FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



427 



Arts department and also in that of Mines 

 and Mining, and have been heartily com- 

 mended by many prominent geologists and 

 educators, including the late Profs. James D. 

 Dana, Alexander Winchell, and John S. New- 

 berry, Profs. James Hall, E. D. Cope, and 

 N. S. Shaler, and President D. C. Gilman. 



The DaTonport Academy of Sciences. 



The Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences 

 has Just received a legacy of ten thousand 

 dollars from Mrs. Mary Putnam Bull, of Tar- 

 rytown. N. Y. It is given as a memorial to 

 her brother, Charles E. Putnam, and his son, 

 J. D. Putnam, who were, during their life- 

 time, among the chief promoters of the 

 academy. Wisely the gift is made a Per- 

 manent Publication Fund. The academy has 

 already published five volumes of Proceedings, 

 and a sixth volume is in progress. Among 

 many valuable papers in these volumes the 

 entomological studies of Mr. J. D. Putnam 

 and the archteological discussions of Dr. Far- 

 quharson are notable. Through exchange of 

 its Proceedings the academy has acquired a 

 valuable library comprising some forty thou- 

 sand books and pamphlets. The last paper 

 published by the academy was a seventy-two- 

 page Summaiy of the Archaeology of Iowa, 

 by Prof. Frederick Starr. The academy is 

 now organizing a comprehensive archajologi- 

 cal survey of that State, which if fully car- 

 ried out will be one of the most important 

 archaeological enterprises ever undertaken in 

 this country. The academy is now working 

 for a permanent fund of fifty thousand dol- 

 lars, for the better equipment of its work. 

 With its creditable past and its worthy pres- 

 ent it may well hope for success in securing 

 the funds necessary to insure a brilUant fu- 

 ture. 



The Growth of Preventive Medicine. 



There came a time in the medical ranks, 

 fifty odd years or so ago, says Dr. Cameron 

 in a recent article in the Lancet, when the 

 classification of disease threatened to become 

 a mere cataloguing of the phenomena imme- 

 diately preceding death. Indeed, a certain 

 hopelessness, begotten of this mistake, threat- 

 ened to sap the energies of the physicians. 

 When Sydenham had, two centuries ago, in- 

 troduced a rational and hygienic element into 

 treatment, he had also, as it were, pointed in 



the direction to which, when the hopeless- 

 ness referred to came upon us, we might 

 look for the prevention of disease itself. A 

 belief, therefore, in the value of cleanliness, 

 fresh air, and reasonable diet, along with a 

 certain not altogether unhealthy skepticism 

 as to the need in every case of drugs, was not 

 the least important weapon in the armament 

 of the young physician of thirty years ago. 

 And although new drugs always find new 

 votaries, and many of them have great value, 

 the absolute usefulness of all mere remedial 

 measures is at the present time looked upon 

 as very slight compared with the shielding 

 influence which the physician exercises in 

 placing his patient under the most favorable 

 circumstances for Nature to effect her cure. 

 And it is largely this belief in conquering 

 Nature by obeying her, lighted up by a cer- 

 tain afterglow of the hopelessness already 

 spoken of, which has caused so much of the 

 energy of the medical profession and the 

 sanitary authorities to be thrown into the 

 preventive service. While, therefore, the 

 ancient physician was strong chiefly in his 

 acquaintance with and prophecy as to the 

 probable results of the diseases which he was 

 called upon to treat, the modern hygeist at- 

 tempts to grapple with the remoter causes of 

 those processes themselves, not in the indi- 

 vidual alone, but also in the commimity. 



Color IVomenclatnre. In music and form 

 we have specific and generally accepted 

 terms for describing definite sense percep- 

 tions, but in the case of color nothing that 

 can be called even a system exists. The 

 terms vermilion and ultramarine, which have 

 been used by many of our best authorities, 

 for want of anything better, are nevertheless 

 used for very variable concepts. The differ- 

 ence between a Chinese and a German ver- 

 milion in pigments is very noticeable. A 

 Winsor & Newton chrome yellow and a Ger- 

 man chrome yellow differ by more than twen- 

 ty-five per cent of yellow. Among several 

 samples of blue pigments a still greater va- 

 riation is generally found ; while such terms 

 as olive, citrine, russet, crushed strawberry, 

 baby blue, ashes of roses, peacock blue, and 

 a host of others, have practically no exact 

 significance whatever. This uncertainty and 

 lack of a standard have caused naturalists 

 much inconvenience in botanical, entomo- 



