tain that we have their descendants in the Eskimo, and that they were finally driven north, after contact with the Indians, who, as is conceded by all students, migrated hither, at, archæologically considered, a not exceedingly remote period. The Indian traditions assert that they found the region occupied; and for once, at least, we have evidence which confirms tradition.

However others may be impressed by what I have now presented, for myself, as I wander along the pleasant shores of the Delaware River, seeing it but a meagre stream between high banks in midsummer, or in winter swollen and choked with ice until these are almost hidden, I recall what time this same stream was the mighty channel of glacial floods, pouring seaward from the mountains beyond, and picture the primitive hunter of that ancient time, armed with but a sharpened stone, in quest of unwary game. And later, when the floods had abated and the waters filled but the channel of to-day, I recall that more skilful folk who with spear and knife captured whatsoever creature their needs demanded, the earlier and later chippers of argillite.

These pass; and the Indian, with his jasper, quartz, copper, and polished stone, looms up as the others fade away. His history, reaching forward almost to the present, I leave in the hands of others to record.

SCIENTIFIC NEWS IN WASHINGTON.

A Great Medical Meeting to be held in Washington.- Interesting to Mariners: a Simple Method of computing a Ship's Course and ascertaining her Distance sailed on the Great Circle between the Point of Departure and the Point of Destination, about to be published by the Hydrographic Office: a Valuable Set of Charts nearly completed. - Terrible Death Rates in India.

The First American Medical Congress.

THE first triennial meeting of the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons will begin in Washington, Sept. 18, and will continue three days. Three years ago one of the societies constituting the congress conceived the idea of bringing together once in three years representatives of the great medical societies of the country. The plan was presented to all of them, and indorsed by ten. These eleven societies, in accordance with the general plan suggested, each appointed one of their number to constitute an executive committee. The committee met, and decided that an association should be formed with the name given above.

This committee is composed as follows, the names of the societies they represent being appended: C. M. Martin, Mobile, American Surgical Association; John P. Bryson, St. Louis, Genito-Urinary Surgeons; J. Solis Cohen, Philadelphia, American Laryngological Association; A. L. Loomis, New York, American Climatological Association; William Pepper, Philadelphia, Association of American Physicians; William H. Carmalt, New Haven, American Otological Society; William F. Norris, Philadelphia, American Ophthalmological Society; L. C. Gray, New York, American Neurological Association; J. E. Atkinson, Baltimore, American Dermatological Association; H. P. Bowditch, American Physiological Society; N. M. Shaffer, New York, American Orthopedic Association.

The committee also determined that a meeting should be held in this city once in three years: the September session will therefore be the first. It is also proposed that the several societies constituting the congress shall hold their annual meetings at the same time, each being conducted according to its own special programme. This will make the occasion one of the most important to the medical profession of the United States that has ever occurred. The separate societies will each hold meetings twice a day, while the meeting of the congress will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings.

The topics for discussion at the three meetings of the congress will be as follows; on Tuesday evening, ‘Intestinal Obstruction in its Medical and Surgical Relations ' (Drs. R. H. Fitz of Boston, and Nicholas Semm of Milwaukee, will open the discussion, and they will be followed by others whom the executive committee may designate); on Wednesday, 'Cerebral Localization in its Practical Relations' (Dr. Charles H. Mills of Philadelphia, and Dr. Roswell Park of Buffalo, will open the discussion, and they will be followed

by Mr. Victor Horsley and Professor Ferrier, of London, Eng.); on Thursday evening the congress will meet in the hall of the National Museum, and Dr. John S. Billings, U.S.A., of Washington, president of the congress, will deliver an address on Medical Museums.' At the close of this session a reception will be given in the Army Medical Museum building, to which members and invited guests, their wives and daughters, will be invited.

In addition to the reception on Thursday evening, a complimentary dinner will be given to the guests of the congress by the members, on Monday evening, at Willard's Hotel. Some of these invited guests are as follows: Sir Spencer Wells; Sir Andrew Clark; Sir William McCormac; Drs. W. O. Priestly, William Ord, and Grainger Stewart; Mr. Lawson Lait; Mr. Victor Horsley; Mr. Thomas Bryant; Mr. Thomas Annandale; Professors Ferrier, Esmarch, and Gerhardt; Drs. Rafael Lavista of Mexico, J. L. Reverdin of Geneva, O. W. Holmes and H. J. Bowditch of Boston, Joseph Leidy of Philadelphia, W. Kingston and Eccles of Canada.

An informal collation will also be served at Willard's Hotel from ten to twelve o'clock Tuesday evening, to which only members of the congress, and other physicians who may be in the city, will be invited. The following-named gentlemen compose the committee of arrangements for the meeting: Samuel C. Busey (chairman), J. Ford Thompson, R. T. Edes, E. C. Morgan, W. W. Johnston, and S. O. Richey, of Washington; J. E. Atkinson, H. Newell Martin, and Samuel Theobald, of Baltimore; A. Sydney Roberts of Philadelphia; and A. T. Cabot of Boston.

Neither the congress nor the individual societies will transact any business during the meeting. The object of the congress and of the several societies is the consideration of subjects pertaining to medical science. The discussion of medical ethics and kindred topics, even, is excluded. The congress will not even elect officers. Dr. Billings has been chosen by the executive committee to preside, and the presiding officer of the next congress will be selected by one of the societies represented in the congress. The object of the gathering may be more definitely stated to be to consider and discuss professional topics of a scientific nature, and nothing else will be brought to the attention of the members. The expenses of the congress will be paid by the members, whose contributions will all be voluntary. Headquarters for the registration of members will be opened at Willard's Hotel on the Saturday preceding. Dr. Busey expects that there will be an attendance of about five hundred members. Three other medical societies not connected with the congress will hold their annual sessions in Washington at the same time. They are the American Gynecological Society, the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Pediatric Society.

'Recent Developments in Great-Circle Sailing.'

In view of the increasing recognition among mariners of the sound principle of conducting a ship along the arc of the great circle joining the points of departure and destination, and of the great advantages to be gained by a knowledge of this branch of nautical science, a work bearing the above title has been prepared in the Hydrographic Office, which has for its object the collection into one volume of all the analytical processes, and a description of all charts and devices which have been constructed, for the navigation of the great-circle track. It thus forms a history of the development of methods of great-circle navigation, and reveals the present state of the science, and is also a treatise on the subject, so arranged as to give a clear conception of each method, and to form a directory to sources where more extended information may be found.

The work presents the methods, among others. of Towsen, Airy, Chauvenet, Lieutenant Hilleret (French Navy), Commander C. D. Sigsbee, U.S.A., and Mr. Gustave Herrle of the United States Hydrographic Office. The latter method is undoubtedly the simplest yet found for practical use in great-circle sailing.

The simplicity of the methods necessary for navigating the really circuitous track of the Mercator projection, and the long duration of its usage, have so popularized them with seamen, that no method of handling charts dissimilar to them will be received with favor. Another essential consideration in the construction of great-circle sailing-charts is a method that enables one to measure the course and distance, from the actual position of the vessel, independently

of any great-circle track previously laid down, just as the rhumb course and distance are measured on the Mercator chart. These principles were recognized in the construction of the great-circle charts issued by the Hydrographic Office. The maturing of them, and their publication in the form of the present excellent sailingcharts, have been due to that office. They are now issued for the North and South Atlantic Oceans, and Indian Ocean. The plate for the latter was used to reproduce, by electrotyping, plates for the North and South Pacific Oceans. It is expected that this series of sailing-charts will be completed before July 1, 1889. Those already published have been received with great favor, and have undergone severe tests for accuracy and utility; and numerous reports have been received testifying to their usefulness in lessening the labor of computations on the great-circle route.

The general lack of the practical application of the principles of great-circle sailing in the past seems to have resulted, not from the want of recognition of the fact that the shortest distance between any two points on the earth's surface is the arc of the great circle passing through them, nor that the great-circle course is the only true course, but from the tedious operations which have been necessary, and from the want of concise methods for rendering these benefits readily available.

Sanitation in India.

Mr. B. F. Bonham, United States consul-general at Calcutta, has sent to the State Department an abstract of a lecture by Mr. Justice Cunningham, at the Parkes Museum, on Sanitation in India,' from which the following interesting extracts are made:

44

The views of the sanitary parties in India might be summarized in the following proportions: that the mortality of the population is vastly in excess of that of civilized countries, and in particular cannot be calculated at less than 10 to 15 per thousand in excess of the English rates, an excess making at least 2,500,000 of deaths and 50,000,000 cases of severe diseases; that this excess, or a large portion of it, is preventable by practical means fairly within human competence; that the existing administrative machinery is powerless to make any impression on this excessive mortality, but that its tendency is rather to intensify it; that there are reforms which materially affect it, which might be adopted without grievance to the people or detriment to the government finances, and that it is the duty of the government to adopt such reforms. As to the excessive mortality, the lecturer pointed out that wherever registration approached completeness there were high ratios of 30 per thousand and more, the central provinces ratio being 34 and the north-western provinces 32; that many large areas with populations of a million and upwards showed ratios of 40 and 50 per thousand, and many towns and municipalities showed ratios of 40, 60, 70, 80, and even higher. Such ratios showed that the laws of health were being contravened on an enormous scale. A curious instance of the extreme prevalence of disease was shown in Calcutta, where, out of a population of 445,000 persons, no less than 325,000 were treated annually in public medical institutions. Coming next to preventability, experience proved, that, wherever effective sanitation was carried out, the ratios of Indian mortality sunk at once to that of England.

"The great mass of Indian mortality was occasioned by epidemic diseases, which are preventable or mitigable, and in England have either disappeared or sunk to insignificant proportions. The Army Sanitary Commission gave what they call a 'deplorable record' of 38,000,000 of victims within a single decade to such diseases. Coming to particular instances, the extraordinary reduction in the mortality of the European army from 69 per thousand to 12 or 14, and the invaliding ratio from 43 to 23, the cholera mortality from 9.24 to 1.17, showed what sanitation could do in the case of men newly exposed to a tropical climate. The reduction of the mortality in jails was equally remarkable: it is now about one-third of the former rate. In Madras the extraordinarily low ratio of 17.80 per thousand had been attained. The high ratio of over 100 per thousand in some Bengal jails pointed to active insanitary conditions of soil, structure, or mismanagement. Another striking instance is that afforded by those parts of Calcutta which have been properly sanitated, which would compare favorably with the best parts of London for healthiness, while the insanitary wards of the city are

A Text-Book of Physiology. By JOHN GRAY M'KENDRICK. Including Histology, by Philip Stöhr. In two volumes. Vol. I. General Physiology. New York, Macmillan. 8°. $4. THE book before us, which is but the first volume of M'Kendrick's 'Text-Book of Physiology,' is modelled to some extent on his 'Outlines of Physiology,' although it has been so greatly extended in every direction as to make it an entirely new book. This volume treats of the general physiology of the tissues; while the second, not yet published, but in the printer's hands, deals with the special physiology of organs.

In the introductory section the author discusses the nature and objects of physiology, matter and energy, and the general principles of biology, including the organic form and mode of growth, the evolutional history of living beings, and the theories of life. In the second section the chemistry of the body is treated; the nature and properties of the chemical substances found in the body, and the nature of the chemical re-actions with which the phenomena of life are associated, being considered fully. The true value which should be given to chemical formulæ by the physiological student is specially explained by the author. The chapter on pigments is an exceedingly valuable one, the subject being treated more fully than in any other text-book of physiology.

Dr. M'Kendrick has been especially fortunate in being able to incorporate into his text-book Professor Stöhr's Lehrbuch der Histologie,' which, so far as we know, had not, up to this time, been translated. The illustrations of this portion of the work are not diagrams, but drawings of real preparations, and remarkably

true to nature.

The closing section treats of the contractile tissues. In it the electrical apparatus employed in the study of muscle is described and illustrated. The author believes, and we think rightly, that the importance of the uses of electricity in practical medicine and surgery justifies him in describing electrical apparatus. We are somewhat surprised to find the statement that "the teacher has usually to deal with students who know little or nothing about physics." We had supposed that the student, before being permitted to begin the study of medicine in the United Kingdom, must be well prepared in physics, and are therefore surprised to hear one who is undoubtedly in a position to know, say that he knows "little or nothing" about it. It appears, however, from our author's preface, that an examination in mechanics is required as a preliminary; but this, he says, is of no use, being just sufficient to worry the student and exhaust his energies, without conferring any real benefit in the shape of a knowledge of the principles of physical science. It is on account of this ignorance on the part of students that certain details as to physics are introduced into this textbook. Taken as a whole, the first volume of Dr. M'Kendrick's book is a most valuable one, and we shall look for the second with great interest. If he succeeds as well in his treatment of special as he has succeeded with general physiology, his text-book will be entitled to a prominent place among the best text-books of physiology.

Electrical Instrument Making for Amateurs.
TONE. 2d ed. New York, Van Nostrand.

By S. R. BOT$1.20.

IN the preface to this work Mr. Bottone says, "Nearly all the really useful inventions and discoveries which have rendered the nineteenth century so remarkable as a season of progress must be attributed to amateurs. For this reason, if for no other, we should render every assistance in our power to the bona fide amateur." Mr. Bottone's idea of a bona fide amateur is difficult to conceive. He would claim a wide meaning for the word if he included Faraday, Maxwell, Joule, Thomson, and Rayleigh, in his own country. Still there is no need of quarrelling about a definition, or of asking by whom the useful work of this century has been done. Mr. Bottone's book is a helpful and a needed one, and has much to com

mend it. It appeals to 'true amateurs,' boys who have a scientific turn of mind, and men who have some leisure from their work, but who have not the facilities that a laboratory offers.

The tools required are of the simplest kind, no turning-lathe or expensive apparatus being needed. Most of them are to be found in, the ordinary equipment of a householder: the rest may be purchased for a few dollars. The materials, too, are inexpensive and easy to get.

The directions in this book are full and clear, and where it is necessary dimensional drawings are given. When the amateur has built every thing that is described, he will find himself in possession of quite a complete set of apparatus for electrical experiments, galvanometers, electroscope, condenser, voltmeter, Wimhurst machine, induction-coil, etc.; and, if he compares the cost of them with the catalogue prices, he will have cause to congratulate himself. But the most important thing he has acquired is a skill in manipulation, and a knowledge of the instruments that will enable him to experiment usefully with them.

THIS is the familiar Fourteen Weeks in Chemistry,' revised and brought down to date, with some additions in appendices describing methods of manipulation and simple analyses. The object of this successful book was, by bringing out prominently such elementary facts in chemistry as would be likely to interest the average boy or girl, to give the most of them such a smattering of knowledge as would give a key to many of the chemical changes they would be likely to observe in every-day life, and to leave such a pleasant impression with the few as might lead them to further study. The book has served its purpose well in the past, and, in its new form, is likely to have a continued usefulness for some time to come. The revision has been done by competent hands. A useful glossary, giving the pronunciation of chemical terms, is one of the additions. The chapters on organic chemistry have been completely re-arranged and to a great extent re-written.

An Index to Engineering Periodicals, 1883 to 1887 inclusive. By FRANCIS E. GALLOUPE, M.E. Boston, 30 Kilby Street; New York, Eng. News Publ. Co. 294 p. 12°.

THE progress in developing material resources, in recent years, has created a vast amount of engineering literature, which is scattered through the various engineering journals. To render a large amount of this available, has been Mr. Galloupe's task, who has sought, in a handy little volume containing about ten thousand references, to cover the contents of the leading journals during the past five years. The matter seems to be arranged admirably under topics. The book will certainly serve a purpose with all interested.

NOTES AND NEWS.

MR. G. W. LITTLEHALES, assistant in the Hydrographic Office, has completed a monograph on Recent Developments in Great Circle Sailing.' Lieutenant Dyer, in charge of the office, who has devoted much time and labor to the study of this subject, will write the preface. - Henry Holt & Co. announce as in preparation, Briefer Course in Physics,' by George F. Barker; Dissection of the Dog,' as a basis for the study of physiology, by W. H. Howell; Brief History of the United States,' by Alexander Johnston, professor in Princeton College (this book is intended to meet the needs of teachers who desire a briefer and more elementary text-book than the author's well-known History of the United States;' it is, however, very far from being a condensation of that work); Greek Literature,' by Thomas Sergeant Perry; 'Chemistry (Advanced Course),' by Ira Remsen; 'Das Wesentliche der Deutschen Grammatik,' by A. W. Spanhoofd; and 'First Lessons in Political Economy,' by Francis A. Walker. D. Van Nostrand, New York, announces • The Elements of Electric Lighting,' by Philip Atkinson, for speedy issue; also 'Modern Reproductive Processes,' being a manual of

instruction in the art of reproducing drawings, engravings, manuscripts, etc., by the action of light, by Mr. Ernst Lietze; a translation of the Russian work of Woeikof on The Climates of the Earth,' by Prof. Cleveland Abbe of the Signal Office; a large and important work by Col. George E. Waring, jun., being a general treatise on city, town, and village sewerage and drainage, and land drainage; and 'Plate Girder Construction,' by Isami Hiroi, the latest issue in the Van Nostrand's Science Series. G. S. Fellows & Co., New York, announce 'Memory Systems, New and Old,' by A. E. Middleton. This is the first American edition from the second English edition, revised and enlarged, with bibliography of mnemonics, 1325-1888, by G. S. Fellows, M.A., of the Washington High School. They also announce 'Protection Echoes from the Capitol,' by Thomas H. McKee, containing twelve hundred aphorisms and leading principles of the protective policy. Cupples & Hurd have in press a volume on 'Typical New England Elms and Other Trees.' Harper & Brothers have just ready Walter Besant's Fifty Years Ago.' This is an illustrated account of English life, customs, and manners half a century ago, when Queen Victoria ascended her throne. G. P. Putnam's Sons publish The Story of Media, Babylon, and Persia,' including a study of the Zendavesta or religion of Zoroaster from the fall of Nineveh to the Persian war (continued from The Story of Assyria '), by Zénaïde A. Ragozin, in their Story of the Nations Series, illustrated with maps and woodcuts; and A Sketch of the Germanic Constitution,' from early times to the dissolution of the empire, by Samuel Epes Turner. Roberts Brothers publish Harvard Vespers,' a volume of addresses to Harvard students, by Francis G. Peabody, Phillips Brooks, Edward Everett Hale, Alexander McKenzie, George A. Gordon, and Andrew P. Peabody, delivered during 1886, 1887, and 1888. James J. Chapman, Washington, D.C., will issue early in September McPherson's Hand-book of Politics for 1888.' It will cover the proceedings of the second session of the last Congress (49th), and the first session of the present Congress (50th), and will give the final facts as to every pending public measure. Das Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen for July contains a remarkable article by J. Gildemeister of Bonn, on the Oriental Literature of the Discovery of America,' containing some curious particulars, taken from a Mohammedan work, of the voyage of an Indian ship, which, after driving about in the ocean for eight months, was cast on to the shore of the New World. - For the first time in its history The Century will devote a single issue - the forthcoming September number-largely to educational themes. The contributions will include The University and the Bible,' by T. T. Munger, a plea for the study of Christian as well as Heathen classics; Women Who go to College,' by Arthur Gilman; and 'The Industrial Idea in Education,' by Charles M. Carter. One illustrated paper is on College Fraternities,' with pictures of twenty-eight chapter-houses and society-halls at Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and other colleges; and another is on Uppingham, an Ancient School worked on Modern Ideas,' with a number of illustrations by Joseph Pennell, and a portrait of the late head master, Edward Thring, who is said to be, since Arnold of Rugby, the most highly esteemed educator of England. There will also be several important short editorial articles and open letters 'on different branches of the same subject. Other distinctive features of the magazine, the Lincoln history, Siberian papers, fiction, etc., will, however, be retained.

The Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company of Worcester, Mass., has just published the sixth edition of their Pocket Handbook of Copper and Iron Wire in Electric Transmission.' The book contains a summary of information in regard to the telegraph and telephone in addition to that about wires. Van Antwerp, Bragg, & Co. have just ready Eclectic Physical Geography,' containing 30 charts and 151 cuts and diagrams. - - G. P. Putnam's Sons will publish immediately an édition de luxe of 'The President's Message,' printed in large type, small quarto, with sixteen full-page moral and graphic illustrations from original designs by Thomas Nast; also the Questions of the Day edition of the same, with annotations by R. R. Bowker, which has been delayed for some important additional material. Cupples, Upham, & Co. will publish shortly a new book by W. H. H. (Adirondack) Murray. It will be descriptive of the north-western side of the American continent. Funk & Wagnalls have just issued in

pamphlet form The Presidential Campaign of 1896. a ScrapBook of Chronicle,' by the author of The Battle of Bietigheim.' The occasion is the presidential campaign of 1896, when the combined forces of socialism, anarchy, and atheism meet their Waterloo at the hands of an aroused, living, active American patriotism. — D. Appleton & Co. publish A History of the United States and its People,' by Edward Eggleston. They have also just ready in the International Scientific Series The Origin of Floral Structures through Insect and Other Agencies,' by the Rev. George Henslow, professor of botany, Queen's College; and 'Seven Conventions,' by A. W. Classon, which refers to the Federal convention, five of the ratifying conventions, and the Charleston convention of 1860, and is designed as an aid to the study of the Constitution. William Henry Hurlbert has just published in Edinburgh a book entitled 'Ireland under Coercion - the Diary of an American.' Mr. Hurlbert concludes that landlords are good and alone deserving of sympathy, and that the nationalist peasants are vicious, dishonest, and, as a rule, much too leniently treated. Sir Morell Mackenzie is at work on his reply to the recently published attack upon him by the German physicians. His answer will be shortly published in book form simultaneously in England and Germany. Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, & Co. will be the English publishers. L. J. Veen, Amsterdam (Holland), has just published the first part of a 'Dictionary of National Biography,' by J. G. Frederiks and F. Jos. van den Branden, assisted by a number of prominent men of letters in the Netherlands. The work will be completed in fifteen parts. W. Drysdale & Co., Montreal, Canada, have just ready a new Canadian work, entitled The Young Seigneur, or, Nation-Making,' by Wilfrid Chateauclair. The chief aim of this book, the author says, is to map out a future for the Canadian nation, which has been hitherto drifting without a plan. A lesser purpose of it is to make some of the atmosphere of French Canada understood by those who speak English. - Ticknor & Co. announce among their September books, 'Western China,' a journey to the great Buddhist centre of Mount Omei, by the Rev. Virgil C. Hart, B.D.; and 'A Short History of the Secession War,' by Rossiter Johnson, author of 'The History of the War of 1812-15.'

- Mr. Norman J. Fake, assistant to Professor Wiley, chemist of the Agricultural Department, was accidentally drowned while bathing in the Potomac on Saturday, Aug. 11. He was a young man of great promise, already an analyst of much skill, enthusiastic in his work.

- Professor Wiley of the Agricultural Department will complete his long investigation of the adulteration of lards in about six weeks. He will then take up the subject of the adulteration of sugars, molasses, and honey.

The Edinburgh Scotsman of Aug. 16 states that on the day before, Mr. C. Piazzi Smyth, in consequence of advancing years, retired from the offices of astronomer royal for Scotland, and professor of practical astronomy in the University of Edinburgh, which he has filled for the long period of forty-three years. These important positions are in the gift of the Crown, and, although correspondence with the secretary for Scotland on the subject of his retirement has not yet been finally completed, Professor Smyth has, as already indicated, ceased from active duty, having handed over the keys of the Royal Observatory, in terms of an arrangement with Lord Lothian, to the first assistant astronomer, Mr. Thomas Heath, B.A. A week hence Professor Smyth, who is in his seventieth year and is still hale and hearty, will leave the official residence, 15 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, and take up his abode ultimately in England. The late astronomer royal was born of English parents in the city of Naples, the roof under which he first saw the light being so close to Vesuvius that every now and then both house and garden were covered with showers of black sand. Prior to coming to Edinburgh he was for ten years at the Cape of Good Hope, in the capacity of first assistant astronomer in the Royal Observatory there, under Sir Thomas Maclear. During that time Professor Smyth went through a large amount of rough work in measuring an arc of the meridian along the mountains of the west coast of Africa. Altogether, therefore, he has spent fifty-three years of his life in observatory work. Professor Smyth, in a recent conversation, went into some detail as to his labors at the Royal Observa

tory, and his reasons for resigning. His reason for proposing retirement to Lord Lothian, he remarked, was not only advancing years, but despair of ever being able to do any thing good, or compete with other observatories, when the government continued to refuse to do what their own commission recommended.

Prof. E. J. Loomis of the Nautical Almanac Office is about to visit the Rocky Mountains on a vacation trip. While there he will assist his son-in-law, D. P. Todd, director of the Amherst College Observatory, in making scientific observations, astronomical, spectroscopic, and photographic. The expedition starts from Boston, and goes by the way of Montreal and the Canadian Pacific Railroad to the most elevated point in the Rocky Mountains reached by that railway. There the party will stop, and select the highest point near at hand, and conveniently accessible for the erection of a temporary observatory. Professor Todd goes out under the auspices of the Harvard College Observatory.

C. N. Caspar of Milwaukee publishes the first instalment of Part I. of his 'Mail Book Auction.' Two copies of this list, which contains only the titles of books actually in stock, are sent to librarians and private book-collectors. One of these lists may be used to affix, after the respective titles of the works desired, the price the bidder is willing to pay per volume for each work. The second copy of the list, marked with the same bids, should be kept for reference. The advantages of this strictly new arrangement are conspicuous, and, above all, labor-saving. Old books in most cases have no market-value, and are, as a rule, worth different prices to different person's. Librarians and others may, through this opportunity, obtain books at their own prices. The books will be shipped to the first bidder, if the offer proves acceptable; otherwise the bids will be filed, and the books kept for four weeks for competition of offers which may arrive during this period, after which time they will be sent out without reserve to the highest bidder. All books on this list are warranted to be perfect, complete, and in good condition, and they are in their original cloth binding, if not otherwise specified. They will be forwarded at the expense of the purchaser. No charge is made for packing, cases, or cartage.

The New York Agricultural Experiment Station (Peter Collier, director), Geneva, N.Y., proposes to carry out this next year experiments on the influence of fertilizers on the chemical composition of plants, with analyses of the feeding-stuffs, and feeding and digestion experiments.

- Mr. Ellery C. Huntington, A.B., of Amherst College, Massachusetts, will form classes in physical culture at the beginning of session, 1888-89, at the University of Virginia. The work under personal supervision of the instructor will consist of (1) class exercise with light (wooden) dumb-bells, (2) class drill with chest weights, (3) class exercise with Indian clubs. In addition, each student is to be examined physically and measured at least once a year. On the basis of this examination, a handbook of developing exercise will be made out and given to him, with exercises marked that are adapted to his individual need.

A despatch from London, Aug. 27, announces the death of Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S., the English naturalist, aged seventyeight years. Mr. Gosse was born at Poole, Eng., in 1810, went to Newfoundland when a boy of seventeen, eight years later removed to lower Canada, and then travelled in this country, studying zoology and entomology, and making a long stop in Alabama. He was made an F.R.S. in 1856. He was the father of Edmund W. Gosse, the critic and poet.

The Agricultural Department is organizing five new experimental stations for the study of sorghum and its manipulation, three in Kansas, one in New Jersey, and one in Louisiana. The appropriation for this work this year is one hundred thousand dollars, larger than it has ever been before.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1888.

ONE OF THE IMPORTANT functions of a State geological survey is to furnish accurate and impartial information on the general character of so-called 'mining districts.' Nearly all of our State geologists have had experience in such matters, from the early days when the black shale' was exploited for coal, to the later times, when certain iron-fields in Wisconsin needed discouragement. The most recent example comes from Arkansas, where much excitement has arisen in a mining district from which rich discoveries of valuable metals were reported. Professor Branner, recently appointed State geologist, was called upon to examine the region and its ores, and as he failed to find evidence of value in them, and clearly stated his unflattering results in a brief report, he is now made the object of violent abuse from the parties whose hopes are dashed by his work. The better people of the State, however, are with him, and, with their support in his honest course, we shall hope to see his survey continue and thrive. He was elected secretary of the geological section of the American Association at the Cleveland meeting, his nomination being in part due to a desire on the part of his colleagues to express their appreciation of his integrity and their approval of the course he has taken.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRESERVING the forests becomes evident in South Africa. J. G. Gamble, in the Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, points out that the soil of Africa becomes dryer every year. Although the amount of precipitation is not decreasing, the springs become less strong, and rivers that used to flow permanently are dry during summer. Gamble considers the devastation of forests, and the grass and bush fires, the principal reasons for this state of affairs. Besides this, the trails made by animals are transformed into cañons of considerable depth by sudden rainfalls. In these cañons, which are in some cases more than thirty feet deep, the surface water runs off before it has time to percolate the soil. Tripp has made observations on the amount of evaporation, and found that on the highlands fully one-half of the falling rain runs off without penetrating into the soil. This experience emphasizes the fact that the ultimate aim of rational forest-culture, so far as its influence upon agriculture is concerned, is the increase of the power of the ground to hold moisture, and thus to prevent the rapid flowing-off of the precipitated rain.

THE PILOT CHART for September, under the title 'Transatlantic Routes,' refers to the collision between the two Danish steamships 'Geiser' and 'Thingvalla,' Aug. 14, about thirty miles south from Sable Island, the sinking of the former in a few minutes, and the drowning of 117 persons, and adds, "The Pilot Chart for December, 1887, discussed this subject of transatlantic navigation at some length, and a supplement was published calling attention to the importance of some general understanding as to the routes to be followed by eastward and westward bound vessels. The plan thus inaugurated has been adhered to each month since that time, one track being plotted as the southern limit for westwardbound vessels, and another as the northern limit for eastwardbound vessels." This discussion, in which it was stated to be "the object of this chart to recommend only what masters of vessels may reasonably be expected to follow, having due regard to the mutual benefits to be derived from such an agreement, as well as the mutual concessions to be made in order to make it effective,"

was reviewed editorially at some length in No. 256 of Science, so that it is unnecessary to repeat it here; but it is pertinent to remark, that on the Pilot Chart for each of the last ten months the transatlantic routes recommended for eastward and westward bound steamships for the succeeding month have been carefully plotted; and this fact adds startling emphasis to the closing sentence of the note on the September chart, which is as follows: "This recent disaster would not have occurred had the Geiser' been farther to the southward, as recommended for eastward-bound vessels; and the collision thus emphasizes the importance of this matter, not only to owners, agents, masters, and marine underwriters, but to the public generally." This fixes the responsibility for the loss of the 'Geiser,' and the appalling sacrifice of life and property that resulted, beyond the possibility of question; for, as every reader of Science knows, the Pilot Chart is published on the first day of each month, and enough copies are furnished at each Atlantic port of the United States to furnish a copy, free of cost, to every vessel that departs during the month. The captain who does not pay heed to its recommendations assumes a fearful personal responsibility, which should not be overlooked in fixing the severity of the punishment he is to receive if disaster results from this neglect. The work of the United States Hydrographic Office is universally recognized as the best of its kind done in the world, and mariners cannot afford to disregard its recommendations.

MR. EVERETT HAYDEN, who is in charge of the meteorological division of the Hydrographic Office, and who has recently distinguished himself by his exhaustive study of the great storm of last March, the results of which are about to be published at length, illustrated by a series of six superb charts, as well as by his contributions to the monthly Pilot Chart, which, under his direction, has become a most wonderful compendium of information that is of vital interest to mariners, has been authorized by Commodore Harmony, acting secretary of the navy, to go to Havana, Cuba, for the purpose of studying the laws of hurricanes. Mr. Hayden will visit the observatory of the Real Collegio de Belen, in Havana, the director of which has carried the study of hurricanes further than any other student of the subject in the world; and he will carry from Washington a great mass of material which he has already collected, and which he hopes to work up in the light of additional information which he expects to obtain in Havana, and from the actual observation of hurricanes during the remainder of the hurricane season. Mr. Hayden expects to be absent about six weeks. Very soon after his return he will make a special report. He also hopes to be able to qualify himself, as no one in the United States is now qualified, to discuss hurricanes in such a manner as to be able to give to the navy and commercial marine of this country, and of all other countries whose ships navigate the North Atlantic Ocean, much most valuable, practical information, and to contribute important data to the science of meteorology.

PHOSPHORUS PENTOXIDE AS A DISINFECTANT. SINCE the publication in Science of the report of a series of experiments conducted by the Marine Hospital Service at the quarantine station below New Orleans to determine the efficacy of the different disinfectants used, and especially since that article has been copied in so many of the medical journals of the country, great interest has been manifested among quarantine officers, city health-officers, sanitarians, and chemists, in the discovery of some additional disinfectant. Phosphorus pentoxide was suggested, and