430 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



vital, the most spiritual, the most progressive 

 elements of life, woman is as much man's 

 superior as he is hers in outer and material 

 things." Everywhere, the circular continues, 

 intelligent women of good character are ef- 

 fective agents in good work, public as well 

 as private. It is only the women who are 

 without moral influence who lack this power ; 

 and to give them the ballot would not only 

 be a mistake in itself, it would place in their 

 hands the power utterly to nullify the moral 

 influence of the more enlightened of their 

 sex. The pure and educated women of the 

 nation, non-voting, and thus unbiased by the 

 selfish considerations which naturally sway 

 political aspirants, should form the strong. 

 est and purest element of conservatism possi- 

 ble." The noblest and most useful work of 



woman has ever been and ever will be " in 

 that domain in which man can never take 

 her place, or become her peer or rival. 

 We believe that men do look to women, and 

 it is our desire and prayer that they may 

 never look in vain, for the maintenance of the 

 home, the upholding of lofty, pure ideals of 

 domestic and social life, the moral education 

 and training of children. ... It is the com- 

 pensation which woman owes to the state for 

 the protection which she enjoys in the home, 

 and for immunity from public labor and serv- 

 ice, that she should rear her children with 

 right habits and instill into their minds 

 true principles and noble ideals of life, 

 and she can not do this while she is man- 

 aging political machines and besieging legis- 

 latures." 



MINOR PARAGEAPHS. 



In a paper on oil-producing seeds, in the 

 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 

 Mr. Gilbert H. Hicks estimates, supposing 

 that two pounds of seed are produced for 

 every pound of ginned cotton, nearly 4,000,- 

 000 tons of cotton seed were produced in 

 the United States in 1894-95. Deducting 

 about one third of this, required for sowing, 

 there would remain more than 2,500,000 

 tons of seed. Of this amount, about 1,500,- 

 000 tons were worked at the oil mills, each 

 ton producing 45 gallons of crude cotton- 

 seed oil and 800 pounds of cotton-seed cake. 

 This estimate gives a total of 60,000,000 

 gallons of oil and 600,000 tons of oil cake 

 produced in the United States in a single 

 year. At 30 cents a gallon, this crude oil 

 was worth $18,000,000, while the oil cake 

 exceeds $12,000,000 in value. Of this an- 

 nual production of oil, about 9,000,000 gal- 

 lons are used in making " compound lard," 

 etc., while the rest is exported or is mixed 

 with drying oils or used in the manufacture 

 of soap. Cotton-seed oil is also largely used 

 for adulterating other oils. 



A URANOMETRY of the bright southern 

 stars has been completed at the Arequipa 

 station of Harvard College Observatory, each 

 star having been compared by Argelander's 

 method with adjacent stars slightly brighter 

 and fainter than itself. Visual observations 

 of the southern variables have been obtained 

 every month as far as possible. Counts have 



been made of the number and distribution 

 of stars in several clusters. The meteoro- 

 logical stations have been maintained at 

 Mejia (elevation, 100 feet). La Joya (4,150), 

 Arequipa (8,060), Alto de los Huercos (13,- 

 300), Mont Blanc station on El Misti (15,600), 

 El Misti (19,200), and Cuzco (1,100). Inter- 

 ference with the carefully formed plans of 

 the Astrophotographic Congress being unde- 

 sirable and duplication of work unadvisable, 

 the plan of preparing and publishing a com- 

 plete map of the sky by the aid of the Bruce 

 telescope has been abandoned, in the belief 

 that more useful work can be done with the 

 instrument in other ways. Glass copies of 

 negatives, of any part of the sky, will be 

 furnished to astronomers who desire to study 

 them. It is believed that most valuable 

 work can be done by careful study of par- 

 ticular regions by means otsuch photographs. 

 The Hbrary of the observatory contained, 

 October 1, 1897, 8,635 volumes and 12,992 

 pamphlets. Special efforts are made to ren- 

 der the collections of meteorological as well 

 as of astronomical publications as complete 

 as possible. 



The great power of adaptation of the 

 lower and smaller animals has received the 

 special attention of Prof. L. C. Miall, who 

 remarks upon the readiness with which they 

 assume new stages or drop old ones, and the 

 bewildering variety of visible contrivances 

 and changes of forms which they take on. 



