FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



■j\j 



antiquity ; and that I do not see why, for 

 practical purposes and for its influence upon 

 conduct, we need look forward to an inev- 

 itable death of our country any more than 

 to that death of the physical universe which, 

 as philosophers tell us, is probable, perhaps 

 inevitable, in some incalculably distant fu- 

 ture age. But if death is not the inevita- 

 ble doom of a state, it is quite certain that 

 states are liable to something which we may 

 without any strained analogv call disease. 

 Looking back over the pages of history we 

 can easily recall instances of states which 

 have had their energies wasted by fierce at- 

 tacks of fever; states which have suffered 

 from raving madness; states which have 

 overtasked their powers by undertaking la- 

 bors beyond their strength and have died 

 of overwork ; states which have dropped 

 noiselessly out of the ranks, the victims of 

 senile decay. Since, then, there is such a 

 thing as national disease, and since it threat- 

 ens primarily the happiness and eventually 

 the life of the state, a serious student of 

 history will be ever on the alert to discover 

 the symptoms of disease in the past life of 

 nations, and to trace the manner of its 

 working, in order that he may combat its 

 first manifestations in his own country. In 

 fact, I think we may say that this work, the 

 study of political health and disease, is em- 

 phatically the business and the raison d'etre 

 of all history." 



Adam Smith and Astronomy. — Mr. W. 

 T. Lynn calls attention in a recent issue of 

 The Observatory to the fact, not generally 

 known, that Adam Smith, famous through 

 his Wealth of Nations, was something of an 

 amateur astronomer. He wrote a history in 

 his younger days of astronomy up to the 

 time of Newton. It was published in 1795, 

 five years after the author's death. In view 

 of the care which this author took to destroy 

 all his manuscripts which he did not deem 

 worthy of publication, his opinion of this 

 brochure is of interest. The following para- 

 graph occurs in a letter of his to Hume, dated 

 at Edinburgh, April 16, 1773: "As I have 

 left the care of all my literary papers to you, 

 I must tell you that, except those which I carry 

 along with me, there are none worth the pub- 

 lication but a fragment of a great work which 

 contains a history of the astronomical sys- 



tems that were successively in fashion down 

 to the time of Descartes. Whether that 

 might be published as a fragment of an in- 

 tended juvenile work, I leave entirely to 

 your judgment, though I begin to suspect 

 myself that there is more refinement than 

 soli'iity in some parts of it." The full title 

 is The Principles which lead and direct Phil- 

 osophical Enquiries, illustrated by the His- 

 tory of Astronomy." 



The IVew York State Library.— The New 



York State Library, according to its last an- 

 nual report, grew in 1897 from 198,700 vol- 

 umes to 207,934 volumes in the State Library 

 proper, with 33,739 volumes in the traveling 

 and extension libraries, making with the 

 108,111 duplicates a total of 349,784 vol- 

 umes. The policy is fairly started of build- 

 ing up one of the strongest education libra- 

 ries ; and the State has the best general law 

 library in the country. Any registered phy- 

 sician in the State may borrow from the 

 medical library without expense except for 

 transportation. The use of the library in 

 the evening has increased fivefold during 

 the past five years. Scholars from a distance 

 are more and more coming to Albany to 

 make investigation ; and lawyers and public 

 men after other business is transacted often 

 find the evening use of the library advan- 

 tageous. Books are more and more sent from 

 the shelf to institutions and scholars in all 

 parts of the State, a thirtyfold gain having 

 been realized in this function since 1889. 

 Besides distribution to clubs and individuals, 

 19,750 volumes of State publications were 

 sent out through the library last year to per- 

 manent depositaries. The preparation of syl- 

 labuses as guides to study for university- ex- 

 tension lectures, clubs, and individual stu- 

 dents is growing in importance and promises 

 to become one of the recognized departments 

 of the library work. The library school, 

 which is claimed to be the first of its kind in 

 the world, continues to grow in strength and 

 reputation ; and it has been necessary to in- 

 crease its facilities. Its usefulness has been 

 generally recognized by librarians — in other 

 countries as well as this. 



Advantages of Fiarge Telescopic Glasses. 



— The principal advantages of a large tele- 

 scopic object glass — forty inches aperture in 



