FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



429 



per, though rarely preventing a partial crop, 

 is so uniformly present and widely distrib- 

 uted as to probably levy a heavier tribute on 

 the grape in this country than any other 

 insect. These insects are, however, all 

 amenable to treatment, and the loss may be 

 very considerably limited if the proper 



methods of control are followed out. Mr. 

 Marlatt gives a description of the above 

 insects, with illustrations of the various 

 stages of each, and finally the remedies, and 

 methods of employing them which have 

 been found most efficient in combating each 

 pest. 



MINOR PAEAGRAPHS. 



The winter courses of Saturday evening 

 lectures (1896-97) at Columbia University, in 

 co-operation with the American Museum of 

 Natural History, began in December with a 

 course on the Mountain Ranges of Western 

 North America. The course for January 

 will be upon Anthropology and Ethnology, 

 and will include lectures on The Oldest 

 Signs of Man in America, by Dr. D. G. 

 Brinton ; The Native Industrial Arts of the 

 Indians of the United States, by Prof. Otis 

 T. Mason ; Art of the North American In- 

 dians, by Dr. Franz Boas ; The Organization 

 of the Family, by Livingston Ferrand ; and 

 Some Peculiar Peoples of Southern France, 

 by Dr. William Z. Ripley. In February four 

 lectures on Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages 

 will be given by Mr. C. E. Pellew. The 

 lectui-es in March will consist of botanical 

 studies Among the Lower Fungi and The 

 Haunts and Habits of Ferns, by Prof. Lucien 

 M. Underwood ; and Edible and Poisonous 

 Mushrooms and Medicinal Plants, by Prof. 

 Smith Ely Jelliffe. The lectures will be illus- 

 trated. Tickets of admission may be ob- 

 tained without charge by application to the 

 secretary of Columbia University. 



M. Berthelot observed, in his address at 

 the opening of the International Congi'css of 

 Chemists, that the progress of mankind has 

 heretofore been accounted for by historians 

 as the combined effects of inner evolution of 

 ideas and the external and empirical inter- 

 vention of fortuitous events reacting upon 

 the collective passions, feelings, and interests 

 of men. However such views may have 

 been justified to a certain extent by the 

 study of the past, they fail to account for 

 what results now from the ever-increasing 

 influence of science, or deliberate reflection 

 and reason as determined by the observation 

 of facts and experimentation. In evidence 

 of this view, M. Berthelot cites the changes 



that have taken place in Europe in the last 

 half century in consequence of the increased 

 facilities of communication, as by railroads, 

 the telegraph, and the telephone. These 

 changes are the rational result of facts and 

 laws discovered in scientific laboratories. 



The liability to error in even the best- 

 made thermometers, is well known, and the 

 numerous cheaply made affairs with which 

 the market is flooded are almost worthless 

 on this account. Dr. T. L. Phipson calls at- 

 tention in the Chemical News to the dangers 

 which may result from the use of inaccurate 

 thermometers in the sick-room, and gives the 

 following instance as an illustration : " A 

 patient, eighty years of age, suffering from 

 bronchitis, did not cough or suffer from 

 prostration when the thermometer registered 

 from 68 to 70 F., but fell into an alarming 

 state of prostration when it rose to 72 or 

 73. Now, many thermometers, both mer- 

 curial and spirit, which I have examined of 

 recent years have shown errors of 4 or 5 

 F., and sometimes even more, and it is hence 

 very essential that all such instruments used 

 for taking the temperature of sick-rooms 

 should be carefully compared from time to 

 time with a standard instrument of knowa 

 accuracy." 



It is reported in Nature that letters have 

 been received from Prof. Sollas which show 

 that, so far as the main object of the coral- 

 reef boring expedition is concerned, the ef- 

 fort has been an almost complete failure. 

 They reached Funafuti safely, set up the ap- 

 paratus, and a bore hole was carried down to 

 a depth of about sixty-five feet, when further 

 progress was stopped by the drills running 

 into a material like quicksand, which choked 

 the bore hole. Very little solid coral rock 

 was pierced. Another boring was attempted, 

 with the same result, at seventy-two feet. 

 The material struck was a kind of quicksand 



