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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lowly organized and comparatively worth- 

 less if they remain as mere assemblages of 

 units placed side by side without organic 

 connection and without a common life. Mr. 

 Boyd Dawkins regards most of the provin- 

 cial museums in England as belonging to 

 this lower type. His description of one or 

 two of these collections is amusing enough, 

 and worthy of being quoted entire ; perhaps 

 it will apply to some lauded collections to 

 be found on this side of the Atlantic. " In 

 one instance which occurs to me," writes 

 Mr. Dawkins, " you see a huge plaster-cast 

 of a heathen divinity surrounded by fossils, 

 stuffed crocodiles, minerals, and models of 

 various articles, such as Chinese junks. In 

 another, a museum unit takes the form of a 

 glass case containing a fragment of a human 

 skull and a piece of oat-cake, labeled ' frag- 

 ment of human skull very much like a piece 

 of oat-cake.' In a third wax models are ex- 

 hibited of a pound weight of veal, pork, 

 and mutton-chops, codfish, turnips, potatoes, 

 carrots, and parsnips, which must have cost 

 the value of the originals many times over, 

 with labels explaining their chemical consti- 

 tution, and how much flesh and fat they 

 will make." Museums of this low type 

 " constitute a serious blot on our education- 

 al system, since they are worse than useless 

 for purposes of teaching." 



Size of Medicinal Doses. One of the 



papers read at the last meeting of the 

 American Medical Association was on " The 

 Effects of Remedies in Small Doses." The 

 author of this paper, Dr. John Morris, held 

 that 1. The true physiological effect of 

 remedies might best be obtained by the ad- 

 ministration of small doses frequently re- 

 peated ; 2. That medicines thus given are 

 cumulative in their operation ; 3. That the 

 effect of remedies is greatly increased by 

 combination, the manner of preparation, 

 time and mode of administration, etc. ; 4. 

 That large doses of medicine frequently act 

 as irritants ; that they produce an abnormal 

 state of the blood, as was evidenced by such 

 conditions as narcotism, alcoholism, iodism, 

 ergotism, bromidism, etc. ; 5. That more 

 special attention should be given at the 

 bedside to the influence of remedial agents, 

 to the end that greater certainty may be 

 attained in the prescriptions. 



Denationalizing Science. Sir C. Wyville 



Thomson having called to his assistance, in 

 working up the Challenger collections, a few 

 foreign naturalists of eminence, Dr. P. Mar- 

 tin Duncan, President of the Geological So- 

 ciety, gives vent to his " feelings of disap- 

 pointment " in a letter to Sir Wyville, and 

 asserts that "a very large section" of British 

 naturalists are in like manner pained by the 

 way in which English workers have been 

 passed over. Sir Wyville Thomson makes 

 a dignified reply, in which he states that his 

 endeavor had been to select first those who 

 were generally regarded as authorities in 

 special branches ; and, second, those who 

 could do the work assigned them within the 

 allotted time. Where Englishmen fulfilled 

 these conditions, Englishmen were chosen, 

 because in that way a good deal of risk was 

 avoided, in sending portions of the collec- 

 tions abroad. " Except for this considera- 

 tion" (i. e., that of avoiding risk of losing 

 collections), writes Sir Wyville, " I confess 

 I saw and see no objection, but rather the 

 reverse, to making a great work of this 

 kind somewhat more catholic." Having 

 thus mildly rebuked the rather despicable 

 nationalism of Dr. Duncan, Sir Wyville gives 

 a list of the naturalists employed in the 

 work. It contains twenty-two names, all 

 of them names of Englishmen, with six ex- 

 ceptions. He then begs the pardon of the 

 Englishmen (if such there be) more eminent 

 than Haeckel, A. Agassiz, Oscar Schmidt, 

 Lyman, Gunther, and Claus, in their respec- 

 tive specialties of Radiolarians, Echinoidea, 

 Sponges, Ophiuridea, Fishes, and Crustacea, 

 but whom he has overlooked in favor of 

 these foreigners. Notice has been taken 

 of Dr. Duncan's letter by some of the most 

 eminent scientific men in England, and a 

 manifesto has been published deprecating 

 national jealousies in science. This paper 

 has received the signatures of Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, Prof. Huxley, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, 

 Mr. Darwin, Mr. St. George Mivart, and many 

 ether representative scientific men. Na- 

 ture, in giving an account of this very un- 

 pleasant affair, calls attention to the catholic 

 spirit manifested by the directors of the 

 United States Gulf Stream Expedition, who 

 distributed their materials for description 

 among sixteen naturalists, of whom only 

 four were Americans. 



