Five chapters were admitted to membership. The first day of the convention was devoted to committee-meetings, addresses, and reading of papers. In the evening a reception and banquet was tendered to the delegates by Chapter 700, at the home of Miss Crane. The second morning was given to the president's address, competition for diplomas, reading of papers on modes of work, and exhibition of specimens. In the afternoon the assembly visited the Iowa State Hospital for the Insane, and were shown through the institution by Dr. F. P. Peck, who in the evening delivered before the assembly a very interesting and profitable lecture entitled 'Notes on the Anatomy of the Brain.' The usual convention picture was taken during the afternoon. The third and last day of the convention was devoted, in the morning, to the reading of papers, debate, and miscellaneous business; in the afternoon, to awarding the diplomas, general business, and election of officers. Diplomas awarded for the best records of work done during 188788 were as follows: first, to Chapter 653, of Oskaloosa; second, to Chapter 20, Fairfield; third, to Chapter 812, Davenport. Officers elected were: John G. Speilman, Chapter 20, Fairfield, president; Fred B. Palmer, Chapter 653, Oskaloosa, vice-president; Fred M. Irish, Chapter 285, Dubuque, 2d vice-president; Miss Olive Cole, Chapter 700, Mount Pleasant, secretary; Belmont A. Goam, Mount Pleasant, continuing in office as treasurer. Oskaloosa was chosen as the place of the next convention. Enough praise cannot be given to the members of the entertaining chapter, A.A. 700, for their hospitality and good management, which has made the fifth annual convention of the Iowa Assembly of the Agassiz Association a meeting which will never be forgotten.

-The Congress of Americanists, devoted to researches into the pre-Columbian history of this continent and into the languages and character of its aboriginal tribes, met in Berlin on the 2d instant. We may be able to give some account of the proceedings in a future number. The next meeting will be held in Paris in 1889. It is hoped that arrangements may be made for a meeting of this learned body in the United States. An error occurred in the telegraphic announcement of the opening, last week, which mentioned 'Horatio Hale of Clinton, Ontario," as among the members present. Mr. Hale was not able to be present, but sent a communication to be read by another member. The appearance of his name in the printed list of contributors doubtless led to the error.

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- One of the annoyances connected with the use of instruments containing lenses, in the examination of the cavities of the body, is due to the fact that they become dim by the deposition of moisture. Dr. Stocquart claims that this can be prevented by spreading a drop of glycerine on the lens.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

A Notable Evolution.

YOUR number of Sept. 7 coming to hand yesterday, I find in it a letter under the above title, from Mr. E. P. Powell, that seems likely to mislead those not informed on the subject. After the statement that every one knows what a clumsy singer" the robin is, it goes on to describe the peculiar musical powers now noted in some few individuals. The mere fact of such great rapidity occurring in the robin's musical evolution would of itself cause suspicion that the former state had not been well observed. Now, the fact is, that the robin is not, and for several years has not been, a clumsy singer, when it wishes to exert itself. That it is not as constant a songster as the majority of song-birds may be accounted for by its lazy habits, remarked by Mr. Powell. It is quite true that its more common notes are quite unmusical in character, but in noting any song-evolution it will not do to overlook its other, not infrequent song. It is now some fourteen years since I first began to collect birds and study them in a practical manner. I am positive that at the beginning of that time the robin was no mean songster. From five to seven o'clock in a summer or early fall evening it is an almost daily occurrence for them to take their stand on the topmost bough of some tall tree, and for an hour or more pour forth a flood of melody. This song isn't a repetition of a "rough seesaw note," but a variety of very liquid notes rendered in a most musical manner. Nor is this song confined alone to the evenings, but

may often be heard during the day. Such, at least, were the robins of Rochester, N.Y., and many other localities with which I was familiar for the past fourteen years. Whether any change has taken place there within the past year, I cannot say, for I have not been within hearing distance of a robin for that time.

Mr. Powell's stricture on Professor Baird's remark about the catbird strikes me as a trifle unfair. It can't be supposed that Professor Baird was unacquainted with the mimicking-powers of this bird. The merest tyro in ornithology, who lives anywhere in their vicinity, must be acquainted with this. What Professor Baird stated was perfectly true as far as it went; for their 'mewing' is the characteristic note: hence the name catbird.'

THE researches of Von Bezold in regard to a periodicity of thunder-storms corresponding to the time of the rotation of the sun, referred to in Science for Oct. 5, on p. 167, corroborate the results secured by the writer. In certain years this periodicity becomes more evident. In 1886 for months together it was very plainly apparent upon the most cursory examination. In other years more complete information from wider areas has been necessary in order to bring it out clearly. It seems to me strange that any one should ignore facts because their full significance may not be clearly understood at present. The note which you publish in regard to Von Bezold shows that he was inclined to do this, and this tendency appears to be specially difficult to overcome in the investigation of this subject. M. A. VEEDER.

Lyons, N. Y., Sept. 8.

IN THE Contemporary Review for July is an interesting article by Frances Power Cobbe on 'The Scientific Spirit of the Age,' one portion of which, at least, expresses our own views on the subject, and we presume that of others. She says, "The political press has adopted the practice of reporting the details of illness of every eminent man who falls into the hands of the doctors, and affords these gentlemen an opportunity of advertising themselves as his advisers. The last recollection which the present generation will retain of many an illustrious statesman, poet, or soldier will not be that he died like a hero or saint, bravely and piously, but that he swallowed such and such a medicine, and perhaps was sick in his stomach. Death-beds are desecrated that doctors may be puffed and public inquisitiveness assuaged." We believe, however, that the "political press" is more to blame for this than the "doctors." While it is true that some of these seize with avidity every such opportunity to bring themselves into notoriety, yet there are others (and these we believe are in the majority) who shrink from the publication of their opinions, and would oftentimes prefer to relinquish the case rather than to be brought forward so prominently before the public. It was a matter of deep chagrin to the late Prof. Frank Hamilton that his name figured so often in the public press while he was in attendance upon President Garfield during his fatal illness. The position of a physician who is in attendance upon an illustrious personage is a most trying one. The public demands professional opinions; and, whether the physician communicates them to the representatives of the press or withholds them, he is equally condemned. Miss Cobbe would place the medical profession under great obligations if she would indicate just what course its members should follow under these circumstances.

AT THE LAST MEETING of the New York Academy of Sciences, Dr. A. Julien and Prof. H. C. Bolton gave a report of the interesting results of their long-continued researches on sonorous sands. The cause of this remarkable phenomenon, which was first known to occur in Arabia, has long been a mystery. In course of time many other localities in which sonorous sands occur became known, and, in fact, it may be found almost everywhere on beaches and in deserts. The authors collected samples from all parts of the world, and, on close examination, found that all sonorous sands are clean; that no dust or silt is found mixed with the sand; that the diameter of the angular or rounded grains ranges between 0.3 and 0.5 of a millimetre; and that the material may be siliceous, calcareous, or any other, provided its specific gravity is not very great. When these sands are moistened by rain or by the rising tide, and the moisture is evaporated, a film of condensed air is formed on the surface of each grain, which acts as an elastic cushion, and enables the sand to vibrate when disturbed. In sands mixed with silt or dust, these small particles prevent the formation of a continuous air-cushion, and therefore such sands are not sonorous. If this theory be correct, sonorous sand must become mute by removing the film of air. Experiments of the authors prove that by heating, rubbing, and shaking, the sand is killed.' All these operations tend to destroy the film of air condensed on the surfaces. On the other hand, samples of sonorous sand were exhibited which had been kept undisturbed for many years. They had retained their sonorousness, but, after having been rubbed for some time, became almost mute. The theory advanced by the authors appears very plausible, and will be

firmly established when they succeed in making a sonorous sand. Their experiments in this line have not yet been completed, but promise fair success.

MEDICAL LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK.

It is more than probable that additional legislation will be sought from the next Legislature of New York to control the practice of medicine. Mr. W. A. Purrington, counsel for the Medical Societies of New York County and State, recently read a paper before the American Social Science Association on the extent to which legislation can aid medical education. Legislators will do well to study this paper before introducing any new laws pertaining to the subject. Mr. Purrington thinks that a responsible board should be created, that will have in charge the arrangements of quarantine and sanitation, and also the licensing of medical practitioners of every sort; for he contends that the dentist and the pharmacist should be recognized as medical men. All that legislation can do to aid medical education he believes can be summed up as follows:I. By fixing a minimum age under which they (physicians, dentists, and pharmacists) will not be allowed to practise their calling. II. By requiring of each of them a fixed term of study of certainly not less than two graded years, leaving to the board the care of details.

III. By requiring proof by examination or certificate that each candidate for license had studied, before beginning his professional course, at least those branches in which law students are examined in this State before they commence their legal studies.

IV. By declaring that no medical schools (including in the term schools of dentistry, pharmacy, and midwifery) shall be incorporated by special act, and providing a general law for the incorporation of such schools, only upon proof made of the possession by the incorporators of sufficient capital say, not less than a hundred thousand dollars and a teaching plant, to justify the belief that the school will be capable of exercising faithfully its franchise. Such an act should contain stringent provisions for its own enforcement and for the forfeiture of abused charters.

V. A minimum course of medical study should be prescribed, in which a grade of at least seventy per cent should be attained on examination. The regulation of all details of the examination should be left to the board. But the topics in which the examination should be had might well be specified in the statute. It might be well to omit the topics of therapeutics and materia medica, upon which all medical heresies have been begotten by unscientific minds, inferring that one who should creditably pass his examinations in botany, chemistry, physics, anatomy, surgery, physiology, hygiene, diagnosis, obstetrics, and microscopy, especially if his clinical examination should show him to be educated in a true sense to observe and draw sound deductions from observation, might be trusted to form his own conclusions and pursue his own studies as judgment should dictate in the field of therapeutics. The law can have nothing to do with medical theories. The utmost it can do successfully is to prescribe that none shall practise medicine except persons educated in those branches of science that all admit are essential to an understanding of morbid conditions of our species, and possessed besides of a fair general education.

VI. Finally, the law should not recognize any diploma as of itself conferring a right to practise medicine: even if the possession of such document should be required as an antecedent to examination by the health board, it should not be allowed to take the place of such an examination. Any scheme of medical legislation will hereafter embrace that great safeguard against imposture and efficient tracer of frauds, the system of registration, where no one is allowed to practise medicine who has not made a public record, under oath, of his name, origin, and credentials for a license.

A RUSSIAN PACIFIC RAILROAD. THE question of a rail connection of the Baltic with the Pacific Ocean through Russia and Siberia has frequently been discussed, and recently steps have been taken to carry out part of this great enterprise. Political as well as economic reasons make the establishment of a better connection between Siberia and Russia appear very desirable. The remoteness of the Amur Province from the mother-country makes the security of this possession appear doubtful, and the immense distance of Siberia from any market renders its produce almost valueless.

The experience of American railroads shows that there is no better means of developing the productive capacity of a country than by the establishment of railroads. Siberia is capable of becoming a highly productive country, and the limits of its productiveness can hardly be conceived. The history of the settlement of the American and Canadian North-West Territories shows that an excessively continental climate is not a serious drawback to the development of a country. Southern Siberia has great agricultural resources; large tracts of land are well adapted for stock-raising; and its forests and mineral resources are of great value. While precious metals yield even now a considerable income, its rich coal and iron deposits have hardly been explored. The abundant supply of furs and fish needs only to be mentioned. At present a large portion of the grain grown in this country is used for distilling alcohol, as there is no market for it.

The only thing needed is better means of communication. The large rivers of Siberia, which flow into the Arctic Ocean, are not available for this purpose, as their mouths cannot be reached regularly from Europe, and as they are frozen during the greater part of the year. Numerous attempts have been made to ascertain the feasibility of a regular intercourse between the Atlantic ports and the mouths of the Siberian rivers; and, from the experience of Captain Wiggins, it would seem that the route is not so impracticable as it appeared to be. He succeeded eleven times in making the journey from England to the mouth of the Yenissei, and up to Krasnoyarsk, and proved that this trade may become of some importance, although the difficulties are so formidable that only the remoteness of central Siberia makes its use practicable. Another project of making the great rivers of Siberia more useful is that of a railroad from the Obi to a point west of the Strait of Kara. Although this plan might help to develop to a certain extent the resources of western Siberia, it would hardly prove adequate to opening the most productive parts of this vast country.

In summer the rivers afford a good means of intercourse, and plans have been made to improve them. The most important of them is the connection of the Obi and Yenissei by means of a canal, work on which is in progress. When this canal is completed, the following line will be open to commerce,- from Tyumen, the terminus of the Perm-Tyumen Railroad, down to Tobolsk,— and, following the Irtish, vessels will reach the Obi at Samarovsk. From here they will ascend the latter to the point where it approaches nearest to the Yenissei. Following the canal, they will reach the Yenissei, which is descended down to the confluence of the Upper Tunguska, which comes from Lake Baikal. In East Siberia the Amur affords good means of communication. The route follows the Chilka, and its tributary the Ingoda, as far as Chita. The distance between this point and Lake Baikal is not very long.

It seems that it has been decided to build first those portions of the Pacific Railroad which will supplement those sections which are open to river-navigation. This requires the building of the sections from Vladivostok to the mouth of the Usuri, from Chita to the Selenga, and from Irkutsk to Tomsk. The last is necessary, as the Upper Tunguska would require very expensive regulation. Should these works be completed, and reasonably fast-going steamers be put upon the rivers, the development of Siberia will receive a strong stimulus.

The effect of this improved inland connection upon the development of manufactures and industries will be great. At present eighty per cent of the total manufactures of Siberia belong to the territories Tobolsk and Tomsk. According to the reports of the Bureau of Statistics, there are 2,300 factories, which employ 12,500 men, and produce 14,000,000 rubles' worth of goods annually. The principal manufactures are those which use raw animal material :

500 tanneries produce goods valued at 3,000,000 rubles, and 150 tallow-factories have an annual output of 2,000,000 rubles in value. Next in importance are manufactures based on raw vegetable material. The rich mineral deposits of Siberia are not yet opened to any great extent. The industrial development of this region does not date back farther than about fifteen years. It was only then that modern machinery was introduced; and the subsequent improvement in the quality of Siberian manufactures has secured for them an extensive sale in Asia. The slow progress of these manufactures will be greatly accelerated as soon as cheaper and more rapid communication with Europe has become possible.

One of the principal considerations which recommend the construction of the Siberian Pacific Railroad is the remoteness and isolation of the Amur and Coast Provinces. At present there exist hardly any roads in this region. Communication is possible only on rivers which are navigable in spring and autumn, while in summer and winter intercourse is interrupted. In winter, sledges are used for travelling, while it is impossible to transport freight. What little trade there is, is almost exclusively in the hands of Americans and Chinese. The whole Russian population of Transbaikalia, the Amur Province, and the Coast Province, amounts at present to twenty thousand, while immigration from Manchuria is of considerable importance: therefore the Russian Government attempts to promote the Russian colonization of this region. The country is rich, but it is too remote to become a Russian colony until better communication with Transbaikalia has been established.

It must not be expected, that, even after the completion of the road, the settlement of Siberia will make as rapid strides as that of the American North-West. It is true, the Russian peasant is inclined to leave his home, and to look for a more prosperous life east of the Ural; but it must be remembered that no foreign immigration is possible, or would be allowed, the political aims of the Russian Empire being to Russianize the whole of its territory. As European Russia is not very populous compared to its area, a Siberian emigration will retard its progress in many respects, as its effect will be to produce a lack of the workers necessary to develop its resources.

The proposed railway, if completed, will be of importance not only for the development of the resources of Siberia, but also for the Eastern trade. At present a considerable amount of Chinese goods, among which tea is the most important, is sent overland. The cost of transportation is, of course, enormous, and will be greatly cheapened by the railroad. The present state of this trade may be seen from the following data given by the commissioner of Chinese customs at Tientsin. In 1887 this trade increased by 5,400,000 pounds, or nearly half as much again as in the year before; while the quantity of brick tea carried by the same route increased 7,300ooo pounds. This remarkable growth of the overland tea-trade was due to the unusual luxuriance of the Mongolian pastures, which, providing as they do the only sustenance for the enormous herds of dromedaries almost exclusively used as beasts of burden in these regions, exercise a very great influence on the prosperity of this branch of trade. It was owing to the failure of the grass-crop in 1885 that the transport of tea by that route fell so low, great numbers of dromedaries having died of starvation. The uncertainty of the grass-supply, and consequently of the means of transport, has led some Russian merchants to project a Decanville portable railway across the plains of Mongolia from Kalgan to Urga. The motive power would still be supplied by camels; but, whereas fifty thousand of these animals are now employed, it is calculated that ten thousand only would be required to do the same work on the railway, and that with these increased facilities the trade would in all probability be doubled. As in case of failure of the grass-supply a sufficient quantity could easily be brought from Siberia by the returning trains, the additional advantage would be gained of more certainty in the means of transport. The carriage of the tea over the mountainous district between Urga and Kiachta would still be effected by camels. An alternative scheme is a railway from Stretinsk to Veringukunsk, on the Amur. A fleet of seventy steamers is running on the Amur, and goods can be conveyed from Veringukunsk to Kiachta by one of the affluents of the Selenga River. Russian steamers would convey the tea from Hankow to the Amur. This route would be entirely under the control of Russia. It would

bring the whole profits of the trade into Russian hands, and offer greater financial facilities.

This route, although more expensive than the transport by sea through the Suez Canal, is preferred, as the quality of the tea thus transported is better.

One of the important considerations which induce the Russians to urge the building of the Pacific road is purely political. The Chinese boundary is at present almost unprotected, and it would be extremely difficult to concentrate an army of considerable strength anywhere east of Semipalatinsk. It is true that the boundary as far east as Manchuria is guarded by the best of protections, — a vast desert. Still greater weight is attributed to the connection with Vladivostok, the only harbor Russia possesses on the open ocean. Without the railroad, Vladivostok is of very little value, as the Coast Province is not able to furnish provisions for the garrison and fleet. It is hoped that its value will be greatly enhanced by the construction of the railway. A glance at the map will show that the latter follows for a long distance the boundary: therefore, in case of war with China, its safety appears very doubtful, and, indeed, it has been proposed by military authorities that it would be more advisable to build the road farther north.

From an engineering point of view, there are no serious obstacles to the building of the road, except the bridging of the large rivers of West Siberia, and the passing of the enormous swamps of that region, which would probably make the road far more costly than the Transcaspian Railway. There are no steep grades that would present serious difficulties.

The distances of the several sections of the line are given as follows:

The cost of construction is estimated at from five to seven hundred million rubles. The whole distance from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok is estimated at six thousand miles; and the time necessary for accomplishing this distance, at from sixteen to seventeen days. To this must be added a few days for the journey from Japan and China to Vladivostok, and from St. Petersburg to western Europe. Thus the journey from eastern Asia to Europe might be made in from twenty to twenty-two days instead of from thirty to thirty-five days, which it takes steamers to run from China to England.

It seems improbable that the effect of this road upon the trade of the world will be as important as that of the American Pacific roads. The political condition of Siberia is not favorable to an energetic development of its resources and to an extensive immigration; and, the length of the road being so great, it is doubtful whether it would be able to divert the carrying-trade to any great extent from the steamers using the Suez Canal route.

Chemical Action between Solids.

ONE of the most interesting papers read before the Washington Philosophical Society last spring was one by Mr. William Hallock on the formation of alloys at lower temperatures than the meltingpoints of either of their constituents. An abstract of the paper was published in Science (xi. No. 265) at the time. Mr. Spring, a distinguished chemist of Belgium, has been pursuing researches in the same field as Mr. Hallock, and has criticised some of the latter's work. At the last meeting of the Philosophical Society Mr. Hallock turned the tables on Mr. Spring by examining some experiments, a description of which had been published, to prove that chemical action takes place between solids.

Mr. Hallock began by mentioning one or two experiments illustrative of his theory of the formation of alloys, as referred to above. He placed potassium and sodium in contact, arranging a thermometer to register the temperature. As they united, the temperature fell 20.4 C. below that of the room. A block of ice and one of rock-salt, the temperature of each being reduced 10° or 12° C. below the melting point of the ice, when brought into contact, began immediately the formation of the solution of salt.

One of Mr. Spring's experiments to show chemical action between solids consisted of placing copper filings and sulphur in contact. The sulphur attacked the copper. Mr. Hallock doubted that this was a case of chemical action between solids, and prepared the following described experiment to satisfy himself. A piece of bright copper and a small mass of sulphur were placed near, but not in contact with each other. After a time the face of the copper was blackened by the sulphur. Thinking it barely possible that particles of copper might fly across the space between them, Mr. Hallock then varied the experiment as follows: The copper and sulphur were placed in a glass tube, with a wad of absorbent cotton an inch thick between them. The experiment was varied in several ways, in one case the tube being filled with dry air, in another the air exhausted, and in a third the tube being filled with oxygen, etc. In every case the copper was affected by the sulphur, although in some more than in others. Mr. Hallock's conclusion was that the chemical action did not take place between the copper and the sulphur as a solid, but that the active agent was the vapor of sulphur. In the same manner re-action took place between copper and mercuric chloride, the vapor of the latter passing through absorbent cotton.

Prof. William Harkness, a member of the United States commission to observe the transit of Venus, in a long paper read before the Philosophical Society at its last meeting, gave a very interesting description of the instruments used in observing the transit and in photographing the sun. Great labor, much of it very perplexing and occupying many weeks, was required to measure lenses used, and determine their focal distances, to ascertain the peculiarities of mirrors, etc., as preliminary to the observations. Professor Harkness described this work. About sixteen hundred photographs were secured, most of which have already been finished. The methods of reduction were also explained.

In the latter part of his paper, Professor Harkness spoke of the solar parallax and its related constants, introducing a series of intricate calculations which he has made to determine the latter. Among them may be mentioned the sun's distance from the earth as found by his calculations, 92,385,000 miles; as computed from data furnished by the transit of Venus, 92,521,000 miles; the moon's distance from the earth, 238,852.4 miles; the moon's mass, ; the velocity of light, 186,298.4 miles per second; sun's parallax, 8867"±.0012".

An Eighth Sternum Rib.

At one of the meetings of the Anatomical Society during the late Medical Congress in Washington, Dr. Lamb of the Army Medical Museum spoke briefly of a singular phenomenon he had observed in his examination of human breast-bones. It was the occurrence, in a number of specimens, of an eighth rib, the cartilage that is usually found below the seventh rib being fully developed into a rib. Dr. Lamb first saw a specimen of this kind about ten years ago. While teaching, he had occasion to observe the subject he had before the class with great care, and was surprised on one occasion, on counting the ribs, to find that there were eight. He made no further investigation at the time, presuming that the phenomenon might be of comparatively frequent occurrence.

More recently Dr. Lamb has given the subject more attention, and now has in his own collection four specimens, while in the Army Medical Museum there are eight more. In all these cases the phenomenon occurs in negroes, but one additional specimen is that of an Indian.

Dr. Lamb has made a thorough search of anatomical literature