FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



863 



ward him with pleasure, stood quietly look- 

 ing around with intelligence while the injec- 

 tion was made, and ever afterward lent him- 

 self to the experiment with as much evident 

 pleasure and interest as that of the investi- 

 gators." 



Experiments made by Asa S. Kinney at 

 the Hatch Experiment Station, Massachu- 

 setts, with special reference to that question, 

 prove that electricity exercises an appreci- 

 able influence on the germination of seeds, 

 and that the application of certain strengths 

 of current for short periods of time acceler- 

 ates the process. The range in the strength 

 of current which accelerates germination is 

 exceedingly limited, and within this range 

 there are a maximum, optimum, and mini- 

 mum current. Seeds subjected to but one 

 application of electricity show the effect only 

 for a few hours, while, when applied hourly 

 to germinating seeds or growing plants, elec- 

 tricity does not lose its effect, but acts as a 

 constant stimulant to their growth and de- 

 velopment. 



The movement for instruction in domes- 

 tic science is finding increasing favor. Pro- 

 vision is gradually being made fcr it as the 

 demand extends in one institution after an- 

 other. It is recognized in the Ohio State 

 University in the name of the College of Agri- 

 culture and Domestic Science, where a " short 

 course " and a four-year course in the branch 

 are arranged for. The programme of the 

 department, which is under the direction of 

 Miss Perla G. Bowman, of the Toledo Manual 

 Training School, includes cookery in its vari- 

 ous branches, with the principles of combus- 

 tion, food economics, the chemistry of the hu- 

 man body, comparative nutritive and money 

 values of foods, invalid cookery, a waiting 

 course, household economics, the proper- 

 ties of textile materials, sewing, millinery, 

 costumes, dressmaking, and needlework. In 

 connection with these last topics, the choice 

 and treatment of various materials, line, 

 form, color, and texture, as applied to dress- 

 making, are illustrated in connection with 

 practice. In designing the courses, the need 

 of every woman for the most liberal culture 

 in connection with technical training has 

 been recognized. 



An exhibition at the Archaeological Insti- 

 tute of England of prehistoric flint imple- 



ments, discovered in Egypt by Mr. H. W. 

 Seton Karr, includes articles from the mines 

 of the Wady-el-Sheik district, in the Eastern 

 Desert, some of the types of which are new 

 to science, and implements from Abydos, 

 Nagada, Nagh Hamdi, Thebes, and other 

 places in the Western Desert. At some of 

 the mines are shafts about two feet in diam- 

 eter filled up with drifted sand and sur- 

 rounded by masses of excavated earth neat- 

 ly arranged. There was usually a central 

 place where most of the objects were discov- 

 ered. At some mines a number of clubs or 

 truncheons lay distributed uniformly when 

 the mines were abandoned. Other imple- 

 ments of flint and quartzite are from Somali- 

 land, and were found on a long, low hill about 

 a hundred miles from the coast. The coun- 

 try around was of limestone, in some places 

 overflowed by lava, and the implements lay 

 in ones, twos, and threes. Sir John Evans 

 said, in a communication to the Royal So- 

 ciety, that these discoveries " have an im- 

 portant bearing on the question of the ori- 

 ginal home of the human race. Of their 

 identity in form with some from the valley 

 of the Somme there can be no doubt, and 

 we need not hesitate in claiming them as 

 palaeolithic." 



NOTES. 



The Columbia University Bulletin notices 

 the retirement, at his rwn request, of Prof. 

 Thomas Egleston, of the Faculty of Applied 

 Science, the creator of the original School 

 of Mines, of which the faculties of Applied 

 Science have been the outgrowth. Return- 

 ing from his i-t\idies abroad in 1863, he saw 

 that the time was ripe for a school in which 

 chemistry, geology, mineralogy, metallurgy, 

 and engineering might be taught young men 

 with a view to fitting them for practice in 

 the field of mining. The success of the 

 School of Mines was surprising and encour- 

 aging. The demand for instruction in allied 

 branches was so great that schools of archi- 

 tecture and engineering and chemistry, etc., 

 were formed and set off in 1896 in the 

 Faculty of Applied Science. What has 

 been done at Columbia has happened to a 

 greater or less extent at several other insti- 

 tutions, so that schools and departments of 

 this sort are multiplying. 



The ascent of Mount St. Elias, Alaska, 

 was successfully accomplished by Prince 

 Luigi, of Savoy, and his party of Italian 

 mountain climbers, July 31st. On their way 

 up they met the American party led by Mr. 

 Bryant, who were returning on account of 



