13° 



NA TURE 



[Dec. ii, 1884 



fish and a map showing the position of the banks and the 

 area covered by the dead fish. 



In addition to this branch of the Kish Commission's 

 work, it has been doing a very important service to the 

 country by hatching shad and salmon, and partially re- 

 stocking rivers with these fish. By introducing the German 

 sarp to America a work of great economic importance 

 >vas achieved, and the large number of carp-ponds in 

 America shows the popularity of this new fish. In con- 

 nection with State Fish Commissions much work is being- 

 done, which is of great importance. In every State of 

 the Union there is now a more or less important State 

 Fish Commission, and nearly all have been started since 

 the National Commission, which may be considered to be 

 the father of them all. For several years naturalists of 

 the Fish Commission have been studying the oyster pro- 

 blem, with the hope of in some way protecting them 

 from their natural enemies and preventing their decrease. 

 Under the direction of Mr. J. A. Ryder important experi- 

 ments upon artificial oyster-farming have attained a 

 marked degree of success, and within a comparatively 

 few years it may be expected that oyster-culture in America 

 will be revolutionised. There are at present experiments 

 in progress upon the transplantation of certain desirable 

 shell-fish from the east coast to the west coast of America. 

 Owing to the extreme difference in character between the 

 water of the two coasts, it is doubtful if these experiments 

 will succeed. 



For the purpose of studying the economic problems it 

 is necessary that men be sent to different parts of the 

 American coast, and these men are always instructed to 

 study the fauna and make collections. These collections 

 are all, after careful study by the Fish Commission 

 naturalists, turned over to the United States National 

 Museum, and in this way her zoological collections are 

 vastly increased. The collections made by the Fish Com- 

 mission steamers are of vast scientific importance, and 

 they greatly add to the interest and value of the zoological 

 branch of the National Museum collection. It is also 

 the plan of the Fish Commission to distribute sets of 

 duplicates from their collections to the different Museums 

 of the country. Nearly 200 such sets have already been 

 distributed, and special sets are made up for exchange 

 with foreign Museums. It has been the policy of the 

 Commission to carefully study American fisheries and the 

 apparatus in use both in this country and abroad, and by 

 this means find out the most improved apparatus and 

 have it adopted in America. It was with this object in 

 view that complete sets of American apparatus were sent 

 to the Exhibitions held at Berlin and London, and that 

 experts were sent to study the foreign exhibits. Already 

 the effects of these studies are being felt in America, and 

 American fishermen, having learned in the past to respect 

 the Commission's advice, are beginning to adopt needed 

 reforms in vessels and outfit. It is hoped that the 

 American exhibits had some similar effect upon the 

 fisheries of other nations. 



The Fish Commission's work in its original conception 

 was really the solution of practical economic problems, 

 and it has in the main adhered to this idea. Hence its 

 scientific work has been mainly upon animals which are 

 in some way connected with such problems, the work in 

 very deep-sea dredging being an exceptional but natural 

 deviation from the rather uninteresting study of the shal- 

 low fishing-grounds to the rich field of deep-sea research. 

 As this work can be carried on in addition to and without 

 interfering with the regular work of the Commission, there 

 is no chance for complaint. To the scientific world it is 

 very important that this is the case. Dealing with the 

 problems that it has, the natural history work of the 

 Fish Commission has, of necessity, been mainly of a 

 systematic character, dealing with species and their dis- 

 tribution more than with problems of anatomy, embryo- 

 logy, and histology. But there has been also much 



embryological work, that of Mr. Ryder upon certain 

 economic fish and the oyster being of most importance. 

 In addition to this natural history work, there has been 

 the gathering together of complete collections of all ap- 

 paratus used in connection with the fisheries, which have 

 been placed in the National Museum. At some future 

 time they will possess an immense scientific value. 



The scientific and important practical results of the 

 Commission's work are mainly set forth in the publications 

 of the Fish Commission or the National Museum, but 

 some of the monographs, and also synopses of species, 

 which require better plates than the Government publica- 

 tions ordinarily contain, or need to be published in haste, 

 are printed in some other publications. The Commission 

 publishes an Annual Bulletin and an Annual Report. 

 The former is printed in parts, a few pages at a time, and 

 sent to scientific men as soon as published, and afterwards 

 gathered into volumes. Four have been printed up to 

 date, and they contain miscellaneous articles, many of 

 considerable scientific importance. The Report is pub- 

 lished annually, and contains the larger reports upon 

 different questions and general monographs of groups of 

 animals. There are nine volumes already published, and 

 they cover the years of the Commission's work up to 188 1. 

 Many of the reports contain articles of great importance 

 to the scientific world. Ralph S. Tarr 



THE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS AND 



SHIPBUILDERS IN SCOTLAND 

 A GREAT amount of valuable scientific work, of a 

 -**- special character, is done by the various engineer- 

 ing institutions of the country ; and much of the progress 

 latterly made in the practical applications of science to 

 mechanical operations, and also in the advancement of 

 those sciences which bear most directly upon engineering 

 work, is largely due to the growth of these institutions. The 

 principal one — that of the Institution of Civil Engineers 

 — may be regarded as the parent institution, not only by- 

 reason of its age, but also because of its high standing 

 and the quality of its work. The Institution of Civil 

 Engineers has contributed, in a very important degree, 

 towards transforming engineering from the position of a 

 "base mechanical" calling into one which ranks high 

 among learned and scientific professions. 



The great success and usefulness of the Institution 0! 

 Civil Engineers has gradually led to its work becoming more 

 and more differentiated, and to certain special branches 

 of it being taken up by other institutions that have been 

 formed for the purpose. We thus find the Institutions 

 of Mechanical Engineers, Telegraph Engineers, Naval 

 Architects (in which marine engineers are included), the 

 Iron and Steel Institute, and others. All of these institu- 

 tions are in a prosperous condition, and enrol a large 

 number of new members every year. They have been 

 most successful, without exception, both professionally 

 and scientifically. While, on the one hand, they have 

 benefited their members by collecting papers and pro- 

 viding opportunities of discussion upon points of vital 

 interest to them in the pursuit of their various callings, 

 they have also, on the other hand, carried scientific in- 

 vestigation forward in directions which would otherwise 

 have been much neglected. The field of science — and 

 particularly the inductive side of it — has been greatly 

 extended by the able and thorough — though often unob- 

 trusive — work which has been done by the engineering 

 institutions. 



It is not in the metropolis alone, however, that such 

 institutions are now to be found. They supply too uni- 

 versal a want to admit of being centred in any one part 

 of the country. We have just received from Glasgow 

 the twenty-seventh annual volume of the Transactions 

 of a well-known and excellent institution which exists in 

 that city, viz. that of the Engineers and Shipbuilders in 



