59 



would not be very difficult to imagine that birds flying directly from the overflow 

 to the reservoir might carry the organisms there. 



To get rid of the trouble in this case was comparatively easy, because the 

 reservoir was small and it was not a difficult matter to entirely change the water 

 in the reservoir by keeping the pumps going full force day and night for a few- 

 days. In three weeks from the time my attention was first called to the matter, I 

 was unable to find any Uroglena in the reservoir water, and I have heard no com- 

 plaints since. 



It is not known that the Uroglena, even in very great abundance in the water, 

 causes any disturbance or inconvenience to our bodies. It is most important, how- 

 ever, that the city engineers and waterworks superintendents should know this, in 

 order to so inform the people when they make their complaints. The suffering 

 public under such circumstances are apt to imagine that all sorts of ills are 

 caused directly by this to them unseen pest, and they are too prone to find fault 

 with the water supply. While we can not prophecy when Uroglena may appear 

 in or disappear from a water supply, we can state with much certainty that it is 

 perfectly harmless, and that it does not necessarily indicate a bad condition of the 

 water. The Lafayette water, for the past two years at any rate, has been abso- 

 lutely free from all dangerous contamination, and the recent appearance there of 

 Uroglena does not mean that the water supply is at all degenerating. 



The Engineering Research Laboratory in Its Relation to the Public. 



By W. F. M. Goss. 



In the present era of the world's progress we hear much of our "material 

 prosperity" and of the "development of our resources." Feeling sure that the 

 earth was made for man, man is anxious to make his possession yield him its 

 best. Nor is he contented with what his own immediate neighborhood can 

 furnish. If there is anything in the ends of the earth, or in the air, or in the 

 sea which is capable of making for his advancement, he rests not until he has 

 secured it. The business of the world, therefore, incneases with every hour, and 

 its problems multiply. 



In the midst of its hum and hurry, the engineer is a prominent figure. It is 

 his province to study the properties of matter and to make them useful to man in 

 structures and machines. He deals with the mining and reduction of ores, the 

 chemical and physical properties of metals, and all the great variety of {processes 

 by which iron and steel are shaped for purposes of construction; with earth-work 



