of the tea usually drunk is 
estimated at four to five per cent : strong tea may 
contain as much as seven per cent; weak tea, as 
little as two per cent. Medium coffee has a 
strength of about seven per cent, and strong coffee 
twelve to fifteen per cent; cocoa, on the other 
hand, is generally weaker, not more than about 
two per cent, and this may be one reason why it 
is more suitable to persons with feeble digestions 
than tea or coffee. Tea exercises a powerful 
inhibitory effect on salivary digestion, and this 
appears to be entirely due to the large quantity of 
tannin it contains; and, in order to diminish as 
far as possible its retarding influence on salivary 
digestion, it should be made weak and used 
sparingly, and it should not be taken with, but 
after, the meal. Coffee, unless taken in very large 
quantity, has very little retarding effect on sali- 
vary digestion: this is explained by the fact that 
the tannin of tea is replaced in coffee by a sub- 
stance called caffeo-tannic acid. Cocoa resembles 
coffee, and has little or no effect on salivary di- 
gestion: the use of coffee or cocoa is therefore 
preferable to that of tea, for persons of feeble 
digestion. 

With respect to the influence of tea and coffee 
on stomach digestion, it was found that they 
both exercised a remarkable retarding effect. 
There was no appreciable difference in the two 
beverages if they were of equal strength ; but, as 


SCIENCE. 


313 


coffee is usually made of greater percentage 
strength than tea, its effect must ordinarily be 
greater. Cocoa also had much the same effect if 
used of the same strength as tea or coffee; but 
when of the strength ordinarily employed, its 
effect was inconsiderable. Strong coffee — café 
noir —had a very powerful retarding effect, and 
persons of weak digestion should avoid the cus- 
tomary cup of ‘ black coffee’ after dinner. 

Perhaps one of the most unexpected results of 
these experiments was the discovery that beef-tea 
had a powerful retarding effect on peptic diges- 
tion, as much so as that of a five-per-cent infusion 
of tea. Further researches appear to show that 
this retarding effect of beef-tea was due to the 
salts of the organic acids contained in it. Beef- 
tea contains but very little nutritive properties, 
and must therefore be looked upon rather as a 
stimulant and restorative than as a nutrient bever- 
age, but it is nevertheless very valuable on ac- 
count of those properties. 

The author holds the view, that, in healthy and 
strong persons, the retarding effect on digestion, 
observed to be produced by many of the most 
commonly consumed food-accessories, answers a 
distinctly useful end. They serve, he maintains, 
the purpose of wholesomely slowing the other- 
wise too rapid digestion and absorption of copious 
meals. A too rapid digestion and absorption of 
food may be compared to feeding a fire with straw 
instead of slower-burning coal. In the former 
case it would be necessary to feed often and little, 
and the process would be wasteful of the fuel; for 
the short-lived blaze would carry most of the heat 
up the chimney. To burn fuel economically, and 
to utilize the heat to the utmost, the fire must be 
damped down, so as to insure slow as well as com- 
plete combustion. So with human digestion: our 
highly prepared and highly cooked food requires, 
in the healthy and vigorous, that the digestive 
fires should be damped down, in order to insure 
the economical use of food. We render food by 
preparation as capable as possible of being com- 
pletely exhausted of its nutrient properties ; and, 
on the other hand, to prevent this nutrient matter 
from being wastefully hurried through the body, 
we make use of agents which abate the speed of 
digestion. 

These remarks will apply, however, only to those 
who possess a healthy and active digestion. To 
the feeble and dyspetic any food-accessory which 
adds to the labor and prolongs the time of diges- 
tion must be prejudicial; and it is a matter of 
common experience that beverages which in 
quantity retard digestion have to be avoided alto- 
gether by such persons, or partaken of very 
sparingly. 


314 


DEATH-RATE AND SANITATION IN 
RUSSIA. 


A SERIES of admirable articles on vital statistics 
and the importance of sanitary measures is now 
appearing in one of the St. Petersburg daily papers, 
says the Lancet, founded on a paper by Dr. Eck. 
The statistics given are certainly of a nature to set 
every one in Russia thinking seriously about tak- 
ing measures to improve them. Thus for the 
year 1882, which seems to be the last year whose 
vital statistics are available, the mortality in the 
ten southern provinces was 2.6 per cent; in the 
seven eastern provinces, 3.9 per cent; in the 
thirteen middle provinces, 6.2 per cent ; in the six- 
teen western provinces, 3.1 per cent; and in the 
fourteen northern provinces, 3.7 per cent. After 
mentioning the various sanitary improvements 
called for, as drainage of various kinds, a supply of 
wholesome drinking-water, attention to and regula- 
tions about buildings of all descriptions, and the es- 
tablishment of infectious hospitals, Dr. Eck goes on 
to say : ‘‘ There is no need for us to puzzle our- 
selves how these matters are to be done ; England 
has accomplished so much, that we need simply 
adapt what is ready to our hands to our own cir- 
cumstances. In Germany, France, Austria, and 
Italy, steps are already being taken in the same 
direction, and all these countries take England as 
their chief model, so that we need not be ashamed 
to do so too.” He then appeals to the economic im- 
portance to Russia of a reduction of the mortality. 

On the principle of example being better than 
precept, he goes into a long but easily compre- 
hensible calculation of the comparative working- 
value of horses whose ages at death vary ; and he 
then takes the respective death-rates of Russia 
(35), Germany (27), and England (19), and, by 
means of a method of computation unusual 
amongst British statisticians, explains that they 
show that an Englishman has 58 years of life, 
while a German has 37, and a Russian 29 only. 
Reckoning a man’s working-years to commence at 
the age of 18,an Englishman has 35 years in 
which to earn, against the Russian’s 11; and the 
latter will probably not save much more in his 11 
working-years, above what it costs him to live, 
than has been already expended upon him during 
his 18 unproductive years; but an Englishman 
will have 24 years more in which to go on earn- 
ing and saving. Again, out of 1,000 inhabitants 
in Russia, only 373, or 37 per cent, are of an age 
to earn, while in England there are 660, or 66 per 
cent ; or each individual of working-age in Russia 
has to provide for two non-workers, while in Eng- 
land he has only half a non-worker for whom to 
be responsible. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 165 


MUIR’S THERMAL CHEMISTRY. 


THE recognition of the dual character of the 
phenomena involved in chemical operations is no 
new thing; but it is only of late that the attempt 
has been made to determine the relationship be- 
tween transformations of matter and concurrent 
changes of energy, and the efforts to this end 
have been made almost wholly in the direction of 
thermal phenomena, — in the investigation of the 
quantities of heat which enter or leave a chemi- 
cal system during the transition between ac- 
curately defined initial and final states, in a so- 
called chemical change. ; 

Mr. Muir’s presentation of the condition and 
aims of the thermal chemistry of to-day is oppor- 
tune. Based as a matter of necessity upon the 
researches of Thomsen and Berthelot, it fairly 
bristles with references to the works of these 
masters, and, indeed, to all original papers of im- 
portance in the discussion of the subject. Follow- 
ing an outline sketch of the theory of energy and 
the molecular hypothesis, the author discusses 
successively the methods of thermal experimen- 
tation and their application to the phenomena 
of allotropy ; isomerism; the neutralization of 
acids by bases, and bases by acids; the relative 
avidity (as Thomsen terms it) of acids ; the classifi- 
cation of elements and compounds in accordance 
with thermo-chemical properties ; the phenomena 
of melting, boiling, evaporation, dissociation, solu- 
tion, and hydration; and, finally, the chemical 
interpretation of thermal data. Only such facts 
as are immediately of use for purposes of illustra- 
tion appear in the body of the book ; but all well- 
established data of the subject (excepting such as 
relate to boiling and melting points and specific 
heats, for which reference elsewhere is made) are 
to be found in the five appendices, which comprise 
a third of the matter between the covers of the 
volume. 

The work is for the most part independent in 
opinion, and, with no pretence to exhaustiveness, 
sufficiently full for the purposes of the general 
reader, and quite intelligible to one acquainted 
with the elements of general chemistry and mod- 
ern ideas of energy. Facts are presented fear- 
lessly and as separate as may be from the con- 
straint of theory, and the explanation is fitted to 
the facts. a 

The stumbling-block in the way of the interpre- 
tation of thermal values is the difficulty, often the 
impossibility, of determining what portion of a 
thermal change is of chemical origin, and what is 
physical ; and it is not surprising to find the use 

The elements of thermal chemistry. By M. M. Parti- 


son Muir, assisted by David Muir Wilson. London, Mac- 
millan, 1885, 8°, 


Apri 2, 1886.] 


of thermal relations in the matter of classification 
regarded as only supplementary, and even the 
‘law of maximum work’ degraded to a mild 
assertion of the general probability of the occur- 
rence, under physical conditions as nearly con- 
stant as possible, of that one of conceivable 
operations which shall evolve the greatest quantity 
of heat. Fortunately in the measure of relative 
affinities the effect of physical disturbance is at a 
minimum ; and it is on this line that the author 
predicts, and rightly, as it seems, the surest 
advance. Mr. Muir has laid his audience under 


obligations ; and, in view of the excellence of the: 


work, some few depreciatory (perhaps quixotic) 
references to the baleful influences of structural 
chemistry and the bond theory wil! doubtless be 
passed over lightly. 


NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL EXPERI 
MENT-STATION. 


TBE fourth report of the New York experiment- 
station contains the results of a vast amount of 
work upon various branches of agricultural in- 
quiry; and, if the first impression which it 
makes is of a certain vagueness and lack of defi- 
niteness in its conclusions, a further study shows 
that much of this effect is due to the magnitude 
of the problems attacked, and the consequent in- 
complete character of the work at present. 

As in former years, the work of the station has 
been largely botanical and horticultural in its na- 
ture, although other subjects have also received 
considerable attention, particularly stock-feeding 
and related subjects. 

The work of the chemist upon the relative 
volume of the fat-globules in milk from different 
sources, and upon the structure of these globules, 
is full of interesting and suggestive results. By 
means of an ingenious method of his own 
devising, he has been able to determine micro- 
scopically the number of fat-globules in a given 
bulk of milk, and, by combination with the re- 
sults of chemical analysis, their average volume. 
By this method he has shown, that, when milk is 
churned at a temperature above the melting-point 
of butter-fat, the number of fat-globules is in- 
creased : in other words, the fat-globules can be 
divided. He has thus, it would seem, disposed 
finally of the theory of a membrane surrounding 
the fat-globules, and completed the proof that 
milk is an emulsion, and behaves essentially like 
any other emulsion. 

Fourth annual report of the Board of control of the 
New York agricultural experiment-station, for the year 


1885 ; with the reports of the director and officers. Roch- 
ester, N.Y., H. R. Andrews, pr., 1886. 8°. 


SCIENCE. 


315 


But it is on the botanical and horticultural 
sides, as already intimated, that we find the great- 
est amount of work expended, and the most com- 
prehensive plan of operations. There are, among 
other things, a botanical description and provis- 
ional classification of forty-three varieties of 
wheat, and a description of the leading varieties of 
lettuce (eighty-seven in number, according to the 
station’s classification, and gleaned from at least 
two hundred differently named lettuces by the 
labor of three seasons). There is also a descrip- 
tion of the products of a hundred and forty-eight 
varieties of maize, planted under such conditions 
as to insure extensive cross-fertilization, and tend- 
ing to show that the variations thus produced can 
be referred to named varieties. All this, it will 
be observed, is in the line of agricultural botany ; 
and the report contains the records of a large 
amount of other work, with many species of 
plants which may sooner or later be available in 
the same direction. 

We shall watch with interest this attempt to 
reduce to system the present chaos in the nomen- 
clature of agricultural varieties. The director of 
the New York station is confident that these 
varieties are much more persistent than is usually 
supposed ; and, in the interest of both science and 
practice, it is to be hoped that his confidence will 
be justified by the outcome of his own and his 
assistant’s labor. 

The report of the botanist deals largely with 
plant-diseases, the most interesting portion being 
the demonstration that pear-blight is due to the 
activity of a bacterium. 

The student of agricultural science may be in- 
clined to regret the time which has been spent 
upon numerous side-issues and single experiments 
of no scientific value, and to wish that the large 
resources of the station had been expended in 
more extended and thorough scientific work upon 
a few problems; but he will not forget that a 
public experiment-station is not a purely scientific 
institution, but has duties to the man of practice 
as well, which are often best subserved by experi- 
ments, in which the purely scientific man can see 
no value. We have before now taken occasion to 
express freely our belief in the greater ultimate 
value of scientific investigation ; but we desire to 
record also our appreciation of the value of care- 
fully performed and _ conscientiously reported 
‘practical’ or ‘empirical’ experiments, such as 
are to be found in this report. The New York 
station appears to us to be doing excellent work 
in both directions, and it is to be hoped that the 
liberality of the state in providing means for its 
prosecution will serve as an incentive to other 
commonwealths. 


316 


MINOR BOOK NOTICES. 


Climatology and mineral waters of the United States. By 

A. N. BELL. New York, Wood, 1885. 8°. 

THIS is a work intended especially to present 
ascertained facts so as to render them available 
for the promotion of health. In addition to a full 
and readable discussion of the different meteoro- 
logical agencies and factors, the author deals with 
the climatological topography of the different 
regions of the United States, with weather re- 
views, and descriptions of the different medicinal 
waters. To the invalid the work will have its 
greatest, and we believe a real, value; but to all 
who are interested in the influences of climate 
upon health, or even in general meteorology, it 
will be found very useful. The author arrives at 
the conclusion that no country in the world pos- 
sesses a greater variety of climate or climates 
with a higher degree of salubrity than the United 
States. 


Statics and dynamics for engineering students. 
P. CourcH. New York, Wiley, 1886. 8°. 


By IRVING 


Tus book, so far as one can judge from the con- 
tents, since there is no preface, is intended for use 
as an elementary text-book in theoretical mechan- 
ics by students who are to get elsewhere a good 
deal of practice in solving problems, and some 
additional instruction. The text is, on the whole, 
very clearly written, the diagrams are excellent, 
and the illustrative examples cannot fail to in- 
terest the reader as well as to instruct him. The 
use of the phrase ‘ square second’ instead of ‘ per 
second per second,’ in such expressions as ‘‘ an ac- 
celeration equal to 82.2 feet per square second,” 
will probably be new to most engineers. The few 
typographical errors which we have noticed in 
text and formulas are not misleading, although the 
insertion of the few words which have evidently 
fallen out of the last paragraph on p. 18 might 
help a beginner. 

Drainage for health ; or, Easy lessons in sanitary science. 
By JosepH WiLson. Philadelpbia, Blakiston, 1886. 8°. 

THIS is a revised edition of a work on drainage, 
house-plumbing, etc. Itis written in quaint, laconic 
style, and impresses the reader with having been 
prepared by one of pronounced opinions. In 
some parts it is excessive, and as a literary model 
can hardly be recommended ; nevertheless it con- 
tains some very good advice and instructions. 

De la désinfection des wagons ayant servi au transport des 
animaux. By Dr. PAuL ReparpD. Paris, Doin, 1885. 8°. 

THis is a work that should be of service in 
America, where the questions of cattle transporta- 
tion have frequently been of no little importance. 
The work treats of the danger of transportation 
of diseased cattle in railroad-cars, with evidence 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 165 


of the diffusion of epizodtic diseases from such. 

It gives also the principal European laws regulat- 

ing the disinfection of cattle-cars with the com- 

parative values of the different means employed. 

The author concludes that the various chemical 

agents, such as phenic acid, chloride and _ sul- 

phate of zinc, sulphur, ete., are inefficacious. 

The results obtained by superheated steam (230° 

F.) were constant and successful. He describes 

methods by which disinfection may thus be ac- 

complished with speed and certainty. 

Mechanical integrators, including the various forms of 
planimeters. By Prof. H. S. BH. SHaw. New York, 
Van Nostrand, 1886. 24°. 

In this convenient little book we have a sys- 
tematic presentation of the principles on which 
mechanical integrators and the various forms of 
planimeters are based. The divisions of the book 
are as follows; planimeters in which slipping of 
the measuring roller takes place; planimeters 
in which only pure rolling motion is assumed 
to take place ; moment planimeters ; continuous 
integrators ; limits of accuracy of integrators, 
both theoretical and experimental. Many forms 
of these instruments are described, and a host of 
inventors named from all countries. Among them 
Professor Amsler still holds the first place for 
the variety of his inventions, and their adapta- 
bility to a wide range of calculations, —to finding 
areas, average pressure on indicator diagrams, 
centre of gravity, contents of embankments, etc. 
From his works at Schaffhausen, more than 
twelve thousand polar planimeters have been sent 
out. This paper was originally presented before 
the Institution of civil engineers, and the report 
of the discussion that followed it contains many 
interesting practical points with reference to the 
use of these instruments. As the importance of 
such mechanical aids in calculation is becoming 
more and more felt, a book like this is useful and 
welcome, 


It is not often that a well-known scientific 
man has the melancholy pleasure of reading 
obituary notices of himself, as appears to have 
been the case with Dr. J. Jacob v. Tschudi, the 
South American explorer. Natur now corrects 
the error by stating that it was his brother, 
Friedrich von Tschudi, who died at St.° Gall, 
Switzerland, on Jan. 24 last. Friedrich, though 
less known to American readers, did much good 
work in natural history of a popular or general 
character, the most important of which was his 
‘ Thierleben der Alpenwelt.’ He was nearly sixty- 
four years of age. J.J. v. Tschudi, though four 
years his senior, is still actively engaged in re- 
search, as the frequent papers from his pen attest. 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 18s6. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THE RISE AND FALL of the waters in the north- 
western lakes, and the consequent dangers to the 
lake cities, have frequently been a sensational sub- 
ject for discussion. The great tidal waves, like 
the one which rolled in on Cleveland a few years 
since, and the piling-up or lowering of the waters 
by continued gales, are, of course. real dangers on 
account of the suddenness of their occurrence, 
though, happily, they are rare and temporary 
events. But alarmists are continually announ- 
cing the discovery that the gradual or secular 
changes in the lake-levels are sure to bring dis- 
astrous results. According as the waters are 
rising or falling, we hear of grave fears that some 
lake-post is likely to be inundated, or left high and 
dry inland. Recent reports in the daily press in- 
dicate that Lake Michigan is as:uming a threaten- 
ing attitude towards Chicago and its suburbs. 
The lake is now rising, the reports state, at the 
rate of several inches per year; and one needs 
only to imagine this rise prolonged at the ob- 
served rate for a few years to get an idea of star- 
tling possibilities for the Garden city. But the 
records of the fluctuations in water-level of the 
Great Lakes, which have been carefully kept for 
many years by the corps of engineers, U.S.A., do 
not warrant us in prolonging any observable rise 
or fall indefinitely. On the contrary, these records 
indicate that the variations in the lake-levels, 
above or below the mean stage, are confined to 
a very few feet, — about three feet at the most. 
The variations are greatest in Lake Ontario, less 
in Lake Erie, still less in Lakes Huron and Michi- 
gan, which form a single level surface, and least 
of all in Lake Superior. With reference to Lake 
Michigan in particular, a glance at the water-level 
curves published in the report of the chief of engi- 
neers, U.S.A., 1882 (the curves do not appear to 
be published in the later reports), shows that the 
average yearly variation in level of that lake is 
about one foot, that the maximum variation dur- 
ing any one year included in the period (1859-82) 
covered by the published record was two feet and 
a half, and that the extreme fluctuation during 

No. 166. — 1386. 


the same period from the highest stage (in 1859 or 
1876) to the lowest stage (in 1869 or 1873) was three 
feet and seven-tenths. The highest recorded stage 
of Lake Michigan, viz., that of 1838, was only one 
foot higher than the stage of 1859 or 1876. It 
seems tolerably safe, therefore, to conclude that 
the prospective dangers to Chicago or any of the 
lake cities from too much or too little water in the 
lakes are all such as may be overcome by acts of 
congress in the shape of timely items in the river 
and harbor bill. 


THE OUTLINE- MAP of the United States in four 
sections, prepared by Dr. A. B. Hart of Harvard, 
and lately issued by D. C. Heath & Co., may be 
a means of leading the numerous teachers of his- 
tory throughout the country to adopt more scien- 
tific methods of instruction. On this account 
alone, and wholly apart from its intrinsic excel- 
lence, it deserves recognition and notice. The 
map is in four sections, each thirty-one by forty- 
four inches, the United States being divided at the 
dith parallel and at the 95th meridian. Being in 
outline, and showing the principal water-courses, 
a skilful teacher can, without any great ability as 
a draughtsman, color the map so as to present in 
graphic form geological facts or the course of 
political and social development. Changes of popu- 
lation, the local strength of political parties, the 
distribution of railways, schools, or industrial 
establishments, topographical features, — in short, 
any thing which admits of statistical and graphic 
presentation, — can be shown with a minimum of 
expense and labor. The map is so cheap that a 
teacher can easily procure a number of them ; 
and, when once colored to illustrate any particular 
subject, they can be rolled up, and used again at 
any future time. 

We would suggest that the principle here ap- 
plied by Dr. Hart to United States geography and 
history will bear extension. The map should be 
reproduced on a smaller scale for the use of 
pupils; for, by copying the display-map on an 
outline of his own, the facts will be more deeply 
impressed upon the student’s mind, and he will 
always have a graphic summary of them for 
reference. We shall soon hope to see outline- 


318 


maps of Europe on the same plan. Nothing 
could throw more light upon the mazes of medi- 
aeval and modern French, and particularly German 
history, than such a method of illustration as is 
here offered. Where the pupil now possesses an 
unmanageable congeries of facts, names, and dates, 
he could then carry away with him a vivid pic- 
ture of the intricacies caused by the constant series 
of wars and dynastic contests. These maps are 
virtually the object-method applied to history, 
social science, geology, ethnography, and their 
related sciences. They are in every way com- 
mendable, and no teacher of those subjects should 
fail to apply the method which they suggest. 


ALTHOUGH SENATOR ALLISON’S commission 
which is investigating the surveys reported the 
evidence taken some weeks since, no conclusions 
have yet been made public. Nothing officially 
authenticated can therefore be said as to what 
legislation the commission will finally recommend. 
But those who have most closely followed the 
proceedings, and watched the effect of the evi- 
dence upon the minds of the members, feel entire 
confidence that no very radical measures will be 
proposed, and especially that the integrity of the 
coast survey will not bethreatened. It is scarcely 
believed that the commission will even recom- 
mend its transfer to the interior, or any other 
department than that under which it is now 
placed. The impression that no change will be 
made has become so wide-spread, that candidates 
for the position of superintendent are again com- 
ing forward. The friends of Gen. W. F. Smith 
are said to be the strongest, but it is not well to 
predicate any thing upon newspaper reports of the 
prominence of Smith, Rosecrans, or any other 
candidate. It is safe to say that the President is 
fully conscious of the importance of the position, 
and of the small value to be attached to recom- 
mendations secured by the candidates themselves. 
We believe that he will make the best selection he 
can from the names presented to him, disregard- 
ing their influence, and that the standing of the 
candidates as scientific experts will not be dis- 
regarded in the choice. 


ELECTRIC RAILWAYS. 

AMERICA seems to lag very much behind Europe 
in the matter of electric railways. Indeed, our 
lighting systems seem to have absorbed all our 
energies ; and perhaps the most appropriate and 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 166 


lucrative use of dynamic electricity, its applica- 
tion to locomotion, has been overlooked, or been 
treated in so superficial a manner as not to have 
resulted in commercial success. 

Every American supposes himself capable of 
intuitively doing his own engineering, regardless 
of the fact that he may have neither experience 
in any of its various departments nor education 
in the fundamental facts and methods of com- 


putation of technological application of scientific — 


truths. Inventors with good ideas regarding 
electrical work gravely spin for us complete sys- 
tems for electrical railways, drawing only on their 
intuitions for every thing save the dynamos and 
motors. 
problems of organization and system still remain 
unsolved upon the steam-railroads? Do they 
realize that they are not engineers, but only elec- 
tricians, with a vast deal yet to learn in their 
own field? They do not: they are in possession 
of one good idea, and they recklessly proceed to 
surround their invention with all sorts of en- 
gineering crudities, thus rendering their chances 
of success almost nothing. 

Germany has been more fortunate in having its 
first electric railway undertaken by Siemens & 
Halske. This firm brought to bear upon the prob- 
lem the profound researches and the engineering 
education of its staff, and, acting in the cautious 
and thorough manner resulting from its wide 
experience in many fields of engineering, has 
been successful. In the exhibition of Berlin, 
1879, they established a circular railway of 350 
metres length, one metre gauge, and, placing a 
three-horse power motor in a car capable of 
carrying thirty people, transported passengers at a 
rate of fifteen to twenty miles per hour. The 
current was taken along one rail, and by an 
insulated tire was conveyed to the positive pole 
of the motor, and thence to the other rail, by 
which it returned to the generating-dynamo. No 
special care was taken to insulate the rails, which 
were placed high above the ground on wooden ties. 
The current was of low electromotive force, and 
therefore did not require special means for insu- 
lation. This road was exhibited in Diisseldorf 
and Brussels, and finally in London in 1881. 

The success of this experimental plant was 
uniformly so great as to make Messrs. Siemens & 
Halske desirous of building an elevated electric 
railway in Berlin, for which the plans and esti- 
mates were made with great care, but unfortu- 
nately this enterprise was not carried out, because 
the Emperor William would not permit ‘ The 
Linden’ to be marred by being crossed at one 
point, and because the citizens objected to having 
people looking into their second-story windows. 


Do they realize that a vast number of 


i ee 


APRIL 9, 1886.] 


The carefully made estimates of this road may 
be of interest as showing the minimum of cost of 
good work, upon the authority of engineers thor- 
oughly conversant with their profession. 


ELEVATED RAILWAY IN BERLIN, ONE METRE GAUGE, 614 MILES 
LONG, WITH SEPARATE MOTOR FOR EACH CAR. 


Railway structure and 10 stations................... $395,000 


10 carriages, seating 15 persons each................. 15,750 

Steam-engine, boilers and dynamos....-.............. 9,750 

EE Re wear on as Sache sav «sienna ees ov carancun 5,925 

SARIDT - action etioricte See eee ae 22,500 

ONE BHO OR cae. ant ce ccesyeciclsshis Sa cee ee awh aie ceees 3,575 
$362,500 

Current expenses. 

VW POS PB ie Soc en OE OB OOTOE TEC EOE EOE ORE erre $10,950 

AE eee orci ole eo fais issn o> vieja wivie.cis a: sis vines 6.0.0 5,550 

OIL BAG SDS S66 IASC ORIG EES ee eee 250 

Brie EN Peer cisete plas cso sane cic c's a alc 'sisieecie chisel 400 $17,150 

Depreciation and repairs: — 

Sy Gun Se sO) a re aS eee $9,375 

UPC Sas ee 4,000 13,375 

Interest on capital ($377,500) @ 5¢......2..eeeeeee. vee 18,875 
$49,400 


It was propcsed to run two hundred trips each 

day at a fare of two cents per mile, and would 
. have proved a paying investment had it obtained 
the equivalent of six passengers for a whole trip 
for each car. 

Failing in this, Messrs. Siemens & Halske ob- 
tained a charter. for a surface electric railway 
from the Berlin military academy to Lichterfelde, 
a distance of a mile and a half, which was opened 
in May, 1881. This road was constructed upon 
the ground after the manner of ordinary roads, 
save that a bowed fish-plate connected the rails 
so as to permit contraction and expansion. Again, 
only two rails were used,— one conveying the 
current out from the dynamo, and the other 
returning the current to the dynamo. Very 
little resistance was found, owing to the large 
cross-section of the rails used as conductors, and 
consequently low potentials were found prac- 
ticable. Very great success has attended the 
running of this road, and it has been extended to 
Tetlow and Potsdam, making, in all, some eight 
miles of road in successful operation upon or- 
dinary roadbed with wooden ties and steel rails. 
Insulated wheel-tires are used to take off the 
current. 

At Paris the law required flat tram-car rails, 
not projecting above the street-level; and the 
presence of dirt would have interfered with the 
passage of the electric current from the rails 
to the wheels: so overhead copper conductors, 
and trolleys running along the conductors, and 
_connected to the car by flexible wires, were 
used. In the mines at Zankerode, Prussia, Messrs. 
Siemens used two overhead rails for conductors, 


SCIENCE. 


319 


as the condition of the track prevented its use. 
A separate motor, weighing a ton and a half, 
drew loads of eight tons at a rate of seven or 
eight miles per hour. In other cases, Messrs. 
Siemens & Halske have found it advisable to use 
a third rail, or separate copper conductor connect- 
ed with the positive pole of the generating-dyna- 
mo, and have connected the negative pole with 
one or both rails of the roadbed. The Portrush 
and Bush mills electric railway, six miles long, 
has used a third rail so placed as to be free from 
dirt, and has been in successful operation for 
several years. Besides the Portrush railway, 
there are now in successful operation electric rail- 
ways at Brighton and Blackpool. Dupuy, at 
Lisieux, France, has arranged a locomotive for 
use in the bleaching-fields of a bleaching-works. 
The power is carried in Faure accumulators on 
the locomotive. Recently we have the experi- 
ments upon the Reckenzaun secondary battery 
tram-car at the Antwerp exhibition, which proved 
itself the superior, in many ways, of the steam 
and compressed-air motors entered in compe- 
tition with it. When we compare the indicated 
power of the engine charging the secondary bat- 
teries with the power developed in moving the 
car, we find an efficiency of from thirty to forty 
per cent in this case. It is impossible to doubt 
the ultimate success of electric railways when 
built with sufficient knowledge and engineer- 
ing skill to assure their adaptation to the pur- 
poses which they must subserve. The success- 
ful outcome of the work of Siemens & Halske 
prove this beyond a doubt. The possibility of 
attaching a motor to each car enables us, with 
very little loss of space, to have each car 
independent of any separate locomotive, and to 
utilize the adhesion of all the wheels, and load. 
The counter electromotive force of a dynamo 
used as a motor, being proportional to its speed, 
renders it to a certain extent automatic; so that, 
being at rest, the current passing is the most 
intense, the torsion is a maximum, and the car 
starts with a great pull. If the car slows on an 
up grade, the pull at once increases, and, if it 
goes faster on a down grade, the counter electro- 
motive force increases, the intensity of the cur- 
rent diminishes, and the demand for power upon 
the generating-dynamo and engine is reduced. 
The application of power to each car avoids the 
necessity of an extremely heavy locomotive, and 
allows of a great diminution of the weight and 
strength of bridges and viaducts. 

A large number of electric railways have been 
projected in this country, and some tried witha 
moderate degree of success, as at Toronto, New 
Orleans, Baltimore, and other places. The ex- 


320 


periment which has of late attracted the most 
attention has been the substitution of electricity 
for steam on the New York elevated railways. 
That this experiment has not succeeded as well as 
could be wished is not due to any inapplicability 
of electricity to the purposes of locomotion. All 
that has been attempted in New York has been 
successfully carried out in Germany, and a more 
careful copying of the details and methods of 
Messrs. Siemens & MHalske would have _ pro- 
duced success. The enormous traffic on these 
roads taxes to the utmost the carrying-capacity 
of the steam-plant, which is the result of half 
a century of study and modification of machinery 
of locomotives and cars. The substitution of 
electric motors for steam-locomotives will be a 
gradual process, and will progress just in pro- 
portion to the engineering skill brought to bear 
upon the problem. W. D. MARKS. 


CARTWRIGHT LECTURES 
PHYSIOLOGY. 


WHILE physiological science has made rapid 
advances in recent years, there are still many 
problems which it has as yet failed to solve, not- 
withstanding the fact that many patient and 
skilled investigators have devoted their entire 
time and energy to their solution. Among these 
problems, none is of greater interest and impor- 
tance than the life-history of the blood, and to its 
elucidation the best minds in Europe and in 
this country have been directed. Prof. William 
Osler, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, 
was invited to deliver the fifth course of the Cart- 
wright lectures of the Alumni association of the 
College of physicians and surgeons of New York, 
and selected as his subject, ‘Certain problems in 
the physiology of the blood.’ The course of these 
lectures began the evening of March 23, at the 
hallof the Young men’s Christian association. 

The first lecture dealt with the blood-plaque, 
which is also known as the elementary corpuscle 
of Zimmerman, the haematoblast of Hayem, the 
third corpuscle and blood-plate of Bizzozero. In 
blood withdrawn from the vessels, in addition to 
the red and white corpuscles, are seen grayish 
granular masses, being from ten to fifteen times 
the size of a red corpuscle. These are known as 
Schultze’s granule masses. They are made up 
of small bodies, which are of uniform size, and, 
seen in face, have a disk shape, and in profile ap- 
pear as rods. These bodies are the blood-plaques. 
Their diameter is from 1.5 micro-millimetres to 3.5 
micro-millimetres. They are always found in mam- 
malian blood, though their number is subject to 
considerable variation, in health averaging one 


ON 


SCIENCE. 


|Vou. VII, No. 166 


to twenty red corpuscles. The estimates of their 
number, made with the haemacytometer, give 
about two hundred and fifty thousand of them to 
each cubic millimetre of adult blood. In the 
new-born this may be doubled, as also in con- 
sumption. In fact, in all wasting diseases their 
number is much increased, as not only in con- 
sumption, but also in cancer and in anaemia ; and 
they appear sometimes to occupy nearly the whole 
field of the microscope. During acute fevers they 
are much diminished in number, and again in- 
crease during convalescence. 

When the blood is withdrawn from the blood- 
vessels, these plaques have a tendency to conglu- 
tinate, forming the granule masses of Schultze ; 
and so rapidly does this occur, that it would ap- 
pear to be the condition in which they exist while 
within the vessels. This is, however, not the case, 
but is a property which they possess analogous 
to the nummulation of the red corpuscles. That 
this state of conglutination is not the natural one 
may be shown by examining the blood while 
circulating in a living animal, as in the omentum 
of a guinea-pig or rabbit, or in the subcutaneous 
tissues of a new-born rat, which is admirably 
adapted to the purpose. Or, if a drop of a solu- 
tion of osmic acid (one per cent) or Pacim’s fluid 
be placed upon the tip of the finger, and then the 
finger pricked, so that a drop of biood will flow 
directly into this solution, and then the whole 
transferred to a microscope-slide and examined, it 
will be found that the plaques are isolated, and 
the tendency to coherence has been overcome. 

There are some investigators who hold to the 
opinion that these blood-plaques are disintegrated 
white corpuscles, but the objections to this ex- 
planation are numerous and incontrovertible. It 
may therefore be considered as established that 
the blood-plaque isa separate entity, and distinct 
from the mature red and white corpuscle. 

The history of these corpuscles may be divided 
into three periods. In the first, prior to 1877-78, 
a number of investigators were at work upon it, 
among them Donné, Zimmerman, and Erb. In 
1874 Osler pointed out that the granule masses of 
Schultze only formed after the blood was with- 
drawn from the blood-vessels. In the second 
period, 1877-78, Hayem demonstrated the exist- 
ence of this third corpuscle, and called it haenzato- 
blast. In 1882 additional researches were made 
by Bizzozero, who described it as a blood-plate. 
In the third period, from 1882 to the present time, 
a number of investigators have been at work, and 
there have appeared some twenty different articles 
upon the subject. Kemp has been investigating 
the question at the Johns Hopkins university, and 
his paper will contain a full bibliography. 


———— 


ApriL 9, 1886. ] 


The second lecture in the course was delivered 
March 27, and treated of the degeneration and the 
regeneration of the corpuscles. 

In our study of the blood, we find that there 
are factors constantly at work to maintain its his- 
tological uniformity, but as to these processes our 
knowledge is still very imperfect. In some con- 
ditions, as during fever, anaemia, and after hemor- 
rhages, the number of the red corpuscles is very 
much diminished. In profound anaemia there will 
be found in the blood the normal red corpuscle, 
certain small corpuscles to which the name micro- 
cytes has been given, and larger ones, known as 
megalocytes. In addition to these, are very irreg- 
ular forms known as poikilocytes. In atrophy of 
the stomach the condition of microcytosis, in 
which the microcytes abound, is very marked. 
The interesting question concerning these forms 
is, Are they young cells on their way to the forma- 
tion of the red corpuscle, or are they degenerated 
red corpuscles on their way to disintegration ? 
Hayem considers that first in order come the blcod- 
plaques, and then the microcytes: Osler, on the 


- other hand, believes them to be degenerated 


corpuscles, fragments of the old ones. In anaemia, 
where the irregular shape of the corpuscles is 
marked, or the condition of poikilocytosis, as it is 
termed, this may go on to such a degree as to lead 
to the separation’of small particles ; and this sug- 
gests a possible origin of the microcytes. They 
may also be formed from the red corpuscles by 
fission and budding, as may be seen in the red 
marrow of the bone. 

The megalocyte may be studied in anaemia in- 
duced by hemorrhage. It has a diameter twice 
that of the red corpuscle, fourteen millimetres : 
it is not usually circular nor biconcave, but 
fiattened and irregular. In these cases of induced 
anaemia by hemorrhage, the white corpuscles are 
increased in number, both relatively and absolute- 
ly; and, as we have already learned, the blood- 
plaques are increased. In severe anaemia or 
leukaemia we may find nucleated red blood 
corpuscles, which are normally formed during 
foetal life, in the new-born, and up to the age of 
four or five years. One of these may be seen in 
every three or four fields. These corpuscles in 
various stages of development may be studied in 
the red marrow of the bone, as the vertebrae and 
the ribs of the child and embryo. Here we find 
a small solid cell or nucleus; next, this with a 
layer of translucent protoplasm ; next the proto- 
plasm becomes colored, and we have a nucleated 
red corpuscle. The nucleus gradually disappears 
and disintegrates, giving us the non-nucleated 
red corpuscle. Rindfleisch thinks the nucleus 
emigrates from the corpuscle, but Osler thinks 


SCIENCE. 


o2l 


this is a post-mortem change when it occurs. 
Some authorities regard these extended :nuclei as 
the blood-plaques. Bizzozero describes a process 
of fission in the red corpuscle by which it becomes 
two cells, and thus explainsthe formation of new 
corpuscles, those that undergo fission being direct 
descendants from the embryonic red corpuscles. 
Hayem regards the blood-plaques as becoming the 
red corpuscles. In cells which are to be seen in 
lymph-glands, in the spleen and the bone-mar- 
row, are oftentimes to be found red corpuscles, 
which some regard as on their way to degenera- 
tion: others look upon them as being new cells. 
In this intracellular production of the red cor- 
puscles, Osler is a believer. 

The third and last lecture of Professor Osler, in 
the Cartwright course before the Alumni associa- 
tion of the College of physicians and surgeons, 
was delivered on March 30, and dealt with ‘ The 
relation of the corpuscles to the process of coagu- 
lation.’ 

The views of Buchanan, published soon after 
1830, that the coagulation of the blood was de- 
pendent upon the white corpuscles, which acted 
like a ferment somewhat as rennet does in the 
coagulation of caseine, had for many years been 
forgotten and ignored. Schmidt of Dorpat, and 
his pupils, later elaborated these views of Buchan- 
an. They considered that the white corpuscles 
furnish fibrinoplastine or paraglobuline, and a 
ferment, while fibrinogen exists normally in the 
plasma of the blood ; that the white corpuscles, 
in furnishing these two elements, undergo dis- 
integration and destruction. 

Woolridge has, within the past few years, 
maintained that the white corpuscles play an 
important part in the formation of fibrine. He 
has been able to procure leucocytes, or colorless 
corpuscles, from the lymph-glands ; and when 
these corpuscles, to which has been added an 
equal volume of a ten-per-cent solution of salt, 
are placed in peptone-plasma obtained from the 
blood of an animal into whose vessels peptone 
has been injected, coagulation at once takes place. 
The quantity of fibrine which is thus produced 
depends upon the number of leucocytes added. 
These corpuscles seem to form the fibrine, and 
the weight of the fibrine is the same as that of the 
leucocytes added. The albumen undergoes no 
change, while examination shows that the leu- 
cocytes have undergone disintegration. 

The formation of fibrine in the blood may be 
studied in the moist chamber. The time at which 
the process commences varies from fifteen seconds 
to two minutes. Before coagulation commences, 
all the corpuscies can be easily distinguished ; and 
Osler has never seen any appearance indicating 


322 


that the fibrine filaments were formed by a disin- 
tegration of the white corpuscles. On the other 
hand, these corpuscles seem to be stable elements. 
As amatter of fact, no observer has claimed ever 
_ to have seen the actual change of a corpuscle into 
fibrine. 

The process of coagulation can also he studied 
in a fine capillary tube. The clot forms in the 
centre, and the serum outside. The white cor- 
puscles seem to be squeezed out of the clot, or to 
migrate from it. 

Landois, whose observations were made some 
ten years ago, thinks that the red corpuscles are 
connected with the formation of fibrine. 

But the most interesting of all the problems is 
the relation of the blood-plaques to this process of 
coagulation. In blood drawn from the vessels we 
see fine filaments shooting out radially from the 
granule masses of Schultze, — those masses which 
we have already learned are collections of the 
blood-plaques. Ranvier, in 1873, regarded these as 
the centres of fibrine formation. The fibrine cer- 
tainly does stand in a thick, dense network about 
these masses. In healthy blood, fibrine also ap- 
pears entirely independent of the plaques. The 
filaments are fine, and appear much like mar- 
garine crystals. These filaments may be especial- 
ly dense near the plaques; but any one can sat- 
isfy himself, by examining the blood in the moist 
chamber, that the fibrine forms independently of 
them as well. If we pass a ligature through the 
femoral vein of a dog, and allow it to remain for 
five minutes, particularly if we have separated 
the threads of the ligature, and then examine 
it, we shall find it coated with blood-plaques. If 
the blood of a dog is received into a cup, and 
this is whipped with a brush of threads for five 
minutes, we have the same aggregation of the 
plaques upon the threads : some white corpuscles 
will also be found, but the plaques are the strik- 
ing feature. If these threads are dipped into a 
solution containing a coagulable substance, clot- 
ting will at once take place. The greater the num- 
ber of blood-plaques, the denser and firmer will be 
the clot. 

Still more instructive and interesting is the 
study of thrombosis, or clotting in the blood-ves- 
sels. If a dog is bled to death through a cut in 
the femoral artery, and the vessel excised and 
placed in osmic acid, and subsequently examined, 
we shall find on the cut edges and in the lumen 
of the vessel a finely granular material, and out- 
side of this a darker mass composed of red cor- 
puscles. The inner portion, the finely granular 
material, however, which is in contact with the 
elastic lamina, is composed of blood-plaques, and 
not white corpuscles. These plaques are the first 


SCIENCE. 


{[Vou. VIL, No. 166 


elements or factors in the formation of a throm- 
bus. Eberth, in Virchow’s ‘ Archives,’ has just 
shown that the first elements to settle and to lodge 
on lacerated vessels are blood-plaques. In all 
white thrombi these plaques seem to make up 
their bulk. If a needle is passed through a 
blood-vessel in the omentum of a living animal, 
the first elements which collect at the point of in- 
jury are the blood-plaques, and a distinct white 
thrombus is formed. These observations cn the 
relation of the plaques to coagulation have been 
made by Bizzozero, Hayem, and Eberth. 

In the circulating blood the plaques keep with 
the red corpuscles. If we examine a _ vessel of 
the omentum of the rabbit or guinea-pig, we shall 
see only a red streak, which occupies the central 
part of the vessel. In the space between this and 
the wall of the vessel, in the still layer as it is 
called, we may occasionally see a few colorless 
corpuscles. If the circulation now becomes 
slower, we shall see the plaques in the still layer 
with these colorless corpuscles. If atheromatous 
ulcers of the aorta are examined, it will be found 
that the material which has collected upon them 
is made up of blood-plaques : the same is true of 
the vegetations found upon the valves. While the 
distinct plaque form is apparent in the superficial 
parts of these structures, and the same is true of 
white thrombi, the deeper parts are also plaques, 
but in a granular state of disintegration. 

Eberth has shown, that while, in the rapidly 
circulating blood, the corpuscles and plaques are 
together, yet, if acid is placed on the edge of a 
vessel or laceration, the plaques collect, and 
form a definite aggregation or white thrombus. 
We frequently find in autopsies atheromatous 
ulcers or calcareous plates which have no thrombi : 
in these cases, the circulation during life having 
been rapid, the plaques remained central ; but, as 
the current becomes slower, these plaques become 
peripheral, and adhere to surfaces denuded of 
endothelium, and thrombi result. 


LONDON LETTER. 


IMPORTANT changes are in progress at Oxford 
which will give the university a real faculty of 
medicine. It has hitherto conducted medical 
examinations for graduates in arts who have ob- 
tained their professional education elsewhere, gen- 
erally at one of the great London hospitals. But 
in future Oxford men will be able to enter the 
university as medical students, as has long been 
the case at Cambridge. It will still be necessary 
for them, however, to graduate in arts, which will 
practically mean in the school of natural science, 
before they can proceed to a medical degree ; and, 


APRIL 9, 1886.] 


as the exemption of natural science men from the 
classical examination known as ‘ moderations’ 
will shortly come into operation, there will be no 
difficulty in this respect. A skilled anatomical 
teacher, Dr. Arthur Thomson, has been imported 
from Edinburgh ; and the names of Profs. Bay- 
ley Balfour, Burdon Sanderson, and H. N. Mose- 
ley, are a sufficient guaranty that the preliminary 
training in botany, physiology, and zoédlogy will 
be thoroughly efficient. 

In the person of Mr. C. W. Peach, another 
member of the good old school of British natural- 
ists has passed away. He began life as a coast- 
guardsman in the preventive service, and soon 
acquired an intimate knowledge of the marine 
fauna of the south of England. When not en- 
gaged in detecting smugglers, he devoted his 
energies to zodlogical and geological studies, 
and was rewarded by the discovery of many new 
species among the lower invertebrates, and also, 
a point of much more importance, of traces of 
fossil fishes in the Devonian rocks of Devonshire. 
Later on he received an appointinent in Scotland, 

_and his discovery of fossils in the altered rocks of 

- the highlands proved to be one of the utmost value 
in the skilled hands of Sir Roderick Murchison. 
Mr. Peach’s great powers of observation and rich 
store of knowledge were always at the service of 
professional scientific men. Lyell and Murchison, 
Forbes and Carpenter, Gwyn Jeffreys and Wyville 
Thomson, and many others, who are happily still 
with us, knew and valued him highly. His son, 
Mr. B. N. Peach, is a distinguished member of 
the geological survey of Scotland. 

The American friends of the late Dr. Thomas 
Davidson may like to know that a fund is being 
raised by the mayor of Brighton for the purpose 
of placing some memorial of him in the museum 
of that town. It was the object of his constant care 
during the many years that he resided at Brigh- 
ton, and it is felt that his services in the cause of 
science deserve some permanent commemoration. 
His library and large collection of brachiopods are 
now in the Natural history museum at South 
Kensington. 

Some important statements which have been 
recently made in the house of commons indicate 
that the government is going to form a depart- 
ment of the board of trade which shall do for 
England what the fishery board of Scotland and 
the Irish commissioners of fisheries do for Ireland. 
It is hoped that this may be the first step towards 
the establishment of a definite board of British 
fisheries, analogous to the department of botany at 
Kew, the geological survey office, and other simi- 
lar institutions. At the present time the English 
fisheries are not under the supervision of any pro- 


SCIENCE. 


323 


fessional naturalist whatever, and their interests 
suffer in consequence. 

Although February last was the coldest on 
record in England, the first ten days of March 
were colder. Only once in that period, viz., at 
the Scilly Islands, off the south-west corner of 
England, was 50° F. recorded at any station in 
the British Isles. Nothing above 43° was recorded 
in London in that period, and from Feb. 19 to 
March 11 there was a frost every night in London. 
Though March, 1883, was the coldest March but 
two of this century, 52° was recorded on March 5 
of that year. On March 19 the frost suddenly 
broke up, terminating the twenty-four days’ con- 
tinuous skating which had been enjoyed in a 
northern suburb of London; and since then the 
weather has been very mild. 

The results of the experiments in the Pasteur 
laboratory are being watched with the keenest 
interest. One of the Russian moujiks, who had 
been bitten by a mad wolf, has died, but the 
others show no sign of disease. The children 
and other patients sent from Bradford (Yorkshire) 
have returned thither, and are loud in praise of 
the treatment they have received. It is rumored, 
as a result of the question in the house of com- 
mons mentioned in the last London letter, that 
the government intends to appoint a royal com- 
mission to investigate the question. The names 
of Sir James Paget, Sir W. Jenner, Dr. Lauder 
Brunton, Prof. Burdon Sanderson, and Sir H. 
Roscoe, are mentioned in this connection. 

A very crowded audience assembled a few 
nights ago to hear a paper upon domestic electric 
lighting, by Mr. W. H. Preece, head of the elec- 
trical department of the general post-office. He 
expressed the opinion, that, although England 
was beaten by so many countries in the adoption 
of arc-lighting, she probably led the way in the 
domestic use of incandescent lamps. These, how- 
ever, were all private and separate installations, 
many instances of which were given. The elec- 
tric lighting bill of Lord Rayleigh, introduced 
into the house of lords on March 19, would, if it 
became law, remove the disabilities imposed by 
the act of 1882. Although the nomenclature and 
efficiency of glow-lamps was in a very unsatisfac- 
tory state, enormous improvements had been 
made in the dynamo since the expiration of the 
patent monopoly. It was now the most perfect 
existing converter of energy, and was one- 
third the price, and its output was trebled : hence 
it was nine times better than it was a few years 
ago, during the existence of the patent. A lively 
discussion followed the reading of the paper. 

Mr. W. H. Christie, the astronomer royal, 
recently lectured at the Royal institution on uni- 


324 


versal time, in the course of which he paid a high 
compliment to the railways of the United States 
and Canada for having reduced the number of 
local times from seventy-five to five, by adopting 
the five standard meridians. The scheme of hour- 
ly meridians, however, could only be considered 
a provisional arrangement, which would ultimate- 
ly lead to the adoption of universal time, for 
which he thought the name ‘world time’ would 
be the best. The ‘world’ day would commence 
at Greenwich, midnight, and count from 0h. to 
24h. Among the authorities cited by Mr. 
Christie in support of the twenty-four hours sys- 
tem, was that of the president of the Western 
union telegraph company (U.S.A.), who con- 
sidered, that, in addition to diminishing risk of 
errors, it would save the cost of a hundred and 


fifty million letters annually. W. 
London, March 27. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE fourteenth annual meeting of the Ameri- 
can public health association will be held at 
Toronto, Ont., Oct. 5-8, i886. The executive 
committee have selected the following topics for 
consideration at said meeting: 1. The disposal of 
the refuse matters of cities and towns; 2. The 
condition of stored water-supplies, and their rela- 
tion to the public health; 38. The best methods 
and the apparatus necessary for the teaching of 
hygiene in the public schools, as well as the means 
for securing uniformity in such instruction; 4. 
Recent sanitary experiences in connection with 
the exclusion and suppression of epidemic disease ; 
5. The sanitary conditions and necessities of 
school-houses and school-life ; 6. The preventable 
causes of disease, injury, and death in American 
manufactories and workshops, and the best means 
and appliances for preventing and avoiding them : 
7. Plans for dwelling-houses. The local com- 
mittee of arrangements at Toronto, Ont., have 
already actively begun the work essential to a 
large and successful meeting. In addition to the 
usual work incident to such an undertaking, they 
will extend invitations to foreign sanitarians, and 
secure such transportation facilities as will proba- 
bly insure a good representation from abroad. 
Communications regarding matters of transporta- 
tion or of a local character should be addressed to 
Peter H. Bryce, M.D., chairman local committee 
of arrangements, Toronto, Ont. Mr. Henry 
Lomb of Rochester, N.Y., who is already well- 
known through the prizes which he gave last year 
for the best essays on certain sanitary subjects, 
offers for the present year the sum of seventeen 
hundred and fifty dollars, to be awarded as prizes 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 166 


on the following subjects: 1. The sanitary con- 
ditions and necessities of school-houses and school- 
life, one prize, $500; 2. The preventable causes of 
disease, injury, and death in American manufac- 
tories and workshops, and the best means and 
appliances for preventing and avoiding them, one 
prize, $500; 38. Plans for dwelling-houses, — (a) 
A plan for a dwelling-house not to exceed in cost, 
exclusive of cellar, eight hundred dollars (prizes : 
first, $200 ; second, $100; third, $50; fourth, $25): 
(6b) A plan for a dwelling-house not to exceed in 
cost, including the cellar, sixteen hundred dollars 
(prizes: first, $200; second, $100; third, $50; 
fourth, $25). Accommodations to be provided 
for families consisting of five persons. All essays 
and plans for the above prizes must be in the 
hands of the secretary, Dr. Irving A. Watson, 
Concord, N.H., on or before Aug. 15, 1886. 


— The officers of Section D (mechanical science 
and engineering) of the American association for 
the advancement of science have issued a circular 
stating that the steadily increasing interest and 
importance of the meetings of Section D justify 
the expectation of a large attendance of engineers 
at the Buffalo meeting. The meetings of the 
American association offer to students of mechani- 
cal science and to engineers opportunities which 
cannot be elsewhere obtained, of conveniently 
meeting at one time a large number of gentlemen 
eminent in branches of science to which engineer- 
ing is closely related, especially mathematics, 
physics, chemistry, geology, and economic science. 
The scope of this section is broad enough to in- 
clude all branches of engineering. It occupies a 
field peculiar to itself, which by no means en- 
croaches upon that of the various engineering 
societies, but rather adjoins and supplements it. 
These societies deal chiefly with accomplished 
practical results, while Section D affords an oppor- 
tunity for the presentation and discussion of 
papers upon the application of scientific methods 
to every department of engineering. The object 
of the section, in accordance with the name of 
the association, is the ‘advancement of science.’ 
The following may be named as among the gen- 
eral classes of subjects which this section may 
properly consider within its scope: mechanical 
science in the abstract; mechanical research ; 
problems in engineering of national importance, 
and such as are connected with more than one 
branch of engineering ; the education of engineers ; 
the relation of the government to engineers in 
civil life; the endowment and organization of 
mechanical research. The officers extend a cordial 
invitation to all to attend the meetings of the 
section, and to contribute such papers or discus- 


APRIL 9, 1886. ] 


sions as will aid in furthering its objects. It is 
requested that all who intend to contribute papers 
will notify the secretary (William Kent, 92 Reade 
Street, New York) as soon as possible. The com- 
mittee on the best method of teaching mechani- 
cal engineering, — Prof. J. Burkitt Webb, Prof. 
George J. Alden, Dr. Calvin M. Woodward, and 
Prof. Arthur Beardsley, —and the committee on 
the use and value of accurate standards, screws, 
surfaces, and gauges, — Prof. William A. Rogers, 
Mr. Oberlin Smith, and Prof. J. Burkitt Webb, — 
are expected to present reports at the Buffalo 
meeting. 


—The fish commission steamer Albatross ar- 
rived at Nassau, New Providence, March 19, after 
a most successful trip. The ship was chiefly en- 
gaged in making soundings. Two naturalists 
were landed at Watling’s Island, San Salvador, 
where much valuable scientific material was 
gathered during a stay of two weeks. But little 
dredging has been done, so that few accessions 
of marine life have been made. At Rum Cay, 
Conception Island, Cat Island, and Great Exuma 
Island, the naturalists of the expedition obtained 
many valuable specimens of fish, lizards, bird’s- 
nests, eggs, cave relics. pottery, and about five 
hundred bird-skins. These islands are very small, 
and thinly populated. Vegetaticn is scarce, and 
the islands themselves are formed almost entirely 
of rock. Cocoanut-trees and bananas are abun- 
dant, but oranges and apples rather scarce. The 
Albatross is now at Key West, and will spend 
some time dredging in the Gulf of Mexico and 
vicinity. 

— General Hazen said recently, in his testi- 
mony before a congressional committee, that 
foreign signal stations were a necessity, and the 
establishment of a station in the West Indies had 
fully demonstrated this fact. It is quite probable 
that congress will authorize the establishment of 
‘Stations at important foreign points. 


__ —The commissioners of the District of Colum- 
bia have refused the gift of Judge Pacificus Ord, 
of a tract of land along Rock Creek for a zoologi- 
cal garden. The grant was made on the express 
condition that the property should be used for a 
free zoological garden and free public baths, to 
be kept by officers created by congress for that 
‘purpose. The commissioners think there is no 
present need of a zodlogical garden or bath- 
house, nor have they the means to establish them. 


| —The U.S. fish commission is busily engaged 
‘n stocking the Great Lakes with white-fish. Cars 
Nos. 2 and 3 are now at Northville, Mich. About 
April 15 the shad distribution will begin. The 


‘SCIENCE. 


325 


eges are hatched at the Fort Washington station, 
and shipped to the central station of the com- 
mission at Washington, the distribution being 
made from there. The distribution of carp has 
ceased for this season, as it has been found im- 
practicable to ship these fish after the first of 
March; the young carp developing fungus, and 
becoming emaciated. 


—No less than forty-four wrecks appear on the 
April number of the ‘ Pilot chart’ issued by the 
hydrographic office. Some were seen in January, 
but the greater number are reported from obser- 
vations late in February and through March. 
Three recent cases of disastrous collision with 
sunken wrecks are quoted. It is announced that 
the vessels of the National line, including all the 
cattle-steamers, have made arrangements for the 
regular use of oil in rough weather. 


—The bark Flora (Spanish) reports that on 
March 21, Cape Hatteras, bearing W.S.W., dis- 
tant thirty-five miles, three very large seas came 
up from astern [vessel probably heading north], 
and in passing caused the vessel to roll deeply. 
At the time the sea was very smooth, and became 
so again immediately after the passage of the 
heavy swells. There was a light breeze from 
S.S.W. The captain says he never saw or heard 
of such an occurrence before. On p. 266, vol. i1., 
of the ‘ Voyage of the Challenger,’ Sir Wyville 
Thomson says, ‘‘ It must be a wonderful phenome- 
non, an enormously heavy swell arising in a per- 
fectly calm sea, without any apparent cause, and 
breaking against the leeward coast of the island 
(Ascension) with almost irresistible fury.” 


—A bottle was found floating near the beach 
at Colon, on the 1st of February. It had the 
appearance of having been some time in salt 
water, and was found to contain two papers on 
which was written as follows: ‘* Lat. 12° 47’ N., 
Long. 24° 47’ W., noon, Saturday, 20th December, 
1884: ship Patriarch 69 days out from New Castle 
(N.S.W.), and bound for London ; all well.” 


— The New York Evening post states that ‘‘ the 
treasury commission for investigating the coast 
survey have addressed a communication to the 
secretary of the treasury in which they say, ‘In 
the light of the demonstrated inaccuracy of some 
of the evidence upon which the committee relied, 
and to the extent hereinbefore indicated. it is but 
just to admit that the criticism of Mr. C. S. 
Peirce in the committee’s report was unwarranted 
by the facts.’ It is understood to be admitted 
that Mr. Peirce’s expenditures were overstated, 
and his work undervalued. The only criticism 
the committee continue to maintain is, that he 


326 


practically conducted his operations as he saw fit. 
His work has been done under detailed instruc- 
tions issued by the superintendent of the survey, 
and these instructions have been based upon pro- 
jects which Mr. Peirce was required to submit 
each season. We will only add that this finding 
is what every one acquainted with Mr. Peirce 
must have expected as the resuit of a calm and 
unprejudiced examination.” 


— Telegrams received from Professor Pickering 
announce the discovery of three new asteroids by 
Dr. Palisa of Vienna. The first was discovered 
on March 31, and was of the thirteenth magnitude ; 
the other two, on April 2 and 3, of the thirteenth 
and twelfth magnitudes. These three will receive 
the numbers 254, 255, and 256 respectively, and 
will raise the whole number discovered by Dr. 
Palisa to fifty-three. 


—The programme for the second half of the 
course of lectures under the auspices of the An- 
thropological and biological societies of Wash- 
ington is as follows: Saturday, April 10, Dr. 
Washington Matthews, U.S.A., The gods of the 
Navajos; Friday, April 16, Dr. D. B. Simmons, 
Social status of the women of Japan; Saturday, 
April 24, Prof. W. K. Brooks, Life; Saturday, 
May 1, Mr. Lester F. Ward, Heredity and oppor- 
tunity ; Saturday, May 8, Dr. J.S. Billings, U.S.A., 
Animal heat. 


— The series of summer schools of the Mont- 
eagle (Tenn.) assembly is announced to open on 
June 30, and continue to Aug. 25. The scientific 
instruction in chemistry, geology, and botany, 
will be under the charge of Prof. J. I. D. Hinds. 


—We cut the following from the Atlantic 
‘Pilot chart’ for April: ‘‘Mr. J. H. Barker, an 
oil-merchant of New York, informs the branch 
hydrographic office that he has the contract with, 
and since Jan. 1 of this year has furnished, the 
National line of steamships with oil to be used to 
lessen the dangerous effects of heavy seas. Ten 
vessels, including all the cattle-steamers, have 
been provided with the necessary appliances to 
use oil when occasion requires. The company’s 
requisition called for fish-oil, but the recent ex- 
periments proved it thickened too rapidly when 
in contact with water at the general low winter 
temperatures. To obviate this tendency, Mr. 
Barker has mixed a mineral oil having a low, 
cold test, with fish-oil which has a comparatively 
high test: the result is an oil which coagulates 
at a much lower temperature than ordinary fish- 
oil, but which it is claimed will be as efficacious. 
The mineral oil has stood the test as a lubricant 
for railroads in cold weather, and it is claimed 


SCIENCE. 


[Vout. VIL, No. 166 


will be very useful for sea purposes when mixed 
with a proper proportion of fish-oil, during the 
mild and warm months fish alone is to be sup- 
plied. The method adopted of using oil is by 
means of punctured canvas bags filled with 
oakum.” 


— From numerous experiments on flies, beetles, 
hymenoptera, neuroptera, and lepidoptera, M. Pla- 
teau concludes that insects with compound eyes, 
with or without simple eyes, pay no heed to dif- 
ferences of form in the light openings of a half- 
darkened room, but fly with equal readiness to the 
apparently easy and apparently difficult way of 
escape; that they are attracted to the more in- 
tensely lightened opening or to one with apparently 
greater surface; and that, in short, they cannot 
by vision distinguish form, or only to a very slight 
extent. 


— Chief engineer Melville of the ill-fated Jean- 
nette has recently stated that he is still endeavor- 
ing to organize another polar expedition, and, 
although his schemes have met with little success, 
he will yet continue to work upon them. 


— The question of the movements of the ulna 
and radius of the human arm during the act of 
pronation and supination has of late provoked 
considerable discussion among students of anat- 
omy. The view most commonly held and 
taught, that the elbow-joint is a perfect hinge, 
and that the ulna remains fixed during pronation 
and supination, has been disputed by some recent 
investigators. At the last meeting of the Bio- 
logical society of Washington, Dr. Frank Baker 
read a paper upon this subject, in which he con- 
cludes that the ulna is capable of considerable 
lateral movement, and that in pronation and 
supination both the ulna and radius rotate. Dr. 
Harrison Allen of Philadelphia has also been 
studying this question with the aid of instanta- 
neous photographic apparatus, and is said to have 
reached similar conclusions. 


— Harrison & Sons, London, announce 
‘Physico-chemical constants, melting and boil- — 
ing point tables,’ by Thomas Carnelley, professor 
of chemistry in University college, Dundee. 
These tables will contain about fifty thousand 
melting and boiling point data. The object of 
the tables is as follows: 1. To present as com- 
plete a list as possible of all known melting and — 
boiling point data, and at the same time to indi- 
cate which of them is probably the most exact, | 
when there are several determinations referring to 
the same substance; 2. To state as fully as pos- 
sible the constitution of each substance to which — 
the data refer; 3. To adopt such a system of ar- 


Arrit 9, 1886.] 


rangement as will facilitate as far as possible the 
ready finding of the data relating to any given 
substance ; 4. To give the authority and reference 
to the original memoir in each case (the tables thus 
form a catalogue of the literature referring to 
most chemical substances) ; 5. To give, in addition, 
the reference, if any, to either ‘ Watt’s dictionary 
of chemistry,’ or to the journal of the Chemical 
society, forthe convenience of those who are un- 
able to refer to the original papers (this is a feature 
of the work which will doubtless be found par- 
ticularly useful, more especially to British and 
American investigators). The tables will be issued 
in two volumes, of which the first is now ready. 


— Prof. Mansfield Merriman of Lehigh univer- 
sity, Pennsylvania, has published a ‘‘ Key to his 
text-book on the mechanics of materials.” This 
key contains the answers to the problems in the 
text-book, and is published in response to inquiries 
from those who have used the book. The oppor- 
tunity has also been taken to give the method of 
solution of a few of the difficult problems. 


— The first part of the new zodlogical journal 
announced by us some time since, to be edited by 
Dr. J. W. Spengel of Bremen under the title of 
Zovlogische jahrbiicher, will be soon published, 
and will contain the following papers, besides 
shorter notices: Hartlaub, ‘Contributions to the 
knowledge of the species of Manatus ;’ Reichenow, 
‘ Monograph of the genus Ploceus, Cuv.:’ Bergh, 
‘The Marseniadae;’ Nehring, ‘Contributions to 
the knowledge of the species of Galictis ;’ Frenzel, 
*On glycerine preparations.” The price of the 
part is nine marks. Four parts make a volume. 
Beside the regular parts, supplementary ones will 
be issued from time to time for the publication of 
separate papers too long to appear in the journal 
itself. The regular subscribers may or may not 
take the supplements also, as they prefer. The 
first of the supplements is to appear shortly, and 
will contain Dr. K. Jordan’s memoir on the but- 
terfly fauna of north-west Germany. 


— Dr. Patrick of St. Louis has in preparation a 
work on the mounds of southern Illinois, based 
upon a large collection of crania and other objects 
from that region. His report will be issued by 
the U.S. bureau of ethnology. 


— Prof. E. D. Cope of Philadelphia is about to 
publish a monograph on the recent batrachians 
and reptiles of North America, as a bulletin of 
the national museum. It will contain descriptions 
of all the species so far known, many of which 
will be figured, together with an extensive dis- 
cussion of the osteology of the several groups, and 
a sketch of the soft anatomy of the leading types. 


SCIENCE. 


327 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


x*, Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 


writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


International copyright. 


Mr. APPLETON MorGaAN. in his letter upon inter- 
national copyright in Science for March 5, says, 
‘* While always an enthusiastic advocate of an inter- 
national copyright as a matter of abstract justice to 
British authors, J have never been able to satisfy 
myself of the constitutional right of congress to enact 
a separate bill for the purpose of effecting one.” Ido 
not intend to attempt, in this letter, to convince Mr. 
Morgan that the enactment of such a bill would be 
constitutional, but I think it may not be without 
interest to the readers of Science to point out that 
the passage in the constitution which grants congress 
the power to ‘‘secure to authors and inventors the 
exclusive right to their respective writings and dis- 
coveries”” has been expounded to mean, of necessity, 
all authors and inventors, without regard to nation- 
ality. 

Edward L. Andrews, E-q., as the representative 
of the Copyright association, argued before the 
senate committee on the library, in 1872, that, as 
American authors were not specified in this clause, 
the word ‘authors’ must be taken to mean all au- 
thors, wherever resident, and therefore the constitu- 
tion *‘in this respect is mandatory in its character.” 
But Mr. Andrews was not the first person to argue 
this construction of the constitution. Thirty-five 
years earlier this construction had so distinguished 
an advocate as Mr. Henry Clay. During the copy- 
right agitation of 1836-37 in England, certain British 
authors sent to the United States an ‘address’ con- 
taining a petition to congress to grant to them ‘“‘ the 
exclusive benefit of their writings within the United 
States.” This petition, which bears the signatures 
of fifty-six authors of England and Ireland, —a re- 
markable list of names, including Carlyle, Disraeli 
(father and son), Bulwer, the poets Southey, Thomas 
Moore, Rogers, Campbell, Chalmers and Cunning- 
ham, Harriet Martineau and Mary Somerville, be- 
sides others equally famous, — was presented to the 
senate by Mr. Clay on Thursday, Feb. 2, 18837. 
After calling attention to the distinguished names 
appended to the document. and explaining that it 
represented that the works of British authors were 
published in the United States without any compen- 
sation being made to them for their copyrights, and 
that they were frequently altered and mutilated so 
as to affect injuriously their reputations, because of 
which grievances they petitioned the passage of a 
protective law, he commended the address to the 
attentive and friendly consideration of the senate, 
and closed with these words: ‘‘ Indeed, I do not see 
any ground of just objection, either in the constitu- 
tion or in sound policy, to the passage of a law ten- 
dering to all foreign nations reciprocal secarity for 
literary property.” This petition was referred toa 
select committee, which reported Feb. 16, through 
Mr. Clay, and asked leave to introduce a bill grant- 
ing copyright to the authors of Great Britain and 
France, which was the first international-copyright 
bill presented to congress. The last paragraph of 
this report contains Mr. Clay’s argument, referred to 
above, and reads as follows: ‘‘ With respect to the 
constitutional power to pass the proposed bill, the 
committee entertain no doubt, and congress, as be- 


328 


fore stated, has ected on it. The constitution au- 
thorizes congress ‘to promote the progress of science 
and useful arts by securing, for limited times, to au- 
thors and inventors, the exclusive right to their 
respective writings and discoveries.’ There is no 
limitation of the power to natives or residents of this 
country. Such a limitation would have been hostile 
to the object of the power granted. That object was 
to promote the progress of science and useful arts. 
They belong to no particular country, but to man- 
kind generally. And it cannot be doubted that the 
stimulus which it was intended to give to mind and 
genius — in other words, the promotion of the prog- 
ress of science and the arts — will be increased by 
the motives which the bill offers to the inhabitants of 
Great Britain and France.” 

I believe that the view expressed by Mr. Morgan 
in the last paragraph of his communication is correct, 
and that a ‘‘ Bill to amend the Revised statutes re- 
lating to copyrights””— amending section forty-nine 
hundred and fifty-two by striking out the words 
‘citizen of the United States, or resident therein,’ 
and substituting the word ‘ person ;’ amending sec- 
tion forty-nine hundred and fifty four by striking 
out the words ‘and a citizen of the United States, or 
resident therein ;’ amending section forty-nine hun- 
dred and sixty-seven by striking out the parenthetical 
clause ‘(if such author or proprietor is a citizen of the 
United States, or resident therein);’ and repealing 
section forty-nine hundred and seventy-one — would 
secure to foreign authors protection over their works 
equal to that now granted to citizens or residents. 
It is really in this way that the bill introduced into 
the senate by Mr. Hawley grants protection to the 
works of foreign authors; the first section being in 
reality a limiting provision, stipulating that the pro- 
tection is only granted to authors of such countries 
as confer equal rights of protection to citizens of the 
United States, in other words a reciprocity clause. 
By mistake, the Hawley bill neglects to provide for 
the amendment of section forty-nine hundred and 
fifty-two, though careful provision is made for the 
amendments necessary in the other sections. 

THORVALD SOLBERG. 
Washington, D.C., March 30. 


The distinction between anatomy and compara- 
tive anatomy. 


It was not so many years ago that even those hold- 
ing the highest positions in the profession of medicine 
regarded human anatomy as the only anatomy en- 
titled to the name, and that comparative anatomy 
meant something else altogether. Its teachings were 
not appreciated by the vast majority of those who 
studied the anatomy of man, and the great surgeons 
of those days were rather inclined to look askant at 
one who indulged in researches into the structure of 
the ‘loweranimals.”’ Butin these days such matters 
wear a very different aspect, for anatomy means 
morphology, —the knowledge of the structure of 
organic forms, — both living and extinct, and it is 
rarely indeed that we hear of any one attempting to 
draw hard and fast lines between the anatomy of 
man, and either any of his own class or other repre- 
sentatives of the Vertebrata. 

Thanks to the progress biology has made during 
the last quarter of a century, all literature that has 
any thing to do with such subjects, actually teems 
with the teachings of morphology. Such being the 


SCTHENCE. 


[Vou. VII, No. 166 


case, one is rather disposed to regard with some 
measure of surprise the classification that so excellent 
a work as the Index medicus adopts for its record of 
such subjects. In its last issue, for instance (Feb- 
ruary, 1886, p. 54), and I believe it has always ad- 
hered tothe same plan, it makes one section for anato- 
my, histology, and embryology, and a subsection for 
comparative anatomy and embryology. Now, in the 
section-in-chief, we find entered the recent admirable 
paper by Dr. E. C. Spitzka, on ‘The comparative — 
anatomy of the pyramid tract,’ the contribution evi- 
dently being considered as an ‘anatomical one;” 
while we find awarded to the subsection Retterer’s 
article entitled ‘‘ Sur le développement des tonsilles 
chez les mammiféres.” to say nothing of all the ana- 
tomical articles from the last number of the Journal 
of anatomy, of London. 

Now, as fully the larger share of Spitzka’s memoir 
is devoted to the study of the pyramid tract in other 
animals than man, it would seem, even according to 
the plan adopted by the Index medicus, that that 
essay has not fallen into its proper section. The 
same stricture applies, for a similar reason, to Retter- 
er’s paper. Surely it would seem better to have one 
section devoted to morphology, to include alJl contri-— 
butions that refer to the structure of organic forms, 
and, if necessary, two subsections, — one devoted to 
histology, and the other to embryology. 

R. W. SHUFELDT. 

Fort Wingate, N. Mex., March 3). 


Penetrating-power of arrows. 


You doubtless have read of the wonderful feats of © 
archery said to have been performed by savage 
archers. Cabeca de Vaca, for instance. tells us that. 
the good armor of the Spaniards was no protection — 
against these missiles. Some of the men swore that 
they had seen two red oaks, each the thickness of 
the lower part of the leg, pierced through from side 
to side by arrows. I myself saw an arrow that had ~ 
entered the butt of an elm to the depth of a span. 
The same author states that the corpses of the 
Spaniards were found to have been traversed from 
side to side by arrows. An instance is given, where 
an arrow shot by an Indian pierced through the 
saddle and housings, and penetrated one-third its 
length into the body of a Spaniard’s horse. These | 
quotations from Jones's ‘ Southern Indians’ might be — 
increased to any number, covering a period from the — 
Homeric age to our day, all showing the popular be- | 
lief concerning the power of the arrow. 

I desire very much to induce our archery clubs to | 
institute a series ae careful experiments upon the — 
following points : 

1. How far can an arrow be shot in a calm? How — 
far with or against a moderate calm ? 

2. What is the greatest distance at which an 
arrow can be shot with any degree of accuracy? 
Experiments should be made both as to the vertical — 
and horizontal. 

3. What is the momentum of an arrow leaving @— 
bow ? (Tested by shooting against a disk attached | 
a graduated scale.) 

4. What is the penetrating-power of an arrow 
into animals? This may be tried with horses, cattle, 
or dogs, which have just died, or with those in an 
abattoir just about to be slaughtered. 

5. The register of the bow as to length, etc., and 


PRIL 9, 1886.] 


description of the arrow used, should be carefully 
reserved. 

As soon as possible, I shall publish an account of 
he bows and arrows in the national museum, and 
hall be more than pleased to collate and preserve 
he results of careful experiments as a basis of com- 
arison with the archery of savages. It is generally 
onceded that the archery clubs, with their much 
etter artillery, achieve higher averages in shooting 
han could be attained by the aboriginal bowmen. 


O. T. Mason, 
Curator of Dept. of ethnology. 


mithsonian institution, 
March 31. 


Underground rivers. 


In an article in Nature (Jan. 14, p. 246) entitled 
Curious phenomena in Cephalonia,’ a former pupil 
f Ledger writes, ‘‘ The sea runs into the land in a 
trong stream, turning a water-wheel on the way, 
1nd disappears in the earth about a hundred yards 
rom the entrance. I imagine that this water 
nust be converted into steam, which comes out 
‘ither at Naples or at Stromboli.” Prof. Henry S. 
Williams of this university called my attention to 
his quotation, and to its indirect connection with 
what follows. The writer, while passing through 
Yucatan, Mexico, in 1870, saw a large stream run- 
ling with torrential speed within a natural tunnel 
10t ‘far from the seashore, and probably over one 
aundred feet below the surface of the ocean. These 
inderground rivers, which are said to be numerous 
n the neighborhood of the city of Merida, are 
called zanates (Thah-n’ah-tess) by the inhabitants of 
Yucatan. I had time to visit only one of these re- 
markable subterranean rivers. Its shaft-like en- 
rance was adorned by a picturesque old Spanish 
well-curb of stone, furnished with standards of 
fancifully forged iron-work. Nothing on the surface 
mdicated the existence of the vast cavern under the 
monotonous and flat lowlands of the peninsula of 
Yucatan ; and, though not a breath of air stirred, 
the deafening roar of the torrent under our feet 
could not be perceived until we were fully inside of 
the cave. A rapid descent brought us to the level of 
the pumps used for irrigating a very extensive ixtle 
plantation ; and from here we could see, by the light 
of our torches, the yellow foam of the waters upon 
the undefined background of the chasm below. De- 
scending still farther, the full stream could be seen 
through a wide fissure in the limestone of the cave. 
It had the rounded appearance of a stream flowing 
horizontally under great pressure, ten or twelve feet 
in diameter, and looking like a gigantic black icicle 
lying onitsside. This large volume of water plunged 
with great swiftness into an unexplored and dark 
chamber with terrific roar, and producing noises 
vhich resembled the hollow echoes of heavy explo- 
sions heard now and then above the perpetual 
rumbling of the rushing water. A visit to this cave 
*annot fail to produce a very deep impression, and 

ot unlike the feeling which renders so imposing the 
inpleasant experience of an earthquake. 

_ The manager of the plantation informed me that 
he mouth or entrance of this zanate was only 
meee cight feet above the Gulf of Mexico; and 
be my barometer indicated a descent of a hundred 
‘nd forty feet, if the information was correct, this 
= was delivering, within forty miles from the 


\ 


SCIENCE. 


329 


seashore, a volume of fresh water about a hundred 
and twelve feet below the level of the sea. The 
temperature of the water was 52° F and is said 
to remain constant throughout the year. Only a 
small portion of the stream was visible; and the 
direction of the current was N. 60° W. I could ob- 
tain very little additional information in reference to 
the other zanates, cf which the natives speak with 
almost religious reverence as ‘‘ great miracles which 
have always been as they are now.” 

Since the velocity of the water, as well as the 
form of its cross-section, can leave no doubt that the 
delivery takes place under a considerable head, it 
would be quite important to ascertain the location 
of its source, and learn why this cave does not fill up 
to within twenty-eight feet from the surface, if the 
stream communicates with the sea. This latter cir- 
cumstance seems to prove that the elevation given by 
the manager of the plantation may be incorrect ; 
but, besides the fact that the belief in the great 
depth of these zanates below the ocean is current 
among the cultivated people of Merida, the manager 
of the plantation insisted on the correctness of his 
figures, which were obtained by the instrumental 
surveys connected with the irrigation of his large 
estate, the waste water from which runs into the 
sea. It would seem desirable. therefore, to ascertain 
through the columns of Science if any one else has 
visited these zanates, and has satisfactory data 
bearing upon this question. 

A study of the soundings made by the U. S. 
coast and geodetic survey upon the Bay of North 
America: the erosions showed by the stereographic 
model of the Caribbean Sea, made by Capt. J. R. 
Bartlett, U. S. N.; the gravimetric work conducted 
by Professor Peirce of the coast survey; and the 
hydraulic problems connected with the delta of the 
Mississippi River,— seem to involve problems related 
to the Gulf Stream which make desirable a better 
knowledge of these truly remarkable subterranean 
rivers. EK. A. FUERTES. 

Ithaca, N.Y., March 3). 


Note on the nocturnal cooling of bodies. 


An interesting application to this subject may be 
made, by way of supplement, of tbe principles and 
expressions contained in my letter on the tempera- 
ture of the moon (Science, vi. No. 150). According 
to these, the rate with which a body radiates heat is 
to that with which it receives and absorbs heat from 
a complete enclosure as ,9 is to 2%, in which ».= 
1.0077, and gand 6 are the temperatures of the body 
and of the enclosure respectively on the centigrade 
scale. In this case we necessarily have for the 
static temperature of the body, that of the enclosure 
remaining constant, e=e ; but, in the case of an 
incomplete enclosure, the body, at the same tempera- 
ture, radiates more heat than it receives and absorbs 
from the enclosure, and consequently its static tem- 
perature is less than that of the enclosure, since it 
cools down until the rate with which it radiates heat 
is equal to the rate with which it absorbs heat re- 
ceived from the enclosure. 

In the case of a thermometer exposed near the 
surface of an earth without an atmosphere, the 
earth’s surface would form the half of a complete 
enclosure, since it would subtend a solid angle equal 
to that of a hemisphere. In this case the thermome- 
ter would receive no heat from the enclosure by re- 


330 


flection, but only the radiated heat; and the rate 
with which the bulb, if spherical, would radiate heat, 
would be to that with which it would receive and 
absorb heat as »9 to $7’ »®, in which 7 is the relative 
radiating power of the earth’s surface. Hence for 
the static temperature of the thermometer, that of 
the earth’s surface being supposed to be stationary, 
we should have 


p29 = tr’ 2%, or o — 6 = 800 log 47’. 


In case of a maximum radiating power of the 
earth’s surface, in which case 7’ = 1, we have 


« — 96 = — 800 log + = 300 X 0.301 = 90° C. 


for the difference between the temperature of the 
earth’s surface and that of the exposed thermome- 
ter, the latter being the less. It is seen that the 
difference is the same, whatever the temperature of 
the earth’s surface. According to this result, if the 
temperature of the earth’s surface were maintained at 
0° C., that of the thermometer would be —90° C., if 
the law of Dulong and Petit can be extended to so 
low a temperature. 

If the earth’s surface were polished silver, and of 
the ordinary temperature, the temperature of the 
thermometer would be nearly that of absolute zero. 
If we suppose that the earth’s atmosphere, when 
clear, radiates and reflects back to the body four- 
fifths as much heat as the body radiates into it, then 
the enclosure, comprising the earth’s surface on the 
one side, and the atmosphere on the other, lacks one- 
tenth of completeness, and we then have from the 
preceding expression, 


e — 6 = — 300 log 0.9 = 300 x 0.046 = 138.8° C. 


for the difference between the temperature of the 
earth's surface and that of the thermometer, in case 
the thermometer received no heat by convection 
and conduction from the surrounding warmer air, 
In the case of Melloni’s cups. the former of these is 
prevented, and hence the thermometer in these stands 
at a lower temperature than one does suspended in 
the open air, where the colder air immediately in con- 
tact with the thermometer-bulb falls down, and 
warmer air takes its place. 

Supposing the atmosphere and the earth’s sur- 
face to furnish nine-tenths of a complete enclosure 
to a body near the surface, then, at an altitude 
which leaves one-half of the atmosphere below it, 
they would furnish something more than 0.7 of a com- 
plete enclosure; for the amount of heat escaping 
into space is not quite proportional] to the mass passed 
through, especially in the case of dark heat. We 
should have, in this case, 


6 — oe < — 300 log 0.7, or 46.5° C., 


in case of no convection and conduction ; but these, 
of course, would diminish the difference very much. 
This result, in comparison with the preceding one, 
explains the low temperatures of bodies at night, 
when exposed in the air on high mountains a little 
above the earth’s surface, so as to receive no heat 
from contact with the surface. 

The greater the altitude, the more nearly would 
the difference approximate to 90° C., and would sensi- 
bly reach it at a point leaving no sensible portion of 
atmosphere above it, and even surpass it if the 
point were so high as to sensibly diminish the sub- 
tending solid angle. 

The whole of the earth’s surface, of course, cools 


SCIENCE. 


4 


[Vot. VII., No. 166 


considerably during a clear night ; but this only con- 
tinues until a temperature gradient is formed by 
which heat is conducted from the lower strata to the 
surface as fast as it is radiated into the atmosphere. 
This state, however, can be only approximately 
reached, and, if the night were continued, the cool- 
ing would still go on; but the rate of cooling be- 
comes very small in the latter part of an ordinary 
night, and much less in that of a polar night. 
Bodies exposed in the open air, of course, receive 
no sensible amount of heat by conduction of heat 
through the air up to the bodies, and so their tem- 
peratures fall much lower than that of the earth’s 
surface, and the differences are given by the pre- 
ceding conditions. Wo. FERREL. 


Maori poetry. 


An example of Maori poetry may be interesting to 
some of your readers. The first is a modern Maori 
love-song composed by a young native and sent to his 
sweetheart. I am indebted to Mr. C. O. Davis of 
Auckland, New Zealand, for the translations. 


At eventide I lay me down to rest, 

As winds trom the great ocean pierce my frame. 
Come, ye soft northern airs, hasten your speed, 
With messengers of love tome. O maiden! 
Send me thy epistle to cheer this heart 

Of mine,—to dary the tears which freely flow 
For thee, O Rosa, absent from thee so long. 
When darkness has set in, I rest alone, 

The while I fancy thou art present, 

And all my thoughts are fettered by thy love. 


A maiden’s lament on account of the desertion of her lover. 


Retire, O sun ! and leave the night to me, 

While tears, like water. from these eyes are flowing. 
The sound of footsteps is no longer heard, 

O Taratu ! thou comest not again 

By way of Waishipa’s headlands ; still 

The sea-fowl show their breasts at Mitiwai, 

But my Jover lingers in the north, 

Binding thyself to thy own landscapes there. 

Ab! shall my days of weeping never cease ? 


C. F. Hoiprer, 
Pasadena, Los Angeles county, Cal., 
March 21, 


Names of the Canadian Rocky Mountain peaks. 


As to the naming of the Canadian Rocky Mountain 
peaks, Mr. Ingersoll may withdraw his correction 
made upon the authority of Dr. George M. Dawson. 
Here is an extract from Douglas’s journal, under 
date of May 1, 1827, printed in companion to Botani- 
cal magazine, ii. 136, in 1886. 

‘“‘ This peak, the highest yet known in the northern © 
continent of America, I felt a sincere pleasure in 
naming ‘Mount Brown’ in honor of Robert Brown, — 
Esq., the illustrious botanist, a man no less distin- — 
guished by the amiable qualities of his mind than by | 
his scientific attainments. A little to the southward | 
is one of nearly the same height, rising to a sharper — 
point : this I named ‘ Mount Hooker’ in honor of my © 
early patron the professor of botany in the Uni- — 
versity of Glasgow.” 

Dr. Hector, ‘twho in 1857-59 was attached to 
Captain Palliser’s expedition,” may indeed have | 
named ‘Mount Balfour,’ curiously sandwiched be-— 
tween the names of Hooker and Brown. Douglas | 
could not well do that, the worthy Edinburgh pro- | 
fessor so honored being at that time a lad of nine 
teen. A. Gi 


| 


SCIENCE.—SuppLeMENT. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1886. 


REMARKABLE POWERS OF MEMORY IN 
THE HUMBLE-BEE. 


ProF. EDWARD HOFFER gives in the last num- 
ber of Kosmos a contribution to animal psychology, 
which will be of interest not only to the entomolo- 
gist, but to all biologists. It furnishes evidence 
of some very strange powers of memory of locali- 
ties, in this group of insects, whose brains, if we 
may use that term, one would hardly deem capa- 
ble of such functions. 

The author removed a nest containing numerous 
individuals of one of the common humble-bees 
(Bombus terrestris) from its original location, and 
carried it to his residence, about three miles 
distant. He further carefully watched the place 
for some time after having captured all those that 
had flown to the defence of their nest, and secured, 
it was believed, the entire colony. These he im- 
prisoned for several hours in a wide-mouthed 
bottle, and safely re-united them in their new 
home. At his house he placed the nest, with its 
inhabitants, near a window, and, after they had 
become quieted, made a small entrance. Imme- 
diately they began to fly out, and in doing so 
must have observed their surroundings, for in a 
short time they one by one returned. The follow- 
ing night, however, there was a severe storm; 
and while the inhabitants of the forty other colo- 
nies near it, that had become accustomed to their 
surroundings, were not in the least troubled, these 
bees escaped, and hid themselves somewhere with- 
out during the storm. Upon searching for them 
early the next morning, the queen was found 
dead upon the ground, while fifty or sixty of the 
workers were seen flying about the house. From 
time to time one or another — probably those 
which had flown out of the entrance the day be- 
fore —found the opening, and returned into their 


_ nest; while the remainder, after flying about for 


: 
| 


several hours, gradually disappeared, till not one 
was left. As it was supposed that they had, in 
all probability, returned to their previous nest, the 
place was visited in the afternoon, where, sure 
enough, at least fifty individuals were found. 
They had thus, it will be seen, distinctly remem 
bered it, and, after they had sought in vain to find 
entrance to their new home, they had depended 
upon their wonderful sense of locality, and re- 
turned thither. 


A. similar instance was observed with another 
nest, which had been removed a distance of nearly 
five miles, and in which the same care had been 
exercised to capture all the individuals. In un- 
skilfully handling the box containing the nest and 
bees, in its new location, about thirty of the 
workers escaped, and flew through the open 
window. After flying for a long time about the 
house, as though in search of their comrades, they 
likewise disappeared, and returned to their origi- 
nal nest and again established themselves, as was 
afterwards ascertained. 

It was frequently observed, that, when nests 
had been removed but a short distance, the work- 
ers, during the first few days after their change, 
would fly swiftly in the direction of their old 
nest, when, discovering their mistake, they would 
change their course, and go to their new home. 
It seemed evident that these little creatures, 
through some mental process or other, thus dis- 
covered their changed circumstances. 

In order to test further this remarkable sense of 
locality, the author marked a number of individu- 
als with oil-colors, and carried them, enclosed in 
wooden cases, a distance of eight or nine miles, 
when he allowed them to escape. Very many of 
them, though not all, found their way back to 
their nests, and, as a rule, reached home sooner 
than the author did himself. 

The author noticed that at his summer resi- 
dence, where he had kept numerous hives of these 
bees, the following spring many individuals ap- 
peared, and seemed to be searching for their previ- 
ous nests ; but he was unable to determine whether 
they were individuals of the previous broods or 
not. Towards the close of July, 1884, he obtained 
three nests of Bombus mastrucatus, a large species, 
only found in the mountains, and especially the 
higher regions, and carried them to his residence 
in the city, where he placed them in a window of 
the second story. The house was enclosed by high 
buildings, with no garden attached, and yet they 
returned readily and directly from their excursions 
to their nests. They throve, and by the first of 
October had increased to considerable numbers. 
By the middle of October they wholly disappeared ; 
but, in the early part of the following April, indi- 
viduals of this species were observed flying about 
the window, and, as soon as they found an en- 
trance, sought the remains of their old nests, and 
took up their abode. They remained for a while, 
when their nest was accidentally injured, and they 


dod 


left. Nothing more was seen of them till after 
the author’s return from his summer vacation, in 
the middle of September, when a single female of 
this species made its appearance. In their inability 
to obtain an entrance through the closed window, 
they had evidently built a new nest in the vicin- 
ity, and reared their broods. 

These circumstances indicate that the intel- 
lectual powers of the humble-bee are not as slight 
as we have been accustomed to believe. Here in 
this case, from October to April, — a period of six 
months, — had these bees remained dormant in 
the ground, or hidden in some crevice, and, upon 
regaining their activity, had not only remembered 
the place where they were, but had sought and 
found, despite the many difficulties, their last 
year’s nest. That these individuals were from the 
previous year’s brood, there was no doubt, as 
throughout the province the species nowhere else 
occurs, peculiar as it is to elevated and mountain- 
ous regions. 


LIGHTHOUSE ILLUMINANTS. 


AT the meeting of the London society of arts 
held on March 10, Mr. E. Price Edwards read a 
report of the experiments on lighthouse illu- 
minants made at South Foreland during 1884— 


85. The experiments show that in clear weather. 


all the lights—electric, gas, or oil— were too 
good, and that for merely sending an effective 
beam of light to the horizon on a dark, clear 
night, no one was really better than the other, 
although it should be said that the electric light 
used, on account of its dazzling brilliancy, was 
regarded as a nuisance rather than otherwise by 
mariners in the near neighborhood of South Fore- 
land. It is quite certain that for clear weather 
the lower powers of any one of the illuminants 
would be sufficiently serviceable for the require- 
ments of the mariner. 

The oil and gas lamps were rendered thus 
effective by superposing one upon another series 
of flames. It was found, that, in respect to the 
adaptability of the lights for occultations, —one of 
the distinctive characteristics used for lighthouses, 
— gas was especially available, as by simply turn- 
ing off the supply an occultation is promptly pro- 
duced in an economic and an effective manner ; 
whereas, with the electric or oil lamp, the use of 
a revolving screen was found most suitable. For 
colored sectors, on the other hand, the electric 
light is most serviceable, as, on account of its 
small surface, the change in color may be made 
more abruptly. 

The general results of the observations in hazy 
weather show incontestably that a single electric 


SCIENCE. 


. there is little doubt that the electric will be 


[Vou. VII., No. 166 — 


light greatly excels the most powerful oil or gas 
light in penetrating-power. In an actual fog the 
electric also holds its own. The experience of 
fogs at South Foreland was not large, but was 
sufficient to furnish available comparisons ; and it 
was proved beyond question that the single elec- 
tric light pierces a greater depth of fog than the | 
highest power available of either gas or oil, but . 
in heavy fogs the mariner would not derive the 
slightest advantage from any of the lights used. 
The recorded distances to which lights were car- 
ried, or where they were picked up, in heavy 
fogs, range mostly from seven hundred to two 
thousand feet ; and the superiority of the electric 
light is determined by penetrating two hundred 
or three hundred feet farther than the gas or oil 
light. The most powerful electric light was shut 
out on one occasion at fourteen hundred and fifty 
feet, on another at fifteen hundred, another at 
seventeen hundred, another at fifteen hundred, and 
another at thirteen hundred feet. It will be plain 
to all that no mariner could be benefited by a 
light which was not visible at such distances from 
the lighthouse ; and, for the purpose of navigation, 
a difference in the visibility of the lights of two 
or three hundred feet is of no value whatever. 

One fact stands out prominently; viz., the — 
greater ratio of absorption by the fog of the elec- 
tric rays as compared with that of the gas or oil 
rays. Fortunately for the electric light, as shown 
at South Foreland, it possesses a large reserve of 
initial intensity, which enables it, notwithstand- 
ing its much greater proportion of loss by absorp- 
tion of its more refrangible rays, to penetrate 
farther than the other luminants. With three 
lights of equal candle-power, — one electric, one 
gas, one oil, —exhibited in a foggy atmosphere, 


eclipsed at a much shorter distance than the © 
others. But as an electric beam can be made 
so much more intense than it is possible to make © 
the gas or oil beam, the electric light, though 
heavily handicapped by its competitors, by the 
very superabundance of its own luminous energy, 
may be made to penetrate the farther. 

The experiments have also shown clearly that 
the lights from gas and oil are very much alike 
in illumining-power: indeed, under some condi- 
tions, the oil-flames seem to be rather the better, 
They have also shown that the oil-lights can be 
superposed with the same facility as the gas- 
lights. As yet, no oil-flame has been brought to” 
the enormous size of the 108-jet burner ; but, as — 
this enormous size of flame is not required, the — 
difficulty is of no great consequence. As the two — 
lights were shown to be so nearly equal, the — 
questions of convenience and economy assume 


Aprit 9, 1886.] 


the greater importance in connection with their 
relative merits as lighthouse illuminants. 

The final conclusion of the experimenters was, 
that, for the ordinary necessities of lighthouse 
illumination, mineral oil is the most suitable and 
economical illuminant, and that for salient head- 
lands, important land-falls, and places where a 
very powerful light is required, electricity offers 
the greatest advantages. 


METAL-WORK OF THE BURMESE. 


BotH Burmans and Shans are expert black- 
smiths, says the Journal of the Society of 
arts. The latter forge all the dahs (‘native 
hatchets’) used by themselves and their neigh- 
bors in the Hotha valley; and they annually re- 
sort to Bhamo, and the villages in the Kakhyen 
hills, for the purpose of manufacturing them. 
Their bellows are of the most primitive stamp, 
consisting of two segments of bamboo, about four 
inches in diameter and five feet long, set verti- 
cally, forming the cylinders, which are open above 
and closed below, except by two small bamboo 
tubes, which converge and meet at the fire. Each 
piston consists of a bunch of feathers, or other 
soft substance, which expands and fits tightly in 
the cylinder while it is being forcibly driven down, 
and collapses to let the air pass as it is being 
drawn up. A boy perched on a high seat or 
stand, works the two pistons alternately, by the 
sticks serving as piston-rods. Charcoal is used for 
fuel. 

The casting of large and small articles in brass, 
bronze, and other alloys, is much practised, always 
adopting the method known as 4d cire perdue. 
First a clay model is made, and coated with bees- 
wax to the thickness of the intended cast, and 
again covered with an outer skin (two inches 
thick) of clay mixed with finely chopped straw ; 
this latter coat is provided with funnel-like holes, 
for pouring in the molten metal, at intervals of 
four inches, and with straw-holes for letting out 
imprisoned air. Holes are also provided at the 
bottom for the escape of the melted wax. 


THE GREAT SILVER-MINES OF THE 
WEST. 


VALUABLE indeed have been the scientific re- 
sults which geology has incidentally received 
through the great mining undertakings of the 
west. The studies of von Richthofen, of King, 
and of Zirkel, on the rocks of the Washoe, have 
been equally welcome to geologists at home and 
abroad as contributions to the general principles 
of their science. 


SCTENCE. 


333 


The importance of a thorough and detailed 
geological investigation of regions possessed of 
great mineral wealth is at once apparent. The 
geologist may afford the prospector and the capi- 
talist just that information which is most needed ; 
while, in turn, the shafts and tunnels of the latter 
supply him with sections and exposures of the 
rocks, which he could never otherwise hope for. 
How keenly the advantages of such a combina- 
tion are appreciated by the government geological 
survey is abundantly proven by the recent elabo- 
rate monographs by Becker on the geology of the 
Comstock Lode, and by Irving on the copper- 
bearing rocks of Lake Superior ; while others of 
a similar nature are now in course of preparation 
on the silver districts of Eureka and Leadville by 
Messrs. Hague and Emmons. Nor may we pass 
without mention, in this connection, the extreme- 
ly important contribution recently made by 
Messrs. Hague and Iddings to what we know of 
the influence of heat and pressure in conditioning 
the structure of an eruptive rock. No such con- 
clusive evidence that the holocrystalline struc- 
ture of an igneous mass depends upon the slow- 
ness with which it solidifies, had ever before been 
discovered as that which they found in the micro- 
scopic study of the rocks displayed in the hundred 
and eighty miles of shafts and galleries at the 
Comstock.’ 

But the value of such technical papers can at 
most be appreciated only by a few. Specialists 
in the same field of scientific inquiry, or the pros- 
pector or miner who consults them in hope of 
some practical suggestion, will be their only read- 
ers, even though the results which they contain 
are broad and far-reaching in their significance. 

Nevertheless there is connected with the de- 
velopment of a vast mining industry very much 
to awaken a popular interest. The accidental dis- 
covery of rich mineral treasures in the heart of a 
mountain wilderness; the rushing thither in 
hordes of men of every type, all eager to secure 
the largest prize ; the human ingenuity and energy 
displayed in overcoming the vast obstacles which 
nature has placed in the way of transportation ; 
the story of successes and disappointments, of 
fortunes made and lost, —all this gives scope for 
the display of the strongest human passions, 
and contains the elements of a tale whose truth is 
more romantic and more exciting than fiction. 

In a volume’ quite different in its character 

1 Bulletin No. 17 of the U.S. geological survey. On the 
development of crystallization in the igneous rocks of 
Washoe, Nevada. 


2 Monographs of the U.S. geological survey. Vol. iv. 
Comstock mining and miners, by ELioT Lorp; vol. vii. 
Silver-lead deposits of Eureka, by J.S. Curtis. Washing- 
ton, 1883, 1884. 4°. 


334 


from the other monographs which have thus far 
emanated from the geological survey, Mr. Lord 
has given an extremely interesting story of the 
discovery and development of what is doubtless 
the richest mineral lode in the world, as well asa 
vivid picture of the life in the town which sprung 
up with such surprising rapidity beside it. The 
book is one which can but be read with enjoy- 
ment and profit by all, no matter what their idea 
is of the proverbial dryness of government reports. 

On the 15th of May, 1849, William Prouse, a 
young Mormon, travelling up Carson valley, 
made the first discovery that gold existed in what 
is now western Nevada. The region is a barren 
desert, occupying the eastern slopes of the Cor- 
dilleras, too arid to support more than the barest 
vestiges of life; and yet the report of the few 
grains of yellow dust discovered there by Prouse 
was sufficient to attract into it hosts of eager men 
from already overcrowded California. For ten 
years prospecting went on in and about what was 
early named Gold Cafion, with varying success. 
Sands were washed for gold with profit in many 
places, but no one as yet suspected the mine of 
wealth which lay at their very door. In June, 
1859, Henry Comstock, a Canadian miner, secured 
a claim on the side of Sun Peak (now Mount 
Davidson), and thus impressed his name forever 
on the richest silver-lode ever opened. Still it 
was supposed that only gold was to be found, un- 
til a fortunate assay of some of the black gangue, 
which the miners had always thrown away as 
worthless, showed that it contained $3,000 in sil- 
ver and $876 in gold to the ton. From this dis- 
covery (July, 1859) the development of the real 
richness of the Comstock may be said to date. 

Nothing more was needed to start a vast tide of 
emigration from California to the Washoe. Over 
the almost impassable mountain-trail struggled, 
in the early spring of 1860, the wild rushing mass 
of humanity, without proper food or clothing. 
Freight-transportation was almost impossible, and 
into the desert they hurried, with no thought but 
to be first at the pile of treasure which all ima- 
gined must be awaiting them. 

For a picture of the wild life of the mining- 
camp ; of the endless litigation over claims ; of the 
rapid growth of camp to town, and of town to 
city, as the mines developed ; of the almost super- 
human feats of energy and endurance in strug- 
gling with fire and water and in competition with 
each other,— we must refer the reader to the 
work itself. The lode proved richer at every 
point than the most sanguine prospector had at 
first imagined. Millions were spent for machinery 
and in draining and ventilating the mines, and yet 
the supplies of riches seemed endless. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 166 


In 1869 a railroad was actually constructed to 
this mountain fastness; and just about this time 
the mines, which had been increasingly produc- 
tive for ten years, showed their first signs of ex- 
haustion. Many of the old ore-bodies had almost 
ceased to produce. In 1872 a panic in Washoe 
mining-stocks ensued, which caused them again 
to change hands and as rapidly to bring fortune 
to their possessors. In 1873 was discovered the 
so-called ‘ Big bonanza.’ No other such enormous 
mine of wealth has ever been uncovered in the 
earth’s crust. The shafts were sunk lower and 
lower, but the ore only seemed to increase in rich- 
ness with the depth. The silver production of the 
lode, which was fourteen millions in 1866, and 
six millions and a half in 1870, rose to over 
thirty-eight millions in 1876. 

But of the details of this wonderful tale there 
is no space to enter here. For its romance and its 
fact alike we must refer the reader to the vivid 
descriptions and the statistical tables of Mr. Lord. 

The work of Mr. Curtis on the silver deposits of 
Eureka, which lies to the eastward of the Com- 
stock Lode, in central Nevada, is altogether differ- 
ent in its aim and scope from that of Mr. Lord. 
It is no story of mining and miners, but a clear 
discussion, from an engineer's point of view, of 
the nature and origin of the deposits, and an ac- 
count of the methods by which they are worked. 
Only enough geology is borrowed from the forth- 
coming report of Mr. Arnold Hague to make the 
occurrence of the ore intelligible. 

The deposits are large, irregular masses embed- 
ded in a limestone of Cambrian age. This is ac- 
companied by other limestone and quartzite beds 
of the same and later age, and by acid eruptive 
rocks. The ores are mainly sulphurets of lead 
and silver, the former of which, however, has 
been oxidized down to a certain depth. The de- 
posits occupy caverns in the limestone which they 
never completely fill. 

The author thinks it probable that the rocks 
were first disturbed by dynamic forces, which 
crushed the limestone more than it did the other 
beds. Into this penetrated heated alkaline solu- 
tions, coming from below, which deposited the 
silver and lead sulphides as soon as the conditions — 
of heat and pressure necessary for their solution 
were removed. There seems to be no evidence 
that the ore was derived in any way from the sur- 
rounding rocks. The only reason why it is found 
in the limestone is because the more shattered 
condition of this rock offered more opportunity 
for the circulation of the mineral solutions. The 
author also thinks that the cavities now occupied - 
by the ore did not exist before its deposition, 
but that they were formed by a removal of the 


7 


he ee ee ee i ee 


———oOO Oe —CS 


——— ee SSS 


_ 1.06 in 1883, and .93 in 1884, 


AprRIL 9, 1886.] 


limestone simultaneously with the precipitation 
of the metallic salts. 

In chapter vi. a very interesting comparison is 
drawn between the silver-lead deposits of Eureka 
and those of Leadville and other localities in 
America and Europe, but no exact counterpart 
of these remarkable ore-bodies is anywhere dis- 
covered. 


SEWERAGE AND HEALTH. 


Mr. ERWIN F. SMITH, in the Annual report of 
the Michigan state board of health, has shown 
the beneficial effects of thorough systems of 
sewerage on the health and mortality of cities. 
The work is based upon a large amount of data, 
chiefly drawn from European cities owing to the 
paucity and imperfection of American statistics. 
The author accepts the system of water-carriage 
as altogether the safest and best. A comparison 
of fifteen Jarge cities without sewerage, with as 
many sewered, shows a remarkable difference in 
mortality. Thus in the first series the average 
death-rate was 35.8 per thousand inhabitants, 
while in the latter it was only 26. One of the 
most striking instances is that afforded by Chicago, 
where the death-rate has fallen off from 37.91 to 
21.40, with the use of good water-sewerage. In 
the majority of cases, like results have been ob- 
served, and in only a few has the mortality re- 
mained unchanged. In England the decrease 
within late years in general mortality has been, 
perhaps, most noticeable, and in no country does 
sewerage receive greater attention. Most espe- 
cially is there a direct connection observed between 
good sewerage and typhoid-fever and cholera. 
In Munich the mortality from the former of these 
causes has decreased from 1.82 to .17 per each 
thousand inhabitants. In Berlin, since 1879, the 
typhoid mortality has fallen off two-thirds ; and 
it was further found, that, out of every 43 non- 
sewered houses, there was one death, as against 
137 houses that were sewered. New York and 
Brooklyn have the best water-supply and general 
sewerage system of any of our large cities, and 
the death-rate from typhoid-fever has _ been 
correspondingly low, —in New York, during the 
last decade, only .28 ; and in Brooklyn, .15. Con- 
trasting these figures with those of some large 
non-sewered cities, a remarkable difference is ap- 
parent. In Palermo and Turin, with defective 
water-supplies, the deaths from this cause were as 
many as1.2and.8. In St. Petersburg,without any 
proper disposition of sewage, the mortality was 
It may be well to 


The influence of sewerage and water-supply on the death- 
rate in cities. By E.F. Smiru. Lansing, State, 1885. 8°. 


SCIENCE. 


d39 


mention, that, in general, Russian mortality is 
frightfully high, in some provinces reaching 62 
per thousand. With cholera similar results bring 
the conclusions that unsewered cities suffer se- 
verely, while sewered cities escape, and that locali- 
ties subject to typhoid-fever are the ones likely to 
be visited by cholera. This last is especially sig- 
nificant, and behooves the earnest attention, at 
the present time, from American cities where the 
known typhoid mortality is great. As regards 
diphtheria, the author concludes from the study 
of abundant data that there is no direct relation 
between them. Finally, the author concludes that 
‘‘it is entirely within bounds to say that the 
general introduction of proper sanitary measures, 
meaning thereby the provision of an abundant 
supply of pure water and the proper disposal of 
excreta, would reduce the annual loss in the 
United States from one single cause, the pre- 
ventable typhoid-fever, in money value, at least 
$25,000,000 a year, — enough, in the course of a 
few generations, to sewer every city and village 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.” 


ABBOT’S SCIENTIFIC THEISM. 


Dr. ABBOT’S purpose is to expound a theory ac- 
cording to which the universe is the direct mani- 
festation of the indwelling thought of God, — “a 
universe in which the adoring Kepler might well 
exclaim in awe unspeakable, ‘O God! I think 
Thy thoughts after Thee,’—a universe which is 
the eternally objectified Divine Idea, illumining 
the human intellect, inspiring the human con- 
science, warming the human heart” (p. 214). 
This theory he regards as the best expression of 
the outcome of scientific thought, and he accord- 
ingly seeks to present his doctrine in close rela- 
tion to the facts of scientific experience. Science, 
namely, discovers in the world objective relations, 
and finds these relations united in more or less 
completely understood groups or systems; science 
therefore, thinks Dr. Abbot, properly concludes 
that the world as a whole must be one rationally 
comprehensible system of relations. But a com- 
prehensible system of relations is, he affirms, in- 
conceivable apart from an intelligence that creates 
the system or that expresses itself in this system : 
hence the world must not only be intelligible, but 
intelligent ; and therefore ‘‘ the universe per se is 
an infinite self-consciousness” (p. 155). This, in 
the briefest summary, is Dr. Abbot’s positive doc- 
trine. 


Organic scientific philosophy. Scientific theism. By 
FRANCIS ELLINGWooD ABBOT, Ph.D. Boston, Little, Brown 
é& Co., 1885. 16°. 


336 


Nobody with the slightest knowledge of the an- 
nals of human thought ought to hesitate con- 
cerning where such a doctrine historically belongs, 
what line of philosophic tradition it represents, 
and upon what general considerations it must in- 
evitably found itself, in case it gets any sound 
foundation at all. It is the well-known idealism 
of Plato, the immanent teleology of Aristotle, the 
doctrine that the continental schools of modern 
philosophy have from the first labored to compre- 
hend, and to establish upon a modern foundation, 
the doctrine par excellence of post-Kantian ideal- 
ism in Germany, and, in general, the contention 
of objective idealism everywhere: this it is that 
Dr. Abbot’s book has somehow to present to us, 
and that every serious philosophic student would 
surely rejoice to find helpfully expounded and 
defended, with any new shading or emphasis, and 
with any new and significant method of proof. 
To the consistent believer in this objective ideal- 
ism, the novelty of Dr. Abbot’s argument must 
therefore lie—not in the main doctrine itself, 
which we all know so well and have toiled over so 
frequently, but in the form of the demonstration. 
We all are aware that science does undertake to 
know a real world, full of relations, and rationally 
intelligible ; and all philosophical idealists of any 
significance whatsoever have been interested, 
ever since there were any sciences of experience, 
in proving at least two theses: 1°, that these 
sciences, in their assurance of the objective 
reality and thorough-going, rational intelligibility 
of the world, are absolutely and demonstrably 
right; and, 2°, that this right assurance, properly 
interpreted, makes of this real world of science 
nothing more nor less than the expression of an 
absolute intelligence, i.e., of an infinite spirit. 
This effort, we insist, all idealists of any signifi- 
cance have made, in their way and measure, from 
the first. Dr. Abbot will therefore be greeted by 
idealists as a welcome ally, if he adds a significant 
argument of his own. 

As to his positive achievements, however, in 
this main undertaking, we feel no small disap- 
pointment. The link between that objective in- 
telligibility of things which science postulates, 
and that objective conscious intelligence in things 
which Dr. Abbot, like all other objective idealists, 
wants to demonstrate, is a link that philosophy is 
bound to find if it can, but that cannot possibly 
be found, as Dr. Abbot at first undertakes to find 
it, by any bare experience of the facts of nature. 
The whole historical outcome of the philosophy 
of experience has shown that, and Dr. Abbot 
helps his case no whit by such scholasticism as he 
later employs, at the top of p. 151, where, having 
previously told us that scientific experience shows 


SCIENCE. 


{Vot. VII., No. 166 


or postulates the universe, or the self-existent, 
to be ‘ infinitely intelligible,’ he goes on thus :— 

‘¢That which is self-existent must be self- 
determined in all its attributes; and it could not 
possibly determine itself to be intelligble unless it 
were likewise intelligent. Self-existent intelligi- 
bility is self-intelligibility, and self-intelligibility 
is self-intelligence; or that which intelligibly 
exists through itself must be intelligible fo itself, 
and therefore intelligent in itself.” 

All this, regarded as mere assertion, may be 
true, and in fact the present reviewer does most 
potently and powerfully believe it, although he 
holds it not fitting that it should be thus set down ; 
for, thus set down, this kind of objective idealism 
is like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh. 
But regarded not as bare assertion, but as argu- 
ment, the statements as quoted take the form of 
an arrant scholasticism, and can convince nobody. 
Our author, in fact, only feels the connection be- 
tween the objective intelligibility that science 
postulates, and the objective intelligence that 
philosophy seeks to demonstrate. He states this 
his feeling sometimes as a sort of vague inductive 
argument, to the effect that one has never found 
any thing but intelligence actually capable of 
making intelligible systems of things; and some- 
times as a scholastic rambling from the word 
‘intelligible’ to the word ‘ intelligent,’ through 
various intermediate terms. In either form, how- 
ever, the argument is unphilosophical and an- 
tiquated. The objective intelligibility of the 
world does indeed enable us rationally to conclude 
that the world contains objective intelligence ; 
but we cannot so conclude through a mere induc- 
tion, which would at once, like the old forms 
of the design argument, fall a prey to perfectly 
obvious sceptical objections; nor yet may we 
argue by means of a multitude of scholastic 
terms, and hope in that way to accomplish our 
purpose. We must take a little more trouble in 
philosophy than this. We must tread in certain 
paths of critical argument that Dr. Abbot, with 
all’ his idealistic enthusiasm, has studiously and 
very unphilosophically avoided, although many 
of them are very old facts in the history of ideal- 
ism. 


a ii i 


Space has forced us to be, we may fear, even ~ 


discourteously brief in these remarks upon> Dr. 
Abbot’s positive doctrine ; but, as to his historical 
and critical introduction to this doctrine, we de- 
spair of doing more than to suggest either its 
scope, or the thoughts that arise in us as we read 
it. Dr. Abbot is, on the whole, so thoughtful, so 
enthusiastic, so readable in spite of his termi- 
nology, so devout, so high-minded, so terribly in 
earnest, that it seems wicked impiety to say what 


——— 


Aprit 9, 1886.] 


we fancy that nearly every reader of moderately 
good acquaintance with the history of thought 
will feel in going over this earlier portion of Dr. 
Abbot’s book. Here is a scholar of undoubted 
learning and ability, who has himself a doctrine 
to advance, that, however he tries or fails to prove 
it, can only be described as the ancient objective 
idealism of the whole Platonic tradition in philoso- 
phy. Hespends half his volume, however, in a 
violent denunciation of all idealists, whose method, 
he is convinced, could only lead logically to some- 
thing known as solipsism. He sets over against 
them, as an example for their better instruction, 
the progressive realism of science, with its as- 
surance that the world is there and is compre- 
hensible, once for all. With this assurance, he 
thinks, philosophy must be set out, or else it must 
remain fruitless dreaming. The third alternative, 
however, the simple and obvious truth that phi- 
losophy rests neither upon an acceptance nor upon 
a rejection of such assumptions as this one, Dr. 
Abbot utterly forgets. Philosophy is in fact, at 
the very start, an effort to comprehend these as- 
sumptions of life and of science, and therefore can- 


-not possibly begin by simply taking them as they 


are, unquestioned, just as it cannot possibly begin 
by casting them aside. It is highly comical, there- 
fore, to find an accomplished philosophical student 
protesting against all writers who have ever asked 
how an individual consciousness can know a real 
world, and replying to their queries by the simple 
repetition of his personal assurance that we do 


_ know an external world. What, then, is philoso- 


phy there for, if not to answer, first of all, just 
the question, How ? where common sense has con- 
tented itself with a bare that ? How can a thinker 
of Dr. Abbot’s experience be ignorant of this funda- 
mental distinction between philosophizing about 
life, and living apart from philosophy? Life 
makes assumptions, and philosophy critically 
analyzes them ; and that is precisely the cardinal 
point of difference in question. Now, empirical 
scientific investigation as such is just one form, 
though a very highly developed form, of living. 
It therefore does not reflect upon its own presup- 
positions. Why should it? But philosophizing is 
coming to self-consciousness about the foundation 
of your presuppositions. This work of merciless 
reflection must of course, in the beginning, take 
upon itself the sceptical form. Nothing is sacred 
to it: it is cold, dry, passionless, in spirit and in 
method. Yet its ultimate aim is not negation, 
nor yet scepticism, but clear consciousness, and 
nothing less than clear consciousness. Nobody is 
bound to pursue such an investigation unless he 
is so disposed ; but for a professional philosopher 
himself to appear before us, ridiculing the very 


SCIENCE. 


337 


business of his art as necessarily worthless, pro- 
duces a strange impression. It is as if a poet 
should begin by assuring us that all verse is a _ 
vain show and a wicked distortion of facts. Yet 
what else is all this introductory philippic of Dr. 
Abbot’s but an abuse of the philosophers of former 
ages for having tried to philosophize? ‘‘ The first 
objection to phenomenism,” he writes, ‘‘is that 
science is actual knowledge of a noumenal uni- 
verse, and therefore refutes by its bare existence ” 
phenomenism (p. 79). ‘‘ Noumenism,” on the other 
hand, ‘‘ is the only just and philosophical interpre- 
tation of the scientific method” (p. 127). The 
scientific method, moreover, is ‘‘ the true and only 
organon for the discovery of truth ; and the proof 
of its validity is the rapid progress of actual dis- 
covery ” (p. 62). However, after all, ‘‘the truth 
of perception cannot be logically proved,” as Dr. 
Abbot with charming simplicity remarks on p. 
180, adding, ‘‘ But if the wonderful increase of 
human knowledge by the use of the scientific 
method be not verification of the original scien- 
tific hypothesis [i.e., of the existence of a nou- 
menal world], then there is no such thing as 
verification, and all human knowledge is a melan- 
choly lie.” These remarks are sufficient of them- 
selves to characterize Dr. Abbot’s not uncommon, 
but highly amusing state of mind. His philoso- 
phy thus rests upon two assertions, whereof the 
one is the statement that no truly fundamental 
philosophical reflection is needed at all, since ‘the 
actual existence’ of science is a sufficiently funda- 
mental basis for our beliefs ; while the other is the 
equally interesting statement that no fundamental 
philosophy is even possible, since ‘‘the truth of 
perception cannot be logically proved.” The out- 
come of these two assertions of the uselessness 
and the impossibility of philosophy, is something 
that calls itself a ‘philosophy of science,’ and 
that announces itself as destined to revolutionize 
human thought about these matters. Its culmina- 
tion in the ‘ Religion of science,’ a truly beautiful 
and pious doctrine, for which of course it can 
give no sort of fundamental reason, we have 
already seen. In fine, then, Dr. Abbot’s book 
gives us the positive theory that the objective 
idealists of the past discovered, held, and tried in 
a critical and thorough-going way, to demonstrate. 
This theory Dr. Abbot himself maintains by some 
very halting empirical arguments, and by a few 
scholastic word-puzzles. Those objective idealists 
of the past, however, he meanwhile fiercely up- 
braids, for that they, the wretches, in their 
tediously critical fashion, actually tried to get to 
the bottom of things, to discover fundamental 
principles, and even to demonstrate with philo- 
sophical thoroughness their positive doctrine and 


338 


his. The philosophy of the future will not act as 
they did, will cease to reflect upon the scientific 
assumptions, will take them merely on faith, with 
afew hints about the insanity of inquiring into 
- them, and with a little melancholy contemplation 
of those dark ages when men used even to ask 
fundamental questions. In brief, the philosophy 
of the future will not philosophize. 

Devotion and enthusiasm in the presence of the 
greater questions of religion and science are so 
rare that one rejoices to find any one so enthusi- 
astic and devout as Dr. Abbot. But when he 
undertakes to discuss the philosophic questions 
proper, Dr. Abbot, by his ferocious denunciation 
of the whole past course of modern thought, re- 
minds us of a certain newspaper musical critic, 
whose abuse of all the better concerts that he 
chances to attend we often have read with huge 
delight. The critic in question is, namely, by the 
will of an evil fortune, as accomplished and 
scholarly a musician as many years of toil could 
produce. Unhappily, however, it chances, that, 
by the will of God, his nature was so constituted 
that he hates music. The sorrows of this man are 
hard to conceive. JOSIAH ROYCE. 


STOKES’S LECTURES ON LIGHT. 


THE singular origin of these courses of lectures 
was described in this journal (vol. iii. p. 765) in 
the review of the first. Though by the same 
author as the first, the subjects treated are far 
more generally understood by the ordinary reader 
of scientific literature, and consequently hardly 
admit of such original treatment as characterized 
the former book. Of the four lectures here given, 
the first treats of phosphorescence and fluores- 
cence; while the remainder, with the exception 
of a portion of the second lecture, which relates 
to the rotation of the plane of polarization, is 
devoted to spectrum analysis and its revelations. 
Perhaps the most interesting passage to the scien- 
tific reader occurs on p. 45, relating to the au- 
thor’s claims as an original discoverer of the 
principles of spectrum analysis. The warm dis- 
cussions to which this topic have given rise are 
numerous, and, as is well known, some of the 
most eminent English writers have attributed the 
priority of the discovery, without restriction, to 
Stokes, leaving for Kirchhoff, beyond credit for 
an independent discovery, only the honor of hav- 
ing extended the method to the detection of ele- 
ments in the sun other than sodium. Thus Tait, 
in his ‘ Recent advances in physical science,’ and 
Sir William Thomson, in the President’s address 


Burnett lectures on light. Second course, on light as a 
means of investigation. By GEORG GABRIEL STOKES. 
London, Macmillan, 1885. 24°, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 166 


(Brit. ass. rept., 1871). It was the latter which 
called out Zéllner’s vigorous retort and arraign- 
ment of English men of science in the introduc- 
tion to his ‘Ueber die natur der cometen.’ In 
this passage, after describing Foucault’s observa- 
tions on the spectrum of the electric arc, the 
author says, ‘‘On this ground, it seemed to me 
that the substance which exercised the selective 
absorption in Foucault’s experiment must be free 
sodium. This might conceivably be set free from 
its compounds in the intense actions which go on 
in the sun or in the electric arc; but I had not 
thought that a body of such powerful affinities 
would be set free in the gentle flame of a spirit- 
lamp, nor perceived that the fact of that flame’s 
emitting light of the definite refrangibility of D, 
entails, of necessity, that it should absorb light 
of that same refrangibility.” 


IN a recent paper by Prof. S. I. Smith (Ann. 
mag. nat. hist.)on the decapod (crabs, lobsters, etc.) 
crustaceans from the Albatross’ dredgings in the 
North Atlantic, there are some interesting points 
brought out regarding the deep-water fauna. An 
unusually large number—a third—of all the 
species of decapods obtained were from depths 
greater than one thousand fathoms, and many of 
the species were remarkable for their large size. 
Specimens of one brachyuran had the carapace five 
inches long and six broad, while others of an 
anomuran were yet larger, the outstretched legs 
measuring over three feet in extent. Not only 
were there many large species, but there was an 
apparent absence of all small species. Their color 
was also found to be very characteristic. A few 
species were apparently nearly colorless, but the 
great majority were of some shade of red or 
orange, and there was no evidence of any other 
bright color. Of twenty-one abyssal species, 
eight possessed normal black eyes, two had ab- 
normally small eyes, three had eyes with light- 
colored pigment, while of the rest the function 
was doubtful. Of five species from below two 
thousand fathoms, one had normal well-developed 
eyes, and the others small, imperfect, or doubtful. 
From these facts, in connection with others, the 
author concludes, that, despite the objections of 
physicists, some light probably penetrates even 
beyond two thousand fathoms; and he thinks, 
from the purity of the water in mid-ocean, light 
might reach this depth as readily as to five hundred, 
or even two hundred, nearer shore. However, he 
finds that there is an undoubted tendency towards 
radical modification or obliteration of the normal 
visual organs in deep-water species. The large size 
and small number of eggs were also observed as @ 
marked characteristic of many deep-sea decapods. 


ek ee — 


: 
; 


9 


SCE 


FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


AN ADDITIONAL ARGUMENT for the preservation 
and care of the levees of the lower Mississippi is 
afforded in an unexpected way. For many years 
great damage to stock, and human discomfort, in 
those regions, have been caused by small flies 
known as ‘ buffalo gnats’ (Simulium). Very simi- 
lar flies, with similar injurious habits, have long 
been well known in the valley of the Danube and 
elsewhere; but as the species that have been 
studied, breed, as a rule, in streams that are clear, 
rapid, and rocky, it has been a question of con- 
siderable importance how the insects bred in such 
great quantities in the low alluvial Mississippi 
country, — a question whose solution might, it was 
hoped, afford a means of checking the increase of 
the pest. The present spring Dr. Riley, and two 
of his assistants, Mr. F. M. Webster and Mr. Otto 
Lugger, have succeeded in determining the habits 
of the two known species; and it appears that 
they breed in the more swiftly running portions of 
the smaller creeks and bayous, which are perma- 
nent, and do not dry up in midsummer. They are 
found attached to the masses of driftwood and 
leaves, which form at points, and which, by im- 
peding the streams below, form a more rapid cur- 
rent at the surface. The larvae and pupae have 
been absolutely connected with their respective 
adults, and a careful study of the general charac- 
ter of the breeding-places already indicates that 
the increase of the pests of late years is indirectly 
due to the crevasses in the levees. 


Dr. SHUFELDT, in a recent pamphlet published 
by the U. S. bureau of education, calls attention 
to the needs and shortcomings of anatomical mu- 
sSeums in this country, and presents an outline of 
how such museums should be formed and con- 
ducted. The subject is of no little importance, 
from the fact that we have so few anatomical 
museums that serve as useful means of instruc- 

_ tion, or indeed for any thing except as repositories 
of anatomical odds and ends and curiosities, of 
which medical students, as a rule, make no use. 

No. 167,— 1886, 


ey eA, 
> a, ee Pe 4 


Kh tv , 
e 


One cause of this condition is the general indiffer- 
ence or neglect of comparative anatomy in medi- 
cal instruction, and the non-recognition of the 
principle that museums, to be educational, should 
be largely comparative. The author rightly in- 
sists upon greater attention being given to com- 
parative morphology as a basis of medical progress, 
and censures the lack of system. We are glad 
also to see his protest against the misleading and 
expensive dried preparations so common in collec- 
tions. 


BY THE ADDRESS of President Adams before 
the Cornell alumni at their sixth annual dinner 
recently held in New York, the controversy over 
what shall be the character of the university work 
was revived. Cornell was one of the colleges 
established through the benefit of the Morrill 
grant of 1862. The fundamental intent of that 
grant was the endowment in each state of at least 
one college where the leading object should be, 
‘* without excluding scientific and classical studies, 
to teach such branches of learning as are related 
to agriculture and the mechanical arts, in order to 
promote the liberal and practical education of the 
industrial classes.” The grant to New York con- 
sisted of land scrip for 990,000 acres. This scrip 
was bought by Mr. Cornell for about $500,000, 
and to this he added an equal sum from his own 
pocket. The land was located in the timber dis- 
tricts of Michigan, and now, at the end of twenty 
odd years, has realized to the college some three 
millions of dollars. The question is, whether the 
whole of this should be devoted in accordance 
with the original grant, or whether, on account 
of Mr. Cornell’s additional contribution, and the 
large amount realized through his foresight, the 
college is only bound to devote a portion of the 
fund to education in agricultural and mechanical 
arts. We would call attention to what our corre- 
spondent H. N. has to say upon the matter. 


SETTLEMENT OF LABOR DIFFERENCES, 


WHETHER the pamphlet’ from the pen of Mr. 
Joseph D. Weeks, which the Society for political 
education has just published, was or was not timed 
to the present crisis, we are not aware; but, 

1 New York, Putnam, 1886. 12°. 


340 


coming just at this time, both its value and its 
influence will be increased. The pamphlet is en- 
titled ‘‘ Labor differences and their settlement, a 
plea for arbitration and conciliation,” and it is an 
able exposition of the causes underlying our 
present labor difficulties, together with an argu- 
ment in favor of arbitration as the best method 
for their settlement. 

No thoughtful man can have watched the de- 
velopment of labor troubles during the last few 
years with any feeling short of anxiety. The in- 
crease in the number and frequency of strikes, 
the growing percentage of them that are success- 
ful, the hostility and ill feeling too often shown by 
employers and employed, have all forced them- 
selves upon our notice, but society seems helpless 
before them. 

Much of this, perhaps all of it, is due, we dare 
assert, not so much to a misunderstanding of the 
questions immediately under discussion as to abso- 
lute ignorance of the conditions underlying those 
questions, and moulding their form. Philosophy 
and science have taught us to view society as 
having developed from its early militant to its 
present industrial type along certain well-defined 
lines. But some how or other we feel an irresisti- 
ble desire to view this process as complete, to 
consider the book of evolution closed, and to con- 
gratulate ourselves on being the summation of 
an infinite series. This false conception affects 
our actions. We fail to see that society is still 
changing and developing, that the laws that 
operated in the past are still at work. 

This crude philosophy enters as a factor into our 
present labor complications when they are seen 
from a scientific stand-point. Old theories will not 
fit new facts, nor will antique remedies cure new 
troubles. Almost without an exception, employ- 
ers look upon the employees as their inferiors, 
and treat them as such. From this follows ill 
feeling, desire for retaliation, perhaps criminal 
recklessness. We overlook the fact that the old 
feudal relation of master and servant is a thing 
of the past, and is not represented in our present 
economic organization. As Mr. Weeks acutely 
points out, discussions between employers and 
employed are ‘ permitted’ by the former, inter- 
views are ‘ granted,’ committees are ‘ recognized.’ 
Now, we need not blind ourselves to the ethical 
fact that there is a superiority of possessions as 
well as a superiority of physical force and of in- 
tellect, but in economic matters it cannot safely 
be pushed very far. The employers must elimb 
down from this feudal pedestal, and meet their 
workmen on a level. Before the law and at the 
ballot-box, every man counts as one, and no more ; 
and it is unreasonable to expect that in economic 


SCIENCE. 


| Vou. VIL., No. 167 


relations one party to a contract shall count as in- 
finity, and the other as zero. 

In the second place, a false political economy 
must bear its share of the responsibility. The 
employers have come to think that they pay the 
wages, and therefore may settle them as they see 
fit. But the wages question is, as Mr. Weeks 
says, a problem in distribution, and wages are 
paid out of the product (p. 11). By a figure of 
speech, they are paid by the employer, because, - 
as industry is now organized, the product — the 
result of the combined effort of capitalist and 
laborer, we must always remember — goes into 
the hands of the employer as trustee, and he ad- 
vances to his laborers each one’s share as previously 
determined upon. Perhaps not even the laborer 
himself understands this clearly. The present 
methods have been in operation so long and on so 
enormous a scale, that it isnot easy to look beyond 
them and see what they really stand for. 

These two facts are typical of the steps to be 
taken in settling any labor dispute. The method 
laid down for scientific procedure by Bacon can 
find application in the field of industrial problems. 
First, we must clear our minds of all idols, all 
false notions and mistaken prejudices as to the in- 
equality of the employer and the employed ; and, 
second, we must observe facts and relations as 
they are, and not as it may suit our ideas to have 
them. 

It is in these fundamental conditions that labor 
troubles arise. Strikes, lock-outs, boycotts, and so 
on, are the effects, not the causes, of labor troubles. 
By repressing them we are only sitting on the 
safety-valve. Hidden but potent forces are at 
work, and as sure as fate they will break out in 
another place if repressed in one. What we want 
is prevention of strikes, not a cure for them. 

Have we any such prevention to suggest? Yes: 
we follow Mr. Weeks in favoring permanent 
boards of arbitration in which employers and em- 
ployed are equally represented, presided over by a 
disinterested umpire. The great advantage of a 
permanent board of arbitration, holding stated 
meetings, is that it builds up an entente cordiale 
between the capitalist and the laborer. They 
learn to sympathize with each other, to know that 
an industrial problem may present two very differ- 
ent aspects from two different points of view; to 
see, in a measure, through each other’s spectacles, 
The trouble with a temporary board of arbitration 
is that it is formed after the friction between the 
two parties has begun. It meets after a declara- 
tion of hostilities, not before ; and its members, 
feeling that they have a certain position to defend, 
assume a semi-belligerent attitude. The theoreti- 
cal advantages of a permanent board are forcibly 


| 


Apri 16, 1886.] 


supported by the evidence Mr. Weeks cites from 
practice. In the hosiery and glove trade at Not- 
tingham, England, a board of arbitration was 
established in 1860, and since that time not a 
single general strike nor difference about wages 
has occurred that was not settled amicably. The 
iron trade in the north of England has a similar 
story to tell. The Conseils des prud’hommes in 
France and Belgium bring cumulative evidence. 
A coming-together of this kind every month or 
six weeks, and meeting as equals for the discus- 
sion of affairs of common interest and importance, 
would have a magic effect in ascertaining the facts 
and suggesting concessions, as well as in removing 
that false pride and foolish obstinacy that aggra- 
vate so much every dispute about labor. The 
present appeal to brute force is as absurd and 
worthless as itis antiquated. It is economically 
and ethically a crime. Knowledge, moderation, 
and Christian charity will permanently re-organize 
industry on a plane where the strikes and boycotts 

of mediaeval inheritance will be unknown. 
NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER. 


APPARITIONS AND HAUNTED HOUSES. 


THE committee on apparitions and haunted 
houses, of the American society for psychical re- 
search, have issued a circular to invite communi- 
cations from persons who may be able to help 
them in an examination of the phenomena that 
fail within their province. 

They particularly desire information regarding 
supposed cases of apparitions of absent or de- 
ceased persons. It is well known that from time 
to time there are related or published accounts of 
people who are said to have seen, as present, per- 
sons who were at the time actually either absent 
or dead. As a proof of the genuineness of these ap- 
pearances, the accounts frequently add that the per- 
sons who have had these experiences have learned, 
through them, about some otherwise unknown 
facts, afterwards verified; such, for instance, as 
death or illness, or some other calamity which has 
actually happened, at or near the time of the ap- 
parition itself, to the distant person whose ap- 
pearance is narrated. Other proofs of the reality 
and significance of the supposed apparitions are 
sometimes narrated. 

The committee wish to collect accounts, from 

_ trustworthy sources, of all such alleged occur- 
_ rences, as well as accounts of other similar per- 

sonal experiences which may have been striking 
_ enough for the persons concerned to remember, or 
perhaps record. Such accounts the committee 
propose to collate and examine, with a view to 
_ drawing such conclusions from them as may seem 


SCIENCE, 


34] 


proper and warranted. In order that the results, 
if any are reached, may have value, the com- 
mittee, while not wishing to exclude any informa- 
tion likely to be useful, will be especially glad to 
hear directly from the persons themselves who 
have had the experiences in question, with such 
further information as will enable the committee 
to verify the accounts given, whether by the ac- 
counts of other witnesses, by the use of docu- 
ments, or by means of other collateral testimony. 
Persons who have information bearing on the mat- 
ters before the committee may find the following 
questions useful guides in stating their evidence. 
Such answers as can be furnished, in any case, 
should be given as explicitly as possible, in the 
communications addressed to the committee. 

1. To whom and when did the experience in 
question occur? What was his (or her) age, na- 
tionality, and occupation; and what was his (or 
her) state of health or of mind at the time of the 
apparition? At what hour of the day did it ap- 
pear, and at what place? 

2. Had the narrator of the experience in ques- 
tion ever had hallucinations, or seen apparitions 
before, or has such an occurrence ever happened 
since? If so, describe these other experiences, 
giving their time and place, and compare or con- 
trast them with the one in question. 

3. Does the narrator believe in ghosts? Or has 
he, before this experience, believed in apparitions 
of any sort, as probable sources of knowledge 
about absent or dead persons? 

4, To what senses did the apparition appeal? If 
it appeared clearly to the eye, describe the color, 
the form, place, apparent distance, size, clearness, 
the length of time of endurance, and all other 
remembered qualities of the object seen. Was it 
‘as large as life,’ i.e., as large as the person or 
thing supposed to have been seen would naturally 
have appeared? Were the other objects present 
at the time (such as the real wall, or a real table 
or chair) visible through it? Did it stand still, or 
move about? Did it remain clear, or come and 
go? Could it be touched? Was it seen in the 
darkness, or in the light? If the experience 
in question was not something seen, but some- 
thing heard or felt, describe it as clearly as pos- 
sible, and in a similarly definite manner, laying 
stress on whatever may show exactly what was 
experienced. 

5. If the apparition seemed to give warning, or 
other knowledge of any future or distant fact, did 
the narvator relate the incident to any one, or give 
notice of the warning conveyed, before he was 
able to verify the facts supposed to have been 
revealed? Did he record these facts before he 
verified them? If so, is the record now extant, or 


342 


can it be placed for examination in the hands of 
the committee? What other persons have heard 
of this apparition? How soon did they hear of 
it? Can they now be communicated with? 
What are their addresses? If possible, transmit 
their accounts at the same time with the narrative 
of the one who actually experienced the appari- 
tion in question. If two or more had the experi- 
ence in common, their names and separate narra- 
tives should be given. If this is not possibile, give 
their names and addresses. 

These questions are not meant to cover all the 
. ground in every case, but only to indicate the in- 
formation desired, and the most helpful sorts of 
information. In dealing with all these accounts, 
the committee will be governed by no pre-con- 
ceived theory or prejudice. They wish simply to 
hear and examine the facts, and to draw there- 
from whatever conclusions may prove to be war- 
ranted by the evidence. To this end they invite 
friendly co-operation from all well-disposed per- 
sons. 

Correspondents may feel assured that their com- 
munications will be treated as thoroughly con- 
fidential by the committee when specially re- 
quested so to treat them. 

The committee may be able to devote a some- 
what limited time to the personal examination of 
the phenomena connected with so-called haunted 
houses, and would be glad to hear of such phenom- 
ena from persons in the vicinity of Boston. 
The fullest details are requested from all who may 
offer information on this topic. 

Communications may be addressed to any mem- 
ber of the committee, which is constituted as fol- 
lows: Josiah Royce, chairman, Cambridge, Mass.; 
Morton Prince, M.D., secretary, Boston, Mass. ; 
T. W. Higginson, Cambridge, Mass. ; J. C. Ropes, 
40 State Street, Boston, Mass. ; F. E. Abbot, Cam- 
bridge, Mass.; Roland Thaxter, 98 Pinckney 
Street, Boston, Mass. ; Woodward Hudson, Con- 
cord, Mass. 


THE Massachusetts bureau of statistics of labor 
devotes considerable space, in its last annual re- 
port, to this subject, on account of its vital con- 
nection with the condition of the workingman. 
The author says, very justly, that the food-prob- 
lem is one of the most important that can engross 
the attention of the people, and of practical inter- 
est to the wage-worker, as much money is wasted 
in the purchase of food which might be saved by 
its expenditure in accordance with the results of 
scientific research. The truth of this is apparent 
to those who have observed how little the poor 
understand economy in the choice of foods. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 167 


The economic value of food-substances cannot 
be measured by their money cost, but by the 
amount and kind of nutritive material which they 
contain. This material the author divides into 
three different classes — viz., proteines, fats, and 
carbohydrates — in addition to the mineral matters, 
and bases the relative value of food-substances 
upon the available amounts contained. 

The relative physiological values of the nutrients 
in different foods depend, first, upon their digesti- 
bility ; and, second, upon their functions and the 
proportions in which they can replace each other 
in nutrition. Their accurate physiological valua- 
tion is, in the present state of our knowledge, im- 
practicable; but their pecuniary costs are more 
nearly capable of approximation. From extended 
and careful comparisons of the composition and 
market prices of the more important animal and 
vegetable food-materials, which form the bulk of 
the food of the people, it is estimated that a pound 
of proteine costs, on the average, five times as 
much, and a pound of fats three times as much, 
as a pound of carbohydrates. Of these, proteine 
is physiologically the most important, as it is 
pecuniarily the most expensive, and its cost may 
be used as a means of comparing the relative 
cheapness or dearness of different food-materials. 
Taking the cost of food-materials in New York as 
a basis, and making allowance for the cost of the 
other nutrients, the proteine in a pound of sirloin 
beef at 25 cents is estimated at $1.06; in a pound 
of mutton at 22 cents, 91 cents; in a pound of 
oysters at 35 cents per quart, $3.36; in shad at 8 
cents, 66 cents; in milk at 7 cents per quart, 53 
cents; in wheat-bread at 8 cents, 38 cents; oat- 
meal and beans at 5 cents, 14 and 15 cents. 

The nutrients of vegetable food are, in general, 
much less costly than in animal foods. The 
animal foods have, however, the advantage of 
containing a larger proportion of proteine and 
fats ; and the proteine, at least, in more digestible 
forms. Among the animal foods, those which 
rank as delicacies are the costliest. Thus the 
proteine in oysters costs from two to three dollars, 
and in salmon rises to over five dollars per pound. 
In beef, mutton, and ham, it varies from $1.06 to 
33 cents ; in shad, bluefish, haddock, and halibut, 
the range is about the same; while in cod and 
mackerel, fresh and salted, it varies from 75 to as 
low as 31 cents per pound. Salt cod and salt 
mackerel are nearly always, fresh cod and mack- 
erel often, and even the choicer fish, as bluefish 
and shad, when abundant, cheaper sources of 
proteine than any but the inferior kinds of meat. 
Among meats, pork is the cheapest ; but salt pork 
or bacon has the disadvantage of containing very 
little proteine. 


Apri 16, 1886. ] 


Oatmeal is one of the cheapest foods we have; 
that is, it furnishes more nutritive material, in 
proportion to the cost, than almost any other. 
Wheat-bread and rice, on the other hand, are the 
most expensive, in proportion to their cost, of the 
staple vegetable foods. 

By taking into account all the nutritive sub- 
stances, it is estimated that 25 cents will pay for 
.29 of a pound of nutrients in beef sirloin, .40 in 
round beef, and .92 in neck beef ; oysters, .12 to 
.17 ; shad and bluefish, about .28 : smoked herring, 
1.21 ; cheese, 1.08 to 1.35 ; milk, .99 ; wheat-bread, 
2.08 to 2.75, etc. 

Of course, in the comparative value of foods, 
their actual physiological use is not unimportant. 
Foods rich in nutrients may not be readily assimi- 
lable, and only physiological experiments can 
finally determine their actual nutritive value. 

From a study of the dietaries of factory and 
mill operatives, mechanics and other people en- 
gaged in manual labor in Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut, the most noticeable features observed 
were the large quantities of food consumed, es- 
pecially of animal food and fats. The total 
amount of nutrients per man per day varies in 
the Massachusetts dietaries from 690 grams to 
1,052 grams ; while in the European dietaries the 
normal range is from 653 to 863 grams. In the 
European the consumption of fats ranges from 13 
to 100 grams, while in the Massachusetts dietaries 
in no case does it fall below 127, and reaches as 
high as 304 grams. If common usage in Europe, 
and the standards which are currently accepted 
there, are correct expressions of the proper quanti- 
ties of food and of fat for healthful nutrition, the 
quantities of total food, of meats, and especially 
of fats, in the New England dietaries examined, 
are needlessly large, and in some instances ex- 
cessively so. The dietaries studied all pointed in 
one direction, indicating that in this country a 
large excess of food is consumed, not only by 
well-to-do people, but also by those in moderate 
circumstances. This excess consists mainly in 
meats and sweetmeats, which are expensive, as 
well as physiologically injurious when consumed 
in too large quantities. 


ELECTRIC LIGHTING IN ENGLAND. 


OWING to the restrictions imposed by the act of 
1882, electric lighting on any large scale is still a 
matter of the future in England, and the industry 
has not developed to any such extent as in Ger- 
many, Austria, Italy, or Belgium, and by no means 
asin this country. Perhaps partly from this in- 
terference with the development of a large sys- 
tem of distribution for electric lighting, and 


SCIENCE. 


343 


partly on account of the existence in England of 
large country houses in the possession of wealthy 
owners, the electrical illumination of single 
houses has been brought to a higher degree of 
perfection than domestic electric lighting in other 
countries. Men of wealth have constituted them- 
selves into amateur electricians, the marvels of 
electricity apparently exerting a captivating in- 
fluence upon their minds, and its study has been 
a hobby of many. 

The pioneers of domestic lighting in England 
were Sir William Thomson, Sir William Arm- 
strong, Mr. Coope, Mr. Sellon, and Mr. Charles 
Moseley. Sir William Thomson used a gas-engine, 
and worked his lamps directly from the dynamo, 
not only lighting his house, but also his class- 
room and laboratory in the University of Glasgow. 
Sir William Armstrong obtained his power from a 
waterfall in his ground. Mr. Coope used a steam- 
engine ; and Mr. Sellon and Mr. Moseley relied 
on secondary batteries, obtaining their power from 
gas-engines. 

The good exampies thus set have been followed 
by many, and at present a great many private 
houses in all parts of the country are thoroughly 
and efficiently lighted. In fact, electric lighting 
is becoming a fashion, and in the opinion of Mr. 
Preece, as expressed at a recent meeting of the 
London society of arts, ‘“‘the only fear of its 
ultimate general success is its falling into the 
hands of the inexperienced and ignorant.” 

Steam, gas, and water power have been satis- 
factorily used as agents for the production of 
power. Petroleum has not as yet had a trial in 
England, and wind is too uncertain to be relied 
on. Mr. Preece believes that a simple effective 
steam domestic motor has not as yet been intro- 
duced ; but in this opinion he was criticised by 
Mr. Crompton of the Society of arts, who af- 
firms that there are several English engines 
which could be worked by a gardener or butler as 
satisfactorily as a gas-engine. But most of the 
high-speed engines require more technical skill 
than is usually to be found among the domestics 
of an ordinary household. On this account the 
council of the Society of arts has under considera- 
tion a plan of offering prizes for the best engines 
designed to fill the special purposes of providing 
power for electric lighting. The competition will 
probably be extended to all classes of engines, — 
steam, gas, petroleum, or what not. 

At present the gas-engines seem best adapted to 
supply the need. According to the statement of 
Mr. Preece, 25 cubic feet of gas will give us one 
horse-power, or eight 20 candle- power glow- 
lamps, or 160 candle-power all told; but five 
5-feet burners will give only 75 candles when 


o44 


burned in air with ordinary burners. Gas- 
engines, moreover, are within the intelligence of 
butlers, gardeners, and coachmen: they are 
always ready for work, they attain their max- 
imum efficiency at once, and they can be stopped 
in a moment. 

In England the opportunities of using water- 
power are few and far between. The power of 
the tide or that of a flow of the river is very 
small when utilized within the limits of ordinary 
people. The whole fiow of the Thames through 
London bridge would maintain only 800 lamps. 
In Scotland, however, the case is somewhat dif- 
ferent. There several persons have utilized the 
water stored up in lakes. Many wonder why the 
wind is never used; but, apart from its uncer- 
tainty and unreliability, there is the fact that the 
power developed by the best windmills is, on the 
average, but very small. 

After referring to the sources of power, Mr. 
Preece turned his attention to the dynamo, and 
claimed that science, since the expiration of the 
Gramme patent, has converted a crude instrument 
into the most powerful converter of energy that 
exists. The forms of dynamo, he said, are being 
whittled down to two or three recognized shapes ; 
but ‘‘as long as the spirit of rivalry is stirred up 
by competition and emulation, so long shall we 
have some manufacturer who will make a change 
for the sake of a change, and who will advertise 
his wares as the best in the world.” Mr. Preece 
holds that little remains to be desired in the 
quality or price of dynamos, and that a well-con- 
structed dynamo, kept clean and well lubricated, 
never overworked, should last a lifetime without 
much attention except to the brushes and com- 
mutator. 

It is by means of the secondary battery that 
regularity and uniformity of current are main- 
tained in isolated installations ; and it supplies a 
reserve of force that renders one free from acci- 
dent to engine or dynamo. Its early failures dis- 
appointed many; but Mr. Preece hopes that it 
has ‘ sown its wild oats,’ and that it has become a 
mature, sober, practical instrument. Sir William 
Thomson writes, ‘‘ My cells have worked to perfec- 
tion. It is the greatest possible comfort to us in 
the house to have the light with satisfactorily 
equal brilliancy at all hours of the night and day, 
and every day in the week. I have now cut off 
the gas at the meter, so that there is absolutely 
none used in the house. I have no oil-lamps, 
and have not used so much as a single quarter of 
a candle within the last three months, and have 
the electric light in every part of the house where 
light can possibly be wanted by night or by day.” 
Mr. Preece now uses the secondary batteries, not, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 167 


as formerly, as regulators to his engine, but for 
the storage of electricity, charging them during 
the day, and discharging them through the lamps 
at night. He maintains that the durability of his 
cells is most satisfactory, and that he can see 
no reason why they should not last ten years at 
least. 

Of the lamps, Mr. Preece could not chronicle so 
great progress as that of dynamos and secondary 
batteries, and he held that a good standard glow- 
lamp has not yet been devised. He would prefer 
a 10-candle lamp, working under a pressure of 
50 volts, and requiring half an ampére: that 
would mean the absorption of 25 watts, or two 
and a half watts per candle. The life of sucha 
lamp would not be very great; but, if it were 
cheap enough, one would not mind frequent re- 
newals. Makers of lamps seem to consider that 
there is great credit in securing long life; but 
this may be unfortunate, considering the de- 
terioration of glow-lamps with age, owing to the 
wasting-away of the carbon and its deposition on 
the glass globe. Mr. Preece would have a lamp 
such that we could afford to give it a ‘ short and 
merry life.’ 

There is felt in Engiand, on account of the 
small development in the industry, a difficulty in 
obtaining experienced workmen; and in some 
cases it has been necessary to send nearly the 
length of the island for men to put in the wires 
and machinery. 

Mr. Preece’s estimation of the cost is just twice 
that of gas; but this, whether too high or too 
low, seems to be in doubt, and it is certain that 
the cost is largely dependent upon the extent to 
which the light shall be used. Considerable im- 
patience is felt at the restrictions imposed by the 
act of 1882, and the council of the Society of arts 
is taking an active part in supporting the measure 
now before the house of lords, intending to ex- 
tend the facilities for introducing electric lighting. 
This act is understood to be under: the direct 
supervision of Lord Rayleigh. 


THE PROPOSED FISHERIES BOARD OF 


GREAT BRITAIN.’ 


I am of opinion that the less the government 
interferes with any branch of industry, the better, 
and that, as a general rule, the cost and trouble 
of obtaining such scientific information as is 
necessary for the successful prosecution of a 
branch of industry ought to fall upon those who 
profit by it, and not upon the general body of the 

1 Letter in response to a request from the secretary of 


the Society of arts for Professor Huxley’s views as to the 
constitution of a fisheries board. 


Aprit 16, 1886. ] 


tax-payers. I donot think that any sane man would 
propose to establish a government office, composed 
of chemists and metallurgists, for the purpose of 
managing the business of the iron-masters. 

The case of the fishing industry, however, is 
peculiar. The different classes of fishermen tend 
to encroach on one another’s liberties ; and in the 
case of sea-fisheries the nation at large is proprie- 
tor, and has an interest in their being properly 
worked. Moreover, beyond the three-mile limit 
the interests of English fishermen may come into 
conflict with those of foreigners, and give rise to 
international questions of great difticulty and deli- 
cacy. Hence I have no doubt that some de- 
partment of the government ought to be in close 
relation with the fisheries, ought to be able to 
interfere with them to some extent and under 
certain circumstances, and ought to be able to 
institute or undertake such scientific inquiries as 
may be needful in order to obtain satisfactory 
data for its action. 

My first connection with fishery questions dates 
back now about a quarter of a century, and from 


- that time to this I have taken every opportunity 


ie 


of urging the formation of a government depart- 
ment, such as I imagine is now about to be estab- 
lished, empowered to deal with the fisheries on 
these principles. _ 

I think that such a fishery department should — 

1. Collect accurate statistical and other infor- 
mation respecting the fisheries of England and 
bearing upon fishery interests in general, and 
present a yearly report, to be laid before parlia- 
ment, based thereupon. 

2. That it should be empowered to inquire into 
grievances of fishermen and suggestions for im- 
provement of the fisheries. Hitherto the only 
method open to those who were, or supposed 
themselves to be, aggrieved was to get a royal 
commission of inquiry appointed. Within my 
experience, three of these commissions have in- 
quired at intervals af eight or nine years, at great 
cost of trouble and money, into the same questions 
regarding the sea-fisheries, and have arrived at 
practically the same results. 

3. That it should have power of inquiry to make 
orders regulating or restricting acts of fishery. 

4, That it should be empowered to obtain such 
scientific assistance as may be needful. 

It is to this last point that the questions ad- 
dressed to me are more particularly directed ; but 
I could hardly have answered them satisfactorily 
unless I had sketched forth my general views as 
to the justification and the limits of state inter- 
ference in fishery matters. I have had something 
to do both with science and with administration, 
and it is in the interest of both that I express 


SCIENCE. 


345 


my strong conviction that they ought to be kept 
separate. 

The function of the man of science is to ascer- 
tain facts, and give advice based upon that which 
he has ascertained. He may be the most com- 
petent person in the world to do that, and, at the 
same time, wholly unfit for administrative duties. 
If, again, we consider the four kinds of action to 
which, I believe, the operations of a fishery 
department should be restricted, what is the 
advantage of setting a skilled naturalist to collect 
and digest statistics, or to draw up regulations 
and orders, or to weary out his soul in the routine 
business of an administrative office? What he is 
wanted for is to act, first, as an assessor in 
inquiries, and, secondly, as an investigator of such 
problems as bear directly upon those fishery ques- 
tions in which the general public is interested. 
For example, the nation at large has an interest in 
providing against the practice of unduly wasteful 
modes of fishing, as tending to the wanton 
destruction of its property ; and I should say that 
any amount of money bestowed upon the 
scientific investigation of the effect of some modes 
of fishing might be well spent. 

I am strongly of opinion that the best method 
of bringing science into its proper relation with 
the fishery department is that the latter, when it 
requires a scientific answer for an inquiry, or 
when it desires that a scientific problem should 
be thoroughly investigated, should apply to the 
president and council of the Royal society to nom- 
inate a person or persons to undertake the work. 
That is a course frequently pursued by other 
governmental departments, and it works very 
satisfactorily. However, if it should be thought 
better to have a permanent adviser, or a permanent 
committee of reference, I see no great objection 
to the adoption of either of these plans. 

But what I desire to repudiate as strongly as 
possible, in the name and the interest of science, 
no less than in that of the working fisherman, is the 
proposal which I see continually pressed in letters 
addressed to the papers, to appoint a body of 
scientific men to ‘manage’ the fisheries. In the 
first place, the proposition is futile, for anybody 
who knows any thing about the feeling among the 
smack owners and working fishermen is aware 
that they would not listen to such a proposal for 
a moment. In the second place, the notion that 
the fisheries want managing by a government 
office, and that the fishing business, like every 
other, ought not, as far as possible, to be left to 
manage itself, is, in my opinion, utterly foolish 
and mischievous. And, in the third place, if the 
fisheries were to be thus managed, men of science 
are no more the right people to be intrusted with 


346 


managing fishery affairs than a landsman who 
happens to be master of the theory of navigation 
is the right man to be trusted with steering an 
ironclad. 

The whole lesson of my somewhat lengthy and 
varied experience of fishery matters may be 
summed up thus :— 

1. Don’t meddle, unless you have good grounds 
for believing that you know what the effect of 
your meddling will be. 

2. Listen to all that the scientific men without 
practical knowledge and the practical men with- 
out scientific knowledge have to say, but give to 
neither the power of directly interfering with such 
a large and important branch of industry as 
fishing. 

3. Collect all the information that is to be had, 
so that the country may know year by year how 
the fisheries really stand ; make that information 
accessible to the people who are engaged in the 
fishing industry ; inquire into real or supposed 
grievances; and regulate or restrict, experi- 
mentally, on good cause shown. 

4, Let the department charged with these duties 
obtain such scientific help as is needful from per- 
sons of recognized scientific competency, who are 
not under the control of the administrative depart- 
ment, and are not responsible to any one for the 
conclusions at which they may arrive. Moreover, 
let all scientific inquiries thus undertaken be 
strictly relevant, not merely to fishery matters, 
but to questions with which the state may 
properly deal as the representative of the general 
interest. 

If the government is to be asked to give a body 
of scientific men a roving commission to inquire 
into the natural history of the seas and rivers of 
England, let that issue be put plainly before the 
minister to whom the application is made. But I 
do not see what the board of trade has to do with 
such ‘aid to science ,’ nor why it is desirable that 
the gentlemen who are to be intrusted with this 
very considerable enterprise should have the 
‘management of the fisheries’ — which means the 
power of meddling with a great industrial! interest 
— thrown in as a sort of hors d’oeuvre. 


Titi EORLry, 
March 20, 


EXPLOSIONS IN COAL-MINES. 


ATTENTION has been called to the connection 
which exists between gas-explosions in coal-mines 
and certain atmospheric conditions, which is ex- 
pressed by saying that the number of such ex- 
plosions is very considerably greater under low 
atmospheric pressure (under so-called barometric 
depression) than with a normal or high barometer. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL., No. 167 


This is not a newly discovered fact, for it was 
recognized by Dickinson as early as 1852; and for 
nearly ten years past barometers have been used 
in many English coal-mines for observing the con- 
dition and changes of atmospheric pressure, and 
estimating therefrom, to some extent, the danger 
which may come from the latter source. But 
there is a growing conviction that the whole ques- 
tion needs further investigation, and particularly 
that experimental tests are necessary. Such tests, 
however, are very expensive, and for that reason 
little has been done hitherto in that direction. All 
the more noteworthy, therefore, are the numerous 
experiments which were undertaken last summer 
at the mines of Archduke Albert in Karwin, and 
which were on such a scale that the working of 
the entire mine was suspended at times in order 
to give a free field to the scientific investigations. 
Professor Suess has recently given an account of 
these important investigations in the geological 
institute at Vienna. 

The district in which these observations were 
made comprises the greatest part of the archducal 
Gabriela mine. This portion obtains its fresh air 
from the Gabriela shaft, while the principal air- 
shaft, 500 metres to the west, serves as the up-cast 
shaft. At the latter a Quibal ventilator of 7.04 
metres diameter was in operation during the whole 
course of the experiments. A similar ventilator 
of 12 metres diameter has been introduced re- 
cently. 

The seams of the Gabriela mine belong to the 
most easterly portion of the Ostran-Karwin dis- 
trict, just on the edge of the Carpathian Moun- 
tains; and the mine joins the district of the 
Johann-Schacht where the accident of March 6, 
1883, occurred. The stratification is nearly hori- 
zontal. On one occasion, after work in the mine 
had been stopped for six hours, the freshly ex- 
posed surface, where the miners had been at work, 
gave a crackling, blowing, and slightly hissing 
sound over its whole extent ; and the escape of 
gas was detected not only by the lamp, but by the 
ear. Many of the puddles of water on the floor of 
the level were in slight agitation from the gas 
bubbling up through them. The old surfaces, 
however, were quiet, and experience has shown 
that the portions of the seam lying nearest work- 
ings lose their gas sooner or later, and cease to be 
dangerous. For the reason above explained, also, 
the working of drifts running directly into the 
seam requires the greatest precaution, and in the 
whole Ostran-Karwin district double workings are 
carried on in the deep levels for the sake of venti- 
lation. The escaping gas is carried along by the 
draught produced by the ventilation, but local 
accumulations are unavoidable. 


, 


Arrit 16, 1886.] 


In order to obtain clear and convincing results 
in the investigations under discussion, a long 
series of analyses of the air from the well and 
regularly ventilated mine was made at the same 
time that barometric observations were taken. 
For the latter purpose a barograph was placed in 
the lowest part of the mine, at a depth of 2380 
metres, and the close correspondence between the 
changes of pressure at the surface and in the mine 
was ascertained. There a large number of daily 
analyses were made of the air taken from the 
ventilator, and also of air taken from a level in the 
seam by an independent apparatus. 

These experiments were commenced in the be- 

ginning of June,,1885, and are still goingon. The 
first report published by the archducal finance 
director in Teschen, based on the experiments 
made from June 5 to July 13, shows, that, when 
the barometer fell, the proportion of explosive gas 
in the ventilator and mine increased. The later 
experiments confirm this result in the most strik- 
ing manner. The report referred to expresses the 
results of the early experiments as follows :— 
_ 1. The proportion of explosive gas in the mine 
air, generally speaking, decreases with increasing 
atmospheric pressure, and increases with a decreas- 
ing pressure. 

2. The proportion of gas increases more rapidly 
the more suddenly the barometric curve falls, and 
decreases more rapidly the more suddenly the 
curve rises. 

3. The development of the gas does not depend 
on the absolute amount of barometric depression. 

4, If the barometric curve ascends at first sud- 
denly and then slowly, or remains stationary for 
some time after reaching a maximum, a slow in- 
crease of gas is observed. If, after a sudden fall 
of the barometer, the pressure continues to de- 
crease slowly, or remains stationary some time 
after reaching a minimum, a slow decrease of gas 

_is observed. The maximum and minimum of the 
barometric curve, therefore, do not always cor- 
respond to the minimum and maximum of the 
gas curve. 

Not content with these observations, a further 
series of experiments was undertaken. Work on 
the mine was stopped, and the air-supply shaft 
was closed while the ventilator was kept running, 
This experiment was begun at noon on June 20, 
and continued twenty-seven hours. In order to 
obtain the usual number of revolutions of the 
ventilator, the steam-pressure had to be increased. 
The barometric pressure in the mine sank 2.2 mil- 
limetres in five minutes, while the proportion of 
gas at the ventilator (which was ventilating other 
workings at the same time) rose to 0.83 per cent, 
and, at the level where separate collection was 


SCIENCE. 


347 


made, to about 0.40 per cent. In subsequent ex- 
periments a barometric depression of 4 millimetres 
was reached in the mine, the ventilator stopped, 
and in one case the gas in the level reached 1.35 
per cent. This artificial depression of from 2.2 
millimetres to 4 millimetres is certainly small in 
comparison with the natural variations in atmos- 
pheric pressure which are going on all the time, 
but its sudden production accelerated proportion- 
ally the flow of gas in the mine. Of the five 
severest accidents in coal-mines which have hap- 
pened recently, four occurred during periods of 
especially low barometer. The accident at Polish 
Ostran on the 8th of October, 1884, occurred when 
the barometer sank 11 millimetres in forty-eight 
hours. The explosion at Karwin on March 6, 
1885, took place on the second day of the fall of 
the barometer, which lasted three days and 
amounted to 16 millimetres. That at Saar- 
briicken occurred also on the second day of a fall 
of about 18 millimetres ; and that at Clifton Hall 
on June 18, 1885, took place at the beginning of a 
fall. The accident at Dombran on March 7, 1885, 
is generally attributed to coal-dust. To these five 
accidents must now be added that at Spekul in 
Banat, which took place at nine o’clock in the 
morning of Oct. 29, 1885. In the absence of more 
accurate data, it may be remarked that on the 
28th of October the barometer was 754.2 milli- 
metres at seven in the morning, at Hermannstadt ; 
on the 29th it was 750.6 millimetres, and on the 
30th 749.8 millimetres. 

It is superfluous to enlarge upon the experiments. 
at Karwin. They confirm the views of the English 
experts and those expressed by Cowen before the 
English parliament in 1878, and it may be pre- 
sumed that they will produce a change of opinion 
in other countries where those views are not 
known. They show the great importance of the 
barometer in coal-mining. The _ isobar-charts, 
which are obtaining a wider publication every 
year, show the daily progress of barometric min- 
ima over Europe, and they should be consulted in 
future by the managers of every coal-mine. The 
order is already in force at Karwin, forbidding 
blasting at all dangerous points on the approach 
of a barometric depression, and, if the danger 
increases, all work is to be suspended. M. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Dr. PALIsA of Vienna detected still another 
small planet, April 5: it was of the thirteenth 
magnitude, and will bring the total number of 
these bodies up to 207. 


— The national museum has received a fine speci- 


348 


men of a ten-foot gray shark of strange form, of 
the Mediterranean species, —the first one of its 
kind ever taken in American waters. It was 
caught on the Carolina shores by the life-saving 
crews. 


— Dr. E. M. Crookshank, ina recent paper on 
the cultivation of bacteria (Journ. roy. micr. soc.), 
describes and figures a peculiar fungus, Acti- 
nomyces (or the ‘gray fungus’), the cause of a 
singular disease known as actinomycosis, occur- 
ring rarely in man, but not uncommonly in cattle. 
The fungus is believed to gain an entrance to the 
animal by the mouth, through the food, or pos- 
sibly through the medium of a wound of the gums 
or a carious tooth. It sets up inflammation, 
resulting in the formation of a new growth, re- 
sembling a tuberculous nodule, which eventually 
terminates in large tumors. In cattle the lower 
jaw is usually affected, and then the upper jaw 
and neighboring parts, but the parasite may also 
occur in the lungs and the subcutaneous and inter- 
muscular tissue. In man the pulmonary forma- 
tions tend to break down early, forming fistulae 
and sinuses. In other cases the disease may 
originate in the intestines, or occur in the bones 
and other tissue. It may be transmitted by in- 
oculation among cattle and rabbits, and presuma- 
bly toman. The fungus is visible to the naked 
eye, appearing in the form of rosettes composed 
of club-shaped elements, and either colorless or of 
a yellowish or yellowish-green tinge. 


—A recent communication, by Dr. Macgowan, 
to the China branch of the Royal Asiatic society, 
in relation to a supposed ancient phonograph, has 
elicited articles on the subject from several corre- 
spondents of the North China herald. The instru- 
ment to which Dr. Macgowan referred is known 
as ‘the thousand-li speaker,’ and is described by a 
writer of the seventeenth century. A correspond- 
ent of the North China herald, writing from 
Pekin, quotes from the ‘Things of which Con- 
fucius did not speak,’ and describes the instrument 
as follows: ‘‘It was a bamboo tube covered with 
a disk of glass and opened by a key. After speak- 
ing into it several thousand words, it was closed and 
carried to a distance not exceeding a thousand li. 
On opening it and applying the ear, a voice was 
still distinctly heard. If carried a greater dis- 
tance, the voice became indistinct.” Although 
the existence of such an instrument as a phono- 
graph in China, in the seventeenth century, may 
be doubted, it is interesting to note one suggestion 
of Dr. Macgowan’s. A thousand li in China is a 
considerable distance, and travelling in carts, or on 
horseback, over such abominable roads, is by no 
means a pleasant pastime ; and it is probable, that, 


SCIENCE. 


{[Vou. VII, No. 167 


from the jogging and bumping up and down sus- 
tained by the instrument, its mechanism would 
become disarranged, and the imprints on the me- 
tallic plates (if there were such) effaced, before a 
thousand li were travelled over. So longa distance, 
therefore, would be sufficient to cause the ‘voice 
within the tube’ to grow indistinct. 


—Under the name of ‘crystallized hopeine,’ 
the Chemical news states that a substance is sold, 
having a slight odor of hops, but which has in its 
appearance, its crystalline form, and in all its re- 
actions, a close resemblance to morphia. 


—Contrary to the ordinary experience with 
copper salts, M. du Moulin, says the Chemical 
news, has succeeded in administering doses of 
half a gram to one gram of basic copper acetate 
to dogs and rabbits for six weeks without pro- 
ducing poisoning. Copper oxide and carbonate 
have also been administered to rabbits for a year 
without producing any appreciable injury. 


— The French association for the advancement 
of science will hold its fifteenth meeting at Nancy, 
Aug. 12 next, under the presidency of Professor 
Friedel. 


— The total amount of diamonds discovered in 
the diamond-fields of South Africa in 1885 is 
estimated at not less than 2,440,788 carats, valued 
at over twelve millions of dollars. The quantity 
is greater, but the value less, than the finds for 
the years 1883 and 1884. In 1884 the most valua- 
ble diamond now known was obtained, weighing, 
when first discovered, four hundred and fifty- 
seven carats, but which will be reduced, by cut- 
ting, to two hundred carats. 


— Gambetta’s brain was stated by Mr. A. Bloch, 
a few months ago, to be of unusually small size, 
weighing only 1,160 grams or 38.4 ounces. At 
the meeting of the Société d’anthropologie of 
March 18, Professor Duval added, further, some 
interesting details of its conformation and struc- 
ture. In comparison with brains of subjects who 
were known to have been of deficient mental — 
powers, such as possess only a feeble develop- 
ment of the third frontal convolution, Gambetta’s 
brain was found to have an extreme development 
of this convolution, and the fissures very numer- 
ous and very complicated. This development 
furnishes confirmatory evidence of Broca’s dis- 
covery of the localization of speech in this con- 
volution. In addition to other peculiarities, the - 
right quadrilateral lobe was found to be very com- 
plicated, with numerous fissures in its lower part; 
and the occipital lobe was extremely reduced, 
especially on the right side. 

— Anent the opinion of Mr, Perry, that a max- 


in the latter. 


Apri 16, 1886.] 


imum of earthquakes is coincident with the mean 
perigee, Dr. D. J. Macgowan recently submitted 
the following statistics to the Seismological so- 
ciety of Japan. They partially confirm also 
Professor Milne’s observations that cold weather 


furnishes the maximum of frequency. Of 738 
continental shocks, there occurred, in the 

1st month, 65 ith month, 70 

2d wy 82 Silay = Ft 70 

3d Af 72 Och £64 56 

4th £6 AQ 10Gb. 4° 43 

5th AG hitch 65 

6th ot 63 doth, —<* 88 


The first day of the first month occurs about 
Feb. 6, or at the new moon which falls nearest to 
the point when the sun is in the 15th degree of 
Aquarius. On these seismic records, the Chinese 
seldom designate the day of the month (moon) 
when earthquakes occur, yet a considerable num- 
ber may be found. Seventy-two cases show twice 
as many in the first and second as in the third 
and fourth quarters of the moon’s phases, — 
forty-eight in the former period, and twenty-four 
The sixth day shows the largest 


“number, 12; none took place on the 2d, 5th, 138th, 


or 14th ; one occurred on each of the following: 
4th, 7th, 17th, 20th, 22d, 23d, 24th, 28th, 29th. 
Hours are rarely given: so far as they go, they 
show that a large majority are nocturnal. 


— The third annual report of the Massachusetts 
agricultural station deals chiefly with feeding- 
experiments and experimental researches upon the 
use of fertilizers, and the relative nutritive charac- 
ters of prominent farm-crops. 
siderable amount of matter that will be of value 
to the agriculturalist. 


—The well-known embryologist of the fish 
commission, Mr. John A. Ryder, is now engaged 
in studying the development of the mud-minnow 
(Melanura limi), and finds some remarkable amoe- 
boid movements of the eggs before they are 
hatched. This is somewhat peculiar, and is the 
first time that it has been observed. By a series 
of ingenious contrivances, he is enabled to watch 
the process of development from the moment the 
fish is hatched until it assumes the characters of 
the adult. 


— The London Athenaeum announces that Sir 
Henry Roscoe will probably be the president of 
the British association for 1887, when the associa- 
tion will hold its meeting in Manchester. 


— Dr. W. N. Bullard, in a paper lately read 
before the Massachusetts medical society, gives a 
detailed analysis of the various symptoms of tea- 
poisoning, obtained from the study of a large 
Series of cases. He arrives at the important con- 


SCIENCE. 


It contains a con- 


349 


clusions, that the action of tea is cumulative, and 
is more pronounced on the young and those in 
a depressed physical condition, although persons 
otherwise healthy not infrequently show poisonous 
symptoms; that as a rule in the class of people 
examined by him, chiefly adult women, the aver- 
age amount needed to cause poisonous symptoms 
was a little less than five cups daily; and that 
chronic tea-poisoning is a frequent affection, whose 
most common symptoms are loss of appetite, dys- 
pepsia, palpitation, headache, vomiting and nausea, 
combined with nervousness, and hysterical and 
neuralgic affections, frequently accompanied by 
constipation and pain in the region of the heart. 


— It has now been determined, says the London 
Graphic, to deal in a somewhat new manner with 
the difficult problem presented by the disposal of 
London sewage, which was a few years back con- 
sidered solved by the simple process of emptying 
it into the Thames. For some months experiments 
have been made on what is known as the precipita- 
tion method; that is, the sewage is left in a tank 
until its solid portion separates, the separation be- 
ing hastened by the addition of lime and proto- 
sulphate of iron. Hitherto a million gallons a day 
have been dealt with, but it is now determined to 
increase the plant so as to deal with nine times 
that quantity of sewage. Under this treatment the 
liquid portion becomes as clear as fresh water, and 
can be emptied direct into the Thames. The solid 
portion, or sludge, will be pressed into blocks re- 
sembling so much clay, and will be taken out to 
sea, to be discharged in deep water, where it can 
do no harm. 


— According to Dr. E. Naumann, the director 
of the geological survey of Japan, the principal 
coal-deposits in the country are found in Kinshin 
and Yesso. The most productive coal-mine is 
that at Takashima, at which mine the daily pro- 
duction amounts to 750 tons. The mine of next 
importance is at Miike, which produces about 500 
tons. The coal-fields at this spot are supposed to 
contain 150,000,000 tons, and it is probable that in 
the future Mtike will become the principal coal- 
mine of the country. The production of coal in 
Japan during the year ending June 30, 1881, 
was 890,000 tons. 


— At the congress of German physicists next 
September, there will be an exhibition of scientific 
photographs, to which all foreign scientists are 
invited to contribute, especially astronomers, spec- 
troscopists, geologists, botanists, zodlogists, sur- 
geons, etc. Further information may be obtained 
by addressing Dr, H. W. Vogel, 124 Kurfiirstenstr., 
Berlin, W. 


— The subject of an interesting paper by Mr. 


350 


Victor Mindeleff at the last meeting of the Wash- 
ington anthropological society was ‘ The snake- 
dance of the Moqui Indians.’ His paper was sup- 
plemented by the remarks of Dr. H. C. Yarrow, 
who visited New Mexico last summer for the pur- 
pose of studying in detail this peculiar and some- 
what remarkable ceremony. This dance of the 
Moquis is, according to Dr. Yarrow, a prayer or 
supplication to their deity for rain.- It is con- 
ducted by a secret order known as the Antelope 
and snake men. Snakes are employed under the 
belief that they are the sacred guardians of the 
clouds. The snakes used are largely venomous 
species (mostly rattlesnakes), although three or 
four harmless species were identified by Dr. Yar- 
row. Strange as it may seem, the Indians are 
seldom bitten, although they handle them with 
the utmost impunity. Painted in the most hideous 
and fantastic fashion, each participant catches a 
snake about the middle of the body with his teeth, 
and holds it in this position while he performs the 
dance. For several days previous to the cere- 
mony, the snakes are taken through a course of 
treatment, which consists in stroking them re- 
peatedly, and causing them to drink a decoction 
of some plant which they claim to be an antidote 
to the venom of thesnake. This treatment renders 
them somewhat stupid and sluggish, which, in all 
probability, accounts for the few casualties which 
occur, although Dr. Yarrow saw rattlesnakes 
brought in fresh from the plains during the cere- 
mony, and employed in the dance. Their 
non-combativeness can then be explained, he 
thinks, only upon the hypothesis of some hypnotic 
influence exerted by the attendant. An elaborate 
report on this subject by Dr. Yarrow will be pub- 
lished by the bureau of ethnology. 


— Mr. Alvan Clark received April 9, from the 
Russian minister in Washington, the gold medal 
awarded to him a year ago by the emperor of 
Russia on recommendation of Otto Struve, the 
astronomer at Pulkova, who has charge of the 
great telescope made by Mr. Clark for the Russian 
government. The medal is of solid gold, 3-16 of 
an inch thick, and 3 5-8 inches indiameter. On one 
side a handsomely engraved wreath of oak-leaves 
encircles the words ‘ Praemia digno,’ and on the 
other side is a profile likeness of the emperor, sur- 
rounded by the inscription, ‘ Alexander III. To- 
itus Russiae imperator.’ 

— The first annual report of the Montreal bo- 
tanic garden gives a list of the known gardens of 
the world, from which it appears that there are 
one hundred and ninety-seven, the most of them, 
it is believed, scientific in character. Germany 
has the largest number, — thirty-four; Italy, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 167 


twenty-three; France, twenty; Great Britain and 
Ireland, twelve ; West Indies, six; and the United 
States, five. More than half of all are supported 
by the state, and only about five per cent by private 
enterprise ; the remainder, by the city, and educa- 
tional institutions. Nearly ninety per cent are free 
to the public, and more than two-thirds are open 
on Sundays. The one at Montreal will include 
about seventy-five acres, although only about 
eighteen will constitute the garden proper, within 
which will be the various buildings, pond, and all 
the beds of herbaceous plants. 


— Mr. Brayton Ives, formerly president of the 
New York stock exchange, and well known as a 
collector of books, has written a preface for the 
American edition of Mr. George Rae’s work, ‘The 
country banker; his clients, cares, and work,’ 
which Messrs. Scribner have just issued. As Mr. 
Bagehot’s ‘ Lombard Street’ pictured the life and 
cares of the city banker, Mr. Rae’s describes the 
not less interesting life of the country banker. 


— Now that the time is approaching when sail- 
boats, great and small, are to be put into commis- 
sion, Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons’ announce- 
ment of a practical ‘ Boat-sailer’s manual’ is very 
timely. The author is Lieut. Edward F. Qual- 
trough of the navy. He has made a complete 
treatise on the management of sailing-boats of all 
kinds, and under all conditions of weather ; con- 
taining, also, concise descriptions of the various 
rigs in general use at home and abroad, directions 
for handling sailing-canoes, and the rudiments of 
cutter and sloop sailing. 


— Mr. Andrew Carnegie’s new book, ‘ Trium- 
phant democracy,’ will be published on April 17. 


—The Numismatic and antiquarian society of 
Philadelphia has undertaken the preparation of an 
archaeological map to embrace the valleys of the 
Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, and desires 
co-operation in this important work. The map is 
intended to show the location of all the principal 
remains attributed to the Indian tribes who 
formerly occupied these regions. It will include 
contiguous portions of the states of Pennsylvania, 
New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. 
Societies and individuals are earnestly requested 
to furnish whatever information they may possess 
concerning the following classes of antiquities : 
gravel deposits (paleolithic); artificial shell- 
heaps; cave retreats; encampments or village 
sites ; earth-works ; old fields; quarries; work- 
shops: surface deposits of implements, or caches ; 
large rocks in place, used as mortars; rock in- 
scriptions (in situ); burial-places; tumuli, or 
mounds; Indian trails. A full description and 
accurate location of any of the above should be 


Aprit 16, 1886.] 


How far and in what direction from 
nearest town? On or near what stream, if any? 
On whose property? The occurrence of native 
objects of copper, or articles of European intro- 
duction, should be mentioned. Communications 
may be addressed to Henry Phillips, jun., secre- 
tary, Philadelphia. 


—WNaturalists will be pleased to learn of the 
early publication of Mr. Scudder’s extensive work 
on New England butterflies, which has been nearly 
completed for a number of years. Those who have 
seen the elegant colored plates, and are aware of 
the thorough monographic way in which each 
species is treated, will appreciate the value of the 
work. The author is desirous of obtaining addi- 
tional material for the illustration and description 
of the earlier stages of a number of species, and 
will welcome any assistance that may be afforded 
him in diminishing his list of desiderata. 


given. 


— Hardly a week passes without the announce- 
ment of some new literary or scientific enterprise 
from Germany. This time it is the appearance 
of the opening number of a Zeitschrift fiir assyri- 
ologie that we have to announce. It is published 
by Schulze at Leipzig, and Assyrian scholars speak 
very highly of the part just issued. 


— Lea & Son’s ‘ Encyclopaedia of dentistry,’ an 
important work on odontological science now pub- 
lishing, will contain extended illustrated articles 
on the teeth of vertebrates, both fossil and recent, 
and of invertebrates,— on the former by Mr. J. H. 
Wortman, and on the latter by Mr. W. H. Dall. 


— William Paul Gerhard’s ‘ A guide to sanitary 
house-inspection’ (New York, Wiley, i885) will 
serve as a comprehensive vade mecum for the 
house-holder and house-hunter. It contains suc- 
cinct and complete instructions for the sanitary 
inspection of city and country dwellings, and for 
the choice of their surroundings. Much of the 
contents common sense and common prudence 
ought to suggest to the intelligent person; but, 
unfortunately, common sense and common pru- 
dence in sanitary matters are not usually the at- 
tributes of the ordinary householder, nor indeed 
frequently of the educated one, as witness a case of 
a city physician in good practice who failed to 
discover in many months that the sewerage con- 
nections of his house were untrapped. For those 
who cannot employ an expert, this book can be 
recommended as a useful guide in building or in 
the choice of dwellings. 


— Mr. W. T. Hornaday of the national museum 
will shortly issue his second book, ‘Canoe and 
rifle on the Orinoco,’ being a history of his hunt- 
ing and exploring experiences on that river. 


| 
| 


SCTENCE. 


301 


— There has recently been issued by Cupples, 
Upham & Co. of Boston a pamphlet on the present 
condition of electric lighting, written by one N. 
H. Schilling, Ph.D., purporting to be a report 
made at Munich, Sept. 26, 1885. To whom this 
report was made is not stated in the volume ; but 
from the statement made at the bottom of p. 5, 
that ‘ no business loss has been sustained by us’ 
by the introduction of electricity for lighting the 
Munich railway-station, ‘‘since gas-motors are 
used for the production of the current,” it is 
natural to suppose that the report was made to 
one of the gas companies of that city. Similar 
references occur on other pages, and the report 
cannot, therefore, be considered an unbiassed 
statement of the present condition of electric 
lighting. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


«* Corresyondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Preliminary description of a new squirrel from 
Minnesota (Sciurus carolinensis hypophaeus! 
Sp. nov.). 


OnE of my mammal collectors has recently sent me 
from Sherbourne county, Minnesota, a number of 
specimens of the gray squirrel of that region. The 
locality is considerably north of the supposed north- 
ern limit of the animal’s range, and the specimens 
differ markedly from the previously described 
varieties of the species. They are as large as, or 
slightly larger than, their nearest ally, Sciurus 
carolinensis leucotis, with which they agree in the 
size and bushiness of the tail and in the color of the 
upper parts. They differ from it, 1°, in having 
broader ears, the convexities of which are adorned 
with large and very conspicuous white woolly tufts, 
the yellowish-buff being confined to a narrow strip 
along their anterior borders ; 2°, in having the white 
of the under parts very much restricted. The color 
of the back and sides encroaches everywhere upon 
the belly, leaving a small and irregularly defined 
patch of white in the centre of the abdominal re- 
gion, and even this is usually much mixed with gray. 
The breast and throat are grizzled gray, more or less 
strongly suffused with yellowish fulvous. The pelage 
is noticeably softer and denser than in the common 
gray squirrel. C. Hart MERRIAM. 


Names of the Canadian Rocky Mountain peaks. 


I willingly admit the inaccuracy of the correction 
as to the names of some Rocky Mountain peaks made 
on my authority by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll in Science 
(vii. No. 165). Had I supposed that Mr. Ingersoll 
would have thought it worth while to publish any 
note on the subject, I would have been more precise 
in specifying the names to which it should apply. 
Mr. Ingersoll, in his original article, wrote (Science, 
vii. No. 162), ‘‘ Many of the principal peaks in this 
part of the range were long ago named Balfour, 


1Yzrddatos : v7d, below ; dards, dark —in allusion to the 
dark color of under parts. 


dD 2 


Forbes, Hooker, and Brown, by the lamented bota- 
nist Douglas, after English men of science.” Of 
these names, Balfour and Forbes were given by Dr. 
Hector ; Hooker and Brown (as pointed out by your 
correspondent A. G.), by Douglas. Besides Mounts 
Balfour and Forbes, Dr. Hector, in 1858-59, attached 
the names of scientific worthies toa number of peaks 
in this part of the mountains. Amongst these are 
Lyell, Richardson, Murchison, Lefroy, Bourgeau, 
and Sabine. Some of the peaks so named are visible 
from the line of the Canadian Pacific railway. The 
names, not only of Douglas himself, but also those of 
Drummond and Hector, deserve to be perpetuated in 
connection with this part of the mountains, and in a 
map (the result of explorations by the geological sur- 
vey) now in course of preparation for publication 
- these will appear. GEORGE M. Dawson. 
Ottawa, April 10. 


Science at Cornell. 


The undergraduates of Cornell university are be- 
coming agitated over the question whether that great 
institution is becoming a technical school, Three- 
fourths of their number are in non-technical courses, 
and that in an institution the fundamental law of 
which declares that it is founded and receives its 
endowments for the specific purpose of promoting 
agriculture and the useful arts. But so serious a 
question is this, that the president, in his remarks at 
the alumni dinner at New York recently, considered 
it necessary to assert his conviction that enough had 
been done for the technical departments, and that 
the endowments and income of the university should 
be directed to the establishment of law and other 
schools apparently never contemplated by the found- 
ers of the institution, or authorized by the law and 
the charter. 

The chance remark of Mr. Cornell, that he would 
found an ‘‘institution in which any person can re- 
ceive instruction in any study,” and the fact that the 
value of the endowment, as given by the general 
government, was, at the time of its presentation, but 
a fraction of the amount since realized from it, are 
made the basis of an ingenious argument for the re- 
striction of the appropriation for agriculture and the 
arts to half a million dollars; while the remainder 
of the endowment, amounting to several millions, 
should be, in the opinion of the successor of Andrew 
D. White, devoted to other purposes. 

Where are the traditions and the law and charter of 
Cornell ? and where are the trustees and constituency, 
which have been hitherto regarded as the defenders 
of this great trust, instituted for the benefit of the 
people and the technical education of their sons and 
daughters ? 

The fact seems to be, as shown in this address, 
that the gift of the general government, presented 
to the state of New York for the purpose of found- 
ing and maintaining technical colleges, originally in 
the form of land-scrip, and worth, as stated, some 
six hundred thousand dollars, was, by carefully 
locating the land and by persistent ‘ holding on,’ finally 
made to produce several millions of dollars, and to 
form the main dependence of this university, in 
which the ‘ leading objects’ are prescribed to be ‘‘ to 
teach such branches of learning as are related to 
agriculture and the mechanic arts.” But it has evi- 
dently required some ingenuity, not to say sophistry, 
to find an excuse for turning the magnificent grant 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou VIL, Now 167 


of the United States into a law school, a school of 
medicine, or a school of divinity, as speakers at the 


Cornell dinner are reported to have proposed. It 


would seem to the outside looker-on that the original 
provisions of the law and the charter, which have 
been above quoted, and which further allow scientific 
and classical studies to be taught, nevertheless must 
stand, despite the efforts and desires of those who 
have no knowledge of, or sympathy with, technical 
education, and that all gifts, from whatever source, 
should be subject to the fundamental law. 

That Cornell should become a true university, in 
the sense that it should embrace colleges of all the 
branches and departments coming within the scope 
of its charter, as far as is possible consistently with 
the original objects of its foundation, is evidently 
desirable, not only in itself, but also for the purpose 
of lending assistance to the students in these ‘ lead- 
ing branches,’ who have the ability and the desire to 
become liberally educated ; but that such a founda- 
tion should be diverted to law, or medicine, or divin- 
ity schools, seems preposterous, and it is a question 
whether the university may not forfeit its charter 
should such counsels prevail. There are many other 
institutions in the state of New York looking with 
wishful eyes upon the grand endowment of Cornell. 

H. N. 


A convenient way of indicating localities upon 
labels. 


In the careful working-up of a local flora or fauna 
it becomes necessary to indicate many localities 
which have not well-known names. This is com- 
monly done by means of more or less lengthy de- 
scriptions of the locality. But this plan involves 
much labor, and is also undesirable from the fact 
that the data can be attached to the specimen only 
by means of cumbersome labels, or by reference to a 
note-book. To avoid these objectionable features, 
I have devised a system which meets the desired end 
ina simple manner. This system was suggested to 
me by the way in which the position of localities are 
indicated in the city of Washington. 

For the purposes of our local survey a well-known 
point on the university grounds is taken as a centre. 
Upon a map of this locality, a north and south line 
and an east and west line are drawn through this 
point. These lines are marked O. Other lines are 
drawn parallel to these lines, dividing the map into 
squares, each line indicating a distance of one kilo- 
metre. These lines are numbered, beginning in each 
case at the one next the zero line, and reading to- 
wards the margin of the page. By means of roads, 
streams, and other conspicuous objects, the position, 
upon the map, of any locality, can be easily ascer- 
tained ; and its distance north or south of one zero 
line, and east or west of the other, seen at a glance. 
It is only necessary to write figures indicating these 
co-ordinates upon a printed blank label to accurately 
indicate the locality. This label should have printed 
upon it the name of the centre of reference ; it may 
also have letters indicating two of the cardinal 
points of the compass. In the latter case four sets 
of labels would be necessary. The following is an 
example : — 

Cornell U. This filled out might ) Cornell U. 
N. E. read as follows: N. 23, E. 164. 

J. Henry Comstock. 


Entomological laboratory, Cornell 
university, April 8 


ere 


SUPPLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1886. 


INVENTORY OF PHILOSOPHY TAUGHT IN 
AMERICAN COLLEGES. 


In the general overhauling which the college 
curriculum has been receiving of late, there has 
been one subject quite generally overlooked, — 
that of philosophy. Apart from an occasional 
editorial note in the columns of Science, I have 
seen next to no allusion to the matter. Yet it is 
difficult to see how we are to develop a high grade 
of national culture in science and in literary matters 
without contact, by way either of stimulus or of 
mirroring, or of both, of these matters with philo- 
sophic principles. Where this contact is to occur, 
unless in college, it is also difficult to see. I have 
no intention of discussing these matters here; but I 
wish to give an inventory of the present condition 
of philosophic instruction in our colleges, based 
upon the catalogues of these institutions. Neither 
my knowledge nor the limit of space allows me to 
go beyond a consideration of the subject taught to 
discuss methods, etc. 

The philosophic discipline of the ordinary 
American college is a survival of that period of 
its existence when its especial deed was to furnish 
to the community well-fortified ministers of the 
gospel. The catalogues of our colleges reveal all 
stages of evolution from this original source, but 
all show their genetic connection. The extent of 
the evolution may be shown by considering the 
courses of four of the older New England institu- 
tions, selected from as many states. In Dartmouth 
the instruction begins with a twenty-four-hour 
course in natural theology, followed by twenty 
hours of anthropology. The piece de resistance 
is sixty hours of psychology (Porter’s ‘ Elements’), 
which is supplemented by courses in ethics 
(twenty-five hours), history of ancient philosophy 
(twenty-six hours), aesthetics (fifteen hours), and, 
to complete the circle with which the instruction 
began, a thirty-hour course in the evidences of 
Christianity. All this, certainly no insignificant 
amount, is required work. There is one elective 
of thirty-two hours in the history of modern 
philosophy. 

Crossing the Connecticut River, and coming to 
the University of Vermont, we find the following 
courses : psychology (Sully), logic (Davis’s ‘ Theory 
of thought’), ethics (Calderwood), a short course 


in aesthetics, another short one in the evidences 
of religion, and quite an extensive course in 
metaphysics, in which Watson’s ‘ Kant’s philos- 
ophy in extracts,’ and the exposition of Kant 
by Professor Morris, are used. At Williams, as 
in the University of Vermont, all philosophical 
work seems to be required, the curriculum includ- 
ing the following subjects: anthropology (Hop- 
kins’s ‘Outline study of man’), logic, theology 
(dogmatic, apparently), natural theology (through 
the medium of Flint’s ‘Theism,’ and Butler’s 
‘ Analogy’), ethics, and the history of philosophy. 
At Brown we find logic, three hours a week; 
intellectual philosophy, four hours, including 
studies in Hamilton, Kant, Porter, Sully; ethics, 
five hours, including Wayland, Calderwood, Kant, 
etc. There is also a course in natural theology. In 
addition to these required courses, there is an 
elective in the history of philosophy. 

None of these colleges, it will be observed, is 
now a professedly denominational college. It 
may be well, accordingly, to add one which is; 
viz., Trinity. Here the required work is ethics 
(through the medium of Wayland), Butler's 
‘ Analogy’ and his sermons, metaphysics (Sir W. 
Hamilton), and courses in psychology and logic. 
Elective courses are those in anthropology (Hop- 
kins); ethics, two courses, —one in Haven, and 
the other in Whewell and Plutarch, and meta- 
physics (McCosh). No very great differentia- 
tion is observable in these courses, although there 
is more ethics, and more ethics from a theological 
stand-point, in Trinity than in other colleges. 

We turn now to the other end of the scale of 
evolution, where the courses are almost wholly 
lecture courses, and are, either entirely or in the 
major part, elective; and in which, also,the instruc- 
tion is mainly from the historical side. Of such 
institutions, Harvard and the University of Michi- 
gan are instances, perhaps the only ones. In the 
latter college, the only required study in this line 
is a course in either psychology (Murray) or logic 
(Jevons). Elective courses are, two in psychology, 
one in experimental and another in its relations to 
philosophic problems. The course in the history 
of philosophy is three hours a week through the 
year. This is supplemented by a three-hour course 
in the principles of philosophy, followed by a 
study of Hegel’s ‘ Logic.” The courses under the 
general head of ethics would include a course in 
ethics, historical and theoretical ; one in the phi- 
losophy of state and history ; and a course each 


dod 


in Plato’s ‘ Republic’ and Aristotle’s ‘ Ethics,’ occu- 
pying together two hours per week through the 
year. Other courses are, one in Spencer’s ‘ First 
principles,’ and one each in aesthetics and Kant’s 
‘Critique of pure reason,’ the latter two being 
omitted this year. 

The Harvard courses include in the history of phi- 
losophy, English philosophy, from Locke to Hume; 
French, from Descartes to Leibnitz ; and German, 
from Kant to Hegel; and one each in German 
philosophy of the present day and Hegel’s ‘ Phae- 
nomenologie,’ which are omitted the present year. 
Psychology and logic (Bain and Jevons) are covered 
in one course ; there is also an advanced course in 
experimental psychology. There is a course in 
the philosophy of nature, discussing Spinoza and 
Spencer. There are also five coursesin ethics and 
philosophy of religion, comprehending one on 
philosophy in relation to ethics and religion 
(Royce’s ‘Religious aspects of philosophy’); one 
on philosophy of religion ; another on philosophic 
theism ; one on historical ethics, including espe- 
cially, it appears, Mill and Kant ; and one on prac- 
tical ethics of modern society. The account would 
be incomplete if we failed to notice Professor 
Goodwin’s courses in Plato's ‘Republic,’ and in 
the history of philosophy before Aristotle, with 
Professor Greenough’s course on later Greek phi- 
losophy. All of these courses are elective. It 
will be noticed that there are about the same 
number of courses given in both the two last- 
mentioned universities, but the courses appear to 
cover more hours per year at Harvard than at 
Michigan. 

Intermediate between the two classes of col- 
leges discussed, come, in the east, Yale and Prince- 
ton; in the west, the universities of Wisconsin 
and California. At Princeton there are required 
courses in psychology, logic, ethics, and Christian 
evidences ; elective courses in physiological psy- 
chology, metaphysics, history of philosophy, and 
science of religion; and graduate courses in 
Plato’s ‘Philosophy,’ and one hour per week of 
discussion of philosophic problems. At Yale 
almost the only required studies in the senior year 
are the philosophic courses. The required studies 
are as follows: logic, psychology, ethics, natural 
theology, and evidences of Christianity ; the elec- 
tives are, the history of philosophy, two hours 
through the year ; a course in Locke and Berkeley 
for two hours first half-year, followed by ‘ special 
topics’ the second half ; and a two-hour course in 
physiological psychology through the year. 

The list of colleges given might be considerably 
increased ; but it suffices, I think, to justify the 
division of colleges, so far as their philosophic 
teaching is concerned, into three classes, of which 


SCIENCE. 


| VoL. VII., No. 167 


the first would include by far the greater number 
of institutions. Did space permit, it would be 
interesting to give the courses in two or three of 
the best Canadian colleges. The practice there is 
to divide the subjects into ‘pass’ and ‘honor’ 
subjects ; the former being psychology, logic, and 
ethics, and the latter including quite a wide range. 
At McGill, for instance, besides courses in the 
history of ancient and modern philosophy, the 
student must pass an examination on twelve 
masterpieces ; for example, Aristotle’s ‘Ethics,’ 
Descartes’ ‘Method and meditations,’ Spinoza’s 
‘Ethics,’ Fraser’s ‘ Berkeley,’ Spencer’s ‘ First 
principles,’ etc. At University college, Toronto, 
this honor-work requires such solid reading as 
Green’s ‘Introduction to Hume,’ and his ‘ Pro- 
legomena to ethics.’ 

For the most part, these courses speak for them- 
selves to one familiar with the courses in German 
universities, or even in Great Britain in the present 
renaissance of philosophy there. The greatest 
lack is undoubtedly in the department of the 
philosophy of nature. The philosophic interpre- 
tation and criticism of the principles of modern 
science seem to be unknown save at Harvard and 
the University of Michigan. The greatest advance 
which any one familiar with the philosophic an- 
nouncements of the last eight or ten years will 
notice is the growing tendency to introduce the 
history of philosophy, and especially the study of 
the originals, particularly in Plato, Aristotle, Kant, 
and even Hegel. A striking and welcome phe- 
nomenon is the increasing disuse of Sir William 
Hamilton. Ido not say this with especial refer- 
ence to his philosophy, but because it is safe to 
say that the sole ideas which the vast majority of 
graduates of our colleges have of continental phi- 
losophy, have come, directly or indirectly, through 
Hamilton and Cousin; and it is difficult to say 
which is the more misleading as an authority in 
historic philosophy. Princeton presents one inno- 
vation, whence, I think, almost all of our colleges 
could learn something. It has called in men from 
its biological department to discuss physiological 
psychology. The discussion of the one subject of 
visual sensation and perception could easily be 
made remarkably fruitful for psychology, as well 
as leading up to the subject of space-perception in 
general, and the question of empiricism and in- 
tuitionalism, and the function of evolution in 
psychical life. It is no discredit to our teachers of 
philosophy to say that it is almost impossible that 
they should have special knowledge in physiologi- 
cal psychology. The instructor of to-day has now, 
in the subject of logic, psychology, ethics, the 
history of philosophy, and what is vaguely called 
‘metaphysics,’ to cover a wider field than the 


Apri 16, 1886.] 


teacher of any other branch ; and restriction of 
subjects rather than their enlargement is the need. 
It is impossible to discuss the subject of the 
future of philosophy-teaching in this country with- 
out reference to the mooted question of ‘ electives.’ 
It is evident that the great majority of those 
American colleges that have not introduced the 
elective system are giving all the time to philo- 
sophic studies possible, though I do not undertake 
to say whether or not that time be distributed in 
the wisest way. In fact, the outside scoffer would 
probably say that relatively too much time is 
given them, when all studies are required. It 
will be noticed that the colleges where least phi- 
losophy is required are the ones where most is 
taught, and the ground is most widely covered. 
Personally, I should not be surprised to know that 
they are the ones where most vital interest is 
taken in these studies, save in the instances, 
happily many, of the smaller colleges, where the 
philosophic teaching is in the hands of a man of 
such strong character that the teaching is a lasting 
power for life in an ethical way, whatever may 
be said of the strictly technical value of the phi- 
losophy taught. JOHN DEWEY. 


INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 


THE peculiar insect-capturing habits of certain 
of our native plants were observed nearly a cen- 
tury ago, and the belief was then entertained that 
the peculiar phenomena served some direct object 
in the plants’ economy ; in other words, that the 
captured insects served as nutritive material. 
These observations, however, were long forgot- 
ten, or received but little attention, till, in 1875, 
Darwin’s well-known work on_ insectivorous 
plants appeared. Since then a very great impetus 
has been received by botanists in their study, that 
has resulted in large additions to the literature of 
the subject. In a recent paper by the well-known 
botanist of Jena, Prof. W. Detmers (Nord und 
sud, 1886, 72, 81), a review of our present knowl- 
edge is given, from which the following is ob- 
tained. 

At present it is well known that the function of 
the green tissue is the absorption of carbonic acid 
from the surrounding medium under the influence 
of light, and its decomposition and formation 
therefrom of organic compounds. Most of the 
higher plants are capable of complete and perfect 
development solely by the aid of purely inorganic 
materials, though in the larger number organic 
matter may and does form a share of the nutritive 
material. In the economy of nature this func- 
tion is a most important one, as plants thus oc- 


SCIENCE. 


355 


cupy an intermediate position between the animal 
and inorganic kingdoms. 

But some plants are not thus provided with the 
green or chlorophyl tissue, and are dependent 
more or less upon organic foods. In some, as the 
mildews, the power of transforming inorganic to 
organic substances is wholly wanting; while in 
others, as, for instance, certain orchids, such as 
Neottia nidus avus, the power is much restricted. 
Likewise the mistletoe, though sufficiently rich in 
chlorophyl, derives much of its material from the 
sap of trees upon which it is parasitic. Insec- 
tivorous plants, in the same way, seem to occupy 
an intermediate position between those dependent 
entirely upon inorganic and those which derive 
their material purely from organic sources. 

The term ‘ insectivorous,’ as applied to plants, 
is, however, not strictly correct, nor would ‘ car- 
nivorous’ be much better. Different forms of 
animal life are captured by such plants as have 
received this appellation, and by the aid of 
secreted juices are digested and absorbed ; but 
there is no mechanical action except in capturing 
and holding the objects, and therefore ‘ flesh- 
digesting ’ would express more correctly the pro- 
cess. 

One of the best known of insectivorous plants 
is the ‘ sundew ’ plant (Drosera), species of which 
are distributed over nearly the whole world. It is 
small and low, growing about meadowy places, 
and conspicuous for the sparkling drops of fluid 
substance that are seen upon its leaves. The 
leaves, which are about four millimetres in 
diameter, have upon their upper surface a large 
number of peculiar tentacle-like organs, as many 
as two hundred in some cases. The ones in the 
middle are shorter and upright ; those near the 
sides, longer and more horizontal. Each tentacle 
consists of a stem, permeated by a spiral tube, 
and a glandular head, which emits a drop of 
colorless, sticky, and stringy fluid. This substance 
apparently serves to attract insects as well as to 
retain them when once they have alighted upon 
the leaf, as it is seldom that they are able to 
extricate themselves after coming in contact with 
it. To yet further assure this retention, the leaves 
possess the power of closing or folding together, 
brought about slowly by the irritation conveyed 
through the tentacles. An insect thus firmly en- 
closed remains till the fluids secreted by the ten- 
tacular glands have caused its soluticn, or, more 
properly, digestion. Any foreign object, be it 
mineral or animal, will cause the closure of the 
leaf and the secretion of fluids; but there is this 
remarkable difference, — a mineral substance only 
produces the flow of an acid secretion, while an 
insect or piece of flesh causes, in addition, a 


356 


secretion of pepsin. The process is almost pre- 
cisely like that which occurs in the animal 
stomach, —a secretion of acids and ferment pro- 
duced by the contact of digestible substances. The 
ferment or pepsin is not, however, a peculiarity 
of such plants alone. The milky sap of many 
others contains the same substance, and almost 
generally throughout the vegetable kingdom a 
ferment is produced in seeds during germination, 
rendering the reserve material, upon which the 
young plant is dependent, assimilable. 

Yet better known is another plant of the same 
family (Droseraceae), the venus fly-trap (Dionaea), 
that grows in the wet lands of North Carolina. 
The leaves, about six centimetres in length, spring- 
ing from the ground, have an elongated, winged 
stalk, bearing an orbicular leaf at its extremity, 
which is capable of sudden folding or closure. 
Along the margin of each leaf are a number of 
long, immovable, bristly hairs; and near the mid- 
dle of each side, on the upper surface, three 
slender irritable hairs, which have the peculiar 
power, when touched, of conveying the irritation 
to the leaf-tissue, and causing immediate closure, 
the marginal bristles crossing each other, and pre- 
venting any possibility of escape. In addition 
to these hairs, there are a large number of glandu- 
lar bodies attached by a short stem, which not 
only secrete the digestive fluids, but also serve as 
absorptive organs for the digested material. An 
insect or any digestible substance caught by this 
singular contrivance remains enclosed a relatively 
long time, while an inorganic or non-digestible 
object is much sooner released. 

In a very different way the leaves of species of 
the pitcher-plant (Nepenthes) serve to entrap in- 
sects. Here the long leaf is prolonged into a ten- 
dril, which bears at its apex a tubular or oblong 
pitcher, sometimes a foot or more in length, closed 
with a hinged lid. About its rim there are a 
number of nectar-secreting glands, by which in- 
sects, and especially ants, are attracted. Entering 
easily into the upper part of the tube, they fall 
from the smooth surface to the bottom. Here 
there is a very large number of secreting glands, 
which, singularly, only in consequence of the irri- 
tation produced by the insects, pour out a con- 
siderable quantity of digestive fluid, This secre- 
tion shows, in the presence of albumen and flesh, 
a strong acid reaction, which, together with the 
associated pepsin, acts energetically upon animal 
substances, digesting them in a short time. 

Again, species of our native Saracenia have the 
ascending hollow leaves so enclosed by a lid as to 
prevent the entrance of rain-water, but, by the 
nectar glands, attract and entrap insects, which 
are digested by the abundant secretion at the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 167 


bottom. In addition to these, the aquatic blad- 
derworts, or Utricularia of Europe and North 
America, although secreting no digestive fluid, 
may properly be classed among the insectivorous 
plants. The small bladders are so closed by a 
valve as to admit the ingress of insects, crustaceans, 
or newly hatched fish, but prevent their egress ; 
and, from the large number that they are fre- 
quently found to contain, it is very probable that 
the ensuing decomposition is of direct advantage 
to the plant in furnishing nutritive, absorbable 
compounds. 

The question, finally, whether organic material 
obtained and dissolved by the plant in the ways 
briefly described is indispensable or serviceable as 
nutrition, isimportant. Various carnivorous plants 
have been cultivated, secluded for a long time 
from all contact with organic material, without 
apparent deterioration in their development, so 
that it may at once be determined that such matter 
is not indispensable. However, in experiments with 
plants of Drosera rotundifolia, all kept under pre- 
cisely the same circumstances, except that some 
were deprived entirely of organic food-material, 
while others received insects from time to time, it 
was found that the latter throve much better, and 
fructified much more abundantly. 

These views, that the substances are of direct 
benefit to the plant, are, however, contested by Dr. 
Behr ina late number of the Pharmaceutische rund- 
schau, who claims that it is not proved that the 
dissolved material is taken up as nutritive material, 
and so made use of. Its presence within the cells, 
or in the tissue of the plants, may be explained by 
simple capillarity, which is further evidenced by 
the absorption of inorganic substances, such as 
arsenious acid, by means of the secretions, as has 
been recently shown by Jaeger. 

This opinion Dr. Behr supports by observations 
on species of Nepenthes, where he found that the 
pitchers, after the reception and solution of insects, 
were in no wise strengthened, but became injured 
and withered ; and in cases of Drosera sulfurea 
and rosulata, where he likewise found that the 
leaves which had captured an insect always 
withered, and where many leaves were thus robbed 
of their true function, the plant weakened and 
died. He mentions the singular fact that the 
larvae of certain insects (Xanthoptera semicocca) 
are known to live in the exudations of Saracenia 
variolaris without being affected by the digestive 
fluids, — habits very similar to the known ones of 
bot-flies in the animal stomach. 

It is very difficult indeed to understand how 
such remarkable contrivances, in connection with 
true digestive fluids, can exist, save on the theory 
that their function is a real one, and that they 


SCIENCE. 


AprIL 16, 1886. | 


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SCALE OF 6 TINTS 


A METHOD OF SIGNALLING DIAGRAMS. 


Subserve some direct use in plant-economy, and 


are not 


AN ingenious system of adapting the alphabeti- 
cal messages of the electric telegraph, or of the 


, as Dr. Behr would affirm, acquired pecul- 


ties directly injurious to the organism. 


lari 


358 


heliograph, or any other signalling apparatus, to 
the reproduction at distant points of some kinds 
of drawings, has been recently contrived by Mr. 
Alexander Glen of England, and is described in 
the London Illustrated news of March 20. It 
seems likely to be of some utility in military 
operations, as it is especially suitable for the trans- 
mission of small maps or plans of a locality. 
The design to be transmitted is drawn on ruled 
paper, divided into little squares by vertical and 
horizontal lines. The operator at the transmitting- 
station can thus indicate by alphabetical letters to 
the receiver any point on the paper falling in the 
centre of any square ; the person at the receiving- 
station will apply his pencil to that point, and will 
then be directed to the next point, drawing a line 
with the pencil, and so on to form a complete out- 
line-drawing. Patches of shading, of the several 
darker or lighter tints shown ina separate diagram, 
may be put in by special directions. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY OF INDIAN LANGUAGES. 


MANY years since, the present director of the 
bureau of ethnology became interested in Indian 
tribes of the west, and began to study their lan- 
guages. The study of the spoken language from 
the mouths of the speakers naturally led to the 
study of books containing accounts of languages 
no longer spoken, or spoken by people not person- 
ally visited. As books began to be studied, the 
desire and the need of examining more books 
relating to the subject were felt to be necessary 
for the solution of the problems involved. A card- 
catalogue was therefore begun, of the books, 
pamphlets, magazine and other articles, manu- 
scripts, etc., which were needful for an exhaustive 
study of the relationships of the native tribes as 
based upon language. This catalogue grew and 
grew. How great it was or is destined to become, 
if absolutely completed and perfected, no one yet 
knows. 

Every lover of systematic, complete, and ac- 
curate work owes a debt of thankfulness to the 
bureau of ethnology and the compiler of this 
formidable volume; and he owes this debt, not 
because the work is complete (for it is still incom- 
plete), and not because it is free from inaccuracies 
(for there are inaccuracies, though these are 
neither important nor numerous), but he is grate- 
ful for this monument of systematic, thorough- 
going research, and for a persistent devotion to a 
lofty ideal of bibliographic work. Had a less 
lofty ideal of completeness or excellence been set 

Proof-sheets of a bibliography of the languages of the 


North American Indians. By JAMES CONSTANTINE PILLING. 
Washington, Government, 1885. 1175p. 4°. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VIL, No. 167 


up, the book would have been beyond ail criti- 
cism. The very excellence of the ideal affords 
ground, and the only ground, for the friendly 
criticism we beg to offer. 

The titlepage of this printed but unpublished 
book is, and is intended to be, a standing invita- 
tion to criticism from all competent judges. We 
say printed but not published, since a manuscript 
note informs us, ‘one hundred copies printed,’ and 
the printed titlepage informs us that these one 
hundred volumes are ‘distributed only to collabo- 
rators,’ and also that they are ‘ proof-sheets.’ 

It is the fulness of the present catalogue, the 
time and labor spent upon it, the bibliographic 
spirit which pervades it, taken together with the 
titlepage, that bring into the strongest relief the 
perfect ideal in the author’s mind, and at the same 
time his clear perception of the mode, and the 
only mode, for the attainment of this ideal. The 
author has set before him, and kept steadily in 
view, the purpose, first, of hunting up every scrap 
of published, printed, and even manuscript infor- 
mation in existence, relating to the subject ; 
second, of recording a description of each work so 
full and so complete that it need never be re- 
corded more fully or more completely ; third, of 
telling where each work catalogued may be found ; 
fourth, of giving a clear notion of what the 
document is, and what it contains relative to his 
subject, telling where, within the work cited, the 
linguistic material is to be found ; and, lastly, of 
so putting the whole together that whoever has 
occasion to use this bibliography may learn all 
that he needs or cares to know about any book 
catalogued, and its contents, without actually see- 
ing it at all. 

The value of any work so broadly conceived 
and so fully executed as this, can hardly be over- 
stated. With the great increase of knowledge in 
all directions, it is absolutely essential to progress 
that the fields to be investigated be first system- 
atically mapped out, to the end that seeming new 
discoveries may be new, and not rediscoveries, and 
that energy be not, through ignorance, wasted in 
repeating work already well done. The sciences 
are now advanced to that state, that further satis- 
factory progress is only to be made by ascertain- 
ing what has already been done. ‘To this end, 
and to so exhibit the work already accomplished 
in any line, is the work of the bibliographer. 
The general outline of the proposed plan of the 
bibliography is here shown, and the opinions of 
competent judges as to its merits and defects are 
respectfully solicited with a view to their use in 
the finished book or books, if books should be 
found necessary to contain the material which shall 
constitute the work. 


Aprit 16, 1886.] 


Preceding the general alphabetical authors’ list 
of books, which constitutes the great bulk of the 
book, is a list of the bibliographical authorities 
consulted, this list numbering a hundred and 
twelve entries, covering twenty-six pages. This 
list, being one subordinate to the general purpose 
for which the book is to be used, might go ina 
subordinate or smaller type, thus saving in two 
ways; to wit, in the space occupied, and in show- 
ing by the type itself that the list was subordinate 
to the main body of the work. In the very full 
index at the close of the book, and which consti- 
tutes the subject-catalogue, this plan is followed 
with good effect, and a complete subject-catalogue 
of Indian linguistics is thus printed on forty-five 
closely printed pages. 

The serial numbers which accompany each title, 
and which are printed on the left, would inter- 
fere less with the catch-word of the title if trans- 
ferred to the right; and the catch-word, the 
author’s name, might then advantageously be 
brought to the left, a little beyond the line of the 
text. These detailed matters of printing here 
introduced and commented upon, though in gen- 
eral uncalled for, are pertinent to the present 
notice, since these are proof-sheets, and hence the 
finally adopted form is presumably not yet settled. 
Moreover, these questions admit of a more intelli- 
gent and satisfactory settlement from the ex- 
istence in print of this material, which might, 
perchance, be denominated ‘‘ Proof-sheets of 
material collected with a view of constructing an 
exhaustive bibliography of the languages of the 
native races of North America.” This would 
seem to be a tolerably precise characterization of 
both the book and the author’s conception of it. 
The term ‘Indian’ on the titlepage is of course 
used to include all native races, Eskimo, Aztecs, 
etc. Whether the word should be so used, is a 
matter for the ethnographer rather than the bibli- 
ographer. 

The size of the work, and the fact that while 
going through the press two hundred and fifty 
pages of additions and corrections accumulated, 
show the importance of considering whether 
finally it will not be better to break this bibli- 
ography up into several subdivisions, so that, 
instead of having a very large bibliography of 
North American linguistics, we may have a more 
useful work, consisting of several parts, each 
devoted to a special group of languages, such as 
Algonkin, Eskimo, etc. All bibliographies should 
provide for growth. In any very comprehensive 
one, the first part begins to be antiquated before 
the last part is reached. Moreover, bibliographies, 
if of comparatively small subjects, can be revised, 
and kept up to date ; but it is a formidable under- 


SCIENCE. 


309 


taking to revise, enlarge, and bring up to date, a 
work so large as this. 

As the present tendency is pronouncedly in the 
direction of full bibliographies of small subjects, 
the most important question to be considered in 
the publication of this work would seem to be as 
to whether it should be one single bibliography of 
a very large subject, or a series of bibliographies 
of a number of small subjects. 

Would it be better to prepare a bibliography of 
mathematics, or a series of bibliographies, on the 
different subdivisions of mathematics? And in 
meteorology will the signal service best serve 
the meteorological public by issuing one grand 
bibliography of meteorology, covering the entire 
field, or by subdividing into various heads, such 
as ‘observations,’ ‘ instruments,’ ‘theories,’ etc., 
and issuing smaller bibliographies, covering the 
more limited fields? It is not our purpose to 
discuss these questions, but, rather, to sharply 
draw attention to them for the purpose of having 
them well considered before a final form is 
adopted. 

The author is, in our opinion, to be congratu- 
lated upon selecting the form of an authors’ 
catalogue rather than the subject-catalogue. The 
authors’ catalogue admits practically of but a 
single arrangement, — the alphabetic, — since in 
any large list the chronological order proves of far 
less general utility. 

The subject-catalogue, however, admits of 
several arrangements: it is always subject to 
radical changes based upon increased knowledge 
or new and revised systems of classification ; 
and, lastly, to use a subject-catalogue, the system 
of classification used in that particular catalogue 
must be studied. It therefore seems far wiser, as 
Mr. Pilling has done, to make the index serve as 
the subject-catalogue. 


DISEASES OF THE FORE-BRAIN. 


THE scope of this work is indicated in its title. 
It is an attempt to explain both the nature of 
mental action and the perversions of that action 
from the data of the anatomist and the pathol- 
ogist. Professor Meynert has no superior in 
Europe in the department in which he has writ- 
ten. To him anatomists owe much that is new 
and important in the knowledge of the structure 
of the brain. It is to be expected, therefore, that 
the results of his life-work should be regarded 
with great interest. In a comparatively small 

Psychiatry: a clinical treatise on diseases of the fore- 
brain, based upon a study of its structure, functions, and 


nutrition. Part i. By THEODOR MEYNERT, M.D. Tr. by 
B. Sachs, M.D. New York, Putnam, 1885. 8°. 


360 


compass he has given an exhaustive description of 
the masses of gray matter and intricate network 
of white fibres of which the brain consists; and 
he has done this from the stand-point of a com- 
parative anatomist, which greatly enhances the 
values of his statements. There is such rapid 
progress being made in the department of nervous 
diseases. that it is perhaps not surprising that a 
few of the positions held by the author will need 
to be modified in the second volume: in fact, he 
admits this in his preface. But the great mass of 
the facts stated in the text are fixed and definite, 
and must be familiar to all future investigators 
in this field. 

To the general reader the physiological portion 
of the volume will be much more attractive than 
its anatomical details. Here, again, Meynert is 
worthy of attention. It is pretty generally ad- 
mitted that the method of introspection so long 
advocated by psychologists is incapable of giving 
satisfactory results in the investigation of those 
processes in which mind and matter meet : hence 
of late years new methods have been sought. 
One of these is to study the mental processes as 
they develop in the infant, and to watch the man- 
ner in which ideas are acquired. and voluntary 
powers become available. This method has been 
employed by Preyer and Kussmaul in Germany, 
and by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi in this country. 
Meynert has made use of it to some extent in dis- 
cussing the manner in which knowledge is ac- 
quired and stored up, and in which the various 
memories gained through the senses are associated. 
For example: if a pin touches the eye of an in- 
fant, the lid closes. This is a reflex act carried 
out by a simple mechanism independent of any 
act of consciousness; but, coincident with the 
reflex act, a number of impulses are sent to the 
brain, along fibres which, on reaching the cortex, 
give rise to the conscious perception of the ap- 
pearance of the pin, of the pain of the prick, and 
of the motion which has been performed. Each 
of these perceptions occurs in a different part of 
the brain, since each sensory organ is joined to an 
area of itsown. But the three perceptions occur 
simultaneously ; and, as all parts of the cortex 
are joined with one another by fibres passing from 
one area to the next, the three perceptions are as- 
sociated both in perception and in memory : hence, 
when the pin is seen again, the memory of the 
pain arises, and the memory of the motion which 
stopped the pain ; and thus the mere sight of the 
pin leads the child to close the eye. The percep- 
tion of the reflex motion has given the infant the 
knowledge of the possession of a muscle capable 
of movement; and the motion, having once be- 
come conscious, can be reproduced voluntarily by 


SCIENCE. 


|Vou. VIL, No. 167 


an effort which excites to action those cells which 
retain the memory of the motion (pp. 156-161). 

A second method of psychological investigation 
is that of experimental physiology. This is open 
to the objection that many acts of animals are 
misinterpreted by physiologists, who look at many 
of the acts as manifestations of voluntary mental 
action instead of being instinctive. The differ- 
ences of those who advocate or oppose the local- 
ization of functions as deduced from experiments 
are to be traced rather to their varying interpreta- 
tions of the result of the experiments than to 
those results themselves. Meynert is a believer in 
the localization of functions, as is every physician 
who has seen much of brain-diseases, and he 
presents clearly the arguments in its favor derived 
from the investigations of Fritsch and Hitzig and 
Munk. A third means of studying the relations 
of mind and matter is the consideration of in- 
dividuals who present disturbances of mind 
associated with definite forms of destruction of 
brain-tissue. Meynert’s opportunities for such 
study are very great, as he has at his disposal the 
immense number of patients collected in the 
Vienna hospital. That he has made good use of 
his material is evident in the sections of this work 
which treat of the functions and nutrition of the 
brain. In the next volume this part of the work 
will be fully expanded. By means of these three 
methods much that is new and entertaining has 
been found in the physiology of thought, and 
much that is important both to the alienist and 
to the psychologist is brought forward. The 
book, therefore, appeals to a rather wider circle 
of readers than its title would indicate. 

Those who have read the original will sympa- 
thize with the translator in the difficulties of his 
work. It isa misfortune of the author that he is 
at points exceedingly abstruse and even obscure; 
and this fact, as well as the very technical style 
of the original, has rendered the task undertaken 
aserious one. It has been done in a painstaking 
manner, the original being followed as closely as 
possible, without, at the same time, taking from 
the English its own construction and idiom. The 
translation has been made with the consent of the 
author and by one of his pupils. It is evident 
that he has labored hard, although in some places 
the meaning is difficult to grasp. This difficulty 
is to be traced to the original, as can be deter- 
mined by a comparison of the two, and hence 
must not be laid at the door of the translator. 
The manner in which the publishers have pre- 
sented the volumes is to be commended, no ex- 
pense having been spared in reproducing the 
many valuable diagrams and illustrations of the 
original. M. A. S. 


eae 78, Oe 2 ee eee ae a Lo 


| 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


AT A TIME when the interest in the industrial 
organization of society is so great as it is at the 
present moment, it seems proper that Science 
should do its part in giving an opportunity for 
the free discussion of the views of any who have 
made especial study of social questions. It is 
elaimed by the leaders of the working-classes, 
so called, that the real advances in society or- 
ganization are not led by the doctrinaires of the 
schools, but by hard-fisted workingmen, who 
know more of their physical and intellectual 
wants than they do of logic. These self-asserting 
leaders compliment the professors upon their well- 
rounded sentences, giving a history of what has 
been accomplished, and sketching what may be 
the outcome of the future, but they look upon 
the schoolmen as little more than scribes. De- 
spite this lowly position to which the professors 
of political science are assigned, there can be no 
doubt of the necessity of giving the reading- 
classes as good an opportunity as possible for 
appreciating the present condition of social sci- 
ence and for understanding the questions which 
are now demanding solution. Before venturing 
upon the wide field of sociology, it is well first 
to present a clear statement of the tenets of po- 
litical economy as they are advanced by the 
writers of the times. There exists in this country, 
as well as abroad, a body of students, principally 
young men, who, after pointing out the continued 
progress in the tenets of political science as time 
changes society, insist that the at present, or 
recently, held dogmas are not dogmas at all, but 
must yield to other rules of expediency involved 
by the changing condition of industrial activity. 


Of course, it is well understood that one main 
difference between this new school and the old 
is in asserting the desirability of greater inter- 
ference in industry on the part of the state. 


Somebody might say that this idea has come 


from Germany, where the state initiative is so 
Paramount in all enterprise ; but the adherents of 
No, 168, — 1886, 


the new school repudiate the assertion that their 
movement is a German movement, and claim 
that the discontent with the application of anti- 
quated doctrines made itself felt in the valley of 
the Po, the heart of New Engiand, and on the 
banks of the Thames. In a word, they say that 
the times are ripe for a decided renovation of the 
tenets of political economy ; and it is with a view 
of giving this school an opportunity of propound- 
ing the fundamental principles which they think 
should rule at the present time in that science, 
that a series of articles has been arranged to 
appear in Science. This series begins in the 
present number with one upon ‘The change in 
the tenets of political economy with time,’ by 
Mr. Edwin R. A. Seligman of Columbia college. 
Others will follow by Prof. E. J. James, on ‘ The 
state as a factor in economics;’ by Prof. R. T. 
Ely, on ‘Ethics and economics ;’ by Prof. H. C. 
Adams, on ‘ The idea of property as an economic 
category,’ showing how this varies with our ideas 
of what is best suited to the times ; by Prof. J. B. 
Clark, upon ‘The limits of competition, natural 
and artificial ;’ by Prof. R. M. Smith, on ‘The 
methods of investigation in economics ;’ and by 
Prof. Simon Patten, on ‘ The effect of the con- 
sumption of wealth on the economic condition 
of society.” The article in the present number, 
by Mr. Seligman, is intended to present a review 
of the history of the industrial organization up to 
the present time, and to indicate in what direc- 
tion the further development may take place. 
The other articles of the series will probably be 
accompanied by criticism from the pens of those 
belonging to the so-called orthodox school. 


SEVERAL VIOLENT TORNADOES in Minnesota and 
Towa, on the afternoon of April 14, proved un- 
usually destructive to life and property on account 
of finding towns in their way. The description 
of them in the associated press reports is exceed- 
ingly poor, by reason of the reporters’ unsuccess- 
ful efforts to do rhetorical justice to the sad 
occasion; but it may be gathered that there 
was a number of separate tornadoes occurring 
at about the same time, and following the cus- 
tomary south-west to north-east path, though 
there is confusion in the statements with respect 


362 


to this last point, and that in the neighboring 
districts there was a violent thunder-storm with 
heavy rain and hail. On consulting the daily 
weather-maps for April 14 and 15, a well-marked 
‘area of low pressure’ is found moving north- 
eastward from Wyoming, over Dakota, into the 
Winnipeg district; a very abnormal turn of the 
isotherms shows how the winds on the south- 
eastern side of this ‘area’ carried warm air far 
up the Mississippi valley, and brought about the 
strong contrasts of temperature and moisture that 
generate violent local storms. These tornadoes 
were therefore normal, or like the average of 
their class, In every respect — except, perhaps, 
in occurring farther north than is usual at this 
time of year. 


In review of this, there seems to be ground 
for the desire so generally expressed that the 
signal service should give some warning of the 
probable occurrence of tornadoes, at least in such 
a way that the inhabitants of towns in the ex- 
posed districts may be on the lookout for the ap- 
proach of the dreaded funnel-cloud. The reports 
state that in the open country there was little loss 
of life, as the storms came by day, and persons 
generally saw them in time to take refuge in the 
tornado-cellars with which nearly every farm in 
that region is provided. But in the towns, where 
persons remain more indoors, and where clouds 
near the horizon are not easily seen, tornadoes too 
commonly arrive unperceived till the roar of 
their winds tells that there is no time for escape ; 
and here some early intimation of the impending 
danger should be given. The warnings based on 
the conditions shown in the morning weather-map 
might be announced as experimental for a season, 
so that a public trial of their value could be made. 
Towns at least could be reached by telegraph and 
telephone in all parts of the Mississippi valley by 
noon on the days of danger; and the saving of 
lives in some places would compensate for a good 
deal of needless anxiety caused by warning towns 
that escape destruction. There seems to be no 
way whatever of saving property that lies in the 
path of the storm. 


ONE HAS ONLY to glance at a bibliography of 
astronomy during the present century to become 
impressed with the fact of two very marked im- 
pulses to investigation in that science, given by 
the discovery, first, of the planet Neptune in 1846, 


SCIENCE. 


“~ = 


[Vou. VIL, No. 168 


and, second, of the satellites of Mars in 1877. The 
latter has given rise no less to a series of popular 
and educational books and treatises on astronomy, 
in many languages, of which, it would seem, the 
end is not yet. These have had all degrees of 
worth, as their production has been participated 
in by authors of all degrees of information and 
capacity, from those who have the scantiest of 
reason for writing any thing whatever, to astron- 
omers of the maturest experience, both as teach- 
ers and as investigators. The author of the work 
to which we call attention in a subsequent col- 
umn is not unknown in our country. His early 
years as an astronomer were spent at Parsonstown, 
Ireland, in charge of the mammoth reflecting 
telescope of the Earl of Rosse, to which post he 
was appointed in 1865, at the age of twenty-five 
years. Dr. Ball became astronomer royal twelve 
years ago; and he has attained no little fame as 
a lecturer, having appeared before the leading 
learned institutions of Great Britain. Also in 
1884 he lectured before our own Lowell institute, 
Boston, and in January last the honor of knight- 
hood was conferred upon him. 


In view of these facts, the developments in re- 
gard to his unacknowledged appropriation of the 
work of others assume the greater importance. 
In the Nation a fortnight or two ago, attention 
was directed to certain passages in ‘ The story of 
the heavens,’ which Dr. Ball had borrowed bodily 
from Professor Newcomb’s ‘ Popular astronomy,’ 
with evidently no intention of ever making a 
proper return ; while, in our present issue, it be- 
comes apparent that he has paid a like compli- 
ment to Professor Young’s admirable treatise on 
‘The sun.’ Every one who reads it must thank 
Dr. Ball for a fascinating book, a very accurate 
one too, and he has made excellent -use of his 
pilferings ; but it seems as if he might have made 
a freer use of inverted commas, or confined him- 
self, if we may borrow from Mr. Lowell, to 
‘pillaging the dictionary.’ And this leads us 
further to an uncompromising denunciation of a 
reckless, extempore sort of book-making, too 
common nowadays, and which cannot be too 
strongly condemned. The publishers, in their 
struggle to meet the insatiate cry for something 
new, something that will sell because it is new, 
are as much to be blamed as authors; and the 
people even more, for creating a demand for these 
loosely woven fabrics. It is, however, a demand 


APRIL 23, 1886. ] 


which, soon or late, must cease; for, while 
many buy, few read, and they the close readers 
who make quick work of the loose author. If 
it is a necessary stage of our evolution, it may be 
hoped that the relay is not far removed. 


GOVERNMENT SURVEYS. 


THE proper co-ordination and management of 
the different government surveys, in order to 
secure in the most economical manner the results 
for which they were created, has been and yet 
is the subject of considerable discussion, and of 
diverse views among those interested. The con- 
solidation of the geological surveys has prevented 
much of the clashing that formerly inevitably 
resulted, and at different times the national 
academy has been called upon to propose plans 
for the relations that should exist between the 
different bureaus. The chief ones proposed, as the 
readers of Science are aware, are, 1°, that the 
secretary of the Smithsonian institution should be 
placed in control: 2°, that there should be a cabi- 
net officer, a secretary of science and industry, 
who should be charged with all the different 
bureaus. Prof. W. P. Trowbridge, in the issue of 
the New York Star for April 13, urges the estab- 
lishment of a permanent commission, which should 
be competent to understand the different works, 
and have sufficient time to examine them yearly 
in detail. As he further says, there can be no 
question but that, in the appropriation of money 
by congress for any purpose whatsoever, the 
objects and aims to be accomplished by such 
appropriation should be definitely and fully 
known; and funds for any public works of a 
continuous character should never be dependent 
upon personal urging by the heads of bureaus, 
and all this should be within the province of a 
central co-ordinating authority. 

He believes that a properly organized perma- 
nent non-political commission, such as that known 
as the Regents of the Smithsonian institution or 
the Lighthouse board, and in which should be 
represented the executive heads of the bureaus, 

the legislative branch of the government, and the 
scientific men of the country, would be an effi- 
_ cient safeguard against misdirected expenditures, 
faulty schemes or projects, and the duplication of 
work by two or more bureaus. It is not at all 
certain that a cabinet officer, with his political 
tenure of office, would be sufficient to co-ordinate 
the different surveys, except in so far as he would 
serve as a fiscal administrator, and as a medium 
_ between the scientific bureaus and congress or the 
_ executive. Political considerations would make 
it improbable that such a head could always be 


SCIENCE. 


363 


found who should possess the varied scientific 
and other qualifications that would be required to 
determine the scope, the field of work and in- 
vestigation, and the methods to be pursued for 
each branch of scientific work. 

The executive and scientific details, as he 
rightly says, of any one of these bureaus, are 
enough to tax to the full extent of his powers 
the most skilled expert in those branches of scien- 
tific and practical knowledge which belong to 
the objects represented by the bureau. For this 
reason he deprecates any attempt to consolidate 
the different bureaus, and especially the coast and 
geodetic survey, whose work has been so fruitful 
of practical and valuable results for so many 
years, with any other. 

The unfortunate shortcomings in this survey 
during the past year have given currency to 
numerous false and exaggerated rumors, which 
have tended to produce an injurious result, not 
only upon the public mind, but upon congress. 
Professor Trowbridge urges the injustice of in- 
cluding in general condemnation all the different 
bureaus on account of the errors of individuals 
in one branch, and yet more justly cites the long 
years of faithful and highly valuable public ser- 
vices that have been rendered by the great body of 
officers and attachés of the coast survey, who have 
grown up in the service, and who have not for a 
moment been included in any recent accusations. 


HEALTH OF NEW YORK DURING MARCH. 


WE continue in the present number the graphic 
representation of the daily mortality in New 
York, which was commenced in Science in the 
number for March 19. In February the greatest 
mortality from all caus.s of disease was during 
the tenth day, when 118 persons died: during 
March this was exceeded on four days, running 
up to 137 on the last day of the month. During 
the twenty-eight days of February there were 
2,767 deaths; during the same period in March 
there were 3,054 deaths, — an increase of 277: if 
to this are added the deaths which occurred in the 
last three days of March, we shall have 3,392 
representing the mortality of the past month, — 
an average of nearly 110 each day, or about 5 
persons every hour. 

The number of deaths of children under five 
years of age has increased as compared with Feb- 
ruary ; there has also been an increase in the 
zymotic class and in consumption; while the 
mortality from diphtheria and scarlet-fever is less. 
Diarrhoeal diseases have carried off 32 persons, as 
compared with 33 in the preceding month. 


[Vou. VII., No 168 


SCIENCE. 


364 


Rain. Fall. ae & corre Daily — 


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sr] 


"ILEANA TT ATT int ATO t 

SET TTTTTT LUTTE IN 
HULA CR TT TTT TITTIES ATTEN TCT TTT 
OATVEMEDRASAATRDZ@MUOVUDRSSrescavecQQAVEQNUANATIOVEOINONOEMENIOD2x<i0H0000 NE A 

co UE ET nA TCM a 


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a UTR © 
HII HL ATTN Met “ 
Hit lite RS Null i il + il ca CT 

WU HAE Hi a ST iis sn AUT TLE SUT IEE 


S oO 
= S rat b N B oY S 


"HEL UY oiniviadway 29 Aupiumpy pee 


a 
24.2 


Wee Sia 
Jortality 


Weekly mean 
Thernrometer 


29.770 29.703 


Weekly mcan 
Barometer 


29. 694 


29.922 


APRIL 23, 1886. ] 


The coincidence between the lines of scarlet- 
fever and diarrhoeal diseases, to which attention 
was directed in the number of Science already 
referred to, is equally marked this month: in 
fact, they run so nearly parallel, that it is often 
impossible to distinguish them. The summer 
mortality has not yet commenced to show itself, 
but many weeks will not pass before we shall see 
its line gradually rising higher and higher, until 
it reaches its height in midsummer. 

The meteorology for the month presents some 
interesting features. The rainfall was consider- 
ably less than in February; in the latter month 
4.89 inches having fallen, while during March 
there were 2.83 inches, the actual time in which 
this amount fell being 2 days 20 hours 40 minutes. 
During the sixteen yeats 1869-84 this amount was 
exceeded in every year but four, so that March, 
1886, was, in comparison with other years, a dry 
month, 

Another point of interest in the meteorology of 
March of this year is the absence of snow. But 
an inch fell during the entire month, and that on 
the twenty-seventh day. During the period of 
sixteen years already referred to, so small an 
amount fell in only five years, while in some of 
the years the quantity was very great ; notably in 
1870, when 9.63 inches fell ; in 1875, 15.25 inches ; 
and in 1883, 10 inches. 

It will be remembered that in February the 
highest reading of the thermometer was 52° F., 
and the lowest—4° F. In March the maximum 
temperature was 62° F., and the minimum 8° F., 
the monthly mean for March being some 31° 
higher than that for the preceding month. 

The population of the city of New York on 
March 1 was estimated to be 1,424,903, and in- 
creases presumably 799 each week. 


POPULAR ASTRONOMY. 


IN the ‘ Story of the heavens,’ Dr. Ball presents 
to the popular reader an extremely entertaining 
account of the discoveries, researches, facts, and 
theories, of a science which, in a general way, is 
of interest to a larger class of people than any 
other department of learning. The book is spe- 
cially directed to the non-astronomical ; the style 
is strong and vigorous; and many points are 


_ elucidated in so striking a manner that even the 


| eatirely absent. 


professional] astronomer, if modest enough, can 


_ get many a good suggestion from it. 


Ambiguities and misstatements of fact are quite 
Dr. Ball appears to be rather 


The story of the heavens. By RoBERT STAWELL BALL, 


_ London, Cassell, 1885, 8°. 


SCIENCE. 


365 


less certain than the facts warrant, that the sun- 
spots are depressions; and he would find few 
astronomers, in this country at least, who would 
agree with him that the late Professor Watson 
probably discovered an intra-mercurial planet or 
planets during the eclipse of 1878. In parts of 
his work the historical method is pushed to the 
extreme. The complex theories of our astronomy 
will doubtless appear in the least difficult form if 
viewed in the light of the logical order of their 
dawning upon the philosophic mind ; but the at- 
tempt to insist on this method of treatment ap- 
pears, in some instances, to have led Dr. Ballinto an 
unnecessary multiplication of wordy paragraphs. 
While thoroughly interesting and delightfully 
told, his ‘Story’ is, for all that, a pretty long one ; 
and we cannot but think that it would have been 
better received, not to say more carefully read, if, 
by some such omissions as these, Dr. Ball had 
sooner brought it toa close. 

Works on popular science, often a mere retailing 
at second or third hand of the labors of the pro- 
fessional investigator, are not infrequently filled 
with such misrepresentations of these labors as to 
be utterly misleading to the learner, not to say 
wrath-inspiring to those scientists whose work 
forms the unwilling subject of the story. Dr. 
Bali commits no offence of this sort: he is one of 
these investigators himself, but his own researches 
are not brought into undue prominence. Weshould, 
however, take exception to his account of the 
transit of Venus of 1882 as seen at Dunsink, 
where no observations of marked importance 
could be made,—an account which, therefore, 
cannot give a sufficient and characteristic view of 
the magnitude of the very extended operations 
conducted elsewhere on that occasion. We find 
no allusion to the abundant series of photographs 
of that transit, obtained by the American parties, 
which, it is safe to say, constitute the most im- 
portant and successful record of a transit of 
Venus ever secured. 

In some other parts, also, the ‘Story of the 
heavens’ is not well balanced. There is, per- 
chance, the best of reason for being dissatisfied, 
or rather unsatisfied, with the present state of 
solar research. In the chapter on the sun, we 
find an exceptionally full description of the solar 
spots ; but the question as to what they are is dis- 
missed in a word. The progressive theories of 
the constitution of these objects form a most im- 
portant contribution to the history of astronomy ; 
and many a page in the book might better have 
been devoted to an outlined statement of these 
theories, and of what the spots, to say the least, 
seem likely to be. We should make much the 
same criticism of the author’s treatment of that 


366 


important but mysterious phenomenon, the zodia- 
cal light. 

No inconsiderable number of persons sufficient- 
ly interested in astronomy to read a book of 
this sort desire to become themselves observers; 
not with reference to making contributions of 
value to the science, but simply for their own ad- 
vancement and edification. Early in his work, 
Dr. Ball has an interesting word for such readers, 
suggesting work well worth doing, and for which 
only an opera-glass is required. Why not have 
elaborated this idea more fully farther on, and 
with reference to various celestial objects within 
ready reach of slender telescopic means? 

We are glad to see the care with which an 
abounding index has been prepared : it contains 
something like twelve hundred entries, and covers 
no less than eleven pages of the book. 

In the last chapter, when treating of the tides, 
Dr. Ball is at his best. And by tides are meant, 
not alone the rise and fall of the sea as we note 
it to-day, but the term is used in its broadest 
sense, and the vast problems of tidal evolution 
dealt with in a wholly captivating style. This 
new departure in mathematical astronomy, as Dr. 
Ball justly terms it, is fully elucidated, and the 
non-mathematical reader owes him many an obli- 
gation for this clear and elegant exposition of the 
profound mathematical researches of Professor 
Darwin. 

The illustrations are, as a whole, the best we 
have seen in any book on popular astronomy. A 
good many of them are new, a good many are 
borrowed with full credit, and yet others are 
borrowed without any credit. To the last class 
belong a number appropriated from Newcomb’s 
‘Popular astronomy,’ notably those on pp. 78 and 
214 of the latter work, which are reproduced on 
pp. 104 and 228 of Ball. Presumably the charge 
of plagiarizing the text accompanying these illus- 
trations would be sustained with difficulty ; but 
it would be interesting to know how much time 
elapsed between Dr. Ball’s reading of this text, and 
the writing of his own paragraphs on the effect 
of gravity on a projectile, and on the toothed- 
wheel method of determining the velocity of light. 
In our way of looking at it, subtracting the 
smoke from the Jamp, and five teeth from the 
wheel, and supplementing the man’s head with 
one shoulder and a mustache, fail to establish 
one’s right to an illustration otherwise success- 
fully ‘ conveyed.’ 

But Dr. Ball has not confined his attentions to 
a single work. In filling out his chapter on the 
sun, he found that something already written by 
somebody else would save him the drudgery of a 
page here and there, and he appears to have had 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 168 


no compunction in calling it his own. A few 
paragraphs from Young’s ‘The sun’ and from 
Ball's ‘ The story of the heavens’ are subjoined : — 


YOUNG (p. 118). 


‘* The average life of a sun- 
spot may be taken as two or 
three months; the longest 
yet on record is that of a 
spot observed in 1840 and 
1841, which lasted eighteen 
months. While some 
spots are thus long-lived, 
others.however.endure only 
for a day or two, and some- 
times only for a few hours. 

“The spots usually ap- 
pear not singly, but in 
groups—... Very often a 
large spot is followed upon 
the eastern side by a train 
of smaller ones; many of 
which, in such a case, are 
apt to be very imperfect in 
structure,... When a large 
spot divides into two or 
more, as often happens, the 
parts usually seem to repel 
each other, and fly asunder 
... velocities of one thou- 
sand miles, and even more, 
are by no means exception- 
al. 

*“At times, though very 
rarely, a different phenom- 
enon of the most surprising 
and startling character ap- 
pears in connection with 
these objects: patches of in- 
tense brightness suddenly 
break out, remaining visible 
for a few minutes, moving, 
while they last, with velo- 
cities as great as one hun- 
dred miles a second. 

** One of these events has 
become classical. It oc- 
curred on the forenoon 
(Greenwich time) of Sept. 
1, 1859, and was independ- 
ently witnessed by two well- 
known and reliable observ- 
ers, Mr. Carrington and Mr. 
Hodgson, ... Mr. Carring- 
ton at the time was making 
his usual daily observation 
upon the position, configu- 
ration, and size of the spots 
by means of an image of the 
solar disk upon a screen, 
... Mr. Hodgson, at a dis- 
tance of many miles, was at 
the same time sketching de- 
tails of sun-spot structure 
; They simultaneously 
saw two luminous objects, 
shaped something like two 
new moons,each about eight 
thousand miles in length 
and two thousand wide, at 
a distance of some twelve 
thousand miles from each 
other. These burst sudden- 
ly into sight at the edge of 
a great sun-spot, with a 


BALL (p. 36). 


‘The average duration of 
a sun-spot is about two or 
three months, and the lon- 
gest life of a spot that has 
been recorded is one which 
in 1840 and 184] lasted for 
eighteen months, There are, 
however, some spots which 
last only for a day or two, 
and some only for a few 
hours. 

“Tt should also be ob- 
served that the sun-spots 
usually appear in groups, 
and very often a large spot 
is attended or followed by 
a number of smaller ones, 
more or less imperfect. It 
often happens that a large 
spot divides into two or 
more smaller spots, and 
these parts have been some- 
times seen to fly apart, with 
a velocity in some cases not 
less than a thousand miles 
an hour. On rare occasions 
a phenomenon of the most 
surprising character has 
been witnessed in connec- 
tion with the sun - spots, 
where patches of intense 
brightness suddenly break 
out, remain visible for a 
few minutes, and travel 
with a velocity of over a 
hundred miles a second. 
One of these events has 
become celebrated for 
the extraordinary char- 
acter of the phenomena, as 
well as for the fortunate 
circumstance that it has 
been authenticated by the 
independent testimony of 
the skilled witnesses. On 
the forenoon of the ist Sep- 
tember, 1859, two well- 
known observers of the 
sun, Mr. Carrington and Mr. 
Hodgson, were both en- 
gaged in observation. Mr. 
Carrington was employed 
at his self-imposed daily 


task of observing the po- | 


sitions, the configuration, 
and the size of the spots 
by means of an image of 
the sun upon a screen, 


was at the same moment 
sketching some details of 
sun-spot structure, 


something like two new 
moons, each about eight 
thousand miles long and 
two thousand miles wide, 


at a distance of about 


twelve thousand miles 


Mr. 
Hodgson, many miles away, — 


They — 
saw simultaneously two lu- — 
minous objects, shaped ~ 


Arrit 23, 1886.] 


dazzling brightness at least 
five or six times that of the 
neighboring portions of the 
photosphere, and moved 
eastward over the spot in 
parallel lines, growing 
smaller and fainter, until in 
about five minutes they dis- 
appeared, after traversing 
a course of nearly thirty-six 
thousand miles.” 


YOUNG (p. 267). 


“*. . . the temperature at 
the focus can not.rise above 
that of the source of heat, 
the effect of the lens being 
simply to move the object 
at the focus virtually to- 
ward the sun; so that, if we 
neglect the loss of heat by 
transmission through the 
glass, the temperature at 
the focus should be the 
same as that of a point 
placed at such a distance 
_ from the sun that the solar 
disk would seem just as 
large as the lens itself 
viewed from its own focus. 

‘““The most powerful lens 
yet constructed thus vir- 
tually transports an object 
at its focus to within about 
two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand miles of the sun’s sur- 
face, and in this focus the 
most refractory substances 
—platinum, fire-clay, the 
diamond itself—are either 
instantly melted or dissi- 
pated in vapor. There can 
be no doubt that, if the sun 
were tO come as near us as 
the moon, the solid earth 
would melt like wax.”’ 


SCIENCE. 


apart: these suddenly burst 
into view near the edge of 
a great sun-spot, with a 
brightness at least five or 
six times that of the neigh- 
boring parts of the sun, and 
travelled eastward over the 
spot in parallel lines, grow- 
ing smaller and fainter, un- 
til in about five minutes 
they disappeared, after a 
journey of about thirty-six 
thousand miles.” 


BALL (p. 495). 

“. . the temperature at 
the focus cannot be greater, 
cannot be even equal, to the 
temperature at the source 
of heat itself. The effect of 
a burning-glass is merely 
equivalent to making a 
closer approach towards the 
sun. The rule is indeed a 
simple one. The tempera- 
ture at the focus of the 
burning-glass is the same as 
that of a point placed at 
such a distance from the 
sun that the solar disk 
would seem just as large as 
the lens itself viewed from 
its own focus. The greatest 
burning-glass which has ever 
been. constructed virtually 
transports an object at its 
focus to within 250,000 miles 
ofthe sun’s surface: in other 
words, to a _ distance of 
about 1-400th part ofits pres- 
ent amount. In this focus 
it was found that the most 
refractory substances, 
agate, cornelian, platinum, 
fire-clay, the diamond itself, 
were melted or even dissi- 
pated into vapour. There 
can be no doubt that if the 
sun were to come as near to 
us as the moon, the solid 
earth itself would melt like 
wax.”’ 


By what name Dr. Ball would call this whole- 
Sale pillaging of others’ books, we do not know : 
but it seems to us to fall little short of tallying 
with the work of the plagiary. Substituting 
‘greatest burning-glass’ for ‘most powerful 
lens,’ and adding agate and cornelian to a list 
of refractory substances already fully long 
enough for the purpose of illustration, do not 
show any mark of great originality, while the 
continued effort to conceal the theft is petty in the 
extreme. We have not had the time to trace Dr. 
Ball’s possible liberties with other authors than 
these, but our researches thus far have left us in 
the mood for suggesting that the titlepage of sub- 
Sequent editions of his work might with some 
little show of justice contain the insertion ‘com- 
piled by ——.’ Any one who cares to investigate 
further may perhaps like to judge for himself 


367 


how much of pp. 495-505 in Dr. Ball’s very in- 
teresting chapter on the ‘ Astronomical signifi- 
cance of heat’ (the greater part) was directly sug- 
gested by a like number of pages at the end of 
Professor Young's chapter on the ‘ Sun’s light and 
heat.’ While in another part of his book Dr. 
Ball alludes to Professor Young as ‘the well- 
known authority,’ etc., in the chapter in question 
we find no mention of the name. Professor 
Young would doubtless be very glad to be of as- 
sistance to Dr. Ball, but we think he is human 
enough to care for the graceful acknowledgment 
of the service. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

Dutch statistics of population. —Kuyper has 
recently given an interesting discussion of the 
population-statistics of the Netherlands. The 
population for the whole kingdom is found to be 
121.6 per square kilometre, and 75.0 for the low- 
lands, and varies from 265.9 to 44.6 for the same 
area in different districts. The females out-num- 
ber the males by from one to two per cent. Of the 
population, 32 per cent are married; 61.55 per 
cent are Protestants, 36.02 are Catholics, and 
2.04 per cent are Israelites, in religion; and, in 
occupation, 20 per cent are agriculturalists, 26 
per cent laborers, 12 per cent merchants, 18 per 
cent manufacturers or mechanics, 2.5 per cent 
soldiers, 2.3 per cent engaged in religious, scien- 
tific, or sanitary professions. The increase of 
population from 1860 to 1880 varied from 12 per 
cent, in Limburg, to 30 per cent, in Holland 
proper. Of thirty-eight centres of over 10,000 
inhabitants, one (Delftshaven) has doubled, seven- 
teen have increased more than 25 per cent, and 
twelve others have increased from 10 to 25 per 
cent, during the same period. The work is sup- 
plemented by an instructive chart showing the in- 
crease of population for the period by single 
parishes, — a course only practicable in so small a 
country as Holland. 

Search for mammoths in the Lena Delta, — 
Dr. Bunge has sent to St. Petersburg a chart of 
the Lena Delta, corrected during the numerous 
long journeys undertaken by him in search of 
frozen mammoths. His travels were more lucky 
geographically than biologically, for he found but 
one skeleton, and that deprived of head and one 
fore-leg. It had been exposed for ten years to 
the attacks of dogs, foxes, and natives, but had 
originally been covered with a thick coat of hair, 
which might have defended it against even the 
present climate of the delta, provided it could 
have obtained food to its liking. 

Medals of Paris geographical society.— The 
great gold medal of the Paris geographical so- 


368 


ciety, for 1886, has been awarded to Messrs. 
Capello and Ivens, for their African journeys. <A 
smaller gold medal has been given to the ‘ Pundit 
A. K.,’ one of the anonymous explorers for Eng- 
land of upper Tibet; and medals of silver and 
bronze to Messrs. Bloyet and H. Mager, for Afri- 
can topography and the ‘Colonial atlas.’ The 
prix Logerot is received by M. Marche, for his 
explorations of the Philippines. 

A new oil. — The oil of a species of bamboo of 
African origin is reported by the Catholic mission- 
aries of Alima in Africa to be an excellent lubri- 
cator, and, when refined, to form a fair substitute 
for olive-oil in the cuisine. The new industry 
thus created is actually in process of development 
in the French Kongo region. 

Ethnographic map of Asia.—Von Haardt of 
Vienna has sent out a prospectus of a new ethno- 
graphic map of Asia, in six sheets, scale 1: 8,000,- 
000, total size 175x140 cm. The scheme includes 
one hundred and thirty-six ethnic divisions, to be 
indicated by appropriate tints and hachuring. 
The subscription price is placed at thirty francs. 
The classification adopted has its defects ; but the 
map, which will be accompanied by a small ex- 
planatory pamphlet, to all interested in the dis- 
tribution of mankind, will have great value. If 
successful, it will be followed by maps of other 
continents, on the same plan. Subscriptions are 
to be sent to Eduard Hélzel, Vienna, Weyringer- 
gasse 19, 


ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 

The two comets. — Fabry’s comet continues to 
increase in brightness, and on a clear morning is 
bright enough to be made out with the naked eye, 
though it does not reach a sufficient altitude be- 
fore sunrise to be very conspicuous in the presence 
of bright moonlight. Barnard described it on the 
8th inst. as a hazy object with a faint tail, which, 
in the telescope, could be traced for five or six 
degrees. On April 24 the comet will be in the 
constellation Triangulum, in right ascension 14 32™, 
north declination 30° 3’, and will appear above the 
horizon about half-past three in the morning. Its 
brightness is then 297 times as great as at the time 
of discovery. The comet is increasing its right 
ascension, and is moving rapidly south: at the 
end of April, according to Dr. Oppenheim’s 
ephemeris, it will approach us within a fifth part 
of the distance of the sun, and its theoretical 
brightness will be nearly 500 times that at dis- 
covery. Barnard’s comet is also increasing in 
brightness, but somewhat more slowly than Fa- 
bry’s. It makes its nearest approach to the sun in 
the first week of May, and its nearest to the earth 
in the latter part of that month. The position for 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII, No. 168: 


the last of this week (April 24) is: right ascension, 


-1540™; north declination, 39° 39’, with a calcu- 


lated brightness of 62: it is nearly midway be- 
tween the second magnitude stars 8 and y Androm- 
edae, and sets a little after eight o’clock. The 
astronomical positions we have given can readily 
be found upon the star-maps (map I.) given in the 
Science Almanac for last year (vol. iv. No. 99) or 
upon any celestial atlas. 

The new nebula in the Pleiades. — The nebula 
discovered by the Henry brothers of the Paris ob- 
servatory, upon their photographic negative of the 
Pleiades taken Nov. 16, 1885, has been seen — now 
that its existence is known — without great diffi- 
culty, by Perrotin and his assistants at Nice, and 
by Struve with his new 30-inch Clark objective, 
and also with the 15-inch at Pulkowa. Struve 
gives a careful description of the nebula, accom- 
panied by a sketch, in the Astronomische nach- 
richten (No. 2,719), and from his observations it 
seems probable that some of the small stars in the 
immediate neighborhood may prove to be interest- 
ing variables. The nebula is of a characteristic 
spiral form, and seems to ‘escape’ from the star 
Maia. Professor Pickering, upon the announce- 
ment of the discovery, recalled the circumstance 
that certain irregularities had been noticed in a 
photograph of the Pleiades taken on Nov. 8, 1885, 
at Harvard college observatory. These irregulari- 
ties, which had been referred to defects in the 
photographic process, correspond closely with the 
descriptions of the nebula, and no doubt represent 
light photographically visible near Maia. ‘‘ The 
explanation thus afforded, of one of the markings. 
on the Cambridge photograph, makes the others 
of more interest than seemed at first to belong to. 
them. There are indications of nebulous light 
about Merope ; four short parallel streaks directed 
to the south following side are particularly notice- 
able, and a faint prolongation of diffuse light may 
be suspected towards the south, in agreement with 
the descriptions usually given of the visible nebula 
in that region. There is also a faint: streak of 
light projecting from Electra on the following 
side. . . . No nebulous light is noticeable about 
Alcyone, Atlas, Pleione, or Taygeta.” 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


As stated in our ‘Boston letter’ of March 12, 
the liberality and co-operation of the Woman’s 
education association enable the Boston society of 
natural history to announce that the Seaside labo- 
ratory at Annisquam, Mass., will be open to stu- 
dents during the coming summer from June 15 to 
Aug. 15, 1886. Annisquam is situated on an inlet 
of Ipswich Bay, on the north side of Cape Ann, 


ee a Oe 


APRIL 23, 1886.] 


and is about three miles and a half by coach from 
the Eastern railroad station in Gloucester. The 
purpose of the laboratory is to afford opportunities 
for the study of the development, anatomy, and 
habits of common types of marine animals, under 
suitable direction and advice. There will be no 
attempt to give lectures or any stated courses of 
instruction. The laboratory has been in operation 
for four successive summers, and has fairly met 
the wants of a number of students, teachers, and 
investigators. Those who have had some experi- 
ence in a laboratory, who have attended practical 
lessons, or who have taught in the schools, are 
sufficiently qualified to make use of this oppor- 
tunity. The instruction and work of the labo- 
ratory will be under the immediate care of Mr. B. 
H. Van Vleck, assistant in the laboratory of the 
Boston society of natural history, a gentleman 
well known as a teacher, and who has also had 
long experience in collecting and observing at 
the seaside. Applications should be made imme- 
diately, and can be addressed to Mr. B. H. Van 
Vieck. 


. — The Boston Transcript states that Mr. Alfred 
Russell Wallace, the celebrated English naturalist, 
who shares with Darwin the honor of an inde- 
pendent discovery of the law of ‘the survival of 
the fittest,’ is coming to the United States on the 
invitation of Mr. Augustus Lowell of Boston, to 
deliver a course of eight lectures before the Lowell 
institute, in that city, beginning in October. It 
will be remembered that it was on a similar in- 
vitation (from Mr. Lowell’s father) that Profes- 
sor Agassiz first came to America, in the autumn 
of 1846. After completing his Lowell institute 
course, Mr. Wallace will lecture in other cities, and 
proposes to return to England in the spring of 
1887. His subjects will be chosen from natural 
history. 


— During the past week the occurrence of a 
large number of insects of a formidable appear- 
ance in Washington has attracted considerable at- 
tention. The following account of their habits and 
appearance is given by one of the entomologists 
of the agricultural department : This large insect 
of two inches and a half, or more, in length is 
the Belostoma americanum of entomologists, and 
belongs to the order Hemiptera, or true bugs. It 
lives in ponds and sluggish streams during the 
immature state, in which it has no wings, and is 
full grown in fall, remaining in the ponds during 
the winter. When, in the spring, the warm 
weather awakens them, they come forth at dark, 
often in immense numbers, and fly about: the 
Sexes mate, and they return to the ponds in 
which the female deposits her eggs. They are 


SCIENCE. 


369 


strongly attracted by light, and especially by elec- 
tric lamps, under which vast numbers often strew 
the walks, and are crushed under foot. Their 
sudden appearance often creates alarm; and dur- 
ing the past week or two, specimens have been 
received from various parts of North Carolina 
and other southern states, the writers often in 
evident fear of damage from this insect invasion. 
But they are perfectly harmless. They are, it is 
true, able to inflict a very painful bite, for they 
are provided with a short, sharp beak; but they 
never do so voluntarily, and they do not live on 
any thing in the way of vegetable matter outside 
of the water. They are carnivorous, feeding 
principally on less powerful water-insects, and 
not despising an occasional fish, frog, or other bit 
of flesh that may come in their way. They have 
been just as abundant in previous seasons, but 
have not been so much noticed, for the reason 
that there have not been so many electric lights 
to which they could be attracted. Like so many 
of the true bugs, they have a very peculiar and 
rank smeli. A number of other water-insects are 
also attracted to light, but never in such quanti- 
ties. 


— The following papers were entered to be 
read at the annual meeting of the National 
academy of sciences, which convened at Washing- 
ton, Tuesday, April 20: G. F. Gilbert, The geo- 
logic age of the Equus fauna; T. Sterry Hunt, 
The Cowles electrical furnace; E. D. Cope, On 
the phylogeny of the Batrachia ; On the phylogeny 
of the placental mammalia; H. A. Newton, The 
comet of Biela; Elias Loomis, Areas of high 
barometric pressure over Europe and Asia; 
Samuel H. Scudder, The cockroach in the past 
and present; James D. Dana, Biographical 
memoir of Arnold Guyot. 


— In his annual report for 1885, the United States 
entomologist continues his report on silk-culture 
in the United States. He does not speak very 
encouragingly of its immediate success as a 
profitable industry, and thinks any stimulus given 
to it must needs be temporary, and that the sub- 
stantial way of encouraging the industry will be 
by imposing an import duty on the reeied silk 
from foreign countries. Two stations have been 
established by the agricultural department during 
the past year for the production of reeled silk ; 
and Dr. Riley concludes, that, with the introduc- 
tion of the improved Serrell reel, the cost of 
reeled silk per pound may be reduced to $4.38. 
The cost of several hundred pounds of reeled silk 
produced at the New Orleans station was $5.90 
per pound, or, as corrected for needless expendi- 
ture, $5.85: it brought in the market $4.50. 


370 


— The meeting of the engineers’ club of Phila- 
delphia on April 3 was spent in an interchange of 
views as to how to best promote a more extended 
discussion of the numerous subjects brought 
before the club. Various methods of bringing 
original papers to the early attention of members 
likely to discuss them were proposed, and the sub- 
ject was finally referred to a committee. This is 
a serious question with most of the scientific clubs 
of the country, which find their meetings generally 
of a stiff and formal character, tending to stifle 
all debate. 


— The chemical laboratory of Fresenius at Wies- 
baden enjoys a very large attendance, says the 
Chemical news. In the winter term, 1885-86, 
there were 90 students on the books. Of these, 
58 were from Germany, 6 from Austro-Hungary, 
6 from North America, 5 from England, 5 from 
Russia, 3 from France, 2 from Switzerland, 2 from 
Holland, 1 from Luxemburg, 1 from Sweden, and 
1 from Norway. Besides the director, Geh. Hof- 
rath Prof. Dr. R. Fresenius, there are engaged as 
teachers in the establishment Prof. Dr. H. Frese- 
nius, Dr. E. Borgmann, Dr. W. Fresenius, Dr. E. 
Hintz, Dr. med. F. Hueppe, and Architect Brahm. 
The assistants in the instruction laboratory were 
two in number, in the private laboratory twelve, 
and in the versuchsstation three. During the 
last term, besides the scientific researches, a great 
number of analyses were undertaken in the dif- 
ferent departments of the laboratory and the ver- 
suchsstation on behalf of manufacture, trade, 
mining, agriculture, and hygiene. 

— The Woman’s education association of Bos- 
ton has made arrangements for a course of les- 
sons. in botany by Prof. George L. Goodale of 
Harvard university. The course is designed to 
present the principal laws of life and growth of 
plants, and will deal especially with methods for 
cultivating and collecting plants for study. Each 
lecture will occupy about half an hour, and, as 
in former years, will be followed by a practical 
exercise in the examination of plants. These 
laboratory exercises are arranged for beginners, 
but will also serve to supplement previous courses 
of botanical practice. The lectures will begin on 
Monday, March 22, and will be given on Fridays 
and Mondays in the rooms of the Natural history 
society. Tickets for the course, at ten dollars, 
may be obtained at the Natural history rooms. 


—It is proposed to raise a fund by public sub- 
scription for the purpose of presenting a testi- 
monial to the Rev. H. H. Higgins of England, in 
recognition of the services he has rendered to 
the cause of education, and especially to the vari- 
ous departments of science during the last forty- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 168 


three years. Contributions may be sent to Baron 
L. Bevas, 1 Lord Str., Liverpool, Eng. 


— The office of secrétaire perpétuel of the French 
academy, left vacant by the death of M. Jamin, 
has been filled by the election of M. Vulpian. The 
two principal candidates were M. Vulpian and M. 
Alphonse Milne Edwards, the former of whom 
received twenty-six, the latter twenty-four votes. 


—It has long been known that petroleum 
existed in the vicinity of Jemsah, on the west coast 
of the Red Sea, about one hundred and seventy 
miles south of Suez; but previous explorations 
have produced no result. In September, 1884, a 
Belgian mining engineer, M. Debay, was sent to 
report on the possibilities of the practical working 
of the oil-beds, and, after much trouble, he has 
finally succeeded in reaching practical results. 
After penetrating successively through gypsum, 
containing veins and nests of sulphur, shale, green 
and blue clay, limestone, and sandstone, the drill, 
on Feb. 28, fell suddenly forty centimetres, and 
petroleum rose to a point two metres above the 
sea-level. On receipt of the news, Nubar Pasha 
arranged an expedition of experts, from whose 
examination there has resulted the establishment 
of the following facts: that petroleum undoubtedly 
exists ; that the geological formation of the country 
is favorable to the existence of larger quantities at 
lower depths; that the store of oil is generally 
distributed over a large area in the neighborhood ; 
that under existing unfavorable conditions a single 


source yields about two tons daily ; that the spe- | 


cific gravity is .88; and that the spot is easily 
accessible from the coast, where there is good 
anchorage. 


— The ravages of the phylloxera have, during 
the past year, extended into a number of cantons 
in Switzerland where the insect has never been 
hitherto observed, and have caused considerable 
uneasiness in the wine-producing industry. In 
connection with the continual extension of the 
fields of its devastation in foreign countries, it is 
of interest to note, that, in Professor Hilgard’s 
last report of the viticultural work in California, 
it is stated that the habits of the insect in that 
state deviate from those observed in foreign coun- 
tries to such an extent that the dangers of in- 
fection are much lessened. These differences in 
habits consist in the rarity of the winged female 
form, and the apparent absence of winter eggs, 
both probably due to the climatic influences. 
The mercurial vapor remedy, of which much has 
been hoped, has, in the hands of Professor Hilgard 
and his assistant Mr. F. W. Morse, failed to pro- 
duce its promised results as a phylloxera insecti- 
cide. 


APRIL 23, 1886.] 


— Anew explosive has been invented by F. 
Redtenbacher, a mining engineer in Austria. It 
probably contains only the elements of ordinary 
powder, but in proportions determined by twenty 
odd years of research. This powder is brownish 
black in color. The advantages of the explosive, 
which is known as ‘ miline,’ are its insensibility to 
percussion or friction, and that it can only be 
ignited by aspark. There exists, therefore, little 
danger in its transportation and preparation. It 
does not undergo any modification under the in- 
fluence of temperature, and only ignites at 335° to 
340° C. It burns with little smoke, and does not 
produce any deleterious gas. It can be employed 
exactly as powder, and, when well tamped, its 
effects are comparable with those of dynamite. 


—Mr. A. Vogel has recently shown (Central- 
blatt f. agric. chemie) that cinchona-trees, grow- 
ing in hot-houses in Europe, develop no quinine 
in their bark. 

— King Oscar of Sweden has ordained two 
prize contests on oriental subjects, — one, the 
history of the Semitic languages; the other, a 
description of the Arabic civilization before the 
_ time of Mohammed. The prizes are a gold medal 
worth 1,000 Swedish crowns, and a sum of money 
equal to 1,250 Swedish crowns. The treatises 
may be written in Latin or German, and may be 
forwarded to Professor Fleischer of Leipzig, or 
Professor Néldecke of Strassburg, before June 
30, 1888. 

— The investigation before the Massachusetts 
legislative committee on the subject of arsenic 
in wall-paper indicates that the danger has been 
exaggerated. Prof. C. F. Chandler testified, that, 
from careful experiments, under no conditions 
could arsenical poisoning occur through breathing 
arsenurated hydrogen from wall-paper, and that 
the only source of danger would be from friction 
alone. 

— Prof. L. Geiger of Berlin is about to issue a 
Zeitschrift fiir die geschichte der Juden in Deutsch- 
land. It will be scientific in character and treat- 
ment, and, in addition to essays and reports of re- 
search, it will contain summaries of historical ma- 
terials that are difficult of access or hitherto un- 
printed. It will also make its bibliographical notes 
an especial feature. 


— The Smithsonian report for 1884, just issued, 
contains, like the previous ones, the secretary’s 
annual report, and summaries of scientific prog- 
ress in the natural sciences, by E. S. Holden, 
C. G. Rockwood, F. M. Green, C. Abbe, G. F. 
Barker, H. C. Bolton, E. S. Dana. J. B. Marcou, 
T. Gill, and O. T. Mason, together with a number 
of miscellaneous papers on anthropology. 


F 


SCIENCE. 


37] 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


x*x Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


New York agricultural experiment-station. 


In your review of the fourth annual report of the 
New York agricultural experiment-station (Science, 
vii. No. 165) you deal very leniently with some of the 
most glaring faults of that report. This is certainly 
the pleasanter way ; but does it best subserve the 
cause of truth and progress? That station is un- 
questionably doing valuable work for the cause of 
progressive agriculture, and, because of the ability 
thus manifested, the anxiety of the friends of that 
cause is the greater that its splendid opportunities 
should not be frittered away in a kind of work 
which, if persisted in, will inevitably bring about its 
ruin. 

The fundamental mistake in the management of 
this station, as manifested by this report, is the en- 
deavor to cover too much ground. The field of agri- 
cultural experimentation is so vast, that he who 
would accomplish any worthy result must confine his 
labors to a limited portion of it; but in this case so 
many problems have been attacked, that few re- 
ceive that close and careful attention which is the 
first requisite of truly scientific work. The director 
makes frequent reference to the necessary incom- 
pleteness and unreliability of isolated tests, and does 
good work in showing the variability of duplicates ; 
but the infrequency with which he collates the results 
of his present experiments with those previously 
made by himself or other equally competent authori- 
ties, and the frequency with which he disregards his 
own testimony respecting the necessity for the dupli- 
cation of tests, intensify the feeling that the value of 
a large proportion of the work of this station is seri- 
ously impaired by its desultory character. 

The impression, that, in much of this work, 
quantity is attained at the expense of accuracy, is 
strengthened by page after page of the report. 
Typographical errors are difficult to wholly avoid ; 
but it is putting the case very mildly to say that they 
occur with unnecessary frequency here. This point, 
however, might be passed without notice were these 
the only evidences of hasty or careless work. In the 
tabulated report of the experiment in feeding starch- 
waste, for instance, we are left to conjecture which 
columns of figures relate to hay, and which to starch- 
meal, while no practical feeder would have been 
guilty of the absurdity of feeding a rich meal ad 
libitum, and following it by hay fed in the same 
manner, where it was desired to make a scientific test 
of the feeding-value of either food. Under the cir- 
cumstances, the allusion to the capriciousness of 
appetite in the cows under test is amusing. 

The fertilizer test recorded on p. 40 affords another 
striking example, both of the crudity of the methods 
employed at this station, and of the carelessness in 
reporting results. What would the magnificent 
Rothamsted experiments have amounted to, had the 
plots in Broadbalk field received enormous dressings 
of fertilizers one year, none the next, and varying 
quantities in the succeeding years, or if their in- 
terpreter had shown such carelessness in the sum- 
marizing of results as has been shown in giving the 
total quantities of fertilizers used in this case ? 

In conclusion, I must wholly dissent from the idea 
conveyed in the closing paragraph of your review, 


372 


that an experiment may have a so-called practical 
value and yet be worthless to the man of science. 
What is science but accumulated and co-ordinated 
facts? What fact is there which confirms, disproves, 
or illustrates any supposed law of vegetable or ani- 
mal growth, that is not valuable to the scientific man, 
and to the farmer as well? What agricultural ex- 
periment, worthy the name, but must perform this 
function? It is true, the farmer may be more in- 
terested in the results of the experiment, as in a 
comparative test of different varieties of wheat, 
while the scientist may be more desirous of ascertain- 
ing what constitutional peculiarity enables the one 
variety to surpass the other in yield; but in either 
case the fact that the one variety is the more pro- 
ductive is the stimulus of the investigation, and the 
methods of culture must be the same if trustworthy 
data are to be obtained for the use of either scientist 
or farmer. I do not forget that valuable facts have 
been learned from experiments which would be 
utterly impracticable in the field, and I would be the 
last to deny the usefulness of such work; but, until 
the applicability of these facts to the methods of the 
farmer has been demonstrated by field experiment, 
they are practically valueless. I do not deny that 
the study of isolated individuals, or of small groups 
of individuals, has a legitimate place in the work of 
the experiment-station ; but, until the results of that 


study are shown to be applicable to the field or to the. 


herd, they are worthless to the farmer, and equally 

worthless to the scientist. But this demonstration 

must be made by men trained to the scientific method. 
C. E. THORNE. 


Settlement of labor differences. 


Last week’s Science contains some views of Mr. N. 
M. Butler on the ‘Settlement of labor differences,’ 
which claim to be from the stand-point of ‘ science 
and philosophy,’ which is explained to mean freedom 
from false notions and prejudices, and to be the ob- 
servation of facts and relations as they are. 

He says that ‘ we’ are apt to look upon the present 
economic system as fixed and final. Who are ‘ we’? 
‘The fact as it is,’ is that in America, England, 
France, Germany, etc., men by the thousands and 
hundreds of thousands most decidedly do not feel 
that way at all. Numerous American citizens known 
as Knights of labor have combined and organized for 
the express purpose of changing the present wage 
(i.e., private capital) system into an integral co- 
operative one; and, what is more, they work with 
earnestness, determination, and devotion to realize 
that end. Instead of ‘‘ feeling an irresistible desire 
to look upon the (social evolution) process as com- 
pleted, and the book of evolution as closed,” they feel 
an irresistible conviction that society is entering on 
the threshold of a new form of economic organiza- 
tion. This belief is scientific ; that is, itis based on ex- 
perience carefully made and closely analyzed, as may 
be seen in the works of Karl Max, F. Engels, Henry 
George, and very clearly in that American writer 
George Gronlund’s book, ‘ The co-operative common- 
wealth.’ 

Mr. Butler says something about ‘‘ the ethical fact 
that there is a superiority of possessions.” What can 
it mean 7 

Mr. Butler adds his voice to the chorus of ‘ arbitra- 
tion’ fetich-worshippers. Arbitration is to have 
‘magic’ results. So it must, if it will harmonize the 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. VIL, No. 168. 


interests that are diametrically opposed, as are those 
of capitalists and laborers in regard to sharing the 
product of labor. 

But, say the ‘ arbitration’ and ‘harmony’ preach- 
ers and Mr. Butler, the product is the combined re- 
sult of the efforts of the capitalist and laborer. Some- 
times the capitalist adds his efforts to the work of 
producing by direct labor, or indirectly by doing the 
requisite directing of the work, and sometimes he 
does not. When he does apply personal effort, he 
is entitled to reward; but that is a different thing 
from the profit on his capital which will go to him if 
he hires managers or agents, or is merely an in- 
vestor or shareholder in a business he neither does 
nor can manage, nor in any way add ‘ effort’ of his 
own to the work of production. 

No, the capitalist need not work. He can (and 
many do) live in idleness, consuming enormously 
without producing at all, and, on an average, he 
never gives an equivalent of effort for what he gets : 
hence there is want of equity in the capitalistic 
system. 

It is self-evident that no arbitration, but only a 
radical change of the system, can abolish this in- 
justice; and this injustice is the cause of the ‘labor 
differences.’ 

‘Christian charity’ will not suffice here ; that is, 
the ‘ give all you have to the poor’ doctrine will not 
do, but, rather, a modernized adaptation of the in- 
stitutions of the primitive Christians, who had some 
primitive form of integral co-operation, for they 
held ‘all things in common’ (see the story of 
Ananias). 

As to arbitration as a sort of palliative patchwork 
for making temporary compromises, perhaps it is 
good for that; but‘ brute force,’ in the form of 
police and militia, has to stand behind it to make 
capitalists keep their agreement, which they have 
broken in innumerable instances when it was in their 
interest and power. 

Whether the change from the capitalistic to the co- 
operative mode of production will be by ‘brute force’ 
depends on the resistance the capitalists make to the 
course of evolution. History shows that privileged 
classes generally have appealed to brute force when- 
ever their privileges were in danger. 

The advice of science they do not heed. It is 
interest that guides them. Science, that is, our 
judgment of future facts by past ones, says the course 
of evolution of human society tends to abrogate all 
privileges and equalization of rights and duties. 
This is the democratic principle. When applied to 
social economy, it is termed ‘socialism’ or ‘social 
democracy.’ The capitalist cannot be a mere trustee 
without first ceasing to be a capitalist. This implies 
an entire change of the laws of property : hence the 
advice of science to Jabor is, Organize to make the 
requisite change of laws; thac is, go into politics as 
a party to establish an economic republic, electing 
your directors of labors. That will settle all differ- 
ences between capital and labor, because there will 
be no capitalist, and all will be laborers or starve. 

Cuas. FIELD. 


Eskimo building-snow. 


In your issue of Jan, 15, 1886, you give an illus- 
tration of what purports to be ‘hardened snow’ 
impacted on a Mount Washington telegraph - pole 
by a strong gale. During the past winter I have 


APRIL 23, 1886. ] 


noticed the same formation at this station upon the 
anemoscope and anemometer. I would like to in- 
quire whether the Mount Washington formation is 
really snow driven against the pole by the gale, or, 
as at this station, an accumulation of fog in a frozen 
state. This formation I have never observed during 
snow-storms, even when accompanied by winds of 
sixty miles and upwards, but it is of frequent occur- 
rence when a heavy cloud envelops the peak. 
T. W. SHERWOOD, 

Sig. corps, U.S.A. 

Pikes Peak, Col., April 15. 


Quaternary volcanic deposits in Nebraska. 


It was the good fortune of the writer to discover 
the following significant section during the last holi- 
day vacation. It is in one of the abrupt bluffs over- 
looking a sharp bend of the West Blue River, in the 
southern part of Seward county, Neb. It exhibits 
the formations from nearly the general level down to 
the level of the stream. It is as follows: 2+ feet 
soil; passing into 6 + feet red gritty loam; 9 + feet 
stratified loamy clay, with thin streaks of small white 
quartz pebbles ; passing into 3 + feet mostly gravel, 
with a few bowlders of red quartzite from Dakota ; 
passing into 15 + feet stratified loamy clay with 
streaks of pebbles; 6 to 10 inches of light gray earth, 
volcanic ashes, thinly and evenly laminated ; 14 feet 
clay, darker above; below passing into 5 feet fine 


gray sand, with thin clay laminae 6 to 12 inches 


apart; 1 + foot coarse sand with pebbles and bowl- 
ders of red quartzite, — greenstone, — granite, etc., 
with an uneven surface below ; 6 feet hard greenish 
joint clay; 8 feet slope; water of the West Blue 
River. ; 

A few rods distant a less complete but similar sec- 
tion shows the siliceous layer five feet thick, and it 
appears along the sides of a ravine at different places 
for several rods, showing considerable persistency. 
Specimens of it have been submitted to Mr. J. S. 
Diller of the U.S. geological survey, with another 
sample from Knox county. He replies, ‘‘ Specimens 
No. 1 (Knox county) and No. 2 (Seward county) are 
voleanic dust. They are composed chiefly of minute 
angular fragments of pumiceous glass, such as is 
thrown high into the air during violent eruptions, 
and wafted by currents of air for hundreds of miles 
away from its source. The fragments of glass are, 
for the most part, clear and transparent, with few 
traces of crystalline matter. Besides the volcanic 
glass, there are numerous grains of quartz sand, 
which are well rounded. ... As nearly as I 
can estimate, from the small quantity examined, 
more tban ninety per cent of the whole is volcanic 
dust. It appears that the material is of complex 
origin. While there is no doubt that the volcanic 
dust was borne by winds nearly or quite to its desti- 
nation, the rounded grains appear to be of aqueous 
origin, and suggest that the dust may have fallen in 
a body of water, where the two commingled.” 

Several important conclusions seem well - nigh 
demonstrated by this section. 

1. The occurrence of important volcanic action 
somewhere in this region during the quaternary. 
The red quartzite could not have arrived in this 
locality before the glacial epoch. If the section 
eventually proves to be of a local formation, which 
does not seem likely, it would only make the deposi- 
tion of the dust more recent. 


| ae 


SCIENCE. 


373 


2. The character of the siliceous deposit strongly 
supports the conclusion that it was dropped in a deep 
or quiet lake. This accords well with the deposits 
above and below ; for the bowldery layers are, for 
evident reasons, referred to floating ice, and the 
character of stratification favors lacustrine rather 
than fluviatile conditions : hence we are led to believe 
that this lake was contemporaneous with the ice- 
sheet which occupied the regions of Dakota and Iowa. 
We catch a glimpse of the joint action of frost and 
fire on our western plains. 

3. From the location of the section, and its rela- 
tion to the White River tertiary sands, which, if 
rightly identified, are widely exposed east of this 
point, it appears not unlikely that this lake was but 
the diminished stage of King’s Lake Cheyenne. 
Numerous finds of these siliceous beds have been 
reported from the republican valley, and one as far 
east as Oak Creek, Lancaster county. They prob- 
ably belong to this same geologicai horizon. 


J. EK. Topp. 
Tabor, Io., March 20, 


World time. 


The last number of Nature contains a lecture by 
Mr. Christie, the astronomer royal of England, on 
universal or world time. With Mr. Christie’s princi- 
pal conclusion I fully agree, but have not much faith 
in some of his arguments, or in some of the results 
he predicts. 

Mr. Christie bases one of his arguments on the 
iguorance of farmers, and infers, that, because the 
farmer cannot tell a difference of half an hour in 
his time, we may therefore make this difference four, 
five, or ten hours. But would the farmer be any 
better off if he should tell his wife that he wants 
breakfast at sixteen, seventeen, or twenty-two 
o’clock 2? Of course not. And it is not wise, I think, 
to base any permanent action on the ignorance of 
any class of men. Conditions may change; and 
such arguments, though they may answer for a 
political or military campaign, are easily overdone, 
and must be looked upon as only temporary. 

The most vicious assumption that underlies Mr. 
Christie’s argument, and which he has in common 
with some other astronomers, is this : he assumes that 
man was made for railroads and telegraphs, and not 
that these things are forman. My natural assump- 
tion would be that the chief astronomer of a great 
country would have a wider view of things. But we 
all know the liberality and influence of our great 
corporations, and how they deal out free wires and 
free service ; and we have all felt this on the recep- 
tion of a free telegraphic despatch when we come to 
the last letters, D. H. 

Now, I say with Mr. Christie, let the railroads 
adopt a world time, and it does not matter what 
meridian they take, though Greenwich is probably 
the best, and let all their trains be run on this time. 
Then, directly opposite to Mr. Christie’s proposition, 
let all the cities, villages, and farmers return to their 
local and natural time. If the-railroads will do this, 
the most ignorant farmer will soon understand 
matters. I speak with confidence, because forty 
years ago I was a farmer myself, and very ignorant. 
There has been too much confusion given to this 
matter, and our astronomers have been too eager to 
sell time. They have better work to do. 

ASAPH HALL. 


374 


Certain questions relating to national endow- 
ment of research in this country, and their 
importance. 


In reply to your able critic (W. S. N., in Science, 
vii. No. 165) of my letter bearing the above title 
(No. 164), permit me to refer him to my articles upon 
science and the state, recently published in Mind in 
nature, of Chicago, and, if his interest carry him 
that far, to do me the simple justice of re-reading my 
letter in Science which prompted his questions, — 
questions which I will here endeavor to answer for 
him. 

In the first place, let me most emphatically reiter- 
ate my opinion, that I am fully in favor of the gov- 
ernment endowing researchers in civil life, as well as 
affording the proper opportunities for the successful 
prosecution of the labors of those scientists upon her 
own rolls. May I ask my critic to again peruse that 
paragraph in my letter that is completed with the 
following words, ‘‘I stand on the side of the King 
of Denmark, in his principle as applied to Tycho 
Brahe,” and then ask himself if my being interro- 
gated as to my convictions upon the question as to 
whether or no it devolves upon the government to 
aid researchers in civil life was necessary; and I 
think he will find, upon reconsideration, that there 
is no difference of opinion between us upon that 
point. 

As to the proper ones who should receive such aid 
from the government, either in civil life or the ser- 
vices, let my critic place the correct construction on 
the word ‘ demonstrated,’ when I say in the sentence 
he quotes from my letter, ‘‘ of those persons in her 
employ who have from time to time demonstrated 
their fitness to perform certain work,” and I must 
believe we will agree here also. Mind you, I am not 
in favor of promptly affording assistance to any one 
and every one, or to him who suddenly springs up, 
and exclaims, ‘‘ Lo! I am a scientist, I can write a 
book, I believe Iam an investigator and a genius.” 
My advice to such a person would be, ‘ Demonstrate 
it, my good friend.’ As to the amount of assistance 
the government should render to those exceptional 
persons in this country who have demonstrated their 
peculiar fitness to prosecute certain lines of research 
with marked success, I concur fully in the opinion of 
Professor Huxley, who says, ‘‘ Now, the most im- 
portant object of all educational schemes is to catch 
these exceptional people, and turn them to account 
for the good of society. No man can say where they 
will crop up; like their opposites, the fools and 
knaves, they appear sometimes in the palace, and 
sometimes in the hovel. But the great thing to be 
arrived at, I was going to say the most important end 
of all social arrangements, is to keep these glorious 
sports of nature from being either corrupted by 
luxury or starved by poverty, and to put them into 
the position in which they can do the work for which 
they are specially fitted.” I quoted these excellent 
words nearly three years ago in the New York Medi- 
cal record, and again in my article upon science and 
the state in Mind in nature: so there is some danger 
of their becoming immortalized, though I considered 
them immortal when they were first penned. I will 
say, however, that, if occasion requires, I will quote 
them again, — quote and quote, till they become even 
the battle-cry of the socialists themselves, 

Regarding the progress of our nation, from an 
evolutionist’s point of view, as I do, I must consider, 


SCIENCE. 


| Vou. VII, No. 168 


from the very limpets in our fauna, through every 
atom we lay claim to, our bodies and brains, our 
minds and our works, our institutions and industries, 
our opinions and our language, nay, through our 
very government itself, — I must consider, I say, the 
whole as one glorious growth and development. 
During this growth, that limb of the common tree 
which bore the crop of American scientists un- 
doubtedly did encroach upon the government ser- 
vice ; and to the extent of this encroachment only 
do I ‘‘claim a monopoly of talent in government 
employ.” 

It was from this broad basis that I attempted to 
write my letter upon national endowment, and I feel 
pained that I should have failed in anybody’s eyes. 
My suggestions for a scientific corps for the army 
and navy, my papers upon science and the state, were 
prompted solely through the same sentiment. 

Is it too much to hope that some such re-organiza- 
tion as the department of science that I have else- 
where suggested, may some day be an idea realized, 
or do I peer too far into the future, when I see other 
zodlogical stations scattered along both of our exten- 
sive coasts, repeating. and repeating again, the mag- 
nificent national work that has been accomplished 
by the staff at Wood’s Holl? Or, scanning the hori- 
zon still farther, is it too much to hope that some- 
where in the dim future that change may come o’er 
the dream of the official mind, and it, too, see the 
grand natural law that the nineteenth century has 
wrested from nature’s secrets, and that the principles 
of evolution which are becoming more clearly defined 
for us every day be turned to practical use, and a 
little bending of the twigs be done by the govern- 
ment, to the extent of utilizing these evolved prod- 
ucts for the nation’s good? Then those who have 
demonstrated their peculiar fitness will be taken up 
by the government as one of her most powerful 
weapons; and room will be found for their strength, 
in this very department of science, these zodlogical 
stations on our coast, and similar zodlogical and 
meteorological stations established, as they should 
be, at suitable points all over our broad empire. 


R. W. SHUFELDT. 
Fort Wingate, N. Mex., April 8. 


The American ornithologists’ union code and 
check-list of North American birds. 


By an unfortunate oversight, the committee of the 
American ornithologists’ union on classification and 
nomenclature of North American birds omitted to 
recognize in the preface of the ‘ Code and check-list’ 
the important aid rendered the committee by the 
gentlemen invited to share in its labors. Dr. L. 
Stejneger, Dr. C. H. Merriam, and Dr. T. N. Gill 
were present at numerous meetings, participated in 
the discussions, and are entitled to grateful recogni- 
tion by the committee for their services. 

Dr. Stejneger not only gave valuable assistance to 
the subcommittee on species and subspecies, particu- 
larly in relation to questions of synonymy, but was 
also present by invitation at most of the meetings of 
the whole committee, took an active part in its dis- 
cussions, and contributed valuable assistance in the 
formulations of the ‘Code,’ — assistance which the 
committee is glad to gratefully acknowledge. 

COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLO- 
GISTS’ UNION ON CLASSIFICATION AND 
NOMENCLATURE, 


we 


SCIENCE.—SuPPLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1886. 


CHANGE IN THE TENETS OF POLITICAL 
ECONOMY WITH TIME. 


‘‘TT is incontestable,” says Comte, ‘‘ that con- 
tinuity and fecundity are the least doubtful symp- 
toms of all truly scientific conceptions. When 
each new work on political economy, in lieu of 
presenting itself as the spontaneous sequence and 
gradual development of previous works, has an 
essentially personal character according to its au- 
thor, so as to repeatedly put in question the most 
fundamental notions,” then we can rest assured 
that we are not dealing with a science properly 
so called. 

It is not the intention of the present paper to 
combat this statement in its entirety ; for the ma- 
turer judgment of the scientific world has convicted 
Comte of a gross misconception as to the nature 
of economics. But one charge must be met, — 
a point that contains the very marrow of the new 
movement in political economy. What Comte 
predicated of sociology, but denied in speaking of 
political economy, and what many of the older 
school then, as now, often disregarded, is the 
essential interrelation between economic theories 
and the changing external conditions of industrial 
life. The modern school, the historical and criti- 
cal school, holds that the economic theories of any 
generation must be regarded primarily as the 
outgrowth of the peculiar conditions of time, 
place, and nationality, under which the doctrines 
were evolved, and that no particular set of tenets 
can arrogate to itself the claim of immutable 
truth, or the assumption of universal applicability 
to all countries or epochs. We do not wish to 
disparage the work of previous economists ; but, 
just because of our belief in the relativity and 
continuity of economic doctrine, we are com- 
pelled to regard much of what was at the time 
comparatively correct and feasible, as to-day posi- 
tively erroneous and misleading. We maintain 
that Comte’s criticism is specious and shallow ; 
we hold that there is a well-defined thread of con 
tinuity and gradual development in the history 
of economic doctrines; and we assert that each 
a ¥ of economic life must be treated by itself, 
both in regard to the truth or falsity of the doc- 
trine itself, and in regard to the applicability of 
the particular theory in question. Let us, then, 


first give a short sketch of the history, and then 
draw our conclusions. 

1. The science of political economy in its present 
form is essentially a creation of modern thought. 
The conditions that have given rise to its birth are 
peculiarly the development of the last few cen- 
turies. Classic antiquity can indeed show us 
several writers on economic topics ; but a com- 
plete science, as we understand it, was an im- 
possibility, because the whole environment was of 
a nature to preclude speculation of this kind. The 
one great fact which pervaded the whole national 
life in Hellenic antiquity, for instance, was the 
institution of slavery. In Greece the home of 
almost every rich freeman was a great complex. 
He owned the land, the house, the slaves; and 
he produced at home, on the premises, all the 
necessary articles of consumption, which again, in 
cases where exchange was desirable, were taken 
to market by his own slaves, and sold as his own 
property. This complex of possessions was called 
in Greece oixoc (originally, ‘a house’), and the 
word ‘economics’ (oixoc and voic, ‘rule’) primarily 
denoted the method of managing this property, 
thus including domestic as well as political econo- 
my. But there was no fundamental distinction be- 
tween real and personal property, between mova- 
bles and immovables, between land and capital, 
as in modern times, because the same individual 
always owned both. There was no distinction 
between labor and capital, because labor was re- 
garded as a part of capital, because the laborer was 
property, because the slave was put in the same 
category as land and other commodities. Land- 
owner, capitalist, employer of labor, who are to-day 
sharply distinguished in production, were thrown 
into one in antiquity. The slave being a part of 
this complex, no independent theory of wages 
could arise, since there were no wages ; the land- 
owner being the capitalist, no theory of rent could 
arise ; the capitalist being the employer of labor 
and the transporter of goods to market, no theory 
of interest and profits, no conception of wages of 
superintendence as a separate share in distribution, 
could arise. The oixoc is therefore a fact of the 
most fundamental importance in Greek life, and 
furnishes the clew to all the theories of Aristotle 
and Xenophon, which, without it, are incompre- 
hensible and seemingly illogical. 

The second distinguishing mark of Greek life was 
the general conception of state. The present cen- 
tury is the age of individualism : the Hellenic epoch 


376 


was what might be called the age of collectivism. 
There the state reigned supreme: the individual 
as such was swallowed up. His time, his prop- 
erty, his life, belonged in the last instance to the 
state, which might demand it at any time. The 
only occupation worthy of a full citizen was that of 
attending to public affairs. Statecraft and _ poli- 
tics, athletics and military exercises, engrossed 
the chief moments of every Grecian, and left him 
neither time nor inclination for the pursuit of 
manual labor. This conception of the state was 
perhaps carried to an extreme in Sparta, where, 
as is well known, the meals were eaten in com- 
mon, the children educated together under the 
superintendence of the state, and the marriage 
relation subordinated to considerations of imagined 
political necessity. 

In Rome the matter was not far different. The 
economic conditions were for many centuries es- 
sentially the same as in Greece, and the ideas, 
even as advanced in the code of Justinian, bear 
evidence of the incomplete development of eco- 
nomic theory. Slavery, the low estimation of 
manual labor, and imperial absolutism, were the 
distinguishing characteristics of national life ; and 
under such conditions a science in the modern 
sense was rendered impossible. The Romans, 
however, had their physiocratic school, during 
the empire, in the shape of the agrarian writers, — 
scriptores de re rusticd, such as Varro, Columella, 
etc., — who attempted to stem the tide of national 
decay, and to recall the Romans to a sense of their 
former strength, by sounding the praises of agri- 
culture, and by proving the economic as well as 
moral shortcomings of the system of servile labor. 

2. The growth of the Christian church—the sub- 
stitution of a great monotheism for the numerous 
polytheisms of antiquity; the change from the old 
cults, which were but national religions or conse- 
crations of the national idea, to the new worship, 
which was international, not national, and in- 
tended to embrace all humanity — brought in 
its train the most cardinal changes. This is, of 
course, not the place to recount the changes pro- 
duced in economic relations by the church teach- 
ings: it will suffice barely to mention the total 
alteration in the treatment of the poor, the im- 
provement in the condition of woman, the con- 
ception of the dignity of labor hand in hand with 
the institution of holidays for the workmen, and 
the efforts for emancipation of the slaves. The 
patristic authors even went so far as to preach 
practical communism, although their object, far 
from being that of inciting the rabble to resist- 
ance, or of sowing the seeds of discord, was simply 
to recall the wealthy to a sense of their own obli- 
gations, to preach the gospel of fraternal love and 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 168 


charity, to remove some of the hideous moral 
enormities with which the later imperial civiliza- 
tion was honeycombed. 

But it was not until the scholastic age that any 
distinctive economic doctrines were formulated. 
The increase of industry and commerce in the 
eleventh and twelfth centuries, the rise of the 
municipalities and the growth of the town-guilds, 
craft as well as merchant, lent an increased im- 
petus to the consideration of economic topics, — 
an impetus still further strengthened by the dis- 
covery and annotation of Aristotle’s ‘ Politics and 
economics.’ The subject of money, for instance, 
received a careful treatment, and the so-called 
Gresham’s law was as well known to the authors 
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as it is 
to-day. The two great doctrines, however, that 
dominated all mediaeval economy, were those of 
usury and of reasonable price. The prohibition 
of interest was founded, not on Aristotle’s plea 
that money was barren, nor even, except at the 
very first, on the injunction of St. Luke, Mutuum 
date, nihil inde sperantes, but on a complicated and 
artificial legal distinction, drawn from the Roman 
law. The theologians based themselves on the 
glossators and legists, and the wordy strife about 
‘fungible’ and ‘ consumptible’ things continued 
for several centuries, until finally settled by 
Salmasius, Turgot, and Bentham. But the doc- 
trine influenced all mediaeval speculation: it was 
applied not only to loans, but to transactions of all 
kinds ; it was the pivot about which the theories 
of price, of exchange, of banking, and of trade, 
swung; and an acquaintance with its provisions 
is indispensable to a correct comprehension of 
mediaeval economic life. 

Of still greater importance, however, was the doc- 
trine of justum pretium (‘reasonable price’) as ex- 
pressed in the writings, and exemplified in actual 
life. The middle ages were a period of customary, 
not of competitive prices; and the idea of per- 
mitting agreements to be decided by the individ- 
ual preferences of vender or purchaser was 
absolutely foreign to the jurisprudence of the 
times. The ‘higgling of the market’ was an im- 
possibility simply because the laws of the market 
were not left to the free arbitrament of the con- 
tracting parties. Under the supposition that the 
interests of the whole community would be best 
subserved by avoiding the dangers of an unrestrict- 
ed competition, the government interfered to ordain 
periodical enactments of customary or reasonable 
prices —reasonable, that is, for both producer and 
consumer. Tabulated: tariffs and official regula- 
tions of all things, from beer to wages, filled 
the statute-books ; and it would have seemed pre- 
posterous for the producer to ask as much as he 


APRIL 23, 1886.] 


could get, or, on the contrary, to’ demand less 
than his neighbor, and thus undersell him. The 
great offences of mediaeval trade in England, for 
instance, were regrating, forestalling, and engross- 
ing, — buying in order to sell at enhanced prices, 
intercepting goods on the way to market to pro- 
cure them more cheaply, and keeping back wares 
purchased at wholesale in order to strike a more 
favorable bargain subsequently. But, above all, 
great solicitude was shown for the interests of con- 
sumers, and every precaution was observed to 
preclude the possibility of overreaching the public. 
It was deemed of paramount importance to watch 
over every stage of production ; and the whole 
institution of craft-guilds was nothing but an 
adjunct to the municipal administration in the 
endeavor to attain this end. Erroneous and mis- 
guided as was some of this legislation, there is 
no doubt that it was the outgrowth of moral 
ideas, and to a certain extent justified by eco- 
nomic necessities. Justum pretium was the 
manifestation of a great moral principle, and un- 
til the decay and disintegration of the guild sys- 
tem, through the growth of competition and the 
development of a distinctively capitalistic class, 
set in, the mediaeval doctrines. and institutions 
were undeniably well suited to the exigencies of 
economic life. 

3. The so-called mercantile system was simply 
the manifestation, in one particular direction, of 
the general mediaeval conception of national 
polity. The commonly accepted notions of its 
teachings form nothing but a distorted caricature, 
and it would indeed be surprising if a set of ideas 
upheld by the leading minds for many genera- 
tions should be such a tissue of absurdities as some 
would have us believe. The earliest writers, such 
as Bodin in France (1578), and Stafford in Eng- 
land (1581), had their attention called to the gen- 
eral disarrangement of industry and _ prices, 
caused in great part by the influx of bullion from 
America and by the gradual development of com- 
petition, as against custom. Their ideas, as ex- 
panded in the seventeenth century by English 
and continental economists, were simply to foster 
industry, to increase population, and thus to bring 
about a general prosperity. The great writers of 
the times never entertained such an absurd idea 
as that wealth consisted of money ; they, indeed, 


had a somewhat exaggerated opinion of money 


as an evidence of national prosperity, and some 
of them laid undue weight on the importance of 
the ‘balance of trade’ argument: but their ulti- 
mate aim was national aggrandizement through 
industrial as well as commercial supremacy. The 
economic policy of Colbert, of Frederick of Prus- 
Sia, does not at all correspond with the accounts 


SCIENCE. 


377 


usually advanced, and was in reality dictated by 
considerations of the highest statesmanship, and 
in many respects eminently well fitted to the 
necessities of the period. The prominent English 
writers of the seventeenth century, such as Child, 
Peity, North, Locke, etc., entertained opinions on 
the subject of international trade, which closely 
approximate tothe principles laid down by Ricardo 
and Cairnes in this century. Their ideas on the 
nature of national wealth, moreover, were in the 
main correct; and they perceived and explained 
with lucidity the shortcomings of the industrial 
system, which was then gradually becoming un- 
suited to the altered conditions of the period. 
The English authors struggle for free trade, in 
the sense of freedom of exportation ; the Italian 
Serra (1613) invokes the principle of ‘liberty of 
contract ;? the Frenchman Montchrétien (1615) 
does not think of subordinating agriculture and 
industry to commerce. 

The mercantile system, even in its crudest form, 
showed that statesmen and authors began to form 
some conception of a national economy. Prac- 
tical economic systems can never be entirely 
divorced from political considerations ; and it is 
these political considerations alone which enable 
us to understand some of the fundamental mer- 
cantilistic- notions, such as the desire for increased 
population or the ‘ balance of power’ argument. 
The mercantile system formed a fitting pendant 
to the political attempts of the absolute monarchy. 
which the new political science has taught us to 
regard not only as a necessary, but as a most 
salutary, step in the advance from mediaeval 
feudalism to modern constitutionatism. The 
doctrines themselves underwent a gradual modifi- 
cation, and in their final form simply taught that 
the real advantage lay in the stimulation of pro- 
duction and the greater activity of industry. The 
mercantile system had, at the time, undeniably a 
certain historic justification. 

4. In the eighteenth century, however, the sys- 
tem, with its restrictive measures and its illiberal 
policy of national exclusiveness, had become an- 
tiquated. Inquisitorial custom-houses and _ tariff 
wars were multiplied ; industry was fairly throt- 
tled by minute regulation of details: in France 
alone four large quarto volumes were filled with 
complicated, unintelligible, and contradictory 
regulations of manufactures. The confusion was 
heightened by the excesses of the monopolistic 
companies and the degeneration of the craft- 
guilds, which now, far from being welcome 
auxiliaries to the municipal administration, had 
become oppressive, exclusive bodies, with an 
hereditary, caste-like organization. What won- 
der, then, that a sect of men should arise who 


378 


sought refuge from this intolerable pandemonium 
of perpetual interference in the soothing doctrine 
of absolute liberty? The times were ripe for a 
reaction, —a reaction in every sphere of life, 
political, religious, economic. In politics this was 
ushered in by Rousseau, in philosophy by Voltaire 
and the encyclopedists, in economics by the advent 
of the physiocrats. The great significance of the 
physiocrats, as their name denotes, is the belief in 
the natural order of liberty; their tenets of pro- 
duit net and impét unique being subordinate doc- 
trines, which grew out of their endeavor to reha- 
bilitate agriculture, and bring the dissolute classes 
back to a sense of primitive simplicity. Just as 
the mercantilists had laid stress on the national 
element, applying the principles of domestic 
economy to political life, so, on the other hand, 
the physiocrats represented the universal, the cos- 
mopolitan, the international view. In that con- 
fused progeny of stoic philosophy and Roman 
law as nurtured by the continental jurists and 
philosophers, and known as the law of nature, 
Rousseau found the life-blood of his contrat 
social, the support of his revolutionary theories. 
And the same misconception led Quesnay and 
Gournay to formulate the laws of industrial 
society as eternal and immutable truths, which it 
was the function of man to expound, but which 
it would be utterly impossible — or, if possible, 
utterly ruinous—to change or tamper with. 
Laissez-faire, laissez passer, is the key which un- 
locks all economic puzzles. The ‘be quiet’ sys- 
tem, as Bentham calls it, is the sole panacea for 
human ills, the only hope of social regeneration. 
Give free play to the natural laws of liberty and 
equality, and prosperity will soon shine in all its 
refulgence on the expanse of national life. 

The great statesman and economist, Turgot, 
undoubtedly made a move in the right direction 
in the celebrated six edicts of 1776, which abol- 
ished the guilds and the corvées, and reformed 
the corn-laws. The economistes, indeed, were in- 
defatigable in their opposition to the abuses of the 
powerful to the privileges of the few. In the 
place of restriction they demanded freedom, in 
the place of nationalism they demanded cosmo- 
politanism, in the place of paternal government 
they demanded individualism, In every respect 
the sheer opposites of their predecessors, the 
physiocrats, beyond all cavil, sounded the just 
note of discontent with prevailing theories and 
institutions, which had become utterly unsuitable 
and anomalous; but their enthusiasm for reaction 
made them overshoot the mark, and go to the 
other extreme. An excellent work was done in 
clearing up the old errors as to the function of 
government, but it is almost too much to expect 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. V1I., No. 168 


from the physiocrats the consciousness that they 
also were going too far. They could not be ex- 
pected to foresee that the absolute reign of the 
‘let alone’ system would produce, as it has done, 
evils almost as great as those against which they 
battled. Physiocracy was a timely and necessary 
movement. The ardor of its advocates in the 
search for economic laws enabled them to throw 
great light on the subjects of the division of labor, 
capital, wages, interest, and profits ; and the only 
fault that can be found with them is, that, in un- 
duly exaggerating the possibility of individual 
self-interest as an emanation of natural law, they 
laid the germs of a doctrine which was in future 
decades to prove an obstacle to a well-rounded 
social reform. 

5. It is well known that Adam Smith, the 
greatest of all economists, owed much to the 
physiocrats, and that he was for some time a 
disciple of Quesnay. Many portions of the 
‘Wealth of nations,’ in fact, are translations of 
and excerpts from the French writers; although 
Smith, of course, opposed their minor doctrines 
of the sole productivity of agriculture, and of the 
single tax on land, — a project which had already 
been formulated in the preceding century by John 
Locke. But Smith was far more than a slavish 
follower of the physiocrats. He took, indeed, 
many thoughts which he found in other authors, 
English as well as French; but he individualized 
their passing remarks, he placed them in sucha 
connection that they became invested with a new 
significance, he clothed them in such a garb that 
they must henceforth be regarded as his own 
progeny. And this, after all, was a work of 
genius, for itis given to no man to be entirely 
original : every one is the product of the times, of 
the zeitgeist, and the ideas of the period are un- 
consciously reflected in the individual. So with 
the idea of liberty in Smith: he too was feeling 
the indefinable influence of the new current of 
thought, already partly expressed in Hume and 
Cantillon. Had he never seen the physiocrats, 
his ideas on liberty would have been the same, for 
both were an unconscious emanation of the spirit 
of the age. 

Smith’s thoughts were formed on the very 
threshold of the industrial revolution. In 1758 
James Brindley built the first canal between Liver- 
pool and Manchester, in 1769 the barber Ark- 
wright re-discovered Wyatt's method of roller- 
spinning, in 1770 Hargreaves perfected the spin- 
ning-jenny, in 1776 Crompton patented his mule 
founded on the water-frame, in 1765 Watt dis- 
covered the use of steam as a motor power, and 
in 1785 Cartwright invented the power-loom, The 
house system of industry, which had supplanted 


AprIL 23, 1886.] 


the hand’system at the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, was now itself supplanted by the factory 
system. The conditions of English life were fast 
outgrowing the swaddling-clothes of official 
omniscience and governmental sciolism. In the 
town where Smith labored there were numerous 
protests, by individuals and by societies, against 
the antiquated policy of the government. It is 
not surprising, then, that, after a careful résumé 
of the shortcomings of the mercantilists’ com- 
mercial policy and of the physiocrats’ agricultural 
policy, Smith should have concluded with the 
celebrated passage, ‘‘ All systems, either of 
preference or restraint, therefore, being thus com- 
pletely taken away, the obvious and simple system 
of natural liberty establishes itself of its own ac- 
cord. Every man, as long as he does not violate 
the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue 
his own interest in his own way, and to bring 
both his industry and his capital into competition 
with those of any other man or order of men.” 
And yet Smith was too broad-minded to hold 
this doctrine without any qualifications, for he 
possessed a far truer historical spirit than many 
of his successors. He upholds the navigation law 
of Cromwell as a measure of the wisest statesman- 
ship; he defends the necessity of export duties in 
certain cases: he confesses that the interests of 
individuals ‘“‘in any particular branch of trade or 
manufacture are always in some respects different 
from, and even opposite to, the interest of the 
public.” It cannot be denied that Adam Smith’s 
philosophy was to a great extent correct: his 
doctrines most clearly showed the impolicy of the 
combination laws, of the acts of settlement, of 
the statutes which fixed the rates of prices and 
wages. Smith’s whole work consisted in pulling 
down the rotten fences which obstructed the path 
of the artisan, the farmer, and the merchant, and 
we of to-day cannot be too grateful for the salu- 
tary impulse he thus gave to all economics. But 
what was then good, is not necessarily good to- 
day. We must not make Smith responsible for 
the faults of his disciples. The ‘Wealth of na- 
tions’ was written at a time when there was need 
of such a reaction as it undertook to initiate. 
Before building the new, it is imperative to tear 
down the old, and Smith certainly succeeded 
beyond his anticipations in demolishing the old 
principles. But since his time new conditions 
have arisen. The factory system, then in its in- 
fancy, has revolutionized industrial life, and has 
brought in its train problems which scarcely ex- 
isted in 1776. The machinery of commerce and 
transportation is vastly more complex, and cannot 
be regulated by any such simple methods of 
laissez-faire as were possible when Smith wrote. 


r 


SCIENCE. 


379 


It is, of course, not fair to take him to task for 
failure to perceive the consequences of his doc- 
trines when applied under different conditions ; 
but it is legitimate to protest against the accept- 
ance, at the present time, of his views, in so far 
as they are one-sided and inadequate. Smith’s 
work is by far the most important ever written 
in the science ; but we must not, on that account, 
bow down blindly before its author, and meekly 
accept all his conclusions. Had we lived in 1776, 
we would certainly have been followers of Smith: 
did Smith live in 1886, he would no less surely 
have been in the vanguard of the new school. 

6. On the lines thus marked out by the great 
Scotchman, Malthus and Ricardo continued the 
work. The one clarified all ideas on the subject 
of population, and threw light on some doctrines 
left obscure by Smith: the other sought to eluci- 
date the complex problem of values, applying his 
peculiar theories to the law of rent, —of which 
he was the formulator, not the originator, —and 
being moderately successful in his treatment of 
currency problems. The outcries of late raised 
against the personal character of these two emi- 
nent economists are utterly groundless. Mackin- 
tosh expressly tells us, ‘‘I have known Adam 
Smith slightly, Ricardo well, Malthus intimately. 
Is it not something to say for a science, that its 
three great masters were about the three best men 
I ever knew?” And yet the exclusive predomi- 
nance of abstract methods brought the two great 
followers of Smith to many faulty conclusions. 
In the case of Malthus, we have, as a result of 
his justifiable indignation against the poor-laws 
and the fantastic dreams of a Godwin, this 
curious spectacle. A benevolent clergyman, full 
of compassion and sympathy for the poor, feels 
himself impelled to declare that no possible efforts 
of government, no possible social movements or 
spontaneous plans to better their condition, can 
be of any avail. To the state he says, ‘Hands 
off ;’ to the philanthropists, economists, and states- 
men he cries, ‘ All you can do is ineffectual ;’ to 
the workmen themselves he declares, ‘‘ Refrain 
from combination, the sole method of bettering 
your condition is to practise self-restraint.” And 
in this remedy he himself puts little faith. The 
main causes of the distress he declares to be ‘‘ to 
a great extent, and for a certain time, irre- 
mediable.” And all this because of his firm 
belief in the natural laws, the immutable prin- 
ciples of an abstract political economy. Truly: 
a sad spectacle, which would be absurd if it were 
not so sorrowful! It might be termed a philoso- 
phy of despair, a sad starting-point for nineteenth 
century economics. Fortunately modern investi- 
gation and recent events have proved the ground- 


380 


lessness of such a system of negation; they have 
shown that social reform is possible, and that 
rational improvement need not be checked by 
the bugbear of the wages-fund which Malthus 
and his followers set up as an absolute fact; they 
have demonstrated that other classes besides the 
workmen have duties to perform, and that the 
solution cannot be reached by declaring the labor- 
ers themselves the sole cause of all their own 
unhappiness and dissatisfaction. 

Ricardo, again, with all his keen and penetrat- 
ing analysis, based his apotheosis of free compe- 
tition on insufficient foundations. The half-cen- 
tury that had elapsed since Adam Smith began 
~his work, had converted the slow industrial 
change into a revolution. In the domain of in- 
ternational trade, indeed, the conditions had be- 
come peculiarly favorable for an application of 
Smith’s doctrine, and Ricardo did an admirable 
work in paving the way for the anti-corn -law 
league of the forties. But the semi-metaphysical, 
the a priori element in the ‘ Principles of political 
economy and taxation,’ produced a set of unreal 
and inapplicable conclusions. The theory of eco- 
nomic progress which formed the result of his 
labors is as unsubstantiated as it is pessimistic. 
Profits must fall, rent must rise, and wages must 
remain about stationary, not keeping pace, on 
the whole, with the advance of wealth and pros- 
perity. In this there are some grievous miscon- 
ceptions, not the least being the assumption of 
‘natural wages’ and ‘natural profits’ varying in 
an inverse order to each other. But here, again, 
Ricardo is the child of the particular epoch in 
which he lived. His assertion that profits rise as 
wages fall, and vice versa, has lent the socialists 
of to-day the great argument of the necessary 
antagonism of capital and labor. Ricardo, curi- 
ously enough, passed over this, and drew the 
conclusion that the interests of laborer and capi- 
talist are identical as against their common 
enemy, the land-owner. Wages and profits go 
hand in hand, opposed to the ‘landed interest.’ 
Who does not see that the peculiar conditions of 
England at this time were responsible for a theory 
which has lately been reformulated and exagger- 
ated by George? Ricardo, indeed, was no enemy 
of the working-classes : his opponents, who term 
him ‘a heartless worshipper of mammon,’ ‘ the 
founder of the Hebrew-Caledonian school, think- 
ing of nothing but the interests of money,’ are, of 
course, guilty of an absurd exaggeration. Just 
because he wished for the welfare of the toiling 
masses, did he attempt to remove the obstacles in 
their path. He was an able advocate of the repeal 
of the combination laws in 1824. But his efforts 
were limited to removing the legislative obstacles : 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. VIL, No. 168 


he did not yet perceive the necessity of removing 
the obstacles that were growing out of the system 
of free competition itself. During the years in 
which he matured his conclusions, the evils of the 
factory system had not yet become thoroughly 
developed or widely known. Ricardo’s ideas were 
not yet entirely unsuited to the period, even 
though we of to-day must confess that his desire 
for abstract generalizations, founded on insufti- 
cient postulates, initiated a method of reasoning in 
economics, which led to many fruitless discussions 
and hair-splitting distinctions. We will not go so 
far as Jevons, in saying that ‘that able but 
wrong-headed man, David Ricardo, shunted the 
car of economic science on to a wrong line ;” but 
we do maintain that his exclusive use of hypo- 
thetic methods —i.e., a system based on the hy- 
potheses of natural law, coupled with a belief in 
the infallibility of self-interest — produced serious 
exaggerations and results, not in accord with the 
actual facts. Ricardo’s theories are like rough 
diamonds, incrusted in dirt and sand; it is the 
duty of the economists of this generation to 
pare down and polish the edges, ridding them 
of their excrescences, disclosing in some instances 
the flaw in the jewel within, which renders it 
worthless, but showing in other cases that the core 
at least is sound, and capable of reflecting the light 
thrown on it by the lamps of recent experience. 
The so-called orthodox school of England — 
McCulloch, Senior, James Mill, etc. — pursued an 
opposite course. Instead of clearing up, they 
increased the confusion; in lieu of modifying 
Ricardo’s conclusions, they attempted to embed 
them more firmly in the unsubstantial founda- 
tions. One proposes to make of the science 
a mere ‘catallactics ;’ another wishes to cail it 
‘chrematistics,’ a mere science of exchanges. All 
agree in venerating the absolutely immutable 
natural laws, which it is sacrilege to tamper with. 
The factory laws they deride; the trades unions 
they howl down; the growing abuses of the facto- 
ries and the great corporations they have no eye 
for. <‘‘Labor is a commodity,” they say: ‘‘if men 
will marry, and bring up children to an over- 
stocked and expiring trade, it is for them to take 
the consequences. If we stand between the error 
and its consequences, we stand between the evil 
and its cure; if we intercept the penalty, we per- 
petuate the sin.” They quote with approval Dig- 
nan’s phrase, ‘‘ To augment the annual production, 
to carry it as far as it can go, and at the same 
time to free it from all restraints, —that is the 
great object of government.” No thought of any 
higher aims, of a more equitable distribution — 
simply the greatest possible increase of material 
commodities. And even the noble Cobden was 


AprIL 23, 1886.] 


permeated with the narrow political philosophy of 
the time. But the labor question proved the rock 
on which the old school split. They lost supporter 
after supporter who saw the hollowness of the 
arguments, the inadequacy of the results. The 
professors and journals, in their very exaggeration 
of such opinions, began to be discredited. The 
science itself was fast losing its hold on thinking 
men, who were not satisfied with mere abstrac- 
tions and what seemed to them practical obstruc- 
tions to progress. The laborers looked upon 
economics as a science necessarily hostile to them- 
selves ; and this, too, notwithstanding the eloquent 
pleas of Bastiat, who attempted to prove that all 
interests are harmonious by natural law, and that 
it would be the height of folly to interfere with 
this beneficent progress. The economists were 
optimistic : the laymen grew pessimistic. 

7. The first isolated mutterings of discontent 
came from France. Simonde de Sismondi already, 
in 1819, accused the orthodox school of ‘‘ forget- 
ting the men for the things ; of sacrificing the end 
to the means ;” of producing a beautiful logic, 
but a total forgetfulness of man and human na- 
ture. The positive side of Sismondi’s arguments 
was, however, far less strong than the critical 
portion ; and his protests, hence, fell on careless 
ears, although he led a smali band of enthusiastic 
followers. Friedrich List, again, with his theory 
of nationality and of productive forces, did a good 
work in calling attention to the historic, relative 
element in all economic progress, but vitiated the 
effect of his ‘national system’ by turning it into 
an exaggerated plea for protection. The socialists, 
such as Weitling, Marlo, and Proudhon, uttered 
energetic and effective protests against the pre- 
vailing systems; and even in England able men 
like Thompson and Jones wrote large works to 
countervail the exaggerations of the orthodox 
school. But the new ideas first obtained a truly 
scientific basis about thirty-five years ago, when 
three young German economists — Roscher, Knies, 
and Hildebrand — proclaimed the necessity of 
treating economics from the historical stand-point. 
They initiated the new movement whose leading 
principles may be thus formulated : 1. It discards 
the exclusive use of the deductive method, and 
intonates the necessity of historical and statistical 
treatment. 2. It denies the existence of immuta- 
ble natural laws in economics, calling attention to 
the interdependence of theories and institutions, 
and showing that different epochs or countries 
require different systems. 38. It disclaims belief 
in the beneficence of the absolute laissez-faire 
system; it maintains the close interrelation of 
law, ethics, and economics; and it refuses to 
acknowledge the adequacy of a scientific explana 


SCIENCE. 


381 


tion, based on the assumption of self-interest as 
the sole regulator of economic action. 

An entirely new impulse was thus given to sci- 
entific research. 'Freed from the yoke of a method 
which had now become sterile, the new school, 
devoid of all prepossessions, devoted itself to the 
task of grappling with the problems which the 
age had brought with it. The amount of actual 
knowledge, historical and theoretical, imparted by 
Schmoller, Held, Brentano, Wagner, and the host 
of younger economists, cannot be underestimated 
or neglected by any student. In Italy the entirely 
new spirit infused into economics is attested by a 
number of able writers; and even England has 
not lagged behind in the work. With Fawcett 
and Bagehot the last important representatives of 
the old school practically disappeared ; Mill himself 
had gone through an evolution, and was sincere 
enough to express his disbelief in the old economy, 
and to a certain extent in his own book; while 
Leslie, Toynbee, and our contemporaries, Marshall, 
Ingram, and Cunningham, are thoroughly imbued 
with the new ideas. 

What, then, has this historical résumé estab- 
lished? It has proved, in the first place, the rela- 
tivity of economic doctrines. To maintain that 
all previous generations and countries have erred, 
and that we alone possess the truth, is an egotistic 
assumption, based, moreover, on the untenable 
hypothesis of the identity of human nature and 
the similarity of outward conditions. Our eco- 
nomic system is not necessarily the only true one: 
there will be and have been as many systems as 
correspond with the current conceptions and insti- 
tutions. Many of our economic ideas are based 
on the postulate of absolute right of property, or 
on the supposition of the necessary division of 
producers into employers and employees. And yet 
we know to-day that private property is not an 
absolute natural right, but that it is, on the con- 
trary, a comparatively recent conception, an insti- 
tution justifiable only on the grounds of expedi- 
ency, and whose extent may be limited again by 
these same considerations of expediency; it is a 
question, not of right, but of arrangements which 
will inure to the greatest possible social prosperity. 
Again : the distinction between employer and em- 
ployee is not a necessary one, inherent in the 
nature of things: the very basis of the mediaeval 
guild system, in so far as it had a distinctive 
characteristic, was the identity of employer and 
employee, the amalgamation of capitalist and 
laborer in the same individual. How, then, can 
we speak of the unchangeable laws, good for 
all times and all climes? In antiquity we have 
seen an economic system based on the complex 
household and the undoubted omnipotence of 


382 


the state; in the middle ages we have found a 
civilization founded on the all- engrossing con- 
ception of justum pretium; at the beginning of 
the nineteenth century we notice a régime of 
pure individualism, of unalloyed free competition. 
Must we not confess the relative justifiability of 
the early municipal regulations of trade and in- 
dustry, or the bullionist idea of hoards of precious 
metals, in a time when warfare was perpetual 
and bills of exchange unknown? The truly his- 
torical mind will acknowledge, with Adam Smith, 
the immense benefits of Cromwell’s navigation 
act, but will rejoice, with Cobden, at the repeal 
of the corn-laws ; he will praise, with Gournay, 
the attempts to unshackle industry, but will de- 
plore Ricardo’s opposition to the factory acts ; he 
will applaud Bentham’s demolition of the usury 
laws, but will realize the legitimacy of recent en- 
deavors to avoid the unquestioned evil of absolute 
liberty in loans. He will, in one word, maintain 
the relativity of theory ; he will divest the so- 
called absolute laws of much of their sanctity, 
and thus henceforth render impossible the base- 
less superstition that all problems can be solved 
by appeal to the fiat of bygone economists. 

But, second, we must repudiate the assertion 
that the new movement is a German movement. 
The discontent with the continued application of 
antiquated doctrines made itself felt in the valley 
of the Po, in the heart of New England, and on 
the banks of the Thames. It is true that Germans 
happened to formulate the discontent more sys- 
tematically at first; but the present movement 
would ultimately have attained the same propor- 
tions had Roscher and Knies never lived, just as 
Adam Smith would have expressed his ideas had 
the physiocrats never existed. The new school is 
the product of the age, of the zeitgeist, not of any 
particular country ; for the underlying evolution- 
ary thoughts of a generation sweep resistlessly 
throughout all countries whose social conditions 
are ripe for a change. The more extreme of the 
Germans, moreover, have themselves overshot the 
mark, have unduly undervalued the work of the 
English school, and have in their zeal too dog- 
matically denied the possibility of formulating 
any general laws. 

Finally, we have established the continuity of 
political economy. The history of economics 
demonstrates how certain doctrines arose, devel- 
oped in succeeding generations, and were ulti- 
mately overthrown, or, on the contrary, shown to 
be fundamental truths ; how the teachings of suc- 
cessive schools or of individual writers developed 
the germ of scientific explanation, expanded the 
law and gradually stripped it of its inaccuracies 
and redundancies, until many of the complicated 


SCIENCE. 


(Vo. VIL, No. 168 — 


phenomena were shown to be manifestations of 
distinct and well-settled principles. The doctrine 
of international exchanges underwent a progres- 
sive modification, from Hume, Smith, Say, Ri- 
cardo, Mill, to Cairnes and Roscher. The theory 
of the wages-fund, on the other hand, as formu- 
lated by Turgot, Malthus, Senior, and McCulloch, 
was discredited by Herrmann and Sismondi, until 
finally overthrown by Longe, Brentano, and 
Walker; and in like manner with every other 
principle. The new movement in political econ- 
omy simply intonates this progressive continuity. 
It maintains that the explanations of phenomena 
are inextricably interwoven with the institutions 
of the period, and that the practical conclusions 
must not be disassociated from the shifting neces- 
sities of the age. We accept with gratitude the 
results of former economists, as containing much 
of what was true at the time; but we protest 
against the acceptance of all their principles as 
practical guides for the present generation. We 
use the preliminary results of former decades as 
forming approximately secure bases; but we de- 
sire to erect a structure more suitable to the 
exigencies of the present. The paramount ques- 
tion of political economy to-day is the question of 
distribution, and in it the social problem (the 
question of labor, of the laborer), — how, consist- 
ently with a healthy development on the lines of 
moderate progress, social reform may be accom- 
plished ; how and in what degree the chasm be- 
tween the ‘haves’ and the ‘ have-nots’ may be 
bridged over; how and in what degree private 
initiative and governmental action may strive, 
separately or conjointly, to lessen the tension of 
industrial existence, to render the life of the 
largest social class indeed worth living. This and 
the other complex problems of the present day 
cannot be solved by a simple adherence to the 
principles of a bygone generation. The tenets of 
a bald individualism have been placed in the 
scales of experience, and have been found want- 
ing. The continuity of political economy incul- 
cates the lesson, no less profound than salutary, 
that there still remains something to be learned, 
and much to be done, before its teachings can be 
accepted as the loadstars of the present genera- 
tion, —a lesson whose recognition will preserve us 
from two violent extremes: that of falling into a 
state of quiescent conservatism, which Yegards 
all that is as good ; or that of adopting the vaga- 
ries of the radicals, who look upon all that is as 
bad, and who consider the foundations of the 
science itself as unsatisfactory as the positive in- 
stitutions. The continuity of political economy 
teaches, in other words, the golden mean. 

EDWIN R. A, SELIGMAN, Ph.D. 


SCTENCE. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THE COMMISSION APPOINTED to investigate the 
various scientific bureaus of the government has 
submitted a partial report on the result of its 
labors, and has draughted a bill restricting the 
work and publications of the geological survey. 
Briefly, the measure provides, that, after June 30 
next, no money shall be expended except for the 
collection, classification, and proper care of fossils 
and other material; no money is to be used for 
paleontological work or publications, nor for the 
general discussion of geological theories. The 
survey is to be prohibited from compiling or 
preparing for publication monographs or bulle- 
tins, or other books, except an annual report, 
which shall embrace only the transactions of 
bureaus for the year. All collections of minerals 
and other material now or hereafter to be made 
by the survey, and not needed for the current 
work thereof, are to be deposited in the national 
museum. The works whose publication is dis- 
continued may be published by the authors at 
their own expense, who are to be allowed to 
copyright their material. The secretary of the 
interior is empowered to sell all the laboratories 
and other property now in use by the geological 
survey which shall no longer be needed after the 
passage of the proposed bill, and the proceeds of 
the sale are to be turned into the U. S. treasury. 
The bill provides that all printing and engraving 
done for the geological survey, coast and geodetic 
survey, and hydrographic office of the navy de- 
partment, and the signal bureau, shall hereafter 
be estimated for separately, and prepared in 
detail for each of the said bureaus. The full 
teport of the commission on the other bureaus is 
expected this week. The members claim that 
there has been great extravagance practised in 
the publication of works by the geological survey, 
and they propose to stop these ‘reckless expen- 
ditures.’ The report of the commissioners is 
unanimous in their action on the bill reported. 

This report will be received with much regret 
by scientific men. The effect, so far as it pertains 

No, 169. — 1886, 


to the U.S. geological survey, should the bill be- 
come a law, will be most disastrous, crippling, if 
not almost entirely destroying, the survey’s useful- 
ness. Such sweeping and radical measures seem 
ill-advised. The causes that have led to the result, 
it is not hard to discover. Personal errors in other 
branches of the government surveys, and the 
exertions of a number personally opposed to the 
present management, will have placed the survey 
in a position from which it will be impossible to 
recover in many years. Wedo not need to repeat 
the argument, except to emphasize it, that national 
aid in the publication of many scientific works is 
absolutely necessary. In Europe such facilities 
exist in endowed scientific societies that do not 
exist in the United States, and will not for many 
years to come. The result simply will be that 
such works will not be published at all, and 
science will be so much the loser. Permission to 
copyright the works published at the expense of 
the author will only evoke a smile on the part of 
Scientific men. One can imagine the danger 
likely to accrue to the author of a thousand-paged 
quarto on tertiary vertebrates, from his work be- 
ing ruthlessly stolen, and issued in cheap paper 
form. The work of the geological survey has 
been managed honestly : no accusations whatever 
have been sustained against it. Neither can 
charges of extravagance in general be urged. 
The survey has perhaps grown to be too extensive ; 
but the evil by no means calls for such severe 
pruning. Aside from arguments which will ap- 
peal to scientific men, it must be borne in mind 
that the survey can best justify its existence by 
furnishing valuable results to the miner and the 
farmer; and these results can only be reached 
when the evidence of all pertinent branches of 
investigation are available. 


ABOUT A YEAR AGO much interest was taken 
in the discussion of requisitions for admission to 
colleges, when it was known that the faculty at 
Harvard had taken action in favor of recommend- 
ing a sound course in laboratory study of chemis- 
try or physics as an alternative for the admission 
requirements in Latin or Greek. A second step 
in this direction is now taken in the report of a 
committee of the board of Harvard overseers to 


384 


that body, in which the following vote is recom- 
mended among others : ‘‘ That, in the opinion of 
the board of overseers, it is advisable to permit a 
scientific substitute, in accordance with the terms 
of this report, to be offered by applicants for ad- 
mission to the college for either Latin or Greek, 
one of these two languages always being required.” 
The terms here referred to are substantially that 
the scientific substitute must be a real equivalent 
of the old language course in amount of time 
needed for it, and amount of training gained 
from it, and that this demands more than a ‘ text- 
book’ and ‘memory’ study. The four members 
of the committee who present this majority re- 
port consider the scientific substitute above 
referred to as recommended by the college faculty 
an adequate one: a minority report from one 
member still maintains the need of Greek for all. 
Favorable action mnay therefore be expected from 
the overseers. 


THE GREAT success of the free lectures re- 
cently given at Columbia college by Professors 
Boyesen and Butler— applications for tickets to 
the second course numbering over two thousand — 
emphasize a point in university work that has 
been long and persistently overlooked ; that is, 
the duty of the university toward the people at 
large. Our colleges and universities depend, for 
success and support, upon popular interest and 
encouragement. They are continually in want of 
money, and always desirous of attracting large 
numbers of students. A large endowment, pro- 
vided it be judiciously administered, and a large 
body of students, constitute a successful uni- 
versity. Of course, the test of numbers is of 
itself of small value; but the college with a 
thousand students can create more enthusiasm, 
exert a wider influence, as well as find work for 
more instructors, than a college having only three 
hundred names on itsroll. The test of numbers, 
then, stands not so much for itself as for what it 
implies and represents. But these two conditions 
of success— money and _ students —might be 
made much easier of attainment were the rela- 
tions between the universities and the people 
closer than they now are. Asa rule, the college 
professor is looked up to as a useless sort of in- 
dividual, who knows a great deal, but whose 
knowledge is of a shadowy and unpractical 
character. Our professors are too prone to give 
encouragement to this opinion by shutting them- 
selves up within the four walls of their studies 


SCIHNCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 169 


and class-rooms, and producing no results of their 
labors that to the non-collegiate man seem practi- 
cal. Persistence in this isolation must weaken 
the university, and cut it off from the very 
sources of its support. The university should 
have some message to the outside world that is of 
a less formal and abstruse character than that 
usually locked up in memoirs and the transac- 
tions of learned societies. For this the lecture- 
hall seems pre-eminently fitted, and through it 
can the university find that contact with the peo- 
ple that it so muchneeds. Especially in our large 
cities, and by the staff of instructors in our larger 
universities and colleges, is this plan feasible. 
For years the Johns Hopkins university has given 
courses of lectures on semi-popular subjects, and 
with great success ; and now Columbia, in an in- 
formal sort of way, is trying the same experi- 
ment. Perhaps the great interest of the subjects. 
of the courses that have already been given there 
—‘The tendencies of contemporary literature’ 
and ‘Education as a science’—have had much 
to do with the great success of the Columbia lec- 
tures ; but we are fully convinced that a large 
variety of subjects, both literary and scientific, 
are capable of being treated by university pro- 
fessors in a way that will not only attract large 
audiences and be an educating influence among 
the people, but also bring life and strength to the 
university itself. 


THE APRIL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL 
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


THIRTY-NINE members attended this year at the 
spring meeting of the academy, and found Wash- 
ington in its most charming vernal dress. If we 
except the visit of courtesy made to the President 
of the United States, the only social incident of 
importance was a reception at which the mem- 
bers of the academy met the members of the local 
scientific societies for which Washington is justly 
celebrated. 

The academy determined by vote not to con- 
sider the nominations that had been made for 
membership, so that no new members were 
chosen. The expiration of Professor Agassiz’ 
term of office as foreign secretary created a va- 
cancy ; and, as he declined re-election on account 
of ill health, Prof. Wolcott Gibbs was selected to 
succeed him. Gen. M. C. Meigs and Profs. 8. F. 
Baird, G. J. Brush, C. A. Young, E. C. Pickering, 
and S. P. Langley were elected to the council, 
and the remaining officers held over. 

During the past year the government has made 


AprRIL 30, 1886. ] 


three requisitions on the academy for information 
and advice. In accordance with a request of the 
secretary of the navy, a committee was appointed 
to consider, first, the question of the adoption of 
the universal day by the scientific bureaus of the 
department ; second, the advisability of sending 
an expedition to observe the solar eclipse of 
August, 1886 ; and, third, the propriety of erecting 
a new naval observatory on the site selected in 
1882. This committee submitted its report some 
months ago (Science, vii. 208). At the request of 
the treasury department. a committee was ap- 
pointed to consider certain problems connected 
with the classification of wool for tariff purposes, 
and their report has become the basis of action 
by the department. More recently the treasury 
department has called on the academy for infor- 
mation affecting the subject of the duty on opium, 
and a committee has been appointed for this pur- 
pose. 

The academy is now charged with the admin- 
istration of three funds intended to stimulate 
astronomic research, and the trustees of these 
funds have decided to use portions of their in- 
comes for suitable medals. The Henry Draper 
medal is given for researches in solar physics, the 
Lawrence Smith medal for studies of meteoric 
bodies, and the Watson medal for any distin- 
guished achievement: in astronomy. The first 
award of the Draper medal was made this year; 
and it was given to Prof. S. P. Langley, in recog- 
nition of the importance of his researches in solar 
physics. The Watson medal, with an honorarium 
of one hundred dollars, was awarded to Prof. B. 
A. Gould, in recognition of his distinguished ser- 
vice to astronomy in founding and conducting the 
Cordoba observatory. 

A biographical notice of the late Prof. Arnold 
Guyot, prepared by Prof. J. D. Dana, was pre- 
sented, and a similar notice of Prof. John W. 
Draper by Professor Barker. Professor Dana’s 
memoir gave an account of Guyot’s early life 
which wiil be new to many of his American 
friends, and particularly called attention to the 
fact that Guyot had made a scientific examina- 
tion of the Alpine glaciers two years before they 
were studied by Agassiz, and anticipated a num- 
ber of his most important conclusions. In a 
paper read then before the Helvetic society, but 
never printed until 1883, Guyot pointed out that 
the upper portion of the glacier moves faster than 
the lower, that the middle moves faster than the 
Sides, that the general motion is accomplished by 
molecular motion, and he advanced the hypoth- 
esis that the blue bands are phenomena of the 
‘original stratification of the formative snow. 
Priority in these matters was not claimed by him, 


SCIENCE. 


389 


because, when he became soon afterward associat- 
ed with Agassiz in glacial work, it was agreed that 
Agassiz’ share should be the study of the living 
glaciers, and Guyot’s the study of the erratic phe- 
nomena and other vestiges of ancient glaciation. 

The only loss by death during the year has been 
that of Prof. Edward Tuckerman of Ambherst, 
Mass. Prof. W. G. Farlow was selected to pre- 
pare a biographical notice. 

The scientific proceedings of the academy occu- 
pied the afternoons of the four days of the session. 
Twenty-three papers were read and discussed, and 
four others were read by title. A list of the 
papers in addition to those announced last week 
will be found in another column. Here we have 
space to mention only a few. 

Dr. A. Graham Bell reported the progress of 
his research regarding the ancestry of the deaf. 
Discovering from the statistics of asylums for 
deaf-mutes, and from the data of the tenth U. S. 
census, that deafness is exceptionally prevalent 
in Chilmark, in Martha’s Vineyard, and in Ken- 
nebec county, Me., he visited those districts, and 
investigated the history of families affected. The 
deafness in Kennebec county is connected with 
that of Chilmark, and possibly derived from it. 
In both districts there is abundant evidence of 
heredity, and especially of atavism. In the fam- 
ilies affected there were also found blindness, 
insanity, idiocy, and deformity ; and in the Chil- 
mark locality there has been such consanguineal 
marriage as is common to sedentary rural popu- 
lations. The distribution of deafness on the 
island is closely related to that of soils. The 
affected families extend over the entire island ; 
but the affected individuals are. with two ex- 
ceptions, confined to a district of peculiar geo- 
logical characteristics, and the eastern boundary 
of this district has been designated by local stu- 
dents of vital statistics as the typhoid-fever line. 

By invitation, Mr. R. E. Peary, U. 8S. N., de- 
scribed his plans for an expedition to Greenland 
for exploration in the interior. He proposes to 
make a preliminary excursion from Disco Bay, 
and afterward an expedition from Whale Sound 
to some point on the east coast, near the 80th 
parallel. He prefers for the interior work a party 
of three, with snow - shoes, skiddars, and sleds 
modelled after the Hudson Bay pattern. 

Prof. S. P. Langley reported the progress of his 
investigation of the invisible spectrum. Whereas 
Newton determined the indices of refraction of 
light-rays of wave-lengths ranging from .0003 to 
.0007 mm., Professor Langley has carried the 
determination to wave-lengths of .0400. He has 
also demonstrated a simple relation between wave- 
lengths and indices of refraction. The indices 


386 


of refraction being plotted as ordinates and the 
wave-lengths as abscissas, the resulting curve is 
found to be an hyperbola. 

Prof. Alfred M. Mayer, in describing recent 
work, stated that he had succeeded, by the use of 
a lens of ebonite, in inflaming various substances 
by the concentration of dark rays, for which 
ebonite is translucent. 

Dr. S. H. Scudder gave a general account of the 
cockroach in the past and present. Of all insect 
types, this one is best represented in the rocks, 
and especially the older rocks. The carboniferous, 
especially, may fitly be called the age of cock- 
roaches. The paleozoic cockroaches were larger, 
the more recent smaller, than the modern. Mr. 
G. K. Gilbert discussed the geological age of the 
Equus fauna, maintaining that it belongs to the 
upper quaternary (later glacial), and not to the 
upper pliocene, where it had been assigned by 
students of vertebrate paleontology. 


THE DATA NOW REQUISITE IN SOLAR 
INQUIRIES. 


In order to obtain the greatest amount of assist- 
ance from observations of the eclipsed sun, it is 
necessary to consider in the most general way 
the condition of solar inquiry at the time the ob- 
servations are made. If any special work com- 
mends itself to those interested in the problem, — 
work which may be likely to enable us to empha- 
size or reject existing ideas,—then that work 
should take precedence of all other. 

Next, if the observers are sufficient in number 
to undertake other work besides this, then that 
work should be arranged in harmony with pre- 
vious observations ; that is, the old methods of 
work should be exactly followed, or they should 
be expanded so that a new series of observations 
may be begun in the light and in extension of the 
old ones. 

In my opinion, and I only give it for what it is 
worth, the three burning questions at the present 
time — questions on which information is required 
in order that various forms of work may be 
undertaken to best advantage (besides eclipse- 
work) —are these :— 

1. The true constitution of the atmosphere of 
the sun. By this I mean, are the various series of 
lines of the same element observed in sun-spots, 
e.g., limited to a certain stratum, each lower stra- 
tum being hotter, and therefore simpler in its 
spectrum, than the one overlying it? and do some 
of these strata, with their special spectra, exist high 
in the solar atmosphere, so that the Fraunhofer 
lines, represented in the spectrum of any one 
substance, are the result of an integration of the 


SCIENCE, 


[Vou. VII., No. 169 


various absorptions from the highest stratum to 
the bottom one? This view is sharply opposed to 
the other, which affirms that the absorption of 
the Fraunhofer lines is due to one unique layer 
at the base of the atmosphere. 

I pointed out before the eclipse of 1882 that 
crucial observations could be made during any 
eclipse, including the time both before and after 
totality. I made the observations: they entirely 
supported the first view, but I do not expect 
solar inquirers to throw overboard their own 
views until these observations of mine are con- 
firmed ; and I think one of the most important 
pieces of work to be done during the next eclipse 
is to see whether these observations can be de- 
pended upon or not. 

One observer, I think, should repeat the work 
over the same limited region of the spectrum, 
near F; another observer should be told off to — 
make similar observations in another part of the | 
spectrum. I have prepared a map of the lines 
near E, for this purpose, showing those brigh- 
tened on the passage from the arc to the spark, 
and those visible alone at the temperature of the 
oxyhydrogen fiame. Whereas some of the spark 
lines will be seen seven minutes before and after 
totality as short, bright lines, some of the others — 
will be seen as thin, long lines just before and 
after totality. We want to know whether the — 
lines seen at the temperature of the oxyhydrogen ~ 
flame will be seen at all, and, if so, to what 
height they extend. ; 

2. The second point to which I attach impor- 
tance is one which can perhaps be left to a large 
extent to local observers, if the proper apparatus, — 
which may cost very little, be taken out. . 

With this eclipse in view, I have for the last 
several months gone over all the recorded in-— 
formation, and have discussed the photographs 
taken at the various eclipses in connection with 
the spots observed, especially at those times. 

The simple corona observed at a minimum with _ 
a considerable equatorial extension (12 diameters, — 
according to Langley), the complex corona ob- — 
served at maximum when the spots have been — 
located at latitudes less than 20°, have driven me — 
to the view, which I shall expand on another — 
occasion, that there is a flattened ring round the — 
sun’s equator, probably extending far béyond the ~ 
true atmosphere ; that in this ring are collected 
the products of condensation ; and that it is from — 
the surfaces of this ring chiefly that the fall of 
spot-forming material takes place, 

If we take any streamer in mid-latitude, we — 
find, that, while the spots may occur on the 
equatorial side of it, none are seen on the pole- | 
ward side. Iregard the streamers, therefore, like — 


lili 


— ae 


Aprit 30, 1886.] 


the metallic prominences, as a sequel to the spot; 
and there is evidence to suggest that a careful 
study will enable us to see by what process the 
reaction of the photosphere and underlying gases 
produced by the fall of spot- material tends to 
make the spot-material discharge itself in lower 
and lower latitudes, as the temperature of the 
sun’s lower atmosphere gets enormously increased. 

The observations of Professors Newcomb and 
Langley at the minimum of 1878, on the equa- 
torial extension, are among the most remarkable. 
Professor Newcomb hid the moon and 12’ of arc 
around it at the moment of totaiity by a disk of 
wood, carefully shielding his eyes before totality. 
Professor Langley observed at a very considerable 
elevation. It is therefore quite easy to under- 
stand why this ring has not been seen or photo- 
graphed at maximum. At maximum no pre- 
cautions have been taken to shield the eye; no 
observations have been made at a considerable 
elevation; while the fact that the ring, if it 
exists, consists of cool material, fully explains 
how it is that the photographic plates have dis- 
regarded it. 

‘I would propose, therefore, that the repetition 
of Professor Newcomb’s observations of 1878 be 
made an important part in the arrangements of 
the eclipse for this year. A slight alteration in 
the method will be necessary, as the ring will be 
near the vertex and the lowest point of the 
eclipsed sun. 

38. Another point of the highest importance at 
the present moment has relation to the existence 
of carbon. Until Tacchini’s observations of 1883, 
the only trace of carbon in the solar spectrum 
consisted of ultra-violet flutings. He observed 
other flutings in the green near the streamers in 
the eclipse referred to. 

Duner’s recent work puts it beyond all doubt 
that stars of class III. b have their visible ab- 
sorption produced chiefly by carbon vapor. 

On any theory of evolution, therefore, we must 
expect the sun’s atmosphere to be composed to a 
large extent of carbon at some time or other; so 
that the highest interest attaches to this question 
in connection with the height in the atmosphere 


_ at which the evidence of carbon is observed. The 


existence of the ultra-violet flutings among the 


_ Fraunhofer lines tells nothing absolute about this 


_ height, although I inferred, at the time I made 


the announcement, that it existed at some height 
in the coronal atmosphere. 

These three points, then, are those to which I 
attach special importance at the present time. 
We next come to photographs of the corona. 
I believe, that, with our present knowledge, the 
chief thing we have to seek in such photographs 


SCIENCE. 


387 


is not merely the streamers and their outlines, 
which we are sure to get anyway, but images on 
a larger scale ; so that in a series of short expo- 
sures we may endeavor to get some records which 
will eventually help us in determining the direc- 
tions of the lower currents. At present we do 
not know absolutely whether these flow to or 
from the poles. My own impression is that the 
panaches at the poles indicate an upper outflow. 

In coming to the photo-spectroscopic observa- 
tions, I am of opinion, that of the two attacks 
which I first suggested for the eclipse of 1875, 
and which have also been used in the last two 
eclipses of 1882 and 1883, one of them should be 
discarded, and the whole effort concentrated on 
the other. 

We have learned very much from the use of 
the prismatic camera,—one of the instruments 
referred to; but the results obtained by it are not 
of sufficient accuracy to enable them to be fully 
utilized. On the other hand, though the slit 
spectroscope failed in 1875, it succeeded with a 
brighter corona and more rapid plates in 1882; 
and, with a proper reference spectrum, every 
iota of the facts recorded can be at once utilized 
for laboratory work and subsequent discussion. 

On these grounds, then, I would suggest that 
slit spectroscopes alone be used for photographic 
registration. I think falling plates should be 
used, and that the work should begin ten minutes 
before totality, and continue till ten minutes 
after ; provided the slit be tangential, or nearly 
so, to the limb. 

I may state that arrangements have been made 
here to take such a series of photographs on the 
uneclipsed sun; and, with the improved appara- 
tus, Iam greatly in hopes that we may get some- 
thing worth having. J. NORMAN LOCKYER. 


DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS IN THE ATLANTIC. 


Tue U. S. S. Enterprise, Commander Barker, 
during her recent passage from Montevideo to 
Barbadoes, and from thence to New York, made a 
series of deep-sea soundings through the Atlantic 
Oceans which add considerably to our knowledge 
of the depths of those seas. Seventy-two casts 
were taken between Montevideo and Barbadoes, 
the distance run being 5,031 miles. 

After leaving Montevideo, the course of the 
Enterprise was laid to the northward, towards 
Nelson shoal, where a depth of 2,088 fathoms of 
water was found, instead of 19 fathoms, as ap- 
pears on all the charts of that locality. Com- 
mander Barker says, ‘“‘ From this point I steamed 
slowly, running from 200 to 250 miles to the north- 
ward of the Challenger’s line, taking casts at in- 


ee 


388 SCIENCE. (Von. VIL, No. 169 


tervals of about sixty miles, the average depth found was 378 fathoms, in latitude 31° 02’ south, 
being about 2,000 fathoms. In latitude 31° 22’ longitude 34° 27’ west.” 

south, longitude 36° 39’ west, the water shoaled to This bank, which it is proposed to call Enter- 
1,469 fathoms ; and the next cast, taken in latitude prise bank, extends about 150 miles in longitude. 


een oe a 


\ 
\ 
\ 


vor---- 


- 


Hl 


hy 
} 
|} 


nt 


DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS IN THE ATLANTIC. 
U.S.S. Enterprise, Commander A. 8. Barker ———————_ 
U.S.S. Essex, Commander W.S8. Schley; —-—- —-=-—-—-—-—-— 
British ship Challenger, Commander G.S. Nares_ ------------- a 2enaneenn= 
German ship Gazelle, Capt. V. Schleinitz 


Monte Video Sea level 


A 


PROFILE OF OCEAN-BED BETWEEN MONTEVIDEO AND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE AS SHOWN BY THE DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS 
OF THE U.S.S., ENTERPRISE, 


31° 15’ south, longitude 35° 42’ west, was only 547 It may be much shoaler in other places than those 
fathoms. From this position casts were taken at sounded over, as its extent in latitude is not 
intervals of five miles or thereabouts until over known, and there have been no soundings in that 
the shoalest part of the bank. The least depth neighborhood which will admit of any generali 


' 
| 


Aprit 30, 1886.] 


tions in regard to it. The hydrographic office will 
have it further examined at the first opportunity. 

From this point the easterly course was con- 
tinued until the line of soundings taken three 
years before by the Enterprise was crossed, in 
about latitude 27° south, longitude 27° west; and 
then the line ran almost directly for the Island of 
Fernando de Noronha, the depths averaging about 
2,800 fathoms, until the vicinity of this island was 
shown by a sounding of 2,280 fathoms. Beyond, 
the depths increased to an average of about 2,500 
fathoms until the neighborhood of Barbadoes was 
reached, when the water shoaled again to 1,204 
fathoms. 

The depth of 2,560 fathoms in longitude 55° 
west, latitude 12° north, is within thirty miles of 


a sounding of 2,570 fathoms taken by the U.S. brig 


Dolphin in 1852; that of 2,714 fathoms in latitude 
11° 25’ north, longitude 52° 50’ west, is within thirty 
miles of a sounding of 2,780 fathoms, also taken 
by the Dolphin in 1852. 

After leaving St. Thomas, sounding was again 
resumed ; the first cast, taken in latitude 19° 53/ 
north, longitude 65° 45’ west, showing 4,529 fath- 
oms. As this point is about forty miles east-north- 
east of the famous cast of 4,561 fathoms, made by 
Lieutenant-Commander Brownson, U.S.N., with 
the coast and geodetic survey steamer Blake, the 
great depth obtained is peculiarly interesting. 
Beyond this deep the line ran towards Cape 
Hatteras, over a section formerly unsounded, show- 
ing an average depth of about 3,000 fathoms. 

Commander Barker further says, ‘A ship like 
the Enterprise can undoubtedly sound in any sea 
and in any weather in which she can steam ahead 
fast enough to stem the wind and steer. The 
brake used was a plain piece of rope made fast in- 
board of, and abreast of, the lower part of the 
reel, then around the groove outboard, and held 
in the hand above. This brake controls the reel 
perfectly, it being possible to hold the shot, 
without any effort, at a great depth. In rolling 
heavily it is very easy to keep a constant strain on 
the wire. A distance-line of at least 12 fathoms 
was used, with a piece of lead weighing about a 
pound near the grommet. One length of the 
large American wire was put on next to the dis- 
tance-line, as it was not so likely to kink. To 


prevent the shot from catching on top of the cup, a 


tripping-line was used, consisting of a piece of small 
Stuff, one end made fast to the rod just below and in 
the plane of the hook, and the other end around 
the top of the cup: this line is of such a length as 
‘to be taut when the cup is closed. In nearly all 
the casts, sail was made after reeling in to 2,000 
fathoms, but only such as not to give a greater 
Speed than four knots. When reeled in to 1,000 


SCIENCE. 


389 


fathoms, all sail was made. The wind was always 
kept on the starboard side, so as to have the wire 
to windward. The only accident which happened 
on the trip was due to the wire catching some part 
of the ship, probably the propeller : it was dark at 
the time, and she was going at the rate of about 
seven knots.” The accompanying chart shows the 
principal lines of deep-sea soundings south of lati- 
tude 40° north. The hydrographic office has in 
course of preparation a series of charts showing 
the contours of the ocean-beds as determined by 
all reliable soundings that have been taken. 


J. R. BARTLETT. 
U.S. hydrographic office. 


LONDON LETTER. 


AFTER more than seven years of investigation 
and experiment, the Royal commission appointed 
to inquire into accidents in mines has presented 
its final report, which was issued on Saturday in 
the form of one hundred and ten pages of a large 
blue-book. The delay is accounted for by the 
long and difficult quest on which the commission- 
ers were sent. They were to report, not only on 
the causes of mining accidents, but also on ‘the 
possible means of preventing their recurrence, or 
limiting their disastrous consequences.” Not much 
is recommended in the way of mere legislative 
changes, but the scientific recommendations are 
most interesting and important. For example: 
with reference to the difficult question of the best 
method of firing shots in mines, they state that 
‘* electrical exploding appliances present very im- 
portant advantages from the point of view of 
safety, over any kind of fuze which has to be 
ignited by the application of fiame to its exposed 
extremity, as the firing of shots by their means 
is not only accomplished out of contact with air, 
but is also under most complete control up to the 
moment of firing. Their simplicity and certainty 
of action has been much increased of late years, 
while their cost has been greatly reduced, and 
but little instruction is now needed to insure their 
efficient employment by persons of average intel- 
ligence. The use of electrical arrangements for 
firing shots in mines where the employment of 
powder for blasting is inadmissible should be en- 
couraged as much as possible.” 

Again, they state that ‘‘it has been shown that 
mines which have hitherto been considered free 
from fire-damp may have the air which passes 
through them vitiated to an extent corresponding 
to about two per cent of its volume of marsh-gas. 
The air in many such mines may probably never 
be entirely free from explosive gas; at all events, 
in the neighborhood of freshly cut faces of coal 


390 


and in the return air-ways. It has been demon- 
strated in our experiments, that, when the atmos- 
phere contains five to five and one-half per cent 
of marsh-gas, it becomes highly explosive. We 
have even obtained explosions which, though less 
violent, might be nevertheless destructive of life 
if they occurred, on the large scale possible in a 
mine, when the air contained only four per cent 
of marsh-gas. It will thus be seen that air which 
would appear free from gas if tested in the ordi- 
nary way, may become, by the addition of only 
about two per cent of marsh- gas, capable of 
propagating flame and causing destruction, while 
~ the addition of about three per cent converts it 
into a highly explosive mixture. Air which 
would appear quite free from gas if examined by 
a lamp-flame, may become explosive when laden 
with fine, dry coal-dust. Appliances now exist 
by which very small proportions of marsh-gas 
in air may be readily detected, and which can be 
used for examining the atmosphere of a mine. 
With Liveing’s indicator, gas present in the air 
can be estimated with sufficient accuracy for all 
practical purposes, even when the proportion is as 
low as one-quarter per cent.” 

In connection with this subject, the suggestion, 
first due to Mr. Galloway, that coal-dust alone 
suspended in air might cause an explosion, is con- 
sidered, and an account is given of some care- 
fully devised experiments which rather tend to 
confirm this conclusion. The commissioners dis- 
cuss with some detail the means of removing this 
dust, and devote a large section of the report to 
the question of the conditions under which blast- 
ing can be done in safety. Considerable space is 
devoted to safety-lamps, and it is pointed out how 
great an influence the velocity of the air-currents 
in the air-passages of a mine has on the safety of 
a lamp. The electric lamp is perhaps the chief 
hope of the miner, though it does not, like the 
safety-lamp, indicate the presence of gas. The 
commissioners arrived at the following conclu- 
sions: ‘‘that it is most important that all mines 
should be carefully examined by means of indi- 
cators capable of detecting as small a proportion 
as one per cent of gas; such examination to be 
made before the commencement of each day- 
shift, and, in case of an interval, also before the 
succeeding shift; and that in all dry mines 
where the air may be laden with coal-dust, and 
where fire-damp is either known to be given off 
from the strata, or may from experience be 
reasonably suspected to exist, the secretary of 
state may require safety-lamps to be used, unless 
the owners and workmen of such mines prove 
to the satisfaction of a court of arbitration, to be 
appointed by the respective parties, that less 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 169 


liability to accident generally will be involved 
by the working of the mine with open lights. 
than by use of safety-lamps. It should be a 
special instruction to such court that the cir- 
cumstances of each mine be taken into con- 
sideration.” 

The late Prof. John Morris, who died in Janu- 
ary last, had been engaged for some time in 
preparing a third edition of his invaluable 
‘Catalogue of British fossils.’ The first edition 
was published in 18438, and the second in 1854. 
From that date onwards, Professor Morris had 
been collecting materials for a third edition, 
which, unfortunately, he did not live to com- 
plete. But his manuscripts have been placed in © 
the hands of a committee, which includes the 
keeper of the geological department in the Nat- 
ural history museum, the president of the Geo- 
logical society, and other well-known geologists. 
They have divided up the work among several 
specialists, who have engaged to finish their re- 
spective parts within six months; and it is there- 
fore hoped that this great work may be com- 
pleted before very long. 

The publication of the Challenger volumes is. 
now proceeding rapidly. No less than fourteen 
reports are at present passing through the press, 
and it is expected that the entire series will be 
completed by the end of next March. 

The Lumleian lectures, now in course of de- 
livery before the College of physicians by Dr. W.. 
H. Stone, are attracting unusually large audiences. 
Their subject is ‘The electrical conditions of the 
human body.’ Dr. Stone was one of the first to 
call attention to the importance of determining 
accurately the physical constants of the agent 
electricity when employed in physiological in- 
vestigation. In these lectures he has shown that 
most of the contradictory results obtained by the 
earlier investigators are due to the neglect of 
this precaution. The enormously high resistance 
of the epidermis was demonstrated ; and, when 
this was eliminated, the average resistance to a 


continuous current from the ulna at the wrist 


to the malleolus at the ankle, was shown to be 
about 1,170 ohms, due allowance being made for 
the errors caused by polarization, according to 
the ingenious method first devised by Sir Henry 
Mance for the Persian Gulf cables. Some entirely 
new experiments were detailed, and in part re- 
peated before the audience, showing that the 
human body could be charged and discharged 
like a secondary battery. An electromotive force 
of two volts was employed, and curves showing 
the rate of discharge were exhibited. A dis- 
charge current of sixty micro-ampéres at first, 
under an electromotive force of about one volt, 


Arrit 30, 1886.] 


sank to forty-eight in five minutes, and remained 
at that for some hours. The resistance offered by 
the body to an induced current was stated to be 
only half that offered to a continuous one. An 
ingenious speculation was hazarded as to the pos- 
sibility of the human nervous system distantly 
resembling a duplexed telegraph-cable, in which 
a transmitted impulse is balanced and inhibited 
at the sending-station, but unbalanced and ex- 


hibited at the receiving-station. W. 
London, April 13. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 

THE following, in addition to those given in 
our last issue, completes the list of papers read at 
the National academy of sciences, April 20-23: 
Alfred M. Mayer, On the diathermancy of ebonite 
and obsidian, and on the production of calores- 
cence by means of screens of ebonite and obsidian ; 
On the coefficient of expansion of ebonite; On the 
determination of the cubical expansion of a solid 
by a method which does not require calibration of 
vessels, weighings, or linear measure ; On measures 
of absolute radiation ; E. D. Cope, On the geology 
of the region near Zacualtipan, Hidalgo, Mexico ; 
Edward 8. Morse, On ancient and modern methods 
of arrow release; Theo. Gill, The ordinal and 
super-ordinal groups of fishes; H. A. Rowland, 
On the absolute and relative wave-lengths of the 
lines of the solar spectrum; Wolcott Gibbs, 
Platinous compounds as additive molecules ; Ira 
Remsen, Influence of magnetism on chemical 
action ; A. Graham Bell, Upon the deaf and dumb 
of Martha’s Vineyard (continuation of research 
relating to the ancestry of the deaf); S. P. Lang- 
ley, On the invisible spectra; G. F. Becker, 
Cretaceous metamorphic rocks of California (by 
invitation) ; Ogden N. Rood, On color contrast ; 
Charles D. Walcott, Classification of the Cam- 
brian system of North America (by invitation) ; 
A. W. Wright, Crystallization of platinum by 
means of the electric discharge in vacuo; W. K. 
Brooks, The Stomatopoda of the Challenger col- 
lection ; Budding in the Tunicata; A. W. Wright, 
Effect of magnetization on the electrical resist- 
ance of metals; R. E. Peary, U.S.N., On a pro- 
posed expedition into the interior of Greenland. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
Science at Cornell. 


My attention has been called to the communication 
signed ‘H.N.’ in Science for April 16, and I beg 
for a little space in which to point out one or two 
errors into which the writer has fallen. 

I shall not attempt to deal with the swarming mis- 
statements and exaggerations of the letter. These, 
although inviting game, are comparatively unim- 
portant. But the fundamental idea of the writer is 
not without importance, and therefore should not 


F 


SCIENCE. 


dot 


pass unnoticed. That idea is divisible into two parts. 
The first is, that Cornell university, in developing its 
non-technical side, is doing violence to the funda- 
mental law and charter of the institution; and the 
second is, that, in so doing, ‘the successor of Andrew 
D. White’ is reversing the traditions and former 
policy of the university. ‘‘ Where,” exclaims the 
writer, ‘‘ are the traditions and the law and charter 
of Cornell?” Let us see. 

First, The fundamental law declares its purpose in 
the words, ‘‘in order to promote the liberal and 
practical education of the industrial classes in the 
several pursuits and professions of life.” To ac- 
complish this declared purpose, which, it will be 
seen, is of the broadest possible character, the law 
required ‘‘ the endowment, support, and maintenance 
of at least one college where the leading object shall 
be, without excluding other scientific and classical 
studies, and including military tactics, to teach such 
branches of learning as are related to agriculture 
and the mechanic arts.” How this shall be done is. 
explained in the clause, ‘‘in such manner as the 
legislatures of the states shall respectively prescribe.” 

Here we see, in the language of the law itself, a 
purpose that is clearly unmistakable. It includes not 
simply agriculture and the mechanic arts, but ‘ other 
scientific and classical studies,’ ‘military tactics,’ 
and ‘the several pursuits and professions of life.’ 
Furthermore, these provisions shall be carried out 
in such a way as the iegislatures of the states may 
severally prescribe. So much for the fundamental 
law. 

Second, The charter of the university, after re- 
peating the provisions of the fundamental law, and 
doubtless in view of the very large gift of Mr. Cor- 
nell, adds the following sentence; ‘‘ But such other 
branches of science and knowledge may be em- 
braced in the plan of instruction and investigation, 
pertaining to the university, as the trustees may deem 
useful and proper.” In other words, the trustees 
are left by the charter to determine precisely what 
branches of science and knowledge shall be embraced 
in the plan of instruction, after those specifically pro- 
vided for have been established and duly equipped. 

Third, Now as to traditions. As soon as the 
trustees named in the charter came together, the 
first thing to be done was to determine upon a plan 
of organization. A committee for that purpose was 
appointed, of which Andrew D. White was chair- 
man. On the 21st of October, 1866, he presented 
his famous report. In the very first part of it, un- 
der the head of ‘Fundamental plan of instruction,’ 
he argues the very question which lies at the bottom 
of ‘H.N.’s’ grievance. He is of opinion that the 
fundamental law justifies the establishment of all 
the departments of a true university. But, even if 
it did not, he finds unmistakable warrant in the pro- 
visions of the charter. In order that there may be 
no possible misunderstanding of President White’s 
views, I quote a single sentence from p. 4 of the re- 
port: ‘‘ Even if it should be claimed that the whole 
effort of the trustees ought to be devoted to agricul- 
ture and the mechanic arts alone; even if we were 
to construe away the plain words of the original act 
of congress, which speaks of ‘ other scientific and 
classical branches’ as part of the object of the gov- 
ernment grant of lands,—~still the oft-repeated 
declaration of our founder, that he ‘ wishes to make 
such provision that every person can find opportunity 
here to pursue any study he desires,’ would be our 


392 


sufficient warrant in using at least his munificent 
gift in supplementing the special instruction with 
general instruction, and rounding it out into the pro- 
portions of a university.” 

Now, proceeding on this theory, under the head 
of ‘Organization,’ President White gives a list of the 
departments which he thinks ought to be established. 
Conspicuous in this list, on p. 5 of the report, is the 
department of medicine and surgery, and the de- 
partment of law. Then on p.13 of the same report 
I find, in the list of professors, the appointment of 
whom he recommends, —a ‘professor of municipal 
law,’ and a ‘professor of constitutional law.’ For 
the purposes of this presentation it is, of course, 
needless to speak of the other departments contem- 
plated in the plan of organization. 

Now, I have read all the speeches, and I believe 
all the reports, of President White; and I believe 
there is not a passage in one of them, from first to 
last, that contradicts, either in letter or in spirit, 
the doctrine here set forth. I will go further, and 
say that through them all is to be seen the same 
spirit as that manifested in the ‘ plan of organiza- 
tion.’ This is my answer to ‘H.N.’s’ grandiloquent 
inquiry, ‘‘ Where are the traditions and the law and 
charter of Cornell?” 

It has never been claimed, and is not now claimed, 
that the technical departments are of secondary im- 
portance ; but, as I asserted in my address at New 
York, I hold that these departments have now so far 
been provided for, that the time has arrived when 
attention should be called to the needs of other de- 
partments. I do not mean by this that the uni- 
versity is to cease its appropriations for the technical 
schools. So far as I know, it has no such intention. 
This, indeed, may fairly be inferred from the fact 
that at the present moment the trustees are taking 
steps for the immediate erection of an ample build- 
ing for the veterinary department, and to add four 
rooms to the agricultural museum. We shall do 
still more in the same direction, but it is not the pur- 
pose of the trustees to limit the activities of the uni- 
versity to a single one of those interests, comtem- 
plated at the time of its organization, and, indeed, 
throughout its history. 

No revolution is taking place at Cornell. On the 
contrary, its trustees are trying to develop it strictly 
along the line of its fundamental law, its charter, 
and its traditions. Surely it is late in the day for 
this university to be turned from such a purpose by 
any hint that its charter is in danger. 

C. K. Apams. 


Corne]l university, April 26. 


Popular astronomy. 


I think the author of the article ‘ Popular as- 
tronomy ’ (Science, April 23), in his chivalric defence 
of the rights of Professor Newcomb and myself, has 
really done a serious injustice to Dr. Ball in virtually 
charging him with deliberate plagiarism and ‘‘a 
continued effort to conceal the theft, which is petty 
in the extreme,” by slight alterations of the borrowed 
material. No one personally acquainted with Dr. 
Ball could possibly suspect him of intentional wrong 
in the case: I believe him to be totally incapable of 
any thing dishonorable. 

Judging from my own experience, which, though 
not extensive, bas been exactly to the point, a very 
simple explanation will account for the apparent 


SCIENCE. 


|Vou. VIL, No. 169 


appropriation of other people's language, which is 
the foundation of the charge. In preparing for 
lectures to college classes and to popular audiences, 
I collect all the material I can find. and, in speaking, 
use it liberally. Of course, I indicate in a general 
way my obligations and sources of information ; but 
it is quite impossible, while speaking, to point out 
every place where I am using language suggested 
by my reading. In fact, not having the matter 
written out, it is not possible (for me atleast) to quote 
accurately the words of my authority; and, 
after a few repetitions of the lecture, the quasi 
quotations become modified by changes that make 
them conform to my usual forms of expression, and 
render them, so far as consciousness is concerned, 
quite as much my own as any other part of the 
lecture. At the same time they would be quite 
recognizable by one familiar with the original. 

Now, in making a book upon the subject upon 
which one has been lecturing, he will inevitably 
write pretty nearly what he would say if standing 
before an audience, and in this way will quote, un- 
consciously and more or less inaccurately, passages of 
considerable length from the works he used in his 
original lecture-preparation. The only way I know 
of to do justice in the matter, is first to put into the 
preface of the book a full general acknowledg- 
ment of obligations, and then to go over the manu- 
script, lecture-notes in hand, hunting up and mark- 
ing all these unconscious quotations, and restoring 
them to their original form. 

Dr. Ball seems to have failed in doing this thor- 
oughly, and hence, no doubt, the oversights which 
have led to the charge of guiltily disguised plagia- 
rism. I am sure he meant no wrong, and I am 
greatly complimented and flattered by his approval 
and use of my work. C. A. YounG. 

Princeton, N.J., April 24. 


As Sir Robert Ball is on the other side of the 
Atlantic, I deem it proper to say that he has satis- 
factorily explained the circumstances alluded to in 
the last number of Science. Although this explana- 
tion only refers to the copying of passages from my 
‘Popular astronomy,’ I have no doubt that his re- 
marks would apply equally to the close parallelism of 
passages in his book, and in Professor Young’s trea- 
tise on the sun. His statement is as follows : — 

‘‘Your sketch of the discovery of the companion 
of Sirius I transcribed some years ago, before I had 
any thoughts of writing my book. The passage 
about Tycho I had, however, more recently taken. 
When I came to prepare the materials for the press, 
I Jost sight, it seems, of the source of these passages, 
and treated them as if the language had been my 
own. 

‘‘ Not until yesterday, when I read the review in 
the New York Nation, did I know that my book con- 
tained any passage virtually yours, except that 
duly acknowledged on p. 231.” rhe 

I suppose this is an inadvertence of which any of 
us might be guilty who are in the habit of copying 
passages for use in popular lectures, or as memoranda 
for any other purpose, S. NEWCoMB, 


Arsenic in wall paper. 


A note in Science (April 23, p. 871) says, ‘‘ The in- 
vestigation before the Massachusetts legislative com- 
mittee on the subject of arsenic in wall-paper indi- 


Se. 


APRIL 30, 1886. ] 


eates that the danger has heen exaggerated.” So 
-far is this from being the case, and so great is the 
real danger, that I beg space for the presentation of 
some facts. The immediate cause of the present 
investigation was a letter published in the Boston 
Herald on Jan. 19, in which I gave a detailed account 
of sufferings in our own house due to arsenic in the 
wall-papers, and involving all the members of the 
household. Since that time many persons have pub- 
lished similar accounts in the Boston papers. Ab- 
stracts of twenty-two such letters appeared in the 
Boston Advertiser of March 2 and 12, fourteen of the 
same appearing in the Boston Herald of March 2; 
and in the four hearings given by the public health 
committee to the petitioners a mass of evidence was 
presented which must have convinced any unpreju- 
diced mind. Thecommittee have not yet made their 
report to the legislature, but it is expected that they 
wili soon do so, The statement has alreaay been 
published in the Boston papers, that the committee 
will recommend legislation, and it would be a matter 
of great surprise if they should do otherwise, —a 
surprise even to those who are trying to defeat 
legislation. 

Science also adds, ‘‘ Prof. OC. F. Chandler testi- 
fied, that, from careful experiments, under no con- 
ditions could arsenical poisoning occur through 
breathing arseniuretted hydrogen from wall-paper, 

_and that the only source of danger would be from 
- friction alone.” In point of fact, Professor Chandler’s 
testimony was much stronger than this. He not only 
stated that he believed the generation of arseniuret- 
ted hydrogen from arsenical wall-papers to be im- 
possible, but he also said of this gas that he con- 
sidered ‘a small quantity comparatively harmless.’ 
As to the legislation, for which those of us who have 
suffered were asking, he said that he was ‘ not in 
favor of any law on the subject ;’ that personally he 
was ‘not afraid of arsenical wall-paper under any 
circumstances, with any quantity ;’ and that he con- 
sidered the evidence of persons who suppose that 
they have suffered from wall-paper poison to be ‘ of 
very little value.’ He also said that some years ago 
he investigated the whole subject of dangers from 
arsenical wall-papers, ‘and concluded that there was 
nothing in it ;’ while his conviction that the genera- 
tion of arseniuretted hydrogen from arsenical wall- 
papers is impossible was based on experiments made 
by two of his students in his laboratory six years ago. 

As to all the essential points involved in the inves- 
tigation, the petition is supported by the best chemi- 
cal opinion in Harvard university, by some of the 
best medical opinion in Massachusetts, and by a body 
of evidence from actual sufferers unimpeachable and 
unanswerable. ButI desire specially to call atten- 
tion to the fact that Professor Chandler himself gives 
indirect support to the petition. As one of the origi- 
nal editors of Johnson’s ‘ Universal cyclopaedia,’ and 
one of the active editors in the revision now going 
through the press, Professor Chandler publishes in 
vol. i. (New York, 1886) an article on arsenious oxide, 
wherein he calls attention to the danger from arseni- 
cal paper. His language is, ‘‘ Recent inquiry would 
lead to the belief that rooms covered with paper 
coated with this green arsenite of copper are detri- 
mental to health, from the readiness with which 
minute particles of the poisonous pigment are de- 
tached from the walls by the slightest friction, are 
diffused through the room, and ultimately pass 
into the animal system. It is also said that arseniu- 


Li 


SCIENCE. 


393 


retted hydrogen (H,As), a very poisonous gas, is 
generated in damp weather.” 

True, this language was first written for an earlier 
edition ; but inasmuch as no expense was spared in 
the revision (see publisher’s announcement), and in- 
asmuch as Professor Chandler was one of the re- 
visers, the language may be taken as the utterance 
of all that Professor Chandler considered it worth 
while to say at the time when the new volume was 
published. I have called this article an ‘ indirect 
support’ to our petition, because, although the writer 
does not squarely state an opinion of his own, yet his 
language undoubtedly makes the impression that he 
considers the subject an important one,—one, indeed, 
which he has not investigated, and on which he 
therefore has not formed an opinion, but important 
enough to call attention to the danger. 

It is also interesting to observe that one of the 
authorities whom Professor Chandler quotes against 
the theory that arseniuretted hydrogen escapes from 
arsenical wall-papers has subsequently changed his 
opinion. I refer to Watts’s ‘ Dictionary of chemistry.’ 
So far as I have been able to learn, the last expres- 
sion of Dr. Watts on the subject in hand is found in 
the third supplement, which is vol. viii. of the whole 
work, in part i. p. 122 (London, 1879). There we 
read, ‘‘ Arsenic in the air of rooms. — From experi- 
ments by H. Fleck (Zeitschr. fiir biologie, viii. 444), 
it appears that the air of rooms, the carpets or wall- 
papers of which are colored with Schweinfurth green, 
often contains arseniuretted hydrogen, produced by 
the action of moisture and organic matter on the 
arsenical pigment. The size, starch, paste, etc., used 
in hanging the paper, appear to be especially active 
in this respect.” 

Also another authority, whose opinion of 1862 
Professor Chandler quotes against our petition, has 
long since given up that opinion. I refer to Dr. Hoft- 
man of Berlin. Dr. Hoffman was one of the scientific 
men summoned a few years ago to aid the German 
royal sanitary commission in investigating the 
dangers from arsenic in objects of domestic use. 
Dr. Hoffman’s present opinion is seen in the report 
of the commission, which resulted in a stringent law 
in Germany. The language bearing on this subject 
is as follows: ‘‘ Wall-papers are deserving special 
attention, and also window-curtains, which fre- 
quently contain large amounts of arsenic. The in- 
jurious action of this is not only through the lading 
of the atmosphere with arsenical dust, but also from 
the continued formation of arseniuretted hydrogen, 
a gas extremely dangerous to health.” 

Iam happy to state that the public health com- 
mittee of the Massachusetts legislature have ordered 
the publication of the stenographic report of the 
hearings given on this subject, and this document 
cannot fail to be of value to the legislative commit- 
tees of other states or of congress when the enor- 
mity of the arsenic evil shall become more widely 
known. D..G. Yon; 

Cambridge, Mass., April 24. 


On two piates of stratigraphical sections of the 
Taconic ranges by Prof. James Hall. 


Tn an article in the number for April, 1886, of The 
American journal of science, entitled ‘On lower 
Silurian fossils from a limestone of the original 
Taconic of Emmons,’ on p. 247, the author speaks of 


394 


a ‘most welcome addition,’ to the stratigraphy of the 
Taconic range, of two plates of stratigraphical sec- 
tions’ by Professor Hall, ‘ prepared by him forty to 
forty-five years since.’ 

Those two plates, or rather five plates, for that is 
their exact number, were freely distributed by Pro- 
fessor Hall as far back as Lyell’s second visit to 
America, 1845-46, and are well known on both sides 
of the Atlantic. 

Professor Emmons refers to them in one of his 
letters, dated Raleigh, N.C., Dec. 28, 1860, of which 
I published an extract in ‘ The Taconic system and 
its position in stratigraphic geology’ (Proc. Amer. 
acad. arts and sciences, vol. xii. p. 128, Cambridge, 
1885), as follows: ‘‘ You are aware that [Professor] 
Hall prepared five long sheets of sections illustrating 
his views, and which extended from the Helderberg 
to the Connecticut River, and from the Lake Cham- 
plain to the Connecticut valley. . . . They were de- 
signed to sustain his peculiar views. I have copies, 
and I wish you had them. They are curiosities in 
their way.” 

It is evident that the views entertained by Profes- 
sor Hall, contesting the conclusions of Dr. Emmons, 
have been placed before geologists in the United 
States, Canada, and Europe since the appearance 
of ‘ The Taconic system’ in 1842. . 


JULES MARCOU. 
Cambridge, Mass., April 23. 


A carnivorous butterfly larva. 


One of the most interesting of our butterflies is 
that known as Fenesica tarquinius, — a unique ly- 
cinid having the wings above brown-black in color, 
with conspicuous orange markings both on primaries 
and secondaries. It has a wide geographical range, 
occurring very generally over North America, as 
also in Asia. 

Donovan, in his ‘ Insects of India’ (pl. xliv. fig. 1), 
illustrates the butterfly rather poorly, but says noth- 
ing about the larva; Boisduval and LeConte (Hist. 
des lep. et des chen. de Amer. Sept., p. 128, pl. 37) 
figure the larva, pupa, and imago under the name of 
Polyommatus crataegi, and simply quote Abbot as 
stating that the larva lives in several species of Cra- 
taegus ; Scudder (Proc. Essex inst., iii. p. 163, 1862) 
treats of it under the name of Polyommatus porsenna 
(Syn. list of Amer. rurales, Bull. Buff. soc. nat. hist., 
iii. p. 129, May, 1876), giving the food-plants of the 
larva as Alnus, Ribesia, Vaccinium, and Viburnum 
(later, in the American naturalist for August, 1869, 
he gives the food-plants as follows, — ‘ probably 
arrow-wood, elder, and hawthorn’); Grote (Trans. 
Amer. ent. soc., ii. p. 807) first proposed the generic 
name of Fenesica, but says nothing about its larval 
history ; Strecker (Butt. and moths, etc. — Diurnes, 
p. 103) repeats simply from Scudder; while William 
H. Edwards, in his admirable life-histories of butter- 
flies, has not, so far, treated of this particular species. 
In short, so far as the published records go, it has 
been generally assumed that the larva feeds upon the 
plants named. 

The object of this brief communication is to show 
that in this larva we have one that is truly carnivo- 
rous,—a fact which is extremely interesting, because, 
so far as I can find, there is not another recorded 
carnivorous butterfly larva; and Mr. Scudder, who 
has given great attention to the butterflies, writes me 
in a recent letter, in reply to an inquiry on this point, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII, No. 169 


that he cannot recall any mention of such. Quite a 
number of heterocerous larvae are known to be car- 
nivorous by exception, and not a few are so as a 
rule. These are chiefly found among pyralids ; and 
it is not necessary, for my present purpose, to refer 
to the cases in detail. 

For some years, now, I have been studying the 
remarkable life-habits of the Aphididae, and espe- 
cially of some of the gall-making and leaf-curling 
species of Pemphiginae. 

In collecting material and making observations, I 
have been assisted by Mr. Th. Pergande, who has, 
on a number of occasions since 1880, found the larva 
of this Fenesica associated with various plant-lice. 
Among the species with which it has been thus found 
associated are Pemphigus fraxinifolii Riley, which 
curls the leaves of Fraxinus; Schizoneura tessellata 
Fitch, which crowds upon the branches of Alnus; 
and Pemphigus imbricator Fitch, which congregates 
in large masses on Fagus. All these species produce 
much flocculent and saccharine matter. 

The frequency with which this larva was found 
among these plant-lice justified the suspicion that it 
feeds upon them or derives benefit from them ; yet 
up to 1885 the presumption was that it benefited 
from the secretions of the plant-lice rather than from 
the insects themselves. Last fall, however, Mr. Per- 
gande obtained abundant evidence that the Fenesica 
larva actually feeds upon the aphidids, and I thought 
it worth while to call attention to this positive proof 
of the carnivorous habits of the species. That the 
different species of plant-lice are the normal food of 
this larva, is rendered more than probable for the 
following reasons :— 

1. Attempts to feed the larva upon the leaves upon 
which it was found have proved futile, the larva 
perishing rather than feed upon tbem. 

2. The food-plants given by the authorities are 
such as are well known to harbor plant-lice. 

3. Mr. Scudder’s authorities, as he informs me, 
were picked up here and there ; and one of them for 
alder, which he recalls, ‘found it more commonly on 
a limb among plant-lice.’ 

4. Mr. Otto Lugger has frequently observed the 
larva around Baltimore among Pemphigus imbricator 
on beech, but never disassociated from the lice ; and 
Judge Lawrence Johnson also found it in connection 
with the same species around Shreveport, La., last 
fall, and surmised that it might feed upon the Pemphi- 
gus ; but neither of these observers were able to get 
positive proof of the fact. C. V. RILEY. 


Combined aerial and aquatic respiration. 


In investigating combined aerial and aquatic respira- 
tion in vertebrates, the following questions have pre- 
sented themselves for solution, — questions which, 
so far as we have been able to ascertain, have not 
been previously answered by physiologists:— 

1. Is the aerial part of the respiration like that of — 
animals with an exclusively aerial respiration ? 

2. Is the aquatic part of the respiration like that 
of animals with an exclusively aquatic respiration ? 

In answer to these questions, we offer the follow- 
ing facts and conclusion : — 

1. Observations upon the aquatic respiration of 
soft-shelled turtles (Science, vi. p. 255; and Amer. 
nat., 1886, p. 233) showed that the air taken from 
the lungs of a turtle that had been immersed several 
hours, had been almost completely deprived of its 


APRIL 30, 1886.] 


oxygen, while but a trace of carbon dioxide had 
been added to it. The water in which it had been 
immersed had received, however, a much greater 
amount of carbon dioxide than could have been 
formed from the free oxygen taken from the water. 

2. Tadpoles were placed in a jar partly filled with 
water, and the jar hermetically closed. After several 
hours, the air was analyzed, and the free gases in the 
water determined. These determinations showed 
that nine tenths of the oxygen consumed came from 
the air, and one tenth from the water; while, of 
the carbon dioxide produced during the experiment, 
the air contained three tenths, and the water seven 
tenths. 

In order that the carbon dioxide given off by the 
tadpoles to the air might not be absorbed by the 
water during the experiment, a layer of olive-oil six 
millimetres thick was put upon the water. 

3. It was found by careful and repeated observa- 
tions, under perfectly natural conditions, that frogs 
in cold weather (so-called ‘ winter frogs’), in water 
at 0° to 15° C., remain with their heads above the 
surface from one-tenth to one-half the time, and 
while above the surface carry on from eight to 
twenty lung respirations per minute ; showing, that, 
under natural conditions, the respiration of ‘ winter 
frogs’ is not entirely or almost entirely carried on 
aquatically by the skin, as is commonly supposed 

(Klug and Martin). 
. 4. The results obtained by Moreau and others, 
upon the respiratory function of the air-bladder of 
ordinary fishes, and those of Wilder, on the respira- 
tion of Amia (the mud-fish), are in general accord 
with the facts stated for turtles and tadpoles. 

These facts seem to us to justify the conclusion 
that the respiratory gas-interchange in combined 
aerial and aquatic respiration does not conform to 
the law governing either exclusively aerial or ex- 
clusively aquatic respiration, but that, whenever 
aerial and aquatic respirations are combined in an 
animal, the aerial part of the respiration is principal- 
ly to supply oxygen, and the aquatic part to get rid 
of carbon dioxide. S. H. and S. P. Gage. 


Anat. lab., Cornell univ., 
April 15. 


Pharyngeal respiratory movements of adult 


amphibia under water. 


In studying adult amphibia for possible respira- 
tory movements under water, we have found that 
the common newt (Diemictylus viridescens) so 
abundant in lakes and ponds, and which is known to 
remain voluntarily a long time under water, carries 
on, while under water, rhythmical pharyngeal move- 
ments almost precisely like those of the soft-shelled 
turtles; and, as in the turtles, these movements 
cause a flow of water into and out of the mouth and 
pharynx. 

The Cryptobranchus (Menopoma) has also been 
found to draw water into the mouth, and to expel it, 
in part at least, through the persistent gill-fissures. 

So far as we know, these facts have not been pub- 
lished before. We would be glad to know if these 
observations have been previously made on Di- 
emictylus and Cryptobranchus, and if similar pharyn- 
geal movements under water have been described 
for other adult amphibia. S. H. and S. P. Gace. 

Anat. lab., Cornell uniy., April 25. - 


re 


SCIENCE. 


395 


The germination of pond-lily seeds. 


In the issue of Science, March 21, 1884, there ap- 
peared a conditional offer of seeds of the Nymphea 
odorata, obtained by me in the fall of 1883, the 
growth of that year. Many of the seeds at this 
time were germinating; some had developed the 
second leaf. There was a marked difference in 
color; the variations were, in shades of red, from 
blood-red to light pink, from dark blue-green to light 
yellow-green, and from a dark bronze to a light 
salmon. It seemed to me, with varying and suitable 
culture, new varieties might be obtained, as the seeds 
are not always to be had, and the method of ger- 
mination is not a matter of every-day observation. 
A number of applications were received, but I have 
not heard from any one, of successful culture, nor 
whether all or any of the seeds germinated. A suc- 
cession of germinations gave me new plants to take 
the place of those destroyed by Unios, ferments, or 
fungi. The seed were kept under water, on sand, 
exposed to a north light, or that reflected from the 
brick houses on the north side of the street, fifty feet 
distant. 

In June, 1855, I removed from the water all light 
seed, and those that were softened, as well as all on 
which fungoid growths had appeared, and placed the 
vessel in an open space where it had vertical light, 
and from the sun, for an hour between eleven and 
twelve in the morning in clear weather. A half- 
dozen new plants appeared in August, as the result 
of the change. When the cold weather came in the 
fall, I restored them to their old position in the north 
light, slightly obscured by ferns, Zygodium scan- 
dens and Pteris serrulata.. About last Christ- 
mas I observed a new plant that had germinated 
since being brought in in the fall. This plant was 
removed to some submerged soil in another vessel. 
where it is now putting forth its fourth leaf. In 
February another seed germinated ; and, since the 
20th of March. three others have begun to grow. 
The last one was observed on the 3dof April. There 
are a few more very heavy seed in the water. The 
first plants from these seed that germinated early in 
1884 — beginning in January — were peculiar in the 
length of the internodes, all being very long, some 
over aninch; and the seeds, before germination, were 
very light, and quite variable in color, but not as 
much so as the foliage. 

The germinations of 1885 have shorter internodes, 
smaller leaves, of an even green color, whilst other 
germinations of this year have the internode reduced 
to a minimum; the leaves seem to start from the 
very dense and dark seed ; and the foliage is variable 
in size and color, but mostly in light shades of bronze 
— salmon — with shades of pink. 

The seeds varied in their development when taken 
from the pond in which they grew. 

Some of the plants had just begun to coil the 
flower-stem by which to draw the seed down to the 
bottom of the pond ; one had finished coiling, and the 
seed-vessel was in the mud ; others were midway be- 
tween these extremes. I mention this to show that 
there were natural and well-known causes for the 
variance in time of germination. 

When it is known that the ripe and fully matured 
seeds are very dense, it will not seem so strange, that, 
considering the great number of seeds to a single 
flower, all ponds are not overcrowded, as by their 
density they sink into the ooze and remain dormant. 


396 


I shall note with interest any future germinations as 
lengthening the possible dormant period of these 
seed. 

On April 19 I observed five more germinations, 
with the characteristics of those mentioned as grow- 
ing this year. Up to April 24, three other young 
plants had started, making thirteen since Christmas ; 
and these are as vigorous as those that started in 
1884,— much more so than the growth of the sum- 


mer of 1885. Gro. F. WATERS. 
8 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass., 
April 24, 


Eskimo building-snow. 


In Science for April 23, 1886 (p. 872), Sergt. T. W. 
Sherwood has an inquiry about a certain formation 
‘of snow. I refer you to a paragraph in Science for 
April 25, 1884, p. 822, concerning ‘ ice-banners,’ 
from observations of my own. 


GILBERT THOMPSON. 
U.S. geol. surv., April 28. 


Certain homologous muscles. 


The writer, having devoted some time of late toa 
comparative study of the myology of American 
mammals, has noted several interesting facts, to one 
of which attention is here asked. 

The myology of the shoulder is, perhaps, more in- 
teresting than that of any other region, inasmuch as 
the variations in structure can usually be readily 
correlated with corresponding variations in habit. 
This is true in particular when applied to those 
changes observed in members of the same genus and 
family. Ina forthcoming work I hope to present a 
mass of details illustrating the nature of these 
variations. 

The muscular system is so plastic, and so im- 
mediate an expression of function, that it was hard- 
ly expected that many hints bearing on phylogeny 
could be derived from that source. Osteology, pos- 
sessing as it does so many advantages in this respect, 
has been trusted far too exclusively, as I hope to 
show : at least, a careful study of the anatomy of 
the soft parts may be expected to furnish much con- 
firmatory evidence. In the case of the shoulder, 
the omo-hyoid muscle may be said to furnish a valu- 
able criterion by which to determine the primitive 
character of a species. Its presence in the archaic 
types, and frequent absence in specialized forms, can 
hardly be correlated with change in function. 

The sciurimorphs are a very compact group, and 
yet present a great variety of modifications in 
adaptation to variation in habit. Among the mem- 
bers of the group found in the United States, the 
woodchuck (Arctomys monax) is perhaps entitled to 
rank as the most primitive form. This conception is 
suggested by the osseous structure, and finds an 
interesting support in a number of points in the 
myology, only two of which are here mentioned. 
The omo-hyoid passing from the sterno-hyoid to the 
anterior margin of the clavicle is very well developed. 
A very important part of the skin-muscle forming 
the covering of the cheek is derived from a broad, 
flat band springing from the anterior third of the 
sternum, the insertion being in the skin of the lips 
and chin. But most curious of all is the presence 
of a well-developed skin-muscle springing from the 
lower posterior free margin of the rhomboideus 


SCIENCH. 


[Vou. VII., No. 169 


dorsalis, which, unlike the cucullarius, has an origin 
far down the back, overlapping the latissimus. The 
thin band of which mention is made is entirely dis- 
tinct from any portion of the paniculus until it 
reaches the region of the cheek, where its fibres ap- 
pear to lose themselves upon the skin. What gives 
these points interest is the fact that the only other 
rodent yet encountered, which has such a muscle, is 
Geomys, the pouched gopher. In G. bursarius an 
exactly similar muscle springs from the latissimus at 
almost the identical point, and has exactly the same 
course, its insertion being on the pouch, whence I 
have elsewhere termed it retractor bursae. 

In none of the myomorphs examined has such a 
muscle been encountered. Without going into further 
detail, it will be sufficient to point out the fact that. 
there may here be a hint of the antiquity, if not 
consanguinity, of these types, unless, indeed, it can 
be shown that an underground habit has developed in 
one case, — that which has its apparent explanation in 
the function dependent on the possession of a pouch 
in the other. 

In the chipmunk, which is pouched, though only 
imperfectly fossorial and more perfectly sciurine, 
this muscle is absent. The spermophiles, although 
the nearest living American allies of Arctomys, do 
not possess this muscle. In the flying squirrel there 
is a thin band of muscle passing from the wrist, 
having its origin on the carpus opposite the volar 
spur, and passing to the same point as the muscle 
here described. The flying-squirrel also has a dis- 
tinct omo-hyoid. C. L. Herrick. 

Dennison university, April 12. 


A means of distinguishing the Canada lynx 
from the Bay lynx. 


If a dozen zodlogists were asked how many species 
of lynx exist, the majority would probably decline 
to commit themselves to any opinion, while among 
the rest would be found advocates for a varying 
number of species, —as few as one, perhaps, or as 
many as eight or nine. 

While examining a series of sixty or seventy 
skulls of American lynxes recently, I hit upon two 
characters which will, I believe, prove useful in 
distinguishing between the species more satisfactorily 
than has been possible hitherto. I found that in all 
the skulls from far north, indeed in all that were 
labelled ‘L. canadensis,’ the anterior condyloid 
foramen is large, looks downward, and is not 
confluent with the foramen lacerum posterium ; and 
that the visible portion of the presphenoid is fiask- 
shaped, the convexity being in front. In all the 
skulls of L. rufus, maculatus, and fasciatus, on the 
contrary, the two foramina are confluent, as in the 
cats generally, and the visible portion of the 
presphenoid is sagittate or linear. 

The single skull of Lynx borealis in the national 
collection, and one of L. cervaria, exhibit the charac- 
teristics of L. canadensis. 

It would appear that in the case of the American 
lynxes we are dealing with two distinct species 
only: 1°, L. canadensis; and, 2°, L. rufus, with its 
varieties fasciatus and maculatus. It is also proba- 
ble that the confluence of the condyloid and lacerated 
foramina cannot hereafter be regarded as a dis- 
tinguishing character of the Aeluroidea. 

FREDERICK TRUE. 
Washington, April 20. 


SCIENCE.—SuppPpLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1886. 


MULTIPLE PERSONALITY. 


AMONG the most interesting of the cases, says 
the Spectator, on which the Society for psychical 
research has recently centred the thoughts of 
investigators, is one of a patient who is called 
‘Louis V.,’ and who was born in 1863. He is said, 
in the summary of his case, as given by Dr. Myers, 
and commented upon before the society by Mr. 
F. W. H. Myers, to have six different states of 
consciousness, all of them more or less accom- 
panied by distinct physical conditions ; but only 
in one of these six states is his memory something 
like that of an ordinary man; that is, able to 
recall the larger number of the various phases 
through which his life has passed. Even in this 
sixth state there are a few blanks in his memory ; 
but in all the others he appears to remember only 
a few discontinuous portions of his history, and to 
forget completely those years in which his physi- 
cal state was quite different from that in which he 
then finds himself. Thus, when he has paralysis 
of the right side (which is connected with a mor- 
bid condition of the left side of the brain), nearly 
twenty-one years of his twenty-three years of life 
are entirely wiped out for him. But even then a 
certain application of soft iron to his right thigh 
restores to him the memory of the greater part of 
his life, dispels temporarily all paralysis, and 
leaves only a few comparatively small gaps in his 
memory of bis career. Again, under certain mag- 
netic conditions, the hysterical paralysis — for 
the origin of the whole complaint seems to be a 
kind of hysteria —can be transferred from the 
right side (which involves a morbid condition of 
the left brain) to the left side, involving the same 
inertia of the right side of the brain; and this 
change, which is quite sudden, is accompanied by 
avery curious change in the apparent aspect of 
his character. From being arrogant, violent, and 
profane, with indistinct utterance and complete 
inability to write (owing to the paralysis of the 
right hand), ‘Louis V.’ becomes instantaneously 
quiet, modest, and respectful, speaking easily and 
Clearly, and able io write a fair hand; but the 
greater part of his life is still a blank to him. 

In a word, the change from ‘Louis V.’ with 
paralysis of the right side, to ‘Louis V.’ with 
paralysis of the left side, is not very different from 


the change which Mr. Louis Stevenson has de- 
scribed in the weird tale called ‘The strange 
story of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde,’ when Mr. Hyde 
is suddenly transformed into Dr. Jekyl — except, 
of course, that there is no alteration in the gen- 
eral bulk or stature of the body. The hysterical 
paralysis of the right side (invoiving the opposite 
side of the brain) leaves him a rude, presumptuous, 
illiterate boor ; while the paralysis of the left side 
(involving the right side of the brain) finds him a 
docile, respectful, educated young man. The other 
five states of consciousness — induced by different 
physical means, though in some cases, indeed, not 
by physical means at all, but merely by authori- 
tatively telling the young man that he is in one of 
his other states — are more or less intermediate be- 
tween these two; and in one of them (the sixth as 
described) the man’s character, though not appar- 
ently so good as in his best state (when the left 
side of the brain, the side supposed to be most 
frequently exerted in thinking and speaking, is 
active, and the right side is passive), is much better 
than in his worst, while his memory commands the 
greater part of his life, and the paralysis vanishes 
altogether. But in this state, apparently, it is not 
possible to keep him long, for his normal condi- 
tion is at present that in which he forgets all the 
best part of his life, and is violent, arrogant, and 
profane. 

Now, Mr. Myers apparently desired to persuade 
the Society for psychical research, of which he is 
one of the pillars, that this case points to a double 
personality in each of us,—one represented by 
the predominant activity of the left side of the 
brain, the ordinary personality ; while the other, 
occasionally manifested in dreams or abnormal 
conditions of any kind, represents, for any one 
in whom it is manifested, what Mr. Hyde was to 
Dr. Jekyl, the more savage and brutal side of the 
man, the coarser, more vulgar, unreflective, over- 
bearing side. And he even goes so far as to sug- 
gest that the activity of each separate side of the 
brain represents the command of a quite different 
sphere of knowledge; so that a man whose right 
brain is suddenly called into activity, while his 
left brain is lulled to sleep, may manifest not only 
a quite different character from his ordinary 
character, but also a quite different range of posi- 
tive knowledge. In Mr. Myers’s belief, the ruder 
character, which is best manifested by the activity 
of the right hemisphere of the brain, may yet 
have an instinctive insight to which the more nor- 


398 


mal and better disciplined character which uses 
most easily the left hemisphere of the brain isa 
stranger ; so that, in a sense very different from 
that of the original saying, the left hand does not 
indeed know what the right hand doeth. If there 
be any truth in this theory, it must certainly be 
extended. In the case of ‘Louis V.,’ there ap- 
pear to be no less than six different conditions 
of consciousness, in each one of which there must 
be some different proportion between the activity 
of the right and ieft brain. It is not merely a 
case of right brain v. left, but of various propor- 
tions of activity,—say, all right and no left, 
three-quarters right and one-quarter left, half 
right and half left, one-quarter right and three- 
quarters left, no right and all left, and lastly, per- 
haps, the equal co-operation of right and left. To 
each of these conditions a different personality 
would correspond ; so that ‘ Louis V.,’ instead of 
being two different persons in turns, is, perhaps, 
six different persons in turns, according to the 
variety of the mixture. 

Of course, if this were an adequate explanation 
of the case, the application of a bar of steel to 
one arm, or of soft iron to the right thigh, 
would change one person into another person ; or, 
in other words, personality would express nothing 
more than certain temporary phenomena, which, 
by the use of either physical or moral agencies, 
you could transform at will, if not into their op- 
posites, at least into qualities as different as arro- 
gance from modesty, or irritability from patience. 
We say ‘ by either physical or moral agencies,’ be- 
cause, as we have already said, it did not neces- 
sarily take any magnetic influence to produce the 
change : the change was also effected by simply 
assuring the young man that he was once more 
what he had once been, even though he had then 
absolutely forgotten this antecedent condition of 
his own consciousness ; and with the belief, the 
physical state of the body as regarded paralysis or 
activity, itself changed ; that is, as amongst his 
various selves, you could determine for him which 
of them he should be. 

But what does all this prove? It proves not in 
any sense multiple identity, but what we have 
all of us always known, — that a man may easily 
lose the conscious clew which connects one phase 
of his life with another phase. We all lose, and 
lose for the most part completely, the clew con- 
necting infancy with childhood. The very aged 
often lose, and sometimes completely lose, the 
clew connecting manhood and age. Even in the 
fulness of our strength, illness often wipes out of 
our memory a certain limited term of weeks or 
months. But then, it will be said, a man seldom 
or never loses the connecting-link of character. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VII., No. 169 


A selfish and irritable man is selfish and irritable 
throughout all his phases; a self-forgetful and 
patient man is self-forgetful and patient through- 
out all his phases ; whereas, in this case of ‘ Louis 
V.,’ we havea man transformed, in the twinkling of 
an eye, from an arrogant and ignorant boaster, 
into a quiet and docile learner. Does not that 
imply more than a change of memory or mental 
scenery? Does it not imply a change in the at- 
titude of the will? Is it conceivable that a will 
trained to defer to the lessons of higher minds in 
one state, should lose all the training it had ac- 
quired, even though it had lost the memory of all 
who had given that training? If humility and 
arrogance are qualities only superficially distinct, 
and really severed from each other only by the 
memory or oblivion of a year or two of personal 
training, they are not moral qualities at all. Un- 
less through every change of circumstances the 
thread of personality is continuous, personality is 
an illusion; and if it is continuous, then nothing 
can charm away a quality of the will, once 
genuinely acquired, unless it be the voluntary 
treachery and default of the will itself. If the 
left brain is a ‘new creature,’ but the right brain 
is unregenerate, then the two brains are not brains 
of the same person, and one of those persons is 
not responsible for the other person. 

But the truth is, that nothing of this kind is 
even rendered plausible as an hypothesis by the 
cases of alternating consciousness of which mor- 
bid pathology treats. We might almost as seri- 
ously treat the healthy man as responsible for his 
delirious ravings in fever, as treat one of these 
hysteric patients as responsible for what he thinks 
and does under hysterical conditions. Grant, if 
there be evidence for it, that the abnormal ac- 
tivity of the right hemisphere of the brain im- 
plies the activity of the lower nature. If that 
activity be caused by disease alone, the patient is 
not responsible ; but we all know that the activity 
of the lower nature may be caused, not by disease 
alone, but by either the application of a stimulus 
which we know we could withhold, or the neglect 
of a self-restraint which we know we could ex- 
ercise. The attempt to draw inferences as to our 
normal and healthy state from the consideration 
of abnormal and unhealthy states, is a radically 
misleading one. All double or multiple identities 
are signs of disease. And, of all mistakes in 
psychology, perhaps the worst is that which takes 
its standard of health from the study of disease, ~ 
instead of taking the cue for the healing of — 
disease from the study of health. One essential 
note of mental health is a strong personal identity. 
A certain sign of disease is that hysterical multi- 
plicity of states which presents its most typical 


Apri 30, 1886.] 


forms either in the rapidly changing phantas- 
magoria of delirium, or in the multiple vision of 
an over-stimulated brain. Exactly that which is 
chiefly conspicuous by its absence or its attenua- 
tion in all forms of hysteric disease, is personal 
identity, of which some of the pillars of the 
‘Society for psychical research’ mistakenly hope 
to find the secret by studying the cases of those 
who pass their lives in disordered dreams. 


SOME REMARKABLE GEMS.’ 
A FEW remarkable gems have been recently 
purchased by private buyers in the United States. 
One of these is a chrysoberyl cat’s-eye weighing 


802 carats. Its dimensions are 23 mm. long, 23 
mm. wide, and 17 mm. thick. The color, 
which is very even, is a superb brownish 
golden yellow, and the line is as even and 
distinct as is possible in a gem of such size. 
The cat’s-eye hitherto awarded the palm is 
part of the ‘ Hope collection’ included in the 
Townshend bequest to the South Kensing- 
ton museum (fig. 2). This famous gem 


Fig. 2. 


measures 35.5 by 35 mm. in its true dimensions 
(the Hope catalogue gives the length as two 
inches, but this is only the case when measured 
over the dome). It formed part of the crown 
jewels taken from the King of Kandy in 1815. The 
crystalline markings are so arranged that the lower 
half shows an altar surmounted by a torch. The 
line is not straight, but inclined about 15 degrees. 
The color is dark, and the line is not so strongly 
marked as it should be in a fine gem. 


1 From the Transactions of the New York academy of 
sciences, vol, v. No. 6. 


SCIENCE. 


399 


Two of the largest known Ceylonese Alexan- 
drites are to be noted. One of these weighs 
28 23-32 carats, and its dimensions are 32 mm. by 
16mm. by 9mm. _ In daylight its fine rich green 
color is tinged with red, but by gaslight it is a rich 
columbine-red, and scarcely to be distinguished 
from a Siamese purplish-red spinel. The other 
stone is the largest on record (fig. 3). It weighs 


Fig. 3. 


632 carats, and measures 33 mm. by 32 mm. by 
15mm. It has a yellow grass-green color by day- 
light, but changes to a raspberry-red by artificial 
light. 

The finest cut beryl (aquamarine) ever found in 
the United States is from Stoneham, Me. (fig. 4). 


Fia@. 4. 


It measures 35 mm. by 35 mm. by 20mm. It is 
a magnificent brilliant-cut, and weighs 133% carats. 
The color is a rich bluish-green, and, with the ex- 
ception of a few minute hair-like internal stria- 
tions, is perfect. 

A ruby cut en cabochon is exhibited from Frank- 
lin, Macon county, N.C., showing somewhat the 
asteria effect. Itis of good normal color, and quite 
free from flaws. Its dimensions are 5.5 mm. by 
4 mm., and its weight 1 1-16 carats. 

GEORGE F. KUNZ. 


RACE AND LANGUAGE. 


THAT the character of a peopie, like that of 
individuals, is indicated by their speech, is a com- 
mon observation. We all understand that the 
French, the German, and the Italian languages 
have a certain consonance with the mental traits 
of the nations that speak those tongues ; and this 
fact may reasonably lead to certain inquiries. 


400 


Why is it natural to Frenchmen, Germans, and 
Italians, to Malays. Mongols, Arabs, Azteks, and 
Zulus, to talk in a certain way? What is the 
origin of those traits of character which develop 
themselves in these different modes of speech? 
And what are the laws which govern this develop- 
ment? Speech, like every thing else, is subject to 
laws: and as zodlogists know, from the fossil 
skeleton of some mammal of the tertiary era, the 
kind of life which the creature led, and the food 
that it ate, so a philologist ought to be able to 
judge, from the vocabulary and grammar of an 
extinct language, what sort of people were those 
who spoke it. 

The question is one of great interest to anthro- 
pologists as well as to philologists; yet it seems 
to have attracted, until now, comparatively little 
attention. An English—or, rather, if we must 
make the ‘home-rule’ distinction which he would 
perhaps disdain, an Irish —scholar has just given 
to the world an elaborate work, in which he has 
endeavored, with much philosophical acumen and 
a careful analysis of many languages, to solve this 
important problem, and to establish the principles 
which govern the formation of languages.’ The 
epithet ‘ epoch-making’ has been somewhat freely 
applied of late years; but it is not too much to 
say that the work to which the learned dean of 
Clonfert has evidently devoted many years of 
assiduous study and much profound thought will 
make a new departure in ethnological science, so 
far as this depends on language. So much may 
be affirmed, without adopting in all cases the views 
which are set forth in his work. 

Mr. Byrne finds the most important quality 
which influences the structure of a language to be 
the greater or less degree of mental excitability in 
the people who speak it. His arguments on this 
point are ingenious and forcible, and his main 
example is a striking one. According to the 
greater or less persistency with which the thought 
of the speaker dwells on his subject will be the 
tendency to compactness or looseness in the frame- 
work of his speech. The aborigines of Africa and 
those of America offer a notable contrast in this 
respect, and the contrast is faithfully reproduced 
in their language. The slow, cautious, considerate 
Indian temperament is shown in the polysynthetic 
—or, as Mr. Byrne prefers to style it, the ‘ mega- 
synthetic ’— character of the Indian languages, 
tending to combine many circumstances and 
qualifications in a single long and many-jointed 
word. On the other hand, however, the African 
quickness of thought, and lightness of mood, are 

1 General principles of the structure of language. By 


JAMES ByrNe&, M.A., dean of Clonfert. In2 vols. London, 
Triibner, 1885. 8°, 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. VII, No. 169 


displayed in the brief fragmentary words, and 
loose, disjointed phrases, which compose the ordi- 
nary speech of the tribes of that continent. Many 
examples are given in illustration of these opposite 
characteristics, both of mind and of speech, and 
the author may be fairly said to have proved his 
thesis. 

He is not content with establishing the fact of 
this difference of character, and tracing to it the 
difference in the style of language. His next 
inquiry relates to the causes in which this differ- 
ence of character originates. These causes he has 
no difficulty in finding in the different influences 
to which the inhabitants of the two continents are 
exposed. America lies, for the most part, in the 
temperate zones; and the portions which are 
within the tropics are either elevated into rugged 
tablelands, or covered, as in Brazil, with dense 
forests. The life of the people is almost every- 
where one of hardship and anxiety, — the life of 
hunters, fishermen, and agriculturists, — requiring 
constant toil and watchfulness. In Africa, mainly 
a tropical country, the bountiful soil and genial 
climate make subsistence easy, and tend to pro- 
duce in the people an impulsive and thoughtless 
character. 

The author seeks to trace the operation of these 
and similar influences in the formation of the best- 
known languages in all parts of the globe. He 
submits each idiom to a minute scrutiny, and en- 
deavors to point out the part which the habits of 
the speakers, and the natural influences that sur- 
round them, have had in producing their peculiari- 
ties of speech. If in any instances he has been 
unsuccessful, it is apparently because he has not 
sufficiently adhered to his own method, and has 
failed to take into account all the qualities of the 
human mind which would affect the language. 
An instance of this failure may perhaps be found 
in his attempt to account for the fact that in some 
languages the adjective precedes, and in others fol- 
lows, its substantive. This difference in arrange- 
ment proceeds, he thinks, from the more or less 
careful attention which the communities who 
speak the languages are accustomed to give to the 
nature of substantive objects. But what reason 
is there for thinking that the Algonkin Indians, 
in whose speech the adjective precedes the sub- 
stantive, pay more attention to the nature of 
things than the Iroquois, who place the adjec- 
tive last, but are nevertheless, to all appearances, 
the more careful and industrious race? Can it be 
said that the artistic Italians, in whose language 
the adjective usually follows the noun, think less 
of the nature and qualities of things than do the 
Magyars, who place the adjective first? The true 
solution of this question seems to be found in the 


: 


_ rope. 


Arrit 30, 1886. ] 


influence of a powerful faculty which the author 
has omitted, in this and other cases, to take suffi- 
ciently into account, — the faculty of imagination. 
The English language teaches us a lesson on this 
special point. In ordinary speech the adjective 
precedes its substantive; but the moment the 
language rises into poetry, the order tends to be 
reversed; and the higher the imagination, the 
stronger this tendency appears. 
Thus we have in Byron — 


** Adieu, adieu! My native shore 
Fades o’er the waters blue.”’ 


And in Scott — 
‘* Announced hy prophet sooth and old, 
Doomed doubtless for achievement bold.” 
And still more strikingly in Milton’s picturesque 
epithets — 
‘* Meadows trim, and daisies pied, 
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide.” 

We can understand how a vivid fancy may 
bring the object itself first before the mental 
vision, and that a momentary delay may be 
needed to discriminate and express its most strik- 
ing qualities. There is no question, also, that the 
Troquois, like the Italians, are a highly imagina- 
tive people, much given, as the reports of their 
councils show, to poetical improvisations. And 
finally, if we are to inquire to what influences 
both Italians and lroquois owe their imaginative 
powers, we may perhaps find them in what Buckle 
would have called the ‘aspects of nature,’ — the 
mountains, rivers, forests, and seas which sur- 
round them. 

Mr. Byrne is of opinion that the ‘inflected’ 
idioms — a class which he restricts to the Indo- 
Kuropean and Semitic tongues — indicate the 
highest grade of intellect in their speakers. Our 
pride of race would lead us blushingly to accept 
this compliment, until we find that we must share 
it with various barbarous septs, whom this pride 
of race would look down upon. Mr. Byrne, like 
other European scholars, — who cannot be alto- 
gether acquitted of race-prejudice in this respect,— 
has overlooked the fact that among the aboriginal 
tribes of America are several whose languages are 
as clearly inflective as the Greek or Arabic. Thus 
in Zeisberger’s ‘Delaware grammar’ we find, as 
derivatives of luen (‘to say’), n’dellan (‘I say to 
thee’), lellane (‘if I say to thee’), lake (‘if I say to 
him’), and, in the imperative, ill (‘say thou’), luel 
(‘say on’), lil (‘say to me’), Jo (‘say to him’), and 
the like. Pages might be filled with such ex- 
amples of simple inflection, which, while they 
show clearly enough the polysynthetic cast of the 
language, have no more trace of the agglutinative 
cast than is to be found in any language of Eu- 
Duponceau, who translated this grammar 


SCIENCH. 


AO] 


sixty years ago, remarked, in reference to the 
views which had been expressed on the subject by 
Baron William von Humboldt, ‘‘ The learned baron 
will, I hope, recognize in the conjugations of the 
Delaware verbs those inflected forms which he 
justly admires; and he will find that the process 
which he is pleased to call ‘ agglutination’ is not 
the only one which our Indians employ in the 
combination of their ideas and the formation of 
their words.” The Delaware is not alone. On the 
other side of the continent, in the languages of 
Oregon, pure inflections abound. Thus the Sahap- 
tin, as is shown in the excellent grammar of the 
Rev. A. B. Smith, has the substantive verb, hiwash 
(‘to be’), — used, it may be remarked, exactly like 
our own substantive verb, — which in the ‘remote 
past’ tense makes waka (a as in ‘ father’), ‘I was,’ 
and in the ‘ recent past,’ wiéka (é as in ‘ wall’), ‘I 
have just been ;’ the only difference being in the 
change of the vowel-sound, precisely as in a 
Semitic conjugation. 

What, then, shall we say? Shall we refuse to 
accept inflections as a proof of mental power? Or 
shall we more generously — and perhaps more 
scientifically — admit that they prove the barba- 
rous speakers of these inflected American tongues 
to be equal in natural capacity to our own barba- 
rous ancestors, the gifted inventors of the Aryan 
speech ? 

In spite, however, of such minor oversights, Mr. 
Byrne’s work must be pronounced one of the most 
important and valuable among recent contribu- 
tions to linguistic and ethnological science. The 
correctness of its main principles cannot reason- 
ably be questioned ; and the amount of informa- 
tion which the author has brought together and 
happily condensed, respecting a vast variety of 
languages spoken in every quarter of the globe, 
will make his treatise a treasury of reference for 
philologists. H. HALE. 


THEORETICAL OPTICS. 


THE wave theory of light was so firmly estab- 
lished by the labors of Fresnel from 1815 to 1827, 
that but few leaders in physical science continued 
to defend the Newtonian theory after that time. 
The only logical objection to the undulatory the- 
ory was its supposed incapacity to explain the 
phenomenon of dispersion, although Fresnel had, 
with an acuteness almost peculiar to himself, 
suggested, as early as 1822, that this might find 
its explanation in the fact that the molecules of 
a transparent substance are not separated by 

Theoretische optik gegriindet auf das Bessel-Sellmeier’- 


sche princip. Zugleich mit den experimentellen’ belegen. 
Von Dr. E, KetTeLeR Braunschweig, Vieweg, 1885. 8°. 


402 


intervals indefinitely small compared to a wave- 
length of light. This suggestion was worked out 
by Cauchy between 1830 and 1835, and for a long 
time was supposed to complete the undulatory 
theory of light. But during the last few years 
the theory has undergone a very active critical 
revision by physicists, prompted by two capital 
discoveries ; namely, the extraordinary relations 
between the electrical and optical properties of 
bodies, and the anomalous dispersion of light. 
Students of physics are well aware that these two 
discoveries are prompting rapid developments in 
two distinct lines, — the electro-magnetic and the 
molecular theories of light. 

This book by Dr. Ketteler is a very important 
contribution to the subject from the stand-point 
of molecular dynamics, the problems proposed 
and solved being much the same as those treated 
by Sir William Thomson in his lectures at Balti- 
more in 1884, Starting with Sellmeier’s paper of 
1872, on anomalous dispersion (which establishes 
certain differential equations closely allied to Bes- 
sel’s differential equation of the motion of a 
pendulum in air), the author passes in review the 
theories of Helmholtz, Meyer, and Lommel, and 
then develops his own, which differs from the 
others in its assumptions as to the nature of the 
reaction of the molecules of matter upon the 
ether. It is well known that the essential fea- 
ture of these theories is that the molecules of 
gross matter have, in general, definite periods 
of vibration comparable to the periods of light 
waves, and also (since Sellmeier) that they are 
subject to a ‘damping’ effect. As in this treat- 
ment the absorption of the medium becomes of 
equal physical importance with its refractive 
power, Ketteler proposes to define as the law of 
dispersion the equation containing complex va- 
riables, expressing both the curve of refraction 
and the curve of absorption. 

With this basis, the author derives a law of 
refraction for transparent bodies and those having 
a single symmetrical absorption band, which con- 
tains only four constants, and which satisfies 
observations remarkably well. Even for the flint 
glass for which Langley has given indices cor- 
responding to wave-lengths from 2.36 to 0.34 (i.e., 
for relative wave-lengths varying from one to 
seven), the formula seems to be wholly ade- 
quate. This must certainly be regarded as a 
remarkable feat; but, as the author concludes 
(p. 445) that he has accounted for all the phe- 
nomena of light except phosphorescence and fluo- 
rescence, this alone does not establish the claim of 
the book to unqualified praise. It is true that 
his treatment leads to the accepted solutions of 
Fresnel for the phenomena of reflection, refrac- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 169 


tion, and double refraction ; but whether the pro- 
cesses are strictly legitimate may perhaps rest 
under some suspicion, in view of the fact that no 
one, before him at least, has succeeded in estab- 
lishing a satisfactory theory for all of these phe- 
nomena on the basis of molecular dynamics. 
Even Sir William Thomson, in the Baltimore 
lectures, who approaches the problems from a 
stand-point not unlike that of Ketteler, except 
that he dispenses with terms involving viscosity 
as unphilosophical, emphasizes the statement that 
double refraction does not yield to the method. 

It is a curiosity worth noting, that the author’s 
theory explains the enormous dispersion of bi- 
sulphide of carbon, not by the great ‘ dispersive 
power’ as defined by the second constant in 
Cauchy’s equation, but by the exceptionally great 
wave-length of its absorption band, which is cal- 
culated as equal to 0.220. 

The discussion of the electro-magnetic theory of 
light is suggestive, and, did it not demand too 
much space, some of it might well be quoted. 
This closes the first part of the book. The second 
part, of about two hundred pages, is devoted to 
the discussion of the author’s experiments to test 
his theories : they, of course, largely relate to the 
phenomena of anomalous dispersion. 


THE ROTIFERA. 


WE have the pleasure of reviewing a very ex- 
cellent work, which will be as welcome to the 
amateur and microscopist as serviceable to the 
professional zodlogist ; for, to judge by the two 
parts already issued, the monograph of the Rotif- 
era, by Mr. Hudson and Mr. Gosse, will be ex- 
cellent throughout. The work is to be in two 
volumes of three parts each, with over thirty 
double plates, of which nearly all are to be colored. 
Its aim is to monograph the known species of the 
class, giving an improved classification, and in- 
cluding such anatomical observations as can be 
made upon the living specimens. 

In accordance with this aim, the first chapter is 
an outline of the anatomy of the group Brachi- 
onus rubens, serving as type of the class; the 
descriptions, which are clear, being helped out 
by a plate of fairly good anatomical figures. The 
chapter is satisfactory, except that Mr. Aiudson 
has indulged in the freak of describing the ex- 
cretory apparatus, or, as it is often called in view 
of its homologies, the segmental organs, under 
the head of ‘vascular system.’ This is the same 
surprise to us that it would be to find the kidney 


By C. T. Hup- 


The Rotifera ; or, Wheel animaleules. 
Lon- 


SON, assisted by P. H. Gosss, F.R.S. Parts i. and il. 
don, Longmans, 1885. 8°. 


Apri 30, 1886.] 


described under circulatory organs. Perhaps the 
author meant only that the excretory organ con- 
sists of branching tubes or vessels, and is vascular, 
according to the etymological, though not to the 
technical, meaning of the word. Odd, too, is his 
designation of the ciliated funnels as ‘ vibratile 
tags.’ 

Chapter ii. gives a succinct, well-prepared and 
instructive history of the literature of the subject. 
Chapter iii. discusses the classification, and, after 
reviewing the previous systems, advocates a new 
one, which is more convenient than its predeces- 
sors, but, like them, artificial and arbitrary. The 
new system may stand for the present, but only 
as a convenient makeshift, pending the establish- 
ment of the permanent and natural classification 
upon a true morphological basis. Chapter iv. is 
devoted to sketchy notes on the haunts and 
habits. It concludes the first part. 

The second part is entirely concerned with the 
monograph proper, and deals with the Flos- 
culariadae and Melicertidae. The British species 
are figured and described with considerable detail, 
and several new ones are added. Concerning 
most of them numerous and valuable observations 
on the anatomy are also recorded, both in word 
and picture ; for the authors have embodied re- 
sults from their own original investigations so 
largely as to give their work importance as a con- 
tribution to zodlogical knowledge. The foreign 
species are also described, and in most cases 
figures of them are reproduced. It results that 
an urgent need is well met, for it is about quarter 
of a century since the last general revision of the 
rotifers was published in Pritchard’s ‘ Infusoria.’ 

The plates have the figures on quite a large 
scale, and are partly colored. The drawings 
represent characteristic appearances, and are in- 
structive. The lithographer has done his work 
quite, though hardly very, well. The printing of 
the text is good, and several fonts are so employed 
as to essentially facilitate the consultation of the 
pages. 

To still further characterize the work, it must 
be added that the style is simple, direct, and of 
a distinctively literary quality. It is pleasant to 
reflect that most English scientific writers avoid 
both the pompous prolixity of the French and the 
uncouth cumbrousness of the Germans. 

The morphologist will miss much from Hudson 
and Gosse’s treatise, for it is essentially descriptive 
even when jt touches upon anatomical matters. 
We have found no indication that the authors 
have considered the affinities of rotifers, nor the 
remarkable demonstration by Hatschek of the fact 
that they are the living representatives of the 
ancestral form common to worms, mollusks, and 


SCIENCE. 


403 


bryozoans, — the ancestral form which is still 
preserved to us in veligers, Lovén’s larvae, etc. 
There can be little question that nearly all bilateral 
animals, except the Echinodermata, are derived 
from rotifer-like ancestors. It is this conclusion 
which renders the investigation of the wheel 
animalcules so important at present, and which 
causes regret that Mr. Hudson does not apparently 
include the morphological significance of the class 
within his range of study. C. S. MINOT. 


PROPER NAMES. 


THE subject of proper names, on which we 
have an extended scientific literature, has so far 
not had the good fortune to fall into the hands of 
a writer possessed of both philological training 
and the talent for making his subject popular. 
The author of the present work disclaims all pre- 
tensions to have produced a philological treatise : 
indeed, the specialist would very soon remark, 
that, for such a task, Dr. Kleinpaul is hardly well 
enough versed in the principles of the modern 
school of philologians, if he makes such observa- 
tions as this one: ‘‘ Es fragt sich nur ob sosor ein 
t eingebisst oder schwester ein t eingeschoben 
hat” (p. 51). Sosor (later soror) cannot have lost 
a t, because st is about the most persistent com- 
bination of consonants to be found anywhere, and 
the ¢ is never lost in Latin. 

Leaving out of the account a number of 
‘philological’ excursions of this character, which 
the author might have very well dispensed with, 
as they have little or no bearing upon the subject, 
we must admit that Dr. Kleinpaul has produced 
an extremely readable book, based in its details, 
in the main, upon the latest and best authorities 
on etymology, with the exception of a few words 
where the author adheres to antiquated deriva- 
tions (cf. daughter) ; while the general treatment 
and classification of the subject-matter are de- 
cidedly interesting and original. The book is not, 
like some others of similar pretensions, merely a 
dictionary of curious names, like the puritan 
What-ever-may-contrive - those - which-are-to-you- 
contrarious-praise-God Pimpleton, or the aristo- 
cratic Von-der-Decken - vom - Himmelreich - zum- 
Kuhstall, although such are also treated of in 
their proper places; but it is an attempt at a 
logical, not a philological, classification of proper 
names according to their origin ; and while, of 
course, the list of names must necessarily be in- 
complete, it seems that the author has overlooked 
no important source from which names for in- 

Menschen- und vilkernamen,. Etymologische streifziige 


auf dem gebiete der eigennamen. Von RUDOLF KLEINPAUL. 
Leipzig, Reissner, 1885. 8°. 


A04 


dividuals, families, or peoples, are drawn, — from 
favorite national dishes, like Jack Pudding for an 
Englishman, and Kiisekriimer for a Swiss, to the 
cardinal virtues, like the Puritan Faith and 
Charity ; from bodily peculiarities. like Oedipus 
(‘swollen foot’) and Colfax (‘ black hair’), to of- 
fices and dignities, like Schulze and Richter; 
from calendar-terms, like Augustus and Robinson 
Crusoe’s Friday, to meteorological conditions, like 
Storm and Schneidewind ; from trades and occu- 
pations, like Smith and Taylor, to articles of dress, 
like Caligula and Quijote; from oaths, like 
Jasomirgott (ja, so mir Gott sc. helfe), to kind 
parental wishes, like Furchtegott and Bleibtreu. 

These principles of forming proper names 
are Classified and grouped in logical sequence, and 
they are considered in their proper relations to the 
growth of human society. We wish to take issue 
with the author upon the principle laid down in the 
introduction ; viz., that the first source of proper 
names is to be found in the limitation of general 
terms. Thus a primitive tribe, separated from 
other people, would call the only river in the 
vicinity of their domicile ‘the river,’ but, on be- 
coming acquainted with other rivers, would ap- 
ply distinguishing epithets to their particular 
river, calling it, for example, the Red River, thus 
forming a proper name. There seems a certain 
lack of logic in this reasoning, because, as long 
as a people know only one river, the term ‘the 
river’ is really a proper name, and it only ceases to 
be one when the people begin to apply the same 
word to all objects of the same kind. Thus it 
would be more correct to say that proper names 
are the starting-point ; that they afterwards be- 
come generic terms by being applied to other 
objects of the same kind; and that, as necessity 
arises, new proper names are formed from them 
by the addition of distinguishing epithets. 

The strength of the book lies in the fact that 
not only odd and rare names are taken into the 
account, on the origin of which we necessarily 
reflect when we meet them, but the origin of the 
most common every-day names has received a 
philosophical treatment. This strength of the 
book is also its weakness. The author, forgetting 
that he was not to give us a dictionary, has not 
always confined himself to mentioning a few 
characteristic examples, but has given us, in 
many cases, all the instances that have come 
under his observation, thereby increasing the bulk 
of his work without making it sufficiently com- 
plete to be used as a work of reference. The 
various tables, especially those at the end of the 
work, which show to what extent certain prin- 
ciples of creating proper names prevail among 
different nations, are unique and interesting. The 


SCIENCE. 


|Vou. VIL, No. 169 


idea deserves to be carried out more fuily ina 
future edition. 

The book will recommend itself to English 
readers by the clearness and unaffected simplicity 
of its style, which contrasts very favorably with 
the style of many German works on related sub- 
jects. 


KING OF THE BELGIANS’ PRIZE. 


A PRIZE of 25,000 francs, or $5,000, is offered 
every year by Leopold II., the king of the Bel- 
gians, we learn from the Journal of the Society 
of arts, for the best essay on some predetermined 
subject tending to advance the well-being of man- 
kind. The competition is alternately restricted to 
Belgians, and thrown open to the world, being 
settled by an international jury. The subject of 
this year’s competition, open to the whole world, 
was ‘ The best means of improving sandy coasts ;’ 
and the prize has been awarded by an inter- 
national jury, including some of the most eminent 
English and French engineers, to M. De Mey, en- 


-gineer of ponts et chaussées, Bruges, against fifty- 


nine competitors. This is only the second time 
that the international prize has been awarded ; 
that in 1880, the year that the prize was instituted, 
having been adjudged to M. A. Wauters, archivist 
to the Brussels municipality, for his ‘ History of 
the origin of communal franchise in Belgium.’ The 
subject for the essay at the next international com- 
petition is ‘ The progress of electricity applied to mo- 
tive power and illumination, its applications and eco- 
nomical advantages.’ The essays for competition, 
which must be written in French, or translated 
into that language, are to be sent before the 1st of 
January, 1889, to the minister of agriculture, in- 
dustry, and public works, from whom the condi- 
tions of the competition may be obtained. 


THE Haager society for the defence of the 
Christian religion has offered a prize of 400 Hol- 
land gulden—or medals, if preferred—for the 
best treatment of the two following subjects: 1°. 
A history of the application of historical criticism 
to biblical study, in order to establish a position 
which shall, if possible, avoid both dogmatism 
and scepticism; 2°. A biblical apologetic, or a 


comparison and estimate of the manner in which — 


religion is unfolded and defended in the various 
books of the Bible. The competing essays must 
be signed with a motto, and forwarded, together 
with a sealed envelope indorsed with the motto 
and giving the name of the author, to Prof. A. 
Kusnen at Leyden before the 14th of December, 
1886. The essays may be written in Latin, Ger- 
man (with Latin letters), French, or Dutch. 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THE STATEMENTS of the report and conclusions 
of Mr. Allison’s commission, which have appeared 
in the public prints, and were partially reproduced 
in our last number, we learn, on good authority, 
to be premature in several respects. The fact is, 
that the commission has not finally formulated 
either a bill or a report, and may not do so fora 
week or more. What it has done is to vote on 
certain general conclusions ; to direct its members 
to draw up reports expressing the views of the 
commission, or those of the individual members, 
on points in which they were a minority ; to au- 
thorize the members to introduce bills expressing 
their individual views ; and to remove the seal of 
secrecy from the proceedings. In reaching gen- 
eral conclusions, the commission, by a vote of 
four to two, decided to make no change in the 
coast survey, and.it is not even believed that any 
legislation defining its work will be formally 
recommended. The members are unanimously of 
opinion that the policy of the signal office should 
be moulded with a view of erecting it, at no dis- 
tant day, into a civil bureau, but on the question 
of making the change immediately they are equal- 
ly divided. They are opposed to the school of in- 
struction at Fort Myer, as now conducted, and, it 
is said, to what is known as the study-room in 
Washington. In the matter of the geological 
survey, they are of opinion that its operations 
should be restricted by law in the direction in- 
dicated by Mr. Herbert’s bill, mentioned in our 
last number, but are not yet agreed upon all 
details. 


All parties will agree that this is a very lame 
conclusion of two years of such careful investi- 
gation as has been bestowed upon this subject by 
the commission. The only parties that can be 
pleased are those who, knowing how broad and 
easy is the road to bad legislation, and how nar- 
row the path to that which is good, will be grate- 
ful that more harm has not been done. The most 
curious feature of the conclusion is, that the com- 
plaints which gave rise to the investigation appear 

No. 170.— 1886, 


to have been only lost sight of; and the only or- 
ganization which comes in for serious condemna- 
tion is one against the integrity of which no 
charge has ever been made, except to be refuted. 
It is now conceded by all disinterested parties, 
including the members of the commission, that 
the geological survey has been conducted with 
the highest ability and integrity, and in accord- 
ance with the laws making the appropriations for 
its support. The ground of complaint is, that it 
has undertaken too wide a range of geological 
and allied investigation, not pertaining to its 
proper functions; that it has secured political 
support by employing a large body of scientific 
men scattered over the country in these investi- 
gations, and has put the government to great ex- 
pense in printing the results of such work. Pa- 
leontological research seems to have come in for 
the largest share of condemnation ; mainly, we 
suppose, on the authority of Professor Agassiz, 
who claims that such research is not a proper 
function of public geological survey. 


On the merits of so broad a question as this, 
including innumerable details within its scope, 
it would be unwise to pass a summary judgment. 
The views expressed in Mr. Herbert’s report form, 
however, a legitimate subject of examination. If 
correctly reported in the public prints, they are 
not characterized by judicial impartiality and 
fairness of statement. For example: he gives 
what professes to be an exhibit of the cost of the 
geological surveys in nearly a dozen different 
countries, so widely separated as Canada, Japan, 
and Victoria, without any statement of the con- 
siderations which determine their selection, and 
finds that the aggregated cost does not exceed 
that of our own geological survey. But he gives 
no definition of the objects and limitations of 
these various surveys with a view of determining 
to what extent they are identical with our own. 
We believe, that, as a matter of fact, the geologi- 
cal survey of England has been completed for 
some time, and that the work now done, on the 
small cost of which Mr. Herbert lays stress, is not 
properly a survey at all. An advocate of the 
other side might with equal fairness have taken 
the cost of all the surveys now in progress in 


406 


England, and shown that that country alone ap- 
propriates twice as much for its surveys as we do. 
Again, a list is given of some seventy persons 
having other employments ; most of them being 
college professors, who have been employed by 
the geological survey. The report fails to state 
that this list is in no way a list of employees, 
but a complete list of persons who at some past 
time have received one or more payments from 
the survey, for some special service rendered, 
without being in any way permanently connected 
with it or salaried by it. It is clear that a final 
conclusion cannot be drawn from statements like 
this until the other side is heard. 


IN THE JANUARY NUMBER of the Nineteenth 
century, Mr. Frederic Harrison published an 
article on the practice, now so common, of spell- 
ing foreign and ancient names as they are spelled 
in the original tongues, even in cases where an 
anglicized form of the name has been long in use. 
He spoke particularly of the re-writing of familiar 
Greek names in conformity with the original 
spelling, and also of the names of persons and 
places in the earliest history of England. This 
practice he characterizes as ‘a pedantic nuisance,’ 
and makes some very good points against it. He 
remarks that ‘‘‘ Alfred,’ ‘Edward,’ and ‘ Edgar’ 
are names which for a thousand years have filled 
English homes and English poetry and prose. To 
re-write these names is to break the tradition of 
history and literature at once ;” and he speaks in 
the same way of the re-writing of familiar 
Greek names. He also asks where the practice is 
going to stop, and thinks ‘‘ we shall soon be in- 
vited to call ‘ Moses,’ ‘Mosheh,’ as his contempo- 
raries did ; ‘Judah’ should be written Yehida ;’ 
‘ Jacob’ will be ‘ Ya‘aq6b;’ and ‘Jesus’ will be 
‘Jehoshua.’ In short, Mr. Harrison condemns 
the practice in unqualified terms, on the ground 
that it violates the established usage of English 
literature without conferring any compensatory 
benefits. 

To this article of Mr. Harrison’s, Mr. E. A. Free- 
man has replied in the April number of the 
Contemporary review. Mr. Harrison had spoken 
of Mr. Freeman as one of the worst offenders in 
the matter in question, and the historian’s reply 
is little else than a personal vindication of him- 
self. Viewed in this light, his article is more or 
less successful, and he convicts his opponent of 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 170 


some mistakes and inaccuracies. But, as a de- 
fence of the practice that Mr. Harrison condemns, 
we are obliged to say that Mr. Freeman’s reply is. 
unsatisfactory. Indeed, he doesn’t argue the 
main question at all, but treats the matter as little 
more than a personal affair between himself and 
Mr. Harrison. This is disappointing; for the 
question involved is one that greatly needs a final 
settlement, and such a settlement can only be 
reached on some ground of principle. The ques- 
tion is, whether we are to write all foreign names 
as they are written in the original languages ; and, 
if not, then what ones we are to write in that 
way, and what ones are to be anglicized. Mr. 
Harrison shows that the writers he criticises are 
not at all consistent with themselves; and Mr. 
Freeman virtually admits that his own practice is. 
not consistent, and that he doesn’t follow any 
general rule. He says that he writes ‘ Aelfred’ 
and ‘ Eadward’ because he finds these names so 
written in the ancient authorities ; but, neverthe- 
less, he writes ‘Rochester’ and ‘ Canterbury,’ 
although the old forms of these names are 
‘ Hrofesceaster’ and ‘ Cantwarabyrig.’ He says, 
too, that he writes ‘ Buonaparte,’ pronouncing the 
word in four syllables, for the reason that he 
learned to do so in his childhood, which strikes 
us as no reason at all. We hoped, when we took 
up Mr. Freeman’s article, to find him laying 
down some definite rule or principle which might 
serve as a guide to all writers in this perplexing 
matter ; and we are disappointed at finding that 
he does not even attempt to do so. 


STORIES OF THE OCCURRENCE OF PETRIFIED FLESH, 
or of frogs and toads enclosed in solid rock, and 
other fables of the same nature, frequently ap- 
pear in the daily and weekly papers. One not 
dissimilar, though vastly more absurd, of the 
finding of two living bats embedded in a solid 
lump of bituminous coal, from a coal-mine in 
Maryland, is now going the rounds, and will 
probably not rest till the press from Maine to 
California has given publication to it. There was 
said to have been no crevice admitting the en- 
trance of these wonderful bats, and that there was 
a clearly formed impression left by them. The 
inference, no, the only ‘conclusion,’ is, that these 
hoary chiropterans are living remnants of the 
coal-forming age. It was not long ago that just 
such a story was told of an ancient toad in an- 
other coal-mine, only this time the carboniferous 


=. 


OOOO lhl, le 


> << - - 
ie a 


May 7, 1886.] . 


batrachian had become, as was naturally expected, 
very much desiccated. It is very strange with 
what persistence such myths and fables retain 
their hold on popular credence. Men of high 
intelligence will aver their belief in petrified 
human bodies, and we have known a shrewd 
business-man to exhibit what he firmly believed 
was a large mass of fossil buffalo flesh, sinews, 
muscles, blood and all. What more natural thing 
could there be than the finding of a toad or bat, 
dead, hibernating or active, in the crevices of a 
coal-mine? and yet, doubtiess, to one wholly un- 
acquainted with geological and zodlogical prin- 
ciples, a carboniferous fossil fish or living bat 
seems equally inexplicable and wonderful. Such 
fanciful flights of imagination might pass unno- 
ticed, were they not so industriously circulated in 
the columns of even the highest class of metro- 
politan newspapers. 


THE COAST SURVEY AND THE NAVY. 


. THE latest argument for the transfer of the 
coast survey to the navy department is embodied 
in a paper by Lieutenant Dyer, U. S. N., recently 
published in the Proceedings of the U. S. naval 
institute. A very slight examination of this pro- 
duction shows that the author travels over an easy 
and well-trodden path instead of grappling with 
the real difficulties of the question. Nothing is 
easier than to demonstrate to the satisfaction of 
any writer who chooses to espouse the cause, that 
the coast survey ought to be turned over to the 
navy department. If nothing more were neces- 
sary than a ‘Be it enacted, etc., that the hydro- 
graphic work of the coast survey shall be trans- 
ferred to the navy department,” the problem 
would be a very simple one. It is to this simple 
form of it that all the arguments heretofore 
brought forward by the navy department have 
been directed. 

Fault can be found with every system of public 
administration ; and the thought, “‘How much 
better we could manage things if congress would 
put us in charge of them!” will be prevalent so 
long as human nature remains as it is. The real 
difficulties of the question begin when we attempt 
to decide just what work, what records, and 
what appliances shall be transferred to the navy 
department, and how the navy department shall 
utilize the appliances and carry on the work, 
One difficulty met with at the very start is found 
in that custom of the naval service which requires 


SCIENCE. 


407 


that almost every officer, certainly every young 
and energetic officer, shall change his duty at the 
end of every three years. Howsoever well a 
cadet at Annapolis may be trained in the theory 
of marine surveying, he cannot possibly acquire 
at the academy that experience in practical work 
of any kind which is necessary to its effective 
prosecution. His first year, perhaps his first two 
years, in the work of the survey, would be very 
largely taken up in learning how to do it, so that 
he would hardly have become an expert before 
he must leave to keep watch on board a ship of 
war. Of course, we refer here to the more diffi- 
cult and technical work of chart - construction, 
and not to such matters as running a line of 
soundings. It would therefore be a necessity of 
the service that a permanent corps of skilled 
map-makers should be organized, or that a part 
of the existing corps should be transferred. Even 
then it would be contrary to naval custom to 
allow these civilian assistants to hold any other 
than subordinate positions; and all branches of 
the direction, from the head of the office down, 
would be intrusted to men who were continually 
changing. 

This is a consideration which would have to be 
kept in view in deciding what work should be 
transferred. One important function of the sur- 
vey is the study of the effect of tidal and other 
action upon harbors. We all know that most of 
our harbors are in a continual state of change ; 
and the study of the causes of such changes can be 
effectively prosecuted only by experts who make 
it a considerable part of the business of their 
lives. Can the navy be relied upon to furnish 
such experts? Tidal observations at numerous 
points along the coast form an essential part of 
the work. Will they be effectively kept up under 
the continual changes of naval administration ? 
Can the records of the coast survey which pertain 
to hydrography be separated from the others and 
transferred to another department without any 
inconvenience? If not, can the navy department 
get along without them, and not waste labor in 
repeating work already done? Can a portion of 
the draughtsmen and engravers be transferred, or 
must new men be employed in their places ? 

We suggest these questions, not claiming that 
their solution presents insurmountable difficulties, 
but only as showing where discussions should be 
directed in order to be effective. Such general 
considerations as Secretary Chandler and the naval 
officers have presented on the subject may be very 


408 


effective in starting people to think about it, but 
can never suffice to show what policy should be 
adopted. To demonstrate what ought to be done 
is one thing; but to show how to do it is, as all 
practical men know, a very different and gener- 
ally a much more difficult thing. We hope, 
therefore, that if our naval friends, for whose 
professional ability Science entertains the highest 
respect, really desire the transfer, they will pre- 
sent such a detailed plan of proceeding from be- 
ginning to end, that every one shall be able to 
understand and criticise it. Until they do this, 
‘they must not expect to excite congress to action. 

We may add one general consideration. <A 

considerable number of naval officers are actually 
engaged in coast-survey work. Is not their work 
as effectively performed under the present sys- 
tem as it would be if the navy department had 
charge of it? What would the officers themselves, 
or the navy at large, gain by the transfer? We 
are aware that Secretary Chandler considered it 
a very great hardship that officers should be re- 
moved from the immediate control of the depart- 
ment to which they belong. But where does the 
real evil come in? These questions must be an- 
swered, and the public benefit to be gained by the 
change must be made clear, before the project can 
receive the really effective support of scientific 
men, The latter are not disposed to prejudge 
the question, but before supporting the measure 
they want to be satisfied of its practical advisa- 
bility ; and this can be done only by the advocates 
of the change fully considering such questions as 
those above suggested. 

COMPOSITE PORTRAITS OF AMERICAN 

INDIANS. 

On the plate accompanying this number is given, 
so far as known, the first presentation of com- 
posite portraits taken of North American Indians. 

No. i is of three full-blood Dakota or Sioux 
young women belonging to the band commonly 
known as the Brulé, and living at the Crow 
Creek agency, Dakota territory. Their ages 
range from nineteen to twenty-three years. Their 
average height is five feet six inches and a half; 
their average weight, a hundred and forty-one 
pounds. This composite is made from photographs 
taken on the same day and in rapid succession. 
On the same afternoon, composite No. 2 was taken 
from the same persons, each one sitting her 
allotted seconds before the camera. In No. 1 and 
No, 2 the order of the faces is identical, and care 
was exercised to try and procure similar results in 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VEL, No. 170 


the portrait; but, as will be observed, the com- 
posites are different. The controlling face in No. 
lis given in picture No. 3, which was the first 
photograph to be exposed in making up composite 
No. 1. The dominant face in No. 2 is given in 
picture No. 4. It belonged to the last sitter, and 
her photograph was the last one exposed in mak- 
ing composite No. 1. In two composites similarly 
made, of Omaha women, the one from sitters 
varies in alike manner from the one made up from 
photographs, only in a different order. In the 
one from life the broad face of the last sitter con- 
trols the composite, and in the other the long face 
of the first photograph influences the picture. 
This variation of composites made from the same 
faces—one taken from life, the other from 
photographs — is mentioned for what it may be 
worth. 

A composite of Omaha men, a cognate tribe, 
differs but little from a Dakota composite, except 
in the eyes. In the Omaha composite the eyes 
are larger and fuller. The height and breadth of 
head, the strong but not unduly heavy lower face, 
are noticeable in both Omahas and Dakotas. A 
composite of Omaha women does not differ in 
any marked manner from the Dakota portrait. In 
both the pictures of the women, there is to be ob- 
served a similar variation between the female and 
the male of the same tribe, notably in the shape of 
the head, and the greater prominence, proportion- 
ally, of the cheek-bones in the women’s faces. 

It is premature to judge of the value of com- 
posite portraits. They are certainly curious and 
interesting, and many points will occur to the 
observer of these Indian faces. Ina general way, 
they seem to confirm the results of a close study 
of the home-life and the various customs, includ- 
ing the most savage rites of war and religion, made 
by the writer among this family of Indian tribes, 
by showing them to be a people, intellectual rather 
than brutal, unawakened rather than degraded. 
The portraits indicate the stamp of tribal fixity, 
and reveal the unconsciousness within the indi- 
vidual of the analytical powers of mind by which 
man masters nature, —a peculiarity which is the 
key to much in Indian sociology and religion. 

The writer is indebted to Mr. Jenness Richard- 
son of Washington, D.C., for the making of the 
composites. ALICE C, FLETCHER, 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 


Siberian trade-routes. — The practical failure 
of the route by sea has stimulated the search for 
routes of inland communication between Russia 
and Siberia. The latest investigations are those be- 


May 7, 1886.] 


tween the Petchora and the Obi, under the auspices 
of Sibiriakoff and others, through the northern 
Urals. There are, it appears, several passes, the 
best probably that of Shokurinsk. This is ninety- 
eight miles long, and extends from Kurga on the 
Petchora, a town accessible by steamers, to the 
Sigva River, an affluent of the Sosva of the Obi 
basin. The pass is only 1,450 feet above the level 
of the sea, and 1,150 above the Sigva. A railway 
a hundred miles long will therefore connect these 
two great water systems, and avoid all the perils 
of arctic navigation in the Kara Sea and Gulf of 
Obi. Another pass, the Voikarski, is of about the 
same length, but rises two hundred feet higher. 

Partition of Patagonia. — Patagonia has disap- 
peared from political geography. The Panama 
Star and herald announces the result of the agree- 
ment, in regard to this region, by Chili and the 
Argentine Republic, who have absorbed it. To 
Chili has been assigned all the western slope of 
the Cordillera to the southern extreme of the 
continent, to the Strait of Magellan, and ali the 
islands off that coast. The eastern slope of the 
-range, and the vast pampas extending to the 
' Atlantic, are now the property of the Argentine 
Confederation. The Strait of Magellan is declared 
neutral, and free to all nations. The chief island 
of Tierra del Fuego is parted equally between the 
two nations, Chili'taking all the other islands, in- 
cluding that of Cape Horn. 

Miscellaneous. — It is announced that news has 
been received from Ghardaia, in the Sahara, of the 
assassination of Lieutenant Palat the explorer. 
He was murdered by his Mohammedan guides two 
days after leaving Insalah. It is alleged that his 
death was due to the Senousian fraternity, the 
fanatical association, whose members were the 
assassins of Colonel Flatter’s party in the same 
region, and are held responsible for the death of 
numerous other explorers. Baron Kaulbars, after 
nine years’ labor, has finished a new chart of 
South America. It is published by Iliin of St. 
Petersburg, in eight sheets, and on a scale of 
1 : 6,300,000. The author is now engaged on a 
chart of Africa, to have the same scale. It is 
said, that, after the fixing of the frontier line 
by the Russo-English commission, many of the 
Turkomans living on the fertile slopes of the 
Afghan mountains have moved to the Russian 
side of the line. As the country on this side is a 
desert, it is supposed that they cherish the idea that 
they will hereafter have an opportunity of raiding 
the Afghan settlements from Russian territory, — 
a course which would be likely, if not energeti- 
cally repressed by Russia, to raise anew many in- 
ternational complications. Lieutenants Ryder and 
Bloch of the Danish navy will devote this summer 


SCIENCE. 


409 


to hydrographic explorations in the district of 
Upernavik, Danish Greenland. 


PARIS LETTER. 

SINCE my last letter, a good deal of stir has 
been created in some circles by the death of three 
of the Russians sent to Pasteur, after having been 
bitten by a mad wolf. As is always the case, 
some persons cannot believe in methods that are 
liable to miss fire now and then: they think that 
medicine and physiology ought to be as precise 
and unvarying as mathematics; they cannot un- 
derstand that he who operates on living matter, 
operates on the most moving and varying of all 
grounds. No person of scientific training will 
wonder if Pasteur does not always meet with suc- 
cess : in fact, the experiment has only just begun, 
and we shall have to wait some time before a 
legitimate conclusion may be reached. Ido not 
suppose that the fiery attacks of Rochefort, the 
renowned — and sadly renowned — pamphleteer, 
on Pasteur’s experiments, are even able to attract 
the great experimenter’s attention. They are good 
enough to amuse a few, but that is all. 

However, aS many newspapers have seemed 
rather dismayed by the death of the three Rus- 
sians, and as some persons have seemed tc be 
shaken in their confidence, M. Pasteur has 
deemed it advisable, at the meeting of the Acade- 
my of sciences, on the 12th of April, to give his 
opinion on the question. In his last paper, then, 
he begins by recapitulating the whole number of 
persons attended to by himself. At present this 
number is 688, of which more than half have out- 
lived the more dangerous period,—that during 
which rabies is most likely to develop. Turning 
then to the question of the great danger of rabies 
communicated by wolves, he quotes many docu- 
ments referring to the same, showing that re- 
covery is very rarely met with. In Russia it is 
generally considered that persons bitten by rabid 
wolves have no chance of escaping their fate : and 
it must be noticed, as M. Pasteur remarks, that in 
such cases the duration of the period of incubation 
is remarkably short. But the fatal effects of the 
wolf’s bite is not due, according to Pasteur, to any 
increase of rabid virulence in the wolf. The virus 
is not, or at least does not seem to be, any stronger 
in the wolf than in the dog; but as the wolf usu- 
ally inflicts very severe bites, especially on the 
face and hands, the virus penetrates the body with 
much more ease. Such is, in Pasteur’s opinion, 
the reason of the seriousness of rabies communi- 
cated by wolves. This opinion has led him to 
alter somewhat his method in cases where rabies 
is of wolfish origin: he is to tell us some day how 
he has altered it, and with what success. 


410 


Professor Vulpian, the eminent physiologist, has 
been recently elected secrétaire perpétuel to the 
Academy of sciences, in the place of Jamin. The 
election was a close contest. M. Henri Milne- 
Edwards was the other competitor, and the mu- 
seum backed him solidly: but it was of no use: 
the son does not possess the influences the father 
exerted. It must be said also, that, from a general 
scientific point of view, Vulpian is far superior to 
his opponent as an original investigator and as 
a man of great culture. M. H. Milne-Edwards’s 
works are rather few, while those of Vulpian are 
numerous and widely known. Among his prin- 
cipal contributions, we shall recall the following : 
‘Lecons sur la physiologie du systéme nerveux ;’ 
‘ Lecons sur les vaso-moteurs ;’ ‘ Lecons sur les sub- 
stances toxiques et médicamenteuses ;’ ‘ Lecons sur 
les maladies de la moelle.” Vulpian is a very kind- 
hearted and most excellent man. He is much 
loved by all the students, and is a man of high 
character. His whole life has been devoted to 
science, and, although a physician, he has never 
sought to extend his practice. It must be remem- 
bered, however, that he has been called upon to 
give his medical advice concerning two illustrious 
patients, — Count of Chambord, and Victor Hugo. 
It is generally believed that M. Brown-Sequard — 
well known in America — will be elected a mem- 
ber of the academy in Vulpian’s seat, since it is 
the custom for the secrétaires perpétuels to resign 
from the section to which they were elected. 

At the meeting in which Vulpian was elected 
secretary, M. Bouchard, professor in the medical 
school, read an interesting paper on the toxicity 
of urine during sleep and during waking hours. 
At the close of day this liquid is rather inoffensive ; 
but, as sleep comes on, it grows more and more 
toxic: eight hours after waking, it is the most 
toxic possible. The symptoms of urine-poisoning 
are different with night and day urine. In the 
second case the symptoms are similar to those 
brought on by narcotics: in the first they resem- 
ble those provoked by convulsing poisons. Upon 
the whole, then, day urine tends to bring on 
sleep ; and night, to awaken the sleeper. Professor 
Bouchard’s paper is a very interesting one, and 
we have no doubt as to his obtaining very impor- 
tant results by continuing these experiments. 

At the Académie de médecine, M. Marc Sée, at 
a recent meeting, read an interesting paper on the 
surface of the pulmonary vesicles. It is known, 
that, according to Kiiss, this surface is some two 
hundred square metres. M. Sée does not think 
that it is so great, but he still believes that it is 
equal to 130 or 135 square metres; that is, about 
ninety times the skin-surface. As it is, this sur- 
face is something enormous. 


SCIENCE. 


(Vor. VIL, No. 170 


You may have heard some time ago of a very 
sad accident that happened in a mining-district 
near Perigueux, in the south of France. A sort 
of avalanche of rocks and earth buried a large 
number of workmen, and it was hoped for many 
days that they would be saved, because they might 
have taken refuge in caves in the hill when the 
avalanche occurred. In fact, it is certain that the 
unfortunate men were not — all, at least — killed by 
the accident. After every thing had been done to 
rescue them, and it was found impossible, owing 
to the immense quantity of materials to be bored 
through, a long hole was bored down directly to 
the caves, large enough to admit of the passing of 
provisions and tools. As nothing was heard, an 
effort was made to see what was going on within. 
An engineer and a photographer then devised a 
very ingenious plan. They sent down into the 
hole an electric lamp strong enough to illuminate 
the whole cave, and after that a photographic 
apparatus. The plate, after some time of expos- 
ure in the cave, came up, sure enough, perfectly 
impressed. But it revealed a ghastly scene. One 
of the bodies of the men — quite recognizable by the 
miners — was lying near the apparatus,and evident- 
ly had not long been dead. Near and around him 
pieces of other bodies were to be seen, and they 
were so disposed as to make it probable they had 
been torn from some corpse by the survivors. 
There is no reason, after the photographs, to suppose 
that these bodies were mangled by the accident, as 
they were quite d labri of the avalanche itself ; 
at least, if they had been so mangled, these frag- 
ments could not have come naturally, or have 
been brought to the place where they were, un- 
less by the survivors. This shocking tragedy has 
created a great excitement among the miners, who 
are convinced, that, if more haste had been made, 
some of the victims might have been saved. At 
all events, the idea of MM. Siemens and Langlois 
—the engineer and photographer — has proved a 
very ingenious one, and one that may be resorted 
to in similar cases. 

The Gheel colony is certainly well known on 
the other side of the Atlantic. It is a colony for 
lunatics, where the no-restraint system is the only 
one used. The insane, instead of being shut up 
in cells or asylums, are committed to the care of 
the inhabitants of the country with whom they 
live, as would sane persons, for a very modest 
payment. This system is a very old one, and 
Gheel is unique in the world; the inhabitants be- 
ing trained to keeping the insane, and living with 
them, for many centuries. However old, the 
system seems to be very good, at least for a large 
proportion of insane who do not require to be shut 
up, and to whom life in the open air seems to be 


- 


—_, ’ } > 
Ee eee 


S 
-? 
= 


: e 
_ —_ — 


May 7, 1886.] 


very beneficial. The Belgian government has de- 
cided to try and create a second Gheel, and has 
chosen Lierneux, wishing to have a Gheel where 
French is spoken, for the benefit of the part of 
Belgium where French is the only language un- 
derstood, as Gheel is in the Walloon part of that 
country, and is very inconvenient for French- 
speaking insane. This plan seems to meet with 
success, and Lierneux is already provided with a 
number of patients, and with a committee for in- 
spection and surveillance. We hope that Lier- 
neux will thrive as well as Gheel has and does. I 
visited Gheel two years ago, and convinced myself 
that the insane are under happier and in health- 
ier conditions than in asylums, and that if they 
are well looked after by the authorities, they are as 
well nursed and cared for. I may add, that, when 
a system has outlived some centuries, there must 
be some good in it. 

A Parisian physician, Dr. Sandras, created some 
time ago quite a sensation in the medical world 
by a paper on the possibility of modifying the 
human voice to an unprecedented extent by the 
_ use of different inhalations, bringing to the larynx 
’ air saturated with different vapors. His opinion 
is based exclusively on experimental tests, not at 
all on theoretical views. Dr. Sandras pretends to 
be able to change the nature, intensity, pitch, and 
extent of the voice in quite a surprising manner. 
For instance, after ten or twelve inspirations of 
alcoholic vapors, the voice becomes quite hoarse, 
and cannot give more than five or six different 
notes. Inhalations with Guyot’s eau de Goudron 
enfeeble the voice; on the contrary, eau de Botot 
strengthens the voice in a very marked manner ; 
and with some essences— Dr. Sandras does not 
say which—this strengthening is so very great 
that the voice acquires new notes, high as well as 
low. Other substances confer only low notes ; and 
others, only high ones. If the facts discovered by 
Dr. Sandras prove to be true for other persons 
than himself, this discovery will be very useful to 
Singers, preachers, lawyers, and all persons gen- 
erally that are obliged to use their voice a great 
deal. If it is also true that hoarseness of the voice 
brought on by cold can be cured in a few minutes, 
I do not doubt that the method will be much ap- 
pealed to. For singers, certainly, the possibility 
of increasing the number of notes of the voice, 
either in the upper or in the lower or in both keys, 
will be much appreciated. Experiments with Dr. 
Sandras’s method are to be made in the Conserva- 
toire de musique. 

The second number of the Archives slaves de 
biologie contains many interesting papers. One 
of them is by Professor Anrep, on ptomaines. The 
author has witnessed many cases of poisoning by 


SCIENCE. 


All 


preserved fish (sturgeon) in Russia, and has been 
able to isolate and extract the poisonous substance 
by the Stass-Otto method. The ptomaines so ob- 
tained are very toxic ; and the symptoms brought 
on in animals very much resemble those of the 
principal depressing and paralyzing poisons. 

Prof. A. Gautier has recently published an ac- 
count of his experiments and researches on pto- 
maines and leucomaines. The facts he has dis- 
covered are very interesting indeed, and he has 
opened new ways in chemistry and physiology. 
The first leucomaine discovered was creatinin, 
found by Liebig and Petenkofer in 1849. Since 
then, M. Gautier, in 1881, following researches 
begun by his pupil, G. Pouchet, and beginning 
new experiments of an entirely different order, 
has been able to isolate many leucomaines very 
analogous to ptomaines, but quite different in that 
they develop only in living organisms. Leuco- 
maines are found abundantly in the muscles : 
they are of many sorts. Xantocréatinine, cru- 
socréatinine, amphicréatine, pseudoxanthine, are 
the most important. As to the manner in which 
these leucomaines originate, Professor Gautier 
cannot say, but he believes that the oxygen 
brought into the organism is the most efficient 
agent in the destruction of these poisons. They 
all oxidize very easily. Of course, if, for some 
reason or other, oxygen is less abundant in the 
blood (anaemia, chlorosis, etc.), leacomaines may 
become very abundant, and exert a toxical in- 
fluence on the organism. Professor Gautier’s ex- 
periments are very interesting from a physiological 
point of view: they may also become a stand- 
point for very useful pathological applications, 
because it is very natural to suppose, that, if leuco- 
maines are able to originate and accumulate in a 
certain quantity in the organism, they must surely, 
in some cases, represent the origin of sundry dis- 
eases, or at least certain symptoms, hitherto un- 
explained or misinterpreted. 

Yesterday evening, the Stanley club, which com- 
prises the leading members of the Anglo-American 
colony in Paris, gave a dinner at the Continental 
hotel in honor of Pasteur. M. MacLane presided, 
and at the end of the dinner proposed a very ap- 
propriate toast to Pasteur, concluding as follows: 
‘*The United States, represented by the Stanley 
club, give you greeting, sir, as one of the most 
illustrious of those esprits d’élite, and, while pro- 
posing your health, I express, on America’s be- 
half, the hope that your career, already filled up 
with so many great works, shall be yet a durable 
one, for the joy of those who suffer, and for the 
instruction of those who learn by your example 
how disease may be overpowered by labor and 
science.” M. Pasteur answered M. MacLane, giv- 


412 


ing interesting details of his work, and also of his 
own character and temper. The passage is worth 
while quoting: ‘‘There are two men in me, — 
the one, timid, self-defiant, and of humeur facile, 
who accepts thankfully good advices and discus- 
sion ; the other is a great deal less easy to manage. 
When, after having thoroughly used all the re- 
sources of experimental science, I am quite sure 
of having attained to truth, a second man arises 
in myself, absolute, very harsh in discussion, and of 
humeur farouche. . . . I am no more in Novem- 
ber, 1885, timid, troubled, sleepless, always haunt- 
ed by the nightmare of rabies. We are in April, 
1886. Having called to aid all the resources of 
experimental science, I am now in possession of 
the exact scientific truth concerning this ques- 
tion.” M. Pasteur concluded in proposing the 
joint health of America and France, ‘‘ two nations 
formerly sisters on the battle-ground.” Toasts 
were next proposed by M. de Blowitz and de 
Lesseps, and the meeting broke up after mutual 
expressions of sympathy and good feeling had 


been freely exchanged. eV. 
Paris, April 15. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


A STRANGE nuisance of rats has developed 
itself in some parts of New York City, reaching 
such an extent as to call for an examination of 
the circumstances by the proper city authorities, 
and making dwellings almost uninhabitable. These 
animals are known to possess a remarkable migra- 
tory instinct, congregating in large numbers, and 
overrunning whole regions, to afterward as sud- 
denly and strangely disappear. Dr. Buckland 
relates instances of their migration from house to 
house at certain times of the year, influenced 
probably by the lack or abundance of food. In a 
certain part of Berkshire, England, there were 
situated a number of isolated barns on the bleak, 
barren downs; and the rats were frequently met 
in colonies at early morning, marching in long 
lines direct from one barn to another. They were 
watched, and seen to go directly across the country 
in a straight line ; and the most curious part about 
the circumstances was the instinct that told them 
where to go, or to find those barns which contained 
grain. At Central park there is no unusual num- 
ber, though they find in spring plenty of food 
along the lakes in the grain fed to the swans and 
other aquatic birds. This grain is placed in boxes 
at some little distance from the water's margin, 
but the rats are not thus hindered from purloining 
it: they swim to the boxes, extract the grain, and 
then swim with it back to the shores. In the 
winter they collect about the animal houses. In 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 170 


the Philadelphia zodlogical gardens they have been 
very numerous, and not a little of a nuisance. 


— Mr. Charles Rhodes of Oswego, N.Y., has 
lately published a circular giving the monthly and 
annual levels of Lake Ontario at Oswego for a 
number of years, as determined by records of the 
army engineers. The variations of level seem to 
be irregular, and are not well explained. For ex-. 
ample, in April, 1873, after eighteen months of 
low water, the lake rose about two feet and a half 
in twenty days. When it is considered that the 
whole inflow of the Niagara during that time 
would scarcely more than produce the rise, even 
if the escape by the St. Lawrence were stopped 
meanwhile, the magnitude of the change may be 
appreciated, but can hardly be well accounted for. 
Ir. Rhodes also gives account, in a personal letter, 
of oscillations in the water of the lake that seem to. 
correspond to the seiches of Lake Geneva and 
other Swiss lakes. He describes sudden flows of 
the water from Lake Ontario into the Oswego 
River, with a rise of ten to eighteen inches, fol- 
lowed, in half an hour or so, by an equally sudden 
discharge and fall, going as much below the ordi- 
nary level as the rise had been above it. Smaller 
oscillations succeed, gradually fading away. All 
such large and sudden fluctuations are followed 
by storms of wind, rain, or both. These singular 
phenomena, so well studied out by Forel in Switz- 
erland, have received but little attention in this 
country. The records of lake-levels kept by the 
army engineers would probably afford many ex- 
amples that should receive investigation. 


— At one of the recent sessions of the Prussian 
Landstag, it was stated that the rigorous laws. 
adopted in 1880, relating to rabid animals, had 
produced. most excellent results. These laws im- . 
press the necessity of veterinary examination of 
all animals suspected of rabies, and if, in any case, 
the presence of the disease is determined, require 
that all animals which have been exposed to 
danger shall be immediately killed. Further- 
more, in any district where a rabid cat or dog is 
seen, it is ordered that all dogs shall be confined or 
muzzled. As a result of these laws, there has. 
been a steady decrease in the number of mad 
dogs. In 1880-81, 672 rabid dogs were killed ; 
in 1881-82, 532 ; in 1882-83, 431; in 1883-84, 350 ; 
in 1884-85, 352. During the first of these years. 
(1881-82) 2,400 other dogs, which had been ex- 
posed to the danger of contagion, were killed ; in 
1884-85 the number was 1,400. The number of 
human deaths has decreased in the same ratio: 
thus in 1880-81 there were ten; in 1881-82, six ; 
in 1882-83, four ; in 1883-84, one; and in 1884-85, 
none, 


: 


May 7, 1886. ] 


— The Smithsonian institution received last 
week a foetal pygmy sperm-whale (Kogia brevi- 
ceps) from Mr. George Sayers, keeper of the Sea 
Island city life-saving station, New Jersey. It 
has been discovered that this species of Kogia 
breeds at this time of the year. Last May a 
specimen was also sent to the institution. Early 
this winter a female of this species was received, 
containing the smallest foetus of this cetacean 
ever found, not more than six weeks old. 


—The naturalists of the fish commission 
steamer Albatross, which is now engaged in tak- 
ing soundings among the Bahamas for the hydro- 
graphic bureau of the navy department, have 
recently sent home a part of their collections in 
this locality. Besides several new species of 
birds, the collection contains a number of speci- 
mens of Kirtland’s warbler, which, ornithologists 
will remember, is a very rare species to our fauna. 
Very few specimens have ever been taken within 
the limits of the United States, and it is not until 
recently that its habitat has been discovered ; in 
this locality, however, it is found in abundance. 
The Albatross will return from her work in the 
Bahamas on or about the 12th of this month. 


—The off-shore seal-fishery of Newfoundland 
this year has not proved a success. The largest 
fare taken was about 34,000 seals ; the average, 
less than 12,000 ; the total, about 163,300, divided 
among fourteen vessels. The fine steamer Reso- 
lute was driven by the ice upon a reef north-east 
of Fogo, and is a total loss. Once in every ten 
or fifteen years it happens, that, owing to the 
prevalence of easterly winds, about the time for 
taking the young seal, the ice on which they are 
is driven landward, and forced, a compact mass, 
into the northern bays, where vessels cannot fol- 
low. The residents along the shore then reap a 
harvest as long as the wind is favorable and the 
ice clings to the land. It is estimated that from 
100,000 to 150,000 seal have been taken in this way 
this season, which is a godsend to the people, who 
are mostly very destitute. In some places the 
land-catch has averaged thirty per man, each 
worth about two dollars, of which the captor 
owns the whole; while on the steamers the own- 
ers of the vessels receive one-third of the catch. 


—In a communication before the French 
academy of sciences on April 12, M. Pasteur 
stated, that, of the 726 persons treated for hydro- 
phobia by him up to that date, 688 were bitten by 
mad dogs, and 38 by mad wolves: among the 
former there had been one, among the latter three 
deaths. 
the bites of mad wolves, he finds the percentage 
of mortality as high as 82, and the duration of 


SCIELNCE. 


From a collection of cases in man from . 


ALS 


incubation much shorter: he therefore concludes: 
that there is greater virulence in the poison from 
this source. Instead of three deaths so far, among 
those bitten by the mad wolves, he believes that 
there should have been fifteen or sixteen, had his. 
treatment been ineffectual. 


— A lively discussion on the subject of the 
poisonous mussels of Wilhelmshaven (Science, vii. 
175) yet continues in the German medical periodi- 
cals. From the conclusions already reached, it 
appears evident that simple stagnation of sea- 
water is capable of giving rise to poisonous quali- 
ties in the animals inhabiting it ; and that, too, 
when the water may be uncontaminated by sewage 
or other impurities. Poisonous qualities precisely 
similar to those of the mussels have been observed 
in the star-fishes of Wilhelmshaven. The poison 
in the mussels has been isolated, and described as 
a ptomaine under the name of mytilotoxin; but 
Professor WVirchow says it cannot be a true 
ptomaine, as it is nota product of decomposition. 
A large share of attention has been given, by the 
various writers on the subject, to the question 
whether these mussels are of a new and in- 
troduced form or not. Itis generally agreed that 
they are not, yet there seems to be tolerably con- 
stant differences from the true Mytilus edulis, 
probably due to the conditions in which they 
grow. Professor Virchow adds a point of practi- 
cal importance ; viz., that the experienced fisher- 
men of Christiania warn consumers against the 
use for food of mussels and oysters which have 
been attached to ships’ bottoms, old wood-work, 
etc. 


—The new microscope objectives, of which 
notice was given in Science, are more fully de- 
scribed in the last number of the Journal of the 
Royal microscopic society. They are receiving 
high praise, —‘ the microscope of the future,’ as 
Professor Abbe calls them,—and it is believed 
that high-power work hereafter will almost neces- 
sarily be done with them. The two + objectives 
which have been received in England are com- 
posed each of ten single lenses, combined to form 
five separate lenses, with a single front lens ; but 
the special point in their construction is that they 
are made of the new kind of optical glass which 
Professor Abbe and Dr. Schott have been work- 
ing for the past five years to perfect. Of the ten 
lenses, two only are of siliceous glass, the other 
eight being made of borates and _ phosphates. 
The crown and flint glass ordinarily used by 
opticians does not contain more than six chemical 
elements, while the new glass contains no less 
than fourteen. This glass was discovered nearly 
three years ago, and objectives were then made: 


Al4 


by Zeiss; but, as it was decided to establish a 
manufactory for the production of the glass with 
the aid of the money — $15,000 — voted by the 
Prussian government, Messrs. Zeiss were obliged 
to abstain from using it until it should be accessi- 
ble to other opticians also. In a few months it is 
expected that the preparation for the supply of 
the borates and phosphates, as well as the siliceous 
glass, will be perfected, when both objectives and 
glass will be obtainable in the usual way. Mr. 
Nelson, who has examined one of the objectives, 
writes thus: ‘‘The great benefit which will 
accrue to microscopists from the use of lenses of 
this construction will be due, not so much to the 
absence of color, as to the greater freedom from 
spherical aberration. . . . It is decidedly the most 
brilliant objective I have ever seen.” 


—The department of physical education in 
Amherst college has lately included among its 
statistics those relating to the condition of each 
student’s eyes upon entering college. The 
summary of the results obtained from the ex- 
amination of the classes of 1888 and 1889, com- 
prising 199 men, shows a larger percentage of im- 
paired visual organs than might be expected. In 
the following table the percentages are given for 
the two classes combined. 


Perfect vision, in both eyes, 14.0; in oneeye............. 13.0 
Far-sighted, a BGs se ee le eae ee tales See 8.0 
Near-sighted, ‘ ce BASS eta A GB Oicae OOUOCE 8.0 
Astigmatie, ne 3 IIS HEA YO ECO she jbadoane 7.0 
OTDSP AOLlS Gta s.-15ba0< ticle sie Lioleiciclaw,s's scivie ale Reece siss erisiee e's 1.0 
OU IGM pd0G COlor-BORNG sss 5 5.2.45 8 gciaativ a wi's bicmieieawe HORS «3 93.5 
Wien TRODIO: COMDE-SONEO cise obi en oe hancenedenapashmes one 3.5 
PACUIAtly. COLOL-DUNG rac 2 s.ccoren sete Me oulsen cocient esis ehtee ce 1.0 
Completely color-blind’c2.csesa< causes eceeonenianeeecces® 1.5 
UAE DIGO. AYR S o5,5 sus sone oo 5 ice coe h aaa ey aatetnee Paes ce 54.0 
AVEO DEOWA OFOS. JF cat 2 Us eens soe vandaiulese tats oe 32.0 
WOR SUNY OT OSs iss Hewiey oie MART Oeaukha AER tate sees 13.5 


The percentage of those with perfect vision in 
one or both eyes was nearly the same in both 
classes; but a considerable variation was ob- 
served in the number of the far-sighted, near- 
sighted, and those with imperfect foci (astigmatic). 


— Mr. Scudder’s ‘ Systematische tibersicht der 
fossilen myriopoden, arachnoideen und insekten,’ 
from Zittel’s ‘Handbuch der palaeontologie,’ is a 
valuable résumé of our present knowledge of fossil 
insects, and one which fills a long-felt want. It 
is richly illustrated with excellent figures of the 
principal forms, and contains a concise and care- 
ful summary of the extinct genera. Entomolo- 
gists, to whom the work should have its greatest 
value, will be glad to learn that it will shortly be 
published in English. 


— The additions to the literature of bacteriology 
during late years have become so extensive and 
numerous that even the specialist can hardly keep 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 170 


pace with the publications constantly appearing. 
For this reason the new ‘ Jahresbericht tiber die 
fortschritte in der lehre von den pathogenen micro- 
organismen” (Braunschweig, Bruhn, 1886), by 
Professor Baumgarten, will be welcomed by all 
those interested in this broad field. The first 
volume, for 1885, is a work of one hundred and 
ninety-two pages, comprising bibliographical lists 
of the separate papers and volumes that appeared 
during the past year, with abstracts of their con- 
tents, under the titles, ‘ Text-books and compen- 
diums,’ ‘ Parasitic micro-organisms (including 
micrococci, bacilli, actinomyces, and pathogenic 
spirillae, hyphomycetae, and protozoa),’ ‘Sapro- 
phytic micro-organisms,’ and ‘General technique.’ 
The work cannot help but be very useful to both 
biologist and physician. 


— The Société philomathique of Bordeaux has 
organized an international congress on technical 
instruction, which will be opened on Sept. 20 
next, at Bordeaux. 


— The falling-off in the average size of families 
in France, as shown by recent statistics, has in- 
duced the enactment of a decree re-affirming the 
law whereby every father of a family having 
seven living children may have one of his sons 
educated at the expense of the state. 


— The Spanish Royal academy of sciences has 
offered premiums for papers on bird migrations 
and habits, as observed in the littoral and central 
regions of the peninsula. The particular sub- 
jects to which attention is directed, as given in 
Cronica cientifica, are very similar to those pro- 
posed by the bird-migration committee of the 
American ornithologists’ union. 


— Dr. E. Reyer of Vienna, who made a geo- 
logical tour through this country two years ago, 
has lately published two profiles through the 
Sierra Nevada in a supplement to the Neues jahr- 
buch fiir mineralogie. He finds the evidence of 
faulting, down to recent dates, very distinct on 
the eastern slope of the range, even glacial striae 
being displaced at many points, and the down- 
throw nearly always being on the eastern side of 
the fracture. The eruptive masses, by which the 
sedimentary strata of the range are much dis- 
turbed, are generally regarded as younger than 
the sediments. Dr. Reyer modifies this view by 
supposing them to be older than the oldest strata 
which lie conformably upon them, although great- 
ly disarranged from their original attitude by 
massive eruption-like overturnings. In the down- 
faulting origin of the Yosemite valley, and in 
many other points, he confirms the views of 
Professor Whitney. 


May 7, 1886.] 


— The summer course in entomology and gen- 
eral invertebrate zodlogy, of Cornell university, 
will begin Monday, June 21, next, and continue 
ten weeks. After completing an elementary 
course in either general zodlegy or entomology, 
the student may select some subject in systematic 
zoology, economic entomology, or insect anatomy, 
for special investigation. It is planned to have 
the work of each student, as far as possible, an 
original investigation. Members of this class will 
have free use of the library, and all other privi- 
Jeges of students of the university. Those desir- 
ing to join the class should make application to 
Prof. J. H. Comstock, Ithaca, N.Y., before 
June 10. 


— From the returns of the German quin- 
quennial census, in December last, it was found 
that Prussia has a population of 27,279,111, an 
increase of 3.79 per cent; Bavaria, 5,284,778, an 
increase of 2.49 per cent; Saxony, 2,972,805, an 
increase of 6.94 per cent, the largest of any of 
the states, the returns of which are so far availa- 
ble. In only a few provinces has there been a 
decrease ; Pomerania, with 2.22, being the most 
‘important. 


— The cold weather during the past winter in 
Florida, has, Dr. Riley finds, destroyed the in- 
jurious orange scale insects wherever it was 
severe enough to cause the shedding of the leaves. 
The eggs, however, were uninjured. 


— The journal of the Society for psychical 
research for April contains a second instalment 
of Mr. Myers’s ‘Notes on the unconscious self,’ 
which is principally devoted to answering the 
criticisms of Hon. Roden Noel on Mr. Myers’s 
previous papers. Some interesting anecdotes on 
the general subject of mesmerism are given by 
C. Kegan Paul, the well-known publisher, and 
his sister. At a general meeting of the society, 
announced for the evening of May 3, Mrs. Henry 
Sidgwick was to read a paper on spiritualism, 
which was looked forward to with great interest. 


— In tables just published by the U. S. geologi- 
cal survey, Mr. J. D. Weeks gives the total pro- 
duction of manganese ores in the United States 
during 1885 at 23,258 tons, with over seven thou- 
sand additional tons of manganiferous iron and 
argentiferous manganese ores. For the year 1884 
there were 10,180, for 1882 only 4,532 tons. This 
includes only those ores containing over 44 per 
cent of metallic manganese. 


— The small island Juan Fernandez, where 
Alexander Selkirk passed his four years of soli- 
tude, has been ieased by the Chilian government 
to a Swiss named Rodt, who has established there 


SCIENCE. 


415 


a flourishing colony. M. Rodt exercises the pow- 
ers of a viceroy, and has the fullest administrative 
authority. The chief occupation of the inhabit- 
ants is agriculture, but some branches of manu- 
facturing industry are also practised. M. Rodt 
encourages immigration, and among the new 
Crusoes are to be found Austrians, Englishmen, 
Frenchmen, North and South Americans, South 
Germans, Swiss, and Spaniards. There are no 
Prussians, the governor having a rooted antipathy 
to Prussia. 


— The tenth anniversary of Johns Hopkins 
university was celebrated April 26. The statis- 
tics show that the whole number of students 
admitted since its foundation is 923, of whom 19 
have died. Addresses were made by Profs. W. 
H. Welch, and H. A. Rowland, and others. 


— The Smithsonian has received the first evi- 
dence of the successful introduction of salmon in 
the head waters of the Potomac. Last week Mr. 
R. A. Golden, a fish-dealer in the Washington 
market, presented a fine specimen of the Sebago 
salmon to the institution, measuring over one 
foot in length. It was caught in a trap-net at 
Ragety Point; and the presence of this well- 
grown specimen in the Potomac waters is an 
earnest of what may be looked for in the future. 
The introduction of land-locked salmon in this 
river marks an important era in the progress of 
fish-culture and the success of the U. 8. fish com- 
mission. 


— The proposition to establish a national mili- 
tary and naval museum in Washington appears 
to be regarded with general favor. The pian 
proposed is to erect a buiiding on the Smithsonian 
grounds for this purpose, the museum to be under 
the supervision of the Smithsonian. This plan 
would doubtless commend itself to congress more 
forcibly than would the proposition to erect a 
large separate building in another part of the city. 
The army and navy museum would be quite dis- 
tinct from the other departments of the national 
museum, and would be placed under the control 
of representatives of the two services upon which 
it must depend for growth and development. 


— The vessels belonging to the U. S. coast sur- 
vey were assigned to duty last week. The Pal- 
inurus, Lieut. D. D. V. Stuart commanding, is 
stationed in Long Island Sound ; the Eagre, Lieut. 
C. P. Perkins, in company with the Daisy, will 
proceed in a few days to the North River, to com- 
plete the work begun last year by the Palinurus. 
This work will take until the middle of July, 
when the Daisy will be employed along the shores 
of Staten Island. The Eagre will then begin 
operations in the Hast River at a point midway 


416 


between Hell Gate and Blackwell's Island, work- 
ing by degrees through the sound until meeting 
with the Palinurus coming west. 


—Some estimate of the signal service as a pro- 
moter of original research may be gathered from 
the fact that two of the three gold medals awarded 
by the Royal geographical society were secured 
by Lieutenant Greely and Sergeant Brainard, for 
geographical discoveries. Professor Langley was 
awarded the Draper medal by the National acad- 
emy, for discoveries at Mount Whitney; and the 
Royal society of science, letters, and arts, has 
made Lieutenant Finley a member with its high- 
est honors, for his original work on the subject of 
tornadoes, all of which was under the direction of 
the signal service in its legitimate duties. 


— The secretary of state has forwarded to the 
house of representatives a letter from the Ameri- 
can minister at Paris, enclosing an invitation to 
the United States to be represented at the conven- 
tion of the Philomathical society of Bordeaux, 
France, to be held Sept. 1. The purpose of the 
convention is to consider all questions relating to 
commercial and industrial education. A letter 
from commissioner of labor, Wright, suggests the 
following gentlemen as delegates: Prof. C. M. 
Woodward of the St. Louis manual training 
school, Prof. W. P. Atkinson of the Massachu- 
setts institute of technology, and professors from 
the Columbia school of mines and Stevens insti- 
tute. 

— Alfred Rabaud, founder and president of the 
Geographical society of Marseilles, died on April 
12, aged fifty-eight. 

— Reymond communicates some interesting 
notes as to the geology of the region of the great 
African lakes, especially of the south-east part of 
the Tanganyika and Nyassa basins, from speci- 
mens collected by Giraud. The region appears 
almost exclusively composed of primitive rocks. 
The only sedimentary rocks collected were from 
south of Tanganyika, at Yendivé station, and from 
Mpasa, two or three days’ march from the northern 
end of Lake Nyassa to the north-west, on the 
route between the two lakes. These rocks are of 
a schistose character, contain Cyrena and remains 
of Lepidosteus, and are referred by Reymond to 
the upper cretaceous or lowest tertiary age. This 
agrees with what is known of the geology of 
Africa in general, where the cenomanian and 
nummulitic strata alone are found resting on a 
vast denuded plateau. The beds of brown iron 
ore, which cover a very large extent of country, 
and are worked by the natives, are supposed to 
have been leached out, as it were, from the crys- 
talline rocks, by the action of the water and car- 


SCTENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 170 


bonic acid held in the vast bogs and spongy 
marshes of the region. One of the chief charac- 
teristics of central Africa is the absence of calca- 
reous formations. The metallic wealth of the 
country, except for iron, is little known; but 
Giraud reports copper rather abundant between 
Bangweols and Luapula. In South Africa the 
sedimentary beds are of greater extent, and con- 


‘tain a considerable amount of coal of inferior 


quality. The collection of fresh-water and land 
shells made by Giraud comprises, according to 
Bourguignat, ninety-three species and several new 
forms. 


— What appears to be a justifiable complaint 
against the delay in printing scientific reports is 
made by Commissioner Colman to the senators 
and representatives. Of the forty-five thousand 
copies of the first annual report of the bureau of 
animal industry, ordered nearly two years ago, 
scarcely a twentieth part have been so far de- 
livered by the printer. Another work, Riley’s. 
report on the cotton and boll worm, long since 
ordered, and in the printer’s hands, has not yet 
been delivered, though stereotyped for nearly a 
year. 


—In a recent letter to Professor Riley, U.S. 
entomologist, Mr. J. Birkbeck Nevins of Liver- 
pool gives an analysis of dried locusts from ob- 
servations made by Edward Davis, president of 
the Liverpool literary and philosophical society, 
as follows :— 


{ 


Without Wings 
wings, developed. 
2 
Phosphoric acid (P,O;)....+..++- | 1.924 1.89% 
Tribasic phosphate of lime..... 4.21% 4.13% 
INFPORON sce niists. as ac cde eveaats 10.14% 10.64% 
AIM OMIA s cic ceisve sie coos eetemnnietette 12.31% 12.92% 


This shows that these dried locusts. are as rich 
in nitrogen as meat, guano, or dry blood, and 
contain enough phosphoric acid to greatly in- 
crease their value as a manure which English au- 
thorities estimate at about twenty-five dollars per 
ton. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


at, Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Science at Cornell. 
WILL you allow space to one who has known Cor- 
nell from the beginning, who has watched her prog- 
ress with the greatest interest, and who knew per- 
sonally Mr. Cornell and President White, for a few 
comments upon recent letters in Science in regard to 
‘Science at Cornell ’ ? 


May 7, 1886.] 


It seems to the writer that almost every one con- 


“nected with Cornell misconstrues the fundamental 


law. President Adams says, ‘‘ It includes not sim- 
ply agriculture and the mechanic arts, but,” etc. 
President White speaks of the efforts of the trustees 
being ‘‘ devoted to agriculture and the mechanic 
arts alone.” When, some years ago, a committee of 
the legislature was appointed to investigate Cornell, 
and report as to the way in which the provisions of 
the law and the charter were being carried out, that 
committee was shown the machine-shops and farm, 
and the work of the professor of agriculture and of 
the professor of mechanic arts, as though these de- 
partments comprised the whole of the provision 
made at Cornell for fulfilling the requirements of 
the law. The law says, to teach such branches of 
learning as relate to agriculture and the mechanic 
arts. Does that mean that boys shall be taught to 
hoe corn, or plant potatoes, or shove a jack-plane, 
or swing a hammer? What are those ‘ branches of 
learning that relate to agriculture’ ? 

Mathematics, the physical and natural sciences, 
drawing, mechanics, and the characteristic studies 
of mechanical and civil engineering,—all these 
‘relate to’ agriculture, or the mechanic arts, or both. 
The law requires that the leading object of the insti- 
tution founded under it shall be to give instruction 
in such branches. Will this be the ‘leading object’ 
if, as suggested by President Adams, only six hun- 
dred thousand dollars of the endowment should be 
devoted to this purpose? To the writer nothing can 
be plainer than that, to fulfil the law, whatever other 
endowment is accepted, whatever other branches 
are taught, the institutions founded upon the land- 
grant must make ‘‘ such branches of learning as re- 
late to agriculture and mechanic arts” (not agri- 
culture and mechanic arts themselves) the leading 
object of instruction. 

President Adams saysthe instruction contemplated 
by the law includes not simply agriculture and the 
mechanic arts, but other scientific and classical 
studies, military tactics, and the several pursuits 
and professions of life. This last is made to appear 
by quoting the last paragraph of the much-quoted 
passage first. 

' The meaning of that whole passage seems so plain, 


that it is strange that such diverse interpretations 


should be put upon it. It requires the founding of 
an institution whose branches of learning relating 
to agriculture and the mechanic arts shall be the 
leading object of instruction, and where other 
sciences and the classics may have a place, in order 
that the industrial classes in the several pursuits and 
professions of life may there receive a ‘liberal and 
practical education.’ 

Can any thing be plainer than that the institution 
contemplated by the land-grant act should have for 
its leading object, whatever else it does, to provide 
for the instruction of the industrial class in such 
branches of learning as they most need in their 
pursuits ? 

Now, have the branches of learning that relate to 
agriculture and the mechanic arts been so well pro- 
vided for that it is time to reduce expenditures in 
those directions for the purpose of establishing law 
and medical schools and what not? Large additions 
have been made to the material equipment of some 
of the departments; but not one of them can be 
considered fully equipped, and some have suffered in 
usefulness the last year from the cutting-off of ap- 


SCIENCE. 


A1T 


propriations. Some important branches are suffer- 
ing for want of instructing-force. This is notably 
the case in chemistry and physics, where the number 
of instructors is less than for the same branches at 
some of the classical colleges, and much less than at 
some of the technical schools. 

The proposition to multiply departments at Cor- 
nell seems to the writer most unwise. It is far bet- 
ter to take the highest rank in a few departments, 
if those are in the direction of the object contem- 
plated in the foundation, than to take a lower rank 
in a wider field ; and it is certain that the income of 
Cornell will need to be much larger than at present 
before she can take first rank in all the depart- 
ments now established. A. W. 


Phylloxera. 


The following answers were suggested by the 
questions relating to the phylloxera, asked by 
‘A. M. D.’ in the issue of Science for April 2, 1886. 

1. Was it known asa pest in this country before 
its introduction abroad? The gall-type of the 
phylloxera was first known and described by the 
state entomologist of New York in 1856, seven years 
before the same form was known in any European 
country. Unmistakable evidences of its existence 
reach much farther back, even to 1848. In later 
years more or less injury was done, but the true 
cause of the trouble was not known until the dis- 
covery of the root-type in 1868. 

2. When and how didit reach Europe? The effect 
of the pest was first noticed in France, by M. Pina- 
rum, in 1863; the gall-type was described by West- 
wood, in England, in the same year; and the first 
statement of the disease in Germany followed two 
years later ; but it remained for Prof. J. E. Plouchon 
to first announce, in 1868, the discovery of the root- 
type, and to give to it the name it now bears. Dur- 
ing the same year the winged form was discovered, 
and the following year the root-type was asserted to 
be of the same species as the gall-type of the United 
States. The vineyards were noticeably diseased 
some time before, particularly those near some Amer- 
ican vines which were a part of a heavy importation 
made in 1860, —the probable time of the introduc- 
tion of the pest. Undoubtedly the pest reached 
France through these cuttings or stocks. The fact 
of transporting by cuttings is further evidenced by 
later experience in Germany, Switzerland, and other 
countries where infection began among American 
stocks. 

3. Why is it more injurious in Europe than in its 
native habitat? Four reasons may be given: 1. In- 
sects indigenous to a country are frequently kept in 
subjection by its enemies. Such is the case toa great 
extent in the Mississippi valley, where the galls of 
the phylloxera are often cleared of its inhabitants 
by depredating enemies. This restriction is removed 
in the new country, and the pest has full chance for 
development. 2. The predominating varieties of 
vines of Europe, and also of California, are of the 
kind most attractive to the root louse, while Missis- 
sippi valley produces largely gall-bearing varieties of 
vines, which to a greater or less extent resist the 
attacks of the root-louse. 38. The predominance in 
Europe of the most destructive type, the root-louse, 
against the gall-louse in the Mississippi valley, — the 
one attacking the roots, and affecting the vine per- 
manently ; the other attacking the foliage, and pro- 


418 


ducing only a transient effect. 4. Probably the 
chief cause of a comparative greater destruction 
can be found in the difference in soil, and more 
especially in the climate; that is, when European 
countries are compared with districts, like California, 
cultivating a similar variety of vine. It has beena 
notable feature in California experience that the 
spread is usually very slow, and only showing notice- 
able rapidity in exceptional cases. In our observa- 
tions (see ‘ Report of college of agriculture, 1886’) we 
have shown that a peculiar growth of roots, induced 
by late rains, or again by surface manuring, will pro- 
duce the winged form in greatabundance. But the 
general climate of California is extremely dry during 
this growing period, and therefore no such roots are 
apt to be formed ; while in the portions of Europe 
where the spread has been most rapid, their type of 
vine being similar to that of our own, a growth of 
fine surface rootlets is undoubtedly induced by the 
summer rains, and myriads of the winged-form in- 
sects developed and spread to adjoining vineyards. 
The effect of fertilizing on the production of simi- 
lar rootlets is doubtless greater than is usually sup- 
posed. 

4. Is there any reason to suppose that the pest 
will be mitigated by natural causes as time goes on ? 
As yet there seems to be no evidence in favor of 
such a supposition. This case should be analogous 
to that of other insect pests, which have been over- 
come only by insect enemies. This insect has been 
with us many years; and yet no enemy which can 
destroy all the forms has appeared, although the 
gall-type, accessible above ground, has undoubtedly 
been decreased in numbers by such enemies as the 
thrips, tyroglyphus, and others. No enemy with the 
needed multiplicity of forms, enabling it to traverse 
the vine and at the same time all parts of the roots, 
is known. Until such does appear, there is little 
doubt that the loss caused by any local disturbance 
will soon be replaced by the other types, and thus 
the species will be continued. F. W. MORSE. 

Berkeley, Cal., April 22. 


Topographical models or relief-maps. 


I hope you will find space in your paper for the 
following description of a new method of making 
topographical models from contour maps. I com- 
pleced it a few weeks ago, and have made several 
models of complicated surfaces. 

Make a careful tracing of the contour lines on 
waxed or oiled tracing-paper. Linen must not be 
used, as it will distort the lines when wetted. Paste 
the tracing ona clear piece of white holly veneer an 
eighth of an inch in thickness, and cut or have cut, 
with a fine fret-saw. the lines of contour, leaving 
spaces now and then, should the lines so run that the 
intervening wood would drop out. Fasten the veneer 
to a board, being sure that the surface is flat. Fasten 
veneer by the edges, and not through the spaces be- 
tween contour lines. Cut or have cut strips of thin 
brass, each strip being as wide as the height of each 
contour line, and insert the strip into the correspond- 
ing saw-cut in the veneer. They must be pressed 
down until they touch the board below the veneer. 
When all the contours are in place, paint the whole 
surface over with heated wax, which will prevent 
the moisture of the clay from distorting the wood. 
When all is coated, fill in the spaces between the 
strips with clay until only the edges of the brass 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VII, No. 170 


show. Where spaces are left, the strips are cut with 
a slanting end long enough to span the space uncut, 
and the line of contour is thus unbroken. 

By this method nothing is left to the eye, and 
perfect accuracy is gained. I have made some 
models for Prof. N. S. Shaler, and it was at his 
request that I send this description to your paper. 


Henry Brooks. 
Boston, April 26. 


Poison rings. 


Appreciating your kindness in inserting my pre- 
vious letter, containing a number of questions as to 
what we know of the past of the pest phylloxera, 
and what we may expect for its future, answers to 
which would certainly imterest many laymen like 
myself, and not discouraged by the lack of response 
from your readers, I venture to send you this. 

In the recently published volume (xx.) of the ‘ En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica,’ under the head of ‘ Ring,’ 
it is stated that ‘‘ Pliny records, that, after Crassus 
had stolen the gold treasure from under the throne 
of Capitoline Jupiter, the guardian of the shrine, to 
escape torture, broke the gem of his ring in his 
mouth, and died immediately.” Hannibal is also 
recorded as having killed himself with his ring ; and 
the writer further says, the ‘‘ anello della morte, sup- 
posed to be a Venetian invention, was actually used 
as an easy method of murder.” 

Can any of your readers inform me whether any 
of these ancient rings are still in existence, and, if 
they are, how they are made, and with what poison 
they were filled ? A. M. D. 

New York, May 3. 


[We publish this week a reply to ‘A.M. D.’s’ 
queries about phylloxera ; and, doubtless, information 
as to ‘ poison rings’ will be forthcoming. — Ep. ] 


A swindler abroad again. 


It has just come tomy knowledge that the ‘ tramp” 
geologist who has been ‘ wandering up and down the 
earth’ for the last three years, the man of many ac- 
complishments and aliases, is now in the vicinity of 
St. Cloud, Minn., posing as ‘ Capt.’ I. C. White of 
the West Virginia university. 

I would say, in my own defence, that the title of 
‘captain’ is not worn by me, and that in this case I 
can establish an alibi, with the help of my friends. 

Cannot something be done to throttle this nuisance 
before he scandalizes every geologist in the country ? 
Probably a committee from those whom he has 
swindled and misrepresented would hunt him down 
most successfully, and I am sure such a committee 
could be trusted to squelch him effectually. 


I, C. WHITE. 
West Virginia university, April 29. 


Pompous prolixity of the French. . 


One reads with amused surprise, on p. 403 of the 
last issue of Science, that the literary style of French | 
scientific writers is characterized by ‘ pompous pro- 
lixity.’ We all understand that ‘‘ that which is not. 
clear is not good French.” We had supposed that. 
the genius of that sententious language was as much 
opposed to pomposity and prolixity as to obscurity. 

A. G. 


Fic. 1.— COMPOSITE FROM PHOTOGRAPHS. 


y 


thy Uy 


YW, y a 
Ott, YU YY 


Vib, 


Yy yyy 
“Wj 4 


WMbkijis “4 


tf Vs v 


Uf 4 ig 


yyy 


Yj YiffH 


Fie. 4, — RULING FACE IN FIG, 2. 


Fie. 3.— RULING FACE IN FIG. 1. 
JMPOSITE PORTRAITS OF THREE DAKOTA WOMEN, SHOWING THE EFFECT OF THE ME 


THOD OF PRODUCTION 


SOCTENCE. May 7. 1886. 


NTRAL PARK, © 
o, NEWYORK. iv 
SS MATURAL NSA 


SCIENCE.—SuprLeMeENr. 


FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1886. 


IS THE OCEAN SURFACE DEPRESSED ? 
|S 
THE Revue scientifique published recently the 
following discussion on the communication made 
in January at the Sorbonne by H. Faye, upon the 
permanence of the earth’s figure throughout geo- 
logic times. The eminent academician then af- 
firmed that accord exists among geodesists as to 
the figure of our planet; that the measures of 
arcs of meridians already made have done away 
with all irregularities, which at the beginning of 
this century were supposed to exist; and that 
one can assign for the form of the surface of the 
sea an ellipsoid of revolution, having an eccen- 
tricity of 1: 292 (accurate to one unit in the de- 
nominator). 
I do not feel able to say how the assertions of 
M. Faye can be reconciled with the diametrically 
opposite ideas which have been developed in recent 
German works, noticeably in the ‘Lehrbuch der 
geophysik’ of Ginther, the works published in 
1868 by P. H. Fischer, in 1873 and 1877 by Listing, 
and, above all, in the important memoir which 
Bruns pubiished at Berlin in 1876; which last is 
not even mentioned by the learned French as- 
tronomer. I can only call attention to his estima- 
tion of their value, without being able to judge 
_ of the reasons which have determined it. I must 
leave this to the geodesists. 
_ I would say the same thing of another as- 
sertion of M, Faye, —that relative to the con- 
stancy of the force of gravitation at the surface 
of the sea along the same parallel. ‘‘ Navigators,” 
says he, ‘‘ have carried the pendulum at the surface 
of the sea over a large portion of the earth, and in 
both hemispheres, without the pendulum indicat- 
ing the least diminution of the force of gravity 
ascribable to depression of the earth’s crust.” 
Now, Fischer, as well as Hann, states, that, upon 
the islands situated in the open ocean, the pendu- 
. lum, when swung at the surface of the sea, exe- 
cutes at least nine and one-third more oscillations 
than upon the shores of the large continents. 
This, at the rate of one hundred and twenty 
metres for one oscillation, gives more than a 
thousand metres for the depression of the sea at 
the centre of the oceans ; and this same conclusion 
is elaborated also by Listing as well as by Pinck. 
So startling is this disagreement, that we acknowl- 


edge that it is almost beyond credence; and, as 
attention has been called to it, proper experiments 
should be undertaken to clear away all doubts. 

But, even if we admit the correctness of the 
data given by M. Faye, there is one point in his 
theory which we cannot pass over, because it 
touches the constitution of the earth’s crust. The 
eminent academician reasons somewhat in this 
way : at any point over the sea, the density of the 
water being sensibly inferior to that of rocks, 
there should be a local diminution of the attract- 
ing mass, and consequently the pendulum ought 
to oscillate less rapidly. Since this is not the re- 
sult, there must be some cause counteracting the 
diminution of the superficial mass. This cause, 
according to M. Faye, can only be an increase of 
the density of the crust. As the solid rocks have 
in general a density greater than that of the 
molten materials from which they are obtained, 
and if under the sea the solidification has pro- 
gressed farther than under the continents, the in- 
crease of the solid mass under the seas could com- 
pensate the diminution of density resulting from 
the column of sea-water above. But to this con- 
clusion I am not ready to assent. 

If it be true that a majority of bodies are more 
dense in the solid condition than in the liquid, it 
is also true that we know very little of the physi- 
cal condition of the interior of the earth. Even 
in our day many savants hold that the earth is 
entirely solid. But, admitting the existence of 
a liquid interior covered by a solid crust, how can 
we assert that this crust, traversed by numerous 
crevasses, does not contain sufficient open spaces 
to annul the slight increase of density due to 
solidification. 

Let us accept Faye’s hypothesis for the time 
being, and search with him for the cause which 
has produced this increase of solidification. We 
know, from the submarine investigations of the 
last few years, that everywhere on the bottom of 
the large oceans there reigns a temperature in the 
neighborhood of 0° C. The cause of this is to- 
day well known. The water of the polar regions, 
rendered denser by cooling, sinks, and, following 
the bottom of the sea, tends to replace the water 
evaporated in the tropical regions. M. Faye says 
this cause for the cooling of the bed of the oceans 
has existed ever since there have been ice-caps at 
the poles, and that it is impossible that such an 
action, prolonged through a sufficiently long 
period, should not have affected the temperature 


420 


of the earth’s crust beneath. This is the principle 
of his hypothesis, but it is not sufficient to an- 
nounce it. It is also necessary to justify it in 
proving that the cause is adequate to the effect. 
This it is that M. Faye has neglected to do; and 
I would add, that, in my conviction, such a proof 
is impossible. 

But, before attempting to show this, it would 
be well, perhaps, to call attention to one singular 
consequence, which is entailed if it is necessary 
to admit the theory of the cooling of the earth’s 
crust by contact. No one is ignorant of the fact, 
that, if the temperature of the bottom of the sea 
is in the neighborhood of 0°, there are on the sur- 
face of the continents wide stretches of country 
which are still less favored. Without speaking of 
mountainous regions covered with perpetual snow, 
we will only mention the plains of Siberia, and 
especially that of the district of Yakootsk, where 
there reigns a mean temperature of —10°C. This 
temperature, as may be readily seen, was estab- 
lished at the same time as the ice-caps around the 
poles, and has tended to produce a change of tem- 
perature of the crust for a time at? least as long 
as that during which the cold waters have flowed 
over the ocean-bottoms: consequently, as the 
earth’s surface affected by this cooling is far from 
being negligible, it is there that the pendulum 
ought to oscillate the most rapidly. 

But, aside from this argument from the facts in 
the case, there are other strong reasons deduced 
from what we know of the bad conductive power 
of rocks. Experiments at Paris have shown that 
a changein the mean monthly temperature propa- 
gates itself in thirty-eight days to the depth of 
one metre, and that at ten metres below the sur- 
face all variation in the temperature of the air 
becomes absolutely insensible. This being the 
case, one would think that a cooling coming from 
the surface could hardly exercise any effect on the 
inside of the crust of the earth. 

To argue the possibility of such a cooling effect, 
it would be necessary first to have some idea of 
the probable thickness of the crust. Whatever 
hypothesis we accept as to the interior constitution 
of the earth, it is inadmissible that, at the time 
when the glaciers took possession of the poles, the 
thickness of the solid crust had not reached at 
least twenty kilometres. Fossil botany teaches us 
that in the middle of the tertiary period the re- 
gions immediately around the poles possessed a 
rich vegetation of a character essentially tem- 
perate, which certainly could not have existed in 
the neighborhood of ice. The first appearance of 
polar ice was therefore not in the carboniferous 
period, when we know, moreover, that the arctic 
seas were inhabited by corals like those which now 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 170 


live only in the tropics. This granted, if we take 
account of the generally given thickness of the 
gneiss and micaschists, by all estimated at many 
thousands of metres ; if we add to this the Cam- 
brian, Silurian, Devonian, and carboniferous de- 
posits, even attributing to them only a small part 
of the depth which they have in Europe, — we 
find that a total thickness of twenty thousand 
metres for the crust constitutes certainly a moder- 
ate valuation. 

Let us suppose, then, a crust of twenty thou- 
sand metres, of which the temperature, about 
2000? C. on its lower side, decreases regularly up 
to the surface, where it is about 20° C.,—the 
minimum of tropical regions, —or a diminution 
of one degree for ten metres. Can we imagine a 
difference of twenty degrees in the surface tem- 
perature could have produced an appreciable dif- 
ference in the interior even after millions of years ? 

Let us consider more closely in what way the 
distribution of temperature exists in the interior 
of the earth. We know that this temperature 
increases constantly with the depth. But it has 
long been granted that the flow of heat does not 
contribute to the exterior temperature more than 
the thirtieth of a degree. Let us reverse the cal- 
culation, and ask how far a temperature of 0° C. 
could contribute to the diminution of heat 
which reigns at twenty kilometres depth. Cannot 
the answer be made without discussion ? 

But we have the reply expressed in figures in 
the results of some investigations in Siberia. In 
1836 a merchant of Yakootsk, wishing to utilize 
the internal heat, dug a well in the hope of 
reaching water. In this well, dug to a depth of 
115 metres, the temperature increased progres- 
sively from — 10° C. to 0° C. 

The well was abandoned because such a great 
depth rendered it useless for the purpose proposed ; 
but a little later, in the steppes of Katchongin, 
another well reached water at a depth of 126 
metres. Therefore, below the constantly frozen 
surface of Siberia, the temperature rises in 126 
metres at least ten degrees to 0° C. The increase 
is thus one degree for twelve metres and a half; 
that is to say, three times more rapidly than in 
the temperate regions, where it is one degree for 
from thirty-five to thirty-seven metres. 

What, therefore, is to be concluded? . Even 
that a great superficial cold only affects the layers 
immediately in the neighborhood of the surface, 
and that this influence at any considerable depth 
must become absolutely insignificant. If, then, 
the force of gravitation is not diminished above 
the oceans; if at the same time, on the authority 
of all others with the exception of M. Faye, there 
exists a sensible increase, — it is not toan increase 


May 7, 1886.] 


in the density of the crust that this result can be 
attributed. The only admissible explanation is a 
diminished distance to the attracting centre, and 
consequently a deformation of the ellipsoidal sur- 
face of the sea. 

Hence I express my desire for further measures 
of great circles, following the suggestions of 
Bruns, the astronomical and geodetic observations 
to be combined with the most precise levellings 
and with measures of the force of gravity. Then 
only could the question be decided in a definite 
manner. Up to that time it is premature to wish 
to attack it, either by hypothesis in discord with 
the laws of science, or in passing over in silence 
the work, which, true or false, merits at least a 
respectful examination. A. DE LAPPARENT, 


Il. 

M. DE LAPPARENT’S high authority as a geolo- 
gist renders it my duty to give certain explana- 
tions in support of the partly geological theory 
which I have recently presented. 

_ First, as regards the figure of the earth, it is not 
a question of authority taken second or third 
hand. The measurements of arcs of meridi- 
ans are well known; and the calculation which 
permits us to conclude from these measurements 
the figure of the earth is very simple, and may 
be verified by any one. 

The surface of the earth conforms so well in 
all parts with an ellipsoid of revolution, that the 
deviations are absolutely unappreciable, save by 
the most delicate measurements. 

As regards the pendulum, with which the most 
recent measurements have been made by Mr. 
Clark of England, and in the United States by Mr. 
Peirce, the results are no less striking. These two 
reach by the same method of observation, wholly 
independen' of the measurements of arc, and by 
calculations easily verified, the same flattening, 
1: 292. 

It is very true, as M. de Lapparent has remarked, 
that, among the numerous observations made in 
all parts of the earth, those which have been 
made on the small isolated islands in the middle 
of the ocean have indicated a force of gravity a 
little too strong; but these slight anomalies do 
not vitiate the general result, that is to say, the 
value of flattening above given. 

This fact has been known for seventy years, 
but it has been wrongly interpreted. Some have 
laid the blame upon the observers. Others have 
said, that, as the islands were of volcanic origin, 
the materials composing them have a greater 
density, which would account for the excess of 

local attraction. Others, fifty years ago, have 


SCIENCE. 


421 


said, what M. de Lapparent repeats to-day, that, 
if the force of gravity is a little greater on the 
islands, it is because the surface of the sea is 
nearer the centre of the earth. 

The true interpretation is less pretentious, and 
does not contradict assured scientific facts. It is 
simply that it has been forgotten to take into ac- 
count the excess of attraction of the submerged 
mountains, at the summit of which observations 
were made, over the attraction of an equal volume 
of water, which it replaces in the middle of 
the sea. Unfortunately the navigators have not 
thought to determine by suitable soundings the 
form of the submarine pedestal on which their 
instrument was placed, so that it is impossible 
to-day to apply the necessary corrections to their 
results. 

Finally, the chief argument of my opponent 
is the poor conductibility of the rocks which 
compose the earth’s crust. I will say first, that, 
despite this feeble conductibility, the earth has be- 
come sufficiently cool in the course of the geologic 
ages to have acquired a solid crust of from thirty 
thousand to forty thousand metres in thickness. 
It follows, then, that the central heat traverses 
this thick crust, notwithstanding its slight con- 
ducting-power, to finally lose itself by radiation 
in space. Iam unable to see that this undoubted 
cooling operates everywhere under the same con- 
ditions. Leave aside the argument of Siberia, 
and consider a spherical surface a league or a 
league and a half below the surface of the earth. 
At this depth it is necessary to distinguish two 
regions, — one situated beneath the continents, 
and the other found in the depths of the 
ocean. The central heat which arrives at this 
surface in the first region must still traverse an 
enormous bed of rock before it can radiate into 
space. Precisely on account of the slight con- 
ductibility of this highly protecting thickness of 
rock, very little heat passes; and there beneath 
our feet, at this depth, the central heat makes 
itself strongly felt, the temperature rising to more 
than 200° C. In the other region—the sub- 
marine region — the case is different. There the 
superincumbent bed, of a league and a half in 
thickness, is water; but water is an excellent 
transporter of heat when received from the bot- 
tom, the water carrying the heat upward, not by 
conduction so much as by the ascending currents, 
to which the least accession of heat gives rise. 
Thus the central heat passes easily in such a 
region. Moreover, the continual flowing-in of 
polar water ata temperature of — 1° or — 2° aids 
the refrigeration. 

It therefore seems to me evident that the cooling 
of the central mass is facilitated by the sea, and 


422 


obstructed by the continents. Is it necessary to 
add that the waters of the ocean, under a press- 
ure of from four hundred to six hundred at- 
mospheres, penetrate deeply into the solid beds 
upon which the ocean rests, and render these beds 
more permeable to the heat? It is reasonable, and 
in no wise contrary to the laws of physics, to con- 
clude that the cooling of our globe, elsewhere 
excessively slow, has progressed more rapidly and 
more deeply under the seas than under the con- 
tinents. This difference has existed for many 
million years, and ought to have caused in that 
extent of time a notable variation of thickness in 
the solid crust. H. FAYE. 


BACTERIA AND DISEASE. 


Dr. GEORGE M. STERNBERG, U.S.A., so well 
known as a writer and investigator in bacteri- 
ology, delivered a lecture before the Alumni asso- 
ciation of the Long Island college hospital, Brook- 
lyn, on the evening of April 20. The subject upon 
which he was requested to address the association 
was, ‘‘A general review of the relation of bac- 
teria to disease, including an account of a personal 
observation of Pasteur’s methods in the prevention 
of hydrophobia, and their results.” 

The lecturer called attention to the frequent 
references of late to the labors of Pasteur in his 
inoculations for hydrophobia. While some of these 
willingly accorded to Pasteur all the honor he de- 
served, there were others which criticised adverse- 
ly not only his methods, but even his professional 
reputation, charging him with acting the charlatan 
in keeping his methods secret. It is true that 
Pasteur has not proclaimed his experiments abroad 
in all their details; but this is not because he de- 
sired to keep them secret, but because he wished to 
satisfy himself that his methods were right before 
he encouraged others to undertake them. In this re- 
spect he has done what every scientific man would 
do. He has, however, always been ready to ex- 
plain to those whom he regarded as competent his 
method, and even to demonstrate it to them. 

The basis of Pasteur’s method depending on in- 
crease in the virulence of the virus by transmission 
through a number of rabbits, and its use in gradu- 
ally increasing potency in inoculation, has already 
been described in Science; and his system of pro- 
tecting inoculation is too well known to call for 
further mention at this place. 

Before Pasteur inoculated any human beings, 
he had tested his method upon fifty dogs, and 
had in every case rendered them immune, that is, 
insusceptible to hydrophobia. The history of the 
first person inoculated, Joseph Meister, is too well 
known to need repetition here. Since this time 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 170 


(July, 1885), Pasteur has inoculated three hundred 
and fifty persons. Of course, Pasteur knows as 
weil as any of his adverse critics that all these 
persons were not bitten by rabid dogs, but he 
could not refuse to inoculate them. With the ex- 
ception of the Russians who have recently died, 
Pasteur has had but one unsuccessful result. In 
these cases the explanation is probably to be found 
in the fact that the inoculation was practised too 
late. It is just so in vaccination, which is recog- 
nized as a preventive of small-pox. If we can 
vaccinate in time, we may abort an attack of 
small-pox which would otherwise occur ; while, if 
our vaccination is done at the close of the incu- 
batory stage of the small-pox, it will be of no 
avail. 

Dr. Sternberg read a translation of Pasteur’s 
last communication to the French academy, pub- 
lished in the Comptes rendus of March 1. In this 
paper Pasteur gives the results of his inoculations, 
showing indubitably that the individuals operated 
upon had in most instances been bitten by rabid 
animals. These persons had come to him with 
certificates from medical men and veterinarians, 
showing this fact beyond a doubt. In speaking 
of his one apparent failure, Pasteur says that the 
child was not brought to him until thirty-seven 
days after the bite was received, and that the 
wounds in the axilla and the head were in them- 
selves most serious, and that but for the sake of 
humanity he would have refused to treat the child 
for the hydrophobia. 

Pasteur gives it as his opinion that one death 
from hydrophobia occurs in every six persons bit- 
ten, and that the disease is most apt to occur 
within forty or sixty days. Of the persons treated 
by him, one hundred were bitten more than 
seventy-five days before the publication of his 
communication, and were still well; another 
hundred had passed for six weeks to two months ; 
and the others were still well, and time only 
could tell what would be the result in their cases. 

In concluding his remarks upon hydrophobia 
and the methods of Pasteur, Dr. Sternberg said 
that the only criticism which suggests itself with 
reference to this interesting statement of facts is 
that Pasteur does not attach as much importance 
to the prophylactic value of early and thorough 
cauterization as this measure seems entitled to. 
The considerable number of cases in which cau- 
terization was practised may have had a greater 
influence upon the favorable result in the extended 
series of cases reported than Pasteur has been 
willing to admit. At all events, it will be well to 
withhold our final judgment as to the value of 
the method as applied to man until the three 
hundred and fifty cases reported are all beyond 


I 


May 7%, 1886.| 


the limits of time within which the disease may 
develop, and especially until we have from Pasteur 
a satisfactory explanation of the failure in the 
cases of the three wolf-bitten Russians who have 
recently died of hydrophobia after having sub- 
mitted to his treatment. 

In discussing the relation of bacteria to disease, 
the lecturer stated, that, in response to a question 
of his, Pasteur had told him, that, although care- 
ful and persistent search had been made, no or- 
ganism had been found in the hydrophobic virus, 
and that no difference could be detected between 
virulent and non-virulent spinal cords. An in- 
vestigator in Geneva has recently claimed to have 
discovered the germ of rabies, but the claim lacks 
confirmation. 

In contagious pleuro-pneumonia no germ has 
yet been discovered which can be considered as 
the specific micro-organism of the disease. Stern- 
berg, Councilman, and Welch have lately been at 
work at the problem, but have as yet been un- 
successful. 

In the pus of acute abscesses micrococci are 
invariably found. That the bacillus of anthrax, 
‘the spirochaeta of relapsing-fever, the bacillus of 
tuberculosis, all stand in an etiological relation to 
those diseases, there now seems to be no doubt. The 
dispute between the Germans and the English, as 
to the réle played” by the cholera bacillus in the 
production of that disease, is still unsettled. The 
bacillus of typhoid-fever, discovered by Ebert in 
1880, is claimed by Koch to be the undoubted 
germ of that disease. His assistant, Gaffky, in- 
variably finds it in the spleen of those who have 
died from the fever. Koch thinks that it forms 
spores. When introduced into the circulation of 
lower animals, it does not produce typhoid; but 
nothing can be argued from this, as we do not 
know that this disease ever affects animals other 
than man. 


ACCURATE MOUNTAIN HEIGHTS.' 


OF the various methods of determining the 
height of a mountain, the best is undoubtedly 
that of running a line of levels to its summit. 
This method is accepted as the standard, and as 
that by which the errors of the other methods are 
to be judged. A surprising degree of accuracy 
can be attained in levelling an ordinary country. 
Many of the errors compensate, and the final 
results should generally be accurate within a 
small fraction of a foot. In ascending a moun- 
_ tain, much greater deviations must be expected. 
The back sights are usually longer than the fore 
sights, and therefore errors in the adjustment of 


1 From Appalachia, iv, 215. 


SCIENCE. 


423 


the level or in the correction for atmospheric re- 
fraction are cumulative. The effect of the mass 
of the mountain on the level would produce an 
error which would not be compensated, and 
might be large enough to be appreciable. Final- 
ly, an error in the length of the levelling-rod 
would enter to its full proportionate amount. 
For these reasons much reliance should not be 
placed upon the fractions of a foot, unless the 
above sources of error have been considered and 
proper corrections applied. The precise heights 
as determined have, however, been given below. 
The labor and cost prevent its general applica- 
tion to the determination of mountain heights. 
A few lines of level have been run up the hills 
and mountains in this portion of the country [New 
England], generally by the enterprise and enthu- 
siasm of volunteers. A description of several of 
these has been collected from various sources, 
in most cases from the local newspapers. The 
principal results are published below for perma- 
nent reference. Doubtless many similar measure- 
ments have been made, and it is hoped that they 
may be communicated to the writer as material 
for a second paper. As an example of the danger 
that such material may be totally lost, it may be 
mentioned that scarcely any of the results given 
below are contained in the excellent ‘ Dictionary 
of altitudes of the United States,’ recently pub- 
lished by the U. S. geological survey. 

The following table contains a number for 
reference, the name of the mountain or other 
object measured, and its height above the mean 
tide-level of the ocean. Additional information 
regarding many of these points is contained in 
the original article in Appalachia. Nos. 1 to 10 
are taken from ‘ The geology of New Hampshire,’ 
vol. i.; Nos. 11 to 17, from an article by Mr. J. J. 
Holbrook, New Hampshire Sentinel, Nov. 22, 
1877, where the altitudes of several other points 
in Cheshire county, N.H., are also given. All 
of these stations are in New Hampshire ; Nos. 18 
to 43 are in Vermont, and Nos. 44 to 63 in New 
York. 


STATIONS. FEET. 
1..Mount Washington .......-. eee cere ence erence: 6,293,000 
2..Upper water-tank, Mount Washington railroad .5,800 000 
3..Second tank (Jacob’s Ladder),...... ...-..+-----5,468.000 
4). Waumbek Junction 6.5. 0c es cc. cect cs seen mee ee 3,910.000 
Ee JATMINONOOSUCGStAbION Is « « cpaiere viele cleiefdie b efeln weesolyt = im 2,668.C00 
GEL OUEW.AIY, EL OUSO fete <:ci0 07+ cisie, cinie,oicie) = sins) =)0,s(0isias sini eidie 3,849.000 
PEA CHOMUELOUS Ot ccc oe sie Salcieitieyniceies eects erein,s ole e creas 1,632.000 
Be SIMCAFSRERE!(S:)s acdc ce te be werncn Sele ocveWie emit a trvials cite 2,942.790 
is “i Gar dons. ances. ccteiele wide weary 2 elafetione t= 2,622 .500 
10.. sie Plumbago: Poinib...< 265s ee aos ap > 101, (ODA 
Bs ORANGE: oc. cae sale twas ain once res as San es ee ok 8,169.300 
12.. ot Mountalm HOUSC seater ch coos) aleve ate 2,071,954 
13..John Mann’s, near divide...........ceeeeeee sees 1,487.602 
14.. Jaffrey Schoolhouse No. 12 (threshold).......... 1,231.227 
15..Troy Schoolhouse No. 3 (lowest step)..........- 1,166.112 
Bi, MACREEE MSIL Netretem os Gale ved ak rect edad ee week coe ee 1,060,566 


424 


STATIONS, FEET. 
¢..Beech Hill Reservoir...........ceccceeceseces .. 594,589 
18..Mount Mansfield (chin)...............20ee.ceeee -4,389.080 
19..  ‘“* (TIOBO) "> 35 os ca en en cue ces eee 4,056.390 
be Bunny: House. .s <2. oe A a eee 3,841.640 
21..Ridge south-east of Summit House.............. 8,612.380 
Pe AMWAY THOUS, «2... ccceacceotne sas, eee 2,306.380 
23..Junction of Notch Road..... ....cccccececececee 1.291.850 
24..Bench near J. Houston’s........00..ccceeececeee 955.050 
25..Mansfield House, Stowe ...........sseeeesceseucs 720.270 
26..Methodist Church, Waterbury Centre.......... 712.5380 
aernilineton Peak. :.:..........00........ eee 4.220.870 
28..Summit of the second BIG. Je. $2.0 20, Se eee 3.546.310 
29..Rock, summit of the first TAGES was as.cs aca seee 3,335.480 
30..Bench, rock near Manley’s barn.) «32:22. ackeuee 2.097.610 
31..Bench, rock near R. Maxham’s.................. 1,812.720 
32..Junction of the mountain road, Sherburne. 1,504,770 
a. Hatel, Sherburne, :. >... sole 4. ee 1,211.210 
34. Congregational Church, Bridgewater........... 992.390 
a. Mount a peak) Woodstcck............ 1 351.220 
36... * * (south peak “ 
Sf, ibtio MUinutem 4/12. a te'5 520k Tig ee 
38..Base ot the town hall, Woodstock.............. ‘697.690 
ame SENGO. 922 20S. UR ev ae eee 3,935.000 
40..Shrewsbury Mountain.......... OSG ah veces eB,207 000 
ES: a SSG CRE CRS IEA ICRI 3,838,000 
Perr NOU eS MENIY, 2... 3... 7. eee hee 4 077 000 
be hclgrstibegsisies” LEE ee ae 3. 163.000 
44..Whiteface Mountain................. siete eve 4,871,655 
A 2 . i (Spring) oi ic ees i, ce 2,817.958 
.. (brook, second crossing on 
trail) Bins n\n !<!eieia\«'e/ 90's wo slate (els ararsiat he ae See 2,023.965 
ZY fg Whiteface Mountain (brook, first erossing on ae 
trail)... bas please Regn cine we cine siebe abis pale inaeie tie te 1,959.996 
sil recap. 6 AR NOU ne ear aah Pabst. 1,863.715 
49,.Mount Maroy....0.05.0027. 02. c0ccssa seks ldo BMA OAS 
- . od) Men) 5, Sct 2d is eee te . «4,998,278 
a take Tear OF dhe Olona. a6 i oe eae ae 4.321.958 
+ ; a ** (summit of notch)........ 
53..Panther Gorges 2%. : ADS eric ne ares Songade pe 
it. Mount Mae lnbyre sisi. 5 wos. Lad sacocse estes 5,112 730 
55..Mackenzie Pond ME OUBEB IT i. a= es cheeesenee 3,789 322 
66..Mount Skylight....................... 4,889,626 
WEIGay Peskes t.ho ige 8 ih. iG Rie ane 4,902,000 
58..Haystack............... isd a. alee Se, tee hoe 
59.. Bartlett (west shoulder)..............0.0 2985 512 
60..St. Regis Mountain........................... 2888 298 
61..Lyon Mountain La A ee ee 
62..St. Regis Lake OWRR) So 85s WoL heat’ wet 1,623 162 
Se MRENCEL GS PANG oe eh hn ec gel. eee 1774 249 


The height of Mount Washington was determined 
in 1853 by Captain Cram of the U. S. coast sur- 
vey. Nos. 8 to 10 are from the carriage-road sur- 
vey by Mr. R. S. Howe. Nos. 11 to 17 were 
levelled by Mr. J. J. Holbrook; and Nos. 18 to 26, 
by Mr. Hosea Doton, who started from the rail- 
way - station at Waterbury, and assumed the 
height of the top of the sleepers at that point to 
be 425 feet. Nos. 27 to 37 were determined in 
1863 by Mr. Doton, who ran a line of levels, 
starting from White River Junction. The height 
of White River Junction was assumed to be 
351 feet. Nos. 38 to 41 were determined trigo- 
nometrically from No. 27. No. 42 was lev- 
elled by Mr.*Charles Collins at the time of the 
building of the Vermont central railroad; and 
No. 43, by Messrs. H. F. Dunham and D. C. Bell, 
from a bench in Harland. The bench appears to 
have been the summit of Garvin Hill, Nos. 44 to 


SCIENUVE. 


(Vox. VIL., No. 170 


63 are taken from the ‘Seventh report of the 
Adirondack survey,’ by Mr. Verplanck Colvin. 
No. 61 was not determined by levelling, but from 
the mean of two months’ observation with the 


barometer. 
EK. C. PICKERING. 


PROPOSED NEW TRADE OUTLET ON 
THE BLACK SEA. 


THE Russian government has very recently, 
says Engineering, partially approved of a new 
scheme for doing away completely with com- 
merce at Sebastopol, and diverting the stream of 
trade to Theodosia, at the eastern extremity of 
the Crimea. To achieve this it is projected to 
construct a railway, some eighty miles in length, 
from the Djanski station of the Lozova-Sebasto- 
pol line, and build a regular port at the Theodosian 
extremity. Of course, the building of the rail- 
way and port will be an expensive business, to 
say nothing of the inconvenience and loss incurred 
by the numerous merchants and trades - people, 
who will be compelled bon gré mal gré to transfer 
their operations from Sebastopol to Theodosia. 
But the Russian government never allows com- 
merce to interfere with its military and naval 
plans ; and certain high authorities having advo- 
cated the conversion of Sebastopol into a naval 
station, pure and simple, there is a probability 
that the rapidly increasing trade of the port will 
be summarily shifted to the other end of the 
Crimea. Such a despotic transfer is very little 
relished by the business-people of Sebastopol, to 
whom is really due the credit of having restored 
the place from a mass of ruins to a respectable 
town, and who have no inclination to have to 
repeat the process amidst the broken relics of 
Genoese, Turkish, and early Russian rule at Theo- 
dosia. Moreover, the port is a very inferior one 
compared with Sebastopol, being quite open to 
the sea; and although Chardin, when he visited 
the place two centuries ago, stated that there 
were more than 4,000 houses and 80,000 people in 
Theodosia, and 400 ships in the bay, it is not easy 
to believe that it was a very commodious port for 
shipping. In ancient times Theodosia was called 
Kaffa, and is reported by classic writers to have 
shipped as much as 3,000,000 bushels of wheat in 
one year, serving during the period in question as 
the ‘granary of Greece.’ In later times the 
Genoese did a large trade here; but the Turks 
knocked the place to pieces when they took it 
from the Genoese, the Russians again when they 
seized it from the Turks, and finally Hobart 
Pacha bombarded it in 1878. The population is 
about 10,000 souls, housed in hovels amidst a vast 


May 7, 1886.] 


expanse of ruins, and the town is about one of 
the dirtiest on the Russian shores of the Black 
Sea. Should the government carry out its plan, 
Kaffa will doubtless recover a deal of its ancient 
prosperity, but considerable time will be needed ; 
and, in the financial condition of Russia, it is 
curious the government should burden itself with 
such an onerous task. 


TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 


A NUMBER of sheets of the topographic map 
of the country in preparation by the geological 
survey have lately been issued, and give good 
promise of the future. As to their accuracy it is 
impossible for any one person to speak, inasmuch 
as they come from many parts of the country ; 
but, so far as they represent regions that the 


writer has chanced to visit, they give a satisfac-. 


tory and characteristic illustration of their geog- 
raphy, and there can be little question that they 
will meet with general approval on this score. In 
regard to execution, they deserve hearty praise, 
as being decided improvements over certain 
maps previously issued. The sheets are about 
eighteen and one-half inches long by thirteen to 
fifteen inches wide, varying in the latter measure 
according to their latitude. Each one is bounded 
by even degrees or half-degrees, and is printed in 
three colors. The relief is indicated by brown 
contour lines for every fifty feet in the states, 
where the scale is 1: 125,000, and for every two 
hundred and fifty feet in the western territories, 
where the scale is 1: 250,000. The streams and 
lakes are in blue. The roads, towns, boundaries, 
and lettering are in black: the latter gives the 
name of the survey and that of the state or ter- 
ritory, and a special name for the sheet, at the 
top; latitude and longitude (from Greenwich), on 
the margins; scales, date of work, and names of 
persons or surveys in charge of the district, at the 
bottom; and names of counties, townships, towns, 
streams, etc., on the map itself. The mechanical 
execution of all this work is neat, clean, and 
accurate; and it is with a feeling of great satis- 
faction that we greet the appearance of so wel- 
come an addition to our scanty store of these 
civilizing agents. We have as yet received no 
information as to the cost of the maps per sheet, 
but presume that they can be obtained singly and 
at moderate price; so that eventually —and not 
too far in the future—we may all have good 
maps of the region about us. The present edition 
contains several sheets for Montana, constructed 


_ from data received from the late Northern trans- 
- continental survey; a good number for Utah, with 


SCIENCE. 


425 


two for Arizona and Nevada, from work under 
the old Hayden, Wheeler, King, and Powell sur- 
veys, whose records are now, happily, thus con- 
solidated ; and a few others for Missouri, Texas, 
and Alabama, surveyed two years ago under the 
present organization. These last are especially 
interesting as revealing to us the topography of 
regions that have had too little attention during 
the last two decades of rapid western exploration. 


THE COUNTRY BANKER. 


Mr. RAE’s book consists of a series of informal 
talks about the business of an English country 
banker. There is hardly any thing about the gen- 
eral theory of banking, and little that is directly 
of value to the economist or student. The author 
simply gives a great quantity of practical advice 
to bank managers in the smaller towns of Eng- 
land, — whom they ought to give credit to, what 
securities to take, how to treat customers and 
clerks; and so on. The advice is confined ex- 
clusively to the particular audience he is address- 
ing. Nothing is said about the practice and busi- 
ness of other kinds of banks ; not even of the large 
London banks, except incidentally by way of con- 
trasting their operations with those of country 
banks. . 

A great deal of the advice given is such as any 
shrewd and sensible man would give in any pro- 
fession. The country banker is to be careful and 
circumspect, to watch his customers and his se- 
curities, to keep a good reserve, not to give too 
high salaries and yet to give sufficient salaries ; 
and soon. It is not easy to see how such advice 
can be of much use to the persons to whom it is 
addressed. Rules of this kind are obvious enough: 
the difficulty is to apply them. Occasionally Mr. 
Rae gives something more concrete, as where he 
discusses the goodness of various kinds of securi- 
ties, and the inferences to be drawn from a busi- 
ness-man’s balance-sheet ; and in these places 
bankers and money-lenders may find useful hints. 
But in the main one suspects the book will prove 
entertaining to that large class to whom banking 
and finance are an attractive mystery,— the people 
to whom a discussion of money and money-mak- 
ing and money-lending, and the handling of finan- 
cial matters, has a fascination like that of the big 
bars of solid gold to the sight-seers at the mint. 
And to such persons, as well as to the general 
reader who wants to know something of the rou- 
tine of banking, the book can be recommended. 
It is sound, sensible, and clearly and fluently 
written. 


The country banker. By GrorGe RAE. 
by Brayton lvese New York, Scribner, 1886. 


With a preface 
12°. 


426 


Incidentally one gets interesting glimpses of 
English habits. Thus the habit of cutting bank- 
notes in two, and transmitting the two halves in 
separate envelopes by post,—to guard against 
loss or theft in transmission, — still exists. Mr. 
Rae advises managers not to issue notes to ‘‘any one 
who, you have reason to suspect, would straight- 
way cut them in halves, and despatch them by the 
first post as a remittance to London.” And notes 
of local country banks are sometimes preferred 
by people in rural parts to Bank-of-England notes. 
Ignorance and prejudice of this kind on mone- 
_ tary matters are possible only in a rather stolid 
and slow-moving community like that of rural 
England. Again, the country banks handle depos- 
its in a way differing from methods in this coun- 
try. They charge an eighth of one per cent on 
all transactions, whether of money deposited or 
checks cashed. On the other hand, they allow 
to depositors interest on their accounts from day 
to day, at the rate of from two to two and one- 
half per cent. No such practice, we believe, 
exists in London or in this country. The expense 
of handling an account, and the gain from de- 
posits, are allowed to offset each other,— a rough- 
and-ready but simple process. The more punc- 
tilious arrangement of the English country banks 
is characteristic of their general business habits. 

F, W. Taussia. 


PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 


THE reader who has no previous acquaintance 
with Von Hartmann cannot be advised to begin 
with this volume; but whoever has a moderately 
good knowledge of the great pessimist’s views and 
methods will find these brief essays both instruc- 
tive and amusing. Von Hartmann here uses all 
his well-known dialectic arts, sets his various op- 
ponents to fighting among themselves with all 
his old, somewhat trite but always charming in- 
genuity, parades for the reader’s benefit a large 
part of his imposing and finely drilled termi- 
nology, and retells in his pleasing way much of 
his philosophical romance. ‘The tireless activity, 
the immense reading, the skilful writing, and the 
attractive personality of the author are all freely 
displayed. Nobody else in this generation can do 
what Von Hartmann has done: so much is clear. 
Nobody else can make both pessimism and ab- 
stract metaphysic so popular; nobody else can 
join such a talent for advertising with such a 
genuine speculative genius; and to nobody else 
has Heaven granted such various talents, literary, 
commercial, scientific, journalistic, philosophical, 

Philosophische fragen der gegenwart, Von EDWARD VON 
HARTMANN. Leipzig und Berlin, Mriedrich, 1885, 8°. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VI1., No. 170 


and quasi-philosophical. Whether the result of 
the use made of these powers in Von HMartmann’s 
case has been to produce a philosophy, every 
reader must judge for himself as he can. For 
our part, we can make nothing of the outcome, 
in so far at least as it is Von Hartmann’s. His 
stubborn insistence upon giving to his account 
of the absolute the form of an historical romance 
is his most characteristic and fundamental phi- 
losophical blunder. One cannot regard even 
elementary geometry as a story: its truths are 
contemporaneous. How much less, then, can an 
incoherent narrative, such as Von Hartmann gives 
of the ‘ weltprocess,’ exhaust or even fairly begin 
an exposition of the philosophy of the absolute, 
in case, namely, there is any philosophy of the 
absolute possible at all? And as for Von Hart- 
mann’s pessimism, this whole conception of a bal- 
ance-sheet of pleasures and pains as a test of the 
value of life seems to us unpsychological, and op- 
posed alike to the common sense of mankind and to 
the demands of speculative thought upon ethical 
problems. Deeper truth there indeed is in Von 
Hartmann’s writings, and much of it; but, so far 
as our knowledge of his works goes, this deeper 
truth represents rather the common property of 
idealists than any creation of Von Hartmann’s. 
But one thing, at least, must be admitted by the 
unkindest of critics; viz., that if there is in 
Von Hartmann, as we must hold, only the spoil- 
ing of a philosopher, our pessimist still remains 
one of the best philosophers ever so completely 
spoiled. 

Of the twelve essays in this volume, all brief 
and all interesting, the most valuable, to our 
mind, are the first, ‘Die schicksale meiner phi- 
losophie in ihrem ersten jahrzent;’ the fourth, 
‘Uebersicht der wichtigsten philosophischen 
standpunkte ;’ the fifth, ‘Zur pessimismus-frage ;’ 
the sixth, ‘Zur religious-philosophie ;’ the tenth, 
‘Die grundbegriffe der rechtsphilosophie ;’ and 
the eleventh, ‘ Kant und die heutige erkenntniss- 
theorie.’ Of these, the first is by far the most 
directly and universally attractive, because it 
brings Von Hartmann‘s personality to the front 
most of all, and is a fine example of his fre- 
quently used device of joining the methods of 
autobiography with those of metaphysic, to the 
great advantage of the general reader, if not to 
the advantage of his philosophy itself. 
JOSIAH ROYCE. 


THERE have been but sixty cases of death from 
hydrophobia in Philadelphia during the past 
twenty-five years, the largest number, seven, 0c- 
curring in 1869. : 


an Af Ee « 


SCHEME. 


FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


A VERY IMPORTANT contribution to the discus- 
sions which are now in progress with respect to 
the scientific work of the United States govern- 
ment has reached us within the last week. Itisa 
voluminous report of the testimony elicited by the 
joint congressional commission, of which Senator 
Allison is chairman, from the time when it began 
to act, Dec. 4, 1884, until Jan. 30, 1886. This evi- 
dence was presented in the senate on the 16th of 
last March, and ordered to be printed. It consti- 
tutes a bock of more than eleven hundred pages, 
in which a very copious and well-arranged index 
is included. The first portion of this volume, in- 
cluding the evidence which was collected during 
the first winter of the commission’s service, has 
long been in type, and has been the basis of some 
of our previous comments. The latter half, in- 
cluding the testimony taken last December and 
January, is new to us, and to that alone we now 
call attention. In the personnel two changes 
were made at the beginning of last winter: Sen- 
ator Morgan took the place of Senator Pendleton ; 
and Mr. John T. Wait, a representative for Con- 
necticut, the place of Mr. Theodore Lyman, a 
representative for Massachusetts. Fourteen ses- 
sions were held during the two months just 
named, and the principal officers of the coast 
survey, the geological survey, the hydrographic 
survey, and the signal service, wereexamined. In 
addition to their testimony, communications are 
also printed from Simon Newcomb and Alex- 
ander Agassiz. 


In a somewhat rapid examination of this 
volume, we discover a vast amount of detailed 
information in respect to the conduct of scientific 
work by the government, but we do not perceive 
any fresh contribution to the discussion of the 
principles which should govern the organizations. 
There is nothing to indicate the conclusions of the 
commission, though the bias of individual mem- 
bers may be surmised from their interrogations. 
It would appear as if the commission had pursued 
their inquiry with fairness and thoroughness, and 

No, 171.— 1886, 


with a sincere desire to set before congress the 
exact condition of affairs. It isa pity that some 
competent person had not been employed to digest 
the information thus laboriously collected, and to 
present in a colorless summary the suggestions 
which are made, pro and con, as to possible 
changes. Professor Newcomb (Jan. 15, 1886) suc- 
cinctly describes the situation from his point of 
view, pointing to ‘‘ the want of adequate adminis- 
trative supervision of the work of those bureaus,” 
and declaring that he sees but one remedy, — “‘ to 
place all the scientific work of the government 
properly so called under a single administrative 
head, to be selected by the President.” The re- 
marks of Professor Agassiz discriminate between 
the work which legitimately belongs to the gov- 
ernment and that which does not; and he refers 
(Dec. 2, 1885) to a note which he has written to 
the Nation, embodying his ideas in regard to all 
this government business. 


Major Powell, in a letter to the commission, has 
presented some criticisms of the changes pro- 
posed. He says ‘that the bill [brought before 
congress by Mr. Herbert], in prohibiting the 
expenditure of any money for paleontological 
work or publication, except for the collection, 
classification, and proper care of fossils and other 
material,” practically provides for exactly the 
paleontological work now being prosecuted by the 
survey, but prohibits its publication. He also 
calls attention to the popular misunderstanding 
of the scientific conception of atheory. The bill 
prohibits ‘‘ the general discussion of the geological 
theories.” If this is used in the scientific sense, it 
prohibits any classification, or suggestion ef the 
possible co-ordination, of the recorded facts. In 
view of the absolute necessity of the geological 
survey prosecuting all branches of research which 
can in any way bear upon the knowledge sought, 
it would be more reasonable for congress to pro- 
vide for curtailing the expenses of the bureau, 
causing the depletion to fall upon the entire or- 
ganization, rather than to commit the error of 
lopping off some branch or branches of the work. 


THE QUESTION OF THE PLACE and character of 
the moral and religious instruction at Harvard 


428 


was Officially settled by the board of overseers 
last week. The subject has excited great interest, 
because Harvard is generally looked to as the 
leader in the matter of higher education in this 
country ; and it was pretty generally felt that 
whatever course Harvard should take in this 
regard would be quite generally followed, in the 
course of time, by other institutions of learning. 
Pending the settlement of the question, —and it 
was one which a conscientious president or over- 
seer could not settle in a day, —the Harvard au- 
thorities and one or two of the professors have 
been subjected in some quarters to a criticism 
which was as unnecessary as ill-timed. <A de- 
liberative body of any force of character is not to 
be deterred from doing its duty as it sees it, by 
the noisy clamor and abuse of ex-parte advocates. 
The subject is now settled, and it will give gen- 
eral satisfaction when it is known that the guid- 
ing principle of the solution found is unsectarian 
Christianity. Whether this will be found possible 
of attainment in practice is a question, but the 
overseers have provided for it as best they 
could. Rev. Francis S. Peabody becomes Plum- 
mer professor of Christian morals, and head of 
the department of religious instruction in the 
college. He will also be the university pastor. 
As coadjutors, Professor Peabody is to have five 
college preachers, who are to be clergymen of 
reputation and large experience. These college 
preachers will, with the professor, have charge of 
the chapel services and of the religious instruc- 
tion. As we understand the scheme, each college 
preacher is appointed for a year, but fulfils the 
duties of his position only one-fifth of the time. 
In this way a constant succession of able clergy- 
men of various denominations will be in co-opera- 
tion with Professor Peabody. In theory this plan 
seems excellent, but we shall await its practical 
application with interest and not a little incre- 
dulity. 


THAT SCIENTIFIC MEN believe that the claim of 
Pasteur has merit enough to entitle it to investi- 
gation, if not to credence, is evidenced by the 
fact that commissions are being sent to Paris to 
examine into the methods now practised for the 
prevention of rabies. The English government 
has appointed such a commission, having selected 
some of the most eminent men in the kingdom. 
Sir James Paget, T. Lauder Brunton, Sir Henry 
Roscoe, and Burdon Sanderson are names which 
will satisfy every one that justice and caution 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 172 


will be exercised in the inquiry. Germany, by 
the selection of Virchow and Koch, has shown 
her interest in the matter. The Academy of med- 
icine of Rome has sent delegates for the same 
purpose ; while the Archduke Charles Theodore of 
Bavaria, a physician, has started for Paris to 
make an investigation on his own account. It 
would seem reasonable to expect some decided 
results from an investigation made by such talent- 
ed men as most of them are known to be, and 
that the truth or falsity of Pasteur’s claim was ina 
fair way to be established beyond a peradventure. 


IT IS TO BE HOPED that congress will not fail to 
pass the bill authorizing the appointment of a 
commission to inquire into the merits of inoculation 
for the prevention of yellow-fever. This bill was 
introduced at the instance of Dr. Joseph Holt of 
New Orleans, and has received the indorsement 
of the American public health association. From 
the daily press we learn that the physicians of the 
military garrison at Vera Cruz have already com- 
menced inoculations for the prevention of yellow- 
fever. The material employed is injected hypo- 
dermically at intervals of eight days. Such a 
commission as could be selected from this country 
could establish the value of this method of pre- 
vention of yellow-fever, so strongly advocated by 
Freire and Carmona. 


A TASK FOR ANATOMISTS. 


‘s WALLACE,” writes Oscar Schmidt, ‘‘ might. 
well say that we live in a world which is zodlogi- 
cally very impoverished, and from which the 
hugest, wildest, and strangest forms have now 
disappeared.” But old as the world appears, who 
shall say that it has passed or even reached matur- 
ity —if so be that worlds, like animals, have their 
day, as some have been bold enough to assert? It 
is true that the fishes no longer predominate, that 
the reptiles have dwindled into insignificance, and 
that of the mammals only a handful of great forms 
remain. But another type, the last to appear, and, 
of all, the most notable, — man, — is in the as- 
cendant. His age is but begun. If we look upon 
the world of to-day as poorly furnished with strik- 
ing animal forms, what must be the verdict of the 
man of the fiftieth or sixtieth century, when Eu- 
rope will be a chain of cities, Africa and South 
America densely peopled continents, and North 
America the home of a population to be counted 
by hundreds of millions! The increase of pow- 
erful appliances for the subjection of the earth to 
human needs, within the memory of men now 


May 14, 1886.] 


living, is without parallel, and there is no indica- 
tion that the climax has been reached. It is not, 
indeed, improbable that our age may come to be 
looked upon as plodding and unprogressive. 

It is not, however, to the development of the 
world’s resources to which I would direct atten- 
tion. but to some of the effects impending from 
the ascendency of many, and the duty of zodlo- 
gists in connection therewith. 

Some of the great changes in the zodlogical con- 
dition of the globe, incident upon the increase of 
human populations, the extension of railroads 
and the introduction of steam-power and horse- 
power, agricultural machinery, and the general 
use of perfected fire-arms, are familiar to every- 
body. The existence of vast herds of bison on the 
western plains of North America has become a 
matter of history. The aurochs, the bison’s Euro- 
pean cousin, is likewise menaced with destruction. 
‘Tt no longer exists,” says M. de Tribolet, ‘‘ but 
in the condition, as one may say, of a living zo6- 
logical specimen.” Similarly the bands of destruc- 
tion are daily tightening about the wapiti, the 
moose deer, the antelope, the manatee, and the 
-mountain sheep and mountain goat, in North 
America ; the chamois, the wild goat, the beaver, 
and the stag, in Europe; the kangaroo, in Aus- 
tralia; the elephant, the gorilla, and the chim- 
panzee, in Africa ;.and a score of other mammals, 
as well as birds and reptiles, in different parts of 
the world. 

The reckless slaughter of some of these animals 
is painful to contemplate. ‘‘Some years ago,” 
writes the author from whom we have just quoted, 
‘*a little family of beavers was discovered on an 
island in the Rhone; it was a happy accident, 
there was hope that we should see the revival of 
a species well-nigh extinct. All have been slaugh- 
tered without pity, — a folly which one could not 
have supposed possible, except among a non-civil- 
ized people, where the culprit is unconscious of 
his guilt.” Words cannot entirely express the sor- 
row with which the true lover of nature witnesses 
the wanton annihilation of so many of the greatest 
and most interesting of living creatures. 

But there is room for more than sorrow. There 
is good cause to fear, that, unless anatomists bestir 
themselves, many large species of vertebrates now 
existing will become extinct before their structure 
is at all thoroughly known. Gosse’s dictum, that 
‘*it is better to err on the side of minuteness than 
of vagueness,” should be applied to this matter. 
It would be best to lay aside thesis and hypothesis, 
and to record facts, — as many and as much in 
detail as possible. From the stand-point of to-day, 
rudimentary, defective, and ‘nascent’ structures 
attract an inordinate amount of attention, because 


SCIENCE. 


429 


of the light they shed upon the theory of evolu- 
tion. But ten or twenty centuries hence a new 
theory may dominate, a new stand-point be taken, 
and a new standard adopted. Then the anatomi- 
cal details we ignore may perhaps be diligently in- 
quired into. We do not find fault with the early 
historians because they recorded so many facts, 
but because they recorded so few, and these so im- 
perfectly. It may be that the fool collects facts, 
while the wise man selects them ; but the wise 
man— the supreme genius—is one man of a 
million, and the fools had best content themselves 
with piling up the store of truths against his 
coming. 

But whether fools or wise, posterity will cer- 
tainly charge us with slothfulness if we fail to 
record, so far as our opportunities and appliances 
and the condition of zodlogical knowledge permit, 
the last details of the structure of those species of 
animals we know to be about to become extinct. 

A work similar in character to this is being 
carried on at the present time by the Smithsonian 
institution’s bureau of ethnology, the Davenport 
academy, and other similar organizations. Ameri- 
can ethnographers have awakened to the fact that 
the study of the aborigines is becoming every 
day more difficult, and with most commendable 
zeal have set to work to record all that can be 
learned regarding the history, languages, religions, 
and customs of our Indian tribes. Let anatomists 
in all parts of the world follow the example of 
these investigators. In the case of vanishing 
peoples and species of animals, what the ethnog- 
rapher and anatomist of to-day fail to record, the 
future archeologist and paleontologist can never 
find out, or can only guess at. FE. W.. TRUER, 


THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


THE American historical association held its 
third annual meeting at Washington on Tuesday, 
Wednesday, and Thursday, April 29-May 1. The 
venerable George Bancroft presided at all but two 
sessions, when the first vice-president, Mr. Justin 
Winsor, librarian of Harvard college, took his 
place. The sessions were held in the large hall of 
the Columbian university, and were well attended. 
Mr. Bancroft’s address of welcome was very well 
received. It will be printed in the next number 
of the Magazine of American history. Gen. J. G. 
Wilson of New York followed with a paper on 
Columbus, advocating an international celebra- 
tion of the discovery of America by the great ex- 
plorer. At a subsequent meeting a committee 
was appointed to wait on the President, to ask 
him to call the attention of congress to the matter. 
It is understood that the President received the 


430 


deputation favorably, and will recommend co-oper- 
ation with other powers in his next annual message. 
Prof. E. N. Horsford of Cambridge then read a 
paper on the landfall of John Cabot in 1497. The 
substance of it has already appeared in Mr. Hors- 
ford’s letter to Judge Daly, printed in the journal 
of the American geographical society, and also in 
the form of a monograph. Dr. A. B. Hart of 
Harvard came next, with ‘A description of some 
graphic methods of illustrating history,’ with ex- 
amples of some maps and charts actually used by 
him in his lecture-room. The paper was listened 
to with great interest. But the only paper of 
the morning which evoked discussion was one by 
Prof. M. C. Tyler of Cornell, on the neglect and 
destruction of historical materials in this country. 
The reverend doctor was most justifiably severe 
on the almost criminal way in which American 
families, with a few notable exceptions, have 
treated the papers left by their ancestors. Judge 
Mellen Chamberlain of the Boston public library 
agreed with Dr. Tyler, and, in addition, called 
attention to the duty that certain families who 
have inherited public papers from their ancestors 
owe to the public to return all documents that 
really form part of the public archives to the pub- 
lic depositaries, whether state or national ; and a 
motion to that effect was introduced and carried. 
It may seem singular that such a motion should 
be necessary, but one hundred years ago it was by 
no means uncommon for a governor or secretary 
of state, on his departure from office, to take away 
with him such public papers as interested him ; 
and to-day many documents which form, or rather 
should form, a part of the archives, are in the 
hands of persons who know nothing of their value, 
and take no more care of them than they take of 
their own family papers. 

In the evening Mr. Charles Deane of Cambridge 
presented, in behalf of Mr. Alexander Brown of 
Nelson county, Va., a paper embodying what may 
be called the modern views of the early history of 
his state. The Hon. William Wirt Henry of Rich- 
mond followed with a paper describing the part 
taken by Virginia in establishing religious liberty 
under the leadership of his grandfather, Patrick 
Henry. As might have been expected, Mr. Henry 
did full justice both to his ancestor and his native 
state. Dr. Channing of Cambridge followed with 
an abstract of a paper on the social condition of 
New England in the middle of the last century. 
He especially emphasized the fact that in one cor- 
ner of New England slavery then existed on an 
extensive scale. Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge, jun., 
who has been studying with him the past year at 
Harvard, then read a carefully prepared paper on 
the development of municipal government in 


SCIENCE. 


{[Vor. VIL, No. 171 


Massachusetts. He showed that the first charter 
of Boston was a direct outgrowth of the New 
England town system. Judge Chamberlain, in 
the course of some remarks on this paper, pointed 
out how completely the individual masses of 
Americans had become accustomed to organizing. 

The morning session of the second day was 
opened by Edward G. Mason, Esq., of Chicago, 
with a thoroughly enjoyable essay on the march 
of the Spaniards across Illinois. This was in many 
respects the most valuable paper presented. It 
will shortly be printed in the Magazine of Ameri- 
can history, and needs no further mention here. 
At this session Mr. William A. Mowry of the 
Journal of education presented his well-known 
views upon the disputed question as to whether 
the Louisiana purchase included Oregon. Mr. 
Mowry’s argument is in many respects a strong 
one; but it may pertinently be asked, supposing 
that he is correct in his assertion that Oregon was 
not within the limits of that purchase, how did 
the United States acquire it? Mr. E. B. Scott of 
Wilkesbarre, Penn., closed the session with an ac- 
count of the settlement of the lower St. Lawrence. 

In the evening Prof. A. Scott of Rutgers led off 
with a paper on the origin of the highest func- 
tion of the American judiciary, in the course of 
which he remarked that he thought that New 
Jersey had some share in the revolution, which, 
judging from the general drift of the papers, 
seemed to have been the exclusive work of Massa- 
chusetts and Virginia. Mr. J. M. Merriam, an 
undergraduate student at Harvard, then read a 
paper showing that the number of removals usu- 
ally attributed to Jefferson was much too small. 
This paper attracted considerable interest, and 
was printed in full in one of the Washington daily 
papers. Another of Dr. Channing’s pupils, Mr. 
A. B. Houghton, was put down for a paper on the 
international aspect of the Panama canal. He 
was unavoidably absent, and a very short account 
of his work was presented. The last paper on the 
list for the evening was an address by Dr. F. W. 
Taussig of Harvard on the early protection move- 
ment and the tariff of 1828, in which it was shown 
that the Jackson and Adams men so angled for 
the votes of all sections that the tariff of 1828, as 
passed, pleased no one. Mr. Henry Adams, whose 
history of the period from 1788 to 1812 is so 
anxiously awaited by students of American his- 
tory, closed the session with a few remarks sup- 
plementary to Mr. Merriam’s paper. He thought, 
however, that credit was still due to Mr. Jefferson 
for not making even more removals than, accord- 
ing to the essayist, he did make. 

But the third day was in many respects the 
most interesting day of all. Gen. G. W. Cullum, 


May 14, 1886.] 


at one time commander at West Point, opened 
the morning session with an interesting account 
of the attack on Washington in 1814. He was 
followed by two of the lecturers in the course re- 
cently given at the Lowell institute in Boston, 
under the auspices of the Military historical so- 
ciety of Massachusetts, — Col. William Allan of 
Maryland, formerly on ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’s 
staff; and Major Jedidiah Hotchkiss of Staunton, 
who served through the war on Jackson’s, Lee’s, 
Ewell’s, and Early’s staffs. Colonel Allan gave an 
exposition of the eonfederate and federal strategy 
in the ‘Pope campaign’ before Washington in 
1862. His remarks were illustrated by two large 
plans of the scene of those operations, and were 
listened to with the greatest interest, even by 
those to whom the subject was not familiar. 
Major Hotchkiss followed with an illustration of 
the value of topographical knowledge in battles 
and campaigns. He drew on the board with 
colored crayons a map of Virginia to illustrate 
his remarks. His dexterity was viewed with 
wonderment by those in the audience who have 
tried — though unsuccessfully — to accomplish the 
. Same results. In the evening the attendance was 
even larger than at any previous meeting. Mr. 
Bancroft presided, and was the recipient of an 
ovation which was as unexpected as it was genu- 
ine and merited. ..Mr. Justin Winsor was elected 
president for the coming year, with President 
Adams of Cornell and William F. Poole of Chicago 
as vice-presidents, while William Wirt Henry of 
Richmond took Mr. Weeden’s place on the council. 
At this session Dr. J. F. Jameson of the Johns 
Hopkins read an abstract of a very valuable paper 
on Usselinx, founder of the Dutch and Swedish 
West India companies. The venerable president 
of the Massachusetts historical society, Dr. George 
H. Ellis, spoke of the necessity of an occasional 
reconstruction of history. He gave as an ex- 
ample the work now being edited by Mr. Winsor, 
— ‘The narrative and critical history of America.’ 

Altogether the meeting was a most enjoyable 
one. The papers were for the most part creditable 
to the association, and especially to its secretary, 
to whom the making-up of the programme was 
in great measure left. The one regrettable feature 
was the continued absence of papers on other 
than American history. Why is it that the teach- 
ers of other periods do not come forward? Surely 
there must be good work done in other fields ; and 
the hearty reception accorded Professor Emerton 
last year showed that the members are interested 
in what many regard as really more historical 


_ subjects than the comparatively recent history of 


America. The absence of papers on economic 
Subjects, and on matters of present discussion, 


SCIENCE. 


431 


was marked. Excursions to Arlington, Mount 
Vernon, and points nearer headquarters, filled up 
the spare hours, and the experiment of holding 
meetings in some place other than Saratoga may 
be regarded as highly successful. 


PROPOSED ENGLISH FISHERY BOARD. 


I HAVE read with considerable interest Professor 
Huxley’s memorandum on the proposed fishery 
board, and with much of what he says I agree. 
It seems to me, however, that attention is likely 
to be diverted from the real question demanding 
consideration, by Professor Huxley’s attack upon 
certain persons unknown, who appear to have 
demanded in some newspaper which Professor 
Huxley has seen, that men of science should 
‘manage the fisheries.’ That men of science 
should interfere with commercial speculation, 
and manage the fisheries in that sense, is a prop- 
osition so preposterous, that it is difficult to 
understand why Professor Huxley should have 
thought it worthy of notice. 

The question which really demands considera- 
tion is another one altogether, and is simply this: 
Is it desirable that men of science should be defi- 
nitely and permanently employed to manage the 
inquiries which are necessary in order that a 
satisfactory basis may be obtained for legislation 
in regard to a variety of fishery questions? And, 
further, is it desirable that such persons should be 
employed by the state in order to ascertain 
whether certain steps in the way of protection 
and cultivation of fishes can be usefully carried 
out by the state for the benefit of the com- 
munity? Professor Huxley does not, in my 
judgment, attach sufficient importance to such 
inquiries, and the necessity for a permanent or- 
ganization of officials to deal with them, when 
he says, ‘‘ Let the department obtain such scien- 
tific help as is needful from persons of recognized 
competency, who are not under the control of the 
administrative department.” This proposal seems 
to be somewhat inconsistent with another state- 
ment in the memorandum, where Professor Hux- 
ley says, ‘‘ I should say that any amount of money 
bestowed upon the scientific investigation of the 
effect of some modes of fishing might be well 
spent.” If ‘any amount of money’ is to be spent, 
and so large a question as ‘the effect of some 
modes of fishing’ is to be investigated scientifi- 
cally, then it would seem well that the depart- 
ment should have a trained and permanent staff 
of expert naturalists, and a scientific authority to 
direct their inquiries. 

The fact is, that enough time and money have 


1 From the Journal of the society of arts, April 30. 


432 


been spent by the state upon spasmodic inquiries 
into the effects of trawling, and the various ques- 
tions the rapid investigation of which has from 
time to time appeared to be ‘needful.’ What is 
now needed is a more systematic and determined 
attempt to grapple with some of the more impor- 
tant questions, the solution of which is likely to 
affect the interests of the fish industry. 

I have drawn up a brief statement on the sub- 
ject of the relation of scientific investigation to 
fishery interests, which, in no dogmatic spirit, but 
with a view to eliciting criticism and suggestion, 
I here submit to the reader :— 

1. The necessity for an administration of our 
marine and fresh-water fisheries, based upon 
thorough or scientific knowledge of all that re- 
lates to them, has become obvious of late years. 
The trawling commission of 1884-85 has reported 
to this effect, in so far as the subject of their in- 
quiries is concerned. Other nations have adopted 
such a method of dealing with their fisheries, 
with good results and the promise of better. 

2. The inquiries and cperations necessary can- 
not be conducted as the result of private commer- 
cial enterprise : they must be national in charac- 
ter. 

3. While the general trade returns of the fishing- 
industry on the one hand, and the practical enfor- 
cing of regulations as to the protection of fishing- 
grounds and the restriction of fishing-operations 
within certain seasons and localities, are matters 
with which an ordinary staff of officials can 
effectually deal, yet the chief purposes of the 
operation of a satisfactory fisheries department 
are of such a nature that only expert naturalists 
can usefully advise upon them and carry them 
out. It is therefore important that the organiza- 
tion of a state fisheries department should either 
be primarily under the control of a scientific au- 
thority, who should direct the practical agencies 
as to trade returns and police, or that there should 
be distinct and parallel branches of the depart- 
ment, — the one concerned in scientific questions, 
the other in collecting trade returns and in direct- 
ing the fisheries police. 

4, It does not appear that there is any ground 
for supposing that individuals of scientific train- 
ing are ipso facto unfitted for administrative du- 
ties, and there would be obvious advantages in 
placing the operations of a fisheries department 
under one head. Indeed, it may be maintained 
that a scientific education, and capacity for sci- 
entific work, are likely to produce a more prac- 
tical and enterprising director of such a depart- 
ment than could elsewhere be found. It has not 
been found desirable to place the administration of 
the botanical institution at Kew in the hands of 


SCIENCE. 


[ Vou. Vin, No. 17i 


a non-scientific director, and there is no obvious 
reason for avoiding the employment of a scien- 
tific staff in the case of a fisheries department. It 
is extremely important, from the point of view 
of the public welfare, that the state should not set 
the example of ignoring the value of scientific 
knowledge and training ; while it is no less impor- 
tant to avoid the waste of public money which 
must result from employing officials who are not 
conversant with the matters with which they 
have to deal, in place of trained experts. 

The nature of the work to be done, is, 1°, gen- 
erally to ascertain what restrictions or modifica- 
tions in the proceedings of fishermen are desirable, 
so as to insure the largest and most satisfactory 
returns, prospectively as well as immediately, 
from the fishing-grounds of the English coast and 
from English rivers and lakes; 2°, especially to 
ascertain whether existing fishing-grounds can be 
improved by the artificial breeding of food-fishes 
and shell-fish, and to determine the methods of 
carrying on such breeding, and to put these 
methods into practice; 3°, to find new fishing- 
grounds; 4°, to introduce new fish, — either ac- 
tually new to the locality, or new to the con- 
sumer; 5°, to introduce (if practicable) methods 
of rearing and fattening marine fish in stock- 
ponds ; 6°, to look after the cultivation and supply 
of bait; 7°, to introduce new baits, new methods 
of fishing, improved nets, improved boats, new 
methods of transport and of curing. 

The work can be divided into two sections: A. 
Investigation ; B. Practical administration. 

A. Investigation. — The inquiries which are 
necessary in order to effect the purposes indicated 
above are as follows : — 

1. A thorough physical and biological explora- 
tion of the British coasts within a certain distance 
of the shore-line, especially and primarily in the 
neigborhood of fishing-grounds. The investiga- 
tion must include a determination of temperature 
and currents at various depths, the nature of the 
bottom, the composition of the sea-water, and the 
influence of rivers and conformation of coast 
upon these features. At the same time, the entire 
range of the fauna and flora must be investigated 
in relation to small areas, so as to connect the 
varying living inhabitants of different areas with 
the varying physical conditions of those areas, 
and with the varying association of the living in- 
habitants inter se. Only in this way can the re- 
lation of food-fishes to the physical conditions of 
the sea and to their living associates be ascer- 
tained, and data furnished for ultimately deter- 
mining the causes of the local distribution of 
different kinds of food-fishes, and of the periodic 
migrations of some kinds of them. 


May 14, 1886.] 


2. A thoroughly detailed and accurate knowl- 
edge of the food, habits, and movements of each 
of the important kinds of food-fishes (of which 
about five and twenty, together with six shell-fish 
important either as food or bait, may be reckoned). 
The relation of each of these kinds of fish to its 
fishing-ground must be separately ascertained ; its 
time and mode of reproduction ; the mode of fer- 
tilization of its eggs; the growth of the embryo; 
the food and habits of the fry; the enemies of 
the young and of the adult; the relation of both 
young and adult to temperature, to influx of 
fresh water, to sewage contamination, to disturb- 
ing agencies, such as trawling and ordinary 
trafiic. 

3. An inquiry as to whether, over a long period 
of years, there has been an increase or decrease 
in the abundance of each kind of food-fish on the 
chief fishing-grounds as a matter of fact, together 
with an inquiry as to the actual take of each kind 
of fish in successive years, and, further, an in- 
quiry as to any accompanying variation in (a) the 
number of fishing-boats, (6) the methods of fish- 
ing, (c) the climatic conditions, or other such pos- 
. sibly influential conditions as previous inquiry 
may have suggested. 

4, An inquiry for the purpose of ascertaining 
experimentally whether the decrease in the yield 
of fishing-grounds, in regard to several species of 
food-fish, can be remedied (a) by artificial breed- 
ing of the fish ; (6) by protecting the young; (c) 
by increasing its natural food ; (d) by destruction 
of its enemies ; (e) by restrictive legislation as to 
time or place of fishing, and as to size of fish 
which may be taken, and character of fishing- 
apparatus which may be used. 

5. An inquiry to ascertain whether, if periodic, 
natural causes are at work in determining the 
fluctuations of the yield of fishing-grounds, their 
effect can be foretold, and whether this effect can 
in any cases be counteracted ; similarly to ascer- 
tain, in the case of migratory shoal-fish, whether 
any simple and trustworthy means can be brought 
into operation for the purpose of foretelling the 
places and times of their migrations, so as to 
enable both fishermen and fish-dealers to be ready 
for their arrival. 

6. An inquiry into the diseases of fish, especial- 
ly in relation to salmon and other fresh-water 
fish. 

B. Practical administration. — The chief heads 
under which this presents itself as distinct from 
the antecedent search for reliable data are — 

1. The management of an efficient ‘ intelligence 
department,’ giving weekly statistics of the fish- 
ing-industry, the appearance and disappearance 
of certain fish at particular spots, the number of 


SCIENCE. 


433 


fishing-boats employed, the methods of fishing 
employed, the meteorological conditions. 

2. The advising and enforcing of restrictions by 
the legislature as to time, place, and method of 
capture of fish. 

3. The artificial breeding and rearing of fish to 
stock-impoverished fishing-grounds. 

4, The leasing and management of the foreshore 
and sea-bottom in particular spots, for the pur- 
poses of oyster-culture and mussel-culture, and 
of marsh-lands near the sea for the formation of 
tanks and fish-ponds. 

5. The opening-up of new fishing-grounds and 
of new fish-industries (curing and treatment of 
fish for commercial purposes). 

6. The introduction of new species of food-fish 
and shell-fish. 

It is a matter of fundamental importance to 
determine, first of all, whether it is desirable that 
these matters should be dealt with by a permanent 
staff, or, on the other hand, by the occasional 
employment of a scientific man—not habitually 
occupied in these inquiries — to attempt the solu- 
tion of any particular problem which an unskilled 
official may present to him. Clearly there must 
be economy in employing permanently certain 
naturalists who will familiarize themselves with 
this special class of questions, and become ex- 
perts in all that relates to fishery problems. 

Further, is it desirable that the matters which 
are to be inquired into should be determined by 
an official unskilled in natural history? or, on 
the other hand, that the selection of inquiries 
likely to lead to a satisfactory result should be 
made by a man of science, specially conversant 
with the nature of the things to be dealt with? 

The organization required consists, so far as 
persons are concerned, of, 1°, a chief scientific 
authority ; 2°, a staff of working naturalist-in- 
spectors; 8°, a staff of clerks; and, so far as 
material is concerned, of, 4°, a London office, 
with collection of fishes, apparatus used in fish- 
ing, maps, survey-records, statistical returns, and 
library ; 5°, a surveying-ship, under the orders of 
the department, to be manned and maintained by 
the admiralty ; 6°, a chief laboratory fitted for 
carrying on investigations such as those named 
above, and also two smaller movable laboratories, 
together with steam-yacht fitted for dredging and 
sounding; 7°, hatching-stations and fish-ponds. 

With regard to the foregoing headings, it is a 
matter for consideration whether the ‘ chief scien- 
tific authority ’ should be an individual, or a com- 
mittee af five. The position assigned to this post 
should be equal to that of the director of the 
geological survey, or the director of the Royal 
gardens, Kew; or, if the ‘authority’ takes the 


434 


form of a committee, it should be placed on the 
same footing as the Meteorological council. The 
person or persons so appointed should be responsi- 
ble for all the operations of the department, and 
of such scientific training and capacity as to be 
likely to devise the most useful lines of inquiry 
and administration. 

The ‘naturalist-inspectors’ should be six in 
number, but operations might be commenced 
with a smaller staff. They should be thoroughly 
competent observers, and, under the direction of 
the chief scientific authority, they would be 
variously employed, either on the surveying-ship, 
at the chief laboratory, or in local laboratories, 
hatching-stations, or in the London office and 
museum, 

The naturalists thus employed would become 
specialists in all matters relating to the life-history 
of fishes and their food : they would acquire a skill 
and knowledge far beyond that which it is possi- 
ble to find among existing naturalists, who oc- 
casionally are requested to make hurried reports 
on such matters as salmon-disease, or the supposed 
injury of the herring-fisheries by trawlers. 

One of the naturalist-inspectors should be a 
chemist and physicist, in order to report on the 
composition of the water and the nature of the 
bottom in the areas investigated. 

‘Clerks’ would be required in the London office 
to tabulate statistics and carry on correspondence. 
These gentlemen need not necessarily have any 
scientific knowledge. Itwould probably be neces- 
sary to have a correspondent or agent of the de- 
partment in every large fishing-centre. Probably 
the coast-guard officials might be taken into this 
service. 

With regard to material equipment, it appears 
to be necessary that a scientific fisheries depart- 
ment should have at its London office a museum 
of fishing-apparatus for reference and instruction, 
and also complete collections illustrative of the 
fishes, their food, enemies, and other surround- 
ings. Inthe same building would be exhibited 
maps showing the distribution and migrations of 
food-fishes, the coast temperature and its varia- 
tions, the varying character of the sea-bottom, 
sea-water, etc. 

The surveying ship or ships would be provided 
by the admiralty. 

A central laboratory is in course of erection 
upon Plymouth Sound by the Marine biological 
association. Her Majesty’s government has 
promised to contribute £5,000, and £500 a year, to 
this institution, on condition that its resources are 
available for the purpose here indicated. Certain 
of the ‘naturalist-inspectors’ (probably three at 
any one time) would be stationed at the Plymouth 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VII, No. 173 


laboratory in order to carry on special studies of 
the development and food of particular species. 
of fish. 
The smaller movable laboratories, steam-yacht.. 
and other appliances would not be costly. 
RAY LANKESTER.. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


WE learn from a letter of Professor Holden's, 
in the last number (2724-25) of the Astronomische 
nachrichten, just received, that the Lick trustees: 
have decided to purchase from Messrs. Feil & 
Mantois a 36-inch crown disk, which was made 
by them at the same time with the crown disk of 
the objective now in the hands of the Clarks. 
The Clarks ‘‘have received the order to figure 
this disk as a third (photographic) lens for the 
large objective.” 


— The work of the U.S. fish commission shows. 
most gratifying results in the artificial propaga- 
tion of shad. An unprecedented abundance of 
these fish is noticed this season in all the rivers 
which have been supplied with young fish by the 
commission. This increase is noticed especially 
in the waters of the Pacific coast, where shad 
were unknown previous to their introduction by 
the U. S. fish commission. 


— The New York assembly has passed the bill pro- 
viding for the appropriation of twenty thousand 
dollars annually to the Metropolitan’museum of art 
and the American museum of natural history, in 
order that they may be kept open to the public, 
free of charge, on Sundays. It is expected that 
it will soon be favorably reported by the senate 
committee, and become a law. 


— The house committee on agriculture has re- 
ported favorably the bill to establish agricultural 
experimental stations in connection with the col- 
leges established in the several states; also the 
bill to enlarge the powers and duties of the de- 
partment of agriculture, making it an executive 
department. 


— The U. S. coast survey has issued the follow- | 
ing charts, which are now ready for the public: 
Topographical sheets of the re-survey of the har- 
bors of New York, Brooklyn, and Jersey City. It 
is intended to combine these sheets with the hy- 
drographic work already executed, and thius to 
give an extended and accurate map of all the 
waters lying around New York City. 


— An international maritime exhibition will be 
held in Havre, May 1 of next year, to be devoted 
to all kinds of sailing or steam ships, engines, 
life-saving contrivances, fisheries, and the prod- 
ducts of the French colonies. Applications to 


May 14, 1886. ] 


exhibit may be made to the Direction de )’exposi- 
tion maritime internationale, 118 Rue de Paris, 
Havre. 


— A Japanese invention for making paper of 
seaweed, says Engineering, is announced. It is 
thick in texture, yet sufficiently transparent to be 
used as a substitute for glass in windows. 


— The total output of coal in France for 1885 
was 19,534,341 tons. 


— The total annual production of naphtha in 
Russia during the past year reached 1,800,000 tons, 
—a very great increase over that of preceding 
years; and already a foreign market, especially 
England, is sought for its consumption. 


— On March 17 the Smith college branch of the 
Audubon society was organized. The society 
now numbers ninety members, and is thoroughly 
interested in the theoretical and practical work 
connected with ornithology. Meetings are to be 
held once a month, when the members will read 
papers embodying the results of original research, 
or will listen to lectures from well-known orni- 
thologists. Field-work has been begun under the 
guidance of Mr. John Burroughs, who took parties 
of observers out into the woods and meadows to 
study the birds in their homes, and to learn their 
notes. For regular field-work, the society is di- 
vided into groups of ten, under the direction of 
some experienced member, who teaches them the 
art of intelligent and accurate observation. Each 
party goes out for observation at a stated hour in 
the day, twice a week. 


— Statistics of Saxony, with its three million 
inhabitants, show a very large number of profes- 
sional and industrial schools and students. There 
are 235, with 17,000 students in attendance. They 
are devoted to a great variety of branches of spe- 
cial and technical education. Three, with 270 stu- 
dents, are for instruction in the manufacture of 
toys ; a like number, with 60 students, are devoted 
to spinning ; 85 teach the art of ribbon-manufacture 
to 1,500 apprentices ; and at Dresden there are 100 
pupils at the German academy of weaving. There 
are 25 commercial schools, with 2,800 in attend- 
ance upon them. Of the industrial schools proper, 
there are three, — at Mitweida, Leipsic, and Chem- 
nitz, — having nearly 1,000 students altogether. 


— Dr. Werner Siemens has placed at the dis- 
posal of the German government the sum of $115,- 
000, to establish an institute for carrying on ex- 
periments in natural science. It is proposed to 
erect a building in which studies in exact science 
may be prosecuted. 


— The following field assignments of coast-sur- 


SCIENCE. 


A35 


vey assistants have been made: Assistant Dennis. 
is now engaged on the re-survey of Long Island ; 
Assistant Jardella has the district from Ward’s 
Island east to Throg’s Neck; Assistant Hosmer 
will take up the re-survey of the north shore of 
Long Island Sound on the ist of June. 


— An effort is being made in Washington to 
obtain some suitable position for Lieutenant 
Greely, who is unable to perform active army 
service on account of his health. To this end 
Senator Harrison of Indiana is urging the passage 
of a bill for the appointment of an assistant ad- 
jutant-general, which office is intended for Lieu- 
tenant Greely. It seems most fitting that this 
gallant officer should receive some recognition 
from his government for his heroic services. 


— The fish-commission steamer Albatross arrived 
at Washington on Tuesday last. 


— Science observer circular No. 66 contains the 
announcement of the discovery by Dr. Luther, 
apparently on May 4, of an eleventh magnitude 
asteroid. This becomes number 258. 


— The new science hall at Smith college, which 
was begun last summer, is rapidly approaching 
completion, and will be formally opened and dedi- 
cated on Tuesday of commencement week (June 
20). The principal address on this occasion will be 
given by Prof. J. P. Lesley of Philadelphia. The 
building is the gift of a friend of the college, whose 
name will be announced at the opening. It is of 
brick, with brown stone trimmings, three stories 
in height and about ninety feet long and fifty wide, 
with an ell thirty feet wide and some twenty-three 
feet in length. The well-lighted basement and 
the ground-floor are to be occupied by the depart- 
ments of chemistry and physics, while the first 
and second floors are for the work in biology and 
geology and the collections belonging to these de- 
partments. 

— The spring meeting of the Indiana academy 
of sciences will be held at Brookville, Ind., May 
20 and 21. This will be the first meeting of the 
academy since its organization, and an invitation 
is extended to all those interested, to attend it. 


—M. Bender, in the Moniteur scientifique, de- 
scribes a new system of lighting. He employs the 
fatty residues obtained from the rectification of 
crude mineral oils, through which he passes a 
current of air. The air takes up a definite quan- 
tity of this hydrocarbon, and the flame produced 
is very brilliant, giving off no smoke. 

— The outbreak of cholera in Europe at Brindisi, 
from which much was feared, appears from late 
news to be rapidly diminishing. There have been 
but few deaths ; and intelligence from other parts 


436 


-of Italy indicates, that, with the exception of the 
northern part of the Adriatic, the peninsula is 
quite free from the disease. 


— Fish-commission car No. 1 left Havre de Grace, 
Md., on Sunday last, with 1,500,000 young shad 
for Broad and Saluda Rivers, South Carolina. On 
its return it will take the same number of shad 
fry to Portland, Ore., for stocking the Columbia 
River basin. 


— The Hibbert lectures for 1886 are now being 
‘delivered in London on Mondays, Wednesdays, 
and Fridays, and are repeated at Oxford on Thurs- 
days and Saturdays. The lecturer this year is 
Professor Rhys of Oxford, and his subject is ‘ The 
origin and growth of religion as illustrated by 
Celtic Heathendom.’ 


— Mr. D. P. Wainright of the coast survey has 
completed the trigonometrical work in the vicinity 
“of Cape Fear River, North Carolina. The field- 
parties from the south will begin to arrive in 
Washington about the middle of June. Parties 
will be sent east and north for field-work about 
the first of June. 


— The ethnological collections of the British 
museum are now said to be for the first time 
adequately displayed. New rooms, formerly 
occupied for zodlogy, have been devoted to them, 
and recently thrown open to the public. The col- 
lection is now thought to be the best and most 
representative in the world. 


— Messrs. James Pott & Co. have brought out 
an edition of Pressensé’s ‘Study of origins,’ which 
first appeared in its English version in December, 
1882. The author is a learned and accomplished 
Protestant minister of Paris. His position is that 
of a Kantian who firmly believes in God, the soul, 
and the future life ; but he is liberal and broad, 
vindicating the complete independence of science, 
and saying unequivocally that neither the Bible 
nor the councils have any prescriptive right to 
control science. He is convinced that experi- 
mental science is not hostile to the principles of 
theism ; and that, if ‘the possibility’ of a divine 
and moral world be conceded, there are processes 
of experiment which will suppiy the demonstra- 
tion. From this basis the author discusses the 
problems of knowledge, being, and duty in the 
light of modern German, French, and English 
philosophical writings. 

— The publishing-house of Justus Perthes has 
recently begun a new edition of Berghaus’s 
‘ Physikalischer atlas,’ which will contain seventy- 
five maps. The first lieferung contains a map 
showing the distribution of the flora of Europe; 
another, the isotherms of the world; and a third, 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. VIL, No. 171 


the soundings in the Mediterranean and Black 
seas, and also the character of various portions of 
the shore, which is undergoing rapid changes. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


+#*x Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer’s name is in ail cases required as proof of good faith. 


A thunder-squall in New England. 


THE study of thunder-storms that was undertaken 
as a special investigation by the New England 
meteorological society in the summer of 1885 was 
successful in gathering records from a good number 
of volunteer observers, on which a tolerably com- 
plete statistical account of the storms may be based : 
thus there appears a distinctly earlier afternoon 
maximum of storm-frequency in western than in 
eastern Massachusetts, implying that distance from 
some at present unknown district of origin, as well 
as high temperature, exerts a control on the time of 
the storm’s arrival east of the Hudson. In several 
of the better-developed storms the data accumulated 
were sufficient to define the more prominent physical 
features of the storm with considerable accuracy : 
this was especially the case with the small but vio- 
lent thunder-squall that crossed New England about 
noon on July 21, 1885. The storm belongs to a class 
first clearly defined by Dr. Hinrichs, director of the 
Iowa weather-service, several years ago, and differs 
distinctly from the tornado in having a blast of out- 
rushing air in front of its rain. The example here 
described came to us from western New York, where 
certain observations furnished by Prof. H. A. Hazen 
of the signal service reported it about six or seven 
o’clock in the morning: two of our observers in cen- 
tral and eastern New York recorded it at later hours ; 
and at a little after ten o’clock it entered New Eng- 
land near the notorious Boston Corners, the former 
south-western angle of Massachusetts ; thence it fol- 
lowed an almost due-east path, gradually broadening 
its rain-area, as it advanced, until it ran out to sea a 
little after noon, its average hourly velocity being 
forty-eight miles. All observers agree in giving it 
a rapid approach, a short, violent passage, and a 
quick disappearance. Very soon after its clouds. 
were seen and thunder heard, the brief wind-squall 
came rushing in advance of the pouring rain ; and 
an hour or so later the whole storm was out of sight 
in the east. With the wind came a rapid fall of 
temperature and a distinct increase of pressure. 
The thermograph, barograph, and anemograph 
curves, furnished from the city engineer’s office 
in Providence, are here particularly interesting, 
as they record fluctuations produced by the nearly 
central passage of the storm. The temperature fell 
13° in half an hour as the storm came overhead, 
and soon rose again to a high afternoon max- 
imum asthe clouds cleared away. The barometer 
quickly rose four-hundredths of an inch at the arrival 
of the storm, and the wind increased from a gentle 
breeze toa rate of about forty miles an hour. 

The persistent individuality of this storm, main- 
taining a constant association of its several features 
over the greater part of its observed path, justifies 
the construction of a ‘ composite portrait,’ by means 
of which all the observations are thrown into their 
proper position with respect to two governing lines, 
—the rain-front and the storm-axis. In this figure, 
the curved lines, convex to the east, measure fifteen 


May 14, 1886.] 


minutes in time, or twelve miles in distance, ahead 
of or behind the rain-front ; and the straight lines, 
parallel to the storm-axis, mark the paths of the sev- 
eral stations through the storm, as if they moved 
westward while the storm stood still. Appropriate 
figures and signs for temperature, wind, sky, etc., 


’ 


MASSACHUSETTS 


placed on the line of their station and at their proper 
time-interval before or after the beginning of the 
rain, then represent all the records that were 
gathered, and bring them together on a single dia- 


SCIENCE. 


437 


The ‘ portrait’ would doubtless have been truer if 
our stations had been more plentiful in north-eastern 
Connecticut and south-eastern Massachusets ; but, in 
a first season’s work, it was impossible to secure a 
sufficient number and an _ equable distribution of 
observers. Especial attention will be given to these 


requisites during the coming season, when the in- 
vestigation will be continued with improved oppor- 
tunities, and all careful observers will be encouraged 
to co operate in the work. W. M. Davis. 


gram. Thus we see the gradual fall from high tem- Cambridge, Mass. 
Peete es ae ‘i = aes ee Anes PS At 
oS Meera ren Siete oc pI ee 2 T—NS9,- — = - - =. ~ _—_ 
Se eeremeer Foo. eb [7p ear = ree ne ee Southbridae 
Se ai Shete tua e NS Ss SS Sea, ae ee EN =), See Ne a ee ie eet ae Monson 
3 SS a = SSL SS Dae te 2 Se ele a a eee Te 
\ eee ins ee meni ay Os le ate a a = --P vince|ows. 
\ a = a a NS = aa - taf ——_ = LTe5 an, Oe, SD ; oS Se — ee PT in telda 
\ ye IN ee a ee aes Lees pe Bg foe eS hs Si dabei ae t 
i) Se a ieee : nae Ge =e See 2 gar Hy ‘oonsockel, 
\ Seon a eee: 7 = z is 25 Ga a Fe 93°- — =NAttleboro™ “ 
2 aor eres == = (7e—'— sie- ~ A— --—_TA PL ee c=. 77 7 7 +> = -GrearBarringlon a 
75 - a ge Se. djy—-! Se ope = they aad, T- Ga se Pee ar oe tO = aes esas pe re as 
eee hee gee a9) _ > 77 Ashton. f 
. eigen se es 5 ae BE - ~esFe Bigs pal Esa = Cl = hongmeadows 5 
; ; / igi = Sg ae een ice gO 
J ) , ' eee sat PERS se Pik isle See ~ Thompson. 
/ 4 J e. St ee Se Reena owt a or Sed —Middlehoro: 
bf p\ == 5 = Gu. - - Twn y f pe ~~ + Lakeville. 
/ ED Te — Spe OB a 
-o eo - este ee 2S 9 nse = a oe SE SS ee eS 
, ees == 7 Zest <—_~T AF a - Ses =O SS = Se eee pee > Pawtuckek. 
Pe eae An TSS OS = rh Se ee Sy a 
“ Agree a ~ Ot e STAV  BP ie ie aro == SF > ge 2 W-Norfolk, 
—=e- en ee en ee - " a a . -- Se ies 
ee eee $a Th = LEAST ¢ 57 ze Norfolk - 
SS Sei Bea ae Cee SN © ais oi ap gen 
pe SiS aaeks StS SS a ieng == 7G SS i 900733 2S 2 eS eS > 
y a ah ak he aay a Pe Fe. Previdence. 
een eee ES ee Ss Tg nk eee - -= - Broact Brook 
Se bay's fat 2 2 ee ee ie ea a : 
weg Sain: Sectors. - ae SROs Slale, Sg oo. 1S* -N. Scituate. 
7 Se Ss SS oe RE ES Se Su «nay Se iiver Spring: 
ee Se SUI PE + Ra, Tea Sere TMs 3) =Ttlang 
bares ar = oe ee tare a Sian SE oS mee WA ‘ 
its- was be ig Pa y -— — -~- Winsted. + 
~ a. aa 
%B- - I eee. au es o =-Bo a 2 eae 
ie a apes Se - ~~~ pentersony 
S t-—- = 5 5 Si 2 ee eae pn > — —O Ninindlys, 3 
ST - - SLL = Lp Fe ee, See ee : ; 27 
. ‘3 > ee ee ae OSes - Collinsville. 
! 24 caer ~ —~Quarryville.. 


COMPOSITE OF THUNDER-SQUALL, JULY 21, 1885. 
(All observations thrown in their proper place with respect to rain-front and middle path.) 


Interval between curves, 15 minutes. Cc, 
Numbers give temperature (F.). ¢, 
T,, T, To, first, loudest, last thunder. Ly 


peratures, as the clouds (shown by black crescents) 
became visible, and the thunder became audible ; 
the sudden increase of the wind velocity, and its 
radial direction at the front of the rain-area; the 
longer duration of the rain, and the greater fall of 
temperature, at the centre than at the margin of the 
storm; the gradual warming-up again as the rain 
ceased and clear sky (white crescents) appeared. 


——>, light wind. 
>+3—>, heavy wind. 
, duration of rain. 


The Davenport tablets. 


In the November number of the American anti- 
quarian there appeared an editorial wherein it was 
charged that Rev. J. Gass, a member of the Daven- 
port academy, by exchange had imposed upon Mr. 
A. F. Berlin certain alleged fraudulent mound-relics, 
and it was there plainly intimated that these dis- 
closures tended to place all that gentleman’s dis- 


clouds in west. 
clear in west. 
lightning-stroke. 


438 


coveries under the ban of suspicion. In the January 
number, 1886, of the same magazine, there also ap- 
peared an elaborate attack by its editor upon the 
authenticity of the Davenport tablets, of which the 
Rev. J. Gass was a principal discoverer. In the 
March number there further appeared a communica- 
tion from Mr. A. F. Berlin, containing the statements 
that Rev. Mr. Gass had made some exchanges, not 
with himself, but with Mr. H. C. Stevens of Oregon, 
and that most of the mound-relics sent by Mr. Gass 
to Mr. Stevens were ‘modern’ or fraudulent. These 
statements were submitted by the writer to Mr. 
Gass, and his explanations as furnished to me will be 
found in the following communication. This letter 
from Mr. Gass was written in German; and the 
translation herewith furnished for publication was 
made by Prof. William Riepe, who was formerly 
connected with the public schools of this city, and 
subsequently revised by Carl L. Suksdorf, Esq., 
principal of the German free school. It is proper to 
state that Mr. Gass preaches and teaches in German, 
and as his few English letters, on account of his im- 
perfect knowledge of the language, are usually dic- 
tated to an impromptu amanuensis, they but imper- 
fectly represent his precise meaning. 

The publications in the Antiquarian were made 
without communication with the Davenport academy, 
and without affording Mr. Gass an opportunity for 
explanation. In correspondence with Mr. Berlin, 
the writer represented that Mr. Gass should have an 
opportunity to inspect the relics in question, and re- 
quested that they should be forwarded to the Daven- 
port academy for this purpose. This request was 
declined. The statement of Mr. Gass should have 
appeared in the Antiquarian ; but as we are denied 
admission to its columns, except under restrictions 
neither the Davenport academy nor Mr. Gass could 
accept, we shall have to ask of you the favor of its 
early publication. 

In conclusion, permit me to say, that, while the 
members of the Davenport academy have the most 
unbounded confidence in the integrity and good faith 
of Rev. Mr. Gass, it should be stated that the ques- 
tion of the authenticity of its inscribed tablets does 
not by any means wholly depend upon his reliability. 
As may beseen from our published statements, there 
were other persons present at the discovery of these 
relics, and certificates as to the facts made by these 
well-known and highly esteemed citizens are pre- 
served among the archives of the academy. These 
additional evidences have never yet been given to 
the public, and, when published, will furnish strong 
corroborative proof of the genuineness of the relics 
in question. 

It is always to be deplored when personal considera- 
tions enter into scientific discussions, but in arche- 
ological research, where the question of the authen- 
ticity of relics so largely depends upon the integrity 
of the explorer, character becomes an important 
factor, and is a legitimate subject for inquiry. In 
cases like that under consideration, however, this 
moral test should be sternly applied alike to the ac- 
cuser and the accused. CHARLES E. PuTNAM, 

President Davenport academy of sciences. 
Davenport, Io., May 6. 


[Communication from Rey. J. Gass.] 


CHARLES E. Putnam, Esq. 


Dear Sir, —In accordance with your request, I 
will hasten to give you an account, so far as it is still 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII, No. 17f 


now possible for me to do, of my transactions with 
Mr. H. C. Stevens of Oregon City, Ore., in regard 
to the relics in question. 

I formerly often received letters and circulars 
offering me relics, or wishing to exchange or buy 
from me. Among others I received also in April, 
1881, a postal-card from Mr. Stevens. This I handed 
to our curator of the academy, Mr. W. H. Pratt, as. 
I had not the least intention to make any exchange 
with him myself. To our curator, however, the offer 
was quite welcome, and he authorized me to write to 
Mr. Stevens that he was willing to make such ex- 
changes. Mr. Stevens immediately sent a number 
of relics which pleased us all very well. At this 
time, I do not know positively whether before or 
after I had seen those articles, awoke in me the very 
unhappy wish, as it now appears, to possess a few good 
small arrow-heads to be used as charms for my little 
daughter. I therefore collected what was in the 
house, the best of which was a small box of flint 
implements which I had received from Rev. C. 
Mutschmann of Missouri. All these were of a 
primitive character, and therefore not of especial 
value for our museum. Among the objects received 
from Pastor Mutschmann there were a small stone 
axe, an Indian stone pipe, and also fragments of 
such a one. The pipe had about the following form : 


—) 


It was of grayish color, rough, without polish. The 
broken one was of a similar character. Pastor 
Mutschmann wrote to me at that time that he was 
told that the pipe was found in an Indian grave on 
the Missouri River, I believe in St. Charles or War- 
ren county. I took the pipes and other relics with- 
out any doubt as to their genuineness, and did not 
test them in any way. I supposed the material to be 
gray pipe-stone. 

I packed all, as I had received them, in two paper 
boxes, and sent them by mailto Mr. Stevens. There- 
upon I received from him a number of small arrow- 
heads, of which a few were nice and whole, but the 
most were broken. At the same time I received a 
letter from Mr. Stevens, in which he remarked that 
the articles sent were not worth the postage I had 
paid, for it was all broken, worthless stuff. In my 
answer I endeavored to defend the relics as not being” 
entirely worthless ; and, somewhat hurt and irritated 
by what I considered the unjust remarks of Mr. 
Stevens, I have, as I now see, somewhat overesti- 
mated the value of those articles. He remarked at 
the same time that the pipes were not old (ancient). 
Indian pipes, but were modern, made by white peo- 
ple; at least, some one had told him so. I gave no 
credit to this statement, but took it for an empty 
excuse made in order to give me little or nothing for 
them. If I had entertained the least doubt of their 
genuineness, I would not, under any circumstances, 
have sent them; or at least, after Mr. Stevens had 
made these remarks, I should certainly at once have 
asked them, and taken them back at any price, 

As to who has written my letters for me, I cannot 
now say positively. Mrs. Gass says it was certainly 
done by one of my pupils, and I believe she is right. 
A letter in German, written by myself, would sure- 
ly have sounded quite differently. These unfortu- 
nate letters have, however, been sent in my name, 
and with my name, and I must now abide the con- 
sequences, come what will. I can scarcely under- 


May 14, 1886.] 


stand, even now (supposing that Mr. Berlin’s copy of 
my letter is correct), how the incorrect statement 
that the academy had bought such pipes, and paid 
such high prices for them, could have occurred un- 
observed. The boy who wrote the letter for me must 
have misunderstood me, and from my ignorance of 
the English language I overlooked this error. It 
may be, that, not attaching much importance to 
this letter, I may have sent it without first examin- 
ing or looking it over. 

In regard to the relics in question, it is impossible 
at present for me to determine whether those which 
Mr. Stevens claims to have received from me are 
actually the objects which I have sent him; for I 
have not seen them as yet, and for the present shall 
have no opportunity, as Mr. Berlin has informed you 
that he could not send them for my inspection with- 
out the consent of Mr. Stevens. On the contrary, 
Mr. Stevens says that they no longer belong to him, 
but to Mr. Berlin. 

Immediately on receiving your first communication 
on this matter, I resolved to send back to him the 
arrow-heads received in exchange, and to request 
him also to return those which he claimed were not 
genuine to me. Mr. Stevens returned the package 
to me, and refused to give me back those which he 
claimed I had sent to him, with the excuse that they 
were no longer in his possession, as he had given 
them to Mr. Berlin. Hence obviously it is impossi- 
ble for me to determine as to the correctness of the 
statements made by those gentlemen concerning said 
relics. Their refusal to allow me to inspect the 
objects is very strange and perplexing to me. 

As Mr. Stevens informs us that many of the relics 
I sent him were thrown out in the yard on a pile of 
other rejected relics, and have been lying there some 
years exposed to the weather, it is no wonder they 
became, as he says, considerably changed in appear- 
ance, and the labels lost. Under these circumstances, 
and after so long a time, it must have been very diffi- 
cult for him to select the relics in question, and to 
distinguish them with certainty from those received 
from other sources in his extensive exchanges. I 
have no doubt, if I could see the relics, I should 
_ Yecognize many or most of them, unless they have 
been so changed by Mr. Stevens as to be no longer 
recognizable. Until this opportunity is afforded, 
the present account of the transaction must suffice. 

That the intention or the thought of having any 
thing to do with doubtful relics, or of deceiving any 
one with them, was far from my mind, will, to you, 
scarcely require any special assurance from me. 


J. GASS. 
Postville, Io., April 10. 


The above is a correct translation from the Ger- 
man of a communication written by Rev. J. Gass to 
Charles E. Putnam, Esq., bearing date April 10, 1886. 

Car L. SuKSDORF. 


Wm. KIepe. 
Davenport, Io., May 4. 


What was the rose of Sharon? 


An interesting question is renewed, in alate num- 

ber of the Edinburgh review, on ‘ What was the rose 
_ of Sharon?’ It is very possible that some of the 
readers of Science may be able to throw further 
light upon the subject, or at least give trustworthy 
Opinions as to the merits of ‘ crocus,’ ‘ narcissus,’ or 


SCIENCE. 


439 


‘reed.’ The extract is, I hope, of sufficient interest 
to merit republication ; it is as follows :— 

‘*The ‘rose of Sharon’ has long been a disputed 
point. The Hebrew word khabatseleth occurs only 
in Canticles ii. 1, and Isa. xxxv.1. The Revised 
version reads ‘rose’ in the text, and ‘autumn 
crocus’ in the margin. Weare of opinion that the 
narcissus (N. tazetta) is intended. The scene of the 
Canticles is in the spring, when the narcissus would 
be in blossom: it is very sweet, has long been and 
still is a plant of which the orientals are passionately 
fond. MHasselquist noticed it on the plain of Sharon ; 
Tristram, in cultivated land and lower hills from 
Gaza to Lebanon; Mr. H. Chichester Hart, in the 
districts between Yebdna and Jaffa (plain of Sharon). 
‘Some low-lying patches,’ he says, ‘were quite 
white with it.’ The October quarterly statement 
(Palestine exploration fund) contains a valuable 
paper by Mr.C. Hart, entitled ‘A naturalist’s jour- 
ney to Sinai, Petra, and South Palestine, made in the 
autumn of 1883.’ The autumn crocus has no per- 
fume, and would not be in bloom till late in the year. 
The narcissus is a bulbous plant, which is apparently 
implied in part of its Hebrew name; ie., betsel (a 
‘bulb,’ an ‘ onion’). But quite a different plant has 
very recently appeared as the claimant to the honor 
of being the ‘rose of Sharon:’ an Assyrian plant 
name is introduced to us by Dr. F. Delitzsch. Among 
the names of different kinds of kind (‘reed’) and 
of objects made of it, occurring on a tablet in the 
British museum, and published in ‘The cuneiform 
inscriptions of western Asia,’ mention is made of 
one called khabatsillatu, which in sound is identical 
with the Hebrew name in Canticles and Isaiah; so 
that Dr. F. Delitzsch, without a moment’s hesitation, 
upsets all other floral aspirants with one decided 
blow, and reads ‘reed of Sharon,’ ‘the desert shall 
rejoice and sprout like the reed.’ ”’ Ca. Wickes 


Thermometer exposure and the contour of the 
earth’s surface. 


Various writers during the last hundred years, and 
perhaps earlier, have called attention to the marked 
differences of temperature which are frequently to 
be found in clear weather between hill-tops and 
adjacent valleys. Recently Hann and Woeikof in 
Europe have written numerous papers on the sub- 
ject ; and in this country instances have been given 
by J. W. Chickering, jun., and S. Alexander (Ameri- 
can meteorological journal), Professor Mendenhall 
(Science), Professor Hazen (Professional paper of the 
signal service, xviii.), and Prof. W. M. Davis (Ap- 
palachia). But attention has not generally been at- 
tracted to the bearing these differences of tempera- 
ture have on the subject of thermometer exposure. 

My attention was drawn to the subject by the 
marked differences of temperature which were re- 
ported by different observers at Ann Arbor, Mich., 
during the cold period of the winter of 1885; and, 
in order to study the subject, a regular series of 
observations were begun between the astronomical 
observatory at Ann Arbor and an adjacent valley 
through which ran the Huron River. The bottom 
of the valley was about a hundred and fifty feet 
lower than the land on each side of it, and was about 
a quarter of a mile distant from the side on which 
stood the observatory. The method employed was 
to obtain the temperature at the observatory by 
means of a sling thermometer ; then descending the 


440 


bill, and whirling the thermometer, to read it at 
intervals until the bottom was reached. A return 
trip was then begun, and the temperature obtained 
again at the top of the hill. Later, minimum ther- 
mometers were similarly exposed at both places, and 
their readings compared. Early on clear mornings, 
and at night. the temperature was usually found sev- 
eral degrees lower in the valley, and differences of 
ten degrees were not uncommon. At7 A.M. on the 
morning of Feb. 18, the temperature at the observa- 
tory was 34° below zero. On descending the hill, the 
thermometer fell rapidly, and at the bottom of the 
valley read 18° below zero. The fall was greatest 
along the steepest decline, and in one place fell three 
degrees within twenty-five feet. Returning, the 
thermometer rose rapidly, and at the top of the hill 
again read 34° below zero. 

During the continuance of these observations, 
Professors Pettee and Schaeberle kindly consented 
to take simultaneous observations of temperature 
with those at the observatory. One lived abouta 
mile to the south-west, and the other about the same 
distance to the west. Professor Pettee was at about 
the same level as the observatory, and his readings 
differed but little from the observatory readings ; 
but the observations taken at the home of Professor 
Schaeberle, which was at a considerably lower level, 
several times gave temperatures ten degrees lower 
than those at the observatory. These lower tem- 
peratures, observed both in the adjacent valley and 
at the home of Professor Schaeberle, were only 
found at night and on clear, quiet mornings, and 
disappeared in the middle of the day and in cloudy 
weather. They were due, no doubt, to the fact that 
the air most cooled by radiation, or by contact with 
the earth’s surface thus cooled, was heaviest, and 
sunk to the lowest levels. In the middle of the day 
the temperature was usually found slightly higher in 
the valley than at the observatory. 

It seems evident, then, that for scientific purposes 
which are intended for the study of temperature 
changes over large sections of country, and where 
stations can only be obtained many miles apart, it is 
necessary to avoid these merely local differences of 
temperature ; and the only method of eliminating 
them is to get above them: in other words, wher- 
ever irregularities in the earth’s surface exist, the 
thermometer should be on, or at least as high as, 
that of any considerable portion of land surrounding 
it, and not in valleys. The thermometer should, if 
possible, be away from buildings, and as many feet 
above ground as convenient. The best form of 
shelter is probably that devised and described by 
Professor Hazen. I have found by comparison that 
thermometers placed in accordance with these 
considerations differ but little in their readings, 
though they are many miles apart in a horizontal 
direction. But scientific people should not fall into 
the error of supposing that thermometers so placed 
represent the temperature over the adjacent country. 
The position is merely that in which local influences 
are attempted to be avoided ; and it is not safe to 
say to persons that their observations must be erro- 
neous because they differ from those of the signal ser- 
vice or some observatory. 

This is a subject I think well worthy of the con- 
sideration of those in charge of state weather ser- 
vices. H. Hretm Ciayron. 

Blue Hill observatory. 

Readville, Mass., April 16. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. *¥ik; Noow72 


Double vision. 


Since my earliest boyhood, or for more than fifty 
years, I have had double vision and stereoscopic 
eyes, which I have probably exercised more than a 
million times. I have exercised the double vision to 
such an extent that it has become toa certain degree 
compulsory, as, if I look at an object forty feet more 
or less distant, all intervening objects are doubled 
involuntarily. 

I often stereoscope (if that be a good verb) wall- 
papers and carpets, if figures be of proper size, ar- 
rangement, and distance. This has a wonderful 
effect, producing the following changes: the walls 
of an ordinary room are apparently thrown to a dis- 
tance of a hundred feet, and are proportionately in- 
creased in size. Any defects in the putting-on of 
the paper will exhibit themselves in the same man- 
ner as I shall mention when describing the effects on 
gratings or lattice-work. The borders of the paper, 
if not ‘stereoscoped’ at the same time, with all 
pictures, etc., on the walls, will remain at their 
proper distances, and seem suspended in the air, 
like Mohammed's coffin. The surface of the paper 
is also remarkably increased in brilliancy. In 
‘stereoscoping’ common photographs, they are 
thrown to a much greater distance, and the proper 
stereoscopic effect is brought about in the middle one 
of the three. I suppose this accounts for the in- 
creased size of the walls of rooms when so treated. 

What has bothered me the most is the effect on 
gratings and lattice-work. In a piece of lattice- 
work, say, eight by ten feet, and the eyes five feet 
distant, the work is broken up, and has, instead of 
a common surface, an apparent depth of three or 
four feet. In some places there will be but a single 
piece ; in other places two or three will be together 
with their parallelism properly preserved. I sup- 
pose that it is brought about by irregularities in the 
construction of the diagonals in the structure ; but I 
do not know enough about optics to explain this 
peculiar breaking-up, and differences in apparent 
distances of the different pieces making up the work. 
The same effects are produced in looking down at 
gratings in pavements. Gro. KELLER, M.D. 

Bucyrus, O., May 19. 


Partition of Patagonia. 

The geographical note on the ‘ Partition of Pata- 
gonia’ in the current issue of Science (No. 170) calls 
to mind your recent strictures on cartographers for 
failing to keep our school maps up to the times. It 
would be but fair to state that the cartographers are 
not delinquent in this instance. The treaty of parti- 
tion was concluded at Buenos Ayres, July 23, 1881, 
—five years ago. For the last three years all our 
more popular school geographies have shown the 
boundaries of Chili and the Argentine Republic as 
determined by this treaty. RvussELL HINMAN, 

Cincinnati, May 10. 


An old-time salt-storm. 
Can any of your readers tell me the exact date of 


the so-called ‘ salt-storm’ which came upon the coast 


of Massachusetts about 1815? As described by 
old inhabitants, there was a high wind and heavy 
rain, and the houses and all objects within a mile of 
the water were coated with salt. Are such storms 
of frequent occurrence, and what is their explana- 
tion ? H 
Salem, Mass., May 10. 


me TENCE — 


SUPPLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1886. 


CROSS-FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS BY 
BIRDS. 


ADAPTATIONS for cross-fertilization exist in an 
almost endless variety throughout the vegetable 
kingdom, and have afforded a wide field for study 
and speculation to biologists. Many of great in- 
terest have been described by Hermann Miller as 
occurring in South American plants; and now 
the well-known South American naturalist, Fritz 
Miiller, adds in Kosmos (1886, i. 93-98) a very re- 
markable discovery of adaptation to cross-fertiliza- 
tion by birds, — the first case of the kind, it is 
believed, that has been observed in the vegetable 
kingdom. 

The flowers of the common European myrtle, 
‘with their delicate white corolla and crown of 
white stamens and simple pistil, are familiar to 
all. Very similar are the white flowers of the 
trees and shrubs belonging to the numerous species 
of the genera Campomanesia, Psidium, Myrcia, 
and Eugenia of the same family (Myrtaceae), oc- 
curring in great abundance in South America. 
Many of the species blossom in such profusion 
that the trees appear nearly white, and the pleas- 
ant odor that not a few give off attract bees and 
other insects in great numbers ; and while in many 
others the flowers are not so conspicuous, and the 
perfumes not so evident, yet the pollen is easily 
transferred from flower to flower, and tree to 
tree, by the agency of insects. 

In this uniformity among the genera and species 
a singular exception is found in the ‘goiabo do 
campo,—a not uncommon tree in the higher 
lands of Brazil, and widely known for its excel- 
lent fruit. The single species belong to the genus 
Feijoa ; and its popular name, as well as its mode 
of growth and its foliage, recalls the wide-spread 
common guava-tree (Psidium pomiferum). 

The flowers are found usually at the extremity 
of the twigs, or more rarely in the axils of the 
leaves, in groups of from two to five, on short 
stems. The leaves in whose axils the flower- 
stems, or the twigs bearing them, occur, are re- 
duced to rudimentary bracts; and the flowers, 
for this reason, are more conspicuous than they 
would be were they enveloped by leaves, as is 
usual in the allied genera. A yet more especial 
adaptation to the means by which they are ferti- 


lized is the duration of flowering, which extends 
for months, during the entire spring, single blos- 
soms appearing here and there over the tree. 

The sepals form two pairs, — those of the one 
about six millimetres in length, and of equal 
breadth ; of the other, twice as long and a little 
wider. In the unfolding of the blossom they are 
turned downwards, and present only the dark 
reddish-brown inner side. The petals at first are 


BLOSSOMS OF FEIJOA, FIVE EIGHTHS NATURAL SIZE. 


about fifteen millimetres long and as many broad, 
firm and leathery, and arched outwards; the in- 
ner side, of a purplish-red color. Within a day 
they grow to double the length and breadth, and 
so roll up longitudinally that they form a tube not 
more than one-third of the width, the leaves of 
the two pairs rolling or turning in opposite direc- 
tions. 

Together with these changes in size and shape, 
there are others in color and taste. The external 
side of the petal, all that is now visible, becomes 
pure white, contrasting with the dark background 
of the sepals; and instead of being thickened 
and tasteless, or with a slight acrid taste, as is 
usual in so many of its congeners, like the clove 
and other species, it has now become soft and 
very sweet, and without any acridity. 

The dark blood-red stamens, to the number of 
about fifty or sixty, are about eighteen millimetres 
in length, thickened and stiff, and expanding 
above into a crown more than an inch in diame- 
ter. The anthers lie horizontally, and liberate 
their bright yellow pollen nearly at the same time 
that the petals reach their complete development. 
The single pistil is likewise firm and stout, and 
extends above the plane of the anthers. As an 
unusual occurrence, there were found at one time 


442 


flowers in which one or more of the sepals had 
been transformed into petals, as shown in fig. B ; 
and, from their evident relation to each other, the 
author notices the fact as deserving the attention 
of those who would speculate upon laws of varia- 
tion and heredity. 

From the description it will be seen that the 
flowers are conspicuous, having deep-yellow pol- 
len, dark blood-red stamens and pistil, snow- 
white petals, and dark sepals, all unhidden by the 
foliage. But, notwithstanding this conspicuous- 
ness, the flowers are seldom visited by bees, there 
being, as was found, little or no nectar or honey 
to attract them. Even in cases where bees were 
observed upon the flowers, the prominent pistil 
did not readily admit of fertilization. The author 
was surprised, however, to find that soon after 
blossoming very many of the petals were severed 
near the middle, or at the base, by a single strong 
incision. By watching he soon discovered the 
cause to be birds of the genus Thamnophilus. 
These birds, of which the male is black and the 
female brown, alighted usually upon a branch 
above the one on which a flower was in bloom, 
and, reaching downward, bit off the petals; but, 
in so doing, either the neck or forehead invariably 
came in contact with the anthers, and brushed off 
the pollen, leaving the flower as seen in fig. C. 
Whether birds of this genus, especially in the 
more normal habitat of the tree in the higher 
lands of Brazil, are the only agency of cross- 
fertilization, or whether other birds share in it, re- 
mains to be discovered. 

In Europe it is only exceptionally that birds are 
attracted by flowers. Sparrows sometimes bite 
off the flowers of the yellow crocus, and the bull- 
finch will pluck with inherited dexterity that por- 
tion of the under part of the primrose which con- 
tains honey. No adaptation has hitherto ever 
been observed where such mutilations of the blos- 
som were of direct advantage to the plant, and 
the present example of Feijoa is therefore the 
more remarkable for the high degree of perfec- 
tion which this adaptation has reached. Instead 
of the sweet petals being spread out for ornament 
alone, out of which the bird could pluck but a 
small portion, they become rolled up, thus per- 
mitting a larger part to be bitten off, and present- 
ing greater attractions. The stout, firm anthers, 
and pistil, are likewise adaptive, insuring the 
clinging of the pollen to the feathers of the bird, 
and thus its ready transportation from one blossom 
to another. 

How these adaptations have been brought about 
can scarcely be conjectured, as the genus is widely 
removed from the allied genera, and there are no 
intermediate forms, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 171 


PROFESSOR HUGHES ON SELF-INDUCTION. 


THE recent researches of Prof. D. E. Hughes, 
president of the Society of telegraph engineers 
and electricians, have been extended by him, and 
his latest results will be published in a forthcom- 
ing number of the Society's journal. Weare en- 
abled to give some account of these researches 
from an account published in Engineering. 

The extra resistance of a wire during the < vari- . 
able period,’ that is to say, when the electric cur- 
rent entering it is rising to its normal strength, 
has been shown by Professor Hughes to proceed 
from an extra current of opposite name self-in- 
duced in the wire. He finds, however, that there 
are cases in which this effect is reversed, so as to 
produce less resistance in the wire during the 
variable period. Such cases occur when ex- 
tremely fine wires are being tested with powerful 
currents ; for the steady current heats the wire, 
thus introducing an extra resistance. The induc- 
tion-bridge of Professor Hughes enables him to 
study and analyze these effects, tracing them to 
their true cause. 

Professor Hughes has lately been investigating 
the self-induction of coils, as well as of straight 
wires, and the following table gives his result :— 


OO, 
> 5 
Bro 
Coils formed of 3 metres of silk-covered copper Be 8a 
wire 1 millimetre in diameter, each coil being 3 Sos 2 
millimetres in diameter. q Seq 
oKo 
Ow Om 
oO 
One GOil BlONG ij. <cjacesioieciewic vs eicaels apapetelninreinieises ial oieiate 100 
Two similar coils in SOTIOS.........cccccceceecccecs . 174 
Two similar coils in parallel, but separated 5 centi- 
metres from each Other... ....0c ssecnnccccenccecs 55 
Same two coils in parallel, but superposed........ 81 
One single coil of thicker wire of exactly the same 
form, length, and resistance as ehe two coils in 
parallel Lcdelerestis ceeeeiw \clelslercil's Ghia tated estar elma 75 


This table shows an increase of the self-induc- 
tion when the two coils are in series, but not 
quite double the effect, as there is an increased or 
added resistance. This result is well known; but 
a more interesting result is obtained where the 
two coils are parallel and separate, giving 82 per 
cent less self-induction than when they are super- 
posed, and 26 per cent less than that of a single 
coil of the same resistance. Professor Hughes 
traces this result to the reaction of contig 
coils on each other. 

With regard to the self-inductive capacity of 
non-magnetic wires of different metals, but of 
the same lengths and diameters, Professor Hughes 
finds that when non-inductive resistances, say, of 
carbon, are added to the wires to bring them to 
equal resistance, there is apparently no difference 
in the self-inductive capacity of all the metals he 
has yet tried ; but if, instead of adding a supple- 


|| 
| 
i| 
i| 


May 14, 1886.] 


mentary resistance of carbon, the wires are taken 
of the same length and resistance, their diameters 
being different, he finds a marked difference in 
their inductive capacities. For instance: a pure 
copper wire, compared with a brass one of double 
the diameter, shows a much higher self-induc- 
tion; and Professor Hughes remarks in this con- 
nection, that, as the diameter increases, the re- 
actions of the current in the contiguous parts of 
the wire on each other become less. The follow- 
ing table gives some fresh values of the electro- 
motive force of self-induction currents in wires 


and strips one metre long, that of a chemically 


pure copper wire one millimetre in diameter 
being taken as 100 :— 


Wires of the same diameter, but of different resistance, 
1 metre in length. 


Soft Swedish iron ............ CRISIS = ela seta aes ahaa 500 
a BA Se eee er ee 100 
RRP e ae yates so ee cence nie nee ae eb aswest secs Se 65 
Deb DT 2 eon lbtassidd! = SSR SO ISCEN De. Cees aaa 50 


Wires of the same resistance, but of different diameter, 
1 metre in length. 


RMN OO ERM ERO Mao cccsciscicicsejc carve viata aneccmede sits 400 
RE in aight SR e wan Bent codices ovve Debetvechse okee 100 
USS TRY! 35540 3 RS ene ase eee 88 
Se aN ere ae orale sects owes eda caeekas ddan 81 


Strips of the same width and thickness, but of different 
resistance, 1 metre in length, 12 millimetres wide, 1-10 of 
a millimetre thick, 


WOBNOT. csc ces cence « Pereieiata ave sia\ehins Sis) aye 1s gaya: Siejalmiat disuse 60 
gk ap let 8 on) Se ald 48 
—ye -ohy e  | e 45 
EE ES EE ee eee, eae 85 


Strips of the same resistance and thickness, but of differ- 
ent widths, 1 metre in length, 1-10 millimetre thick. 


12 millimetres wide (copper)............-eseceeeeeee 60 
42 e Sy EM cc ekiwes oe eetesatees es 6 45 
72 : PICTON soe leaielels Wess ea aitctene 39 
96 “ SE a CORON atels wicrciatatmn aicisia (cial sie eta sjaraievei 29 


In the above table, wires of the same diameter 
follow in the order of their resistance, iron alone 
being the exception. The same order is preserved 
in wires of the same resistance, but of different 
diameters. In the latter case there is a nearer ap- 
proach to equality, but they still show a differ- 
ence of from 12 to 19 per cent; and, while the non- 
magnetic metals have increased their inductive 
capacity with increased diameter, iron has fallen 
20 per cent: consequently wires of different 
metals of the same resistance have not the same 
inductive capacity, owing, probably, to the action 
of contiguous portions of the current, as Professor 
Hughes has already shown. 

If we reduce the extra currents by employing 
thin sheets or strips, there is, in the case of iron, 
a still more remarkable difference, for in strips of 
different metals of the same width the force of 
the extra currents in iron is actually less than 
that in brass; and if we compare an iron strip 
with an iron or copper wire of the same resist- 


SCIENCE. 


443 


ance, we have, iron 500, copper wire 100, and an 
iron strip 45, or 55 per cent less than the copper 
wire. 

In the case of wires a nearer approach to equal- 
ity in inductive capacity is shown when they are 
of the same resistance, but in strips this is re- 
versed ; for here, when equality in resistance is 
produced by wider strips, the difference becomes 
greater, iron then having actually less inductive 
capacity than a lead wire of the same resistance. 
Professor Hughes attributes this remarkable result 
not only to the reactions of contiguous portions 
of the current being less in sheets or strips than 
in wires, but also to an imperfect formation of 
the circular magnetism which takes place in iron 
wires on the passage of an electric current. He 
has tried all forms of conductors, such as those of 
square, stellar, and tubular section; and all of 
them show a diminution of inductive capacity as 
compared with wires of solid circular cross-sec- 
tion. In solid conductors the maximum self-in- 
duction appears in those of circular section, and 
the minimum in wires formed into a flat strip. 

While re-affirming his statement that the best 
lightning-rod is a flat strip of copper, or a gal- 
vanized iron strand wire, Professor Hughes has 
made experiments with American compound 
wires consisting of a steel core coated with cop- 
per, or a copper core coated with steel. He finds 
that the copper coating has an enormous influ- 
ence in reducing self-induction in the steel. With- 
out it the self-induction was found to be 350 as 
compared with a copper wire giving 100, whereas 
with it the self-induction was only 107, or 7 per 
cent more than copper alone. This effect is ex- 
plained by the fact that the circular magnetism 
created by the passage of a current through an 
iron wire is produced chiefly on the exterior 
portion of the wire; and if this is of copper, it 
is practically suppressed. On the other hand, 
copper wire coated with steel has a greatly in- 
creased self-induction as compared with copper 
wire uncoated. Iteven has a higher self-induction 
than a solid iron wire, and its resistance in the 
variable period is proportionally greater than that 
of a soft iron wire. Professor Hughes has made 
numerous experiments on this point; and they 
all show, that, while copper in a straight wire or 
a single wide loop has a far lower inductive ca- 
pacity than iron, it has, on the other hand, the 
property of being far more excited by the reaction 
of iron, so that a straight copper wire can be ex- 
cited by this reaction to a degree greatly exceed- 
ing that of a straight iron wire under precisely 
the same conditions. Some of Professor Hughes’s 
experiments illustrating this point may be cited, 
as they are of much practical importance. A 


444 


copper and an iron wire of equal resistance, 1 
metre in length, were measured for inductive 
capacity and resistance, the capacity of the copper 
wire being taken as 100, and the iron being 400. 
The copper wire showed an increased resistance, 
during the variable period, of 8 per cent, as com- 
pared with 128 per cent for iron; but a great 
change took place when each of these was placed 
in the interior of an iron gas tube of sufficient 
diameter to allow of the wire being insulated. 
The force of the extra currents in the copper wire 
then increased 3850 per cent, while in the iron 
they increased 8 per cent, the force of the extra 
currents being now, for copper 450, and for iron 
433. 

The influence of an iron tube on the resistance 
of the variable period was still more marked. The 
copper wire which, without the exterior iron 
tube, had only 8 per cent increase, now showed 
934 per cent; or, by direct measurement, 1 metre 
of this wire, during the rapid rise and fall of the 
current in the variable period, had a resistance 
the same as 10.34 metres in the stable period, — a 
much greater difference than was obtained with 
iron wire, which only showed an increase of 22 
per cent. Thus copper shows three times the sen- 
sibility to an iron sheath which iron does, a fact of 
importance in electrical engineering. Iron is 
much less affected in self-induction by exterior 
influence than copper. Copper coils are much 
more sensitive to iron cores within them than 
iron coils, and the resistance of a copper coil may 
be in the variable period far more than that of an 
equal iron coil, if an iron core react within it. It 
is this fact, however, as Professor Hughes points 
out, which enables copper coils to be so effective 
in transforming energy in ‘secondary generators ;’ 
and he remarks that a dynamo having its electro- 
magnet and armature wound with insulated iron 
wire, would, irrespective of its resistance, have 
an extremely low efficiency as compared with one 
wound with copper. As regards the resistance of 
either of those wires, Professor Hughes observes 


that there can be no doubt that the resistance of : 


the armature of a dynamo, or, in fact, of any coil 
of wire, as measured during the stable period, 
gives no approximate indication of what its real 
resistance is during the period in which it is doing 
work. This remark bears out a recent suggestion 
to the effect that the resistances of conductors, 
apparatus, and standards, as measured by battery 
currents in the stable period, differ to some ex- 
tent from their values when traversed by the 
rapidly fluctuating currents of a dynamo. A 
further investigation of the matter is required in 
order to find out its practical importance, if any. 

The following table shows the influence of an 


SCIENUVE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 171 


iron tube surrounding a straight iron or copper 
wire compared with compound wires :— 


oO; ' 
bs |E5S5 
Se. [suas 
fe |bSRB 
o+ Aad pr 
BH |gsasn 
WIRES IN IRON TUBE, EACH 1 METRE IN ‘3 - Saag g 
on ® 
LENGTH. oF oe e 2s 
Pee at ei 
e° | |Bagse 
5 oun |H or wy W 
aF5 |25 Se 
Boe |esses 
oO <q 
Copper wire 2 millimetres diameter, 
MIOMO! tase Saisie nic saces ele eroleiae arotets oleate eters 100 1.08 
Same wire insulated in the interior of the 
TROMMEMDE ec cic sooiccote eos siolereeloniereeters waite 450 10.34 
Same joined in the tube at both ends,.... 275 10.00 
Same in contact with the tube throughout 
AGSMON OTD oactesetareniele otiorccle ol stele etarernereistale 200 7.83 
Compound wire (copper interior with 
StoeliexteriOn)y-\iciclisicieleiole ac iclelalelemiaietats 325 4.35 
Soft Swedish iron, 2 millimetres diameter, 
BLOM OG cicisiercciecciectssissversletsie’ Wawrehersisioenteisiend 400 2.28 
Same wire insulated in the interior of the 
AVOD UG Craver nel atainleys oxo oor! ole iotel -vaunie(e eieke ee aleka 433 Pai 
Same joined to the tube at both ends.... 240 2.70 
Same in contact with the tube throughout 
IUSMIEN PUD. cin wewemc eplcsawisickice seine sere 215 2.60 
Compound wire (steel interior, copper 
OMEOLION) wc. a aciarsoraheicewicte eile cieteets re uereeets 107) te 120 


This table shows that the iron tube has a much 
greater effect on the copper wire than on the iron 
wire, the effect in both cases being at its maxi- 
mum when the tube is insulated from its central 
conducting wire; for, while the wire is in con- 
tact with its tube, there is evidently a shunt 
action, or eddy current, between the outer coat- 
ing and the central portion. This Professor 
Hughes has measured by means of a telephone 
between the wires and its sheath, and also be- 
tween two concentric sheaths. When the sheath 
is joined to the wire at both ends, the electro- 
motive force of the extra current is reduced, 
but the resistance during the variable period is 
little altered. If, however, as in a coated wire, 
the wire and sheath are in contact throughout, 
there is a marked decrease in this resistance. 
Thus Professor Hughes is of opinion that the 
shunting effect takes place locally and probably 
transversely. The passage of an electrical cur- 
rent then takes place with less opposing resist- 
ance from self-induction than would be the case 
if there were no internal partial neutralization 
of the extra currents. abo 


ORIGIN OF FAT IN ANIMALS. 


SINCE the researches of Dumas, Milne-Edwards, 
and others on insects, and those of Persoz and 
Boussingault on geese, it has been established that 
the animal organism has the power of elaborating 
fatty matters. It was formerly believed that such 


May 14, 1886.] 


matters were received already formed with the 
food, and that the réle of the animal organism 
was merely to accumulate them. The vegetable 
organism, it was thought, was alone abie to form 
them. 

In comparing the quantities of fat stored in the 
bodies of those animals experimented upon with 
those known to have been introduced with the 
food, they were found to be considerably greater. 
It was shown, that, of the thousand grams daily 
increase in weight of an ox, six hundred or more 
were due to an accumulation of fat, while the 
ingested matters contained less than half of that 
quantity ; so that it is rendered certain that a 
large proportion, if not all, of the fatin the animal 
body, is due to sources other than fatty foods. 
What these sources are, is an important question, 
the answer to which has not been satisfactory. It 
has commanded much attention, especially in 
Germany, within late years, and has given rise to 
numerous controversies. It is a subject, also, of 
no little importance, since obesity in man is often 
an infirmity, and sometimes a grave disease. It 
will therefore be of interest to present such facts, 
‘in connection therewith, as have been so far ex- 
perimentally demonstrated, as given by A. Sanson 
in the Revue scientifique. 

Pettenkofer and Voit kept during a number of 
days, in a suitable respiration apparatus, a dog 
which received daily given quantities of dried 
starch and fat, and ascertained that the dog 
eliminated, under the form of carbonic acid, not 
only all the carbon of the ingested starch, but also 
a portion of that of the fat. It was therefore 
concluded that the starch thus decomposed did 
not serve in the formation of the fat. This 
formed the basis of a theory, on Voit’s part, that 
the formation of fat was due to the reduction of 
albuminoid matters by the oxygen of respiration. 
According to this theory, the alimentary sub- 
stances which we call carbohydrates — that is to 
say, starch, glycogen, sugars — take no part what- 
ever in the formation of fat. These are decom- 
posed in the organism, furnishing material for 
the animal heat, and resolving themselves into 
carbonic acid and water. The albuminoid mat- 
ters — the proteines—are only in part thus de- 
composed, and furnish, besides, urea and fat. 

This theory of Voit, which was in reality a very 
ingenious hypothesis, was immediately accepted 
throughout Germany, though Henneberg showed 
by chemical calculation that 100 grams of al- 
bumen thus used would not furnish more than 51 
grams of fat in addition to 33 of urea and 27 of 
carbonic acid. It is necessary to remark, how- 
ever, that, in the numerous experiments per- 
formed by Voit and his disciples in support of 


SCIENCE. 


4A5 


this hypothesis, they were not able to verify it 
directly. It is impossible, in fact, to sustain the 
life of an animal nourished exclusively by albu- 
men. 

Taking as a point of departure the data of 

Henneberg’s calculations and the facts established 
by the experiments, it has not been difficult to 
show that Voit’s hypothesis is inadmissible by rea- 
son of its impossibility. The geese upon which 
Persoz experimented were found to have formed 
over 4,000 grams of fat, while their food, com- 
pletely deprived of fat, contained but 1,400 grams of 
proteine, — a quantity sufficient to form but a lit- 
tle more than 700 grams of fat. Other experi- 
ments of the same nature show the impossibility 
even in a more striking degree. A cow which 
gained at the rate of 1,600 grams per day stored 
up daily nearly 1,000 grams of fat, but an analysis 
of the food with which she was supplied showed 
only sufficient albuminoid matters to furnish 
about half that quantity. 
' These and other experiments have established 
reasons, now generally received, for the belief 
that herbivorous animals do not depend upon 
albuminous foods for the sources of fat, but that 
the fat is in a large part derived from the carbo- 
hydrates. 

Very lately Riibner has repeated the researches 
of Pettenkofer and Voit, and reached opposite 
results. He placed in the respiration apparatus 
a small dog weighing a little more than six kilo- 
grams, and gave it food composed of 85 grams of 
starch, 100 grams of cane-sugar, and 4.7 grams of 
fat. During ten days, in which it was kept under 
these conditions, it was found to have eliminated 
87 grams of carbon. The entire quantity of car- 
bon introduced by the food was 176 grams, of 
which 89 were retained in the organism, and 
served in the formation of fat, 76 of which must 
have been derived from the carbohydrates. From 
these facts he concludes that the carbohydrates 
are demonstrated to be a source of fat in the car- 
nivores as well asin the herbivores and omnivores. 
These researches of Riibner destroy absolutely the 
value of those by Pettenkofer and Voit ; and one 
can feel assured that the German theory of the 
dependence exclusively upon albuminoid mat- 
ters in the formation of fat in the animal organ- 
ism will no longer obtain acceptance. In these 
organisms, as in the vegetable, the fatty matters 
are formed by the carbohydrates furnished in 
abundance in the food. 

No more definite conclusions, however, in re- 
gard to the proper composition of food to produce 
fattening, can be reached from a knowledge of 
these facts. In alimentation every thing depends 
upon digestion. Every thing must be adapted to 


446 


the individual aptitude, and the proportions of 
carbohydrates and albuminoid matters must bear 
mutual relations dependent more or less upon 
physiological processes. Too strong or too feeble, 
as regards the digestive power of the individual 
considered, the proportion of the carbohydrates 
exerts an influence either upon its own digesti- 
bility or upon that of the albuminoids which ac- 
company it ; and in either case it has a depressing 
effect upon digestion. But, as regards a regimen 
preventive or remedial of obesity, the case is dif- 
ferent. It is evident, that, if the formation of 
fat is dependent upon carbohydrates, a diet com- 
posed largely of them, so often practised, can only 
be an error so far as obesity is concerned. 


A DARING ECONOMIST. 


THIs is a day of free lances in political economy. 
Its doctrines, its premises, its methods, are being 
subjected to every conceivable kind of criticism ; 
but, of all the kinds, that represented by Mr. 
Patten’s book is perhaps the rarest. He adopts 
the deductive method of English political econ- 
omy, and in the main adopts also its premises ; 
but by throwing special emphasis on such of 
these premises as he conceives have been insuf- 
ficiently borne in mind, as well as by insisting on 
some others which he himself introduces, he 
arrives at most important conclusions very much 
at variance with those commonly accepted. But 
it is not so much this position which we have 
just outlined that makes the book somewhat ex- 
ceptional, as the fact that Mr. Patten unquestion- 
ably understands the doctrines which he criticises. 
Not only does he understand them, but he gives 
ample evidence of such logical acumen and 
practical insight as might fit him to contribute 
to the improvement and extension of economic 
knowledge. 
his book, on the whole, is most unsatisfactory ; 
that while a reader who is well versed in econom- 
ic theory, and who keeps himself constantly on 
the guard against the author’s calm confidence 
in the completeness of his own argument, may 
find in it some suggestions which would repay 
attentive study, to the general reader it is full of 
snares and pitfalls. 

We have touched upon the secret of the au- 
thor’s failure to produce a sound contribution to 
economic criticism. He seizes upon a feature 
which seems to him to have been slighted by 
previous writers; he drags it to the light, and 
wishes to compel a recognition of its importance 


The premises of political economy ; being a re-exami- 
nation of certain fundamental principles in economic 
science. By Simon N, Patten. Philadelphia, Lippincott, 
1885, 12°. 


SCIHNCEH. 


Yet we are compelled to say that’ 


(Vo, Vily No, at 


in order to give the theory a completeness which 
it did not before possess; in his eagerness to do 
this, he comes to look upon his own supplement 
as the complete doctrine ; and what in due sub- 
ordination to the old teachings might have been 
a useful idea, becomes in this way a source of 
confusion and paradox. The author, moreover, 
exhibits a large share of that quality which has 
so frequently destroyed the utility of economic 
writing, — a disposition to exaggerate the differ- 
ences between his own views and those of previous 
writers, —and, in his ardent pursuit of the conse- 
quences of a pet notion or discovery, loses sight 
of the principles which he elsewhere shows he 
has understood. The only safeguard against de- 
fects of this sort is a profound sense of one’s own 
liability to err in matters of so subtle and com- 
plicated a nature as those with which our author 
deals, and such a feeling of respect for the great 
thinkers of the past as would compel one to ex- 
amine a question most carefully from every point 
of view before deciding that they were in the 
wrong. This is not the spirit that animates Mr. 
Patten: his book is full of bold statements of fact 
and theory, for which the author seems to think 
that no further justification is necessary than that 
they fit in easily with the general considerations 
which, from his point of view, are most promi- 
nent. The result is, that, in addition to a sketchi- 
ness and incompleteness quite inconsistent with 
the weighty character of the subjects discussed, 
the book is marked by logical oversights of the 
gravest nature, which almost or quite neutralize 
the effect of the author’s ability. 

To justify this estimate of his book by an ex- 
amination of the several arguments advanced by 
Mr. Patten would require an amount of space 
not much less than that occupied by the book 
itself. We must confine ourselves to one or two 
illustrations. The first chapter is devoted to a 
criticism of the Ricardian doctrine of rent. The 
principal objection here advanced against the 
theory rests on the fact that the extension of the 
field of cultivation requires an initial expenditure 
for clearing the land and fitting it for agriculture. 
This expenditure will not be incurred unless the 
owner can expect to receive as rent the ordinary 
profit on his initial expenditure of capital; but, 
the expense once incurred, the land will not be 
withdrawn from cultivation as long as it can 
merely yield the usual return for the labor and 
capital annually expended upon it. ‘It is clear, 
therefore,” says Mr. Patten, ‘‘ that the laws which 
regulate the bringing of new lands into cultiva- 
tion, and those according to which land will be 
withdrawn from cultivation, are very different, 
and that there is a large margin within which the 


May 14, 1886. ] 


price of food may vary without a change in the 
quantity produced.” A little reflection will show 
that there is a fatal oversight in this argument. 
It is true that people will not incur a considerable 
expense in preparing new land for cultivation 
unless the price of produce is sufficient to enable 
it to pay rent ; but there is no reason whatever to 
suppose that the land so brought into cultivation 
is the worst land in use. There might be a con- 
siderable fall in the price of food before the land 
last brought into use at great expense was thrown 
out of cultivation; but other and worse land 
would be thrown out of cultivation, or, what is 
the same thing economically, it would be less 
completely cultivated. If the Campagna were 
drained, no one supposes it would be the worst 
land in Italy ; and, although a considerable fall 
in the price of Italian produce might afterwards 
take place without throwing the Campagna out 
of cultivation, this is not the same as saying that 
no land in Italy would be thrown out of cultiva- 
tion. Mr. Patten thinks that the consideration of 
the expense of bringing new land into cultivation 
shows that there is no land which does not pay 
rent: in reality it merely shows that what is 
chronologically the last land to be cultivated is 
not always the land which pays no rent. In this, 
no Ricardian will be disposed to quarrel with him. 

Strange to say,“Mr. Patten, throughout this 
chapter, altogether ignores the possibility of re- 
ducing production by applying less capital to 
land, which is economically equivalent to with- 
drawing bad land from cultivation. In one of 
the last chapters he denies the truth of the law 
of diminishing returns; the law, namely, that 
after a certain point additional applications of 
labor and capital to a given portion of land yield 
a smaller return than former applications did. If 
Mr. Patten’s position on this point were correct, 
the Ricardian theory would be sadly shaken. Mr. 
Patten fancies the true law to be that of limited 
returns, not diminishing returns ; and, this fancy 
having taken hold of his mind, he devotes the 
main part of a chapter of thirty pages to trying 
to show that ‘‘the proportional return might in- 
crease up to a point beyond which no additional 
return could be obtained by any amount of labor.” 
This is as much as to say that it would pay a 
farmer to apply all the care and all the expense 
required for fertilizing, draining, watering, and 
so forth, which was requisite for getting from 
the soil the largest amount of produce it was 
physically capable of producing. The position is 
_ disproved by the practice of every plain farmer, 
and by the experience of every ‘model’ farmer ; 
and only the fatuity of a man in love with his 
own ‘ discovery’ can account for Mr. Patten’s 


SCIENCE. 


AAT 


curious effort to prove the contrary. In point of 
fact, he does not always bear in mind what it is 
that he is contending against, as when he says 
(p. 160), ‘“‘If no other result were obtained from 
improved processes than this better utilizing of 
labor, this result would more than counteract 
any tendency there may be towards diminishing 
the return from agriculture.” This is not in the 
least pertinent to the question ; what economists 
assert is, that, with given processes, capital and 
labor applied to the soil beyond a certain point 
produce diminishing proportional returns. 

The third chapter is devoted to a consideration 
of the law of population. One of the worst cases 
of easy-going refutation which occur in the book 
is furnished by the way in which Mr. Patten dis- 
poses of the method by which Malthus arrived at 
his conclusion. ‘‘ He found that in new colonies, 
where the tendency has the fewest checks, popu- 
lation frequently doubles itself in twenty-five 
years, and then concluded that this rate of in- 
crease represented the natural force of the ten- 
dency, and that this was the rate at which popu- 
lation always tends to increase. There are many 
objections to this method of reasoning which will 
quickly appear when we apply it to the investiga- 
tion of other subjects. . . . By the same method 
of reasoning we could prove that all men are 
natural drunkards, cannibals, adulterers, and 
murderers, since we find communities in various 
parts of the world where drunkenness, cannibal- 
ism, etc., are common.” A schoolboy ought to 
perceive the difference between the two cases. 
What Malthus found was, that men of the same 
race, the same civilization, the same religion, the 
same traditions, multiplied at a much more 
rapid rate when placed in circumstances which 
permitted of the easy support of an increasing 
population than they did when living in an old 
and thickly settled country. The differences in 
therate of increase were observed in the case of 
like peoples — often of the same people — in dif- 
ferent circumstances ; and it is ridiculous to put 
this on a level with a comparison between totally 
different peoples. If Mr. Patten had reflected 
that Malthus was neither a fool nor a vain man, 
but a man profoundly impressed with the impor- 
tance of arriving at the truth concerning the law 
of population, he would have been slow to sup- 
pose that Malthus’ position could be so easily over- 
thrown: and if, after writing his chapter, he had 
carefully re-read his Malthus, he would have 
found that most of his criticisms had been very 
thoroughly answered by Malthus himself. 

We shall look at one more example of the way 
in which Mr. Patten, in spite of understanding 
an economic law, goes astray through an unques- 


448 


tioning confidence in any apparent correction of 
it which may occur to him. He says that econ- 
omists justly call attention to the waste of labor 
and capital caused by protection, but that they 
omit to notice a precisely similar waste, on amuch 
larger scale, which is produced by free trade. 
To illustrate his point, he says, that, if Portugal 
has an advantage over France in the production 
of oranges. then, if a protective duty caused the 
planting of a few orange-groves in France on 
land which might have been more productively 
employed otherwise, economists would cry out 
against the waste. But the same effect may be 
brought about by free trade, if the world’s de- 
mand for oranges is so great that the appropriate 
land of Portugal and similar countries is insuf- 
ficient to supply it; the French land is then 
brought into requisition through the operation of 
free trade; and yet the economists make no out- 
cry against it, says Mr. Patten, though the land 
is as surely diverted from its best use as it would 
be by a protective tariff. But precisely here is 
Mr. Patten’s fallacy. There is no natural unit 
for comparing oranges with any thing else, as 
grapes, for example. What is meant by saying 
that on a given piece of land we can raise more 
grapes than oranges? Simply that the crop of 
grapes has more commercial value than that of 
oranges. When the demand for oranges has in- 
creased, the same quantity of oranges has a greater 
value than before, and the land is now better 
adapted for oranges than for grapes. Mr. Patten 
forgets that the Frenchman could still raise grapes 
as before : he prefers to raise oranges because the 
world at large will give him more for them than 
for the grapes. Mr. Patten may, indeed, reply, 
that, in point of fact, the grapes were capable of 
doing more good to the world than the oranges ; 
but economists do not assert the contrary of this, or 
pretend that production is regulated by any abso- 
lute standard of utility. They know very well 
that people do not produce what is best for their 
fellows, but what their fellows most desire. 

The title of Mr. Patten’s book does not convey 
a correct idea of its contents, for it deals quite as 
much with questions of social improvement as it 
does with the primary laws of political economy. 
If we look in it, not for fundamental criticism, 
but for suggestions of additions to economic theo- 
ry, and still more of improvements in economic 
practice, we may find, as already intimated, a 
number of things that would well repay attention. 
The importance of attending to the results of dif- 
ferent economic arrangements in determining the 
character of the individuals who will survive and 
perpetuate their kind is made justly prominent 
throughout the book, and is probably its most 


SCIENCE, 


[Vou. VIL, No 171 


valuable feature. It is not, however, carefully 
and impartially worked out, but is everywhere 
intermingled with the misleading criticism of 
economic doctrines which we have endeavored to 
characterize. In the discussion of free trade, Mr. 
Patten rightly calls attention to the importance of 
inquiring into its effects on distribution, the effect 
on production alone not being decisive of its de- 
sirability ; and in various parts of the book there 
are suggestive remarks on the bad influence of a 
low rate of interest upon the chance which the 
poorer classes have of improving their condition. 
But both in discussing these matters and in pro- 
posing remedies, the author is almost always con- 
tent to follow out the consequences of a single 
idea, instead of giving the subject that sober and 
comprehensive consideration without which no 
discussion of this nature can be useful, except by 
way of suggesting to others who are more careful, 
and more free from prepossessions. 


THE annual report of the North Carolina ex- 
periment-station for 1885 deals almost wholly 
with fertilizers and soils; but an experimental 
farm is about to be established in connection 
therewith, so that hencef: rth greater attention 
will be devoted to other less strictly chemical 
subjects. The station was established chiefly to 
give protection to the farmers of the state in the 
purchase of fertilizers, and its utility seems proved 
by the marked increase in value of the fertilizers 
in the market, and the rapid decrease of their 
actual cost price. Among the fertilizers to which 
attention was directed, are cottonseed-hull ashes ; 
and it is of interest to note that the total possible 
annual output of these ashes in the United States 
is estimated at over twenty-five thousand tons, 
valued at over eight hundred thousand dollars, 
though less than half this amount has hitherto 
been actually obtained. The vast quantities of 
phosphatic rock lately discovered in the state 
have drawn attention to the possibility of utiliz- 
ing the pyritic deposits for the obtaining of sul- 
phuric acid, to be used in the manufacture of 
fertilizers. A report by Mr. A. Winslow ad- 
vances the opinion that the plan is deserving 
careful attention. 


dustries. 


—It is said that experiments have been suc- 
cessfully made on the Indus valley railway in 


running locomotives fired with petroleum, and — 


that it seems likely that the frontier railway-en- 


gines will before long derive their fuel from the _ 


oil-wells near Sibi. 


Should it prove practical, Car- 
olina, as well as other southern states, will be 
benefited very materially in its agricultural in- — 


'% 


SCLE NCE. 


FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THOSE PEOPLE who have thought that English- 
men had already formed a society for every chari- 
table purpose under the sun are now shown to 
have been mistaken. A society has just been or- 
ganized for providing amusement for children. 
Of the eighty thousand children in London who 
leave the elementary schools every year, only four 
per cent have been willing to continue their edu- 
cation in the evening classes which have been 
provided by the education department. This un- 
satisfactory state of things has led to the forma- 
tion of the Recreative evening schools association, 
whose object is to offer the children, who have 
been at work during the day, such an enticing 
evening programme that they will find it im- 
possible to stay away. There are classes in musi- 
cal drill, song, wood-carving, modelling, and 
drawing, with lessons in history, geography, and 
science, illustrated by the magic lantern. The 
idea is an excellent one. An education which 
‘children will cry for’ is the ideal towards which 
education at all ages should approach as nearly as 
possible ; and until that ideal is reached, the edu- 
cational reformer will not find himself without an 
occupation. Sowing and reaping have not come 
any nearer in these days to being as great sources 
of enjoyment as foot-ball and tennis; but schools 


_are very different from what they were when our 


fathers were young, and it is quite possible to 
hope that we shall learn in time how to give 
children a life of purely happy activity. 


COMPLAINTS OF THE OVERCROWDING of the medi- 
cal profession in the United States are constantly 
becoming more numerous, and there is certainly 
some ground for them. When the relatively 
greater increase in the number of graduates than 
of the population is taken into consideration, 
there is every reason to fear a far more severe 
struggle for existence as the lot of the average 
physician in the near future. Statistics give 3,675 
as the number of medical students graduating in 
1885, and the number will probably be increased 
the present year. Already the United States has 

No, 172. — 1886, 


a larger proportion of physicians to its population 
than any other country in the world, averaging 
one to less than six hundred. To keep up this 
proportion, taking into consideration the natural 
increase of population, an annual increment of 
but little more than two thousand annually would 
suffice for some years to come. It is evident that 
a large part of the yearly graduates must either 
drop out by the wayside, or struggle for a very 
moderate subsistence. 


But for this actual and threatened overcrowding 
there is a remedy whose necessity and importance 
are fast being recognized ; viz., stricter require- 
ments on the part of the state and of the medical 
colleges. The requirements for graduation in 
many medical institutions have been disgracefully 
lax : a few months’ attendance upon lectures, an 
oftentimes worthless certificate of study, an hour’s 
superficial examination, and the candidate is ad- 
mitted to the degree of doctor of medicine. But 
it is interesting to observe the appreciable effects 
of state legislation in this direction. No one 
factor has exercised so much influence in elevat- 
ing the standard for medical graduation as the 
action of the Illinois state board of health.  Illi- 
nois was a good place to begin, for no city in the 
world turns out more irregular practitioners than 
Chicago ; and the board of health, by securing the 
passage of laws requiring the registration of phy- 
sicians with evidence of fitness as shown by the 
possession of a diploma from some college of a 
given grade or by examination, has undoubted- 
ly exerted wide-spread influence. The number 
of graduates in 1885 was less than in 1884; and 
nearly every college, ostensibly at least, now re- 
quires a preliminary examination ; and not a few 
have raised their standard of requirements for 
graduation, and lessened the number of their 
graduates. 


THE SUBJECT of industrial education in common 
schools has been often broached of late, and any 
able work upon it is sure to attract attention. 
There lies before us a pamphlet on this subject 
by H. H. Dinwiddie of the Agricultural and 
mechanical college of Texas; but we are com- 
pelled to say that it sheds no new light on the 


450 


question. The author thinks the times are out 
of joint; and he is grieved that so many men 
have difficulty in earning a living. 
nevolent heart,” he says, ‘‘is tortured by the 
cruel deliberation of natural selection, with its 
inexorable logic.” ‘‘Shall thousands of young 
men walk the streets of our cities with their high 
commencement - day hopes ever sinking, till de- 
spair and gnawing hunger throw over every noble 
aspiration, and drive them to lives of infamy or 
death by suicide?” The conclusion is, that, if 
the young were taught the methods of industry 
at school, they would afterwards have no trouble 
in earning their living. We expected, therefore, 
to find the author advocating the teaching of 
mechanical trades in the common schools, as 
many others have done. As a matter of fact, he 
doesn’t advocate industrial training at all: he 
only advises that the methods of the various 
industries should be described to the students, 
just as objects in natural history are described, 
but without any manual practice by the students 
themselves. How this is to help them in earning 
a living, we are unable to see; but it is the sole 
outcome of Mr. Dinwiddie’s pamphlet. 


THE INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT IN 
JAPAN. 


EVERYBODY in America who knows at all that 
there is such a country as Japan in the far east 
ought to be aware by this time that great social 
changes have for a past decade or two been going 
on among us. And numerous books and articles 
on Japan which have appeared within recent 
years in America, ought to have made tolerably 
clear of what nature these changes are. Thought- 
ful persons must often have wondered from afar 
whether these reforms are permanent, whether 
the spirit of progress does not lag sometimes, 
whether the people who seem to be rushing on 
with a headlong pace do not at times look back 
with longing on their past. If such persons had 
taken the trouble to look into the matter three or 
four years ago, they would have discovered that 
their surmises were correct. At that time we 
seemed to have turned round suddenly in the path 
which we had been so eagerly pursuing. People 
had started with the idea that all things European 
were good, and all things Japanese were bad. 
As they went on trying one sweeping change 
after another, they began to discover naturally 
that there were many blots in the European 
form of civilization, especially as imported into 
oriental countries, and that many things Japanese 


SCIENCE. 


‘“Fhie be- 


[Vou. VIL, No. 172 


were not bad at all, but excellent, and even sur- 
passed their European counterparts. This dis- 
covery, helped also, to some extent, by compli- 
ments, which foreign visitors are ever willing to 
pour on us, carried the people’s feeling to the op- 
posite extreme. They said to themselves, ‘‘ We 
are not so very bad, after all. Why should we 
change? Let us have back our own familiar 
ways and things.” The revival of old things be- 
came the order of the day. Chinese ethics began 
to be studied again with fervor, and the doctrines 
of Confucius and Mencius reigned supreme once 
more in the moral world. There was a revival of 
old Japanese literature and traditions. Women 
were to be brought up in the old-fashioned strait 
path: they were not to be allowed to catch hold 
of any new-fangled European ideas. Uéai (a 
peculiar kind of singing) was heard again on all 
sides, and brought back old associations. Teach- 
ers of cha no yu (the art of making tea, including 
all the formalities attending its drinking, etc.) 
were in requirement on every hand, while masters 
of the Ogasawara school of etiquette bustled along 
with smiling countenances. The fashion was to give 
banquets in the old Japanese style, and restaurants 
ad la europienne felt it to be very hard times. 
Young men were seen on the street, carrying 
about fencing-apparatus, — a sight not seen since 
the old feudal days. Schools of ju jitsu (a kind 
of wrestling) sprang up into existence by dozens. 
Various weapons of the saumrai which had been 
hung up in dark corners, again saw the light, and 
each claimed its own votaries. In short, all re- 
forms seemed to be at an end for the present. 

It must not be supposed, however, that all these 
carried us very far back. The backbone of old 
Japan — feudalism — had been shattered beyond 
all hopes of recovery ; and, without that, things 
could not be made to work as in former days, 
however much minor matters might be patched - 
up. Neither did people care to go back quite so 
far. Those who looked beneath the surface could 
easily see that this period of reaction could offer 
but a temporary check in the way of reforms, 
being comparable simply to the rest-stages ob- 
servable during earlier developmental phases of 
many an animal. In fact, it proved to be of a 
very short duration. And who shall regret that 
there was just at that time partial retracing of 
the path we had been following, since it will 
prove to be the means of preserving many harm- 
less arts and accomplishments peculiar to Japan, 
which might otherwise have been lost forever ? 

At the present time we may be said to be fairly 
in the midst of the second period of activity. We 
seem to be just as eager as ever to pursue the 
course of reforms; perhaps a little more so, for 


May 21, 1886.] 


the short respite we have had. The reforms that 
were accomplished in the first period were in 
many respects but superficial and material, or 
concerned only larger affairs of state; as, for 
instance. the establishment of telegraphic and 
postal service, opening of steamship lines, re- 
organization of the army and navy, reforms in 
the method of administering justice or of man- 
aging schools. They have left the feelings and 
thoughts of people comparatively untouched so 
far; but such stupendous changes could not take 
place without producing profound effects on the 
national life. And the present aspect of things 
makes it seem likely that during this second 
period of activity there will be great transforma- 
tions in the innermost life of Japan. There will 
come to be healthier and sounder views in regard 
to family ties; and some, at least, of the abuses 
which disfigure the domestic life, we may hope 
will pass away. Woman’s position will be better, 
and the gentler half of the nation will gradually 
come to exert more influence in society. New 
ideas will penetrate even to the very hearth-stone 
—or, rather, will lead to the establishment of a 
great institution known as the ‘hearth,’ which 
plays such an important part, both materially 
and metaphorically, in the life of Europe and 
America. The result of all these and other 
reforms will be to draw the Japanese closely into 
the comity of nations, and to make us share the 
feelings and thoughts of the civilized world, and 
to let the civilized world share our thoughts and 
feelings. In the opinion of many, we shall surely 
go down, if we could not accomplish this: it is our 
only chance of survival in this world of keen 
struggle, which seems to be raging just now in 
this part of the globe with more bitterness than 
elsewhere. 

Of the reform movements which have been 
started since the last period of reaction, none is 
likely to be more beneficial, or more wide-reach- 
ing in its effects, than the movement initiated by 
the Roman alphabet association (Roma-ji-ka‘). 
This society has for its object nothing less than a 
complete revolution in the manner of writing the 
Japanese language. It proposes to substitute the 
twenty-six letters of the Roman alphabet in place 
of Chinese ideographs now used. To understand 
the meaning of this movement, we must explain 
how Japanese has been and is being written. In 
_ more formal kinds of writing the classical Chinese 

Style is adopted. Chinese ideographs alone are 
used, and sentences are constructed as in pure 
Chinese. A scholar of that country will have no 
_ difficulty in understanding it. It must not be 
Supposed, however, that a Japanese reads this in 
_the way a Chinese would. A sentence being 


SCIENCE. 


451 


composed simply of a series of symbols, each of 
which stands for an idea, a Japanese translates it 
offhand, and reads it in Japanese, giving to each 
word its appropriate case-endings or inflections, 
which are not at all to be seen in the writing. 
This style of writing is now used much more 
sparingly than in former days. The most preva- 
lent form of writing at the present day is a mix- 
ture of Chinese ideographs with the Japanese 
Kana syllabary ; that is, ideographs are used to 
represent principal ideas in a sentence, and what 
might be called connectives are given in Kana. 
For instance: in the sentence, ‘A dog killed a cat,’ 
the main ideas conveyed by the words ‘ dog,’ ‘ cat,’ 
and ‘kill,’ are given in Chinese ideographs ; while 
the particles that make the word ‘ dog’ the sub- 
ject, and the word ‘cat’ the object, of the sen- 
tence, are given in Kana, as well as the tense- 
endings of the word ‘kill.’ A small part of litera- 
ture especially meant for the illiterate is in the 
Japanese Kana only. 

Such being various methods of writing our 
language, it is absolutely necessary for a Japanese 
to learn a few thousands of Chinese ideographs 
before he can read or write at all fairly. And be 
it understood that to know the meaning of each 
character is not enough. To get at the complete 
natural history of an ideograph, one must first of 
all know, of course, its meaning or meanings. 
Then he must know the sounds which the Chinese 
gave to it. Of these, each character has at least 
two,—the sound it had when it was first intro- 
duced into Japan from Corea, the go-sound ; and 
that which it had in a certain part of China when 
some Japanese visited it some centuries later, the 
kan-sound. Then he must know various ways in 
which this ideograph is written, — the printed, the 
‘cursive,’ the ‘grass’ forms,—for, in writing, 
each ideograph is not generaily given with its 
regular and full strokes, but is somewhat abbrevi- 
ated. If there can be unreadable handwriting 
with only twenty-six letters to work with, imag- 
ine what it must become when there is a chance 
of mangling thousands. In addition to all this, 
every respectable person has to write ideographs 
with some degree of decency; with power and 
feeling, if possible, for penmanship almost amounts 
to painting, and does actually have, in the eyes of 
many, an equal value with it as an art. The 
simple task of mastering writing and reading be- 
comes thus no mean one. If there were any proof 
needed of this fact, beyond the mere statement of 
the case, it lies in the fact that numerous as are 
the foreigners who have lived in Japan, and have 
fairly, or in some cases perfectly, acquired the 
spoken language, those who have mastered writ- 
ing and reading can be counted on one’s fingers, 


452 


When it is remembered that for a Japanese who 
wishes to keep abreast of the world, and to be- 
come acquainted with modern learning, the 
additional knowledge of at least one, or, if pos- 
sible, of two or three, European languages is 
absolutely essential, thoughtful persons may well 
pause, and ask what time there is left for us for 
mastering many arts and sciences which go to 
make up modern life. In this world of keen 
struggle for existence, shall we not necessarily 
lag behind all other nations, if we are so occupied 
with mere symbols, and not with ideas them- 
selves? That this state of things is most un- 
desirable is admitted on all sides. In former lei- 
surely days, when learning was a luxury in the 
hands of a privileged few, the harder it was 
made, the better. But we are now in the days of 
universal education, and what can we possibly 
accomplish with this clumsy and ponderous ma- 
chine of bygone Gays? Clearly, something must 
be done, and this quickly. That such is the 
opinion held by all intelligent persons, there can 
be no doubt. The question is, what is to be 
done ? 

Some years ago a movement was started by 
which it was proposed to dispense with Chinese 
ideographs altogether, and to use the Japanese 
Kana syllabary only. The Kana-no-kai(the Kana 
association) was formed. The association has 
some three or four thousand members, and has 
done very good and earnest work, although, of 
late, eclipsed to some extent by its younger sister, 
the Roman alphabet association. 

If the Kana alphabet alone should be used, it 
would certainly be a great improvement on the 
present method of writing Japanese with Chinese 
ideographs ; but, in the opinion of many, the 
Kana is not equal to the demands of modern life. 
Springing originally from Chinese ideographs, it 
partakes somewhat of their clumsiness. A printed 
page of Kana is frightfully monotonous ; there 
are no strokes that project out above or below the 
average width of letters; and taking in a word at 
a glance, without going over its component letters, 
is rather difficult. Again: although phonetic to 
some extent, spelling in it is really as bad as that 
of English words. There are many ways of 
writing down the same sound, and to know how 
a given word should be spelled becomes very 
difficult. For instance : there are eight different 
ways of writing the sound Ko, the same number of 
ways in writing 0, four ways of putting down the 
sound md, five ways of writing 7rd, etc., and these 
are by no means exceptional cases. Think of the 
word ché-cho being written tefu-tefu. It is very 
difficult to write a scientific treatise in Japanese, 
anyway ; but it is doubtful if it is possible to do so 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 172 


in Kana at all. The few attempts that have been 
made so far must be pronounced failures. The 
Kana alphabet has no doubt the merit of being 
known almost universally, and it is certainly at 
the present day the best vehicle of propounding 
simple ideas to the masses. But unless radical re- 
forms are carried out in the method of writing in 
it, and several more symbols are newly added, it 
is not, in my opinion, equal to the demands of 
modern civilization. 

The Roman alphabet has, on the contrary, all 
the facilities of the Kana, and possesses several 
additional advantages besides. Its twenty-six 
letters are very easy to learn, and its adoption will 
make reading and writing a very simple task ; in 
fact, almost nothing compared with the present 
method of using Chinese ideographs. It will, of 
course, cause education to spread wider. It will 
save several years in every schoolboy’s life. Those 
which he has to spend in the drudgery of learning 
how to read and write, he will be able to give to 
acquiring solid ideas of modern knowledge. The 
adoption of the Roman alphabet will also make 
the introduction of scientific terms and symbols 
into our language very easy. They have simply 
to be transferred bodily, with only such changes 
as the nature of our language makes imperative. 
Think what this means in mathematics, physics, 
and chemistry, or in writing down the scientific 
nomenclature of zodlogy, botany, and mineralogy. 
Geographical names and other proper nouns can 
be put down accurately, and not in imperfect ap- 
proximations. Last but not least, the Roman 
alphabet being the one in which the literature of 
the civilized world is written, familiarity with it 
will make the acquisition of European languages 
comparatively easy ; and, if Japanese be written 
in it, foreigners will have no difficulty in master- 
ing reading and writing our language,—a task 
which they find now so utterly impossible. Thus 
the adoption of the Roman alphabet will help us 
to know others, and help others to know us. In 
short, it will make us kin with the rest of the 
world. 

All this has been reasoned out time and again 
by persons who gave thought to the subject. But 
the stupendousness of the task of revolutionizing 
the whole written language of a nation deterred 
any from taking practical steps, and it is a matter 
of doubt whether any such attempt made before 
its own time would not have been laughed down. 
But when the period of reaction referred to in the 
beginning was over, and the march of reforms — 
was resumed with as much eagerness as ever, 
the time seemed to many to have come for starting 
the movement of introducing the Roman alphabet 
as the means of writing our language. Every 


May 21, 1886.] 


thing seemed ready, especially as the Kana-no- 
kai (the Kana association) was already in the field, 
and making the urgency of radical reforms in the 
mode of writing a familiar idea to everybody. 
The Roman alphabet movement originated prin- 
cipally within the University of Tokio. The first 
meeting for the purpose of organizing an associa- 
tion to carry on the movement was called on Dec. 
2, 1884, at which seventy persons were present. 
The work of organization was completed early in 
the following January. A committee of forty, 
including several well-known foreign scholars, 
was then appointed to draw up a scheme of trans- 
literation (adapting Roman letters to our sound). 
As Japanese does not contain any very peculiar 
sound, this task was comparatively easy, although 
it was not until after some heated discussion that 
the committee could come to a decision. The 
committee, wisely it seems to me, seized on what 
was already in vogue, — for of course Japanese 
had been written with the Roman alphabet before 
this,— and fixed it into a convenient and simple 
scheme. The system adopted is very much like 
that of Dr. Hepburn, the venerable American mis- 
sionary who published some years ago a Japanese- 
English dictionary. With the completion of a 
transliteration scheme, the Roman alphabet asso- 
ciation, or Roma-ji-kai, as it called itself, was in 
fair working-order.* Its publications, setting forth 
its objects or explaining its scheme of translitera- 
tion, were cast broadside. The association was 
received with enthusiasm, and was a great success 
from the first. InJune, 1885, — that is, six months 
after its organization, —its members numbered 
2,904 persons; in December of the same year, 
6,202 persons ; and at the present date of writing, 
the membership is about 7,000. These belong to 
all parts of the country, and are from every 
Station in life, from cabinet-ministers to story- 
tellers. In the first meeting, held in December, 
1884, there were present only 70 persons. In the 
general meeting, held in January of the present 
year, the large Central hall of the Engineering 
college in Tokio was filled. At least 1,200 persons 
listened to interesting addresses made on that oc- 
casion by Count Inouye, the minister of foreign 
affairs, and by the Hon. F. R. Plunkett, the Eng- 
lish minister in Japan. The association publishes 
a monthly magazine, named Rémaji Zasshi, and 
distributes it gratis among members. It contains 
_ essays on all sorts of subjects by well-known 
writers, besides the transliterations of extracts 
from popular books. In it the entire practicability 
_ of writing Japanese with the Roman alphabet has 
been demonstrated. The association is also having 
a Japanese dictionary compiled. 
Some of the newspapers make a practice of 


SCIENCE. 


453 


printing a small part of their issue in Roman 
letters, and thus aid in familiarizing people with 
it. In some provinces local societies have been 
organized to cultivate the use of the Roman 
alphabet. 

The movement is likely to make its way fastest 
among scientific publications. Already the Tokio 
physico-mathematical society publishes its pro- 
ceedings in the Roman letters. 

Stupendous as is the task which the Roman 
alphabet association has before itself, its friends 
are sanguine that it will accomplish its purpose. 
The prospects are very favorable in every respect. 
For instance: the Department of education some 
time ago sanctioned the teaching of English in 
primary schools. The knowledge of English, of 
course, implies the knowledge of reading and 
writing Japanese in the Roman alphabet. Let the 
Roman alphabet be taught in public schools, and 
in a generation or two we shall have accomplished 
the desired reform. If the change were toward 
any thing very difficult or disagreeable, it might 
be hopeless. As things are, however, the pros- 
pects are very bright. 

From the first, foreigners have been in favor of 
the movement, and have furnished some very 
useful and active members. Altogether several 
hundred, including diplomatists, editors, mission- 
aries, teachers, scientific men, are enrolled in its 
membership list. The association has also received 
pleasant recognition abroad from newspapers and 
societies. Conspicuous among this stands the 
action of the London philological association. At 
the meeting held Dec. 18, 1885, that learned body 
passed a resolution of sympathy with the Roman 
alphabet movement in Japan, moved by Dr. Fur- 
nisvall, and seconded by Professor Skeet, the 
president, and Henry Sweet, the philologist. 

The Roman alphabet association has thus ac- 
complished a great deal in one year of its exist- 
ence. <As in all similar undertakings, it suffers 
from lack of funds. This alone limits the sphere 


of its activity and usefulness. K. MITSUKURI. 
Tokio, April 23. 


THE AMERICAN CLIMATOLOGICAL ASSO- 
CIATION. 


THE third annual meeting of the American 
climatological association was held at the College 
of physicians, Philadelphia, May 10 and 11, Dr. 
William Pepper presiding. The opening address 
of the president was devoted to the subject of the 
distribution of phthisis in Pennsylvania. The 
president reviewed the results of similar investi- 
gation by Dr. Bowditch in Massachusetts. Dr. 
Bowditch had found a remarkable correspondence 


454 


to exist in Massachusetts between the death-rate 
from phthisis and the dampness. Dr. Pepper had 
conducted a similar investigation in regard to 
Pennsylvania by means of a series of questions 
addressed to physicians throughout the state. The 
answers received were somewhat meagre and un- 
satisfactory, but were sufficient to show certain 
remarkable facts. The relation between phthisis 
and dampness was not so clearly shown as in 
the case of Dr. Bowditch’s investigation. As a 
general rule, the counties of high elevation and 
sparse population made the best showing. The 
most striking fact, however, was the remarkable 
correspondence between the areas of least death- 
rate from phthisis and the areas of standing hem- 
lock : they seemed to be almost exactly coter- 
minate. in those towns where the mortality was 
found to be low, the death-rate was increased in 
those parts which lay along rivers and in swampy 
regions, and where the cellars of the houses 
were damp. The direction of the prevailing winds 
seemed to have no bearing upon the amount of 
phthisis. The opinion of the physicians addressed 
in regard to the influence of heredity in phthisis 
appeared to,be almost unanimous, only 7 out of 
94 denying it. 

Dr. A. L. Loomis read a paper upon the effects 
of high altitude on cardiac disease, in which he 
reported several cases of various cardiac dis- 
orders, where a sudden change to a high altitude 
seemed to hasten the fatal event. The doctor ad- 
vocated extreme caution in making such changes. 

Dr. I. H. Platt of Brooklyn read a paper upon 
the physics and physiological action of pneumatic 
differentiation, the purport of which was that the 
action of the pneumatic cabinet was similar to 
that of compressed-air apparatus, and that no 
more medicated vapor or spray can be carried into 
the lungs with the aid of the differential process 
than without it. The author believed the benefi- 
cial result of treatment by this method to be due 
to the reduction of congestion by the increased 
atmospheric pressure in the lungs and by the 
strengthening of the thorax by exercise, as well 
as to modified nutrition consequent upon the 
changes in the respiratory and circulatory func- 
tions. 

Dr. Roland G. Curtin contributed an interest- 
ing paper upon the subject of Rocky Mountain 
fever. The fever commences with a chill, anda 
rise of temperature to 101 or 102, without the 
remission of typhoid. The skin is dry. Thetem- 
perature may fall suddenly and rise suddenly. 
Quinine seems to be powerless. Delirium may 
occur, but it is not usual. There is no definite 
duration to the disease, and its tendency is to 
recovery : the absence of fatal cases prevents a 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 172 


knowledge of the pathology. The question seems 
to be unsettled, whether it is a separate disease, 
or a light form of typhoid. 

A very important paper was presented by Dr. 
C. C. Rice, ‘‘ How the therapeutic value of our 
mineral waters may be increased.” The fact of 
so many patients going to the European springs 
to the neglect of the American is partly the fault 
of the medical profession in this country, and 
partly the fault of the owners of the springs. 
Americans are less acquainted with our own 
springs than with those of Europe. It isimportant, 
that, if the waters are used at all, they should be 
used intelligently. The general hygiene should 
be under the direction of a physician. 

One of the factors which go to make the Euro- 
pean watering-places famous is the mental effect 
of the vigorous course of training there in vogue. 
Contrasted with this is the social life at Saratoga 
and Richfield springs. People go to Carlsbad, not 
for fashion, but for the waters. The habits at 
the European watering-places are simple. Ameri- 
can springs should be more thoroughly investi- 
gated by the profession, and the waters should be 
given their proper place in the materia medica. 
He offered the following suggestions in regard to 
the development of our springs: 1. Analyses of 
the waters should be made by competent chem- 
ists ; 2. Clinical investigation of the waters should 
be made by physicians; 3. Care should be taken 
to select the special spring adapted to the case ; 
4. A careful history and diagnosis of the case 
should be sent with the patient to the local physi- — 
cian; 5. More rigorous discipline should be en- 
forced; 6. Patients should be compelled to abstain 
from fashion and social dissipation. 

Dr. Didimaread a paper upon the health-resorts 
of Mexico. His paper was based upon communi- 
cations from Mexican physicians, which were 
somewhat contradictory ; but the facts seemed to 
be that the climate of Mexico was naturally 
favorable for the relief of phthisis, but its bene- 
ficial effects were offset by its lamentable lack of 
sanitary arrangements. Another drawback to _ 
the climate is the great difference between the 
temperature in the sunshine and in the shade. 

‘The southern Adirondacks’ was the title of 
Dr. E. F. Bruen’s contribution, who was a warm 
advocate of Blue Mountain Lake. This lake is 
surrounded by pine-forest, and the air is so pure 
that no dust is visible in the beams of sunlight. — 
But little rain falls in the winter. 

Dr. J. H. Musser discussed the question of the 
prevention of phthisis among mill-hands, and ad- 
vocated the extension of the plan adopted by the 
Willimantic thread company, of supplying the 
mill-hands with wholesome and nutritious focd, 


May 21, 1886.] 


which the experience of this company has shown 
to be advantageous from a financial as well asa 
humanitarian stand-point. 

Dr. Dana discussed the relation of high altitudes 
to nervous diseases. He had investigated the 
subject by means of questions addressed to phy- 
sicians in various elevated stations, and arrived at 
the following conclusions : choreiform manifesta- 
tions are increased by high altitudes ; nervousness 
and irritability are also increased; nervous women 
especially are rendered more nervous; the weight 
of opinion seems to be that old age is not pro- 
longed by altitude; epilepsy is not increased, 
sometimes the patients improve; insomnia is 
usually benefited, often cured ; the gouty diathesis 
is not helped by the change. 

The officers for the coming year are, president, 
Dr. Frank Donaldson of Baltimore ; ist vice-presi- 
dent, Dr. V. I. Bowditch of Boston ; 2d vice-pres- 
ident, Dr. R. G. Curtin of Philadelphia; secre- 
tary, Dr. J. R. Walker of Philadelphia. 


PROGRAMME OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
PHILOMATHIC CONGRESS. 


THE International philomathic congress, hav- 
ing for its object the discussion of commercial 
and industrial technical instruction, and opening 
Sept. 20, 1886, has arranged the following pro- 
gramme of questions for discussion: I. General 
questions : Present condition of commercial and 
industrial technical instruction in France and 
abroad ; domain of this instruction ; importance 
due it ; its influence on the economic, commercial, 
and industrial condition of the country; general 
view of an organization of technical instruction ; 
preparation for the various branches of this in- 
struction ; action of the state, general councils, 
municipalities, chambers of commerce, consulting 
chambers, syndic chambers, and private corpora- 
tions ; on the establishment of schools of technical 
instruction ; on the elaboration of their methods 
and courses of instruction; on their government ; 
on their financial organization; to what extent 
should technical instruction be provided with a 
general and uniform course? to what extent 
should it have special courses appropriate to the 
necessities of each district ? what position should 
be allotted in the different schools of technical in- 
struction to general instruction? what proportion 
is to be allotted to theoretical and what to practi- 
cal instruction? relations among themselves of 
Similar schools of technical instruction, with a 
view to common action respecting all general 
measures intended to aid their development, and 
assure their prosperity ; concerning their represen- 
tation in the superior council of technical instruc- 


SCIENCE. 


455 


tion; periodicity of the congress for technical 
instruction ; place and state of the next congress. 
II. Special questions : organization of commercial 
technical instruction, first degree (elementary 
commercial instruction), second degree (more ad- 
vanced commercial schools), advanced degree 
(advanced commercial studies); organization of 
industrial technical instruction, first degree (work- 
men), second degree (master workmen and fore- 
men), advanced degree (engineers); preparation 
and admission of the pupils; instruction by the 
master workmen ; apprenticeship ; schools; laws 
and regulations, courses, and methods ; theoretical 
instruction and practical instruction ; instruction 
in drawing; manual labor; staff of administra- 
tion and instruction ; councils of administration 
and improvement; buildings and material; plans 
and distribution of the buildings ; instruments and 
material for instruction ; libraries; commercial 
museums : industrial museums ; financial organi- 
zation ; fellowships; scholastic excursions and 
expeditions ; travelling fellowships and resident 
fellowships abroad ; finding places for pupils after 
graduation ; places and salaries ; complimentary 
courses of technical instruction ; courses for ap- 
prentices and adults; public lecturers. All in- 
formation relating to the congress may be had cf 
the general secretary of the Philomathic society 
at Bordeaux, Eugene Buhan. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


WE have received a pamphlet of fifty-one pages 
on the Pennsylvania boroughs, which may interest 
some of our readers. It is written by William 
P. Holcomb, and forms one of the studies in 
historical and political science published by the 
Johns Hopkins university, the fourth series of 
which is now under way. The author begins with 
an account of the introduction of the borough 
system under William Penn, and then sketches 
the history of some of the leading boroughs, and 
concludes with a description of the borough sys- 
tem as it now exists. This method of local gov- 
ernment is only found in three American states, — 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut, — 
and citizens of other states have some difficulty 
in understanding what a borough is, and wherein 
it differs from a city. According to Mr. Holcomb, 
the difference is mainly one of size, ten thousand 
inhabitants being required, under Pennsylvania 
laws, to constitute a city, while a borough need 
not have more thana few hundred. Then a city 
in that state has two representative councils, 
while a borough has only one; and these two 
points, with a few differences in names, seem to 
be the only distinction between the two kinds of 


456 


municipalities. The author expresses some sur- 
prise that boroughs, which are so common in 
England, should be so rare in the United States ; 
but, if they differ so little from cities, there would 
seem to be no particular need of them. Mr. 
Holcomb’s work will doubtless be useful to 
Pennsylvanians and to students of municipal 
government generally. 


— The U. S. coast survey has issued a new edi- 
tion of the chart of Humboldt Bay, made from 
the most recent surveys; the third edition of ap- 
pendices 12 and 13 of the report of 1882, on mag- 
netic declination, by assistant Schott; the latest 
chart showing the entrance to New York harbor ; 
and the tenth sheet of the District of Columbia 
map, made under the direction of the Corps of 
engineers by Assistant Doun. A new chart of 
St. John’s River, Florida, from its mouth to Jack- 
sonville, is in course of preparation. The New 
York bay entrance sheet, 8 A, is now ready for 
distribution to dealers. 


— The Boston medical-school circles are at pres- 
ent agitated over the question whether the female 
medical students shall be allowed to attend the 
general surgical clinics in the city hospital, they 
having insisted upon that privilege by attending, 
and refusing to withdraw. 


— The German secretary of state has published 
statistics on the periodicals of the world, from 
which it appears that there are 34,000, with a dis- 
tribution of 592,000,000 copies; 19,000 are pub- 
lished in Europe, 12,000 in North America, 775 in 
Asia, 809 in South America; 16,500 are in English, 
7,800 in German, 3,850 in French, and 1,000 in 
Spanish. 

— MM. H. Fal and E. Sarasin, in a recent com- 
munication to the French academy of sciences, 
have supplemented their researches on the pene- 
trability of light in deep water by the results of a 
series of observations in the Gulf of Nice, showing 
the relation that exists between the vertical and 
oblique rays of the sun in their power to reach to 
great depths. They found the limit of luminosity 
to be four hundred metres in mid-day of April, 
and that only for a short time. At eight o’clock 
in the morning its penetrability was limited by 
three hundred and fifty fathoms ; at six o’clock in 
the afternoon the light reached less than three 
hundred metres. 


— For a number of years past the city of Liver- 
pool has been engaged, at much cost and trouble, 
in the perfection of her sewerage and house-drain- 
age systems. The works are only just completed, 
but already very distinct results are evident in 
their influence upon the city’s mortality. For the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 172 


ten years prior to 1870 the death-rate per thousand 
of the inhabitants was no less than 32.5; between 
1870 and 1880 the mortality had fallen to 28.4; 
and since then a steady and uninterrupted fall 
has been maintained, until, during 1885, it only 
reached 23.5. 


—It is stated in the daily papers that Prof. J. 
Emerick of William and Mary college has dis- 
covered the aerolite which fell in Washington 
county, Penn., on Sept. 14, 1885. It was found 
embedded deep in the soil near Claysville, and is 
said to weigh fully two hundred tons, — a state- 
ment that needs confirmation. 


—The members of the Chesapeake zodlogical 
laboratory of Johns Hopkins university left Balti- 
more on Thursday, the 20th of May, for Abaco, one 
of the islands of the Bahama group, where the 
summer session of the laboratory will be held. 
The party consists of Prof. W. C. Brooks (the 
director), Professor Mill, Dr. H. Orr, Messrs. E. A. 
Andrews, F. H. Herrick, H. V. Wilson, and two 
or three other students of Johns Hopkins. 


—A favorable report has been made by the 
house committee on agriculture on the bill to 
amend the act creating a bureau of animal in- 
dustry. The most important change is in section 
1 of the present law, which is to be entirely re- 
pealed. The substitute offered proposes that the 
chief of this bureau shall be a competent veteri- 
nary surgeon, who is to investigate the condition 
of the domestic animals in this country, and in- 
quire into the causes of contagious, infectious, and 
communicable diseases among them, and the means 
for the prevention and cure of the same. The 
bureau is further instructed to make special in- 
vestigations of pleuro-pneumonia, foot and mouth 
diseases, and rinderpest in cattle. Two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars are to be appropriated 
to carry into effect the provisions of the act. 


—The first shipment of shad to the Pacific 
coast by the U. S. fish commission has resulted 
most successfully. Car No. 1, which left Wash- 
ington last week in charge of Mr. J. F. Ellis, with 
a million young shad, arrived at Portland, Ore., 
with seven hundred thousand. This experiment of 
transporting shad so great a distance proves the 
practicability of shipping them in this way. Of 
greater interest to science, however, was the suc- 
cessful experiment of hatching the shad en route. 
Six hundred thousand eggs formed a portion of 
this western shipment, which were placed in four 
MacDonald jars. A pump was kept continually 
at work, moving the water, and fully ninety-five 
per cent of the eggs were hatched. Of the five 
per cent lost, most of them were due to premature 


Fd 
-* 


May 21, 1886.] 


hatching. This is a most gratifying showing for 
the fish commission, which is constantly discover- 
ing and applying new methods in the science of 
fish-culture. 


— The following comprise the recent changes 
in the coast survey service. Parties on the Pacific 
coast have all taken the field under instructions. 
Professor Davidson is at Portland, Ore., observing 
for telegraphic longitude, while Assistant Pratt is 
at Tatoosh Island, which point is made available 
as a telegraphic longitude station, from the fact 
that the U. S. signal service now has wires in 
operation from Port Angeles to that point. Assist- 
ant Whiting takes the field about June 1 in 
Massachusetts, to determine the changes at Co- 
tamay, Martha’s Vineyard. Assistants Smith and 
St. Clair are between Colorado Springs and Salt 
Lake City, engaged in telegraphic longitude deter- 
mination. Parties in the south will shortly be 
closing their season’s work, and will report to the 
Washington office for future field-duty. The geo- 
graphical positions of the Borden survey of the 
state of Massachusetts, together with a great num- 
ber of additional points determined by the coast 
‘and geodetic survey, computed upon Clark’s sphe- 
roid, are ready for publication in the annual re- 
port for 1885. 


— A report just received from the U. S. consul 
at Apia gives the following as the copy of a card 
found inside a bottle picked up on Palmyra 
Island, Nov. 26. 1885: ‘“‘R. M. Str. Zealandia from 
San Francisco to Sydney, Lat. 7° 30’ N.; Long. 
163° 30’ W.” This bottle had drifted a hundred 
and one miles south by east. 


—In Holland, where the public-school system 
has reached a very highly developed stage, it is 
now proposed to relegate primary education to 
the private schools. A measure to that effect has 
passed the lower chamber of the states-general, 
and has been withdrawn by the government for 
the purpose of removing certain objectionable 
features which caused its rejection by the upper 
house. 


— The coldest place upon the earth, says Aus- 
land, is Verchojansk, in Siberia. The coldest 
regions of Asia lie east of the Lena River, and the 
meteorological station at Yakootsk has recorded 
the lowest temperature ever observed. The aver- 
age temperature for the year at that place is 
—17° C., and the difference between the summer 
and winter temperatures is not less than 64° C.; 
the average temperature in January being —49° 

#C., and in July, +15° C. On Jan. 15, 1885, the 
temperature fell to —68° C. 


— Recently published statistics of British India 


SCIENCE. 


A57 


give the entire population (for 1883-84) at 253,982,- 
595, and the superficial area at 1,378,044 square 
miles. 48,549,158 residences were enumerated. 
The density of the population reaches its maxi- 
mum in Bengal, where there are 442.8 inhabitants 
to each square mile: the minimum is found in 
Central India with 59.3, and in British Burmah 
with 42.8, to each square mile. For every 130 
males there are 124 females. The Hindoos and 
Buddhists include 190,000,000; the Mohammedans, 
50,000,000 ; Christians, 1,800,000; Parsees, 85,000 ; 
Jews, 12,000 ; and various other sects with smaller 
numbers. The entire debt of India amounts to 
£171,577,945. In March, 1885, the entire length 
of railroads, in miles, was 12,000; of the tele- 
graph systems, 23,341; the total length of wires, 
68,694. 

—A canal between the White Sea and the 
Baltic Sea has been determined upon by the Rus- 
sian authorities, says Ausland. Peter the Great 
long ago busied himself with such a project, which 
only lately was revived by the Russian society for 
the promotion of commerce and industry. The 
cost, which is estimated at seven million rubles, 
will be borne by the state. Work will be begun 
upon the canal the present year. 


— Statistics of the French sea-fisheries, for 1884, 
recently published, give the total value of the 
catch for that year at 87,961,124 francs, —a de- 
crease from that of the previous year of 19,265,797 
francs. 


— Dr. Valentine Mott, who went to Paris some 
months ago to study Pasteur’s methods of hydro- 
phobia treatment, has just returned, very sanguine 
in his belief of its efficacy. He brought with him, 
on his return, a rabbit inoculated by Pasteur just 
before his departure. The rakbit died on the 
seventh day after receiving the virus, a short time 
before coming into port. This is said to be the 
first time that Pasteur has given the virus to any 
one, and it will be utilized for further propagation 
and hydrophobia treatment by Dr. Mott. 


—One of the oldest medical colleges, if not the 
oldest, in the world, is the Medical school of the 
Imperial university of Japan, which now numbers 
its centuries by two figures. In its earlier period 
its faculty included a superintendent and assistant, 
one professor of medicine, one of acupuncture, 
one of massage, and various other instructors in 
special diseases, materia medica, botany, etc. 
The course then covered seven years, and even 
now the school shows a more creditable status 
than the most of ours. Four years in actual medi- 
cal studies are now required, with three years’ 
preparation, — in all, seven years of college train- 
ing. We wonder whether the profession in 


458 


America would be crowded as badly as the uni- 
versal lamentations of medical men indicate, if 
all were excluded from practice, save those who 
had spent seven years in preparation. The course 
of instruction at the Japanese college is modelled 
after that of the German schools, and the lectures 
are mostly delivered in the German language, by 
the five foreign professors, though there is a spe- 
cial course in the Japanese. The total number of 
students in attendance last year was nine hundred 
and seventy-two. 


— Messrs. W. T. Jackman and J. D. Webster 
have lately succeeded in obtaining good photo- 
graphs of the retina of the living human eye, 
illustrations of which are given in the English 
Photographic news. They were able to bring the 
time of exposure for the negative to within two 
minutes and a half, and it is very probable that 
technical skill will further reduce the time and 
difficulties. The chief obstacles to shortening the 
time of exposure, so far encountered, are the color 
of the retinal reflection, and the fact that the lens 
of the eye has the property of absorbing the ultra- 
violet rays. It seems highly probable that the 
photograph will here become a valuable adjunct 
to the physiologist, ophthalmologist, or even the 
general physician, as the eye affords diagnostic 
aid in not a few diseases. 


—C. Wiegelt, O. Sacre, and L. Schwab have 
made a series of very valuable experiments, says 
the Chemical news, on the injury to fisheries and 
fish-culture by sewage and industrial waste waters. 
They find that chloride of lime, in proportions of 
0.04 to 0.005 per cent chlorine, has an immediate 
deadly action upon tench, while trout and salmon 
perish in presence of 0.0008 per cent of chlorine. 
Sulphurous acid has the same action as chlorine, 
and is still more hurtful if another acid is simul- 
taneously present ; sulphites are harmless. Hydro- 
chloric acid, 1 per cent, kills tench and trout. In 
sulphuric acid of 0.1 per cent, trout turn on their 
sides in two to six hours, while tench were not 
affected in eighteen hours. Acids are said to 
have less action, the higher are their molecular 
weights. Tannin at 0.1 per cent is’ harmless. 
Ammonia exerts no action at 0.01 per cent. Soda 
at 1 per cent is fatal to trout on prolonged ex- 
posure. Manganese chloride at 5 per cent had no 
action on tench in twenty-two hours, and a trout 
sustained 1 per cent for five hours. Iron acts as 
a specific poison upon fishes, except in the state of 
a ferrous salt. Alum has the same injurious ac- 
tion as the salts of iron. Solution of caustic lime 
has an exceedingly violent action upon fishes, due 
in part to the deposition of calcium carbonate in 
the gills. Arsenious acid, 0.1 per cent, combined 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 172 


with soda, has no injurious action upon trout and 
tench. Mercuric chloride, in proportions of 0.1 
and 0.05 per cent, is immediately fatal. Copper 
sulphate, 0.1 and 1.0 per cent, kills trout in a few 
minutes if they cannot escape into pure water. 
Potassium cyanide, 0.01 and 0.005 per cent, is 
rapidly. fatal if there is no escape. Potassium 
sulphocyanide and ferrocyanide, in the proportion 
of 1 per cent, had no injurious action in an hour. 
Sodium sulphide, 0.1 per cent, was endured by 
tench for thirty minutes. The fish were bleached, 
and did not recover their color in pure water. 
Hydrogen sulphide proved rapidly fatal in the 
proportions of 0.01 and 0.001 per cent. The hurt- 
fulness of putrid sewage depends on poisonous 
gases, on the deficiency of oxygen, and on the 
action of bacteria. 


— The death is announced of Mr. Thomas Ed- 
wards, the Scotch shoemaker naturalist whom 
Dr. Smiles made famous. 


— In an article on coal-consumption as affected 
by temperature and length of trains, the Railroad 
gazette reaches some interesting conclusions. Dead 
weight to the amount of thirty tons added to a 
train of, say, five cars, will not increase coal-con- 
sumption as much as to add another car, both 
because it does not increase air-resistance and be- 
cause the added load decreases somewhat the roll- 
ing resistance per ton. If we assume it to add 
five pounds per mile to the coal-consumption, we 
are certainly not underestimating it proportionally. 
Adding six tons per car, therefore, to the average 
weight of a train of five passenger-cars, means no 
more than an increase from fifty-five to sixty 
pounds per train-mile. If we assume this five 
pounds of coal to be worth one cent (at the rate 
of four dollars per ton of two thousand pounds for 
coal), and if an extra passenger at three cents per 
mile be attracted to the train every third trip, he 
will pay for the loss of fuel due to adding six tons 
to the weight of every passenger-car, which goes 
a little way toward explaining the tendency to 
increase weight for the sake of luxury, which 
seems so reckless. In this estimate, the effect of 
extra weight on grade-resistance is taken into ac- 


count, though in reality it is comparatively unim- | 


portant. It is estimated that about six pounds 
and a half of coal per mile are added to the con- 


sumption for each passenger-car of twenty tons or — 


more moved at way-train speed. and for each 
sleeping-car of thirty tons or more moved in 
through trains making few stops, and that the 
locomotive alone is to be charged with rather 
more coal than that due to three cars. 


—The discovery of an interesting illusory effect 
in the sense of sight is given by Professor Exner 


May 21, 1886] 


in the Biologisches centralblatt. His attention 
was directed to the subject by a simple incident. 
Lying upon the floor of a hut near an open fire, he 
noticed that the sky, as seen through a small win- 
dow, seemed frequently lit up, as though by 
lightning. Assuring himself that such was not 
the case, he found that the apparent phenomenon 
was due to a deception caused by the flickering 
light in the room, though no changes in its in- 
tensity were visible. To show the effect more 
strongly, he constructed a translucent shade be- 
fore a lamp, upon which he attached a small disk 
of thick white paper. This lamp was so arranged 
that its brightness might be quickly and easily 
varied. On the other side a gas-lamp enclosed by 
an opaque cylinder was placed, emitting a ray of 
light through a lens directly upon the paper disk. 
Looking now at the disk through a hollow cylin- 
der at a distance of several feet, while the light 
behind the shade was made to vary in intensity, 
there was found a striking effect, in that the varia- 
tion appeared to rest only in the paper disk, while 
the surrounding field appeared constant. This 


_ illusion, the author says, shows that we are in- 
' clined to hold as constant the predominating 


brightness in the field of vision, and attribute 
variation to the subordinate. 


—It has been..experimentally proved by the 
English commission on accidents in mines, as 
stated in their last report. that a percentage of 
marsh-gas amounting to five per cent, or even 
four per cent, of atmospheric air, is decidedly ex- 
plosive. Half of this proportion, however, though 
not in itself dangerous, and though impossible of 
detection by ordinary lamp-tests, will explode if 
the air be laden even lightly with fine. dry coal- 
dust ; and it is probable that some of the obscure 
causes of accidents may be ascribed to this cause. 
The opinion of the commissioners with regard to 
the older Davy, Clauny, or even Stephenson 
lamps, is that they have in a great measure lost 
their value in consequence of the draughts of air 
from the free ventilation. A current of air 
of eight hundred feet per minute in an impure 
atmosphere may, in spite of the wire gauze, effect 
an explosion in any one of them. Electric light- 
ing is already to some extent in use; and as the 
risk from its use is much less, and its lighting- 
power greater, it probably will be more generally 
adopted. 


— The summary report of the operations of the 
geological and natural history survey of the Do- 
minion of Canada by the director, A. R. C. Sel- 
Wyn, gives a creditable showing for the amount 
of money expended. Work, chiefly geological and 
topographical, has been prosecuted over portions 


SCIENCE. 


459 


of every province and territory in the dominion, 
from Nova Scotia to the west coast of Vancouver 
Island. The personnel of the survey is now com- 
posed of a staff of fifty employees, — thirty-four 
professional, and sixteen ordinary. The expen- 
diture amounted to something over ninety thou- 
sand dollars during the past year. The topo- 
graphical results will be embodied in a number of 
maps now in process of preparation. These maps 
include one of British Columbia, that will shortly 
be published ; one of Assiniboia, now in the hands 
of the engraver; and one of the Bow and Sas- 
katchewan rivers, on a scale of eight miles to the 
inch, well advanced. Another on Manitoba and 
western Ontario, to cover 3,456 square miles, and 
a very important geological map of the peninsular 
portion of Ontario, to be issued in sheets of uni- 
form size, are in progress, as well as maps of 
Quebec, the Lake of Mistassini and adjacent re- 
gions, and portions of Nova Scctia and New 
Brunswick. Much less attention 1s paid to biolo- 
gy, with the exception of paleontology; yet in 
botany and zodlogy considerable progress has been 
made. Among the more interesting results of the 
explorations is the determination of the size of 
Lake Mistassini, about which there has been great 
uncertainty. It was found to be about one hun- 
dred miles in length, with an average breadth of 
about twelve miles, — a very different figure from 
what is represented on the maps. 


— Dr. Alfred Goldscheider, says the Lancet, has 
recently published the results of researches he has 
made upon the nerves, by which sensations of 
temperature and pressure are conducted. He 
finds that the skin is not in all parts capable of 
perceiving variation of temperature, and that 
some parts can only recognize sensations of cold, 
other parts only sensations of heat. These, which 
he terms warm and cold points, are distributed 
bet ween or among each other, but never coincide. 
Their general arrangement is, that they are dis- 
posed in chains which pursue a slightly curved 
course. These chains radiate from certain points, 
which may be termed radiation-points or tem- 
perature-centres. The chains of the cold-points 
do not in general coincide with those of the heat- 
points, but these radiation-points are identical. 
The cold-points are in all parts of the skin more 
numerous than the warm-points. Whenthe cold- 
points are excited by either mechanical or electri- 
cal stimuli, a punctiform sensation of cold is ex- 
perienced, and the opposite sensation is felt when 
the warm-points are stimulated. Goldscheider 
was able, by stimulation of nerve-trunks, to ex- 
cite eccentric sensations of heat and cold. The 
temperature-points were found to be insensitive 


460 


to pricks and other punctiform pain-excitants. 
Goldscheider admits, therefore, not only the ex- 
istence of nerves exclusively devoted to percep- 
tions of temperature, but specific nerves for heat 
and cold. The sensibility of the surface of the 
body to temperature presents great topical varia- 
tions, and is directly dependent in any region 
upon the number and intensity of the tempera- 
ture-points, — that is to say, upon the local wealth 
of temperature-nerves, — and go hand in hand with 
the distribution of the great nerve-trunks. Gold- 
scheider also differentiates in the skin nerves of 
general sensation and _ specific pressure-nerves. 
The latter terminate in certain points of the skin 
which are not only especially sensitive to very 
delicate contact, but contain also peculiar organs 
which excite a granular sensation on pressure. 
The pressure-points are arranged after the same 
fashion as the temperature-points, but are in gen- 
eral much more closely aggregated. Both they 
and the temperature-points supply us with infor- 
mation in regard to locality. 


— Any one may become a member of the 
Roman alphabet association, to which reference 
is made in the article in this number on ‘The in- 
tellectual movement in Japan,’ by the payment of 
an annual fee of one dollar. All donations should 
be addressed to Roma-ji-kai, Tokio, Japan. 


— The dredging-machinery for the excavation 
of the Panama canal is exceedingly powerful. 
One of the dredges excavates 3,300 cubic metres 
per day, and there are two others which excavate 
800 and 1,000 cubic metres. Besides these, there 
are a number of smaller ones in operation, in all, 
capable of excavating 37,000 cubic metres per 
day. It is reported that during the month of 
February, upwards of 1,100,000 cubic metres were 
excavated. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


«*x Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


On a geodetic survey of the United States. 


I HAVE been often asked why a geodetic survey 
and triangulation is the only mode of surveying 
a large area with precision, and why such slow and 
tedious methods are requisite for needful accuracy. 
This paper is an attempt to show, in popular lan- 
guage, both the processes themselves and their neces- 
sity: as also why congress should act upon the 
repeated recommendations of the national academy, 
and carry out its views. 

To many of the habitual readers of Science, this 
letter will appear to deal with elementary matters 
which they may be assumed to know. To another 
large and equally earnest class of readers, it may 
convey useful information. Possibly it may help 
forward the end sought for; and to this every true 
lover of science will cry ‘ God speed.’ 

Any survey of a small area, as a farm, plantation, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL., No. 172 


or township, may be made by any of the usual 
methods adopted in ordinary Jand-surveying, where 
the area covered by the survey is treated as a plane 
surface, 

The compass and Gunter’s chain of sixty-six feet 
are the usual surveying-instruments in this country. 
They are liable to serious error. Lack of knowledge 
of the true local magnetic variation of its secular 
change from year to year, and of its diurnal change 
between morning and afternoon, with the always 
impending possibilities of special local attraction at 
or near the place surveyed, are among the difficulties 
attending the use of the compass. The chain 
stretches with use, and changes its length with the 
seasons and their varying temperatures, and is often 
carelessly carried by men little accustomed to pre- 
cise methods. It is not too much to say that any 
land worth fifty dollars an acre is too valuable to be 
surveyed with a compass, and any record of sucha 
survey is likely to become a fruitful source of future 
litigation. The best of such surveys are but approx- 
imations to the truth. 

Errors from these approximate measurements are 
cumulative. When such surveys are extended over 
Jarge areas, as upon our public lands, serious conse- 
quences follow, involving present and future doubt 
and litigation as to boundaries. This is already ap- 
parent in the west. It will become more so in the 
future as land increases in value. 

The necessity for greater precision in original pub- 
lic-land surveys, and for means of ascertaining and 
checking errors already existing, has been forcibly 
stated in a report to congress on the survey of 
the territories, by the National academy of sciences 
in November, 1878, printed in ‘Misc. doc. No. 5, 
house of representatives, 45th congress, 3d session.’ 
The report of the academy, and the very strong let- 
ter of Major J. W. Powell, which forms a part of it, 
fully describe the character and consequences of the 
errors alluded to. It also sets forth the true remedy 
as only to be found in a method of survey which 
should be as nearly infallible as scientific skill and a 
laborious and careful application of well-known 
principles could make it. 

This method, as practised for two centuries by 
civilized nations, consists of a system of triangles, 
starting from and proceeding toward certain base- 
lines, measured with every possible care with ap- 
paratus specially devised to either entirely elimi- 
nate, or to reduce to a minimum, every source of 
error, whether physical or mechanical, which might 
vitiate the resulting length of the measured line, or 
cast a doubt upon its precision. 

Apparatus of this nature is now constructed and 
used, in the U. S. coast and geodetic survey, of such 
precision that the average probable error of the two 
primary bases last measured with different apparatus, 
constructed on different principles, is, roughly, about 
one twelve-hundred-thousandth part of the lengths 
of the measured lines. an 

The exact length of the base being ascertained, 
and a system of triangles built upon it adapted to 
and covering the country to be surveyed, the lengths 
of all the other sides of the triangles in the system 
are inferred from the familiar theorem that *‘ every 
triangle has six elements or functions, — viz., three 
sides and three angles, — any three of which being 
known (one being a side), the other unknown ele- 
ments may be computed ” with a degree of precision 
of the same order as that of the known elements. 


A 


May 21, 1886.] 


It is therefore only necessary to measure the angles 
with the same precision as the base, to insure equally 
precise results. This is so far attainable, that the 
latest great primary triangulation of the coast and 
geodetic survey, enclosed between two measured bases 
six hundred miles apart, met nearly midway, at a 
line about twenty-nine miles and a half long. The 
computed lengths of the line, from measured bases 
distant about three hundred miles from either of 
them, agreed within about five-eighths of an inch. 

It follows from the above, that, in any system of 
triangulation carefully conducted, the relation of 
every point in the system to every other point may 
be determined with a degree of precision almost 
absolute. It renders the position of each apex of a 
triangle infallible ; since its error, if any, can only 
be detected by application of similar methods of pre- 
cision, which will themselves be liable to the same 
sources of error. 

Referring to what has been written as to cumula- 
tive errors belonging to aJjl ordinary local topographi- 
cal or other surveys, it is evident, that, if these sur- 
veys include two or more trigonometrical points 
within their limits, the inevitable error involved in 
their methcds is checked and corrected as each such 
point is successively reached. lf it is not exactly 
hit, the local survey is wrong, and must be corrected 
to meet the triangulation-point, which stands as in- 
fallible in its assigned position as the pope claims to 


- be in his. 


The triangulation gives the relation of every point 
in the system to every other point. To apply the 
data thus obtained to its chief use in the construction 
of accurate maps, from the local surveys thus 
checked and corrected, another class of observations 
and reductions becomes necessary to fit the frame- 
work which has been constructed to its proper place 
upon the surface of the earth. This, with the tri- 
angulation, constitutes what may properly be called 
geodesy. No better definition of this term can be 
given than. that by the late Gen. R. D. Cutts: 
‘* Geodesy, in practice, may be described as a sys- 
tem of the most exact land-measurements, extended 
in the form of a triangulation over a large area; con- 
trolled, in its relation to the meridian, by astronom- 
ical azimuths ; computed by formulae based on the 
dimensions of the [adopted] spheroid ; and placed in 
its true position on the surface of the earth by as- 
tronomical latitudes and differences of longitude 
from an established meridian.” 

The whole system of triangulation thus combined 
and co-ordinated, and made to occupy its true posi- 
tion upon the earth's surface, may be compared toa 
human skeleton. As the skeleton is the framework 
on which is built and sustained the varied elements 
of the human body, each fitted to and held in its 
place by the unyielding structure sustaining it, so the 
triangulation is the framework on which each varied 
portion of the earth’s surface within its range is also 
fitted to and held in its true position, and the result- 
ing map becomes an absolutely true topographical 
picture of the country it purports to represent. 

But this is only one, and not the greatest, good 
represented by a well-executed and complete geodetic 
survey. Every point of the triangulation is care- 
fully marked above and beneath the surface for 
reference in future ages. Every recorded distance 
between any two points thus marked becomes a base- 
line, whose length is known with a degree of pre- 
cision unattainable by ordinary methods. So, also, 


SCIENCE. 


461 


is the azimuth or angle with the true meridian made 
by every such line, thus affording means for ascer 
taining the local magnetic variation and its yearly 
change. The recorded and published latitude and 
longitude of any station will enable future astrono- 
mers to find close at hand the means of fixing their 
precise relations to other and distant observatories. 
As the country increases in population and wealth, 
its topographical features change. New towns are 
built, and new roads and new railroads laid out. 
New maps will be called for, and easily supplied, 


. since the framework of the triangulation. executed 


half a century before, perhaps, is there, always cor- 
rect and reliable. As the elevations of all the sta- 
tions above the mean level of the sea have been de- 
termined in the original survey, so, if schemes of 
drainage are planned to bring swamp-lands into use 
for arable purposes, these differences of level will 
afford data for obtaining the amount of fall and 
its proper direction. And so long as the earth and 
sea maintain their relative positions, so long the 
beneficent effect of early and exact triangulation 
will continue to be felt. 

This is essentially a national work. It cannot be 
defined by, or confined within, state boundaries. 
Whatever views may be held as to local topographi- 
cal surveys, and who shall execute them, it is evident 
that the framework on which they are to be built 
must be independent of political boundaries. The 
triangle sides leap across bays and !akes, or from 
mountain to mountain and hill to hill, or they travel 
‘upon stilts’ across the level swamps and prairies. 
Nature only fixes its limits. It is homogeneous and 
universal by its own conditions of existence. The 
geodetic survey of all our country is therefore a work 
eminently proper for the national government to 
carry on, leaving the other questions of local topo- 
graphical surveys for national or state action, or for 
both combined, as in Massachusetts. 

The National academy of sciences, which is, by 
law, the adviser of congress and the executive upon 
scientific matters, has twice, at the call of congress, 
advised the early execution of this great work, and 
that its execution should be intrusted to the coast 
and geodetic survey as best fitted, in men, means, 
and training, to carry it on. Lately the need of 
prompt action in the same direction has been well 
and strongly set forth by Prof. W. P. Trowbridge of 
Columbia college, whose large experience gives 
weight to his words. 

If states whose interests require good maps will 
join with commercial bodies and scientific men in 
urging legislation, the plan proposed by the national 
academy in 1878, and again in 1884, may be carried 
out with no duplication of other work, but, on the 
contrary, with cordial and complete co-ordination 
with other surveys. The whole country would be 
benefited thereby to an amount far exceeding the 
outlay. C. O. BoUTELLE. 

Washington, May 11. 


Double vision. 


Your correspondent, Dr. George Keller, will find 
the phenomena of double vision discussed in Helm- 
holtz’s ‘ Physiological optics,’ and in LeConte’s book 
onsight. The latter is a small volume published by 
D. Appleton & Co., New York. The production of 
binocular images, apparently suspended in mid-air, 
on regarding a tessellated pavement or papered wall 


462 


with visual lines appropriately crossed, is discussed 
but incorrectly explained by Sir David Brewster in 
his book on the stereoscope, many of his experiments 
having been performed more than forty years ago. 

Dr. Keller seems to be affected slightly with 
divergent strabismus; which, however, has not re- 
sulted, as it so often does, in the loss of power to secure 
binocular vision. He will find the phenomena of 
vision by optic divergence discussed in a series of 
articles entitled ‘ Notes on physiological optics,’ pub- 
lished in the American journal of science for No- 
vember and December, 1881, March, April, May, 
October, and November, 1882. 

W. LeConTE STEVENS. 
170 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, 
May 15. 


Diathermancy of ebonite. 


Absence from home has prevented me seeing 
sooner Science for April 30. 

In referring to my paper read before the April 
meeting of the National academy of sciences, you 
state, ‘‘ Prof. Alfred M. Mayer, in describing recent 
work, stated that he had succeeded, by the use of a 
lens of ebonite, in inflaming various substances by 
the concentration of dark rays, for which ebonite is 
translucent.” The statement is not what I stated 
before the academy. The title of my paper, as pub- 
lished by the academy, is, ‘‘On the diathermancy of 
ebonite and obsidian, and on the production of 
calorescence by means of screens of ebonite and 
obsidian.” 

The focus of dark rays was obtained by ‘screens’ 
of ebonite and of obsidian placed across the cone of 
rays reflected from a large mirror, or those refracted 
by a lens of glass of twenty inches diameter. I have 
obtained foci of dark rays with a combination of 
thin lenses of ebonite, but the heat of such foci is 
not sufficient to inflame substances. 

ALFRED M. MAYER. 
Hoboken, N.J., May 13. 


Pharyngeal respiratory movements of adult 
amphibia under water. 


The letter of Profs. S. H. andS. P. Gage, in your 
issue of April 30, induces me to recall and publish 
an observation made by me in 1877. 

During a stay of some months in New York in the 
summer of that year, I several times visited a 
museum and aquarium, situated, if I remember 
aright, on 6th Avenue. I saw there a very fine 
specimen of Cryptobranchus Alleghaniensis about 
twenty inches long. I watched from time to time 
for several hours, but never saw it rise to the sur- 
face for air. As it lay at the bottom of its clear 
glass tank, I saw very distinctly continuous rbyth- 
mical respiratory movements. These, however, 
were not confined to the pharyngeal region, but 
seemed to me to extend the whole length of the body- 
cavity. It was a kind of squirming or wriggling 
movement running down the body. I looked care- 
fully for currents issuing from gill-slits, but could 
see none. 

At that time I concluded that the movements 
served the purpose of churning up the air in the 
lungs so as to utilize as much of the oxygen as pos- 
sible. This seemed the more necessary in amphib- 
ians on account of the simplicity of their lung-sac. 
I had fully intended to draw scientific attention to 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VI1., No. 172 


the subject, but on returning home I could not at 
once lay my hand on a good account of the gill ap- 
paratus of the adult Cryptobranchus, and meanwhile 
other things engaged and diverted my attention. 

It might be well for. those who are studying this 
subject to at least bear in mind the suggestion that 
rhythmic movements may possibly serve to utilize 
more perfectly the oxygen contained in the lungs of 
animals capable of remaining long under water. 
In my boyhood I have often waited, rifle in hand, 
three hours for an alligator to rise; and that, too, 
in mid-summer, when their vitality is highest. 


JOSEPH LECONTE. 
Berkeley, Cal., May 10. 


Absorption of mercurial vapor by soils. 


In the issue of Science for April 23, it is stated 
(p. 370) that the mercurial-vapor remedy has, in the 
hands of myself and assistant, failed to produce its 
promised results as a phylloxera insecticide. 

This sweeping statement is not justified by the facts 
given by me in the issue of this journal for Dec. 4, 
1885, and by its further elaboration as given in the 
‘Report on viticultural work,’ since published. It 
has been demonstrated by our experiments that the 
reported total failures were due to improper mate- 
rials used in the preparation of the mercurial mix- 
tures, whereby the formation of mercurial vapor in 
the soil was practically prevented, and that when 
reasonably pure mercury is employed, and proper 
means used for its distribution in the soil, all insects 
within the mercurialized area died in the course of 
from thirty to forty-eight hours at the ordinary 
temperature, and much more rapidly at a higher 
one. It therefore appears perfectly practicable to 
protect vines planted in uninfested ground from at- 
tack coming from without, by surrounding the stocks 
with a sufficiently thick (eight to ten inch) layer of 
mercurialized soil, which, without obstructing or 
repelling the entering insects, will insure their being 
fatally poisoned before they can pass through it. 
This would leave the choice between grafting on 
resistant stocks on the one hand, and the mercurial 
protection on the other, in the planting of new vine- 
yards, the cost being (in California) about the same 
in either case; it would also serve for protection 
against threatened invasion, in the case of vineyards 
already planted, since, apart from the case of open 
soil-cracks giving access to the vine-roots, the stocks 
are the only known route by which the phylloxera 
reaches the root. Such are the presumptions created 
by our small-scale experiments : how far the process 
will prove available in large-scale practice, remains 
to be determined by experience, but there is no 
especial reason to question its feasibility. 

As regards, however, the treatment of ground and 
vines already infested, our experiments tend to 
show that the diffusion of the mercurial vapor is too | 
slow, at the ordinary soil-temperatures, to promise 
success ; especially in the case of clay soils, which 
absorb and render inert a large amount of mercurial 
vapor before an effective excess can be obtained. 

It has been abundantly shown that the mercurial- 
ized soil exerts no unfavorable action upon the 
growth of the vine; and there is every reason to 
expect that an application once made will remain 
effective during the life of the vine. 

E. W. HiLearp. 
Berkeley, Cal., April 8. 


SCIENCE.-SuprpLeMent. 


FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1886. 


THE AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES OF 
JAPAN. 


It was not many years ago that Japan was 
looked upon as an uncivilized nation, and her re- 
markable development during the past two decades 
has been a subject of astonishment to the civil- 
ized world. It speaks well for the natural intel- 
ligence of her people that she has profited so well 
by the experiences of foreign civilization, and 
much can be expected in her future progress. 
Many conditions productive of evil in civilization 
have not yet found a place in her affairs, and in 
some respects the lower classes may be con- 
sidered as occupying a higher plane than those of 
more favored European countries. 

A recent paper’ by Prof. M. Fesca, with the as- 
sistance of Mr. N.Tsuneto, presents one of the full- 
est accounts of the agricultural conditions and in- 
dustries of this people that have so far appeared, 
from which we give an abstract of the more in- 
teresting portions. - 

Many important factors affecting the agriculture 
of Japan, as would naturally be supposed, have 
yet received comparatively little attention, al- 
though the results so far attained are surprising 
when we take into consideration the rapidity with 
which they have been produced. Especially is 
there need of a more scientific study of the cli- 
mate and meteorological conditions. Most of the 
meteorological stations hitherto founded are along 
the seacoast, with but very few in the interior. 

One of the chief hinderances to the develop- 
ment of Japanese agriculture has been the bur- 
densome system of taxation, which is levied almost 
exclusively upon real estate, and which prevents 
the use of capital to any great extent. The high 
rate of interest, of which fifteen per cent is con- 
sidered moderate, for money loaned upon real 
estate, almost prohibits its use. In those districts 
where agriculture has reached its chief develop- 
ment, it has been due almost wholly to unaided 
manual labor. 

Agriculture can only reach its highest develop- 
ment when the producer owns the land, and 
especially when capital is unrestricted in its em- 


1 Die landwirthschaftlichen verhdlinisse der Kai-pro- 
winz in beziehung zu denen des japanischen reichs, Mit- 
theilungen der agronomischen abtheilung der kaiserlich 
japanischen geologischen reichsanstalt, April, 1886. 


ployment for its improvement or cultivation. 
Statistics, so far as they are available, however, 
show that lease systems, wherein compensation is 
derived either by division of crops or from money 
payments, predominate over independent tenures 
of land in Japan. In the dryer lands money-rent 
is usually paid, varying in amounts for the differ- 
ent crops raised. For rice-land the so-called ‘ half- 
crop’ system is the more common one, though in 
reality a far larger proportion of the gross har- 
vest returns is paid. Four-fifths of the crop go to 
the owner of the land; and, from the one-fifth 
remaining, all the costs of fertilizing and harvest- 
ing must be obtained, and which not seldom con- 
sume its substance. The remedy for these evils 
will only be found in the legal control of the lease 
systems, and more especially by a change in the 
system of taxation, which will relieve the land 
from the severe burdens now imposed upon it, 
and thus bring about more favorable systems of 
credit, admitting of the more extensive use of 
capital. At present the lessee of small farms 
derives only a very meagre income. 

Another important factor which exerts a most 
depressing influence upon Japanese agriculture, is 
the difficulty and cost of transportation. The 
lack of water-ways, railways, and good roads in 
Japan is very sensibly felt. The pack-horse is the 
means upon which the chief reliance is placed for 
carrying ; and upon the best roads the burden of 
three hundred and thirty pounds costs ten sen!’ 
per ri, while upon bad roads the cost may be 
quadrupled. This high cost of transportation in- 
fluences in a very great degree the sale of farm 
produce. Rice commands the highest price 
among the grains, in Tokio the past year selling 
for one dollar per hundredweight. The cost of its 
transportation for twenty miles amounts to as 
much as its price. When this is compared with 
the cost of the transportation of wheat by rail- 
roads in America, some appreciation of the im- 
mense disadvantage under which Japan labors 
will be apparent. For this reason the regions of 
the coast are far more preferred for agriculture 
than the inland, every possible portion being 
utilized, while in the interior often large tracts of 
good land are left untilled. 

Thus it will be seen that one of the chief de- 
mands of Japan is for better and cheaper means 

1 100 sen = 1 yen, about 86 cents ;1.9ri = 1 geographical 


mile. The Japanese terms are mostly reduced to their 
English equivalents. 


464 


of transportation. Railroads, so far, have done 
little towards remedying the evil, and will not un- 
less tariffs are sufficiently lessened to admit of 
more extended commerce. The distance between 
Tokio and Kofu is about sixty-four miles, one half 
of which is easily, the other with difficulty, pass- 
able. The cost of transportation by horses is 
nine yen per load (over two dollars per hundred- 
weight). The following market-prices at Tokio, 
of afew of the more important productions, will 
show the extent to which the cost of transporta- 
tion affects the price : — 


on 3 
Ags 
4 ao ° 
ae cce 
4 S a g 
® ¥#oO 
om 2 oe 

oO 
Tobacco (medium quality)......... ........ $15.50 | 15.5% 
Cotton (medium quality). ..........cse.e00 13.00 | 10.0% 
Leon (EB ooeeono oMOosoabe sogoe 4 odbc. 5.20 | 25.38% 
SHE WON COCOODS sen. oc cviccs cota e ccs cleee 66.00 1.9% 
333.00 ' 0.5% 


STR Shisiise ces 6, 4s. ccs check Fe seeeee veteee 


The great cost of transportation of raw or bulky 
articles has caused certain industries, as silk cul- 
ture and weaving, where the manufactured ma- 
terial is of light weight and easily transportable, 
to be extensively prosecuted in the interior, espe- 
cially by the women, and such industries are thus 
properly classed as agricultural, 

Japanese statistics of agricultural productions 
are necessarily imperfect, but they are sufficient to 
afford a tolerably good idea of the resources of the 
kingdom, or at least of some portions of it. The 
area of the entire kingdom, as at present consti- 
tuted, comprises 24,294 square ri (87,701 square 
miles), or 11,054,019 cho (27,082,346 acres). The 
following table will show the proportions of tilled, 
tillable, and other lands, together with the prices 
for the same :—- 


5 oO 
—_ 
g- . |Average 
Acres, oe price per 
5-3 | acre. 
oe 
Ay 
BAGO-1GMG 50:06 ces ncescenccwcns 6,605,627 23.80 | $194.00 
Other tilled land............ 4,631,137 16.80 57.30 
WOPOSTAANIG.. + os ceersetreednec 13,601,427 49.35 1.36 
Tillable (uncultivated land); 1,890,150 6.85 1.00 
Building - eonne ¢ AvageS 
and cities).. tatatnle bs 871,350 — 590.00 
Salt-yards.....,...---+++++++ 15,910 — 120.00 


The unoccupied tillable lands are covered with 
scant vegetation, which serves for pasturage for 
stock, though little used: doubtless the figures 
given are too small, and should be increased at 
the expense of those for forest-land. The salt 
fields or yards (salzgdrten) are the only sources of 
salt in Japan, and are for the evaporation of sea- 
water. Rock-salt and salt-wells have not, so far, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII, No. 172 


been discovered in the kingdom. Salt, it may be 
mentioned, furnishes a good example of the varia- 
tion in the cost of transportation, as in some parts 
it commands nearly thirty times what it does in 
others. The rice-land, it will be seen, comprises 
nearly one-fourth of the entire superficial area, 
and commands more than three times the price of 
other tilled land. 

The price of really valuable land can in no wise 
be considered as low, as compared with that of the 
agricultural lands in Germany. The price of rice- 
land is at least one-half greater, and, of the other 
grain-lands, about half as great. 

The number of those engaged in agricultural 
industries throughout the kingdom, from the re- 
turns that are available, is as follows: males, 
8,237,682 ; females, 7,398,481; total, 15,636,113. 
The entire population of the kingdom was nearly 
thirty-seven million ; and for such a distinctively 
agricultural nation as Japan, the proportion de- 
voted to agriculture appears small. This dispro- 
portion may in part be attributed to the great 
number of officials, and petty shops and pedlers, 
— occupations which draw from the lower classes, 
by reason of the less labor required, and the com- 
paratively less onerous taxation imposed upon 
them, than is the case in the agricultural pur- 
suits ; and in part to the fact that those partially 
engaged in other pursuits are often not counted 
as agriculturalists. There are only about three- 
fifths of an acre of tilled land to each individual 
in the entire population, or less than three acres 
to the average family. 

It will not be without interest to make some 
mention of the foods used by the people. The 
Japanese are almost exclusively vegetarians, —a 
fact that is to be deplored, from the detrimental 
influence it has upon the raising of live-stock. 
On the coast, fish and other sea-foods are used 
in considerable quantities ; but at a distance, from 
the ever-recurring element of transportation cost, 
these foods form only an immaterial proportion 
of the alimentation. Rice is the chief comestible, 
except in such higher regions where it cannot be 
raised, and where the cost of importation virtu- 
ally prohibits its use. The percentages of the 
different foods consumed are as follows : — 


ROG. cans peace dececcsesuntbsconap seed se aah eens 
Barley and wheat ......... bla Melee Wi bine a 0a Cena “27.00 
Millet and other grain. .........cccsscereushovcuue 13 90 
Sweet-potatoes and garden-vegetables.......... 6 00 
FEU: < s.ce gas s a veuecins celles <etsleuipees ihe patie 0.05 
AIZAC.. 0. oc cece ccccescccescccccce csecvasasssssanued 0.05 


Farm-laborers are paid throughout the king- 
dom, on an average, in summer, 18 cents per day 
for the best men, and 13.8 for the best women ; 
for a poorer class of men the compensation is 


May 21, 1886. ] 


12.5 cents, and of women 8 cents: in winter 
they are paid 14.5 and 9.1, and 9.8 and 5.5 cents 
respectively. This is in addition to board. The 
highest price paid in any province is, in summer, 
27 cents for men, and 20 cents for women. The 
average price per year is $30.50; the maximum, 
$74; the minimum, $13.70; in Tokio, $31.40. 
Taking all things into consideration, in com- 
parison with the sums paid for similar labor in 
Germany, farm-labor is decidedly dearer in Japan. 

These high wages may be taken as an expression 
of a more uniform distribution of property than 
obtains in the European countries, and speak in 
favor, rather than against, the social conditions of 
the kingdom. There does not prevail that sharp 
contrast between luxurious wealth and hungering 
misery ; and as a result, class hatreds, with all 
their attendant evils, are foreign to Japan. Wages, 
however, are much higher at present than they 
were even a few years ago. In some provinces 
during the last twenty years they have increased 
seven or eight fold. 

It will be of interest to give the actual produc- 
tion of the staple products of the kingdom for 
1882, as nearly as can be obtained from statistics. 


Entire production. Per acre. 


Rice (meadow and up-|” 
TY See eer ear 162,269,090 bush. 


25.25 bush. 
ee ee ere 53,933,050 Se.00) Paes 
LEC Seo eee ! 12,782,380 “6 14.1 =s 
Beans 115927,819 =“ 11.9 a 
tte. 2. oatitienss se es 14,981,874 ‘ — 
UPS T epOnae eee 367,784 =‘ — 
Backwheat........%..- 3,458,689 ‘ 9.5 “ 
CUE 0) 2) 74,117,611 Ibs. 3,700.00 Ibs. 
Sweet-potatoes........ '2,150,975,313 * 6,250 00 ‘* 


It is necessary to observe, in explanation of 
these figures (a calculation of which will show an 
apparently greater number of acres than are ac- 
tually under cultivation), that in many cases two 
or even more crops are obtained annually from 
the same field. 

The entire value of these crops reached, accord- 
ing to the statistics of 1882, the sum of 158,884,113 
yen ($123,462,655). This gives a gross sum of 
$12.44 per acre, and less than $8 for each individual 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. In comparing 
these figures with those of the averages of the 
eight older Prussian provinces, between the years 
1859 and 1864 they are found to be more than one- 
third less. The net results, however, of the re- 
turns, per capita, are considerably less ; scarcely, 
in favorable cases, reaching $3.50. They do not, 
however, indicate the true condition of affairs. A 
laboring man requires for annual consumption, 
about five bushels of rice, and the average for 
man and woman may be placed at four bushels. 
As the cost of this quantity is over four dollars 


SCTENCE. 


465 


(4.5 yen per koku=1.8 hectolitres), the people would 
be reduced to a much cheaper way of living, 
which is not the case. The exports and imports 
are comparatively trivial, and will nearly balance 
each other. 

More than one-eighth of all the rice grown is 
consumed in the production of sake, the alcoholic 
drink universally used in Japan, leaving, on an 
average, about 3.5 bushels as the annual amount 
per capita. Adding to rice other productions, 
it is found that 5.7 bushels of grain represent the 
quantity annually consumed by each individual of 
the population, to which should also be added 
about 60 pounds of potatoes. 

During the twelve years between 1868 and 1879 
the entire export of rice amounted to a little over 
seven million bushels, with the imports a little 
more than twice that quantity. Of the other 
produce, figures cannot be given. It will thus be 
seen that the annual production of food-stuffs 
suffices for the entire population, although it is 
true the quota is by no means equally distributed 
throughout the popuiation. The better-situated 
half takes the lion’s share, to the deprivation of 
the lower class. 

Statistics of the cultivation of rice sufficiently 
trustworthy to entitle them to our acceptance, 
reach back for nearly a thousand years, and show 
that there has been a steady decrease in the yield 
per acre. Thus in the period between 923 and 930 
the area devoted to its culture amounted to 
2,558,390 acres, with a yield of 95,924,326 bushels ; 
while in 1868, with an area of 6,559,192 acres, the 
yield was only 157,153,500 bushels. Thus, while 
the entire area devoted to the crop has doubled, 
the crop itself has only increased about one-half. 
Undoubtedly a part of this is due to the added 
lands being less adapted to rice-cultivation. 

The agriculture of Japan has progressed in its 
peculiar way without reference to stock-raising. 
For a very long period religious prejudices have 
not favored the use of flesh as a food, although it 
has not been strictly forbidden. There has been 
no demand for this food, and domestic animals 
were looked upon only as beasts of burden and 
sources of fertilizing-material. This exclusion of 
stock-raising has markedly influenced the exten- 
sion of strictly agricultural industries. In the 
vicinity of the coasts the smallest portions of suita- 
ble land are cultivated, while at a distance the 
extent of untilled land becomes much greater. In 
thickly populated regions fertilizing-material, es- 
pecially that from human sources, — the chief ones 
in Japan, —exists in much greater abundance, as 
also such material as fish-guano, seaweed, etc., 
furnished by the sea; but these cannot be made 
use of at any distance from the coast, for, under 


466 


the existing unfavorable conditions, they do not 
admit of being transported. In the regions 
remote from the coast and the more thickly 
settled districts, various substances, such as wood- 
ashes, the residue from grapes, cottonseed, beans, 
etc., are used for fertilizing-material ; but the ex- 
tent to which they can be employed is very limited, 
and for this reason some better source of compost- 
material is highly desirable for the further develop- 
ment of inland agriculture. The necessity of the 
introduction of stock-raising has been recognized 
in Japan, although its true value has hitherto not 
been rightly appreciated. 

About eighteen years ago, Japan suddenly ex- 
changed its mediaeval condition for one very 
different ; and this must be taken into considera- 
tion in judging of the present state of affairs in 
that country, since, under such circumstances, one 
cannot wonder that errors have been committed, 
but, rather, that the results already reached have 
been so remarkable. Already a network of tele- 
graph-wires covers the entire land, and railroads 
are increasing from year to year; and in the laws 
of the country undoubted improvements have 
been brought about. In the civilized countries of 
Europe the development of the modern condition 
from the mediaeval one was gradual; but in Japan 
this development has been not only more rapid, 
but also in many respects peculiar. Not only has 
it made use of many counsellors and teachers 
from other countries, but it has sent out a very 
considerable number of its own students to other 
lands, who have brought back many of the modern 
inventions and discoveries of civilized life. Such 
a process of development has been in many re- 
spects of great advantage to Japan, although not 
wholly without its elements of danger. They can 
avail themselves of the multitudinous results of 
civilization which have been slowly and labori- 
ously acquired in European states in the many 
centuries, and at the same time avoid the many 
errors taught by painful experience, though it 
must be borne in mind that the old mediaeval con- 
ditions are not yet entirely done away with. 

These conditions must be taken into account in 
treating of the development of live-stock indus- 
tries in Japan. In the civilized nations of Europe, 
it is well known, that, until recently, live-stock 
was looked upon as a necessary evil, useful only 
as machines for the production of fertilizing- 
material. Circumstances were deemed fortunate 
when the income derived from the stock was 
sufficient to pay expenses, and thus furnish 
manure free of cost. In England scarcely a 
hundred years have elapsed since stock-raising has 
attained an independent position as a profitable 
industry, and in Germany its importance was not 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 172 


appreciated till a much later period. While in 
many other agricultural and technical matters 
Japan’s progress has been more rapid than was the 
case in Europe, the difficulties which stock-raising 
encounter are greater, rather than less, than were 
the European ones in past centuries. 

In the live-stock industries of Japan the horse 
and the ox are the only animals which have at- 
tained any degree of importance. Sheep do not 
thrive in the moist climate, and attempts have 
shown the uselessness of endeavoring to introduce 
this branch of stock-raising. But little attention 
is paid to hog-raising, although circumstances 
would seem to indicate its profitableness, and the 
opportuneness of its inception on a more extended 
scale. 

The number of cattle in Japan is not only ab- 
solutely, but also relatively in proportion to the 
population, very small. In 1879 there were but 
4.1 horses and 2.9 oxen or cows to every hundred 
inhabitants, — a number, for the latter, remarkably 
small. In the same year there was less than one 
head of cattle slaughtered for every thousand in- 
habitants for food, the consumption varying in 
the different provinces from five and a half per 
thousand to less than one per hundred thousand. 
Even in the large province of Musashi, in which 
the large flesh-consuming cities of Tokio and 
Yokohama lie, the consumption amounted to only 
3.1 per thousand inhabitants. 

It has been often asserted that the consumption 
of flesh in Japan is steadily increasing. Of the 
1,075,520 head of cattle in Japan in 1877, 33,959 
were slaughtered ; in 1882 there were 1,159,750, of 
which 36,288 were slaughtered, —in both cases 
bearing the same percentage, 3.1, to the entire 
number. This percentage is very small, and it is 
seen that a large proportion of the stock must live 
to be very old, and die natural deaths. 

Milk and butter, as will be understood, are un- 
salable in the interior, and non-transportable, and 
cheese and condensed-milk manufacturing requires 
more capital than is disposable in Japan. Further, 
the entire population has for butter and cheese a 
decided dislike, which is not wholly overcome even 
by those who have become accustomed to Eu- 
ropean diet. 

Attempts have been made to improve the indus- 
try by the importation of foreign cattle; but this 
has been done without a proper study of the 
adaptability of different breeds to the peculiar 
climate and mountainous topography of the coun- 
try, and the result has not been wholly satisfactory. 
Instead of introducing stock from the highlands 
of Scotland, Wales, or, better, from the mountain 
valleys of South Germany and Switzerland, Short- 
horn, Devon, and Hereford stock has been im- 


,’ 


May 21, 1886.] 


ported. There were imported, largely from 
America, in 1877, 498 head; in 1882, 1,480. Another 
obstacle which stock-raising must encounter is the 
difficulty in the way of pasturage. The scant 
herbage is unfitted for blooded stock, and the 
raising of grasses or grain will be unprofitable. 
In the inland regions the farmers of small means 
often keep a horse or a cow, not for work, but 
solely for the manure derived from it. It shows 
strikingly the lack of capital everywhere so 
prevalent. When a farmer finds an ox or a cow 
too costly, he buys a superannuated or broken- 
down pack-horse that can hardly stand, feeds it, 
and carefully collects the manure. 

Notwithstanding all the obstacles. the importa- 
tion and improvement of cattle in Japan, the 
author believes, should certainly not be abandoned. 
By a proper study of natural conditions, stock- 
raising may do much toward bettering the cir- 
cumstances of the Japanese people. 


A BOOK-MANUFACTORY IN ANCIENT 
ROME. 


IN the Idlustrirtes schweizerisches unterhaltungs- 
blatt fiir stenographen, the Publishers’ weekly finds 
an interesting account of the production of books 
in ancient Rome. It is stated therein, that, not- 
withstanding the Romans had no printing-presses, 
books were at that time produced much more 
quickly and in larger numbers than most modern 
works. Paper was used which was almost woven 
out of the fibre of the Egyptian papyrus, which 
grows to a height of ten feet, and which has given 
its name to paper. A Roman residing in Egypt 
assures us that the yield of his paper-manufac- 
tory would be sufficient to support an army, and 
whole shiploads of paper were sent from Egypt 
to Rome. Before books of any description were 
reproduced in large numbers, they were read 
mostly either in private circles or publicly, so 
that the author could adopt suggestions for the 
improvement of his work. Wealthy Romans used 
to own a large number of slaves for all kinds of 
services, which rendered labor cheap, as they cost 
nothing in many cases, and had only to be sup- 
ported. They were mostly prisoners of war, the 
pick of nations, and often more cultivated (espe- 
cially the Greeks) than their masters. They were 
consequently also employed in the education of 
Roman boys. The works of authors were dictated 
to a number of slaves, women also being employed 
for that purpose. Even among freemen and 
liberated slaves the desire to obtain employment 
_ became so great, that hundreds of willing hands 
could be had for writing books at a very low rate 
| of wages. The instruction imparted in the work- 


SCIENCE. 


A67 


shops of Roman publishers necessitated a regular 
course of training, which was to teach the ap- 
prentices an easy and elegant handwriting. If a 
publisher had at his disposal, say, a hundred writ- 
ers, and reckoning the working-day at ten hours, 
a document which took an hour to write would 
be multiplied in the course of a day to a thousand 
copies. The writers became in time expert to 
such a degree that they combined quickness with 
elegance. It must also be added that in cases 
where speed was the first consideration, the use of 
stenographic contractions became general, and 
we possess illustrations of their employment in 
the old manuscripts still in existence. We are 
also informed that both readers and copyists were 
instructed and trained, the former in the solution, 
the latter in the application, of contractions. 
Their object was to copy works as quickly as 
possible, the use of full words being only resorted 
to for the best works. The above brief account 
demonstrates the fact that the Romans made 
the nearest approach to the invention of print- 
ing, although they never attained to it. The 
movable stamps of iron or other metals used by 
the Romans for marking earthenware vessels or 
other utensils also prove this. But the art of 
rapid writing, which was perfected by them to an 
unusual degree, counteracted a further develop- 
ment, while the number of slaves and other 
willing hands at disposal, by which means the 
most astonishing results were obtained, operated 
in the same direction. 


THE HEATING-POWER OF GAS. 


THE introduction of the gas-engine and the 
increased use of ordinary iluminating-gas for 
domestic heating-purposes, renders its calorific 
properties of far more importance than they were 
a few years ago, says Engineering. The experi- 
ments made on this subject do not appear to have 
been very exhaustive, and, if we may judge by 
those we are about to quote, have not always been 
carried out with due care. M. Aimé Witz, whose 
researches in connection with the gas-engine are 
well known, has lately made some experiments in 
order to determine with greater accuracy the heat- 
ing-power in ordinary French illuminating-gas. 
His apparatus was composed of an explosion- 
cylinder of nickel-plated steel 2.86 inches internal 
diameter and 3.54 inches high. The thickness of 
the metal was .079 of an inch. The top and bot- 
tom covers were tightly screwed on, rendering 
the chamber air-tight. Through the top cover a 
wire passed, and on the bottom was a valve for 
filling or emptying the receptacle. This cylinder 
was contained in a vessel 4 inches in diameter and 


468 


8 inches high. This acted as a calorimeter, the 
amount of water required to charge it being 1.76 
pints. In order to charge the explosion-cylinder, 
it is first filled with mercury, which is allowed to 
run out, the explosive mixture of air and gas tak- 
ing its place. The explcsion was caused by an 
electric current passing through the wire in the 
top cover. The result of a large number of ex- 
periments led to the conclusion that the average 
calorific power of well-purified illuminating-gas, 
as generally stipulated for by the concessions of 
French gas companies, is about 5,200 calories per 
cubic metre. This is equal to 584 British units 
per cubic foot. The standard of 6,000 calories, 
hitherto generally accepted, would therefore be 
too high. M. Witz’s experiments more nearly ac- 
cord with those recently made by Mr. Dugald 
Clerk, who estimated 504,888 and 489,268 foot- 
pounds per cubic foot as the mechanical equiva- 
lents of Manchester and London gas. This would 
correspond to 5,640 and 5,872 calories per cubic 
metre. M. Witz found that the calorific power 
of gas supplied from the same works varied con- 
siderably, at different seasons of the year ran- 
ging between 4,719 and 5,425 calories; but the 
average of tests showed that the difference between 
the gas supplied by various works was not great. 
The purification of the gas reduces the calorific 
power by more than 5 per cent. The gas pro- 
duced during the last hour of a charge is inferior 
in heating-power to that obtained during the first 
hour. The heating-power of gas may be increased 
77 per cent by carburation ; but the gasoline em- 
ployed becomes rapidly less volatile, and, when 
reduced to one-fourth its volume, its enriching- 
power is only 34 per cent. The details of the ex- 
periments, which appear to have been made with 
every precaution to insure accuracy, have been 
given in the Annales de chimie et de physique for 
1885, and are quoted in the abstracts of foreign 
papers of the Institution of civil engineers. 


REMSEN'’S INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 
OF CHEMISTRY. 


THE difficulty encountered by those who de- 
sire to have science which is true science taught 
in the high schools and academies of this country 
has been the lack of good teachers and of suitable 
books. Gradually, however, the books are ap- 
pearing. Such volumes as those of Gray on bot- 
any, Guyot on physical geography, Dana on 
elementary geology, Martin on physiology, and 
others which we might name, are excellent ex- 
amples of the skill with which men of ac- 


Introduction to the study of chem istry. By IRA Remsen. 
New York, Holt, 1886, 12°. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 172 


knowledged distinction as scientific men have 
prepared text-books adapted to youth in their 
teens. The influence of such books is to awaken 
a love of the observation of nature, and to show 
the scholar how, from simple phenomena, he may 
proceed to those which are difficult and complex. 
The improved condition of American school-books 
is sure to have a lasting effect upon the future 
citizens of this country. Already the increasing 
love of scientific studies and pursuits is mani- 
fested in a hundred ways. 

Professor Remsen has now prepared a chemis- 
try which is intended for those who are beginning 
the study. No one will question his learning or 
his experience. For many years his daily round 
of the laboratory has made him familiar with the 
perplexities and difficulties which are encountered 
by students of every grade, — the bright and the 
dull, the immature and the adult. It sounds 
paradoxical to hear him declare at the beginning 
of his work, that, in face of the serious difficulties 
which lie in the way of a purely scientific treat- 
ment of chemistry, he thinks it possible to treat 
the subject more scientifically than is customary, 
and thus to make it easier of comprehension. 

He therefore lays down as his guiding principle 
a desire to develop a scientific habit of thought ; 
and this cannot be accomplished either by hap- 
hazard, and disconnected experimenting, or by 
considering the profoundest theories before the 
student is fitted to comprehend them. The proper 
course is to begin with an orderly sequence of 
laboratory lessons, to be performed, if possible, by 
every pupil for himself, and, if this is not possible, 
then by the teacher in the presence of a very 
small class, — not more than ten or a dozen per- 
sons. 

This volume is therefore prepared as a manual 
for the laboratory of beginners. The cost of the— 
requisite apparatus is not large, and is quite with- 
in the allowances of all superior schools, either 
for girls or boys. The beginning of the course is 
very easy ; but it soon grows harder, and requires 
for its conduct a teacher who has himself been 
trained in laboratory methods. The self-taught 
chemist will be a very awkward guide. Such an 
instructor will find his work made delightful by 
the orderly, progressive steps which are marked 
out for the class to follow. At frequent intervals 
questions are interposed which the student him- 
self must answer from his own observation and 
reading. Enough information is given to make 
his investigations easy and profitable, not enough 
to stifle independent thought. The author’s doc- 
trine is that a badly performed experiment is as 
objectionable as a bad recitation or a badly writ- 
ten exercise. 


May 21, 1886 ] 


By the use of methods like these, chemistry is 
likely to hold its proper place in an educational 
curriculum. It should not be play,—a mere 
mode of whiling away the time in a series of 
entertaining surprises ; and it should not be drudg- 
ery, —the attempt to master a series of names 
and formulas; but the science should be pre- 
sented to the beginner as it appears to the ad- 
vanced investigator, as the orderly, prolonged, 
well-guided study of certain classes of phenomena, 
in order that the laws which govern them may be 
discovered and applied. 

In the opinion of the writer, which is based 
upon many years of observation of the study of 
chemistry as a part of a general education, the 
volume before us is admirably adapted to the 
purpose in view. Chemistry thus studied will be 
found an admirable discipline ; and, if the scholar 
goes no further than to master the pages of this 
little volume, he will carry with him through life 
a clear conception of the methods of scientific 
study, and will thus be saved from many of the 
perplexities which have beset many scholars 
whose training has been exclusively based upon 
books, and who may, unfortunately for them- 
selves and unfortunately often for the world, have 
been filled with horror at the progress of science. 
A single year of laboratory work will do more 
than the mastery of a cyclopaedia to assure the 
scholar of the truth of modern investigations. 


COMPAYRE’S HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. 


To many persons the endeavor to treat teaching 
and the practice of education generally in a scien- 
tific manner seems nonsense. They liken teachers 
to poets, who must be born, not made, and fall 
back upon mother wit and natural instinct as the 
sole requisites tor a good teacher. But teaching 
is not a new occupation: our principals and _ pri- 
mary teachers are not the first to impart instruc- 
tion to children. In fact, teaching is as old as 
Civilization ; and it would be strange indeed, if, 
in all these centuries, no experience that is worth 

| any thing to us had been acquired. Education 
has been carried on under almost every possible 
variation of conditions, whether they be geo- 
graphical, political, social, religious, ethical, or only 
' personal. Human nature has an infinite number 
of phases, but its essentials vary but little from 
| era to era. Therefore it would be more than 
strange, it would be miraculous, if the problems 
_ that confront our educators to-day had not been 
More or less dimly perceived and more or less 
| Successfully met in the past. Unless a teacher 


The history of pedagogy. By GABRIzL CoMPAyR&, Tr. 
by W. H. Payne, A.M. Boston, Heath, 1886. 12°. 


SCIENCE. 


469 


proposes to begin all over again, and try to repeat 
in his own experience the experience of the race, 
unless he proposes to test all possible methods, and 
fall into all the old errors, he certainly ought to 
be acquainted with the history of his profession. 
This is placing the desirability of a training in 
pedagogics on the lowest ground, —that of 
mere utility. It leaves out of consideration 
all that great philosophers have said and done 
concerning education ; it takes no account of the 
relations existing between pedagogics on the one 
hand, and psychology, ethics, and politics on the 
other. 

For the purpose of giving a general knowledge 
of past educational theories and practices, we 
know of no book so useful as the ‘ Histoire de la 
pédagogie’ of M. Compayreé, which Professor 
Payne has so opportunely translated. Grassberg- 
er’s volumes are essential to a detailed knowledge 
of education in Greece and Rome. Schwarz and 
Niemeyer are excellent so far as they go, Von 
Raumer is minute on the great German educators, 
Schmidt’s four volumes are classic, and Kloepper’s 
little compend is an excellent manual; but Com- 
payré’s book, while not too special and technical 
to be uninteresting to the general reader, is full 
enough for the average teacher. We have only 
one serious fault to find with it, — it is written by 
a Frenchman. As a consequence of this, the 
writings of French educators are unduly promi- 
nent, and the course of the history of pedagogy is 
conditioned more or less by the history of France. 
This is, of course, a patriotic view, but a one- 
sided one. Since the Renaissance, educational 
progress has been international ; and, if any one 
nation is to have the place of honor, that nation 
must be Germany. it is in Germany that the 
tenets of humanism, realism, philanthropinism 
and naturalism were most thoroughly developed 
and put into practice. Sturm was a German; 
Comenius, Ratich, Lessing, Pestalozzi, F ichte, 
Herbart, Beneke, Froebel, —to pick names at 
random, — were all Germans ; and Germany, not 
France (despite the unsurpassed influence of Rous- 
seau), should be most prominent in the history of 
pedagogy. 

Apart from this faulty stand-point, there is 
little in M. Compayré’s history to criticise. It is 
too brief, perhaps, in its treatment of the great 
schools of the middle age, but it is corresponding- 
ly full on Rousseau. We should be glad to have 
seen more on the great universities, especially 
those in Italy and Paris. Rollin, whom the Ger- 
man pedagogues are apt to overlook, receives his 
proper recognition here. The chapters on the 
education of women are among the most interest- 
ing in the book, and are, if we mistake not, 


ATO 


something of an innovation in works of this kind. 
Professor Payne’s analyses of the various chapters 
are concise and clear, though his criticisms of 
Herbert Spencer’s essay on education seem to 
leave out of sight the great influence for good that 
it has worked. The excellent index adds much to 
the practical value of the book. 

Taken altogether, it is a valuable manual, and 
may safely be recommended to teachers and read- 
ing-circles. And for the use of the general public 
who are not teachers, we know no book at once so 
complete, and so free from technicalities. 


THE STAR-GUIDE. 


Tuts is described in the preface as an introduc- 
tion to Webb’s ‘Celestial objects for common 
telescopes,’ though we should be more inclined 
to call it a conveniently arranged abstract of that 
well-known work. The compilers have tabulated 
in some twenty-four pages, six hundred celestial 
objects arranged in order of right ascension, com- 
prising nearly every thing that can profitably be 
examined in our latitude with an instrument of 
two or three inches aperture (planets are not in- 
cluded). The right ascension and declination of 
each object is given for Jan. 1, 1886, and the mean 
time of passing the Greenwich meridian for every 
tenth day throughout the year. The introduc- 
tion explains how to make allowance for a differ- 
ent longitude and for the change of the stars’ 
positions by precession. Distances, position an- 
gles, magnitudes, and colors are given for double 
stars, and many interesting notes on the various 
other objects catalogued. Following this list for 
very small telescopes are about two hundred ob- 
jects which can be seen with refractors of from 
four to seven inches aperture. 

Perhaps the most useful part of the book is the 
list of two hundred and fifty test objects, divided 
into eight groups suitable for testing the perform- 
ance of refractors varying from two to seven 
inches in aperture. Each of these groups con- 
tains three classes; viz., ‘dividing tests, defining 
tests, and space penetrating tests,’ — all most con- 
veniently arranged. Several pages serve as a 
guide for lunar excursions, and a small table gives 
the positions of a dozen meteor radiants : an ap- 
pendix contains information on variable stars and 
on the comets of 1886. 

We think the book will be found useful by 
amateurs, and itis not to be entirely despised by 
the professional astronomer who is often called 


The star-guide: alist of the most remarkable celestial 
objects visible with small telescopes, with their positions for 
every tenth day in the year and other astronomical infor- 
mation. By LATIMER CLARK and HERBERT SADLER. Lon- 
don, Macmillan, 1886, 8°. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 172 


upon to act as celestial showman. If a chart of 
the moon and a small star-map (even no larger 
than that in Engelmann’s translation of New- 
comb’s astronomy) had been added, it would save 
the trouble of frequent reference to other vol- 
umes. The price of the ‘Star-guide,’ we under- 
stand, is five shillings. 


THE opening of the Euphrates valley between 
the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf is one of 
the questions of the day, and may be regarded as 
complementary to the Suez Canal. If, as M. 
Dumont has recently pointed out to the French 
academy of sciences, the 1,400 kilometres which 
separate the Gulf of Alexandria and the Bay of 
Antioch from the Persian Gulf were traversed by 
a railway, six days would be gained in the voyage 
from Marseilles, Brindisi, or Salonica, to Bombay, 
and the hot passage of the Red Sea would be 
avoided. Many travellers, and also some of the 
more precious freight, would go by the railway. 
The tonnage of the Suez Canal will soon attain to 
8,000,000 or 9,000,000 tons per annum; and 
200,000 passengers may be expected to traverse it 
in the same time. Allowing that only a quarter 
of the passengers and one-twentieth of the ton- 
nage goes by the new railway, M. Dumont re- 
marks that this proportion would justifiy the mak- 
ing of the new line. The local traffic would also 
be considerable between Bagdad and the Gulf and 
other places. The nature of the ground presents 
no great engineering difficulties. The line would 
rise from the mouth of the Orontes near the 
ancient port of Salcuces, ascend the Alep to a 
height of four hundred and eighty metres, and 
descend towards the Gulf by way of Bagdad. M. 
Dumont estimates the total expense of construc- 
tion at 250,000,000 francs. The scheme of M. 
Dumont is very interesting, especially after the 
report of Colonel Chesney to the English govern- 
ment ; and the railway would doubtless be at- — 
tended by the opening-up of the plains of Meso- 
potamia, which, by irrigation and cultivation, 
might be made to recover their ancient fertility. 
Some 2,000,000 acres of land would thus be re- 
covered to civilization. 


—The housekeeper, Minneapolis, Minn., was 
burned out for the second time in six years, April 
12, and a part of its large subscription list de- 
stroyed, several of the ladies employed barely 
escaping with their lives. Such of our readers as _ 
do not receive the May number promptly, should 
write to the publishers, giving full address, time 
when subscription was made, and length of time 
paid for. The May number will then be fowarded, 
and the name restored to the list. 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, MAY 28, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THE ELECTION OF A PRESIDENT of a college or 
university, especially in the case of one so vener- 
able and distinguished as Yale, is an event of 
great importance. Under the present constitu- 
tion of our colleges, —and it is by no means so 
faulty as some persons declare it to be, — the pres- 
idents not only govern, but they represent their 
institutions. The president’s voice is generally 
the controlling influence in matters of academic 
policy and discipline, in financial matters, and 
in the selection of professors and subordinate 
officers : therefore his importance and sphere of 
-activity are not limited to his own college, but 
are co-extensive with the wide boundaries of 
higher education. This fact has entered, though 
perhaps unconsciously, into the popular interest 
which has been manifested as to the choice of the 
Yale corporation for the succession to President 
Porter. Undoubtedly the activity of the younger 
alumni of Yale has served to keep the matter 
prominently before the public, but we know that 
in the university world, at all events, considera- 
tions higher than merely personal ones have been 
taken into account. 

On Thursday of last week the matter was settled 
by the election of Rev. Timothy Dwight, professor 
of sacred literature in the Yale theological school, 
to the presidency of Yale college. Professor 
Dwight’s election cannot be called unexpected, 
for the well-informed had some months ago 
settled upon him as the coming man. But there 
are elements in the choice which make it a pecul- 
larly happy one. 
however progressive, can afford to break entirely 
with its past, to which, after all, it owes its 
present. The fact that Professor Dwight gradu- 
ated from Yale in 1849, and has for more than 
thirty years been connected with the college as 
tutor and professor, identifies him sufficiently 
with the traditional policy of Yale to insure that 
it will not be inconsiderately abandoned. Then 
there are elements in the newly chosen president’s 
personal views and opinions which promise that 

No, 173.— 1886. 


In the first place, no college, 


Yale will not be left behind in the race of devel- 
opment. He has carefully considered the details 
of university policy and organization, and we 
may be sure that he will guide Yale on the for- 
ward path as rapidly as the college can travel — 
but no more rapidly. That is the great point: 
Yale must grow and develop, but she must not 
lose her character in the process. Educated men 
throughout the country look to President Dwight 
to secure this happy mean. 


IMITATION BUTTER. 


THE manufacture of substitutes for butter origi- 
nated with the production of the so-called oleo- 
margarine, by the French chemist Mége-Mouriez, 
from beef-tallow. During the siege of Paris by 
the Germans, the making of this artificial butter 
was carried on upon a considerable scale, and was 
first brought prominently into notice. The manu- 
facture of oleomargarine commercially, however, 
did not cease with the necessity which gave birth 
to it, but with various modifications has increased 
in amount, until now it is believed to have 
seriously damaged the dairy interests of the 
country ; and congress is being urged to pass a 
bill, which, under the guise of a revenue law, is 
really a prohibition law. The agitation has at- 
tracted such general attention, both from dairy- 
men and from consumers of butter, and so much 
misrepresentation and flaming rhetoric have been 
called forth, that it may be worth while to con- 
sider calmly what are the facts in the case. 

Process of manufacture. — Although numerous 
patents have been taken out for the manufacture 
of imitation butter, and a great variety of ma- 
terials have been named in the specifications, the 
process as now conducted is comparatively simple. 
The raw materials are beef-tallow, leaf-lard, and 
the best quality of butter, together with small 
amounts of milk or cream and of butter-color. 

From the beef-tallow is prepared the oleo- 
margarine oil of Mége. The caul fat of freshly 
killed beeves is, after thorough washing, first in 
tepid and then in iced water, allowed to hang in a 
cold room until thoroughly cold. It is then ren- 
dered at a temperature between 130° and 175° F, 
The resulting oil is allowed to cool slowly until 
a considerable portion of the stearine and palmi- 
tine have crystallized out, and the pasty mass is 
then subjected to hydraulic pressure. The still 
fluid portion (about two-thirds of the whole) flows 


AT2 


out into a tank of cold water, where it solidifies 
into a granular mass which is known in the trade 
as ‘ oleo-oil,’ or simply ‘ oleo.’ The name ‘ oil’ is 
somewhat misleading, as the productis a granular 
solid of a slightly yellow color. Fresh leaf-lard, 
treated in substantially the same way as the beef- 
tallow, yields the ‘neutral lard,’ or ‘ neutral,’ of 
the trade, also a granular solid of a white color. 

The objects of this treatment are twofold, — 
first, to produce fats as free as possible from taste 
or odor ; second, to remove some of the difficultly 
fusible stearine and palmitine in order that the 
finished product may melt readily in the mouth. 

Having thus secured the fats in proper condi- 
tion, the manufacturer proceeds to mix the ‘ oleo’ 
and ‘neutral,’—the proportions varying accord- 
ing to the destination of the product; a warm 
climate calling for more ‘oleo,’ a cold one for 
more ‘ neutral,,— and to flavor the mixture with 
butter. This flavoring is conducted in large, 
-steam-jacketed vessels provided with revolving 
paddles, by which their contents can be thor- 
oughly agitated. Here the ‘oleo’ and ‘neutral’ 
are melted, and thoroughly agitated with a cer- 
tain proportion of milk, or sometimes of cream, 
and a proper amount of butter-color. Forty-eight 
gallons of milk per two thousand pounds of prod- 
uct are stated to be a common proportion. After 
sufficient agitation, the melted mass is run into 
cold water, and as it cools is broken up by paddles 
so as to granulate the mass. After thorough 
washing, it is salted and worked exactly like 
butter. The product is known as oleomargarine. 
Although it contains hardly more than a trace of 
butter-fat, the latter flavors the whole mass so 
strongly that when well salted, as it usually is, it 
might readily pass with an inexpert or careless 
consumer for a rather flavorless butter. Oleo- 
margarine is the cheapest product made. By 
adding to the material in the agitator, or ‘churn,’ 
more or less pure butter, what is known as but- 
terine is produced, two grades of which are com- 
monly sold; viz., ‘creamery butterine,’ contain- 
ing more, and ‘dairy butterine,’ containing less 
butter. 

Healthfulness. — Very exaggerated and absurd 
statements have been made, especially by the 
dairymen and their organs, regarding the un- 
healthfulness of butterine and oleomargarine. 
The charges have in general been, that the fat 
used is practically uncooked, and that raw animal 
fat is unwholesome ; that filthy fat, and fat from 
diseased animals, are used, and that the product 
contains, or is liable to contain, the germs of 
disease ; and that, in cleansing these diseased and 
filthy fats, dangerous chemicals are used, which 
are not subsequently completely removed. 


SCIENCE. 


(Vor. VIL, No. 173% 


That the fats used are of themselves unwhole- 
some, there is no proof whatever. They contain 
nothing that butter-fat does not also contain, and 
differ from it only by the absence of about six per 
cent of the glycerides of certain soluble fatty 
acids ; viz., Caprinic, caprylic, capronic, and bu- 
tyric acids. The only experiments upon the di- 
gestibility of imitation butter are two, by A. A. 
Mayer, upon oleomargarine. These showed a 
difference of only about two per cent in favor of 
butter. That the higher flavor of butter acting 
upon the nervous system would give it a greater 
nutritive value than the flavorless ‘neutral’ or 
‘oleo,’ may be conceded ; but that an article which 
even experts fail to distinguish from genuine 
butter is at any serious disadvantage in this re- 
spect, may well be doubted. 

The manufacturers claim that imitation butter 
can only be made from the best quality of fat from 
freshly killed animals, and I know of no evidence 
which disproves their assertions. The sensational 
article recently published in a prominent agricul- 
tural paper in the north-west, accompanied by 
cuts of the numerous organisms found in butter- 
ine, is of no significance in this connection, both 
because the species described are all harmless, 
and because no comparative examinations of 
genuine butter were made. It is highly probable 
that many samples of the latter would show as 
miscellaneous an assortment of formidable-look- 
ing, harmless organisms as did the butterine. 

On the other hand, however, there is at present 
no guaranty, except the statement of the manu- 
facturers, that diseased fat is not or can not be 
used ; the manufacture being conducted entirely 
without any official inspection, and visitors being 
in most (not all) cases excluded. I believe that 
the chances of disease being conveyed in this way 
are small, but they are not yet proved to be non- 
existent. 

As regards filthy processes of manufacture, it 
may safely be asserted that butterine could not 
successfully imitate butter were it not as clean as 
most things are which pass for clean in this dirty 
world. 

The charge that dangerous chemicals are used 
in the manufacture may be disposed of in a few 
words. If a dangerous amount of any chemical 
which is claimed to be used were left in the fin- 
ished product, the latter would be inedible. Should 
traces of these chemicals be found, their signifi- 
cance would not lie in themselves, but in the 
indication they would furnish that the original 
fats were impure and required chemical treat- 
ment. 

Fraudulent sale. — The evil feature of the trade 
in imitation butter is that it is largely fraudulent. 


May 28, 1886.] 


A prominent manufacturer of butterine lately told 
the writer, in response to an inquiry, that, in his 
opinion, not over twenty-five per cent of the 
butterine made in the United States is sold under 
its true name. It may safely be assumed that 
the estimate is not too low, and that fully three- 
quarters of the product is eventually sold and 
eaten as butter. Reliable statistics of the produc- 
tion of imitation butter are not to be obtained, 
so far as i have been able to find, but it must be 
enormous. The fact, which is stated on good au- 
thority, that Chicago, one of the chief seats of the 
manufacture, exports more ‘ butter’ than it im- 
ports, is suggestive in this connection. The man- 
ufacturer, it may be assumed, sells his product 
as an imitation, though even here facilities for 
deception are afforded in the use of such names 
as ‘creamery’ and ‘dairy’ butterine, and in the 
branding of packages with the names of imagi- 
nary creameries. But as the imitation passes 
through the hands of jobber, retailer, and restau- 
rant or boarding-house keeper, to the consumer, 
it undergoes a transformation, until, at the end, 
it is the exception when it is not butter simply, 
with no suffix. Since the imitation can be pro- 
duced much cheaper than the genuine article, 
and can with difficulty be distinguished from it, 
it affords a tempting opportunity to the middle- 
man to increase his profits. As a natural result, 
the manufacture of and trade in genuine butter 
have suffered under this unfair competition, and 
a wide-spread change in the butter trade of the 
cities is taking place. Consumers, wisely or un- 
wisely, are generally very averse to eating butter- 
ine at all, as well as to paying the price of butter 
for it, and in self-defence are coming more and 
more to make contracts for butter directly with 
reliable producers, to the benefit of both parties 
and the injury of the middlemen, who seem now 
to be in a fair way to reap as they have sown. 
Legislation. — The undoubted injury to the 
dairy business wrought by the manufacture and 
fraudulent sale of butterine and oleomargarine 
has been the incentive to an earnest search for a 
remedy; and the aid of legislation was speedily 
invoked, first in the shape of laws to compel the 
branding of every package of these articles, and, 
later, of laws prohibiting entirely their manufac- 
ture and sale. Neither class of laws proving effec- 
tive, and the New York law having been pro- 
nounced unconstitutional by the court of appeals, 
the aid of national legislation is now being in- 
voked. 
Several bills upon this subject have been in- 
troduced into the present congress; but the one 
which has become most prominent, and has ap- 
parently met with the most favor from the oppo- 


SCIENCE, 


A73 


nents of butterine, is the substitute bill reported by 
the committee on agriculture, by which it is intend- 
ed to indirectly prohibit the manufacture of imita- 
tion butter. There are numerous minor provisions ; 
but the main ones, which render all others super- 
fluous, are the imposition of a license-fee of six 
hundred dollars upon every manufacturer, four 
hundred and eighty dollars upon every wholesaler, 
and forty-eight dollars upon every retailer, and of 
an internal revenue tax of ten cents per pound upon 
all imitations of butter manufactured or imported, 
the tax upon the latter being in addition to the 
customs duty. The internal revenue department 
is charged with the execution of the law. In 
short, it is proposed to tax the business out of 
existence. 

The writer does not hesitate to express his belief 
that the enactment of this law is not desirable. 
As is evident from the description already given 
of the process of manufacture, and as the writer 
is convinced by personal inspection, imitation but- 
ter, when properly made, or when made as the 
manufacturers claim that it is, is a perfectly clean- 
ly, wholesome article of food. Granting this, the 
prohibition of its manufacture is simply class 
legislation, designed to advantage the producer of 
butter by increasing the price of his product, to 
the detriment of the consumer. The dairy inter- 
est of the country is undoubtedly of great magni- 
tude, and may well be fostered in all legitimate 
ways; but no interest has the right to be ‘ pro- 
tected’ at the expense of the whole people. 

Another objection to a heavy tax on this article, 
unless it be absolutely and hopelessly prohibitory, 
is that it will tend to stimulate exactly what ap- 
pears to be now the greatest danger connected with 
the manufacture of butter-substitutes. In addi- 
tion to the pressure of competition, we should have 
the pressure of taxation forcing the manufacturer 
to seek cheaper and cheaper sources for his raw 
materials, and tempting him to use unhealthy 
fats, if he can do so without detection. 

Further, the writer ventures to doubt whether 
the permanent injury which this manufacture 
will work to the dairy interest will be so great, or 
the advantage of its suppression so marked, as is 
commonly supposed, provided that the imitations 
are compelled to be sold for what they are. But- 
terine, undoubtedly, has depressed the price of 
butter, partly by displacing it, and partly by creat- 
ing a general distrust of the genuineness and 
wholesomeness of what is offered to the consumer 
as butter. It is worth considering, however, to 
what extent this would be offset, in time, by the 
increased consumption of butter, both per se and 
in butterine, which will presumably follow from 
its lower price. 


AT4 


But while the writer does not advocate legisla- 
tive prohibition, he does most strongly believe in 
the necessity for legislative regulation. The ob- 
jects to be attained by such regulation are, first, 
to insure that only clean and wholesome materials 
are used in the manufacture, and that the process 
is conducted in a careful and cleanly manner; 
and, second, to compel the sale of the product 
under its own name and on its own merits. When 
this is done, all is done that the state can properly 
do. 

Space forbids entering into any discussion of 
the best methods of reaching these objects. Some 
system of registration and inspection of factories 
would evidently be necessary to accomplish the 
first ; while the second might be attained by com- 
pulsory branding of packages, use of a peculiar 
style of package, requiring manufacturer and 
jobber to keep a record of all packages sold, with 
name of buyer, and numerous other devices. 
Probably both these objects would be most readily 
accomplished by putting the whole matter in the 
hands of the Internal revenue bureau, while it 
might fairly be taxed sufficiently to cover the cost 
of inspection, etc. 

Finally, it is to be remembered that butterine is 
but one of many forms of food-adulteration. The 
most satisfactory treatment of the subject would 
be the enactment of general laws, state or nation- 
al, upon the subject of food-adulteration, and the 
provision of an efficient power to enforce them. 

Methods of detection. — There is no simple test 
by which the consumer may determine for himself 
whether a sample of butter is genuine: the adul- 
teration can be detected only by the expert chem- 
ist or microscopist. Butter, as already noted, dif- 
fers from all other animal and most vegetable fats, 
in containing about six per cent of the glycerides 
of certain soluble fatty acids. It is upon this 
fact that all chemical methods for the detection 
of butter-adulteration are based. The original 
method, as proposed by Hehner, consisted in de- 
termining the percentage of insoluble fatty acids. 
In butter this averages about 87.5 per cent, while 
in other animal fats it averages about 95 per cent. 
Koettsdorfer determines the weight of pure potash 
required to saponify one gram of the fat. Owing 
to the lower molecular weight of the peculiar 
acids of butter, more potash is required to saponify 
this fat; the range being 221 to 232 milligrams of 
potash for butter, and 195 to 197 for other fats. 

Xeichert, after saponifying the fat and setting 
free the fatty acids again by addition of sulphuric 
acid, all the operations being conducted in a uni- 
form manner, distils over a fixed volume of the 
resulting liquid, and determines the amount of 
potash required to neutralize it. The distillate 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VIL, No. 173 


from 1 gram of butter-fat requires 13.0 to 14.9 cubic 
centimetres of a deci-normal potash solution ; that 
from other fat, a fraction of 1 cubic centimetre. 

Of these methods, Hehner’s is too tedious for 
ordinary use ; Koettsdorfer’s is very readily and 
quickly applied, and in general gives unequivocal 
testimony as to the genuineness of the sample; 
Reichert’s requires somewhat more time and skill 
than Koettsdorfer’s, but still is a simple method, 
and gives trustworthy results, and has advantages 
in certain cases. 

The results obtained by either of these methods 
may evidently serve as the basis of an approxi- 
mate computation of the extent of the adultera- 
tion. Owing to the somewhat variable composition 
of butter, however, the approximation cannot be 
a very close one, and slight adulterations would 
pass undetected. It wili not often be the case, 
however, that butter is slightly adulterated ; so 
that practically but little difficulty will arise from 
this fact, so far as the detection of the falsification 
is concerned. For a calculation of the extent of 
the adulteration, Reichert’s method has proved the 
more satisfactory in my laboratory, Koettsdorfer’s 
giving usually decidedly too low results. 

Cornwall’ has recently called attention to the 
fact that cocoanut-oil is said to be used in the 
manufacture of butterine. This oil, unlike most 
others, contains a considerable proportion of solu- 
ble fatty acids; and mixtures of this fat with 
oleo-oil or neutral may be made which behave ex- 
actly like butter with Hebner’s or Koettsdorfer’s 
tests. They may be distinguished, however, ac- 
cording to Cornwall, by Reichert’s method, the 
soluble acids being much less volatile than those 
of butter; the distillate containing, consequently, 
but little of them. 

Besides the chemical methods, the more im- 
portant of which have been described, various 
attempts have been made to devise optical tests, 
but with indifferent success. Among others, Dr. 
Thomas Taylor, microscopist of the U.S. depart- 
ment of agriculture, has described a method which 
has received such extensive notice as to merit a 
few words. He proceeds substantially as follows : 
some butter is melted and ‘boiled’ for a short 
time (that is, the water which it contains is boiled), 
and then allowed to cool slowly. A small portion 
of the solidified butter is mounted in a little olive- 
oil on an object-glass, and under the microscope is 
seen to consist of irregular globular masses con- 
sisting of aggregations of fat-crystals. When 
these are examined with polarized light in the 
dark field, each shows a pretty well defined St. 
Andrew’s cross. Dr. Taylor’s original claim was 
that these globules, and particularly their ap- 

1 Report of New Jersey state board of health. 


May 28, 1886.] 


pearance by polarized light, were peculiar to but- 
ter, and could serve as a means of distinguishing 
it from imitations ; and the commissioner of agri- 
culture, in his last report (p. 36), states, that, at 
the time of writing, two convictions for viola- 
tions of the butter-laws had been secured in the 
District of Columbia by the aid of Dr. Taylor’s 
method. 

Professor Weber, of the Ohio state university, 
however, has recently shown that lard and oleo-oil 
do not differ essentially from butter in this respect. 
By ‘boiling’ the butter as Dr. Taylor directs, 
some of its water is removed, and a formation of 
minute salt-crystals takes place. As the butter 
cools, these minute crystals of salt serve as neu- 
clei for the formation of the butter-globules. Pro- 
fessor Weber shows that if melted lard or tallow 
be allowed to cool under the same conditions, they 
too form globules which exhibit the St. Andrew’s 
cross. 

In an open letter to Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, 
director of the New York agricultural experiment- 
station, Dr. Taylor attempts to break the force of 
- Professor Weber’s experiments, and also shifts his 
ground, claiming that the distinguishing difference 
between butter and other fats under the micro- 
scope is that the former, when viewed by polarized 
light through a selenite, shows a uniform tint, 
while the latter exhibits prismatic colors. 

Whether this claim rests on any better founda- 
tion than the former, the writer will not under- 
take to say ; but it is plain that further investiga- 
tion would not be out of place. 

H. P. ARMSBY. 


ENGLAND'S COLONIES. 


THE opening of the Colonial and Indian exhibi- 
tion at South Kensington gave rise to an article 
in the London Times, on the growth of England’s 
colonial possessions. The Portuguese and Span- 
iards, and even the French, were in the field long 
before England. Spain had a settlement in Do- 
minica as early as 1493, and Vasco da Gama 
reached India in 1498. Within very few years 
India and South America had their Portuguese 
and Spanish viceroys. In 1534 Jacques Cartier 
made his famous voyage up the St. Lawrence, 
taking possession of the country in the name of 
the French sovereign. True, Cabot discovered 
Newfoundland and the mainland of North Ameri- 
ca in 1497; but he, like other early western navi- 
gators, simply regarded the new world asa barrier 
on the way to India. It was this latter land 
of fabulous riches that was the goal of the infant 
naval enterprise of England for many years after 
Cabot’s discovery. The Portuguese monopolized 


SCIENCE. 


AT5 


the routes by the southern seas, and England had 
not yet a navy to cope with its rival. 

So effort after effort was made, in craft not 
much more formidable than cock-boats, to find a 
passage to India either by the north-west or 
north-east. Not till our own days have these 
passages been sailed over; but long before had 
they been given up as hopeless routes to China 
and India. Many a life did these early attempts 
cost England ; but to them, no doubt, is greatly 
due the rapid progress she made as a naval power. 

Up to the end of the sixteenth century, while 
Portugal and Spain were rapidly extending their 
sway in Asia and America, England had only a 
doubtful possession of Newfoundland along with 
powerful French rivals. Even Sir Humphry Gil- 
bert’s attempt to effect a settlement on the island 
in 1588 can hardly be regarded as other than 
abortive, though it gives Newfoundland a claim 
to be regarded as the earliest British colony. The 
first effective English settlement on the island 
cannot be dated earlier than 1628, long before 
which Virginia had been planted and Jamestown 
founded. True, in 1580 the British flag was 
planted in the West India island of Tobago, but 
that island was not effectively occupied by Eng- 
land till 1768. 

Meanwhile, some roving Englishmen had in 
1605 planted a cross in Barbadoes, inscribed 
‘James, king of England and of this island,’ 
though there was no actual settlement till 1625. 
Barbadoes is one of the two or three British West 
India islands that never changed hands. After 
all, however, Bermuda may fairly claim to be 
considered the earliest of existing English colonies, 
as it was colonized both from Virginia and Eng- 
land shortly after 1609. But later, during the 
seventeenth century, the growth of England’s 
colonial possessions was slow, if we except the 
New England states and the settlements on the 
east American coast to the south. ULeaving these 
last out of view, her colonies at the close of the 
century were few and scattered, compared with 
the enormous territories which Portugal and 
Spain, France and Holland, were endeavoring to 
drain of their wealth. Even in India, during the 
seventeenth century, she can hardly be said to 
have got beyond the factory stage. The East 
India company were simply lease-holders of the 
native princes. Newfoundland, as already in- 
dicated, was only permanently settled in 1628, 
fourteen years after the planting of Bermuda. 
In the same year an English colony was planted 
in Nova Scotia, which then included New Bruns- 
wick, though it was only at the peace of Utrecht 
(1718) that England can be said to have obtained 
undisputed possession. 


A76 


With one or two exceptions, England’s footing 
in the West India Islands during the seventeenth 
and even the eighteenth centuries was exceeding- 
ly unstable: they were being continually bandied 
about between England, France, and Spain before 
the final adjustment at the beginning of the pres- 
ent century. As stated above, an effective set- 
tlement was made in Barbadoes in 1625. Two 
years previously some Englishmen established 
themselves in St. Christopher’s, which, however, 
was not finally ceded to Great Britain till 1713. 
Between 1628 and 1650, Nevis and Turk’s Island, 
Antigua, Montserrat, St. Lucia, and Anguilla re- 
ceived English settlers, though St. Lucia, at least, 
changed hands several times before finally becom- 
ing English, in 1803. 

Crossing over to Africa, we find, that, as early 
as 1588, Queen Elizabeth granted a patent to a 
company to trade to the Gambia ; but no settle- 
ment seems to have been established till 1631, and 
even that can hardly have come to much, since a 
resettlement was made in 1817. Still there was 
a very considerable trade between England and 
West Africa in the seventeenth century, and 
Gambia and other stations became notorious as 
centres of the slave-trade. But their value for 
colonizing and trading purposes soon sank far 
below that of the West Indies and other annexa- 
tions. 

St. Helena became hers by capture in 1651; 
and four years later (1655) Jamaica, the largest 
and richest of her West India possessions, capitu- 
lated to an expedition sent out by Cromwell. 


English factories seem to have been established on — 


the Gold Coast in 1661, and her first settlement on 
the Virgin Islands dates from 1668. A _ small 
English colony was planted in New Providence in 
the Bahamas in 1629, though she had frequently 
to give up possession before the islands finally be- 
came hers, in 1783. 

Meantime, England was rapidly extending her 
sway over the eastern coast of what is now the 
United States ; and these possessions, even in the 
seventeenth century, were of far greater impor- 
tance than all her other acquisitions. 

At the end of the seventeenth century, then, be- 
sides Newfoundland and Bermudas, and a few 
factories on the West African ccast and in India, 
of the present colonial empire England had pos- 
session, more or less stable, of Jamaica, Barba- 
does, St. Christopher’s, Nevis, Turk’s Island, An- 
tigua, Montserrat, Anguilla, Virgin Islands, Baha- 
mas, and St. Helena out in the Atlantic. The total 
area of these did not much exceed sixty thousand 
square miles, for her African and Indian settle- 
ments were little more than stations. Even if we 
added such parts of Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 173 


wick as were not occupied by France, the total 
area could scarcely be more than eighty thousand 
square miles. 

During the first half of the eighteenth century, 
if we except the confirmation to Great Britain of 
the ten North American colonies just mentioned, 
and one or two of the West India islands already 
included, the only acquisition of importance as a 
foreign possession was Gibraltar (1704), and that 
not as a colony, but as a strategical station. 

A period of comparative quiescence prevailed 
during these fifty years previous to the outbreak 
of the great and long-continued struggle between . 
England and France for supremacy on the seas, if 
not on land. During the first half of the eigh- 
teenth century The East India company’s business 
was steadily extending in India. Comparatively 
few additions were made to the English possessions 
on the North American coast. France claimed all 
Canada, only tolerating the station of the Hudson’s 
Bay company, founded in 1670, and holding the 
Alleghanies as the western limit of English do- 
minion. The position in the West Indies remained 
essentially unaltered, though the development of 
the English plantations in that region was pro- 
ceeding with profitable activity. The few facto- 
ries on the West African coast were of little ac- 
count, the Dutch were still supreme at the Cape, 
and Cook was only beginning his career in the 
Royal navy. 

During the last forty years of the eighteenth 
century, on the other hand, the broad foundations 
of England’s empire beyond the seas were firmly 
laid ; subsequent operations have mainly been in 
the way of development and consolidation. The 
great struggle between England and France for 
supremacy beyond Europe may be said to have 
begun simultaneously in India and Canada, On 
the latter field it resulted in the capitulation of 
Quebec in 1759, followed four years later by the 
cession of the whole of Canada; so that Eng- 
land was virtually mistress of the whole of North 
America. In 1776 the declaration of independence — 
was signed, and in 1783 England had to resign 
herself to the loss of by far the most valuable half 
of her dominions in America. 

In the same year as Canada became an English 
possession, the islands of Dominica, Granada, St. 
Vincent, and Tobago were added to her West In- 
dian possessions, followed in 1797 by the surrender 
of Trinidad to Abercrombie by the Spaniards. 
Although Commodore Byron took possession of 
the Falkland Islands in 1765, no effective estab- 
lishment was formed there till 1883. In 1783-86 
British Honduras was acquired by treaties ; in 1787 
Sierra Leone was ceded by the native chiefs ; 
while in 1788, not quite a century ago, the not 


- 


May 28, 1886.] 


very promising foundation of the great Austra- 
lasian group of colonies was laid by the establish- 
ment of a small convict establishment at Botany 
Bay. 

Turning to the east, we find Malacca captured 
from the Dutch in 1795, though it did not finally 
become English till 1823. Penang was colonized 
in 1785, and Province Wellesley in 1798. Much 
more important was the capture of Ceylon from 
the same once supreme colonial power in 1796. 
The battle of Plassey was fought in 1757, and 
within about half a century thereafter, through 
the genius of Clive and Hastings and Wellesley, 
English supremacy was virtually established, 
directly or indirectly, over a great part of the In- 
dian peninsula. Bengal was ceded in 1765, and 
Madras conquered in 1792-1800, having between 
them an area estimated at two hundred and 
ninety thousand square miles, and a population of 
fifty-five millions. 

Thus, then, during the latter half of the eigh- 
teenth century, England had succeeded in rapidly 
increasing her foreign possessions by something 
like six and a half millions of square miles, reckon- 
ing the whole of Australia as virtually annexed. 
During the present century she has been able to 
increase this area by about one-third, half of it, at 
least, in India. ‘While, during the last eighty-six 
years, she has been extending and confirming her 
hold over India, and while she has acquired one 
or two really important additions to her colonial 
possessions, it will be seen that her chief work has 
been to develop and consolidate the acquisitions 
of the latter half of the eighteenth century. 

In the West India region, British Guiana was 
finally annexed in 1803, and St. Lucia in the same 
year, thus completing the present list of her pos- 
sessions in that quarter. Also in 1808 the first 
settlement was established in Tasmania. While 
in this quarter, twenty-six years later (1829) West 
Australia was settled, followed, seven years after 
(1836), by the modest beginnings of South Austra- 
lia at Port Philip. In 1841 New Zealand began 
her wonderful career as a British colony. Ten 
years later (1851) Victoria separated from New 
South Wales, and set up for herself, — an example 
followed by Queensland in 1859. In 1806 the 
Dutch were compelled to hand over to England 
their possessions in South Africa, which by the 
formation of the Natal colony in 1838, and other 
subsequent annexations, have been extended far 
beyond their original boundaries. In 1807 Eng- 
land captured the tiny islet of Heligoland, and 
three years later (1810) Mauritius capitulated, her 
possession of the island being confirmed by the 
treaty of Paris, 1814. A year later (1815) she ac- 
quired the Ionian Islands by treaty, only to give 


SCIENCE. 


ATT 


them up to Greece some fifty years after ; and in 
the same year she established her naval station in 
Ascension. Singapore was settled in 1818, and the 
Falklands in 1833. Aden as an outpost of India 
was occupied in 1833. Labuan was ceded in 1846, 
followed by Lagos in 1861, and Fiji in 1874. The 
Straits Settlements were detached from India in 
1867, and set up for themselves as a separate 
colony ; and in 1874 the native states of Perak, 
Selangore, and Sungei Ujong, were placed under 
its protection. 

We all remember the excitement over the occu- 
pation of Cyprus in 1878; and while England pays 
tribute for it to the sultan, her real relation to the 
interesting island is indicated by the fact that it 
figures among her other colonies at South Ken- 
sington. The British North Borneo company was 
incorporated by royal charter in 1881; and the 
fact of its having a court to itself at South Ken- 
sington may be taken as a tacit admission that 
its territory is reckoned among her colonies. Eng- 
land has hardly yet recovered from the excitement 
of raising the British flag over southern New 
Guinea, the Niger mouths, and Bechuanaland, in 
1884 ; while at this very moment her soldiers and 
civil servants are busy getting into working-order 
the extensive territory of upper Burmah, pro- 
claimed English on the first day of the present 
year. This last annexation, however, belongs 
rather to the record of her dominion in India, 
which has advanced so rapidly that the two hun- 
dred and ninety thousand square miles and the 
fifty-five million inhabitants of 1800 have grown 
to something like a million and a half of square 
miles and two hundred and eighty millions of 
population. To the above might be added such out- 
lying spots as the Kuria-Muria Islands, the Keel- 
ing Islands, and Port Hamilton, in Asiatic waters; 
Berbera on the north-east African coast, and 
Socotra off it: the islands of Rotumah, Auckland, 
Lord Howe, Caroline, Starbuck, Malden, ana 
Fanning, in the Pacific; not to mention the Nico- 
bars and Andamans, attached to India. 

Thus, then, while the beginnings of the greatest 
colonial empire on record go back some three 
hundred years, by far the greater proportion of 
England’s foreign possessions have been acquired 
during the last hundred and twenty years. 


LONDON LETTER. 


THE conversazione of the Royal society, on 
Wednesday evening last (May 12), was even more 
successful than usual, special pains having been 
taken to bring together objects of interest. Partly, 
perhaps, on this account, and also because it was 
the first reception of the new president, Prof. G. 


A78 


G. Stokes, the attendance also was unusually 
brilliant. Prominent among the exhibits was a 
microscopic section of the third or parietal eye 
discovered three days previously in the New Zea- 
land lizard, Hatteria punctata, by Mr. Baldwin 
Spencer of the University museum, Oxford, who 
has described it in full in Nature for May 13. 
Mesial sections of a frozen chimpanzee and a 
frozen orang-outang, by Prof. D. J. Cunningham, 
attracted much attention, as did a collection of 
micro-organisms by Mr. F. R. Cheshire, and of 
photomicrographs of bacteria by Mr. E. M. 
Crookshank. To chemists, specimens of the new 
element germanium, which appears to be the 
ekasilicium predicted by Mendellieff in his period- 
ic law (lent by Professor Winkler of Freiburg), 
were specially interesting. Mr. Howard Grubb 
exhibited a model of the proposed equatorial and 
observatory for the great 36-inch refractor for the 
Lick observatory in California, in which all the 
required motions of telescope, dome, and rising 
floor are effected by water-power, and are con- 
trolled by an electrical arrangement, the com- 
mutator of which is portable, and carried by the 
observer, thus obviating the necessity of assist- 
ants. Various electrical appliances, such as the 
powder-magazine lamps of Mr. J. Pitkin, weigh- 
ing six pounds, and lasting ten hours, De la Rue’s 
chloride-of-silver battery, arranged for electric 
lighting, and the miner’s electric lamp of Mr. 
Swan, illustrated the advances in practical elec- 
tricity ; the chief object of purely scientific inter- 
est in this connection being the voltaic cells, 
with solid electrolytes, described by Mr. Shelford 
Bidwell in the Philosophical magazine for Oc- 
tober, 1885, and the induction bridge of Professor 
Hughes. Objects connected with the Hell Gate 
explosion, near New York, exhibited by Dr. H. 
Sprengel, were shown, and near them was a new 
and extremely powerful electrical-influence ma- 
chine with eight disks working within a glass 
case. Captain Abney and General Festing ex- 
hibited their color-photometer ; and several series 
of stellar and solar photographs by the brothers 
Henry, Janssen, the solar physics committee, 
Common, Dr. Gill, and others, illustrated the 
recent advances in celestial photography. Dr. 
Auer von Welsbach’s incandéscence system of 
burning gas, whereby a light of twenty-five 
candle-power was obtained with a consumption 
of two and one-half cubic feet per hour, attracted 
much attention. An ordinary Bunsen flame is 
used, the incandescence being obtained from a 
cylindrical ‘wick’ of net or muslin soaked in a 
solution of metallic salts, zirconium being one. 
The arrangements for the Birmingham meeting 
of the British association are now completed. On 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 173 


Wednesday evening, Sept. 1, the president-elect,, 
Sir William Dawson, of the McGill college, Mon- 
treal, will deliver his address. The other two 
evening discourses at general meetings will be on 
Sept. 3, by Prof. W. Rutherford, on ‘ The sense of 
hearing ;’ and on Sept. 6, by Mr. A. W. Riicker, 
on ‘Soap-bubbles.’ The various sections will be: 
presided over by (A.) Prof. G. H. Darwin, (B.) Mr. 
W. Crookes, (C.) Prof. T. G. Bonney, (D.) Mr. W. 
Carruthers, (E.) Maj.-Gen. Sir F. J. Goldsmid, 
(F.) J. Biddulph Martin, (G.) Sir J. N. Douglass, 
(H.) Sir George Campbell. The meeting will con- 
clude on Wednesday, Sept. 18. 

The Colonial and Indian exhibition, opened by 
the queen on May 4, with an amount of public 
and state ceremonial not seen since the corre- 
sponding ceremony in 1851, well illustrates in many 
ways the advances in practical science made in 
the various colonies. The grounds are lighted 
every evening by 9,700 glow-lamps, which are 
simultaneously illuminated, the current for which 
is supplied by four Elwell-Parker self-regulating 
dynamos, each of which can supply a current of 
250 amperes with an electromotive force of 250 
volts when running at 300 revolutions. The offi- 
cial catalogue contains a vast mass of statistical 
information, most carefully compiled, relating to 
the history, recent advances, and present condi- 
tion, of India and the chief colonies. 

The still exceptional weather deserves a word 
of comment. On the night of April 30, 18° of 
frost were registered close to London; on the 
afternoon of May 7, 79° in the shade, and 130° in 
the sun, were registered at the same place. The 
temperature that week was 6° above the average ; 
and at the present moment (May 15) accounts. 
are coming to hand of floods in all parts of the 
country heavier than have been experienced for 
many years, by which railway embankments and 
bridges have been wrecked, while in the north of 
Scotland and Ireland severe snow-storms have 
occurred. The details of the ten-minutes bhurri- 
cane at Madrid two days ago, which uprooted two 
thousand trees, wrecked several houses, palaces, 
ete., killed twenty-four people and injured hun- 
dreds, and devastated a large country district, 
read more like those of the American or tropical 
tornadoes than of any thing known in Europe. 

The Iron and steel institute has just been hold- 
ing its three-days’ annual meeting in London, 
under the presidency of Dr. Percy, who contrib- 
uted two papers himself, — on steel wire of high 
tenacity, and on a rare blast-furnace cinder. Mr. 
F. W. Gordon of Philadelphia furnished an ac- 
count of some points in American blast - furnace 
practice. The international character of the in- 
stitute was shown by the fact that one-third of 


; :] 
re 
. 
5 
j 


May 28, 1886. ] 


the papers were by other than British subjects. 
Dr. Sorby’s paper on the application of very high 
powers to the study of the microscopical struc- 
ture of steel was probably the paper of most 
purely scientific interest. 

On May 12 occurred the annual presentations 
for degrees at the University of London, when a 
very large number of graduates of both sexes had 
their degrees formally conferred. The chancellor, 
Lord Granville, being in attendance on the queen 
at Liverpool, the ceremony was performed by the 
vice-chancellor, Sir James Paget, who, after re- 
ferring to the loss sustained by the university in 
the deaths of Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Storrar (both 
noticed at the time in this correspondence), gave 
some interesting statistics of its growth. It was 
now fifty years old, and 54,630 students had 
graduated. In 1888 it only had 23 candidates ; 
in 1860, 788; and in 1885, 3,477. With its num- 
bers its influence had increased, and it attracted 
students from ail the colonies and from India, as 
well as from England. Among its distinguished 
graduates were Sir H. Roscoe, Sir W. Jenner, 
Lord-Justice Fry, and the present lord-chancellor. 
At the meeting of convocation on the previous 
day, a scheme for degrees in engineering science 
was, on the motion of Prof.W. C. Unwin and Mr. 
W. Lant Carpenter, unanimously adopted, and 
sent up to the senate for consideration. A move- 
ment is in contemplation to celebrate the jubilee 
of the university. 

In an interesting paper given last night before 
the Society of telegraph engineers, upon long- 
distance telephony, by Mr. W. H. Preece, the sys- 
tem of trunk-line (American, ‘extra territorial’) 
working was described, and some very curious 
Statistics were given. At the end of 1877, 780 
telephones existed in the United States, and at the 
end of 1885 there were 325,570 telephones, and 782 
telephonic exchanges. In England at the same 
date there were only 13,000, or about as many as 
were used in New York and Brooklyn alone; 
while Canada, with its population of three mil- 
lions, employed 18,000. Of European cities, Ber- 
lin possessed the most, 4,248, London coming sec- 
ond with 4,193. The most complete development 
he had seen in any country was in the group of 
towns of which Newcastle-on-Tyne was the centre. 
Long-distance speaking was entirely a question of 
line wire, not of instruments. M. Van Ryssel- 

_ berghe spoke in the discussion, and detailed some 
_ of his recent experiments in the states. He is 
_ about to connect Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and 
Rotterdam by his simultaneous telegraphic and 
telephonic arrangements. 

The report for 1885, of the inspectors on experi- 

Ments on living animals, under the vivisection 


SCIENCE. 


479: 


act, has just been issued. The total numbers of 
experiments was 800; 210 being done under the 
restrictions of the license alone, and 82 lecture: 
demonstrations under similar restrictions. In all, 
except those under a special certificate, the animal 
is rendered insensible during the whole of the ex- 
periment. In most of the experiments where an- 
aesthetics were dispensed with, the operation was 
simple inoculation or hypodermic injection; so 
that the number of animals that suffered any ap- 
preciable pain was 35 or 40, and these, for the 
most part, frogs. Although the number of experi- 
ments in 1885 was nearly doubie that in 1884, there 
was no increase of suffering to the animals em- 
ployed. 

The report of the inspector of fisheries has just 
been issued, and gives interesting details on the: 
trade in eels between London and the continent. 
From Holland 1,000 tons are sent annually to 
Billingsgate (London) alone, the total annual value: 
of eels consumed in England being about two and 
a half million dollars. An admirable contrivance 
is described for reviving them from their exhaust- 
ed condition on arrival. At the Society of arts 
this week, Mr. J. Willis Bund read a paper on the 
proposed fishery board for England and Wales, 
showing that their fisheries had relations at pres- 
ent with at least five government departments : 
viz., the home office, the foreign office, the ad-. 
mniralty, the customs, and the board of trade. The 
total value of the English and Welsh fisheries 
was probably between eight and ten million dol-. 
lars, but an annual statistical account of them was 
a very great want. 

Mr. W. Bateson of St. John’s college, Cambridge, 
is about to proceed to Central Asia for the purpose: 
of investigating the fauna of the Sea of Aral 
and the smaller lakes in its neighborhood. Mr. 
Bateson is already well known as a morphologist, 
having paid two visits to the Chesapeake zodélogi- 
cal laboratory of the Johns Hopkins university for 
the purpose of studying the development of the 
American species of Balanoglossus; and he now 
proposes to collect large numbers of the Mol- 
lusca and Crustacea of the Central Asian lakes, for 
the purpose of studying the range of variation 
within specific limits. Wi 

London, May 14. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


ALTHOUGH the university of the state of New 
York exists only on paper, yet its annual convo- 
cations are meetings of considerable scientific in- 
terest and importance. This vear the convocation 
will be held at Albany on July 6, 7, and 8. The 
announcement includes the following important 
papers, all of which will be followed by a discus-. 


480 


sion of the subjects presented: Tact in teaching, 
by Rev. Brother Noah, professor of English litera- 
ture in Manhattan college; Manual training, by 
Principal 8. G. Love of the Jamestown union 
school; The present status of entomological sci- 
ence in the United States, by J. A. Lintner, Ph.D., 
state entomologist ; Has the college a logical place 
in the American system of education? by Prof. 
Oren Root, Ph.D., of Hamilton college, and Prof. 
S. G. Williams, Ph.D., of Cornell; The ‘natural 
method’ of teaching languages, by L. Sauveur, 
president of the College of languages, New York 
City, and Principal George C. Sawyer of the Utica 
free academy; The educational uses of museums 
of natural history, by James Hall, director of the 
New York state museum of natural history: Sys- 
tematic habit in education, by Principal E. H. 
Cook of the Potsdam normal school; Elective 
studies in college, by President James McCosh, 
LL.D., of the College of New Jersey ; The mutual 
relations of the colleges and academies, by Presi- 
dent Charles K. Adams, LL.D., of Cornell univer- 
sity. There will also be a conference upon college 
education in the state of New York, which will be 
presided over by Chancellor Sims of Syracuse uni- 
versity, who will open the discussion as to the 
classical requirements for the degree of A.B. 
Among those who intend to participate in the 
conference and discussions are Presidents Dodge of 
Madison university, Darling of Hamilton, Potter 
of Hobart, Fairbairn of St. Stephen’s, Ryan of 
Niagara university, Webb of the College of the 
city of New York, Adams of Cornell, Taylor of 
Vassar, and Forsyth of the Rensselaer polytechnic 
institute. 


—The Indiana academy of sciences held its 
field-meeting at Brookville, May 20 and 21. The 
days were spent in field-work, and the academy 
held meetings at the town-hall in the evenings. 
On the evening of May 20, the academy was wel- 
comed by D. W. McKee, president of the Brook- 
ville society of natural history. To this President 
D. S. Jordan responded. Prof. J. C. Branner de- 
livered an address on ‘‘ The relations now existing 
between geologists and the people.” Friday even- 
ing Prof. D. S. Jordan delivered an address on 
‘Darwin,’ which was discussed by Prof. D. W. 
Dennis. Prof. Jordan then spoke concerning the 
different methods employed in catching fish. Prof. 
Branner gave an account of the ways in which 
corals are procured. Prof. P. 8. Baker spoke of 
‘The progress of toxicology.’ The academy will 
hold its annual meeting at Indianapolis in Decem- 
ber next. 


— The opening of the Carnegie laboratory a year 
ago, and the endowment of hospitals by the Van- 


SCIENCE. 


[Voxu. VII., No. 1738 


derbilt family, have been followed by the an- 
nouncement of two new laboratories for the ad- 
vancement of medical science, — one in Brooklyn, 
and the other in New York. The former will be 
known as the ‘ Hoagland laboratory of the Long 
Island college hospital,’ and is the gift of Dr. C. 
N. Hoagland, a physician of Brooklyn. It will be 
devoted to bacteriological, physiological, and path- 
ological purposes, and will be equipped with all 
the best modern appliances, together with a select 
library and museum. It is intended not only as a 
means of teaching the students of the college, but 
also as a place where physicians and others desir- 
ous of prosecuting original investigation can find 
the necessary apparatus and facilities. The new 
laboratory to be established in New York is to be 
known as the ‘ Loomis laboratory,’ and is to be in 
connection with the University medical college. 
The name of the donor is still unknown, but the 
name it is to bear is a tribute of respect to the 
well-known teacher, Prof. A. L. Loomis. 


— The first annual meeting of the University 
science club, of the University of Kansas, was 
held Friday, May 21. The programme, as arranged, 
was as follows: E. H.S. Bailey, On the viscosity of 
fats and oils; L. L. Dyche, Methods of studying 
the food-habits of birds ; J. D. McLaren, Notes on 
Pogonomyrmex occidentalis (agricultural ants of 
Kansas); Richard H. Short, A determination of 
the force of gravity on Mount Oread; R. L. Mc- 
Alpine, A determination of the accuracy of the 
solar attachment to the engineer’s transit; E. C. 
Franklin, on a variety of orthoclase from Had- 
dam, Conn.; L. E. Sayre, A new appliance for the 
rapid collection of precipitates ; F. H. Snow, The 
transitional character of the essential organs in 


the white maple (Acer dasycarpum) ; W. 8. Frank- 


lin, A modification of Le Clanche battery; F. O. 
Marvin and Richard Birbeck, Gauging of the Kan- 
sas River; V. L. Kellogg, Bird parasites ; J. D.-Me- 
Laren, The structure of Unio laevissimus; E. L. 
Nichols and W. S. Franklin, On the influence of 
magnetism upon electromotive force; E. H. 5. | 
Bailey and 8. H. Wood, Note with reference to — 
the effect of boiling upon the solubility of tannin — 
in coffee; F. H. Snow, Some results of eighteen 
years of meteorological observations at Lawrence, 
Kan. 


— The following comprise the latest changes in — 
the coast and geodetic survey ; Professor Davidson | 
has finished his work on astronomical latitude ob- _ 
servations at Portland, Ore., and is about to re- 
turn to San Francisco; Assistants Lawson and | 
Dickens are at work near Los Angeles, while } 
Assistant Rogers has finished the work of resur- | 
veying on the Straits of Karquines, at the mouth 


May 28, 1886.] 


of the Sacramento River, and is now making a 
resurvey in the vicinity of Golden Gate; various 
acting assistants in the coast and geodetic survey 
are preparing to take the field the first of June, to 
continue the work of furnishing points and data 
to different state surveys, Professor Buchanan go- 
ing to Tennessee, Professor Campbell to Indiana, 
Professors Barnard and Merriman to Pennsylvania. 
Chart No. 2, from the mouth of Sit. John’s River 
to Jacksonville, Fla., embracing the latest hydro- 
graphic work, and the improvements of the jetties 
at the mouth of St. John’s, is now ready for dis- 
tribution to agents. 


—At a meeting of the Royal geographical so- 
ciety on May 11, a paper was read by Prof. W. M. 
Ramsay on ‘ Roman roads and English railways in 
Anatolia.’ Before the reading of the paper, the 
chairman announced that royal medals had been 
awarded to Major A. W. Greely, commander of 
the U. 8. Arctic expedition of 1881-84, for having 
so considerably added to our knowledge of the 
shores of the Polar Sea and the interior of Grin- 
nell Land, and for the narrative of the expedition 
which he has just given to the world ; and to Sig- 
nor Guido Cora, for his important services as a 
writer and cartographer in advancing geographical 
knowledge, promoting the study of geography, 
and defining its position as ascience. Professor 
Ramsay’s paper detailed the results of his re- 
searches into the system of Roman roads in Ana- 
tolia, and the conclusions to be drawn from those 
researches as to the considerations which influ- 
enced the Romans in the formation of those roads. 


— Another comet in Virgo was discovered Sat- 
urday morning, May 22, by Mr. Brooks. As 
determined by Professor Swift at the Warner 
observatory at ten o’clock Sunday evening, its 
position was, right ascension, 11h 51m 15s; dec- 
lination, north 8° 55’ 15’. It has a slow motion 
south-east. It is very large, but faint. This dis- 
covery secures to Mr. Brooks the three first Warner 
prizes of the year. 


— Commodore George E. Belknap has been de- 
tached from duty as superintendent of the naval 
observatory at Washington, and ordered to com- 
mand the Mare Island navy-yard, California, about 
the middle of June. Lieutenant Bowman and 
Ensign Taylor have also been detached from the 

Observatory. Commodore Belknap’s successor has 
not been announced. 


— The executive committee of the International 
institute of statistics met at Cologne on May 1, 2, 
3,and 4. The members present were Sir Rawson 

W. Rawson (England), president; M. Levasseur 
(France), Herr Hofrath Neumann-Spallart (Austria), 
M. L. Bodio (Italy), and Mr. John B. Martin (Eng- 


SCIENCE. 


481 


land). It was decided that the meeting of the 
institute this year should be held at Rome, from 
Sept. 25 to Sept. 29. The programme was drawn 
up, and a list of subjects to be discussed adopted. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


«*» Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. 
writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


A new museum pest. 

In a collection arranged to illustrate a course in 
paleontology at the Museum of comparative zodlogy, 
a new set of labels was introduced last year, which 
has since been very much injured by the attacks of 
an insect, Lepisma domestica, — the silver-fish, in 
popular language. The labels are similar in plan to 
those which are used in the paleontological depart- 
ment of the national museum. They are made of 
thick paper, heavily sized with starch, with head- 
ings, and a border-line printed in black ink. They 
are bent at a right angle in the middle. The speci- 
men is set on the lower half, while the description of 
the same is written on the upturned portion, render- 
ing it visible without the necessity of lifting the 
specimen,—a distinct advantage, especially for 
class-room use. There are about seven hundred 
labels in use, and all, at the time of examination, 
had been written within ten months ; yet not a single 
one had wholly escaped from the attacks of Lepisma. 
Many were eaten enough to obliterate the writing, 
and riddle the paper with holes ; and all gradations 
between slight and extensive injury exist. Paper 
trays in which the specimens are kept, and which ap- 
parently contain no sizing, arenot at alleaten. The 
labels are eaten on all parts except underneath, where 
pressed against the paper tray by weight of the 
specimen. ‘The parts covered with printer’s or writ- 
ing ink are eaten quite as much as those which are 
not, contrary to the observations of others cited be- 
low. Careful search in the early winter led to the 
discovery of perhaps half a dozen specimens of 
Lepisma, but none have been seen since. 

I have seen labels written on various kinds of 
paper, in the same and other departments of the 
museum, eaten by Lepisma ; also a photograph, wall- 
paper probably, and an old engraving in New York. 
In this last the white portions were most affected, 
but some parts closely covered with printer’s ink 
were eaten. 

I have made many inquiries from naturalists and 
others, concerning the destruction done by Lepisma ; 
but to most it was new. The late Prof. C. EK. Ham- 
lin of the museum said he had seen paper eaten, and 
titles eaten off the backs of books, where they had 
been attached by starch paste, but was confident that 
unsized paper was never affected. Prof. R. P. 
Whitfield of the American museum said that he had 
known injuries to labels to have been committed by 
Lepisma. Prof. F. W. Putnam, of the Museum of 
archeology and ethnology, showed me many labels 
which had been eaten, or entirely reduced to powder, 
by Lepisma. Mr. S. Henshaw, of the Boston society 
of natural history museum, had known of injuries, 
and, enclosing Lepisma in a jar with paper, found 
that the insects eat large holes in it. 

It is clear that Lepisma, if not a very common 
visitant to museums, is at least a dangerous one 
when it. does appear, and it behooves naturalists to 
be on the lookout for it. Labels, of course, are a 
most essentially important thing, and it seems not 


The 


482 


overcautious to say that some means should be taken 
to prevent their being destroyed by insect foes. 

If labels should be dipped in an alcoholic solution 
of corrosive sublimate, it would doubtless render 
them perfectly safe from the attacks of Lepisma, 
and other insects as well. In poisoning dried plants 
to prevent the attack of insects, botanists use a solu- 
tion of the strength of one ounce of corrosive sub- 
limate to a quartof alcohol. The same, or a solution 
of double strength, would seem advisable for labels. 
If, after dipping, they are dried between sheets of 
blotting-paper under a weight, or in a letter-press, 
the labels will not curl, or be injured in any way. 
Corrosive sublimate, under the conditions of a cab- 
inet, is a perfectly stable compound, and would re- 
tain its protecting-qualities for ail time; whereas 
most insecticides have to be renewed occasionally, 
and would render themselves objectionable in one 
way or another by their presence. Labels may be 
treated with great rapidity if a large number are 
done at one time. Those already written on may be 
poisoned without affecting the ink ; at least, such has 
been my experience. 

Paper sized with lead migat be proof against in- 
sects ; and I have not seen any injuries done to labels 
sized with rosin, though a large number were in the 
cases where Lepisma committed its ravages. 

Labels, after being written, could be coated over 
with water-glass (silicate of soda), which forms a 
hard, transparent glaze, and would surely be proof 
against insects; but it is objectionable, in that it 
takes a good deal of time to brush over each label 
after writing it, and, besides, the label curls some- 
what in drying. 

Professor Hagen has been told by ladies that their 
silk dresses, always black ones, had been destroyed 
by carpet-bugs, and has answered that they only 
attack wool, and has only lately learned that Lepisma 
did the damage. He also says that gold lettering on 
the backs of books, which is commonly done by 
putting gold on paste and burning it in, has been un- 
dermined by Lepisma. : 

When I first showed the labels to Prof. H. A. 
Hagen, seeking his advice, he was much puzzled, as 
he thought Lepisma could not have eaten them, and 
Anobium, the great library pest, does not like starch ; 
in fact, he says it has been recommended to use 
such paste as is made of pure starch, in binding 
books, to avoid the latter. 

Professor Hagen was much inte rested in this pest, 
new as such to him, and, looking uv the lterature 
of the subject, read a paper on it before the ‘ Thurs- 
day club.’ Part of his delightful paper was pub- 
lished in the Boston evening transcript of March 18. 

He very kindly wished me to write an account of 
what I had observed in regard to Lepisma, and to 
add from his manuscript the facts which he has 
gathered: they are contained in abstract in the fol- 
lowing : — 

Lepisma destructive to the labels is a true Ameri- 
can insect, described by Professor Packard as L. 
domestica. There are half a dozen species in the 
United States. The principal one in Europe is L. 
sacebarina, the small blue silver-fish. This insect is 
found in dark corners, and near provisions, In 
Europe it has always, but without proof, been con- 
sidered as imported from America. It has been 
known there for over two hundred years; but its 
existence cannot be traced before the discovery of 
America. The whole of its flexible body is covered 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou Vi, No. tis 


with fine irridescent scales which have been used as 
delicate microscopical tests; and to these hairs it 
owes its common name of silver-fish. 

Nearly six years ago, at a meeting of librarians in 
Boston, Professor Hagen read a paper on library 
pests. After a review of the literature then at com- 
mand, he concluded that only two North American 
insects were to be considered very dangerous to books, 
— the white ant; and Anobium, a small beetle which 
is also injurious to old furniture. These additions to 
his communication have been published ; but they 
contain only isolated cases, certainly nothing of gen- 
eral importance. 

The earliest notice of the small European species 
is in R. Hooker’s ‘ Micrographia,’ a folio published in 
London in 1665, and containing an account of in- 
numerable things examined under the microscope. 
It is still respected for the accuracy of the author’s 
statements. He figures Lepisma, and calls it book- 
worm, and says it corrodes and eats holes in the 
leaves and covers of books. On Mr. Hooker’s 
authority, Lepisma was reported as injuring books; 
but as Mr. Hooker apparently confounded destruc- 
tion done by Anobium with that of Lepisma, and 
since during the next hundred years no damages due 
to the latter were observed, the observation was 
doubted ; and Professor Herman of Strasburg, in 
his prize essay on library pests, declared, in 1774, 
that Lepisma was erroneously recorded as injurious 
to books. For this reason, Professor Hagen did not 
mention Lepisma in his communication on library 
pests; the more so, as again in the next hundred 
years no new observations had been recorded. 

Soon after his communication, new proofs of the 
depredations of Lepisma were observed. Professor 
Westwood of Oxford showed at the Naturalists’ as- 
sociation in 1879 a framed and glazed print, in which 
the plain paper was eaten, while the parts covered 
with printing-ink were untouched. He mentioned 
that the same fact had been observed in India, where 
government records had been injured in a similar 


‘way. Patrick Brown says, in his ‘ Natural history 


of Jamaica,’ that L. saccharina is very common 
there, and extremely destructive to books and wool- 
len clothing. This statement was reproduced by 
Linnaeus, but was later considered as unreliable. 
M. de Rossi writes, in 1884, that L. saccharina likes 
damp places. It destroyed paper-hangings in his 
house, muslin curtains were perforated, and living 
animals found near the holes; also insect-boxes, 
and wings of butterflies, have been damaged. 
Professor Liversidge, in Sydney, reports the same 
year that L. saccharina is very common in New 
South Wales. He says it does not do much harm to 
books, as it cannot get in between the leaves, but 
injured loose papers, maps, and labels. The loose 
edges of piles or bundles of letters suffered more 
than the interior. The same calamity is reported by 
Mr. H. Lucas, assistant in the museum of the Jardin 
des Plantes in Paris. He says L. saccharina destroys 
labels of white paper, but parts printed’ on with 
minium and oil remained untouched. Labels of 
starched paper were much injured, but only the 
white parts. When leaving the country in 1862, he — 
put in a drawer various articles of starched clothing, 
and, returning after six weeks, found numerous holes 
in it, and Lepisma near by. Dr. Aube, in Paris, 
says that the black part of the backs of books has 
been nearly destroyed, probably by Lepisma. The 
well-known antiquary, Mr. Quaritch of London, 


May 28, 1886.] 


complained in 1870 of injuries done to books by 
Lepisma ; and Mr. Lewis, after careful examination, 
stated, that, on account of parts of the biadings havy- 
ing been eaten, the books fell to pieces. He con- 
sidered it impossible for Lepisma to bore holes in the 
books, which holes were probably made by Anobium. 
Mr. Morrill, head master of the Boston Latin school, 
has sent books at different times to Professor Hagen, 
which were injured by Lepisma, and specimens of 
the obnoxious insect as well. Professor Packard, in 
his guide, speaks of silk being eaten by Lepisma, 
which also devours paste, making holes in the leaves 
of books. Also Mr. Horne of London alluded to 
the damage done to silk garments in India by Lepisma. 
The insect doubtless attacks the silk for the stiffen- 
ing-matter in it, but nevertheless destroys the fabric. 
Finally Mr. Adkin showed a species of Lepisma 
which damaged account-books kept in an iron safe 
in London. 

After all these reliable facts, there is no doubt that 
Lepisma may become very destructive to maps, 
engravings, photographs, herbariums, and other 
things, if left undisturbed. The question, why has 
it not been observed long ago? may be answered by 
the fact that they run so swiftly that they are easily 
overlooked. 

If we tabulate all the facts, we find directly that 
all damages, excepting to paper, have been inflicted 
on clothing, muslin curtains, ete., which were invari- 
ably starched, or finished with some stiffening size. 
I found a set of labels in the museum which had 
apparently been eaten by Lepisma, but which, on 
most careful tests being made, proved to contain no 
starch. 

Lepisma is easily destroyed by insect-powder, 
which kills all that it reaches ; and Professor Hagen 
recommends the same to be sprinkled about silk 
dresses, or the drawers and closets where such 
articles, or others likely to be attacked by Lepisma, 
are kept. He would cover the backs of valuable 
framed engravings with common, unsized paper, 
fastened with a paste mixed with insect-powder. 
All papers, where pressed closely together, are not 
reached by Lepisma, and in this way large numbers 

_ of accidents may be avoided ; or, if they would be 
_ injured by pressure, they will be safe kept in simple 
pasteboard boxes, made to close perfectly, so that 
the little pest could not find an entrance. 

ROBERT T. JACKSON. 


\ 


[This obliteration of labels by insects, presumably 
| by species of Lepisma, has long been a source of 
_ annoyance in the paleontological department of the 
| Yale college museum. To remedy the evil, the labels 
have been, for some time past, prepared by soaking 
_inasolution of corrosive sublimate or arseniate of 
_ potash.—Ep. | 


Evolution and the faith, 


| It seems almost a pity that a magazine with the 
splendid reputation that the Century possesses for the 
encouragement it has given in past years to our con- 
temporaneous expounders of modern thought, should 
| admit to its columns such a contribution as the one 
| that appears in the May number, from Mr. T. T. 
Munger, bearing the above title. 

_ Mr. Munger closes the essay in question by indicat- 
ing “in a categorical way the lines upon which 
further study should be pursued” with respect to 
evolution, 


SCIHNCE. 


483 


The several lines laid down in this category are 
divided into two sections, which are, 1°, ‘‘ the re- 
spects in which evolution, as a necessary process in 
natural and brute worlds, does not wholly apply to 
man;” and, 2°, the ‘‘ contrasting phenomena of 
evolution under necessity, and evolution under free- 
dom.” The first section indicates ten lines for 
further research into the laws involved; and the 
second, six. It would occupy far too much space 
here to reproduce all of these in the words of our 
author ; and especially is this unnecessary, as it is 
my sole object to endeavor to show the general fal- 
lacy that pervades them all. 

It must be evident to every one of us that Mr. 
Munger’s chief error lies in the fact, that, in draw- 
ing up these ‘ further lines for research,’ he has kept 
only before his eyes an idealized man and an ideal- 
ized brute. May I ask our author where that hard 
and fast line is to be drawn, where ‘instinct yields 
to conscious intelligence ’ ? 

A good many years ago I availed myself of the op- 
portunity extended to me on a number of occasions, 
to examine that mass of living humans which con- 
stituted a cargo that filled the hold of aslave ship in 
the West Indies ; and many a time since have I had 
the privilege of studying some of the lowest types of 
the now-existing Indians in this country. If Mr. 
Munger has ever had the opportunities of observing 
the habits of such creatures in their native haunts, 
I doubt very much that he would be wholly pre- 
pared to say, that, among all species of men, ‘‘ the 
struggle for existence [now] yields to a moral law of 
preservation, and is so reversed.” 

Are our researches to now cease with respect 
to these low types of brute-like men, of which 
whole races still inhabit various quarters of the 
globe? Take the Mojaves of this country, and some 
of the tribes of central Africa, or Asia, or the native 
Australians, and any number of examples from them 
will stand witness to violate nearly every axiom Mr. 
Munger lays down in his category in the Century. 
in reality, some of them fully carry out the popular 
notion of a ‘connecting link ;’ and from a study of 
their physical and moral organizations, science, no 
doubt, has derived some of her most trustworthy 
data for the establishment of evolutionary laws. 
They have by no means ‘become conscious of the 
Infinite One,’ nor do they ‘systematize knowledge 
and reason upon it ;’ or at least, as Mr. Munger says 
for the brute, ‘except in a rudimentary and fore- 
casting way.’ 

Perhaps the remaining ‘lines for research’ of our 
author’s category, upon which I have no comment 
to pass, may be more pertinent to a far later stage 
of man’s development than would hold good at 
this day. The laws of evolution are still in active 
operation about us on every hand, and they have by 
no means been suspended in man’s case, as Mr. 
Munger would have us believe. It can be said of the 
highest and best types of men, that, as a class, they 
are but on the threshold of psychical and intel- 
lectual evolvement, while some of the lowest forms 
of the black men of Africa occupy a moral and 
mental plane but a few degrees above the one in 
which we find the corresponding attributes of some 
of those representatives of the animal kingdom that 
no doubt, in our author’s zodlogy, would be classified 
among the brutes. 

R. W. SHUFELDT. 

Fort Wingate, N.Mex., May 18. 


A 


A484 


Errata. 

In these days of co-operative enterprises there is 
a chance of success for many a useful scheme that 
in other times would be utopian; and so the writer 
would like to suggest the usefulness of a separate 
systematic publication devoted to errata, to appear 
at intervals as materials accumulated for it. In it 
any student of an important book might hope to 
find collected all the important errors that critics 
and other readers had discovered. These errors 
might be disturbing misprints, slips in dates or the 
spelling of a name, mistakes in formulae or mathe- 
matical tables, etc., or possibly might extend to very 
brief criticisms on a book for the omission of very 
important facts bearing on the argument, or the use 
- of unreliable authorities. Just how far it would be 
safe or desirable to go into such criticism, must, of 
course, be left to the judgment of the editor. 

If such a plan commends itself to those who use 
books, and therefore want them to be correct, it 
ought not to be difficult to put it into operation 
through the co-operative work of public-spirited 
publishers, and of the librarians, who have already 
done so much for book-users, that in our gratitude 
to them we have the proverbial ‘lively sense of 
favors to come.’ 

If the publication of sucha list as this were started, 
either as an independent venture or as a supplement 
to the Publishers’ weekly or the Library journal, we 
cannot doubt that many readers all over the country 
would gladly furnish contributions to it; and such 
scattered correciions as one finds in newspaper re- 
views of a book would be collected in a way to be 
useful to all who use the book in question. 

C. K. WEap. 


Popular astronomy. 
Permit me to make a few remarks on the review 
of my ‘Story of the heavens,’ which appeared in 
your issue of April 23. 


You first charge me with appropriating a figure on ~ 


p. 78 of Professor Newcomb’s ‘ Popular astronomy,’ 
and you assert that the textrelating thereto has been 
borrowed from him. I refer to my ‘ London science 
class-bock of astronomy,’ articles 60 to 63, where 
essentially the same figures and reasoning are used. 
This was published in 1877; Newcomb’s, in 1878. 
No doubt I had read Newcomb afterwards, and pos- 
sibly improved on the origina] illustration by so do- 
ing. Probably the same idea has occurred to many 
others besides Newcomb and myself. 

You also charge me with taking illustrations with- 
out acknowledgment, yet oft of one hundred and 
six figures you only cite one (p. 228) to support the 
charge. The extent of my offence is just this: in 
the original manuscript of my book I had referred 
to Newcomb, but I struck out the reference from the 
proof in the belief that he would not care to be cited 
for so trivial a matter. 

The two passages from Professor Young’s ‘Sun’ 
have been unconsciously adopted by me by a care- 
lessness which I sincerely regret. They were copied 
some years ago for use in my lectures; they passed 
into my manuscripts, and I lost sight of their origin, 
and treated them as my own language, which, until 
my attention was called to the matter by your re- 
view, I believed them to be. 

While I am glad to have my errors pointed out, 
and to make what reparation may be possible, I must 
indignantly protest against the tone of your com- 


SCIENCE. 


Vou. Wily, ao: 173 


ments. You have fastened the worst construction 
on these blots, and accuse me of pillage. The simplest 
principles of justice should have required you to hear 
my explanation before you make so serious an allega- 
tion. You have even spoken of it as wholesale pil- 
lage, with what justice I leave your readers to decide. 
I have added the lines in the passages impugned in 
your review, as well as in the kindred review in the 
Nation; I have also added the equivalent of the 
illustration on p. 228; and I find the whole amounts 
to two pages anda half, while the entire volume con- 
tains five hundred and fifty-one. Ropert S. BAL. 
Dublin, May 12. 


[We are glad to publish Professor Ball’s reply to 
the critics of his book, and hope that he will feel 
fully vindicated by the letters from Professors New- 
comb and Young in Science of April 30. — Ep. ] 


Barometer exposure. 


You gave a place to my letter showing how ther- 
mometers were affected by the place of exposure: 
will you now allow me to point out how the barometer 
also seems to be thus affected ? 

At the Blue Hill observatory, during high winds,. 
the barograph shows sudden small oscillations, which, 
on watching, bave been found to be coincident with 
changes in the wind’s velocity. When the wind 
rushes by with increased velocity, the barograph 
sinks ; and when the wind subsides somewhat, the 
barograph rises again slightly. About noon on 
March 16 the wind’s velocity rapidly rose from five 
to thirty-five miles, and the barometer suddenly fell 
five-hundredths of an inch. During a sudden gust: 
attending a shower last summer, the barometer fell 
a tenth of an inch, and immediately rose again as 
the gust ended. These facts all suggest that the 
wind, in blowing by at right angles to the cracks and 
crevices in the building, produces a mechanical 
effect, which tends to draw the air out of the build-- 
ing, and decrease the pressure inside. In confirma- 
tion of this conclusion, whenever, during high winds, 
the hatchway in the top of the tower is opened, it. 
gives a larger aperture for the wind to act on, and 
the pressure on the inside immediately falls. It fell 
as much as a tenth of an inch during a seventy-mile 
wind in February. This seems to point to the con- 
clusion that during high winds the barometer reads 
too low. 

In Loomis’s fifteenth paper in the American jour- 
nal of arts and sciences, he discusses the reduction to 
sea-level of the barometer-readings on Mount Wash- 
ington, and finds a number of cases in which the 
barometer-readings, when reduced to sea-level by — 
the formulas usually in use, are three-tenths of am | 
inch or more lower than would seem to be the true 
readings as determined from the neighboring stations. 
of Burlington and Portland. These cases all oc- 
curred when the wind was very high on Mounf. 
Washington, the average being sixty-six miles per 
hour, and some cases showing as much as & hundred 
miles. In his remarks, Loomis says that these ‘‘ great. 
anomalies are confined to the colder months of the 
year, and seldom occur except during the progress — 
of violent storms.” | 

This suggests that at Mount Washington, as at — 
Blue Hill, and probably elsewhere, the wind, in blow- — 
ing by the building with great velocities, produces a. 
partial vacuum inside. H. Hetm CLAYTON, 

Blue Hill observatory, May 18, 


| 
| 


_ sion from without, and violence within. 


SCIENC [., SUPPLEMENT. 


FRIDAY, MAY 28, 1886. 


THE STATE AS AN ECONOMIC FACTOR. 


e 


THERE is no more significant difference between 
what, for lack of better terms, we may call the 
old and the new schools of political economy than 
their respective attitudes toward the state. The 
old school, in which I would include Adam £mith 
and his best-known English followers, culminat- 
ing in the so-called orthodox economists, derived 
their ideas in regard to the nature and functions 
of the state from the views of the writers on 
jural and political science which prevailed in the 
latter half of the last century. They have almost 
universally accepted these conceptions of the state 
as fully satisfactory for the uses of the economist, 
without any real attempt at an analysis of the 
functions of the state from the economic side. 
It is hardly necessary to say that these ideas have 
long since been repudiated by the cultivators of the 
jural and politico-philosophical sciences as entire- 
ly unsatisfactory. But the orthodox economist 
has held to them as if they were law and gospel. 
We have, as a consequence, the rather absurd 
phenomenon of the cultivators of one science hold- 
ing to the conceptions taken from another which 
the latter itself rejects as worthless for all scientific 
purposes. 

The new school, on the contrary, has simply 
adapted itself to the changed conditions, and ac- 
cepted the results of scientific progress in neigh- 
boring fields, and on this as a foundation has un- 
dertaken to carry the science another stage for- 
ward in its development. It has indeed con- 
tributed something to jural philosophy itself by 
its attempts to analyze the concept of the state 
from the economic side, in order to ascertain the 
function which it performs in the process of 
economic production and distribution. 

Adam Smith, in common with the tendencies 
of his time in the field of political and jural 
speculation, looked upon the state as a purely 
hegative factor in economic and social life, —a 
something which grew out of the defects of men, 


| —a necessary evil which did most good when it 
_ did least harm. He considered its functions to be 


simply those of protecting society against agegres- 


sior He saw 
im individual action the source of all progress, the 


hope of all civilization, and held that the race 
would move forward in proportion as all govern- 
ment trammels were removed from individual 
activity. I do not mean to say, of course, that 
Smith was consistent in this view, because con- 
sistency in such a view is simply impossible, and 
has never been achieved by any great thinker. 
He wascompelled to disregard his theory repeated- 
ly when discussing practical questions of govern- 
ment and politics of his own time, and many 
passages may be quoted from his works to prove 
that he tacitly repudiated the whole doctrine. In 
this respect he resembles very much some of his 
distinguished followers, who, finding it impossible 
to be consistent and to bring their theories into 
harmony with the hard facts of the actual world 
about them, make all manner of practical con- 
cessions inconsistent with their fundamental 
principle, which may be quoted to prove that they 
did not hold such doctrines at all. 

But no one can read Smith carefully without 
admitting that his theory of the state practically 
denies to the latter any economic function what- 
ever, beyond the simple one of keeping order 
within its boundaries. All that is more than this 
cometh of and leadeth to evil. Certain it is that 
all those in this century who have been opposed 
to state action of any kind have appealed to the 
authority of Smith and certain of his followers 
as having established beyond a doubt that the 
state has no business to interfere with economic 
or social relations. 

As a matter of fact, Smith made successful war 
upon certain forms of governmental interference, 
which in his time were undoubtedly doing great 
harm ; but instead of being content with show- 
ing that those particular restrictions had outlived 
their usefulness, and that the time had come when 
they could be better dispensed with, he tried to 
show, or rather assumed, that such restrictions 
were per se injurious, and could be productive of 
evil only. 

The investigation of historians in this century 
has proven conclusively that the state, so far from 
being the source of innumerable evils, has always 
been not only the absolutely essential condition of 
human progress, but also one of the most impor- 
tant, if not, indeed, the most important, factor in 
the economic evolution of society itself. It 
proved that,no economic progress has ever taken 
place outside of the state, and very little indeed 
within it, except on the basis of the active sup- 


486 


port and co-operation of the latter. It established 
the fact that in state initiative, indeed, lay often- 
times the only hope of any economic develop- 
ment. It demonstrated that many of the very in- 
stitutions which Adam Smith and his followers so 
vigorously and successfully assailed had in their 
own time done the most valuable service in initi- 
ating and furthering economic progress. In a 
word, it dealt a death-blow to that conception of 
the nature and origin of the state which played 
so large a role in the political speculations of 
English, French, and German philosophers of the 
last century by showing conclusively that noth- 
ing corresponding to their premises had ever 
actually existed in human history, and that state 
action, not merely of a restraining but also of a 
fostering and furthering kind, has always been 
the condition and concomitant of any considera- 
ble economic development. 

The conclusions of history, sufficient of them- 
selves to destroy the old theory, are amply sustained 
by a careful analysis of the process of production 
and distribution in our modern society. If we ana- 
lyze any of the most ordinary acts of production, 
we shall find that the state is actually or potentially 
present at every stage of the process. Take, for ex- 
ample, the business of making cloth. The manu- 
facturer could not hope to make any considerable 
amount of cloth if the state did not protect him in 
his work by the force of its courts andarmies. He 
could make but a very small quantity, indeed, 
without the aid of inventions, the preservation 
and transmittance of which, nay, their very ex- 
istence itself, is only possible within and through 
and by the state. Having produced his cloth, he 
would have no right worth the name to its owner- 
ship, if the state did not define and enforce his 
rights as against all other parties within the state. 
Having produced it, and being acknowledged 
as the owner of it, it would be of no earthly 
value to him, except so much as he might wish to 
make use of for his own personal purposes, if the 
state did not protect him in his right to exchange 
it for the product of other labor toward which the 
state stands in exactly the same relation asit bears 
toward that which he produced. The value of his 
product depends almost entirely upon the means 
which the state has provided, in the form of roads 
and means of transportation and communication, 
to enable him to get to a place where he can 
exchange it. The value, moreover, depends 
largely on the general state of civilization within 
the country, which is to a very great extent de- 
termined by state activity. The enjoyments 
which he can extract from the produets he may 
receive in exchange for his cloth will depend to 
a great extent on the education which he may 


SCIENCE. 


— tion. 


{Vou. VIL, No. 173 


have enjoyed, which, again, will be determined 
by the extent to which the state may have pro- 
vided the necessary facilities. When we look, not 
merely at an individual act of production, but 
take in a wider view of the industry of the coun- 
try as a whole, we shall see still more clearly the 
real character of the state as an economic factor. 
We see, for instance, in manufacturing, that 
the discovery and introduction of improvements, 
the provision of means of transportation, the 
general provision of educational facilities, both 
technical and general, — all necessary elements in 
any wide and long-continued successful system 
of industry, — have been nearly always chiefly 
furthered and promoted by state activity in some 
form or other. In other words, every great ex- 
tension of the field of production has really been 
to a large degree dependent on state interference 
—not merely in a restraining, but also in a pro- 
moting and fostering way. 

We may formulate our conclusion, then, some- 
what as follows: the state is an economic factor 
of prime importance. To our modern system of 
production not only are natural agents, labor, and 
capital necessary, but also the particular kind of 
services which can be rendered only by the state. 
The nature of its service is just as fundamental 
to production as that of labor or capital, and it 
should be included among the requisites of produc- 
It is a fundamental economic category, 
something which belongs to the very essence of 
production, and not something accidental and 
external, which may be lightly cast aside. 

The particular function of the state in the sphere 
of economics is a varying one. It changes with 
time and place and circumstance. Perhaps the 
most general formulation of the essential charac- 
teristic of state action in this field is that it is pre- 
eminently a co-ordinating power. It is a special 
form of associative action. History shows that men 
as individuals do not live unto themselves. They 
must carry on the struggle for existence side by side 
within and through some kind of social organiza- 
tion, if they are to attain any higher level than the 
brutes. But no sooner do they appear within such 
an organization, than the absolute necessity of 
some type of co-ordinating power immediately 
appears. Individuals may and ordinarily do ap- 
propriate natural agents, and insist on utilizing 
them in such a way as to preclude any great | 
economic advance; as, for instance, when men — 
take possession of large tracts of land, and refuse 
to allow others to pass through them. In such @ — 
case, the necessity of a co-ordinating power imme- — 
diately appears. The state, or what answers for 
that in the given condition of society, must open 
up roads, no matter what individuals may wish, if 


May 28, 1886.] 


economic development is even to begin. The lay 
of the land may be such that an extensive system 
of drainage may be indispensable in order to ren- 
der it fit for cultivation. The whim or interest of 
individuals may, and where they are allowed free 
play usually do, prevent the inauguration and 
couipletion of any such work. Associative action 
may be, and ordinarily is, the only means of secur- 
ing such an end. Voluntary associative action is 
generally precluded by the refusal of some indi- 
viduals to take part whose co-operation is neces- 
sary to success. The only means left is com- 
pulsory associative action through and by the 
state. The time soon comes in a progressive 
society when, in order to secure a higher degree 
of efficiency, new crops, new kinds of live-stock, 
new inventions, are necessary; when a new or- 
ganization of the labor of the country must be 
undertaken, as, for instance, the abolition of 
slavery or serfdom, or the development of a sys- 
tem of small farms, — all things which are just as 
necessary to an increased production as the appli- 
cation of more labor and capital, and all things 
which can be accomplished on a great scale only 
by the exercise of state power. Furthermore, a 
time comes when, in order to secure a larger pro- 
duction, the great mass of the people must be edu- 
cated, and the skilled laborers necessary to the 
economic progress of a society must have facilities 
for acquiring a technical education. All recent 
history shows that the state must here interfere, 
and compel co-operative action on the part of its 
citizens, if the necessary facilities are to be ob- 
tained. To take another example, science and ex- 
perience demonstrate, that in order to obtain the 
maximum of agricultural production, for instance, 
from a given country, it is necessary that a cer- 
tain portion of the surface should be wooded. 
History shows us that there is no adequate eco- 
nomic motive for private individuals to preserve 
this proportion if it has once been established, or 
to establish it if it has never existed : hence the 
necessity for the state to interfere, and to secure 
by the application of compulsion the necessary 
conditions of progress. An excellent instance of 
this same thing is to be found in our modern rail- 
road system. Im order to secure the building and 
equipment of the railway, we have had to pay 
enormous sums, directly and indirectly, from the 
common treasury of society. The state, in all its 
various governmental forms, national and local, 
has contributed land, money, and legal powers 
and guaranties, without which our railways would 
have remained a comparatively insignificant ele- 
Ment in our system of transportation. It has 
created fictitious persons for the ownership and 
management of the railways. It has given those 


SCIENCE. 


A87 


fictitious persons not only immense sums of capi- 
tal, but peculiar and ample privileges; among 
others that far-reaching and most significant attri- 
bution of sovereignty, —the right to take the 
property of real persons against their will, and 
give them, not what the owners consider it 
worth, but what it seems worth to parties who 
look upon it in the character of disinterested 
appraisers. 

To sum up this phase of the subject in a few 
words: a community, on emerging from barba- 
rism, and as it passes from one stage of civilization 
to another, finds, that, in order to secure a healthy 
economic progress, large quantities of capital and 
labor must be expended along lines where a few 
individuals, by their ignorance or obstinacy, may 
prevent that collective action without which such 
investment cannot be made. It is necessary for 
the state to interfere in such cases ; and its action 
is as truly economic action as that which removes 
by a tunnel the obstruction presented to trade by 
a hill, or which renders commerce across a river 
easy by the construction of a bridge. This same 
community finds, moreover, that large quantities 
of capital and labor must be expended along 
lines where private individuals cannot be per- 
suaded to invest it, since they can see no imme- 
diate and sufficient return to them personally. 
The state is in such cases the only hope ; and if, 
by its incompleteness or weakness, it is unable to 
respond to this demand, progress stops and retro- 
gression begins. 

It is easy to see the bearing of this general view 
of the economic functions of the state. It establishes 
the primary importance of state action in eco- 
nomic progress, and it claims for it a purely eco- 
nomic character. So far from allowing that the 
presumption is always in favor of non-interference 
on the part of the state in economic matters, it 
claims that in whole classes of economic processes 
the presumption is strongly in favor of government 
interference; so strongly, indeed, that the mere 
fact of government non-interference proves that 
the community is living in a lower economic stage 
than is within the grasp of its collective action by 
state agencies. It vindicates for the collective 
action of the commnnity, within and through and 
by the state, an economic function no whit less 
fundamental, no whit less important, and in many 
respects more far-reaching, than that hitherto ac- 
corded to individual action. It is an idle attempt 
to decide which is the more important of two 
factors both of which are absolutely necessary to 
the result. It is like trying to prove, that, of the 
two lines which form an angle, one is more neces- 
sary than the other. And yet this is what the old 
school attempted to do in belittling the economic 


488 


functions of the state. The new school simply 
desires to claim for them their proper position. 
It is undoubtedly true that in certain countries 
individual activity and initiative are not vigorous 
enough to work out the highest possible economic 
results; but it is also equally true, that, in other 
countries, state activity and initiative are not 
vigorous enough to secure the economic results 
which can only flow from collective action within 
and through and by the state. 

The relation of this theory to the subject of 
taxation, for example, is significant. From this 
point of view, taxes are not rewards paid by the 
individual to government for the protection ac- 
corded by the latter. They are simply a share of 
the product which the state may rightfully claim 
as being one of the factors in the process of pro- 
duction. The state, as the representative of socie- 
ty, is the great ‘silent partner’ in every business 
enterprise. As compared with any given indi- 
vidual, it contributes the larger share of the means 
of production. To test the relative productivity 
of the state and the individual, compare the for- 
tune accumulated by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 
America with what he might have accumulated 
had he been adopted when an infant by a family 
of Hottentots. 

One word more as to the bearing of this theory 
on the future of the state as an economic factor. 
According to the old theory, the functions of the 
state will become fewer and fewer as society pro- 
gresses, until finally it will do nothing, or at least 
nothing but protect, in the narrowest sense, life 
and property. According to the newer theory, as 
men become more numerous, the conditions of 
society more complicated, the solidarity of inter- 
ests more complete, we shall find that the eco- 
nomic sphere of collective action as opposed to 
individual action is all the time widening. Hand 
in hand with this advance, we shall find that gov- 
ernment will be so improved that the state can 
safely undertake to a larger and larger extent the 
exercise of this collective action. So far, then, 
from the interference of government decreasing 
with the improvement of men, we shall find that 
this very improvement renders it safe and desir- 
able to increase the sphere of state activity. All 
this can be done without in any degree impairing 
individual activity of a desirable kind, and, indeed, 
with the result that the sphere of the latter may 
be continually widened. 

To put the case in a little different way, there 
are, according to this view, in any given state of 
civilized society, certain classes of economic ac- 
tions which can be best performed by a general 
system of co-operation embracing all the members 
of said society. To the efficiency of certain of 


SCIENCE. 


|Vout. VIL, No. 1738 


these classes it is necessary to have complete co- 
operation, which, as all experience proves, is only 
possible through compulsion. The only form of 
desirable compulsion in such cases is state com- 
pulsion, which, of course, may be exercised in 
various ways—from compelling co-operation by 
courts and armies, to that of undertaking the 
business by government agencies. If such actions 


are left to private individuals, it just as surely 


results in economic injury to society, in circum- 
scribing the field of employment, in discouraging 
and destroying individual enterprise in the widest 
and broadest view, as the assumption by the state 
of forms of economic activity, which should be 
left to private individuals, tends to destroy all 
spirit of enterprise in a body politic. When it 
appears, therefore, on analysis of a given case, 
that it is one which calls for compulsory collective 
action, it is not a satisfactory answer to say that 
the government is too defective in its organization 
to undertake such work, and therefore it must be 
left to individuals, since this simply means that 
it will not be done at all. For certain economic 
ends the only efficient agency is state agency ; 
and, if that is not available, the only result can 
be failure to reach those ends. In case of de- 
fective government, then, our course is not to 
rest content with remanding government func- 


tions to private individuals, but to improve gov- 


ernment until it is adequate to the legitimate de- 
mands ; and one of the most effective means of 
improving government is to insist that it shall 
undertake its proper functions, since the conse- 
quent importance of its work will render impera- 
tive its re-organization on a proper basis. 

KE. J. JAMES. 


II. 


1. Professor James says much of the old school 
and the new school of political economy. Yet the 
differences between the schools, so far as he men- 
tions them, are not on strictly economic matters. 
He discusses the nature and function of the state, 
and raises very wide and difficult questions. 
These questions economic science does not answer 
and should not pretend to answer. It merely helps 
to answer them, by investigating one aspect of 
man’s activity. Economists have often expressed 
themselves on the general subject of the sphere 
of government ; but in so doing they have spoken, 
not as economists, but as speculators on the theory 
of the state and of society at large. 
no doubt said a good deal about the proper limits 
of government action. Yet his conclusions on 
that subject formed no essential part of his 
economic doctrines. So, in the first half of this 
century the followers of Ricardo frequently gave 


Adam Smith — 


. 


May 28, 1886.] 


expression to a certain conception of the state, 
which is indicated by the phrase laissez faire. 
They sometimes went so far as to treat laissez 
faire as a natural law, nay, as a natural law of 
political economy. It was a great mistake to 
treat it as a natural law ; at most, the phrase in- 
dicates only a rough rule of thumb. It was a 
still greater mistake to treat it as a law of politi- 
cal economy. Political economy investigates and 
explains the phenomena of wealth ; in doing so, 
it helps the ‘jural and_ politico - philosophical’ 
thinker (to use Professor James’s comprehensive 
expression) in solving his general problem as to 
what the state should do. But economic science 
does not pretend to solve it, by laying down a rule 
of laissez faire or one of state interference. In 
laying down a rule as to state interference, the 
new school is not a new school of political econo- 
my, but a new school as to something else. Its 
adherents commit the same mistake, as it seems 
to me, that was committed in former days by the 
adherents of the laissez faire ideas, whom they 
attack so sharply. They fail to distinguish be- 
tween the province of economic science, and that 
of sociology, or social science, or political science, 
or whatever the general science be called. 

2. No economist has denied that the state is a 
most important factor in industrial matters. The 
economist says, given such and such a condition of 
the laws and of the government, what effect on 
the phenomena of wealth can be traced? Ob- 
viously the character of the government, and the 
extent to which it maintains peace and order, en- 
forces contracts, and protects property, are of the 
utmost economic importance. Professor James’s 
lucid exposition of the cloth-manufacturer’s situa- 
tion is hardly needed to prove this. But thereby 
he does not succeed in showing that the govern- 
ment should become a still more important factor, 
or a factor of an essentially different kind. Pos- 
sibly it should ; but to establish this, it is not a 
valid argument to adduce the unquestioned fact 
that the activity of the state is at present one im- 
portant cause among a large number that bring 
about economic phenomena. In the eighteenth 
century, government interfered multifariously and 
vexatiously in industrial matters ; yet surely that 
fact in itself did not go to prove that it should 
interfere still more. 

3. It is a very sweeping statement that ‘every 
great extension of the field of production has been 
toa large degree dependent on state interference, 
not merely in a restraining but in a fostering and 
promoting way.” That raises a question of fact, 
of economic history, on which I must beg to differ 
with Professor James. His statement seems to me 
_ €xaggerated, and in essentials incorrect. The eco- 


SCIENCE. 


A89 


nomic history of the last hundred and fifty years 
does not support it. The enormous advance in the 
arts during the past century seems to me to have 
been singularly independent of state interference. 
Certainly it has not been the result of any exten- 
sion of government activity over and above that 
degree of activity which was common in the pre- 
ceding period. The state tried to foster and pro- 
mote in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 
much more than it has done in our time; yet we 
have seen a striking enlargement of the field of 
production. If economists of the old school belit- 
tled the importance of the state, those of the new 
school are in danger of succumbing to a tempta- 
tion to exaggerate it. 

4. As to the main question, namely, the atti- 
tude we should take to the question of state inter- 
ference in industry, Professor James states his 
belief that the presumption is strongly in favor 
of interference ‘in whole classes of economic 
processes.’ It is not clear to me how much he in- 
cludes in this phrase. No doubt there is a tendency 
toward a degree of regulation in some branches of 
industry, of which railroads and telegraphs are 
prominent examples. Economic study gives cer- 
tain data on such questions ; for instance, by show- 
ing the advantages of single management, and the 
supplanting of competition by combination. The 
data given by economic study, together with 
those given by study from other points of view, 
lead us to believe that, as matters stand now, the 
community should regulate these industries more 
than it does cotton-spinning and bread-making. 
How far it should go in its interference is a prac- 
tical question, to be settled for each case slowly, 
cautiously, tentatively. In comparatively simple 
cases, like water-supply, complete ownership by 
the public has come to be the general rule. The 
time has perhaps come to handle gas-supply inthe 
same way. How far we will go or should go ina 
complicated problem like that of railroads, no 
man can tell. Certainly it is premature to lay 
down a general rule or presumption in favor of 
state ownership or management. That new theory 
which tries to lay down as some sort of a law, cr 
at all events as a certainty for the future, a steady 
and continued enlargement of the sphere of state 
activity, rests as yet on a very slender basis of ex- 
perience, In any case, it is not a new economic 
theory, but a wide speculation in sociology. 

Very little seems to me to be gained by advan- 
cing, for problems of this kind, general specu- 
lations about collective action and the sphere of 
the state. Certainly there is no occasion in this 
country to stimulate the tendency in favor of 
state interference. There is already quite a suffi- 
cient general inclination to interfere. Not infre- 


490 


quently, to be sure, one hears expressions about 
natural freedom and non-interference with the 
natural laws of trade; expressions which are 
survivals of the exaggerated laissez faire tinge of 
a generation ago. But no feeling of this kind 
operates as an effectual barrier to state interfer- 
ence, or stands in the way of needed reforms. On 
the contrary, public men and voters alike are 
over-ready to jump at schemes for state regula- 
tion, and to engage in crude and harmful and 
impracticable legislation. Witness the passage in 
the house of representatives of a bill like the 
Reagan interstate -commerce bill, — fortunately 
replaced in the senate by the more moderate, 
though still far-reaching, bill just passed by that 
body. In face of the rash attempts of which the 
Reagan bill is a type, economists and students can 
most usefully approach the problems, not by 
general encouragement of state regulation, but 
by the careful and unbiassed study of specific 
questions. F. W. Taussia. 


IIl. 


In his criticism of my views, Professor Taussig 
takes the old ground that economic science has 
nothing to do with the functions of the state. 
This is exactly the point at issue, and could not, 
perhaps, be better put than it is by Professor 
Taussig. I hold that the science of political 
economy must consider the economic functions 
(notice the limitation) of the state in order to 
afford any satisfactory explanation of the phe- 
nomena of wealth in modern society. It would 
undoubtedly be possible to construct a science of 
an economy in which capital, for example, played 
only an insignificant part; but such a science 
would have no sort of relation to modern, social, 
or political life. A science of wealth which leaves 
out of its treatment the economic functions of that 
co-ordinating power which in its highest form we 
call the state, is almost as far removed from any 
vital connection with our present or future needs. 

This is undoubtedly the real reason why all the 
great thinkers in the field of economics have as a 
maiter of fact, in spite of their protestations that 
it had nothing to do with the subject, given such 
a large share of attention to the functions of the 
state. Adam Smith’s views of state action are 
not an unessential feature of his economic theories. 
They form part and parcel of them, and cannot 
be extracted without shaking to its foundations 
the edifice into which they are built as constituent 
parts. 

The scientific advantage of the view for which 
fam contending, over that represented by Pro- 
fessor Taussig, consists, as I conceive it, in this. 
If we recognize the fundamental economic char- 


SCTE NCE. 


[Vout. VIL, No. 178 


acter of state action, we have a simple, plain, 
scientific basis for examining the relations of state 
action to other forms of economic activity. It 
enables us to investigate within the limits of our 
economic system whole classes of economic facts 
connected with state action, which, however much 
we may wish to disregard them, will force them- 
selves on our attention, and if not treated in an 
open and scientific manner, and assigned to their 
proper place, must be disposed of in a half sur- 
reptitious and unscientific way. This point of view 
enables us to bring state action, so far as it is 
economic in its nature, into organic relation with 
other economic forces in our scientific system, and 
by an analysis of the processes of production, 
distribution, and consumption of wealth, to assign 
to each factor that sphere of action which, with a 
due regard to existing economic conditions, shall 
work out the best economic result. This theory 
is, in my opinion, a progressive one. It contains 
the promise and potency of life. 

The other, on the contrary, is the opposite of 
this in the respects just enumerated. And so far as 
any thinker maintains it, and is still doing pro- 


gressive and active work in the field of economics, 


—and no better example of this class can be 
quoted than Professor Taussig himself, —he is 
continually, as it appears to me, violating his own 
fundamental principle, and working at a scientific 
disadvantage. 

It will be noticed that this view in itself does 
not call for any extension or limitation of state 
action. It simply maintains that there is a sphere 
of economic activity in which state action is by 
far the best, if not the only, means of reaching 
satisfactory results. It holds that this state action 
is as truly economic as that of individuals, and 
that it should therefore be regarded as a funda- 
mental economic category. The exact limits of 
this sphere — the exact things to be done by the 
state — vary with time and place and circum- 
stance. It may therefore very well be, that two 
persons holding these different views might agree 
as to what state action, in an economic direction, 
is desirable, for instance, at this time in our own 
country. The difference, as it seems to me, would 
be simply that the views of the one in regard to 
state interference would form a consistent part of 
that one’s general economic system, while those 
of the other would be more or less adventitious. 
It is the former class of views which promote the 
development of a science. 

I desire, in closing, to express my dissent from 
Professor Taussig’s opinion that the enormous ad- 
ance in the arts during the past century has been 
singularly independent of state interference. To 
argue this point of difference would require 4 


May 28, 1886.] 


long chapter of economic history. I think the 
statement on this point in the body of my article 
is essentially true. Nor can I agree with my critic 
that we do not need to stimulate the tendency in 
this country in favor of state interference. I 
think that we are prevented to-day from under- 
taking certain great reforms by the general feeling 
in the community at large that individual instead 
of state effort should be relied upon in all cases to 
secure economic advance. To present the conclu- 
sion of the matter in a word, it is perfectly possi- 
ble, of course, for the state to interfere in such a 
way as to discourage and destroy industry. All 
of us agree to that. It is, on the other hand, we 
claim, perfectly possible for the state to interfere 
in such a way as to promote and create industry— 
nay, more: it must be continually interfering to 
do this, otherwise progress would stop and retro- 
gression set in. Such action is economic in char- 
acter, and the systematic investigation and discus- 
sion of it find their proper place in the science of 
economics. K. J. JAMES. 


CLIMATE AND COSMOLOGY. 


No one should take up Mr. Croll’s essays for 
light reading ; not because his writing is not suf- 
ficiently clear and concise, but because the inter- 
action of the many direct and indirect causes con- 
cerned in his physical theory of terrestrial climate 
requires so involved a conception that the reader 
must go slowly to possess himself of it fully. 
This is shown by Mr. Croll’s frequent and just com- 
plaint that his critics fail to apprehend his points. 

The essence of his argument is, that, during a 
time of great eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, the 
hemisphere, having its winter in aphelion, will be 
subjected to glacial conditions as a result of the 
various physical processes then brought into play. 
Prominent among these is the diversion of the 
warm equatorial ocean-currents into the non- 
glaciated hemisphere by means of the increased 
velocity of the trade-winds in the glaciated hemi- 
sphere, and their extension well across the equator, 
on account of the then great difference between 
polar and equatorial temperatures on which they 
depend. For example: if our hemisphere be the 
cold one, it is supposed that the north-east trade 
would gain in strength, and extend south of the 
equator, so far as to carry all the equatorial cur- 
rents into the southern hemisphere. ‘‘ The warm 
water being thus wholly withdrawn from the 
northern hemisphere, its temperature sinks 
enormously, and snow begins to accumulate in 
temperate regions.” 


Discussions on climate and cosmology. By A. CROLL. 
_ New York, Appleton, 1886. 12°. 


a 


SCIENCE. 


A91 


If this fundamental point be conceded, we may 
as well grant all that follows it ; but it cannot be 
conceded for a moment. Our north-east trade 
will doubtless be strengthened, in winter at least ; 
but so wili the prevailing westerly winds of our 
temperate latitudes. Moreover, the heat equator, 
along which the trade-winds meet, wiil not migrate 
far south from the geographic equator, on a planet 
with as short a year, as moderately inclined an 
axis, and as large an equatorial water-surface, as 
ours — especially when the southern summer is 
moderated by coming in aphelion, and again, 
especially in the Atlantic, as long as the coast-line 
of Africa allows so much ccol South Atlantic 
water to reach the central torrid zone, and as 
long as Cape San Roque stands in the way and 
turns so much of the equatorial current north- 
ward, 

No sufficient reason, therefore, appears for 
granting the north-east trade strength and area 
enough at such a time to keep warm water out of 
the North Atlantic, summer and winter ; and in this 
ocean, at least, the general eddy-circulation would 
be continued much in its present form, all the 
more because whatever aid is given by gravity to 
the wind-made currents is then intensified. The 
broad drift of waters that crosses the North At- 
jlantic from our shores to Europe would then be 
accelerated by the stronger winter winds ; it would 
then, as now, divide opposite Spain; and the 
northern branch on which the moderate tempera- 
ture of north-western Europe so largely depends 
would then, as now, be supplied largely with 
water that had been warmed while crossing the 
equator. As long as this source of warmth pre- 
vails, a winter’s snows in far aphelion cannot over- 
reach the succeeding summer’s melting in close 
perihelion, without the assistance of geographic 
or other changes which Mr. Croll deems unessen- 
tial. 

In view of such objections as this, it seems to 
me that Mr. Croll decidedly overstates the security 
of his position in saying that his theory contains 
‘no hypothetical elements.’ The quantitative 
estimation of his causes is certainly often hypothet- 
ical. Until more is known, not only about winds 
and currents, but also about the behavior of the 
atmosphere towards radiant energy, and the part 
played by dust over the land (of which Mr. Croll 
takes practically no account) as well as by vapor 
over the ocean, there must naturally be much of 
hypothesis in the discussion of terrestrial tempera- 
tures. 

Readers of Dr. Croll’s work should examine 
also a critique by Woeikof in a recent number of 
the American journal of science. 

. W, M, Davis, 


492 


MANUAL TRAINING. 


IN the wave of enthusiasm for manual training 
which is now passing over this land, it is very 
difficult to get together the results of experience, 
and still more difficult to determine whether the 
plans which work well in one place are adapted 
to another. Therefore every honest record of a 
working organization is to be welcomed. Even 
when the opinions of a writer are not accepted, 
his statement of facts should receive attention. 

These remarks apply to the volume on manual 
training, which has lately been published from 
the pen of Charles H. Ham. The work has its 
practical, its historical, and its philosophical as- 
pect. In the first hundred pages there is an 
elaborate account of the Chicago manual training 
school, which was founded in 1883 by the Com- 
mercial club, — an association of merchants, who, 
after a discussion of ‘ How to increase the supply 
of skilled labor,’ pledged the sum of one hundred 
thousand dollars for the support of an industrial 
school. 
and instruction is given in carpentry, wood-turn- 
ing, founding, forging, and in the making of 
machinery. The various laboratories devoted to 
these purposes are described, but the experience 
of two years is, of course, too limited to be very 
significant. The general principles of the estab- 
lishment seem to be in close accordance with the 
well-known views of Professor Runkle of Boston, 
and of Professor Woodward of St. Louis. 

In reading this volume we have been impressed 
with this danger, —that, in giving emphasis to 
the value of manual training, the worth of 
mental training will be overlooked. James Rus- 
sell Lowell, in a recent speech, wittily said that 
not only are those studies of value which make 
bread-winning easier, but also those which will 
make every morsel of bread taste the sweeter. 

The author of the book before us declares at the 
beginning that it is a theory of the Chicago 
school, that ‘‘in the processes of education the 
idea should never be isolated from the object it 
represents.” Indeed! Can this be so? Are ‘ab- 
stractions’ to have no rights which the school is 
bound to respect? How about the idea of num- 
ber, of form, of quantity, of force? Probably 
the author did not see the bearing of his remark ; 
but he repeats it in these words : ‘* Separated from 
its object, the idea is unreal, a phantom.” ‘This 
is very different from the saying of Sir Hum- 
phry Davy, that there is nothing so prolific in 
abilities as abstractions. Believing as we do in 
the great importance of manual training, believing 

Manual training, the solution of social and industrial 
problems. By CuarLes H, HAM. New York, Harper, 1886. 
12°, , 


SCIENCE. 


A large building has been constructed, 


[Vov. VII., No. 173 


that every living being will be happier if he can 
skilfully use his fingers in some useful art, we re- 
gret to see the advocates of dexterity defend their 
views by wrong arguments and defective logic. 


THE Johns Hopkins university circular for May 
states that Professor Rodolfo Lanciani of Rome 
will give a course of lectures on Roman archeol- 
ogy during the next academic year. He has been 
for some years professor of archeology at the 
Roman university, and inspector of excavations 
for the city, and is also one of the leading mem- 
bers of the archeological commission of Rome, 
and of the Pontifical archeological society. Though 
still quite young, he is one of the first authorities 
on Roman archeology, and has followed with 
greater care than any other archeologist the im- 
portant excavations that have laid bare, from 1871 
to 1886, so considerable a part of the ancient city. 
In 1880 he published ‘‘I comentarii di Frontino 
intorno le acque e gli aquedotti. Sylloge epigra- 
fica aquaria,” a learned work crowned by the 
Academy of the Lincei. This is but a small part 
of a great work to which he has been devoting 
years of research, — a complete topography of the 
ancient city of Rome, critical and historical. Pro- 
fessor Lanciani has contributed important papers 
to the Bull. della comm. archeologica, to the No- 
lizie degli Scavi, and other archeological periodi- 
cals, besides separate works, such as ‘Iscrizioni 
dell Anfiteatro Flavio’ (1880). 


— The recent invention by Dr. J. O'Dwyer of 
New York, of a new method of treatment to take 
the place of the dreaded recourse to tracheotomy 
in diphtheria and membranous croup, bids fair to 
be of the greatest importance. His method does 
away with cutting-instruments entirely, and con- 
sists simply in the insertion of a tube of peculiar | 
shape between the vocal cords, thus permitting 
the ingress of air into the trachea. The results 
already reached by this intubation treatment 
compare very favorably with those from trache- 
otomy, as regards the saving of life; and if, on 
extended trial, they are borne out, the invention 
will be ranked with the more important ones of 
the century, in medicine. 


—-Mr. 8. Hertzenstein of the Zodlogical museum 
of the Academy of sciences, St. Petersburg, Rus- 
sia, is endeavoring to prepare schemes for public 
museums in Russia, to be promoted by the authori- — 
ties. He would be grateful for any reports of | 
American museums, especially such as relate to 
their organization rules or plan of operations. 
Any such may be mailed to him direct, or may be 
addressed to him, under cover, to the Smithsonian 
institution, Washington. 


: 


| 
i} 
| 


SC PNE TE. 


FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


IN A RECENT NUMBER of the Revue internatio- 
nale de Venseignement, M. Breal, who has written 
before on educational topics, has an essay on the 
methods of acquiring foreign languages. Among 
some old considerations of value, he adds the less 
well-known remark, that, when a person goes to 
a foreign country to ‘learn the language,’ he 
rarely succeeds. But if he goes to pursue some 
definite profession or business, — M. Breal sug- 
gests banking at Frankfort, the book-trade at 
Leipzig, and brewing at Munich, among others, 
—then he acquires the language very rapidly as 
well as very thoroughly. The reason for this is 
plain enough: it is the substitution of natural for 
scholastic methods. And nature, being the better 
feacher, comes out ahead. In the former case, 
dictionaries and grammars figure largely ; while, 
in following M. Breal’s suggestions, the phrases 
of ordinary conversation, as well as the termi- 
nology of some particular calling, become part of 
the student’s daily experience from the first. 
The hint is a valuable one, and it might save 
time and money, to say nothing of a discouraged 
spirit, to the numerous young men and women 
who go to Germany, France, and Italy each year 
to ‘learn the language.’ 


IN THE DEATH, on May 16, of the aged German 
historian, the world has lost a scholar who has 
done as much as, if not more than, any one else 
for the extension of scientific method, and for 
the application to history of those rules and tests 
which mark the nineteenth century as pre-emi- 
nently the era of science. Born in 1795, when 
the reign of terror was hardly passed, and when 
the metaphysical notions as to the theory of the 
state and the rights of man which had been for- 
mulated by Bodin, Grotius, Montésquieu, Voltaire, 
and Rousseau, were finding their logical outcome 
in anarchy, Ranke grew up in a period of tran- 
sition. The wave of constitutionalism was gather- 
ing a force to which even the reaction from the 
revolutionary excesses of the commune, aided by 
the holy alliance, could be but a temporary check. 

No, 174.— 1886, 


With a genius that detected the chain of causa- 
tion amid a complicated mass of detail, with an 
exactness and an accuracy that made even the 
smallest event of importance, and with a power 
of lucid, graphic statement which attracted and 
interested while it instructed, Ranke was born a 
scientific historian. He appreciated to the full 
the meaning of the contemporary development, 
but with true historical instinct he turned to the 
elucidation of that previous period of transition 
from feudalism to absolutism which is the key to 
the history of western Europe in the fifteenth, 
sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. In this 
field he was the acknowledged master. In addi- 
tion to his own magnificent labors, we owe to 
Von Ranke the seminarium, that peculiarly sci- 
entific department of university work. And it is 
from him that Waitz, Giesebrecht, Von Sybel, 
George Bancroft, and a host of lesser historians 
have drawn their inspirations. 


FABRY’S AND BARNARD’S COMETS, the two that 
have been with us since last December, have now 
disappeared from view in the northern hemi- 
sphere. Very few astronomers appear to have 
seen these comets under the most favorable cir- 
cumstances. Mr. T. W. Backhouse, however, re- 
ports that on April 26 he followed the tail of 
Fabry’s comet to a distance of thirty-eight degrees ; 
and Barnard’s comet he found on May 1 had two 
tails, the principal one four and a half degrees in 
length. To replace these comets we have three 
new ones discovered by Mr. Brooks, on April 27 
and 30, and May 22, respectively. They are all 
fairly bright for what are called ‘telescopic’ 
comets. The calculated elements show that the 
first reaches its nearest point to the sun on June 
6, and is increasing slightly in brightness: the 
second comet is decreasing in brightness, having 
passed its perihelion on May 4. 


HEALTH OF NEW YORK DURING APRIL. 


THE total population of New York on April 1 
was estimated at 1,428,898, and is believed to be 
increasing at the weekly rate of 799. 

The total number of deaths from all causes was 
2,965, or about 99 each day. Comparing this with 


494 


the same number of days in March, there was a re- 
duction representing the saving of 290 lives, and 
this not taking into account an increase in the 
population of more than 3,000 souls. 

In March the largest number of persons suc- 
cumbed to disease on the 31st, there being on 
that day 137 deaths recorded; on the 30th of 
April the maximum limit was reached, amounting 
to but 124 deaths. 

The deaths of children under five years of age 
during March were 1,221, and in April but 1,075 ; 
and yet diarrhoeal diseases carried off in April 56 
persons, and only 82 in the preceding month. 
Scarlet-fever caused a mortality of 49 this month, 
as compared with 42 in March. The lines in the 
chart representing scarlet-fever and the diarrhoeal 
diseases, which for two months have nearly coin- 
cided, now begin to diverge, and the separation 
will be more and more marked as the season ad- 
vances. The increase of deaths from diarrhoeal 
diseases appears to be pretty evenly distributed 


throughout the month, and not very perceptibly - 


increased in any one period over another. The 
largest number of deaths from diseases of this 
nature in any one day was 5, on the 22d. The 
week in which this occurred was characterized by 
high temperatures, 81°, 74°, 74°, 81°, 84°, and 88° 
being the maxima for six consecutive days be- 
ginning with the 19th ; and during this period there 
were 16 deaths from this class. The next largest 
number of deaths was 4, on the 11th inst.; and on 
six consecutive days of that week the maxima 
reached by the thermometer were respectively 70°, 
52°, 64°, 68°, 69°, and 67°, and the recorded deaths 
were 14. 
This is an interesting comparison, and would 
seem to show that there are other influences at 
work in the causation of diarrhoeal diseases than 
an elevation of temperature at one part of the 
day. On these days, when the thermometer was 
ranging from 74° to 84° in the afternoon, it was 
at other parts of the day much lower, sometimes 
as low as 48°. It is the high temperature con- 
tinued throughout the greater part of the twenty- 
four hours, and repeated day after day, as occurs 
in July and August, which produces such fearful 
ravages among the inhabitants of the large cities. 
Especially is this destructive influence marked 
when the air is laden with moisture. A study of 
the accompanying chart will show, that, at the 
time when these high temperatures occurred, the 
air was comparatively dry ; on the 23d inst., when 
the maximum temperature was 84°, the humidi- 
ty was but 60, saturation being 100. That this is 
an important element in the problem is not to be 
overlooked, It is a matter of common experience 
that a temperature of 90° with a dry atmosphere 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 174 


can be more comfortably borne than one of 80° 
with the air saturated with moisture. In the one 
case evaporation from the body is rapid, resulting 
in a cooling of the surface; in the other it is 
impeded, or seriously interfered with. 

Consumption and diphtheria show for April, as 
compared with March, a slight decrease in mor- 
tality. 

The mean temperature for the month was 52.87°, 
that for March having been 37,60°. The maximum 
was on the twenty-third day, the thermometer 
then registering 84°. This is the highest recorded 
in the month of April since 1871. 62° was the 
highest point reached by the mercury during 
March: its lowest point in that month was 8°, 
while during April at no time was it more than 
two degrees below freezing. 

While the number of days upon which rain fell 
was but seven, rather less than the average for a 
considerable number of years, yet the total 
amount of water which fell was 3.85 inches, con- 
siderably above the average amount for the same 
period. On the 4th of the month one-quarter of 
an inch of snow fell, and three-quarters of an inch 
on the day following. In the corresponding 
month of 1885, there were several flurries of snow, 
the amount being too small to accurately measure. 
Snow is not a frequent visitor in the month of 
April: in the year 1870 it fell to the depth of two 
inches and a half; in 1875 no less than thirteen 
inches and a half are recorded; and in the years 
1882 and 1883 there was in each one half-inch. 
With these exceptions, no snow has fallen in April 
during the past fifteen years. From a meteoro- 
logical point of view, April, 1886, was an excep- 
tional month. 


SYMPATHETIC VIBRATIONS OF JETS. 


AFTER a brief historical notice of the observa- 
tions of Savart, Masson, Sondhauss, Kundt, La- 
conte, Barret and Tyndall, Decharme, and Ney- 
reneuf, on the sympathetic vibrations of jets and 
flames. the author described his own experiments. 
Attention was directed to the subject by the 
accidental observation that a pulsating air-jet 
directed against a flame caused the latter to emit 
a musical sound. The pitch of this sound de- 
pended solely on the rapidity of the jet-pulsations, 
but its intensity was found to increase in a re- 
markable way with the distance of the flame from | 
the orifice. In order to study the phenomenon, — 
air was allowed to escape against the flame from 
a small orifice in the diaphragm of an ordinary. 
telephone, the chamber behind the diaphragm 


1Abstract of paper read before the Royal society, 
April 28, by Chichester A. Bell, 


June 4, 1886.] SCIENCE. 495 


= La i 


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Rain Fall, 
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Humidity & Temperature 
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Daily Mortality 


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ac FE ee ete a ' 

id = SS he Ee SS = See in! ae a BS af 


Weekly "26 683 697 


Mortality 

Weeki y niean 
Weekly mean = 
Barometer: 29,9 77 30. 304 


ne c ) f , t 
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Se ee essere eurunnanensntusapepessneunpenseennantmemeweecenee 


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496 


being placed in communication with a reservoir 
of air under gentle pressure (fig. 1). Vibratory 
motions being then excited in the diaphragm, by 
means of a battery and a microphone or rheotome 
in a distant apartment, the discovery was made 
that speech as well as musical and other sounds 
could be quite loudly reproduced from the flame. 
Certain observations led the author to suspect that 
motion of the orifice, rather than compression of 
the air in the chamber, was the chief agent in the 
phenomenon ; and, in fact, precisely similar re- 
sults were obtained when a light glass jet-tube 
was cemented to a soft iron armature, mounted 
on a spring in front of the telephone magnet 
(fig. 2). 

Experiment also showed that an air-jet at suita- 
ble pressure directed against a flame repeats all 
sounds or words uttered in the neighborhood (fig. 
3). Except, however, where the impressed vibra- 
tions do not differ widely in pitch from the nor- 
mal vibrations of the jet (discovered by Sondhauss 
and Masson), these effects are likely to escape 
notice owing to the inability of the ear to dis- 
tinguish between the disturbing sounds and their 
echo-like reproduction from the flame. 

In these experiments the primary action of the 
impressed vibrations was undoubtedly exerted on 
the air-jet; but a singular and perplexing fact 
was that no sound, or at best very faint sounds, 
could be heard from the latter when the flame 
was removed, and the ear, or the end of a wide 
tube connected with the ear, was substituted for 
it. Suspecting, finally, that the changes in the jet, 
effective in producing sound from the flame, must 
be relative changes of different parts of it, the 
author was led to try a very small hearing-orifice, 
about as large as the jet-orifice (fig. 4). The re- 
sults were most striking. By introducing this lit- 
tle hearing-orifice into the path of a vibrating 
air-jet, the vibrations can be heard over a very 
wide area. Close to the jet-orifice they are so faint 
as to be scarcely audible; but they increase in 
intensity in a remarkable way as the hearing- 
orifice is moved away along the axis of the jet, 
and reach their maximum at a certain distance. 
Experiments with smoked air showed that this 
point of maximum sound is that at which the jet 
loses its rod-like character, and expands rapidly: 
it has been named the ‘ breaking-point,’ because 
just beyond it the sounds heard from the jet 
acquire a broken or rattling character, and ata 
greater distance are completely lost. The distance 
of the breaking-point from the orifice diminishes 
as the intensity of the disturbing vibrations is in- 
creased, and also depends to some extent on their 
pitch and on the velocity of the jet. With orifices 
of from 1 to 1.5 mm. in diameter, it usually varies 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 174 


from 1to6cm. The vibrations of an air-jet may 
also be heard at points not situated on the axis; 
but they are always most intense along the axis, 
and become rapidly fainter as the distance from it 
increases. 

With glass jet and hearing-tubes, and a light 
gas bag to serve as reservoir, these experiments 
are easily repeated; but simple apparatus for 
more careful experiments is described. The au- 
thor’s general conclusions from his experiments 
and those of others are as follows :— 

A jet of air at moderate pressure (below 10 
mm. of water) from an orifice from 1 to 1.5 mm. 
in diameter, forms a continuous column for a cer- 
tain distance, beyond which it expands and be- 
comes confused. 

Any impulse, such as a tap on the jet support, 
or a short and sharp sound, causes a minute dis- 
turbance to start from the orifice. This disturb- 


-ance increases in area as it progresses, and finally 


causes the jet to break. By directing the jet 
against a flame or a hearing-orifice, it is readily 
perceived that such disturbances travel along the 
jet-path with a velocity which is not that of sound 
in air. In fact, the sound heard in the ear-piece 
resembles an echo of the disturbing sound. 

The disturbances produced by sounds of differ- 
ent pitch travel along the jet-path with the same 
velocity. This is evident, since otherwise ac- 
curate reproduction of the complex vibrations of 
speech at a distance from the orifice would be 
impossible. This velocity is much less than that 
of sound in air, and is probably the mean velocity 
of the stream. 

A vibrating air-jet playing into free air gives 

rise to very feeble sounds, but these sounds are 
much intensified when the jet impinges on any 
obstacle which serves to divide it into two parts. 
Of such arrangements, the best is a perforated 
surface, the orifice being placed in the axis of the 
jet. 
A jet of air at low pressure responds to and 
reproduces only sounds of low pitch. Sounds 
above a certain pitch, which depends on the press- 
ure, either do not affect it or are only faintly 
reproduced. 

At pressures between 10 and 12 mm. of water, 
an air-jet reproduces all the tones of the speaking 
voice, and those usually employed in music, with 
the exception of very shrill or hissing. noises. 
When the pressure in the reservoir equals about 
13 mm. of water, hissing sounds are well repro- 
duced, while sounds of low pitch become fainter. 
At higher pressures, up to about 25 mm. of water, 
shrill or hissing noises produce very violent dis- 
turbance, while ordinary speech tones have little 
effect. But at these pressures sounds of high 


JUNE 4, 1886.] 


pitch’ frequently cause the jet to emit lower 
sounds of which they are harmonics. 

In general a pressure of about 12 mm. of water 
will be found most suitable for reproducing speech 
or music. Under this condition the jet is very 
sensitive to disturbances of all kinds, and will 
reproduce speech, music, and the irregular sounds 
classified as ‘ noises.’ 

It must be understood that the pressures here 
given are only suitable for jets of not too small 
diameter. When the diameter of the orifice is 
only a small fraction of a millimetre, the above 
limits may be much exceeded, since the velocity 
of efflux no longer depends solely on the pressure. 

A jet of air escaping from a perfectly circular 
orifice does not vibrate spontaneously so as to 
emit a musical sound; but musical vibrations 
may be excited in it by the passage of the air on 
its way to the orifice through a resonant cavity, 
or through any irregular constriction. 

An air-jet impinging on any obstacle, such as a 
flame, frequently vibrates spontaneously, if the 
obstacle is at sufficient distance and of such a 
nature as to diffuse the disturbances produced by 
impact, or throw them back on the orifice. This 
constitutes one of the chief objections to the use 
of aflame as a means of rendering audible the 
vibrations of a jet. The disturbances excited in 
the surrounding air by the impact of the stream 
upon it are so intense as easily to react on the 
orifice. When, therefore, the jet is thrown into 
any state of vibration, it tends to continue in the 
same state, even after the exciting sound has 
ceased. 

A jet of air usually responds most energetically 
to some particular tone or set of related tones 
(Sondhauss). Such a particular tone may be called 
the jetfundamental. The practical inconvenience 
arising from this may be diminished by raising the 
air-pressure until the jet fundamental is higher 
than any of the tones to be reproduced. 

When a flame and an air-jet meet at right 
angles, vibrations impressed upon the flame- 
orifice also yield sound. The conditions of press- 
ure, etc., are somewhat different; but the 
changes produced at the orifice grow in the same 
way as those in an air-jet. The best results are 
obtained when a gentle current of air is directed 
from a wide tube just below the apex of the blue 
zone. 

It is difficult, at first sight, to account for the 
fact that a vibrating jet gives rise to sound only 
when it strikes upon some object which divides it 
into two parts. The following experiments, how- 
ever, in some sense explain this. The relative 
normal velocity at different points in the stream 
may be measured by introducing into its path the 


SCIENCE. 


AQT 


open end of a capillary tube which is connected 
with a water manometer. This velocity dimin- 
ishes continuously along the axis from the orifice 
to the breaking-point, and also diminishes con- 
tinuously from any point of the axis outwards 
towards the circumference. Now, a sudden dis- 
turbance communicated to the air at the orifice 
will be found to produce a fall in velocity along 
the axis of the jet, but a rise in velocity along its 
extreme outer portions. It thus appears that the 
changes along the axis and along the circum- 
ference, produced by a disturbance, are of op- 
posite character. When the jet plays into free 
air, these opposing changes neutralize each other 
in the main; but this interference is prevented 
when the jet strikes upon any object which serves 
to divide it. 

When a vibrating air-jet plays against a small 
flame, the best sounds are heard when the stream 
strikes the flame just below the apex of the blue 
zone. At the plane of contact an intensely blue 
flame ring appears, and this ring vibrates visibly 
when the jet is disturbed. The production of 
sound from it doubtless depends on changes in 
the rate of combustion of the gas. This may be 
proved by inserting into the ring a fine slip of 
platinum, connected in circuit with a battery and 
a telephone (fig. 5). When the jet is thrown into 
vibration, the consequent variations in the tem- 
perature of the platinum affect its conductivity, 
and hence a feeble reproduction of the jet-vibra- 
tion may be heard in the telephone. 

To Savart we are mainly indebted for our 
knowledge of the sympathetic vibrations of liquid 
jets. This physicist showed that a liquid jet 
always tends to separate into drops at a distance 
from the orifice in a regular manner; and that 
this tendency is so well marked, that when the 
jet strikes upon any object, such as a stretched 
membrane, so arranged that the disturbances 
caused by impact may be conducted back to the 
orifice, a definite musical sound is produced. The 
pitch of the sound, or the number of drops sep- 
arated in a given time, varies directly as the 
square root of the height of liquid in the reser- 
voir, and inversely as the diameter of the orifice. 
Savart further showed that external vibrations 
impressed upon the orifice may act like the im- 
pact disturbances, and cause the jet to divide into 
drops. Impact on a stretched membrane may 
then cause the reproduction as sound of the im- 
pressed vibrations. The tones capable of produ- 
cing this effect were considered to lie within the 
limits of an octavo below and a fifth above the 
jet normal. 

The author has found, however, that jets of 
every mobile liquid are capable of responding to 


498 SCIENCE. Vou. VII., No. 174 


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SCIENCE. 


JUNE 4, 1886.) 


FIG .VIKVIII. 


500 


and reproducing all sounds whose pitch is below 
that of the jet normal, as well as some above ; 
and that the timbre or quality of the impressed 
vibrations is also preserved, provided that the jet 
is at such pressure as to be capable of readily 
responding to all the overtones which-confer 
this quality. 

Other essential conditions for perfect reproduc- 
tion are, that the receiving-membrane should be 
placed at such distance from the orifice that the 
jet never breaks into drops above its surface, and 
that it should be insulated as carefully as possible 
from the orifice. 

In order to assist the action of aerial sound- 
waves on the fluid, it is advisable to attach 
the jet-tube rigidly to a pine sound - board 
about three-eighths of an inch thick. The sur- 
faces of the board should be free, otherwise it 
may be supported in any way. The receiving- 
membrane is formed by a piece of thin sheet- 
rubber tied over the end of a brass tube about 
three-eighths of an inch in internal diameter. A 
wide flexible hearing-tube furnished with an ear- 
piece is attached to the brass tube. The jet-tube 
is connected with an elevated reservoir by an 
india-rubber pipe (fig. 6). 

With an apparatus of this kind, and a tolerably 
wide jet-tube having an orifice about 0.7 mm. in 
diameter, a pressure of about 15 decimetres of 
water is required to bring the jet into condition 
to respond to all the tones and overtones of the 
speaking voice (except hissing sounds) and those 
employed in music. At a somewhat higher press- 
ure it will reproduce hissing sounds. It is not 
easy for an untrained ear to distinguish between 
the disturbing sounds and their reproduction by 
the jet, when both are within range of hearing. 
Vibrations may, however, be conveyed to a jet 
from a distance in a fairly satisfactory way by 
attaching one end of a thin cord to the jet-sup- 
port, and the other to the centre of a parchment 
drum. The cord being stretched, an assistant 
may speak, sing, or whistle to the distant drum. 
Other devices for conveying vibrations from a 
distance are described. 

Now, when the jet is disturbed in any way, and 
the receiving-membrane is introduced into its 
path close to the orifice, scarcely any sound can 
be heard in the ear-piece; but, if the membrane 
be moved away from the orifice along the path of 
the jet, the sounds become gradually louder, until 
at a certain distance (which varies both with the 
character of the orifice and the intensity of the 
impressed vibrations) a position of maximum 
purity and loudness is reached. At greater dis- 
tances the reproduction by the jet becomes at 
first rattling and harsh, and finally unintelligible. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VII., No. 174 


In the latter case the jet will be seen to break 
above the membrane. 

From this experiment we may draw the con- 
clusions previously arrived at for air-jets; viz., 
that all changes produced by sound at the orifice 
grow in accordance with the same law ; and that 
all changes travel with the same velocity, which 
is probably the mean velocity of the stream. 

The mode in which the jet acts upon the mem- 
brane becomes apparent when instantaneous 
shadow-photographs of vibrating jets are ex- 
amined. When the jet is steady, and the orifice 
strictly circular and well insulated, the outline in 
the upper part of the stream is that of a slightly 
conical rod, the base of the cone being at the 
orifice. When, however, vibrations are impressed 
upon the support, swellings and constrictions ap- 


pear on the surface of the rod, which become 


more pronounced as the fluid travels downwards. 
At the breaking-point the constrictions give way, 
those due to the more energetic sound-impulses 
being the first to break. When the impressed 
vibrations are complex, the outline of the jet may 
be very complicated. When the membrane is in- 
terposed, we have then a constantly changing mass 
of liquid hurled against it, and vibratory move- 
ments are therefore excited in it, proportional to 
the varying cross-section of the jet at its surface. 

It would appear at first sight that the mode of 
growth of the vibratory changes ina liquid jet 
must be different from that which characterizes 
the vibrations of an air-jet. It is possible, how- 
ever, by special arrangements, to receive the im- 
pact of only a small section of a vibrating liquid 
jet, and thus to get a reproduction of its vibra- 
tions assound. We are thus led to conclude that 
the sound-effects of a vibrating liquid jet may 
not be simply due to its varying cross-section, 
since actual changes occur in the translation- or 
rotation - velocity of its particles. Experiment 
shows that these changes are greatest along the 
axis of the jet. 

One of the most interesting and beautiful meth- 
ods of studying the vibrations of a jet consists in 
placing some portion of it in circuit with a bat- 
tery and telephone, whereby its vibrations be- 
come audible in the telephone. A number of 
forms of apparatus for this purpose have been 
constructed, but one will serve as a type. Savart, 
in the course of his experiments, showed that the 
vibrations of the jet are preserved in the ‘ nappe,’ 
or thin sheet of fluid formed when the jet strikes 
normally on a small surface. So far, then, as 
vibratory changes are concerned, the nappe has 
all the properties of the main stream. Although 
the diameter of this excessively thin film is about 
the same whatever be the distance of the surface 


June 4, 1886.] 


from the orifice, the intensity of the vibratory 
changes propagated to it varies with this distance, 
as for the jet itself. It is simply necessary, then, 
to insert into the nappe two platinum electrodes 
in circuit with a telephone and a battery having 
an electromotive force of from twelve to thirty 
volts, to get an accurate and faithful reproduction 
of the jet-vibrations. Loud sounds can thus be 
obtained from a jet which is finer than the finest 
needle, and the arrangement constitutes a highly 
sensitive ‘transmitter’ (figs. 7 and 8). 

A jet-transmitter, in its simplest form, consists 
essentially of a glass jet-tube which is rigidly at- 
tached to a sound-board, and supplied from an 
elevated reservoir containing some conducting- 
liquid (distilled water acidified with one three- 
hundredth of its volume of pure sulphuric acid is 
the best), and a couple of platinum electrodes 
embedded in an insulator, such as_ ebonite, 
against which the jet strikes. The jet may 
issue from a circular orifice, about 0.25 mm. in 
diameter, in the blunt and thin-sided end of a 
small glass tube. Much smaller jets may be used, 
but, for one of the given size, the pressure re- 
quired for distinct transmission of all kinds of 
sounds will not exceed thirty inches. The receiv- 
ing-surface is the rounded end of an ebonite rod, 
through the centre of which passes a platinum 
wire. The upper end of the rod should be about 
1 mm. in diameter,.and should be surrounded by 
a little tube of platinum ; and the end of the cen- 
tral wire and the upper margin of the tube should 
form a continuous slightly convex surface with 
the ebonite, free from irregularities. The inner 
and outer platinum electrodes are joined respec- 
tively to the terminals of the circuit. The jet is 
allowed to strike on the end of the central wire, 
and, thence radiating in the form of a nappe, 
comes into contact with the tube, thus completing 
the circuit. The dimensions of the apparatus may 
be varied to suit jets of different sizes ; it is highly 
desirable, however, that the jet nappe should well 
overlap the inner margin of the ring-shaped elec- 
trode. 

With small jets the impact disturbances are so 
feeble, that slight precautions are necessary to in- 
sulate the receiving-surface from the orifice, un- 
less the former is placed low down in the path. 
The strength of battery may be increased until the 
escape of electrolytic gas-bubbles causes a faint 
hissing noise in the telephone. The liquid, on its 
way to the jet, should pass downwards through a 
wide tube lightly packed with coarse clean cotton, 
by which minute air-bubbles which violently dis- 
turb the jet, and small particles of dust which 
might obstruct the orifice, are stopped. This tube 
Should never be allowed to empty itself. 


SCIENCE. 


501 


Experiments are given to show that in this in- 
strument the jet may act upon the electric current 
in two ways: first, by interposing a constantly 
changing liquid resistance between the electrodes ; 
and, second, by causing changes in the so-called 
‘polarization’ of the electrodes. In one form of 
instrument, namely, that in which both jet and 
electrodes are entirely immersed in a mass of liquid 
of the same kind as the jet liquid, the action must 
be entirely at the surface of the electrodes. 

In the latter case a liquid jet becomes similar in 
structure and properties to a jet of air in air, and 
the velocity at different points when it is steady 
and when it is disturbed varies in precisely the 
manner already described. 

The author briefly passed in review the leading 
facts to be accounted for, and laid stress upon the 
parallelism of the properties of gaseous and liquid 
jets. Some shadow- photographs of vibrating 
smoke jets have shown that these also present 
drop-like swellings and contractions which grow 
along the jet-path. The most satisfactory expla- 
nation of the phenomena will then be one which 
refers the vibratory changes in jets of both kinds 
to the same origin. 

The beautiful and well-known experiments of 
Plateau have supplied a satisfactory explanation 
of the normal vibrations of a liquid jet in air. He 
has shown that a stationary liquid cylinder, whose 
length exceeds a certain multiple of its diameter, 
must break up, under the influence of the ‘ forces 
of figure,’ into shorter cylinders of definite length. 
which, when liberated, tend to contract into drops. 
Now, the jet being regarded as such a stationary 
cylinder, we have a satisfactory explanation of the 
musical tone resulting when its discontinuous part 
strikes upon a stretched membrane, and when the 
impact disturbances may be in any way conducted 
back to the orifice. These disturbances then accel- 
erate the division of the jet after it leaves the ori- 
fice. Plateau endeavored to show that division of 
the jet might take place at other than the normal 
points, thus explaining Savart’s conclusion that 
a jet can vibrate in sympathy with a limited range 
of tones. Lord Rayleigh, moreover, has recently 
shown that the inferior limit of this range is not 
so sharply defined theoretically as Savart’s experi- 
ments would prove it to be. 

Both Savart and Magnus, however, describe ex- 
periments in which a water-jet, carefully protected 
from impact and other disturbances, does not 
exhibit the peculiar appearances characteristic of 
rhythmical division ; and the author’s experiments 
conclusively prove that this rhythmical division 
does not take place in a well-insulated jet. While 
the tendency so to divide may therefore be admit- 
ted, and the normal rate of vibration of the jet 


502 


and its greater sensitiveness to particular tones 
may thereby be explained, Plateau’s theory cannot 
be held to account for the uniform growth, along 
the jet-path, of all changes, however complex 
their form ; for this growth takes place indepen- 
dently of the ‘forces of figure,’ and under condi- 
tions in which they are entirely absent, as when a 
gaseous or liquid jet plays within a mass of fluid 
of its own kind. 

The author is inclined, rather, to refer the prop- 
erties of jets of all kinds to conditions of motion 
on which hitherto little stress has been laid ; viz., 
the unequal velocities at different points in the 
stream after it has left the orifice. From the axis 
towards the circumference of a jet near the orifice, 
the velocity diminishes continuously, and the mo- 
tions of the stream may be regarded as resultants 


of the motions of an infinite series of parallel and ~ 


co-axial vortex-rings. In many respects, in fact, 
the appearance of a jet resembles the appearance 
of a vortex-ring projected from the same orifice. 
Thus a jet from a circular orifice, like a vortex- 
ring from a round aperture, remains always circu- 
lar. In a frictionless fluid a vortex-ring, uninflu- 
enced by other vortices, would remain of constant 
diameter, — a condition to which a _ horizontal 
liquid jet approximates. When, however, the 
ring moves through a viscous fluid, it experiences 
retardation and expansion, which are precisely 
the changes which a jet playing in a fluid of its 
own kind undergoes. The vibrating smoke-ring 
projected from an elliptical aperture changes its 
form in exactly the samme manner as a jet, at 
sufficiently low pressure, from an_ elliptical 
orifice. These analogies might be considerably 
extended. 

In a liquid jet in air or in a vacuum, internal 
friction must gradually equalize the velocities. 
At a distance from the orifice, therefore, depend- 
ing on the viscosity of the liquid, such a jet must 
approach the condition of a cylinder at rest, and 
must tend to divide in accordance with Plateau’s 
law. The rapidity with which drops are formed 
depends mainly on the superficial tension of the 
liquid. The length of the continuous column 
should therefore bear some inverse ratio to the 
viscosity and superficial tension of the liquid, —a 
view which is in harmony with the results of 
Savart’s experiments, and some of the author’s, in 
this direction. 

Where the jet plays into a fluid of its own kind, 
the retardation and expansion which it experiences 
are mainly due to its parting with its energy to 
the surrounding medium. When, as a result of 
vibration, growing swellings and contractions are 
formed in it, this loss must be more rapid; and 
the jet therefore shows a diminution of mean 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII, No. 174 


velocity along the axis, which increases with the 
distance from the orifice. 

Such being the conditions, it is evident that any 
impulse communicated to the fluid, either behind 
or external to the orifice, or to the orifice itself, 
must alter the vorticity of the stream. That vor- 
tex-rings are generated by impulses of the first 
kind is well known; the action when the orifice 
is moved is intelligible, if we consider that a 
forward motion of it will produce acceleration, a 
backward motion retardation, of the outer layers 
of the jet. As the result of a rapid to-and-fro 
motion, we may then imagine two vortex-rings to 
be developed; the foremost layer of greater 
energy, and moving more slowly, than the hind- 
most. These two rings, in their onward course, 
will then act on each other in a known manner: 
the first will grow in size and energy at the expense 
of the second, at the same time diminishing in 
velocity ; the second will contract while its velocity 
increases. The inequalities in cross-section, initi- 
ated at the orifice. thus tend to grow along the 
jet-path, and will be attended also by growing in- 
equalities of the normal and rotational velocities 
of the particles. Since the stream-lines of a 
vortex-ring are crowded together at its centre, the 
disturbances produced by impact of the jet-rings 
will be greatest along the axis, and least along the 
circumference. 

Indeed, the sound disturbances produced by im- 
pact of a common vortex-ring are quite analogous 
to those of a vibrating jet. Let an air-ring be 
projected into a trumpet-shaped tube connected 
with the ear, and little more than a rushing noise 
will result ; but let it be projected against a small 
orifice in the hearing tube, and a sharp click will 
be heard at the moment of impact. This click is 
loud when the centre of the ring strikes the tube, 
but faint, although still of the same character, 
when produced from the circumference. 

The foregoing considerations may be extended 
to cases in which the motions of the orifice are 
complex vibrations. Expansions and contractions 
are then initiated in the fluid proportional at every 
point to the velocity of the orifice. The inequali- 
ties must tend to further diverge in the manner 
described. 

Similar considerations apply to cases in which 
the motions of the orifice are the result of lateral 
impulses. In these cases the rings formed in the 
jet will not be perpendicular to its direction, and 
in their onward course may possibly vibrate about 
a mean position. 


The author further pointed out how the viscosity | 


and surface-tension of the fluid may influence its 
sensitiveness. When the surface-tension is very 
high, as in mercury, it produces a tendency in the 


JUNE 4, 1886.] 


jet to break easily under the influence of moderate 
impulses. 

The foregoing is ttle more than the outlines of 
a new theory of jet-vibrations. The author hopes 
to supply in the future further experimental evi- 
dence in support of it. 


BOSTON LETTER. 


EVIDENTLY one should join the Essex institute 
in Salem if one wishes to live to a green old age. 
This well-honored scientific body held its annual 
meeting recently; and the secretary’s report 
showed, that, of the 24 deaths during the year, 
all but one were of persons over fifty years of age. 
Moreover, of the 324 living members, two-thirds 
are over threescore years and ten, and seven are 
past foursccre. The institute is soon to go into 
new quarters. 

Preparations are making for the celebration at 
Cambridge of the two hundred and fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the founding of Harvard college. It will 
not take place at the commencement season, but 
at some time the following autumn, and it seems 
to be generally understood that Hon. James Rus- 
sell Lowell will preside. It will be a different 
thing from the bicentenary, when a smaller 
audience-room than is now available permitted 
even all the undergraduates to find a place. The 
living Harvard alumni alone are probably three 
times the number living fifty years ago, and cer- 
tainly the undergraduates are five times as nu- 
merous as then. This event makes specially ap- 
propriate the list just published by the university, 
showing the literary activity of its officers during 
the last five years. A similar ten-years list was 
published in 1880; but the present, though only for 
half that time, not only contains a longer list of 
publications than the former, but a somewhat 
larger number of writers among the officers. 

Gifts continue to come in to the university. 
Mrs. Draper of New York continues to further 
the researches to which the late Dr. Henry 
Draper devoted his life. Her latest gift is of a 
thousand dollars to Harvard college observatory, 
to be expended under the direction of Professor 
Pickering in prosecuting researches in the pho- 
| tography of stellar spectra; the eleven-inch pho- 
) tographic lens constructed by Dr. Draper will be 
_ employed in this work, and those who heard Pro- 
_ fessor Pickering’s account, at the Albany meeting 
of the National academy last autumn, of his own 
work in the field in which Dr. Draper’s name is 
So honorably associated, will believe that Mrs. 
Draper has made an excellent choice. 

In this same connection it should be mentioned 
that the contest at law about the Paine bequest to 


SCIENCE. 


503 


the Harvard observatory, mention of which has 
before been made in this correspondence, is hap- 
pily closed by amicable settlement between the 
parties concerned. The amount which will now 
be turned over to the observatory, probably with- 
in the next month or two, will scarcely differ 
from that previously announced, and on the 
death of the widow it is probable that the entire 
bequest will exceed three hundred thousand dol- 
lars. Those who have followed the telling activ- 
ity of the observatory under its present manage- 
ment will be confident that no other institution 
could make better use of such a noble gift. 

At the annual meeting of the American acad- 
emy, May 25, it was voted to present the Rum- 
ford gold and silver medal to Professor Langley 
of the Allegheny observatory, for his researches 
in radiant energy. Thus Professor Langley has 
in a single year borne off the two principal gold 
medals given for scientific work in America, hav- 
ing received the Draper medal of the National 
academy only last month. No one will dispute 
his right to them. The Rumford fund will also 
be used this year by the American academy in 
aid of researches upon the solar corona at the 
time of the total eclipse of August next, five hun- 
dred dollars having been appropriated in aid of 
Mr. W. H. Pickering’s expedition to the West 
Indies. A letter was read from Mr. Greenough 
the sculptor, a fellow of the academy, announcing 
his gift to the academy of a portrait of Galileo, 
which he stated was either an old copy or a replica 
of the portrait in the Pitti palace. The portrait is 
already on its way to America. 

In passing through Mount Auburn cemetery 
the other day I observed for the first time the 
monument which has been erected at the grave of 
Pourtalés, the colleague of Agassiz, and the pio- 
neer in the zodlogy of the deep seas. It is a simple 
but massive semicircular slab of very fine-grained 
sandstone, on one face of which is the usual in- 
scription, while on the other, facing the grave, 
has been deeply engraved a conventionalized Pec- 
ten-like sea-shell, forming a sort of niche; and on 
the surface of this are neatly sculptured in bas- 
relief a coral, a Comatula, a Gorgonia, and a 
magnified foraminifer, emblematic of the subjects 
of his study. 

Ths topographical field-parties of the U. S. 
geological survey have begun their season’s opera- 
tions in this state, and before next winter most of 
the field-work will have been finished. The Ap- 
palachian mountain club, taking advantage of the 
work already completed, is about to issue, by per- 
mission of the survey, a photolithograph of a 
portion of the field-sheets on the original scale, 
comprising the extreme north-western corner of 


504 


the state, with Greylock, our highest mountain 
mass. Contours will be shown twenty feet apart, 
and bring out in fine relief the bolder slopes of 
this part of the state. x. 


Boston, June 1. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE Imperial university of Japan (Teikoku- 
Daigaku), founded by imperial decree of March 1, 
1886, includes the two institutions formerly known 
as the TOky6 university (Téky6 Daigaku) and the 
Imperial college of engineering (Kobu-Daigakko), 
these institutions having ceased to exist. The 
university comprises five colleges, each with its 
own director; and at its head is the president, 
Hiromoto Watanabe. The secretary is Kiuichiro 
Nagai. The directors of the different colleges 
are: College of law (Hdka-Daigaku), the presi- 
dent (ex officio); College of medicine (Ika-Daiga- 
ku), Prof. Hiizu Miyake ; College of engineering 
(Koka-Daigaku), (acting) Prof. Dairoku Kikuchi, 
M.A. (Cantab.); College of literature (Bunka- 
Daigaku), Prof. Masakazu Toyama: College of 
science (Rika-Daigaku), Prof. Dairoku Kikuchi, 
M.A. (Cantab.). All communications to the Im- 
perial university, whether on its own behalf or as 
the representative of the two above-mentioned 
institutions now defunct, should be addressed to 
the president ; communications to the colleges, to 
the director of each college. 


— Dr. Charles Upham Shepard, well known for 
his collections in mineralogy, died at Charleston, 
May 1. For a considerable portion of his life he 
was identified with the South Carolina medical 
college, and aided greatly in giving that institution 
an honorable standing. He was also connected 
with Amherst college; and to this college he gave 
his vast collection of minerals, which was un- 
fortunately destroyed in 1880. 


—A note from Dr. Hyde of Honolulu, to the 
Missionary herald for June, reports that ‘‘ news 
has just come that on March 6 the bottom fell out 
of the volcano, and that Kilauea is now only a 
black hole in the ground ; no lava, no fire, to be 
seen. But such phenomena have been seen be- 
fore ; and the wonderful crater may fill up again, 
and be active once more. There were forty-nine 
earthquakes on the island of Hawaii at the time, 
and probably some new vent opened for the sub- 
terranean fires.” 


— The house committee on commerce has re- 
ported favorably the bill providing for an expert 
commission to visit Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and the 
Central American states for the purpose of inves- 
tigating the merits of the methods pursued by 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 174 


Drs. Freire and Carmona for the prevention of 
yellow-fever by inoculation. In their report the 
committee say, ‘‘ Dr. Carmona states, that in one 
series of observations during the prevalence of 
yellow-fever, of three hundred and eighty persons 
protected by inoculation, less than three per cent 
contracted the disease ; while under the same cir- 
cumstances, of one hundred and seventy-five per- 
sons not inoculated, thirty-two per cent were 
seized with it. He also states that seventy-six 
inoculated soldiers marching from Vera Cruz to 
Acayucan were joined by a soldier who had not 
been inoculated. Upon their arrival at the latter 
place, the unprotected soldier was seized with 
yellow -fever, and died, while no case of the 
disease occurred among his seventy-six comrades. 
Other facts of a similar character are related by 
Drs. Carmona and Freire, which certainly tend 
very strongly to show the success of this preven- 
tive treatment. It is therefore important that 
further scientific observations and experiments 
should be instituted in order to establish beyond 
controversy the facts relating to this subject, so 
vital to the interests of sanitary science, com- 
merce, and humanity.” 


— The following assignments have been made 
in the topographical department of the geological 
survey : Mr. Mark Kerr is in Oregon; Prof. A. 
H. Thompson is in charge of the western division, 
with headquarters at San Francisco; Mr. Ren- 
shaw wiil be sent to Kansas and Missouri this 
week; and Mr. Richard Goode will go to Texas. 


—The announcement of the death of Von 
Ranke was succeeded by that of George Waitz, 
one of his most painstaking and industrious pu- 
pils. Professor Waitz was born at Flensberg in 
1813. He became professor of history at the Uni- 
versity of Kiel in 1842, in 1848 he was a mem- 
ber of the Frankfort assembly, and in 1849 he 
was called to G6ttingen. Waitz succeeded Pertz 
as editor of the ‘ Monumenta Germaniae historica,’ 
and in connection with this work he has achieved 
a consiuerable reputation. His most important 
writings are, ‘Deutsche verfassungs-geschichte’ 
(2d ed., 1865, 4 vols.), Schleswig-Holstein ge- 
schichte’ (1851-54, 2 vols.), ‘Grundziige der 
politik’ (1862), and ‘Die formeln der deutschen 
k6nigs- und der rémischen kaiserkrénung vom 10 — 
bis zum 10 jahrhundert.’ Of late years Professor 
Waitz has resided in Berlin. “e 


— Pending the action of the appropriation com- — 
mittee, no instructions can be issued by the coast _ 
survey to continue work after June 30. As soon | 
as the appropriations are available, preparations © 
will be made to organize parties for field-work 
after July 1. 


_ society of London, for the year ending 1885. 


June 4, 1886.] 


—Mr. R. M. Bache has been ordered by the 
coast survey to continue the topographical work 
on the south-east shore of Staten Island, and on 
the south side of Raritan Bay towards Sandy 
Hook ; Mr. F. W. Perkins is daily expected from 
his field-operations on the coast of Louisiana. 


—Velhagen & Klasing (Leipzig) have begun the 
publication, in twelve monthly parts, of a new 
edition of Andree’s ‘Allgemeiner handatlas.’ It 
will contain a hundred and twenty maps. 


_— The following works of interest to scientific 
readers have been lately announced : ‘ Earthquakes 
and other earth movements,’ by John Milne (New 
York, Appleton); ‘A manual of mechanics,’ by 
T. M. Gordon (New York, Appleton); a work on 
the labor question in America, by Professor Ely 
(New York, Crowell) ; ‘ Photo-engraving processes,’ 
by A. F. W. Leslie (New York, Fuchs & Lang); 
‘The flow of water through pipes and open con- 
duits and from weirs and orifices, by H. Smith, 
jun. (London, Triibner); ‘The world as will and 
idea,’ vols. ii. and iii., bv A. Schopenhauer, tr. by 
R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp (London, Triibner) ; 
‘The Indian empire : its history, people, and prod- 
ucts,’ by W. W. Hunter (London, Triibner). 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


x*, Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. 
writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


The 


A national zoological garden. 


In 1870 an act of incorporation was passed, estab- 
lishing a zodlogical society in Washington ; but dur- 
ing the last sixteen years little or nothing has been 
done towards carrying out what the charter of this 
society provides for, or taking any steps in the 
direction of putting into effect the chief objects such 
an organization would have in view. 

We learn from Science (vii. No. 160) that the 
public-spirited and venerable exhibiter of animals, 
Mr. P. T. Barnum, now comes forward and says, 
that, if congress will grant him thirty acres of the 
reclaimed flats on the Washington side of the 
Potomac River, he will expend the generous sum of 
two hundred thousand dollars in starting a national 
zoological garden. 

Now, the eastern extension of these flats is not far 
from the Smithsonian grounds, and, taking every 
thing else into consideration, there is probably not a 
better site in this country for this particular pur- 
pose. The incalculable advantages that would be 
the outcome of such an establishment can be easily 
appreciated ; and it is only to be hoped that at an 
early day congress will take Mr. Barnum’s proposi- 
tion into favorable consideration. 

Few institutions in any country afford better 
educational advantages than a large, well-kept, and 
well-managed zodlogical garden. No better proof 


| of this can be brought forward than the report of 


Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., secretary of the Zodlogical 
Mr. 
Sclater tells us that during the year quoted, 659,896 
persons visited the gardens, and that the receipts of 


SCIENCE. 


505 


the society amounted to the extraordinary sum of 
£25,809 10s 1d; while during the previous year 
745,460 persons visited the gardens, and the receipts 
were proportionately greater ; in fact, £3,129 more. 

Many of the larger animals in this country are 
now rapidly disappearing from off the face of the 
earth, — notably the bison, the elk, and moose, —while 
numbers of the smaller representatives of our 
splendid mammalian and avi-fauna are unfamiliar 
to the eyes of the vast majority of the people of 
this country, from the simple fact that we are so 
poor in institutions where the living specimens can 
be put on exhibition. 

Mr. F. W. True, curator of the department of 
mammals in the Smithsonian institution, points out 
in Science (vii. No. 171) another deplorable neglect, 
which unfortunately we are likewise guilty of, and 
which the establishment of a zodlogical society in 
Washington would do much towards rectifying. 
With the disappearance of our larger animals and 
other vertebrates, the opportunities are forever be- 
ing placed beyond our reach, to intimately know 
about the anatomical structure of these very forms. 
In regard to this, anatomists are too apt to say some- 
thing like this: ‘‘ Oh, yes! a prairie dog; no doubt 
its organization is very much like the squirrel’s, and 
will not repay exhaustive examination.” Now, I 
say that these related and interrelated types are the 
very ones that will repay the most exhaustive re- 
search. 

A competent prosector attached to our zodlogical 
garden — one who combined the qualities of an 
artist, an author, and a general anatomist — would 
soon demonstrate the high importance of his work, 
and contribute the most efficient aid to animal tax- 
onomy. The brilliant productions of Garrod and 
Forbes, in the Proceedings of the Zodlogical society 
of London, speak volumes in favor of this advan- 
tage. 

A share of the pecuniary receipts that would ac- 
crue from such an establishment could be set aside 
to meet the expenses following the publication of 
handsomely illustrated memoirs, giving large colored 
plates of the rarer acquisitions to the gardens, and 
the investigations of the prosector into the structure 
of such animals as died from time to time, and thus 
fell into his hands. We have long felt, in this coun- 
try, the need of just some such standard publication 
as the excellently conducted Proceedings of the 
Zodlogical society of London; and this would cer- 
tainly be realized, and follow as one of the natural 
results pending the establishment of our national 
zoological garden. R. W. SHUFELDT. 

Fort Wingate, N. Mex., May 26. 


Scent-organs in some bombycid moths. 


At intervals during the past year or two, isolated 
observations have been made of peculiar filamentary 
processes protruding from the abdomen of the male 
of some of our common bombycids, Leucarctia 
acraea and Scepsis fulvicollis being the observed 
species. Not long since, I described a peculiar 
abdominal character in the male of Cosmosoma 
omphale ; and the recent capture and examination 
of specimens of Leucarctia acraea has enabled me 
to add something to the knowledge of the structure 
in that species. Between the seventh and eighth 
ventral segments is a narrow opening, entirely in- 
visible in the dried insect, but readily discerned on a 


506 


slight pressure of the abdomen in the fresh specimen. 
This opening extends back about an eighth of an 
inch, and, on being carefully pried open, shows two 
closely foided tufts of fine blackish hair. Pressure 
upon the abdomen will generally force out these 
tufts, and, if rightly applied, will result in the 
extension of two orange tentacle like structures, 
fully half an inch in length, united at the base, and 
spreading backward and outwardly in a gentle curve. 
The tufts of hair diminish as the tentacles are ex- 
tended, the individual hairs occupying small but dis- 
tinct papillae on the sides, until, when fully extended, 
they are evenly distributed around them, and uo 
trace of the brush-like tuft remains. If the press- 
ure be removed, the tentacles contract, the hairs 
again forming a tuft. 

Specimens of Pyrrharctia isabella, when closely 
examined, showed a similar abdominal structure ; 
but here there were four tufts extended instead of 
two, and in color they were snow-white. Properly 
applied pressure resulted in the inflation, first, of two 
basal sacs, which, when fully dilated, could be com- 
pared to nothing better than the ends of two thumbs 
pointing in opposite directions, the hairs of two of 
the tufts arranged rather densely on the convex 
outer surface. From the middle of the lower edge 
of these sacs there extended two tentacles similar to 
those in acraea, but not so long; and instead of 
being evenly clothed with hair, in this species the 
lower portion only has the papillae and hairy sur- 
face. The sacs and tentacles here are whitish, in- 
stead of orange, asin acraea. The processes of the 
latter species have a most remarkable resemblance 
to the tentacles of the larva of the common Papilio 
asterias, both in color and inshape. In both species 
an intense odor, somewhat like the smell of laud- 
anum, is apparent when first the tentacles are ex- 
posed; and there is no reasonable doubt but that 
they are odor-glands, though exactly what purpose 
they serve is not so clear. In closely allied species 
no trace of this structure has been detected. Several 
fresh specimens of Arctia, Spilosoma virginica, and 
Hyphantria textor showed no trace of it; and no 
dry specimens of any other species thus far ex- 
amined have a similar structure. 

JOHN B. SMITH, 


Assistant curator. 
U.S. national museum. 
Washington, D.C., May 28. 


Muscles of the hind-limb of Cheiromeles 
torquatus. 


I desire to place on record some observations [have 
recently made on the muscles of the hind-limb of 
Cheiromeles torquatus. This bat is one of the most 
interesting of the Cheiroptera. It is to a great ex- 
tent arboreal in its habits. The wings are small, the 
body heavy and uncouth, and the wing-membranes 
are so arranged as to accommodate the young within 
a pouch on the back instead of on the front of the 
chest, as is the case in most of the bats. As a con- 
sequence, I expected to find in the musculature of 
the hind-limbs structures recalling those of other 
orders of mammals rather than those of the bats 
generally. In the main these anticipations have 
been met. It has always been supposed that the 
popliteus, the biceps, the soleus, and plantaris 
muscles are absent in the bats. It is true that Mac- 
alister finds in Vampyrops a few oblique fibres ‘ like 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 174. 


a rudimental popliteus,’ and Humphry identifies a 
small fascicle in Pteropus as biceps: but with these 
exceptions, as Macalister says, ‘‘ there is no trace of 
biceps, popliteus, soleus, or plantaris in any.” There 
is no doubt that the popliteus, the biceps, and the 
plantaris are present in Cheiromeles. The soleus is 
the only one of the absentees which is unaccounted 
for. 

The maintenance of this group of muscles in a bat 
which is specialized for a tree-life, and scurries about 
the trunk after a fashion much like that of Pteromys, 
suggests the conclusion that the muscles named (ex- 
cepting the soleus) are essential to the simplest ex- 
pression of a true act of walking. They are absent 
in the volant bats, since they are of no use in flight ; 
but they at once re-appear when the limbs are used 
for walking, or for the movements which are similar 
to thisact. The assumption here taken that Cheiro- 
meles is a true bat, which has been specially modified 
from the typical bat, is, I believe, tenable, and need 
not be here discussed. Occasion will be taken in due 
time to present arguments to sustain it. I will be 
content now to record the existence of the muscles 
named, and to give brief descriptions of them. 

The popliteus is a well-defined muscle which slightly 
overlies the origin of the tibialis posticus. It does 
not create an oblique line on the tibia, which is so 
characteristic of the muscle in the mammals gen- 
erally. 

The plantaris is a conspicuous muscle, and is larger 
and heavier than is the gastrocnemius. It is distinct 
from the gastrocnemius its entire length. The muscle 
passes down to the sole of the foot, where it is con- 
tinuous with the plantar fascia. Traction on the 
muscle flexes and abducts the foot. 

A single muscular mass attached to the ischium 
represents the semi-membranosus and the biceps. 
The biceps becomes free at the upper fourth of the 
thigh, and is inserted into the head of the fibula. 

The muscle which represents the tibialis posticus 
and flexor longus digitorum arises from the upper 
part of both the tibia and the fibula. It remains 
fleshy until it reaches the neighborhood of the tarsus, 
when two distinct tendons appear. One of these 
may be said to represent the flexor longus digitorum. 
It passes superficially over the ankle, and is lost 
on the plantar surface. Traction on the tendon ab- 
ducts the foot, but does not flex the toes. The 
tendon of the tibialis anticus is lost on the tarsus. 
Traction on this muscle exerts no apparent influence 
on the movements of the tarsus. 


HARRISON ALLEN. 
Philadelphia, May 25. 


Double vision. 


In your issue of May 14, p. 440, Mr. Keller de- 
scribes some phenomena of binocular vision, and 
asks an explanation. It would be impossible to do 
this in a short communication, but he will find the 
subject explained in any work on binocular vision. 
Perhaps the most accessible to him is my own little 
volume, entitled ‘Sight’ (International — scientific 
series, vol. xxxi.). For explanation of phantom 
images, I would refer him to the chapters on ‘ Single 
and double images,’ and on ‘ Superposition of ex- 
ternal images,’ and especially to the diagram on p. 
116; and for explanation of inequalities of surface 
of such images, to p. 141 and preceding pages. 


JOSEPH LECONTE. 
Berkeley, Cal., May 24. 


| 


SCIEN pie. Serres 


FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1886. 


AN INDIAN SNAKE-DANCE.' 


THE worship of the serpent has been so closely 
connected with the mythologic systems of so 
many primitive peoples, and has exercised so 
large an influence on religion, that any facts bear- 
ing on the subject must be of interest. It has 
even been said that this form of worship was 
more widely and universally distributed than any 
other. In Egypt, at the dawn of history, serpent- 
worship had already assumed the highest impor- 
tance. Among the Phoenicians and in ancient 
Persia the serpent was worshipped as an evil 
deity, and also at a later period among the Ger- 
man tribes of the north; and the same myth may 
be traced in a modified form in the legendary 
history of the Greeks and Romans. Among the 
Hebrews there existed a strong tendency to this 
form of worship,—a tendency which, though 
repeatedly crushed out by the hand of power, as 
often re-asserted itself; and so late as eight hun- 
dred years after Moses it was prevalent in one of 
its grossest forms, for we read in 2 Kings xviii. 4, 
‘‘He removed the high places, and brake the 
images, and cut down the groves, and brake in 
pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: 
for unto those days the children of Israel did burn 
incense to it.” With the Chinese the serpent is a 
*“symbolic monster, dwelling in spring above the 
clouds to give rain, and in autumn under the 
waters.” It is in this connection, i.e., in connec- 
tion with rain, that the performance that I am 
about to describe, occurred. In India the serpent 
was regarded as the great evil spirit, and Krishna is 
represented as crushing its head beneath his heel. 

To come nearer home, the myth was very 
widely distributed among the North American 
tribes at the time of the discovery, in many of 
them in the form of pure ancestor-worship, but 
in others not so connected. It was common 
among the mound-builders, as is shown by the 
number of mounds of the serpent-form still ex- 
isting, and by the prevalence, in mound relics, of 
More or less conventionalized representations of 
the rattlesnake. A recent report of the bureau 
of ethnology contains illustrations of a number of 
Shell-gorgets, described and figured by Mr. W. H. 
Holmes, which are engraved to represent snakes. 

Nowhere, I think, was the influence of this 


1 Read before the Washington anthropological society. 


myth more pronounced than in ancient Mexico ; 
and nowhere, I may add, is it more involved or 
its meaning more obscure. As the tendency of 
modern investigation is to show the existence of 
a remarkable similarity between the ancient Mexi- 
can civilization and the pueblo system of our own 
south-western territories, any facts in regard to 
serpent - worship among the latter must be of 
especial interest. 

During the early part of the past field-season 
we were engaged in the investigation of some 
ruins near the Moki Pueblos, and were so for- 
tunate as to be in that neighborhood at the time 
of the ‘snake-dance’ of those Indians. We wit- 
nessed this interesting performance twice, — once 
at Mashongnavi, one of the middle towns of the 
Moki confederacy, on the 16th of August; and 
again on the next day at Wolpi, one of the east- 
ern towns. The two dances are essentially the 
same, the only difference being in the greater 
number of performers at Wolpi, and in the paint- 
ing of the body. I have selected the Mashongnavi 
dance for description, because it has never been 
described, and had never, to my knowledge, been 
seen by whites before our visit; while that of 
Wolpi has been witnessed by many interested 
persons, several of whom have published, or are 
about to publish, their accounts. 

During several days, before the date fixed for 
the dance, we frequently met parties of Indians 
hunting for snakes. The men were perfectly 
naked, with the exception of the breech - cloth, 
and each one carried a long red buckskin bag to 
contain the reptiles. and a feather wand, de- 
scribed later on. As the dance occurs in August, 
when the temperature during the middle of the 
day is almost unbearable to a white man, the airy 
costume of the hunters is a decided advantage to 
them. Several hunters carried forked sticks. 

The snake-hunting occupies four days, one day 
being devoted to each of the cardinal points of the 
compass. There is said to be also a supplementary 
search on the last day, in order to capture any 
snakes that may have been overlooked previously. 
About noon of each day groups of hunters visited 
the several springs lying in that day’s section, in 
order to bathe and rest themselves, and to deposit 
in crevices in the rocky wall of the spring or 
reservoir a baho, or prayer-stick, — a small round 
piece of wood half an inch or less in diameter and 
three or four inches long, generally painted in 
green and white, and with a feather from the 


508 


breast of an eagle attached to it. These bahos are 
prayers to the gods that the springs where they 
are deposited may not dry up, but continue to 
give an ever-increasing supply. We never saw 
the ceremony of depositing bahos, if ceremony 
there be, though on several occasions we reached 
the spring while the hunters were there. 

At the end of each day the serpents collected 
during that day were deposited in an estufa situ- 
ated on the southern edge of the village, the 
westernmost of a group of three. These estufas, 
or, as the Indians call them, Aivas, were under- 
ground, or partly underground, chambers, a num- 
ber of which are attached to each village, and 
form a kind of combined church and court-house, 
in which is transacted all the religious and civil 
business of the tribe. They are of various di- 
mensions. Those mentioned here are about twen- 
ty-five feet long by twelve in width, and nine feet 
high. Most of these kivas have a slightly elevated 
dias, or platform, occupying a little less than one- 
half of the ground space, generally the south end. 
On this platform the women and other spectators 
stand during the performance of those rites which 
they are allowed to witness. There were a number 
of young men who seemed to make this their head- 
quarters during the period of preparation, living 
in the kiva entirely, except when out on a hunt. 
They usually sallied out during the forenoon, 
armed with the various paraphernalia before men- 
tioned, and returned to supper or feasting a little 
before sundown. At one of our visits, on the day 
before the dance, we found the floor of the kiva 
strewn with buckskin sacks, some empty, others 
containing snakes; but the bulk of the snake- 
supply was contained in three large earthenware 
vessels inverted on a slight bed of sand on the 
floor. Each vessel had a small hole broken 
through the bottom, through which the reptile 
could be passed. These holes were closed by 
corn-cob stoppers. During the visit, a man 
brought in another pouch, and released on the 
floor two small rattlesnakes. The younger men 
of the band played with these, apparently from 
simple amusement or curiosity, as there was no 
ceremonial whatever. They handled the snakes 
without taking any special precautions to get a 
safe grip, even holding them occasionally by the 
middle of the body. After a while they were put 
into the jars with the others. While one of the 
snakes was coiled on the floor for a movement, a 
naked boy walked past it to the other side of the 
room, passing within six inches of the snake. 

The easternmost of the three kivas is the snake- 
kiva proper. In this underground chamber, for 
several days preceding the dance, various rites 
and ceremonies were performed, On the lower 


SCIENUE. 


{[Vou. VII., No. 174 


portion of the floor was a peculiar altar, made of 
various colored sands spread on the floor, and sur- 
rounded by lumps of clay in which were stuck 
small upright sticks with feathers attached. This 
sand-painting on the floor represented a mass of 
clouds from which descended four variously 
colored figures representing either snakes or light- 
ning, the sign for these being apparently the 
same. Both the clouds and the other figures were 
very much conventionalized. The colors used 
were yellow, blue, pink, black, and white. It is 
unnecessary here to describe the details of this 
so-called altar or its construction, as the type is 
already well known through the able descriptions 
of Dr. Matthews and Col. James Stevenson. Ido 
not think the snakes appear in this estufa until 
immediately before the dance. 

We reached the village of Mashongnavi shortly 
after four o’clock in the afternoon of the ap- 
pointed day, and found that preparations had 
been made to hold the dance in the middle court, 
—an oblong space measuring about a hundred 
and fifty feet by thirty or thirty-five, and closed 
all around by houses, with the exception of the 
narrow passage-ways at the south end nearest the 
kivas, and a large passage on the north, which, 
however, was not used in this ceremony. Only 
a part of the available space of the court was 
utilized. The court had been swept clean; and 
near the middle, close up to the houses, on the 
western side, a small conical hut constructed of 
green cottonwood boughs had been erected. The 
diameter of the hut, on the ground, was about six 
feet; and the tops of the highest branches meas- 
ured about thirteen feet from the ground, though 
the inside .height was probably under five feet. 
On the east side, flush with the ground, was an 
opening about two feet and a half square, cov- 
ered with a piece of buffalo-hide, smooth side out. 
A little before five o’clock three men dressed in 
the snake costume came through the narrow 
opening at the south end on arun. Each carried 
in his hand a small red buckskin bag containing 
sacred meal. They entered the hut one at a time, 
remaining inside a moment. Immediately after 
these men came two others, dressed also in the 
snake costume, carrying between them a medium- 
sized flour-sack nearly full of snakes. These were 
deposited in the hut, and the whole party returned 
through the passage by which they had entered. 
A moment later the procession of dancers filed | 
into the court. 

There were two costumes, — that of the ante- 
lope gens, under whose auspices the dance was- 
performed ; and that of the snake order, the per- — 
formers. The legend of this dance is the legend 
of the first arrival of the Mokis at their present 


JuNE 4, 1886.] 


habitat... The antelope gens were the first to 
arrive, and were guided to their present location 
by the snake-woman. The snake order was insti- 
tuted to commemorate this event. 

The costume of the antelopes was much more 
brilliant than that of the snake-men. Each of the 
former carried in his hand a small, round, T- 
shaped rattle painted in white and green, the top 
and edges being white. The fore-arm was covered 
with white cloth. Around the waist was a sash 
of cotton embroidered in red and green in geo- 
metrical patterns ; and hanging down halfway to 
the knee was a kilt, embroidered in the same 
style, and, like the sash, woven of cotton. Each 
performer, both the antelopes and snakes, wore 
two or more strings of shell beads around his 
neck, and, suspended from them, a brilliant halio- 
tis shell, When the performer did not possess 
such a shell, he wore in its place a small circular 
mirror, such as is furnished by the traders. The 
breasts and upper arms were decorated in pinkish- 
white clay, with the conventional snake design, — 
a zigzag line. Suspended from the back of the 
sash hung a coyote-skin, the tail of which just 
reached the ground. The legs, from the knee 
down, were painted with the clay before men- 
tioned. They wore anklets of red and green 
worsted on the ankles ; and the feet, in some cases 
were bare, and painted with clay, in others were 
shod in ordinary moccasons. There seemed to be 
no rule for the antelope-men. The faces of all the 
performers were painted black, from the line of 
the mouth down. Both parties wore a small 
bunch of red feathers in the hair. 

The snake-men wore the same kind of beads 
and shells as the others. The painting of the 
body differed somewhat: instead of the zigzag 
line, they had triangular-shaped blotches of pink- 
ish clay on each breast, and on the upper arms 
near the shoulders. On the upper arm also, on 
both sides, they wore bracelets of bark, painted 
white. The fore-arm was painted with clay. The 
kilt was of the same style as that worn by the 
others, but of a red color. Running around it 
horizontally was a conventionalized drawing of a 
snake in black and white. At the knee they wore 
the regular garter in use by all the Indians of this 
region ; and attached to the right leg, just below 
the knee, was a rattle, formed of a tortoise-shell 
with attached sheep or antelope hoofs, which 
made a most dismal clanking sound whenever the 
wearer moved his leg. The leg, from the knee 
down, was painted with clay; and the feet were 


| shod in moccasons of red buckskin, with an at- 


tached fringe at the top, all looking very new and 
_ bright. These performers also wore the wolf-skin. 
The leader of the dance, or high priest, carried 


SCIENCE. 


509 


a buzzing-stick, which failed to work properly, 
however, and was soon discarded. 

The antelope-men, some ten in number, came 
in first. They entered in single file, and marched 
around four times in an irregular circle, approach- 
ing the hut from the north. They then took up 
their positions on either side of the hut, facing 
out. The snake-men, about fifteen in number, 
then entered the court, marching in the same di- 
rection as the others had. As they passed the 
hut, they scattered some sacred meal, and stamped 
on a concealed board in front of the door. This 
board is buried in the ground, immediately in 
front of the door of the hut, and a hollow scooped 
out under the middle of it. Each performer, as 
he passes, scatters some sacred meal (which is a 
form of prayer), and stamps on this board, pro- 
ducing a loud, hollow sound. The object is to call 
the attention of the gods to the zeal of the perform- 
er, that he may be properly rewarded. By an- 
other version, if a dancer succeeds in breaking this 
board, which is nearly two inches thick, any wish 
that he may make for two succeeding years will 
be granted. As the same board is used continu- 
ously until it wears out, it must be occasionally 
broken. It is possible, however, that the man 
who gave me this version invented it. 

After this stamping had been repeated- four 
times, the snake-men formed a line, facing the 
antelopes, and about six feet distant from them. 
The antelopes then commenced a low chant, in 
which the snake-men joined. Occasionally the 
measure was changed for a few moments, and 
they made a gesture with the feather wands which 
each man carried in his right hand. The chant 
was kept up without intermission during the en- 
tire dance, and was accompanied by a peculiar 
rhythmical swaying motion of the body. When 
the feather-shaking had been repeated four times, 
the snake-men broke their line, and grouped 
themselves in front of the door of the hut. A 
moment later the group parted, and one of the 
performers appeared, holding in his mouth a 
snake. A companion (also a snake-man) joined 
him, passing his left arm over the first man’s 
shoulder ; and the pair passed around on the line 
previously pursued, with the peculiar step which, 
for want of a better name, is called a dance. 
The companion carried in his right hand one of 
the feather wands before referred to, consisting of 
two large feathers (said to be those of the wild 
turkey) mounted in a short wooden handle, with 
a small red feather dangling from the end. This 
wand was constantly and very skilfully used by 
the companion to distract the attention of the 
snake held in the mouth of the other, and to keep 
its head forward. The man who carried the 


510 SO TENCO Pip [Vou. VII., No. 174 


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Fic. 1.— Paraphernalia and ground plans, showing the feather wand, the 
tortoise-shell rattle, the T-shaped rattle, and the armlets of bark. 
The upper diagram represents the entrance of the snake-men. The 
dots on either side of the hut represent the antelope-men in position. 
The Jower diagram shows the position of the dancers during the 
chant, or second figure; the long row of dots representing the 
snake-men, the short row the antelope-men as before. 


A SNAKE-DANCE AMONG THE MOKI INDIANS OF THE SOUTH-WEST. 


JunE 4, 1886.] SCIENCE. 5} 


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any 


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8 i. Ais 


Fic. 3.— THE MIDDLE COURT CF MASHONGNAVI, LCCKING NORTH. 


d12 


snake carried nothing in his hands. I have been 
told that the men who took this part kept their 
eyes tightly closed during the whole performance. 
This, however, I did not notice myself, though 
these dancers were always led back to the hut 
when it was desired to procure more snakes. The 
snake is held in the mouth between the lips, not 
between the teeth ; and the mouth is filled with 
some substance, resembling meal in appearance, 
to avoid biting the snake when the dancer becomes 
excited. When a snake became unmanageable, 
the dancer simply opened his mouth, letting it 
fall to the ground. 

Each of the couples described was followed by 
a single man or boy, whose duty it was to pick up 
the snakes as they were dropped. These also car- 
ried feather wands. I shall hereafter refer to 
these as collectors. As the snakes were dropped 
haphazard, at any place, and at any time, and as 
they manifested a lively disposition to get out of 
the way as soon as possible, the position was 
hardly a sinecure. 

This second figure of the dance occupied about 
twenty minutes ; though, after the first round, 
the order became somewhat broken, the collectors 
being grouped in the centre, and darting here and 
there after snakes, while the dancers pranced 
around in an irregular circle. 
he dropped his snake, was led back to the hut by 


the companion for a new one; and this continued | 


until the supply was exhausted. The low chant 
of the antelopes, the dismal though rhythmical 
clank of the tortoise-shell rattles, the peculiar 
motion of the dancers, the breathless attention of 
the spectators,—all gave this part of the per- 
formance a weird character. 

The latter part of the figure, when the snakes 
had accumulated in the hands of the collectors, 
and the dancers became excited, was very inter- 
esting. One of the collectors had a dozen or more 
snakes in his hands and arms. When the number 
became too great for proper management, part of 
them were turned over to the antelope-men, who 
remained in line on either side of the hut, and 
were held in their hands until the final figure. 

The final figure was the most exciting. One of 
the performers, going a little to one side, drew in 
sacred meal a circle about thirteen feet in circum- 
ference. Two diameters at right angles were 
drawn, and another line passing obliquely through 
their intersection, representing the cardinal points 
and the zenith and nadir. The latter are expressed 
by the line drawn from north-west to south-east. 

The chant suddenly ceased, and all those hold- 
ing snakes made a rush for this circle, and dropped 
them into it. The snakes formed a writhing mass, 
nearly filling the circle longitudinally, and about 


SCIENCE. 


Each performer, as ° 


[Vot. VII, No. 174 


six inches in height, so nearly as could be dis- 
tinguished, as the whole figure lasted but a few 
seconds. The snake-men then literally threw 
themselves into the circle. Each man seized as 
many of the reptiles as he could, and made off 
with them at full speed, through the passage by 
which the procession had entered, and through 
the other opening; and the public part of the 
performance was finished. 

The snakes thus carried off were taken down to 
the foot of the mesa, and there released. On our 
way back to camp we met several parties return- 
ing from the performance of this duty. 

The object of this part of the ceremony, as 
nearly as could be made out from the various de- 
scriptions which we received, was this : the snakes 
were released at the four quarters of the earth in 
order that they might find a rain-god (whose form 
is that of a gigantic serpent), wherever he might be, 
and tell him of the honor which his children had 
done him, and of the urgent need of rain among 
them. This is symbolized in the circle and cross 
lines before mentioned. The part of the heavens 
from which rain came indicated the region where 
the god was at the time that he received the mes- 
sage. This helps somewhat to explain the rever- 
ence, we might almost say fondness, which the 
Moki feels for the snakes. The released snakes 
act not only as messengers, but also as ambas- 
sadors, to the rain-god ; and a snake which had 
been well treated would present the Moki’s prayer 
much more forcibly than one which had been 
roughly handled. 

Snakes of all varieties procurable were used, 
including the rattlesnake, about twenty per cent 
of the latter: Many of them were numbed from 
long confinement and frequent handling, though 
when given a chance to escape, as when they were 
dropped on the ground, they showed decided signs 
of life. A great rivalry is said to exist among 
the dancers as to who shall handle the largest and 
finest rattlesnakes ; but, I must confess, I failed to 
see it. On the contrary, there seemed to be a pref- 
erence for a small, thin snake, not poisonous (the 
whip-snake, I think). Several of the dancers held 
two of these in the mouth, and one man even had 
three. When a man happened to get a rattle- 
snake, however, he did not seem to mind it much ; 
though, when a snake of this variety was dropped 
by one of the dancers, the collectors did not show 
any great eagerness to pick it up. Several of 
these rattlesnakes were in a very ugly mood, and, 
when dropped, immediately coiled themselves, 
sounding their rattles, and showing a disposition 
to fight. These were not picked up quickly, as 
the others, but were given a wide berth by dancers 
and collectors alike. One of the elder collectors, 


JuNE 4, 1886. ] 


more skilful or more rash than the others, would 
then approach, and tease the snake with his wand 
until it struck, the blow being received on the 
feathers. This would be repeated until the snake 
became frightened and attempted to escape ; but, 
as soon as it uncoiled, the collector would seize it 
with a quick movement of the hand from the tail 
toward the head, the snake being grasped by the 
neck. This movement is accomplished with 
lightning-like rapidity. The wand is retained in 
the hand ; and the feathers, during the operation, 
cover the snake’s head. After the seizure, how- 
ever, it seemed to make little difference how they 
held the snake, holding it by the middle or tail as 
often as by the neck. No one was bitten at this 
dance ; though at Wolpi, the next day, one of the 
young performers, a boy of eight, made the rounds 
with a rattlesnake fastened to one of his fingers. 
During the final scramble I lost sight of him, and 
was unable to discover what course of treatment 
he underwent, or whether he survived or not. 

One of the striking accessories of the dance, 
are the groups of women in holiday attire, who 
stand along the walls and along the margin of the 
dancing-space, holding in their arms large trays 
-of sacred meal, which they scatter on the per- 

‘formers and on the snakes as they pass. The boy 
who was bitten at Wolpi was almost covered with 
meal by these women. 

At the second dance, at Wolpi, we were on the 
lookout for the after-proceedings, and had an 
opportunity of seeing a part of then. Immediate- 
ly after the dance the women were seen coming 
in from all directions with baskets of peki or 
paper-bread, great quantities of wheat-bread or 
rolls, bowls of mutton-stew, and the various 
eatables which formed the Indians’ holiday food. 
The quantity seemed sufficient for an army. 
These were sent down into the snake-kiva. In 
the mean time other women were scurrying along 
with great bowls of a brownish liquid with a very 
disagreeable smell. I followed several of these 
women around to the back of the pueblo, and 
there saw a number of the late dancers drinking 
this liquid, and vomiting most violently. I after- 
wards learnd from Weeki, the snake-priest, that 
this process continues for four days, —a period 
oceupied in alternate feasting and vomiting. This 
is the so-called purification. ' 

4 1 This is the way ourinterpreter translated it : [tshould 

be constantly born in mind, however, that the idea of purity 
—of moral goodness — is one which does not make tts ap- 
pearance until we get weil along in the scale of develop- 
ment, to a point much beyond the position occupied by 
these Indians. The savage or barbarous mind recognizes 
no physical cause for phenomena. Poison, as such, is an 
idea which is wholly inconceivable : and death from that 
cause, from a snake-bite for example, would be attributed 
to some evil influence exerted by man, as in witchcraft or 


by a supernatural being, or to some mistake or omission 
in the incantation, 


| Ja 


SCIENCE. 


513 


This number, 4, runs through the entire per- 
formance : four days are spent in collecting the 
snakes, — one day for each of the cardinal points 
of the compass; the dancers retire then to the 
kiva for four days, fasting and praying during the 
day, and eating only one meal, and that one after 
dark ; on the fourth day of this period the dance 
takes place, and is followed by four days of puri- 
fication and prayer; each figure in the dance, 
except thie last, is repeated four times. 

A description of the Moki snake-dance which 
occurred at Wolpi in 1881 has been published by 
Capt. John G. Bourke of the army, in his book 
‘The Mokis of Arizona.’ This description differs 
in many important points from mine. It is true, 
we describe dances at different villages; but I 
have already said there was no essential difference 
between the two performances witnessed by us: 
in action the two dances were identical. As 
Captain Bourke’s account is probably a close one, 
the ritual of the dance must have undergone 
many important changes in the period which 
elapsed between the dance witnessed by him and 
the one here described. The dance is performed 
under the auspices of the antelope gens or the 
antelope order, we were unable to determine 
which: but the men who handled the snakes be- 


‘longed to the snake order, and not to the snake 


gens. I think that one of the requirements is, 
that all those taking part in this dance shall be 
members, either congenital or adopted, of the 
antelope gens, or order, whichever it may be. 
The snake gens has nothing to do with the dance ; 
and, contrary to the opinion of Captain Bourke, 
it is not referable, I think, to ancestor-worship, at 
least not directly. It is not even serpent-worship, 
unless the word be taken in its widest sense, — 
the sense which includes not only serpent-adora- 
tion and reverence, but also serpent-symbolism. 
It is in this sense that I have used the word. The 
Moki Indian loves and reveres the snakes, and 
will never, unless under the greatest necessity, do 
them harm; but he does not adore them, nor 
sacrifice to them as he does to his gods, but uses 
them simply as the most appropriate messengers 
to the rain-god. 

The underlying ideas which have given rise to 
this dance are, and must remain so long as our 
knowledge is in its present incomplete state, un- 
known. From the point of view of the great 
majority of the Moki Indians, it is simply an in- 
vocation, —a ceremony having for its sole pur- 
pose the procuring of rain ; but the fact that there 
is an esoteric legend, one very jealously guarded, 
too, seems to point to another and a deeper signifi- 
cation. An investigation in this direction would 
probably result in throwing much light, not only 


514 


on this particular ceremony, but on  serpent- 
worship in general. The rites connected with 
this form of worship have always been secret, — 
secret even in the tribe where it is found. And 
while the worship of the serpent has been asso- 
ciated with some of the highest conceptions of the 
barbarous and setmi-civilized minds, — with, for 
example, the principles of reproduction and of 
the immortality of the soul among the Hindoos, 
and with the idea of divine wisdom among the 
Egyptians, — and while it has been so widely dis- 
tributed, in one form or another, that there is 
hardly a nation or tribe which does not carry 
traces of it in its history, but little is known about 
its details or origin. The performance takes 
place every second year at the village I have 
named, and is ostensibly, as I have before said, 
for the sole purpose of procuring rain. I have 
been assured by several of the old men in Moki 
that this dance has never failed to do this ; and, 
in fact in the present instance, it was preceded 
by several months of the dryest weather known 
in that country for years, and was succeeded, on 
the very day of the dance, by such copious and 
prolonged showers, that many of the Mokis lost 
their crops by washouts. 


Kosmos MENDELIEFF. 


THE ARTICLE ‘PSYCHOLOGY’ IN THE 
‘ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA.’ 


In the eighth edition of the ‘ Britannica’ the 
article on metaphysics covered seventy-four pages, 
and there was no article on psychology at all; in 
the ninth edition the article on psychology covers 
forty-nine pages, and that on metaphysics is re- 
duced to twenty-three pages. This change in the 
apportionment of space to these two topics is a 
reflection of the change of base which has oc- 
curred in the study of the philosophical sciences 
within the last few decades. Psychology has 
become, or at least has plainly declared that it 
intends to become, strictly scientific; and meta- 
physics has withdrawn to a field of its own. 

In an encyclopaedia article on such a topic the 
author has a bewildering choice of possible modes 
of treatment. The average reader, referring to 
an article on psychology, will perhaps expect a 
general statement of the results obtained in the 
different departments of psychological research, 
treated from a broad modern point of view, and 
perhaps some account of the history of past 
doctrines, and explanations of the similar topics. 
Such a reader will be disappointed in Mr. Ward’s 
article on psychology. The article is a very 
puzzling one for a reviewer. To find fault with 
it, is simply to say that it is not the kind of an 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 174 


article which he himself would have wished for 
or have written, and, on the other hand, shows a 
neglect for the very learned and bright treatment 
which the subject receives at the author’s hands. 
On the other hand, he cannot refrain from ex- 
pressing the very unsatisfactory impression which 
the reading of Mr. Ward’s work leaves upon him. 
In analyzing this disappointment, one would lay 
the blame either on the fact that the reader’s ex- 
pectation was wrongly founded, or that Mr. Ward 
had chosen to write an article which did not have 
practical utility as its chief aim, or more probable, 
perhaps, than either of the above two, that the 
present condition of psychology is reflected in 
this unsatisfactory, rather scattered treatment. 
Perhaps, after all, this is the real appearance of 
a cross-section of the science at the present mo- 
ment. 

Beginning with the argument that the peculiar- 
ity of psychology rests, not in its subject-matter, 
but in its point of view, he proceeds to develop 
a theory of presentations which is fundamental to 
his whole treatment. Then, under seven or eight 
headings, he treats such subjects as perception, 
imagination, association, feeling, self-conscious- 
ness. But under each section the reader finds 
himself at once in medias res. No general outline 
of the topic is given, or of its connection with 
other subjects. The author is evidently perfectly 
at home in the literature of the topics; but only 
here and there, by way of illustration, are the 
results of recent experiments in this field brought 
in. The section on feeling is recommended as 
especially well treated. 

He then develops the theory ‘‘ that there is 
pleasure in proportion as a maximum of attention 
is effectively exercised, and pain in proportion as 
such effective attention is frustrated by distrac- 
tions, shocks, or incomplete and faulty adapta- 
tions, or fails of exercise, owing to the narrow- 
ness of the field of consciousness, and the slow- 
ness and smallness of its changes.” 

In a general review of this volume of the en- 
cyclopaedia a writer referred to the article as the 
most abstruse article in the volume. This ab- 
struseness seems to come from the fact that the 
author has given a series of minute dissections, 
but neglected to give the relation of the different 
parts which were under the knife. He has used 
the microscope without describing the naked-eye 
appearances. 5 ) 


THE replacement of a diseased eye by the 
healthy eye of an animal has now been done five 
times, with one success, says the Medical record. 
In the four cases the cornea sloughed ; in two 
however, firm vascular adhesions took place. 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 186. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


IT WILL BE REMEMBERED that in the month of 
May a gentleman in Brooklyn died from bydro- 
phobia. His medical attendants, competent physi- 
cians, had no doubt about their diagnosis, and his 
symptoms were characteristic of that disease. 
Confirmatory of this opinion, the autopsy re- 
vealed no lesion to which could be attributed the 
symptoms from which he suffered, —a condition 
which is also characteristic of hydrophobia. Por- 
tions of the brain and the spinal cord were care- 
fully wrapped in cloth wet with a solution of 
bichloride of mercury and sent to Dr. Sternberg. 
Small portions of these were thoroughly mixed 
with sterilized bouillon; and this broth was then, 
by means of a hypodermic syringe, injected under 
the dura mater covering the brain of a rabbit, a 
small button of bone having been first removed by a 
trephine. The wound was then closed by sutures. 
Three rabbits were thus operated upon. One died 
at the end of twenty-four hours as the result of 
the operation ; hydrophobia, of course, having 
nothing to do with it. Another is now, after 
eighteen days, apparently well. The third one, 
on the sixteenth day, commenced to show signs 
of being ill: he was disinclined to move, and ina 
few hours evidences of paralysis appeared, at first 
in the hind-legs, and subsequently in all the ex- 
tremities. On the Sth of June, the eighteenth 
day after the operation, he died. The wound had 
healed, and there were no evidences of inflamma- 
tion. The brain showed no softening at the point 
where the inoculation was made, no pus, nor any 
evidences of inflammation either of the brain sub- 
stance or of its membranes. The cord also ap- 
peared normal. Portions of the medulla of this 
rabbit were immediately mixed with sterilized 
bouillon, and two rabbits were inoculated in the 
Same manner as has been described. This case is 
of great interest as being, so far as we know, the 
first animal in this country to become affected 
with hydrophobia from inoculation with material 
taken from a person who died from that disease. 
If Dr. Sternberg is as successful with these rabbits 
as with the first, there is no reason why the series 

No, 175. — 1886. 


cannot be continued, and thus the protective virus 
of Pasteur be obtained in this country, and a trip 
to Paris by the victims of dog-bites made un- 
necessary. As we go to press, we learn that the 
second rabbit, mentioned above as remaining 
unaffected for eighteen days, shows unmistakable 
signs of hydrophobia. 


IN THE GREAT POLITICAL changes of last De- 
cember, the Department of public works of Japan 
was abolished, and the Engineering college hither- 
to conducted by that department was transferred 
to the Department of education. Early in the 
present year, the Engineering college was amalga- 
mated with the University of Toky6, and the re- 
sulting whole was instituted as the Imperial uni- 
versity by the decree of March 1, as mentioned in 
our last issue. As at present constituted, the 
university consists of five colleges; viz., those of 
law, of medicine, of engineering, of literature, 
and of science. Of these, four are*located in the 
Kaga-yashiki (the former ‘ yashiki’ of the Daimio 
of Kaga), while the fifth, that of engineering, 
finds its quarters in the buildings of the former 
Engineering college. This amalgamation must be 
looked on as but another stage in the development 
of that institution which began in the days of the 
Tokugawa shoguns as the place for teaching, and 
examining into, western books, and which has been 
steadily growing, ever since, under various names, 
such as Kaisei Gakko, Tokyo Daigaku (University 
of Toky5), etc. In the imperial decree of March 1, 
referred to above, the prosecution of original in- 
vestigation has received recognition hitherto not 
accorded to it; for Art. 1 of the decree says, ‘‘ The 
Imperial university shall have for its objects the 
teaching of such arts and sciences as are required 
for the purposes of the state, and the prosecution 
of original ivestigations im such arts and 
sciences.” This must be considered as a decided 
upward step. In the new institution, different 
colleges have also more power to act independent- 
ly according to their own wants than before. The 
very ponderous official machine through which 
the business of the university had to be transacted 
is somewhat simplified ; and professors, in the 
science college, for instance, are given more free- 
dom in the management of their own laboratories. 


516 


Many Americans who have been in Japan will 
learn with regret that Mr. H. Kato, who has been 
in the responsible position of the president of the 
university for the last nine years, is no longer con- 
nected with the university, having lately been 
transferred to the senate (Genrdin). During his 
presidency, the university grew up from a very 
insignificant institution to be one of the great 
seats of learning in the world. Mr. Katdi’s ser- 
vices will long be remembered in the university. 
The president of the new Imperial university is 
Mr. H. Watanabe. He has occupied with success 
many positions of responsibility under the govern- 
ment, and was latterly very popular as the mayor 
of Toky6. His appointment to the university is 
considered by all to be eminently fitting. 


Mr. GOODRIDGE has another article in a recent 
Scientific American on ‘ Modifying the climate by 
closing the Straits of Belle Isle,’ in which, as be- 
fore, his argument is based on the error that the 
great body of the Labrador current comes to us 
through these straits instead of around the eastern 
coast of Newfoundland. He gives no evidence in 
support of this assertion, but vaguely discusses 
the question of the origin of ocean-currents, which 
has nothing to do with his climatic problem. Re- 
ferring to the objection pointed out in Science 
some months ago, that our cold weather comes 
from the west and north-west, he grants that this 
will ‘sometimes occur,’ as if it were exceptional. 
He thinks that ‘‘if we had not the cold wall be- 
tween our shores and the Gulf Stream, it is fair to 
presume that we should have a less stormy coast.” 
This presumption is very questionable indeed ; for 
in winter, when most of our notable storms 
occur, they do not originate on the coast, but 
come from the far west and south-west; and, 
moreover, in the winter season, the contrasts in 
temperature along our shores would be stronger 
if the warm Gulf Stream flowed close along the 
cold land. As far as this contrast is effective, our 
winters would be more stormy then than now. 


THE SCIENTIFIC COMMISSION REPORT. 

THE long-looked-for report of Mr. Allison’s 
commission on the surveys has at last been com- 
pleted, and submitted to congress. It proves to be 
even more conservative than was indicated in the 
summary of the views of the commission, which 
was given in our issue of May 7. At that time 
the members of the commission were all of opin- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL.,. No. 175 


ion that the operations of the geological survey 
should be restricted by law in the direction indi- 
cated by Mr. Herbert’s bill. The majority. com- 
prising Messrs. Allison and Hale of the senate, 
and Messrs. Lowry and Wait of the house, now 
frankly admit that the statements and arguments 
of Major Powell have led them to modify their 
views, so that they no longer propose any restric- 
tion upon the paleontological or other work of 
the survey. They therefore propose, in lieu of Mr. 
Herbert’s bill, one which only requires that the 
printing of the survey shall be specifically esti- 
mated for,—a provison to which no one will ob- 
ject, and which ought to be extended to other 
bureaus of the government. The following sen- 
tences from the report embody the gist of its 
judgment upon the work of the survey : — 

The commission is of opinion that the adminis- 
trative part of the bureau is well conducted and 
with economy and care, and discloses excellent 
administrative and business ability on the part of 
its chief. 

The commission expresses no opinion as to the 
plan of the survey as delineated by the director, 
as it does not regard itself charged with this duty, 
nor is it competent to express an opinion on a 
subject involving so difficult a scientific question. 
This, in the judgment of the commission, must be 
left to the criticism of those who are able to do so 
more intelligently than can the commission, with 
its limited means of knowledge. 

The commission has no doubt of the wisdom of 
a geological survey of the whole country, and con- 
siders the question as to the propriety of its being 
done by the general government as settled by ex- 
isting legislation. 

In treating of the coast survey, the commission 
gives an outline of its history from its inception 
in 1807 until the present time. The report treats 
at length of the feasibility of transferring the sur- 
vey to the navy department, and shows that only 
a small part of its work is of a kind with which 
naval officers are legitimately concerned. It also 
speaks with favor of the geodetic work of the 
survey, sees no occasion for any other legislation 
than can be incorporated in the appropriation 
bills, and concludes that the secretary of the 
treasury can make all necessary regulations gov- 
erning it. ; 

The report on the signal service will disappoint — 
all who have been dissatisfied with General 
Hazen’s management. It recommends no legisla- 


JUNE 11, 1886 ] 


tion changing the general administration of the 
office, unless the proposed abolition of the ‘study- 
room’ and of the school at Fort Meyer be con- 
sidered such. The commission says that any in- 
telligent young man of good education can learn 
every thing necessary to the practical work of an 
observer in six weeks, and sees no occasion for so 
elaborate a scheme of instruction as that provided. 
It is not, however, intended to dispense with the 
services of the able meteorologists who have been 
employed by the office. 

On the question of the military control of the 
meteorological service, the report is extremely 
mild. Itis found that the work is in no sense 
military, and that military discipline and law are 
not necessary to its efficiency. If the question were 
a new one, whether a civilian bureau with a civil 
head should be established rather than an exten- 
sion of a military bureau, the commission would 
recommend this rather than a military organiza- 
tion. As the matter stands, the commission is 
equally divided on the question of leaving the ser- 
vice in its present hands. Three do not see why 
it cannot be as well managed by the chief signal- 
officer of the army as by a civilian head ; three 
think such a head necessary to its efficiency. All, 
however, are in favor of cutting down the mili- 
tary staff as it now exists. As with the other 
bureaus, the commission does not find that con- 
gress can advantageously define the operations of 
the signal-office by other legislation than such 
limitations as may be imposed on expenditures in 
framing the appropriation bills. 

The principal minority report is signed by Sen- 
ator Morgan and Representative Herbert. It con- 
sists largely of severe criticisms upon the work of 
both the coast and geological surveys. The topo- 
graphical system of the coast survey is strongly 
condemned on the score of extravagance in delin- 
eating minute features of no use whatever to the 
navigator, and of little or no use to any one else. 
lt favors the transfer of the office to the navy, 
- and would abolish entirely the further prosecution 
of other geodetic measurements than are neces- 
sary to map-making. 

Such are the main points of the report. Com- 
ment is unnecessary, because there is no reason- 
able chance of legislation on the subject. The 
Surveys will be left, as they have heretofore been 
left, in the hands of the appropriation committees. 
It is expected that the house committee will sym- 
| pathize with the minority rather than the ma- 


SCIENCE. 


17 


jority, so far at least as the coast survey is con- 
cerned, and will therefore be disposed to reduce 
the appropriations to the lowest limit, and perhaps 
cut down the force also. 


HATCHING, REARING, AND TRANSPLANT-— 
ING LOBSTERS. 


THE experiments of Dannevig in hatching the 
ova of the European lobster, naturally awakened 
an interest in the propagation of the American 
species, which, as has been shown by Mr. Rath- 
bun, is becoming less abundant on what were 
formerly the best lobster-fishing grounds on our 
coast. This depletion of the supply of lobsters is 
very probably due in large part to the fact that 
vast numbers of females are annually caught and 
killed, together with the many thousands of eggs 
hanging to their abdominal legs. It happens in 
this way that not only the individuals most di- 
rectly concerned in reproducing their species are 
destroyed, but that almost countless millions of 
partly developed young are also sacrificed, in the 
ordinary process of supplying the markets with 
this crustacean. 

Recent experiments under the direction of Capt. 
Hi. C. Chester at the U. S. fish-commission station 
at Wood’s Holl, Mass., have demonstrated that it is 
possible to hatch the ova of the lobster in unlimit- 
ed quantities in the same device in which the ova 
of the cod were successfully hatched last year. The 
eggs, at any stage, may, in fact, be removed from 
the parent female without injuring her, or an ap- 
preciable number of ova making up the masses of 
eggs hanging to her swimmerets. The eggs, if 
then placed in the hatching-apparatus, will de- 
velop and become embryos, which will free them- 
selves from their investing envelopes in due course 
of time. The length of the period of incubation 
is not known, as artificial fertilization of the eggs 
of this creature is not practicable; though with 
greater experience, and a wider range of accurate 
observation, it may soon be possible to state the 
length of that period pretty accurately. The 
approach toward the completion of development 
in the egg is marked by the gradual diminution 
in the bulk of the yelk, as a result of which the 
eggs become more and more translucent; so that, 
by the time they are ready to hatch, they are 
dirty-yellowish in color instead of dark greenish- 
brown as at first. At the same time the ova be- 
come larger by about one-half their original 
diameter. Towards the close of the period of 
development, the eggs also lose their original 
globular form, and become decidedly oval. Dur- 
ing the later stages of development the eggs show 


518 


a great range of variation in color, a few being 
bright crimson-red, while the majority are of a 
dirty greenish-yellow tint. Similar variations in 
color are apparent in the young after hatching, 
and are apparently due, as in the case of the eggs, 
to the presence of an unusual number of red- 
pigment cells. 

Immediately after hatching, the young swim 
about in the sea-water, and will at once begin to 
feed, even killing and eating each other if food is 
not soon offered them. Minced crab or lobster 
meat is greatly relished. The recently hatched 
lobsters are also attracted by the light, and will 
always collect at the side of the aquarium or tank 
nearest the source of light. At night, or if the 
light is shut off, the young lobsters go to the bot- 
tom of the tanks; and it seems that they may 
then be most actively engaged in feeding if food 
is placed within their reach. 

When first hatched, the young lobster measures 
one-third of an inch long, and is provided with 
cephalothracic appendages only. The tail, unlike 
that of the just hatched crayfish, is without 
swimmerets. The five thoracic appendages, unlike 
those of the adult or those of the young crayfish, 
are biramose, the outer branches or rami being 
flattened, and fringed with plumose setae. These 
outer branches of the limbs are rapidly vibrated 
to and fro, and constitute the principal locomotive 
appendages of the young lobster during the 
pelagic stage of its existence, acting like paddles 
or oars and independently of the inner rami, 
which are used mainly as prehensile organs. The 
inner rami of the appendages afterwards become 
the permanent thoracic limbs, while the outer 
ones abort. 

When from four to six days old, they moult for 
the first time; and it is noticed that in doing so 
they suddenly increase in length and bulk, since 
they now measure nearly half an inch in length. 
They also, at this time, acquire four pairs of ab- 
dominal legs or swimmerets; but the telson is 
still formed of a broad, single, triangular piece, 
emarginate posteriorly, and not rounded and ser- 
rated behind as in the young crayfish. The 
pincers of the first pair of thoracic limbs become 
distinctly developed at the first moult. 

It is obvious, from what has preceded, that the 
lobster passes through a schizopod stage, as pointed 
out by 8. I. Smith. This stage has been omitted 
in the ontogeny of the crayfish. The young also 
evidently abandon the mother lobster at once, the 
blades of their pincers being without hooked tips 
for clinging to the mother, as in the recently 
hatched crayfish. 

In the course of about eight days more, the 
young lobsters probably moult again, — a process 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 175 


which is repeated for the third time in the course 
of perhaps ten days more, when they will measure 
about five-eighths of an inch long, and when they 
have acquired an additional pair of appendages, 
so that they then have all that are possessed by 
the adult. 

The young lobster probably moults twice more 
before it is sixty days old, by which time its 
antennae become fully developed and flagelliform, 
while its telson loses its larval form, and the 
animal has thus completed its metamorphosis. It 
now measures about an inch in length, and is 
occasionally taken at the surface in a tow-net, 
though it is probable that it now usually remains 
at the bottom, concealing itself among the sea- 
weeds and stones, lying in wait for its prey. 

Recent experiments conducted by Captain 
Chester, at Wood’s Holl, have demonstrated that 
it is possible to keep the adult lobsters alive for 
an indefinite period in a moist, cold atmosphere. 
These conditions may be most readily satisfied by 
packing the lobsters between layers of wet seaweed 
in a metal box with a perforated cover ; this metal 
box being then placed in a larger wooden box, 
and surrounded with cracked ice, which will cool 
the contents of the inner box downto 45° F. At 
this temperature, in this device, lobsters have 
been kept alive and in good condition for fifteen 
days, and in a moist atmosphere only ; their gills 
not having been immersed in water during the 
whole period. Even the eggs hanging to the 
swimmerets of the females so treated are not 
injured in the slightest degree, and will continue 
to develop normally if put into the hatching-jars. 
The adults also, if taken out of the seaweed in 
the metal box, and put into sea-water, have the 
moist air in the gill-chambers at once replaced by 
the water, and begin to move about as if nothing 
had happened to them. 

This important discovery renders it possible to 
transport living adult lobsters across the continent, 
and to stock the waters of the Pacific coast with 
this important crustacean. It is also possible to 
pack the eggs in seaweed in a similar manner, 
and transport them for long distances, after 
which they may be hatched and reared up to an 
inch in length by artificial means. This will 
render it possible to collect lobster-eggs to the 
number of many millions at several points over 
the fishing-grounds, and bring them to a great 
central hatching and rearing establishment, such 
as that at Wood’s Holl, where at least a hundred — 
million eggs may be cared for at one time. The 
work of propagating the lobster, the cod, and 
other fishes, will then keep the station at Wood’s 
Holl in practical operation, in an economic direc- 
tion, for the entire year. The recent successes at 


JuNE 11, 1886.] 


this station, in artificially hatching the mackerel 
and tautog, indicate that the application of the 
methods of artificial propagation are capable of 
still further extension. At present the propaga- 
tion of the lobster is of the greatest practical 
importance ; and the possibility of feeding and 
caring for the young in large quantities till they 
have attained the length of one inch, when they 
practically abandon their pelagic habits and are 
able to take care of themselves, seems to be as- 
sured. JOHN A. RYDER. 


ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 


THE anniversary meeting of this society was 
held on Monday, May 24, with the president, the 
Marquis of Lorne, in the chair. The report of the 
council showed that 173 fellows had been elected 
during the year, besides three honorary corre- 
sponding members. The losses had been, by 
death 63 (besides one honorary corresponding 
member), by resignation 75, and by removal 21, 
making the net increase for the year 16. The 
total number of fellows on the list, exclusive of 
honorary members, on May 1, was 3,407. 

The president said he considered himself most 
fortunate in that it was his duty to present to Mr. 
Phelps, as the representative of America and of 
his distinguished countryman, Major Greely, the 
queen’s medal for this year. It was the sixth 
occasion on which a president of that society had 
greeted the achievements of a citizen of the United 
States with that honor. In the year 1855 it was 
accorded to Dr. Kane, who had charge of the ex- 
pedition generously fitted out by the republic to 
search for Sir John Franklin. Again, in the year 
1867, Sir Roderick Murchison, then president, was 
able to place in the hands of the American minis- 
ter the gold medal given to another of his country- 
men, namely, Dr. Hayes, who had reached a more 
northern point of land than any before attained. 
Dr. Hayes had himself been the companion of 
Kane, and was the discoverer of that very land, 
named after Henry Grinnell of New York, which 
had been the scene of the explorations of Major 
Greely. 

The president then presented the patron’s medal 
to Signor Guido Cora (Science, May 28). 

The Murchison grant for 1886 was awarded to 
the brothers F. and A. Jardine, for their remark- 
able journey overland to the settlement of Somer- 
set at Cape York (Queensland) from May, 1864, to 
March, 1865, during which they solved the ques- 
tion of the courses of the northern rivers empty- 
ing into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and definitely 
ascertained the area of the York Peninsula adapted 
for pastoral occupation. 


me 


SCIENCE. 


d19 


The Back grant for 1886 was then awarded to 
Sergeant David L. Brainard, in recognition of the 
effective services rendered by him during the 
various explorations carried out by the American 
Arctic expedition of 1881-84. 

The president remarked that the active work of 
the society during the past year had been largely 
directed towards initiating improvement in geo- 
graphical education. 

The report of the society’s inspector, Mr. Keltie, 
describes the results of Mr. Keltie’s visits to uni- 
versities and schools at home and abroad for the 
purpose of inquiring into the position of geography 
in education: it had attracted much attention at 
home and abroad, and, it was believed, had been 
productive of good results. The interest excited 
by the society’s recent action had been so great, 
and the expectation that they should continue it 
by taking some positive steps towards encouraging 
improvements in the position of geography in 
schools and universities was so general, that the 
council had felt encouraged, and indeed bound, 
to carry the scheme further. The educational 
committee of the society therefore made certain 
suggestions to the council, which were now under 
consideration, and would probably be adopted. 
The principal of these suggestions related to the 
appointment of a lecturer in geography, to deliver 
courses where the council might direct. 

In order still further to encourage the scientific 
study of geography at the universities, the com- 
mittee suggested that a prize or travelling scholar- 
ship should be given every alternate year to a 
student who had shown marked ability in geo- 
graphical subjects, and who might desire to visit 
one of the less-known districts of Europe, or the 
Mediterranean or Black Sea shores, and any re- 
sults to be communicated to the society. One or 
other of the annual grants which were at the 
society’s disposal might be devoted to this pur- 
pose. 

Another suggestion was aimed at reaching the 
intelligent middle and working classes through 
the medium of the university extension scheme. 
For this purpose a small annual grant was pro- 
posed. Another was that a medal be given by the 
society to the student reported by the examiners 
to have done best in physical geography in the first 
part of the natural sciences tripos (honors exami- 
nation). 

And finaliy, in order that all classes of schools 
might be reached, it was proposed that prizes be 
offered for competence in geography to the stu- 
dents at the various training-colleges. Here they 
reached the fountain-head of education; and, if 
they could secure adequate attention to geography 
in the institutions which sent forth yearly troops 


520 


of teachers to the board and elementary schools, 
the society would have accomplished much. It 
was perhaps characteristic of the absence of theo- 
ry in the proceedings of the practically minded 
average Briton, that they who had done more as 
a nation to explore and colonize the distant parts 
of the world than any six other nations should 
have at home less instruction given in our schools 
on the subject of geography than was enjoyed by 
the youth of most of the European peoples. 

The belief was expressed that the work of dis- 
covery had recently been aided by the Indian 
army in Burmah, and by the impulse given by 
Australia to the exploration of New Guinea. 

The death of the British commissioner might 
have temporarily checked measures that would 
lead to the investigation of this latter country ; 
but they might trust to the enterprise of Ford 
and other explorers, and to the activity with 
which Australasian commercial interests were 
pushed, for additions to our knowledge of an island 
of which it must with some shame be said that a 
few birds of paradise had hitherto represented its 
available export trade. With Baron von Miller 
as president of the Melbourne branch of the 
Australasian geographical society, they might be 
sure that the scientific aspects of the investigation 
of this magnificent new field would not be over- 
looked. 

in Canada, again, Selwyn and Dawson and 
Macoun had been engaged in marking the value 
to science of the recent discoveries in geology, 
mineralogy, and meteorology made possible by 
the rapid completion of the Pacific railway across 
hitherto unknown mountain-ranges, whose ridges 
were the birthplaces of waters flowing into the 
Arctic, into Hudson’s Bay, and the Gulf of Mex- 
ico. So valuable were the storm-signals to be 
derived from stations in the far north-west, that 
the American government had gladly placed the 
observations of nearly ninety stations at the dis- 
posal of the Canadian government, in return for 
those from about twenty in the British domin- 
ions. 

The messages flashed from Toronto and Wash- 
ington over the American continent and across 
the Atlantic had already been the means of sav- 
ing many thousands of lives, and afforded the 
most practical recent proof of the immediate 
utility of scientific induction. The western points 
at which records were kept were spots wholly un- 
known to the geographer a century and a half 
ago. 

There are few among our race, whether belong- 
ing to the nation of their gold medallist, Greely, 
or to their own, who would not place a higher 
value on the discoveries in that north-western 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Vil.;- No: 125 


land than on those which should open to them 
access to the torrid zones. They gladly recognized 
the gallant efforts made by other races, notably 
by the Italians; and, while they gave the gold 
medal to him whom they might almost call their 
countryman, they were glad to recognize the aid 
given to their science by Signor Cora, and they 
condoled with Italy in the recent loss of the leader 
and members of the expedition recently massa- 
cred near Aden. 

Having briefly reviewed the chief geographical 
events of the year, the Marquis of Lorne con- 
cluded by saying that the mere string of notes, 
telling of what in a twelvemonth had been ac- 
complished, showed how quick was now the 
invading march of knowledge. 


A FINAL BUFFALO-HUNT. 


THE National museum has sent its chief taxi- 
dermist, Mr. William T. Hornaday, on a hunting- 
tour through the far west, for the purpose of 
obtaining specimens of the buffalo, before this 
animal becomes extinct in this country. Mr. 
Hornaday took with him as an assistant Mr. A. 
H. Forney, an attaché of the museum. The 
party reached Miles City, Montana, May 12. 
Some Crow Indians are said to have kilied four 
buffaloes on the Mussel- shell River about six 
weeks ago. It is firmly believed by many good 
authorities that there are not now more than 
from fifty to one hundred buffaloes in the whole 
of Montana, outside of the National park, where 
there are probably from two hundred to three 
hundred head, Hunters lie in wait outside the 
limits of the National park, waiting for these 
animals to cross the line, when they lose no time 
in despatching them as soon as possible. A 
stampede may occur at any time, which may 
result in all the buffaloes now in the park leav- 
ing; and if such were the case, very few, if any, 
would escape. 

Mr. Hornaday and his party were received by 
the commanding officer at Fort Keogh, and fur- 
nished with a six-mule team, a driver, and escort. 
The plan of route is to cross the Yellowstone at 
Miles City, proceeding up Sunday Creek and Hun- 
ter’s Creek to its source; thence across to Big 
Dry River, following it down to the Big Bend ; 
thence across and westward up Big Timber 
Creek ; and eventually across to the Mussel-shell 
River, which it is proposed to explore almost its 
entire length. This route probably covers every 
chance for finding buffaloes in Montana or else- 
where. There is said to be a small herd of from 
eight to twelve buffaloes in south-western Dakota, 
This region is a vast, level, treeless prairie utterly 


M 


June 11, 1886.] 


destitute of wood, and it is Mr. Hornaday’s opin- 
ion that an attempt to find these few would be 
hopeless. Skins of buffalo-heads are now valued 
by taxidermists in Dakota at fifty dollars each, 
from which it may be assumed that they have 
given up all hope of procuring any more. 

Should this endeavor be fruitless, the sugges- 
tion has been made that buffaloes may still be ob- 
tained in the British possessions. 


PARIS LETTER. 


THE town of Montdidier (department of Somme), 
in the north of France, has recently held a series 
of festivals in honor of Parmentier, who, as is well 
known, was the first who brought that humble 
but useful vegetable, the potato, into France. 
It was in 1786, or thereabout, that Parmentier ob- 
tained from Louis XVI. permission to cultivate 
potatoes in the Plaine des Sablons, near Paris, to 
show what service could be expected from the 
new food. The festival of Montdidier consisted of 
an agricultural exhibition, an exhibition of horses 
and dogs, and of farming implements, and also of 


. a meeting at which were discussed the names 


by which the different varieties of potatoes are to 
be designated hereafter. M. Chevreul was to pre- 
side, but could not attend. He wrote a letter, in 
which he said that Montdidier was for him a sec- 
ond birthplace, ‘‘ because there was born Mlle. 
Sophie Davalette, whom I married in i818, and 
who made the happiness of my life during nearly 
half a century.” This is certainly a very interest- 
ing fact, but has not much to do with Parmentier. 

Some days ago there was held in the palace of 
the Trocadero a festival for the benefit of the 
Pasteur institute. The very first artists, dramatic 
and musical, offered their time and talents: and 
the meeting was a success. The house, which is 
enormous, was crowded, although prices were 
high; and after the recital by Coquelin, of some 
verses of E. Manuel, a very fine ovation was given 
to Pasteur. He was very pale and much over- 
come. The whole audience rose, and cheered with 
all their might. This festival was got up under 
the direction of Scientia, a young scientific society 
founded by Charles Richet, G. Tissandier, and 
Max de Nansouty. 

Dr. Lagneau has recently presented his report 
on the principal epidemics of Paris during 1884. 
(This is an annual report sent to the Conseil @’hy- 
giene.) Some interesting facts are to be noticed 
in it. It has long been thought and said that 
typhoid-fever is the most prevalent and most fatal 
of Parisian epidemics. This, however, is quite 
untrue: diphtheria is entitled to the first place in 
the scale. Typhoid-fever, small-pox, and whoop- 


SCIENCE. 


521 


ing-cough are becoming more rare than formerly. 
In 1884 there were 2,592 deaths from diphtheria. 
Dr. Lagneau’s report is a very interesting and use- 
ful one, and indicates great progress in the hygi- 
enic and sanitary conditions of Paris. 

A few days ago I was present at the inaugura- 
tion of the Exposition d’hygiene urbaine, a very 
interesting display indeed. I specially noticed a 
hot-air room for the disinfection of mattresses 
and clothing (for military and colonial purposes), 
Redard’s method for disinfecting wagons and rail- 
way-cars by over-heated steam, etc. The number 
of implements exhibited is very great, and one 
might spend many hours in the exhibition with- 
out feeling a decrease in interest. It is impossible 
to enumerate the useful and ingenious apparatus 
to be seen, and I shall not attempt it. 

There has been a very sharp discussion in the 
Academy of medicine between Pasteur and 
Béchamp. It is pretty well known that Bechamp 
has got up.a theory on microzymas, which no- 
body save himself well understands. Microzymas, 
according to his idea, are molecular granulations 
which have existed since the beginning of the 
world, — he does not say which day of creation, — 
and are possessed of eternal life. But what is the 
réle of these microzymas, what is their influence 
on health and disease, what is their use and their 
modus vivendi, nobody knows. In short, M. 
Béchamp having attacked Pasteur’s experiments 
with unusual fury, Pasteur arose and said that 
such discussions were entirely useless, and that 
the only thing to do was to begin experimenting 
again, and that M. Bechamp would surely recog- 
nize his errors if he only took care to experiment 
seriously. Pasteur contested every result of 
Béchamp’s experiments, and asked for the appoint- 
ment of a commission to examine the facts and 
arguments on both sides: he wants to have done 
with the microzymas, and to show where the 
errors lie. We shall certainly have some very 
interesting discussions soon. The commission has 
been appointed on Professor Trélat’s proposal ; and 
it is believed that M. Béechamp’s last idea, viz., 
that microzymas transform themselves into bac- 
teria, bacilli, and other pathogenetic organisms, 
will not live much longer. 

The statistics concerning rabies in animals dur- 
ing 1885 have just been published. They show 
that in Paris, or rather in the department of the 
Seine, the number of rabid animals was 518. Of 
these animais, 503 were dogs; 138, cats: and 2, 
horses. Nineteen persons have died of rabies. It 
should be remarked that the number of cases of 
rabies in animals was much larger in 1885 than in 
1884, — 518 instead of 301, an increase that is not 
easily accounted for. 


522 


I have recently attended three very interesting 
séances given by Professor Luys concerning hyp- 
notism. The meetings were held at his private 
residence, and were attended only by some per- 
sonal friends and acquaintances of Dr. Luys. 
The results of the experiments were very sin- 
gular indeed, especially during a somnambulistic 
trance. M. Luys has studied, and showed to us, 
the effects of different drugs and poisons when 
put in a glass vial, firmly sealed with the lamp, 
and kept near the patient (action des médicaments 
ad distance). Each different drug produces a spe- 
cial and characteristic effect. Valerian does not 
act lke ether or brandy. Wine, brandy, and 
champagne do not produce exactly the same ef- 
fects; that is, the drunkenness brought on by 
the presence of these different alcoholic bever- 
ages is not precisely the same, and the differ- 
ences closely correspond with those observed in 
persons really intoxicated with wine, brandy, or 
champagne. For instance, ether acts on Esther 
N. in the following manner. After a few min- 
utes’ application of the ether-vial behind the 
neck, she grows less drowsy, opens her eyes, 
and begins laughing and grinning without any 
reason whatever. Her mirth is soon very great, 
and even noisy. <A very singular fact is that 
in her normal condition many colors are not 
seen by her; but under the influence of ether 
she sees them quite distinctly, and is astonished 
at the vividness of her color-impressions. Vale- 
rian acts upon her very differently. She begins 
scratching the floor, as cats do, and believes she 
is disinterring the remains of her mother; and 
she is in a very sad train of thought. Wine, 
similarly put behind her back, intoxicates her in 
a most pronounced and realistic manner: she is 
certainly in a state of beastly intoxication, and 
could not possibly be more so if she had really 
swallowed several bottles of wine. It is quitea 
sight to witness the experiment. She goes 
through the whole ordeal from beginning to end, 
and finally rolls on the floor as drunk as drunkard 
ever was. Water brings on symptoms of hydro- 
phobia, These experiments fully confirm those of 
Drs. Burot and Bourru, of Rochefort, on the same 
subject. 

Near the end of last month, during the Easter 
holidays, the Congrés de sociétés savantes began 
its meeting in the Sorbonne for the twenty-fourth 
time. After having been made up entirely of pro- 
vincial scientists, this society has recently enlarged 
its membership, and now comprises members from 
all parts of France. The number of persons who 
attend this meeting is always very great; but the 
Parisian members are rather scarce, especially 
when the weather is as fine as it has been this 


SCIENCE. 


{[Vou. VIL, No. 175 


year, and tempts them to go and seek in some 
nook of Compiégne or Fontainebleau forests a 
week of leisure and rest after a winter of hard 
work. However. the meeting was very interest- 
ing. In the section devoted to economical and 
social science, presided over by M. Levasseur of 
the institute, many questions were discussed con- 
cerning property, the share that can be given in 
benefits to workmen, the Torrens act, and similar 
plans for the mobilisation of property, etc. In the 
historical and archeological section many papers 
were presented, as usual. These literary scientific 
studies are the ones that interest the greatest 
number of members; since these sections are the 
original society itself,which has only of late added 
sections for the study of natural history, mathe- 
matics, chemistry, and physics. 

Apropos of societies, the Association francaise 
pour l’avancement des sciences has just published 
the first part of its report on the Grenoble meeting 
of 1885. This report is now published in two 
parts, separately bound as usual: it is published 
with great care, and is very large. 

Professor Duclaux published last week a new 
edition of his book, ‘ Ferments et maladies,’ under 
the title of ‘Le microbe et la maladie.’ It is an 
entirely new work, and gives a very good account 
of the facts at present positively known concern- 
ing the pathogenetic properties of different bac- 
teria and bacilli. We recommend this book, which 
is very interesting and well written, although with 
too many attempts at literary effect. 

The Institute of France has been recently called 
to elect a member in the place of Professor Bou- 
ley, deceased some time ago. There was only one 
candidate of sufficient notoriety and fitness for the 
place, and this was Professor Chauveau of Lyons, 
the well-known veterinarian and physiologist. He 
was elected by a great majority, and is to fill the 
place of M. Bouley in many ways, being already 
inspector-general of veterinary schools, and 
member of the institute, and soon to be elected a 
professor in the Museum d’histoire naturelle, in 
M. Bouley’s place. His duties will be different 
from those of his predecessor. He will be profes- 
sor of general physiology and pathology, instead 
of professor of comparative pathology, at least it 
is rumored so; and this is not surprising, Professor 
Chauveau being by training more of a physiologist 
than of a pathologist. He is a very able man, has 
worked a good deal, and thoroughly understands 
comparative anatomy and physiology. His elec- 
tion in Bouley’s place is very favorably commented 
on here. 

M. Laurent has communicated to the Academy 
of Belgium the results of some experiments on the 
influence of different bacteria on the growth of 


June 11, 1886.] 


Fagopyrum. He has grown the plant in differ- 
ent sorts of earth, and has found that the 
bacteria are very useful; since the plants grown 
in earth filled with bacteria are much bigger and 
finer than those grown in sterilized humus. 

The last two numbers of the Revue scientifique 
contain articles on the zoélogical stations of Cette 
and Concarneau. The laboratory of Cette is well 
known, and presents the great advantage of a rich 
fauna to be found in the brackish waters of pools 
in the salt-marshes, and in fresh water. No place 
in France offers such a happy combination of dif- 
ferent fields for biological students. Professor 
Sabatier of Montpellier, well known by his numer- 
ous and interesting researches on the origin of 
sexual elements in the vertebrates, founded this 
laboratory, and he now wishes to develop it. He 
is trying to raise the money for the purchase of a 
strip of land, and especially for a new building. 
It is to be hoped that he will succeed. As to Con- 
carneau, the oldest of all our marine laboratories, 
it seems to be in good order. It was founded by 
Costi in 1859. It is a small laboratory, and cannot 
compete with its younger companions of Roscoff, 
.Banyuls, Cette, Villefranche, and Wincereux; 
but yet it may render good service. Interesting 
researches concerning the temperature of the ocean 
at different depths have been conducted by M. 
Goiz ; and it is intended to study the habits and 
biology of sardines, a fish very abundant on the 
coast at certain times of the year, and concerning 
which very little is yet known. V. 

Paris, May 19. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE provincial assembly of San Paulo has 
voted an appropriation of fifty contos of reis 
(equivalent to about twenty-five thousand dollars) 
to begin a geographical and geological survey of 
that province on the plan followed by the surveys 
of the territories of the United States; and work 
has already been commenced with the following 
corps: Prof. Orville A. Derby, director ; Dr. Theo- 
doro Sampaio, chief topographer ; Dr. Luis Felippe 
Gonzaga de Campos, and Dr. Francises de Paula 
Oliveira, geologists. The first work of the com- 
mission will be the exploration of the river Para- 
Napanema from near its source to its junction with 
the Parana, which promises to become an im- 
portant link in the system of internal communica- 
tions of the empire, and to afford a complete 
geological section across the various belts of sedi- 
mentary formations of the province. The province 
of San Paulo joins that of Rio de Janeiro on the 
South, is one of the most interesting and impor- 
tant of the empire, and has as yet received but 


SCIENCE. 


523 


little attention from geologists. It is very ex- 
tensive, is known to possess great natural re- 
sources, and embraces the principal coffee-grow- 
ing sections of Brazil. Operations have probably 
been begun by this time. With respect to his re- 
cent studies in Brazil, Mr. Derby writes, ‘‘I have 
been giving a great deal of attention to petro- 
graphical work, with very encouraging results, as 
I find that the geology of the vicinity of Rio de 
Janeiro is not so monotonous as I had supposed, 
as there are within easy reach of the city three 
ancient volcanic centres, with a great and per- 
plexing variety of eruptive rocks, both in large 
masses and in small dikes.” 


— The belief in the occurrence of ‘ sea-serpents’ 
in the ocean of to-day, though hardly openly 
averred, is not discountenanced by not a few 
scientific men whose opinions are entitled to the 
highest consideration. Dr. J. B. Holder, after 
giving (in the Annals of the N. Y. academy of 
sciences) an historical account of a ‘sea-serpent’ 
observed near Boston, corroborates the adduced 
testimony by the description of a carcass of a large 
and unknown animal found off the coast of Florida, 
as related by highly creditable witnesses. The 
creature described was over forty feet in length, 
and nowhere of more than two feet in diameter. 
Unfortunately the specimen was in an advanced 
state of decomposition, and no portion was saved. 
The discovery of the giant squids off the Atlantic 
coast within recent years demonstrates the possi- 
bility of other large animals yet inhabiting the 
ocean, of whose existence science is yet wholly 
unaware. May not some descendant of the cre- 
taceous mosasaurs or plesiosaurs yet be among 
them ? 


— Ata meeting of the Royal colonial institute, 
held on May 11, in London, a paper on ‘ Tasmania 
as it is, was read by Mr. W. L. Dobson, chief 
justice of Tasmania. As to the chief industrial 
pursuits of Tasmania, Mr. Dobson remarked that 
the largest return was received from sheep’s wool, 
and great attention was devoted to breeding meri- 
no sheep, with fleeces of the finest and densest 
quality. An inexhaustible supply of timber of 
different kinds was obtained from the dense forests 
of the island ; and hops, oats, and potatoes were 
among the vegetable produce. There could be 
little, if any, doubt that the mining wealth of 
Tasmania was yet in its infancy. As to means of 
locomotion, 257 miles of railway had been laid 
down, and 117 nearly completed, and there was a 
network of telegraphic wires all over the inhab- 
ited portions of the colony. No aid was afforded 
by the state to religion; and of the population, 
about one-half belonged to the Church of Eng- 


524 


land, and one-fourth to the Church of Rome. He 
believed that Tasmania had not progressed more 
rapidly because she had hitherto suffered from 
contiguity to, and comparison with, the neighbor- 
ing colonies, which offered a wider field and greater 
scope for the energy and enterprise of the settler. 
As this field, however, gradually became occupied, 
Tasmania’s progress would again become assured. 
He thought, however, that a colony which had 
increased her revenue during the last decade from 
£340,000 to £550,000, and her exports from £1,000,- 
000 to £1,400,000, was not to be deemed wanting 
in progress. 

— Mrs. J. Lawrence Smith has presented to 
Harvard college a tablet in memory of her hus- 
band. The tablet is of bronze inlaid with silver, 
and is to be placed with the Smith collection of 
meteorites purchased by Harvard college after Dr. 
Smith’s death. In the centre of the tablet there 
is an enamel portrait of Professor Smith, and this 
is surrounded by the different medals and decora- 
tions with which he was honored. It will be re- 
membered that the collection of meteorites was 
sold for ten thousand dollars, of which sum Mrs. 
Smith contributed two thousand. With the eight 
thousand dollars actually received, Mrs. Smith has 
generously endowed the Smith medal, which is at 
the disposal of the National academy of sciences. 


— The engraving of the various index-catalogue 
charts for the U. S. coast and geodetic survey 
has been commenced ; the chart of the whole At- 
lantic coast and Gulf will be out by the middle of 
August; that for the Pacific coast will be issued 
Jan. 1. The Pacific coast tide-predictions for the 
year 1887 are now in the hands of the public 
printer ; the predictions for the Atlantic coast will 
be sent to the printer this week; and the entire 
series will be ready for issue by the 1st of August. 


—Plate No. 10 of the detailed topographical 
survey of the District of Columbia, made by As- 
sistant John W. Donn of the U.S. coast survey, 
under the direction of the engineer commissioners 
of the district, has been printed and sent to the 
commissioners. The drawing of plate No. 16 is 
complete, and will be placed in the hands of the 
photolithographer this week. This sheet will 
show the location of the estate recently purchased 
by President Cleveland for a summer residence. 
For the want of sufficient funds, it has only been 
practicable to keep one topographical party at 
work on this important survey. Those having 
charge of the direction and execution of this 
work are urging congress to appropriate sufficient 
money to employ at least one more party and two 
skilled draughtsmen, in order to complete it. 


— Bulletin No. 15 of the Ohio agricultural ex- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 175 


periment-station contains an interesting account 
of further experiments by Prof. H. A. Weber 
upon the microscopic methods of distinguishing 
butter from other fats proposed by Dr. Thomas 
Taylor, and which were mentioned in a recent 
number of Science. It will be remembered that 
Dr. Taylor’s first claim was that butter, cooled 
slowly under certain conditions, formed ‘ globules,’ 
which, when viewed by polarized light, showed a 
well-defined St. Andrew’s cross. Professor Weber 
having shown that this appearance was not charac- 
teristic of genuine butter, but might be produced 
in any common fat by treatment similar to that 
applied to the butter, Dr. Taylor then practically 
abandoned his claims for this test, and called par- 
ticular attention to another test as being most 
important and characteristic. According to Dr. 
Taylor, if a sample of butter is viewed by polarized 
light, a plain selenite being placed between po- 
larizer and analyzer, a uniform color is observed : 
if any solid fat, like lard or tallow, be thus 
viewed, the fat wil) exhibit prismatic colors. It 
is this test which has been the subject of Professor 
Weber’s investigations, and he finds it as falla- 
cious as the former one. Any of the fats under 
consideration, if melted, and cooled slowly, and 
then submitted to Dr. Taylor’s test, will show the 
prismatic colors, due to the action of the com- 
paratively large crystals formed upon the polar- 
ized light. On the other hand, the same fats, if 
cooled quickly, so as to prevent the formation of 
large crystals, present the uniform tint claimed 
by Dr. Taylor as characteristic of butter-fat. An 
interesting observation was made upon a sample 
of butter which had been kept in a closed tin box 
in the laboratory, and had become alternately 
hard and soft with the changes of temperature, 
but never melted. This butter, which had hardly 
been exposed to greater changes of temperature 
than much country butter is liable to, showed the 
prismatic colors claimed by Dr. Taylor as charac- 
teristic of foreign fats. Professor Weber con- 
cludes this account of his experiments in the fol- 
lowing words: ‘‘ Taking the whole of Dr. Tay- 
lor’s microscopical investigations into account, it 
may be said that they have received more atten- 
tion at the hands of American investigators than 
their crude methods and erroneous conclusions 
would warrant.” 


— The distinguished mechanical engineer, 
Adolphe Hirn, has been decorated with the Order 
of the rose by the emperor of Brazil. 


— Assistant C. H. Boyd of the coast survey has — 


been instructed to make an examination into the 


changes in the shore line in the vicinity of Mono-— 


moy, Mass.; instructions have been issued to Sub- 


June 11, 1886.] 


assistant W. C. Hodgkins to make an examination 
of the point at Cape Lookout where great changes 
have been reported since the last examination ; 
Lieutenant-Commander Brownson, U.S.N., chief 
hydrographic inspector, is now in New York, in- 
specting the Gedney, Bache, and Endeavor ; Lieut. 
F. §. Carter has been detached from the coast- 
survey steamer Gedney, and placed in charge of 
the vessels laid up at the New York navy-yard ; 
reports from the steamers Paterson and McArthur, 
which are stationed at Wrangle, Alaska, state 
that the weather is very favorable for work. and 
the results thus far attained have been most 
gratifying. 

— The Royal academy of sciences at Turin has 
announced the grand Bressa prize of twenty-four 
hundred dollars, to be awarded at the close of 
1889 for the most meritorious work or discovery 
in the physical or natural sciences, produced dur- 
ing the years 1886-89. The prize is open to the 
world. 


— The International literary and artistic asso- 
ciation, says the Academy, will not hold its next 
congress at Stockhelm this year, as had been 
arranged, but at Geneva, on the 18th of Septem- 
ber. The subjects to be discussed will comprise 

_ the right of property in lettres missives, the agree- 
ments as to publication and the relations between 
authors and publishers, the right of property in 
the titles of literary and scientific productions, 
and the assimilation of the right of translation 
with that of production. 


— Naturalists will recall that some fossil egg- 
| masses of insects of extraordinary size were found 
a few years ago mm Colorado in beds referred to 
the Laramie period, and considered by Scudder as 
indicating the existence of a neuropterous insect 
very closely allied to our great ‘ Hellgramite,’ 
Corydalus cornutus. It now appears that pre- 
cisely similar bodies, at first supposed to be of 
vegetable origin, have been found in the lignites 
of Trets, near Aix, France, associated with Ne- 
lumbium in beds universally referred to the lower 
_ Garumnian, or, even lower, to the Campanian ; 
_ thatis, to the horizon of the upper cretaceous. The 
_ Garumnian has already been compared to our 
Laramie group. . 


— The Wiirtemberg ministry has invited the 
governments of Bavaria, Austria, Baden, and 

Switzerland to participate in an examination and 
surveys of the deeper portions of the Lake of Con- 
Stance, to serve in the preparation of an accurate 
map of the lake’s bottom. A commission of 
Specialists will meet in Friedrichshaven to decide 
upon the methods and extent of the proposed 


SCIENCE. 525 


— Prof. G. Dewalque of Liége, the secretary of 
the Commission of the International congress of 
geologists on the map of Europe, desires to sell his 
large library en bloc, and wishes to know whether 
some individual or institution will not make him 
an offer for it on the basis of-a catalogue of its 
contents. 


— The output of shad hatched by the U. S. fish 
commission up to the present time has been 12,- 
000,000. These have been sent away, as fast as 
hatched, to various streams, and deposited : 356,- 
000 have gone to the Cheat River at Grafton; 
370,000 to the Chattahoochee, Georgia ; 626,000 
to the Chickahominy ; 329,000 to the Dan: 758,- 
000 to the Mattapony ; 885,000 to the Pamunky ; 
1,110,000 to the Occoquan ; 757,000 to the Shen- 
andoah ; 380,000 to the James ; 379,000 to the Ap- 
pomattox ; 603,000 to the Monocacy ; 609.000 to the 
Patuxent ; 1,234,000 to the Rivanna ; 390,000 to the 
Accokeek Creek ; 889,000 to Aquia Creek; 1,270,- 
000 to the Rapidan ; 391,000 to the North Anna ; 
1,070,000 to the Rappahannock ; 1,282,000 to the 
Little Falls of the Potomac ; 1,586,000 to the Hud- 
son: and 1,000,000 to the Colorado. All of these 
fish are not, of course, counted and numbered. 
They are measured in the jars. It is known by 
actual count how many eggs are necessary to fill 
a jar to the depth of an inch. A quart, it is 
estimated, will hold 28,000 eggs. 


— New discoveries of petroleum in southern 
California are causing much excitement, says the 
Los Angeles Herald. A well recently bored in 
Ventura county is yielding fifty barrels of oil daily. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


ax*¥x Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Some devices for teaching historical geography. 


A FRIEND having called my attention to some sug- 
gestions, in Science of April 9, on maps suitable for 
history classes, it has occurred to me that perhaps 
the results of several years’ experimenting with dif- 
ferent devices for teaching historic geography might 
be of interest to some of your readers. 

That helps are needed to illustrate the intricate 
territorial changes of continental history, scarcely 
requires to be further emphasized. Much of history, 
indeed, is little more than the record of such changes. 
The contrast between the hopeless confusion of many 
important epochs when studied without historical 
maps, and the beautiful clearness of the same epochs 
with the maps, is simply astounding, and is the true 
warrant for the time honored claim of geography as 
one of the two eyes of history. 

Having become impressed, after a deal of unsatis- 
factory teaching, that better machinery than the 
ordinary is almost a necessity, I have spent considera- 
ble time and pains trying different devices. For 
several years I used a map of Europe permanently 


526 


painted on the blackboard, and, to show territorial 
changes, filled in with colored crayons. This method 
has the great advantage of growing before the class, 
changing with the history. But it is wanting in 
cleanness and accuracy, requires much disagreeable 
labor, and involves destroying the boundaries of the 
one period before putting on those of the next; so 
that the eye cannot compare the two stages. 

Accompanying this device, I have used that for 
the pupils which you suggest; i.e., small uncolored 
outline-maps, to be filled in for successive epochs by 
the student himself. My class in medieval history 
last year was required to make eighteen of these. 
To get the outline-maps, we have copies made by the 
hektograph process. Tracing-paper can be used to 
get the first copy, thus bringing this scheme within 
the reach of every teacher. 

We also use your scheme involving a series of wall- 
maps for successive epochs. With other teachers I 
have often felt the need of cheap printed outline- 
maps, to be filled up in the course of the work. In 
lieu of such outline-maps, we have gotten along 
pretty well by the use of white holland, which is 
sufficiently translucent to be used like tracing-cloth ; 
so that the labor of carefully drawing the map has 
to be performed but once. This material we buy in 
quantities, so that it costs but twelve cents and a half 
per yard. To secure the requisite width, two or 
more pieces can be sewed together. Being strong to 
resist wear and tear, for maps it is about the most 
satisfactory material with which I am acquainted. 

But the best device, by all odds, which we have 
yet hit upon, is a system of ground-maps with super- 
posable fractional maps. The original map we 
mount on a soft pine back, and indicate every change 
by overlaying it with fractional maps corresponding 
in natural features to the original, but colored in 
such manner as to show the altered political relations. 
Thus, having a map of Italy divided and colored to 
show its political condition before 1859, — with Sar- 
dinia and Piedmont red, Austrian territory yellow, 
Parma orange, Modena gray, Papal States brown, 
Tuscany olive, and Naples purple, — we tell the story 
of Magenta and Solferina; then lay over yellow 
Lombardy a red Lombardy, to show its acquisition 
by Sardinia ; and a green Savoy and Nice over the 
red Savoy and Nice, to show how France exacted 
them as the price of her assistance. Then, on Victor 
Emanuel’s acceptance of the offered sovereignty of 
Parma, Modena, Bologna, and Tuscany, a red patch 
is tacked over these districts. Soa red Sicily and a 
red Naples are Jaid on when Garibaldi’s work is 
done. A red Ancona and Umbria finish the work 
for 1860. In 1866 Venetia is covered with red ; and 
in 1870, the remainder of papal territory. 

During the year we have worked out sets for the 
territorial history of France from 1550 to 1870, of 
Prussia from 1400 to 1866, of the Ottoman empire 
from 1680 to 1886, of western Europe from 395 to 
888, etc. From no other plan have we obtained re- 
sults at all comparable with those of this year. 

The advantages of this device are apparent. It is 
superior to the series of maps, because, 1°, it 
changes with history ; 2°, a more definite concept of 
the changed territory is obtained when it can be 
taken off and handled as a piece of cloth; 3°, the 
student can be set to work out the changes for him- 
self, —to build up or take to pieces the map; and, 
4°, itis less expensive, involving but one or two 
full-sized maps. It is superior to the blackboard 


SCIENCE. 


[Voi Vile; Wo. 15 


scheme, because, 1°, it is clearer ; 2°, it is more ac- 
curate ; 3°, it is easier to reproduce, and so not too 
difficult for the student and the overworked teacher ; 
and, 4°, it preserves both the original condition of 
things and the changed order, each of which can be 
reproduced in turn, and thus the exact nature and 
extent of the change can be clearly and definitely 
seen. 

Incidentally, the use of a soft-wood back has sug- 
gested several little devices which we find quite help- 
ful. For battles we use a bright red spear-head of 
stiff cloth fastened with sealing-wax to the head of 
a needle. These, being removable, are placed on 
the map just where events call for them; can be 
made large enough to show across any room without 
permanently disfiguring the map; do not crowd 
regions like the Netherlands, where many battles 
have been fought, till the confusion is hopeless ; and, 
finally, furnish, in putting them on, a useful exercise 
for the student. Similarly, we use a yellow star on 
a black circle for treaties of peace, and lines of 
colored braid to follow expeditions, such as Alex- 
ander’s or the crusades. Doubtless other expedients 
of the same nature will suggest themselves. 


F. M. TayYLor. 
Albion, Mich., May 28. 


Some Ojibwa and Dakota practices. 


Science (vol. iii. No. 57) records on p. 298 the dis- 
covery of human bones suggesting cannibalism in a 
cave near the village of Holzon Brunswick, reported 
to the Berlin anthropological society by Professor 
Nehring. ‘‘It is the first evidence discovered,” 
says the author, ‘‘ that a race of anthropophagi ever 
existed in Germany. The bones were not fully 
calcined, and had evidently been chopped to obtain 
the marrow. As a still greater proof of cannibalism, 
it was shown that the bones were thrown in a heap, 
as if cleared after a meal. ... In the subsequent 
discussion Professor Virchow raised some objections 
to the cannibal theory.” 

A case like the one in question might sometimes, 
probably, be referable to exceptional cannibalism ; 
that is, to an act of cannibalism committed under 
extraordinary conditions, by a race not commonly 
addicted to the vice, and even in general, perhaps, 
abhorring it. In solving problems of this sort, it 
becomes a pertinent inquiry, how savage man of the 
historic period actually ‘takes his meals,’ if such 
they may be called, and whether or not he practises 
disposing of the residuum of his food in the orderly 
manner indicated above. j 

An instance of man-eating, with its attendant cir- 
cumstances, occurring among the wild Ojibwas of 
Lake Pokegema, Minnesota, is cited below. It is 
put on record in this place for the purpose of illus- 
trating exceptional cannibalism in non-cannibal 
tribes, and of showing how, half a century ago, 
Algonkins and Dakotas still inhabiting the north- 
west were accustomed to hew in pieces, distribute, 
and leave to be gnawed by animals, the slaughtered 
bodies of their enemies. The given facts, further- 
more, emphasize the possible co-existence, In the. 
same aboriginal community, of two widely differing — 
grades of civilization, particularly in the case . | 
savages just emerging from barbarism in virtue 0 
their association with enlightened races. 

It should be stated that this paper has been pre 
pared from verbal and written material kindly 


i ' 


JUNE 11, 1886.] 


furnished the writer by Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor Ayer, 
a missionary lady who was a keenly interested par- 
ticipant in most of the events reported. Among the 
early writers of Minnesota, fragments of the same 
narrative occur, presenting, however, different 
phases of this history, and altogether lacking the 
element of continuity. 

The Ojibwa band of aborigines settled about Lake 
Pokegema, in what is now Pine county, Minn., in- 
cluded in 1841 two Ojibwa braves,—one named 
We-zhai-ma; the other called by the missionaries 
stationed at that point Julius Caesar, both on account 
of his distinguished bearing, and his prowess in bat- 
tle. 

Some time in May, 1841, these two Indians were 
despatched down the St. Croix valley to St. Croix 
Falls for needful supplies. Upon reaching their 
destination, they learned that their hereditary ene- 
mies, the Sioux or Dakotas, were about to attack the 
Pokegema Ojibwas, when, leaving their supplies be- 
hind them, they hastened homeward to give warning 
of the impending danger. 

During the return journey, they encountered the 

war-party in question, under circumstances which 
rendered advance and retreat alike dangerous. 
Without a moment’s hesitation, the young Ojibwas 
fired upon the hostile party, Julius Caesar killing one 
of the leaders of the expedition : the two then parted 
from each other, and, in accordance with Indian 
tactics, fled in opposite directions. 
- The foe pressed hotly upon Julius. He threw his 
gun lightly over one shoulder, and, with a backward 
half-aim, shot dead a second Sioux warrior, who 
proved to be a brother of the first. These two Sioux 
braves were sons of Little Crow, senior, a prominent 
and influential chief of the Kapota band of Dakotas, 
at that time settled within a few miles of the present 
site of the city of St. Paul. 

Julius himself immediately fell. His body was 
dismembered. His limbs were literally hewed in 
pieces and scattered to the four winds. His head 
was scalped, detached from the trunk, placed in a 
kettle with fragments of his person, adjusted with 
the face turned toward the bodies of his victims 
seated near, and left dangling from the bough of a 
convenient tree. A friendly party eventually dis- 
covered and identified the mutilated remains, and 
conveyed intelligence of the disaster to the families 
of the young men at Lake Pokegema. No traces of 
We-zhai-ma’s body could be found, but, as he had 
completely disappeared, it was believed that he like- 
wise had perished at the hand of the enemy. 

The Pokegema Indians apprehended further hos- 
tilities in the immediate future. The better to guard 
against surprise, sucn of them as were dwelling upon 
the mainland abandoned their places, and took 
refuge with friends upon a small island near the 
centre of the lake. The sole approach to this spot 
being by water, the Pokegemas withdrew their 
canoes at night from the outer shore, and secured 


them against capture upon the island. The women 


had at the proper season planted potatoes, maize, 
and other vegetables upon the mainland in large 
open fields which they called gardens. These they 
cultivated during the day, returning to their island 
lodges by boat at nightfall. 

Three runners were soon despatched from Lake 
Pokegema to acquaint friends at Mille Lacs with the 
fate and supposed fate of Julius and We-zhai-ma. 
Early upon the morning chosen for their departure, 


SCIENCE. 


927 


they were set across the lake to the west, in canoes, 
by two young girls of the band, who accompanied 
them for the purpose of returning the boats used to 
their owners at the island. A hostile force of Sioux 
warriors had meanwhile succeeded in penetrating 
secretly to Pokegema, and these were now ambushed 
in two bodies upon the eastern and the western edges 
of the lake. The larger division, of one hundred 
fighting men, was posted upon the eastern shore, in 
the rear of the gardens, and was expected to make 
the main attack upon the Ojibwas. The western 
party, of thirty, comprising men and some women 
and boys, was so stationed as to prevent the Ojibwas 
from retreating across the lake during battle. The 
latter force had been strictly charged to make no 
sign until firing should be heard from the eastern 
shore. 

One or two of the Sioux hotheads, however, could 
not withstand the temptation to fire upon the canoes 
as they reached the beach. The Ojibwa runners 
promptly returned the fire, and made for the shore. 
They finally escaped their opponents by piunging 
into the forest, though all were more or less wounded. 

The two Indian maidens were small creatures of 
only about twelve years, being pupils at the mission- 
school. These girls sprang out of the canoes, and in 
their terror waded from the shore into the shallow 
waters of the lake. They were pursued and captured 
by the Sioux party. The men, dragging them to land, 
butchered them upon the spot, their dying shrieks 
ringing in the ears of the distracted parents at the 
island. They were scalped, their heads were cut off, 
a hatchet was sunk in the brain of each, their bodies 
were mutilated, and the heads were set up in mock- 
ery in the sands of the shore. 

In brief, the Sioux party lost two men killed out- 
right, and one mortally wounded. So assured of 
success in this expedition were they, that they had 
brought with them a certain number of boys and 
women to aid in carrying away their anticipated 
spoils. In finally quitting the field, they possessed 
themselves of a boat owned by the missionaries, and, 
depositing their slain within it, moved two or three 
miles up Snake River, where they landed. Here 
they arrayed the dead in the best they could procure, 
and left them seated in an upright position against 
the trunks of trees. 

Two days after the fight, certain of the wild Poke- 
gemas ascended the river in search of the dead bodies 
of the enemy, which thev found arranged as de- 
scribed, and which they proceeded to hew in pieces, 
and convey to the island for distribution among the 
members of their band. AJ] those who had lost a rel- 
ative at the hand of a Sioux were tobe supplied with 
a portion of a Sioux body, those recently bereaved 
being the first to be served. 

The mother of one of the slaughtered girls was a 
pagan. She received as her allotment the head of a 
Sioux warrior. The mother and the wife of Julius, 
who were no longer wild Indians, had appropriated 
to them an arm each. The savage mother, frantic 
with grief and rage, repeatedly dashed the head 
vengefully among the stones, and tossed and spurned 
it with her foot along the sands until. weary, eventu- 
ally leaving it to be eaten by the dogs, and to moulder 
away among the refuse of the village. On the other 
hand, the mother and wife of Julius accepted in 
silence the customary mementos of victory, and with- 
drew with them to their lodge. Here the two 
bereaved women took the dissevered limbs upon their 


528 


laps, swathed them carefully in wrappings of cloth 
selected by the mother from her most valued treas- 
ures, repeated above them a short prayer, and, steal- 
ing out unobserved, dug a suitable pit and buried 
them in it. 

The night after the return of the Pokegemas with 
the Sioux bodies, they treated themselves to a great 
feast at the island, whieh culminated in the usual 
hideous orgies. From this banquet the better class 
of the band absented themselves. Sioux flesh was at 
this time boiled and eaten with wild rice. Mrs. Ayer, 
testifying absolutely to this latter point, adds, that the 
given instance of cannibalism is the only one coming 
to her personal knowledge during the whole period of 
her connection with the wild Ojibwas, something 
more than twenty years. 

We-zhai-ma, who had been mourned as a victim 
of the Sioux. re appeared after the attack on Lake 
Pokegema. He had managed to elude pursuit while 
the enemy were busied with their captive, and had 
finally succeeded in effecting escape. When he even- 
tually resumed his return, it was by a circuitous 
route which materially delayed his arrival at home. 

The events here detailed sealed the fate of the 
Pokegemas as an independent band. Constant dread 
of Sioux incursions caused these people to abandon 
their hunting and fishing grounds at the lake, and 
betake themselves to regions less accessible to the 
foe. They melted away from Pokegema as if by 
magic, withdrawing singly and in groups, and retir- 
ing for the most part to the north and north-west; 
many of them fleeing to Mille Lacs and Lake Supe- 
rior. Within a very short time they were wholly ab- 
sorbed in cognate branches of the great Ojibwa tribe, 
presenting a case of the complete disintegration of 
an aboriginal community without corresponding loss. 


Franc E. BaBBITT. 
Coldwater, Mich., June 4. , 


The agricultural experiment-station of New 


Jersey. 


For a state so peculiarly located with reference to 
market facilities as New Jersey, and containing, 
withal, such large areas of unproductive soil, it 
would seem most appropriate that the study of arti- 
ficial sources of soil-fertility should constitute, as it 
does in that state, the primary work of the state 
agricultural experiment-station. 

There are certain features of the work of this 
New Jersey station, as detailed in its recent reports, 
to which I wish briefly to direct attention. One of 
these is, that, with but trifling exceptions, the entire 
resources of the station are directed to the solution 
of the chosen problem, and that no attempt is made 
to skim over the limitless field of agricultural re- 
search. 

Another notable feature is that the field and feed- 
ing experiments, all of which bear directly or in- 
directly upon the central problem under investiga- 
tion, are conducted upon the parallel lines of labora- 
tory analysis accompanied by field or stable tests ; 
the fact having apparently been recognized that the 
chemist’s analysis alone is not a sufficient criterion 
upon which to base an estimate of the agricultural 
value of a fertilizer or feeding-stuff, although an 
essential factor in forming that estimate. 

A third conspicuous feature of the work of this 
station is the absence of that class of experiments 
which can justly be styled ‘empirical.’ The 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 175 


field-experiments especially are co-ordinated upon a 
thoroughly scientific plan, and constitute a form of 
research which requires for its successful prosecution 
as high a degree of scientific ability as is ever called 
for in the chemist’s or physiologist’s laboratory. 

The institution of duplicate experiments on farms 
in various parts of the state is another commendable 
feature of this station’s work. in that it not only 
brings under observation the effects of differences in 
soil and climate, but is educating a number of 
farmers in the methods of accurate experimentation. 

No doubt there are many citizens of New Jersey 
who feel that their special interests are being 
neglected by the state experiment station; but I 
believe that the station is doing wisely in confining 
its work to such questions of primary importance as 
may be thoroughly handled. To do a definite work 
well is far better than to skim over a larger field, 
especially in science, where half-truths are so liable to 
be whole errors ; and I believe that its present course 
will the sooner bring to this station the means for 
enlarging its field of useful work. 

C. E. THORNE. 


Penetrating-power of arrows. 


Some time since, I noticed a letter in Science asking 
for information in regard to the penetrating-force of 
the arrow. 

I have in my possession the sixth dorsal vertebra 
of a buffalo, the spine of which contains an iron 
arrow-point. The arrow struck the spine about two 
inches above the centre of the spinal canal, and 
penetrated the bone .82 of aninch. The bone at the 
point struck is .55 of an inch thick, and the point of 
the arrow protrudes beyond the bone .27 of an inch. 
The arrow was shot from the right side of the 
animal, and the plane of the point was horizontal. 
The animal was mature, and the bones well ossified. 
Though the vertebra has been much weathered, the 
epiphyses adhere closely. The animal was not as 
large as some individuals. The whole vertical length 
of the vertebra is thirteen inches. 

The arrow must have penetrated several inches of 
flesh before striking the bone. OLIVER Marcy. 


North-western university, 
Evanston, Ill., May 31. 


Spectrum of comet c. 1886. 


Comet c. 1886 presents to telescopic vision a rather 
bright oval of light, with an ill-defined nucleus in 
the north preceding quadrant. Although a faint ob- 
ject, it was so temptingly situated for observation, 
that, rather out of curiosity, the telescope, already 
employed in faint spectroscopic work, was directed 
upon it. The method of observation, while adapted 
to use very faint light, is yet supplied with checks 
against optical illusion. Observations were obtained 
on May 26, 28, and June 4. They afford five loci of 
light, agreeing fairly in position with the five series 
of lines in the low-temperature spectrum of carbo- 
hydrogen, and afford a strong suspicion of other loci, 
two of which lie near strong lines in the low-temper- 
ature spectrum of oxygen, and others to the low- 
temperature spectrum of carbo-oxygen. The spec- 
tra given in micrometric gaseous spectra by Piazzi 
Smyth have in each case been used as rele 


New Haven, Conn., June 8. 


,’ 


SCIENCE.—SuppLeMenrt. 


FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1886. 


ETHICS AND ECONOMICS. 


In the study of no science is it more impor- 
tant to bear in mind the distinction between 
words and ideas than in political economy. Locke 
enforces the far-reaching character of this dis- 
tinction in general in one of the books of his 
wonderful work, ‘Essay on the human under- 
standing.’ 

The following personal anecdote is narrated ; 
and so weighty is the truth which it conveys, 
that it ought to be read frequently, and fully 
grasped: ‘‘I was once in a meeting of very 
learned and ingenious physicians, where by 
chance there arose a question whether any liquor 
passed through the filaments of the nerves. I 
(who had been used to suspect that the greatest 
part of disputes were more about the signification 
of words, than a real difference in the conception 
of things) desired, that, before they went any 
further on in this dispute, they would first estab- 
lish amongst them what the word ‘liquor’ signi- 
fied. . . . They were pleased to comply with my 
motion, and, upon examination, found that the 
signification of that word was not so settled and 
certain as they had all imagined, but that each 
of them made it a sign of a different complex 
idea. This made them perceive that the main of 
their dispute was about the signification of that 
term, and that they differed very little in their 
opinion concerning some fluid and subtile matter 
passing through the conduits of the nerves, 
though it was not so easy to agree whether it 
was to be called ‘liquor’ or no, —a thing which 
then each considered he thought it not worth 
the contending about.” 

This illustration brings us at once to the heart 
of a large part of past economic controversies. 
The same words have stood to different men for 
different ideas; and in their hot debates about 
capital, value, money, and the like, they have 
often been talking about things not at all the 
same, though they supposed them to be so. One 
man comes forward with a definition of value, 
and cries out, ‘It is of vital importance,’ as if 
that would settle all the social problems of the 
ages, whereas he has simply told us how he in- 
tends to use a particular word. He has really 
accomplished nothing in economics. Having 
| settled upon his signs, he is ready to begin work. 


I may choose to adopt another definition : what 
does that signify? Simply this: to me this sign 
stands for this idea; both may be right, though it 
is of course important to be consistent, and re- 
tain throughout, the same sign for the same idea. 
Another gives a definition for capital, and then 
says, ‘‘To speak of productive capital is mere 
tautology.” — ‘‘ Of course, my dear sir,” I reply, 
‘‘the idea of productivity is implied in your 
definition, but it is not implied in mine. Your 
proposition, as often happens, is a mere repeti- 
tion of what you already said about capital in 
your definition ; but capital is not a living definite 
thing, like a horse or a cow. If it were, our differ- 
ence of definition might imply error ; at any rate, 
a difference of opinion.” 

Let us take the case of money. One economist 
ardently maintains that national bank-notes are 
money ; another denies this. Controversy waxes 
warm ; but ask them both to define money, and 
you shall find that each included his proposition 
in his definition. It is mere logomachy, nothing 
more. 

One writer —and a very clever one — says 
‘value never means utility.’ That is absolutely 
false. Good writers have used it with that mean- 
ing. What he ought to have said is, ‘ according 
to my definition it can never mean utility.’ 

When we pass over to definitions of political 
economy, we encounter like divergence of concep- 
tion, and this explains much controversial writ- 
ing. The words ‘political economy’ do not con- 
vey the same meaning to all persons, nor have 
they been a sign for an idea which has remained 
constant in time. 

A definition means one of two things, — what 
is, or what one wishes something to be. What is 
political economy ? We can give an answer which 
will describe the various classes of subjects treated 
under that designation, or we may simply state 
what we think the term ought to include. The 
latter course is that which the doctrinaire always 
follows. 

Professor Sidgwick, in his ‘Scope and method 
of economic science,’ complains because certain 
recent writers include ‘ what ought to be’ in their 
economic discussion. Does political economy in- 
clude any thing more than what is? Is its prov- 
ince confined to an analysis of existing institu- 
tions and the social phenomena of to-day? Here 
we have to do with a question of fact. What do 
writers of recognized standing discuss under the 


530 


heading or title ‘ political economy’? Open your 
Mill, your Schénberg, your Wagner, your eco- 
nomic magazines, and you readily discern that 
the course of economic thought is largely, perhaps 
mainly, directed to what ought to be. It is not, as 
Professor Sidgwick says, that German economists, 
in their declamations against egoism, confound 
what is, with what ought to be; for no econo- 
mists know so well what is, but that they propose 
to help to bring about what ought to be. This is 
the reason why the nrore recent economic think- 
ers may be grouped together as the ‘ ethical 
school.’ They consciously adopt an ethical ideal, 
and endeavor to point out the manner in which 
it may be attained, and even encourage people to 
strive for it. 

This establishes a relation between ethics and 
economics which has not always existed, because 
the scope of the science has been, as a matter of 
fact, enlarged. The question is asked, what is 
the purpose of our economic life? and this at 
once introduces ethical considerations into politi- 
cal economy. Of course, it is easily possible to 
enter into a controversy as to the wisdom of this 
change of conception. Some will maintain that 
economic science will do well to abide by the con- 
ception current at an earlier period in its develop- 
ment, and restrict itself to a discussion of things 
as they are. The discussion between representa- 
tives of these two conceptions would reveal differ- 
ences of opinion as regards economic facts and 
economic forces. 

Why should economic science concern itself with 
what ought to be? The answer must include a 
reference to the nature of our economic life. 

This life, as it is understood by representatives 
of the new school, is not something stationary : 
it isa growth. What is, is not what has been, 
nor is it what will be. Movement is uninter- 
rupted ; but it is so vast, and we are so mucha 
part of it, that we cannot easily perceive it. It 
is in some respects like the movement of the 
earth, which can only be discerned by difficult 
processes. We are not conscious of it. Although 
the thought of evolution of economic life had 
not until recently, I think, been grasped in its 
full import, yet economists of the so-called older 
school, like Bagehot and John Stuart Mill, ad- 
mitted that the doctrines which they received ap- 
plied only to a comparatively few inhabitants of 
the earth’s surface, and even to them only during 
a comparatively recent period. In other words, 
English political economy described the economic 
life of commercial England in the nineteenth 
century. Now, a growth cannot well be compre- 
hended by an examination of the organism at 
one period, The physiologist must know some- 


SCIENCE. 


[Yous VIL No id 


thing about the body of the child, of the youth, 
of the full-grown man, and of the aged man, 
before he fully understands the nature of the 
human body. Our biologists, indeed, insist that 
they must go back to the earliest periods, and 
trace the development of life-forms forward dur- 
ing all past periods, and they endeavor to point 
out a line of growth. The modern economist 
desires to study society in the same manner. 
Lord Sherbrooke and others have claimed for 
political economy the power of prediction, and 
this has been based on the assumption that men 
will continue to act precisely as they have acted 
in time past. What seems to me a more truly 
scientific conception is this: the economist hopes 
to understand industrial society so thoroughly, 
that he may be able to indicate the general lines 
of future development. It follows from all this, 
that the future is something which proceeds from 
the present, and depends largely upon forces at 
work in the past. 

More than this istrue. The economic life of man 
is to some considerable extent the product of the 
human will. John Stuart Mill draws the line in 
this way: he says that production depends upon 
natural laws, while distribution ‘is a matter of 
human institution solely.’ Both statements are 
somewhat exaggerated. The truth is, political 
economy occupies a position midway between 
physicial or natural science and mental science. 
It is a combination of both. With the inventions 
and discoveries of modern times, we seem almost 
to have solved the problem of production ; but 
the problem of an ideal distribution of products 
still awaits a satisfactory solution. But how 
largely does this depend on human will? Mill 
points to the institution of private property as 
fundamental in the distribution of goods. This 
is true, and the historical economist discovers that 
the idea of property is something fluctuating. He 
ascertains that there was a time when landed 
property was mostly held in common ; that in 
certain parts of the earth it is still held in that 
manner ; while there are far-reaching variations 
in systems of land-tenure, even in England, 
France, and Germany, —all of them, countries 
in about the same stage of economic development. 
Take changes in labor. The laborer has been a 
slave, a serf, and a freeman in various stages of 
economic development. His condition has been 
one of human institution, yet how largely fraught 
with consequences for the distribution of goods. 
One more illustration : take even railways. How — 
differently would the wealth of the United States 
to-day be distributed, had we adopted an exclusive 
system of state railways in the beginning of rail- 
way constructions, and adhered to that system ! 


June 11, 1886.] 


The ethical school of economists aims, then, to 


_ direct in a certain definite manner, so far as may 


be, this economic, social growth of mankind. 
Economists who adhere to this school wish to as- 
certain the laws of progress, and to show men 
how to make use of them. 

It has been said that recent tendencies in politi- 
cal economy indicate a return to Adam Smith; 
and as in philosophy the watchword, ‘ Back to 
Kant,’ has come into vogue, it has been thought 
that political economists ought to find inspiration 
in the cry, ‘ Back to Adam Smith!’ While recog- 
nizing the truth which this implies, I am inclined 
to the opinion that in some respects the drift is 
back even to Plato. If you should attempt to 
develop a conception of political economy out of 
Plato’s writings, would it not, when formulated, 
be about as follows: Political economy is the 
science which prescribes rules and regulations for 
such a production, distribution, and consumption 
of wealth as to render the citizens good and happy?’ 
With this compare Laveleye’s definition as found in 
his text-book: ‘‘ Political economy may therefore be 
defined as the science which determines what laws 
men out to adopt in order that they may, with 


_ the least possible exertion, procure the greatest 
~ abundance of things useful for the satisfaction of 


their wants ; may distribute them justly, and con- 
sume them rationally.”? Though exception may 
be taken to this definition as a rather too narrow 
conception of political economy, it answers very 
well the purposes of the present article, for it draws 
attention to the ethical side of the recent develop- 
ment of economics. 

It is well to describe somewhat more in detail 
the ethical ideal which animates the new political 
economy. It is the most perfect development of 
all human faculties in each individual, which can 
be attained. There are powers in every human 
being capable of cultivation ; and each person, it 
may be said, accomplishes his end when these 
powers have attained the largest growth which is 
possible to them. This means any thing rather 
than equality. It means the richest diversity for 
differentiation accompanies development. It is 
simply the Christian doctrine of talents committed 
to men, all to be improved, whether the individual 
gift be one talent, two, five, or ten talents. The 
categorical imperative of duty enforces upon each 
rational being perfection ‘ after his kind.’ Now, 
the economic life is the basis of this growth of all 
higher faculties, — faculties of love, of knowledge, 
of aesthetic perception, and the like, as exhibited 
in religion, art, language, literature, science, 

1 See the writer’s ‘ Past and present of political econ- 
omy,’ p. 48. 

2 Taussig edition, New York, 1884, p. 3. 


SCTENCE. 


531 


social and political life. What the _ political 
economist desires, then, is such a production and 
such a distribution of economic goods as must in 
the highest practicable degree subserve the end 
and purpose of human existence for all members 
of society. 

This is different from the conception of life 
which is current in society, though it is in harmony 
with the ethical ideal of Christianity. The ma- 
jority of the well-to-do tacitly assume that the 
masses are created to minister unto their pleasure, 
while this ethical ideal does not allow us to accept 
the notion that any one lives merely ‘ to subserve 
another’s gain.’ An illustration will make clear 
this difference. Listen to two ladies discussing 
the education of the serving-class, and you shall 
find that the arguments probably all turn upon 
the effect thereby produced upon them as servants. 

As has already been stated, the demand of 
ethics is not equality. A large quantity of eco- 
nomic goods is required to furnish a satisfactory 
basis for the life of the naturally gifted. Books, 
travels, the enjoyment of works of art, a costly 
education, are a few of these things. Others 
lower in the scale of development will need few 
economic goods. One may be able to satisfy all 
rational needs for what can be purchased for three 
dollars a day, while another may need four times 
that amount. Again: while it is probable that 
those who belong to the ethical school, as it is 
called, with Mill, look forward with satisfaction 
to a time when the condition of an ordinary 
servant will be held to be beneath members of 
civilized society, it is doubtless true that large 
numbers to-day, like, perhaps, the majority of 
our negroes, will find in the condition of servants 
in really superior families precisely the best pos- 
sible opportunity for personal development which 
they are able to use. 

The ethical view of economics rejects the com- 
munism of Baboeuf as something not merely im- 
practicable, but as something not at all desirable. 
On the other hand, social ethics will not allow us 
for one moment to accept the apparent ideal of 
Renan, when he calmly assures us, that, to such 
an extent do the many subserve the gain of the 
few, that forty millions may well be regarded as 
dung, do they but supply the fertility which will 
produce one truly great man. Like many others, 
including indeed representatives of high culture, 
he seems to regard human development as some- 
thing existing altogether apart from individuals, 
as an end to be pursued in itself without regard 
to the condition of human beings as such. 

It cannot well be argued that present society 
satisfies, in so high a degree as one may rationally 
desire, the demands of ethics. On the one hand, 


we see those who are injured by a superfluity of 
economic goods ; and, on the other, those who have 
not the material basis on which to build the best 
possible superstructure. In both cases this is 
waste of human power, or, we might say, waste 
of man. 

It is desired in future so to guide and direct the 
forces which control the production and distribu- 
tion of economic goods, that they may in the 
highest degree subserve the ends of humanity. 
It is not claimed that the power of man is un- 
limited, but it is maintained that it can and will 
accomplish great things. 

Here we have at once a standard by which to 
test economic methods. Take the case of low 
wages. It is argued that low wages increase pos- 
sible production. Even if this be so, such wages 
diminish the power of the recipients to partici- 
pate in the advantages of existing civilization, 
and consequently defeat the end and purpose of 
all production. Child labor, female labor, and 
excessive hours of labor, fall under the same con- 
demnation. In the language of Roscher, ‘the 
starting-point as well as the object-point of our 
science is man.” 

It has been said truthfully that the essential 
characteristic of the new political economy is the 
relation it endeavors to establish between ethics 
and economic life. A new conception of social 
ethics is introduced into economics, and the 
stand-point is taken that there should be no diver- 
gence between the two. While representatives of 
an older view endeavor carefully to separate the 
two, the adherents of the ethical school attempt 
to bring them into the closest relation,— indeed, I 
may say, an inseparable relation. They apply 
ethical principles to economic facts and economic 
institutions, and test their value by that standard. 
Political economy is thus brought into harmony 
with the great religious, political, and social 
movements which characterize this age; for the 
essence of them all is the belief that there ought 
to be no contradiction between our actual eco- 
nomic life and the postulates of ethics and a 
determination that there shall be an abolition of 
such things as will not stand the tests of this rule. 
If industrial society as it exists at present does 
not answer this requirement, then industrial so- 
ciety stands condemned ; or, in so faras it fails to 
meet this requirement, in so far is it condemned. 
It is not that it is hoped to reach a perfect ideal 
at one bound, but that the ideal is a goal for 
which men must strive. The new conception of 
the state is thus secondary, in the opinion of the 
adherents of the ethical school, to the new con- 
ception of social ethics. Doubtless there is a new 
conception of the state; for in this co-operative 


SCIENOE. 


{[Vou. VII., No 175 


institution is discovered one of the means to be. 
used to accomplish the end of human society, the 
ethical ideal. Perhaps still more important is the 
departure of economists from the individualistic 
philosophy which characterized the era of the 
French revolution, and which has gained such a 
stronghold in America, because our republic 
happened to be founded at a time when this view 
of individual sovereignty was in the ascendant. 
The philosophy of individualism came to us from 
England, which had been influenced by France, as 
well as directly from France, at a time when our 
thought was in a formative period, and was es- 
pecially open to new ideas. But the ethical school, 
I think it safe to say, places society above the in- 
dividual, because the whole is more than any of 
its parts. In time of war, society demands even 
the sacrifice of life: in time of peace, it is held 
right that individual sacrifices should be de- 
manded for the good of others. The end and 
purpose of economic life are held to be the great- 
est good of the greatest number, or of society as 
a whole. This view is found distinctly expressed 
in Adam Smith’s ‘ Wealth of nations,’ particular- 
ly in one place, where he says, ‘‘ Those exertions 
of the natural liberty of a few individuals, which ~ 
may endanger the liberty of the whole society, 
are, and ought to be, restrained by the laws of 
all governments.” This view, however, does not 
imply a conflict between the development of the 
individual and the development of society. Self- 
development for the sake of others is the aim of 
social ethics. Self and others, the individual and 
society, are thus united in one purpose. 

It is not possible to develop all these thoughts 
in a single ‘article, for that would indeed require 
a large book; nor can any attempt be made to 
offer any thing like complete proof of the various 
propositions enunciated. It has been my purpose 
to describe briefly a line of thought which it 
seems to me characterizes what is called the new 
political economy ; and it should be distinctly 
understood that this paper claims ae to be 
descriptive and suggestive. 

It may be well, in conclusion, to point out 
the fact that the ethical conception of political 
economy harmonizes with recent tendencies in 
ethics. The older ethical systems may, I think, 
be called individual. The perfection of the in- 
dividual, or the worthiness of the individual, to 
use another expression, was the end proposed. 
Moral excellence of a single person was considered 
as something which might exist by itself, and need 
not bear any relation to one’s fellows. Men were 
treated as units, and not as members of a body. 
The new tendency of which I speak, however, 
proceeds from the assumption that society is an 


JUNE 11, 1886.] 


organism, and that the individual is a part of a 
larger whole. Rudolph von Ihering develops 
this idea in the second volume of his ‘ Zweck im 
Recht.’ The source of ethics he finds in society ; 
the end of ethics likewise is discovered in society ; 
and from society, according to this theory, is de- 
rived the ethical motive-power which resides in 
the human will.’ Social ethics thus replaces in- 
dividual ethics. Ethics becomes one of the social 
sciences, and indeed, to use Ihering’s expression, 
the ‘ queen’ of them all. With this view of Iher- 
ing, should be compared the teachings of Lotze ; 
and I will close this paper with a quotation of 
some length from his ‘ Practical philosophy:’ ‘‘ To 
antiquity, man appeared without any inanifest 
attachment to a coherent system, transcending 
his earthly life, pre-eminently as a creature of 
nature, whose aim —- not so much moral as alto- 
gether natural—could only consist in bringing 
all the bodily and spiritual capacities with which 
he is endowed by nature, to the most intensive, 
and at the same time harmonious, cultivation. 
. . . This whole culture is not a preparation of 
the powers for a work to be accomplished ; but it 
is aself-aim to such an extent that the self-en- 
-joyment of one’s own fair personality, and its 
secure tenure against all attacks from without, 
form the sole content of such a life... . Just 
the opposite of this, under the influence of Chris- 
tianity, the conviction is formed, that, strictly 
speaking, every man is called only to the service 
of others ; that the effort to concentrate all pos- 
sible excellences in one’s own person is, at bot- 
tom, only a ‘shining vice ;’ but true morality con- 
sists in the complete surrender of one’s own self, 
and in self-sacrifice for others. . . . Nothing, there- 
fore, remains for us to do but to supplement the 
ancient self-satisfaction, without surrendering 
aesthetic culture, by having all the powers ac- 
quired by such culture placed at command for 
the accomplishment of a life-aim in accordance 
with motions of benevolence ;” and ‘‘ benevolence, 
. . the service of others, constitutes the focal 
point of ethical ideas.” ? RICHARD T. ELY. 


[A reply by Prof. Simon Newcomb, to this 
article, will appear in an early number.—ED.] 


DR. HUGHLINGS—-JACKSON ON EPILEPSY. 


FoR many years Dr. Hughlings- Jackson of 
London has been advocating a theory of epilep- 
sy highly important for its general bearings on 

? See work, ‘ Zweckim recht.’ A résumé of hisarguments 
may be found in his article, ‘‘ Die geschichtlich-gesellschatt- 


lichen grundlagen der ethik,” in Jahrbuch fiir gesetzge- 
bung, verwaltung, und volkswirthschaft, fiir 1882. 


° See Lotze’s ‘ Practical philosophy,’ Professor Ladd’s 
edition, Boston, 1855, pp. 58-60. 


SCIENCE. 


533 


physiology and psychology, and for its harmoniz- 
ing with recent results obtained by experiments 
on animals. An era in the study of cerebral phy- 
siology was made when Fritsch and Hitzig dis- 
covered that the cortex of the brains of dogs was 
directly excitable, and that the result of such 
excitation was a series of co-ordinated movements 
of definite parts of the body. Dr. Jackson carried 
this fact over into pathology, and interpreted an 
epileptic discharge as nothing eise than a sudden, 
rapid, excessive, and discharging cortical lesion : 
to use his own forcible language, it is simply a 
brutish development of many of the patient’s or- 
dinary movements. ‘‘Speaking figuratively, we 
may say that the epileptic discharge is trying to 
develop all the functions of the body excessively, 
and all at once: a severe fit is a fairly successful 
attempt. Let me give a very simple illustration. 
If there be a centre for locomotion, then, during 
slight sequent discharges of its elements in health, 
there is walking or running; but if very many of 
those elements were to discharge suddenly, rap- 
idly, and excessively, the man walking or running 
would not go faster: on the contrary, he would 
be stopped, would be stiffened up into a tetanus- 
like attitude by the contemporaneous development 
of many locomotive movements.” 

In a recent article (Brain, April, 1886), Dr. Jack- 
son has further extended and in part modified his 
theory. His former position was that all dis- 
charging lesions issued from the cortex; i.e., the 
highest developed centres. He now admits that 
some such discharges have their central seat in 
less highiy organized brain parts. That such is 
the case in animals was shown by such facts as 
that convulsions are possible in a rabbit through 
rapid bleeding, when the brain proper has been 
removed. This fact Dr. Jackson now carries over 
to human pathology in a very ingenious way. 
The fits involved by a discharging lesion of a 
lower centre, i.e., a medullary centre, would be 
apt to be connected with the respiratory appara- 
tus which is represented in that region. Now, 
these ‘inward fits,’ or respiratory convulsions 
(laryngismus stridulus), occur mostly in children 
under one year of age, not often after two. This 
fact Dr. Jackson interprets as follows: at that 
period the highest cortical centres are not devel- 
oped ; of the activities developed in the infant at 
that time, these automatic vital functions are 
represented in what are then its highest func- 
tioning centres; and it is a discharging lesion 
from these that we see in a respiratory convul- 
sion. The cause of the rapid and excessive dis- 
charge is shown to be a rapid increase in the 
venosity of the blood, which, when mild and 
gradual, serves as the normal stimulant of that 


534 : 


respiratory centre. Furthermore, the spreading 
of the convulsions to the trunk and limbs finds 
its explanation in the fact that almost all the 
muscles of the body are at the call of the res- 
piratory mechanism, when such additional strain 
is necessary in order to succeed in the fight for 
breath. And the whole series of facts finds a 
striking corroboration in the experiments of Salt- 
mann, who found that the cortex of young pup- 
pies was unexcitable before a certain period, 
owing to the fact that these higher paths of 
motor effects had not yet been laid down. Dr. 
Jackson’s view of epilepsy has met with consider- 
able favor; and the modification of it now pre- 
sented adds to this very suggestive, original, and 
ingenious interpretation of the facts of cerebral 


physiology and pathology. J. J. 
ASTRONOMY IN APPLETON’S ‘ANNUAL 


CYCLOPAEDIA.’ 


APPLETON’S ‘ Annual cyclopaedia’ has for sever- 
al years past included a summary of astronomical 
progress. These summaries have been so far from 
satisfactory as to call for some critical attention. 
They have been lacking in nearly every quality 
which they should have, — literary form, appro- 
priateness, judicious selection, well-digested con- 
clusions, and freedom from doubtful speculations. 
That for 1885, which has just been issued, does 
not show the slightest improvement, unless it is 
that the scissors are less freely used than formerly. 
In the qualities of redundancy and deficiency it 
seems, if possible, worse than its predecessors. 
As examples of the former, we have a whole 
column devoted to Dr. Huggins’s supposed photo- 
graphs of the solar corona, mixed up with his 
opinions of its nature and cause. A column is 
devoted to the red sunsets, which are not shown 
to have been more numerous than they always 
have been since the memory of man. Nearly the 
same space is devoted to pointless remarks upon 
eclipses in general and the two eclipses of the 
year. Not a word is said about the observations 
of these eclipses, —a deficiency which is perhaps 
compensated by the information that the next 
central eclipse visible in New Zealand will occur in 
1927. The table of periodic comets has nothing to 
do with the astronomy of the year, and omits the 
only element of the slightest popular interest ; 
namely, the times of perihelion passage. For the 
paragraph on occultations it is hard to imagine a 
raison Wetre, unless it was to fill space. No allu- 
sion is made to any observations of an occultation 
during the year. More than a page is devoted to 
the system of telegraphing astronomical discover- 
ies, which has been in operation for several years, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 175 


and had, we think, been mentioned in previous 
volumes of the ‘ Cyclopaedia.’ Any thing more 
valueless than the paragraph on bibliography it 
would be difficult to conceive. It concludes by 
informing us that ‘‘the Sidereal messenger, the 
only astronomical journal published on this conti- 
nent, is issued monthly by Prof. W. W. Payne of 
Northfield, Minn.” This journal so well deserves 
popular support, that we have no hesitation in re- 
peating the announcement. The unsoundness and 
inconsistency of the remark on the solar spots are 
curious. We are first told that there has been no 
abatement, up to 1885, in their number or magni- 
tude, and that suspicion therefore attaches to the 
theory of their periodicity. This is followed by 
several statements fixing the maximum in 1884 
or 1885. As a matter of fact, Dr. Wolf fixed the 
maximum at the end of 1883. 

Among subjects omitted may be mentioned, of 
American origin, Langley’s ‘ Researches on lunar 
heat ;’ Hill’s ‘ Contributions to the lunar theory ;’ 
Halls ‘Investigation of the satellites of Uranus 
and Neptune ;’ the discussion of the astronomical 
day, which has filled so prominent a place in 
scientific literature; and the work of Rowland 
and Pickering in celestial photography. The im- 
portant foreign works which have been passed 
over, and which might have well taken the place 
of the stuffing that forms a third of the article, 
are too numerous to mention. The only conclu- 
sion which can be drawn is, that one-half of the 
article is better fitted to fill space than to give 
valuable information about the astronomical prog- 
ress of the year. 


BIME TALLI SM IN THE UNITED STATES. 


ProFESSOR LAUGHLIN has produced a most 
valuable book both for study and for reference. 
It is not only a history, but a critical examination 
of successive policies in the light of economic 
theory. It might, perhaps, be objected that the 
lesson is sometimes a little too obtrusive ; but the 
independent reader who feels under no obligation 
to accept the author’s conclusions may well par- 
don this fault. The author is a decided mono-— 
metallist, and presents the arguments from the 
point of view of his own school. No objection 
can, however, be made to his statement of facts, 
and the reader can readily separate his arguments 
from them. One of the characteristic features of 
the book is the number, variety, and fulness of its 
graphic representations, which add greatly to the 
value of the work, and would have added yet © 
more had they been better planned and arranged, 


The history of bimetallism in the United States. By J. 
LAURENCE LAUGHLIN. New York, Appleton, 1886. 8°. 


June 11, 1886. ] 


As an example of possible improvement, we may 
take the charts showing the fluctuations in the 
relative values of silver and gold. There are four 
such charts scattered in various parts of the book, 
without any apparent connecting-link. 

The work is altogether so suggestive, that those 
who agree, as well as those who disagree, with the 
author’s views, will find ample food for thought in 
reading it. The ground covered is so wide and 
the treatment so uniform, that it is scarcely possi- 
ble to select one passage for comment rather than 
a score of others. It may be remarked, however, 
that the author’s views of the ethical question 
involved in the monetary change of 1834 coincide 
more nearly with those of the advocates of free 
silver coinage at the present time, than we like to 
see. Up to 1834 our currency was on an almost 
pure silver basis, as the value of the gold in the gold 
dollar was a little greater than that of the silver 
in a silver dollar. In order to bring gold into 
circulation, it was necessary to change the ratio, 
which might be done either by increasing the 
weight of the silver dollar or diminishing that of 
the gold dollar. The latter course was adopted, 
on the ground, that, as silver was the standard at 
the time, the new coinage of gold should be ac- 
commodated to it. Professor Laughlin objects to 
this, that in reality the change in the marked 
ratio before 1834, which necessitated the new 
ratio, consisted in ‘a depreciation of the value of 
silver; and that in consequence it was the silver 
dollar which should have been made heavier in 
order to bring it up to the old standard. This is 
the very argument on which the silver men now 
sustain their views. They claim that gold has 
appreciated in value, and that we should go back 
to the old silver dollar, the value of which they 
believe to have been more stable than that of the 
gold dollar. In either case, we think the sound 
view to be that the standard for the time being 
should be accepted rather than that of some past 
time. 


GEOLOGY OF ARABIA AND PALESTINE. 


In 1883 the committee of the Palestine explora- 
tion fund wisely took advantage of an interruption 
of its regular work caused by the interference of 
the Turkish government to send Professor Hull, 
_ with a well-selected party, to explore some of the 
less-known districts of Arabia Petraea and south- 
ern Palestine,—regions of interest not merely 
geologically, but historically as well. 

The route of the party extended through the 
Sinaitic peninsula, and thence into the Wady 

Physical geology and geography of Arabia Petraea, 


Palestine, and adjoining districts. By EDWARD HULL, 
Adelphi, Com. Palestine explor. fund, 1886. 4°. 


Pr’ 


SCTH NCE. 


D930 


Arabah and to the southern end of the Dead Sea, 
then over the Judean hills to Gaza, and from this 
place to Joppa, Jerusalem, and the Jordan valley. 
The intention to explore farther north was frus- 
trated by the snow of an unusually severe winter. 
The exploration was thus somewhat limited in 
its range: but Professor Hull has supplemented 
it by references to the works of the numerous 
geologists who have at various times studied the 


‘rocks of the districts traversed, and of the ad- 


jacent regions around the eastern end of the 
Mediterranean, which have many points in com- 
mon. 

Geologically considered, the district in question 
is part of an extensive region of western Asia and 
northern Africa, characterized by the wide distri- 
bution of cretaceous and eocene marine limestones 
resting on old and for the most part crystalline 
rocks, and in part overlaid and margined by very 
recent deposits. 

The old gneisses and schists penetrated by great 
dikes and masses of intrusive granite and diorite, 
which constitute the mass of the Sinaitic Moun- 
tains, and extend thence along the Gulf of Akabah 
and the Wady Arabah, are similar in mineral char- 
acters to the Laurentian rocks of this continent ; 
and Hull agrees with Oscar Fraas and the writer 
of this notice in referring them and similar rocks 
of upper Egypt to that ancient system. Thus we 
have the interesting fact that the nucleus of the 
old historic lands of Egypt and Arabia is composed 
of the same venerable rocks which occupy a simi- 
lar place in northern Europe and in North Amer- 
ica. Flanking these oldest rocks, there seem to 
be in Arabia, as in Egypt, newer slates and schists 
and igneous rocks, probably of Huronian or old 
Cambrian date. 

Here, however, there occurs a great gap in the 
sequence, and we find nothing to represent the 
Siluro-Cambrian, Silurian, or Devonian systems ; 
the next rocks in ascending order being sand- 
stones, conglomerates, and limestones, the ‘ desert 
sandstone’ of our author, which hold carboniferous 
fossils. These beds are not of great thickness or 
horizontal extent, but afford unequivocal evidence 
of their age in the fossils of the genera Zaphrentes, 
Productus, Orthis, etc., which they have afforded. 
A true lepidodendron has also been obtained from 
the sandstone. 

Until recently these carboniferous rocks were 
confounded with an overlying sandstone of some- 
what similar character, butof much greater thick- 
ness, — the Nubian sandstone,which is probably of 
lower cretaceous age, though it is by no means 
certain that it may not represent the Jurassic or 
even the trias. The relations of these sandstones, 
both in Arabia and Egypt, are somewhat perplex- 


536 


ing, as they cannot be distinguished by mineral 
characters ; and both are usually at low angles of 
inclination, while fossils are rare. It would seem 
probable that the conditions of deposit which 
prevailed in the carboniferous recurred at the com- 
mencement of the cretaceous, after a long conti- 
nental interval. 

The most important formation in Palestine is 
the great cretaceous limestone, overlying the Nu- 
hian sandstone, and constituting the mass of the 
hills of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, while it ex- 
tends northward into the Lebanon, and spreads it- 
self on the south in the plateau of the Tih. This 
great calcareous formation corresponds in age to 
the chalk of Europe, and must be at least two 
thousand feet in thickness. Some difficulty has 
occurred in separating it from the Jurassic beds 
which underlie it in Hermon and Anti-Libanus, 
and from the eocene limestones which rest upon 
it in some parts of Palestine, and more extensively 
in Egypt. Our author does not deal very definitely 
with these questions, and indeed the sphere of his 
explorations was too limited to render this pos- 
sible, except in the way of collating authorities. 

The later tertiary deposits are not conspicuous 
in Palestine. Our author regards the calcareous 
sandstones of Philistia as being probably upper 
eocene; but the evidence which he adduces is not 
at all conclusive, and there seems quite as much 
reason to believe them to be a continuation of the 
miocene beds of the Isthmus of Suez, or probably 
of the still later isthmian series of that district. 
The evidence of fossils is wanting; and I am not 
aware of any miocene fossils in Syria, except per- 
haps in the conglomerates resting on the cretaceous 
in the vicinity of Tahleh in the Lebanon. On 
the whole, there can be little doubt that, as Hull 
believes, the miocene tertiary was in this region a 
time of shallowing water and of prevailing land 
conditions. This is well illustrated by the sand- 
stones of Jebel Ahmar, near Cairo, and their 
petrified forests. 

A number of interesting questions connect 
themselves with the great submergence of 
northern Africa and western Asia in the early 
pleistocene age, when Asia and Africa were sepa- 
rated bya wide channel, the valley of the Nile was 
an arm of the sea, the coast districts of Palestine 
were submerged, and a great lake or inlet occu- 
pied the Jordan valley. Hull illustrates this with 
a map showing the probable geography of this 
period. It is equally certain that this submergence 
was succeeded in the later pleistocene or post- 
glacial period by an elevation of the land, when 
an inland lake receiving the waters of the Nile 
seems to have existed on the present isthmus. It 
is this second continental period which is con- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL., No. 175 


nected with the first appearance of remains of 
man, — a subject in regard to which nothing new 
seems to have been observed. Other points of in- 
terest, and which Hull discusses at some length, 
are the great Jordan valley fault, throwing down 
the basin of the Dead Sea to a depth of 1,290 feet 
below the Mediterranean. The remarkable geo- 
graphical features resulting from this great dislo- 
cation, the old marginal deposits of the Dead Sea, 
the hot springs on its borders, the salinity of its 
water, its climatic conditions, and its historical 
associations would open a field so large, that 
another article would be required for their discus- 
sion, more especially as there are points on which 
some difference of opinion may well exist. 


THE collections made in the Bahama Islands 
by the naturalists of the fish-commission steamer 
Albatross contain several new species of birds and 
reptiles. There are two new woodpeckers of 
the genus Centurus, from the islands of Abaco 
and Watlings, or San Salvador, and two new 
warblers of the genus Geotblypis from Abaco and 
New Providence, while there are possibly some 
new races to be described also. Kirtland’s warbler 
(Dendroeca Kirtlandi) was found on Watlings, 
Abaco, and Green Cay. Probably not more than 
half a dozen specimens of this species have hither- 
to been known. Another rarity was the Bahama 
cuckoo (Saurathera bahamensis), of which four 
specimens were obtained on New Providence 
Island. An apparently new species of blind worm 
(a peculiar family of snakes resembling worms, 
and covered with fish-like scales) is interesting as 
coming from a more northerly latitude than ani- 
mals of this kind have yet been found in, having 
never before been taken in the Bahamas. The 
iguana was found in limited numbers on San 
Salvador. It is not known to exist on any other 
islands of this group except Andross. There are 
several valuable snakes in the collection, one being 
a very rare boa five or six feet long, from New 
Providence. There are many new species of 
lizards from Abaco and elsewhere. These shore 
collections were gathered at such times as the 
vessel anchored at suitable places, and are quite 
distinct from the dredging of fishes and marine 
invertebrates, the usual work of the vessel. There 
is the usual variety of undescribed and interesting 
material of the latter class, which appears to be 
inexhaustible. The winter cruises of the Albatross 
are undertaken with the co-operation of the fish 
commission and the hydrographic office, on account 
of the extensive series of deep-sea soundings that 
are taken for the latter department, and have 
proved of great value to this service, 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


THE INCREASED ATTENTION which is at present 
directed to artificial butter and its mixtures with 
dairy butter, and which has been aroused by the 
attempt of the dairy interest to secure national 
legislation to restrict the manufacture of oleo- 
margarine and similar substances, makes a recent 
report of the Imperial health office at Berlin of 
great interest to the scientific and general public. 
The inquiry was undertaken at the demand of the 
government for the discovery of a butter substi- 
tute which should, through its cheapness and bet- 
ter keeping-qualities, prove desirable for the navy 
and the poorer classes. From a sanitary point of 
view, the report considers that the butter substi- 
tutes found in the market are harmless. In all the 


factories investigated the great cleanliness and 


care used seemed to make the manufactured arti- 
cle more appetizing than many dairy butters. It 
is, however, granted, that, when improperly pre- 
pared from fats of uncertain cr unhealthy origin, 
there may be danger of the communication of dis- 
ease : and it is not always possible to tell whether a 
fat is from a healthy source or not. Disease, it is 
true, may be communicated through the milk of 
an infected animal, but such a condition in a living 
animal is more readily detected. As the produc- 
tion of oleo-oil increases, the demand will exceed 
the supply, and compel the use of fat from doubt- 
ful sources. ‘This, perhaps, already occurs in some 
cases. There are records of the discovery of bac- 
teria and parasites in some butter substitutes, and 
the question arises whether the heat used at any 
time during the process of manufacture is suffi- 
cient to kill them. Low temperatures are the rule 
in most factories, and it appears that the possibility 
of injury to health from this source is not exclud- 
ed. The substitutes can also contain ingredients 
which may prove injurious by loading down the 
intestines with material of no nutritive value. 
Soapstone-powder has been thus used for the pur- 
pose of giving butter additional weight. Coloring 
is only objectionable when poisonous dyes are 
used, but the same objections apply to the color- 
ing of dairy butters as of substitutes. Aside from 
No. 176.— 1886. 


these injurious contaminations, the question of the 
sanitary quality of artificial butters must be de- 
cided by their relative nutritive value and digesti- 
bility as compared with the natural articles. This 
question, the report considers, is not yet settled 
from a scientific stand-point. . 


The conclusions derived from the investigations 
of this subject are stated as follows: ‘1. Artificial 
butter prepared from the fat of healthy animals, 
aside from a perhaps somewhat smaller digesti- 
bility in comparison with milk-butter, furnishes 
no occasion for the acceptation that it can act in- 
juriously on human health; 2. It is possible that 
a part of the artificial butter found in the trade is 
prepared from such material, and by such methods 
of manufacture, as would not exclude, with cer- 
tainty, the danger of the communication to human 
beings of diseases which can be produced by vege- 
table organisms or by animal parasites; 3. It is 
possible that some artificial butter is prepared from 
nauseous materials.” It is therefore necessary that 
there should be strict regulation of the commerce 
in this article, although at present the means of 
bringing this about are doubtful. The methods of 
distinguishing between natural and artificial but- 
ters are reviewed at great length as being the 
basis upon which any regulation of the industry 
must be founded. The perfection of the recent 
processes of manufacture are such that these sub- 
stances cannot, in most cases, be distinguished 
from each other by their external appearance, or 
by the senses in any way, without the aid of physi- 
cal or chemical investigation. Of the physical 
methods which have been commonly applied, the 
report refers to those depending on the determina- 
tion of the melting-points of the various fats, the 
specific gravity at certain temperatures, the ap- 
pearance under the microscope, the examination 
with the refractometer, and a new method of Pro- 
fessor Mayer’s. Almost all of these are considered 
to be of value only within certain narrow limits, 
as mixtures of fats and oils are found which corre- 
spond closely to pure butter. For the practical 
dairyman, the determination with the areometer, 
of the specific gravity of the fat melted at 100° C., 
is regarded as the most available test. While the 
test is not entirely satisfactory, and cannot com- 


538 


pare with those of a chemical character, it is ap- 
parently the only one which is available for use 
outside the laboratory. The differences in the 
specific gravities of different fats, which furnish 
the basis for distinguishing them, seem to be 
hardly great enough to detect mixtures of small 
amounts of oleo fat or oils with dairy butter. 


THE REPORTS that announced the suicide of the 
King of Bavaria, at the same time brought the 
news of asad loss to science. The physician of 
the king, Dr. Gudden, who lost his life in the at- 
tempt to save that of his charge, was one of the 
most noted authorities in the sphere of nervous 
and mental diseases. He has also been at the head 
of a laboratory in which investigations of the fine 
anatomy of the brain, spinal cord, and sense-organs 
have been carried on. He has given his name to 
a matter of studying the connections of the ner- 
vous system which is as ingenious as it has proved 
fruitful of results. Gudden’s method consists in 
extirpating a sense-organ or other part of an 
animal when young, and then allowing the ani- 
maltogrow up. At death the animal is examined, 
and the fibres which have failed to develop will 
thus be marked out as the paths of connection be- 
tween the extirpated sense-organ and the brain- 
centre. For many years Dr. Gudden has been 
working at the problem, Whatisthe mode of con- 
nection between the retina and the brain? His 
results are not yet before the public, but the great 
care and patience which always characterize his 
work will surely make them valuable. His loss 
in this difficult department of anatomy and pa- 
thology is a very serious one indeed. 


ASPECTS OF THE ECONOMIC DISCUSSION. 


WITHIN the past two months Science has con- 
tained three extended articles, in which, in com- 
pliance with the invitation of the editor, several 
distinguished members of the so-called ‘new 
school’ of economists have undertaken to set forth 
their principles. In compliance with a like invita- 
tion, I now present my views upon the aspect 
which the discussion has assumed. 

If I rightly understand the case, the primary 
object of the discussion was to afford the repre- 
sentatives of the new school an opportunity to set 
forth such peculiarities of their tenets as might 
justify the appellation which they claim, and at 
the same time afford the student an opportunity 
to compare their principles with those of the 
school from which they are supposed to diverge. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. VIL., No. 176 


The main point in which the new school is sup- 
posed to differ from the other, is that it looks with 
more favor upon government intervention in the 
processes of industry and trade; and it might 
naturally have been expected that its representa- 
tives would define their position upon the ques- 
tions here involved. 

In this respect the outcome of the discussion is 
disappointing. After a careful study of the three 
papers already published, which bear directly on 
the subject, I am unable to form any clear con- 
ception of the ground taken by the writers on 
these fundamental questions. The form in which 
the question first presents itself to my mind is 
this: the familiar terms ‘government interven- 
tion’ and ‘state interference’ are themselves so 
vague, that in discussing them we must exactly 
define the sense we attach to them. There are 
two or three forms of state intervention. And it 
may be that one form is good, and another bad ; 
that one form will inevitably tend to increase with 
the progress of society, and another to diminish. 
Again, we must draw a distinction between inter- 
vention in purely economic affairs for purely eco- 
nomic objects, and intervention for other and 
wider purposes, such as the promotion of educa- 
tion, the public morals, and the public health. 

These definitions would only have been prelimi- 
nary to the main object, which is to define to 
what extent state intervention can with advantage 
be carried. There can be no reasonable discussion 
over such vague propositions as, ‘ the state ought 
to interfere,’ or ‘ the state ought not to interfere,’ 
because every one is agreed that the state ought to 
interfere where it is really necessary to the public 
welfare, and that it ought not to interfere when it 
will not promote the public welfare by so doing. 
Again, when the state does intervene, it must 
intervene in the right way; and the question 
whether any particular way is or is not the right 
one must remain open until it is examined. The 
careful reader of the discussion will see that no 
progress whatever is made, in the articles alluded to, 
towards answering these fundamental questions: I 
am therefore obliged to consider in a general way 
such of the points brought forward as seem worthy 
of comment. 

Professor Seligman’s paper, on the changeable 
character of the tenets of political economy from 
age to age, seems to me a very admirable one. It 
shows very clearly the relations of economic theo- 
ry to economic practice at various epochs in the 
world’s history. It implies that the orthodox 
economic principles of the first half of the present — 
century must pass away, as others have done, with 
changes in the forms of industry. While I hearti- 
ly agree with nearly all that he says, when I am 


JUNE 18, 1886 | 


allowed to interpret it in my own way, I yet fancy 
that I see in it an undercurrent of thought which 
conveys a false implication. Possibly I may make 
myself clearer by being allowed to intrude my own 
views of the abstract or so-called English political 
economy of the past generation. They may briefly 
be summed up in two propositions : — 

First, this economic system has become entirely 
insufficient to satisfy the progress of the age, and 
does not furnish us the means of solving the new 
problems which now confront us. 

Second, this same system is a most necessary 
part of sound economic teaching, and embodies 
the principles which the public now most need to 
understand. 

If the reader now sees any thing contradictory 
in these two propositions, I beg him to compare 
the following illustrations of their relation. I 
have a carefully built roadway from my house to 
a city five miles away, part of which comprises 
costly bridges over streams and ravines. In the 
course of events the city is moved five miles 
farther oa, so that my road only carries me half- 
way to it. I can now say of the old road just 
what I have said of abstract or mathematical 
economy, that it is totally insufficient for my pur- 
pose, and yet is most necessary to enable me to 
reach the city. My wise course is not to tear 
down the road as useless, but simply to extend it 
farther on. If I employ men to build the exten- 
sion, and at the same time denounce the old road 
as a nuisance in such strong terms, that, on going 
out next morning, I find my men have blown up 
all the costly bridges in obedience to my supposed 
wish, I will have made a great mistake. The fact 
is, I do not want a new road, but an extension of 
the old one to suit the changed conditions. 

Professor Seligman says that we are compelled 
to regard much that was at the time probably cor- 
rect and feasible, as to-day positively erroneous 
and misleading. Now, I regard this statement as 
itself misleading, being true or false according to 
the way in which it is understood, and as more 
likely to be understood in a false sense. Whether 
such doctrines as we meet with in economics will 
prove feasible or misleading depends upon the way 
We interpret and apply them rather than upon the 
doctrines themselves. The doctrine that a straight 
line is the shortest distance between two points is, 
abstractly considered, always true. It teaches us, 
that, other conditions being equal, a straight road 
between two points is the easiest. If we apply it 
to cases in which the different roads we may take 
to our destination are all alike except in their 
directness, we shall apply it correctly. But if, 
blindly following it, we pursue a perfectly straight 
road which is very bad and rough, in preference 


SCIENCE. 


539 


to a crooked one which is hard and smooth, we 
shail make a great mistake. Are we, then, to 
denounce the doctrine as false and misleading ? If 
we did, we should only act on the same principles 
upon which three-fourths of the critics of the older 
political economy act. Considered in the con- 
crete, every general proposition is true or false ac- 
cording to the circumstances. Practical wisdom 
consists in selecting such propositions as apply to 
the case in hand. It seems to me that abstract 
English political economy, as I find it in the text- 
books, contains a number of great and valuable 
truths applicable to the present state of society, 
mixed with a quantity of matter which can be 
made useful only by reconstruction. In the latter 
category I include the leading propositions about 
profits, wages, demand for labor, the wage-fund, 
and the functions of a paper currency. In a 
word, economic principles should be looked upon 
as the tools of trade of the economist, to be used as 
occasion offers to make them useful. 

Professor Ely’s paper opens with a most timely 
exposition of the necessity that disputants should 
begin by understanding each other’s position. I 
have often suspected disputants of deeming it 
highly impolitic to define their position on the 
points under discussion, because, when they do 
so, they have to stand there to be fired at, while 
by refraining from it they can step around briskly 
in such a way as to dodge all the enemy’s shots. 
Professor Ely goes on to take exception to the 
statement that economic science should not con- 
cern itself with what ought to be. The question 
here raised is one which we can decide either 
way with equal correctness, according to the 
view we are to take of the scope of science. If 
we confine the word ‘science’ to what I think 
should be its proper scope, it is a contradiction in 
terms to call a talk about what ought to be, 
science. In the proper sense of the term, science 
consists of exact and systematized general knowl- 
edge; and the great difficulty with Professor 
Ely’s extension is, that it tends to increase the 
prevailing confusion in men’s minds between talk 
about things as they are, and about things as we 
would like them to be. Isee no more logical ob- 
jection to building up a science of political econ- 
omy which shall be wholly concerned with things 
as they are, especially with the relations of cause 
and effect in the commercial world, than I do to 
getting upa guide-book showing how long it takes 
different ships to cross the Atlantic. On the 
other hand, I would no more consider this the 
end of the matter than I would consider the 
guide-book as the only one the tourist should 
read. The economic student is no doubt very 
much interested in what ought to be, and, in 


540 


fact, this may be the object of all his economic 
studies. 

Why, then, should we not allow the economic 
student-to consider things as they are, and things 
as they ought to be, altogether? I reply, the reason 
is that he is thus led into a confusion of thought 
which is fatal to his success. I find that men 
continually think we are talking to them of things 
that ought to be, when, in fact, we are only talk- 
ing of things that are or would be. Indeed, from 
what little I have seen of men and their ways of 
reasoning, I am inclined to think that one of the 
most difficult pieces of mental discipline is that 
of learning to look upon facts simply as facts. 
Times without number I have seen educated men 
refuse to accept a statement of fact, not on the 
ground that it was not a fact, but that it was not 
necessarily so, or might be different, or ought to 
be different. I should be very sorry to see any 
teacher foster this mental weakness ; and I see no 
way to cure it except to say to the student, ‘ Now, 
remember that I am only telling you facts and 
results.’ 

Passing on to what ought to be, Professor Ely 
sets forth in detail the ethical idea which animates 
the new political economy. He thinks that 
economists, like everybody else, should strive 
after perfection. In this I do not think he will 
find any to disagree with him. When he tells us 
what we are to do to bring about the rational per- 
fection which he is aiming at, there may be dif- 
ferences of opinion ; but, when he thinks that he 
sees any great divergence between his views and 
the popular ones which he cites, I cannot but 
think he is mistaken. For example: he tells you, 
that, if you listen to two ladies discussing the 
education of the serving-class, you will find that 
the arguments all turn upon the effect thereby 
produced upon them as servants. But is it not 
highly probable, that, taking these people as they 
stand, their development into good servants is the 
highest and most rational of which they are 
capable? Would he have Cuffee trained into a 
novelist, a chemist, or a metaphysician? Is it 
not highly probable that that being does more 
good, both to himself and to society, by being a 
thoroughly good servant than he would by being 
the very best mathematician which he was capa- 
ble of being? If so, then there is no antagonism 
between the selfish housewife and the philan- 
thropic professor. 

Again, he cites Renan as calmly assuring us 
that forty millions may well be regarded as dung 
did they but supply the fertility which will pro- 
duce one truly great man. It seems to me that 
this remark is too figurative to base any discussion 
upon. It indicates no definite policy towards the 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. Vi., No. 176 


lower classes, and only gives voice to the feeling 
that one great man may be more important than 
millions of the lower orders of men. 

It seems to me these remarks of Professor Ely 
savor much more strongly of the doctrines of 
individualism, which he vigorously opposes, than 
of those of the socialistic school of which he is 
so distinguished an expounder. If I rightly under- 
stand the ground taken by the last-named school, 
it is that the interests of the individual should be 
held subordinate to those of society, and that the 
prosperity of society should be the first object of 
the economist. Accepting this view, it follows 
that the education of the masses should be di- 
rected by considerations based less upon the wants 
of their members as individuals than upon the 
wants of society at large, future as well as pres- 
ent. If, now and during the next hundred years, 
society stands more in need of great leaders of 
thought, administrators, and expounders, than it 
does of servants and mechanics, it follows, from 
the socialistic point of view, that our efforts should 
be directed to the rearing of such men rather 
than to the education of the masses in subjects 
that will not make them better citizens. 

One would infer from Professor Ely’s paper 
that a very serious question at issue between him- 
self and the older school of economists is whether 
ethical considerations should be allowed to obtrude 
themselves into questions of economic policy. IL 
think a careful review of the ground taken by 
the new school will show that it is his school 
which is most prone to reject such considera- 
tions. For example: in the case of free trade it 
is very common for representatives of the school 
of governmental interference to claim that free- 
dom of trade is founded on the idea that the in- 
terests of humanity at large should be taken into 
account in deciding the question. In opposition 
to this, they claim that we should consider our 
own interests exclusively. Again: the claim that 
every individual has the right to be the sole mas- 
ter of his own acts, within the limitations neces- 
sary to social order, is a purely ethical one ; yet 
no doctrine of the old school is more vigorously 
assaulted by the new school. 

The fact is that Professor Ely, in the following 
passage, gives an admirable statement of the 
doctrine of the school of individualism, to which 
he professes a bitter opposition : — 

‘Tt is well to describe somewhat more in n detail 
the ethical ideal which animates the new political 
economy. It is the most perfect development of | 
all human faculties in each individual, which can 
be attained. There are powers in every human 
being capable of cultivation ; and each person, it 
may be said, accomplishes his end when these 


JuNE 18, 1886. ] 


powers have attained the largest growth which is 
possible to them. This means any thing rather 
than equality. It means the richest diversity for 
differentiation accompanies development. It is 
simply the Christian doctrine of talents committed 
to men, all to be improved, whether the individual 
gift be one talent, two, five, or ten talents. The 
categorical imperative of duty enforces upon each 
rational being perfection after his kind.” 

The school of non-interference claims, that, as 
a general rule, these ends are best attained by 
giving the adult individual the widest liberty 
within the limits prescribed by considerations of 
public health and morality. 

After following the discussion so far upon the 
lines it has already taken, I deem it right to 
bring out in strong relief what is the real gist of 
the question. What advocates of non-interven- 
tion by government base their policy upon, is 
neither an abstract theory of society, nor a sys- 
tem of ethics, but a practical business view of 
things. As matters now stand, government ought 
not to interfere, for the simple reason that the 
policy and acts to which it would be led are not 
founded on sound business principles. I have 


. myself been a careful student of the treatment 


Fe 


of economic questions in congress during the past 
thirty years; and the general outcome of all I 
have seen is, that, leaving out legislation on well- 
marked lines for the supply of obvious public 
necessities, no really wise economic legislation 
by congress is attainable. Congress is not, and in 
our time cannot become, a body of investigators or 
theorists. Within a certain field Iregard congress 
as an excellent representative of the wisdom of 
the nation; but it goes outside of that field when 
it considers economic theories. It then becomes 
the representative of the time-honored fallacies 
of the people rather than of their wisdom. If 
any one doubts this, he has only to look upon a 
few shining examples now before us. 

The nation at large looks with regret upon the 
decline of American shipping, which has been 
going on ever since the civil war, and earnestly 
desires that we should have a mercantile fleet sail- 
ing the ocean under the American flag. Now, 
what measures have our legislators taken to bring 
about this result? They are in their main features 
as follows :— 

First, that no American owner of a ship shall 
be allowed to sail her under the American flag 
unless she was built in the United States. 

Second, that no person shall be allowed to build 
a ship within the United States unless he pays a 
heavy penalty, called customs duty, on all the 
machinery and raw material which he may find it 
advantageous or necessary to import for the pur- 


SCIENCE. 


D4] 


pose. In the case of a large ship-yard, this penalty 
may amount to hundreds of thousands if not a 
million of dollars. Possibly no one in the United 
States would make the machinery on any terms 
whatever, and possibly some of the material may 
be monopolized by a single company or combina- 
tion; but the penalty is exacted without regard 
to circumstances. 

Third, that, after the ship is built, its running 
shall be subject to certain restrictions, of so onerous 
a character, that after paying all the penalties, 
and going to all the labor of building the ship, the 
owner will run her at a loss when he could make 
a profit by sailing her under a foreign flag. 

In brief, our legislation has thrown positive ob- 
structions in the way of any ship being run under 
the American flag. The only remedy that the 
promoters of this legislation have offered us is that 
of hiring American shippers by heavy subsidies to 
overcome the obstacles which we have thrown in 
their way. Everybody who chooses to look into 
the subject can see that, in order to secure 
an American mercantile marine, all we have to 
do is to repeal all laws throwing obstructions in 
the way of Americans building, owning, and sail- 
ing ships, thus allowing every American citizen to 
get his ship where he pleases, to build her as he 
pleases without interference from customs au- 
thorities, and to sail her without vexatious regula- 
tions. 

The proof of this is afforded by the fact of own- 
ership of foreign lines by American companies at 
the present time. For example: the well-known 
Red Star line between New York and Antwerp, 
which the reader constantly sees advertised in the 
New York papers as sailing under the Belgian flag, 
is really owned and managed by an American com- 
pany. This company calls its ships Belgian, and 
sails them under the Belgian flag, simply because 
our laws do not allow them to sail under the Ameri- 
can flag. The same thing is partially true of the 
well-known Inman line between New York and 
Liverpool, and, to a less extent, of the Guion line. 
I cannot speak accurately on the subject of these 
last two lines, but my impression is that American 
enterprise is gradually getting possession of them. 

I wish very much Science would induce our 
new school of economists to give their frank opin- 
ion of this policy. They might at the same time 
tell us what they think of the economic soundness 
of the principles on which the oleomargarine bill 
was sustained. I refer more particularly to the 
doctrine that it would be a great public calamity 
if the public of this country were allowed to get 
their butter for seven cents a pound, because then 
all the dairies would have to stop business. The 
total failure of congress not only to remedy the 


542 


present anomalous condition of the silver coinage, 
but even to take any rational measures for finding 
out what ought to be done in the case, is another 
subject on which their views would be of interest. 
I cannot help thinking, if they would grapple 
with these practical difficulties, and tell us what 
wise and good legislation they expect to get 
through congress, they would be more effective 
than they are in confining themselves to discus- 
sions on which no effective issue can be joined. 

S. NEWCOMB. 


FLOODING THE SAHARA. 


MUCH misinformation has of late been spread 
abroad respecting ‘the proposed interior sea of 
Africa,’ and the public has been misled by inac- 
curate statements in regard to the magnitude of 
the enterprise, which, it is assumed, the French 
people are about to undertake. For these cur- 
rent erroneous impressions the English and Amer- 
ican scientific journals are largely to blame. An 
old theory regarding the Sahara — that it was for 
the most part below the level of the ocean — has 
been adopted as though modern surveys had not 
refuted it ; and so the conversion of a material 
portion of the African continent into a navigable 
sea is being popularly considered as not only pos- 
sible, but altogether likely to be accomplished. 

A brief consideration of the published results 
of the recent surveys will be sufficient to convince 
the reader that the popular estimate of the mag- 
nitude of this enterprise is absurdly out of pro- 
portion to the greatest possible accomplishment. 

This overestimate is not surprising when we con- 
sider the character of the references to the scheme 
which have been made by journals of the best 
standing. The following paragraph from the 
foremost among engineering journals may be 
taken as a sample : — 

‘‘ With reference to the daring French project 
for flooding the desert of Sahara with what would 
be virtually a new sea, it may be well to recall the 
opinion expressed by M. Elisée Réclus, that at one 
period in the world’s history the desert was 
covered by asea very similar to the Mediterranean, 
and that this sea exercised a very great influence 
upon the temperature of France, as comparatively 
cold — or, at any rate, cool — winds blew over it, 
while now the winds which prevail in the great 
expanse are of a much higher temperature, and 
are, in fact, sometimes suffocatingly hot. The 
appearance of the desert seems to support the 
theory of M. Elisée Reéclus, that it was at one 
time the bed of a sea of considerable extent, of 
which the great inland African lakes recently dis- 
covered are possibly the remains, The present 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. VIL, No. 176 


vast extent and configuration of the African con- 
tinent would also appear to support the conclusion 
that at one time it comprised a less area of land 
than it does at present. The serious question 
which arises, assuming that the theory of M. 
Elisee Reclus is substantially correct, is, What 
will be the effect of the creation of a second 
African sea in the room of that which has disap- 
peared? Would the temperature of France, and 
possibly even of England, be again reduced? It 
is a geological theory that in the glacial-period of 
the world’s history Great Britain was covered with 
ice and snow very much as Greenland is at pres- 
ent. Some great influences must clearly have 
been brought to bear upon France and Great 
Britain, which rolled the ice over somany hundred 
miles northward. What was this influence? Was 
it the large African sea which French enterprise 
is endeavoring to recreate? If it were, we should 
say that whatever the French may gain in Africa 
by the realization of a Saharan Sea would be much 
more than counterbalanced by what they would 
lose in France itself.” 

A writer in another journal suggests that all na- 
tions interested in the commerce of the Mediter- 
ranean may by right protest against the execution 
of ascheme that would produce a troublesome 
current through the Straits of Gibraltar. And the 
same writer, furthermore, adds, ‘‘So much water 
drawn from the present oceans, may, by lessening 
the depths of the harbors of the world, produce 
serious and wide-spread inconvenience.” 

That all such fears are utterly groundless is 
abundantly shown by the results of the careful 
surveys made within the last few years. A brief 
résumé of these results is presented below. The 
figures are reduced from the metric measures in 
‘Nouvelle geographie universelle,’ by Reclus, and 
the maps from ‘ Le genie civil.’ In both cases the 
authority quoted is the French engineer, M. Rou- 
daire. 

Every one who, as a student, has had to draw 
the map of Africa, can certainly recall that singu- 
lar interruption to the otherwise regular. coast-line 
on the extreme northern boundary, where the 
coast, for a comparatively short distance, has a 
general north and south trend. This notch marks 
the north-eastern terminus of the Atlas mountain 
system. The eastern shore is the eastern bound- 
ary of Tunis; and on it, in ancient times, stood 
Carthage. An indentation at the southern part 
is called the Gulf of Gabés. 

A line extending due west from the shore of 
this gulf crosses a barren region, of no interest 
but for the project about which this article is writ- 
ten. It is aregion abounding in basin-shaped de- 
pressions, containing either shallow salt-marshes, 


June 18, 1886.] SCIENCE. 543 


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PROFILE 
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D44 


brackish pools, or deposits of salt and gypsum. 
The more extensive areas are called ‘ chotts.’ The 
first of these is the Chott-el-Fedjedj, the eastern 
end of which is 12 miles from the shore of the 
gulf, and separated from it by a ridge of drift and 
limestone whose altitude at the lowest point is 150 
feet. The surface of el-Fedjedj is nowhere less 
than 48 feet above the sea. Toward the west it 
is contracted in width somewhat by the encroach- 
ment of the ridges which bound it on the north 
and south. Beyond this point, which is about 70 
miles from its eastern limit, it widens out, and is 
known as Chott-el-Djerid. Here the surface is for 
the most part level, and covered with an incrusta- 
tion of salt, beneath which, in a few places, are 
pools of water. The plain of el-Djerid is from 


MAP OF AFRICA, SHOWING THE RELATIVE SIZE OF THE 
PROPOSED INLAND SEAS, 


50 to 200 feet above the sea-level. Its width from 
north to south is about 45 miles. 

Near the north-west border of el-Djerid, and 
separated from it by a ridge whose least altitude 
is 550 feet, is the Chott Gharsa or Rharsa, whose 
surface is from 30 to 35 feet below the level of 
the sea. Gharsa is about 50 miles long and 20 
miles wide. Beyond this chott to the west, and 
separated from it by an insignificant elevation, is 
a much larger depressed area, known as Chott 
Melghigh or Melhrie. This is the basin referred to 
as the site of the proposed interior sea. The area 
which, lying below the Mediterranean, can possi- 
bly be flooded by it, is represented by the shaded 
portion on the accompanying maps.’ Portions of 


1 The scale of the larger map is about 55 miles to the 
inch. 


SCIENCE. 


[Voxu. VII., No. 176 


this area are 100 feet below the sea-level; and 
the average depth, if flooded, would be 78 feet. 

The figures above given exhibit the possible 
dimensions of the ‘flooded Sahara.’ The united 
areas of the two chotts over which the sea would 
flow is, by Roudaire’s measurements, about 3,100 
square miles, less than half the area of Lake 
Ontario. 

Throughout the remainder of the Great Desert 
the elevation is considerable. Competent authori- 
ties estimate the average height at 1,100 feet. Dr. 
Lenz found, in travelling over many hundred 
miles of the western portion of the Sahara. no 
point of less altitude than 470 feet above the sea. 

The fact that marine deposits are found in many 
parts of this area is, of course, a fact of no signifi- 
cance in this connection. The skeleton of a whale 
found in one of the highest cuttings of the Ver- 
mont central railway is not regarded as an evi- 
dence that the Green Mountains could now be 
submerged by the waters of the ocean. 

The whale probably stranded there during what 
geologists term the ‘Champlain epoch,’ since 
which time the surface has slowly risen. The 
hypothesis that at least eighty thousand years 
have elapsed since this epoch is believed by most 
geologists to be well founded. Explorations across 
the African desert justify the belief that the 
marine deposits found there are not less ancient 
than those of the Champlain period. 

To fiood such a section with the sea, either the 
next great subsidence must be patiently awaited, 
or else an extensive system of pumping must be 
resorted to.. The realization of the scheme of sub- 
mergence (to accord with the popular estimate of 
it), by either of these plans, may be regarded as 
equally remote. 

The project of flooding the Sahara to the utmost 
practicable limit can hardly be called a great one. 
It is safe to say, that if executed, which is doubt- 
ful, it will not sensibly affect the climate of south- 
ern Europe. It will not create dangerous currents 
at Gibraltar, nor inconvenience seaports in any 
part of the world. GEO. W. PLYMPTON. 


LONDON LETTER. 


A SUGGESTIVE report by Mr. W. H. Power, of 
the Local government board, has just been pub- 
lished, relative to the connection between scarlet- 
fever and infected milk, —a connection which 
has long been suspected. The farm in question 
was sanitarily perfect, every modern improvement 
in respect to cleanliness of vessels, and examina- 
tion of persons employed, being in force. Mr. 
Power was assisted in his investigation by Dr. 
Klein; and their joint results leave little or no 


_ hay, it is sixty per cent more valuable. 
‘conclusion of the commissioners can best be ex- 


June 18, 1886.] 


doubt that the cows of the dairy were infected 
with a specific disease of a constitutional charac- 
ter, whose local manifestations were external sores 
on the animals, and that the milk from these cows 
was capable of imparting scarlatina to human 
beings, and was the real cause of an epidemic of 
scarlatina in a large district (Marylebone) in Lon- 
don. Two of these animals were purchased for 
the Brown institution (established in connection 
with the University of London for the investiga- 
tion of animal pathology); and the exact nature 
of the diseased milk is still being inquired into by 
Dr. Klein. 

The ensilage commissioners have just issued 
their complete parliamentary report, one of the 
most valuable documents ever put into the hands 
of the English farmer. They have gone about 
their work in a thoroughly judicial spirit, and the 
result of their inquiry is to establish the use of the 
silo as an essential part of the procedure of suc- 
cessful agriculture. Green forage well preserved 
in a silo is, weight for weight, one-third of the 
same forage made into hay; but, as the weight of 
the most perfect silage is five times that of the 
The full 


pressed in their own words: ‘“ After summing up 
the mass of evidence which has reached us, we 
can without hesitation affirm that it has been 
abundantly and conclusively proved to our satis- 
faction that this system of preserving green-fodder 
crops promises great advantages to the practical 
farmer, and, if carried out with a reasonable 
amount of care and efficiency, should not only 
provide him with the means of insuring himself 
to a great extent against unfavorable seasons, and 
of materially improving the quantity and quality 
of his dairy produce, but should also enable him 
to increase appreciably the number of live-stock 
that can be profitably kept upon any given acre- 
age, whether of pasture or arable land, and pro- 
portionately the amount of manure available to 
fertilize it.” 

The deputy master of the mint has just issued 
his report for 1885, a document of much interest. 
The coinages required by the English colonies were 
more numerous than, and exceeded by £85,000 
in amount, those of any previous year. This is 
attributed in great measure to the depression in 
the West Indies. The balance of receipts over 
expenditures was more than £70,000, one of the ex- 
penses being the preparation of medals for troops 
engaged in suppressing the Canadian rebellion. 
Mr, Fremantle reports, that ‘“‘although during the 
year 1885 a considerable amount of coinage has 
been executed in the British and United States 


Inints, and in those cf some European nations, 


SCIENCE. 


545 


hardly any addition has been made in several 
countries, and notably in France and Germany, 
to the metallic currency of the world;” and 
also that ‘‘the questions connected with coinage, 
which have of late years been discussed with the 
greatest interest, have not made any appreciable 
progress toward solution.” 

A large private electric-lighting installation 
has just been inaugurated at the London terminus 
of the Great western railway. The whole district 
lighted is 14 miles long, and covers 67 acres of 
ground; 4.115 glow-lamps of 25 candle-power 
each are used, 93 arc-lamps of 3,500 candle-power, 
and 2 arc-lamps of 12,000 candle-power. The two 
dynamos employed are those of Mr. J. E. H. Gor- 
don, and weigh 45 tons each, one-half of which is 
due to the ten-foot revolving magnet wheel, which 
runs at 146 revolutions per minute. The electro- 
motive force is 150 volts. The mains are all un- 
derground, and the glow-lamps are all in parallel 
arc. Two lines of steam-pipe supply the engines, 
and a third dynamo is kept in reserve. The Tele- 
graph construction and maintenance company 
have contracted with the railway company to 
work it for three years. 

At the last meeting for this season, of the Society 
of telegraph engineers, etc., about thirty-five can- 
didates were elected into the society. There was 
an interesting discussion, in which Dr. Jacques, 
electrician to the Bell telephone company, U.S.A., 
took part, on the use of the telephone as a receiv- 
ing-instrument for Morse signals in warfare, and 
on the general military question of recording 
versus non-recording receiving-instruments. 

In continuation of brief comments upon ex- 
ceptional weather in Britain, which have appeared 
in this correspondence, it may here be mentioned 
that from May 11 to May 15 the mean temperature 
was from 6° to 8° below the average; and that 
torrents of rain fell over a very wide district, 
more than four inches in three days (11th, 12th, 
and 13th) being not uncommon. The valleys of 
the Severn and Trent suffered severely, railway 
traffic being suspended, and many inhabitants 
driven from their homes. Severe tornadoes oc- 
curred at Madrid, Krossen, Linz, and other Eu- 
ropean towns, two or three days after those in 
Kansas City and other parts of the states. 

English pathology has suffered a severe loss by 
the death, at the early age of forty-five, of Sur- 
geon-Major T. R. Lewis, the assistant professor of 
pathology at the Army medical school. He had 
made a special study of microscopic organisms 
and their relations to disease, and was the author 
of several most valuable reports to the govern- 
ment of India on cholera and the fungus disease 
of India. In the autumn of 1884 he visited Mar- 


546 


seilles, where cholera was then prevalent, for the 
purpose of investigating the results obtained by 
Dr. R. Koch and the other members of the German 
cholera commission in Egypt and India; and he 
arrived at the conclusion, which is now widely 
accepted, that the selection of the comma-shaped 
bacilli as the materies morbi of cholera appears 
to be entirely arbitrary, for he found that these 
comma-shaped bacilli are ordinarily present in the 
mouths of perfectly healthy persons. 

The value of Professor Lewis's biological work 
was recognized by the council of the Royal society 
when they selected him, in April last, as one of 
the fifteen candidates to be recommended to the 
society for election in June; and his death thus 
leaves a vacancy in the list, which it is said the 
council will now fill up by the selection of Mr. 
A. Sedgwick, M.A., of Trinity college, Cambridge. 

Mr. W. H. Caldwell of Cambridge, who has spent 
some time in Australia for the purpose of obtain- 
ing the material required for investigating the 
embryology of marsupials, monctremes, and Cera- 
todus, exhibited some of the results of his work at 
the recent Royal society soirée. It will be re- 
membered that a telegram was sent to the Mon- 
treal meeting of the British association to an- 
nounce his discovery of the fact that the eggs laid 
by the monotreme mammals developed in a man- 
ner closely similar to those of the Reptilia. Series 
of these mammalian eggs were exhibited by Mr. 
Caidwell, some taken a few hours after fertiliza- 
tion, with others at various stages up to hatching, 
and likewise different stages of the young after 
hatching, up to five inches long. He also showed 
a complete series of eggs of Ceratodus, the air- 
breathing fish of Queensland, from the unseg- 
mented egg up to hatching, together with stages 
of the young fish after hatching. All this material 
is of the highest value, and Mr. Caldwell’s re- 
searches are sure to throw much light upon many 
obscure problems of vertebrate morphology. He 
will also be able to supply Prof. W. K. Parker 
with the specimens necessary for investigating the 
development of the skull in Ceratodus, Echidna, 
and many marsupials. W. 

London, May 30. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 

THE first circular of the local committee at 
Buffalo, of the American asscciation, announces 
that the meetings will be held in the recently 
enlarged high-school building. Reduced rates 
have been obtained over many of the railroads, 
most of which will allow a return ticket at one- 
third of the usual fare, upon certificate from the 
local secretary at Buffalo. The Chicago and north- 


SCIENCE. 


: [Vou. VII., No. 176 


western railway system will return members 
attending the Buffalo meeting, from Chicago, at 
one-third of the regular fare, upon presenting at 


the Chicago ticket-office a certificate from the 


local secretary at Buffalo: hence members resid- 
ing in the north-west must see that they are in 
possession of two certificates when the meeting 
adjourns, — one to be used in Buffalo, and the 
other in Chicago. The Western union telegraph 
company, with its usual courtesy, will place its 
lines and district telegraph system at the service 
of members. The Botanical club of Buffalo is 
arranging an excursion and reception for the 
Botanical club of the association, as is also the 
Entomological club of that city for the Entomo- 
logical club of the association. The address of 
the local secretary is Dr. Julius Pohlman, Buf- 
falo,-N-Y: 


— The Appalachian mountain club propose issu- 
ing advance sheets of the forthcoming White 
Mountain map on a scale of 1:50000 by tracing the 
work now done, lettering the tracing roughly, add- 
ing the streams approximately, and copying by the 
‘blue print’ process. Two sheets. a northern and 
a southern, will together cover the most important 
areas. It is hoped to have them ready by the first 
of July, and the cost is not likely to exceed seven- 
ty-five cents per sheet. Members may thus obtain 
maps of the accurately located points (including 
nearly all marked summits), on which they may 
fill in the lesser details, and mark corrections of 
the streams. Artistic appearance will not be at- 
tempted for these sheets; but their practical value 
will lie in the large scale, which is twice (linear) 
that on which the finished map is to be published. 
A field-meeting will be held on the summit of 
Mount Washington from July 1 to 8. Papers may 
be expected from Profs. E C. Pickering and N. 8. 
Shaler, Dr. W. G. Farlow, Messrs. J. Rayner Ed- 
mands, Rosewel! B Lawrence, and others. The 
papers will be arranged for stormy weather and 
the evenings. 


— Yale college, induced by the success of the 
Columbia college school of political science, and 
by the work in progress at Johns Hopkins, Cornell, 
and the University of Michigan, is making special 
arrangements for courses in political and social 
science, to begin in the autumn. Professor Sum- 
ner is announced to lecture on finance and the 
science and art of politics in the history of the Uni- 
ted States ; Professor Farnam, on the principles of 


public finance; Professor Hadley, on railroad ad- | 


ministration; Mr. Wheeler, on Roman law: Mr. 
Terry, on the doctrine of rights ; Mr. Raynolds, on 
comparative constitutional law; Mr. H. C. White, 
on local government in the United States ; and Mr. 


ee 


JUNE 18, 1886.] 


E. G. Bourne, on a view of trade and industry in 
Europe in the middle ages. 


—On Aug. 25 next, Prof. Edward Zeller of Ber- 
lin will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the 
attainment of his doctorate. The many old pupils 
and friends of the learned historian and philoso- 
pher intend to present him on this occasion with 
his picture or bust, as a slight mark of their ap- 
preciation of his services to the cause of human 
knowledge. The movement was started in Berlin 
by some of Professor Zeller’s associates, and the 
original announcement of their intention is signed 
by Bonitz, Dilthey, Eucken, Erdmann, Kuno 
Fischer, Helmholtz, Kronecker, Mommsen, Max 
Miller, Von Sybel, and many others. The names 
of ali those who contribute to the fund will be 
communicated to Professor Zeiler, and it is hoped 
that America will be well represented. Contri- 
butions may be sent to Prof. T. G. Schurmann, 
15 West 57th Street, New York City, or to Prof. 
Nicholas Murray Butler, Columbia college. 


— WM. Ch. Bouchard has recently supplemented 
his observations on the toxicity of urine by the 
following ones. The increase in the production 
and elimination of the poison begins immediately 
atter rising, and commences to diminish at about 
the middle of the waking period. Abstinence 
from liquids increases the toxicity, owing to the 
superabundance of.incompletely oxidized matters 
excreted. Severe muscular labor notably. some- 
times to the extent of nearly one-half, diminishes 
the toxicity, not only in the waking state, but also 
in the succeeding period of sleep. Compressed 
air diminishes immediately and markedly the 
toxicity, to be more largely increased afterward. 


— Recent examinations of the bottom of the 
Lake of Constance and of Lake Geneva by Hoérn- 
limann have brought out the interesting fact that 
the Rhine and Rhone rivers have excavated deep 
channels for long distances. The current of the 
Rhine can be followed for two kilometres, at a 
depth of one hundred and twenty-five metres be- 
low the surface of the water: while that of the 
Rhone has been traced more than six kilometres 
from the mouth, at a depth of between two hun- 
dred and two hundred and fifty metres. 


— The production of gold in the gold-fields of 
the Australian colonies during 1885 reached in 
value £5,831,468. The total amount from the 
year of its discovery to 1886 is 79,194,094 ounces, 
valued at £310,865,718. There has been a con- 
Siderable decrease in production during late years. 


— The natural-history section of the Imperial 
Russian geographical society has decided to send 
an expedition. during the present year, into cen- 


SCIENCE. 


D47 


tral Asia, to explore the region of Khan Tengri, 
which has never been visited by European travel- 
lers. 


—The statement in Science (vii. No. 174) that 
Prof. C. U. Shepard presented his cabinets to 
Amherst college was not strictly accurate. In 
accordance with an agreement of long standing, 
the college purchased his collections, and paid 
forty thousand dollars for them. 


— Lieutenant Greely, the arctic explorer, who 
is entitled to his promotion to a captaincy in the 
U. S. cavalry in consequence of the retirement of 
General Sturgis, is not likely to be appointed to 
the vacancy in the adjutant-general’s department, 
and it is possible he will not be promoted at all on 
the active list, for the reason that he has declared 
himself, undoubtedly with justification, unable to 
render active service. The generous thing for 
congress to do is to provide a place on the retired 
list, with ample rank, for Lieutenant Greely, in 
honor of his services and sufferings in the arctic 
regions. 


— The new scientific building of Smith college, 
Northampton, Mass., will be dedicated Tuesday, 
June 22. The address will be by Prof. J. Peter 
Lesley. 


— The extreme delicacy of the sense of smell 
in man has been shown by a series of experiments 
by Messrs. Fischerand Penzoldt. Inanempty room 
of 230 cubic metres capacity, and tightly closed, 
a small quantity of the substance to be detected 
was thcroughly mixed with the air, and the observ- 
er then admitted. Among different substances it 
was found that the smallest amount recognizable 
was .01 of a milligram of mercaptan. This quan- 
tity diffused through the room sufficed to make 
its distinctive character appreciable in the small 
volume of air coming in contact with the nerves 
of the nose, from which it was estimated that the 
1: 460,000,000 part of a milligram of this sub- 
stance was recognizable. Hitherto the spectro- 
scope has been considered the most delicate of all 
means of analysis, indicating less than the mil- 
lionth part of a milligram of sodium ; but the 
sense of smell, in the case of mercaptan at least, 
is seen to be at least two hundred times more 
delicate. 


— Prof. S. F. Baird, U.S. commissioner of fish 
and fisheries, has recently received from the De- 
partment of fish-culture of the lower Seine, France, 
a gold medal as an acknowledgment for some 
valuable sendings of fish ova. The medal was 
designed by Oudine. On the obverse is repre- 
sented a female head bound with a chaplet of 
cereals. Legend: ‘ Republique frangaise.’ On 


548 


the reverse is inscribed ‘‘M. Spencer F. Baird, 
United States commissioner of fish and fisheries,” 
and the legend ‘Department de la Seine-In- 
ferieure. La commission de pisciculture. 30 
Novembre, 1885." The medal is about the size of 
a double eagle. It will be placed on exhibition 
in the north hall of the national museum. 


—M. Charpentier, in a late session of the 
French academy, called attention to the follow- 
ing visual illusion: after a small, feebly illumi- 
nated object has been attentively viewed for some 
time in complete darkness, it will often appear 
to move in some determined direction in the field 
of vision, at a speed varying from two to three 
degrees per second, and sometimes through a dis- 
tance subtended by an angle of thirty degrees or 
more. M. Charpentier states that this illusion 
occurs in the fixed eye observing a fixed point, 
but it is doubtful whether he is correct. Muscae 
volitantes, or floating spots due to impoverished 
blood or disease, have a like tendency in the closed 
eye, when attention is directed to them, of moving 
off in some determined direction, apparently as if 
floating upon the vision; but a finger placed upon 
the eyeball will at once detect that the spots are 
fixed upon the retina. while it is the eye itself 
that moves. 


— A recent examination of the employees of 
certain French railroads for color-blindness, made 
in compliance with the instructions of the minis- 
ter of public works, resulted in the detection of 
only two persons who were totally color-blind 
among 11,173. Three could not distinguish red, 
six green ; eighteen showed a confusion in distin- 
guishing between green and red, fifteen a like 
confusion between blue and gray; and fifty-two 
had a feeble sense of colors in general. These 
results show that the danger arising from color- 
blindness, on the French railroads at least, is al- 
most nil. As is seen, not more than two per cent 
of the employees had imperfect sight, so far as 
colors in general were concerned, and not more 
than a half of one per cent were troubled with 
color-blindness in any way. 


— During the year 1885 there were 155,177 
German emigrants from the ports of Hamburg, 
Bremen, and Stettin, a decrease of over 40,000 
from the preceding year. Of this number, 148,- 
839 were immigrants to the United States. 


— The coast-survey changes since our last issue 
are as follows: the party in charge of Assistant 
fF. W. Perkins has returned from the south coast 
of Louisiana. The latter has gone to his home to 
work up the results of the trip; Captain Vinal 
has finished the gap on the west coast of Florida 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII, No. 176 


in Hernandc county (this completes the ocean 
shore-line of that coast, except a small strip near 
the Thousand Islands) ; Assistant Pratt, who is on 
the north-west Pacific coast, reports the govern- 
ment telegraph-line from Tatoosh Island to Port 
Angeles, Washington Territory, as so badly ground- 
ed that it is impossible to exchange time-signals 
for longitude over it. 


— The Zuni maiden Wa-Wah, who has been in 
Washington as the guest of Mrs. James Stephenson 
for several months, is now engaged in weaving a 
blanket in the national museum, on the loom pro- 
cured by that institution from the Zuni Indians. 
The loom, with the blanket upon it, will be placed 
in a case in the museum, together with photo- 
graphs of Wa-Wah at work upon it, which will 
illustrate the mode of weaving employed by the 
Zunis. Wa-Wah is well versed in all the mys- 
teries of the Zuni religion and the customs of her 
people, and has given Mrs. Stephenson and the 
museum authorities much valuable information. 
She took great interest in the model of the town 
of Zuni at the museum, and gave testimony of its 
accuracy by pointing out her own house. She will 
go back to her home in the Zuni country with the 
geological-survey party, who will visit that region 
next month. 


—M. Tourette has recently published certain 
results of observations on the gait in walk- 
ing, in health and in various pathological states, 
which are of interest. The average full or double 
normal step he finds in the adult man to be sixty- 
three centimetres ; in woman, fifty centimetres ; 
in both sexes the right step is a little longer than 
the left. The average separation of the feet, or 
the base of support, in man in walking, is from 
eleven to twelve centimetres ; in woman, twelve 
to thirteen; in both sexes the lateral distance 
being one centimetre greater on the left side. 
The sum of the divergence between the axes of 
the feet and the axis of direction is, in man, 
thirty-one or thirty-two degrees, the angle being 
about one degree greater on the right side; in 
woman, thirty or thirty-one degrees, with one 
or two degrees greater divergence. In one of 
the pathological types occurring in locomotor 
ataxia, in paralysis agitans, etc., the step is 
smaller, and the distance between the feet as well 
as the angle between them is larger, than normal. 
Another type, seen in diseases of the spinal cord, 
hemorrhages of the cerebellum, and in vertigo, 
shows a zigzag manner of walking. 


The step | 


may be either short or long: in either case the — 


footprints are confused and indistinct, and deviate 


from the line of walking. Other differences have — 


been wrought out. Perhaps the most unexpected 


7 


| 
| 


—— ™ Eo” 
ll al 


June 18, 1886.] 


result was that the pathological step is more regu- 
lar than the normal in all the points above noticed. 
In other words, in the normal walk it is the man 
himself who is walking, and his natural variations 
appear : in the other the disease does the walking, 
and the step is marked by the constant symptoms 
of his malady. 


— Advices just received from Mr. William T. 
Hornaday, who was sent out by the national 
museum in search of buffalo, are to the effect 
that he has secured two antelopes; he has also 
sent to the museum three complete skeletons of 
old bull-buffaloes, and two skulls. 


—The Iron trade review estimates that the 
quantity of domestic iron ore used in the blast- 
furnaces, rolling-mills, and forges of the United 
States in 1885 was 7,600,000 gross tons. 


— Anatomists were considerably startled some 
time ago to learn that Professor Hamiiton had dis- 
covered that the corpus callosum was not a com- 
missural structure at all, but represented the de- 
cussation of fibres on their way from the cortex 
to lower parts. Almost every thing has been 


doubted in the anatomy of the brain, but the 
- corpus callosum has always been regarded as a 


system of fibres whose connections and functions 
were rather definitely known. In a recent article 
(Brain, April, 1886), Dr. Beevor shows conclusive- 
ly that our faith in the corpus callosum may 
remain undisturbed. The sections figured in his 
plate distinctly represent the fibres of the corpus 
callosum intersecting, and in no way joined with 
the fibres of the internal and external capsules. 
He answers Professor Hamilton’s morphological 
argument that some animals exist without a cor- 
pus callosum by pointing out that in those (mar- 
supials, for instance) the anterior commissure be- 
comes proportionately developed. Dr. Beevor 
concludes then that the current view of the con- 
nections of corpus callosum and of the internal 
capsule are perfectly correct. 


— That frogs have a formidable enemy in the 
common mouse is evidenced by the following. A 
correspondent of Nature, Mr. W. August Carter 
of South Norwood, states that he observed, a short 
time since, several mice pursuing some frogs in a 
shed which was overrun with these reptiles. The 
alacrity of the latter, however, rendered the at- 
tacks of the mice futile for a considerable period. 
Again and again the frogs escaped from the 
clutches of their foes, but only to be recaptured, 
severely shaken, and bitten. The energy put 
forth by these reptiles was so great that they ac- 
tually swayed their captors to and fro in their 
efforts to wrest themselves from their grasp. At 


SCIENCE. 


d49 


length the wounds inflicted upon them rendered 
the frogs incapable of further resistance, and they 
were easily overpowered by the mice, which de- 
voured a certain part of them. 


— In ‘Flowers, fruits, and leaves,’ by Sir John 
Lubbock, Bart. (Macmillan), we have a popular, 
readable, and withal scientific account of many of 
the phenomena of fertilization of flowers, of the 
structure and varieties of seeds, and of many of 
the endlessly varied forms of leaves with which 
vezetation is covered. The first two chapters, on 
flowers, are a reprint, with some emendations and 
additions, from a previous volume by the distin- 
guished author, and deal principally with the 
modes of fertilization, showing how, in many 
cases, appropriate insects are enticed into doing 
this important work, while other insects, not 
adapted to the work, are repelled or excluded 
from access to the flower. The next two chapters 
treat of fruits and seeds, and of their development 
and protection, and the modes of dispersion adapt- 
ed to the habits and habitats of the plants in 
which they originate ; while the last two chapters, 
on leaves and the varieties in their forms and ar- 
rangements, abound with suggestions of possible 
or probable causes determining the character of 
leaves and the diversities found within generic 
limits, and often even upon the same individual 
plant, according to age or size, as well as, on 
the other hand, the striking resemblances found 
among plants of widely different natural orders. 
The book is well calculated to awaken and foster 
in young people a love of nature, and to direct 
their attention to what is going on around them. 
It gives, also, an excellent idea of how many facts 
in the economy and ornamentation of plant-life 
can be rationally explained, without reference to 
the taste or wants of man, but solely by the ‘sur- 
vival of the fittest’ in the struggle for existence. 


— It is fortunate for those who need the valu- 
able tables, the first instalment of which Professor 
Carnelly has just issued (‘Melting and boiling 
point tables,’ vol. i., London, Harrison & sons, 
1885), that one so admirably adapted to the task 
should have been willing to devote eight years of 
almost continuous work to the compilation of a 
mass of material amounting to 50,000 data. The 
entire scheme comprises the presentation of all 
known data concerning the melting and boiling 
points of the elements, inorganic and organic 
compounds, and much miscellaneous information 
beside. The volume now before the public con- 
tains nineteen thousand data, and treats of the 
elements, inorganic compounds, and such organic 
compounds as contain not more than three elements. 
The second volume will include the remainder. 


550 


It is the aim of the author to state as fully as 
may be the constitution of every substance con- 
cerning which any thing is said, and original 
sources of information are indicated when known. 
For the convenience of readers who do not have 
access to large libraries, reference is also made to 
such related matter as may be found in Watt’s 
‘Dictionary of chemistry,’ or in the Journal of 
the Chemical society in London. The system of 
arrangement is simple, and the material acces- 
sible. The work, far more complete and conven- 
ient than any thing of its scope previously at- 
tempted, is a monument of patient industry in- 
telligently applied. 


— The wealth and thoroughness of information 
contained in Dr. O. Stoll’s book on Guatemala 
(Guatemala, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1886, 8°) shows 
at sight that the author is not one of the common 
travellers trying to perpetuate the memory of 
their sights in foreign countries. Stoll’s main 
purpose in expatriating himself for five years to 
practise medicine in a land like that, was the 
thorough study of the aborigines. This enabled 
him to acquaint himself fully with the history, 
customs, and habits of the Indians, Ladinos, and 
whites in the western part of the country, where 
he resided. The results of his studies of the Indian 
antiquities and languages he published in a pre- 
vious work, reserving for his ‘ Guatemala’ the 
recital of his travels, which, from Guatemala City, 
extended over the east and south also, the politi- 
cal history, statistics, mode of life of the inhabit- 
ants, and general remarks upon the country. The 
numerous shortcomings and barbaric customs of 
the population do not excite in the writer a spirit 
of rancor, implacable hatred, or justifiable irony ; 
for in most instances he simply presents to the 
reader, in frank and unmistakable terms, what he 
has seen and heard, and then leaves it to him to 
judge for himself. The tyrannic mode of ruling 
inaugurated by Barrios, the late president, forms 
a chapter too interesting to be skipped over. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


«*s Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Barometer exposure. 


Mr. H. HELM CLayton’s interesting letter on the 
above topic (Science, vol. vii. p. 484) is not quite so 
satisfactory as his previous communication on ther- 
mometer exposures. He seems to think that ‘‘ the 
facts all suggest that the wind, in blowing by at 
right angles to the cracks and crevices in the build- 
ing, produces a mechanical effect, which tends to 
draw the air out of the building, and decrease the 
pressure inside,” 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 176 


Until it is incontestably established by observation 
that such fluctuations in the height of the barometer 
as he cites are peculiar to indoor barographs, it 
seems to me quite premature to ascribe them to the 
rarefaction of the air within the building. It cer- 
tainly would be more satisfactory to the physicist, 
had Mr. Clayton made comparisons of the simul- 
taneous indications of indoor and outdoor barographs. 
The observed facts are, that fluctuations of wind- 
velocity correspond with fluctuations of air-pressure. 
In some cases it may be difficult to decide which is 
cause, and which is effect. Certainly, in ordinary 
cases, the alteration of air-pressure is the cause, 
and wind is the effect. But if, in certain cases, it 
can be shown that indoor barometers are differently 
affected from outdoor ones, there would be rational 
grounds for reversing the usual relation of cause and 
effect. If such is actually the case, it certainly is an 
important item in barometric records. 

JoHN LECONTE. 
Berkeley, Cal., June 8. 


Amblystoma and Gordius. 


Recently a fine specimen of Amblystoma mavor- 
tium, presented me by Professor Sedgwick, was seen 
to be greatly distressed in its left fore-arm. The 
arm was swollen to its utmost ; and, holding it out 
at right angles to the body, the ‘ salamander’ seemed 
quite unable to use eitherarm or fingers. Enlarge- 
ment of a small pore, in a prominence uear the base 
of the littie finger, behind the carpals, disclosed the 
cause of the trouble in a robust hair-worm a little 
less than five inches in length and nearly one- 
twentieth of an inch in diameter. Posteriorly two- 
thirds of the worm’s body was of a light pink or 
flesh color; in front of this it was darker, except 
about three-quarters of an inch at the head, where 
it was almost white. The worm was coiled among 
the muscles of the fore-arm, and did not appear to 
have wrought them any injury, the member in a 
few days being as useful as its fellow. 

Submitted to Dr. Fewkes, the parasite was pro- 
nounced an undetermined species of Gordius. 

S. GARMAN. 
Mus. comp. zo6l., June 10. 


Penetrating-power of arrows. 


I notice in Science for June 11 a short letter con- 
cerning the penetrating-force of arrows. 

I have made the following experiment with a 
Chinese bow and Javanese arrows: length of bow 
unstrung 5 feet 11 inches; length of string 5 feet 8 
inches; length of arrow 35 inches, weight of same 
23 ounces; height of feathers ? of an inch, length of 
same 4 inches. 

The bow has a strength of 110 pounds when the 
string is pulled back 34 inches: it is made of whale- 
bone and bamboo cut in long strips and glued to- 
gether. 

At 50 yards the entire arrow passes through an 
inch plank of clear pine wood. At the same dis- 
tance, with oak of the same thickness instead of 
pine, the board is penetrated by the head of the 
arrow, but the shaft is shattered to small pieces. 
With alive pigeon at 20 yards, hit anywhere, the 
entire arrow passes through intact. 

L. O. KELLOGG. 
Oswego, N.Y., June 12. 


SCIENCE.—SuprLeMEnTr. 


FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1886. 


HOW TO TEACH GEOGRAPHY. 


Ir American teachers of geography and history 
could know and appreciate how those subjects are 
taught in the best schools, and in fact generally 
throughout Germany, Austria, and France, they 
would hardly be able to recognize the fact that 
large and interested classes were in those countries 
deriving keen intellectual enjoyment, and also 
acquiring sound and lasting knowledge from and 
of two subjects which in our primary and inter- 
mediate schools are, as a rule, matters of weary 
memorizing and mechanical drudgery. To teach 
is something that most of our teachers sadly need 
to be taught; and of geography this is perhaps 
unusually true. The usual method in this coun- 
try is to compel a child of from seven to 
twelve years to first learn an abstract definition 
of geography ; then follow some erudite sections 
as to the distribution of land and water on the 
globe, races of men, climate, and so forth, all 
stated in technical language that might well ap- 
pal some older persons, to say nothing of child- 
minds, to whom the subject is new and utterly 
strange. After several pages of this material 
have been carefully stored away in the wholly 
unappreciative memory, a map is introduced, and 
the study of geography proceeds with the learn- 
ing of the names of countries, rivers, mountain- 
chains, towns, and other unmanageable details, all 
of which are treated as if they had no connection 
whatever with one another. In a year or two 
geography is ‘finished,’ and the process of for- 
getting much of it begins. This barbarous, use- 
less, and unscientific method of teaching (it may 
be so called by courtesy) geography is not con- 
fined to this country: it is the method usually 
followed in England also : and a paper on the sub- 
ject, read by R. Elliot Steel, F.R.G.S., before the 
College of preceptors in London, and reported at 
some length in the Educational times for May, is 
_ quite as deserving of attention here as in England. 
Mr. Steel summarizes the abuses and deficiencies 
of the present system of teaching geography 
under the following heads: 1°. In maps, igno- 
rance of scale, and failure in remembering the 
general outlines of a country and its principal 
physical features, in consequence of the use of 
Maps crammed with details, and unsuitable for 


teaching-purposes ; 2°. More than any thing, igno- 
rance of physical geography, including the simplest 
laws of the inorganic world ; 3°. Total neglect of 
history ; 4°. Ignorance of the commercial aspects 
of a country. 

The fundamental cause of all these shortcom- 
ings is the fact that geography is not taught as a 
unity in any of the universities, and therefore 
the vast majority of the text-books are written by 
book-makers, and not by ardent students and 
teachers of the subject. Thus, the school-atlas is 
a clumsy, ill-constructed affair, generally designed 
to help adults find some obscure place or river, 
rather than to teach geography. The matter of 
scale is wholly overlooked ; and the child sees no 
incongruity in asserting Spain to be as large as 
the United States, or Europe to equal Asia in 
size, for do not both occupy a full page of the 
book? This matter of scale is of primary im- 
portance, and cannot be taught abstractly. It is 
well to have the schoolroom supplied with a series 
of maps, all drawn to the same scale, say, 1: 10,- 
000,000. But it is far better to teach the child 
experimentally. Let him measure the school- 
room in units (feet and inches) perfectly definite 
and well understood. Then let him draw a plan 
of the schoolroom on the blackboard, reduced to 
a scale, and then compare objects with this pic- 
ture. Gradually the object delineated can be 
changed from the schoolhouse to the block, from 
the block to the village or city, from the city to 
the state; and so on. This will fairly fix in the 
beginner's mind the principles of map-drawing, 
and after that a map will cease to represent to 
him merely a page of the text-book. 

At present we teach words and phrases, ab- 
stractions, instead of circumstances, natural laws, 
and material things. For example: what possi- 
ble good can be derived from making a child learn 
from a book that a glacier is a river of ice, which 
descends the slopes of high mountains, till it 
finally melts in warmer regions or reaches the 
sea? Such knowledge as this would not even fit 
the pupil to read profitably so popular and un- 
technical a book as Tyndall’s ‘Hours of exercise 
in the Alps.’ Should not instruction concerning 
glaciers rather be given somewhat as follows? to 
take some snow or pounded ice, to compress it 
into a hard, ice-like mass, to point out how, in a 
similar way, after a fall of snow, the upper layers 
compress by their weight the lower, and how ice 
thus becomes formed in the cavities and gulleys 


552 


of mountains above the snow-line ; then to take 
a piece of ice, and, by means of a wire with 
weights attached, to show how the ice may be 
slowly cut, and how it will refreeze, and thus to 
illustrate the passage of the glacier along its bed ; 
to show by illustrations, preferably photographs, 
the nature of the moraines, the final melting of 
the glacier, and the formation of the resulting 
river. In this way the pupil’s knowledge of 
glaciers is real and permanent, and he is prepared 
to read of them, and of theories about them, with 
appreciative interest. And in the process some 
elementary facts of physics and mechanics, and 
the simpler laws of heat, have been learned. 

Again: if a child draws a map himself, and 
locates, say, a hundred places on it, he will proba- 
bly remember them all ; while not ten per cent of 
them, if learned from an outline-map, would be 
retained. The influence of geography upon his- 
tory is one of the most potent of facts to the 
trained scholar, and, although it admits of very 
elementary demonstration, it is almost invariably 
disregarded in teaching geography. Surely it 
could easily be taught that there is a connection 
between tropical climate and despotism, between 
temperate climate and freedom; that vast pas- 
tures have implied a feudal society of chiefs and 
dependents ; that aristocracy is the natural con- 
stitution of a pastoral state ; that the sea and the 
mountains have in many instances directed the 
current of civilization and of political develop- 
ment. Books like Huxley’s ‘ Physiography,’ 
Geikie’s ‘Elementary lessons in physical geog- 
raphy,’ and Grove’s ‘ Class-book of school geog- 
raphy,’ should form part of the instruction of 
every pupil. 

Finally, the connection between geography and 
various phases of political and commercial life 
should be pointed out. It should be shown why 
it is that various portions of a country have 
various pursuits, why manufacturing, mining, agri- 
culture, the carrying trade, respectively, are car- 
ried on in certain sections and from certain centres. 
From this the transition is simple and evident to 
the lines of trade and commerce, — whence we 
receive our various imported goods and why, and 
what we export in exchange. Then, as a means 
of teaching concerning peoples and products, 
every school should contain a museum, that the 
pupils might see and handle the objects of which 
they have read and studied. In this way, and 
only in this way, can the study of geography be 
placed upon a scientific basis, and made the 
vehicle of practical knowledge instead of a 
task in committing dry details to memory. If 
our teachers are to do their part in this work, 
they must be shown how to do it, and trained to 


SCTENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 176 


do it. For this we must look, we hope not in 
vain, to our normal schools, training-classes, col- 
leges, and universities. 


THE OCCUPATIONS OF THE BRITISH 
PEOPLE. 


THE London Times of May 21 has an interesting 
report of a paper read by Mr. Charles Booth before 
the Statistical society, on the occupations of the 
people of the United Kingdom, and on the changes 
that have occurred in the distribution of labor 
during the present century. 

The Times says, ‘‘ The inquiry is a difficult one, 
owing to the imperfections of the earlier returns, 
and the changes which have taken place in the 
mode of recording social phenomena. It was not 
until 1831 that any attempt at detailed classifica- 
tion of occupations was made, and even then it 
was of a limited and unsatisfactory kind. The 
next census showed some improvement; and at 
length, in 1851, the system was originated which 
still prevails, and under which the entire popula- 
tion is brought under enumeration and grouped 
into seventeen classes, with numerous sub-classes. 
But the system has suffered considerable modifica- 
tion from decade to decade since that date, and, 
in particular, large numbers have been transferred 
from one class to another ; so that any thing like 
a trustworthy comparison of the details of succes- 
sive decades becomes a matter of very great labor 
and difficulty. Mr. Booth has constructed tables 
in which these defects in the records are, as far as 
possible, remedied, and the figures for different 
periods reduced to common denominators. Some 
of the results will probably be found surprising by 
those who have not entered upon careful examina- 
tion of their natural impressions.” 

Mr. Booth stated, that, as regarded England and 
Wales, between 1851 and 1881 the proportion of 
industrially employed women over fifteen, com- 
pared to the rest of the female population, had 
decreased continuously, but that the proportion of 
those otherwise employed —in domestic service, 
teaching, etc. — had increased in an equal degree 
year by year; so that the total employed one way 
or another remained practically constant. Having 
in a tabular form divided the whole population, 
taking the occupied and unoccupied together, he 
stated that all males over twenty were counted, 
for this purpose, with the occupied or self-support- 
ing class, and the whole employed class might be 
divided as follows in the periods 1851, 1861, 1871, 
and 1881 respectively: all forms of industry (pro- 
ductive or distributive), 78.4, 77.2, 75.5, 74.2 per 
cent; public and professional service, 4.6, 5.3, 5.5, 
5.6 per cent; domestic service, 13.3, 14.6, 15.8, 


JuNnE 18, 1886.] 


15.7 per cent ; property-owning (so returned), 2.5 
2, 2, 2.2 per cent ; and indefinite, 1.2, 0.9, 1.2, 2. 
per cent. The increase of 1 per cent in the in- 
definite class for 1881 was due to the transfer to 
this class of retired persons, who, in previous 
censuses, were returned under their former occu- 
pations ; but, at best, those tabulated under this 
head were a meaningless remainder, the result of 
accident or defects of enumeration. Similarly 
the class called property-owning was entirely de- 
lusive. It contained a few land-owners, house- 
owners, and others who might as reasonably be 
included with other employers of labor in the 
sections of industry, and it also included a good 
many independent women. 

It is certain that during the thirty years in ques- 
tion the classes whose maintenance depended on 
the mere possession of property must have been 
largely augmented. It would further be seen 
that public and professional service, with domestic 
service, had gained what productive and distribu- 
tive industry had lost, and that this movement had 
been progressive. With regard to domestic ser- 
vice, it was noteworthy that the increase was 
mainly in the women and girls, the indoor men- 
servants having decreased from 74,000 in 1851, to 
56,000 in 1881, while the population had risen from 
18,000,000 to 26,000,000, —a fact which would 
seem to indicate a greater diffusion of wealth, and 
also, perhaps, less ostentation of expenditure 
among the very rich. 

In public service and the professions the per- 
centage of persons occupied in administration, 
law, and medicine, had slightly decreased ; while 
police, amusement, and education had increased, 
education especially showing, as might be expect- 
ed, a large addition in the last decade. 

Coming to a detailed review of the industrial 
classes, he stated that the production of raw 
material employed a decreasing percentage. The 
English depend more on what they import, and 
less on what they find at home. The reduction, 
however, fell entirely on agriculture, as the per- 
centage employed in fishing and mining had in- 
creased. For the three decades since 1851, those 
employed on the land had decreased at the rate of 
3s, 114, and 11 per cent respectively ; being 26 
per cent for the thirty years, or, stated in num- 
bers, 60,000, 196,000, and 163,000, which added 
up to 419,000, an enormous total. Against these 
losses, which were mostly in ordinary agricultural 
labor, must be set the equivalent of the increased 
use of machinery, before we could say that less 
energy was devoted to the cultivation of the soil 
now than thirty years ago. A new class con- 
nected with the application of science to agricul- 
ture had sprung into being, and its increasing 


SCIENCE. 


DD3 


numbers pointed to a change of system, involving 
improvements, rather than neglect of any kind, 
as a cause of the decrease in the agricultural popu- 
lation. It seemed to be assumed by many that 
the reduction in the proportion of those who lived 
by agriculture, as compared to those who lived by 
other means, was not only an absolute evil, but 
necessarily the result of economic error of some 
kind, and England’s land system was responsible, 
Such views he regarded as mistaken and mislead- 
ing. His business, however, was to state the 
facts as given in the census returns ; and these 
showed us, that, in the last thirty years, England 
had changed from a population about half agri- 
cultural and half manufacturing, to one in which 
manufacture was double of agriculture, and we 
had no reason to suppose that the process of 
change in this direction was yet ended. This 
change had been accompanied by an enormous 
increase in the total population, so that altogether 
support had been found during this period in 
other ways than the tilling of the soil for a new 
population of 8,500,000 souls. Since the beginning 
of the present century we had had to find new 
means of support for no fewer than 17,000,000 
people. In calling attention to and correcting 
certain statements, which had been made with 
regard to what was called the ‘depopulation’ of 
our rural districts, — statements made, he said, to 
support propositions of violent social change, — 
Mr. Booth stated that the exodus from rural or 
non-urban districts amounted to 605,000 instead of 
2,000,000 (mentioned by Mr. Wallace in ‘Bad 
times’ as the decrease between 1871 and 1881 in 
the rural population), and that the influx into the 
towns was less, again, than the total exodus from 
the rural districts by reason of the loss by emigra- 
tion, finally reducing Mr. Wallace’s 2,000,000 to 
441,000. The greatest influx into urban areas was 
into comparatively new places, while the next 
greatest movement was that into the country dis- 
tricts surrounding the present centres of popula- 
tion, and especially adjacent to the new urban 
districts. 

Purely agricultural districts had lost population 
largely, but otherwise there had been all over the 
country a fair distribution of the increasing mil- 
lions, and everywhere new occupations had been 
found. It was unfortunately impossible to trace 
the occupations, other than agriculture, of the 
non-urban population. The backbone of the in- 
dustrial organism they were studying was build- 
ing and manufacture, which he ventured to 
bracket as being alike the turning of raw mate- 
rials into things serviceable ; and they found that 
this remained nearly constant, at 38 per cent of 
the employed population. 


554 


The industrial development of England since 
1851, and her apparent position in 1881, might, on 
the whole, be regarded with satisfaction ; nor 
could any changes since 1881 have seriously af- 
fected the result. The growth of the population 
of Scotland (6%, 92, and 114 per cent for the three 
decades) had been slower than that of England. 
and the proportions engaged in each main division 
of industry were somewhat different; but the 
points of similarity were much more noticeable 
than the points of difference. 

If the picture given of the condition of agri- 
culture in England and Scotland was gloomy, that 
of the whole condition of Ireland was much more 
so. The numbers employed in agriculture had 
decreased since 1841 by 858,000, out of a total of 
1,844,000 ; and those who might, perhaps, be 
counted as supported by agriculture, by 2,500,000 
out of 5,000,000. Nor was that all; for, these 
reductions being proportionately greater than 
those of the whole population, the percentage 
employed in or supported by agriculture had de- 
creased, as well as the total numbers. The land 
in England and Scotland employed as many, and 
probably supported nearly as many, as it did in 
1841: and meanwhile other productive industries 
supported the bulk of our great increase of popula- 
tion. In Ireland, on the other hand, not only did 
the land fail to support half of those it once in 
some fashion maintained, but other productive 
industries (e.g., building and manufacture) were 
even worse off, and, like agriculture, showed it 
both in numbers and percentage, those engaged in 
building and manufacture (taken together) being 
10.9 less in percentage, as well as 626,000 fewer 
in number, than in 1841. It was when taken to- 
gether that these facts appeared so serious as evi- 
dence of decadence. Nevertheless, the view was 
commonly held, that, in general well-being, Ire- 
land had enormously improved since the famine. 
No evidence of this improvement was to be found 
in the occupation returns, which, on the con- 
trary, pointed to a demoralization of industry 
likely to be the cause, as well as consequence, of 
poverty and waning trade, and certain to be the 
source of political discontent. He knew that 
figures might be, and were, drawn from bank 
deposits and other returns which seemed to tell a 
different story. He would not attempt to recon- 
cile this conflict of evidence, as to do so would be 
beyond the scope of his paper. 

The Times, continuing its comments, says, 
‘‘ Before drawing conclusions as to the amount of 
labor applied to the soil, we have to remember 
that much of the apparent loss is simply due to 
the substitution of machinery for human activity, 
and also that numbers of men now included in 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 176 


the manufacturing class are, in fact, employed, 
though indirectly, in extracting food from the 
soil. A reaping-machine supersedes a great deal 
of rural labor, but its construction involves the 
labor of a great many miners and artisans. It is 
perfectly proper to include these in the manufac- 
turing classes for statistical purposes; but it 
would be a wanton misuse of statistics to ignore 
the fact, when the supply of food is in question, 
that it is the growth of food which provides them 
with employment. Mr. Ruskin asserts for him- 
self the right to rail at all substitution of ma- 
chinery for human handicraft ; but practical men 
who accept labor-saving machines in cotton-mills 
cannot consistently object to their introduction 
into corn and beef factories, however much they 
may lament the tendency of ‘ progress’ to trans- 
fer men from the open air to confined workshops. 
It curiously illustrates the continual failure of 
statistics to overtake the changes occurring in the 
social organism, that the distinction, apparently 
so sound and simple, between agricultural and 
manufacturing industry, utterly breaks down 
upon examination. There may be an actual de- 
crease in the amount of energy applied to the pro- 
duction of food; but statistics do not tell us what 
it is, because they fail to discriminate between 
real withdrawal of energy from agriculture and 
mere change in the methods of applying it.” 


MRS. SIDGWICK AND THE MEDIUMS. 


THE May meeting of the London society for 
psychical research was the occasion of the presen- 
tation of a paper by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, which 
has been looked forward to with interest. The 
title of the paper was ‘‘ Results of a personal in- 
vestigation into the physical phenomena of spirit- 
ualism, with some critical remarks on the evi- 
dence for the genuineness of such phenomena.” 
By physical phenomena of spiritualism, Mrs. Sidg- 
wick means those which, if correctly described, 
and not due to conscious or unconscious trickery, 
nor to hallucination on the part of the observers, 
exhibit the action of a force in the physical world 
which has been previously unknown, Such physi- 
cal phenomena would include raps, movement of 
tables without contact, materializations, psychog- 
raphy, and so forth. The writer stated that 
her experience in spiritualism extended over a 
period of twelve years, and had been entirely in- 
conclusive except in cases where the phenomena 
were proved to be due to the action of the medi- 
um. She had had séances with all the leading 
English mediums (including Dr. Slade), and in 
every case there was evidence pointing more or less 
directly to deception and conjuring. The first part 


June 18, 1886.] 


of the paper was concluded with a description of 
the kinds and methods of deception practised by 
a medium named Haxby. 

Mrs. Sidgwick then went on to discuss the 
various causes of error. She did not believe that 
hallucination, i.e., perception without objective 
counterpart, which Von Hartmann suggests as 
the explanation of what is seen at séances of this 
kind, had occurred in her own experience; but 
illusion, meaning the misinterpretation of what is 
really perceived or the confusing of inference with 
observation, was very common. It was believed 
that this was often the case when friends and 
relations are recognized in the ‘ materialized’ 
forms. 

Moreover, in estimating evidence concerning 
séances, a wide margin must be left for conjuring 
of a more special kind, and also for mal-observa- 
tion arising from other causes, such as the igno- 
rance of the observer as to the precise phenomena 
and conditions to be expected. Mrs. Sidgwick 
said that two arguments against the reality of the 
physical phenomena of spiritualism gained in 
force every year: 1°, the absence of phenomena 
about which there could be no question as to con- 
juring raised ; and, 2°, the fact that almost every 
medium who had been prominently before the 
public had been detected in fraud. Nevertheless, 
the writer felt that there was some evidence not 
to be neglected, and which made it a duty to seek 
for more ; but she considered it a waste of time to 
seek it with professional mediums under the con- 
ditions imposed at present. It is probable that 
many of the conditions supposed to be necessary, 
and which complicate the investigations and in- 
crease their difficulty, are invented merely to 
facilitate trickery. 

Mrs. Sidgwick’s paper was candid and able, and 
dealt with evidence, not theories. It is one more 
example of the good work being done by the 
Society for psychical research in determining just 
what basis there is for the multitude of current 
beliefs concerning certain classes of psychical and 
semi-psychical phenomena. In this case the con- 
clusions are negative — or, as was remarked in the 
discussion of the paper, positive — as to imposture. 


THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 


THE present advanced condition of our knowl- 
edge of language reflects, as well perhaps as any 
other study, the advantages of the modern method 
of research. One marked feature of that method 
is the taking of a broad general point of view, 
from which almost any pertinent fact bears an 
Interest and a meaning : it does not narrowly and 
pedantically say such and such is my domain ; 


SCIENCE. 


D595 


what is outside does not concern me. The con- 
dition of logic about one hundred years ago shows 
what happens when the latter position is taken. 
A second feature of modern methods of study is 
the importance assigned to the evolution of things : 
we want to know not only how things are, but 
quite as well how they came to be so; only then 
do we say we understand them. 

Both these methods have been applied to lan- 
guage. Language is considered from a broad 
biological point of view as the means of commu- 
nication between the same or different animal 
species. Human speech is but the highest stage 
of aspecial development of one form of such a 
means of communication. We shall see below 
how it is related to more lowly forms of making 
one’s self understood. Not only its evolution, but 
its devolution, its loss and impairment in disease, 
have been wrought out. This has led to the formu- 
lation of an important law, which tells us that the 
latest acquired and best organized is the first to 
drop out. Moreover, it has sifted out the separate 
moments in the acquisition of speech, by a com- 
parison of cases in which one special function is 
lost, while all others remain intact. Its anatomi- 
cal seat in the brain is localized with as much ex- 
actness as that of other less complex faculties. 
The purely philological study of language is cer- 
tainly flourishing, and is making its way back 
into the remotest antiquity, when it seems almost 
to touch hands with the prehistoric man of the 
anthropologists. 

A recent writer in Kosmos (Dr. Carl Francke) 
has presented a very readable account of the rela- 
tion of human speech to that of other animals. 
Any thing is regarded as a language which serves 
as a means of communication: the system of 
signals (probably by use of the antennae) by which 
ants tell each other of a precious find is perhaps 
the most rudimentary type of language. When 
we ascend to mammals and birds, which have 
lungs and use them as men do, we find that the 
sounds thus uttered are variously affected by emo- 
tional states, and soon serve to express the pres- 
ence of such emotions. The dog barks with joy, 
howls with pain, and pleads by whining. In this 
tendency of psychic states to express themselves 
by vocal utterances, we have the origin of speech ; 
for they become real speech-sounds as soon as 
other animals appreciate their meaning. The 
next great step is taken when an animal utters a 
cry for the purpose of calling its mate, not as a 
half-reflex expression of its own condition. Young 
birds probably have not reached this stage, but 
dogs certainly have. A dog will bark before a 
closed door till some one opens it. Some ani- 
mals post sentinels, which give a definite cry of 


556 


warning in case of danger. The further argument 
for the possession of a language-sense by mam- 
mals and birds, at least, is that they readily learn 
to respond to a name given them. To what ex- 
tent that sense can be cultivated is shown in Sir 
John Lubbock’s dog, which brings out a card with 
‘o-u-t’ on it when he wants to take a walk. 
The close sympathy between man and the higher 
mammals depends upon the fact that they can 
mutually understand one another, can distinguish 
the tones of pleasure and approval from those of 
pain and censure. How much more difficult is it 
to establish a similar bond between man anda 
reptile, for instance ! for here the scope of mutual 
understanding is very limited. So far, what may 
be called an interjectional language, that is, one 
composed of sounds directly expressive of accom- 
panying emotions, has alone been spoken of. The 
human infant, and probably primitive man, made 
much use of such a language. But our present lan- 
guage is an intellectual, a thought language, which 
In some way must have been developed from 
the former. Before touching this rather specula- 
tive question, it will be well to consider a form of 
language still current, but not expressed by sounds; 
namely, the gesture-language. This is both the 
simpler and the more natural. It is possible only 
in animals with easily movable limbs, especially 
in mammals, as witness the prancing of a dog, the 
exposing of the canines, the purring of a cat, or 
pawing of a horse. The ape has a special facility 
in this direction, and uses its facial muscles as a 
means of expression, We use the gesture-language 
in nodding, beckoning, threatening, and so on. This 
language, like the spoken, is acquired by the child, 
but much sooner than the latter: it reaches its 
highest development in the less cultured tribes, 
while the spoken language is seen in its highest 
phases among the most civilized; itis more general 
and uniform than any spoken language, and is 
capable of considerable development, as is shown 
in the training of the deaf and dumb. All these 
circumstances suggest that the gesture-language is 
a rudimentary one, which now is on the decline, 
but which has had a considerable development in 
the past. Combining this fact with the high de- 
velopment of this faculty in the ape (which has 
almost no sound-language), we seem to be tending 
to the conclusion that the creature from which 
man developed in one direction, and the apes in 
another, possessed both a sound and a gesture lan- 
guage; that in man the gesture-language was 
developed at first, but was then superseded by the 
spoken speech, beginning probably with an inter- 
jectional vocabulary, while in the apes the gesture- 
language alone was developed. 

A still higher stage in the evolution of human 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 176 


language was made when the interjectional and 
the gesture languages fused, and formed a sound- 
gesture-language. One reason for this change 
was that the gestures appealed to the eye, whose 
limit of distinct vision is very circumscribed ; while 
speech appeals to the ear, which can hear in all 
directions and at great distances. This may have 
been prompted, too, by another reason. When de- 
siring to communicate in the gesture-language, 
one would first interject a cry to call attention to 
that desire, and then the message would be told in 
pantomime. Many tribes cannot fully express their 
meaning without accompanying gestures, and it is 
told of one tribe that its members cannot commu- 
nicate in the dark. But certain sounds are in 
direct connection with gestures. When one 
wants to refer to the teeth, one would point to 
them with the tongue; the chief function of the 
teeth is eating, and the interjectional cry accom- 
panying this gesture would be modified into the 
word for ‘eating.’ Evidently, then, dentals ought 
to be found in the words for ‘eating’ in various 
languages. Here are a few: Gothic, itan ; Greek, 
esthiein ; Latin, edere ; Tartar, atarga ; Mongolian, 
edeku ; Chinese, tsidh. Many words for ‘teeth’ 
contain these dentals : as, dens (‘ tooth’); Persian, 
dendun; and soon. The sound 7 in connection 
with tongue-gestures, the sound st in connection 
with words for keeping silence (i.e., sounds with 
the mouth as much closed as possible), and 
other similar cases, could be summed up. Another 
class of natural words, as has long been recognized, 
is due to imitation. We see how strong this imi- 
tative tendency is in apes, young children, and 
even certain species of birds. The names of ani- 
mals are given by their characteristic sounds, 
cuckoos, etc. The buzzing of the bees, the whizz- 
ing of the wind, the murmuring brook, are other 
examples. 

One further step must be taken to set language 
on its present developmental stage : the man who 
pictures unseen gods in woods and streams, who 
sees signs of their pleasure in the flight of birds or 
the direction of the wind, must further extend 
his creative imagination to form sounds that are 
to be connected with new things and new deeds. 
Here, then, would be great range for individual 
differences ; and the beginning of the confusion 
that reigned at the Tower of Babel must probably 
be put back to the time when the interjectional and 
gesture languages were still in full vigor. Once 
started on such a course, it is not difficult to im- 
agine that languages would multiply and become 
hopelessly different and strange to one another. 
This is the problem of the philologists. 

A critic should be lenient when considering 
speculations of this nature. The picture is doubt- 


JunE 18, 1886.] 


lessly filled in with greater detail than the facts 
rigidly warrant, and colors and forms are restored 
when age has worn off almost all traces of their 
original appearance. Nevertheless, the suggestive- 
ness of the general view is valuable, and, when 
a better interpretation of the facts comes to hand, 
the old one can be modified or discarded. 

JOSEPH JASTROW. 


DISTRIBUTION OF COLORS IN THE 
ANIMAL KINGDOM. 


Mr. L. CAMERANO has recently communicated 
the results of his investigations on the distribution 
of colors in the animal kingdom to the Academy 
of sciences at Turin. Colors, he says, in the fre- 
quency of their occurrence, range in the following 
order: brown, black, yellow, gray and white, red, 
green, blue, and violet, the last of which is the 
most rare. They are, however, variable for differ- 
ent groups of animal life. Among the vertebrates, 
black, brown, and gray are the most common ; 
among the invertebrates, red and yellow; green 
occurs most frequently among the lower types — 
never, however, in mollusks; violet appears in all 
the groups ; while white is distributed very irregu- 

‘larly, but most commonly among aquatic animals. 

The colors of animals generally bear some rela- 
tion to the medium or situation which they in- 
habit. Aquatic animals usually have the colors 
more uniform and less lively than do the terrestrial 
ones. Not seldom they exhibit a transparency, 
and, when of brilliant colors, they generally live 
among seaweed and other aquatic plants, very 
seldom on rocks or sandy bottom. Birds of quick 
and rapid flight are not generally bright-colored. 
Animals living in sandy or rocky places are less 
varied and less highly colored than those living in 
regions covered with vegetation. The author de- 
nies the assertion that there is a constant relation 
between animals and their food-habits. Carniv- 
orous animals living among rich foliage and 
flowers are often brilliant and varied, while many 
fruit-eating species are modestly or obscurely col- 
ored. The more rich a group is in species, the 
more varied, in general, are its colors. Intensity 
of coloration is not in direct relation with the 
amount of light to which the animal is habitually 
exposed, but bears a more direct relation with the 
general development, being diminished by deficient 
nutrition or disease. 

A dry climate renders colors more sombre, while 
a moist one makes them more lively or clearer. 
Altitude also exerts an influence upon colors: ac- 
cording to the author, in the higher regions the 
more brilliant forms are observed, but this view 
is hardly borne out by facts in the animal king- 


SCIENCE. 


557 


dom, though vegetation may perhaps conform to 
it. Species of the lower groups inhabiting islands 
are more often sombre in color than allied species 
from thecontinents. Different regions also modify 
in different ways the predominating colors. In 
the arctic regions, white, gray, black, and yellow 
predominate ; in Ethiopia, yellow and brown; in 
India, the different shades of yellow; in the tropics, 
green and yellow; in Australia, sombre colors, and 
especially black. Throughout the animal king- 
dom, animals of large size are generally less 
varied, or more monotonous, in coloration, than 
smaller individuals of the same groups. In most 
animals the more brilliantly colored or spotted 
portions of the body are the most exposed ones : 
this is especially the case in insects. 


A NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY. 


THE great English dictionary of the Philologi- 
cal society originated in suggestions made in 1857 
by Dean (now Archbishop) Trench. Though a 
great mass of material was collected and many 
eminent men lent their aid to the undertaking, 
yet in consequence of the death of the first general 
editor, Mr. Herbert Coleridge, and other disturbing 
conditions, the work languished until the year 
1878. At that time the directorship was assigned 
to Dr. Murray; and the delegates of the Claren- 
don press consented, under certain conditions, to 
bear the expense of printing and publishing the 
dictionary. Work was at once resumed with 
ardor. More than eight hundred volunteer readers 
undertook to collect additional quotations from 
specified books. In the United States the reading 
was in charge of Prof. F. A. March of Lafayette 
college, Easton, Penn., who has been indefatigable 
in his efforts to aid this great enterprise. In the 
course of three years a million additional quota- 
tions were furnished, making the total number 
about three million and a half, selected by about 
thirteen hundred readers from the works of more 
than five thousand authors of all periods. The 
general editor has been aided by a considerable 
number of sub-editors, and various specialists 
have furnished material in their respective depart- 
ments. The apparatus, therefore, for the con- 
struction of this dictionary, is such as the world 
has never before seen. It is a combination of all 
the resources of the English-speaking world, con- 
ducted by the men who represent the broadest and 
most intelligent scientific knowledge. 

The aim of the dictionary, the editor states, “is 
to furnish an adequate account of the meaning, 

A new English dictionary on historical principles. Parts 


i. and ii, Ed. by James A. H. Murray, LL.D. Oxford, 
Clarendon pr., 1884, 1885. f°. 


558 


origin, and history of English words now in gen- 
eral use, or known to have been in use at any 
time during the last seven hundred years. It en- 
deavors, 1°, to show with regard to each indi- 
vidual word, when, how, in what shape, and with 
what signification, it became English; what de- 
velopment of form or meaning it has since re- 
ceived ; which of its uses have in course of time 
become obsolete, and which still survive; what 
new uses have since arisen, by what processes, and 
when: 2°, to illustrate these facts by a series of 
quotations ranging from the first known occur- 
rence of the word to the latest, or down to the 
present day, the word being thus made to exhibit 
its own history and meaning: and, 3°, to treat 
the etymology of each word on the basis of histori- 
cal fact, and in accordance with the methods and 
results of modern philological science.” The dic- 
tionary divides words and phrases into main words, 
subordinate words, and combinations. Main words 
are all single words, radical or derivative, and 
those compound words and phrases which are im- 
portant enough to be treated in separate articles. 
Subordinate words include variant and obsolete 
forms of main words, and such words of bad form 
or doubtful existence as it seems proper to record. 
Combinations are usually dealt with under the 
main words which form their first element. 
The treatment of a main word comprises, first the 
identification, that is, the proper spelling and pro- 
nunciation, the grammatical designation, and the 
status, together with earlier spellings and the in- 
flections ; next the morphology or history of the 
form, that is, the derivation or etymology, the 
subsequent form-history, and miscellaneous facts 
respecting the history of the word ; then the sig- 
nification or sematology, obsolete senses being dis- 
tinguished from those now in use; finally the 
illustrative quotations, which are arranged chrono- 
logically so as to give about one for each century. 
The scope of the dictionary is thus the largest 
possible, and it may properly be termed an en- 
cyclopaedia of English forms. The total number 
of words treated in the dictionary under the letter 
A is 15,123; namely, 12,188 main words, 1,112 
combinations and compounds, and 1,828 subordi- 
nate words and forms, with synonymes. Of the 
12,188 main words, 8,184 are current, 3,449 (284 
per cent) are marked as obsolete, and only 550 (44 
per cent) as foreign or imperfectly naturalized. 
As the letter A comprises in English dictionaries 
about a sixteenth of the whole alphabet, the editor 
estimates the total number of words to be dealt 
with in the dictionary as upwards of 240,000: the 
main articles being 195,000; the subordinate arti- 
cles, 28,000 ; and the combinations or compounds 
requiring separate explanation, 18,000. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. 176 


The way in which the work has so far been 
executed is entitled to all praise. On the etymo- 
logical part, the best scholarship of the day has 
been called in, and all available material utilized. 
The arrangement of the significations has been 
made with great care; and how complicated and 
difficult a matter this is, may be seen from the 
articles A, after, back, attend, arise, and many 
others. The pronunciation also is very carefully 
indicated. Throughout the book, American pecul- 
iarities are noted. Part ii. goes down to the word 
batten. 

Itis impossible in a brief notice even to mention 
the words which have curious and entertaining 
histories. Nobody can fail to find the reading of 
this dictionary a most profitable occupation. Go- 
ing over its articles is like entering a new country, 
or like the voyage of discovery which a great 
landed proprietor makes through his own do- 
mains. English words take us all over the world, 
and bring us into connection with almost all 
known languages ; and the science of English ety- 
mology is a very wide and difficult one. It is sur- 
prising how many words there are whose origin 
is still unknown, such as andiron and average. 
The word abthane shows how men’s imaginations 
can construct entirely baseless significations. One 
evil side of Dr. Johnson’s influence is seen in the 
word ache. The queer paths taken by Arabic 
words show themselves in our admiral. 

I do not find in the dictionary mention of the 
forms anywheres and aprioric. The definition of 
the word apocrypha is incomplete: it should in- 
clude the apocryphal writings of the New Testa- 
ment times. In the etymological notices of the 
words Arab, Aramaean, it should be stated that 
these are originally from the Arabic and Aramaic 
languages. Under Araby in the illustrative quota- 
tions we miss Milton’s ‘Araby the blest.’ There is 
no reference to the possible Arabic origin of the 
flower name anemone as ‘wounds of Naaman or 
Adonis.’ The historical explanation of barmecide 
is not quite correct: the family was not one of 
‘princes ruling at Bagdad just before Haroun-Al- 
Raschid,’ but a Persian family who occupied the 
position of vezirs under the caliphs, and it is sur- 
prising that the spelling Raschid, this unnecessary 


Germanism for Rashid, is retained. 
C. Hy Tox 


Myopia is said, on good evidence, to be in- 
creasing with great rapidity in Europe. During 
the past fifteen years the proportion of near- 
sighted students in the Polytechnic school of 
France has risen from thirty to fifty per cent, 
and eighty per cent of the students have to wear 
glasses. 


SCIENCE. 


FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1886. 


COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 


NEW HAMPSHIRE is more frequently visited by 
earthquakes than any other New England state; 
area for area, it is probably more often shaken 
than any other part of the United States east of 
the Rocky Mountains: but we have as yet very 
little definite information about its shocks. Itis 
probable, from recent studies, that the area affected 
by a single disturbance is much larger than has 
been supposed. Systematic collection of records 
for a number of years is needed ; and to this end, 
members of the Appalachian Mountain club have 
recently been urged by Mr. W.M. Davis of Cam- 
bridge to interest residents in New Hampshire, 
and elsewhere in New England, to report prompt- 
-ly any earthquake they may feel, noting its date, 
time (accurately), duration (in seconds), sound, 
and relative violence (very light, light, moderate, 
strong, or severe). On the receipt of such report, 
assistance will be given by the U.S. geological 
survey to trace the extent of the area affected. 


SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES of forest-cuiture in 
the British empire were well brought out at the 
meeting, May 4, of the select commiitee of 
the house of commons, appointed on the motion 
of Sir John Lubbock to take evidence upon the 
subject of forestry, with a view to the desirability 
of establishing a school of forestry. Dr. Sclieh, 
director-general of Indian forestry administration, 
in answer to Sir John Lubbock, said that there 
was a fair field for investing a certain amount of 
capital in woodland, provided the woods were 
planted on surplus lands, and not on lands re- 
quired for agriculture. He did not believe that 
lands which could be made useful for agriculture 
would yield the same terms if put in woodland. 
There was a considerable quantity of waste land 
in that country which could be set aside for wood- 
land without infringing upon the land required 
for agriculture. The establishment of a school of 
forestry would be most valuable, because it would 
disseminate better views with regard to the man- 
agement of woods. The Indian government had 
always been most anxious to help the colonies, 

No. 177.— 1886. 


and had sent forestry officers to Ceylon, to the 
Cape, and to Cyprus; but those officers always 
returned to India because the colonies would not 
offer them proper terms. The colonies wanted to 
have men, and to be able to discharge them at their 
will and pleasure. The Indian government ob- 
jected to sending away experienced men for the 
best portion of their working lives, and then to 
have them return to India in order to be pensioned 
off. If he were an owner of woods in England 
under existing conditions, he would probably 
send his wood bailiff for some time as an appren- 
tice to a shrewd Scotch forester; if there was a 
school of forestry, he would probably send him 
to that. <A very large quantity of land in Ireland 
was suitable for woodland ; and practically about 
seven per cent of the land in Scotland was waste 
land, 


THE NEW YORK LEGISLATURE has passed a 
law for the regulation and control of the practice 
of veterinary medicine. The law requires the 
registration of all practitioners, with the evidence 
of proper qualification afforded by a diploma from 
some legally incorporated college, or a certificate 
from an incorporated veterinary society. New York 
is the first and only state in the union to recognize 
and protect this profession, as it was the first to 
establish veterinary schools and to organize a 
state veterinary society. 


IN CONNECTION WITH the article in Science of 
June 18, on a ‘ Final buffalo-hunt,’ it is interest- 
ing to note the prospectus of the North-west 
buffalo-breeding company. This prospectus sets 
forth that Mr. S. L. Bedson, warden of the Mani- 
toba penitentiary, a few years ago became pos- 
sessed of a young buffalo-bull and four heifer 
calves, which have so increased that he now has 
a herd of eighteen bulls, twenty-five cows, and 
eighteen calves, all thoroughbred ; that, experi- 
menting by crossing with ordinary native cattle, 
he has found the half-breed possesses largely the 
characteristics of the thoroughbred, differing only 
in color, which will make the robe more valuable 
on account of its novelty ; and, further, that, by 
judiciously crossing the thoroughbred bull with 
the half-breed cows, he has grown three quarter- 


560 


breeds, which closely resemble the _ buffalo, 
the head and robes being quite equal, if not 
superior. Besides the breeding of absolutely 
thoroughbred buffalo, it is the plan to breed ‘‘ from 
selected native or imported Scotch cattle a half- 
breed that will supply the demand for a perfect 
buffalo-head ; a robe equal in all respects, if not 
superior, to the best now in the market; anda 
beef possessing the venison-like taste and nutri- 
tious qualities of the pure stock of the plains.” 
The three strong points of the new animal are to 
be his noble head, his pelt, and his flesh. 


AS HAVING A BEARING on the value of the work 
of the U. S. fish commission, we are glad to give 
the following figures. The aggregate catch of 
shad on the Atlantic coast the present year is the 
largest that has been made since i872. The Poto- 
mac River fisheries show an increase of nearly 100,- 
000 shad over last season. The largest proportion 
of the catch in the Chesapeake and its tributaries 
is, however, made by the pound nets in salt or 
brackish water. The Hudson River was first 
stocked by the U.S. fish commission with the 
young of the Atlantic salmon in the spring of 
1884. Well-grown sea-run fish weighing from ten 
to sixteen pounds are being taken at the Troy 
dam, and there is every reason to expect that the 
salmon will be permanently established in the 
Hudson River and its tributaries. The rainbow 
or California trout which was first introduced on 
the east coast in 1879, and which has been planted 
in a number of streams in Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina in the 
last two or three years, is now being taken by 
anglers in various localities. Quite a number of 
specimens have recently been taken in the Holston 
River in the vicinity of Marion, Va., some of them 
measuring over eighteen inches in length. This 
stream was stocked with yearling California trout 
in the spring of 1884. 


PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS AS 
FOUND IN OHIO. 


THE introduction of natural gas into Pittsburg 
and other towns of western Pennsylvania within 
the last two years, and the marked advantages 
to manufacturing industries accruing therefrom, 
have made a great impression on surrounding dis- 
tricts, and especially upon Ohio. 

In the last-named state an eager search for the 
new fuel has been entered upon, and is still going 
forward at a number of the industrial centres, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIl., No. 177 


As aresult, many interesting geological facts have 
been brought to light, some of which have great 
economic importance. Additions have also been 
made to our knowledge of petroleum and natural 
gas. A few of the leading facts that have been 
established in this connection, and some of the 
conclusions that seem warranted from them, will 
be given here. 

1. Petroleum and natural gas do not need to be 
considered apart: they are products of the same 
strata. Every gas-rock is an oil-rock as well, and 
all rocks that contain oil contain gas also. These 
products are often intimately associated in the 
reservoirs, appearing simultaneously when tie 
rock is pierced by the drill; but in some cases 
gas only is produced. 

When, however, the rock which produces so- 
called dry gas is followed far enough, it is always 
found to contain oil as: well. Generally the two 
products are at no great remove from each other. 
Their separation seems referable to geological 
structure, as will presently be shown, the gas 
occupying the higher portions of the common 
reservoir. 

2. The origin of petroleum and gas from organic 
matter as opposed to the so-called chemical or 
inorganic theories of their origin, is strongly sup- 
ported by the facts here furnished. The chemical 
theories require temperatures high enough to 
leave ineffaceable marks on the strata from which 
the petroleum is derived ; but no such marks are 
found in the borings of even the deepest Ohio wells, 
and some of these wells nearly exhaust the paleo- 
zoic scale. There are no igneous intrusions, and 
no disturbances whatever of the sort that accom- 
pany metamorphic action ; but from top to bottom 
the series is normal in all respects, affected only 
by light dips and low folds. 

It is also found that different strata in the same 
series contain petroleum and gas of different char- 
acters : in other words, the character of the prod- 
uct is definitely related to the character of the 
receptacle and of the strata directly associated 
therewith. 

3. Petroleum exists as such in Ohio rocks. It is 
actual, and not merely potential. There is no proof — 
that it is now forming. For any thing that ap- 
pears, the stock contained in the rocks may have 
been formed contemporaneously with the beds that 
contain it. There is, it is true, in addition to this 
petroleum content, a considerable percentage of 
organic matter in some formations, as in the black — 
shale, which can be converted into gas and oil by 
destructive distillation, and, so far as we know, 
by this process alone; but, as shown in the pre- 
ceding section, there is nothing whatever to lead 
us to believe that the process of destructive dis- 


JUNE 25, 1886.] 


tillation has ever been applied, least of all that 
it is being applied, to Ohio rocks. 
sometimes made for an agency of manufacture 
called ‘spontaneous distillation ;’ but, so far as 
can be seen, this is a human invention, and nota 
natural process. Instead of furnishing an expla- 
nation, it begs the question at issue. Destructive 
distillation we know, and chemical decomposition, 
in its various phases, we know; but what is 
‘spontaneous distillation’ as an agency for the 
formation of petroleum from organic matter? 

4. The wide diffusion of petroleum and its 
derivatives is well illustrated by the facts recently 
developed in Ohio. It is a mistaken view that 
these substances are of rare occurrence. Valuable 
accumulations, of course, are rare, but their pres- 
ence in measurable quantity is well-nigh universal 
in the paleozoic rocks of the Mississippi valley. 
Prof. N. W. Lord, chemist of the Ohio geological 
survey, has recently examined the black shale of 
the state with this reference. He finds in normal 
shale more than two-tenths of one per cent of 
heavy oil. This amount he has weighed, but, 
from the nature of the processes he was obliged to 
use, he is certain that he has not obtained all that 
was present in the shale. Petroleum as such, or 
compounds derived from petroleum, as asphaltic 
grains or films, are also found in all of our princi- 
pai limestones. Dr. Hunt reported, a number of 
years ago, more than’ four per cent of petroleum, 
or bituminous matter which was undoubtedly de- 
rived from petroleum, in the Niagara limestone of 
Bridgeport, near Chicago. These figures can be 
duplicated in some phases of the upper Silurian 
limestones of Ohio. 

5. The amount of petroleum stored in the rocks 
is seen to be enormous. Take the figures of Pro- 
fessor Lord, already quoted. Two-tenths of one 
per cent of petroleum in a rock represents more 
than twenty thousand barrels to the square mile 
for every foot in depth. But the black shale is on 
its outcrop three hundred feet in thickness, and 
in the interior the formation is from four to six 
times as thick. Three hundred feet of shale would 

contain, to the square mile, six million barrels of 
petroleum. Suppose the rate given above is too 
high: divide it by two, by four, by eight, and 
even the last result would show nearly as much 
petroleum as has ever been taken from any square 
mnile of the Pennsylvania fields. 

6. The old dispute as to whether petroleum is 
mainly derived from bituminous shales or bitumi- 
nous limestones has become ‘ a past issue,’ largely 
through recent developments in Ohio. No ques- 
tion relating to the geology of petroleum has been 
more warmly or ably discussed. As so often 
happens, both sides were right in their main affir- 


SCIENCE. 


The claim is * 


561 


mations, and both were wrong in what they de- 
nied. The petroleum and gas of eastern Ohio, 
and, by the same token, of western Pennsylvania 
and New York, are unquestionably derived from 
the great shale formation of Devonian and sub- 
carboniferous age that underlies this territory, 
and they are stored in sandstones overlying or 
interstratified with these shales. The petroleum 
and gas of north-western Ohio are as certainly de- 
rived from good normal Trenton limestone that is 
at least five hundred feet thick, and underneath 
which no shales are known to exist. 

That the oil and gas of eastern Ohio are derived 
from the shales, and not from the sandstones in 
which they are now found, becomes evident from 
the fact already noted; viz., that the underlying 
shales always contain a measurable amount of 
petroleum, while the Berea grit, which is the 
main Ohio reservoir, is everywhere, in outcrop 
and under deepest cover, a clean, sharp sandstone, 
remarkably free from organic remains of all de- 
scription. Ex nihilo, nihil fit. If the source of 
oil were to be found in a sandstone containing 
organic remains, the Logan conglomerate (Pocono) 
should be a much more productive rock than the 
Berea grit. It is ten times as thick, and several 
times as coarse, and contains a profusion of sand- 
stone casts of tree-trunks; but it is underlain 
with light-colored instead of black shale. It is 
the great salt-water sand of eastern Ohio, and is 
but rarely petroliferous on any considerable scale. 

7. The gas and oil derived from bituminous 
shales are found to differ in composition, to some 
extent, from limestone oil and gas. In particular, 
the latter are never free from small percentages of 
sulphur compounds, none of which appear in the 
gas or oil of the shale. These compounds adver- 
tise themselves wherever they occur, and make 
the most noticeable characteristic of these oils. 

The composition of Pittsburg gas is reported 
as very variable, even from the same well. All 
the observations on the limestone gas of Ohio 
show it to be remarkably steady and uniform. 

Mr. S. A. Ford, chemist of the Edgar Thompson 
steel-works, gives a number of important facts 
concerning the composition of Pennsylvania gas 
in a recent number of the American manufacturer 
(Natural gas supplement, April, 1886). He gives 
the composition of what he counts average Pitts- 
burg gas, as follows :— 

Pitisburg gas. 


PE pee OH 12252 c Ss nc Se Jo eee Seek Se es pense 22.00 
DERE AR ES Soe aie oats cere cies seciolsieiweinle nie vvelv as see seis 67.00 
Ethylic hydride... ..........ceeeseseseeeeesecns 5.00 
RITGR OE PAS. <5... eae cee ease cnc cere wn scene's 1.00 
PIVEROR OE. 2h Fe cos viajacaSan ee eveciee er wen enevess 3.00 
PTA NDI SRS OC Pah ane SOO eMe RCC IOSOE AS HOOUSUOOOe. 0.60 
SECT Gs.) CREAR Gcinoocco sr UnrodnmS Cone Oenor 0.60 


562 


The composition of the limestone gas of north- 
western Ohio (Findlay gas) is quite different, as 
appears from the following analysis made by 
Prof. C. C. Howard of Columbus, for the Ohio 
survey : — 


Findlay gas. 


PIVQEORON oc cio eos cists se catiars, Masts etatte stoi atti 218 
TGP SEEHBAIB « cin 5 n'e' das bc Giniate srolelecwicteis oeteteiaten eit 92.60 
JECT et eee a aera not Grasses as 0.31 
INIGFOPBN. < «6 aj. sat oa cons Heals cavum mies Seman ras 3.61 
CAFDONICIREIC aac ciemeitnoeiteieiee o rorasirtrl ree 0.50 
CAPHOMIC OXI 0.55 c5.c2 ss gesaes bee le meee s 0.26 
YAM s cle cies: creinyolon oa iaiese eislelaltor isi! lel cieteralolclctetet art ste 0.34 
Hydropen Sulphide sec erie ele ate terete 0 20 


There are 125.8 grains of sulphur in 100 cubic 
feet of this gas. 

Analyses made a year apart show that the 
constitution of the gas has remained practically 
unchanged during this interval. 

The reference of the gas or oil of shales to lime- 
stones, or of the gas or oil of limestones to shales, 
is seen, in the light of these facts, to be inadmis- 
sible. The two series are distinct. These facts 
also furnish an additional argument against the 
chemical theory of origin of the petroleum series. 
Such an origin would seem to insure identity of 
composition to at least the oils of a single district. 

8. Gas and oil are accumulated in more or less 
porous rocks that act as reservoirs. These reser- 
voirs may be continuous with the source, or they 
may be distinct. In the case of limestone oil and 
gas, the first of these conditions is found. The 
stocks that are held in sandstones come under the 
second head. 

While there are many horizons of gas and oil in 
Ohio rocks, covering the three main elements of 
the series, — viz., sandstone, limestone, and shale, 
— there are two of paramount importance; viz., 
the Trenton limestone and the Berea grit. The 
Trenton limestone nowhere rises to the surface in 
Ohio. It was first discovered to be a storehouse 
of high-pressure gas at Findlay in November, 1884. 
It is now yielding both gas and oil in large amount 
in at least three counties of northern Ohio, — viz., 
Hancock, Allen, and Wood, — and it promises to 
become by far the most important source of these 
products in the state. The section by which it 
is reached in the productive districts is as fol- 
lows :— 

Waterlime. 


200/-400’ Limestone, upper Silurian. . J Niagara. 
Clinton. 


{ Medina. 
§00’-1000’ Shale, mainly lower Silurian ~ pe River. 
tica. 


[ Tae and oil accumu- 
lated in uppermost 
J) beds, often at up- 
} per boundary, and 
never more than 40 
| feet below. 


500/ Trenton limestone.......++- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VE, Nos177 


The main production of this new horizon has, 

‘so far, been limited to points where its upper 
boundary ranges between three hundred and five 
hundred feet below sea-level. It has been reached 
in at least a hundred drill-holes within the last year, 
through a district which would include from eight 
thousand to ten thousand square miles. The com- 
position is shown by the following analyses of the 
gas-rock of Findlay and the oil-rock of Lima, 
which are one and the same thing. 


Findlay. | Lima. 
Carbonate Of lime) .secmieseclscieece 47.05 52.66 
Carbonate of magnesia............. 33.38 37.53 
Residue. mainly siliceous.......... 11.738 4.15 


The rock is highly crystalline and porous, and the 
greatest porosity seems to belong to the most 
productive portions. 

The Berea grit becomes petroliferous from the 
moment that it takes cover. The oil of Mecca 
and of Grafton is derived almost from the outcrop 
of the rock. In the first instance, indeed, it has 
only the bowlder clay for a roof; and, in the sec- 
ond, there are but from forty to sixty feet of Berea 
and Cuyahoga shale above it. It is only where 
it descends deeper, however, that it holds large 
stocks of gas or oil. The lightest cover under 
which large accumulation has been found in 
Ohio is six hundred feet, while in the Macks- 
burg field, which is at present the main centre of 
production from this horizon, the stratum is at 
least twelve hundred feet below the valley level. 
The section found here is approximately as fol- 
lows : — 


Coal-measure, Strtiisccins ie icietd « visicie «tsieininatatels 500’-800’ 
Conglomerate Measures ........ceevcceesees 200/-300/ 
Logan conglomerate (salt-water sand)...... 200’ 


Cuyahoga ‘shale. iskc «ic sicd-iwiste sl oleate ieee 300’ 
Berea shale «....o diss sity Shinto ieee 30’-50’ 
BOKOB OT isis « ssc'sraiosalsisielote cui sipiteie asters ete aptiiede 5/-25/ 


There are two distinct oil-sands in the coal-meas- 
ures, and one in the conglomerate group in this 
section, in addition to the Berea. | 
These reservoirs, whether sandstone or lime-— 
stone, are permeable, and often communicate 
freely through considerable space. The gas-wells 
of Findlay are quite unequal in production, ran-— 
ging between one hundred thousand and twelve— 
million cubic feet per day ; but when shut in, all” 
show the same pressure. This pressure is now @ 
little less than four hundred pounds to the square 
inch. It is called the rock-pressure. A large 
well, when shut in, comes up to this point quick- 
ly, and a small well slowly, but all get to the 


June 25, 1886.] 


same point. The flow of the well seems to depend 
on the porosity of its immediate reservoir. Free 
communication is also shown in adjacent portions 
of the Berea grit, but there is nothing to indicate 
an indefinite or universal permeability. The 
changes in the grain and thickness of the stratum 
would naturally divide it into basins approximate- 
ly distinct from each other. 

9. Every oil-rock has a more or less impervious 
cover, generally fine-grained shale. To constitute 
an oil-group, three elements are essential; viz., a 
source, a reservoir, and a cover. The first and 
second may coalesce, as has been already shown, 
but the third must be distinct and weil-character- 
ized. First in order of importance, as a matter of 
course, is the source, but so generally is petroleum 
distributed through the rocks of our scale, that its 
presence may almost be taken for granted. Prac- 
tically, the character of the overlying mass is a 
chief factor. Almost any rock of the Ohio series, 
if covered by a heavy mass of shale, shows oil or 
gas when reached by the drill. The Utica, Hudson 
River, and Medina shales cover the oil-bearing 
Trenton limestone: the Berea and Cuyahoga 
shales overlie the petroliferous Berea grit. The 
‘corniferous limestone, which is covered by the 
heavy deposit of the Ohio shale, ought by this 
order to be also a source of oil. It has been found 
to be so in Canada, but not yet in Ohio. 

i0. One other faetor is found to be of prime im- 
portance in oil and gas production ; viz., geologi- 
cal structure. Source, reservoir, and cover may 
each be complete in itself, and yet no accumula- 
tion of either product may result. Illustrations 
are found in both of the main Ohio horizons. 

For many thousand square miles, the relations 
of the several elements of the series that has 
proved petroliferous in north-western Ohio are ab- 
solutely identical. A hundred wells have now 
been drilled in this field, and the records of the 
series traversed are monotonous repetitions of one 
another. From one you can learn all. Not only 
is there the same order, the same thickness, the 
same color, but there is substantially the same 
chemical constitution of each stratum throughout 
its entire extent. In all cases there is some accu- 
mulation of gas and oil, but generally slight, at 
the top of the Trenton limestone. 

But at one point, as the drill has now shown, in 
_a drift-covered plain, where all the facts were 
hopelessly obscured to other reading, the steepest 
dip known in Ohio rocks has been brought to light. 
Two terraces of Trenton limestone, with their 
superincumbent strata, are made known to us, 
one of which is about 310 feet (806, 312, 514) below 
tide, and the other of which is about 475 feet be- 
low. The slope of 165 feet that connects them 


SCIENCE. 


563 


occupies a little more than a half-mile in breadth. 
What effect does this marked structural feature 
seem to have on oil or gas accumulation? On the 
upper terrace, every well that has been drilled has 
found a fair supply of gas without oil. The wells 
of the lower terrace are all oil-wells, though con- 
taining considerable gas also. And what of the 
wells on the slope? That depends on what part 
of the slope they occupy. On the upper edge, 
from 330 feet below tide to 350 below, there is a 
belt of the most remarkable and valuabie gas- 
wells ever struck in the state. The famous Karg 
well produces, by the lowest measurement, 12,- 
000,000 cubic feet per day. The Trenton limestone 
was found in it 347 feet below tide. In the next 
well in order of production, the surface of the 
limestone was 350 feet, and in the third well 330 
feet, below the sea. 

Seven wells have been drilled on the slope in 
which the limestone is between 330 and 350 feet 
below tide. One of the number is a small pro- 
ducer, but the smallest of the six remaining wells 
yields more than 1,000,000 cubic feet of gas per 
day. 

Descending the slope still farther, we come toa 
group of three wells, in which the Trenton lime- 
stone lies respectively 394, 403, and 405 feet be- 
low tide. Ali of them were vigorous gas-wells 
when first drilled, but they also yielded more or 
less oil from the first. Little by little, however, 
their character has been changed, oil and salt 
water overpowering the gas, until now almost 
their sole value is found in the oil that they pro- 
duce. 

The facts above given come from the Findlay 
field. Similar facts are found at other centres of 
production of Trenton oil and gas. 

Equally satisfactory testimony as to the all-im- 
portant influerce of structure on gas and oil pro- 
duction is supplied by the facts of the Berea grit. 
This remarkable stratum, the first persistent sand- 
stone to be reached in ascending the geological 
scale of the state, has a bold outcrop from the 
Ohio valley to Lake Erie, and thence eastwards 
toward Pennsylvania. Scores of quarries are lo- 
cated along this outcrop, from which is derived 
some of the most valuable building-stone of the 
country. The stratum dips gently down from its 
outcrops at the rate of from fifteen to thirty feet 
to the mile. It ho!ds its continuity underneath 
the whole of eastern Ohio. Its area in this state, 
therefore, is not less than twenty thousand square 
miles. Slight rolls traverse it, breaking up the 
monotony of its descent. These rolls, or interrup- 
tions of dip, connect themselves at once with gas 
and oil accumulation. A single example, and the 
one most carefully worked out, must suffice. 


564 


In the vicinity of Macksburg, north of Marietta, 
the light south-eastward dip of the strata is found 
to be interrupted, and for nearly a mile a terrace- 
like structure prevails. This is masked, it is true, 
by the immense erosion which the country has 
suffered, and only comes into view when the best- 
known elements of the exposed section as coal- 
seams are followed by means of the level. All of 
the strata ever reached by the drill, as well as all 
that are above the surface, are equally affected by 
this structural irregularity. 

But this terrace is an oil-field, and has been for 
twenty yeats. Oil was first found here in shallow 
wells, from two hundred to three hundred feet 
deep in the upper Mahoning sandstone. But ad- 
venturous drillers, one after another, struck new 
sources of oil. A second oil-sand, and a third, were 
discovered at five hundred and seven hundred feet 
respectively. Finally the drill was sunk deeper 
still, until, at thirteen hundred feet, the Berea grit 
was found, holding a stock of oil large enough to 
make the Macksburg field for the first time a fac- 
tor in the general market. It has produced as 
many as three thousand barrels per day since then, 
and is now yielding twenty-five hundred barrels 
per day. 

But the shallow and the deep productive wells 
are alike definitely limited to the terrace that has 
been described. In other words, four oil-sand- 
stones become productive in the same area when 
the structure is found favorable. That they do 
not communicate with each other is evident from 
the fact that the oils which they severally contain 
differ from each other in gravity, in color, and in 
chemical constitution. 

The depth of the Berea grit below sea-level in 
the terrace is 735 feet. Of twenty-four wells, oc- 
cupying four square miles in this field, sixteen 
reach the Berea between 733 and 737 feet, and six 
are found by their records to be exactly 735 feet. 

On the north-western margin of the terrace, at 
elevations of 728, 720, 713, and 704 feet, gas is 
found, but no oil. After many hundred wells have 
been drilled on al! sides, the terrace which has 
been revealed by the engineer’s level is alone found 
productive. 

The grain of the sandstone is in every way as 
promising, and its thickness as great, outside of 
the field as within it; and the sections both above 
and a thousand feet below the Berea grit appear 
identical in productive and in barren territory 
alike. It is hard to resist the conclusion that the 
Macksburg oil-field is dependent upon the struc- 
tural irregularity here described, the other ele- 
ments, of course, being presupposed. 

May not a like explanation be applied to the oil 
and gas fields of Pennsylvania and New York as 


SCTENCE. 


[Vout WE, Molt? 


well? Is it not possible that their productive areas 
are also dependent on structural disturbance, slight 
though it may be? These areas have been some- 
times explained as resulting mainly from the 
coarseness of grain of the oil-sands. Lenticular 
deposits of gravel have been suggested, arranged 
in north-east and south-west lines for the several 
petroliferous horizons. It is hard to see how any 
one of these long tongues of gravel could be ac- 
counted for, laid down so far from the shore of 
the sea in which it was deposited. It is much 
harder to understand how, as the geological ages 
went by, one after another of these peculiar de- 
posits should be laid down on these self-same lines. 
It is certainly much easier to conceive of the oil- 
sands as wide-spread sheets of sand and gravel, 
that become the reservoirs of oil and gas when 
lifted into elementary folds. This is certainly true 
of the Berea grit in Ohio, and this great stratum, 
it is now definitely settled, constitutes one of the 
main oil-sands of Pennsylvania. Under this view, 
the arrangement of the several oil-fields in north- 
east and south-west lines becomes easily intelli- 
gible. These oil-fields are simply conforming to, 
as they are determined by, the main structure- 


lines of western Pennsylvania. 
EDWARD ORTON. 


THE HEALTH OF NEW YORK DURING 
MAY. 


THE population of the city of New York on 
May 1 was estimated at 1,432,094. Assuming the 
normal increase to be 799 each week, there would 
be, June 1, a population of about 1,485,290. Of 
this number, 2,759 died during the month of May, 
a mortality less by 206 than occurred during the 
preceding month. Of children under five years 
of age, there was a saving of 110 lives as com- 
pared with April. The greatest mortality from 
all causes which occurred during any one day was 
on the 20tb, when 107 persons died. Of this num- 
ber, 24 were children under one year of age, 29 
under two years, and 34 under five years. Con- 
sumption caused more deaths on that day, as in- 
deed it usually does on most days of the year, 
than any other single disease, its victims being 
24. The deaths during the month from diarrhoeal 
diseases were 73, an increase of 16 over the month 
of April. Diphtheria also caused a considerable 
increase. its deaths being 165 against 124. Scarlet- 
fever maintained the same position among the 
mortality-factors which it had occupied for the — 
two preceding months: the deaths from this dis- 
ease in March were 42; in April, 49; and in May, 
44, 

It will be remembered that while rain fell on 


June 25, 1886.] SCIENCE. 565 


Rain Fall, 
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Daily Mortality 
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Mortality’ 
Weekly nican 
Weekly mean 
Barometer ef 5/4 : of Vi SHY 


566 


but few days in the month of April, only seven, 
yet the aggregate rainfall was about the average 
for the same month in preceding years. May was 
in all respects a month of showers: on fourteen of 
its days rain fell to a greater or less amount; and 
the total for the month was 5.40 inches. During 
the same month in 1885, although some rain fell 
on thirteen days of the thirty-one, but one less 
day than this year, yet the total rainfall for the 
month was but 1.86 inches. As will be seen by 
the chart, the greater part of the rain this year 
fell on the 8th and 18th insts. An examination of 
the records for the past seventeen years fails to 
show such a rainfall during May, the nearest ap- 
proach being in the year 1882, when 4.20 inches 
fell. If, however, we continue our search still 
further back, we shall find a number of years in 
which this rainfall is surpassed, and in one year, 
1846, nearly doubled, it being then 10.25 inches. 
The highest point reached by the thermometer was 
86° F., on the 23d inst., at 5 P.M. On the preced- 
ing day the mercury rose to 84° F, at 4 P.M., and 
on the 30th it reached 85° F. at the same hour of 
the day. 


A NEW EXPEDITION TO ALASKA. 


THE New York Times has sent an exploring 
expedition to Alaska, the object of which is to 
explore the St. Elias range of mountains and the 
country between them and the sea, while an 
attempt wiil be made to ascend Mount St. Elias 
itself. The expedition is led by Lieut. Frederick 
Schwatka, who has already won deserved renown 
in arctic travel and research. In 1879 he led an 
expedition over the route of Sir John Franklin’s 
party, and brought to the world its fuliest and 
final knowledge of the fate of the Erebus and Ter- 
ror. Again, in 1883, he explored from its source 
to its mouth Alaska’s great river, the Yukon. 
It was in returning from this trip that Lieutenant 
Schwatka conceived the desire to visit the moun- 
tainous and forbidding southern coast of Alaska, 
and tell the world something of its Indian races, 
of its forests, its soil, and its glaciers. The Times 
has given him an opportunity to undertake this 
voyage of discovery and description, and it hopes 
in due time to lay before the public such additions 
to the world’s present slight knowledge of this 
region as will amply justify the effort and the 
expense involved. 

Lieutenant Schwatka himself has an article in 
a recent number of the Times, in which he says : — 

“The New York Times Alaskan exploring ex- 
pedition, which sailed on the Alaskan steamer 
Ancon from Port Townsend, Washington Terri- 
tory, June 14, has for its object the exploration of 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 177 


the almost wholly unknown St. Elias Alps, 
stretching for nearly 300 miles from the upper 
part of that picturesque lane of water called ‘ the 
inland passage to Alaska’ to Mount St. Elias, the 
highest peak of the North American continent, 
and which throws its name over the whole range, 
and even beyond. The expedition, therefore, will 
have to do with mountain-climbing ; and should 
opportunity present, which is very likely, attempts 
will be made to ascend, in whole or in part, some 
of the numerous peaks that project from that 
high range. Although, strictly speaking, this is 
not its main object, still it would be considered no 
small victory to crown the king of the American 
continent, Mount St. Elias, with shoe-leather of 
American make, and, but a little way behind this, 
to reach the summits of any of the others, — 
Crillon, Fairweather, La Perouse, Vancouver, 
Lituya, d’Agelet, — all higher than any peak short 
of the Rocky Mountain range. Should the top 
of the main range be gained, at 8,000 to 10,000 
feet above sea-level, it is hoped — and the proba- 
bilities are great — that a bird’s-eye view in the 
interior will compensate for all the trouble taken, 
and especially if this be done at several points 
along the main ridge. Bad weather, of course, 
could defeat much of this part of the plan, but 
during the summer months this is not very likely. 
The interior slopes may be descended if the pros- 
pect is at all flattering for important research and 
discovery of any kind; for toward the interior 
absolutely nothing is known of the country. 
Prof. William Libbey, jun., professor of physical 
geography in Princeton college, will have charge 
of the scientific work, and especially the hypsomet- 
rical and topographical part of it. He has been 
identified with considerable practical Alpine work 
in the past, both in our own and other countries. 
The well known hypsometrical and other scien- 
tific tables compiled by the late celebrated Pro- 
fessor Guyot (to whose chair at Princeton Profes- 
sor Libbey succeeded on the former’s death), and 
published by the Smithsonian institution at Wash- 
ington, were recently revised under Professor 
Libbey’s care, and brought up to the require- 
ments of scientific advancement in that line since 
Professor Guyot’s death. Many of the hypsomet- 
rical and other scientific instruments taken were 
once those of that celebrated geographer.” 

Of the scientific aims and prospects of the 
expedition, Lieutenant Schwatka writes as fol- 
lows : — 

““The glacier system of the Mount St. Elias — 
Alps is undoubtedly the most extensive south of 
the arctic regions themselves. Just how extended 
it is cannot be told until further exploration gives 
more data. It will probably be many years before 


JUNE 25, 1886 | 


it is well outlined, as no one exploration could en- 
compass the whole of it. One bay alone has some 
six or seven glaciers coming down from the south- 
ern spurs of these Alaskan Alps just off the sum- 
mits of Mounts Fairweather and Crillon, which, 
dipping into the sea, snap off into icebergs that 
float away nearly as high as the masts of the ex- 
cursion steamers that visit this bay — called 
Glacier Bay—monthly during the spring and 
summer. From Glacier Bay northward to beyond 
Icy Bay (just seaward from Mount St. Elias) there 
can be seen these huge rivers of solid ice coming 
down to the sea ; one, Le Grand Plateau, so named 
by La Perouse, its discoverer, being probably the 
largest one of the immense group covering so 
wide a territory. It is quite evident, if the ex- 
pedition accomplishes any thing, that no small 
share of it will be in this particular field of re- 
search. 

‘* Between the St. Elias Alps and the sea—the 
Pacific Ocean — is a narrow strip of flat lands 
where the Indians live, and which, from the 
ocean, seems to be heavily wooded. It is proposed 
to find out the status of this timber and that on 
the foothills of the Alps, as far as it is possible 
. without spending too much time upon it. [If fine 
forests of merchantable timber are found, which 
is not at all unlikely, it is known that there are 
good harbors here which will make it quite accessi- 
ble, and give value to the discovery. If any thing 
near as valuable as the present yellow cedar forests 
of the shores of the inland passage of Alaska can be 
found, the expedition will be a double success 
from this very fact. 

‘*In the way of precious minerals there is the 
usual prospect of seeing them; and while the 
search for them is probably the last on the list of 
undertakings, if at all, the party will not go by 
any mountains of gold or silver without at least 
taking a photograph of them. 

*‘Tt is hardly to be hoped that the country is 
much richer in furs than the general average of 
the Alaska mainland; but, should it fortunately 
prove otherwise, the public shall know of it in 
due time. 

* Agriculturally there is little to be expected in 
such a rough Alpine country ; but if the low flats 
known to exist along the coast are not too marshy, 
and have fertile soil, there is nothing to prevent 
their being cultivated to the fullest extent, in 
which case it would be doubly valuable by there 
being no other agricultural lands near by. 

‘Of the Indians living here, but very little is 
known; and this very fact is somewhat in favor 
of the expedition, as among these little known 
savages there is every reason to suppose that a 
rich ethnological collection can be made, which 


SCIENCE. 


567 


will not only shed some light on the people them- 
selves, but on adjoining tribes that are somewhat 
spoiled for ethnological purposes by long contact 
with white men and civilization.” 

The exploring party is well supplied with arms 
and ammunition, as well as with food: and the 
precise course to be pursued by them is left large- 
ly to the discretion of the commander. When the 
expedition will return depends iargely on its suc- 
cess ; for Lieutenant Schwatka is determined not 
to return until he has accomplished something 
worthy of the expenditure of time and money. 
He hopes, however, to be back to the Alaskan 
coast by September of the present year. 


ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 


The large dome for the Lick observatory. — At 
the meeting of the Royal astronomical society on 
May 14, Mr. Grubb, the well-known Dublin instru- 
ment-maker, presented a model of an equatorial 
mounting and dome which he had designed, at the 
request of the Lick trustees, for their 36-inch ob- 
jective. The main idea throughout was to bring 
under the direct control of the observer all the 
required motions of the instrument and of the 
dome, so as to give him as little physical exertion 
as possible. To effect this the motive power was 
to be a number of small water-engines, controlled 
by an electrical apparatus which the observer could 
carry about with him. A tap onone key will turn 
the dome in one direction; another will reverse 
the dome; a third key will control the telescope in 
right ascension, and another in declination ; and so 
on; while there is one for lighting up the observa- 
tory ; and lastly, in order that the observer shall 
have as little difficulty as possible in getting into a 
position to observe, instead of climbing into a chair 
which would perhaps require to be twenty-five feet 
high, a key is provided which will make the whole 
floor move up or down. During the discussion 
upon this ingenious device, Mr. Commun quoted 
the following paragraph from Professor Holden in 
regard to the prospects of completing the observa- 
tory: ‘*‘ We hope during the early part of 1887 
that we may see the objective, both photographi- 
cally and visually, completely finished, and _ per- 
haps delivered in California. Our large dome will 
undoubtedly be finished during the current year ; 
and we look forward to commencing serious work 
with the whole observatory during the year 1887, 
and possibly sooner.” Thecontracts for the mount- 
ing and dome, if any have yet been made by the 
Lick trustees, are not yet public. 

Change of latitude. — Miss Alice Lamb, assist- 
ant astronomer at the Washburn observatory, has, 
in the June number of the Sidereal messenger, given 


568 


the results of a critical examination of the latitude 
observations made by army engineer officers at 
Willets Point during the year 1885, These obser- 
vations are of peculiar interest from their bearing 
upon the mooted question of the variability of ter- 
restrial latitudes ; but it appears that the sequence 
of the results from 1880 to 1884, which seemed to 
indicate a gradual decrease of latitude, is inter- 
rupted by the result for 1885, which is practically 
the same as that for 1881. The conclusion which 
Miss Lamb reached froma similar discussion of 
previous observations (Science, vi. p. 118) is now 
further confirmed. The evidence seems to be 
rather against a systematic change of latitude at 
Willets Point, though the results for future years 
will be awaited with interest. 

Astronomical activity. —In looking over the 
reports of observatories for the year 1885, one can- 
not but be impressed with the increase of activity 
in all branches of observationalastronomy. Green- 
wich has ordered a 28-inch refractor for spectro- 
scopic work ; Struve at Pulkowa, with the new 30- 
inch, can go deeper than ever into the star depths 
for faint ‘doubles ;’ the Vienna 27-inch, in the 
hands of Dr. Vogel, has already done good work 
in astronomical physics; and Paris has taken the 
front rank in stellar photography. The interest- 
ing report of Admiral Moucher, the director of the 
Paris observatory, now before us, gives especial 
prominence to this comparatively new method of 
research. A reproduction of a photograph of the 
Pleiades, taken by the Henry Brothers with an ex- 
posure of one hour, has suggested a comparison 
with Wolf’s well-known chart of that group, upon 
which he spent three years’ labor, and the advan- 
tage of photography in certain Cirections is strongly 
brought out. Woif’s chart contains 671 stars, the 
limit being the 13th magnitude ; while the photo- 
graph shows no less than 1,421, the faintest being 
of about the 16th magnitude. In the meridian 
service over sixteen thousand observations have 
been made by sixteen different observers; the 
instrument devised by M. Loewy, the equatorial 
coudé, has been brought into regular use for ob- 
servations of comets and minor planets; and the 
time service, meteorological department, etc., are 
all in a most satisfactory condition. A depart- 
ment of the observatory which we should like to 
see imitated in this country is the ‘ Ecole d’astro- 
nomie.’ in which courses of instruction are given 
by such members of the observatory staff as Loewy, 
Tisserand, Gaillot, and Perigaud. The students are 
given employment in the computing bureau, and, 
after sufficient instruction, they take part in the 
observations with the meridian instruments. The 
schools of astronomy in this country are not very 
thriving adjuncts of our colleges. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vout. VII, No. 177 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE following appropriations are recom- 
mended by the committee on appropriations for 
the various scientific departments of the govern- 
ment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887 : — 
coast survey, $407,246, being $146,250 less than 
was appropriated the past year; the number of 
field officers is reduced from 64 to 48; office force, 
from 103 to 91: geological survey, $467,700, the 
same amount as was appropriated last year : signal 
service, $799,493, being $64,587 less than was ap- 
propriated last year : national museum, $157,500, 
$19,000 more than was appropriated last year : 
Smithsonian institution — international exchange, 
$10,000 ; North American ethnology, $40,000; 
being the same amounts as were appropriated last 
year : fish commission, $220,040, being $40 more 
than was appropriated last year. 


— The final excursion of the geological class of 
the Academy of natural sciences of Philadelphia, 
extending over a period of about ten days, and 
beginning with the first week in July, will be 
directed to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. It 
is proposed to investigate the physical (geological 
and paleontological) features of the islands, and 
the recent fauna of the coast. The total expense, 
including the academy admission-fee of seven dol- 
lars, will not exceed thirty-five dollars. 


—About twenty-five thousand deaths from 
typhoid-fever occur in this country annually, says 
the Medical record, and this represents fully one 
hundred and fifty thousand cases of the disease. 
Statistics show that there is no disease so easily 
preventable as this; and it is safe to say that fully 
one-half of this mortality might be saved by greater 
cleanliness and more attention to sewage. 


— A new monthly magazine devoted to the now 
popular art of photography has just appeared in 
England under the appropriate title of the Camera. 
Mr. R. A. Proctor supplies an interesting paper — 
on photography and astronomy, with illustrations 
of some of the recent results of observations; Dr. 
Lindsay Johnson and Mr. T. C. Hepworth also 
contribute useful articles; and a descriptive ac- 
count of the amateur photographic exhibition in 
Bond Street, with reproductions of some of the 
principal examples, is carefully written. 


— Letters from Colonel Lockhart’s mission, 
dated May 9, have reached India. The party were 
then near Gumbaz, on the northern slopes of the 
Hindoo-Koosh, They had gone northward from 
Gilghit, through Hunza, and would work along 
the Hindoo-Koosh, and enter Kafristan from the 
north. 


— Dr. Julius Stéckhardt, the well-known agri- 


JUNE 25, 1886 } 


cultural chemist, died at Tharandt, in Saxony, on 
the 1st of June, in his seventy-seventh year. 


— The Athenaeum of June 12 states that arrange- 
ments are being made for holding an international 
congress for discussing papers upon climatology, 
mineral and thermal springs, and allied subjects 
at Biarritz, under the presidency of Dr. Durand 
Fardel, the first week in October, to be followed 
by a three-weeks’ tour to the principal watering- 
places of southern France. 


— The Athenaeum chronicles the appearance of 
a new Italian journal of zoélogy, entitled Bolletino 
det muset di zoologia ed anatomia comparata della 
R universitd di Torino. At Jenaan Anatomischer 
anzeiger, under the editorship of Prof. K. Barde- 
leben, is announced to begin its existence this 
month. 


— The fcllowing is a list of the publications of 
the geological survey now in the hands of the 
public printer: — Sixth annual report of the direc- 
tor : Monographs — Lamellibranchiata of New Jer- 
sey, by Whittield ; Dinocerata, by Marsh ; Geologic 
history of Lake Lahontan, by Russell ; Geology and 
mining industry of Leadville, by Emmons; Geology 
- of the Eureka district, by Hague ; Lake Bonneville, 
by Gilbert ; Stegosauria, by Marsh: Bulletins — 
Work done in the division of chemistry and phys- 
ics, 1884-85, by Clarke; Gabbros and associated 
hornblende rocks, by George H.Williams; Fresh- 
water invertebrates of N. A. Jurassic, by C. A. 
White ; Cambrian faunas of N. A., by Walcott; 
Fossil insects, by Scudder; Mineral springs of the 
United States, by Peale ; Geology of northern Cali- 
fornia, by Diller: Relation of the Laramie mollus- 
can fauna to succeeding fresh-water eocene, by 
White; Physical properties of carburets, by Barus 
and Strouhal; Subsidence of small particles of in- 
soluble solid in liquid, by Barus: A geologic map 
of the United States. 


— Howard Ayers has been appointed as an in- 
structor in zodlogy at Harvard college. 


— Under the patronage of the Grand Duke of 
Baden, and with the concurrence of the grand 
_ ducal government, the Industrial society of Karls- 
ruhe, says the Journal of the Society of arts, 
has organized an international exhibition of the 
manual arts and domestic economy, to remain 
open from Aug. 15 to Sept. 15, 1886. The princi- 
pal object of the exhibition is to make known the 
best matériel and apparatus suitable for small in- 
dustries, and to popularize their use; so that 
all small motors, tools, and machine tools will 
be welcomed. 


— An important exhibition of apparatus and 
implements for the prevention of the diseases of 


SCIENCE. 


569 


the vine, and for destroying insects that infest it, 
says the Journal of the Society of arts, was held 
last month at Conegliano. The exhibiters, who 
were not limited to Italians, were 197 in number; 
and of the 524 different machines, apparatus, and 
implements shown, 450 were connected with ap- 
plication of milk of lime, the most effectual 
remedy for the disease called peronospora, the 
proportion being from 8 to 10 of slaked lime to 
100 of water. The experiments, made before a 
jury composed of the most eminent viticulturists 
and scientific men, which lasted five days, will be 
described in a report to the minister of agriculture, 
and will contain a variety of useful information 
and plates. Three gold medals, three silver with 
money prize of 150 francs, seven silver ones, and 
four bronze ones, were awarded, and, besides 
these, three special premiums were given by the 
local agricultural committee. 


— The following changes have been made in the 
coast survey service since our last issue: Assist- 
ant Gresham Bradford has been ordered to Sandy 
Hook to make an examination for the location of 
a permanent self-registering tide-gauge ; Lieut. F. 
S. Carter has been ordered to Baltimore to relieve 
Lieut. G. H. Peters of the command of the Arago, 
which has been ordered to New York; Ensign A. 
W. Dodd has been detached from the schooner 
Bache, and ordered to the Drift ; Assistant J. B. 
Weir has been ordered to duty at the home office. 
The following parties engaged in state work have 
been recalled, owing to the failure, on the part of 
congress, to appropriate money for the continuance 
of this field-work: Prof. H. L. Barnard, Cham- 
bersburg, Penn. ; Prof. A. H. Buchanan, Lebanon, 
Tenn. ; Prof. J. E. Davies, Madison, Wis.; L. A. 
Bowser, New Brunswick, N. J.; Assistants E. F. 
Dickins and J. S. Lawson, Anaheim, Cal.; J. L. 
Campbell, Crawfordsville, Ind.; Prof. Mansfield 
Merriman, Bethlehem, Penn. 


— The following charts will shortly be issued 
by the coast survey: Cape Flattery to Dixon’s 
Entrance, and from latter point to Cape St. Elias ; 
Head Harbor Island to Petit Manan, coast of 
Maine ; Icy Bay to Semidi Islands, Alaska ; topo- 
graphical sheets of New York and Jersey City 
water-front from Battery to 68th Street, North 
River. 

— Mr. A. Schuster has recently published (Phil. 
mag., April, 1886) an analysis of certain observa- 
tions on the daily variations in earth-magnetism 
which indicate definitely that the cause of the dis- 
turbances lies wholly without the earth. 

— According to Professor Heim, says Ciel et 
terre, the total number of glaciers in the Alps is 
1.155, of which 249 have a length greater than 


570 


four miles and a half (7,500 metres). They are dis- 
tributed as follows: in France, 144; Italy, 78; 
Switzerland, 471 ; Austria, 462. Their total super- 
ficial area is between five hundred and a thousand 
square miles. The longest is the Aletsch glacier 
in Austria, measuring over nine miles. 


— Dr. Freire of Rio de Janeiro, in a letter to the 
Louisiana state board of health, thus speaks of 
the results of his inoculation for yellow-fever: ‘I 
have performed over seven thousand inoculations 
with full success. The immunity was almost ab- 
solute, notwithstanding the intensity of the epi- 
demic this year. More than three thousand per- 
sons who were not inoculated died of yellow-fever ; 
while among the seven thousand inoculated, in- 
habiting the same infected localities, subject to 
the same morbid conditions, but seven or eight 
individuals, whose disease was diagnosed as yel- 
low-fever, died.” 


— During the year 1885 there were 246 earth- 
quakes, according to the statistics of C. Detaille, 
as given in the June number of Astronomie. The 
largest number of these, 49, occurred in January : 
the smallest, 11, in October. For the other 
months the numbers are as follows: February, 
18; March, 15; April, 19; May, 14; June, 29; 
July, 23; August, 13; September, 16; November, 
16. Only 6 are given for North America, as fol- 
lows : Jan. 12, Washington ; Jan. 18, New Hamp- 
shire, Carolina; Jan. 26, California; Feb. 5, 
Virginia; Nov. 19, California. 

— A. Raggi has published some observations on 
the intermittent variation in sound-perception in 
the human ear, instances of which are probably 
familiar to many persons. In deep stillness, if 
one listens to a faintly heard sound, like that of 
the ticking of a watch, it will be noticed that at 
irregular intervals the tones are wholly inaudible, 
while at other times they are distinctly recognized. 
Mr. Raggi ascertained, by experiments on differ- 
ent persons, that the intervals of silence usually 
varied between seven and twenty-two seconds; 
while the periods of sound-perception were be- 
tween seven and eleven seconds in duration, with 
amaximum of fifteen. He also found that the 
variation was not due to extraneous sounds, nor 
to the blood-circulation or respiration, and con- 
cludes that it results from tbe inability to keep 
the attention for long periods at a sufficient de- 
gree of tension for the perception of faint sounds, 
or possibly to a variable physiological receptivity 
in the auditory nerves. 

— A legacy of some $75,000 has been left to the 
Jena university to be applied in zodlogical research 
on the basis of Darwin’s evolution theory. The 
testator is Herr Paul von Ritter of Basle, who be- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 177 


lieves the teaching of Darwin to be the greatest 
sign of progress which the century has yet given. 


— According to the statistics recently published 
by the minister of agriculture and commerce, it 
appears that the quantity of olive-oil produced 
last year, in the various provinces throughout 
Italy, was 52.34 per cent below the average annual 
yield, which is calculated at 3,405,500 hectolitres 
(74,921,000 gallons), it being only 1,782,400 hecto- 
litres (39,212,800 gallons); 11 per cent of this total 
amount was of superior quality, 73 per cent good, 
and 16 per cent mediocre. 


— The Royal academy of medicine of Belgium 
has recently offered its largest prize ($5,000) for 
the most meritorious work or paper on the treat- 
ment of diseases of the nervous centres, especially 
for a remedy for epilepsy. The great need of 
some better means of controlling this last disease 
induced the academy to offer an additional prize 
of $1,600 for the best paper on that subject. The 
prizes are international, and will be awarded in 
December, 1888. 


— Late deep-sea explorations in the Atlantic, 
carried on under the auspices of the London geo- 
graphical society, have shown that the ocean- 
bottom in the northern region is formed of two 
valleys, of which one, in width, reaches from the 
tenth degree of east to the thirtieth of west longi- 
tude, extending to the equator, at a depth of not 
less than thirteen thousand feet. The other lies 
between the thirtieth and fiftieth degrees of west 
longitude. The mountain-chain separating the 
two valleys extends northwards towards Iceland, 
and southward to the Azores, and is of a volcanic 
character at its ends. Its greatest breadth is a 
little less than five hundred miles. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


«tx Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Is the ocean surface depressed? 


Do barometric observations give any hint regard- 
ing the depression of the sea ‘at the centre of the 
oceans’ ? 

If, as is maintained, there be a depression of a 
thousand metres, the barometer should show about ~ 
three inches and a half more pressure at the centre 
of the oceans than at what we ordinarily call sea- 
level. 

Were there any barometric observations made on 
the islands where the pendulum was swung? or do 
barometric observations made on any of the oceanic 
islands cast any light on this subject? I have no 
authorities at hand to consult, or would not ask the 
question. W. #.S. 

Candelaria, Nev., May 25. 


The notion that there exist in the sea-surface of the 
earth elevations and depressions amounting to sev- 
eral hundred metres has recently gained a much 


JUNE 25, 1886. ] 


wider acceptance than our knowledge of the facts 
would seem to justify. 

Assuming the continents to be simply so much 
matter, of half the earth's mean density, on the sur- 
face of our otherwise closely centrobaric spheroid, 
it may be shown that individually they will draw 
the sea-surface up towards their centres by consider- 
able amounts (about a thousand metres at most), 
leaving corresponding though not equal depressions 
opposite those centres; and that collectively they 
will produce a wavy sea-surface, in which the max- 
imum radial distance from crest to hollow is about 
six hundred metres. The theory, and the equations 
assigning the form and position of this wavy 
surface, have been developed by Helmert in his ex- 
cellent treatise on geodesy (‘ Die mathematischen und 
physikalischen theorieen der hdheren geodasie’), 
from which the above figures have been taken. If 
we dropped our examination of the question at this 
point, we might infer the reality of the wavy surface 
just described. The existence of such assumed con- 
tinents, however, implies a proportionate variation 
of gravity along the sea surface and along the same 
level surface extended through the continents. They 
would. for the most part, produce an excess of 
gravity over the continental and a deficiency over 
the sea areas. But this conclusion is in direct con- 
tradiction with the results of pendulum experiments. 
The assumption, therefore, that the continents are 
superficial masses, unbalanced in their attractive 
effects, is, as clearly shown by Helmert, inadequate, 
and must, together with the conclusions based there- 
on, be modified or rejected. 

Some writers, notably Fischer and Listing, have 
proved the existence of a highly irregular sea-sur- 
face by a still more unsound process than that in- 
dicated above would be if we neglected to examine 
its fundamental assumption. This process, in brief, 
rejects in an equation a term of the same order as 
those retained, and arrives at a simple relation he- 
tween the variation of gravity and the radial dis- 
tance from the actual sea-surface (or geoid) to the 
mean spheroidal surface. Helmert fitly character- 
izes this relation as entirely worthless (ganz wertlos), 
since it fails in every case to give the proper sign 
when the increments of gravity and radial distance 
due to the combined action of the continents are 
substituted in it. 

Those desiring to examine minutely the merits of 
this question should consult the above-named treatise 
of Helmert, who gives a critical review of the 
cognate works of Fischer, Listing, Bruns, and 
others. For the benefit of the general reader, it 
may be stated, that, although the sea-surface is un- 
doubtedly somewhat irregular, geodesy and geology 
have as yet furnished no adequate evidence of 
irregularities amounting to more than ten metres. 
Additional information, of which it must be ad- 
mitted there is great need, may disclose the existence 
of a surface having hills and hollows separated by 
an interval of fifty or possibly a hundred metres; 
but irregularities of any greater extent appear to be 
quite improbable. 

The suggestion of your correspondent, that the 
barometer would indicate any large elevations or 
depressions in the sea-surface, is not well grounded. 
The surfaces of equal pressure in the atmosphere 
must approximate to parallelism with the sea-sur- 
face, however irregular it may be. In a state of 
quiescence the air-surface in contact with the sea 


SCIENCE. 


571 


is necessarily a surface of equal pressure. The 
barometer would therefore, if moved from one point 
to another along the sea-surface, register only such 
variations in pressure as are due to changes of tem- 
perature, winds, etc., and hence afford no indication 
of the elevations and depressions in question, if they 
exist. R. S. WoopwaRD. 
Washington, D.C., June 17, 


Barometer exposure. 

Mr. Clayton’s letter concerning the influence of 
wind on the indication of the barometer broaches a 
subject of great importance to theoretic and practical 
meteorology, and I trust it may lead to the execution 
of the experiments essential to the intelligent treat- 
ment of the difficulty. As his conclusions are called 
in question by President LeConte, I take the liberty 
of rehearsing some investigations of my own which 
tend to sustain Mr. Clayton’s conclusions, 

In June, 1873, an elaborate series of synchronous 
barometric observations were made by the signal 
office at four stations on the summit and slope of 
Mount Washington. In testing a special method of 
barometric hypsometry, I had occasion to discuss these 
observations, and I discovered an important anomaly 
which was correlated with the velocity and direc- 
tion of the wind. The discussion cannot be repeated 
here, for lack of space ; but it may be said that its. 
method and material were such as to leave no rea- 
sonable doubt that the wind was the disturbing fac- 
tor, while they afforded quantitative results far more 
precise than can be reached by any method of reduc- 
tion to sea-level. The reader who cares to examine 
them should consult the ‘Second annual report of 
the U.S. geological survey,’ pp. 521-534 and 562-565. 
One of the specific conclusions was, that a north- 
west wind of fifty miles per hour, by drawing air 
out of the summit observatory, presumably through 
the chimney, caused the mercury in the barometer 
to stand .13 of an inch too low ; and it was estimated 
that a wind-velocity of a hundred miles would lower 
the mercury more than half an inch. 

I think President LeConte is mistaken in suppos- 
ing that the matter could be simply tested by com- 
paring the indications of a barometer in a room with 
those of a barometer out of doors. If the out-of- 
door barometer were placed on the windward side of 
a building or other obstruction, and close to it, it 
would be immersed in compressed air, and read too. 
high. If placed under the lee of an obstruction, it 
would be surrounded by relatively rarified air, and 
read too low. If placed in a position uninfluenced 
by obstructions, the locus of difficulty would be trans- 
ferred from the surrounding atmosphere to the 
instrument itself, for the air chamber above the 
mercury in the cistern of the barometer would itself 
be influenced by the wind so as to receive a tension 
abnormally high or Jow. These statements. based 
on familiar physical laws, are not individually sus- 
ceptible of ready verification, because, while the wind 
blows, all local tensions are disturbed, and we have 
no standard air-pressure for comparison. I have, 
however, determined experimentally that the read- 
ing is higher in front of an obstruction than behind 
it. A difference of .15 of an inch was found be- 
tween barometer-readings on opposite sides of the 
apex of an acute mountain-peak. 

In my opinion, the proper method of escaping the 
difficulty is, not to place the barometer out of doors,, 
where observation during a wind is itself a matter 


O72 


of difficulty, but to so arrange the observatory that 
the influence of the wind shall be either measured 
and subtracted, or avoided altogether. Place the 
barometer in an air-tight box, made partly of glass 
for purposes of observation, and connect this box 
by a tube with an opening on the roof so adjusted 
that it shall always sustain the same relation to the 
wind. It is possible that a form of opening can be 
devised such that the wind will neither compress nor 
dilate the air within the box; but, if this cannot be 
done, it is certainly possible, by a proper system of 
experiments, to determine for a given arrangement 
of aperture the proper correction to apply to the ba- 
rometer-reading for each measured velocity of wind. 
The matter should receive thorough investigation. 
G. K. GILBERT. 


Washington, June 19. 


IT infer from Prof. John LeConte’s letter in your 
last issue (Science, vol. vii. p. 550) that he does not 
feel entirely satisfied with the explanation I have 
offered of the slight fluctuations of the barograph 
observed at Blue Hill during high winds. 
‘* The observed facts are, that fluctuations of wind- 
velocity correspond with fluctuations of air-pressure. 
In some cases it may be difficult to decide which is 
cause, and which is effect.” In this case, the fact, 
as stated in my last letter, that I could produce these 
fluctuations at will by merely opening and closing a 
hatchway in the top of the building, seems to me to 
prove conclusively that the wind was the cause, and 
the change in the pressure the effect. In regard to 
his suggestion that a comparison should be made 
between a barograph inside and one outside of the 
building, I think, before satisfactory results could be 
obtained, it would first have to be proven that the 
wind in blowing across the top of the barometer 
cistern, or at right angles to the crevices of such 
cistern, would not have the same effect of lowering 
the readings of the barometer outside as well as 
inside of the building. 

Mr. E. B. Weston of Providence has informed me 
that he has noticed during high winds small oscilla- 
tions of his barograph, similar to those observed at 
Blue Hill, and has prevented them by opening the 
windows, so as to give a free draught of air. I 
tried the same at Blue Hill during a late high wind, 
and found that the oscillations, which at most were 
slight, were reduced by it. 

In regard to those large differences between the 
observed and estimated pressure on Mount Washing- 
ton, referred to in my last as collected by Professor 
Loomis, it is probable, that, in these extreme cases, 
other causes than that suggested by me become 
factors in the result ; such, for instance, as a lagging 
of the time of minimum pressure at the top as com- 
pared with the base, and a more violent cyclonic cir- 
culation of the wind at that height, — causes which 
have been suggested by Professor Loomis in his twen- 
tieth paper (Amer. journ. sc., vol. xxviii. July, 1884). 


H. Heim CiayTon. 
Blue Hill meteor. observ., June 19. 


A most extraordinary structure. 


Referring to P.Z.S. 1885, p. 908, pl. Ixi. fig. 3, h, 
where my amiable young friend Dr. Shufeldt de- 
scribes and figures the humerus of a humming-bird as 
‘a most extraordinary structure,’ I may be per- 
mitted to suggest that some of the alleged ‘ eccen- 
tricities’ of this ‘ unique’ bone might seem less if he 


SCIENCE. 


He says, ° 


(Vou, MEL, -No..at7 


had not got the bone turned hind part before by one 
of those strokes of genius which a prosaic world, 
steeped in materialism, is slow to appreciate. 


A THEOSOPHIST. 
Smithsonian institution, 
Washington, June 15. 


Aspects of the economic discussion. 


I have just read Professor Newcomb’s article 
(Science, vii. No. 176) on the new school of political 
economy. It seems to me that the professor asks 
for too much in the way of results from the new 
school. As I understand it, this is simply a question 
of methods. The new school professes the historical 
method, as opposed to the deductive method of the 
so-called orthodox school. If the historical method 
is right, the results eventually arrived at will, nay 
must, be right. But to stop them on their way as if 
with a revolver, and demand a categorical statement 
of their views on such disputed points as state inter- 
ference before they are allowed to finish their 
journey, is certainly unwarranted. 

Whatever results the new school may reach, it is 
tolerably certain that they will eliminate from 
the books that monster of imagination the ‘economic 
man,’ and that other chimaera bombans in vacuo, 
the hypothetical ‘consumer,’ who does nothing in 
this world but eat. 

When they shall have rebuilt the science on their 
new foundation, it will be soon enough to demand 
from them an account of their views on such ques- 
tions as Professor Newcomb propounds. 


Wm. A. INGHAM. 
333 S. 16th St., Philadelphia, June 18. 


Distribution of colors in the animal kingdom. 


In the notice of Camerano’s ‘ Distribution of colors 
in the animal kingdom’ (Science, vii. p. 557) I notice 
the astonishing statement that green ‘ never occurs 
among mollusks.’ On the contrary, it is one of the 
most common colors of mollusks, especially among 
fresh-water species. Examples will occur to the 
most superficial observer in the genera Anodonta, 
Unio, Campeloma, Anculotus, etc. Among land- 
shells the arboreal helices of tropical countries are 
noted for their magnificent greens. Among marine 
shells, it is notable in many species of Mytilus, Mo- 
diola, Tellina, Prasina, etc., among pelecypods ; Neri- 
tina, Chlorostoma, Turbo (where the calcareous oper- 
culum, also, is often stained with green), Haminea, 
and many other gastropods; not to speak of the 
nudibranchs, which frequently exhibit different 
shades of green. The rarest color among mollusks 
is pure blue (as distinguished from the rather com- 
mon bluish violet), but even this color is found of 
great brilliancy in some cases. The assertion ob- 
jected to is one more bit of evidence to the general 
neglect among biologists, otherwise well equipped, to 


gain any general knowledge of the Mollusca, except 


that supposed to be afforded by theoretical views 
taken from out worn text-books. There are perhaps 
a dozen first-class general conchologists in the world, 
none of whom are young. The prospect now is that 
the next generation will not have any. The reasons 
seem to be, among others, the shocking state into 
which amateurs and superficial students have brought 
the nomenclature, and the fact that the scientific 
training to be had in our best colleges leads in alto- 
gether different directions. Wma. H. DALL. 


; oan ISLAND 


=) 
= igeport 
Se hl 


Wheeling 
Melluire 


Magara Limestone, 


° 


eee Shalt *} 


(Clinton Limeaton: 
as Juoc 


Medina Shale r 


Hudson River Shale4H. 


Sea = Level, 


Section tv Northan Ohio 


Vtica Shale 


10. Devonian Shale... hie Sate 
= t om Limestone f 
7-9 Devonian Lintestone(amserous sundtvenet ‘ . : iro Main Gas 


sete ) 


Trenton Limestone ._.204_ 


SECTION IN NORTHERN OHIO. 


2-6. Upper Silurian 


SS OQ — a 


SE Bradford Hel. 


SCIENCE, June 25 1886, 


GEOLOGICAL MAP OF OHIO, SHOWING THE POSITIONS OF THE OIL AND GAS WELLS. 


—— 
tw RR ay oe <a 
eee a ° 


i NES (0 A eh 


F 
; 
; 
{ 
: 


ti 
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i 
hh 
| 


SCIENCE.-SuppLeMeEnt. 


FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1886. 


THE PHYSICAL LABORATORY IN MODERN 
EDUCATION.* 


FrRoM the moment we are born into this world, 
down to the day when we leave it, we are called 
- upon every moment to exercise our judgment with 
respect to matters pertaining to our welfare. 
While nature has supplied us with instincts which 
take the place of reason in our infancy, and which 
form the basis of action in very many persons 
through life, yet more and more as the world 
progresses, and as we depart from the age of 
' childhood, we are forced to discriminate between 
right and wrong, between truth and falsehood. 
No longer can we shelter ourselves behind those 
in authority over us, but we must come to the 
front, and each one decide for himself what to 
‘believe and how to act in the daily routine and 
the emergencies of life. This is not given to us 
as a duty which we can neglect, if we please, but 
it is that which every man or woman, consciously 
or unconsciously, must go through with. 

Most persons cut this gordian knot, which they 
cannot untangle, by accepting the opinions which 
have been taught them, and which appear correct 
to their particular circle of friends and associates : 
others take the opposite extreme, and, with in- 
tellectual arrogance, seek to build up their opin- 
ions and beliefs from the very foundation, indi- 
vidually and alone, without help from others. 
Intermediate between these two extremes comes 
the man with full respect for the opinions of those 
around him, and yet with such discrimination 
that he sees a chance of error in all, and most of 
all in himself. He has a longing for the truth, 
and is willing to test himself, to test others, and 
to test nature, until he finds it. He has the cour- 
age of his opinions when thus carefully formed, 
and is then, but not till then, willing to stand 
before the world and proclaim what he considers 
the truth. Like Galileo and Copernicus, he in- 
augurates a new era in science, or, like Luther, 
in the religious belief of mankind. He neither 
shrinks within himself at the thought of having 
an opinion of his own, nor yet believes it to be 
_ the only one worth considering in the world; he 
‘ is neither crushed with intellectual humility, nor 


1 Address delivered at the tenth anniversary of the 
Johns Hopkins university. 


yet exalted with intellectual pride ; he sees that 
the problems of nature and society can be solved, 
and yet he knows that this can only come about 
by the combined intellect of the world acting 
through ages of time, and that he, though his 
intellect were that of Newton, can, at best, do 
very little toward it. Knowing this, he seeks all 
the aids in his power to ascertain the truth ; and 
if he, through either ambition or love of truth, 
wishes to impress his opinions on the world, he 
first takes care to have them correct. Above all, 
he is willing to abstain from having opinions on 
subjects of which he knows nothing. 

It is the province of modern education to form 
such a mind, while at the same time giving to it 
enough knowledge to have a broad outlook over 
the world of science, art, and letters. Time will 
not permit me to discuss the subject of education 
in general, and, indeed, I would be transgressing 
the principles above laid down if I should attempt 
it. I shall only call attention, at this present 
time, to the place of the laboratory in modern 
education. I have often had a great desire to 
know the state of mind of the more eminent 
of mankind before modern science changed the 
world to its present condition, and exercised its 
influence on all departments of knowledge and 
speculation. But I have failed to picture to my- 
self clearly such a mind ; while, at the same time, 
the study of human nature, as it exists at present, 
shows me much that I suppose to be in common 
with it. As far as I can see, the unscientific mind 
differs from the scientific in this, that it is willing 
to accept and make statements of which it has 
no clear conception to begin with, and of whose 
truth it is not assured. It is an irresponsible 
state of mind without clearness of conception, 
where the connection between the thought and 
its object is of the vaguest description. It is 
the state of mind where opinions are given and 
accepted without ever being subjected to rigid 
tests, and it may have some connection with that 
state of mind where every thing has a personal 
aspect, and we are guided by feelings rather than 
reason. 

When, by education, we attempt to correct 
these faults, it is necessary that we have some 
standard of absolute truth; that we bring the 
mind in direct contact with it, and let it be con- 
vineed of its errors again and again. We may 
state, like the philosophers who lived befcre 


574 


Galileo, that large bodies fall faster than small 
ones ; but, when we see them strike the ground 
together, we know that our previous opinion was 
false, and we learn that even the intellect of an 
Aristotle may be mistaken. Thus we are taught 
care in the formation of our opinions, and find 
that the unguided human mind goes astray almost 
without fail. We must correct it constantly, and 
convince it of error over and over again, until it 
discovers the proper method of reasoning, which 
will surely accord with the truth in whatever con- 
clusions it may reach. There is, however, danger 
in this process that the mind may become over- 
cautious, and thus present a weakness when 
brought in contact with an unscrupulous person, 
who cares little for truth and a great deal for 
effect. But if we believe in the maxim that truth 
will prevail, and consider it the duty of all edu- 
cated men to aid its progress, the kind of mind 
which I describe is the proper one to foster by 
education. Let the student be brought face to 
face with nature ; let him exercise his reason with 
respect to the simplest physical phenomenon, and 
then, in the laboratory, put his opinions to the 
test : the result is invariably humility, for he finds 
that nature has laws which must be discovered by 
labor and toil, and not by wild flights of the im- 
agination, and scintillations of so-called genius. 

Those who have studied the present state of edu- 
cation in the schools and colleges tell us that most 
subjects, including the sciences, are taught as an 
exercise to the memory. I myself have witnessed 
the melancholy sight, in a fashionable school for 
young ladies, of those who were born to be intel- 
lectual beings reciting page after page from 
memory, without any effort being made to dis- 
cover whether they understood the subject or 
not. There are even many schools, so called, 
where the subject of physics or natural philosophy 
itself is taught, without even a class experiment to 
illustrate the subject and connect the words with 
ideas. Words—mere words — are taught, and 
a state of mind far different from that above 
described is produced. If one were required to 
find a system of education which would the most 
surely and certainly disgust the student with any 
subject, I can conceive of none which would do 
this more quickly than this method, where he is 
forced to learn what he does not understand. It 
is said of the great Faraday that he never could 
understand any scientific experiment thoroughly 
until he had not only seen it performed by others, 
but had performed it himself. Shall we, then, 
expect children and youth to do what Faraday 
could not do? A thousand times better never 
teach the subject at all. 

Tastes differ, but we may safely say that every 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 177 


subject of study which is thoroughly understood 
is a pleasure to the student. The healthy mind as 
well as the healthy body craves exercise, and the 
school-room or the lecture-room should be a source 
of positive enjoyment to those who enter it. Above 
all, the study of nature, from the magnificent uni- 
verse, across which light itself, at the rate of 186,- 
000 miles per second, cannot go in less than hun- 
dreds of years, down to the atom of which millions 
are required to build up the smallest microscopic 
object, should be the most interesting subject 
brought to the notice of the student. 

Some are born blind to the beauties of the world 
around them, some have their tastes better de- 
veloped in other directions, and some have minds 
incapable of ever understanding the simplest 
natural phenomenon ; but there is also a large 
class of students who have at least ordinary pow- 
ers and ordinary tastes for scientific pursuits. To 
train the powers of observation and classification, 
let them study natural history, not only from 
books, but from prepared specimens or directly 
from nature ; to give care in experiment, and con- 
vince them that nature forgives no error, let them 
enter the chemical laboratory ; to train them in 
exact and logical powers of reasoning, let them 
study mathematics: but to combine all this train- 
ing in one, and exhibit to their minds the most 
perfect and systematic method of discovering the 
exact laws of nature, let them study physics and 
astronomy, where observation, common sense, and 
mathematics go hand in hand. The object of edu- 
cation is not only to produce a man who knows, 
but one who does ; who makes his mark in the 
struggle of life, and succeeds well in whatever he 
undertakes ; who can solve the problems of nature 
and of humanity as they arise; and who, when, 
he knows he is right, can boldly convince the 
world of the fact. Men of action are needed as 
well as men of thought. 

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the 
point in which much of our modern education 
fails. Why is it? I answer, that the memory ~ 
alone is trained, and the reason and judgment are 
used merely to refer matters to some authority 
who is considered final, and, worse than all, they 
are not trained to apply their knowledge constant- 
ly. To produce men of action, they must be 
trained in action. If the languages be studied, 
they must be made to translate from one language 
to the other until they have perfect facility in the 
process. If mathematics be studied, they must 
work problems, more problems, and problems ~ 
again, until they have the use of what they know. 
If they study the sciences, they must enter the 
laboratory, and stand face to face with nature ; 
they must learn to test their knowledge constant- 


JuNE 25, 1886.] 


ly, and thus see for themselves the sad results of 
vague speculation ; they must learn by direct ex- 
periment that there is such a thing in the world 
as truth, and that their own mind is most liable 
to error; they must try experiment after experi- 
ment, and work problem after problem, until they 
become men of action, and not of theory. 

This, then, is the use of the laboratory in gen- 
eral education, — to train the mind in right modes 
of thought by constantly bringing it in contact 
with absolute truth, and to give it a pleasant and 
profitable exercise, which will call all its powers 
of reason and imagination into play. Its use in 
the special training of scientists needs no remark, 
for it is well known that it is absolutely essential. 
The only question is, whether the education of 
specialists in science is worth undertaking at all ; 
and of these I have only to consider natural phi- 
losophers or physicists. I might point to the world 
around me, to the steam-engine, to labor-saving 
machinery, to the telegraph, to all those inven- 
tions which make the present age the ‘age of 
electricity,’ and let that be my answer. Nobody 
could gainsay that the answer would be com- 
plete ; for all are benefited by these applications 
‘of science, and he would be considered absurd 
who did not recognize their value. These follow 
in the train of physics, but they are not physics : 
the cultivation of physics brings them, and al- 
ways will bring them: for the selfishness of man- 
kind can always be relied upon to turn all things 
to profit. But in the education pertaining to a 
university we look for other results. The special 
physicist trained there must be taught to cultivate 
his science for its own sake. He must go forth 
into the world with enthusiasm for it, and try to 
draw others into an appreciation of it, doing his 
part to convince the world that the study of 
nature is one of the most noble of pursuits, that 
there are other things worthy of the attention of 
mankind besides the pursuit of wealth. He must 
push forward, and do what he can, according to 
’ his ability, to further the progress of his science. 

Thus does the university, from its physical 
laboratory, send forth into the world the trained 
physicist to advance his science, and to carry to 
other colleges and technical schools his enthusi- 
asm and knowledge. Thus the whole country is 
educated in the subject, and others are taught to 
_ devote their lives to its pursuit, while some make 
the applications to the ordinary pursuits of life 
that are appreciated by all. 

But for myself I value in a scientific mind most 
of all that love of truth, that care in its pursuit, 
_ and that humility of mind, which makes the pos- 
sibility of error always present more than any 
other quality. This is the mind which has built 


ry 


SCIENCE. 


575 


up modern science to its present perfection, which 
has laid one stone upon the other with such care 
that it to-day offers to the world the most com- 
plete monument to human reason. This is the 
mind which is destined to govern the world in the 
future, and to solve problems pertaining to politics 
and humanity as well as to inanimate nature. 

It is the only mind which appreciates the im- 
perfections of the human reason, and is thus care- 
ful to guard against them. It is the only mind 
that values the truth as it should be valued, and 
ignores all personal feeling in its pursuit. And 
this is the mind the physical laboratory is built to 
cultivate. HENRY A. ROWLAND. 


THE FORMATION OF STRUCTURELESS 
CHALK BY SEAWEEDS. 


CHALK has hitherto been believed to be a deep- 
sea formation only, made up of afine ooze or mud 
at great depths, and undoubtedly, so far as the ex- 
tensive cretaceous deposits are concerned, the ex- 
planation is the correct one; but recent observa- 
tions by Mr. J. Walther on the chalk-secreting 
algae of the Mediterranean show that its forma- 
tion often occurs in shallow water. It has been 
known for some time that the nullipores were 
chalk-secreting algae, and that under certain con- 
ditions, as in the formation of coral islands, they 
took more or less part in the production of rock. 
Where their remains are found in any abundance, 
chalk formations are readily enough ascribed to 
their agency, but it is now shown that more or 
less extensive beds, or rather banks, of wholly 
structureless chalk, whose origin has been often- 
times enigmatical, may be entirely due to sea- 
weeds. 

Mr. Waither observed certain forms (Lithotham- 
nia) in different places in the Gulf of Naples, grow- 
ing luxuriantly at a depth of from one to three 
hundred feet below the surface, and traced out the 
relation between the masses of dead residual mat- 
ter and the incompletely transformed beds of fossil 
chalk. These Lithothamniae have a remarkably 
small proportion of organic material (not more 
than five or six per cent), nearly the entire sub- 
stance consisting of mineral matter, chiefly car- 
bonate of lime. The plants reach only the size of 
one’s fist, and do not change their form at death, 
owing to the small quantity of decaying matter 
they contain. The living plants secure attachment 
to the dead ones, forming extensive beds. The 
numerous stout branches of less than a fourth of 
an inch in length admit of only small interstices ; 
in slow-growing beds inequalities and shallow de- 
pressions may be filled with layers of detritus. 

The organic structure disappears to a greater or 


576 


less extent, often wholly, so that the chalk be- 
comes entirely structureless ; and it has been shown 
that the absence of structure becomes more appar- 
ent in proportion to the greater thickness of beds 
formed. The further transformation was traced 
by Walther in a recent tertiary formation at Syra- 
cuse, where he found, in the exposed quarries of 
Latomia dei Capuccini, the remains of Lithotham- 
nia sufficiently distinct for determination, espe- 
cially where the interstitial material had been 
weathered out. The stone, however, blended from 
this indistinctly structural form to the wholly 
structureless or homogeneous. 

The explanation of this complete transformation, 
as given by the author, is also of interest. The 
organic substances, which in the living plant 
amount to about five or six per cent, were found, 
in the tertiary chalk above referred to, to be about 
a third of one per cent. The larger part had thus 
disappeared ; and as the chalk was purely white, 
showing the absence of all bituminous matter, it 
was evident that the remaining organic matter 
had slowly been oxidized, producing carbonic 
matter, which had obliterated by its dissolving 
action in the surrounding or percolating water all 
evidences of structure. In such cases where the 
plants were exposed to water not impregnated with 
the carbonic acid, the structure is retained more 
or less unimpaired. 

This explanation of the formation of chalk in 
shallow waters — for algae must live within a few 
hundred feet of the surface, where light can reach 
them — gives a solution of various problems in 
geology, especially of the more recent chalk-beds. 
Whether it will apply to the extensive structure- 
less chalk-beds of western Kansas at all, is doubtful. 


CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE. 

AT arecent meeting of the Society of arts, in 
London, Mr. G. Gordon Hake read a paper on the 
condition of Cyprus since its occupation by the 
British, his object being to show the improvements 
that have taken place under the new administra- 
tion. 

In ancient times Cyprus was one of the most 
fertile and prosperous countries in the world, its 
copper and its timber being important articles of 
commerce. But under the Turkish administra- 
tion the island deteriorated greatly, as most coun- 
tries do under Turkish rule. One traveller, near 
the end of the last century, describes Famagusta, 
at the time of his visit, as a ‘‘ melancholy picture 
of Turkish desolation,” and as ‘ almost depopu- 
lated, although, in the time of the Venetians, the 
finest city in the island, and renowned for its 
brave defence against the infidels.” He adds, 
‘* The desolation we observed at Famagusta ex- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VIL, No. 177 


tended itself along the country. We passed by 
the ruins of several Greek villages.” Another 
traveller also gives asad account of Cyprus at a 
rather later date. ‘‘The island,” he says, ‘‘ was 
formerly one of the richest and most fertile in the 
world. It is much exposed to the ravages of 
locusts. On their approach, every kind of ver- 
dure disappears, and they even gnaw the very 
bark off the trees. The Turks will not permit 
their destruction, because they consider them as 
sent by the Almighty.” 

This melancholy condition of the island was 
due in part to maladministration of justice, and 
in part to a vicious system of taxation. The 
Turkish government took tithes of the produce 
of the land, and these tithes were farmed in the 
spring of each year to merchants and speculators. 
This system had its natural results in a loss of reve- 
nue to the state, and the impoverishment of the 
cultivator, whom it involved in the toils of the 
money-lender, as well as the tithe-farmer, and 
thus checked the productiveness of the island to 
an enormous extent. The land, falling out of 
cultivation, became the breeding-ground of locusts. 
The cultivators of the soil in many cases gave up 
their calling in despair, and obtained a living by 
cutting down and selling trees, and the collection 
of resin, The wholesale destruction of trees reacted 
on the climate, and restricted the rainfall ; so that 
between locusts, tithe-farmers, and neglect of the 
forests, the island, at the time of the occupation, 
was rapidly becoming more like a barren, rocky 
desert than a fertile and naturally favored coun- 
try. 3 
These, then, were the chief evils to be remedied . 
by the English on their arrival in Cyprus. It 
was at once made plainly known that no farming 
of tithes would be allowed under British rule ; 
and it was decided to adopt the following course 
in regard to the same. The Turkish plan of as- 
sessment was to be followed, but, instead of col- 
lecting the tithes in kind, they were to be valued, 
and, leaving the peasant free to deal with his 
crop as he pleased, the money value was to be 
collected as an ordinary tax later in the year. 
The sole exceptions to this were the tithes on silk 
and carobs. The greater portion of these two 
products being exported from the island, it was 
arranged to collect the tithe on export, and so 
save the cost of assessment ; and the result, be- 
sides being successful from the imperial point of 
view, has given great satisfaction to the agricul- 
turists. 

After this financial reform the locust and 
timber questions remained to be dealt with. The 
Cyprus locust is indigenous to the island ; and its 
presence is, without doubt, largely due to past 


June 18, 1886.] 


mismanagement and neglect of the soil, inasmuch 
as it is only onrocky waste ground that the female 
insect will lay her eggs. The locust-plague is 
therefore the result of inadequate cultivation of 
the soil, consequent upon a deficiency of popula- 
tion, coupled with an insufficiency of trees; 
though their increase may be largely attributed 
to the Mussulman theory of resignation, which 
would not, in former times, permit their destruc- 
tion on account of the belief that they were sent 
by the Almighty. For some years prior to 1862 
the destruction of crops from this cause was very 
large, and the plan of egg-collection was then 
tried, without success, by the Turkish govern- 
ment. This led Mr. Richard Mattei, a land-owner 
of Cyprus, to commence a series of experiments, 
which resulted in the invention of his system of 
traps and screens. Mr. Mattei had the good for- 
tune to secure the assistance of the Turkish govy- 
ernor, Said Pacha, a man of exceptional intelli- 
gence and energy; and in 1870, after long effort, 
the locusts were by this means almost extermi- 
nated. Not wholly, however ; for in 1875 they re- 
appeared, and, another governor being in power, 
_ they were allowed to increase until the time of 
’ the British occupation. Early in 1879, measures 
were adopted by the English government, both 
by the employment of Mr. Mattei’s trap and screen 
system and by encouraging the collection of locust- 
eggs, for which they offered a considerable price. 
These measures have been completely successful, 
as the locusts that appeared last year were com- 
paratively few in number, and did no appreciable 
damage, and any future visit may be looked for- 
ward to with complacency. 

But the forests of the island also demanded 
and received the attention of the new authorities. 
The forests were placed under control, and the 
destruction of wood prohibited, moderate sup- 
plies being permitted for native wants. The in- 
discriminate pasturage of goats has been stopped, 
and a large number of trees have been planted, 
the chief species being Aleppo pine, cypress, carob, 
ailantus, oak, mimosa, eucalyptus, and Pinus 
pinea. The effect of these measures has been 
favorable ; but the restoration of the forests must 
necessarily be a work of time. 

Again, it was necessary to reform the adminis- 
tration of justice throughout the island. This 
was effected by a complete re-organization of the 
department of justice under the direction of the 
home government. The most salient features of 
the scheme were the formation of a court of ap- 
peal, composed of two qualified English judges, 
_ the appointment of an English judge to preside 
in every district, and the establishment of a num- 
ber of village judges to deal with petty civil 


4 


SCIENCE. 


577 


cases. It included also the adequate payment of 
the native judges, although their number was 
gradually reduced to a considerable extent, and 
likewise established a system of jail deliveries by 
judges on circuit, similar to that which prevails in 
England. 

The effect of these and other less important 
reforms on the commerce of the island has been 
highly beneficial. The abolition of the tithe-farm- 
ing system, and the adoption of the more gener- 
ous as well as more politic measure, whereby 
the agriculturist was permitted to deal with his 
crop as he pleased, the collection of the tax being 
delayed till a later season, when he should have 
had ample time for the conversion into money of 
the produce of his holding, had a most favor- 
able influence on the particular industries affected, 
and consequently on the trade of the island gen- 
erally. The volume of foreign trade, which in 
Turkish times was estimated at £1 10s. per head 
of the population, amounted, in 1879, to £2; in 
1880, to £2 10s.; and in 1881, to £3 per head, 
since which time steady increases have been re- 
corded. The net result of British occupation to 
Cypriot commerce may be fairly estimated by a’ 
comparison of the respective imports and exports 
for 1878, the last year of Ottoman rule, with those 
of 1884-85. The imports for 1878 were £177,651 ; 
for 1884-85, £304,875. The exports in 1878 were 
£157,328 ; last year they amounted to £287,521; 
and the figures were still higher the year before, 
especially as regards the imports. 

Mr. Hake concluded his paper with a few re- 
marks on the further improvements which he 
deems necessary for the prosperity of the island. 
Leaving out of account all minor measures, such 
as developing certain crops, he thinks there are 
three things which remain for the English to do. 
The first is to become the purchasers of the fee 
simple of the island, instead of being tenants at 
will, as they are at present; the second is to 
spend money, even to the extent of getting into 
debt, in order to plant the moutain-ranges, and 
especially the northern one that runs down the 
Mesaorian plain; and the third is (again getting 
into debt, if necessary) the establishment of a rail- 
way from Morphou to Famagusta, leaving its after- 
development to time, and to put the harbor of 
Famagusta into proper repair for mercantile use. 


JEVONS’S LETTERS AND JOURNAL. 


Mrs. JEVONS has done well to collect these 
letters and journals of her late husband. The 
world is always interested in the personal history 


Letters and journal of W, Stanley Jevons. Ed. by his 


wife. London, Macmillan, 1886. 8°. 


578 


of its benefactors ; and, in the case of those whose 
lives are uneventful, this can only be known from 
their own private papers and those of their friends. 
Jevons was not, indeed, a man of the highest 
genius, and his works are not likely to make an 
epoch in any department of knowledge; but they 
are fresh in thought and often original, and near- 
ly always provocative of thought in his readers. 
Moreover, he wrote a clear and easy style, which 
makes his letters interesting from a literary point 
of view. 

Most of the letters in the collection before us 
were written to his relatives and personal friends, 
though many of the later ones are addressed to 
correspondents in the learned world. The most 
interesting part of the book to us is that which 
treats of the author’s education and his early labors 
in the mental and social sciences. William Stanley 
Jevons was born in Liverpool in 1835, and met his 
death by drowning, at Bulverhythe, near Has- 
tings, in 1882; so that his life covered a period 
of not quite forty-seven years. His father was a 
merchant, but failed while Stanley was a boy, 
after which the family were in only moderate cir- 
cumstances. Stanley’s mother died while he was 
very young, and he was taught at home by a gov- 
erness until he was more than ten years old, when 
he was sent to school in Liverpool. At the age of 
fifteen he went to London to attend University 
college school, and afterwards studied at the col- 
lege itself till he reached the age of nineteen. At 
that time he was offered the position of assayer in 
the mint at Sydney, in Australia; and, though at 
first averse to taking it, he ultimately accepted 
and retained the post for four years. The duties 
of the office seem never to have been much to his 
taste, and he had not held it long when he began 
to entertain designs and aspirations which ren- 
dered a return to England necessary. What these 
designs were he makes known in a letter to his 
sisters. He writes that in his inmost soul he has 
but ‘‘ one wish, or one intention, viz., to be a pow- 
erful good in the world. To be good, to live with 
good intentions towards others, is open to all... . 
To be powerfully good, that is, to be good, not to- 
wards one, or a dozen, or a hundred, but towards 
a nation or the world, is what now absorbs me. 
But this assumes the possession of the power. . . . 
I also think, that, if in any thing I have the 
chance of acquiring the power, it is that I have 
some originality, and can strike out new things ” 
(pp. 95, 96). 

It appears, also, from another of his letters, that 
he had also chosen the field in which he was to 
work ; for he writes that he intends ‘‘ exchanging 
the physical for the moral and logical sciences, in 
which my forte will really be found to lie.” 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. VIl., ‘No. 177 


With such aspirations as these, Jevons could not 
be content to remain in Australia ; and according- 
ly in 1859 he left his post at Sydney, and returned 
to England by way of Panama and the United 
States. On reaching home, he returned to study 
at University college, where he remained till he 
had taken the degree of M.A., devoting himself 
mainly to mental and social philosophy. After 
finishing his studies, he was for some time in 
doubt as to how he was to get his living, but was 
soon offered a position as tutor in Owens college, 
Manchester, which he accepted, being then twen- 
ty-eight years of age. A few years later he was 
appointed professor of philosophy and _ political 
economy in the same institution, and not long 
afterwards he married. 

He had now attained a position which enabled 
him to carry on his chosen work, and he had al- 
ready published some essays which had given 
him a reputation as an economist and statistician. 
The most important of these was the one on the 
coal-question, in which he warned his country- 
men that their supply of coal was not inexhausti- 
ble. These essays did not at first attract the notice 
he expected, and, as he had not then attained his 
professorship, he seems to have suffered much 
from depression of spirits. Yet he did not swerve 
in the least from his chosen path ; for he writes in 
his journal as follows: ‘‘ Whence is this feeling 
that even failure in a high aim is better than suc- 
cess in a lower one? It must be from a higher 
source, for all lower nature loves and worships 
success and cheerful life. Yet the highest success 
that I feel I can worship is that of adhering to 
one’s aims, and risking all” (p. 218). The next 
day after this was written, he received a letter 
from Mr. Gladstone, warmly commending his 
pamphlet on the coal-question ; and from this 
time onward his reputation continued to grow. 

Of the author’s works, however, we have no 
space to speak at length. We cannot accord him 
a place among the great thinkers of the world, 
and it seems to us that he tried to be more original 
than he had the power to be, though his works are 
very suggestive. His mathematical theory of po- 
litical economy has not been accepted by any lead- 
ing thinker, and has remained thus far without 
influence on the development. of the science. He 
urges that economical phenomena can be treated 
mathematically, because they can be expressed in 
terms of more and less ; but, in order to treat them 
mathematically, we must be able to say how much 
more or less, and this, in the case of human de- » 
sires and efforts, is impossible. Again: Jevons 
seems to have thought, that, in his doctrine of 
‘the substitution of similars,’ he had presented an 
entirely new theory of reasoning; whereas the — 


i 


Jone 18, 1886.] 


doctrine in question is the basis of every system of 
logic in existence, and necessarily so. 

Jevons was perhaps a little too apt to present 
his thoughts to the public before he had given 
them time to mature, and hence some of his theo- 
ries are crude and but half worked out. Indeed, 
he seems in some cases to have been aware of this 
himself ; for he writes to one of his correspondents 
about the ‘ Principles of science,’ in the following 
terms: ‘‘To the want of a psychological analysis 
of the basis of reasoning I plead guilty. . . . No 
doubt, to a considerable extent I have avoided the 
true difficulties of the subject; but this does not 
preclude me from attempting to remedy the defect 
at some future time, if I live long enough, and can 
feel that I see my way to a more settled state of 
opinion” (p. 322). But, unfortunately for him 
and for us, he did not live long enough to finish 
this and other tasks that he had projected ; and it 
is sad to think how much the world may have lost 
by the death, at the age of forty-six, of a man of 
such freshness of thought, and courage of opinion, 
as Jevons undoubtedly showed. 


THE RAILWAYS AND THE REPUBLIC. 


CAN competition be so arranged as to prevent 
the more serious abuses of railroad power? Can 
it be made to apply to railroads as it does to most 
other lines of business? Fifty years’ experience 
has seemed to show that it cannot. Mr. Hudson 
believes that it can; and he makes out a case 
which will appear plausible to those who are not 
in a position to understand the practical difficul- 
ties involved in his project. 

Each year’s history shows that under our ex- 
isting system—or want of system — railroad 
managers wield an irresponsible power, dangerous 
alike to shippers and to the government. By 
arbitrary differences in charge they can ruin the 
business of individuals; by political corruption 
they can often thwart all attempts at government 
control. The history of the Standard oil company, 
which Mr. Hudson tells extremely well, furnishes 
an instance of both these things. The railroads 
made a series of contracts with the company to 
do its business at much lower rates than they 
would give to any one else; while the railroads 
and the company together were able to set at 

nought the plainest principles of common law, to 
defy legislative investigation, and laugh at state 
authority itself. 

What is to be done under these circumstances? 
This is the question to which Mr. Hudson addresses 
himself. He does not fall into the extreme of 


The railways and the republic. By James F, Hupson, 


New York, Harper, 1886. 8°. 


Ay 


, 


SCIENCE. 


579 


advocating state ownership. He has too strong a 
sense of the dangers of government management 
to believe that political corruption could be 
avoided, or enlightened economy secured, by a 
measure like this. Admitting, then, that railways 
are to remain under private ownership, how are 
their abuses to be brought under control? Almost 
every writer has his own notion on the subject, 
and his own individual shade of opinion ; but we 
may group them under three main heads :—- 

1. There is one class of writers who insist that 
things are well enough as they are ; who say that 
the reduction in rates under our present system 
has been so great, and the development of the 
country so rapid, as to outweigh any incidental 
evils which may exist. They say that the most 
we can possibly think of doing is to prohibit a 
few of the worst abuses, and perhaps secure a 
very .moderate amount of publicity; and that 
other things will take care of themselves. This 
is the position of writers like Stuart Patterson or 
Gerritt Lansing. 

2. Many of the more enlightened railroad men, 
like Albert Fink, G. R. Blanchard, or Charles 
Francis Adams, jun., do not deny the existence 
of most serious evils; but they attribute them to 
unrestricted competition, which favors competing 
points at the expense of local points, or places 
solvent roads at the mercy of bankrupt ones. 
They favor legalizing pools, and limiting the 
irresponsible construction of new roads, and think 
that the public interest would be best served by a 
responsible combination of railroads, with a com- 
mission to see that the interests of the shippers 
were not neglected. 

8. On the other hand, Mr. Hudson insists that 
we have, not too much competition, but too little ; 
that the abuses incident to its partial and irregu- 
lar working can be best avoided by enabling it to 
act everywhere instead of nowhere. This he 
proposes to do by allowing others besides the rail- 
way company to use the track, on payment of a 
just and reasonable toll. He argues strongly to 
prove that this plan is not merely equitable, but 
practicable, and that each of the other positions 
is wrong, both in fact and in morals. 

He has no difficulty in breaking down the 
arguments of the first group. The men who in- 
sist that railroad management is a private busi- 
ness, with which there should be no interference, 
and that all is well enough as it is, are every day 
becoming fewer. The really difficult conflict is 
against those who admit the evils, but who say 
that the remedy is to be found in well-controlled 
combination rather than uncontrolled competition. 
Mr. Hudson insists that combinations perpetrate 
outrages which individual roads could not perpe- 


580 


trate, and that the worst abuses of railroad wars 
have their origin in the desire to force rival roads 
to a combination. Against the first of these 
points we may cite the testimony of Mr. Sterne, 
—certainly no prejudiced witness, —that the 
actual abuses have been lessened rather than in- 
creased when the trunk-line pool was in opera- 
tion. We may cite the uniform experience of 
Europe, that only where pooling contracts were 
made permanent has it been possible to bring 
discrimination under control; so that men as 
widely distinct in their views as Gladstone and 
Bismarck have both sanctioned the system by 
their active countenance. With regard to the 
motive for railroad wars, we may show that it is 
regularly the weaker party who is the aggressor, 
rather than the stronger party. And finally, as a 
counter-argument against Mr. Hudson, it may be 
shown that his scheme has been found impracti- 
cable. It was tried and abandoned at the outset, 
as he himself admits. Every subsequent change 
in railroad administration has rendered the diffi- 
culties of its application greater instead of less. 
Both by theory and by experience, it may be shown 
that the attempt to treat the railway as a public 
highway has done some harm and no good in the 
past, and must grow even less possible with the 
increasing complication of railroad business. 


OPPOLZER’S TREATISE ON ORBITS. 


OPPOLZER’S treatise on the determination of the 
orbits of planets and comets is so well and ;o 
favorably known to students of astronomy, that, 
in calling attention to the French translation of 
the first volume (which will be found welcome by 
those who do not read German with ease), we 
might have confined ourselves to the briefest no- 
tice, if the translator had reproduced the German 
edition without modification. M. Pasquier has, 
however, introduced, together with several minor 
changes, the mode of counting longitude and time 
recommended by the Washington international 
meridian congress of 1884: that is, longitudes east 
from Greenwich are regarded as plus, and west as 
minus ; and the astronomical day is made to begin 
with mean midnight. This innovation is in accord 
with the ideas of Dr. Oppolzer, who is known as 
one of the strongest and most distinguished of the 
advocates of the new plan. M. Pasquier says that 
the change has been made in response, also, to the 
wishes of the majority of astronomers and of goy- 
ernments. It is difficult to see upon what ground 
such a conclusion is drawn in regard to the wishes 

Traité de la détermination des orbites des cométes et des 


planetes. Par Turopor’ D'‘OppoLzeR. Tr. by Ernest 
Pasquier. Vol.i. Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1886. 4°. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. VII., No. Wa 


of astronomers ; the opinions published during the 
past year are far from indicating a majority in 
favor of the change; and diplomatic action, even 
if ratified by the countries represented, can scarce- 
ly be expected to influence astronomers in such an 
important matter. The course adopted by M. Pas- 
quier we are inclined to regard as somewhat pre- 
mature, and it may interfere with the general 
acceptance and usefulness of the translation as a 
text-book ; but he has taken care to indicate in 
his preface the corrections which must be made 
in the text and tables, if one prefers to reckon the 
astronomical day from mean noon (the present 
custom) instead of using universal time. To quote 
a recent comment, ‘‘a glance at these corrections 
will show astronomers some of the troubles that 
are in store for them, should they make the 
change which the Washington conference has 
recommended.” 

The typography of the volume is good (we are 
always sorry, though, to meet with the flat-topped 
figure three (3), an abomination when it is found 
on divided circles and micrometer heads, and 
scarcely more legible in print), and especial pains 
have been taken to insure accuracy in the tables 
and formulae. The tables, we are told, were 
revised three times while the work was going 
through the press. 

THE fourth volume of the ‘Publications of the 
Washburn observatory,’ which we have just re- 
ceived, seems to bring to a close the work under- 
taken at Madison by Professor Holden. The 
greater part of the volume is taken up with the 
work of the Repsold meridian circle for 1884 and 
1885, —the observation of the 303 stars which are 
to serve as reference-points for the southern zones 
of the Astronomische gesellschaft. A casual glance 
shows a satisfactory performance of the instru- 
ment ; but we regret with Professor Holden, that, 
under the circumstances, it has been possible to 
give merely the ‘‘ results of observation, instead of 
accompanying them with the thorough discussion 
they seem to deserve.” We note particularly the 
creditable part taken in both observations and re- | 
ductions by Miss Alice Lamb, who appears.in the 
personnel as one of the ‘assistant astronomers.’ A 
valuable piece of astronomical bibliography will 
be found in the seven pages devoted to areference- 
list of the original sources from which errata have 
been taken in systematically correcting the star- 
catalogues contained in the observatory library. 
Some thirty pages are occupied with the results of . 
meteorological observations; and a brief discussion 
is given of a longitude campaign undertaken, in 
co-operation with a government surveying party, 
to determine the western boundary of Dakota. 


Pye TORVOLUME VII. 


x*, Names of contributors are printed in small capitals. 


Abbot's Scientific theism, reviewed, 335. 
Abbott collection at the Peabody muse- 


um, 4. 

Ability of the young of the human spe- 
cies, equality in, 36, 80. 

Accidents in mines, 459. 

Acclimatization, 169. 

Actinemycosis, 348. 

Apams, C. K. Science at Cornell, 391. 

Adams, H., on removals attributed to 
Jefferson, 430. 

Adirondacks, southern, 454. 

Admission to college, science vs. the 
classics as a requisite for, 383. 

Aerolite, 456. 

Africa, a railroad in central, 67; South, 
rainfall in, map, 151. 

African inland sea, North, M. de Lesseps 
and, 112; lakes, geology of, 416. 

Agricultural bureau, distribution of 
seeds by the, 7; conventions at St. 
Louis, 116; experiments, 295; experi- 
ment-station at Cornell, appropriation 
for, 117; third report of, reviewed, 205; 
Connecticut, annual report of, 284; 
New Jersey, 528; New York, 371; fourth 
annual report of, reviewed, 315; North 
Carolina, 448; experiment-stations, 
237, 349, 434; industries of Japan, 463. 

Agriculture, relation of birds to, 201. 

Air, elasticity of, at low pressure, 161. 

Alaska, explorations in, reviewed, 95; 
history of, 292; late news from, 48; 
new expedition to, 566; ruminants of 
the Copper-River region, 57. 

Albatross, 99, 300, 325, 413, 435, 536. 

— Islands, winter climate of the, 
46. 

Allan, W., on the Pope campaign, 431. 

ALLEN, H. Muscles of the hind-limb of 
Cheiromeles torquatus, 506. 

ALLEN, H.T. Ruminants of the Copper- 
River region, Alaska, 57. 

ALLEN, J. A. The present wholesale de- 
struction of bird-life in the United 
States, 191. 

ALLEN, J. M. The festoon cloud, 144. 

ees, legibility of letters of the, ill. 
128. 


Alps, glaciers in, 569; visible summits 
of, 164 

Altai Mountains, a trip to the, map, 18. 

Amazon, Uape Indians of the, 301. 

Amblystoma and Gordius, 550. 

American academy of arts and sciences, 
503; association for the advancement 
of science, 324, 546; climatological as- 
sociation, 453; economic association, 
209, 213; engineers’ meeting, 92; fishery 
interests, 113; historical association, 
429; journal of archeology, 71; mu- 
seum of natural history to be free 
to public on Sundays, 434; ornitholo- 
gists’ union committee on bird-pro- 
tection, 205; public health association, 
324; society for preventicn of bird-de- 
struction, 185; for psychical research, 
89, 123, 145. 

Amherst students, eyesight of, 414. 

Amphibia, 395, 462. 

> — and reptiles, catalogue of, 


Anachronisms of pictures, 264, 307. 

Anatomical museums, needs and short- 
comings of, 339; preparations at Wash- 
ington, 163. 

_ Anatomists, a task for, 428. 

- Anatomy, recent text-books on methods 

in microscopic, 64, 100; and compar- 


ative anatomy, distinction between, 
328 


Andree’s Allgemeiner handatlas, 505. 

Animal and plant habits, 100; industry, 
bureau of, 456; kingdom, distribution 
of colors in the, 557. 

Animals, origin of fat in, 444. 

Annisquam, Seaside laboratory at, 368; 
summer school at, 236. 

Anrep on ptomaines, 411. 

Anthropological and biological societies, 
course of lectures under the auspices 
of, 326. 

Antilegomena, facsimile of the, 153. 

Antiquities, the trade in spurious Mexi- 
ean, ill. 170. 

Aplodontia, new species of, 219. 

Appalachian mountain club, 236; map 
of the White Mountains, 546. 

Apparitions and haunted houses, 341. 

Appleton’s Annual cyclopaedia, astron- 
omy in, 534. 

Appointments, scientific, 185. 

Appropriations recommended for the 
scientific bureaus, 568. 

Arabic inscription, ancient, in the Saha- 
ra, 161. 

Archeology, American journal of, 71; 
Roman, 492. 

Archives slaves de biologie, 212. 

Arctic exploration, did Dr. Haves reach 
Cape Lieber in his, of 1861? 165. 

Argentine Republic, trade-route between 
Bolivia and the, 299. 

Armssy, H. P. Imitation butter, 471. 

Armstrong, William, donation from, to 
scientific relief fund, 139. 

Army and navy, a scientific corps for 
the, 142. 

Arrows, penetrating-power of, 328, 528, 
550 


Arsenic in wall-paper, 371, 392. 

Artesian wells, 264. 

Ashburner, C. A.,on geology and mining 
of petroleum and natural gas, 163. 

Asia, ethnographic map of, 368; expedi- 
tion into central, 547; railway to cen- 
tral, 277; trip of a naturalist to cen- 
tral, 479. 

Assyrian journal, new, 351. 

Asteroid, discovery of a new, 435. 

Asteroids, three new, 326. 

Astronomical activity, 568; notes, 49, 73, 
161, 368, 567; work for amateurs, man- 
ual of, 263. 

Astronomy in Appleton’s Annual cyclo- 
paedia, 534; popular, 365, 392, 484. 

Atlantic, deep-sea explorations in the, 
570; pilot chart for April, 325; wreck 
floating in the, 50. 

Atlas, Berghaus’s, 436. 

Atlases, two historical, 51. 

Atmospheres, equatorial currents in star 
and planetary, 13. 

Aubry, return of, to Paris, 49. 

Auchincloss on valve-gearing of steam- 
engines, 304. 

Audubon society, organization of Smith 
college branch of, 435. 

Aurora borealis, 139. 

Australia, production of gold in, 547. 

Ayers, Howard, appointment of, as in- 
structor in zodlogy at Harvard, 569. 


Bassitt, Franc E. Some Ojibwa and 
Dakota practices, 526. 

Bacon, Lord, science and, 143. 

Bacteria and disease, 422; in break-bone 
fever, 139. 


Bacteriological studies, 186. 

Bacteriology, literature of, 414. 

Bahama Islands, collections in, by the 
Albatross, 536. 

Baird, S. F., award of gold medal to, 547. 

Baku, oil-wells of, 149 

Bald-headed men in America, 110. 

Batu, R.S. Popular astronomy, 484. 

a Story of the heavens, reviewed, 


oe tax commission, report of 

the, 45. 

Bancroft’s History of Alaska, 308; re- 
viewed, 292. 

Barlow’s New theories of matter and 
force, reviewed, 294. 

Barometer exposure, 484, 550, 571, 572. 

Barometric pressure, areas of high, 
over Europe and Asia, 369. 

BarRTLeTT, E. J. Death-rates among 
college graduates, 124. 

BARTLETT, J. R. Deep-sea soundings in 
the Atlantic, ill. 387; in the South 
Pacific, ill. 252. 

Batrachians, habits of, 220; and reptiles 
of North America, 327. 

Bats embedded in coal, 406. 

Battery, new form of, 53. 

Baur, G. Habits of batrachians, 22¢. 

ge death of physician of king of, 
538. 

Bayonets, worthless, 93. 

Beddoe’s Races of Britain, reviewed, 84. 

Bee-hives and bee-habits, 127. 

Bell, A. G., on ancestry of the deaf, 385; 
on deaf-mutes in the United States, 
214. 

Bell's Climatology. reviewed, 316. 

BENEDIcT, J. E. Surface-collecting on 
the Albatross, 300. 

Bernard, C., unveiling of statue of, 213. 

Bert, P., departure of, for Tonquin, 212. 

Bessels, Dr. E., burning of library of, 7. 

Bibliography of Indian languages, 358. 

Bilhoola, language of the, in British 
Columbia, 218. 

Bimetallism, 534. 

Biology, losses to English, during 1885, 31. 

Bird-destruction, American society for 
prevention of, 185. 

Bird-laws, 202. 

Bird-life, destruction of, in the vicinity of 
New York, 197; wholesale destruction 
of, in the United States, 191. 

Bird-migration, 162; premiums for pa- 
pers on, 414. 

Bird-protection, American  ornitholo- 
gists’ union committee on, 205; in Eng- 
land, 162. 

Birds, an appeal to the women of the 
country in behalf of, 204; and insects, 
relation of, 111; code and check-list of 
North American, 374; cross-fertiliza- 
tion of plants by, ill. 441; destruction 
of, 191, 196, 197, 199, 201, 202, 204, 205, 
241; for fashion’s sake, 111; for milli- 
nery purposes, 196; the eggs of, for 
oo”: 199; relation of, to agriculture, 

iv 

Birmingham, exhibition of local manu- 
facttres at, 138. 

Bishop’s ring during solar eclipses, 239. 

Black Sea, proposed trade outlet on the, 
424 


Blind, sense of touch, and the teaching 
of the, 271. 

Blindness in Russia, 291. 

Buse, W.G. The moon’s atmosphere, 
124. 


582 


Bloch, A., on Gambetta’s brain, 348. 

Blondes and brunettes in Germany, 129. 

Blood, new method to prevent coagula- 
tion of, 283. 

Blue Hill meteorological observatory, 
observations made at, 306. 

Boas, F. The language of the Bilhoola 
in British Columbia, 218. 

Boeddicker, Dr., observations of, 73. 

Bolivia, trade-route between, and the 
Argentine Republic, 299. 

Bolton’s Preservation of timber, re- 
viewed, 176. 

Bones, deformities of, among the ancient 
Peruvians, 150. 

Book-making, thoughtless, 362. 

Book-manufactory in ancient Rome, 467. 

Books, number of, published in the 
United States, 186; scientific, 305, 505; 
cost of; 101. 

Bordeaux, Philomathical society of, 416. 

Borneo, condition of, 96. 

Boroughs, Pennsylvania, 455. 

Boston, female medical students in, 456. 

Botanic garden, Montreal, 350. 

Botanical gazette for January, 100 ; in- 
struction in this country, 251. 

Botany, Coulter’s Rocky Mountain, 74; 
course of lessons in, 370. 

Bottle found near Colon, 325; picked up 
on Palmyra Island, 457. 

Bouchard, C., on the toxicity of urine, 
410, 547. 

BovuTeE._e, C.O. On a geodetic survey 
of the United States, 460. 

Bowers, S. Relics from an Indian 
grave, ill. 34, 

Bradshaw, Henry, death of, 234. 

Brain, localization of functions in the, 
112; of Gambetta, 348. 

Brazil, geological survey in, 523; mouse- 
plague of, 126. 

Bressa. prize, 525. 

Britain, races of, 84; weather in, 545. 

British association, 478; museum, ethno- 
logical collections of, 486; people, oc- 
cupations of the, 552. 

British India, statistics concerning, 457. 

Brooklyn, typhoid in, 45. 

Brooks, H. Topographical models or 
relief-maps, 418. 

Brown, A., on the early history of Vir- 
ginia, 430. 

Browne’s Water-meters, reviewed, 176. 

Bruen, E. F., on the southern Adiron- 
dacks, 454. 

Buffaloes, company to breed, 559; search 
for, 549. 

Buffalo-hunt, a final, 520. 

Bugs. check-list of North American, 238. 

Building-stone, decay of, 93. 

Bullard, W. N., on tea-poisoning, 349. 

Bureau of animal industry, 456; of pub- 
lic works, engineers’ recommendation 
of a civil, 1. 

Bureaus of government, appropriations 
recommended for the scientific, 568; 
consolidation of, 100, 238; joint com- 
mittee of congress on, 7. 

Burial-casket, metallic, 186. 

Burial-place, an ancient, near Paris, 74. 

Buried workmen, valuable method of 
seeking for, 410. 

Burmah, present and future, 62. 

Burmese, metal-work of, 333. 

Butter, A.W. The destruction of birds, 
241. 

Burter, N. M. Educational tendencies 
in Japan and in America, 287; settle- 
ment of labor differences, 339; the col- 
lapse of the theosophists, 81; the com- 
petition of convict labor, 68, 117, 143, 
220; the convict-labor problem, 28. 

Butter, imitation, 471; substitutes, re- 
port on, at Berlin, 537; test for purity 
of, 524, 

Butterfly larva, a carnivorous, 394. 


C.,H. An old-time salt-storm, 440. 
C., V. Vienna letter, 282. 

Cabot, John, landfall of, 430. 
Caldwell, W. H., on marsupials, 546. 


CASTENEEY: Eng., engineering tripos at, 
2 


Canada, tidal observations in, 1. 

Canal, a proposed, between the Sea of 
Azov and the Caspian Sea, 237; be- 
tween the White and Baltic seas, 457. 

CARMAN, E.S. The claimed wheat and 
rye hybrid, 190. 

Carnegie’s Triumphant democracy, 350. 

Carnelley’s Melting and boiling point 
tables, 326, 549. 

Cartwright lectures on physiology, 320. 

Catalogue of amphibians and reptiles, 
140; prepared by Professor Douglas, 6. 

Catalogues, great cost of library, 156. 

Cazin’s Phenomena and laws of heat, 
reviewed, 176. 

Cell-nucleus, amoeboid movement of 
the, 35 

Census, German quinquennial, 176, 415; 
of the Great Lake fisheries, 163. 

eT America, volcanic eruption in, 

Centurus, 536. 

Cerebral excitability after death, 16. 

Chalk, formation of structureless, by 
seaweeds, 575. 

Challenger report on the Lamellibran- 
chiata, reviewed, 250; volumes, 390. 
Chamberlain, M., on public documents, 

Chamberlin on artesian wells, 264. 

CHANNING, E. A new route to south- 
western China, map, 137. 

Channing, E., on the social condition of 
New England, 430. 

Charities and correction, international 
record of, 306. 

Cheiromeles torquatus, 506. 

Chemical tables, 176. 

Chemieals and fish, 458. 

Chemistry, inorganic, 261; introduction 
to study of, 468; of cookery, 66; study 
of, 468; summer course in, at Harvard, 
283; thermal, 314. 

Cherry tortrix, 58. 

Chesapeake zoSlogical laboratory, 456. 

Chevreul, old age of, 213. 

Chierici, Father Gaetano, death of, 123. 

Children, characters of, as evidenced by 
their powers of observation, 288; hap- 
piness of, 449. 

Chimbo, earthquake in, 117. 


China, a new route to south-western, 


map, 137. 

Chinook winds, 38, z/l. 55, 242. 

Cholera, 303; in Europe, 435; in Spain, 68, 
oat mortality in Europe during 1885, 


Church’s Statics and dynamics, re- 
viewed, 316. 

Cinchona-trees, 371. 

Cincinnati weather journal, 306; zodlogi- 
cal garden, financial difficulty of the, 


90. 

Clark, Alvan, an honor to, 350; sixtieth 
anniversary of the wedding of, 308. 

Clark and Sadler’s Star-guide, reviewed, 
470. 

Clarke, E. C., on cement tests, 93. 

er J. F. The moon’s atmosphere, 
31, 124. 

Ciayton, H. H. Barometer exposure, 
484, 572; the festoon cloud, 100; ther- 
mometer exposure and the contour of 
the earth’s surface, 439. 

Cliff-picture in Colorado, ill. 80, 141. 

Climate and cosmology, 491; Montana, 
167; of New Jersey shore, 50; strange 
theory of our, 515. 

Climatology, congress for discussing, 


569 

Cloud, the festoon, 57, 100, 144. 

Clouds of a tornado, festoon, 124. 

Coal, statistics concerning, 349, 435. 

Coal-consumption, 458. 

Coal-mine explosions, 389. 

Coal-mines, explosions in, 346; Japanese, 
349: means of preventing explosions 
in, 29. 

Cobra, venom of the Indian, 8&8. 

Cockroach, 369, 386. 


SCIENCE. —INDEX TO VOLUME VII. 


Cee aaceres in hatching the eggs of the, 
i 


Cod-hatching at Wood’s Holl, 99. 

Cold wave, the recent, ill. 70; weather 
at the south, 90; in England, 323. 

Coldest place on earth, 457. 

Collections of naturalists, 413. 

College, science vs. the classics as a 
requisite for admission to, 383. 

Colleges, religion in, 133. 

Colonies, European, and their trade, 275; 
of England, 475. 

Color, association of sound and, 146. 

Color-blindness among employees of 
French railroads, 548. 

Colorado, cliff-picture in, ill. 80, 141; 
new system of irrigation in, 307. 

Colors in the animal kingdom, distribu- 
tion of, 557, 572. 

Color-sense of the Fijians, 72. 

Columbus, 429; precursors of, 234. 

Comet, a new, discovered by W. R. 
Brooks, 6, 481; Barnard, 161; Biela, 
ate Brooks, 49; c. 1886, spectrum of, 


Comets, two, 368; two bright, 207; two 
disappointing, 493. 

Commission on government surveys, 
427; on the scientific bureaus, work of 
the government, 318; report, the sci- 
entific, 516. 

Compayré’s History of pedagogy, re- 
viewed, 469. 

Composite portraits of American In- 
dians, ill. 408. 

Comstock, J. H. A convenient way of 
indicating localities upon labels, 352. 

Connecticut, shell-fish in, 59. 

Construction, materials of, 95. 

Consumption, a plea for the investiga- 
tion of the possible cause of, 302; cau- 
sation of pulmonary, 86. 

Contagious diseases, method of pro- 
ducing immunity from, 238. 

Contract, freedom of, 221, 225. 

Contracts, regulation of, 221. 

Contributors to Science, 140. 

Convict labor, competition of, 68, 117, 
143, 168, 220; problem, the, 28 

Cook, A. J. Bee-hives and bee-habits, 
127; nectar-secreting plant-lice, 102; 
the cherry tortrix, 58. 

Cooking and dieting, 66. 

Coolidge, T. J., jun., on municipal gov- 
ernment in Massachusetts, 4380. 

Cooling of bodies, nocturnal, 329. 

Cope, E. D., on the phylogeny of the 
Nata and placental mammalia, 


cones effects of, on dogs and rabbits, 


Copyright, extension of, 134; interna- 
tional, 52, 111, 185, 140, 219, 327. 

Corneli, appropriation for experiment- 
station at, 117; as a university, 339; 
experiment-station, third report of, 
reviewed, 205; recent changes in, 4; 
remarkable growth of, 251; Sage pro- 
fessorship of ethics and philosophy at, 
74; science at, 352, 391, 416; summer 
course in entomology at, 415. 

Corpus callosum, 549. 

Cory dalus cornutus, 525. 

Cosmogony, 305. 

Cosmos club of Washington, 163; new 
house for the, 112. 

Cotterill’s Suggested reforms in public 
schools, reviewed, 44. 

Cougs, E. Is the dodo an extinct bird? 
ae the collapse of the theosophists, 


102. 

Coulter’s Rocky Mountain botany, 74. 

Country banker, 425. 

ot C. F. Oil on troubled waters, 77, 
101. 

Crater Lake, Oregon, a proposed na- 
tional reservation, 179. 

CRAWFORD, H A swindler abroad 
again, 286. 

Cremation considered by the trustees of 
“rior Auburn cemetery, 91; progress 
of, 46. 


SCIENCH.—INDEX TO VOLUME VIZ. 


Criminals, journal devoted to the scien- 
tific study of, 46. 

Croll’s Climate and cosmology, re- 
viewed, 491. 

Crookshank, E. M., on the cultivation of 
bacteria. 348. 

a. of plants by birds, 
wu. 

Crozier, A. A. Evidences of glacial 
oe a on the shores of Lake Superior, 
145. 

Crusoe island, 415. 

Cullum, G. W., on the attack on Wash- 
ington in 1814, 430. 

CUNNINGHAM, K. M. New find of fossil 
diatoms, 35. 

Currents of the North Sea, 22. 

Curtin, R. G., on Rocky Mountain fever, 
454, 

Cyprus under British rule, 576. 


D. Total-abstinence teaching in the 
schools, 115. 

a3 a M. Poison rings, 418; phylloxera, 

(. 

D., W. M. Bishop’s ring during solar 
eclipses, 239; date of vintage, dll. 60; 
the recent cold wave, itl. 70; winter on 
Mount Washington, 40. 

Dakota practices, some Ojibwa and, 526. 

Dati, W. H. Distribution of colors in 
the animal kingdom, 572; Schwatka’s 
Along Alaska’s great river, 308. 

Dall, W. H.,-on invertebrates, 351. 

Dall’s What we really know about 
Shakspeare, 66. 

Dana, C. L. The nature of so-called 
double consciousness and triple con- 

sciousness, 311. 

Dana on nervous diseases, 455. 

Dance of Moquis, 349. 

Danish island, a mythical, 96. 

Danube, a study of the, 96. 

DaRTON, N The Taconic contro- 
versy in a nutshell, 78. 

Darwin, C., biography of, 284. 

ae leggaia tablets, the, 10, 119, 189, zl. 
437. 

Davidson, Dr. Thomas, memorial to, 323. 

Davis, W. M. A recent ice-storm, 190; 
a thunder-squall in New England, ill. 
436; Chinook winds, zll. 55: climate and 
cosmology, 491; currents of the North 
Sea, 22; sea-level and ocean-currents, 
146; the festoon cloud, 57. 

Dawson, G. M. Chinook winds. 33; 
names of the Canadian Rocky Moun- 
tain peaks, 351. 

Deaf-mutes in the United States, 214. 

Deaf-mutism, congenital, 14. 

Death-rate and sanitation in Russia, 314. 

Death-rates among college graduates, 
124; in Alabama, 140. 

Deaths of English scientific men, 282. 

Decapods, 338. 

Deer, hunting of, in New York, 213. 

Deformities of bones among the ancient 
Peruvians, 130. 

DeLanoye’s Rameses the Great, re- 
viewed, 176. 

Dendroeca Kirtlandi, 536. 

Dentistry, encyclopaedia of, 351. 

Destruction of birds, 111, 191, 196, 197, 
199, 201, 202, 204, 205, 241; of eggs of 
birds for food, 199. 

Dewalque, G., library of, 525. 

Dewey, J. Inventory of philosophy 
taught in American colleges, 353. 

Dialects, some local, 72. 

Diamonds, value of, in South Africa, 348. 

Diathermancy of ebonite, 386, 462. 

Diatoms, new find of fossil, 35. 

Dictionary, a new English, 557; of defi- 
nitions and technical terms, 22. 

So: on the health-resorts of Mexico, 

Diet for the sick, 66. 

Digestion in the human stomach, obser- 
vations upon, 290. 

Diphtheria, new method of treatment 
of, 492 

Disease, bacteria and, 422. 


Diseases. cardiac, 454; nervous, 455; of 
the fore-brain, 359; of the vine, 569. 
gi by heat, 165; of cattle-cars, 

16. 
Dobson, W. L., on Tasmania, 523. 
Dodo, is the, an extinct bird? 145, 168, 
190, 242, 264. 
Dogs, decrease of mad, in Prussia, 412. 
Douglas, Professor, catalogue prepared 


y, 0. 
Doyte, K. Oil on troubled waters, 77. 
ere J. W., biographical notice of, 
85. 
Drugs, action of, at a distance, 522. 
DuBois-Reymond, history of natural 
science by, 284. 
Dun, W. A., on a local weather bureau, 
229. 
DutcHEeR, W. Destruction of bird-life 
in the vicinity of New York, 197. 
Dutton, C. E. Crater Lake, Oregon, a 
proposed national reservation, 179. 
Duval, M., appointment of, to professor- 
ship of histology, 212. 
Dwarfs, giants and, 82. 


E., O. St. Petersburg letter, 161, 261. 

Ear, sensitiveness of, 570. 

Earthquake at New Orleans, 237; in 
Chimbo, 117; observations, 301; record 
for 1884, 116. 

Earthquakes, 348, 570; in Japan, 237; in 
New Hampshire, 559. 

Ebonite, diathermancy of, 386, 462. 

Eclipse, solar, 161; of August, 1886, 385. 

Economie discussion, aspects of, 438, 
572: factor, the state as an, 485, 490. 

Economics, ethics and, 529. 

Economist, a daring, 446. 

Economists, new school of, 361. 

Economy, household, 154. 

EpmaAnps, J. R. A monument to de 
Saussure, 119. 

Education act of 1869, 138; association of 
Boston, woman’s, 235, 368, 370; at Ox- 
ford, medical, 322; geographical, 155; 
in Holland, primary, 457; in Saxony, 
industrial, 435; in Texas, industrial, 
449; movement in St. Petersburg for 
female medical, 162; physical labora- 
tory in modern, 573; primary, 49; 
state, 414. 

Educational books and reports, 153; 
fund, 370; system, some shortcomings 
of the present, 138; tendencies in Ja- 
pan and in America, 287. 

Edwards, Thomas, death of, 458. 

Egleston. T., on the decay of building- 
stone, 93. 

Egyptian exploration, 263. 

Eight-hour day, 59. 

Electrical communication between ves- 
sels at sea, 52; conditions of the 
human body, 390; current, 235; exhi- 
bition at St. Petersburg, 117; furnace, 
Cowles, 369; installation, 235, 545; 
light, Franklin institute experiment 
on, 116; in England, the slow adoption 
of, 53; lighting, 351; domestic, 323; in 
England, 343; motors for street-rail- 
ways, 116; railways, 318. 

Electricity employed in physiological 
investigation, 390. 

EuLiotT, H. W. Bancroft’s History of 
Alaska, 308. 

ar G. E., on reconstruction of history, 
431. 

Elmira, reformatory at, 207. 

Ey, R. T. Ethics and economics, 529. 

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 304; the ar- 
ticle ‘ Psychology ’ in, 514. 

ee of research, national, 284, 
307, 374. 

Engineering, study of, at University of 
London, 235; tripos at Cambridge, 
Eng., 282. 

Engineers’ club, Philadelphia, 370; con- 
vention at Cleveland, 1. 

England, colonies of, 475; electric light- 
ing in, 343; low temperatures in, 281. 
English biology, losses to, during 1885, 

31; dictionary, a new, 557; fishery 


583 


board, proposed, 344, 431; public 
schools, science in, 31; scientific men, 
deaths of, 282; society for psychical 
research, attack on the theosophical 
report of, 156; sparrow, 14, 35, 80. 

Ensilage commissioners, report of, 545; 
congress in New York, 99. 

Entomology, summer course in, at Cor- 
nell, 415. 

Ephemerides for amateur astronomers, 


(. 

Epidemics in Paris during 1884, 521. 

Epilepsy, 533. 

Equality in ability of the young of the 
human species, 36, 80. 

Equatorial currents in star and plane- 
tary atmospheres, 13. 

Equus fauna, 386; geologic age of, 369. 

Errata, 484. 

Eruption of Mount Etna, 237. 

Eskimo building-snow, ill. 54, 372, 396; 
East Greenland, 172. 

Ethics and economics, 429; and philoso- 
phy, Sage professorship of, at Cornell 
university, 74. 

Ethnological collections of British mu- 
seum, 436. 

Euphrates valley, 470. 

European colonies and their trade, 275. 

Evolution and the faith, 483; of lan- 
guage, 555; of the horses, some points 
in the, ill. 13. 

Exhibition, colonial and Indian, at 
London, 478: for small industries, 569; 
international maritime, 434; of appli- 
ances for geographical education, 53. 

Expedition to Alaska, new, 566. 

Exploration, Egyptian, 263. 

Explorations in Greenland, hydrograph- 
ic, 409; in the Atlantic, deep-sea, 570. 

Explosions in coal-mines, 346, 389; means 
of preventing, 29. 

Explosive, new, 371. 

Exposition in Washington, proposed 
permanent, 186; international horti- 
cultural, 186. 

Extraordinary structure, a most, 572. 

Eyes, diseased, 514. 

Eyesight of Amherst students, 414. 


Faith, evolution and the, 483. 

Famine, fish and, in India, 125. 

Farnsworta, P. J. Equality in ability 
of the young of the human species, 80. 

Fat in animals, origin of, 444. 

Faye, H. Is the ocean surface de- 
pressed ? 421. 

FERREL, W. Note on the nocturnal cool- 
ing of bodies, 329; sea-leveland ocean- 
currents, 75, 187; the temperature of 
the moon, 32, 122. 

FIELD, C. Settlement of Jabor differ- 
ences, 372; the silver problem, 286. 

Fire, a well-banked, 304. 

Fish and famine in India, 125; commis- 
sion, English, 323; destruction of, by 
the cold weather in Florida, 139; in 
Connecticut, shell, 59; poisonous, 411. 

Fish-cultural station at Gloucester, 
Mass., 182. 

Fisher’s Outlines of Universal history, 
reviewed, 246. 

Fisheries board of Great Britain, pro- 
posed, 344, 431; French sea, 457; injury 
to, by sewage, 458: Massachusetts in- 
land, 89; interests, American, 113; 
nee 479; of Newfoundland, seal, 
413. 

Fishes, naturalization of, in Tasmanian 
waters, 44; significance of the term, 
295. 

FLETCHER. Alice C. Composite portraits 
of American Indians, 7//. 408. 

Flint, Austin, death of, 263. 

Flooding the Sahara, maps, 542. 

Flood Rock explosion, General Abbott’s 
report on the, 25. 

Florida, cold weather in, 415; destruction 
of fish by, 139. 

Flowers, fruits, and leaves, 549. 

Food-accessories: their influence on di- 
gestion, 312. 


584 


Food-consumption, 342. 

Food-materials, 154. 

Football, game of, 90. 

Forp, W. A. Tadpoles in winter, 146. 

Fore-brain, diseases of the, 359. 

Forest preserves near Boston, 236. 

Forest-culture, difficulties of, in the 
British empire, 559; in southern Kan- 
sas, 304. 

Forum, the, 213. 

Fossils, catalogue of British, 290. 

France, new geological map of, 74. 

Franklin institute experiment on electric 
light, 116. 

Frazer, P. International geological 
congress at Berlin, 141. 

Fredericq on the study of history on the 
continent of Europe, 177. 

French academy, appointment of secre- 
tary of, 370; prizes of, 50; pompous 
prolixity of the, 418; sea-fisheries, 457. 

Fresenius, chemical laboratory of, at 
Wiesbaden, 370. 

Friction, journal, 93, 

Frogs, common mouse the enemy of, 
549 


Froude’s Oceana, reviewed, 292. 

Fuertes, E. A. Underground rivers, 329. 

Fund, donation from Sir William Arm- 
strong to scientific relief, 1389; educa- 
tional, 370. 

Fungoid disease, new, 348. 

Fungus, peculiar, 348. 


G., A. Names of the Canadian Rocky 
Mountain peaks, 330; pompous prolix- 
ity of the French, 418. 

oF Ot The anachronisms of pictures, 


GaGE,S. H. Tadpoles in winter. 146. 

Gace, 8. H. and S. P. Amoeboid move- 
ment of the cell-nucleus, 35; combined 
aerial and aquatic respiration, 394; 
pharyngeal respiratory movements of 
adult amphibia under water, 395. 

Gambetta, brain of, 348. 

GARMAN, S. Amblystoma and Gordius, 
550. 

Gas, heating-power of, 467; petroleum 
and natural, 163; as found in Ohio, 
map, 560; wells of Pennsylvania, oil 
and, 251. 

Gas-lamp. new, 282. 

Gass, J. The Davenport tablets, 7/1. 438. 

Gautier, A., on ptomaines and leuco- 
maines, 411. 

Gems, remarkable, ill. 399. 

Geodetic survey of the United States, 
460 


Geographical education, exhibition of 
appliances for, 53; notes, 48, 72, 96, 
160, 233, 301, 367, 408; report on, 155; re- 
search, statistics in regard to, 164; 
society of Marseilles, death of founder 
of, 416; royal, 481, 519. 

Geography, how to teach, 551; devices 
for teaching historical, 525. 

Geography-teaching in Germany, 209. 

Geological and natural history survey 
of Canada, 459; class of Philadelphia 
academy of sciences, excursion of, 568; 
railway guide, 164; report on Marion 
county, Ky.. 30; survey in Brazil, 528. 

Geology of African lakes, 416; of Arabia 
and Palestine, 535. 

Geometry, study of, 15. 

Geothly pis, 536. 

Gerhard’s Guide to sanitary house-in- 
spection, 351. 

German emigrants, 548; universities, 110. 

Germany. blondes and brunettes in, 129; 
geography-teaching in, 209. 

Gheel colony of lunatics, 410, 

Giants and dwarfs, 82. 

GiLtBerRT, G. K. An open letter, 166; ba- 
rometer exposure, 571. 

per eke G. K., on the Equus fauna, 369, 
f}. 

Gilbert’s Topographic features of Lake 
shores, 263 

Glacial action on the shores of Lake 
Superior, evidences of, 145. 


Glaciers in Alps, 569; of the United 
States, 264. 

Glass as a sheathing for ships, 7. 

Gold, production of, in Australia, 547. 

Gan Gate, temperature of water of, 

Goldscheider, A., on the nerves, 459. 

Boone. G. L., lessons in botany by, 

VU. 

GoopricH, J. K. Demand for good 
maps, 79. 

Gordius, Amblystoma and, 550. 

Gore, J. W. Correction of thermome- 
ters for pressure, 144, 190. 

Government aid to the Marine biological 
association, 53; scientific bureaus, dif- 
ficulties of commission on, 185; sur- 
veys, 363, 427. 

Grafting of solanaceous plants, 187. 

mide Asa, sketch of career and work of, 
9 


Great Lakes, rise and fall of waters of, 
317; white-fish for the, 325. 

Grecian canal, 214. 

Greeks, singular custom among the, 237. 

Greely, Lieutenant, 435; provision for, 
on retired list, 547. 

Greely’s Three years of arctic service, 
reviewed, ill. 182. 

GREEN, C. C. Tadpoles in winter, 168. 

Greenland, expedition to, 885; hydro- 
graphic explorations in, 409. 

Griscom’s Farmer's view of a protective 
tariff, reviewed, 176. 

Guatemala, 550. 

Gudden, Dr., death of, 5388. 

Guiana, investigations of Dr. Ten Kate 
in, 238. 

Gulf Stream, 237. 

Guyot, Arnold, biographical sketch of, 
369, 385. 


H., F. H. The destruction of birds, 241. 

H.,G.G. A national university, 12. 

H., H. W. Primitive marriage, 147; the 
races of Britain, 84. 

Haager society for the defence of the 
Christian religion, prize of, 404. 

Habits, animal and plant, 100. 

Hapuey, A. T. How far have modern 
improvements in production and trans- 
portation changed the principle that 
men should be left free to make their 
own bargains? 221. 


Hadley’s Railroad transportation, re- 


viewed, 258. 

Hake, G. G., on the condition of Cyprus 
since its occupation by the British, 
576. 

Hae, H. Race and ijanguage, 399. 

Hatt, A. Reports of the National 
academy of sciences, 286; science and 
Lord Bacon, 143; world time, 373. 

Hail, J., on two plates of stratigraphical 
sections of the ‘laconic ranges, 393. 

Haut, W. H. A waste of public money, 
9 


Ham’s Manual training, reviewed, 492. 

Hamlin, C. E., death of, 74. 

Hampshire county, Mass., 
brood in, 118. 

Handley’s First lessons in philosophy, 
reviewed, 5. 

Handwriting of hypnotized persons, 302. 

Harrison, F., on the spelling of foreign 
names, 406. 

Hart, A. B., on graphic methods of il- 
lustrating history, 430. 

Hartmann’s Philosophical questions, re- 
viewed, 426. 

Harvard, anniversary of, 503; moral 
and religious instruction at, 427; ob- 
servatory, generous gift to, 503; sum- 
mer course in chemistry at, 283. 

Hauer, F. v., annals of Vienna natural 
history museum, edited by, 304. 

Haunted houses, apparitions and, 341. 

Haworra, E. A swindler abroad again, 
308. 

Haynes, H. W. Death of Father Gae- 
tano Chierici, 123. 

Health, drainage for, 316; Illinois state 


tornado 


SCIENCE. —INDEX TO VOLUME VII. 


board of, 449; improvement in Eng- 
land, public, 272; of New York during 
April, ill. 493; during February, ill. 
258; during March, ill. 363; during 
May, ill. 564; sewerage and, 335. 

Health-resorts of Mexico, 454. 

Heat and cold, different physiological 
senses for, 151. 

Heating-power of gas, 467. 

Hebrew university, founding of a, in 
New York City, 287. 

Heer memorial, 284; monument, 263. 

Height, ratio of increase of, to increase 
of bulk in the child, 150. 

Hemiptera, 369. 

Heute e Diet for the sick, reviewed, 


Henry, W. W., on religious liberty in 
Virginia, 430. 

Herrick, C. L. Certain homologous 
muscles, 396. 

Hibbert lectures for 1886, 436. 

Hicks, J. D. English sparrows, 36. 

Higgins, H. H., testimonial to, 370. 

HiLte@arpD, E. W. Absorption of mercu- 
rial vapor by soils, 462; Dr. Otto Mey- 
er and the south-western tertiary, 11. 

Hint, H. M. Tadpoles in winter, 119. 

HInMAN, R. Partition of Patagonia, 440. 

Hirn, Adolphe, 524 

Historical materials, neglect and de- 
struction of, 430. 

History. graphic methods of illustrat- 
ing, 430; study of, on the continent 
of Europe, 177; reconstruction of, 431. 

Holcomb, W. P., on Pennsylvania bor- 
oughs, 455. 

HoupeEr, C. F. Maori poetry, 330; Mar- 
vels of animal life, 220. 

Holder, J. B.. on sea-serpents, 523. 

Holder’s Marvels of animal life, 6 

Holland, primary education in, 457. 

Homes, W. H. The trade in spurious 
Mexican antiquities, 7/l. 170, 264. 

Holzapfel’s Roman chronology, re- 
viewed, 261. 

Homes, Japanese, and their surround- 
ings, 42. 

Hopeine, crystallized, 348. 

Hornaday’s Canoe and rifie on the 
Orinoco, 351. 

Horses, some points in the evolution of 
the, dl. 13. 

Horsford, E. N., on the landfali of John 
Cabot, 430. 

Hotchkiss. J., on topographical knowl- 
edge in battles and campaigns, 431. 

Houghton, A. B., on the Panama canal, 
420. 

Housekeeper, burning of the, 470. 

Hoyt, J. W. A national university, 121. 

HvuspparD, G. G. International copy- 
right, 135; railroad to Merv, Bokhara, 
and Samarkand, 47; the European 
colonies and their trade, 275. 

Hudson Bay railway, proposed, 98; route 
to Europe, 278. 

Hudson’s Railways and the republic, re- 
viewed, 579: Rotifera, reviewed, 402. 
Hughes, D. E., on an electric current, 

235; on self-induction, 442. 

Hughlings-Jackson on epilepsy, 533. 

Hull’s Geology of Arabia and Palestine, 
reviewed, 535. 

Human species, equality in ability of 
the young of the, 36, 

Humble-bee, remarkable powers of 
memory in the, 331. 

Humboldt Bay, chart of, 456. 

Hunt, T. S., on the Cowles electrical 
furnace, 369. 

Hurricane at Murraysville, Penn., 306. 

Hussak’s Rock-forming minerals, re- 
viewed, 294. 

Hvux.iey, T. H. The proposed fisheries 
board of Great Britain, 344 

Hybrid, the claimed wheat and rye, 56, 
190 


Hydrographic explorations in Green- 
land, 409. : 
Hydrology, meeting of international 
congress of, 304. 


SCIENCE. —INDEX TO VOLUME VIZ. 


Hydrophobia, evidence of, in dog that 
bit Kaufmann, 29; in animals, Prus- 
sian legislation relating to, 412; in 
Philadelphia, 426; Pasteur and, 213, 
282, 296, 303, 413; statistics concerning, 
521; treatment of, 457; virus at Johns 
Hopkins university, 515. 

Hygiene, journal of, 284. 

Hypnotism and the action of drugs at 
a distance, 522. 

meted persons, handwriting of, 


I., C. English sparrows, 35. 

Ice-storm, a recent, 190, 220, 242. 

Illinois, mounds of southern, 327; state 
board of health, 449. 

Iluminants, lighthouse, 332. 

India, fish and famine in, 125; progress 
in, 156; silver question in, 111; tax on 
salt in, 73. 

Indian cobra, venom of the, 88; grave, 
relics from an, ill, 34; languages, 
Be ePny of, 358; snake-dance, ill. 


“pea academy of sciences, 68, 435, 


Indians, composite portraits of Ameri- 
ean, ill. 408. 

Induction, 442. 

INGERSOLL, E. Fish and famine in In- 
dia, 125; names of the Canadian Rocky 
Mountain peaks, 308; the English 
sparrow, 80; the Rocky Mountains as 
‘seen from the Canadian Pacific rail- 
way, 243. 

IncHAmM, W. A. Aspects of the econom- 
ic discussion, 572. 

Seecation, yellow - fever, 90, 140, 428, 

iV. 

* Insectivorous plants, 355, 

Insects, fossil, 414; egg-masses of, 525; 
occurrence of singular, in Washington, 
369; power of vision of, 326; relation 
of birds and, as studied by the agricul- 
tural department, 111; sense of smell 
in; 272: bs 

Integrators, mechanical, 316. 

Intelligence of animals, 176. 

International congress for discussing 
papers upon climatology, 569; of hy- 
drology, meeting of, 304; on technical 
instruction at Bordeaux, 414; copy- 
right, 52, 111, 135, 140, 219, 327; geologi- 
cal congress at Berlin, 141; institute 
of statistics, 481; literary and artistic 
association, 525; maritime exhibition, 
434; philomathic congress, programme 
of, 455. 

Iron conference at St. Petersburg, 109; 
new meteoric, from West Virginia, 11; 
ore, statistics concerning, 549. 

enon: new system of, in Colorado, 


Italian journal of zodlogy, new, 569. 


J.. J. Dr. Hughlings-Jackson on epi- 
lepsy, 533: popular psychology, 106. 
Jackman, W. 'T., photographs of retina 

by, 458. 

Jackson, R. T. A new museum pest, 481. 
JaMus, E. J. Silver problem, 266; the 
state as an economic factor, 485, 490. 
JAMES, W. Professor Newcomb’s ad- 
dress before the American society for 

psychical research, 123. 

Jameson, J. F., on Usselinx, 431. 

Japan, agricultural industries of, 463; 
Imperial university of, 457; intellectual 
movement in, 450; railway-bridges of, 
mA ; Roman alphabet association of, 


Ji ee university, re-organization of, 


JasTRow, J. Elementary science-teach- 
ing, 114; the evolution of language, 


Jefferson, removals attributed to, 430. 
an university, legacy bequeathed to, 


Jets, ‘sympathetic vibrations of, ill. 494. 


Jevon’s Letters and journal, reviewed, 
577. 

Jewish ability, comparative distribution 
of, 247. 

Johns Hopkins university, anniversary 
of, 415; circulars, contents of March 
number of, 304; tenth annual report 
of, 24. 

Journal, new Assyrian, 351; scientific, 
in Berlin, 371; zodlogical, 327; new 
Italian, 569; of charities and correc- 
tion, international, 306; of hygiene, 284. 

Journals in Portuguese provinces, list 
of, 165. 

Judiciary, American, 430. 


K., W. Equality in ability of the young 
of the human species, 36 

Kamtchatka, expedition to, 99. 

Kansas university science club, 480. 

KELLER, G. Double vision, 440. 

KeELLoae, L. O, Penetrating-power of 
arrows, 550. 

eee J.S., on geographical education, 
155. 

KENNAN, G. A trip to the Altai Moun- 
tains, map, 18. 

Ketteler’s Theoretical optics, reviewed, 
401 


KiEpE, W. The Davenport tablets, ill. 
439, 


Kilauea, 504. 

Kine, F. H. Topographical models or 
relief-maps, 120. 

KINGSLEY, J.S. Cost of scientific books, 
101. 


’ Kirtland’s warbler, 413. 


Kittredge, G. L., on a singular custom 
among the Greeks, 237. 

Kleinpaul’s Proper names, reviewed, 
403. 


Knox, J. J.,on legal tender in the United 
States, 284. ; 

coke Algeria and Tunis, reviewed, 

Kocu, P. Montana climate, 167. 

Kogia breviceps, 413. 

Kongo, affluent of the, 160, 202; medical 
instruction for those going to the, 91; 
new map of the, 139; news from the, 
51; report on the, 68. 

Krause’s Explorations in Alaska, re- 
viewed, 95. 4 

Kiikenthal’s Die mikroskopische technik 
ni zoologischen praktikum, reviewed, 

Kunz, G. F. A new meteoric iron from 
West Virginia, 11; some remarkable 
gems, ill, 399. 


Labels, a convenient way of indicating 
localities upon, 352. 

Labor differences, settlement of, 339, 
372. 

Laboratories, two new medical, for New 
York, 480. 

Laboratory at Annisquam, Seaside, 368; 
Chesapeake zo6logical, 456; of Frese- 
nius, chemical, 370; physical, in mod- 
ern education, 573. 

Ladd on the Yale curriculum, 103. 

Laflamme, Abbe, on the physical geog- 
raphy of the Saguenay, 239. 

Lake Mistassini, 459. 

Lake Moeris, restoration of, 160. 

Lake of Constance, 525. 

Lake Ontario, levels of, 412 

Lake Superior, evidences of glacial 
action on the shores of, 145. 

Lakes of western New York, 273. 

Lanciani, R., on Roman archeology, 492. 

LANGERFELD, E. The competition of 
convict labor, 117, 143, 168. 

LANGLEY, 8. P. The temperature of the 
moon, 8, 79. 

Benes S. P., on the invisible spectrum, 

oO. 

Language, evolution of, 555. 

Languages, bibliography of Indian, 358; 
learning, 493. 

LANKESTER, R. Proposed English fish- 
ery board, 431. 


585 


Lanman’s Farthest north, reviewed, 94. 

Laos, travels in, 96. 

Lapland, Russian, 233. 

LAPPARENT, A. de. Is the ocean surface 
depressed? 419. 

Latitude, change of, 567. 

LAUGHLIN, J. L. Silver problem, 268. 

Laughlin’s Bimetallism, reviewed, 534. 

Laveran, malarial germ of, ill. 297. 

LeContr, J. Double vision, 506; pha- 
ryngeal respiratory movements of 
adult amphibia under water, 462. 

Ba ai John. Barometer exposure, 

Lectures at universities, free, 384; Hib- 
bert, for 1886, 436; juvenile, at the 
Royal institution, 54; Liverpool course 
of free, 54; on light, 338. 

Lez, L. A. A recent ice-storm, 242. 

Lee’s Microtomist’s vade-mecum, re- 
viewed, 65. 

pen C. H. Demand for good maps, 

il 

Legal tender in the United States, 284. 

Dee of letters of the alphabet, zl. 
128. 

Leslie, B., on an improved method of 
lighting vessels under way, 177. 

LESLEY, J. P. Topographical models or 
relief-maps, 58. 

Lesseps, M. de, and the North African 
inland sea, 112. 

Letter, an open, 166. 

Leucomaines, 411. 

Levees of the lower Mississippi, preser- 
vation of, 339. 

Lewis, T. R., death of, 545. 

Librarians, report of the annual confer- 
ence of, 98. 

Library of G. Dewalque, 525. 

Lick observatory, 49; large dome for, 567; 
trustees, purchase of crown disk by, 
434. 

Light, penetrability of, 456. 

Lighthouse illuminants, 332. 

Lighting, new system of, 435; vessels 
under way, improved method of, 177. 
Lightning-conductor, ribbon form of, 

185. 

Lime, caustic, used for gunpowder in 
collieries, 307. 

Lobsters, hatching, rearing, and trans- 
planting, 517. 

Lockhardt, Colonel, mission of, 568. 

Lockwood, Lieutenant, merits of explo- 
rations of, 139. 

Locxwoop, 8. Apropos to Pteranodon 
and Homo, 242. 

Lockyer, J. N. The data now requisite 
in solar inquiries, 386. 

Locomotives fired with petroleum, 448. 

Locusts, dried, 416. 

London, population of, 173; Royal so- 
ciety of, 477. 

Longevity, 109; in Salem, 503. 

Loomis, A. L., on cardiac diseases, 454. 
Loomis, E., on areas of high barometric 
pressure over Europe and Asia, 369. 

Louisiana purchase, 430. 

Lubbock’s Flowers, fruits, and leaves, 
549 


Lunatics, Gheel colony of, 410 

Lynx, means of distinguishing Canada 
lynx from Bay, 396. 

Lyon, D.G. Arsenic in wall-paper, 392. 


M. Explosions in coal-mines, 346. 

M.,T.C. Sir William Thomson to the 
coefficients, 9. : 

Macgowan on a supposed ancient phon- 
ograph, 348. 

Macgowan, D. J., on earthquakes, 348, 

Mackerel, winter habitat of, 263. 

Magazines, science articles in, 29. 

Magnetism, earth, 569. 

Malarial germ of Laveran, ill. 297. 

Malay peninsula, Sakeis of, 48. 

Malpais in Michoacan, Mexico, 49. 

Manganese ores in the United States, 
415. 

Manitoba, exploration of mounds in, 
186. 


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Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Torry botanical club, New York. 


Jan. 12.— The following officers were elected for 
the year 1886: president, Dr. J. S. Newberry ; vice- 
president, Mr Thomas Hogg; recording secretary, 
Mr. Arthur Hollick ; corresponding secretary, Miss 
M. O. Steele; treasurer, Mr. William H, Rudkin ; 
editor of bulletin, Mrs. N. L. Britton ; associate editor, 
Mr. F. J. H. Merril!; curator, Miss M. O. Steele; 
librarian, Dr. N. L. Britton. L. H. Lighthipe, in 
a paper on ‘A list of new localities for rare plants 
within fifty miles of New York,’ gave Cholaria 
virginica (L) as occurring in Somerset county, N.J. 
He stated that Paulownia imperialis has spread 
rapidly from seed along the west bank of the Mill- 
stone River, and is thoroughly established. Gerardia 
auriculata (Michx.) was found at Woodbridge, N.J. 
(the only known Iccality in the state). Albino plants 
of Sabbatia stellaris (Pursh), Gerardia purpurea (L.), 
and Brunella vulgaris (Tourn.), together with about 
forty other species, were included in the list. 


Indiana academy of sciences, Indianapolis. 


Dec. 29. — In pursuance of a cali of the Brookville 
society of natural history, the Indiana academy of 
sciences was organized by the adoption of a constitu- 
tion and by laws, and the election of the following 
officers : president, David S. Jordan, M.D. (State uni. 
versity) ; vice-presidents, J. M. Coulter, Ph.D. (Wa- 
bash coilege), J. P. D. John, D.D. (De Pauw uni- 
versity). and Rev. D. R. Moore (Brookville) ; secretary, 
Amos W. Butler (Brookville) ; treasurer, Prof. O. P. 
Jenkins (State normal school); librarian, Prof. J. N. 
Harty (Indianapolis). The ovjects of the academy 
were defined to be ‘‘ scientific research, and the dif- 
fusion of knowledge concerning the various depart- 
ments of science.” Membership is confined to per- 
sons ‘ engaged in scientific work or original research.’ 
The following papers were read: W. H. Ragan, 
The work done for meteorology in Indiana; E. R. 
Quick, The progress of the study of mammalogy in 
Indiana; Richard Owen, M.D., Sketch of the work 
accomplished for natural and physical science in 
Indiana; D. S. Jordan, M.D, Rafinesque and Indiana 
ichthyology ; J. M. Coulter, Ph.D , Indiana botany ; 
J. P. Naylor, Physics; Prof. O. P. Jenkins, Lower 
invertebrates ; Prof. O. P. Jenkins, Herpetology ; 
Prof. O. P. Hay, Herpetology; P. S. Baker, M.D., 
Entomology ; Maurice Thompson, Mineralogy ; R. T. 
Brown, M.D., The work done for geology in Indiana ; 
R. B. Warder, Chemistry; Rev. D. R. Moore, 
Indiana conchology ; J. B. Conner, Statistics ; A.W. 
Butler, The past and present of Indiana ornithology ; 
J. T. Scovill, Geography ; Danie] Kirkwood, Astrono- 
my. —— Adjourned to meet at Brookville, May 20. 


Natural science association, Staten Island, New 
Brighton. 


Jan. 9. — Mr. William T. Davis, in remarks upon 
the habits of some native rodents, stated that he had 
observed late summer or autumn broods of the flying 
and red squirrels,—a fact hitherto not recorded. A 

peculiar habit in the white-footed mouse was de- 
scribed, by which communication is effected with 
each other, especially when surprised. This is accom- 
plished by beating one of the fore-paws very rapidly 


on the limb of a tree or other surface, producing a 
noise somewhat similar to the tearing of asmall piece 
of paper. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 
Jan. 16. — Mr. J. S. Diller, Notes upon the geology 
of northern California; Mr. G. K. Gilbert, Post- 
glacial changes of level in the basin of Lake Ontario. 


Engineers’ club, Philadelphia. 


Jan. 9, election of officers. — President, Wash- 
ington Jones ; vice-president, Thomas M. Cleemann ; 
secretary and treasurer, Howard Murphy ; directors, 
Frederic Graff, Rudolph Hering, William A. Ing- 
ham, Col. William Ludlow, and Henry G. Morris. 


Chemical society, Washington. 

Jan. 14, election of officers. — President, Prof. 
H. W. Wiley ; vice-presidents, Prof. E. T. Fristoe 
and Prof. F. W. Clarke; treasurer, Prof. W. H. 
Seaman ; secretary, Dr. A. C. Peale. 


Admission to the Royal society. 


Will our correspondent, F. G. 8., of London, 
kindly furnish us his name and address? Epriror. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, Jan. 11-16. 


Afrika’s osten mit dort eréffneten ausblicken. Hefti. Berlin, 
Diimmler, 1885. 64p. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Baker, M. A group of circles related to Feuerbach’s circle. 
Washington, P%77Zos. soc., [1886.] [8] p.. illustr. 8°. 

Cosmos, the. Vol. i. No. 2. San Marco, Tex., Vogelsong, 
1885. a Ges 

Ebers, G. Cicerone durch das alte und neue Aegypten. 


Bandi. Stuttgart, Deutsche verlags-anstalt, 1886. 164355 P., 
illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 


Erman, A. Aegypten und 4dgyptisches leben im altertum. 
Bandi. ‘Tiibingen LauZf, [1886.] 16+350p., 7 pl., illustr. §&°. 
(NewYork, Stechert.) 

Festenberg-Packisch, H. von. Der deutsche bergbau. Ber- 
Bea eethen & A fpolant, 1886. 186p. 8°. (New York, Stech- 
ert 

Figuier, L. Les nouvelles conquétes de la science. Paris, 
Flammarion, |1886.] 644 p., illustr., map. 4°. (New York, 
Christern, $6.65.) 

Filhol, H. La vie au fond des Mers. Paris, Masson, [1886.] 
8+30r p., 8 pl., illustr. 8°. (New York, Christern, $3.35.) 

Fisher, G. P. Outlines of universal history. New York and 
Chicago, /vtson, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., 1885. 164674 p.; 
maps. 12°. 

Fluegel, O. Das Ich und die sittlichen ideen im leben der 


voélker. Langensalza, Beyer, 1885. 6+254p. 12°. (New York, 
Stechert.) ; 
Geymet. Traité pratique des émaux photographiques. 3d 


ed. Paris, Gauthter-Villars, 1885. 12+161-+|1t] p. 
York, Christern, $1.65.) 

Glaser, L., ed. Taschenworterbuch fiir botaniker und alle 
freunde der botanik. Leipzig, Wezge/, 1885. 8+485 p. 24°. 
(New York, Stechert.) ak 

Grashof, F. Theorie der kraftmaschinen. Lief. i. 

Voss, 1886. 160 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Hatton, F. North Borneo explorations and adventures on the 
equator. With preface by Sir Walter Medhurst. New York, 
Scribner & Welford, 1886. 16+342+32 p., 18 pl., map, illustr, 
° 


12°, (New 


Leipzig, 


Hayek, G. von. Handbuch der zoologie. Band iii. Wien, 
Gerold, 1885. 460 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Helmholtz, H. Le mécanisme des osselets de l’oreille et de la 
membrane du tympan. ‘I'r. by Dr. J.-A.-A.-Rattel. Paris, Deda- 
haye, 1886. 55 p-,illustr. 4°. (New York, Christern, $r.) 

Hueppe, F. Die formen der bakterien und ihre beziehungen 
zu den gattungen und arten. Wiesbaden, Arezde/, 1886. 8-152 
p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) ; 

Jaesche, E. Das grundgesetz der wissenschaft. Heidelberg, 
1886. 20+445p- 8°. (New York, Stechert.) | 

Koehler, J. Exercices de géométrie analytique et de géo- 
métrie supérieure. Parti. Paris, Gauthier—-Villars, 1886. 6+ 
347 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Christern, $3-) , ’ 

Leonhard, G. Grundziige der geognosie und geologie. Lief. 


i. Leipzig, Winter, 1885. 4-+192 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, oder des erdéles auf leucht- und schmieréle. Leipzig, Pa. 


Stechert.) 1886. 18+106 p., illustr. 12°. (New York, Stechert.) 
Luhmann, E. Die kohlensdure. Wien, Hartleben, 1885. Roth, E. Beitrige zu C. F. Nyman’s Conspectus flore Euro- 

16-+240 p., illustr, 12° (New York, Stechert.) pee. Berlin, Werdling, 1886. 47 p. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 
Muir, M. M. P. The elements of thermal chemistry. Londen, Saulle, L. du, Berryer, G., et Pouchet, G. Traité de mé- 

Macmillan, 1885. 16+312p.,1 pl. 8°. decine légale de’ jurisprudence ‘médicale et de toxicologie. ed ed. 
Muller, D.E: D. Memorie e letture scientifiche. Torino, Paris, Delahaye, es 12+1680 p., 2 pl., illustr. 8°. (New 

Unione tipografico- editrice, 1885. 8+645 p., 2 maps, illustr. York, Christern, $9.) 

4°. (New York, Christern, $5.) Schwatka, F. Albog Alaska’s great river. New York, Casse//, 
Nathusius, M. von. Das wesen der wissenschaft und ihre 1885. 360p., ‘illustr, 8°. $3. 

anwendung auf die religion. Leipzig, H7zmzch, 1885. 8-+446 p. Servus, H. Die geschichte des fernrohrs bis auf die neueste 

8°. (New York, Stechert.) zeit. Berti lin, Sprznuger, 1886. 8+135 p, illustr. 12°. (New 
Neumann, F. Vorlesungen iiber theoretische optik gehalten York, Stechert.) 

an der universitit zu Kénigsberg. Ed. by Dr. E. Dorn, Leipzig, Smith, W.k. Kinship and marriage in early Arabia. Cam- 

Teubner, 1885. 8+310 p., illustr., portr. 8°. (New York, bridge, Eng., University pr., 1885. 12+322+16 p. 12°. $2.50. 

Stechert.) Vidal, Manuel du touriste photographe. Part i ii. Paris, 
Raymon’, Dr. Anatomie pathologique du systéme nerveux. Gauthier 7 wlars, aeete 8+-238-+|16] p., illustr. 12°, (New 

Paris, Delahaye, 1886. 464 p., pl., illustr. 8°. (New York, Chris- York, Christern, $r. 35-) 

tern, $3.) Volkelt, Tis Erfahrung und denken. Leipzig, Voss, 1886, 16+- 
Rodbertus-Jagetzow, C. Zur beleuchtung der socialen frage. 556p. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Theilii, Berlin, Putthammer & Miihlbrecht, 1885. 64+284 Westphal, A. Basisapparate und _basismessungen, (Zeit- 

p..1 pl. 8°. (New York. Stechert.) schrift fiir instrumentenkunde, 1885-) Berlin, Sprzager, [1886.] 


Roszmaeszler, F. A. Lehrbuch der verarbeitung der naphtha [176] p., illustr. 8°. 


REPORT 
or tm ANN ARBOR MEETING oF tue 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCHENGE 


AS GIVEN IN 


SC hE Ae 


INCLUDING A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
ASSOCIATION, THE PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE-PRESIDENTIAL 
ADDRESSES, AND THE PROCEEDINGS OF EACH OF 
THE NINE SECTIONS, REPORTED BY SPECIAL 
SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENTS. 


With Portraits of the Retiring and Incoming Presidents, 


NEW YORK, THE SCIENCE COMPANY, SEPTEMBER, 1885. 


a ES ES 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Royal meteorological society, London. 


Jan. 10.— The president, Mr. R. H. Scott, in his 
address, said, that, as he had treated of Jand clima- 
tology in his previous address, he proposed to deal 
with marine climatology on the present occasion, and 
to take up the subject at the point where he had left 
it in his paper, ‘ Remarks on the present condition of 
maritime meteorology,’ printed in the society’s Quar- 
terly journal for 1876. He enumerated the various 
investigations which had been announced to be in 
progress at that date, and specified the several out- 
comes of these inquiries which had seen the light 
during the ten years. The ‘‘ Meteorological charts 
for the ocean district adjacent to the Cape of Good 
Hope,” published by the meteorological office in 1882, 
was first noticed; and the methods of ‘ weighting’ 
observations of wind, etc., employed in that discus- 
sion, were fully explained, as well as the mode of 
representation of barometrical results. The ‘‘ Charts 
showing the surface temperature of the Atlantic, 
Indian, and Pacific oceans,” published in 1884, and 
those of barometrical pressure, now in the engraver’s 
hands, were next noticed; and it was announced 
that the meteorological council had decided to under- 
take the issue of monthly current charts for the entire 
sea-surface. ‘The wind charts published by the late 
Lieutenant Brault of the French navy were next de- 
-scribed, with an expression of the profound regret 
with which the intelligence of his premature death 
in August last had been received by ail meteorologists. 
The wind charts and pressure tables issued by the 
Meteorological institute of the Netherlands were then 
explained, and also the publications of the Deutsche 
seewarte at Hamburg, ‘The atlas of the Atlantic 
Ocean,’ etc. The series of ‘Monthly charts for the 
Atlantic and Pacific oceans,’ issued by the hydro- 
graphic office, Washington, were then described, and 
the present series of ‘ Pilot charts’ issued by the same 
office were explained. As for projected work in 1886, 
Mr. Scott stated that the daily maps of Atlantic 
weather for the year of the circumpolar expedi- 
tions were now complete, and were being engraved, 
—a process which must take several months. The 
German office had undertaken the preparation of 
daily weather maps for the same period for the South 
Atlantic. The meteorological office had also taken 
up the marine meteorology of the Red Sea. The 
Dutch institute had announced its intention to pub- 
lish an atlas for the Indian Ocean. In conclusion, 
Mr. Scott stated that there still existed a lamentable 
want of data for the Pacific Ocean, but that, thanks 
to the energy of the Canadian government in opening 
up their new Pacific railroad, it was to be hoped that 
every year would bring a greater amount of traffic 
to British ports on the Pacific coast, and therefore a 
greater number of observations to the meteorological 
office ; while from the existing trade to San Fran- 
cisco a mass of materials was quickly accumulating 


for certain routes, at least over the vast area of the 
Pacific. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Engineers’ club, St. Louis. 


Jan. 6. — J. A. Seddon, Some considerations of the 
relation of bed to variables in river hydraulics. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 


Jan. 30. —- Mr. George E. Curtis, Lieutenant Lock- 
wood’s expedition to farthest north; Prof. O. T. 
Mason, Two examples of similar inventions in areas 
wide apart. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, Jan. 25-30. 


Bell, A. N. Climatology and mineral waters of the United 
States. New York, Wood, 1885. 8+386p., illustr. 8°. 
Church, J. P. Statics and dynamics for engineering stu- 
dents. New York, Wiley, 1886. 4-+194p., illustr. 8°. 
Froude, J. A. Oceana ; or, England and her colonies. 
York, Scribner, 1886. 12+396 p., illustr. 8°. $2.50. 
Hinrichs, G. Chronological list of scientific books and 
papers. Iowa City, A. ¥. Hershire & Co., pr.,1885. 16p. 8°. 
Hous:hold economy : a manual for schools. New York and 
Chicago, /uvzson, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., 1882. 8+145 p. 
56m 
Hudson, C. T. The rotifera ; or, wheel-animalcules. 
London, Loxgutans, 1886. 40 p.,[7] pl., illustr. 4°. 
Illinois state board of health. Report of proceedings of annu- 
al meeting, Jan, 21-22, 1886. Springfield, Staze, 1886, 66 p. 12°. 


New 


Part i. 


James, J Cephalopoda of the Cincinnati group. Cin- 
cinnati, Soc. zat. hist., 1886. [21] p.,[1] pl. 8°. 
King, M. King’s hand-book of Boston. 7th ed. Cambridge, 


King, [1886.] 387 p., 5 pl., illustr., map. 12°. ; 
Porter, C. T. Mechanics and faith: a study of spiritual truth 


in nature. New York, Putuam, 1886. 8+295 p- 12°. $1.50. 
Richards, E. H., Mrs. Food materials and their adultera- 
tions. Boston, Estes & Lauriat, 1886. 183 p. 12°. 


Swinton, W. Grammar-school geography, physical, political, 
and commercial. New York and Chicago, /uvzson, Blakeman, 
Taylor & Co., 18£0. 337 p., illustr., maps. 4°. 

Introductory geography in readings and recitations. 
New York and Chicago, /u7son, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., 1882. 
4+116 p., illustr., maps. 8°. 

Williams, G. H. Peridotites of the ‘ Cortlandt series’ on the 
Hudson River near Peekskill, N.Y. New Haven, A mer. journ. 
sc., 1886. [16] p., illustr. 8°. 


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STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology ; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
and aGlossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
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PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll.), 8vo., 496 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest 
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Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


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BOOKS AT HALF RATES. 
CONCORD LECTURES ON: PHILOSGPTTY. 


This was the first volume of reports of the lectures delivered at the school at Concord, 
Mass., and contains elaborate reports of all the lectures, poems, etc., of the year 1882 ; and 
also a brief history of the school. The volume was approved by the faculty, and each report 
was revised by the author; so that the whole is authorized and authentic. It is handsomely 
printed on fine paper with broad margins. Only 1,000 copies were made. 168 pages. Royal 
octavo. Cloth binding. $1.75, postpaid. 


WALTHAM: PAST“ AND Fike tite 


This is the only history ever published of the attractive city of Waltham, Mass., with its 
several gigantic manufacturing establishments, and many historical places. ‘The volume is a 
comprehensive history, and a complete description. The thirty-eight illustrations are real 
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graphs alone would, ordinarily, cost more than the price of the volume. 120 pages. Cloth 
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BENJAMIN PEIRCE. 


A memorial volume of the learned professor, who was ilentified with Harvard University 
for half a century, and whose name as mathematician, astronomer, and scholar has not been 
surpassed. The volume contains eulogies, poems, biographies, etc., by a number of eminent 
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binding. %1, postpaid. 


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Mrs. Partington, in this book, brings together the whole of her sayings in verse, which 
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400 pages. Cloth binding. $1, postpaid. 


MOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY. 


A small guidebook to the oldest rural cemetery, with notes about many of the legion of 
eminent persons whose remains have here found their final resting-place. 100 pages. 30 
illustrations. Pamphlet, 30 cents, postpaid. 


MOSES KING, Publisher, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass. 


NO. 279 BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY. 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Engineers’ club, Philadelphia. 


Jan. 16.— Mr. Howard Constable gave an account 
of the system used in London for the public supply of 
hydraulic power, which he has recently examined. 
The company was started in 1882, based upon the 
success achieved by a similar scheme in Hull. Their 
plant consists of about 12 miles of cast-iron mains 
distributed throughout the busiest parts of London, 
on both sides of the river, and as far west as Victoria 
Station. The mains and branches are laid so as to 
avoid any dead-ends, and with stop-valves so that any 
length of 1,000 feet can be isolated. The water used 
is taken from the Thames, and filtered into tanks, 
from which it is received by the pumps and passed 
into two accumulators, thence on through the mains. 
The pumps are of the vertical three-cylinder fiy- 
wheel type, compound condensing. single acting 
plungers, directly connected to piston-rod. The 
starting and stopping of the pumps is done auto- 
matically by the accumulators ; and, in connection 
with this, the arrangement for letting live steam into 
the low-pressure cylinder is very ingenious. The 
boilers are of the Lancashire type, fitted out with 
automatic fuel hoppers, stokers, etc., and fuel 
elevator. The hydraulic pressure used is between 
700 and 800 pounds per square inch. The charges 
for water power are made upon metre register and a 
sliding scale of prices. The financial success of the 
‘company was almost assured from the first. Mr. 
Constable also described a novel rubber spring ex- 
tensively used in England for tram-cars, railway 
draw-bars, buffers, etc. It consists of a cylindrical 
piece of rubber with a hole through the axis, and 
capped at both ends with bearing-plates : the draw- 
bar or location-bolt, of course, passes through the 
bearing-plates and rubber spring. The peculiar 
feature is, thata steel spring encircles the rubber. so 
that, as the rubber is compressed, it is re-enforced by 
an increasing resistance on the part of the steel 
spring, which tends to hug it back to its original 
form. It presents some excellent features for long 
range, endurance, uniformity or gradation of re- 
sistance, freedom from danger in collapse as well as 
in economy. Prof. L. M. Haupt read an illus- 
trated paper on harbors, containing data as to 
depths, etc., and showing that from New York to the 
Gulf there were only four natural entrances where 
the depth at mean low water was over 16 feet, while 
the largest ships draw from 26 to 283 feet. He com- 
mented on the unfavorable results obtained by using 
submerged jetties. A model was shown, exhibiting 
a portion of the bed of the lower bay of New York 
entrance, with the peculiar hole at the head of Ged- 
- ney’s Channel. He stated that he believed it en- 
tirely feasible to so modify the forces as tu change 
the direction of the resultant and throw it inte Ged- 
ney’s Channel. By such a local treatment an excel- 
lent entrance could be obtained to the harbor, at a 
cost very much less than that proposed to be expend- 
ed for the submerged dikes — five miles long — and 
other works, estimated at five or six millions. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Engineers’ club, St. Lowis. 
Jan. 20. — P. M. Bruner, Use of hydraulic cement. 


American academy of arts and sciences, Boston. 


Feb. 5. — William M. Davis, Thunder-storms in New 
England in 1885. 


Society of arts, Boston. 
Feb. 11. —A. H. Cowles, The Cowles electric fur- 
nace and the production of aluminum and its alloys. 
Feb. 25. — Charles E. Emory, On the distribution 
of steam. 


Anthropological society, Washington. 


Feb. 2.— W. H. Babcock, Song-games and myth- 
dramas at Washington; J. O. Dorsey, Siouan folk- 
lore. 


Academy of sciences, Davenport. 


Jan. 27, election of officers. — President, C. E. Put- 
nam ; vice-presidents, C. E. Harrison, J. B. Phelps; 
recording secretary, Dr. Jennie McCowen ; corre- 
sponding secretary, Prof. W. H. Pratt ; treasurer, G. 
P. McClelland: librarian, H. A. Pilsbry; curator, 
Prof. W. H. Pratt; trustees, Dr. C. A. Preston, 
James Thompson, E. P. Lynch, H. C. Fulton. 


Appalachian mountain club, Boston. 

Feb. 10. — Melancthon M. Hurd, An ascent of the 
Matterhorn ; W. G. Nowell, The Carter-Moriah path 
and camp ; W. H. Peck, An exploration of the Pilot- 
range. 

Feb. 17. — Jed. Hotchkiss, On Mount Rogers, the 
highest point of the Appalachians in Virginia. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, Feb. 1-6. 


Dahlen, G. Aufzeichnungen iiber die europdische gesell- 


schaft. Berlin, Levztz, 1885. 4+158p. 8°. (New York, Stech- 
ert, $1.10.) . : E 
Froelich, O. Die dynamoelektrische maschine. Berlin, 


Springer, 1886. 10+230 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert, 


as M. Where are we and whither tending? Three 
lectures on the reality and worth of human progress. Boston, 
Doyle & Whittle, 1886. 134p. 8°. 

Husnik, J. Die zinkatzung. Wien, Hartleben, 1886. 24+ 
165 p., pl., illustr. 312°. (New York, Stechert, $:.10.) ‘ 

Illinois state board of health. Seventh annual report. Spring- 
field, State, 1885. 66+613 p. 8°. 

Israel-Holtzwart, K. Elemente der theorischen astronomie 
fiir studierende bearbeitet. Abtheil. ii. Wiesbaden, Bergmann, 
1885. 8+4168 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert, $2.10.) 

Knies, K. Das geld. 2ded. Berlin, Wiedmann, 1885. 10+ 
450 p. 8°. (New York, Stechert, $3.70.) 4 

Kolberg, J. Nach Ecuador. 3ded. Freiburg, Herder, 1885. 
20-+550 p., 15 pl., map. illustr. 8°. New York, Stechert, $3.) 

Loeher, F. von. Beitrage zur geschichte und vélkerkunde. 
Bandi. Frankfurt-a-M., Azitten & Loening, 1885. 8+491 Pp. 
8°. (New York, Stechert, $3.) 

Meynert, T. Psychiatry, a clinical treatise on diseases of the 
fore-brain based upon a study of its structure, functions and 
nutrition. Tr. by B. Sachs, M.D. Part i.: The anatomy, 
physiology, and chemistry of the brain. New York, Putxam, 
1885. 12-285 p.,1 pl., illustr. 8°. 

Mierzinski, S. Die fabrikation des aluminiums und der 
alkalimetalle. Wien, Hartleben, 1885. 8-+112 p., illustr. 12°. 
(New York, Stechert, 80 cents.) 

Penafiel, A. Catalogo alfabético de los nombres de lugar 
pertenicientes al idioma ‘ Nahuatl.’ Mexico, Government, 1885. 
262p.,39 pl. 4°. . } ; 

Remsen, I. An introduction to the study of chemistry. New 
York, Holt, 1886. 12+387 p., illustr. 12°. $1.40. 

Richter, V. von. A text-book of inorganicchemistry. 2d ed. 
Philadelphia, P. Blackiston, son & Co., 1885. 432+16 p., 1 pl., 
illustr. 12°. $2. : ; 

Rincon, padre Antonio del. Gramatica y vocabulario mexicanos, 
1595. Reprint. Ed. by Antonio Pefafiel. Mexico, Government, 
1885. 92p. 4°. ; J 

Shaw, H.S.H. Mechanical integrators, including the various 
forms of planimeters. (Van Nostrand’s sc. ser.) New York, Vax 
Nostrand, 1886. 212p., illustr. 24°. 

Staehelin, A. Sommer und winter in Siidamerika, Basel, 
Schwabe, 1885. 8+235p. 8°. (New York, Stechert, $1.20.) 


Stefan, A. Die fabrikation der kautschuk- und leimmasse- 
typen, stempel und druckplatten sowie die verarbeitung des 
korkes und der korkabsalle. Wien, Hartleben, 1886. 24-+309 p., 
illustr. 12°. (NewYork, Stechert, $1.50.) 

Totzeke, A. Deutschland’s kolonien und seine kolonial politik. 
Minden-i-W., Bruns, 1885. 8+488 p., 11 maps. 24°. (New York, 
Stechert, $1.50.) 

Umlauf, Fr. Die Alpen: handbuch der gesammten alpen- 
kunde. Lief. i. Wien, Hart/eben, |1886.| 32 p., 3 pl., illustr. 
8°. (New York, Stechert, 25 cents.) 

U.S. navy. Report of the surgeon-general for the year 1884. 
Washington, Government, 1885. 24-+323 p-, 7 pl., 5 maps, illustr. 
Sos 


Training of enlisted men. (Naval professional paper 
No. 18.) Washington. Government, 1885. 96p. 8°. 
Volz, B. Geographische charakterbilder. Lief. i Leipzig, 
Fues, 1886. 48p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert, 25 cents.) 
Wesseley, J. E. Ergianzungsheft zu Andresen—Wessely’s 
handbuch fiir kupferstichsammler. Leipzig, Wezge/, 1885. 120 p. 
8°. (New York, Stechert, $1.10.) 


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STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis 
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PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
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MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
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Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest 
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An early number of Sczezce will contain a series 
of articles on the DESTRUCTION OF OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
for the purpose of procuring their skins for the use of 
milliners, which has now grown to be a serious ill. 
The series will open with an article on the present 
wholesale destruction of bird-life in the United States. 
This will be followed by other articles giving statistics 
of the trade in bird-skins, an account of bird destruc> 
tion on Long Island, the destruction of eggs of birds 
for food, the utility of birds, and the series will close 
with a history of the legislation for bird protection and 


with suggestions for possible improvements 1n bird laws. 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 


Jan. 19. — Dr. Leidy directed attention to a col- 
lection of fossil bones recently received from near 
Archer, Florida, containing numerous bones and well- 
preserved teeth of a rhinoceros, among which are 
fourteen well-preserved ankle-bones. Other of the 
remains exhibited belong to a species of mastodon, 
probably heretofore undescribed, the teeth resembling 
most nearly those of M. augustidens of Europe. The 
name ‘ Mastodon floridanus,’ was proposed for the 
form. Among the fossils are several isolated teeth 
and bones, apparently indicating three species of 
llama. One was larger than the existing camel, one 
smaller, and one of intermediate size. The names 
‘“Auchenia major,’ ‘A. minor,’ ‘A. minima,’ were 
given tothespecies. An ankle-bone of a megatherium, 
or fossil sloth, was also found among the specimens. 

Professor Heilprin called attention to collec- 
tions of fossil shells received from the geological 
surveys of Kentucky and Texas, and others from 
Florida, collected by Professor Wetherby. The 
specimens from Kentucky are internal casts of shells 
from the lower tertiary formation, and are the first 
fossils collected from that geological horizon in the 
locality indicated. Among them were specimens of 
Turritella Mortoni, a species characteristic of the 
eocene of Maryland. The Texas fossils indicate the 
existence of the Claiborne bedsin San Augustin county, 
Tex., while the collection from Florida is interesting 
as containing specimens of nummalites and other 
foraminifera, from a locality six miles south-west of 
Gainsville, and therefore indicating a much more 
northern distribution of these forms than had before 
been determined. The next course of lectures 
will begin on Monday, the 25th inst., at 4.30 P.m., 
when Dr. D. G. Brinton will deliver a discourse on 
paleolithic man, the course to be continued weekly, 
onthe same day, and at the same hour. The next 
course, on geology and paleontology, by Professor 
Heilprin, consisting of fifteen lectures, will begin on 
Tuesday, March 30, at 4.45 p.m., and will continue on 
Thursdays and Tuesdays of each week. The field 
excursions will take place on Saturdays, beginning 
in April. Professor Sharpe will deliver a course of 
ten lectures, beginning April 5, at 8 P.m., on the 
special senses, a comparative study of the sense- 
organs in different animals. A paper on ‘ New 
species of Partula from the New Hebrides and Solo- 
mon Islands,’ by William D. Hartman, M.D., was 
presented for publication. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Society of arts, Boston. 


Jan. 28. — Gaetano Lanza, Transmission of power 
by belting. 


_ Connecticut academy of arts and sciences, New Haven. 
Jan. 20. — A. E. Verrill, The origin of life on the 
North American continent. 
Academy of sciences, New York. 


_ Jan, 25.— John S. Newberry, The cretaceous flora 
of North America. 


Colorado scientific society, Denver. 


Jan. 4. — The following officers were elected for 
the year 1886: president, Richard Pearce; vice- 
president, P. H. van Diest ; secretary and treasurer, 
Whitman Cross; executive committee, P. H. van 
Diest, E. W. Rollins, William H. Headden, Franklin 
Guiterman, R. C. Hills, Richard Pearce, and Whit- 
man Cross. 

Biological society, Washington. 

Jan. 23. — The following officers were elected for 
1886: president, G. Brown Goode; vice-presidents, 
William H. Dall, C. V. Riley, L. F. Ward, Frank 
Baker ; secretaries, Richard Rathbun and C. Hart 
Merriam ; treasurer, F. W. True; council, T. H. 
Bean, R. Hitchcock, C. D. Walcott, O. T. Mason, 
George Vasey. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, Jan. 18-23. 


Bolton, H.C. Chemical literature. 
Salem, Salem pr., 1882. 29 p. 

Clarke, ie brief outline of the geologieal succession in 
Ontario county, N.Y. (Assem. doc. No. 161.) New York, Staze, 
[1886.] [14] p., map. 8°. 

Dawson, W. Note on boulder drift and sea margins at Little 
Metis, Lower St. Lawrence. Montreal, Caz. rec. sc., [1886.] 3 p. 
° 


(Amer. assoc. adv. sc.) 


Grant, C. E., and Dawson, W. Notes on pleistocene fossils 


from Anticosti. Montreal, Can. rec. sc., 1886. [4]p. 8°. 
Helmholtz, H. von. Handbuch der physiologischen optik. 
eded. Lief.i. Leipzig, Voss, 1886. 80*p., illustr. 8°. (New 


York, Stechert, $1.10.) 

Illinois state board of health. Medical education and medical 
colleges in the United States and Canada, 1765-1885. Springfield, 
State, 1885. 137p- 8°. 

The same. Decisions under medical-practice laws. (7th 
ann. rep.) Springfield, State, 1885. 44 p. 8°. 

Massachusetts drainage commission. Report on a general 
system of drainage for the valleys of the Mystic, Blackstone, and 
Charles rivers. Boston, Wright & Potter pr. co., 1886. 84-+-243 
p., 28 ol., illustr. 8°. 

Massachusetts. Twentieth annual report of the commission- 


ers On inland fisheries for the year ending Dec. 31, 1885. Boston, 
State, 1886. 83p.,illustr. 8°. 

Mittenzweig, H. Die bakterien-atiologie der infections- 
krankheiten. Berlin, Hizrschwadd, 1886. 8+135 p. 8°. (New 
York, Stechert, $r. .05. ) 

Newb erry, J. S. Notes ‘on the geology and penny. of the 
country bordering the Northern Pacific railroad. (N. Y. acad. 
sc.) New York, Gregory Bros. ,{1886.] [29] p. 8°. 

Nolan, J. Darwin’s theory of the genesis of the moon. Mel- 


bourne , Robertson, 1885. 16p. 12° 

Roscoe, H. E. Spectrum analysis. 4th ed., revised by the 
author and by Arthur Schuster, Ph.D., F.R.S. London, Mac- 
meillan, 1885. 16+452 p.,5pl., illustr. 8°. 

Stifft, H. Die physiologische und therapeutische wirkung des 


schwefelwasserstofigases. Berlin, Hzrschwald, 1886. 6+168 p. 
8°. (New York, Stechert, $1.10.) 
Todd, J. E. Boulder mosaics in Dakota. Philadelphia, 


Amer. nat. 2, 2586. 4.p.;.1, ply B°2 

U. S. marine-hospital service. Annual repert of the super- 
vising surgeon-general, 1885. Washington, Government, 1885. 
179 p.,2pl. 8°. 

Wiley, H.W. Experiments with diffusion and carbonatation 
at Ottawa, Kan., campaign of 1885. (Dept. agric. div. chem., bull. 
No. 6.) Washington, Government, 1885. 20p. 8°. 


Mivertised Hooks of Heterence, 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY ; or, Seise avis. on he ae 
of Morphology ; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
and a Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Juzson, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY 3. Guthoc: of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
» saa 8vo., 560 pp. "Se. 30. [vison, Blakeman, Taylor & 

» Pubs., New York. 

a OF THE'-~ BOTANY.. OF — THE. ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll.), 8vo., 496 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 

OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest 


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NEW YORK, THE SCIENCE COMPANY, SEPTEMBER, t255 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Torry botanical club, New York. 


Feb. 9. —Dr. J. S. Newberry gave an account of 
the fossil flora of the New Jersey cretaceous clays, 
as far as known up to date, illustrated by the draw- 
ings thus far made. New material is constantly 
coming in, much of it new toscience. Mr. Dudley 
exhibited specimens of unusually large hickory-nuts 
(Carya alba, Nutt), supposed to be abnormally de- 
veloped. Mr. Merrill showed a fungus of the 
genus Coprinus, collected in the Hibernia mine, 
New Jersey, five hundred feet from the surface. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Engineers’ club, St. Louis. 
Feb. 3. — M. L. Holman, Commercial brick for 


engineering purposes ; C. M. Woodward, The theory 
of ammonia refrigerators. 


Entomological club, Cambridge. 
Feb. 12. —R. Hayward, On the male of _Dytiscus. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 


Feb. 13. —J. H. Kidder, Historical sketch of deep- 
sea temperature observations: E. B. Elliott, Annual 
profit to banks on national bank-note circulation ; 
Quantity of U.S. subsidiary silver coin existing and 
in circulation ; Asaph Hall, The new star in the neb- 
- ula of Andromeda. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, Feb. 8-16. 


Bourke, J. G. An Apache campaign in the Sierra Madre. 
New York, Scrzéner, 1886. 6-+112 p.,illustr) 12°. $r. 

De Morgan, A, the late. Newton: his friend: and his niece. 
Ed. by his wife and A. C. Ranyard. London, Ev/zot Stock, 
1885. 6+161 p. 8°. 55. 6d. 

Greely, A. W. Three years of arctic service, an account of 
the Lady Franklin Bay expedition of 1881-84. New York, Scrzd- 
mer, 1885. 2vols. 25+428,14+444 p. 8°. (Subscription only.) 

Lancaster, A. Tableaux-résumés des observations météorolo- 
giques faites a Bruxelles pendant une période de cinquante années, 
Part i: Temperature de l’air. Bruxelles, Hayez, 1886. 79 p. 16°. 

Prestwich, J. Geology, chemical, physical, and stratigraphi- 
cal. Inez vols. Vol. i.: Chemical and physical. Oxford, Claren- 
don pr., 1886. 244-477 p-,6 pl., illustr. 8°. (New York, Mac- 
millan, $6.25.) 

Roig y Torres, R. Memoria acerca de la primera exposicién 
internacional de electricidad celebrada en Europa. Barcelona, 
La casa provincial de caridad, 1885. 12+64p. 8°. 

_Rred, A. Z. Evolution versus involution, a popular exposi- 
tion of the doctrine of true evolution, a refutation of the theories 
of Herbert Spencer,and a vindication of theism. New York, 
Pott, 1885. 12+273p. 8°. $2.50. 

Scribner’s statistical atlas of the United States. New York, 
Scribner, 1883. 120p,151 maps, illustr. f°. 

Servo-Bulgarian war, maps to illustrate the, with abstract of 
the treaty of Berlin, etc. Edinburgh, ¥ohuston, 1885. 8°. 


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Pott & Co., Pubs., New York. 


- MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
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Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


_OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest 
times to 1886. 32 maps. Fisher (Yale), 8vo., 690 pp. $3.00. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 
STATES : Showing by Graphic Methods their Present Condi- 
tion, and their Political, Social, and Industrial Development, as 
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WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
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An early number of Sczexce will contain a series 
of articles on the DESTRUCTION OF OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
for the purpose of procuring their skins for the use of 
milliners, which has now grown to be a serious ill. 
The series will open with an article on the present 
wholesale destruction of bird-life in the United States. 
This will be followed by other articles giving statistics 
of the trade in bird-skins, an account of bird destruc- 
tion on Long Island, the destruction of eggs of birds 
for food, the utility of birds, and the series will close 
with a history of the legislation for bird protection and 


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full sets of the volumes (six) of SCIENCE. Address 


‘“‘Publisher of Science,” 743 Broadway, New York. 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Natural science association, Staten Island. 


Feb. 15.— Mr. Hollick remarked upon the vege- 
table remains in the cretaceous fire-clay beds at 
Kreischerville. Specimens have been carefully stud- 
ied and compared with others from New Jersey, with 
the result of confirming that the Kreischerville beds 
are but the extension of those at Woodbridge and 
Amboy, and were continuous with them until cut 
through in comparatively recent times by the channel 
of the Kills. The specimens were found in a narrow 
stratum, nowhere more than a foot in thickness. near 
the surface of the bed. The stratum was conspicuous 
from its dark color, due to the mass of lignified vege- 
table matter which it contained. Much of this was 
broken twigs and branches, some pieces being quite 
large, and showing the woody texture very beauti- 
fully ; they, however, fell in pieces upon exposure to 
the air. Specimens of willows are found in almost 
every block of clay examined. There are two highly 
characteristic and distinct species, — one with a 
broad lanceolate outline, tapering to a somewhat 
acutish tip ; and the other a long narrow species, of 
almost uniform width, terminating in a blunt tip. 
There are great numbers of small leaves, evidently 
belonging to shrubs, resembling very closely some of 
our Hricaceae, and one of the fruits discovered ap- 
pears to be very much like a Vaccinium. Pine 
needles are distributed plentifully throughout, and 


-in one specimen there is a sheath or bundle contain- 


ing three needles. Another conifer which has left 
its marks is so close to Sequcia that it has been 
referred to that genus. There are also a number of 
fragments of parallel-veined leaves, which are prob- 
ably grasses or sedges. There are also little masses 
of a yellow substance here and there, which appears 
to be a fossil gum or amber. Dr. Carroll called 
attention to the relation between the death-rate for 
various diseases and the seasons. The importance of 
the ground-water as a factor in malarial diseases was 
urged, and the necessity of lowering its level by suit- 
able drainage wherever possible. The speaker con- 
sidered soil-saturation as the principal source of ma- 
larial troubles on Staten Island, especially on the 
drift formation. Mr. Wright exhibited a large 
mass of small stones (about a hundred in all) attached 
to one another by the edible mussel (Mytilus edulis). 
Mr. Davis stated that he had been informed 
some time ago, by Mr. Matthew Taylor, that a colony 
of night herons nested on Staten Island. The speaker 
in person had visited the heronry ; and, from informa- 
tion gathered, it appeared that the birds came to the 
locality about a dozen years ago, but as they have 
been persecuted by the Italian laborers, who eat their 
eggs in large numbers, it is doubtful if they will 
again return, only a few individuals having been 
seen this past summer. Some of the farmers in the 
neighborhood also collected their eggs, which, when 
beaten up, were fed to the cows. The nests are ex- 
ceedingly numerous, and are built in a thickly wooded 
oak-swamp. 


Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 


Feb. 23. — Dr. Leidy called attention to a specimen 
consisting of the posterior portion of a last upper 
molar tooth of the mastodon from Florida, which he 
had attributed to a new species under the name 
Mastodon fioridanus. The specimen is of unusual 


interest from the circumstance that it apparently 
exhibits the result of caries, — acondition of which he 
had never previously observed an instance in extinct 
animals. The supposed caries appears as an irregular 
excavation immediately above the crown of the 
tooth, about four lines in-depth. The surface of the 
cavity appears irregularly eroded. He also exhibited 
a specimen of the tusk of a huge extinct hog-like 
animal from Florida, which had been found mingled 
with the teeth of the mastodon before referred to. 
The specimen nearly accords in shape with the cor- 
responding part of the tusk of the hog, but approxi- 
mates in proportionate size that of the hippopotamus. 
The worn surface in the entire tooth has been about 
three inches long, and is an inch wide. Thin enamel 
invests the tooth: excepting on the posterior surface, 
it shows no trace of the fluting formed in the tusk of 
the hippopotamus, nor the strong external ridge of 
the peccary. No undoubted remains of either the 
hog or hippopotamus have as yet been found on this 
continent, the peccary appearing to be the American 
representative of those animals. The fossil was 
provisionally referred to a new genus under the 
name Eusyodon maximus. ———— Mr. Thomas Mee- 
han, at a former meeting, called attention to the fact 
that during the past winter, when the snow covered 
the ground, he had observed blackbirds eating fieely 
of the berries of the poison ivy, Rhus radicans, 
apparently without injury, although he had evidence 
that the berries as well as the leaves of this plant are 
poisonous to other animals. ——— Papers ‘On the 
structure of Stromatopora and its allies,’ by Dr. C. 
Rominger, and ‘On the phenomena of reversed 
vision,’ by Charles Morris, were presented for publi- 
cation. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, Feb. 22-27. 


Brinton, D. G. Notes on the Mangue; an extinct dialect 
furmerly spoken in Nicaragua. Philadelphia, McCalla & 
Stavely, pr., 1886. 22p. 8°. 

Brown, G. T. Life on the farm. Animal life. Ed. by J.C. 
Morton. London, Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 1886. 141-+1€ p. 
Tec. 

Connecticut agricultural experiment station, annual report of, 
for 1885. New Haven, 7uttle, Morehouse & Laylor, pr., 1886. 
I Sr towee 

efietedity, the journal of. A popular scientific quarterly. Vol. 
i. No.2. Ed. by Mary Weeks Burnett, M.D. Chicago, Yourn. 
hered. publ. Co., 1886. [48] p. 8°. 

Koehler,G. Die stérungen der gange, flétze und lager. Leipzig, 
Engelmann, 1886. 32 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Marme, W. Lehrbuch der pharmacognosie des pflanzen- 


und thierreichs. Leipzig, Vezt, 1886. 16+684 p. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert.) 

Mulhall, M.G. History of pricessince the year 1850. Lon- 
don, Longmans, 1885. 8-4-204p..8 col. pl. 12°. 

Otto, B. Schlagwetter und kein ende der forschung. Berlin, 


Springer, 1886. 4+112p. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Peters, H. Die untersuchung des auswurfs auf tuberkel- 
bacillen. Leipzig, Wigand, 1886. 24p. 12°. (New York, 
Stechert.) 

Rammelsberg. Die chemische natur der mineralien. 
Habel, 1886. gop. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Rauch, J. H. Report of an inspection of the Atlantic and 
Gulf quarantines between the St. Lawrence and Rio Grande to 
the Illinois state board of health. Springfield, Ill., State, 1886. 

rDe Ss. 

: Stricker, S. Allgemeine pathologie der infectionskrankheiten. 
Wien, Holder, 1886. 6+173p. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

U. S. bureau of education, circular of information, No. 4. 
Education in Japan. Washington, Government, 1885. 55 p- 8°. 
commissioner ef education, report of, for the year 
1883-84. Washington, Government, 1885. 272+ 943 p. 8°. 

Wilson, J. Drainage for health ; or, Easy lessons in sanitary 


Berlin, 


science. 2d ed. Philadelphia, AB/akiston, 1886. 74+23 p., 
illustr. 8°. $1. a! 
Wundt, W. Essays. Leipzig, Axgelmann, 1885. 4+386 p- 


8°. (New York, Stechert.) 


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ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
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MANUAL “OF THE > BOTANY “OP “THE VROCKY 
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PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
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SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 
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Bound in boards, and cloth. $65. 

Transactions philosophical, of the Royal Society of London : 


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and two registers. Wiesbaden, 1862-1884. 
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Many other valuble sets on hand at GUSTAV E. 
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For Sale. 


A complete copy of the ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 
UND CHEMIE, from the beginning (1790)“to the 
close of Poggendorff's editorship (1877), 262 vols. $625. 

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ET DE PHYSIQUE, from the beginning (1789) to 
the end of the fourth series (1873), 278 vols. $3g0. 

Inquiries to be addressed to ‘‘ ANNALEN,” care 
of the Publisher of Sctence, 743 Broadway, New York. 


Year 1-10, bound, 


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‘Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Engineers’ club, Philadelphia. 


Feb. 20. — Mr. J. Foster Crowell presented, in con- 
tinuation of his discussion of the interoceanic canal 
question, an exposition of the engineering features 
embodied in the Nicaragua ship-canal project in its 
latest form, claiming broadly the adaptiveness of the 
country to the purpose, and defining the canal loca- 
tion, which, in the author’s opinion, has been so con- 
trived as to fully avail of what nature has already 
done. He stated, that, in the limited sense in which 
the term ‘canal’ is generally used, it is a misnomer 
for this work, which is to be a slack-water system of 
grand dimensions, wherein lake and river naviga- 
tion, practically unrestricted under the treatment 
proposed, will constitute 128 8-10 miles, or 77 per 
cent of the entire passage between the oceans, while 
the artificial channels will aggregate but 40 miles, or 
23 per cent ; and of these artificial channels, 13 miles 
were to be made so wide and deep as to offer no ob- 
jectionable restriction, leaving only 27 miles of con- 
fined canal, divided into several separate stretches. 


_ There will be seven locks, — three on the Atlantic 


side, and four on the Pacific, — each 650 feet long, 
65 feet wide, and with 29 feet of water at least 
depth. For the great rock-hewn lock, with 53 feet 
lift, the ‘ rolling gate,’ 88 feet in height, was designed 
by Mr. Peary, U.S.N. The author considered that 


_ ocean-harbors were not necessary, and, if constructed, 
- would now constitute a source of superfluous expense. 


He pointed out the causes which had led in the past 
to the destruction of the once fine sea-harbor at Grey- 
town, but claimed that it would be possible to restore 
it partly but sufficiently, if, in the future, a necessity 
for it should arise..- 


Royal meteorological society, London. 


Feb. 17.— Capt. H. Toynbee, F. R. met. soc., read 
a paper entitled ‘General remarks on the naming of 
clouds,’ in which he stated that he considers it im- 
portant to keep to Luke Howard’s nomenclature, 
leaving it to the observers to express by an addition- 
al word any peculiarity they notice in a particular 
cloud. Mr. A. W. Ciayden, M.A., F. G. S., in a 
paper on the thickness of shower-clouds, said that from 
some measurements made by him during the summer 
of 1885, he has come to the conclusion that clouds of 
less than two thousand feet in thickness are not often 
accompanied by rain ; and, if they are, it is only very 
gentle, consisting of minute drops. With a thickness 
of between two thousand and four thousand feet, the 
size of the drops is moderate. As the thickness gets 
greater, the size of the drops increases, and at the 
same time their temperature becomes lower, until, 
when the thickness is upwards of six thousand feet, 
hail is produced. In a paper on the formation of 
rain, hail, and snow, the same author pointed out 


that all observations tend to show, that, except under 


quite abnormal conditions, the temperature of the 
atmosphere falls as the height above sea-level in- 
creases, and there seems no reason whatever for 
assuming that the law does not apply to that portion 
of the atmosphere which forms a cloud. Hence, if a 
drop were to be formed at or near the upper surface 
of a cloud, it would fall down into a region saturated 
with vapor at a temperature above its own. The 
result will be further condensation, producing a 


larger drop; and this process will continue until it 
leaves the cloud. If its temperature is below the 
dew-point of the air it falls through, condensation 
will continue until it reaches the ground. However, 
it is obvious that this subsequent gain cannot bear 
any very large proportion to the growth while falling 
through the saturated cloud ; from which the conclu- 
sion follows that the size of the drop must increase 
with the thickness of the cloud. The author suggests 
that the condensation begins on the upper surface of 
the cloud by the cocling of some of the liquid cloud- 
particles. If this particle is cold enough, it will 
solidify, and snow will be formed. Should it not be 
quite cold enough to solidify at once, owing to its 
minuteness, but remain still below the freezing-point, 
hail is formed. Finally, if the temperature is not 
low enough for either snow or hail, rain is produced. 
Mr. W. F. Stanley, F. R. met. soc., read a paper 
on ‘‘ Three years’ work by the ‘ chrono-barometer’ and 
‘chrono-thermometer,’ 1882-84.” The chrono-barome- 
ter is a clock that counts the oscillations of a pendu- 
lum formed by a suspended barometer. The upper 
chamber of the pendulum is a cylinder of an inch or 
more in diameter. By change of atmospheric press- 
ure the mercury in the pendulum is displaced from 
the bottom to the top, and vice versa. The rate of 
the clock is accelerated or retarded in proportion to 
the displacement of the mercury. The chrono-ther- 
mometer is a similar clock to the above, and the pen- 
dulum is also a barometer ; but, instead of the lower 
chamber being exposed to pressure, the whole tube is 
enclosed in a second hermetically sealed tube, con- 
taining air. Atmospheric pressure being thus re- 
moved, the expansion of the included air by heat 
alone forces the mercury up into the vacuum cham- 
Le and alters the period of oscillation of the pendu- 
um. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 


Feb. 27. — Asaph Hall, The images of the stars; 
G. K. Gilbert, On the changes of terrestrial level 
surfaces due to variations on distribution of super- 
ficial matter; T. C. Chamberlin, On the varying 
attitudes of former level surfaces in the Great Lake 
region, and the applicability of proposed expla- 
nations. 

Biological society, Washington. 

March 6. — George Vasey, New and recent species 
of North American grasses ; Charles Hallock, Hyper- 
instinct of animals; W.S. Barnard, Exhibition of a 
fungus, with remarks; H. G. Beyer, Remarks on 
antipyretics. 

Anthropologicai society, Washington. 

March 2.—J. Owen Dorsey, Sleight of hand 
among the Ponkas, Omahas, and Kansas Indians ; 
W. J. Hoffman, Jugglery among the Arikara In- 
dians. 

American academy of arts and sciences, Boston. 

March 10. — Charles R. Cross, Equal temperament 
and its realization on keyed instruments. 


Society of arts, Boston. 


March 11. — Clarence Pullen, Roadways of New 
Mexico. 

March 25. — Joseph D. Weeks, Certain phases of 
the labor question. k 


Medical library association, Boston. 
March 5. — David Hunt, The art of engraving in 
relation to medicine. 
Association of science, Crawfordsville, Ind. 


Feb. 23.—J. L. Campbell, Discoveries in electric 
science; J. N. Rose, Cross-fertilization in plants ; 
H. Thomson, The flora of Indiana. 


Engineers’ club, St. Louis. 


Feb. 18.—S. Burt Russell, Efficiency of a pipe 
system for furnishing water to fire-engines. 
i is Te ee eee ee 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, March 1-6. 


Afrika, atlas von. Wien, Hartleben, 1886. 
8°, (New York, Stechert.) ee 
spezial-karte von. Scale 1:4000000. Lief. iii.: Central- 
Sahara, Congo. Gotha, Perthes, 1885. 2maps. f°. (New York, 
Christern, 80 cents.) ; 

Bunge, G. Vitalismus und mechanismus. 
1886. 20p. 8°. (New York, Westermann.) _ ; 

Church magazine, the. Vol. i. No. 1. Philadelphia, Z. RX. 
Hamersly & Co., 1886. m. 128+12p..1 pl. 8°. 

Classen, A. Quantitative chemische analyse durch electro- 
lyse. 2d ed. Berlin, SArvzuger, 1886. 180p.,1 pl., illustr. 8°. 
(New York, Stechert, $1.90.) 

Dammer, O. Chemisches handworterbuch zum gebrauche fiir 
chemiker, techniker, arzte, pharmaceuten, landwirte, lehrer und 
fiir freunde der naturwissenschaft 2d ed. Lief. i. Berlin, 
Spemann, 1886. €4p. 8°. (New York, Stechert, 40 cents.) 
Der naturfreund. Berlin, Spemanz, [1886.] 124394 Pp., 
illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 


16 p., 18 col. pl. 


Leipzig, Vogel, 


Erman, E. Nordenskidlds Vegafahrt um Asien und Europa. . 


Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1886. 

York, Westermann.) 
Forum, the. Ed. by L. S. Metcalf. 

The Forum publishing company, 1886. 


20+397 p., map., illustr. 8°. (New 


Vol. i. No. 1. NewYork, 
103 p. 8°. se cents, 


Gneist, Das englische parlament in tausendjahrigen 
wandelungen. 2ded. Berlin, Allgem. ver. f. deutsche liter., 
1886. 8-+407 p. 12°. (New York, Stechert.) 


Harrison, F. The choice of books and other literary pieces. 
London and New York, Macmillan, 1886. 12+447 p. 16°. 50 
cents. : ; 

Henning, C. Systematisch-topographischer atlas der anatomie 


des menschen. Lief. i.: Kmnochensystem. Wien, Joeplitz & 
Deuticke, 1886. 48 p., illustr. 4°. (New York, Stechert, 85 
cents.) 

Kellner, J. Handbuch der ziindwaaren-fabrikation. Wien, 


Hartleben, 1886. 16+-224 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Meyer, W. A. Hypatia von Alexandria. Heidelberg, Wezss, 
1886. 8+s52p. 8°. (New York, Stechert, 55 cents.) ; 

Michelis, D. F. Aristotelis wept Epunvetas librum pro restitu- 
endo totius philosophiae fundamento. Heidelberg, We7ss, 1886. 
84 p. 8°. (New York, Stechert, go cents.) : 

Middleton, J. H. Ancient Rome in 1885. Edinburgh, Black, 
1885. 26-+512 p., 3 pl, illustr. 12°. (New York, Scribner & 
Welford.) : 

Moeller, J. Muikroskopie der nahrungs- und genussmittel aus 
dem pflanzenreiche. Berlin, Sprzmger, 1886. 6+394 p., illustr, 
3°. (New York, Stechert, $5.90.) ; 

Naville, E. La logique de l’hypothése. Paris, Bazl/iere, 
1886. 8+288+32p. 8°. (New York, Christern, $1.65.) Q 

Oestlund, O. W. List of the Aphididae of Minnesota with 
descriptions of some new species. (Geol. nat. hist. surv. Minn.) 
St. Paul, Minn., State, 1886. [40] p. 8°. ya } 

Ozanam,C. La circulation et le pouls histoire, physiologie, 
séméiotique, indications thérapeutiques. Paris, Bazdlzére, 1886 
14+-1059+8 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Christern, $6.65.) 

Recius, E. Nouvelle géographie universelle la terre et les 
hommes. Vol. xi. part ii: L’Afrique septentrionale. Paris, 
Hachette, 1886. 915 p.,4 col. pl., illustr. 4°. (New York, Chris- 
tern, $12.35.) / 

Roberts, M. J. Anatomical geometry and toponymy: an 
introduction to the scientific study of deformities. Syracuse, 
N.Y., Syracuse journal company, pr., 1885. 14 P.y illustr. 8°. 

Rousset, L. A travers la Chine. 2d ed. Paris, Hachette, 
1886. 429+-32 p., map, illustr. 16°. (New York, Christern, $1.35.) 

Russell, I. C. Existing glaciers of the United States, (U.S. 
geol. surv.) Washington, Government, 1885. [53] p-, [24] pl., 
illustr. 4°. ; 

: Sciences politiques, annales de l’école libre des. Vol. i. No. 1. 
Paris, Bailliere, 1886. 162 p. 8°. (NewYork, Scribner & Wel- 
ford. 

Scientific enquirer, the. Vol. i. No. 1. 
Tyndall & Cox, 1886, 20p. 8°. 


London, Bazlliére, 


Scipio, K. Des Aurelius Augustinus metaphysik im rahmen 

seiner lehre vom iibel. Leipzig, Breztkop/ & Hartel, 1886. 113 
8°. (New York, Stechert, 90 cents.) 

Sedna, L. Das wachs und seine technische verwendung. 


Wien, Hartleben, 1886. 24+144 p., illustr. 12°. (New York, 
Stechert.) 
Semler, H. Die tropische agrikultur. Band i. Wismar, 


Hinstor ff, 1886. 420p., illustr 8°. (New York, Westermann.) 

Shufeldt, R.W. The skeleton in Geococcyx. London, Yourz. 
anat. phys., 1886. [23] p., [3] pl. 8°. 

Simen, P. rimes et délits dans la folie. Paris, Bazl/zére, 
1886. 8+285 p. 16°. (New York, Christern, 85 cents ) 

Spitzka, E. C. The comparative anatomy of the pyramid 
tract. New York, Yexkins, 1886. 47 p. 8°. 

Uhler, P. R. Check-list of the hemiptera heteroptera of 
North America. Brooklyn, Extomological soctety, 1886. 32 p. 
° 

U.S. geological survey. Bulletin No. 15. Notes on the mes- 
ozoic and cenozoic paleontology of California. By C. A. White. 
Washington. Government, 1885. 32 p- 8°. 
Bulletin No. 16. On the higher Devonian faunas of 
Ontario county, N.Y. By J M. Clarke. Washington, Govern- 
ment, 1885. 86p.,3pl. 8°. 
: Bulletin No. 17. On the development of crystallization 
in the igneous rocks of Washoe, Nevada, with notes on the 
geology of the district. By Arnold Hague and J. P. Iddings. 
Washington, Government, 1885. 44p. 8°. 
Bulletin No. 18. On marine eocene., fresh water miocene, 
and other fossil Mollusca of western North America. By C. A. 


White. Washington, Government, 1885. 26p.,3pl. 8°. 

: Bulletin No. 19. Notes on the stratigraphy of Cali- 
fornia. By George F. Becker. Washington, Government, 1885. 
23p. 8°. 


Bulletin No. 20, Contribution to the mineralogy of the 
Rocky Mountains. By Whitman Cross and W. F. Hillebrand. 
Washington, Government, 1885. 114p.,1 pl. 8°. 

Bulletin No. 21. The lignites of the great Sioux res- 
ervation, a report on the region between the Grand and Moreau 
rivers, Dakota. By Bailey Willis. Washington, Government, 


1885. 16p.,4pl., map, illustr. 8°. 
Bulletin No. 22. On new cretaceous fossils from Cali- 
fornia. By C. A. White. Washington, Government, 1885. 


25 ps5 pl: +8°.) ; ‘ : 

Bulletin No. 23. Observations on the junction between 
the eastern sandstone and the Keweenaw series on Keweenaw 
Point, Lake Superior. By R. D. Irving and T. C. Chamberlin. 
Washington, Government, 1885. 8+124 p.,17 pl., illustr. 8°. 

Venerand, W. Asbest und feuerschutz. Wien, Hart/eden, 
1886. 20+216 p., illustr. 12°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Weismann, A. Die bedeutung der sexuellen fortpflanzung 
fiir die selektions-theorie. Jena, Fischer, 1086. 84-128 p. 8°. 
(New York, Stechert.) 

Zenger, K. W. Die meteorologie der sonne und ihres sys- 
temes. Wien, Hartleben, 1886. 24+231 p., 4 pl., illustr. 8°. 
(New York, Stechert.) 

Zoologisches taschenbuch fiir studirende. 3ded. Erlangen, 
Besold, |1886.] 140+20p. 16°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Zwerger, M. Die lebendige kraft undihrmass. Miinchen, 
Lindauer, 1885. 4-+290 p. 12°. (New York, Westermann.) 


Advertised Books of Reference. 


GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL. AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxtord. Intwovols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
& Co., Pubs., New York. 


ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient, mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y. 


MANUAL. OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll), 8vo., 496 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. ras 


PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; IJ. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Lvison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology ; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
anda Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp- 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


1 


i ten i, Mi, ee 


-tary, A. W. Butler; treasurer, C. F. 


i: 


‘ Calendar of Societies. 


Advertised Books of Reference. 


Biological society, Washington. 


Feb. 20. — Romyn Hitchcock, Demonstration of 
the resolving power of a new 1-16 inch objective ; 
D. E. Salmon and Th. Smith, On a new method of 
producing immunity from contagious diseases ; C. V. 
Riley, A carnivorous butterfly larva; Lester F. 
Ward, The plane tree and its ancestors; C. Hart 
Merriam, Contributions to North American mam- 
malogy, Description of a new species of Aplodontia ; 
George Vasey, New and recent species of North 
American grasses. 


Anthropological society, Washington. 


Feb. 16.— James H. Blodgett, Suffrage and its 
mechanism in Great Britain and the United States. 


Society of arts, Boston. 
Feb. 25.—Charles E. Emery, Distribution of 
steam. 


March 11.— Hon. Clarence Pullen, Roadways of 
New Meixco. 


Society of natural history, Brookville, Ind. 


Feb. 16, annual meeting. — Theo. L. Dickerson, 
The mounds of Franklin county. 

The following officers were elected for the ensuing 
year: president, Rev. D. R. Moore; vice-president, 
D. W. McKee; correspondent, E. R. Quick ; secre- 
Goodwin ; 
librarian, George Rockafellar. 


Science club, Richmond, Ind. 


Feb. 19, election of officers. — President, Prof, D. 
N. Dennis of Eastham college ; secretary, Dr. C. S. 
Bond. Mr. Porter exhibited several telephones. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, Feb. 15-20. 


Blake, W. P. Nickel. Antimony. From ‘ Mineral resources of 
the U.S.’ Washington, Government, 1885. 6411p. 8°. 

Canada, map of the dominion of, scale 27 1-2 statute miles to 
aninch. Canada, Department of railways and canals, 1882. 

Chemical society of Washington, bulletin of the. No. 1. 
Jan. 12, 1884, to Jan. 14, 1886. Washington, 1886. 28p. 8°. 

Debierre, C. Manuel d’embryologie humaine et comparée. 
Paris, Doin, 1886. 10+780p., 8 pl., illustr. 12°. (New York, 
Christern, $2.65.) : é ; 

Droysen's allgemeiner historischer handatlas. 
hagen & Klasing, 1886. 92 p., 96 maps. f°. 
Stechert.) . ] 

Dyer, G. L. The use of oil to lessen the dangerous effects of 
heavy seas. Bulletin of the U. S. hydrographic office, No. 82. 
Washington, Government, 1886. 27p- 8°. | . 

Goode, G. B. The fisheries and fishery industries of the 
United States. Section 1: Natural history of useful aquatic 
animals. Washington, Government, 1884. 54+895 p., 277 pl., 
illustr. 4°. = oe ' : 

Ninni, A. P. Rapporto a S. E. il ministro di agricoltura, in- 
dustria e commercio di ; progetti per estendere la pescicoltura ed 
introdurre la cocleocoltura, etc. Rome, Zredz Botta, pr., 1885. 
fp., map. . 8°. en 

Ratzel, F. Allgemeine naturkunde. Vol. i., lief. 11-17. Leip- 
zig, Bibliographisches institut, 1885. [355] p.,9 col. pl., illustr. 
8°. (New York, Westermann.) 

Redard, P. De la désinfection des wagons ayant servi au 
transport des animaux sur les voies ferrées. Paris, Doz, 1885. 
6+156 p., 6 pl., illustr. 8°. (New York, Christern, $2.) 

Richon, C., et Roze, E. Atlas des champignons comestibles 


leipzig, Vel- 
(New York, 


et vénéneux de la France et des pays:circonvoisins accompagné 


d’une monographie de ces 210 espéces et d’une histoire générale, 
Fasc. i. Paris, Dozz,[1886.] 24 p.,8 col. pl., illustr. f°. (New 
York, Christern, $3.3.) 

Robin, C. Nouveau dictionnaire abrégé de médecine et des 
sciences physiques, chemiqucs et naturelles. Paris, Doz, 1886. 
t6+1000 p. 4°. (New York, Christern, $6.65.) 


ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient. mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll ), 8vo., 496 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology ; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
and a Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp- 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. ~ A 
new, thoroughly revised, and greatly enlarged edition. A univer- 
sal pronouncing dictionary of biography and mythology. Con- 
taining complete and concise biographical sketches of the eminent 
persons of all ages and countries. By J. Thomas, M.D., LL.D. 
Imperial 8vo. 2550 pages. Sheep. $12.00. J. B. Lippincott 
Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


ELEMENTARY BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SCI- 
ENCES (HEROES OF SCIENCE) 12mo, cloth. $1.30 each by mail. 
Botanists, zodlogists, and geologists, by Prof. Martin Duncan. 
Astronomers, by E, J. C. Morton, Esq. Chemists, by M. M. 
Pattison Muir, F.R.S.G. Mechanicians, by T. C. Lewis. E. & 
J. B. Young Co., Pubs., Cooper Union, New York City. 


ENCYCLOPDIA OF CHEMISTRY. Theoretical, prac 
tical, and analytical. as applied to the arts and manufactures. By 
Writers of Eminence. Profusely and handsomely illustrated. In 
two volumes. Each containing 25 steel-plate engravings and 
numerous woodcuts. Imperial 8vo. Price per set: Extra cloth, 
$15.00. Library sheep, $18.00. Half morocco, $20.00. J. B. 
Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadclphia. 


HOURS WITH THE BIBLE, or the Scriptures in the Light 
of Modern Discovery and Knowledge. By Rev. Cunningham 
Geikie, D.D. Theseries covers the whole of the Old Testament. 
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and each complete and distinct in itself. $1.50 per vol. James 
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INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
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OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest 
times to 1886. 32 maps. Fisher (Yale), 8vo., 690 pp. $3.00. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 
STATES : Showing by Graphic Methods their Present Condi- 
tion, and their Political, Social, and Industrial Development, as 
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other Authoritative Sources. 120 Pages Text, 151 plates (31 
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by Subscription. Descriptive circular sent on application. 
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THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory representei. Large i2mo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 
ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
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POLITICAL SCIENCE 
OUARTERLY, 


A REVIEW DEVOTED TO HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND JURISPRUDENCE. 


_ EDITED BY 


THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 


‘THE scope and purpose of the POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY are indicated by its name. Political science 

is the science of the state. The QUARTERLY will furnish a field for the discussion of all questions—historic, 
economic or legal—which concern the organization of the state, the evolution of law, the relation of states one 
to another, and the relation of government to the individual. 


The topics discussed in the QUARTERLY will be discussed from a scientific point of view, by writers who 
have made special study of the subjects which they treat. That the articles to be published in the QUARTERLY 
shall be scientific does not, in the opinion of the editors, imply that they must be unintelligible to all readers 
not themselves specialists. It is believed that the results of scientific investigation of political and economic 
questions can be so presented as to be perfectly intelligible to any liberally educated man; and it will be the 
effort of the editors to have them so presented. 


THE POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY will be devoted primarily to the investigation of questions of present 
interest in the United States. But the editors by no means take the position that we have ‘‘ nothing to do with 
abroad.” They think that the experience of the older civilization of Europe should be made tributary to the 
political development of America, 


Beyond the demand that articles written for the QUARTERLY shall be scientific, intelligible and of interest to 
Americans, the editors will impose no conditions upon the contributors. They will impose no tests of political 
or economic orthodoxy, for as editors they have none. Individually, they will express their own opinions, as 
they will permit contributors to express theirs. Every article will be signed; and every writer who alleges facts 
not commonly known willbe expected to cite his evidence. The editors will neither take unsupported statements 
on faith, nor ask the public to take such statements on authority. 


THE FIRST NUMBER TO APPEAR ABOUT MARCH 15, WILL CONTAIN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES : 


Introduction ; : PROF. MUNROE SMITH. 
The American Cominamwedities Changes in its relation to the Nation, PROF. JOHN W. BURGESS. 
Legislatiwwe Inquests, . ; ; , . ; : : . FREDERICK W. WHITRIDGE. 
American Labor Statistics, : ; . PROF. RICHMOND M. SMITH. 
The Conference at Berlin on the West- 4 frican Guanes : , DANIEL DE LEON, Ph.D. 


ARTICLES ON THE FOLLOWING TOPICS ARE IN PREPARATION: 


The Constitution in Civil War and Reconstruction, The Negro in Politics, Self-Government and Civil-Service 
Reform, Civil Disabilities of Aliens in the United States, History of the New York City Charter, English Socialism, 
The Recent Constitutional Crisis in Norway, The American Expatriation Treaties. 


GINN & COMPANY, Publishers, 743 Broadway, N. Y. 


180 WABASH AVE. CHICAGO. 9 AND 13 TREMONT PLACE, BOSTON. 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 


March 3.— Prof W. K. Brooks communicated the 
results of observations made during the last six or 
seven years on the development and alternation of 
generations in the hydro-medusae organisms, which, 
in the last term of their life-history, become a form 
of jelly-fish after ceasing to be polyps. It is de- 
sirable that such phenomena be traced from the 
simple beginning to the more complex conditions. 
The speaker gave an illustrated description of the 
development of podocoryne, a form found on our 
coast. When hatched from the egg, it appears in 
the planula stage, or that of a little infusorial form 
covered with cilia, and pushing through the water 
by means of them, like ordinary infusoria. It soon 
loses its cilia, and settles on the shell of a hermit- 
crab, where, assuming the form of a root, it branches 
freely, and soon covers the surface on which it is 
placed. The first hydras formed from this root have 
the appearance of ordinary fresh-water hydras. They 
are produced to the number of two hundred or three 
hundred, and have a mouth and a digestive tract 
continuous with that of the root. Their function is 
to nourish the colony. Another form of hydra is 
soon developed. They are many times longer than 
the first, have short tentacles greatly developed at 
their tips, which are packed with the poisonous 
lasso-cells by means of which prey is paralyzed and 
captured. The latter hydras have no mouth, and 
take no food. They depend for their sustenance on 
the feeding-hydras which are first developed, al- 
though they are efficient in supplying nutritive ma- 
terial to be operated on by the latter. The so-called 
blastostyles are now.developed. These also take no 
food themselves, nor are they defensive, but around 
them grow the medusa buds, which increase rapidly 
in size, and soon become larger than the whole 
hydroid community to which they belong. They are 
ultimately set free, and swim about like independ- 
ent jelly-fish. Each blastostyle produces many of 
these independent organisms. In most hydroids 
these become the sexual form, but in the species 
of podocoryne found on our coast there is still 
another step before the ultimate development is 
reached. Little buds are formed by the independent 
jelly-fishes, which are set free, develop reproductive 
elements, and bear eggs, which complete the cycle 
by again producing the planula stage. The sex in 
these organisms is definitely determined in the 
planula, although not fully developed until the 
second generation of buds, each crop being all 
male or all female, according to the kind of planula 
producing it. In the Geryonidae a single egg be- 
comes a single sexual individual. It passes; how- 
ever, contrary to the general belief, through the 
planula and hydroid stages, which are true em- 
bryonic states, the development being a direct meta- 
morphosis. The planula and hydroid stages of this 

form have not been before defined. In Aegina each 
egg hatches into a ciliated, two-layered planula, 
which lengthens, and develops tentacles. A mouth 
breaks through, and the planula becomes a little 
hydra. This grows, a flange connects the tentacles, 
and the epithelium is pushed in to form a cavity. 
Turritopsis, a jelly-fish of an entirely different group, 
is infested by the parasitic larva of a medusa which 


fastens itself in the angle of the pendant stomach. 
Each parasite is provided with a long proboscis, by 
means of which it reaches into the digestive cavity 
of its host, and thus obtains nourishment. Little 
colonies of these parasites, the Cuninae, ultimately 
develop into medusae. Here there is an asexual 
multiplication, but no true alternation of generation. 
Another species of Cuninae is found as a parasite 
upon geryonids. This has not been found on our 
coast, but its history has been traced by a Russian 
embryologist. The planula which hatches from the 
eggs becomes parasitic in the geryonid, but it never 
completes its development, or becomes a medusa. It 
remains a budding-stolon, from which other hydra 
are produced. These facts indicate, in the opinion 
of the speaker, that alternation of generations does 
not arise in the first place from polymorphism, or 
from the separate existence of varied forms, but by 
the power of the hydra larva to develop asexually. 
Although the parasitism of Cuninae has long en- 
gaged the attention of embryologists, many of whom 
have gone hopelessly astray in their interpretation, 
it is interesting to note that an American naturalist, 
McCrady, nearly forty years ago, wrote an account 
of the phenomena which is essentially correct. 


Microscopical society, West Chester, Penn. 


March 9. — The committee appointed to take into 
consideration the act of assembly passed the 23d day 
of June, A.D. 1885, entitled ‘‘ An act for the de- 
struction of wolves, wild-cats, foxes, minks, hawks, 
weasels, and owls, in this commonwealth,” and 
which reads as follows, — ‘‘That for the benefit of 
agriculture and for the protection of game within 
this commonwealth there is hereby established the 
following premiums for the destruction of certain 
noxious animals and birds, to be paid by the re- 
spective counties in which the same are slain; 
namely, for every wild-cat two dollars, for every 
red or gray fox one dollar, for every mink fifty 
cents, for every weasel fifty cents, for every hawk 
fifty cents, and.for every owl (except the Acadian 
barn or screech owl, which is hereby exempted from 
the provisions of this act) fifty cents,” — report that 
all of the birds denounced in the law above quoted, 
with rare exceptions, have been found to be the best 
friends of the farmer. Dr. H. H. Warren, the orni- 
thologist of the Pennsylvania state board of agricul- 
ture, and chairman of the committee, had corre- 
sponded with the best ornithologists in the country, 
asking their opinion as to the benefits or injury likely 
to arise from the execution of the law against the birds 
therein named. Answers were received from Dr. C. 
Hart Merriam, Robert Ridgway, Dr. Leonard Stej- 
neger, H. W. Henshaw, and Lucien M. Turner, all 
bearing testimony that the hawks and owls are of 
great benefit to the farmer, and render him far 
greater service than injury, and that it is unwise to 
select any of them for destruction. The committee 
stated that there have been ninety odd hawks and a 
dozen or more owls killed since the law was passed, 
June 23, 1885, at a cost to this county of about 
seventy-five dollars, and that the slaughter is still 
going on, and further urged that the members of the 
state legislature be requested to aid in the repeal of 
the act so far as it relates to these birds. 


Science club, Richmond, Ind, 


March 5. — Dr. Bond cited a case of cerebral local- 
ization in his practice, where euphasia had been pro- 


duced by a gunshot wound in the left side of the 
skull. A plate of bone pressing on the brain was re- 
moved, curing the disease ; but, after this operation, 
an abscess formed, causing in succession, as it spread 
downward, euphasia, paralysis of the right leg, and 
paralysis of the right arm. The abscess was then 
lanced, and in a few hours these symptoms disap- 
peared, and in a short time the patient’s health was 
completely restored. 


Engineers’ club, St. Louis. 


Feb. 3.— Mr. Robert E. McMath, ina paper on 
‘The future drainage of St. Louis,’ stated that the 
drainage has hitherto been a simple problem, for the 
discharge of sewage has been direct to the Missis- 
sippi. About twelve square miles have been sewered. 
Sewers now begun, when completed, will drain about 
twenty-two square miles; others of like character, 
one and a half ; leaving twenty-one square miles of 
territory which will require sewering, and seventeen 
square miles which probably will not. Interior 
basins without natural visible outlets have controlled 
the sewer-work of the city, since they require sewers 
large enough to carry the greatest rainfall from the 
depressed areas. Notabie examples of these de- 
pressed basins remain, one each of 100, 200, 630, and 
900 acres. Three of these lie in the direction of the 
city’s most rapid growth. The unsewered territory 
is largely of the character of prairie-land, and natu- 
rally less fit for use as building-ground than was the 
ground in the old limits, characterized by sink-holes: 
hence sewer-construction is more urgent in the new 
territory than it was in the old. The plan suggested 
for sewering the new territory is: 1°. Sewers carry- 
ing house drainage and storm-waters from the high 
grounds aloug the minor water-courses, same as now 
the practice ; 2°. Intercepting sewers, receiving the 
ordinary flow from several sewers of the preceding 
class, extraordinary flow to pass into natural open 
channels: 35°. Collecting sewers to guard Forest 
Park and the River des Peres from sewage, to which 
the foul drainage from territory north of the park, 
and west of Union Avenue, and south of the park, 
Cheltenham, Benton, ete., shall be pumped for con- 
veyance to Mill Creek sewer ; 4°. Storm-water con- 
duits, to take surface-water from a distance between 
Taylor Avenue and Kings Highway, Eastern and 
Duncan Avenues to River des Peres, and from the 
south part of the Mill Creek basin to the Des Peres. 
The plan proceeds on the assumption, 1°, that sew- 
age can always be discharged into the Mississippi 
without purification ; 2°, that River des Peres and 
Harlem Creek are too large to be covered in as sew- 
ers, and cannot be tolerated if allowed to become 
channels for sewage ; 3°, that pumping sewage from 
the more distant suburbs is to be preferred on the 
ground of certainty to methods of disposal by irriga- 
tion ; 4°, that Mill Creek sewer will eventually be 
unable to carry all its storm-water from its tributary 
territory. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Torrey botanical club, New York. 


March 9.— Mrs. N. L. Britton, Notes on the flora 
of the great Appalachian valley and southern High- 
lands. 


April 9.— Public lecture by Prof. W. G. Farlow 
of Cambridge, Mass. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 


March 18. — Mr. T. C. Chamberlin, On the vary- 
ing attitudes of former level surfaces in the Great 
Lake region, and the applicability of proposed ex- 
planations (continued from preceding meeting); Mr. 
R. D. Irving, The enlargement of mineral fragments 
as a factor in rock-alteration. 


Natural history society, Santa Barbara, Cal. 


Feb. 23. — Mrs. Bingham, On the native shrubs 
and plants of Santa Barbara county. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, March 8-13. 


Anthropologie criminelle, archives de la, et des sciences 
pénales. Tomei. No.1. Paris, Masson, 1886. 96p. 8°. (New 
York, Christern, $4.50 per year.) 

Armas, J. I. de. Les cranes dits déformés. 
Fenix.’ 1885. 16 p. 8°. 

Auchincloss, W.S. Die practische anwendung der schieber- 
und coulissensteurungen. Tr. by A. Miiller. Berlin, 5Axzxger-, 
1886. 8+168 p., 18 pl., illustr. 8°. 

Chamberlin, T.C. The requisite and qualifying conditions 
of artesian wells. (U.S. geol. surv.) Washington, Government, 
t88s. L4ol. mx] ply, allustr. 4°. 

armes, G. La réforme de la marine. 
34+459 p. 8°. (New York, Christern.) 

Croll. J. Discussions on climate and cosmology. 
Appleton, 1886. 12+327p.,map. 12°. 

Duncan, P. M. Heroes of science. Botanists, zodlogists, 
and geologists. New York, Z. & ¥. B. Young & Co., 1882. 14+ 
348-+4 Pp. 12°. é : ‘ 

Errera, J. Une expérience sur l’ascension de la séve chez les 
plantes. Belgium, Soc. voy. de botan., {[1886.] gp. 8°. 

Figuier, L. L’année scientifique et industrielle. Vol. xxix. 
ahs aa 1886. 576+32 p. 12°. (New York, Christern, 

I.25. 

Geolegists’ association, proceedings of the, November, 1885. 
Vol. ix. No. 4. Ed. by Prof. G. S. Boulger.. London, Uxzv. 
codl., 1886 [126] p.,1pl.,illustr. 8°. 

Gilbert, G. K. The topographic features of lake shores. (U.S. 
geol. surv ) Washington, Government, 1885. [5€] p., [18] pl., 
illustr. 4°. 

Graves, R. P. Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton. Vol. ii. 
Dublin, Hodges, Figgis & Co., 1885. 164-719 p., portr. 8°. 

Homme matériaux pour l’histoire primitive et naturelle de le. 
Ed. by E. Cartailhac and E. Chantre. 3d ser. tome ili. Paris, 
Reinwald, 1886. 64 p., illustr. 8°, (New York, Christern, $4.50 
per year.) 

Instruccion publica de. Guatemala, memoria presentada al 
senor ministro de. Por el director del instituto nacional central. 
Guatemala. P. Arenales, pr., 1885. 21-+16p. 8°. 

Lewis, T.C. Heroes of science. Mechanicians. New York, 
E. & F$. B. Young & Co., 1884. 16+340+4 p. 12°. 

Massachusetts agricultural experiment station at Amherst, 
Mass., third annual report of the board of control of the, 1885. 
(Pub. doc. No. 33.) Boston, State, 1886. 141 p. 8°. 

Morton, E, J. C. Heroes of science. Astronomers. New 
York, Z£. & ¥. B. Young & Co., 1882. 8+341-+4 p., illustr. 12°. 

Muir, M. M. P. Heroes of science. Chemists. New York, 
E. & F$. B. Young & Co., 1883. 8+332+4 p. 12°. 

National academy of sciences, report of the, for the year 1883. 
Washington, Government, 1884. 145 p. 8°. 

Nederlandsch Oost-Indié, atlas van. Batavia, Kolf, 1885. 9 
maps. 4°. (New York, Ckristern, $1.75.) ; 

Rietschel, H. Liiftung und heizung von schulen. Berlin, 
Springer, 1886. 8+ 95-+50 p., 36 pl. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Thomas, C. Notes on certain Maya and Mexican manu- 
scripts. Washington, Government, 1885. 65 p., 4 pl., illustr. 

U.S. bureau of navigation, annual report of the hydrographer 
to the, for the year ending June 30, 1885. Washington, Gov- 
ernment, 1885. 41 p., maps. 8°. 

Ward, L. F. Sketch of paleobotany. (U. S. geol. surv.) 
Washington, Government, 1885. [113] p.. [3] pl. 4°. 

Washburn college laboratory of natural history, Vol. i. 
bull. Nos. 3 and 4. Ed. by Francis W. Cragin. Topeka, Kan., 
Martin pr., 1885. [64] p. 8°. 


Havane, ‘ £7 


Paris, Lévy, 1886. 
New York, 


‘‘*THE ELECTRICAL REVIEW,” 
Anillustrated weekly journal, is theacknowledged lead- 
er in the world of electrical science. Edited with care. 
its editorial opinion is reliable,its news columns bright 
and instructive. $3.00 per year; single copies, 10 cents. 
23 PARK ROW, NEW YORK. 
{2 Best advertising medium in the electrical field. 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Natural science association, Staten Island. 


March 18.— Mr. Gratacap presented a list of fifty- 
one fossils, compiled from the material collected in 
the drift at different parts of the island. It is ex- 
pected to add still further to the list during the 
present year, when it will be printed for distribution. 
Mr. Hollick called the attention of the members 
to the efforts now being made to protect the birds of 
the United States from destruction; and extracts 
from Science supplement of Feb. 26, 1886, were read, 
relating to the subject. The following resolution 
in relation thereto was adopted: That the Natural 
science association of Staten Island heartily sympa- 
thizes with the efforts now being made to protect the 
birds of the United States from destruction, and 
offers its earnest co-operation with any organization 
or individual having the desired object in view. 
Mr. Davis stated that up to the present time sixty 
species of butterflies had been found on Staten Island, 
the following having been added to the printed list 
of 1884 during the past year: Feniseca tarquinius 
F.; Pomphila massasoit Scud.; P. pontiac Edw. ; 
P. otho, var. egeremet, Scud.; and P. metacomet 
Harr. He further stated that he had obtained 
reliable information concerning the occurrence of 
the opossum on the island in years past. Several 

farmers had seen them, and Mr. Prall, living near 
_ New Springville, killed one about fifteen years ago. 
He had also been informed that Mr. David Simonson 
found a dead raccoon under a hay-stack which he 
removed during the past winter. Mr. Hollick 
showed a stone axe, club-head, two hammer-stones, 
and several arrow-heads, from new localities in the 
neighborhood of Richmond and Green Ridge. The 
localities are of interest from the fact that they are 
not near the salt water, and are not shell mounds like 
those at Tottenville, Kreischerville, and Watchogue. 
They probably represent the sites of old camps. 
The probable presence of Indian implements at each 
locality was first suspected from the number of flint 
chips scattered over the fields. A nest of the 
carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica) was exhibited. 
The boring or tunnel was five inches and a fifth long, 
and contained six bees, —three males and three 
females. The specimen was obtained this past win- 
ter while trimming a larch-tree. 


Engineers’ club, Philadelphia. 


March 6.— Mr. W.H. Dechant presented a de- 
scription of a practical test to operate a distant sig- 
nal by a wire run through a pipe filled with oil. 
The distance from the operating-office to the sema- 
phore signal-post, in the case described, was eleven 
hundred feet, and part way along a four and a six 
degree curve. Instead of leading the wire through 
a long wooden box, supported on small pulleys, as is 
usually done, a trench averaging fifteen inches in 
depth was dug along a carefully laid out line ; stakes 
eight feet apart were driven along the bottom of this 
trench, so that their tops should come to a uniform 
grade-line, which, in this case, was about sixty-six 
feet per mile; upon the tops of these stakes a 3-4 
inch galvanized iron pipe was fastened, so as to hold 
it in as true a position as possible. A No. 15 iron 
wire was strung through each piece of pipe as they, 


were screwed together, so that it might be used to 
draw the signal-wire through the pipe line after it 
was all laid. The pipes were all carefully examined 
and cleaned. After the pipe was all laid, the 3-16 
inch iron signal-wire was stretched out with block 
and tackle to straighten it and take out all short 
kinks, and was then pulled through into its proper 
position in the pipe, by the smaller wire that had 
been strung through during the laying of the pipe. 
A small brass stuffing-box was screwed to each end 
of the pipe, through which the ends of the leading 
wire were passed : these stuffing-boxes prevent the 
escape of the oil. The ends of the pipe being thus 
closed up, it was filled with common car lubricating- 
oil, mixed with about one-quarter part of refined 
coal-oil to keep it from thickening in cold weather. 
The filling was done through a short upright branch 
pipe attached at the highest end of the pipe. The 
lever, by which the distant signal is operated at the 
signal office, by the same movement turns four sig- 
nal-boards on the tower, and during the summer the 
usual counterbalance on the semaphore signal-post, 
adjusted to exert its least weight, would operate the 
arm on the signal-post and revolve the signal-boards 
on the tower. During the colder weather the lubri- 
cation is possibly slightly stiffened, so that this same 
counterbalance barely turns the signal-boards in the 
tower, and must have slight assistance. The experi- 
ment has proved very successful thus far in the 
severe weather of this winter, and has required no 
attention since being placed in position. The appar- 
ent advantages of this plan are, a very permanent 
and lasting arrangement, with freedom from disturb- 
ance or accident to the signal-wire ; entire freedom 
from the difficulties caused by expansion, if the pipe 
is laid below the frost-line, and subject to but slight 
changes caused by change of temperature if laid only 
one foot under ground ; obviation of the necessity to 
provide angle fixtures to change the direction of the 
wire around curves. The difference in cost of 
materials per hundred feet is but a trifle, being $5.38 
for the pipe plan, and $5.42 for the wooden-box plan. 
The difference in labor would depend upon the 
character of the ground, but in most cases it would 
be nearly the same. Prof. L. M. Haupt stated 
that during the past forty years there has been a 
deposit of over eight million cubic yards inside the 
harbor at the Delaware Breakwater, due chiefly to 
the checking of the currents by the ice-breaker, 
which is placed athwart them. The closing of the 
gap is indorsed, and it is further recommended to 
remove the ice-breaker, and thus augment the ebb 
scour. If necessary, floating ice-breakers, or cais- 
sons, may be substituted ; but, as a matter of fact, 
there are but few days in the year when the harbor 
is encumbered by ice-floes. The damage produced 
by this structure is very much greater than the bene- 
fits it confers. The effects of the breakwater in 
producing a scour at the gorge, and maintaining 
a 30-foot channel to deep water, the deep holes 
scoured by the eddies at the ends of the structure, 
and the relative costs of various plans, were 
presented, and compared with that of the plan pro- 
posed, which, it was thought, would produce a much 
better result at less than one-half the expense. The 
number of wrecks on the Atlantic, between New 
York and Hatteras, in the past two months, is 
reported by the hydrographic-office chart as twenty- 
two. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Biological society, Washington. 

March 20. — D. IE. Salmon and T. Smith, Notes on 
some biological analyses of Potomac drinking water ; 
H. G. Beyer, Remarks on antipyretics; W.S. Bar- 
nard, Exhibition of a fungus, with remarks; F. H. 
Knowlton, Additions to and changes in the Flora 
Columbiana for 1885; Frank Baker and Mr. J. L. 
Wortman, Recent investigations into the mechanism 
of the elbow-joint. 

Philosophical society, Washington. 

March 24.— Henry Farquhar, Comparison of the 
Boss and Auwers declination-standards ; R. S. Wood- 
ward, On the position and shape of the geoid as 
dependent on loca! masses. 

Society of arts, Boston. 

March 25.— Joseph D. Weeks, Labor differences 

and arbitration. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, March 15-20. 


Annalen des k. k. naturhistorischen hofmuseums. Band i. 
No.1. Wien, Holder, 1886. 46 p.,1pl. 4°. 

Benedikt, R. The chemistry of the coal-tar colours. Tr. and 
ed. by E. Knecht. London, Bed/, 1886. 8-248 p., illustr. 16°. 
(New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Binet, A. La psychologie du raisonnement recherches expéri- 
mentales par l’hypnotisme. Paris, Bazd/zere,1886. 171 p. 12°. 
(New York, Christern, go cents.) P 

Boulanger, Sur les progrés de la science électrique et les 
nouvelles machines d’induction. Paris, Gauthzer-Villars, 1885. 
178-+2 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Ckristern, $1.20.) 

Chemung review. Vol.i. No. 2. m, Elmira, Chemung pub- 
lishing company, 1886. 16p., illustr. 12°. 

Crimean cracks: a story of active service in foreign lands. By 
an Edinburgh boy. Edinburgh, Blackwood, 188€. 8-++262-+-24 p. 
12°. (New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Daniell, C. Discarded silver: a plan for its use as money. 
London, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1886. 6+65+40 p. 16°. 
(New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Freeman, H. On speech formation as the basis for true 


spelling. London, 7rzbner, 1886. 8+88 p. 12°. (New York, 
Scribner & Welford.) 

Geymet. Traité pratique de photogravure sur zinc et sur 
cuivre. Paris, Gauthzer-Villars, 1886. 206+4 p. 12°. (New 


York, Christern, $1.50.) inh rai : . su 
Greenwood, T. Free public libraries, their organisation, 
uses, and management. London, Szmpkin, Marshall & Co., 


1886. 16+463p., illustr. 312°. (New York, Scribner & Welford.) 
Houdas, O. Ethnographie de l’Algérie. Paris, Wazsonneuve, 
1886. 124p.,illustr. 24°. (New York, Christern, 50 cents.) 


Hudson, C. T., and Gosse, P.H. The rotifera; or, Wheel- 
animalcules. Part ii. London, Longmans, 1886. [38] p., [7] 


°o 

Irving, R. D. Preliminary paper on an investigation of the 
archaear. formations of the northwestern states. (U.S. geol. surv.) 
Washington, Government, 1885. [68] p., [10] pl. 4°. 

Johnston, H. H ‘he Kilima-njaro expedition. London, 
Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1886, 16+572 p., 6 maps, illustr. 
8°. (New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Lesley, J. P. The geology of the Pittsburgh coal region. 
Philadelphia, A mer. ¢ust. min. eng., 1886. 39 p., map. 8°. 

Levy, M. M. La statique graphique et ses applications aux 
constructions. 2d ed. Part i.: Principes et applications de 
statique graphique pure. Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1886. 28-+- 
549 p., 26 pl., illustr. 8°. (New York, Christern, $7.35.) 

erris, C. van. La scrofule et les bains de mer. Paris, 

Baillitre, 1886. 10-+662 p., maps. 8°. (New York, Christern, 


$3.35.) 

Pelyiechintnue journal de l’école. Vol. lv. Paris, Gauthzer- 
Villars, 1885. (New York, Christern, $4.65.) 

Portes, L., and Ruyss-n F, Traité de la vigne et de ses pro- 
duits. Tome i. Paris, Dozn, 1886. 12+701 p., illustr. 8°, 
(New York, Christern, $8.) 

Riant, A. Hygiéne de l’orateur. Paris, Bazlliere, 1886. 12 
+288+36 p. 12°. (New York, Christern, $1.20.) 

Roux, V. Manuel de photographie et de calcographie. Paris, 
Gauthier-Villars, 1886. 4-+38-+4 p. 12°. (New York, Chris- 
tern, 45 cents.) 


Serbati, A. R. Psychology. In three volumes, Vol. ii. Lon- 
don, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1885. 16+632 p. 8°. (New 
York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Societies and institutions of the city of New York, a classified 
and descriptive directory to the charitable and beneficent. New 
York, Putnam, 1883. 16+169p. 16°. 

Thode, H. Franz von Assisi und die anfange der kunst der 
renaissance in Italien. Berlin, Gro¢e, 1885. 12+573 p., illustr. 
8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Wagner, A. F. Das wasser nach vorkommen, beschaffen- 
heit und bedeutung, hauptsachlich in hygieinischer und tech- 
nischer beziehung. Dresden, NVach/olger, 1886. 10+284 p. 12°. 
(New York, Stechert.) 

Warring,C. B. Gyrating bodies : anempirical study. Pough- 
keepsie, 7he author, |1886.] 106 p., 4pl. 8°. 

Weather journal. Vol. i. No. 1. Cincinnati, Bassler, 1886. 
A p:; illustr. ~£°: 


Advertised Books of Reference. 


ENCYCLOPZDIA OF CHEMISTRY. Theoretical, prac 
tical, and analytical, as applied to the arts and manufactures. By 
Writers of Eminence, Profusely and handsomely illustrated. In 
two volumes. Each containing 25 steel-plate engravings and 
numerous woodcuts. Imperial 8vo. Price per set: Extra cloth, 
$15.00. Library sheep, $18.00. Half morocco, $20.00. J. B 
Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


HOURS WITH THE BIBLE, or the Scriptures in the Light 
of Modern Discovery and Knowledge. By Rev. Cunningham 
Geikie, D.D. Theseries covers the whole of the Old Testament. 
6 vol. 12°. Cloth, with illustrations and index. Sold separately, 
and each complete and distinct in itself. $z.50 per vol. James 
Pott & Co., Pubs., New York. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G, Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Ormond Stone 
and William M. Thornton. Office of Publication: University 
of Virginia. Vol. 2, No. 2, is just out. 


GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxtord. In twovols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
& Co., Pubs., New York. 


ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient, mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y } 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll.), 8vo., 496 pp. $r.8s. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histolo 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
anda Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


‘LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. A 
new, thoroughly revised, and greatly enlarged edition. A univer- 
sal pronouncing dictionary of eae and mythology. Con- 
taining complete and concise biographical sketches of the eminent 
persons of all ages and countries. By J. Thomas, M.D., LL.D. 
Imperial 8vo. 2550 pages. Sheep. $12.00. J. B. Lippincott 
Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


ELEMENTARY BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SCI- 
ENCES (HEROES OF SCIENCE) 12mo, cloth. $1.30 each by mail. 
Botanists, zoélogists, and geologists, by Prof. Martin Duncan. 
Astronomers, by E. J. C. Morton, Esq. Chemists, by M. M. 
Pattison Muir, F.R.S.G. pring eg T. C. Lewis, E. & 
J. B. Young Co., Pubs., Cooper Union, New York City. 


INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
Saunders, F.R.S.C. Handsomely illustrated with 440 wood en- 
ravings. Crown, 8vo. Cloth. $3. J. B. Lippincott Company, 
-ubs., Philadelphia. 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Engineers’ club, Philadelphia. 


March 20. — Mr. Charles G. Darrach said that the 
reason of the leakage from intermittent siphons, as 
usually constructed, is due to two principal causes. 
The first is, that the vertical dimension of the orifice 
connecting the two legs of the siphon is made too 
great, and the head of water in the sealing-trap at 
the end of the long leg is overcome before the entire 
area of the orifice is filled with water. Second, the 
partial vacuum produced in the siphon, when the 
water drops out of it (after the siphonic action is 
stopped) is not entirely destroyed, and the water 
rises in the short leg above that in the tank, and 
leaks out through the communicating orifice, at the 
upper bend of the siphon, whereas the air-pressure in 
the siphon should be greater than the pressure on 
the water in the tank. He described a siphon de- 
signed by Mr. J. M. Wilson, in which these principles 
were recognized. The short leg of the siphon is 
formed into an air-chamber of sufficient size to allow 
for the compression of air produced by the head of 
water in the sealing-trap, and for the loss of air dis- 
charged from the long leg before the siphonic action 
is induced. A small hole (protected by a pipe, car- 
ried above the highest water-level in the tank, when 
the siphon is used for grease or sewage) is made in 
the short leg or air-vessel at such a height that it is 
exposed when the water level in the flush tank is 
raised by the back flow from the short leg into the 
tank. After siphonic action ceases, this hole and 
pipe continue to admit air to the siphon, and destroy 
the partial vacuum produced by the water dropping 
out of both legs of the siphon. By this arrangement 
the siphon is always recharged with a full supply 
of air. Mr. Frederick H. Lewis, in a paper on 
the steel-rail discussion, said tbat the strength or 
cohesion of stee] depended directly upon the amount 
of work put into it. The strength of rails of hard 
chemical constitution was quoted, to show that in 
rail-making but a moderate degree of strength is 
developed. Consequently, while there were good 
reasons for believing that soft steel] would suffer the 
least from wear or attrition, yet it was probable that 
the ordinary manufacture of rails would not give it 
sufficient strength to resist crushing under heavy 
traffic ; nor was it likely that the process of manu- 
facture could be materially improved. The conclu- 
sion was that harder steel would afford the best 
remedy for the trouble from crushed rails. 


Royal meteorological society, London. 


March 17.— The president, Mr. W. Ellis, gave an 
historical sketch of the barometer. After remarking 
on the accidental nature of the discovery of the 
instrument, in the year 1643, in its best form, in 
ignorance for some time of its value for purposes of 
meteorological inquiry, he gave a brief account of 


many early kinds of barometers; the first endeavor 


being, in consequence of difficulties experienced with 
the ordinary mercurial form, to enlarge the scale of 
variation, — attempts which, in general, introduced 
other errors and inconveniences. The desire to ex- 
periment on elevated positions induced the construc- 
tion of an early form of portable barometer ; one 
such with cistern completly closed, leaving the air to 
communicate through the pores of the wood, having 


been made above two hundred years ago. The presi- 
dent further described various points in the arrange- 
ment of the Ramsden, Gay-Lussac, and other 
barometers, including, also, mention of some modern 
patterns of long-range barometers, standard barome- 
ters, and such barometers as are more commonly 
used. The practice of driving out air from the mer- 
cury by heating or boiling appears to have been in 
use early in the last century. Engraved plates in- 
dicating the weather to be expected with different 
heights of the mercury have been longer used; at 
least, as early as 1688. As regards correction for 
temperature, De Luc, in the last century, adopted a 
temperature corresponding to 54°.5 F. as that to 
which to make reduction, because corresponding 
nearly to the average of observations, such reduction 
being now made to the natural zero, 32° F. Refer- 
ence was made to the employment of water (as in 
the well-known Royal society barometer) and other 
liquids instead of mercury ; also to various kinds of 
floating and other barometers not at all or not en- 
tirely mercurial, and to metallic barometers. The 
president concluded his account with a sketch of the 
history of recording barometers or barographs, in- 
cluding a notice of the application of photography 
and electricity to recording purposes. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, Mar. 29-Apr. 3. 


Abbott, C.C. Upland and meadow: a poaetquissings chroni- 
cle. New Y ork, Harper, 1886. 10+397-++10 p. 12° 

Arnold, E. L. Coffee: its cultivation and profit. London, 
Whittingham, 1886. 10+270 p.,, illustr. 8°. (New York, Scrib- 
ner & Welford, 

Berthold, E. Das kiinstliche trommelfell und die verwend- 
barkeit der schalenhaut des hihnereies zur myringoplastik. Wies- 
baden, Bergmuzann, 188€. 26 p. 8°. (New York. Stechert.) 

Biologie, archives slaves de. Tome i. fasc. 1. Dirigées par M. 
Mendelssohn et C. Richet. Paris, 111, Boulevard Saint- Germain, 
1886. 12+306p. 8°. (New York, Christern.) 

Blochmann, F. Ueber eine neue haematococcusart. Heidel— 
berg, Winter, 1886. 22p.,2pl. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Collectors’ science monthly. Vol. i. No. x. Battle Creek, 
Mich., C. S. 7. publ. co., [1886.] 18 p., illustr. 8°. 

Conn, A. oe Byer of to-day. New York, Putzanz, 
1886, fol 

Fernald, ve. Pye *The Sphingidae of New England. Augusta, 
State, 1886. 85p.,6pl. 8°. 

Elynn: P. Ji: ‘low of water in open channels. pipes, sewers, 
conduits, etc. (Van Nostrand sc. ser.) New York, Vax Nostrand, 
1886. 118-+19 p. 24°. 

Ham, C.H. Manual training the solution of social and in- 
dustrial problems. New York, Harfer, 1886. 24-+-403 p., illustr. 
12°. 

Heath, F. G. Sylvan winter. London, Kegan Paul, Trench 
& Co., 1886. 16+354-+34 p., illustr. 12°. (New York, Scribner 
& Welford, 14 shillings.) 

International record of charities and correction. Vol. i. No. 
rt. Ed. by F. H. Wines. 7. New York and London, Putzam, 


1886. 8+16p. 4°. $x per year. 

Mays, T. J. On the nutritive value of some beef-extracts: 
an experimental inquiry. Philadelphia, Trams. coll. phys., [1886.] 
[rr] So 

Miller, W.D. Worterbuch der bacterienkunde. Stuttgart, 
Enke, 1886. 43 p. 8.° (New York. Stechert.) 

Montreal botanic garden, First annual report, 1885. Montreal, 


Gazette printing conipany, 1886. 31p. 8°. 

Observatorio, revistado. Vol. 1. No.2. 7. 
Lombaerts & Co-. pr-, 1886. [16] p.,[1] pl. 4°. 

Path, the: a magazine devoted to the ene one of humani- 
ty, theosophy in America, etc. Vol.i. No. 1, April, 1886. Ed. 
by W. Q. Judge. m. New York, Aryan theosophical society, 
[1886.] 32 p., illustr. 8°. $2 per year. 

Prantl, K. Lehrbuch der botanik fiir mittlere und héhere 
lehranstalten. 6th ed. Leipzig, Engelmann, 1886. 8+339 p., 
illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Ranke, J. Allgemeine naturkunde: Der mensch. Vol. iii. 
lief. 18-24. Leipzig, Bzbliographisches institut, 1886. [336] p., 
tocol. pl., illustr, 8°. (New York, Westermann.) 

Romilly, H. H. The western Pacific and New Guinea: 
notes on the natives, Christian and cannibal, with some account 
of theold labour trade. London, Murray, 1886. 8-+242-+32 p., 
map. 12°. (New York, Scribner & Welford.) 


Rio de Janeiro, 


Scudder, S. H. Systematische iibersicht der fossilen myrio- 
poden, arachnoiden und insekten. (From Zittel, Handbuch der 
palaeontologie, i. 2 abth.) Miinchen und Leipzig, Oldendourg, 
nesses [xreriip., wlustr. 8°. 

United States, tenth census of the, 1880. 


Vol. xiv. Mining 


laws Compiled under the direction of Clarence King. Washing- 
ton, Government, 1885. 10+-705p. 4°. } 
Weeks, J.D. Labor differences and their settlement: a 


plea for arbitration and conciliation. New York, Soc. for polzt. 
educ., 1886 79p. 12°. (New York, Putnam, 25 cents.) 


Advertised Books of Reference. 


ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Osmond Stone 
and William M. Thornton. Office of Publication: University of 
Virginia. $2 per vol. of 6 nos. 


GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL. AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxtord. In twovols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. §$ .25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
& Co., Pubs., New York. 


ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient. mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y. 


ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF CHEMISTRY. Theoretical, prac 
tical, and analytical. as applied to the arts and manufactures. By 
Writers of Eminence. Profusely and handsomely illustrated. In 
two volumes. Each containing 25 steel-plate engravings and 
numerous woodcuts. Imperial 8vo. Price per set: Extra cloth, 
$15 00. Library sheep, $18.00. Half morocco, $20.00. J. B. 
Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philad.Iphia. 


HOURS WITH THE BIBLE, or the Scriptures in the Light 
of Modern Discovery and Knowledge. By Rev. Cunningham 
Geikie, D. D. Theseries covers the whole of the Old Testament. 
6 vol. 12°. Cloth, with illustrations and index Sold separately, 
and each complete and distinct in itself. $1.50 per vol. James 
Pott & Co., Pubs., New York. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll ), 8vo., 49 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


PHYSI')LOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY;; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
and a Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. A 
new, thoroughly revised, and greatly enlarged edition, A univer- 
sal pronouncing dictionary of biography and mythology. Con- 
taining complete and concise biographical sketches of the eminent 
persons of all ages and countries. By J. Thomas, M.D., LL.D. 
Imperial 8vo. 2550 pages. Sheep. $12.00. J. B. Lippincott 
Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


ELEMENTARY BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SCI- 
ENCES (HEROES OF SCIENCE) 12m0, cloth. $1.30 each by mail. 
Botanists, zodlogists, and geologists, by Prof. Martin Duncan. 
Astronomers, by E. J. C. Morton, Esq. Chemists, by M. M. 
Pattison Muir, F.R.S.G. Mechanicians, by T. C. Lewis. E. & 
J. B. Young Co., Pubs., Cooper Union, New York City. 


INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
Saunders, F.R.S.C. Handsomely illustrated with 440 wood en- 
gravings. Crown, 8vo. Cloth. $3. J. B. Lippincott Company, 
Pubs., Philadelphia. 


THE INTERNATIONAL CYCLOPEDIA. The best for 
popular use and specially adapted for ready reference. Fifteen 
royal 8vo volumes. 13,296 pages, 49,649 leading titles. Sold only 
by subscription. Capable salesmen wanted. Dodd, Mead & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


_OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest 
times to 1886. 32 maps. Fisher (Yale), 8vo., 690 pp. $3.00. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 
STATES : Showing by Graphic Methods their Present Condi- 
tion, and their Political, Social. and Industrial Development, as 
Determined by the Reports of the Tenth Census, the Bureau of 
Statistics, the Commissioner of Education, State Officials, and 
other Authoritative Sources. 120 Pages Text, i151 plates (31 
double), 279 Maps (22 folio). 969 Charts and Diagrams. Sold only 
by Subscription, Descriptive circular sent on application. 
Charles Scribner’s Sons, Pubs., 743 and 745 Broadway, New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory representei. Larze12mo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 
ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLar EpDITION, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
$12 50. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia. 


SAMUEL HENSON, 


Mineralogist and Geologist, 


invites visitors to London to inspect his choice speci- 
mens of Minerals, Gems, and Polished Stones. 


Catalogue on applica‘ion. 


SAMUEL HENSON, 277 Strand, London, 
OPPOSITE NORFOLK STREET. 


B,,..WESTERMANMN. 2orvGee 
838 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, 
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BERGHAUS’ PHYSIKALISCHER ATLAS, 


75 maps on geology, hydrography, meteorology, mag- 
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‘*THE ELECTRICAL REVIEW,’’ 
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, Calendar of Societies. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 


March 27.— I. C. Russell, On the subaerial decay 
of rocks, and the origin of the red color of certain 
formations; R. Hitchcock, Recent improvements in 
microscopic objectives, with demonstration of the 
resolving power of a1-16th inch; H. Farquhar, A 
phonetic alphabet. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, March 22-27. 


Birds, the code of nomenclature and check-list of North 
American, adopted by the American ornithologists’ union. New 
York, Amer. ornithol. union, 1886. 8-+-392p. 8°. 

Cain, W. Sanitary engineering. 3d ed. (N. C. board of 
health.) Raleigh, State, 1885. 90p., illustr. 8°. 

Crookshank, E.M. On the cultivation of bacteria. London, 
W. Clowes, pr., [1886.] 7p.,[3] pl. 8°. 

Giobons, R. he physics and metaphysics of money; witha 
sketch of events relating to money in the early history of Cali- 
fornia. New York, Putnam, 1886. 34p. 12°. 

Jaques, W. H. Torpedoes for national defence. 
York, Putnam, 188€. 49 p.,illustr. 12°. 

Merriman, M. Key to the text-book on the mechanics of 
materials. New York, WzZey, 1886. 16p. 8°. 5o0cents. 

Michigan, Agricultural college of. Bulletin No. 11. Making 
alawn. Mixed lawngrass seeds analyzed. Lansing, State, [1886.] 
FOuF. oo. 

coke, M. Die epidemische diphtherie im canton Ziirich 
und deren beziehungen zum luftréhrenschnitt. Leipzig, Voge, 
1886. 127p.,4pl.,map. 4°. 

Powell, J. W. Fifth annual report of the U.S. geological 
survey, 1883-84. Washington, Government, 1885. 36+-4€9 P., 
-58 pl.,illustr. 4°. 

- Prudden, T. M. On Koch’s methods of studying the bacteria, 
with Special reference to the bacteria causing Asiatic cholera, 
Hartford, Conz. State board of health, 1885. [18]p. 8°. 

Smith, E.F. The influence of sewerage and water-supply on 
the death-rate in cities. Lansing, Mich., State, [1886.] 84p.,4 

Sethe 

Ulrich, E.O. Report of the lower Silurian bryozoa of Minne- 
sota, with preliminary descriptions of some new species, St. Paul, 
State, 1886. 57 P- 


New 


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GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxtord. Intwovols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. §$.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
& Co., Pubs., New York. 


ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient, mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMISTRY. Theoretical, prac 
tical, and analytical, as applied to the arts and manufactures. By 
Writers of Eminence. Profusely and handsomely illustrated. In 
two volumes. Each containing 25 steel-plate engravings and 
numerous woodcuts. Imperial 8vo. Price per set: Extra cloth, 
$15.00. Library sheep, $18.00. Half morocco, $20.00. J. B. 
Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


HOURS WITH THE BIBLE, or the Scriptures in the Light 
of Modern Discovery and Knowledge. By Rev. Cunningham 
Geikie, D.D. TVheseries covers the whole of the Old Testament. 
6 vol. 12°. Cloth, with illustrations and index. Sold separately, 
and each complete and distinct in itself. $1.50 per vol. James 
Pott & Co., Pubs., New York. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G, Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
_ alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Ormond Stone 
and William M. Thornton. Office of Publication: University 
of Virginia. Vol. 2, No.2, is just out. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll.), 8vo., 49 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY;; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
anda Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. A 
new, thoroughly revised, and greatly enlarged edition. A univer- 
sal pronouncing dictionary of biography and mythology. Con- 
taining complete and concise biographical sketches of the eminent 
persons of all ages and countries. By J. Thomas, M.D., LL.D. 
Imperial 8vo. 2550 pages. Sheep. $12.00. J. B. Lippincott 
Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


ELEMENTARY BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SCI- 
ENCES (HEROES OF SCIENCE) 12mo0, cloth. $1.30 each by mail. 
Botanists, zodlogists, and geologists, by Prof. Martin Duncan. 
Astronomers, by E. J. C. Morton, Esq. Chemists, by M. M. 
Pattison Muir, F.R.S.G. Mechanicians, by T. C. Lewis. E. & 
J. B. Young Co., Pubs., Cooper Union, New York City. 


INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
Saunders, F.R.S.C. Handsomely illustrated with 440 wood en- 
gravings. Crown, 8vo. Cloth. $3. J. B. Lippincott Company, 
Pubs., Philadelphia. 


THE INTERNATIONAL CYCLOPEDIA.. The best for 
popular use and specially adapted for ready reference. Fifteen 
royal 8vo volumes. 13,296 pages, 49,649 leading titles. Sold only 
by subscription. Capable salesmen wanted. Dodd, Mead & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest 
times to 1886. 32 maps. Fisher (Yale), 8vo., 690 pp. $3.00. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 
STATES : Showing by Graphic Methods their Present Condi- 
tion, and their Political, Social, and Industrial Development, as 
Determined by the Reports of the Tenth Census, the Bureau of 
Statistics, the Commissioner of Education, State Officials, and 
other Authoritative Sources. 120 Pages Text, 151 plates (31 
double), 279 Maps (22 folio). 969 Charts and Diagrams. Sold only 
by Subscription. Descriptive circular sent on application. 
Charles Scribner’s Sons, Pubs., 743 and 745 Broadway, New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory representei. Large r2mo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 
ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLaR EDITION, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
$12.50. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia. 


B. WESTERMANN & CO. 
838 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, 
take subscriptions for 


BERGHAUS’ PHYSIKALISCHER ATLAS, 


| 75 maps on geology, hydrography, meteorology, mag- 


netism, distribution of plants, animals and man. A 
new edition by GERLAND, HARTLAUB, ZITTEL and 
others in twenty-five parts at $1.00 each. 


‘‘THE ELECTRICAL REVIEW,’’ 
Anillustrated weekly journal, istheacknowledged lead- 
er in the world of electrical science. Edited with care. 
its editorial opinion is reliable,its news columns bright 
and instructive. $3.00 per year; single copies, 10 cents. 
23 PARK ROW, NEW YORK. 
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The first number will be published in April, 1886. Terms of yearly subscription, three 
dollars. To subscribers to Sete $1.50 per year, the subscription to be sent to the 


publisher of SCIENCE. 


POLITICAL’ SOIR 
OUAK lL ERs 


A REVIEW DEVOTED TO HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND JURISPRUDENCE, 


EDITED BY 


THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 


THE scope and purpose of the POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY are indicated by its name. Politica] science 

is the science of the state. The QUARTERLY will furnish a field for the discussion of all questions—historic, 
economic or legal—which concern the organization of the state, the evolution of law, the relation of states one 
to another, and the relation of government to the individual. 


The topics discussed in the QUARTERLY will be discussed from a scientific point of view, by writers who 
have made special study of the subjects which they treat. That the articles to be published in the QUARTERLY 
shall be scientific does not, in the opinion of the editors, imply that they must be unintelligible to all readers 
not themselves specialists. It is believed that the results of scientific investigation of political and economic 
questions can be so presented as to be perfectly intelligible to any liberally educated man; and it will be the 
effort of the editors to have them so presented. 


THE POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY will be devoted primarily to the investigation of questions of present 
interest in the United States. But the editors by no means take the position that we have ‘‘ nothing to do with 
abroad.” They think that the experience of the older civilization of Europe should be made tributary to the 
political development of America. 


Beyond the demand that articles written for the QUARTERLY shall be scientific, intelligible and of interest to 
Americans, the editors will impose no conditions upon the contributors. They will impose no tests of political 
or economic orthodoxy, for as editors.they have none. Individually, they will express their own opinions, as 
they will permit contributors to express theirs. Every article will be signed; and every writer who alleges facts 
not commonly known willbe expected to cite his evidence. The editors will neither take unsupported statements 
on faith, nor ask the public to take such statements on authority. 


THE FIRST NUMBER TO APPEAR ABOUT MARCH 15, WILL CONTAIN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES : 


Introduction ; . PROF. MUNROE SMITH. 
The American Comamnvenieh: Changes in its alist to the Nation, PROF. JOHN W. BURGESS. 
Legislative Inquests, . : , ; : . FREDERICK W. WHITRIDGE. 
American Labor Statistics, : . PROF. RICHMOND M. SMITH. 
The Conference at Berlin on the West- African Question, ae: : DANIEL DE LEON, Ph.D. 


ARTICLES ON THE FOLLOWING TOPICS ARE IN PREPARATIONS 


The Constitution in Civil War and Reconstruction, The Negro in Politics, Self-Government and Civil-Service 
Reform, Civil Disabilities of Aliens in the United States, History of the New York City Charter, English Socialism, 
The Recent Constitutional Crisis in Norway, The American Expatriation Treaties. 


GINN & COMPANY, Publishers, 743 Broadway, N. Y. 


180 WABASH AVE. CHICAGO. 9 AND 13 TREMONT PLACE, BOSTON. 


a 


; 


around Lake Okechobee was given. 


(0S SS SS SSS SS SS SS SS 
Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 


April 10. — Professor Heilprin gave an account of 
his recent tour in Florida. Starting from Cedar 
Keys, the coast was closely followed, and the Hom- 
osassa and Chisowhiska rivers were ascended for 
three or four miles. On the banks of both rivers 
were fine exposures of rock, that on the latter con- 
taining plentiful remains of the nummulites collected 
by Mr. Willcox, and described before the academy a 
year ago. Tampa Bay was ascended from Gadsden 
Point as far as Tampa, back of which was found the 
locality visited by Mr. T. A. Conrad upwards of 
forty years ago. The fossils described by him were 
determined, and fine specimens obtained. The for- 
mation is probably oligocene, or the base of the 
miocene. At Rocky Bluff, on the Big Manatee 
River, the most southern exposure of miocene so far 
determined was found. This and other determina- 
tions made during the trip prove conclusively that 
Agassiz’ and LeConte’s assertions that Florida is 
simply a modern coral reef has no foundation in 
fact. On the contrary, the peninsula is composed of 
solid rock of the same geological age as that found 
along the Atlantic border. From Punta Rasa the 
Caloosahatchie was ascended for five days, when 
Lake Okechobee was reached. The rocks on both 
sides of the river, until within fifteen miles of the 
lake, are literally crammed with fossils. About one- 
half of the lake, which is about forty-five miles long 
and thirty miles wide, was explored, the bottom 
everywhere being found to consist of hard, clean 
sand, without a trace of mud. The fauna was very 
limited, consisting apparently of eight or nine species 
of mollusks, two species of fishes, with a few an- 
nelids and crustaceans. The lines on no map yet 
examined present the boundaries of the lake cor- 
rectly. The greatest depth sounded was fifteen feet, 
although it was said that a depth of twenty-two feet 
had been determined. The lowest atmospheric 
temperature during the trip was 42°, the water at 
the same time being 60°. Although important geo- 
logical results were obtained, the recent forms of 
animal life collected were not as abundant as had 
been anticipated, probably in consequence of the 
severity of the past winter having driven thie fishes, 
etc., to more southern regions. Vast windrows of 
dead fishes were found on the shore, without doubt 
the result of the unusually low temperature which 
had prevailed, and which, apparently, had extended 
as far as the Caloosa River. South of this the vegeta- 
tion was comparatively uninjured. The orange-trees 
did not seem to be permanently damaged, although 
the oranges were badly frost-bitten. Bananas and 
pine-apples were even more seriously injured. A 
brief sketch of the vegetation along the coast and 
In answer to 
Mr. McKean, the speaker stated that the canal con- 
necting the Caloosa River with Lake Hickpochee is 


_ seventeen or eighteen miles long in a north-easterly 


direction. A continuation three miles long connects 
the latter lake with Lake Okechobee, the surface of 
which is said to have fallen several inches since the 
flow into the canal has beenestablished. The design, 
however, is not so much to drain the lakes them- 
Selves as to drain and reclaim the surrounding 
Swamps or everglades. To hasten this work, surveys 


we 


are being made for one or two outlets to the east 
into the Atlantic Ocean. There is a steady flow into 
the canals now in existence, which vary from four 
to six feet in depth, and from twenty to forty feet 
in width. Mr. Edward Potts stated that in a col- 
lection of fresh-water sponges from Avalon, New- 
foundland, formed for him by Mr. A: H. McKay, he 
had found several new species, of four or five 
genera, among which was one interesting form 
apparently connecting the two great classes of fresh- 
water sponges. These may be represented by 
Spongilla with simple spicules, and Mayenia with 
birotulate spicules, or those having small disks at 
each end. The Newfoundland sponge has spicules, 
the simpler forms of which are spindle-shaped, but 
many of them are provided with accessory spines 
which sometimes give them the character of birotu- 
lates. The species will probably be named Spongilla 
nova terrae. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 

April 10.— Garrick Mallory, Customs of every- 
day life ; R. D Mussey, When I first saw the cholera 
bacillus. 

April 14. — R. 8. Woodward, On the position and 
shape of the geoid as dependent on local masses; 
C. H. Kummell, On the use of Somoff’s theorem for 
the evaluation of the elliptic integral of the 3d species. 


Microscopical society, Washington. 
April 12. — Robert Reyburn, Life on the waters, 


American academy of arts and sciences, Boston. 

April 14. — Truman H. Safford, Star-places ob- 
served at Williams college observatory in 1884, with 
remarks on the present fundamental catalogues. 


Appalachian mountain club, Boston. 


April 14.— A. S. Packard, Over the Mexican 
plateau in a diligence; E. C. Pickering, A summer 
school of geodesy and topography. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, April 5-10. 


American museum of natural history, Central park, New York 
City. Annual report of the trustees, for 1885-86. New York, W. 
C. Martin, pr., 188€. 52p. 8°. : 

Appalachian mountain club, register of, for 1886. Cambridge, 
Sohn Wilson & Son, pr., 1886. 40p. 24°. 

Clark, L., and Sadler, H. The star-guide. 
millan, 1886. 16+48 p., illustr. 8°. 

Cochin, D. L’évolution et la vie. 
306 p. 16°. (New York, Christern, $1.) _ 

Hull, E. The survey of western Palestine. London, Com. 
Palestine explor. fund, 1886. 10+145 p., 3 maps, 3 pl., illustr. 

°o 


London, MWac- 


Paris, Masson, 1886. 


Kirsch, Dr. Die bewegung der warme in den cylinderwandung- 
en der dampfmaschine. Leipzig, Fedzz, 1886. 12-+100p., 7 pl. 
8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Lenval, Le Baron de. 
morale. Paris, Pox, 1886. 
$1.65.) ; : 

New York agricultural experiment station, first, second, 
third, and fourth annual reports of the board of control of, for the 
years 1882-85. Albany, Weed, Parsons & Co., pr., 1884. 348 p., 
illustr. 8°. 

Patten, W. 
26p.,5pl. 8°. 

Revue des deux mondes suite de la table générale, 1874-86. 
Paris, Revue des deux mondes, 1886. 204p. 8°. (New York, 
Christern.) an 

Schilling, N. H. The present condition of electric lighting. 
Boston, Cupples, Upham & Co., 1886. 55p. 8°. 

Shufeldt, R.W. Outlines for a museum of anatomy, (Bureau 


Quelques pensées sur l'éducation 
169 p. 8°. (New York, Christern, 


The embryology of patella. Wien, Hé/der, 1885. 


-of education.) Washington, Government, 1885. 65 p., illustr. 
ge 


Smithsonian institution, annual report of regents of the, for 
the year 1884. Washington, Government, 1885. 24+904 P., 
7 pl., illustr. 8°. 

Treadwell, F. P., und Meyer, V. Tabellen zur qualitativen 
analyse. 2ded. Berlin, Dzmemler, 1884. 17 p. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert.) 

University of California, College of agriculture, report of the 
viticultural work during 1883-84 and 1884-85. By E. W. Hilgard. 
Sacramento, State, 1886. 210 p. 8°. 


Advertised Books of Reference. 


WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 
ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) Popular EpITION, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
$12.50. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia. 


ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Osmond Stone 
and William M. Thornton. Office of Publication: University of 
Virginia. $2 per vol. of 6 nos, 


GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxford. Intwovols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
& Co., Pubs., New York. 


ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient, mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y. 


ENCYCLOPZDIA OF CHEMISTRY. Theoretical, prac 
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Writers of Eminence. Profusely and handsomely illustrated. In 
two volumes. Each containing 25 steel-plate engravings and 
numerous woodcuts. Imperial 8vo. Price per set: Extra cloth, 
$15.00. Library sheep, $18.00. Half morocco, $20.00. J. B. 
Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


HOURS WITH THE BIBLE, or the Scriptures in the Light 
of Modern Discovery and Knowledge. Rey. Cunningham 
Geikie, D.D. Theseries covers the whole of the Old Testament. 
6 vol. 12°. Cloth, with illustrations and index. Sold separately, 
and each complete and distinct in itself. $1.50 per vol. James 
Pott & Co., Pubs., New York. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll), 8vo., 49 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
andaGlossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. A 
new, thoroughly revised, and greatly enlarged edition. A univer- 
sal pronouncing dictionary of pees ed and mythology. Con- 
taining complete and concise biographical sketches of the eminent 
yersons of all ages and countries. By J. Thomas, M.D., LL.D. 
Taipetue 8vo. 2550 pages. Sheep. $12.00, J. B. Lippincott 
Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


ELEMENTARY BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SCI- 
ENCES (HEROES OF SCIENCE) 12m0, cloth. $1.30 each by mail. 
Botanists, zoédlogists, and geologists, by Prof. Martin Duncan, 
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Pattison Muir, F.R.S.G. Mechanicians, by T. C. Lewis, E. & 
J. B. Young Co., Pubs., Cooper Union, New York City, 


INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
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Pubs., Philadelphia. 


THE INTERNATIONAL CYCLOPEDIA. The best for 
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royal 8vo volumes. 13,296 pages, 49,649 leading titles. Sold only 
by subscription. Cafaéble salesmen wanted. Dodd, Mead & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


_OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest 
times to 1886. 32 maps. Fisher (Yale), 8vo., 690 pp. $3.00. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 
STATES : Showing by Graphic Methods their Present Condi- 
tion, and their Political, Social, and Industrial Development, as 
Determined by the Reports of the Tenth Census, the Bureau of 
Statistics, the Commissioner of Education, State Officials, and 
other Authoritative Sources. 120 Pages Text, 151 plates (31 
double), 279 Maps (22 folio). 969 Charts and Diagrams. Sold only 
by Subscription. Descriptive circular sent on application, 
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THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory represented. Large r2zmo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


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—+ 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Natural science association, Staten Island. 


April 10.— Dr. N. L. Britton said that the construc- 
tion of the deep cutting for the Staten Island rapid 
transit railway, at Tompkinsville, has exposed a 
most interesting section through the glacial drift. 
This is seen to be truly morainal in its upper por- 
tion, consisting of large angular bowlders and peb- 
bles irregularly embedded in unassorted clay and 
sand. The lower part of the bank is, however, 
beautifully stratified, and the materials composing it 
are sorted into bands and layers of different sub- 
stances, strata of sand of several degrees of coarse- 
ness, others of clay, and still others of pebbles. Very 
few bowlders occur in this lower part, and these are 
in special well-marked bands, and are more rounded 
than those above. While this exposure is of great 
interest as illustrating the difference between 
morainal and stratified drift at a glance, it is of 
much greater importance as furnishing an accurate 
measure of the depression of the coast at this point 
during the glacial epoch; for the altitude of the 
upper line of stratification above tide gives us the 
comparative position of the coast as regards its 
position in glacial times. This is between twenty- 
five and thirty feet; hence we may safely conclude 
that during the presence of the great ice-sheet the 
shores of New York harbor stood that amount lower. 


New England meteorological society, Boston. 


April 20. — Prof. S. W. Holman, of the Institute 
of technology, read a paper on the measurement of 
temperature and the correction of thermometers. 
Prof. W. Upten, of Brown university, read a 
paper on the storm of Jan. 9 and 10, 1886. 
Professor Holman said that there must be standard 
points determined for the readings of the scale, for 
which the freezing and boiling temperatures of water 
are universally accepted; that intermediate points are 
best determined by the air-thermometer, in which 
pressure varies with temperature, but that while this 
instrument gives results of great accuracy, it is too 
cumbersome for ordinary use ; that a cause of error, 
especially visible in old thermometers, arises from a 
very slow contraction of the glass bulb, giving its 
readings too high ; that this can be prevented by cool- 
ing the thermometer from the high temperature at 
which the glass is blown, with extreme slowness ; 
that ordinary thermometers, not made in this careful 
way, may be improved by Keeping them for several 
weeks at a temperature as high as their tube will 
allow ; that, to determine the error of thermometers, 
a comparator is employed, containing a considerable 
quantity of water, in which the thermometer to be 
tested is placed, along with a standard already tested 
in ice and steam ; and that the comparator is wrapped 
. with felting to prevent changes of temperature dur- 
ing the comparison, and a glass window on one side 
allows a reading of the instruments within. This 
was followed by a general discussion on questions of 
temperature. Mr. E. B. Weston, C.E., of Provi- 
dence, spoke of the importance of well-constructed 
shelters for thermometers, and hoped that the society 
would use its influence towards careful placing of in- 
struments, as it had already so successfully towards 
the use of accurate instruments: differences of tem- 
perature caused by location of thermometers on high 


and low land were shown to be very considerable.. 
A paper sent by Prof. H. A. Hazen of the sig- 
nal office, Washington, and prepared especially for 
this meeting, was then read by the secretary. Its 
chief point was, that, while care should be taken to 
protect a thermometer from the opposite evils of 
direct sunshine and insufficient ventilation, the great- 
est errors will probably arise from the attitude of the 
thermometer with respect to hill and valley. More- 
care in the choice of locality is needed than has gen- 
erally been given. Mr. Clayton, observer at the 
Blue Hill observatory, confirmed this by recounting 
his experience at Ann Arbor, Mich., where the dif- 
ference of hill and valley air at one time and within 
a short distance amounted to thirteen degrees. 
Mr. D. Fitzgerald, C.E., of Brookline, exhibited and 
explained the self-recording thermograph of Richard- 
fréres, Paris, speaking highly of its regular and ac- 
curate records; and Mr. A. L. Rotch of Boston ex- 
hibited the thermograph invented by Dr. Draper, 
and made by Black & Pfister of New York; both 
these speakers emphasized the value of continuous 
automatic records, and expressed a hope that self- 
recording instruments would come into more gen- 
eral use. In the second formal communication of 
the meeting, Professor Upton described the storm of 
Jan. 9 and 10, 1886, which will be remembered as 
giving eastern New England the first heavy snow 
and severe cold wave of the winter. The changes 
of temperature of the storm were peculiar in showing 
a distinct fall of fifteen degrees before the centre 
passed, and a rise and fall of this amount during its 
passage: The snow-fall was greatest close along the- 
storm-track, An ingenious ‘composite portrait’ of 
the storm was finally presented, in which all observa- 
tions were charted in their proper positions with 
respect to the storm-centre. Before adjournment. 
it was announced that the monthly bulletin of the 
society was on sale at a dollar a year, and the sum- 
mer observations of thunder-storms would be begun 
inJune. The third annual meeting will be held next 
October. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 


April 24, —G. Brown Goode and T. H. Bean, The 
distribution of fishes in the oceanic abysses and 
middle strata ; Gilbert Thompson, The physical-geo- 
graphical divisions of the south-eastern portion of 
the United States, and their corresponding topo- 
graphical types. 


Anthropological society, Washington. 


April 6.—Kosmos Mindeleff, The Moqui snake- 
dance; R. W. Shufeldt, A Navajo artist. 


April 20.—S. V. Proudfit, The lodge dweller ; 
Garrick Mallery, Manners and meals. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, April 19-24. 


Arthur, J. C., Barnes, C. R., and Coulter, J. M. Hand- 
book of plant dissection. New York, Ho/¢, 1886. 12+4-256--6 p., 
2pl., illustr. 12°. $1.50. ; 

Ballet, G. Le langage intérieur et les diverses formes de 
l’aphasie. Paris, Bazd/zére, 1886. 16+174 p., illustr, 16°. (New 
York, Christern, go cents.) : ; : 

Baumgarten, P. Jahresbericht iiber die fortschritte in der 
lehre von den pathogenen mikroorganismen umfassend bac- 
terien, pilze und protozoén. Jahrg.i. 1885. Braunschweig, Bruhn, 
1886. 192p.,1 pl., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 


Bax, E. B. A handbook of the history of philosophy. London, 
Bell, 1886. 6+419 p. 12°. (New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Camerer, W. Die ursachen, folgen und behandlung der fett- 
sucht. Tiibingen, Lauzff, [1886.] 8+162 p., illustr. 12°. (New 
York, Stechert.) 

Carnegie, A. 
march of the republic. 10+519 p- 
8°. $2. 

Chirurgie, congrés francais de. 1st session, 1885. Procés- 
verbaux, mémoires et discussions. Paris, Bazlizére, 1886. 668 p. 
8°. (New York, Christern, $4.65.) 

Class, G. Ideale und giiter. Erlangen, Dezchert, 1886. 
8+188 p. 12°. (New York, Stechert, $1.10.) 

Cottell, H. A. Esthetics of medicine. (Amer. practitioner and 
news.) Louisville, Ky., ¥. P. Morton & Co., pr., 1886. 26 p. 
£0 

Cuervo, R. J. Apuntaciones criticas sobre el lenguaje bogo- 
tano. 4thed. Chartres, Durand, 1885. 40+570 p. 8°. (New 
York, Christern, $4.65.) 

Darwin, C., gesammelte kleinere schriften von. 


Triumphant democracy; or, Fifty years’ 


New York, Scrzbner, 1886. 


Ein supple- 


ment zu seinen grésseren werken, Tr. by E. Krause. Leipzig, 
Giinther, 1886. 8+278 p., 1 pl., illustr. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert, $1.90.) 

Fenton, J. J. Fuller’s calculating slide-rule. Melbourne, 


Roy. soc. Victoria, 1885. 5p. 12°. 


Gaidoz, H., et Sebillot. P. Bibliographie des traditions et de 
la littérature populaire des Frances d’outre-mer. Paris, WMaz- 
sonneuve, 1886. 8+o94p. 8°. (New York, Christern, 85 cents.) 

Geikie, A. Class-book of geology. London, Macmzllan, 
1886. 18+516p.,illustr. 12°. $2.60. 

Hospitalier, E. Formulaire pratique de |’électricien, 1886. 
Pans, Masson, 1886. 12+312 p., illustr. 16°. (New York, 
Christern, $1.65.) 

Huebner, Barony. Through the British empire. Vols. i. and 
ii. London, Murray, 1886. 14+462 p., 8+515 p-, map. 12°. 
(New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Karsten, G. Ueber die anlage seitlicher organe bei den 
pflanzen. Leipzig, Engelmann, 1886. 32p.,3pl. 8°. (New 
York, Stechert.) 

Kittler, E. Handbuch der elektrotechnik. Band i. halfte 2. 
Stuttgart, Exe, 1886. 8+[371] p., illustr. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert.) 

Klassizismus oder materialismus? Von einem unbefangenen. 
Leipzig, Rezssner, 1886. 49p. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Kolimann, J. Plastische anatomie des menschlichen kérpers. 
Ein handbuch fiir kiinstler und kunstfreunde. Leipzig, Vezt & 
Co., 1886. 8+563p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert, $5.20.) 

Langley, M. Sur des longueurs d’onde jusqu’ici non recon- 
nues. Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1886. 4p. 8°. 

Lemoine, G. Del’antisepsie médicale. Paris, Bazlliére, 1886. 
180 p. 8°. (New York, Christern, $1.20.) 

Lermoyez, M. Etudeexpérimentale sur la phonation. Paris, 
Doin, 1886. 200 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Christern, $1.35.) 

Lilly, W.S. Chapters in European history, with an intro- 
ductory dialogue on the philosophy of history. Vols. i. and ii. 
London, Chapman & Hall, 1886. 16+299, 10+343p. 8°. (New 
York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Lippert, J. Kulturgeschichte der menschheit in ihrem or- 

anischen aufbau. Lief. i. Stuttgart, Exe, 1886. 64p. 8°. 
New York, Stechert, 40 cents.) 

Lober, Dr. Paralysies, contractures, affections douloureuses 
de cause psychique. Paris, Doév, 1886. 116 p. 8.° (New York, 
Christern, $1.) 

Lubbock, J. Flowers, fruits, and leaves. 
millan, 1886. 16+-147 p,, illustr. 16°. $1.25. 

MacGillivray, P. Ht Descriptions of new, or little known, 


Polyzoa. Partix. Melbourne, Roy. soc. Victoria, 1886. 12p., 
pl. 12°. 

M‘Combie, W. Cattle and cattle-breeders. Ed. by J. Mac- 
donald. 4thed. Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1886. 18+157p. 12°. 


(New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Nietzki, R. Organische farbstoffe. Breslau, 7rewendt, 1886. 
1565p. 12°. (New York, Stechert, $1.35.) 

Peirce, B.O. Elements of the theory of the Newtonian po- 
tential function. Boston, Gianz & Co., 1886. 10+143 p., illustr. 


Bes 

Rae, G. The country banker. New York, Scribner, 1886. 
16+320 p. 12°. 

Reusch, F. H. Nature and the Bible. Tr. from the 4th edi- 
tion by Kathleen Lyttelton, Vols. i. and ii. Edinburgh, ¥. & 
7. Clark, 1886, 8-+461-+372 p. 8°. (New York, Scribner & 
Welford.) 

Schaschl, J. Die galvanostegie mit besonderer beriick- 
sichtigung der fabriksmdssigen herstellung dicker metalliiberziige 
auf metallen mittelst des galvanischen stromes. Wien, Hartleben, 
1886. 16+-224p., illustr. 12°. (New York, Stechert, $1.10.) 

Schneider, R. Allgemeine anweisungen fiir den bau und den 
betrieb der regenerativ-gaséfen. Leipzig, Fe/ix, 1886. 48 p. 
12°. (New rat Stechert.) 

Stephens, H.M. A history of the French revolution. In 
three volumes. Vol. i. London, Rivington, 1886. 24+533 p. 
8°, (New York, Scribner & Welford.) 


London, Mac- 


Stirling, J. The Cryptogamia of the Australian Alps. Parti. 
Melbourne, Roy. soc. Victoria, 1885. 8p. 12°. 

Taylor, H.d’E. International statistical uniformity. Mel- 
bourne, Roy. soc. Victoria, 1885. 4p. 12°. 

Thornton, E. A gazetteer of the territories under the gov- 
ernment of the viceroy of India. Revised by Sir R. Lethbridge 
and A. N. Wollaston. London, AdZen, 1886. 8+1070p. 12°. 
(New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

U. S. geological survey, topographical maps of portions of 
Montana, Missouri, Texas, Utah, Alabama, Nevada, Arizona. 
28 sheets, 41.5 by 50cm. Washington, Government, 1886. 

Waltershausen, A. S. F. v. Die nordamerikanischen ge- 
werkschaften unter dem einfluss;der fortschreitenden productions 
technik. Berlin, Bakr, 1886. 16+352 p. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert, $2.80 ) 

Weierstrass, K. Abhandlungen aus der functionenlehre, 
Berlin, Springer, 1886. 262 p. 8°. (New York, Stechert, $4.40.) 

Williams, S.G. The westward extension of rocks of lower 
Helderberg age in New York. New Haven, Amer. journ. sc., 
1886. 8p. 8°. 

Wislicenus, W. Beitrag zur bestimmung der rotationszeit des 
planeten Mars. Leipzig, Exge/mann, 1886. 71 p., 2 pl., illustr. 
4°. (New York, Stechert, $1.50.) ; 


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ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient, mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll.), 8vo., 49 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93*engravings and 
a map of the territory represented. Large r2mo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


WILSON.— AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
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ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLAR EpiTIon, complete in one volume with 385 
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ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Osmond Stone 
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GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxtord. In twovols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
& Co., Pubs., New York. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMISTRY. Theoretical, prac 
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Writers of Eminence. Profusely and handsomely illustrated. In 
two volumes. Each containing 25 steel-plate engravings and 
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Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


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6 vol. 12°. Cloth, with illustrations and index. Sold separately, 
and each complete and distinct in itself. $1.50 per vol. James 
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PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I, Outlines of the Histolo 


of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale — 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 


(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, ORE. on the basis 
of Morpaalaey§ the principles of Taxonomy an 
andaG 


$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


Phytography — 
ossary of Botanical terms, Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 PP- 


ro 


“monés avec la vessie natatoire des poissons. 
‘ceaux, 1886. 44p.,illustr. 12°. 


ce 


: Calendar of Societies. 


Engineers’ club, St. Louis. 


April 7.— Robert Moore, Tables for determining 
the sizes of sewers by Kulter’s formula. 


Torrey botanical club, New York. 


April 13. — Dr. Newberry, Living and fossil forms 
of the genus Bauhinia; Arthur Hollick and N. L. 
Britton, Additions to the flora of Richmond county, 
mY, 


Biological society, Washington. 


April 17.— Theo. Gill, The characteristics and 
families of iniomous fishes; F. A. Lucas, Notes on 
the vertebrae of Amphiuma, Siren, and Menopoma ; 
Frederick True, Exhibition of a wood hare with 
abnormal growth of fur; Some distinctive cranial 
characters of the Canadian lynx; R. E. C. Stearns, 
Instances of the effect of musical sounds on animals ; 
John B. Smith, Ants’ nests and their inhabitants. 


Society of arts, Boston. 


April 22.—W. O. Atwater, Chemistry of foods 
and nutrition. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, April 12-17. 


Albrecht, P. Epiphyses entre l’occipital et ie sphénoide chez 
homme. (Bull. Soc. anthropol. Bruxelles.) Bruxelles, /. Hayez, 
impr., [1886.] 8°. 

Sur la non-homologie des poumons des vertébrés pul- 
Bruxelles, Man- 


Ueber die wirbelkérperepiphysen und wirbelkérperge- 
lenke zwischen dem epistropheus atlas und occipitale der sauge- 
thiere. Kopenhagen, 7rans. 8th intern. med. kong., [1886.] 
to p-, illustr. 8°. ¢ 

Zur zwischenkieferfrage. (Fortschritte der medicin No. 
14.) Berlin, H. Kornfeéd, pr., [1886.] [16] p., illustr. 8°. 

Blanqui, A. Kritik der gesellschaft. Band i.: Kapital und 
arbeit; behauptungen einiger nationalékonomen. Band ii.: 
Aufsatze und notizen. Leipzig, Wigand, 188€. 6+178, 8+214 
p. 8°. (New York, Stechert, $2.20.) 

Bohn, C. Die landmessung. Berlin, Sfriznger, 1886. 16+ 
761 p., 2 pl., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert, $8.10.) 

Buch, S. A. Indberetning til departementet for det indre om 
de i 1885 udforte praktisk-videnskabelige undersogelser over 
vaarsildfisket. Christiania, Joxsberg, 1886. 83p. 8°. 

Delgado, J. F. N. Etude sur les bilobites et autres fossiles 
des quartzites de la base du systéme silurique du Portugal. Lis- 
bon, Acad. roy. sc., 1886. 113 p.,43pl. f°. 

Dinwiddie, H. H. Industrial education in our common 
schools. Fort Worth, Tex., Loving printing company, 1886 

Halle, Hendel, 1886. 


FELD? FS 

Foerster, B. Olympia. 6+25 p., 
illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert, 40 cents.) 

Gaisberg, S. F. v. Taschenbuch fiir monteure elektrischer 
beleuchtungsanlagen. Miinchen und Leipzig, Oldendourg, 1886. 
8-+-79 p.,illustr. 16°. (New York, Stechert, 60 cents.) 

Hering, C.A. Bessemen und elektrolyse fiir kupfer-. nickel- 
und bleisteine. Freiberg, Craz & Gerlach, 1886. 25 p. 8°. 
(New York, Stechert, 75 cents.) 

Kirchner, Fr. W6rterbuch der philosophischen grundbe- 

iffe. Lief. i. und ii. Heidelberg, Wezss, 1886. 128 p. 12°, 
eiicw York, Stechert, 40 cents.) 

Mason, O. T. The Guesde collection of antiquities in Pointe- 
a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, West Indies. (Smithson. rep. 1884.) Wash- 
ington, Government, 1885. [107] p., illustr. 8°. 


Advertised Books of Reference. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll.), 8vo., 49 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory represented. Larzer2mo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 
ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLar EDITION, complete in one volume with 385 
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GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University cf Oxford. In twovols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
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ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
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cient, mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
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Geikie, D.D. Theseries covers the whole of the Old Testament. 
6 vol. 12°. Cloth, with illustrations and index. Sold separately, 
and each complete and distinct in itself. $1.50 per vol. James 
Pott & Co., Pubs., New York. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY;; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
and a Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


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AN: UNHELARD~ Of 2a. 


MOSES KING, the editor and publisher of “ King’s Handbook of 
Boston,” which has been generally recognized as the standard guide-book 
of to-day, offers to send the book, postage prepaid, to any one mentioning 
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OVER 22, 000 SOLD. 


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In making new editions of his Handbook of Boston, Moses King, the 
editor and publisher, has invariably revised, enlarged, and improved the 
book every time, so that although the general character and appearance 
remain the same, the contents are decidedly altered. In comparison with 
the first edition, the present (seventh) edition has one-third more pages of 
text and about as large proportion of new illustrations. There is hardly a 
page of the whole book that has not been changed, and probably three- 
fourths of the book has been reset since it was first issued. This constant 
revising and improving is in keeping with Mr. King’s plan of making each 
successive edition practically a new book of Boston as it is at the time of 
publication. The new edition, just from the press, contains upward of 400 
octavo pages with over 200 engravings, and is handsomely printed and 
prettily bound. It is probably the largest and most successful book of its 
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Harvard Sq., Cambridge, Mass., No. 279 Broadway, New York. 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Engineers’ club, Philadelphia. 


April 17. — Mr. H. W. Sanborn made some remarks 
on recent stream-gauging for the future water-supply 
of Philadelphia. The streams gauged were the Per- 
kiomen Creek and tributaries in Montgomery county, 
the Neshaminy and tributaries and the Tohickon in 
Bucks county. The original intention was to gauge 
the minimum flow only, and for that purpose weirs 
were constructed on eight different streams. They 
were very substantially built, as they had to withstand 
the run of ice in the spring of the year. Heavy 
bed-logs were placed at the level of the bed of the 
stream, and the superstructure built on that. They 
were made water-tight either by sheeting placed be- 
low the bed-log, to rock-bottom, or a cement mortar 
wall. The crests of the weirs were generally about 
two feet above the beds of the streams, and were 
made of twoinch oak-plank. Gauge-boards were 
placed about five feet above and below the weirs, 
and connected, by levels, with the same. The one 
above indicated the depth of the water on the crest. 
The one below was used only in case the weir was 
submerged by high water. The weirs varied in 
length from fifteen to seventy feet, according to the 
width of the stream. Stream-gauge stations were 
established near the weirs. Readings were taken 
there at the same time that they were at the weirs. 
When a sufficient number of readings, at various 
heights, were made, a ‘curve of flow’ was plotted 
by a comparison of the two. Then, when the crests 
of the weirs were removed for the winter, the flow 
was found by referring the stream-gauge readings 
to the ‘curve of flow.’ The great fluctuation in the 
flow of the streams, caused by the great number of 
mills on them, necessitated a great many observa- 
tions at the weirs to get a correct gauging. This dif- 
ficulty was overcome by the use of automatic gauges. 
They were run by clock-work, and drew a line ona 
roll of paper, corresponding to the rise and fall of the 
stream. The minimum flows were found to be so 
small that the larger flows had to be determined. 
These had to be found by other methods, for the 
weirs would only carry, at the most, two feet in 
depth, while the water in the streams sometimes 
raised as high as sixteen feet. The measurements of 
the large flows were made mostly by the use of elec- 
tric-current meters. The measurements had to be 
made from bridges, and, where none existed, in 
proper places, small suspension-bridges were put up. 
One was built over the Perkiomen, at Frederick, of 
120-feet span, and one over the Neshaminy, at Rush 
Vailey, of 153-feet span. By means of the meter, 
the velocity of water was taken at a great number 
of places in a line across the stream, and a close 
estimate of the velocity of the whole cross-section 
determined. Stream-gauges were placed near the 
meter-stations, to be read when measurements were 
made, answering the same purpose as those con- 
nected with the weirs. In some cases, large flows 
were measured by getting the velocity of the stream, 
by means of pole-floats. When used, care was taken 
to have the length of them as near the depth of the 
water as possible, and they were run at as many 
stations across the stream as was necessitated by the 
changes in the even flow of the stream. The rise 
and fall of the water during freshets was so sudden, 
and the stations, eleven in number, were so scat- 


tered, — the water-sheds covering five hundred 
square miles, —that it was impossible to get to, and 
make measurements of, more than one or two streams: 
during a freshet. Then, many times, the freshets 
would come in the night, and nothing could be done 
but the taking of continuous readings of the stream- 
gauges. To overcome these difficulties with our 
small force, and get at least fair measurements of 
all the streams at the high point of a freshet, ‘max- 
imum stream-gauges’ were set up on most of the 
streams. A place was chosen where the bed of the 
stream was uniform in width and slope, and two 
similar gauges set up. They were usually from two 
hundred to five hundred feet apart. They were 
made in the form of a box from eight to twelve feet 
long, and six inches square inside. One side opened 
asadoor. They were placed on end and shielded 
and supported by heavy timbers, embedded in the 
soil or bolted to the rock bottom. Vertically through 
the centre of the box ran a brass rod, which was: 
graduated. A metallic float ran on the rod in such a 
manner that it would rise with the water, but would 
remain fixed on the rod, at the highest point the 
water reached, after it had fallen. The two gauges 
were connected by levels, and from the gauge-read- 
ings the slope of the water was determined. From 
this the velocity of the stream was found by the 
Kutter formula. The daily flows of al! the streams 
have been tabulated, from the commencement of the 
gauging in July, 1883, to January 1, 1886, and the 
field is still being continued. The daily flows have 
also been shown graphically on sheets, with the rain- 
fall on the watershed and the temperature annexed. 
The connection between the three is well shown. 
Rain-gauge stations were established over all the 
watersheds ; and the data obtained from them, com- 
bined with that from previously existing gauges, 
which was kindly furnished us by the observers, 
have also been plotted graphically, showing plainly 
the variations of the rainfall over largeareas. Three 
automatic rain-gauges were used to show the inten- 
sity of the storms. Mr. E, V. d’Invilliers spoke 
upon the geological position, characteristic features, 
and method of mining the ore at the Cornwall iron- 
mines, Lebanon county, Penn. The ore-deposit 
occurs in three hills, five miles south of Lebanon. 
The extreme length of this magnetic ore-deposit is 
4,400 feet in a general east and west line, and its 
area is about 63 acres. The ore is surrounded on 
three sides by a steeply sloping wall of dolerite (trap) 
rock 100 feet + thick, the mesozoic sandstone 
abutting against the south-west dipping-ore on the 
south side of the deposit. The ore was referred to 
the lime-shale layers between the Siluro-Cambrian 
limestone and the Hudson River slates, is magnetic, 
practically free from phosphorus, but contains con- 
siderable sulphur and some copper ; and, except in 
the soft surface ore, all requires roasting before it is. 
worked in the furnace. There arethree commercial 
grades of ore ; but the bulk of the output is the No. 
3 ‘select ore,’ mostly lump, with about 48 per cent of 
iron and 2.5 to 3 percent sulphur. Mining at pres- 
ent is carried on entirely above water-level, though 
the records of several bore-holes have established 
the great depth of this deposit beneath the water- 
plane ; one bore-hole being down 3825’ below the sur- 
face, without any trap or other foot vein being 
struck. The ore is mined in successive terraces and 
stopes, as in huge open quarries, and, by means of 
six compressed-air drills, large quantities can be 


mined upon short notice. The output for the year 
1885 reached 508,864 tons, 6 cwt., and the total to 
January 1, 1886, in round numbers, 7,000,000 tons. 
Probably 30,000,000 tons still remain above water- 
level, before there will be any necessity to tap the 
underground deposit. Mr. A. E. Lehman de- 
scribed the method of construction of the model of 
the above mine. It is built entirely of layers of 
cardboard, the perpendicular edges of which are 
brought to slope by engraving-tools. It was so con- 
structed that the accurate location of the contour 
lines was preserved, and they were drawn in ink on 
the finished surface, adding greatly to its practical 
value and intelligibility. Property lines, railroads, 
and other topographical features and areas, are 
shown in ink and color. The whole work is one of 
remarkable neatness. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Biological society, Washington. 

May 1.—R. E. C. Stearns, Instances of the effect 
of musical sounds on animals; John A. Ryder, The 
evolution of the mammalian placenta; T. H. Bean, 
The trout of North America, with exhibition of 
specimens; W. H. Dall, On the attachment of 
Lingula, with exhibition of specimens; On the 
divisions of the genus Pecten. 

Anthropological society, Washington. 

May 4.—Frank Baker, Some anthropological 
notes on the human mind; Myrom Eells, The stone 
and bone age on Puget Sound. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, April 26-May 1, 


Bailey, F. H. Primary phenomenal astronomy for teachers 
-and general readers. Northville, Mich., 7ze author, 1886. 104 

eee tOss 

Becker, B. Zinzendorf im verhdltnis zu philosophie und kir- 
chentum seiner zeit. Leipzig, Wzzrichs, 1886. 8+580p. 8°, 
(New York, Stechert, $3.) . 

Berghaus, H. Physikalischer atlas. Lief. i.: Mittellandisches 
und Schwarzes Meer; Jahres-isothermen ; Florenkarte von Euro- 
pa. Gotha, Perthes, 1886. 3 col. maps. 4048.5 cm. (New York, 
Westermann, $r.) 

Brewster, W. Memoirs of the Nuttall ornithological club. 
No. i.: Bird migration. Cambridge, Vuztt. ornith. club, 1886, 
22 p. 8°. 

Falckenberg, R. Geschichte der neueren philosophie von 
Nikolaus von Kues bis zur gegenwart. Leipzig, Vest, 1886. 8+ 
3825 (New York, Stechert, $2.20.) 

Girard, J. Recherches sur l’instabilité des continents et du 
niveau des mers. Paris, Leroux, 1886. 216p.,illustr. 8°, 

Loewl, F. Die ursache der secularen verschiebungen der 
strandlinie. Prag, Domdinicus, 1886. 15 p. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert, 25 cents.) 

North Carolina agricultural experiment station, annual report 
of the, for 1885. Raleigh, State, 1886. 111 p., illustr. 8°. 

Pinner, A. Repititorium der organischen chemie. 7th ed. 
Berlin, Oppenheim, 1886. 14+-391 p., illustr. 12°. (New York, 
Stechert, $2.40.) 

Resch, P. Die entwickelungsstufen der volkswirthschaft. 
Leipzig, Moser, 1886. 246p. 12°. (New York, Stechert, $1.10.) 

Russ, K. Vogel der heimat. Lief.i. Leipzig, Freytag, 1886. 
32 p., [3] col. pl. 8°. (New York, Stechert, 40 cents.) 

Sweet, H. Elementarbuch des gesprochenen englisch gram- 
matik. Oxford, Clarendon pr., 1885. 64+63 p. 16°. (New 
York, Stechert, go cents.) 

Vinassa, E, Beitrage zur pharmakognostischen mikroskopie. 
Braunschweig, Bruhn, 1886. 19 p., illustr,. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert, 35 cents.) 

Wallaschek, R. Ideen zur praktischen philosophie. Tiibin- 
gen, Laupp, 1886. 4+156p. 8°. (New York, Stechert, $1.10.) 
en nnn rere 


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INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
Saunders, F.R.S.C, Handsomely illustrated with 440 wood en- 
gravings. Crown, 8vo. Cloth. $3. J.B. Lippincott Company, 

ubs., Philadelphia. 


ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS 1n 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. _ By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient, mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll.), 8vo., 49 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory represented. Large r2mo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 
ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLaR EpITION, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
$12.50. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia. 


ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Osmond Stone 
and William M. Thornton. Office of Publication: University of 
Virginia. $2 per vol. of 6 nos. 


GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL. AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxford. In twovols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
& Co., Pubs., New York. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMISTRY. Theoretical, prac 
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Writers of Eminence. Profusely and handsomely illustrated. In 
two volumes. Each containing 25 steel-plate engravings and 
numerous woodcuts. Imperial 8vo. Price per set: Extra cloth, 
$15.00. Library sheep, $18.00. Half morocco, $20.00. J. B. 
Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


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6 vol. 12°. Cloth, with illustrations and index. Sold separately, 
and each complete and distinct in itself. $1.50 per vol. James 
Pott & Co., Pubs., New York. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
and a Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICT#ONARY. A 
new, thoroughly revised, and greatly enlarged edition. A univer- 
sal pronouncing dictionary of biography and mythology. Con- 
taining complete and concise biographical sketches of the eminent 
persons of all ages and countries. By J. Thomas, M.D., LL.D. 
Imperial 8vo. 2550 pages. Sheep. $12.00. J. B. Lippincott 
Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


ELEMENTARY BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SCI- 
ENCES (HEROES OF SCIENCE) 12mo, cloth. $1.30 each by mail. 
Botanists, zoédlogists, and geologists, by Prof. Martin Duncan. 
Astronomers, by E. J. Morton, Esq. Chemists, by M. M. 
Pattison Muir, F.R.S.G. Mechanicians, by T. C. Lewis. E. & 
J. B. Young Co., Pubs., Cooper Union, New York City. 


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OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From. a : 
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times to 1886. 32 maps. Fisher (Yale), 8vo., 690 pp. 

Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 
SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 

STATES : Showing by Graphic Methods their Present Condi- 


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Fifteen — 


i 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 


May 4.— In answer to inquiries regarding the re- 
cent discovery of the remains of prehistoric man in 
Florida. Professor Heilprin described two human ver- 
tebrae from Sarasota Bay, determined by Dr. Leidy 
to be the last dorsal and first }umbar. The position 
of the other portions of the skeleton was indicated 
by disintegrated fragments of bone, the cavity which 
had contained the head being clearly defined, although 
all traces of the head itself had disappeared. The 
speaker had been informed by people in the neigh- 
borhood that the skull had been present in their time, 
but had been gradually destroyed. The remains were 
embedded in a semi-compact ferruginous sandstone, 
and the bones exhibited were converted into limonite 
or yellow oxide ofiron. They are probably more en- 
tirely fossilized than any human remains heretofore 
described. The deposit containing the bones extended 
close to the sea-line, and was probably of post-pliocene 
age, although this could not be determined with accu- 
racy in consequence of the absence of other fossil re- 
mains and of contiguous strata in the immediate 
neighborhood. The discovery establishes the exist- 
ence in Florida of prehistoric man of undoubtedly 
great antiquity, although his exact paleontological 
relationship remains to be determined. There can 
be no doubt that the body originally reposed where 
found, and had been exposed to view in consequence 
of the washing-away of the strata by the sea. Ata 
locality not far removed the fossi] carapace of a tor- 
toise, about three feet in diameter, had been found. 
He also described the spawning of the large conch, 
Fulgur, on the Florida coast. A specimen of Fulgur 
carica was found depositing its spawn-ribbon, which 
was wound into the sand, the smaller end being 
anchored to a fixed object, while the other end was 
still retained within the body of the animal. This 
was in accord with the generally received opinion on 
the subject, although it had recently been asserted 
that the larger extremity of the ribbon was the first 
to be extended. Mr. Aubrey H. Smith referred to 
the specimens of fossil wood recently collected from 
the dump-heap of the railway excavation near Gray’s 
Ferry, and exhibited a portion of a log of hemlock, 
Abies canadensis, obtained from the bottom of the 
pit, about thirty feet below the surface. The wood 
was embedded 1n the black earth which had formed 
the ancient bed of the Delaware River. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 


May 8.—T. Russell, Temperatures at which the 
differences between the mercurial and air thermom- 
eters are greatest; J. H. Kidder, The gilding of 
thermometer-bulbs ; H. A. Hazen, influence of solar 
radiation upon the indications of a free thermometer. 


Society of arts, Boston. 

May 13.—W. R. Nichols, The mikromentram 
filter; Allen P. Creque, The Creque system of defe- 
eating, storing, circulating, and employing water for 
domestic purposes. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, May 3-8. 


Boerner, P.,ed. Bericht iiber die allgemeine deutsche aus- 
stellung auf dem gebiete der hygiene und des rettungswesens. 
unter dem protectorate ihrer majestat der kaiserin und kénigin, 
Berlin, 1882-83. Band ii. Breslau, Schottlaender, 1885. 12+ 
484 p-,illustr 8°. (New York, Westermann.) 

Dunn, J. P. Massacres of the mountains: a history of the 
Indian wars of the far west. New York, HarZer, 1886. 10+784 
p., map, illustr. 8°. 


Egili, J. J. Geschichte der geographischen namenkunde. 
Leipzig, Brandstetter, 1886. 4+430 p., map. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert.) 


Goode, G. B. The beginnings of natural history in America. 
Washington, Bzol. soc., 1886. |71]p- 8°. 

Hudson, J. F. The railways and the republic. 
Harper, 188€. 489 p. 8°. 

Indo-China, miscellaneous papers relating to. Vols. i. and ii. 
London, 7rzbmer, 1886. 124-318-311 p., 8 pl., illustr. 12°,. 
(New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Invilliers, E. V. d’. The Cornwall iron ore mines, Lebanon 
county, Penn. (Trans. Amer. inst. min.eng.) Philadelphia, 7%e 
author, 1886. 32p.,2pl. 8°. 

Jameson, J. F. Johns Hopkins university studies in historical 
and political science. 4thser. v.: An introduction to the study 
of the constitutional and political history of the states. Balti- 
more, Wurray, 1886. 29p. 8°. 

Michow, H. Verhandlungen des fiinften deutschen geo- 
graphentages zu Hamburg am g, 10, und 11 April, 1885. Berlin, 
Reimer,1885. 238 p-,2 maps. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Oppolzer, T. d’. Traité de la détermination des orbites des. 
cometes et des planétes. Tr. by E. Pasquier. Vol. i. Paris, 
Gauthier-Villars, 1886. 26+491+209 p. 4°. 

Powell, J. W. On the organization of scientific work of the 
general government. Part 2: Additional statements. Washing- 
ton, Government, 1886. [448] p. 8°. 

Qualtrough, E. The boat sailer’s manual. New York, 
Scribner, 1886. 6+-255 p., illustr. 24°. 

Richardson, C. Third report on the chemical composition 
and physical properties of American cereals, wheat, oats, barley,, 
andrye. (Dept. of agric., bull. No. 9.) Washington, Govern- 
wient, 1886. 82p. 8°. 

Romilly, 5. The punishment of death. London, Murray, 
1886. 8+337p. 12°. (New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Shufeldt, R. W. Contribution to the comparative osteology 
of the Trochilidae, Caprimulgidae, and Cypselidae. London, 
Proc. zobl. soc., 1885. 30p.,4 pl.,illustr. 8°. 

_U.S. senate. Testimony before the joint commission to con- 

sider the present organizations of the scientific bureaus. (Mis. 

doc. No. 82.) Washington, Government, 1886. 8+1104 p., 2 

maps, illustr. 8°. 

a WwW. ye BS or Western Islands. 
rubner, 1886. 8-+-335 p., 3 pl., 2 maps, illustr. 

Scribner & Welford.) mee se 

Whiteaves, J. F. Catalogue of Canadian pinnipedia, cetacea, 
fishes. and marine invertebrata exhibited by the department of 
fisheries of the dominion government. Ottawa, 7he author, 1886. 
42aip! 8°: 

Woenig, F. Die pflanzen im aiten Aegypten. Leipzig, Frzed- 
rich, 1886. 425 p.,illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 


New York,, 


London, , 
8°. (New York, 


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STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis. 
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ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS 1n 69. 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. _ By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient, mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory representei. Larze rzmo. Cloth. §$2.00.. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
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MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MGUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll.), 8vo., 49 pp. $1.85. 
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WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 
-ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLar EpITIoN, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
$12.50. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia. 


ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Osmond Stone 
-and William M. Thornton. Office of Publication: University of 
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GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL. AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxtord. In two vols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
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COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF THE VEGETABLE 
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Fowler, M A., Professor of Logic in the University of Oxford. 
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8vo, 90 cents. 

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mainly for the use of students in the Universities. By the same 
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Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 


May 11.— Dr. Leidy read a communication from 
Dr. V. Gonzalez, giving an account of the scorpions 
of Durango, Mex., and the deadly effects of their 
sting. They are found everywhere in the city, and 
every effort has been made to exterminate them, but 
without effect. A reward of a cent anda half for 
males, and double that amount for females, is paid 
by the authorities, and the records indicate that some 
years over one hundred thousand are captured and 
destroyed. The sting, especially in the case of 
children, is invariably fatal; the victim, if under 
two or three years of age, dying in a few hours, and 
sometimes in a few minutes, in strong general con- 
vulsions. No antidote for the poison has as yet been 
discovered, and the assistance of Dr. Leidy is asked 
by the writer in his endeavor to determine some suc- 
cessful mode of treatment. It was suggested by 
Messrs. Horn, Heilprin, and Leidy that the Mexican 
scorpion must differ from the species found in Florida 
and California, as the sting of the latter is not usual- 
ly graver than that of a wasp. He also read an 
' interesting letter from Eugene A. Rau of Bethlehem, 
Penn., giving an account of recent cases of fatal 
trichiniasis arising from imperfectly cooked measly 
pork which had been eaten for a week from Jan. 6, 
1886. The family consisted of a man and wife, and 
‘two daughters aged five and thirteen years. The 
‘older daughter, and the mother, aged thirty-seven 
years, have died ; the other members of the family, 
although affected, are recovering. In the mother, 
who died March 8, the deltoid muscles showed under 
the microscope three to nine, the rectus femoris two 
to six, and the diaphragm one to three, trichinae 
in a field view about one-fifth of an inch in diameter. 
In the daughter, who died Feb. 19, trichinae were 
found embedded in the deltoid muscle, in some por- 
tions as many as forty-two being counted on the 
field of view under the microscope. No other por- 
tions of the daughter were examined ; but the lungs, 
heart, liver, spleen, and kidneys in the mother were 
found to be unaffected. The pork used was home- 
raised, and, according to the owner, the animal did 
not at any time show signs of ill health. An ex- 
amination of two other hogs raised on the premises 
was made, but no trichinae were found. As usual 
in such cases, the meat was imperfectly cooked or 
fried, the tenderloin, sausage meat, spare-ribs, etc., 
all being freely used. For several days while in 
water, the human trichinae showed signs of life, 
coiling and uncoiling when freed from the muscular 
fibre; but the stage of development found in the 
pork showed no activity under the same conditions. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Torrey botanical club, New York. 
May 11.—Dr. Britton, Leaf-forms in young and 
adult trees of Populus grandidentata ; P. H. Dud- 
ley, Duct-formation in several common timber-trees. 


American academy of arts and sciences, Boston. 


May 12.— Oliver W. Huntington, The crystalline 
structure of iron meteorites ; Edward C. Pickering, 
Photographic observations of the eclipses of Jupiter’s 


satellites ; William A. Rogers and Miss Anna Win- 
lock, A catalogue of polar stars for the epoch 1875.0 
resulting from all the available observations made 
between 1860 and 1883, and reduced to the system of 
the catalogue of Publication XIV. of the Astrono- 
mische gesellschaft. 


Biological society, Washington. 


May 15. — John B. Smith, Ants’ nests and their in- 
habitants ; T. H. Bean, The trout of North America, 
with exhibition of specimens; L. O. Howard, On 
some new Chalcididae ; C. Hart Merriam, Habits of 
the short-tailed shrew (Blaina). 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, May 10-15. 


Bagnall, J. E. Handbook of mosses. London, Sonnenschein, 
1886. 8+06p.,illustr. 12°. 

Bayley, E.C. History of Gujarat. London, W. H. Allen 
& Co., 1886. 20+519 p.,map. 8°. (New York, Scribner & Wel- 
ford.) 

Becker, G. F. Cretaceous metamorphic rocks of California, 
New Haven, Aszer. journ. sc., 1886. [10] p. 8°. 

Berjon, A. La grande hystérie chez homme. Paris, 
Bailitere, 1886. 8+80p.,10pl. 8°. (New York, Christern, $1.) 

Birch, Dr, Samuel, biographical notices of, from the British 
and foreign press. With an introduction by Walter de Gray 
Birch, F.S.A. London. 7rzddner, 1886. 12+95 p., portr. 12°. 
(New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Butler, A. W._ A list of the birds observed in Franklin coun- 
ty, Ind. Brookville, Soc. zat. Azst., 1886. [28] p. 8°. 

Carnelley, T. Physice-chemical constants. Melting and 
pene point tables. Vol. i. London, Harrison, 1885. 24+352 p. 

° 


Christison, Sir Robert, the life of. Ed. by his sons. Vol. i.: 
Autobiography. Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1885. 14+428 p., 
portr. 8°. (New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Cremona, L. Elements of projective geometry. Tr. by Charles 
Leudesdorf. Oxford, Clarendon pr., 1885. 24+310 p., illustr. 
8°. (New York, Macmillan, $3.25.) 

Cuyer, E., end Alix, E. Le cheval. 
Baillitre, 1886. 144+44 p., 4 pl., illustr. 4°. 
Christern, $2.50. 

Gray, P., and Woodward, B. B. Sea-weeds, shells, and 
fossils. London, Sonnenschein, [1886.] o4p.,illustr. 12°. 

Jewitt, L. English coins and tokens. London, Sonnenschein, 
1886. 128 p., illustr. 12°. 

Kirby, W. F. British butterflies, moths, and beetles. Lon- 
don, Soxnenschetn, 1885. 93p., illustr. 12°. 

Lachese, L. de. Tarassistroubles de l’ame et du corps chez 
Vhomme dans ‘les temps modernes et dans l’histoire. Paris, 
Batlli¢re, 1886. 40p. 8°. (New York, Christern, so cents.) 

MacRitchie.D. Accounts of the gypsies of India. London, 
Kegan Paul, Trench & Co, 1886. 10+254 p., illustr., map. 
12°. (New York, Scribner & Welford.) 

Minchin, G. M. A treatise on statics with applications to 
physics. Vol. ii. 3d ed. Oxford, Clarendon pr., 1886. 8+512 p., 
illustr. 8°. (New York, Macmillan, $4.) 

Morache, G. Traité d’bhygiéne militaire. 2d ed. Paris, 
ars 1886. 8-+ 926 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Christern, 

g. 

Poincare, L. Traité d’hygiéne industrielle. Paris, Masson, 
1886. 8+640p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Christern, $4.) 

Riggenbach, R. Beobachtungen iiber die dammerung ins- 
besondere iiber das purpurlicht und seine beziehungen zum 
Bishop’schen sonnenring. Basel, Georg, 1886. 105 p., illustr. 
12°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Ulrich, E. O. Contributions to American palaeontology. 
Vol. i. Cincinnati, 7he author, 1886. 35 p., 3 pl., illustr. 8°. 

Wiley, H. W. Methods and machinery for the application of 
diffusion to the extraction of sugar from sugar cane and sorghum. 
Washington, Governmzent, 1886 85p.,24pl. 8°. 

Wright, W. The empire of the Hittites. 2ded. London, 
Nisbet & Co , 1886. 26+246 p., 27 pl., map. 8°. (New York, 
Scribner & Welford.) 


Livr. i. and 11. Paris, 
(New York, 


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ubs., Philadelphia. 


WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
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ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
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GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL. AND STRATI- 
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STRUCTURAL BOTANY;; or, Organography on the basis 
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anda Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
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ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS 1n 69 
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to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
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INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. 3y Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York, 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
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MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
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Calendar of Societies. 


Philosophical society, Washington. 


May 22.— Newton L. Bates, Organic cells of un- 
known origin and form found in human faeces (two 
cases), with specimens; J. S. Billings and G. Brown 
Goode, On museum specimens illustrating biology ; 
George P. Merrill, On geological museum. 


Society of arts, Boston. 


May 27.— T. M. Brown, The latest development 
of the Bessemer process, or the blowing of small 
charges. 


Anthropological society, Washington. 


May 18. — Victor Mindeleff, The cliff-dwellings of 
Cafion de Chelley. 


Natural history society. Agricultural college, 
Michigan. 


March meeting. —G. L. Teller, Comparison of 
starch-grains in the common and the Colorado potato ; 
L. G. Carpenter, Comet ; W. E. Gammon, Our winter 
birds; L. H. Bailey, jun., Double fruits; G. W. 
Park, Cheese-mites. 


April meeting. —F. L. Charles, Celis of ripe ap- 
ples ; C. B. Cook, Mounting birds; H. R. Case, 
Vessels in plants ; K. Tamari, Japanese paper ; Miss 
Mary Harrison, Structure of cotton, flax, wool, and 
silk; C. S. Crandall, Germination. 


May meeting.— A. B. Goodwin, Chlorophyll ; 
J. C. Duffey, Snakes ; Miss Mary Carpenter, Nettle- 
stings ; Miss Jessie Beal, Pollen-tubes ; H. H. Winde, 
Comparison of brains-of the cat, woodchuck, robin, 
and cow; A. B. Cordleg, The cup fungus; Mr. Pel- 
ton, Nesting of the English sparrow; A. E. Bulson, 
Microscopic structure of tough and brash ash. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, May 17-22. 


Jevons, W. Stanley, letters and journal of. Ed. by his wife. 
London, Macwztllan, 1886. 12+473p.,portr. 8°. $4. 

Luciani, L., Seppilli, G. Die functions-localisation auf der 
grosshirnrinde an thierexperimenten und klinischen fallen nach- 


gewiesen. Tr. by Dr. M. O. Fraenkel. Leipzig, Dexicke, 1885. 
8tar4 p., illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 
Mays, T. J. he analgesic action of theine. Philadelphia, 


Trans. Coll. phys., (1886.] " [28] p. 8°. 

Richards, E. Principles and methods of soil analysis. 
(Dept. agric., bull. No. 10.) Washington, Government, 1886. 
66 p. 8°. 


Royce, J. American commonwealths. California. Boston, 
Houghton, Miffiin & Co., 1886. 16+513p. 16°. $1.25. 

Spencer, G. L. Report of experiments in the manufacture of 
sugar at Magnolia station, Lawrence, La., 1885-86. 2d report. 
(Dept. agric., bull. No. 11.) Washington, Government, 1886. 
m.. rp. 8°: 


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Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
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THE STANDARD NATURAL HISTORY. By all the 
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SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 
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Saunders, F.R.S.C. Handsomely illustrated with 440 wood en- 
ravings. .Crown, 8vo. Cloth. $3. J. B. Lippincott Company,. 
ubs., Philadelphia. 


WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 


ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLAR EDITION, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
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STRUCTURAL BOTANY;; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
anda Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
Andree. By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
cient, mediaeval and modern geography, especially in relation 
to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00, John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory represented. Large rzmo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
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Afrika, spezial-karte von. Scale 1: 4000000. Lief. iv-: Abessin- 
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Berthelot, M. Science et philosophie. Paris, Lévy, 1886. 
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Cowan, F. Australia: a charcoal-sketch. Greensburg, Penn., 
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wertiser steam print, 1885. 21 p. 8°. 
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Dall, W. H. List of marine Mollusca. es S. geol. surv., 
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Honolulu, ?. C. ad- 
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a poem. 


Goss, N.S. A revised catalogue ‘of the birds of Kansas. To- 
peka, State, 1886. 4+76p. 8°. 

Hitzig, E. Von dem materiellen der seele. Leipzig, Voged, 
1886. 26p. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Howe, H. M. Copper smelting. (U. S. geol. surv., No. 26.) 
Washington. Government, 1885. 107p. 8°. 

Laveleye, E. de. La péninsule des Balkans. Tomei. and ii. 
Bruxelles, WMuguardt, 1886. 360+435 p. 12°. (New York, 


Christern, $3.35.) 

Merriam, C.H. Description of a new subspecies of chipmunk. 
Philadelphia, Amer. nat., 1886. [7] p. 8°. 

Description of a newly-born lynx. (N. B. Nat. hist. 
soc., bull. No. v.) St. John, McMzdlan. 1886. 4p., pl. 12°. 
Description of a new species of Aplodontia. New York, 
Acad. sc., 1886. 16p.,2pl., illustr. 8°. 

Naunyn, B. Zum derzeitigen standpunkt der lehre von den 
schutzimpfungen. Leipzig, Voge/, 1886. 18 p. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert.) 

New York meteorological observatory, report of, for the 
year 1886. New York, /@. B. Brown, pr., [1886.] 16 p. 4°. 

Pohl-Pincus, J. Das polarisirte licht als erkennungs-mittel 
fiir die erregungs-zustande der nerven der kopfhaut. Berlin, 
Grosser, 1885. 53p.,1col. pl. 8°. (New York, Stechert.) 

Sabbrin, C. Science and philosophy in art. Philadelphia, 
W.F. Fell & Co. , 1886. 2tp. 8°. 

Sexton, S. Catarrh of the upper air-tract, especially its 
effects on theear. (Med. rec., Jan. 30.) New York, Fra Flin ViaIl 
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taining complete and concise biographical sketches of the eminent 
persons of all ages and countries. By J. Thomas, M.D., LL.D. 
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gravings. Crown, 8vo. Cloth. $3. J. B. Lippincott Compan 

Pubs., Philadelphia. oe 
WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 

Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 


ander Wilson. ith a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince ‘of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLar EpITION, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
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ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Ormond Stone 
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GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
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Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
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Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 


June 1. — Mr. Thomas Meehan called the attention 
of the academy to a so-called crow’s-nest growth, or 
fasciated branch, from a cherry-tree. Each species 
of tree seems to have a special form of such abnor- 
mal growth peculiar to itself. In thecherry it takes 
the form of a largely increased number of branches 
hanging from a slender stem, in the case exhibited 
about four hundred such pendants occurring ina 
space which would nominally bear no more than 
twenty. He had found that the affected branch was 
attacked by a fungus, Exoascus Wilsneri, a species 
allied to that which produces the curl in peach-leaves. 
The development of the fungus seems to so modify 
the growth force of the tree, that axial branches are 
produced instead of the usual flower-buds. The 
fungus does not spread to other branches or trees, 
thus indicating that, in certain cases at least, there is 
less danger of the dispersion and growth of fungoid 
germs than we are usually led to suppose. Mr. 
John Ford reported the finding of a half-grown 
specimen of Modiola tulipa, a mollusk new to our 
coast, near Cape May, on the 16th of last month. 
As the species is essentially a southern one, it was 
first believed that the specimen had been carried 
north on the bottom of a ship. The discovery by 
Mr. Ford, however, two weeks later, of a dozen or 
more adult specimens at Anglesea, ten miles farther 
north, seems to prove that the species has entered 
upon its new conditions in large numbers, and with 
the purpose of making its new home a permanent 
one. There isno record of this mollusk having be- 
fore been found north of South Carolina. Mr. 
Uselma C. Smith recorded the recent finding of 
Pholas truncata, another mollusk new to the locality, 
at Anglesea. He had been assured that the marsh- 
grass with which the specimens alluded to by Mr. 
Ford were associated was the species common in the 
locality, and had not been washed up from the 
southern coast. The president, Dr. Leidy, ex- 
hibited a portion of a collection of fossils from the 
northern part of Nicaragua, which he had been in- 
vited to examine by Mrs. Dr. B. F. Guerrero. The 
specimens consisted of remains of megatherium, 
elephant, mastodon, horse, ox, toxodon, and capy- 
bara. The association of these animals is another 
illustration of the extension of the early South 
American quaternary fauna into North America, the 
former connection between the two continents be- 
ing, no doubt, wider than at present. A fragment 
of the lower jaw of a capybara did not differ essen- 
tially from a similar part of the existing species, but 
it indicates a much larger and more robust animal. 
Considering the difference in size and age of the 
fossil, it was probably a distinct species, for which 
the name Hydrochoerus robustus was proposed. 
The most interesting fossils of the collection were 
remains of a toxodon, an extinct hoofed animal re- 
lated to the rodents. They indicated for the first 
time the former existence of this remarkable mam- 
malin North America. The best preserved speci- 
mens consist of a nearly complete lower molar 
tooth and two fragments of a lower incisor. They 
agree in form and size with the corresponding teeth 
of Toxodon Burmeisteri. Professor Heilprin 
spoke of the age of South American beds contain- 


ing fossils related to those of North America. He 
considered Dr. Leidy’s suggestion of a migration of 
southern forms to northern regions to be based on 
better evidence than is the opinion of certain geol- 
ogists who regard the migration to have been from 
north to south Dr. Leidy stated that his belief 
was consequent on the occurrence ofa large number 
of edentates and allied forms in South America, 
while there were comparatively few such to be found 
in North America. The correlation of the northern 
and southern beds containing allied species was, 
however, at present obscure. He further illustrated 
his views on the subject by discussing the geographi- 
eal distribution of the extinct peccary. He had 
recently examined the lower jaw of one of: these 
animals from Mexico, which closely resembled that 
of the northern form, except that it was much more 
robust, thus indicating that the northern animals 
were degenerate descendants of those from Mexico. 


Royal meteorological society, London. 


May 19.— Mr. C. Harding read a paper on The 
severe weather of the past winter, 1885-86. The 
author showed that the whole winter was one of ex- 
ceptional cold, not so much on account of any ex- 
tremely low temperatures experienced, but more from 
the long period of frost and the persistency with 
which low temperature continued. In the south- 
west of England there was not a single week, from 
the commencement of October to March 21, in which 
the temperature did not fall to the freezing-point. 
In many parts of the British Islands frost occurred 
in the shade on upwards of sixty nights between the 
beginning of January and the middle of March ; and 
during the long frost which commenced in the mid- 
dle of February, and continued until March 17, the 
temperature fell below 32° F in many places on more 
than thirty consecutive nights. At Great Berk- 
hamsted, in Hertfordshire, frost occurred on the 
grass on seventy-three consecutive nights, from Jan. 
5 to March 18. The winter of 1885-86 was the only 
one in which there was skating on the water of the 
London skating club, in Regent’s Park, in each of 
the four months December, January, February, and 
March, since the formation of the club in 1830; and 
there are but four records of skating in March dur- 
ing the fifty-six years, and none so long as in the 
present year. With regard to the temperature of 
the water of the Thames at Deptford, it was shown 
that the total range from Jan. 8 to March 20 was 
only 6°, while from March 1 to 19 the highest tem- 
perature was 36°.5, and the lowest 35°. The tem- 
perature of the soil at the depth of one foot was gen- 
erally only about two degrees in excess of the air 
over the whole of England, and from March 1 to 17 
the earth was colder than usual by amounts varying 
from 6°.3 at Lowestoft, to 8°.5 at Norwood. The 
facts brought together showed that the recent 
winter was one of the longest experienced for many 
years, and that in numerous ways it may be charac- 
terized as ‘ most severe.’ Mr. L. M. Casella gave 
a description of an altazimuth anemometer for re- 
cording the vertical angle as well as the direction 
and force of the wind. The author described an 
anemometer he had made, which records continuous- 
ly on one sheet the pressure, direction, and inclina- 
ion of the wind. Mr. W. Marriott presented a 
discussion of the observations of the temperature of 
the soil at various depths below the surface, which 
have been regularly made at 9 a.m. at several of the 


stations of the society during the past five years. 
The results show that the temperature of the soil at 
one foot at nearly all the stations in the winter 
months is almost the same as that of the air, while 
in the other months of the year the temperature of 
the soil is higher than that of the air at all except 
that of the London station. Mr. A. W. Clayden, 
in a note on the after-glows of 1883-84, suggested 
that the after-glows were the result of the water- 
vapor erupted from Krakatoa, and that the dust and 
other ejecta played but a secondary part in the pro- 
duction of the phenomena. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Royal society of Canada. 

May 25-27. —T. Sterry Hunt, The genetic history 
of crystalline rocks; Supplement to ‘A natural 
system of mineralogy ;’ E. Deville, Le choix d’une 
projection pour la carte du Canada; G. Paxton 
Young, Abel’s forms of the roots of solvable equa- 
tions of the fifth degree ; A. P. Coleman, A meteor- 
ite from the north-west; E. J. Chapman, On the 
coloring-matter of black tourmentines and other 
deeply-colored silicates ; Sandford Fleming, Memoir 
on time-reckoning for the twentieth century ; Robert 
Bell, On some points in reference to ice phenomena ; 
B. J. Harrington, On some Canadian minerals ; 
T. G. W. Burgess, On some recent additions to 
Canadian ferns; J. C. K. Laflamme, Une étude 
géologique sur les phénoménes de contact entre les 
forraations siluriennes et archéennes de la province 
de Québec : Quelques notes sur la pureté de la glace 
des riviéres, exposant surtout le résultat des travaux 
que j’ai faits 4 Québec dans le cours de Vhiver ; 
G. F. Matthew, On the Cambrian faunas of Cape 
Breton and Newfoundland ; Illustrations of the fauna 
of the St. John group; R. Chalmers, Notes on the 
glaciation and pleistocene subsidence of northern New 
Brunswick and south-eastern Quebec ; L. W. Bailey, 
On the Silurian system of northern Maine, New 
Brunswick and Quebec; J. F. Whiteaves, On some 
marine invertebrata from the Pacific coast of 
Canada ; Sidney T. Smith, On the Crustacea (marine) 
collected by Dr. Dawson last year ; J. F. Whiteaves, 
Illustrations of the fossil fishes of the Devonian rocks 
of Canada; G. M. Dawson, On certain borings in 
Manitoba and the north-west territory; William 
Dawson, On the fossil flora of the Laramie series of 
western Canada; E. Gilpin, jun., Notes on the car- 
boniferous marine limestone formation of the East 
River, Pictou county, N.S.;G. M. Dawson, Notes on 
some points in Arctic American geology ; William 
Dawson, Presidential address on ‘ The obligations of 
geological science to Canada;’ D. P. Penhallow, 
Mechanism of movement in Cucurbita, Vitis, and 
Robinia ; Charles Lapworth, Preliminary report on 
the graptolites from the lower paleozoic rocks of the 
south side of the St. Lawrence from Cape Rozier to 
the Tartigo River, from the rocks of Orleans Island, 
Cape Rouge, and Core Fields, Quebec. 


Rensselaer society of engineers, Troy. 
June 15.—Francis Collingwood, Some often 
neglected duties of the engineer. 
Academy of natural sciences, Davenport, Io. 


May 28.—C. S. Watkins, The Sandwich Island 
group and volcanoes, in connection with the recently 
reported disappearance of a lava lake there. 


U. S. naval medical society, Washington. 


June 3. — John C, Wise, Notes from the medical 
journal of the U. S. S. Jamestown; Adrian Hudson, 
The use of Rola in certain cardiac affections; Henry 
G. Beyer, On some recent advances in the anatomy 
and pbysiologv of the vaso-motor system of nerves. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, May 31-June 5. 


Adolph, H. Archaiologische glossen zur urgeschichte. Moses, 
Herodot, Mythologisches. Thorn, Lamdéeck, 188€. 43 p- 8°. 
(New York, Stechert, 80 cents.) 

Branner, J.C. Glaciation of the Wyoming and Lackawanna 
valleys. Philadelphia, A mer. ph72. soc., 1886. [20] p.,2pl. 8°. 

Davenport academy of natural sciences, proceedings of the, 
1882-84. Vol.1iv. Davenport, Io., Acad. nat. sc., 1886. 347 P.y. 
5 pl., illustr., portr. 8°. 

Gordon, A. R. Charts showing the mean, monthly and an- 
nual temperatures of Hudson’s Bay region and eastern Canada, 
September, 1884, to October, 1885. Ottawa, Government, (1886.] 
50 X 34 c-m, 

Hudson’s Bay expedition, report of the second, under the 
command of Lieut. A. R. Gordon, R.N., 1885. Ottawa, Govern- 
ment, {[1886.] 112p.,5pl. 8°. 

Ingalls, J. M. Exterior ballistics in the plane of fire. New 
York, Van Nostrand, 1886. 128+45p,1pl.,illustr. 8°. 

Juraschek, F.v.,ed. Otto Hiibner’s geographisch-statistische 
tabellen aller lander der erde. Frankfurt-a-M., Rozzmel, 1886. 
47. p- 48°. (New York, Stechert, 40 cents ) 

Lancaster, A. Liste générale des observatoires et des astro- 
nomes, des sociétés et des revues astronomiques. Bruxelles, 
Hlayez, impr., 1886. 114 p- 16°. 

Rees, J. K. A new electric winding apparatus for clocks. 
(N. Y. acad.sc.) New York, Stettiner, Lambert & Co., pr., 
1886. 12p., illustr. 8°. 

Stoll, O. Guatemala. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1886. 
2 maps, illustr. 8°. (New York, Stechert, $5.50.) 

Tucker, W.G. The sanitary value of the chemical analysis of 
potable waters. Albany, 7raxs. Albany znst., [1886.] [14] p- 
Bo. 

U.S. life-saving service, annual report of the operations of the, 
for the year ending June 30, 1885. Washington, Government, 
1886. 423 p., illustr. 8°. 

Wundt, W., ed. Philosophische studien. Band iii. heft 2. 
Leipzig, Engelmann, 1886. [141] p., illustr. 8°. (New York, 
Stechert, $1.50.) 

Zoologische jahrbiicher. 
graphie und biologie der thiere. 
1886. 224p.,5pl., illustr. 8°. 


12-+518 p., 


Zeitschrift tiir systematik, geo- 
Bandi. heft 1. Jena, /zscher, 
(New York, Stechert, $3.30.) 


Advertised Books of Reference. 


INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
Saunders, F.R.S.C. Handsomely illustrated with 440 wood en- 
gravings. Crown, 8vo. Cloth. $3. J. B. Lippincott Company, 
Pubs., Philadelphia. 


LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. A 
new, thoroughly revised, and greatly enlarged edition. A univer- 
sal pronouncing dictionary of biography and mythology. Con- 
taining complete and concise biographical sketches of the eminent 
persons of all ages and countries. By J. Thomas, M.D., LL.D. 
Imperial 8vo. 2550 pages. Sheep. $12.00. J. B. Lippincott 
Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 
ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLarR EpiTion, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
$1250. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia. 


ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Ormond Stone 
and William M. Thornton. Office of Publication: University of 
Virginia. $2 per vol. of 6 nos. 


GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL. AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxtord. In two vols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
& Co., Pubs., New York. 


THE INTERNATIONAL CYCLOPEDIA. The best for 
popular use and specially adapted for ready reference. Fifteen 
royal 8vo volumes. 13,296 pages, 49,649 leading titles. Sold onl 
by subscription. Capable salesmen wanted. Dodd, Mead 
Co., Pubs., New York, 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Archeological institute, London. 


June 3. — Mr. R. P. Pullan read a paper on the 
iconography of angels. After a few words on the 
existence of angels, Mr. Pullan said we ought to 
learn all that was possible of their nature, in order 
to be able to symbolize them in painting and sculp- 
ture. There were ranks and degrees, and the chiefs 
of the holy hierarchy were named ; but for the pur- 
poses of iconography the author preferred the classi- 
fication of the herald Randie Holme. The earliest 
representations of angels were on diptychs: they 
were winged, as were the cherubs on the Ark and in 
Solomon’s Temple. Wings symbolized power and 
swiftness. The manner in which angels were habited 
by artists of all periods was gone into, and numerous 
examples cited of the employment of angels in 
sculpture as corbels, and in connection with the deco- 
ration of altar-tombs in England. In Italy, however, 
Mr. Pullan showed that the iconography of angels 
could be best studied, and especially at Monreale, 
in the grand series of Byzantine angels, and at 
Assisi in the stately creations of Cimabue. The 
angels of Giotto were too naturalistic ; but those of 
Fra Angelico, Perugino, and the Della Robbia were 
unsurpassed. In conclusion Mr. Pullan referred to a 
design for the decoration of the dome of St. Paul’s, 
in which the various orders of angels shown gave an 
-idea of their modern iconography. In a letter to 
-Mr. Pullan, Mr. Hartshorne drew attention to the 
question of the osteology of angels as depicted, in- 
dicated, suggested, or evaded in art, and showed that 
even Michael Angelo had apparently tacitly agreed 
to let that matter take its chance under the drapery. 
This seemed very well in the cases of celestial crea- 
tions floating, hovering, attendant, or quiescent, but 
hardly met the difficulty of the bony structure of 
such a figureas that of St. Michael, always in vigor- 
ous action both in wings and arms. Mr. Hartshorne 
supposed that even the greatest artists and anatomists 
shrank from the presumption of attempting to so 
arrange the human skeleton as to make it suitable 
for the requirements of the extra limbs assigned by 
the canons of religion and art to the different grades 
of the heavenly hierarchy. This matter pro- 
voked a discussion, in which Messrs. R. S. Poole, 
H. S. Milman, J. Brown, T. H. Baylis, and others 
took part, the general opinion being that it would 
not do to inquire too closely into the question of the 
representation of beings purely symbolical. Mr. 
Poole made some observations on the simultaneous 
movement of art in Egyptand Assyria in the seventh 
century B.C., and its possible connection with the 
rise of Greek art (Athenaeum). 


Natural science association, Staten Island. 


June 12. — The following notes upon the Mollusca 
of the island, by Sanderson Smith, were read, and a 
list of the species thus far found on Staten Island 
was presented. The list will be published separately. 
The previous catalogue of the Mollusca of Staten 
Island, prepared by the late Dr. J. W. Hubbard of 
Tottenville, and Sanderson Smith, and printed in the 
Annals of the New York lyceum of natural history 
in May, 1865, contained 115 species and varieties, 
including one species of Physa and one of Succinea 
unnamed, The present list contains the same num- 
ber. The unnamed Succinea and Physa have been 


omitted, as well as Petricola dactylus, which is hard- 
ly worthy of being considered even a variety of P. 
pholadiformis. Against these three losses stand 
three actual additions, — Littorina irrorata, Planor- 
bis trivolvis, and Pholas costata. Besides these 
three additions, three species — Teredo dilatata, 
Solen ensis, and Anomia ephippium — have disap- 
peared from the list, as probably erroneous identifi- 
cations, being represented by Teredo navalis, Ensa- 
tella Americana, and Anomia glabra. These three 
additions, three losses, and three changes of identifica- 
tion, represent all the real alteration in the list. 
But if the nomenclature alone is regarded, it will be 
found, that, out of the 109 species and varieties re- 
maining, only 52 still retain the names applied to 
them in 1865; and of the 56 changes, 46 are of the 
genus only, 3 of the species only, and 7 of both 
genus and species. These extensive changes are due 
partly to the great activity which has of late years 
been directed towards the distinction and character- 
ization of differences which had previously been 
either unnoticed or not considered of generic impor- 
tance, and partly to the enforcement of the laws of 
priority in nomenclature, and the reduction of many 
names to the rank of synonymes. Many of these 
names had been proposed before 1865, though not 
generally accepted ; but, on the whole, these num- 
bers, 56 new against 53 old names, pretty fairly 
represent the amount of practical change in the last 
twenty-one years. To those who may feel alarm at 
the difficulties added to the study of natural history 
by these extensive changes of nomenclature, it may 
be suggested, that, of the causes given for them, the 
discovery of old and forgotten names may be con- 
sidered as exhausted; the reduction of species to 
synonymes tends to diminish the stock of names to 
be ordinarily borne in mind; while the creation of 
well-considered genera gives much more aid in help- 
ing us to appreciate the mutual relations of different 
forms than is equivalent to the inconvenience caused 
by unaccustomed and often more cumbrous names. 
So great, too, has been the amount of labor expended 
of late years upon improved classification and generic 
subdivision, that the work may be considered as 
in a great measure accomplished for a considerable 
time to come, leaving to naturalists, as their princi- 
pal duty, the adjustment of newly discovered species 
or new observations to the framework already pre- 
pared for them. Mr. Hollick showed monstrosi- 
ties in the fruit of Carya tomentosa. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, June 14-19. 


Bourru, H., et Burot, P. Action a distance des substances 
toxiques et médicamenteuses. Paris, Bazd/zére, 1886. 23 p. 
8°. (NewYork, Christern, 35 cents.) 

Cauvet, D. Procédés pratiques pour |’essai des farines. Paris, 
ma 1886. 97p.,illustr. 12°. (New York, Christern, 85 
cents. 

Deniker, J. Atlas manuel de botanique. Paris, Bazd/itre, 
[1886.] 32+400 p., 191 pl. 4°. (New York, Christern, $10.) 

Frost, P. Solid geometry. 3d ed. London, Macmillan, 
1886. 24+ 408 p., illustr. 8°. 

Kedzie, J. H. Solar heat, gravitation, and sun spots. Chicago, 
S.C. Griggs & Co., 1886. 12+304 p., illustr. 12°. 

McEwen, J. W. Protobiology; or, The source of organic 


life. Philadelphia, 7e author, [1886.] 12p. 16°. 
Rosny, L. de. Les Coréens apercgu ethnographique et histo- 
rique. Paris, Mazsonneuve, 1886. gt p.,illustr. 24°. (New 


York, Christern, 50 cents.) 

Roux, V. Traité pratique de gravure héliographique en taille- 
douce, sur cuivre, bronze, zinc, acier, et de galvanoplastie. Paris, 
Gauthier-Villars, 1886. 4+44p. 12.° (New York, Christern, 
45 cents.) 


EROS? HCAs. 


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Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 


June 8. — Dr. Benjamin Sharp reported that, while 
recently studying the eyes of serpents, he had ob- 
served that in the poisonous snakes the pupils were 
elliptical, while in the harmless species they were 
circular. The only exception to the rule, that he 
was aware of, was in the case of the Elapidae, a 
family of poisonous coluberine snakes in which the 
pupil is circular ; but in these the poison fangs are 
fixed, and do not move as those of other venomous 
forms. Professor Sharp also spoke of the mechan- 
ism by means of which the eye accommodates itself 
to distance. Itis well known that this is effected by 
the contraction of the ciliary muscle, drawing on the 
point of attachment of the capsular ligament of the 
lens, the optical axis of which is widened as soon 
as the tension is released. As far as the speaker 
knew, the mechanism of the lenticular expansion 
had not been described. He had found that press- 
ure on the lens in its earlier stage of development 
compressed the elongated cells of the posterior wall 
in their long axis. When the pressure is removed, 
they simply straighten out, thus accounting for the 
fact that the anterior face of the lens is the only por- 
tion that moves in the act of accommodation to dis- 
tance. Although the adult lens is composed of 
concentric layers, the embryonic impression still re- 
mains. Dr. Foote gave an interesting account of 
his recent expedition to Mexico in search of minerals. 
‘He described particularly the mines of Queretaro, 
which have long been noted for the quantity and 
quality of the precious stones yielded by them. The 
locality was discovered in 1850, but little was done 
to develop it until twenty years later, when a large 
quantity of specimens were taken out. Since then 
eighteen or twenty mines have been opened, al- 
though the principal one, the Esperanza, is not at 
present worked. The district is about twenty-five 
leagues long by six leagues wide. Opal of varying 
quantity has been found over all this area ; much of 
it, in the speaker’s opinion, being quite equal to the 
best Hungarian opal. The workmen are able to 
predict from the character of the rock the kind of 
mineral which will be found embedded ; the hard, 
firm stone yielding fire-opal, while the soft, gray 
matrix contains the precious and harlequin opal. At 
present none of the mines are producing opal suit- 
able for cutting into gems. The tourist is likely to 
be deceived in the quality of the mineral offered to 
him, because, both at the mines and in the city of 
Mexico, the specimens are kept in little saucers of 
oil, not so much, the speaker believed, to preserve 
them from cracking, as to enhance their brilliancy. 
The Mexican lapidaries were much more skilful than 
ours in cutting the opal without producing cracks. 
The fire, precious, and harlequin opals were de- 
scribed, and specimens from the several localities 
alluded to were exhibited. —— The president, Dr. 
Leidy, remarked, that, with the exception of the 
fire opals, he had never seen a Mexican opal which 
would stand the test of a few years without crack- 
ing. For this reason, in his opinion, gems cut from 
the Mexican mineral were worthless, although the 
color is frequently as fine as that of the best Hungarian 
opal. The Honduras specimens were not open to 
the same objection. He believed it was of benefit 


to the Mexican opals to keep them in oil, as they 
would probably thus be preserved from cracking. 
Professor Heilprin called attention to a remarkable 
case of vitality among certain members of the fauna 
of the New Jersey coast. Specimens of Nassa 
obsoleta and Littorina saxatilis, two marine snails, 
collected by Miss Emma Walter at Atlantic City just 
one year ago, were stated to be still alive, although 
subjected for several months to the abnormal tem- 
perature occasioned by proximity to a heated wall 
surface. This was, perhaps, the most extraordinary 
instance of vitality known among the marine Mol- 
lusca, although among the terrestrial and fresh- 
water forms, especially among those which undergo 
a partial hibernation, long periods of survival have 
been noted. Instances were cited by the speaker 
and Dr. Leidy. Dr. Harrison Allen alluded to 
certain peculiarities in the muscles of mammals, and 
took exception to the term ‘ fuse’ as applied in some 
cases to contiguous muscles or to separated layers of 
the same sheet of fibres. He believed that in no 
case could muscles properly be said to be fused. In 
certain cases, as in the biceps of the cat, a portion 
simply overgrows the space originally allotted to it, 
and takes advantage of an adventitious surface of 
insertion. Others, as the pectoralis in man, are 
composed of a single sheet folded on itself. The 
quadriceps extensor of the skunk he had found to be 
a muscle of the latter sort. Dr. Charles 8. Dol- 
ley presented for publication and read an interesting 
paper on the histology of Salpa, a genus of tunicates. 


Calendar of Societies. 


Connecticut acadeiny of arts and sciences. 


June 16.—C.S. Hastings, A new spectrometer ; 
A. E. Verrill, Successful artificial propagation of 
marine fishes and lobsters by a new method. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, June 7-12. 


Afrika, spezial-karte von. Scale 1: 4000000. Lief. v.: West- 
Sudan, Seengebiet. Gotha, Perthes, 1886. 2maps. f°. (New 
York, Christern, 80 cents.) 

Agassiz, Louis, proceedings at Cornell university, in memory 
of, and in honor of Hiram Sibley. Ithaca, 7rus. Cornell univ., 
ESOS: 9 S0ip4 o> 

Bary, M. de. 
Paris, Masson, 1886. +24 p.-, illustr. 8°. 
$1.65.) oe ee : 

Gavoy, E. L’encéphale structure et description iconographique 
du cerveau, du cervelet et du bulbe. Livr. 1. Paris, Bazllzére, 
1886. 8+24p.,12pl. 4°. (New York, Christern, $6.65.) 

Huergo, L. A. _ Examen de la propuesta y proyecto del 
puerto del Sr. D. Eduardo Madero. Part i. and ii. Buenos 
Aires, Biedma, 1886. 152+195 p.,2 maps. 8°. 

Novicow, J. La politique internationale. 
1886. 


Lecons sur les bactéries. Tr. by M. Wasserzug. 
(New York, Christern, 


Paris, Bazlizére, 


28+303 p.,map. 8°. (New York, Christern, $2.35.) 


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Co., Pubs., New York. 


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STRUCTURAL BOTANY ; or, Organography on the basis 
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and a Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Sinith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory representei. Large 1rzmo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MGUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll ), 8vo.. 49 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL. AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S.. F G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
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Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
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INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
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SCIENCE, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. 


ik, 


Recent Proceedings of Societies. 


Natural history society, Trenton. 


June. — Dr. C. C. Abbott stated that he has dis- 
covered how the bittern makes its booming noise. It 
is not a vocal sound. To produce it, the bird thrusts 
its beak into the soft mud, makes a vacuum, and the 
sound follows. Dr. Abbott says he has seen the bird 
engaged in this philosophic performance. Prof, 
A. C. Apgar remarked on the yellow iris (I. pseud- 
acorus), which is uncommon in the state as a wild 
plant, but is now rapidly becoming rather abundant. 
Mr. Willard A. Stowell said, that, of the twenty- 
seven species and varieties of violet east of the Mis- 
sissippi, New Jersey contains twenty, sixteen of 
which are found near Trenton. Mr. Stowell de- 
scribed the botanical structure, the habit of produ- 
cing fruitful apetalous flowers. and the violent dis- 
persion of the seeds by the valves of the ripe capsule. 
The rare V. striata is not uncommon near Trenton. 
Dr. C. C. Abbott stated that the specimen of 
white-crowned sparrow exhibited by him was the 
only one he has ever seen. Hehas said in print that 
the bird, while not abundant, is not rare; that it 
appears in September, and remains all winter, but 
that it does not breed in the state. Dr: F.8. 
Stevens referred to the complex rotatory disk of 
Melicerta, describing its anatomy, and especially the 
structure and use of the pellet-making organ. The 
process of forming the protective sheath was also 
described. Dr. C. C. Abbott remarked, that, as 
he could force a broom-stick into the ground and 
leave a hole, he concluded that burrowing animals 
made their tunnels by forcing themselves into the 
soft earth, thus forming and hardening the walls by 
the pressure of the body. On no other basis could 
he account for the absence of loose earth at the bur- 
row-entrance. While exploring a tunnel, he found 
a tuft of unknown hair, which he then identified with 
a pocket-lens. Mr. Ernst Volk read a paper on 
the English walnut as cultivated here, detailing its 
method of growth, flowering, and fruiting, with the 
practical uses for which the wood and the expressed 
oil of the nut are esteemed, the latter being con- 
sidered in Europe a valuable table oil. The tree 
would be a profitable one for extensive cultivation, 
and is worth attention. 


Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 


June 22. — Mr. Thomas Meehan called attention to 
a species of Japanese oak, Quercus dentata. About 
ten years ago he had succeeded in raising one plant 
from a lot of acorns received from a correspondent. 
Since then the tree has grown with extraordinary 
rapidity, having now reached a height of eighteen 
feet. It was believed to be the only specimen of the 
species in America. The leaves are sometimes one 
foot in length by eight or nine inches in width. The 
structure of the acorn was of peculiar interest, the 
so-called stem being much longer than in any of the 
native species of oaks. Dr. William P. Gibbons 
presented specimens of the uterus of a viviparous 
fish from California, described by him in the Pro- 
ceedings of the academy in 1853. His determination 
of the peculiar character of the species had been 
disputed at the time by Agassiz and other authorities ; 
but he had since been able to trace the development 
from the ova to maturity, and he could now demon- 


strate, by aseries of photographic illustrations, that 
the young were nourished as mammals are, by 
juxtaposition of the blood-vessels of the embryo 
with those of the parent. There is, however, no 
umbilical cord; but the young are held between 
folds of uterine membrane until they are ready to be 
extruded, when they are at once able to provide for 
their own future sustenance. Dr. Gibbohs became 
a member of the academy in 1833. He removed to 
California shortly after his election, and it is nearly 
fifty years since he last attended a meeting of the 
society. But two or three of his contemporaries are 
now living, an entire generation having finished its 
work and departed in the mean time. At the time 
of his election the hall of the academy was in 
‘Georges Street,’ a name afterwards changed to 
Sansom. William Maclure was still president, and 
the late Dr. Thomas McEuen acted as secretary. 
There were but three or four scientific societies of 
any importance in America, and among these the 
academy held the advanced rank which it still oc- 
cupies. A communication was received from Dr. 
Persifor Frazer, requesting the academy to join with 
other scientific societies in inviting the International 
congress of geologists to hold in America the session 
following the one appointed to be held in London in 
1888. The academy, by resolution, cordially united 
in the proposed invitation. The congress was first 
given tangible form at a meeting of the American 
association for the advancement of science, held in 
Buffalo in 1876. Meetings have since been held in 
Paris in 1878, in Bologna in 1881, and in Berlin in 
1885. One committee has been appointed to har- 
monize conflicting views on the subject of the limita- 
tions and the names of geological formations, and 
another to select a color-scale for the representation 
of geological eras, the merits of which shall be first 
tested on a map of Europe. A resolution was 
also adopted tendering the use of the academy’s hall 
to the Society of American naturalists, a meeting of 
which is to be held in Philadelphia during the coming 
season. George Vasey presented a paper entitled 
‘ Notes on the Paspali of LeConte’s monograph,’ for 
publication. 


Publications received at Editor’s Office, June 21-26. 


Abbott, Helen C. DeS. Proximate analysis of the bark of 
Fouquieria splendens. Philadelphia, Amer. journ. pharm., 


- [1886.] 8p. 8°. 


Yucca angustifolia: a chemical a 
Trans. Amer. phil. soc., 1886. [31] p. 

Adriance, J.S. Laboratory esteniicens and Spactlic- ravi 
tables. New York, W7ley, 1886. to+71 p- 12°. $1. 

Brooks, F. Comparative size of metric and old units, with 
reference to convenience. (Journ. assoc. Eng. soc.) New York, 
Atkin & Prout, pr-, 1886. 28p., illustr. 8°. 

Carusso, C.-D: Importance de la cartographie officielle. Ge- 
neve, Charles Schuchardt, 7mpr., 1886. 51 p- 

Frazer, P. General notes on the geology of York county, 
Penn. Philadelphia, Amer. phil. soc.. |1886.} [20] p.,map. 8°. 
The application of composite photography to hand- 
writing and especially to signatures. Philadelphia, Proc. A mer. 
philos. soc., 1886. [9g] p., 1pl. 8°. 

Gottsche, C. Land und leute in Korea. 
wetter, 1886. 20p., map. 8°. 

Hicks, H. Results of recent researches in some bone-caves 
in North Wales. London, Quart. journ. geol. soc., 1886. 19 p., 
illustr. 8°. 

Japan imperial meteorological observatory. Monthly and 
yearly means, extremes, and SUmmS for the years 1883-85. Tokio, 
Imp. meteor. observ., (1886.] 85 p. 8°. 

Long, J. On the microscopic examination of butter. 
(Bull. Ill. state micros. soc.) Chicago, C. ¥. fohnson, pr., 1886. 
5P.,1pl. 8°. 


Philadelphia, 


Berlin, W. Por- 


Chio Wesleyan university, seventh annual report of the mu- 
seum of. Delaware, O., Mus. Wes. unzv., [1886.] Sp. 12°. 

Patentee, the. #. Washington, W. £. Lindsay, 1886. 16 p. 

2) 

Purdue university. Bull. No.1: Pharmaceutical notes, La- 
fayette, Ind., Amer. journ. pharm., 1886. 22p. 12°. 

Sternberg, G. M. Disinfection and individual prophylaxis 
against infectious diseases. (Amer. pub. health assoc.) Concord, 
N.H., Republican press assoc., 1886. 40p. 8°. 

Toyo gakugei zasshi. Vol. iii. No. 56. Tokyo, 
Gakugeisha, 1886. 48 p.,2pl., map, illustr. 8°. 

U. S. geological survey. Topographical maps of portions of 
Kansas, Utah, Missouri, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico. 21 
sheets, 42 by 50cm. Washington, Government, 1886. 

U.S.senate. Report of the joint commission to consider the 
present organizations of the government bureaus. (Report No.1285, 
parts i. and ii.) Washington, Government, [188€.] 125 p. 8°. 

United States, tenth census of the, 1880. Vol. xvi. part i.: 
Reports on the water-power of the United States. Prepared 
under the direction of W. P. Trowbridge. Washington, Gov- 
ernment, 1885. ° 


Tokyo 


48-+874 p., maps, illustr. 4°. 

Van Hise, C. R. Upon the origin of the mica-schists and 
black mica-slates of the Penokee-Gogebic iron-bearing series. 
New Haven, A mer. journ. sc., 1885. 7p.1pl. 8°. 

Viallanes, H. La photographie appliquée aux études d’ana- 
tomie microscopique. Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1886. 6+66p, 
pl. 12°. (New York, Christern, 70 cents.) 

Warder, R. B. Commercial fertilizers, and notes on agricul- 
tural chemistry. Lafayette, Ind., Purdue unzv., 1886. 11 p. 12°. 

Wronski, H. Exposé des méthodes générales en mathé- 
matiques. Paris, Gauthzer-Villars, 1886. 10+314 p., illustr. 
4°. (New York, Christern, $4.) 

Zeitschrift fiir hygiene. Band i. heft 1. Ed. by R- Koch 
und C. Fliigge. Leipzig, Vezt, 1886. 192 p.,3 pl, illustr. 8°. 
(New York, Christern $1.50.) 


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STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
anda Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
ROCK-FORMING MINERALS. By Dr. Eugen Hussak, 
Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
German by Erastus G. Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory representei. Large r2mo. Cloth. $2.00. 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Ormond Stone 
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Virginia. $2 per vol. of 6 nos. 
WILSON. — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 


ander Wilson. With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLar EpiTion, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
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PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
of Phaenogamous Plants; II. Vegetable Physiology. Goodale 
(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof, William 
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Comment and Criticism, — A review of the coast survey. — Tidal observations in Canada. — The engineers’ 


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The coast and geodetic survey ; . David P. Todd 
Recent changes in Cornell university ; Gia 
The Abbott collection at the Peabody museum 

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Washington Letter.— The growth of the Philosophical society. — The joint committee of congress on the 
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Letters to the Editor. 
The temperature of the moon.— S. ?. Langley > ‘ A 
A national university. — G. G. @. ; Z. S. 
Some points in the evolution of the horses. — W. 
B. Scott 


Equatorial currents in solar and planetary atmos- 


Sir William Thomson to the coefficients. — 
T. C.M., Wiliam Thomson . : ‘ 
A waste of public money. — Wm, Ham. Hall 
The Davenport tablet. — Cyrus Thomas . : 10 
: pheres. —/. S. Newberry 
Dr. Otto Meyer and the south-western tertiary. — 
E. W. Hilgard ., : : : ; a 


Meteoric iron from West Virginia. —G. /. Kunz 11 


Congenital deaf-mutism. — O. 7. AZason 
The English sparrow, —&. W. Shufeldt . 


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Comment and Criticism. — The opium habit. — Topographical models or relief-maps.— The want of free 


discussion at scientific meetings. — President Gilman’s annual report. — The needs of 


academy. — An early prediction of the decay of the obelisk. — The modern psychology 


General Abbott’s report on the Flood Rock explosion 


the Philadelphia 


Success in hatching the eggs of the cod. ; é John A. Ryder 


Close approach of Saturn and “ Geminorum 


HT. M. Paul 


The convict-labor problem oe ; Nicholas Murray Butler 


Notes and News.— Science in the general magazines. — Evidence that the dog which bit Kaufmann was 


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Demand for good maps. — C. H. Leete : 31 | New find of fossil diatoms. — A. 1/. Cunningham 
The temperature of the moon. — William Ferrel 32 | Amoeboid movement of the cell-nucleus. — S. 
Mailnee eke Sieve ea and S. P. Gage 2 

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Comment and Critictsm.— The report of the Baltimore tax commission.— The epidemic of typhoid in 


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SCIENCE 


Comment and Criticism.— The use of composite photography for the detection of forged signatures, — A 
railroad in central Africa.— Lieutenant Taunt’s report on the Kongo.— Revival of the cholera epidemic 


in Spain. — The first meeting of the Indiana academy of sciences 


The competition of convict labor : ; ; Nicholas Murray Butler 
The new volcano in the Pacific ’ : 
The recent cold wave . é ; ; ae WORKED: 
American journal of archeology 

Geographical notes 


Astronomical notes . 


Notes and News.— The tax on salt in India.—Inefficacy of vaccine from revaccinated children. — An 
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A human skeleton prepared in 1543 


Letters to the Editor. 


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IT IS COMPREHENSIVE IN ITS PLAN. 
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Volume VII. No. January 29, 1886 


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ao 4 Z| 


ENCE 


Comment and Criticism. — Professor Newcomb’s address before the American society for psychical re- 
search. —Massachusetts inland fisheries. — A proposed commission for testing the value of inoculation 
in yellow-fever. — Cold weather at the south. — Financial difficulty of the Cincinnati zodlogical garden. 
— The game of football. — Medical instruction for those going to the Kongo.— Cremation considered 


by the trustees of Mount Auburn cemetery . ; : ‘ : : : : : F oe oO 


Recent psychical researches 


eS oe 
The American engineers’ meeting ; ee gee g2 
Accessions to the national museum : ney 
Worthless bayonets. : : 93 
Farthest north : besa : : ; OF 
Thurston’s materials of construction . : : : 95 
Explorations in Alaska by the brothers Krause. ; a 
Geographical notes. emer ple ; : Red ee 96 
Notes and News. — The report of the annual conference of librarians. — The proposed Hudson Bay railway. 


— Movements of the fish commission steamer Albatross. — Cod-hatching at Wood’s Holl. — The en- 
silage congress in New York.— Work of the chemical division of the U.S. geological survey. — The 


time of issuing the Smithsonian and national museum reports : ; : ; : ; : T-08 


Letters to the Editor. 


The festoon cloud. — 4. Helm Clayton ‘ . 100 | Oil on troubled waters. —C. /. Cox. : FRE 
Text-books on methods in microscopic anatomy. | The collapse of the theosophists. — Z//iott Cowes 102 
— Charles Sedgwick Minot; Edward L, Mark 100 | Nectar-secreting plant-lice. — A. /. Cook . ah EG2 
Cost of scientific books. — J. S. Kingsley . or | Sea-level and ocean-currents. —C. 4. S. . . 102 


SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 


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Professor Ladd on the Yale curriculum 


The levelling of Siberia 


Popular psychology 
Iron conference at St. Petersburg 


Longevity ~ - 


103 
A. Woetkof 105 
Y Gar ee 

109 


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Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. 


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Volume VII. No. 157 | February 5, 1886 


SCIENCE 


Comment and Criticism. — The international copyright hearing. — The silver question in India. — The de- 
struction of birds for fashion’s sake. — The relation of birds and insects as studied by the agricultural 


department. — M. de Lesseps and the North African inland sea.— Localization of functions in the brain. 


— The new house for the Cosmos club, Washington : : : 3 ; : : : IIl 
American fishery interests : : : Bia 3 
Elementary science-teaching ; : ; cee Jastrow 14 
Total-abstinence teaching in the schools : aero ee of 


Notes and News. — Agricultural conventions at St. Louis this week. —Volcanic eruption in Central America. 
— Telegraphing from a moving train, — Earthquake record for 1884, — Electric motors for street-rail- 
ways. — The Franklin institute experiment on electric light. — Professor Rowland’s photograph of the 


solar spectrum , : : ; ‘ : é : 3 . : : : ; 2 FIG 


Letters to the Editor. 


The competition of convict labor. — Z, Langer- | ‘Temperature of the moon. — Wm. Ferrel. . 122 
Jeld ; Nicholas Murray Butler -. : . 117 | Professor Newcomb’s address before the American 

A tornado brood in Hampshire county, Mass. — ~ society for psychical research. — Welliam 
IW Parker. » ‘ 4 Petia i fo James . : 123 

‘Tadpoles in winter. — AH. AZ. Hill : : . 11g | Death of Father Gaetano Chierici. —— ee, W, 

A monument to de Saussure.—/. Rayner Ed- Haynes ‘ ; : ; ESS 
mands : : ; : : : onto. | Lhe moon’s fees — W.G. Blish; James 
The Davenport tablets. — Charles E. Putnam . 11g Freeman Clarke. : ‘ rhe ed 
Topographical models or relief-maps. — /. ZH. Festoon clouds of a tornado.— H, W. P. oP he4 
King . é Ay eas 8 | Death-rates among college graduates. — Edwin /. 

A national university. Les W. Hoyt t eer | Bartlett ; j é ; : ; 24: 


SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 


Fish and famine in India ae ; Ernest Ingersoll 125 
The mouse-plague of Brazil ree ; ; Pane 0 
Bee-hives and bee-habits . : : A. J. Cook 127 
Legibility of letters of the alphabet . ; ; Siete fc: 
Blondes and brunettes in Germany . eRe: ae) 
Deformities of bones among the ancient Peruvians. : +h EG 
Large versus small telescopes ae ( ; ; ; ‘a Dae 
Making a new Merv oasis. : : ; 132 


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a, 
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Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. 


\ DAREMA ALY 
. = - 
~_oe THAT > 


Volume VII. No. 158 : a February 12, 1886 


a 

C= ~ 

&: (2, i 
. + an 

. # 


SCIENCE 


Comment and Criticism. — Satisfactory stocking of Missouri rivers with California trout. — The attitude 
of the U. S. hydrographic office yoy the use of oil on troubled waters. — The recent discussion on 
religion in the colleges : : ; , : : : : : , 133 


Map of the Shan states bales Mr. Hallett’s surveys for a ratlway 


to south-western China. 


The extension of copyright . : : : : . Horace E. Scudder 134 


International copyright : ; : ; . Gardiner G. Hubbard 135 
A new route to south-western China : 2 , : 4 . Ldward Channing 137 
London Letter, —An exhibition of local manufactures at Birmingham. — The investigation of the working 


of the elementary education act of 1869. —Some shortcomings of the present educational system, — 
Changes at the University of London. — Tunnels under the Mersey and Severn completed. — The 
donation from Sir William Armstrong to the scientific relief fund , : ; : : : «E39 


Notes and News. — Destruction of fish by the cold weather in Florida. — An English acknowledgment of 
the merit of Lieutenant Lockwood’s explorations. — A new map of the Kongo. — A journal of psychical 


research,— Early attempts at an international copyright law.— Annual report of the national 
academy. — The present field-work of the U. S. geological survey.—Contributors to Sczence sve kS9 


Letters to the Editor. 


International geological congressat Berlin, — Per- Correction of thermometers for pressure. — 7. P. 
sifor Frazer . : F F : 4 . I41 Venable, J. W. Gore. . 144 
-Cliff-picture in Colorado. emai A, Wood- Is the dodo an extinct bird Re Ww. Shu feldt 145° 
hull , ‘ 14I | Evidences of glacial action on the shores of Lake 
A scientific corps for ‘the army sna navy.— is Ww. Superior. — A. A. Crozer . : 145 
Shufeldt : : : . 142 | Professor Newcomb’s address before the Antec 
“Science and Lord Bacon. Be ape Hall , rat AS society for psychical research. — S. Vewcomb 145 
The, competition of convict labor. — £. Langer- Sea-level and ocean-currents.— W. MW. Davis . 146 
felad; Nicholas Murray Butler. . . 143 | Association of sound and color. —4radford Torrey 146 
’ The festoon cloud. —/. . Allen . : - 44 | Tadpoles in winter. — S. H. Gage; Wm. F. Ford 146 


SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 


Primitive marriage... : . ee t : HT... We Hf. 147 
The oil-wells of Baku . ‘ : ; ; ; ; 149 
Ratio of increase of height to increase of atk; in ee Ghild). Rais 210) 
Different physiological senses for heat and cold . ; ; : : 151 
Rainfall in South Africa . : ‘ : ; : . HRI 
Facsimile of the Antilegomena . ‘ : ’ : : t sae ’ 153 
-Educational books and reports ns : ? F : ; , aS 
_New books . : : i ; : : ; 2 154 


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Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. 


Volume VII. No. 159 : Wd February 19, 1886 


Pom NCE 


Comment and Criticism.—Mr. Keltie’s report on geographical education. — Dr, Shufeldt’s plan for a 


national bureau of science. — The great cost of library catalogues, and the possibility of its reduction 


by co-operation. — An attack on the theosophical report of the English society for psychical research . 155 


Progress in India 


156 
Prejevalsky’s explorations in Mongolia 157 
The U. S. geological survey 158 
Geographical nutes 160 
Astronomical notes. : ; ; : : 161 
St. Petersburg Letter, — The elasticity of air at low pressure. — Preparations for the solar eclipse of Aug. 18, 
1887. — The coldest winter weather yet known. — The annual award of medals at the geographical 
society. — A movement for female medical education . 161 
Notes and News. — Bird-pretection in England. — Relief-maps at the geographical exposition. — A census 
of the great lake fisheries. — Anatomical preparations at Washington. — The Geological railway guide. 
— Statistics in regard to geographical research. — The growth of German cities . d : ; SOFG2 
e 
Letters to the Emitor. 
‘Did Dr. Hayes reach Cape Lieber in his arctic The competition of convict-labor. — £. Langer- 
exploration of 1861 ?— Charles A. Schott . 165 | Seas : , ; ; : “ . 168 
_An open letter. — G. K. Gilbert : p . 166 Is the dodo an extinct bird ?— Elhott Coues . 168 
Montana climate. — P. Koch p ; ; . 167 | Corrections of thermometers for pressure. — Szg . 168 
-Oil on troubled waters. — George F. Waters . 167 | Tadpoles in winter. —C. C. Green . _ .. 4565 
SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 
Virchow on acclimatization . E ; : 2 . 169 
‘The trade in spurious Mexican antiquities | : W. H. Holmes 170 
East Greenland Eskimo . ; : : é : : ‘ vans: 
~The population of London . ‘ ; ; 173 
~Waste in wheat-crops : : ; : ; : LTA 
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JJORSFORD'S 
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It is not nauseous, but agreeable to the taste. ; 
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Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. I 


ida! * iy 7-7 2 wal Be eg. wes Te Pen A Te 


Volume VII. No. 160 7 February 26, 1886 


44 
a 


SCIENCE 


Comment. and Criticism, — The study of history as it is on the continent of Europe. —A novel method of 


lighting vessels under way. — A proposed political science quarterly. — The national academy ASE on 

the naval observatory .° . é ‘ . ; ; : ‘ : ; : : ; , hi A 
Crater Lake, Oregon, a proposed national reservation. CS Dalen AF 
The fish-cultural station at Gloucester, Mass. . : : , at epee 
Greely’s Three years of arctic service. : , 182 


London Letter, — The appointment of Sir Lyon Playfair as the minister of education. — Some recent scien- 


tific appointments. — Evidence in favor of the ribbon form of lightning conductor . : : <<, BOs 


Notes and News,— The formation of an American society for the prevention of bird-destruction. — The 
difficulties of the commission on the government scientific bureaus, — A proposed permanent exposition 


in Washington. — Explorations of the mounds in Manitoba. — A zodlogical garden for Washington . 185 


Letters to the Editor. 


Sea-level and ocean-currents. — W. Ferrel . 187 | Arecent ice-storm.— W. M. Davis . : . 190 
The Davenport tablets. —Cyrus Thomas. . 189 | pe. nae a pressure. a f. es ne 
The claimed wheat and rye hybrid.—Z. S. Carman 190 | Is the dodo an extinct bird ?— 2. Rwy . Igo 


SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 


DESTRUCTION -OF OUR. NATIVE BIRDS. 


The present wholesale destruction of bird-life in the United States J. A. Allen i191 
Destruction of birds for millinery purposes ; : ; ; + LOO 
Destruction of bird-life in the vicinity of New York ; . Witham Dutcher 197 
Destruction of the eggs of birdsfor food . : George B. Sennett 199 
The relation of birds to agriculture ; : Aaa 
Bird-laws. : ; : : . ; oo 2G 
An appeal tu the women of the country in Focal of the birds é ; . 204 
The American ornithologists’ union committee on bird-protection . ere.(° | 


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55 weekly indemnity. Has paid policy-holders nearly $11,000,000, All 
volicies non-forfeitable. All claims paid, without discount, and imme- 
liately on receipt of satisfactory proofs. 


GERMAN SIMPLIFIED. 
An eminently practical new method for learning the German lan- 
guage. Edition for self-instruction, in 12 numbers, at 10 cents each, 
sold separately ; school-edition (without keys), bound in cloth, $1.25. 
For sale by all booksellers ; sent post-paid on receipt of price by Prof- 
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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. 


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xo Oa Bat Fo 2: 


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Marsu, of New Haven: J. W. Powe 1, of Washington; W. P. Trow- 
BRIDGE, of New York. 

SCIENCE appears every Friday. Volumes begin in July and January. 
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scripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of 
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SUBSCRIPTIONS.—In United States and Canada, $5 a year. - 
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‘ New York. 
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FIORSFORD'S 
Acid Phosphate @ 


(Liquid), 


For Dyspepsia, Mental and Physical Exhaustion, 
Nervousness, Wakefulness, Diminished Vitality, 
etc. 


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Prepared according to the directions of Pro- 
fessor E. N. Horsford of Cambridge, from the 
phosphates of lime, magnesia, potash, and iron, 
with phosphoric acid in such form as to be readily 
assimilated by the system. 


Universally prescribed by physicians. 

It is not nauseous, but agreeable to the taste. 

No danger can attend its use. 

Its action will harmonize with such stimulants as 
are necessary to take. . 

It makes a delicious drink with water and sugar only. 


Prices reasonable. Pamphlet mailed free. 


Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. L. 


PRIZES OFFERED BY THE BOSTON 
SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 


THE WALKER PRIZES, APRIL, 1886. 


The Society offers a first prize of from $60 to $100, and 


a second prize of $50, for the best memoirs in English, onthe 


following subject: 


‘‘ Original unpublished investigations on the embryology of 1 


any plant.” 


The essays are to be sent to the Secretary of the Society, a 
on or before April 1, 1886, accompanied by a sealed envelope, 


containing the name and address of the writer of the essay, Fs 
which must not, in any way, be apparent in the manuscript. _ 


EDWARD BURGESS, Secretary. 


Boston, Mass. 


Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. 


ao 


Volume VII. No. 161 March 5, 1886 


Sore NCE 


Comment and Criticism. — The two bright comets shortly visible. — Annual report of officers of the Elmira 


reformatory.— Report of the astronomical committee of the National academy of sciences. — Railway 


contracts. — The recent economic science meeting : : ; : 2 ; : 3 ? Kor 
Geography-teaching in Germany . ’ : ; : . 209 
Meteorological conference . ‘ Speer «fo 


Method of stating results of water-analyses A.C. Peale; W.H. Seaman ; C. H. White 211 


Paris Letter.— The appointment of Mathias Duval to the professorship of histology in the medical school, 
and Mr. Vulpian’s resignation. — Departure of Paul Bert for Tonquin. —A new French scientific 
periodical, the Archives Slaves de biologie.— The unveiling of Bernard’s statue. — Mr. Chevreul’s 
old age : : : ' ; d ; : : ; : : : ’ ; ; ; ars 


Notes and News.— Pasteur’s results. — The ‘Forum.’ — New polar expedition. — Deer-hunting in New 


York. — Disinterment of the Sphinx. — Panama canal. — Smithsonian works in press . . ; . 213 


Letters to the Editor. 


Oil on troubled waters. — Charles K. Wead - 214 | International copyright. — Appleton Morgan . 219 
Professor Thorell and the American Silurian scor- | A recent ice-storm.— dwd. S. Philbrick) =. _ 220 
ge : ; 6. Habits of batrachians.— George Baur. ie G2ZO 
The language of the Bilhoola in British Columbia. : ; 
A tornado brood in Hampshire county, Mass, — 
— Franz Boas : : : . ; . 218 
P ss : TE OUP EE. ‘ . : A ; . 220 
Discomforts arising from sponge spicules in pond- 
thas So Red teen : ; : 21g | | Marvels of animal life.’ — C. 7. Holder : 220 
Preliminary description of a new species of Aplo- The competition of convict labor. — Wicholas 
dontia. —C. Hart Merriam . 2 F . 219 | Murray Butler. : ; : . 220 


SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 
ON THE FREEDOM OF CONTRACT. 


Regulation of contracts . i . ; - 225 
How far have modern improvements in production and transportation changed the 


one that men should be left free to make their own bargains? 
A. T. Hadley ; W.G. Sumner. 221 


The Science Company, Publishers, New York, 


743 Broadway. Price 5 cents 


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Straight Cut Cigarettes. 


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“The Travelers Insurance Company 


of Hartford, Conn., organized 1864, issues both L7z/e Policies and 
Accident Policies. Only large accident company in America, Only $5 
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$5 weekly indemnity. Has paid policy-holders nearly $11,000,000. All 
policies non-forfeitable. All claims paid, without discount, and imme- 
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- GERMAN SIMPLIFIED. 


An eminently practical new method for learning the German lan- 
guage. Edition for self-instruction, in 12 numbers, at 10 cents each, 
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For sale by all booksellers ; sent post-paid on receipt of price by Prof- 
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b) 


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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. 


The chair of ‘‘NATURAL HISTORY AND 
AGRICULTURE” in the UNIVERSITY OF 
GEORGIA will be filled July, 1886. SALARY, 


$2,000, and residence on experimental farm, 
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SCIENCE. 


AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY JOURNAL. THE SCIENCE 
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OFFICERS AND DrrEectors.—D. C. Gitman, of Baltimore, President; 
Srvon Newcoms, of Washington, Vice-Prestdent; GARDINER G. Hus- 
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FIORSFORD'S 
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Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. I. 


PRIZES. OFFERED BY THE BOSTON 
SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 


THE WLKER PRIZES, APRIL, 1886. 


The Society offers a first prize of from $60 to $100, and a 
a second prize of $50, for the best memoirs in English, onthe — 
following subject: 


‘‘ Original unpublished investigations on the embryology of _ 
any plant.” a 
The essays are to be sent to the Secretary of the Society, 
on or before April 1, 1886, accompanied by a sealed envelope, — 
endorsed with a motto corresponding to one on the essay, - 
containing the name and address of the writer of the essay, — 


which must not, in any way, be apparent in the manuscript. 
Boston, Mass. EDWARD BURGESS, Secretary. 


Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. 


GUSTAV E. STECHERT, 
766 Broadway, New York. 
Importer of Scientific Books and Periodicals. 
Branches: Leipzig, Hospital Str. 16 ; London, 26 


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MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS! ! 


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ORK. 
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Part 2c (supplement). Second-hand and other Microscopes, Objectives, 
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AID WILL BE GIVEN by 
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Hill, secretary. Office, 103 State 
street, Chicago. 


INFORMATION WANTED, 
upon the needless destruction of 
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Committee on Protection of Birds, 
of the Am. Ornithologists’ Union. 
Address Care of Am. Mus. Nat. 
Hist., New York City. 


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A WONDERFUL SUCCESS. 46TH THOUSAND JUST OUT. 


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STUDENTS’ SONGS 


PUBLISHED BY MOSES KING. 


‘STUDENTS’ songs are popular everywhere. They have a breeziness and brightness 

thoroughly their own ; and they typify the pleasantest characteristics of college life—a life 
which interests thousands who have never enjoyed its peculiar pleasures, as well as affording 
happy memories in such abundance to all who have been fortunate enough to attain its 
privileges. The newest edition of ‘Students’ Songs,’ compiled and edited by Mr. William 
H. Hills, Harvard, 1880, and published by Mr. Moses King at Cambridge, and also at New 
York, is altogether the best of a book that attained at once deserved popularity. 
The very newest songs of the time—those which the college boys delight to sing to-day in 
society and class gatherings—are given, with piano accompaniment ; and it is difficult to see 
how Mr. Hill’s admirable collection could in any way be improved. What gives special 
value to the book is, that most of the songs are new in print, and, being copyrighted, can be 
found in no other collection. . . . Itis hard to understand how so dainty a book, with 
its array of sixty-two capital songs, can be offered for sale at the price (50 cents) which is 
asked.” Boston Daily Globe. 


STUDENTS’ SONGS contains 60 copyrighted songs with full music, comprising the newest 
and most popular of the jolly songs as sung at all of the American colleges. 


PRICE FIFTY CENTS: PQ@siPaAlr: 


Address MOSES KING, Publisher, 


279 Broadway, New York, or Harvard Sq., Cambridge, Mass. 


STUDENTS’ SONGS. 


' A collection of sixty of the choicest songs as actually sung 
‘ at the present time at all of the American colleges. Nearly 
_ sheet-music size, with full music. 50 cents, post-paid. 

Be sure to get Moses King’s collection. 


4 
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a 


_ KING’S HANDBOOK OF BOSTON. 


A thorough review of the whole city, with descriptions and 
illustrations of all the noteworthy places of Boston. This 
book has long been recognized as the standard popular book 
| for the resident or tourist, and has passed through seven 

editions. It contains about 400 pages and 300 illustrations. 
Thoroughly revised to date. 
quisitely bound in cloth. Price, $1. 


Handsomely printed, and ex- 


KING’S HANDBOOK OF BOSTON 
HARBOR. 


A companion-book to King’s Handbook of Boston, the 
latter being confined exclusively to the city, and the other 
_ exclusively to the famous harbor, of Boston. It is one of 


Pro- 
300 


with the heartiest encomiums of ail who have read it. 
fusely illustrated with about 200 original illustrations. 
pages. Cloth binding. Price $1, postpaid. 


HARVARD AND ITS SURROUNDINGS 


A comprehensive and fully illustrated guidebook of Har- 
vard University and Old Cambridge. This book has been 
‘approved and generously patronized by the faculty and 
graduates of the University ; and by glancing through the 
text, and looking at the seventy views, about forty of which 
are practically photographs, any one can obtain a very clear 
idea of the University buildings, their contents, uses, and 
‘surroundings. 108 pages. 70 illustrations. Cloth binding. 
$1.50, postpaid. 


MOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY. 


4 A small guidebook to the oldest rural cemetery, with notes 
about many of the legion of eminent persons whose remains 
have here found their final resting-place. 100 pages. 30 
7 lustrations. Pamphlet, 30 cents, postpaid. 


‘the most readable handbooks ever produced, and has met. 


MOSES KINGS WELL-KNOWN BOOKS. 


BENJAMIN PEIRCE. 


A memorial volume of the learned professor, who was 
identified with Harvard University for half a century, and 
whose name as mathematician, astronomer, and scholar has 
not been surpassed. 
biographies, etc., 


The volume contains eulogies, poems, 
by number of eminent. persons who were 
his intimate friends, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, James 
Freeman Clarke, Thomas Hill, Andrew Preston Peabody, 
Cyrus A. Bartol, and others, Cloth binding. $1, postpaid. 


CONCORD LECTURES ON PHIL- 
OSOPHY. 


This was the first volume of reports of the lectures delivered 
at the school at Concord, Mass., and contains elaborate re- 
ports of all the lectures, poems, etc., of the year 1882; and 
also a brief history of theschool. The volume was approved 
by the faculty, and each report was revised by the author ; so 
that the whole is authorized and authentic. 
printed on fine paper with broad margins. 
were made. 168 pages. 
$1.75, postpaid. 


It is handsomely 
Only 1,000 copies 


Royal octavo. Cloth binding. 


MRS. PARTINGTON’S WIDE SWATH 


“or, Lines in Pleasant Places. 


Mrs. Partington, in this book, brings together the whole 
of her sayings in verse, which include many pieces written 
for occasions, and about certain people. 
a striking portrait of the author ; 
autograph, written with pen and ink. 400 pages. 
binding. $1, postpaid. 


Its frontispiece is 
and below is a genuine 
Cloth 


WALTHAM: PAST AND PRESENT. 


This is the only history ever published of the attractive city 
of Waltham, Mass., 
establishments, and many historical places. 


with its several gigantic manufacturing 
The volume is a 
The 
thirty-eight illustrations are real photographs, taken expressly 
for this volume, and not to be had otherwise. These photo- 
graphs alone would, ordinarily, cost more than the price of 
120 pages, Cloth binding. $2.50, postpaid. 


comprehensive history, and a complete description. 


the volume. 


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Branches : Leipzig, Hospital Str. {6 ; London, 26 
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| B WESTERMANN & CO., 


(Established 1848,) 


NEW VORK, 
FOREIGN BOOKSELLERS AND IMPORTERS. 


MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS! ! 


Complete sets of all the leading Magazines and Reviews and 

back numbers of several thousand periodicals, for sale at low 

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THE AMERICAN AND FOREIGN MAGAZINE DEPOT, 

47 Dey street, New York City. 


GERMAN SIMPLIFIED. 


An eminently practical new method for learning the German lan- 
guage. Edition for self-instruction, in 12 numbers, at 10 cents each, 
sold separateiy ; school-edition (without keys), bound in cloth, $1.25. 
For sale by all booksellers ; sent post-paid on receipt of price by Prof- 
A. KNOFLACH, 140 Nassau St., New York. Prospectus mailed free. 


i 838 Broadway 


=. ‘THE ELECTRICAL REVIEW,’’ 

= Anillustrated weekly journal, is the acknowledged lead- 

; er in the world of electrical science. Edited with care. 
its editorial opinion is reliable,its news columns bright 
audinstructive. 3.00 per year; single copies, 10 cents. 

a 23 PARK ROW, NEW YORK. 

7 C=" Rest advertising medium in the electrical field. 


. 
bd 


SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 


THE WALKER PRIZES, APRIL, 1886. 


¥ - 


4 The Society offers a first prize of from $60 to $100, and 
- a second prize of $50, for the best memoirs in English, on the 
following subject: 

“Original unpublished investigations on the embryology of 
any plant.” 

The essays are to be sent to the Secretary of the Society, 
on or before April 1, 1886, accompanied by a sealed envelope, 
_ endorsed with a motto corresponding to one on the essay, 
containing the name and address of the writer of the essay, 
which must not, in any way, be apparent in the manuscript. 


' Boston, Mass. EDWARD BURGESS, Secretary. 


“SATIN ” 
> CR AIGH TCU FY 
CIGARETTES 


Have at once come into popular 
favor because of their Su- 
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14 FIRST PRIZE MEDALS. 
WM. S. KIMBALL & CO. 


| PRIZES OFFERED BY THE BOSTON 


JAMES W, QUEEN &CoO. 


Manufacturing Opticians, 
924 CHESTNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA, 


OPTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC INSTR U- 
MENTS OF ALL KINDS. 


PUBLISHERS OF THE 


\ X ~ ¢ ig 


(Sample free ) 


= 3 = ee: 


—s is 
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We Publish our Catalogues in Parts, as follows, and will mail 
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Part r. Mathematical Instruments, Drawing Paper, etc. _ 162 pp- 
Part 2. Optical Instruments, including Spectacles, Microscopes, etc. 
188 pp. 


Astronomical Telescopes and Accessories. 35 pp- 
Opera, Field and Spy Glasses. 32 pp. me 4y 
Second-hand and other Microscopes, Objectives, 


Part 2a (supplement). 

Part 26 (supplement). 

Part 2c (supplement). 
etc: - 16"pp: 

Part 3. Projecting Lanterns and Slides. 

Part 4. Physical Instruments. 250 pp. 

Part 4a (supplement). Chemical Apparatus, Balances, etc. 50 pp. 

Part 46 (supplement). Second-hand Physical and Chemical Apparatus. 

’ 16 pp. 

Part 4c (supplement). Chemicals. 48 pp. 

Part 5. Meteorological Instruments, Hydrometers, etc. 120 pp. 


150 pp. 


’ Part 6. Photographic Cameras, Lenses and Materials. 48 pp. 


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One touch of the finger should produce any character used 
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The No. 2 ‘‘ CALIGRAPH” is the only writing machine that 
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‘** CALIGRAPHS ” 

We publish goo letters from prominent men and firms which 
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For specimens, etc.. address, 


THE AMERICAN WRITING MACHINE CO,, | 
HARTFORD, CONN. 


10,000 ARE IN DAILY _ USE. 


New York Office, . 
237 Broadway. 


THE TENTH EDITION. 


A WONDERFUL SUCCESS. 46TH THOUSAND JUST OUT. 


THE SCIENTIST’S RECREATION. 


STUDENTS’ SONGS 


PUBLISHED BY MOSES KING. 


‘STUDENTS’ songs are popular everywhere. They have a breeziness and brightness 
thoroughly their own ; and they typify the pleasantest characteristics of college life—a life 
which interests thousands who have never enjoyed its peculiar pleasures, as well as affording 
happy memories in such abundance to all who have been fortunate enough to attain its 
privileges. The newest edition of ‘ Students’ Songs,’ compiled and edited by Mr. William 
H. Hills, Harvard, 1880, and published by Mr. Moses King at Cambridge, and also at New 
York, is altogether the best of a book that attained at once deserved popularity. 

The very newest songs of the time—those which the college boys delight to sing to-day in 
society and class gatherings—are given, with piano accompaniment ; and it is difficult to see 
how Mr. Hill’s admirable collection could in any way be improved. What gives special 
value to the book is, that most of the songs are new in print, and, being copyrighted, can be 
found in no other collection. . . . It is hard to understand how so dainty a book, with 


its array of sixty-two capital songs, can be offered for sale at the price (50 cents) which is 
asked.” Boston Daily Globe. 


STUDENTS’ SONGS contains 60 copyrighted songs with full music, comprising the newest 
and most popular of the jolly songs as sung at all of the American colleges. 


PRICE. FIFTY .CENTS POs2t2 aa. 


Address MOSES KING, Publisher, 


229 Broadway, New York, or Hanover Sq., Cambridge, Mass. 


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Discussions on Climate 
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_ By James Croii, LL.D., F. R. S.. author of “ Cli- 
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Price, $2.00 


CONTENTS: Misapprehensions regarding the Phy- 
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of Greenland and the Antarctic Continent not due to 
Elevation of the Land.--Mr. Alfred R. Wallace's 
Modification of the Physical Theory of Secular 
Changes of Climate.—The Physical Cause of Mild 
Polar Climates. —Iinterglacial Periods and Distribution 
of Flora and Fauna in Arctic Regions.—Temperature 
of Space and its Bearing on Terrestrial Physics.— 


_ Probable Origin and Age of the Sun’s Heat, etc., etc. 


--  D. APPLETON & CO,, Publishers, 


1, 3 & 5 Bonp STREET, NEW York. 


| PRIZES OFFERED BY THE BOSTON 


SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 


THE WALKER PRIZES, APRIL, 1886. 


The Society offers a first prize of from $60 to $100, and 


_ asecond prize of $50, for the best memoirs in English, on the 


4s any plant.” 


_ following subject: 


‘‘ Original unpublished investigations on the embryology of 


The essays are to be sent to the Secretary of the Society, 


on or before April 1, 1886, accompanied by a sealed envelope, 


_ endorsed with a motto corresponding to one on the essay, 
containing the name and address of the writer of the essay, 
_ which must not, in any way, be apparent in the manuscript. 


_ Boston, Mass. EDWARD BURGESS, Secretary. 


é “¢ ““ SATIN ” 
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BSS Ss CIGARETTES 


Have at once come into popular 
favor because of their Su- 
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14 FIRST PRIZE MEDALS. 
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JAMES W,. QUEEN & Co. 


Manufacturing Opticians, 
924 CHESTNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA, 


OPTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC INSTR U- 
MENTS OF ALL KINDS. 


PUBLISHERS OF THE 


(Sample free ) 


oe 


We Publish our Catalogues in Parts, as follows, and will mail 
upon application such as may be desired by those interested. 


Part 1. Mathematical Instruments, Drawing Paper, etc. 162 pp- 
Part 2. Optical Instruments, including Spectacles, Microscopes, etc. 
188 pp. 


Astronomical Telescopes and Accessories. 35 pp- 
Opera, Field and Spy Glasses. 32 pp. Lage: x 
Second-kand and other Microscopes, Objectives, 


Part 22 (supplement). 
Part 24 (supplement). 
Part 2c (supplement). 


etc. 16 pp. 
Part 3. Projecting Lanterns and Slides. 150 pp. 
Part 4. Physical Instruments. 250 pp. 


Chemical Apparatus, Balances, etc. 50 pp. 


Part 4a (supplement). t 
Second-hand Physical and Chemical Apparatus. 


Part 44 (supplement). 
16 pp. 

Part 4c (supplemert). Chemicals. 48 pp. 

‘Part 5. Meteorological Instruments, Hydrometers, etc. 120 pp. 

Part 6. Photographic Cameras, Lenses and Materials. 48 pp. 


“IT STANDS AT THE HEAD.” 


One touch of the finger should produce any character used 
by the operator of a writing machine; instruments that fail to 
accomplish this are deficient and do not fully meet the neces- 
sity that brought them forth. These facts are self-evident. 

The No. 2 ‘‘ CALIGRAPH” is the only writing machine that 
fully economizes time and Jabor, and economy of time and 
labor is the best reason we know for soliciting trade. 

Granting that we are at the front in this, we can shew that 
our lately improved machines excel in mechanical merit, 
durability and beauty of work. 


‘** CALIGRAPHS ” 


We publish 4oo letters from prominent men and firms which 
are convincing. 
For specimens, etc.. address, 


THE AMERICAN WRITING MACHINE CoO., 
HARTFORD, CONN. 


10,0co ARE IN DAILY USE. 


New York Ojjice, 
237 Broadway. 


THE WAKING 


==— Anti-/nduction | 


LEAD-INCASED 


__BIELEGRAPH, TELEPHONE, and ELECTRIC-LIGHT CABLES, © 
WHAT WE CLAIM FOR THEM: 


ist. Extremely high insulation, and very low electro-static capacity. 
2d. Freedom from induction. 
3d. Straining out induction when air-lines are connected with the cable. 


4th. Greatest facility of branching and looping. 
5th. Compactness and flexibility. 
6th. Ease and rapidity of laying underground. 


7th. Durability and freedom from interruption. 
8th. The mechanical protection afforded by the lead covering. 
goth. Perfection of the mechanical work. 


1oth. They have stood the test of time. 


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ES SEES anon ee case ae aS Sees wh TS $108,908,967.51 


Insurance and Annuity Account. 


No. | Amount. No. Amount. 
Policies and Annuities in Policies and Annuities in 
force, Jan. 1st, 1885 ....| 114.865 |} $351,815,941 07 force, Jan. 1st, 1886 ....| 120,952 | $368,981.441 36 
Risks Assumed .......... 14.334 46,507,139 bie Risks Terminated........ 8,247 29,341,638 87 
129,199 | $398.323 08u 2 129,199 | $98,823,080 23 
D». Revenue. Account. Cr. 
s s OO 
- To Balance from last account...... $97,009.913 08 By paid to Policy-Holders: 
AU PPEMINAMS 2 coe eae eo ee ca 14,768,901 93 Endowments & Pur- 
““ Interest and Reéits ... 8.0.0. <%. 5,446,052 35 chased Insurances. $5,270,116 34 
Dividends and Annui- 
2 LOS! SE sin see. «ates 3.211,900 00 
Deceased Lives..:... 5, 920, 033 56 
ER, 402,049 90 


‘* Other Disbursements: 
Commissions and t $1 298.679 84 


Pa Commutations. 

oe Maxesy. 1 (arpa eee 266,656 50 

“a Expenses..:):, 4: . .991,954 14 
— — 2,487,290 48 

S. ‘- Premium on Stocks and Bonds ; 
Purchased. 272, 2 12s ee eee 469,882 87 
ee ‘* Balance to new account......... 99,865,644 11 
$117,224,867 36 $117,224,867 36 
Dr. B alance Sheet. Cr. 

To Reserve for policies in force or | By Bonds Secured by Mortgages on 
tarminated’..2% 26) 4. sn $103,846,253 00 Real Mistate.c- 2. sen. seo $49,228,930 16 
‘* Premiums received in advance . 50,080 73 ‘* United States and other Bonds. . 39,366,104 00 
*“* Surplus at four per cent,....... 5,012,633 78 ‘* Loans on Collaterals.....-. .... 3,856,500 00 
** Real Mstave yc oe waccen eee 10,992,720 45 

ee ars ‘* Cash in Banks and Trust Com- 
pas panies at interest.............. 2,619,643 21 
2 s°.5 Interest 2CCrued:\>...o).. 0s selon 1,217,329 85 
wr ‘“* Premiums deferred and in tran- 
Gere, Sib. 22 eGo hie at eee 1,438,189 55 
erg ey Sundries. tiia.. schon cee pee 189,550 29 
$108,908,967 51 $108, 908,967 51 


I have carefully examined the foregoing statement and find the same to be correct. 
A. N. WATERHOUSE, Auditor. 


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Volume VII. No. 162 


SCIENCE 


Comment and Criticism. — Suicides in England and Wales in relation to age, sex, season, and occupation. 


March 12, 1886 


— A proposition that the weather predictions snall be revised by local observers. — The study of 
- philosophy. — A revival of cholera in Spain. — The phylloxera in Cape Colony £7229 
The naval observatory : 3 ; ; ; : 231 
The swamps of the United States . : ; : 64), LVRS uSAarer 22 
Geographical notes. ; : : : : . 234 
London Letter. — The death of Mr. Henry Bradshaw, librarian of the University of Cambridge. — Mathe- 
matics no longer required for honor candidates in classics. — The study of engineering at the University 
of London. — An elaborate private electric installation. — The discussion of Professor Hughes’s paper 
on the proper nature and form of electric conductors . 234 
Boston Letter. — Progress of the topographical survey of Massachusetts, and the prospect of an exact deter- 
mination of the town boundary-lines. — Forest preserves near Boston. —A dinner to celebrate the 
decenniat anniversary of the Appalachian Mountain club, — The summer school at Annisquam 235 
Notes and News. — Danger of poisoning from arsenic in wall-papers.— A possible aid to agricultural 
experiment-stations.—The experimental tea-farms to be abandoned. — A proposed Hebrew university 
in New York City. — Convenient ephemerides for amateur-astronomers. — Earthquakes in Japan. — A 
new method for producing immunity from contagious diseases . 236 
Letters to the Editor. 
Bishop’s ring during solar eclipses. — W. MW. D, 239 | A recent ice-storm.— JZ. A. Lee - | 242 
A trap-door spider at work.—MWary 7. Palmer 240 | Apropos to Pteranodon and Homo.—S,. Lockwood 242 
The destruction of birds.— 7. A. H. ; Amos W, Is the dodo an extinct bird?—R. W. Shufeldt . 242 
Butler . . . : : Sigs. . 241 | Chinook winds. —G. H. Stone “a2 
SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 
The Rocky Mountains as seen from the Canadian Pacific railway . Lrnest Ingersoll 243 
The origin of human races and types. ? ; : ‘ ; ; ; : . 245 
An old-fashioned book ! ; ; ; ‘ g : ; : ; 246 
Comparative distribution of Jewish ability “247 
Recent Challenger reports 249 


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following subject: . 

‘* Original unpublished investigations on the embryology of — 
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The essays are to be sent to the Secretary of the Society, 
on or before April 1, 1886, accompanied by a sealed envelope, — 
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aa 
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Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. 


> ' : 


Volume Vil. No. 163 ren March 19, 1886 


SCIENCE 


Comment and Criticism.— The probable failure of the Pennsylvania oil and gas wells within twenty 


years. — The remarkable growth of Cornell in the last few years : : : - E “U2ET 
Botanical instruction in this country ‘i ; : : : ies es eee 
Deep-sea soundings i in the South Pacific - . way eae ey RR. Bartlett 252 
The distribution of rainfall in New England, Feb. ro-14, 1886 . _ Winslow Upton 254 
Some work of the government surveys . : Z : : - ; . Beg 
Health of New York during February ; ‘ : Bee de 1 fe: 
Railroad transportation . ; ; s : : ; Lf. W. Taussig 258 
Minor book notices. ey te : ; : , : a Se 2 


St, Ae Letter. — The reception to Prjevalsky and the results of his explorations, — The growth of 
the St. Petersburg university, and the large proportion of students dependent upon scholarships . 261 


Notes and News. — Egyptian exploration. — The early advent of mackerel upon our coast. — A proposed 
memorial to Oswald Heer. — The work in paleobotany of the U.S. geological survey. — The topo- 


graphic features of lake shores. — The existence of large glaciers in the Rocky Mountains. : 263 


Letters to the Editor. 


‘The trade in spurious Mexican antiquities. —W, The anachronisms of pictures. —C. G. - « 264 


HT, Holmes . : : , : 4 . 264 | Is the dodo an extinct bird?—W. S. Symonds. 264 


SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 


‘Views of economists on the silver problem S. Mewcomd; EZ. J. James; J. L. Laughlin 265 
‘The sense of touch, and the teaching of the blind . : ; et ws 
Public health improvement in England : ; s ey 


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Marsh, of New Haven: J. W. Powe LL, of Washington; W. P.!  TROW- 
BRIDGE, of New York; S. H. ScuppEr, of Cambridge. 

SCIENCE appears "every Friday. Volumes begin in July and January. 
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PRIZES OFFERED BY THE | BOSLTONAS 
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The Society offers a first prize of from $60 to $100, and 4 
a second prize of $50, for the best memoirs in English, ‘on the ; 
following subject: A 


Oneal unpublished investigations on the embryology of | 
any plant.” | 


The essays are to be sent to the Secretary of the Society, q 
on or before April 1, 1886, accompanied by a sealed envelope, © 
endorsed with a motto corresponding to one on the essay, C 
containing the name and address of the writer of the essay, " 


which must not, in any way, be apparent in the manuscript. 
Boston, Mass. EDWARD BURGESS, Secretary. 


Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. a 


Volume VII. No. 1649 Y CENTRAL PARK +} March 26, 1886 
sO NEW YORK. wee 
MAT URAL LD De 


SCIENCE 


Comment and Criticism. — The lakes of western New York, — A patchwork report from the U. S. naval 


observatory. — The Warner prizes for essays on the brilliant sunsets of 1883-84. New microscopic 


objectives : : : ps2 : : 5 , : ; ‘ : ; ‘ t t er 


Map of Central America, showing interoceantc routes proposed by the 
French commession under Commander L. N. B. Wyse. 


The European colonies and their trade ; ; : Gardiner G. Hubbard 275 
The U.S. geological survey. : ; ; ‘ : j ; 276 
The railway to central Asia . : : ag 
Photographic study of stellar spectra : Biourd C. Pickering 278 
The Hudson Bay route to Europe 3 : : : 4 ; ; . 278 
The Panama canal. .. : ; ; : : 279 


London Letter.— The water-supply of London. — Unusually low temperatures in England. — Recent 
deaths of English scientific men. — The engineering tripos at Cambridge. — The French Phylloxera 


commission. — English interest in Pasteur’s hydrophobia experiments : , : : ; ie: 28E 


Vienna Letter. — A new gas-lamp. — Mr. Ernst Freund’s experiments on means for preventing the coagula- 
tion of blood . : : ; : : ; é : : : : : : : : . 282 


Notes and News. — The summer course in chemistry at Harvard. — A memorial to Friedrich Wéhler. — 
The topographical map of New Jersey. — The fifth annual report of the U. S. geological survey. — The 
publications of Professor Koch. — The annual report of the Connecticut agricultural experiment-station. 


ted 


— A geological map of Russian Turkestan . ; : : d : _ ‘ : ; ‘ . 283 


Letters to the Editor. 

Certain questions relating to national endowment | A swindler abroad again. — H. D. Crawford . 286 
of research in this country. —2.W. Shufeldt 284 | 
The silver problem. — Chas, Field cake . 286 | 


Reports of the National academy of sciences, — 
Asaph Hall . ; : : , 206 


SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 


Educational tendencies in Japan and in America : . LVicholas Murray Butler 287 
The characters of children as evidenced by their powers of observation . . 288 
Observations upon digestion in the humar stomach ; : fi 206 
Blindness in Russia ; 2 : : : : “208 
Bancroft’s History of Alas ee Se ; : . Saee 
Oceana . ; . : ; : : . 292 
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Volume VII. No. 165 — April 2, 1886 
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SOE NCE 


Comment and Criticism.— The interpretation of agricultural experiments.— The significance of the 


term ‘ fishes,’ — The disastrous variability of the rainfall in portions of New South Wales. — The in- 


stability of ornithological nomenclature 3 é : ; p : - : : . 295 
Pasteur and hydrophobia . . ; 5 : 296 
The malarial germ of Laveran . . ; j . George M. Sternberg 297 
A trade-route between Bolivia and the Argentine Republic ; . 299 
Surface-collecting on the Albatross. ; ; James E. Benedict 300 
Earthquake observations Rice Ephane wes . 301 
Geographical notes. ; ; : ; ; ih SOx 
Paris Letter, — A plea for the investigation of the possible cause of consumption. — The handwriting of 

hypnotized persons. — The surface of the ocean as affected by the attractions of continents. — Pasteur’s 

paper before the academy, March 1.— Death of a-devoted investigator of cholera. — Poisons in the 

living body. — Additions to the faculty of medicine. ; f : : : _ : : . 302 
Notes and News. — The sixtieth anniversary of the wedding of Alvan Clark. — A well-banked fire. — 

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paedia Britannica. — A handbook of classical philology and archeology. — A popular text-book of the 

weather. — Announcements of scientific books . ; : : : - ; : . : : 303 

Letters to the Editor. 
Phylloxera. — 4. MZ. D. : 3 : . 307 | A swindler abroad again. — Evasmus Haworth . 308 
Certain questions relating to national endowment | Bancroft’s History of Alaska.— AH. W. Elliott ; 
of research in this country.— W.S.N. 307 | : 
/ The Reviewer . ‘ ‘ : : i 308 
The anachronisms of pictures. — opal : +507: | 
Rod 2 | Names of the Canadian Rocky Mountain peaks. — 
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Dall. : Z ; : Me : 308 | Ernest Ingersoll . : i . ; . 308 


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The nature of so-called double consciousness and triple consciousness Chas. L. Dana 311 


Food-accessories : their influence on digestion . ; : ES ie a 
Death-rate and sanitation in Russia : : . 314 
‘Muir’s Thermal chemistry . : : ; ; i. yee 
New York agricultural experiment-station 5 : a4 
Minor bogs notices. ; ; ; ; ony Se 


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The essays are to be sent to the Secretary of the Society, 
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Volume VII. No. 16f,o, NEWYORK ae April 9, 1886 


SCIENCE 


Comment and Criticism, — The rise and fall of the waters in the north-western lakes. — An outline-map of 
the United States as an aid to teachers. — The present state of the work of the government commission 


on the scientific bureaus 


317 
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London Letter. — Medical education at Oxford. — Death of an old-school naturalist. — A memorial to Dr. 
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Notes and News. — The Toronto meeting of the American public health association. — Section D (mechan- 
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fish for the Great Lakes. — The ‘Atlantic pilot chart’ for April. — The criticism of Mr. C. S. Peirce. — 
The steamship lines and oil for troubled waters . 324 
Letters to the Eadttor. 
International copyright. — Zhorvald Solberg. . 327 | Note on the nocturnal cooling of bodies. — Wm. 
The distinction between anatomy and comparative | Ferret; 329 
anatomy.—. W. Shufelat . ‘ i; 2432S | Maori poetry. — C. 7. Holder . 330 
Penetrating-power of arrows. — O. 7. Mason . 328 | Names of the Canadian Rocky Mountain peaks. 
Underground rivers. — &. A. Fuertes.  . ‘ 329 | —A. G. 330 
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Metal-work of the Burmese 1 348 
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Stokes’s Lectures on light . 338 


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PRIZES OFFERED BY THE BOSTON 
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| The Society offers a first prize of from $60 to $100, and 
a second prize of $50, for the best memoirs in English, on the 
following subject: 


‘Original unpublished investigations on the embryology of 
any plant.” 


The essays are to be sent to the Secretary of the Society, 
on or before April 1, 1886, accompanied by a sealed envelope, 
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with phosphoric acid in such form as to be readily 
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Universally prescribed by physicians. 

It is not nauseous, but agreeable to the taste. 

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Its action will harmonize with such stimulants as 
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It makes a delicious drink with water and sugar only. 


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SCIENCE 


Comment and Criticism, — An additional argument for the preservation of the levees of the lower Missts- 


sippi. — The needs and shortcomings of anatomical museums. — Cornell as a university : ; 2339 
Settlement of labor differences . ; . Nicholas Murray Butler 339 
Apparitions and haunted houses. ; . 2 2a0 
Food-consumption. : ; {Lien ge 
Electric lighting in England 4 ; ~ 343 
The proposed fisheries board of Great Britain . , T. H. Huxley 344 
Explosions in coal-mines , ; ; ; : . M. 346 


Notes and News. —A new fungoid disease. — A supposed Chinese phonograph. — Gambetta’s brain. — 
The dance of the Moquis. — An honor to Mr. Alvan Clark. — Botanic gardens. —Some new books 


published or announced 347 
Letters to the Editor. 
Preliminary description of a new squirrel from bo Science xt Corse — vr. : : ‘ . 352 


Minnesota. —C. Hart Merriam . ‘ ‘ES51 


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Inventory of , philosophy taught in American colleges . John Dewey 353 
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A method of signalling hee We ; a i- eat 
Bibliography of Indian languages . ‘ ; 358 
Diseases of the fore-brain . ; : ; ; MM. ASS. 359 


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fessor E. N. Horsford of Cambridge, from the 
phosphates of lime, magnesia, potash, and iron, 
with phosphoric acid in such form as to be readily 
assimilated by the system. 


Universally prescribed by physicians. 

It is not nauseous, but agreeable to the taste. 

No danger can attend its use. 

Its action will harmonize with such stimulants as 
are necessary to take. 

It makes a delicious drink with water and sugar only. 


Prices reasonable. Pamphlet mailed free. 


Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. I. 


B. WESTERMANN & CO.,, 


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CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS’ NEW BOOKS. 


GERMAN PSYCHOLOGY OF TO-DAY: 
The Empirical School. pecs. onc 


Director of the 
Revue Philosophique. Translated from the French 
by JAMES Mark BALDWIN, B.A. With Preface 
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Extract from President McCosh’s Preface. 


American and English students will be grateful to 
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INSTRUCTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF 
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Privat Doceat in the University of Grau. Translated from the 
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. alogy, Beloit College. With 103 plates, 8vo, cloth. $3.00. John 
Wiley & Sons, Pubs., Astor Place, New York. 


ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS. Edited by Ormond Stone 
and William M. Thornton. Office of Publication: University 
of Virginia. Vol. 2, No.2, is just out. 


GEOLOGY. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL. AND STRATI- 
GRAPHICAL. By Joseph Prestwich, M.B., F.R.S., F G.S. 
Correspondent of the Institute of France, Professor of geology 
in the University of Oxford. In two vols. Vol. 1.: Chemical and 
Physical. 8vo. $6.25. (Oxford University Press.) Macmillan 
& Co., Pubs., New York. 


ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND ATLAS in 69 
maps with explanatory text under the direction of Dr. Richard 
-Andree. By Professor G. Droysen. A complete atlas of an- 
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to political development. Half bound, cloth sides, $9.20. Gus- 
tav E. Stechert, 766 Broadway, N.Y 


MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. Coulter (Wabash Coll ), 8vo., 496 pp. $1.85. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs., New York. 


PHYSI:)LOGICAL BOTANY: I. Outlines of the Histology 
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(Harvard), 8vo., 560 pp. $2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


STRUCTURAL BOTANY; or, Organography on the basis 
of Morphology; the principles of Taxonomy and Phytography 
anda Glossary of Botanical terms. Gray (Harvard), 8vo., 454 pp. 
$2.30. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 


LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. A 
new, thoroughly revised, and greatly enlarged edition. A univer- 
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Imperial 8vo. 2550 pages. Sheep. $12.00. J. B. Lippincott 
Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


ELEMENTARY BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SCI- 
ENCES (HEROES OF SCIENCE) 12mo, cloth. $1.30 each by mail. 
Botanists, zodlogists, and geologists, by Prof. Martin Duncan. 
Astronomers, by E. J. C. Morton, Esq. Chemists, by M. M. 
Pattison Muir, F.R.S.G. .Mechanicians, by T.C. Lewis. E. & 
J. B. Young Co., Pubs., Cooper Union, New York City. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMISTRY. Theoretical, prac 
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Writers of Eminence. Profusely and handsomely illustrated. In 
two volumes. Each containing 25 steel-plate engravings and 
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Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philad:Iphia. 


HOURS WITH THE BIBLE, or the Scriptures in the Light 
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6 vol. 12°. Cloth, with illustrations and index. Sold separately, 
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INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. By Prof. William 
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THE INTERNATIONAL CYCLOPEDIA. The best for 
popular use and specially adapted for ready reference. Fifteen 
royal 8vo volumes. 13,296 pages, 49,649 leading titles. Sold only 
by subscription. Cafaédle salesmen wanted. Dodd, Mead & 
Co., Pubs., New York. 


OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest - 


times to 1886. 32 maps. Fisher (Yale), 8vo., 6 - $3.00. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New You as 4 


SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 
STATES : Showing by Graphic Methods their Present Condi- 
tion, and their Political, Social, and Industrial Development, as 
Determined by the Reports of the Tenth Census, the Bureau of 
Statistics, the Commissioner of Education, State Officials, and 
other Authoritative Sources. 120 Pages Text, 151 plates (31 
double), 279 Maps (22 folio). 969 Charts and Diagrams. Sold only 
by Subscription. Descriptive circular sent on application. 
Charles Scribner’s Sons, Pubs., 743 and 745 Broadway, New York. 


THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES. For the use of classes in zodlogy and private stu- 
dents. By G. H. French, A.M. Illustrated by 93 engravings and 
a map of the territory representei, Large r2mo. Cloth. $2.00, 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Pubs., Philadelphia. 


Advertised Books of Reference.—Continued. 


WILSON: — AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The 
Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alex- 
ander Wilson With a life of the author, by George Ord, F.R.S. 
With continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Mu- 
signano.) PopuLar EpiTion, complete in one volume with 385 
figures of birds. Imp. 8vo. Cloth, $7.50. Half Turkey mor., 
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POLITICAL SCIENCE. 


THE THEORY OF THE STATE. By J. H. Bluntschli, 
late Professor of Political Science in the University of Heidel- 
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POO eS AES 


GUSTAV E. STECHERTS. 


766 Broadway, New York. 


Annales de Chimie et de Physique. Serie I-IV. Vol. 1-6 and 
indices, 1789-1878. Half bound, not uniform. $475. 

Annales des Ponts et Chausées. Complete. From the com- 
mencement in 1831 to 1880. With tables. $150. 

Berichte d. Deutsch. chemischen Gesellschaft. Vol. I-XVII. 
Berlin, 1868-84. Cloth. $150. 

Berichte d. Deutsch. chemischen Gesellschaft. Vol. I-XVII. 
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Centralblatt, botanisches. Year I-V. Cassel, 1880-84. In 
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Centralblatt fiir Electrotechnik, Year I-VI. 1879-84. Mo- 


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Chemical News. Vol. 1-46. 
bound, half calf. $140. 
Engineer, The. Vol. 1-88. London, 1856-1874. 19 volumes, 


vhalf calf. $90. 


Journal fiir Ornithologie. Vol. 1-17. Cassel, 1853-69. $35. 

Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers. No. 1-52, 
with extra special number and index. London, 1874-84. In 
parts. $80 

Lumiére, la, électrique. Vol. 1-14. Paris, 1879-85. $78. 

Nature. The. 32 volumes. London, 1869-1885. Bound. $60. 
- Proceedings of the institution of Mechanical Engineers. From 
the commencement, 1847-83, and index. Complete set. Nicely 
bound, half calf $175. 

Proceedings of the Physical Society. ,Vol. I-VII., i.e. London, 
1874-83. Inparts. $25. 

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Vol. 1-32. From 
1800 to 1881. In parts. $70. 

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Vol. 1-35. 
From 1800 to 1883. Uniformly half bound. $120. 

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April 23, 1886 


Peote NCE 


Comment and Criticism, — A statement of the fundamental principles of the new school of economists. — 


Tornadoes and their prediction. — Thoughtless book-making : : ; ; ; : : . 361 


Government surveys 
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Three Timely Books. 


HARPER & BROTHERS, NewYork. 
Have Just Published. 


1 


THE RAILWAYS AND THE RE- 
eT vee By James F. Hupson. pp. 
, 490. 8vo, Cloth, $2.00. 


A very timely work on the aspect of the controversy 
between some of the railway kings and the general 
public... . . All interested in the inland carrying trade 
should read it if they would understand the principles 
upon which legislation affecting the railroads is de- 
manded.—/V, Y. Journal of Commerce. 

The volume abounds in matter that demands reflec- 
tion from every thoughtful citizen.—Boston Globe. 
This book is one of ‘‘ the signs of the times.” 

important beyond measure. —/V. Y. Graphic. 

Mr. Hudson’s book ought to be read by every 
thoughtful merchant and shipper in the land. It con- 
tains the best and clearest arguments we have yet 
seen in favor of a proper and constitutional settlement 
of the railroad problem.— Saturday Evening Gazette, 
Boston. 


It 4s 


ET; 


MASSACRES OF THE MOUN- 
TAINS. A History of the Indian Wars 
of the Far West: By J. P.-Dunn, Jr., 
M.S., LL.B. With a Map and profuse II- 
lustrations. pp. x., 784. 8vo, Ornamental! 
Cloth, $3.75. 


The narrative is instructive and often becomes ab- 
sorbing. . . . Mr. Dunn has rendered real service to 
the history of the United States in a field of research 
where great discrimination and arduous labor were 
requisite. —/V. Y. Herald. 

A book of peculiar interest, different in its scope 
from any previous work upon the subject. ... Mr. 
Dunn has supplied within his self-imposed limits a 
mass of valuable information which one could find no- 
where else.—WV. Y. Tribune, 


\. III, 


MANUAL TRAINING. The Solution 
of Social and Industrial Problems. By 
CHARLES H. Ham. Illustrated. pp. xxii, 
404. 12mo, Cloth, $1.50. 


Great value the book assuredly. has. It marks an 
epoch in the history of education and especially of 
American education. .'. . We should:bespeak for it a 
cordial welcome and a careful consideration.—/, Y. 
World. 

Mr. Ham writes in a spirits of enthusiastic devotion 
to his subject, and his pages exhibit a wide range of 


information respecting education and the social prob-. 


lem.—/ZV. Y. Sun. 


The above works sent, carriage paid, to any part of 
the United States or Canada, on receipt of price, 


HARPER’S CATALOGUE sent on receipt of ten cents, 


HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 


Entered at the Post-office in New York as second-class mail matter. 


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No danger can attend its use. 

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- Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. I. 


INCANDESCENT LIGHTING 


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Address 


THE BROWN ELECTRIC COMPANY, 


400 Woop STREET, PITTSBURGH, PA. 


Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. 


Volume VII. No. 1 yy May 14, 1886 


CIENCE 


Comment and Criticism, — The report of the joint congressional commission on the government surveys. — 


Moral and relig’ous instruction at Harvard. — English and German commissions to investigate Pasteur’s 


_ claims, — The bill for the investigation of yellow-fever inoculation : é , : 4 - 427 
A task for anatomists . : : F. W. True. 428 
The Historical association ; ; yom Vs 
Proposed English fishery board : : é . Ray Lankester 431 


Notes and News. — The purchase of a 36-inch crown disk for the Lick observatory. — Shad propagation 
by the U. S. fish commission. — Appropriation to the American museum of natural history for Sunday 
opening. — U. S. coast-survey charts of the New York harbor. — French international maritime exhi- 
bition. — Industrial education in Saxony. — Discovery of a new asteroid. — The new science hall at 


Smith college. — Cholera in Europe. — Pressensé’s ‘Study of origins’ ; : : : : - 434 


Letters to the Editor. 


A thunder-squall in New England. — W. ™. Thermometer exposure and the contour of the 
Davis Z : etnies - : RSS earth’s surface. — H. Helm Clayton . 439 

The Davenport tablets. — Charles E. Putnam, /. Double vision.— Geo. Keller. : : Fee 
Gass; Carl L. Suksdorf; Wm. Kiepe . - 437 | Partition of Patagonia. — Russell Hinman . . 440 

What was the rose of Sharon?—C. W. 7. . 439 | Anoldtime salt-storm.—A.C. . . . 2) SA 


SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 


Cross-fertilization of plants by birds . : : : ; . 441 
Professor Hughes on self-induction . : ; ; ‘ 442 
Origin of fat in animals ; : ‘ : : : t F - 444 
A daring economist. . : ; 446 


Lhe Scrence Company, Publishers, New York, 


743 Broadway Price 15 cents. 


; 


INCANDESCENT LIGHTING 


ON 


ARC LIGHT CIRCUITS. 


THE BROWN AUTOMATIC CONVERTER > 


will supply and take care of ten to twelve 16 c.p. incandes- 
cent lamps at any point on an arc light circuit from an‘initial 
current equal to a 2,000 c. p. arc lamp of 9.5 ampere. 


Can be used with any make are dynamo. 


Any number of lamps can be turned on or off without 
affecting the rest. 


Invaluable to lighting companies as a means by which 
they can secure customers, from one up, for incandescent 
lighting anywhere on their circuit without involving the large 
expense for incandescent lighting plants, or the necessity of 
getting a large number of subscribers to commence with. 


Address 


THE BROWN ELECTRIC COMPANY, 


00 Woop STREET, PITTSBURGH, PA. 
4 ? 


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of Hartford, Conn., organized 1864, issues both L7/e Policies and 
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diately on receipt of satisfactory proofs. 


FOR SALE. 


A GEOLOGICAL MAP OF THE STATE OF NEW 
YORK, issued with legislative authority in 1842. Price $15. 

Please address L. W. O., office Sczence, 47 Lafayette Place, 
New York. 


‘THE ELECTRICAL REVIEW,’’ 
Anillustrated weekly journal, is theacknowledged lead- 
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its editorial opinion is reliable,its news columns bright 
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Marsk, of New Haven: J. W. Power, of Washington; W. P. Trow- 
BRIDGE, of New York; S. H. ScuppEr, of Cambridge. 

SCIENCE appears every Friday. Volumes begin in July and January. 
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FIORSFORD S 
Acid Phosphate & 


(Liquid), 


For Dyspepsia, Mental and Physical Exhaustion, 
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CEC; 


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phosphates of lime, magnesia, potash, and iron, 
with phosphoric acid in such form as to be readily 
assimilated by the system. 

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It is not nauseous, but agreeable to the taste. 

No danger can attend its use. 

Its action will harmonize with such stimulants as 
are necessary to take. 

It makes a delicious drink with water and sugar only. 


Prices reasonable. Pamphlet mailed free. 


Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. I. 


SUMMER COURSE IN BOTANY. 


At the Botanic Garden of Harvard University. 
Cambridge, Mass. 


The Course will begin Thursday, July 1, and 
end Saturday, July 31, 1886. 


Instruction will be given in the Principles of Mor- 
phology, Outlines of Descriptive Botany, and the Ele- — 
ments of Vegetable Physiology, by PROF. GOODALE. 

Mr. F. L. SARGENT will give instruction in Methods 
for identifying Flowering Plants and the more com- 
mon Cryptogamic Genera. 

The course is designed especially for teachers. Fee 
for the course $25.00. For further information, address 


Mr. F. L. SARGENT, 417 Broadway, 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 


Entered at the Post-office in New York as secondeclass mail matter, 


Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. 


—— we Se 


» 


ss 


: 


4 I av 4 5 
Volume VII. No. 172) 47) e May 21, 1886 
vy Pt al al 
Comment and Criticism, — Primary education and the happiness of children. — The Illinois state board 
of health and the improvement of medical schools. — Industrial education in Texas . 3 : - 449 


The intellectual movement in Japan K. Mitsukurit 450 


The American climatological association . ; ; : , Co eg 
Programme of the International philomathic congress . ; \. 7455 
Notes and News. — Pennsylvania boroughs.— Female medical students in Boston. — The Chesapeake 


zoological laboratory. — A bureau of animal industry, — Shad for the Pacific coast. — The summer 


work of the coast survey. — Primary education in Holland. — The medical school at Tokio. —Chem- 


icals and fish. — Railway coal-consumption as affected by temperature and length of trains. —An 
optical illusion . 455 
Letters to the Editor. 
On a geodetic survey of the United States. — | Pharyrigeal respiratory movements of adult am- 

C. O. Boutelle , q : : : . 460 | phibia under water. — Joseph LeConte . . 462 
Double vision. — W. LeConte Stevens . 461 | Absorption of mercurial vapor by soils. — Z£. W. 
Diathermancy of ebonite.— Alfred M. Mayer . 462 | Hilgard 462 

SCIENCE SUPPLEMENT. 
The agricultural industries of Japan : ae ; : ; . 463 
A book-manufactory in ancient Rome : ; : : Date y 
The heating-power of gas . 467 
Remsen’s Introduction to the study of chemistry 468 
Compayré’s History of pedagogy . 469 
470 


_ The star-guide 


The Science Company, Publishers, New Y« ork, 


743 Broadwry Price 15 cents. 


: THE ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY OF WONDERS 


24 VOLUMES CONTAINING OVER 1,000 ILLUSTRATIONS. 


The series is designed to bring within popular comprehension the various operations and procedures in Science and the» 
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they are discussed in a popular and interesting manner. 


on the score of completeness; they 


thorough, interesting and valuable of the kind ever produced. 
FROM. “THE <.BOSTON) GLOBE, 


‘*For young and old the series, in authority, sound information, and popular interest and usefulness, is undoubtedly 


the best ever published.” 


THE WONDERS OF MAN AND 
NATURE, 


Sold Separately at $1.00 per Volume. 
The Set, 8 Volumes in a Box, $8.00. 


Intelligence of Animals, with illustrative 
anecdotes. From the French of ER- 
NEST MENAUT. With 54 illustrations. 
‘Tt is a wise thing for both parents and 

facts as here narrated. It begets a feeling of 

, teachers to impress upon young learners just such 

' interest in dumb animals, and adds new interest 

to all their movements.—Chzcago Inter Ocean. 


Mountain Adventures in various parts of 
the World. Selected from the nar- 
ratives of celebrated travellers. With 
an introduction and additions by Hon, 
J.T. HEADLEY, With 41 illustrations. 
‘** J. T. Headley’s selections from the narra- 

tives that celebrated travellers have written of 


their mountain adventures in various parts of 
the world.’”’—Boston Advertiser, 


Bodily Strength and Skill in all Ages 
and Countries. By GUILLAUME DEp- 
PING, Translated by Charles Russell. 
With 70 illustrations. 


**To modern lovers of athletic sports the com- 
plication is highly useful and instructive. It 


has seventy spirited illustrations.”’—Journal 
of Commerce. 
Wonderful Escapes. Revised from the 


French of F, BERNARD, and original 

chapter by Richard Whiting. 

** It consists of an account of the most extra- 
ordinary escapes from captivity, from the time 


of classic antiquity down to the present era.— 
Boston Gazette. 


Thunder and Lightning. By W. DE 
FONVIELLE. Translated and edited 
by T. L. Phipson, Ph.D. With 39 
large illustrations. 

** A book which, from the nature of the sub- 
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Wonders of the Human Body. From the 


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The Sublime in Nature. From descrip- 
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CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, 743 and 745 Broadway, New York. 


Entered at the Post-office in New York as secondeclass mail matter. Copyright, 1886, by The Science Company. 


THE WONDERS OF SCIENCE, 


Sold Separately at $1.00 per Volume. 
The Set, 8 Volumes in a Box, $8.00. 


Heat, its Phenomena and Laws. By 
ACHILLE CAZIN. Translated and 
edited by Elihu Riel. With new chap- 
ter on ‘‘ Recent Improvements in the 
Application of Heat.” With 93 ills. 
‘* The treatise aims to give a simple account 

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Wonders of the Heavens. By CAMILLE 
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‘* Tt is an interesting, popular, yet authorita- 


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Wonders of Optics, By F. Marion. 
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The Sun. By AMEDEE GUILLEMIN. 
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Wonders of Water. ‘Translated from 
the French of GASTON TISSANDIER. 
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Illustr. with 64 engravings and charts. 
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Wonders of the Moon. Translated from 
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Miss M. G. Mead. Edited, with ad- 
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Meteors, Aerolites, Storms, and Atmos- 
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ARCHAEOLOGY, 


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Egypt 3,300 Years Ago; or, Rameses 
the Great. By F. DeLanoye. With 
40 illustrations. 

‘*In this small handsome book of less than 

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Wonders of Sculpture. By Louis Viar- 
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**An excellent portable hand-book of the 


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leading artists.’”’-—Zion’s Herald. 


Wonders of Glass Making in All Ages. 

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world owes so much that is useful and beautiful, 
the reader may gather from it a large amount of 
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Journal of Commerce. 


Wonders of European Art. ‘Translated 
from the French of Louis Viardot. 
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Wonders of Pompeii. By Marc Monnier. 

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present us with clear ideas of what Pompeii was 
like when it was a live and bustling place, and 
contrast those past conditions with those of to- 
day.”—W. Y. Times. . 

By M. Le- 


Wonders of Architecture. 
fevre. With a chapter on English 
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‘In this volume we have a good account of | 


former works in Architecture in different coun- © 


tries and ages, and there are sixty illustrations, 
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*.* These books for sale by all Book- 
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OFFICERS AND Directors.—D. C. Gii_man, of Baltimore, President; 
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BARD, of Washington: Arex. GraHAM Bett. of Washington; O. C. 
Marsu, of New Haven: J. W. Powe... of Washingtor ; W. P. Trow- 
BRIDGE, of New York; S. H. ScuppeEr, of Cambridge. 

SCIENCE appears every Friday. Volumes begin in July and January. 
Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manu- 
scripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of 
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New York. 
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HIORSFORD S 
Acid Phosphate 


(Liquid), 


s 
on, ewer 


For Dyspepsia, Mental and Physical Exhaustion, 
Nervousness, Wakefulness, Diminished Vitality, 
ete: 

Prepared according to the directions of Pro- 
fessor E. N. Horsford of Cambridge, from the 
phosphates of lime, magnesia, potash, and iron, 
with phosphoric acid in such form as to be readily 
assimilated by the system. ; 

Universally prescribed by physicians. 

It is not nauseous, but agreeable to the taste. 

No danger can attend its use. 

Its action will harmonize with such stimulants as 
are necessary to take. 

It makes a delicious drink with water and sugar only. 


Pamphlet mailed free. 


Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. I. 


SUMMER COURSE IN BOTANY. 


At the Botanic Garden of Harvard University. 
Cambridge, Mass. 


Prices reasonable. 


The Course will begin Thursday, July 1, and 
end Saturday, July 31, 1886. 


Instruction will be given in the Principles of Mor- 
phology, Outlines of Descriptive Botany, and the Ele- 
ments of Vegetable Physiology, by PROF. GOODALE. 

Mr. F. L. SARGENT will give instruction in Methods 
for identifying Flowering Plants and the more com- 
mon Cryptogamic Genera. 

The course is designed especially for teachers. Fee 
for the course $25.00. For further information, address 


Mr. F. L. SARGENT, 417 Broadway, 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 


INCANDESCENT LIGHTING 


ON 


ARC LIGHT CIRCUITS. 


THE BROWN AUTOMATIC CONVERTER 


will supply and take care of ten to twelve 16 c.p. incandes- 
cent lamps at any point on an arc light circuit from an initial 
current equal to a 2,000 c. p. arc lamp of 9.5 ampere. 


Can be used with any make arc dynamo. 


Any number of lamps can be turned on or off without 
affecting the rest. 


Invaluable to lighting companies as a means by which 
they can secure customers, from one up, for incandescent 
lighting anywhere on their circuit without involving the large 
expense for incandescent lighting plants, or the necessity of 
getting a large number of subscribers to commence with. 


Address 


THE BROWN ELECTRIC COMPANY, 


400 Woop STREET, PITTSBURGH, PA. 


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MOSES KING, the editor and publisher of “King’s Handbook of 
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of to-day, offers to send the book, postage prepaid, to any one mentioning 
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In making new editions of his Handbook of Boston, Moses King, the 
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the first edition, the present edition has one-third more pages of 
text and about as large proportion of new illustrations. There is hardly a | 
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MOSES KING, Publisher, 


Harvard Sq., Cambridge, Mass., No. 279 Broadway, New York. 


TRIUMPHANT DEMOCRACY 


Or, Fifty Years’ March of the 
Republic. 


BY ANDREW CARNEGIE. 


I Vol. 8vo, $2.00. 


BOSTON BEACON, A copy of Triumphant Democracy should 
be placed in every school hbrary in the 


United States. 


CRITIC. We hope it may be read abroad, and we 
hope it may be read at home. 
BOSTON GAZETTE | Very interesting and instructive and very 
flattering to our vanity. 

N. Y. TRIBUNE, Mr. Carnegie takes the dry summaries of 
the census, and with a few striking illustra- 
tions turns them into wonder tales. 

HARRISBURG ; 

CHURCH Reads more like a romance than a book of 
ADVOCATE, naked facts. Will serve noble ends. 


BOSTON GLOBE. 


In many respects Triumphant Democracy 
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light to every American reader. 


BROOKLYN UNION,| The amount of abstract information 
crammed into the book is enormous, and one 
might read it a month and still find com- 
parisons to make and lessons to learn. 


CHICAGOTRIBUNE | Readable from cover to cover. It is a valu- 
os able and important contribution to the litera- 
ture and history of the country. 

It is not simply a panegyric, but it is full 
of valuable information showing why the 
Republic is worthy of the high position he 
gives to her. 


A book which will be widely read, and one 
which no American can read without feeling 
his heart swell with pride as the conviction is 
thrust upon him that his country is great in 
more respects than he ever before had knowl- 
edge of. 


ROCHESTER 
HERALD, 


TOWN TOPICS. 


It is doubtful if any native American ever 
presented so brilliant a panegyric upon the 
blessings of free government by the people. 
TROY TIMES. It would be a good thing could every 
American read it. No more remarkable tri- 
bute to the life, vigor, and excellence of our 
institutions has ever been evoked. 


‘A book for the pessimist toread. The man 
who has the blues, that says the country is 
going to the dogs, that business is overdone 
and manufactures badly done, cannot do bet- 
ter than to read this book from cover to cover. 


ALBANY TIMES. 


CHARLESTON Worthy of close study and frequent refer- 
(S. C.) NEWS, | ence, and all students of politics and sociol- 
ogy will do well to give it a careful examina- 
tion, 
TOLEDO BLADE, The influence of every page is to incline 
the American reader to regard with reverence 
and affection the noble sacrifices made by our 
forefathers in the establishment of civil and 
religious liberty. 


While the book is a fund of knowledge free 
from the staleness of statistics, it also con- 
tains the views of a great observer ex- 
pressed in the most pleasing manner. 


OHIO STATE 
JOURNAL, 


The English critics cannot controvert it, 


PHILADELPHIA 


BULLETIN. for it is wholly founded on fact. The enthu- 
siasm. of the writer will seize every impar- 
tial reader. ; 

Few books which have purported to de- 


BROOKLYN TIMES. ‘ _ tod 
scribe our Republic have approached it in in- 
hy terest. It is an encyclopaedia of American 

life, yet has not a prosy page. 


CHICAGO JOURNAL | His scathing comments on royalty and its 
| surroundings. as contrasted with republican 
| simplicity will be read with interest in both 


, countries, 


| 


N.Y. COMMERCIAL One protracted blast of eulogy of the 

ADVERTISER, | United States. 

CHICAGO DIAL, Makes a showing of which any American 
| may justly be proud. It should espe- 
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| to fix their eyes upon the defects of American 
|institutions and manners, while ignorantly 
|extolling the supposed superiority of some- 
| thing across the sea. 


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revising and improving is in keeping with Mr. King’s plan of making each 
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NUMMER COURSE IN BOTANY. 


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In making new editions of his Handbook of Boston, Moses King, the 
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book every time, so that although the general character and appearance 
remain the same, the contents are decidedly altered. In comparison with 
the first edition, the present edition has one-third more pages of 
text and about as large proportion of new illustrations. There is hardly a 
page of the whole book that has not been changed, and probably three- 
fourths of the book has been reset since it was first issued. This constant 
revising and improving is in keeping with Mr. King’s plan of making each 
successive edition practically a new book of Boston as it is at the time of 
publication. The new edition, just from the press, contains upward of 400 
octavo pages with over 200 engravings, and is handsomely printed and 


prettily bound. It is probably the largest and most successful book of its 
class made for any city in America, and is certainly the finest book ever 
offered for its popular price of one dollar. The addresses of Moses King 


are Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass., and No. 279 Broadway, New York. 


MOSES KING, Publisher, 


Harvard Sq., Cambridge, Mass., No. 279 Broadway, New York. 


m: 


tie 


Advertised Books of Reference.—Continued. 
LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. A‘. 


new, thoroughly revised, and greatly enlarged edition, A univer- 
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persons of all ages and countries. By J. Thomas, M.D., LL.D. 
Imperial 8vo. 2550 pages. Sheep. $12.00. J. B. Lippincott 
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ELEMENTARY BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SCI- 
ENCES (HEROES OF SCIENCE) 12mo, cloth. $1.30 each by mail. 
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OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: From earliest 
times to 1886. 32 maps. Fisher (Yale), 8vo., 690 pp. $3.00. 
Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Pubs. New York. 

SCRIBNER’S STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED 
STATES : Showing by Graphic Methods their Present Condi- 
tion, and their Political, Social, and Industrial Development, as 
Determined by the Reports of the Tenth Census, the Bureau of 
Statistics, the Commissioner of Education, State Officials, and 
other Authoritative Sources. 120 Pages Text, 151 plates (31 
double), 279 Maps (22 folio). 969 Charts and Diagrams. Sold only 
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In making new editions of his Handbook of Boston, Moses King, the 
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book every time, so that although the general character and appearance 
remain the same, the contents are decidedly altered. In comparison with 
the first edition, the present edition has one-third more pages of 
text and about as large proportion of new illustrations. There is hardly a 
page of the whole book that has not been changed, and probably three- 
fourths of the book has been reset since it was first issued. This constant 
revising and improving is in keeping with Mr. King’s plan of making each 
successive edition practically a new book of Boston as it is at the time of 
publication. The new edition, just from the press, contains upward of 400 
octavo pages with over 200 engravings, and is handsomely printed and 
prettily bound. It is probably the largest and most successful book of its. 
class made for any city in America, and is certainly the finest book ever 
offered for its popular price of one dollar. The addresses of Moses King 
are Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass., and No. 279 Broadway, New York. — 


KING'S HANDBOOK OF BOSTON will be sent free of postage 
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Comment and Criticism. — The new president of ‘ ale and the growth of the college . : ; : . 471 

Imitation butter ; ; ; HT. P. Armsby 471 

England’s colonies : ; , : » 475 
> 

London Letter.— The conversazione of the Royal society, May 12. — The approaching meeting of the 


British association. — The Colonial and Indian exhibition. — Unusual weather. — Presentation of degrees 


at the University of London. — The use of the telephone in Europe. — Report for 1885 of the vivisec- 


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Notes and News. — The next convocation of the University of New York. — Two medical laboratories for 

New York. — The Kansas university science club. — The work of the coast survey. — Another comet. — 

A change in the head of the U.S. naval observatory. ; ; : ; : , : i - 479 


Letters to the Editor. 


A new museum pest. — Robert T. Jackson ; The _| Errata. —C. K. Wead : : E : . 484 
Editor . , : : e : : . 481 | Popular astronomy. — Robert S. Ball; The Editor 484 
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J. B. Young Co., Pubs , Cooper Union, New York City. 


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