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proportional to their absolute temperature; that is to say, if the temperature of a metal could be reduced to absolute zero, its resistance would be annihilated, and its conductivity increase to infinity. M. Wroblewski took advantage of one of the new methods of producing intense cold; namely, that by means of boiling nitrogen at the temperature of its solidification. Wires of copper about Too of a millimetre in diameter, covered with a double layer of silk, were taken, their conductivity being guaranteed by the makers at ninety-eight per cent of that of pure copper. With this wire M. Wroblewski wound small bobbins having a resistance at ordinary temperatures of about 3 and 20 Siemens units. As the bobbin had to be plunged in liquefied gas, M. Wroblewski began his investigation by studying the electric properties of liquid oxygen and nitrogen. He found that these substances ought to be ranked among the most perfect insulators. The resistances of the bobbins were then measured by the Wheatstone-Kirchhoff method at the temperature of boiling water, ordinary temperature, the temperature of melting ice, the temperature of boiling ethylene at atmospheric pressure (-103°C.), the critical temperature of nitrogen (—146°C.), the temperature of boiling nitrogen under atmospheric pressure (—193o C.), and a temperature nearly that of the solidification of nitrogen (-200°C. to -202°C.). The results are embodied in the following table, where t is the temperature, the resistance in Siemens units, and a the co-efficient of variation of resistance between two consecutive temperatures:

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These numbers seem to show that the resistance decreases much more quickly than the absolute temperature of the specimens, and approaches nil at a temperature not very far from that obtained by evaporating liquid nitrogen in a vacuum.

UNDERGROUND ELECTRIC-LIGHT WIRES. Several deaths caused by shocks from electric-light wires have called attention to the dangers of the present systems of high-potential distribution, and much has been written in the daily journals about the deadly electric-light wires. The general remedy proposed is to put the wires underground, and in many cities ordinances have been passed directing that all wires shall be buried within a certain time. In the present state of things it will be impossible to obey these ordinances. There are great difficulties and expenses incident to any general system of underground distribution in our large cities. The enormous number of telephone and telegraph lines that must be put in conduits with the electric-light wires - for the scheme embraces the burying of all wires-introduces the factor of disturbance of messages from induction as well as the great difficulty of preventing leakage between the different lines, and from the lines to the ground. And in New York, where this work is being done on a large scale, the commission which directs it is composed of politicians who have no idea of the mechanical and electrical difficulties that must be met and overcome. Again it is very much a question whether the putting of arc-light wires under ground will decrease the danger. The wires have still to be taken to the lamps, and in the branch wires there is the same possibility of accident as before. As the case now stands, then, the putting of electric wires under ground will be attended with trouble and expense, possibly with failure. It will not greatly decrease the danger of high-potential lighting, and it will greatly retard its development. At the same time an efficient underground system is much to be desired. It would be as foolish to give up all attempts in this direction as to try to accomplish it at once, without the necessary experience.

The best way would seem to be a gradual putting of the wires under ground, instead of a city directing all the wires to be placed under ground by a certain time. Let them order a certain per cent each year, the localities to be determined by people who know something about the subject. In this way experience will be gained in the cheapest manner, and, if it is found practicable, the end will finally be reached without injury to the companies concerned.

NOTES AND NEWS.

THE Athenæum of June 30 announces the death at Brighton of Mr. Edmund Gurney. Mr. Gurney had been subject to obstinate sleeplessness, and had had recourse to opiates. It was an overdose of chloroform that led to his accidental death. Mr. Gurney's best known work was his Power of Sound,' a very excellent treatise, and one of permanent value. Of late years he has been oftenest before the public by his contributions to the Proceedings of the Psychic Research Society, of which he was the honorary sec-retary. He was the chief author of the Phantasms of the Living,'. and the man to whom, more than to any one else, is due the great interest in psychic studies which this society has aroused. Mr. Gurney had committed himself to the telepathic hypothesis, and was busy to the last in developing that theory. However much onemay differ from him in his views regarding the problems of psychicresearch, all must acknowledge to a great admiration for the courage and industry of the scientist venturing boldly into this psychic 'heart of Africa,' and reporting patiently and systematically his adventures in that mysterious region. His loss is a very serious oneto the cause to which he had devoted so many years of his life.

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- A. C. McClurg & Co. have just issued the first two volumes of the proposed series of The Great French Writers. The publication of this series has been delayed by the fact that the publishers. were disappointed with the translations brought out in England, and therefore undertook the expense of entirely new translations. A careful and very valuable bibliography of the works of Sir Isaac Newton, with a list of books illustrating his life and works, by G. J. Gray, has just been issued by Messrs. Macmillan and Bowes, Cambridge. The bibliography is divided into ten sections: (1) collected editions of works; (2) the Principia ;' (3) ‘Optics;' (4) 'Fluxions;' (5) Arithmetica Universalis;' (6) minor works; (7) theological and miscellaneous works; (8) works edited by Newton; (9) memoirs, etc.; (10) index. A new edition of the late Professor Humpidge's translation of Dr. Hermann Kolbe's Short Text-Book of Inorganic Chemistry' (Longman's) has been issued. The greater part of this edition was prepared by Dr. Humpidge last summer. Being unable, owing to failing health, to complete the task of revision, he asked Prof. D. E. Jones of the University College, Aberystwith, to undertake it, and to see the book through the press. Mr. Leland will shortly send to the printer his work on 'Americanisms,' which will follow on the Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant,' now in the press. It will contain much folklore in the form of proverbs, songs, and popular phrases, and also the etymology and history of the words, as far as they could be traced. The work will include an account of American dialects, such as Pennsylvanian Dutch, Chinook, Creole, and Gumbo. Nearly the whole edition of Mr. George Seilhamer's History of the American Theatre: Before the Revolution,' has been placed; a second volume, 'During the Revolution and After,' is in press, and will be ready in the autumn. Both volumes are published through the Globe Printing-House, Philadelphia. Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co. have made arrangements for the publication of a set of halfcrown books to be entitled English Actors: Ten Biographies.' The series will be under the general editorship of Mr. William Archer, and will include lives of Betterton, Cibber, Macklin, Garrick, the Dibdins, the Kembles, Elliston, the Keans, the Matthews, and Macready. Mr. Joseph Knight will deal with Garrick, Mr. R. W. Lowe with Betterton, Mr. E. R. Dibdin with the author of Tom Bowling,' and the editor himself with the Keans. The subjects have been selected so as to cover as completely as possible the whole field of English acting from the Restoration to our own time. — Mr. W. J. Linton, one of the leading authorities on woodengravings of the day, has issued a prospectus, with specimen

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pages, of his great work now in press in London, entitled 'Masters of Wood-Engraving.' Ticknor & Co. have been chosen to receive subscriptions for this great work in this country. William Gibson, jun., New York, has just issued Some Details of Water-Works Construction,' by William R. Billings. -The Truth Seeker Company has just published The Order of Creation, the Conflict between Genesis and Geology, a Controversy between the Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Prof. Max Müller, Prof. T. H. Huxley, M. Réville, and Mrs. E. Lynn Linton;' 'Rome or Reason, a Memoir of Christian and Extra-Christian Experience,' by Nathaniel Ramsay Waters; 'The Bible of Nature, or, The Principles of Secularism,' by Felix L. Oswald; 'Try-Square, or, The Church of Practical Religion,' by Reporter; and new editions of The Secret of the East, or, The Origin of the Christian Religion, and the Significance of its Rise and Decline,' by Oswald, and of Winwood Reade's 'The Martyrdom of Man.' Scribner's Magazine for August will contain another of Prof. N. S. Shaler's notable articles on the surface of the earth, entitled Rivers and Valleys,' fully illustrated with views of some of the most picturesque scenery in this country, and dealing in a very practical way with the problems presented by the Mississippi and Ohio River floods.

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A philosophical society has been formed at the University of Vienna under the leadership of Professor Zimmermann and Professor Meynert. Professor Höffler has been elected president. The object of the society is to bring before specialists of all classes general scientific problems having a philosophical import.

- At a recent meeting of the French Physical Society Sir William Thomson was present, and stated, that, according to his determinations, the rate of diffusion of electricity was a hundred and ten times as rapid as that of heat in the best conductors.

-The night movements of the Russian troops have recently been rendered difficult by the number of soldiers attacked with hemeralopia (night-blindness). It is well known that this affection is due generally to a lack of proper food. Meissner saw in Podolia an epidemic of this disease produced during a religious excitement, when bread was the principal article of diet, which disappeared when animal food was again taken.

-The date of meeting of the American Society of Microscopists at Columbus, O., has been changed to Aug. 21 instead of Aug. 14; this on account of change of date for the American Association meeting.

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- At the last meeting of the New York Microscopical Society, Mr. George F. Kunz exhibited sand containing monazite, a phosphate of cerium, lanthanum, and didynium, and from o per cent to 17 per cent of thoria, from Brindletown, Burke County, N.C., and monazite sand from Caravalhas, Brazil, stating that the demand for these minerals had greatly increased of late, owing to the rare earths zirconia, thoria, glucina, etc., which they contain, and which are now used for the mantle or hood of the new incandescent gasburner invented by Dr. Carl Auer, now Von Welsbach.' This increased consumption has led to a search by the collectors and dealers in minerals in England, Germany, France, Russia, Norway, and Brazil, and more especially in the United States; and so thorough has the search been, that the prices of minerals which were considered rare a short time ago, are now quoted at onetenth to one-hundredth of former figures. The minerals containing these rare earths are lanthanite, sipylite, tysonite, uranothorite, orangite, thorite, clevite, monazite, beryl, yttrotantalite, alvite, erdmannite, cerite, xenotime, fergusonite, æschynite, allanite, zircon, eudialyte, euxenite, samarskite, gadolinite, and bodenite. Of these, beryl, cerite, monazite, allanite, and zircon have been obtained in large quantities. Sipylite, orangite, and thorite are especially sought for. Monazite has been found at the following localities: Villeneuve, Ottawa County, Canada (a crystal of fourteen pounds and a half); Alexander County, N.C., at Milholland's Mill; Amelia County, Va. (in twenty-pound lump); Norwich, Conn.; Ural Mountains; Mount Sorel (var. turnerite), Tavetch (var. turnerite), and Binnenthal, Switzerland; River Sanarka, Southern Ural; Arendal, Norway. At these localities the occurrence is of mineralogical interest only. At the North Carolina, Georgia, and Brazilian

localities it can be obtained in quantity for commercial use. In the North Carolina gold gravels of Rutherford, Polk, Burke, McDowell, and Mecklenburg Counties, monazite is found in considerable quantities in small brown or greenish or yellowish brown monoclinic crystals associated with chromite, garnet, zircon, anatase, corundum, menaccanite, xenotime, fergusonite, epidote, columbite, samarskite, and other minerals. With these associations have been found several of the North Carolina diamonds; and at the Glade Mine, Georgia, diamonds have been found with the monazite, which exists in some abundance also. These localities will furnish tons of monazite within the next twelve months. The Brazilian monazite is found at Caravalhas, Bahia, where its existence was made known about eight years ago by Dr. Orville A. Derby, geologist of Brazil. It occurs in large quantities as a beach-sand, almost free from other minerals, as if concentrated. As it occurs on the coast, it can easily be shipped to any point where it is wanted, and a number of tons have been sent to the United States. The best North Carolina zircon locality is on the old Meredith Freeman estate, Green River, Henderson County, N.C., which was leased for twenty-five years in the hands of Gen. T. L. Clingman of that State, who, as early as 1869, mined one thousand pounds of it, and during that whole period never lost faith in the incandescent properties of zirconia; but when the time of its adoption actually came, through some legal difficulties the general had forfeited his leases, and hence failed to reap his reward. In Henderson County, N.C., and in Anderson County, S.C., zircon is found in large quantities loose in the soil, as the result of the decomposition of a felspathic rock. The crystals are generally remarkable for their perfection, being distinctive of each locality, weighing occasionally several ounces. The recent demand has also brought to light the existence of enormous quantities of zircon in the Ural Mountains and in Norway. Although in Canada, in Renfrew and adjoining counties, enormous crystals have been found up to fifteen pounds each, yet they are so isolated, that it would be impossible to obtain a supply there. The new demand has brought together more than twenty-five tons of zircon, ten tons of monazite, six tons of cerite, thousands of pounds of samarskite, and tons of allanite and other minerals. As a consequence, zircon is now offered at less than ten cents a pound, monazite at twenty-five cents, and samarskite at fifty cents.

While Australia is complaining of rabbits, Russia is invaded by the marmots. In certain provinces in Odessa it has been proposed to try Pasteur's system of inoculating them with chickencholera, but the administrative authorities have not given the scheme their approval.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
Negro Dialect.

A WRITER in the North American Review for June, 1888, mentions certain words in use among the negroes of the Southern States, and inquires after their origin. The words are buccra ('white man'), goober (' peanut '), brottus (used in Georgia in requests for small presents, as, 'What are you going to give for brottus?'), and lagniappe (used in New Orleans in somewhat the same sense as brottus).

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With regard to lagniappe, there seems to be no good cause to dispute the derivation from the Spanish given by Mr. George W. Cable. He says, The pleasant institution of ñapa, the petty gratuity added by the retailer to any thing bought, grew the pleasanter, drawn out into the Gallicized lagnappe" (The Creoles of Louisiana, London, 1885, p. 114). The derivation of brottus may be similar to that of lagniappe, from the English perhaps, but one cannot speak with certainty.

The word goober (‘peanut') is, I think, of African origin. In Haussa (a West African tongue), guja is 'ground-nut.' The following passage, however, from a rare and interesting work of the beginning of the eighteenth century, goes far, I hope, to settle the

matter.

In the English translation of Bosman's account of Guinea we read, "Here is also another sort called Gobbe-Gobbes, which grow

two together in a Cod under the Earth, and shoot out a small Leaf above the surface of the Earth; these are the worst of all the sorts of Beans, and yet they are eaten by several" (A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, etc. . . . Written originally in Dutch by Wm. Bosman. . . And now faithfully done into English, London, 1705, p. 301). From gobbe to goober is not far, and the object named is the same, beyond a doubt. The origin of buccra (white man ') is not clear; but in Haussa, buttra means 'master.' I would appeal to those acquainted with the negro dialects to publish short lists of words, such as those dealt with, which will be of great value in determining the ethnological relations of the ancestors of the present negro population of the United States. A. F. CHAMBERLAIN.

Toronto, July 2.

Object-Lessons in Oriental Faiths and Myths.

A REMARKABLE collection will soon be opened to the world in Paris. The municipality has given a plot of ground that cost two hundred thousand dollars on the Avenue d'Jéna, and a large and beautiful stone structure has been erected on it by the state, under a law passed while the present president, Carnot, was finance minister. This law secures over three hundred thousand dollars for the erection of a building, and endows the establishment thus formed with a perpetual annuity of nine thousand dollars for purposes of maintenance. The glass cases for the collection are partly placed and filled, and the public will be admitted in a few months. The collection is primarily intended to teach the history of the development, and the characteristics, of the Oriental religions. The importance of this study strikes us forcibly when we reflect that these forms of faith still deeply influence the daily lives of more than one-half of the human race, and that they have solaced and guided tens of thousands of millions of our fellow-creatures.

The originator and collector of this unique series of objects is the well-known student of Oriental languages, M. Etienne Emile Guimet, the son of a wealthy citizen of Lyons. He has spent more than twenty years of an active scholarly life in voyages to, and residences in, China, Japan, and other Asiatic lands, and has devoted several millions of francs from his large fortune to this work of public instruction. In his native town he is also known for his persistent and munificent efforts to secure high-class musical entertainments for the people; and, if his efforts are measured by the exquisite congregational singing that I recently heard in one of the Lyons churches, his efforts have been signally successful.

Yesterday I spent the morning with M. Guimet, examining the collections already in place. We first passed through two long halls, carefully arranged, and lighted from both sides with high windows, halls, let me say, that would form admirable models for the future architects of the Metropolitan Museum. Here we found two comprehensive collections of pottery, one from China and one from Japan, each arranged geographically and historically, beginning, in the case of Japan, with the southern provinces, and ending with the northern. These most valuable gifts of M. Guimet, however, do not belong to my present subject.

From these halls we entered the lofty library, where are already placed twelve thousand volumes of books and manuscripts containing official statements in the original tongues of the dogmas, creeds, and myths of all the important Oriental forms of belief. Thence we passed to an extensive hall, in which the Japanese religions are illustrated and classed.

Illustrations of the earliest form of the Shinto nature-worship begin the extensive series. First we have the round metal mirrors resting upon mimic waves of sculptured wood, that stood high in the temple to catch the earliest rays of the rising sun; then figures of the simply clad priests; then the implements for making the primitive offering of fire and incense to the unembodied god. In order of time follow the paraphernalia of the Buddhist priests, who, crossing from Corea, brought with them their gorgeous ritual and imposed it upon the nation. Then we have innumerable figures of Buddha and attendant deities in gold, silver, bronze, lacquer, and clay, representing the ideas of the important contending sects into which Buddhism was soon divided through the agency of sacerdotal ingenuity.

In the middle of the hall, under the skylight, is a representation

of the interior of a Japanese temple of the first class, with original images of all the gods before whom worship is usually conducted. Here we may see, how, in the imagination of the Japanese (the sacred Buddha sends forth four great agencies that save men through persuasion), they are shown to the popular eye in the form of golden figures of prophets in silken robes; and also how four other emanations from Buddha, symbolical of darkness, compel men to do right through fear, shown as carved images of black devils with gnashing teeth.

Beyond this group are series of cases containing thousands of objects explaining Japanese myths, lives of saints, and the stories told about their sacred people and places. Another extensive hall contains a series of figures and other objects elucidating the forms of belief, the myths, and the folk-lore of China. In another the Greek mythology is systematized, in another the Roman, in another the Egyptian. One of the most interesting cases is that containing original images from many places in the countries and islands bordered by the Mediterranean, showing the various steps by which the Egyptian gods were accepted and adopted under new names successively by the Greeks and by the Romans. The rooms containing the collections from the western lands are as yet but partly arranged. Enough can be seen, however, to show how important and complete the series of objects must be, enough to show that the world furnishes no other collection of the kind nearly so large, or so well prepared for the serious study of the development of Oriental and ancient civilization.

M. Guimet declared that he had no theory to support in forming his museum. He has excluded the Christian and the Hebrew forms of worship from his scientific treatment, and has confined himself to those lands where religion dawned upon mankind, and where great faiths that dominated extensive territories were developed. He simply presented the authentic documents and the authorized symbols for the use of the scholar. L. Paris, June 20.

An Army of Myriopods.

I am in receipt of a letter, bearing the date July 6, 1888, from Mr. W. H. Cleaver, East Bethlehem, Penn., in which he states that the 'worms,' specimens of which he sends, are at the present time very abundant in his neighborhood.

To quote from the letter, "they are travelling eastward in countless millions. They travel at night or in the cool of the morning and evening. They camp during the day by getting under sods, boards, stones, or any thing to protect them from the heat of the In some places during the day they are piled up in great numbers. They do not seem to destroy any thing on their journey, but go harmlessly along. Fowls will not eat them, and birds do not appear to molest them."

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The specimens which accompany the letter are, I think, the common Polydesmus erythropygus. In the absence of any complete systematic work on the Myriopoda, I am not able to identify the species with absolute certainty. The species is very common in this vicinity, but I have never before heard of its occurrence in such numbers as reported by Mr. Cleaver. EDWIN LINTON.

Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Penn., July 7.

The Old South Work.

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You credit me, in your last number, with instituting the lectures in Chicago, like our Old South' lectures here in Boston. That credit does not belong to me. I have for some years been concerned in the direction of the Old South Work' in Boston, which is so liberally sustained by Mrs. Hemenway; and recently I gave the opening lecture in the Chicago course. But the credit of instituting the work in Chicago belongs to Mr. H. H. Belfield, the principal of the Manual-Training School in that city. He has labored with rare devotion and energy to establish these 'Old South' lectures in Chicago, and his success has certainly been very great. If every city had a man of equal patriotism and equal practical power, we should see much done to bring our young people up to higher ideas of citizenship, and to elevate the general political tone throughout the country. EDWIN D. MEAD.

Boston, July 9.

SCIENCE

FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1888.

WHEN THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY of Indian pictographs was begun by the Bureau of Ethnology years ago, it was supposed by those who collected the material that the carvings on rocks and wood, on barks and skins, when they were interpreted, would tell something of the history of the people who made them, as the hieroglyphics of the East have enabled modern scholars to construct the history of ancient dynasties and empires. This expectation has been disappointed. The Indian pictographs are either mythological, or, if they relate to events, it is to incidents in the lives of individuals who are not identified, such as his hunts, the number of scalps he took in battle, etc., or to such events in the history of the tribes as the great religious festivals. They throw no direct light upon the origin, age, or migrations of the tribes that made the pictographs. Indirectly, by the comparative study of the characters made by different tribes, the relations of those tribes may be determined. It is by this comparative study that the Indian pictographs are likely to prove most valuable to science.

THERE HAVE OCCASIONALLY been assembled, at intervals of from five to seven years, international congresses for the discussion of questions relating to crime and penal discipline. At those hitherto held, as at Frankfort, Brussels, London, Stockholm, and Rome, there has been a union of both official and non-official members, with similar privileges of voting on the questions at issue. The next congress is appointed to be held some years hence, at St. Petersburg. It would appear as if the spirit of Russian despotism had taken alarm at the proposal, although unwilling to prohibit such a meeting. But certain influences have been brought to bear upon the committee of arrangement, who have intimated a desire to restrict future decisions on the various questions to official delegates or State functionaries. These, in Russia and some other continental countries, are obsequious servants of the bureaucracy. Hence, if this intention is carried out, the congress may in such hands tend to become a mere clique, or the creature of conditional patronage of northern military despotism, and, as such, rather likely to meet with ridicule than respect from the free public opinion and intelligence of western Europe and America. The French Prison Society, Paris, has already issued a timely protest against this project. That society consists of some of the ablest and most intelligent members of the legislature and scientific bodies of France, and is highly respected at home and abroad. Its objections to the proposed change in the constitution of these congresses will doubtless obtain acceptance in Great Britain and America, and in free nations generally. If, in defiance of such opinion, the St. Petersburg congress is to be manipulated as proposed, its proceedings will be entitled to comparatively little consideration.

THE BILL TO PROVIDE for the eleventh and subsequent censuses has been passed by the House of Representatives, and will no doubt be adopted by the Senate before the adjournment of the present session. The salient features of the bill are similar to those of that which provided for taking the tenth census, except that the number of subjects of investigation are reduced to seven. These are population and social statistics relating thereto, manufactures, mining, agriculture, mortality and vital statistics, valuation, and public indebtedness. The statistics on other subjects included in

the tenth census, and which swelled its publications to twenty-two large quarto volumes, although very useful for general information, political discussion, and social science, are omitted because the same information may be gathered by and published from other bureaus of the government more satisfactorily and more economically. They are of continuing importance, and are not limited to the precise period when the census is taken. The number of volumes to be printed will probably be reduced to seven, and their publication will not be delayed as formerly.

THERE WILL BE HELD next year, during the Universal Exhibition in Paris, a large number of scientific congresses, of zoology, anthropology, physiology, electricity, dermatology, and hygiene, besides the literary congresses and those devoted to economics and the arts. The exhibition will draw to Paris a large number of strangers, and will therefore be a favorable occasion for these international re-unions. It is to be hoped that the scientific congresses of 1889 will be as satisfactory in their results as those previously held. As an admirable model, we would call attention to the International Electrical Congress of 1881. This congress decided upon a reform in electrical measures. Up to that time, each experimenter had employed that system of measures which best served his purpose. Thanks to the electrical congress, these variations are now at an end. In order that the congresses of 1889 may accomplish all that may be expected of them, it is desirable that programmes should be arranged well beforehand, and the scientific world will look to the organizers of the congresses for this needed guidance. In large part the proper organization of the congresses will depend upon the local scientific societies of Paris.

THE LARGE AMOUNT of light sandy soils in some of the northern counties of Michigan which do not appear to respond favorably to ordinary methods of tillage, seems to call for investigation and experimental inquiry. Some persons doubt the possibility of their successful cultivation, and are disposed to scoff at all attempts in that direction. The fact that many persons have settled on these lands for homesteads, and after a few years have abandoned their claims and gone elsewhere for permanent homes, seems to countenance the doubt about their agricultural value. The hundreds of abandoned homesteads give sad evidence of misdirected labor and disappointed hopes. The question is, how to bring these lands into profitable cultivation by such methods of tillage and the use of such manurial materials as are within the reach of every farmer of moderate means. It does not include the use of stable-manure, for the reason that this cannot at present be obtained in sufficient quantity to supply the needs of the plains. No one need doubt the capacity of these sandy soils to produce crops if a sufficient supply of stable-manure can be obtained. The first question is, how to raise the crops on these lands that shall furnish the stable-manure. The problem briefly stated is this: with a light sandy soil of very porous quality, in a northern climate, subject to late frosts in spring and early frosts in autumn, and liable to midsummer drought, with no fertilizers except marl, salt, and plaster, can any methods of tillage or kinds of crops bring these plains into profitable cultivation for ordinary farming, stock-raising, or fruit-production? For many years Prof. R. C. Kedzie of the Agricultural College of Michigan has given thought and study to this problem, and in lectures and articles called attention to the subject. When the Hatch Bill became a law, it was felt that the time had come to take up this sub

ject in a practical way. A farmers' institute had been held at Grayling, Crawford County, in which farming on the plains occupied most of the time and thought of those present. When it was determined to establish an experimental farm on the plains, the State Board of Agriculture fixed upon Grayling as the place, because it is in the heart of the jack-pine lands, is readily accessible by railway, is near a large deposit of marl, the people take a lively interest in the experimental work, and the Michigan Central Railroad offered to donate eighty acres of jack-pine land for the experimental farm. The tract of land donated, both as to soil and the natural products growing on it, is considered a fair average of the jack-pine plains. The experimental work at Grayling is only begun, and it is too soon to ask, "What shall the harvest be?"

THE STORRS SCHOOL Agricultural Experiment Station, Mansfield, Conn., has issued its first bulletin. The purpose of this bulletin is to explain to the public whom the station is especially intended to serve, the organization of the station, its spirit, and the character of the work thus far begun. It is the wish of those in charge of the enterprise to make its connection with the farmers of the State as intimate as possible, and to this end copies are mailed to all farmers in Connecticut whose addresses the station has been able to obtain, to a number of other persons within and outside of the State, as well as to the press. By the act of Congress, provision is made for the appropriation of fifteen thousand dollars per annum to each State and Territory, for the maintenance of agricultural experiment stations. Of the fund for Connecticut, one half is, by act of its last Legislature, intrusted to the Board of Control of the State Experiment Station, and one half to the Board of Trustees of the Storrs Agricultural School. The managers of the station recognize that its purpose is both to investigate and to teach, that its duty is to select for study such questions as are of the most immediate and practical importance to the agriculture of the State, and that its work will be successful in proportion to the intimacy of its connection with the farmers whom it represents. But they feel bound to accept the lesson taught by years of experience, in this country and elsewhere, to which we have already frequently referred, that the most valuable results will be obtained by selecting a small number of questions for investigation, by making them narrow and specific, and by studying them with the greatest possible thoroughness. And they desire to avoid, so far as may be, the error into which so many stations, in their early experience, have fallen, in failing to recognize that often the questions which seem most theoretical are really most practical; that the highest, and in the long-run the most useful, work for agriculture is the discovery of the laws that underlie its practice; and that not infrequently the interests of the farmer require that theoretical questions be considered first, for the same reason that the foundation of the house is the first part to be built. In using part of its resources for abstract research, the managers of the station feel assured that it is doing its highest duty, and will have the heartiest support of its constituency.

INTELLIGENT CITIZENSHIP.

WE had occasion recently to refer to the growth of the Old South Work. This work has been carried on in various ways, - by lectures, by tracts, and by encouraging the writing of essays on appropriate subjects.

The Old South Leaflets,' which have been published during the last five years in connection with the annual courses of historical lectures at the Old South Meeting-House in Boston, have attracted so much attention, and proved of so much service, that the directors have determined upon the publication of this general series, with the needs of schools, colleges, private clubs and classes, especially in mind. The leaflets are prepared by Mr. Edwin D. Mead. They are largely reproductions of important original papers, accompanied by useful historical and bibliographical notes. The aim

is to bring them within easy reach of everybody. The Old South Work is a work for the education of the people, and especially the education of our young people, in American history and politics; and its promoters believe that few things can contribute better to this end than the wide circulation of such leaflets as those now proposed. It is hoped that professors in our colleges, and teachers everywhere, will welcome them for use in their classes, and that

they may meet the needs of the societies of young men and women now happily being organized in so many places for historical and political studies.

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Some idea of the character of this series may be gained from the following list of the subjects of the first thirteen numbers, which are now ready: No. 1. 'The Constitution of the United States;' 2. The Articles of Confederation;' 3. 'The Declaration of Independence;' 4. 'Washington's Farewell Address; ' 5. 'Magna Charta;' 6. 'Vane's "Healing Question;"' 7. 'Charter of Massachusetts Bay, 1629;' 8. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1638; 9. Franklin's Plan of Union, 1754;' 10. 'Washington's Inaugurals;' 11. 'Lincoln's Inaugurals and Emancipation Proclamation; 12. 'The Federalist, Nos. 1 and 2;' 13. The Ordinance of 1787. A large proportion of these early numbers relate to the Constitution and the history of its growth, which are now subjects of special interest to historical students.

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The excellence of the essays which have been presented during the last seven years, in competition for the Old South prizes, have induced the offer of prizes again the present year. The competition for these prizes, which could well be imitated in other towns, is open to all who have graduated from the Boston high schools (including the Latin schools) in 1887 and 1888.

The subjects for the essays are, England's Part in the Crusades, and the Influence of the Crusades upon the Development of English Liberty;' and 'The Political Thought of Sir Henry Vane. Consider Vane's Relations to Cromwell and his Influence upon America.'

Forty dollars will be awarded for the best essay on each of the subjects named, and twenty-five dollars for the second best, making, in all, four prizes.

The Old South lectures for young people for the summer of 1888 will begin Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 1. The general title of the course will be The Story of the Centuries,' the special subjects being as follows: The Great Schools after the Dark Ages; 'Richard the Lion-Hearted and the Crusades;'The World which Dante knew;' The Morning-Star of the Reformation ;' 'Copernicus and Columbus, or the New Heaven and the New Earth; The Age of Queen Elizabeth;'The Puritans and the English Revolution;' 'Lafayette and the Two Revolutions which he saw.'

Many of those interested in the Old South Work are also interested in the Massachusetts Society for promoting Good Citizenship. In response to the question which is often asked, the society has issued a circular telling what is the object of this society, and what its members are expected to do. It is the intention of the promoters of the society that it shall encourage and assist every thing which tends to make men good and intelligent. The good citizen is, as they express it, before all else the good man. As De Tocqueville saw it to be in his time, so we see it to be in ours, the success of a republicandemocratic government depends upon the moral and intellectual capacity of the community. We need intelligence, education, conscience, and health, and it is to promote these that the society is working.

The immediate and special inquiry as to the nature of good citizenship leads to the study of political history and political philosophy, and the society wishes to see a more serious and thorough study of what the world's great thinkers in the past have thought and said upon government and the state; and they would encourage a more careful study of our American history and institutions, our constitutions and laws, and this in comparison with those of other countries. The members of the society individually, or in association with each other in clubs or classes, are urged to these studies for themselves, and to promote and assist such studies on the part of others. The society would have its members study the town and the townmeeting, the city, the commonwealth, the nation, and international relations, believing that by such broad studies in the history of pol

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