country at an early age, became an eminent scholar in Oriental
literature, and in 1842 a professor of that subject in Union
Theological Seminary. He was called thence to Washington in 1852 to
organize the library of the Patent Office, where his work was of great
value. Thence he was taken by Professor Baird to catalogue and arrange
the library of the Smithsonian Institution. He associated his sister
with him in this work and as recorder of scientific collections and
exchanges in 1858. She continued there after his death the next year,
and served the library faithfully and efficiently, going with it to
the Congressional Library when it was removed there, till 1886, when
she resigned on account of age. She died in 1896. A _Memorial_ of the
two and of their elder sister Susan has been prepared by Mrs.
_Caroline H. Dall_ and has been printed privately.
The author of _What is This?_ after a brief discussion of the
personality of Jesus and the present degenerate condition of
Christianity, goes on to say: "We must have another revelation,
therefore. It seems to be a necessity. But what troubles me is this:
can it be possible that any part of this revelation can come through
one as humble as myself? What have I seen and what have I heard?... I
have often pondered the great questions of man's origin and future;
never until now, never until I heard this voice, have I had any
glimmer of a solution of this great puzzle. I know I am nothing, but
can not the Supreme Being use a mere nothing to accomplish his
purpose?" Notwithstanding the author's avowed unworthiness, he seems
to have been selected, and we have from his pen a new and considerably
detailed book of genesis.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Acetylene Gas Journal. Monthly. Vol. I, No. 1. June, 1899. Buffalo, N.
Y. Pp. 12. 5 cents. 50 cents a year.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. Delaware
College: No. 43. Veterinary Studies, Milk Legislation, and Basic Slag
as a Fertilizer.--Michigan State Agricultural College. No. 169. Notes
from the South Haven Sub-Station. By L. R. Taft and T. T. Lyon. Pp.
108; Nos. 170, 171. Vegetable Tests and Bush Fruits. Pp. 42; Nos. 172,
173. Combating Disease-producing Germs and Killing the Tubercle
Bacillus in Milk. Four authors. Pp. 30.--Montana: No. 18. The Alkali
Soils of Montana. Preliminary Bulletin. Pp. 30.--United States
Department of Agriculture: No. 24. Proceedings of the Convention of
Weather-Bureau Officials, held at Omaha, Neb., October 13 and 14,
1898. Pp. 184, with plate.
Anglo-American Magazine. Monthly. May and June, 1899. Pp. 120 and 128.
25 cents. $2.50 a year.
Blackman, William F. The Making of Hawaii. A Study in Social
Evolution. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 266. $2.
Breese, B. B. On Inhibition. (Monograph Supplement to the
Psychological Review.) New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 65.
Bulletins, Reports, Transactions, etc. Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia, 1899. Part I. January, February, and March. Pp. 216,
with plates.--American Society of Naturalists: Records. Vol. II, Part
IV. Providence, R. I. Pp. 36.--New York Academy of Sciences: Annals.
Vol. XII, Part I. Pp. 89.--New York State Reformatory, Elmira:
Year-Book for 1898. Pp. 126.--Société Royale de Canada: Report of the
Geographical Society of Quebec. Pp. 2.--United States Department of
Labor: Bulletin No. 22. May, 1899. Pp. 42.--University of Tennessee:
Record, Review of 1898. Knoxville, Tenn. Pp. 56.--Wyoming State
Medical Society: Transactions. May and June, 1899, E. Stuver,
Secretary. Pp. 75.--Zoölogical Society of Philadelphia: Twenty-seventh
Annual Report of the Board of Directors. Pp. 25.
Cragin, Belle S. Our Insect Friends and Foes. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons. Pp. 377. $1.75.
Dana, Charles A. Recollections of the Civil War. New York: D. Appleton
and Company. Pp. 296. $2.
Davis, Lucius D. Ornamental Shrubs for Garden, Lawn, and Park
Planting. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 338. $3.50.
Dexter, E. G. Conduct and the Weather. (Monograph Supplement of the
Psychological Review.) New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 101. $1.
Erlingsson, Dr. Thorstein. Ruins of the Saga Time. (Travels and
Explorations in Iceland.) London: David Nutt. Pp. 112, with map.
Fergusen, James. A New System of Natural Philosophy. Book I. The
Physical Universe. Published by the Author at Talmage, Neb. Pp. 240.
Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. Publication No. 30. New Rodents from
the Olympic Mountains. By D. G. Elliot. Pp. 4.--No. 31. Cold-Blooded
Vertebrates from the Olympic Mountains. By S. E. Meek. Pp. 10.--No.
32. Catalogue of Mammals from the Olympic Mountains, Washington. By D.
G. Elliot. Pp. 36, with plates.--No. 33. The Ores of Colombia. By H.
W. Nichols. Pp. 56, with maps.--No. 34. The Mylagaulidæ. An Extinct
Family of Sciuromorph Rodents. By E. S. Riggs. Pp. 8.--No. 35. A
Fossil Egg from South Dakota. By A. C. Farrington. Pp. 8, with
plates.--No. 36. Contributions to the Paleontology of the Upper
Cretaceous Series. By W. N. Logan. Pp. 16, with plates.--No. 37.
Mammals from Oklahoma Territory. By D. G. Elliot. Pp. 4.--No. 38.
Mammals from the Indian Territory. By D. G. Elliot. Pp. 8.
Heilprin, Angelo. Alaska and the Klondike. New York: D. Appleton and
Company. Pp. 315.
Hrdlicka, Dr. Ales. Anthropological Investigations of Children in the
New York Juvenile Asylum. Pp. 86, with plates.
Irish, Cyrus W. Qualitative Analysis for Secondary Schools. American
Book Company. Pp. 100.
James, Charles C. Practical Agriculture. American edition. Edited by
John Craig. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 203. 80 cents.
Jordan, David Starr. Imperial Democracy. New York: D. Appleton and
Company. Pp. 293. $1.50.
Jordan, David Starr, Leonhard Stejneger, and other Official
Associates. The Fur Seals and Fur-Seal Islands of the North Pacific
Ocean. Part IV. Washington: Government Printing Office. Pp. 384, with
maps and plates.
Kenne, A. H. Man Past and Present. Cambridge, England; New York: The
Macmillan Company. Pp. 584. $3.
Lavignac, Albert. Music and Musicians. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp.
504. $3.
Miller, Olive Thorne. The First Book of Birds. Boston and New York:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 149.
Missouri Botanical Garden. Tenth Annual Report. William Trelease,
Director. St. Louis. Pp. 209, with plates.
Moon, J. Howard. Better-World Philosophy. Chicago: The Ward Waugh
Company. Pp. 275.
Reprints. Abbott, Samuel W. Infant Mortality in Massachusetts. Boston:
Small, Maynard & Co. Pp. 19.--Baillairgé, Charles. La Vie,
L'Evolutlon, et le Materialism. (Life, Evolution, and Materialism.)
Pp. 37.--Le Grec, le Latin: leur Utilité, etc. (Greek and Latin: their
Utility, etc.) Pp. 48; L'Antiquité de la Terre et de l'Homme.
(Antiquity of the Earth and of Man.) Pp. 23; Royal Society of
Canada.--Burt, Stephen S. Recollections and Reflections of a Quarter
of a Century. New York. Pp. 12.--Cathell, W. T. On the Reduction of
Obesity. Pp. 12.--Goode, John P. The Piracy of the Yellowstone.
University of Chicago. Pp. 12.--Halsted, Byron D., New Brunswick, N.
J. Root Tubercles and Nitrogen Appropriation. Pp. 14.--MacBride,
Thomas H. Botany, How Much and When? Iowa City. Pp. 11.--Marsh,
Othniel Charles, Biographical Sketch by Charles E. Beecher. From the
American Journal of Science. Pp. 28, with portrait.--Meyer, Max. Ueber
Beurtheilung Zusammengesetzer Klänge. (On the Estimation of Composite
Sounds.) Leipsic, Saxony. Pp. 33.--Poteat, W. L. Leidy's Genus
Ouramoeba. Pp. 5.--Sexton, Pliny T. Reasons and Authorities for
Favoring Education Unification under the Regents of the University.
Pp. 56.--Von Schrenck, Herman. A Disease of Taxodium known as
Peckiness, etc. St. Louis. Washington University. Pp. 54, with plates.
Scudder, Samuel H. Everyday Butterflies. Boston and New York:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 386.
Sutro, Emil. Duality of Voice. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 224.
$1.
Sites, C. M. L. Centralized Administration of Liquor Laws in the
American Commonwealths. (Columbia University Studies in History,
Economics, and Public Law.) New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 162.
Union Pacific Railroad Company, Passenger Department. Some of
Wyoming's Vertebrate Fossils. Pp. 31.
United States Geological Survey. Eighteenth Annual Report. Part I.
Director's Report, Triangulation, and Spirit Leveling. Pp. 440.--Part
II. Papers chiefly of a Theoretic Nature. Pp. 653, with maps.--Part
III. Economic Geology. Pp. 861, with maps.--Part IV. Hydrography. Pp.
756, New York City and Vicinity Map.
United States National Museum: Lord, E. C. E. Petrographic Notes on
Rocks from the United States-Mexico Boundary. Pp. 10, with
map.--Richardson. Harriet. Key to the Isopods of the Pacific Coast,
etc. Pp. 56.--Stejneger, Leonhard. The Land Reptiles of the Hawaiian
Islands. Pp. 32.
Vita Nuova. (New Life.) A Fortnightly Illustrated Review of Letters,
Arts, and Sciences. Clelia Bertini-Attilii, Director. Rome. Pp.
16.
Walter, Robert, M. D. Vital Science based upon Life's Great Law, the
Analogue of Gravitation. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp.
319.
Watson, David K. History of American Coinage. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons. Pp. 278. $1.50.
Fragments of Science.
=Climate and Acclimatization.=--In view of the rapid growth of West
Indian and South American commerce and the considerable emigration to
Cuba and neighboring islands, which our present relations with them
will probably bring about, the following extracts from an editorial in
the London Lancet are of interest: "The American nation has entered
upon a new and, in a sense, imperial policy, which may be regarded as
forming an epoch in its history. This brings it face to face with the
problem of colonization and acclimatization--a problem which we have
had to confront long ago and toward the solution of which we have ever
since been slowly fighting our way by following on the lines of the
best practical measures of hygiene known to us. 'The white man's
burden' has proved a tragical one in its drain on the life of the
young manhood of this country, notwithstanding the very large measure
of success which has attended our sanitary efforts in this direction.
The Americans, having taken up their burden, will, no doubt, like the
practical people they are, set about their task in a practical way.
The four principal factors in the production of climate, according to
Buchan, are distance from the equator, height above the sea, distance
from the sea, and prevailing winds. The equatorial region has the most
equable climate; tropical regions have much greater variations of
temperature than those near the equator, and have a hot and cold or
dry and rainy season. The isothermal lines of mean temperature do not
supply a graduated measure of the effects of temperature on animal
life. So far as climate is concerned, no single meteorological
influence appears, however, to equal the effect of temperature upon
health, and its range is of more importance than its mean. The
European under a tropical climate suffers from anæmia, diseases of the
digestive system, especially of the liver, from malaria, dysentery,
typhoid fever, and yellow fever. It is not at all easy to say,
however, how much of the excess of mortality of Europeans in tropical
and subtropical countries is simply attributable to climatic heat _per
se_, and is consequently inevitable and not the effect of malaria, or
how much of it is the direct consequence of habits of life and of the
neglect of sanitary laws and of personal hygiene. As Arnould rightly
said, the _habitudes alimentaires_ of the Anglo-Saxon constitute one
of the stumbling-blocks to health, but by far the most important is
malaria, compared with which the rest are relatively insignificant.
Mr. Chamberlain was right when he said the other day that 'the man who
shall successfully grapple with this foe to humanity and shall find a
cure for malarial fever and shall make the tropics livable for the
white man, will do more for the world and more for the British Empire
than the man who adds a new province to the wide dominions of the
Queen.'"
"=Picture Telegraphy.="--The following account of the new so-called
picture telegraphy is from the New York Electrical World and Engineer:
"The apparatus consists of a receiver and transmitter, similar in
appearance and in mechanism. The picture to be transmitted is drawn on
a heavy piece of metal foil, the lines of the drawing being made with
an insulating ink. The foil is then secured on the circumference of a
horizontal cylinder on the transmitter, the cylinder being of about
the size of a typewriter rubber roller. There is a similar cylinder on
the receiver, on whose surface is clamped the paper upon which the
drawing is to be reproduced; over this is superposed carbon paper,
which is covered in turn by a sheet of thin paper. A stylus actuated
by an electro-magnet is adjusted close to the surface of the latter,
and each time a current is passed through the electro-magnet the
stylus is forcibly pressed against the moving surface of the cylinder,
and a corresponding mark is made on the two sheets in contact with the
carbon paper; the outer sheet serves merely to offer a smooth surface
to the stylus and to enable the operator to see that the picture is
being properly reproduced. The transmitting cylinder passes under a
similar stylus, which latter closes the circuit between the receiving
and transmitting ends when it rests upon the foil, and opens the
circuit when it passes over the lines drawn with insulating ink, in
the latter case actuating the stylus magnet at the receiving end,
which leaves a mark on the paper of the receiving cylinder in the form
of a line corresponding to the width of the insulation over which the
transmitting stylus is passing. The stylus at each end of the line is
simultaneously advanced at the end of each revolution of the cylinders
by a screw of small pitch. From the description it will be seen that
if the surface of the foil on the transmitting cylinder were entirely
insulated the receiving stylus would merely draw a number of parallel
lines on the paper corresponding to the turns of the screw, and
separated a distance corresponding to the pitch of the screw and the
angle through which it is turned at each operation. Four different
rates of advance may be given to the stylus, corresponding to as many
different angles of advance that may, by appropriate mechanism, be
given to the screw. The two cylinders have synchronous motion, so that
all the marks or lines on the receiving cylinder correspond to widths
of insulating ink traced over on the transmitting cylinder.
Synchronism is obtained as follows: Connected with both receiver and
transmitter is an electric motor which, at the end of every revolution
of the cylinder, raises a weight, which acts on a clock train when
falling and thus gives motion to the cylinder. At the end of each
revolution of the transmitting cylinder a contact is made which locks
for an instant the receiving cylinder when it arrives in a position
corresponding to a similar position of the transmitting cylinder. Thus
it will be seen that each cylinder begins its revolution from
identical positions and at the same instant, and as the clockwork of
both receiver and transmitter are duplicates, approximate synchronism
is maintained during a revolution. Owing to the use of carbon paper,
the lines made by the receiver are of considerable width, with the
consequence that the resulting picture does not have the appearance of
being made up of parallel lines, as in the case of reproductions by
the original Caselli picture telegraph, of which the system described
is a modification. The Hummell apparatus appears to be entirely
practicable, the simplicity of its synchronizing mechanism giving it a
great advantage over former types of Caselli picture telegraphs. The
apparatus has been worked duplex with success. In one instance, a few
days ago, a picture was sent from New York to St. Louis while one was
being received from the same place in New York, the latter picture in
addition being received simultaneously at Boston."
=The Charges on Country Checks: an Economic Mistake.=--An article in
the May issue of the Yale Review, discussing the recent adoption by
the New York banks of a rule imposing a "collection charge" on all
country checks handled, takes the view that the new rule is a mistake.
After reviewing the history and present position of the Bank of
England; calling attention to the fact that although it is a private
enterprise its position is used as a governor, so to speak, of English
finance; the similarity to it in position and power for good or evil
of the association of banks known as the New York Clearing House is
pointed out; the review goes on to say: "In the associated banks of
New York, as in the Bank of England, is kept a very large part of the
reserve on which the great financial transactions of a whole country
are based. The system of 'reserve cities' for holding large deposit
accounts of country banks, in which New York is by far the most
important center, is but the recognition in the national banking law
of this great fact of a central reserve, and the power of utilizing
such deposits, indirectly extended by the law which allows and
encourages country banks to hold a large part of their legal reserve
in the form of deposits in New York, probably constitutes a much more
valuable privilege than the rights of note issue enjoyed by the Bank
of England. In extraordinary emergencies the parallel is even closer.
Just as the Bank of England is encouraged to expect a modification of
the restrictions on its right of note issue, as a means of extending
its effective currency reserve in times of panic, so the New York
banks, by their system of clearing-house loan certificates, are
encouraged and expected to evade those provisions of our national
banking laws which restrict their power of issuing notes to meet an
emergency.... The exercise of this function of holding a reserve for
clearing the business of the country is attended with some expense, as
well as with much profit. One of the most vexatious of these expenses
has been the cost of collecting country checks.... Under these
circumstances they have adopted a rule imposing such charges on
country checks as to compel a large part of the remittances to be made
in the form of bank drafts on New York city, rather than individual
checks on country banks supposed to have accounts with some New York
bank. This rule will save the New York banks something like two
million dollars annually. It will not prevent any solvent man from
making remittances, for if he has a deposit in his local bank and his
local bank has a deposit in New York he can buy a draft to send as a
remittance, which will pass through the New York Clearing House
without question or expense. Yet, in spite of these plausible
arguments, we believe the action of the New York banks to be a mistake
of very serious magnitude, an inconvenience to the public, a probable
loss to deposit banking in the long run, and, worst of all, a serious
blow to the cause of sound currency throughout the country. It seems
to us, in short, a case where narrower duties and economics have been
allowed to crowd broader ones out of sight." The review then goes on
to show how great an amount of inconvenience and loss of time in the
aggregate the new rule is going to cause, and finally says: "In a
popular government the greatest safeguard against soft money--we may
fairly say the _only_ real safeguard--is to prevent the growth of a
demand for soft money. And of all the means of prevention at our
command the most effective is the encouragement of the habit of paying
by checks. The habit of paying by check is very general in all large
business centers, and has been rapidly extending into the smaller
centers, and the most serious public danger in the action of the New
York banks is that it seems likely to deal a severe blow to such
progress."
=La Nature's Second Scientific Excursion.=--A second scientific
excursion to an interesting district of France is planned, by M. Henri
de Parville, of _La Nature_, to start from Bayonne August 25th. It
will spend about two weeks, following the chain of the Pyrenees from
the ocean to the Mediterranean. Among objects of interest enumerated
are the scenery at Biarritz, Pau, Cauterets, and Bigorre; fine
architecture at Toulouse, Carcassonne, Elne, etc.; glacial phenomena
and thermal waters along the whole mountain chain; manufactories,
including iron works at Bouchain, woolen mills at Bigorre, cigarette
factories at Perpignan, and the Arago Maritime Laboratory and the
sanitarium at Banyuls. The excursion will be "personally conducted" by
the eminent anthropologist and archæologist, M. E. Cartaillac. The
excursion last year, to the Central Plateau and the Tarn, was an
eminent success. The programme of the present one seems equally
attractive. M. de Parville and his associates deserve great credit for
their sagacity and enterprise in inaugurating these excursions, which
now promise to become annual. We can conceive nothing more profitable
and conducive to real pleasure in a vacation than the tour in the
company of men having a common interest in the pursuit of knowledge of
Nature and art, through such magnificent regions as that of the
Pyrenees or through a country so full of natural wonders and novelties
as that of last year's excursion. And it will be an incalculable
advantage to be under the guidance of so eminent a student and one so
familiar with the remarkable features and the antiquities of southern
France as M. Cartaillac.
=The American Association Meeting.=--The forty-eighth annual meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will be
held at Columbus, Ohio, August 19th to 26th. The association
headquarters will be in University Hall, of the Ohio State University,
and the headquarters of the council will be at the Chittenden Hotel.
The president of the meeting will be Prof. Edward Orton, of the Ohio
State University. The vice-presidents or chairmen of sections will be:
Mathematics and astronomy, Alexander Macfarlane; physics, Elihu
Thomson; chemistry, F. P. Venable; mechanics and engineering, Storm
Bull; geology and geography, J. F. Whiteaves; zoölogy, S. H. Gage;
botany, Charles R. Barnes; anthropology, Thomas Wilson; social and
economic science, Marcus Benjamin. The Permanent Secretary is L. O.
Howard, Cosmos Club, Washington; General Secretary, Frederick Bedell,
Cornell University; Secretary of the Council, Charles Baskerville,
Chapel Hill, N. C.; Treasurer, R. S. Woodward, Columbia University,
New York. The address of retiring President Putnam will be delivered
Monday evening, August 21st. Saturday, August 26th, will be devoted to
excursions to Fort Ancient and elsewhere. Receptions and shorter
excursions will be provided at hours that will not conflict with the
appointments of the association.