FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



713 



come convinced that such a laboratory would 

 derive the greatest advantage if it could be 

 associated with the Royal Institution. He 

 had therefore improved an opportunity that 

 offered to procure a suitable property im- 

 mediately adjoining the Royal Institution 

 and prepare it, in cooperation with suitable 

 advisers, for its special work. As it stood, 

 he believed that it would compare favorably 

 with any other laboratory in or out of Eng- 

 land, in the completeness of its appliances, 

 and was unique of its kind, being the only 

 public laboratory in the world solely devoted 

 to research in pure science. The laboratory 

 contains : On the basement, rooms for thermo- 

 chemical, for pyrochemical research, and for 

 electrical work, a battery of twenty-six ac- 

 cumulators, constant temperature vaults, 

 and boiler rooms and storerooms ; on the 

 ground floor, rooms for research in organic 

 and in inorganic chemistry, a fireproof room 

 for experiments in sealed tubes, a balance 

 room, and entrance hall and cloak room ; on 

 the first floor, the honorary secretary's room, 

 a large double library connected with the 

 library of the Royal Institution; on the 

 second floor, a museum of apparatus ; on the 

 third floor, seven rooms for research in 

 physical chemistry ; on the fourth floor, 

 rooms for organic and for inorganic prepa- 

 rations, a photographic room, and four 

 rooms for research in physical chemistry; 

 and on the roof an asphalted flat, with table, 

 gas, and water. All the floors are connected 

 by a hydraulic passenger lift. Dr. Mond has 

 further furnished the laboratory with an 

 endowment of 100,000, or $500,000 38,- 

 000 sunk in the building and its equipment, 

 and 62,000 for the endowment proper ; and 

 he has intrusted it to the Royal Institution, 

 so as to insure its being open to men and 

 women of all schools and of all views on 

 scientific questions. Lord Rayleigh and Prof. 

 Dewar have been appointed the present 

 directors. The qualification for admittance 

 to the privileges of the laboratory is to have 

 already done original scientific work, or to be 

 judged by the Laboratory Committee quali- 

 fied to undertake original scientific research 

 in pure or physical chemistry ; but no per- 

 son shall be excluded on account of na- 

 tionality or sex. Admission to all the privi- 

 leges is free, with responsibility for damage 

 done. 



Characteristics of Reformatory Prison- 

 ers. The Twentieth Yearbook of the New 

 York State Reformatory supplements the 

 usual items of the formal report with some 

 observations on the anthropometric charac- 

 teristics of the inmates of the institution, 

 which, while they are far from exhaustive, 

 may cast considerable light upon the condi- 

 tion of the persons who find their way to 

 such places. Exercise in the gymnasium 

 was prescribed to the men of more marked 

 physical defects, and general muscular in- 

 crement in volume and power resulted from 

 it. Comparing the five hundred and twenty- 

 nine men of the reformatory with Amherst 

 College students of nearly corresponding age, 

 the reformatory man appears to be below the 

 Amherst student's average ten pounds in 

 weight, three inches and three tenths in 

 height, fifty-six cubic inches in lung capaci- 

 ty, thirty pounds in strength of chest, thirty- 

 two pounds in strength of back, and two dips 

 in strength of arms, but reaches him in 

 strength of legs. He is within one pound in 

 weight and falls short an inch and seven 

 tenths of the Wellesley College girl in height, 

 and is only a little stronger than she in lung 

 capacity and strength of chest, while he is 

 superior in strength of back and legs. A 

 large percentage of the heads are marked 

 and scarred, as the result of street brawls 

 and conflicts with the police, although the 

 men's first explanation generally is a fall. 

 Defects in the eyes are pretended in a 

 large proportion of cases, but many of 

 them are real. If near-sightedness, etc., are 

 so much the result of civilization, school 

 pressure, and close study as many physi- 

 cians suppose, the class of men found in 

 this institution should be practically ex- 

 empt from it. "But the opposite are the 

 exact conditions found." The physical 

 make-up of the adolescent criminal appears 

 to be reflected " as well in his visual organs 

 as in other portions of his body, and the 

 predisposition to eye trouble is inaugurated 

 at both. The environment, personal habits, 

 and mode of living only serve to act as ex- 

 citing causes upon an already predisposed 

 organism." Many of the prisoners in the 

 reformatory are possessed of a defective in- 

 hibitory power or control, rendering it diffi- 

 cult and distasteful for them to apply them- 

 selves continuously to any one trade or 



