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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



freshly painted buildings retained the marks 

 of the shower for several weeks. The de- 

 posit was noticed at places more than fifty 

 miles distant. Mr. J. W. Hollingswortb, of 

 Paoli, Orange County, Indiana, informed me 

 that the fall there was very abundant. I 

 intended at the time to write some account 

 of the remarkable shower, but being then 

 busy I neglected it. My attention was re- 

 called to the matter by an account in " Na- 

 ture" (April 15th), of a similar shower 



about the same date, on the opposite hemi- 

 sphere. Dr. Thomas C. Van Nuys, Profes- 

 sor of Chemistry in the State University, has 

 kindly furnished me the following partial 

 analysis : 



Silica, Si0 2 , 64 - 95 per cent. ; ferric oxide, 

 Fe 2 3 , 5 - 39 per cent. ; alumina, A1 2 3 , 10 - 20 

 per cent. ; calcium oxide, CaO, 153 per cent. 

 Yours very truly, 



Daniel Kirkwood. 

 Bloomington, Indiana, June 2i, liSO. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



WILKIE COLLIXS ON INTERNA TIONAL 

 COP YE I GUT. 



TTTE can not congratulate the Eng- 

 V V lish on the treatment of the in- 

 ternational copyright question by some 

 of their eminent authors. It was but the 

 other day that we had to point out the 

 lack of good sense exhibited by Mat- 

 thew Arnold in his very complacent 

 discussion of the subject ; and now 

 comes a blast from Wilkie Collins 

 which, although it does not amount to 

 much, is still a perverse and unhelpful 

 utterance. The reputations these men 

 have are certainly not justified by their 

 outgivings in relation to this important 

 measure. 



Mr. Collins writes for the " Inter- 

 national Review," and is very indig- 

 nant at the American "thieves" and 

 "pirates" by whom he is "robbed." 

 He seems to think that the main thing 

 now is to brand these rascals indeli- 

 bly ; and so, to insure the full effect of 

 his reproaches, he stipulates with the 

 editors that not a denunciatory word 

 shall be omitted from his paper; and 

 they declare in a note that the said 

 words are every one there, while "they 

 must disclaim all responsibility for the 

 language adopted by him in his argu- 

 ment." 



Considerably more is made of this 

 point than it is worth. There is ob- 

 viously nothing new about it, as exco- 

 riating adjectives have been abundantly 

 applied to us before by suffering authors. 

 Nor is there anything objectionable in 



it; on the contrary, we are glad to see 

 Mr. Collins "call a spade a spade," and 

 mete out to those who steal his books 

 the reprobation they deserve. Strong 

 words are needed to characterize gross 

 wrongs, and we agree that this is a case 

 that calls for them. Mr. Collins is 

 right in venting his righteous indigna- 

 tion in the most telling terms he can 

 command : we only regret that he has 

 been unable to give some freshness and 

 new pungency to his invective. 



But, when Mr. Collins gets through 

 with his feeble vituperation, and comes 

 to the practical question of what is to 

 be done, he is then far less satisfac- 

 tory. As a scold he is commonplace 

 enough, but as a guide to lead us out 

 of difficulty he is without qualification. 

 To his diatribe we say " amen " ; to 

 his reasoning we say, " it won't do." 

 He here betrays lack of judgment, 

 and shows himself to be impractica- 

 ble. We agree "with him that there 

 is a palpable and vicious w r rong to be 

 set right ; but the question is, how 

 to accomplish it. The wrong requires 

 to he defined and limited, that we may 

 know precisely who suffers by it, and 

 what must be the nature and extent 

 of the remedy. The wrong here is, 

 that the American Government does 

 not protect the rights of foreign au- 

 thors to property in their books; and, 

 as that property is unprotected, it is 

 appropriated by anybody who chooses 

 to take it. Mr. Collins has an undoubt- 

 ed right to be thus protected, and, if he 



