62 



SCIENCE. 



[N, S. Vol. VII. No. 159. 



A BILL which will limit the lawful use of 

 hypnotism to licensed physicians will, it is 

 said, be introduced into the New York Legisla- 

 ture during the present term. A number of in- 

 stances have been collected to prove that the 

 use of hypnotism by irresponsible persons is 

 dangerous and opposed to the public good. The 

 bill, before introduction, will be submitted to 

 eminent lawyers for revision, and when finished 

 will be supported, it is said, by the medical 

 societies of the State. 



Bills have been introduced into the United 

 States Senate and House of Representatives 

 making appropriations for the continuation of 

 timber tests by the Forestry Division of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. Senator McBride's 

 bill appropriates $40,000, and Representative 

 Hurley's $100,000. 



An appropriation of $200,000 is asked this 

 year by the Gypsy Moth Committee, which has 

 just made its annual report to the Board of 

 Agriculture. The work of the past few years 

 has convinced the Committee that extermina- 

 tion of the moth is not only possible, but cer- 

 tain, if sufficient sums be promptly appropriated 

 for the purpose. 



The plaster casts used by Professor Osborn 

 in his lecture on museums before the recent 

 meeting of the American Society of Naturalists 

 have been presented by him to Cornell Univer- 

 sity. 



The leading editorial in -the January number 

 of Natural Science endorses the article in the 

 Contemporary Review on the fur-seals from which 

 we recently quoted. The exiitorial concludes : 

 "It may be retorted that if the Canadians are 

 to be debarred from killing fur-seals at sea the 

 Americans ought to be prevented from killing 

 them on shore. But the conditions are totally 

 different. On shore only non-breeding males 

 with perfect skins are killed. No females or 

 breeding males are taken. But at sea no such 

 selection is possible ; the sex cannot be deter- 

 mined until the seal is killed. Many of the 

 seals escape with fatal wounds, and as the fe- 

 males are less active than the males, and are 

 often hampered by the presence of their young, 

 they are more easily captured. Hence the ma- 

 jority of the seals killed at sea are females. 



The economic value of the pelagic seal industry 

 is now insignificant, and as it appears to be ad- 

 mitted by both sides that the herds of fur-seals 

 are being greatly reduced in numbers by the 

 excessive killing at sea of female seals, and the 

 consequent starvation of nearly 20 per cent, of 

 the young, it is to be hoped that efFective meas- 

 ures may be taken to prevent this inhuman and 

 wasteful slaughter." 



The new volume of ' Minerva ' published by 

 Triibner, Strassburg, has as a frontispiece an 

 etching of Nansen. 



Le Journal de Colmar, of December 12th, an- 

 nounces the translation of Hirn's 'Analyse 

 elementaire de I'Univers' into the Russian by 

 General Starinkevitch. The translator informs 

 the former secretary or personal friend of Hirn, 

 M. E. Schwoerer, that the work is just issued 

 and that he has prefaced to the text a bio- 

 graphical sketch of ' Hirn : sa vie et ses ti-a- 

 vaux.' General Socrate Starinkevitch is the 

 Governor of Varsovie and one of the best known 

 scientific men in Russia among the nobles of 

 that rapidly developing country. 



The works of the United States Liquefied 

 Acetylene Distributing Company, located at 

 Jersey City, were completely destroyed by a 

 series of explosions on December 24th. Two 

 men were killed and others were injured. It 

 is evident that the manufacture and use of 

 acetylene should receive a thorough scientific 

 investigation before it can take the place that 

 its merits warrant. 



The royal British Antiquarian and Archaeolog- 

 ical Societies have lodged a petition with Lord 

 Salisbury protesting against the peculiar form 

 of prison labor in Egypt since the Khedive's 

 penitentiaries and jails have been under English 

 management, says the Scientific American. It 

 seems that the convicts, of whom there are 

 twelve hundred in the Jourah prison alone, are 

 employed in manufacturing bogus antiques, for 

 which there is reported to be a large market, 

 especially in America. The petitioners declare 

 that the forgeries are so clever as to be scarcely 

 distinguishable from the real article. As yet 

 only antiques of relatively small dimensions 

 have been produced, but the prison authorities 

 express the hope of being able in course of time 



