572 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



agriculture, 207 as laborers, 18 in 

 the fisheries and 3 as carpenters. 

 Ao-riculture and out-of-door labor are 

 the most healthful occupations, and 

 would not affect the health of women, 

 as do the sedentary occupations to 

 which they are especially attracted. 

 There are 15,830 female teachers, 

 11,357 bookkeepers, 6,412 clerks and 

 copyists and 5,693 stenographers. 

 There were in 1885 only 106 stenog- 

 raphers. Less than three per cent, of 

 the teachers are married and about 5 

 per cent, of the clerks and bookkeepers. 

 The compilers of the report abstain 

 from comments on the sociological sig- 

 nificance of the figures they give, but 

 they obviously have these in mind as 

 statistics are added as to marriage, 

 birth, death and divorce rates. In 

 ■1851, there were about 28 births per 

 thousand of the population, about 23 

 marriages, and nearly 19 deaths. In 

 1901, the ratio of births fell to about 

 25, marriages to about 17, and deaths 

 to nearly 17. Tliere has been an ex- 

 traordinary increase in the divorce 

 rate, there having been one divorce to 

 thirty-four marriages in 1882, one to 

 twenty-seven in 1891 and one to eight- 

 een in 1901. The decrease in the mar- 

 riage and birth rates becomes much 

 more significant when it is remembered 

 that the proportion of native-born in- 

 habitants has greatly decreased. In 

 1882, 55.74 per cent, of those married 

 were native-born, in 1891, only 43.56 

 per cent. The foreign-born have much 

 larger families, and the birth rate has 

 decreased much more than three per 

 thousand. How far the decrease is due 

 to the increased employment of women 

 in gainful occupations is a question 

 that desei-ves serious consideration. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 

 We note with regret the deaths of 

 Dr. Frederick Law Olmsted, the emi- 

 nent landscape architect; of Dr. Em- 

 manuel Munk, associate professor of 

 physiology at Berlin, and of Dr. C. 

 K. Hoffman, professor of zoology and 

 comparative anatomy at Harlem. 



Among honors conferred on Ameri- 

 can men of science by foreign institu- 

 tions we notice that Dr. E. C. Picker- 

 ing, director of the Harvard College 

 Observatory, has been given the doc- 

 torate of science by the University of 

 Heidelberg, and Dr. E. B. Wilson, pro- 

 fessor of zoology at Columbia Uni- 

 versity, has been elected a foreign 

 member of the Accademia dei Lincei 

 of Rome. 



Dr. E. B. Copeland, instructor in 

 bionomics at Stanford University, has 

 been appointed chief botanist of the 

 United States Philippine Commission. 

 — Dr. William J. Holland, director of 

 the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburg, 

 has returned to the United States with 

 the important paleontological collec- 

 tions of Baron de Briet, which the 

 Carnegie Museum has recently ac- 

 quired. — Dr. Emil Tietze, director of 

 the Imperial Geological Institute of 

 Austria, was chosen president of the 

 Ninth International Geological Con- 

 gress, which opened at Vienna on 

 August 20. 



The ship Terra Nova has now sailed 

 from England to relieve the Discovery. 

 The British government, which has 

 appropriated £45,000 for the expedi- 

 tion, is acting without the advice of 

 the Royal Geographical Society and 

 the Royal Society, which originally 

 sent the expedition, assisted by a grant 

 from the governiiiont. 



