FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



425 



other migration not mentioned in his 

 book is the annual oscillation between 

 north and south of the North American 

 gypsy colony, which is growing health- 

 ily. The author finds it at present quite 

 impossible to fix the arrival of the gyp- 

 sies in southeastern Europe at a thou- 

 sand years before Christ or a thousand 

 years after. If the Komodromoi of the 

 Byzantine writers were gypsies, then 

 these people must have been a recognized 

 and familiar element of the Balkan pop- 

 ulation about as early as the latter date. 

 Gypsies pass for a very cunning people, 

 and such they are to outsiders, so that 

 Romany or gypsy guile is a very com- 

 mon expression. Centuries of suspicion 

 and repression have taught them to arm 

 themselves proof against confidence in 

 strangers; but to those who become ac- 

 quainted with them, as Mr. Groome pro- 

 fesses to have done and George Bor- 

 row did, they present a character of 

 simplicity and frankness. There is, as 

 ^ gJTsy woman once said to a writer 

 in The Athenaeum, " somethin' in the 

 mind of a Gorgio that shuts the Bo- 

 many's mouth and opens his eyes and 

 ears." Gypsies are active transmitters 

 of folklore, and have rich funds of sto- 

 ries; and many believe that the folk- 

 lore stories of Europe are traceable to 

 Indian sources, whence they may have 

 been transmitted to Europe. Mr. Groome 

 suggests how some of these stories may 

 Iiave originated by telling of a gypsy 

 girl he knew who dashed off " what was 

 almost a folk tale impromptu." She had 

 been to a picnic in a four-in-hand with 

 " a lot of real tiptop gentry," and 

 " Reia," she said to me afterward, " I'll 

 tell you the comicallest thing as ever 

 was. We'd pulled up to put the brake 

 on, and there was a piiro hntchlwitchi 

 (old hedgehog) come and looked at us 

 through the hedge, looked at me hard. 

 I could see he'd his eye upon me. And 

 home he'd go, that old hedgehog, to his 

 wife, and ' Missus,' he'd say, ' what d'ye 

 think? I seen a little gypsy gal just now 

 in a coach and four horses,' and ' Dabla,' 

 she'd say, ' bless us, every one now keeps 

 a carriage.' " 



Educational Work of an Experi- 

 ment Station. — The survey of the 

 year's work of Cornell University Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station in its ef- 

 forts to " help the farmer " by dealing 



with present-day problems includes men- 

 tion of its investigations, related in bul- 

 letins published or to be published in 

 reference to fruits, their insect and fun- 

 goid enemies, vegetables, flowers, sugar 

 beets, potatoes, fertilizers, beans, the 

 dairy, veterinary science, horticulture, 

 and plant disease. Much of the work of 

 the station can not be published, con- 

 sisting as it does of correspondence, per- 

 sonal advice, attending meetings, mak- 

 ing records, or the performance of spe- 

 cial illustrative experiments at farmers' 

 homes or in neighborhoods as object lea- 

 sons. " It is a pity," the report says, 

 " that every farmer in the State can not 

 be personally touched at least once in 

 his life by the methods and the inspira- 

 tion of a good teacher." The itinerant 

 schools which were held in the early days 

 of the extension work are regarded as 

 being most beneficial when the commu- 

 nity has been awakened by simpler and 

 more elementary means, while the larger 

 part of the work can be done more eco- 

 nomically than by them. Yet in par- 

 ticular places and cases they are of great- 

 est value, and they are still held when 

 suitable conditions prevail. Special 

 dairy schools, largely of the nature of 

 practical demonstrations, were held at 

 various places. The report lays much 

 stress on the importance of beginning 

 the educational work with the children 

 and upon the value of Nature study. 

 3.Iore than sixteen thousand school chil- 

 dren have requested and been supplied 

 with information on the making of gar- 

 dens. 



Flies as Bearers of Disease. — In 

 estimating the relative importance of 

 flies and water supply in spreading dis- 

 ease. Dr. M. A. Veeder distinguishes be- 

 tween intestinal and malarial disorders. 

 In the former the infection is a bacillus 

 of some sort, the presence of which can 

 be traced to contamination by excretions 

 from a diseased bowel. In the latter the 

 source of infection is peculiar to marshy 

 or stagnant water, and independent of 

 contamination from human sources. It 

 is the author's belief that, with relative- 

 ly unimportant exceptions, intestinal 

 diseases are spread almost exclusively 

 by flies and malarial diseases by water, 

 and he supports it by citations from re- 

 cent army experiences. Likewise, dur- 

 ing the recent British campaign in Fa- 



