386 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 168. 



absence for research in Europe. Professor 

 Fullerton never intended to retain the Vice- 

 Provostship of the University, and only ac- 

 cepted the position while the University was 

 being reorganized after the election of Provost 

 Harrison. 



President Andrew S. Drapee, of the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, having declined the Super- 

 indency of the schools of New York City, Dr. 

 W. H. Maxwell, Superintendent of the Brook- 

 lyn schools, was elected Superintendent on 

 March 15th. 



Of the three travelling fellowships annually 

 awarded at Bryn Mawr College, two have been 

 awarded in the sciences — the President's fellow- 

 ship to Miss L. R. Laird, a student of physics, 

 and the Mary E. Garrett European fellowship 

 to Miss F. Peebles, a student of biology. 



Mr. D. E. O. Lovitt has been elected as- 

 sistant professor of mathematics in the John C. 

 Green School of Science, of Princeton Univer- 

 sity. 



Professor P. Hensel, Strassburg, has been 

 called to an assistant professorship of philos- 

 ophy newly established at Heidelberg. 



Dr. George Treille has been appointed to 

 the newly established chair of colonial hygiene 

 in the University of Brussels. 



The University of Gottingen will again this 

 year offer, during the Easter holidays, courses in 

 science for teachers. No charge is made for 

 attendance on these courses. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 



THE LONGEVITY OF SCIENTIFIC MEN. 



Professor Edward S. Holden contributes 

 to the last number of the Cosmopolitan an article 

 ' On the Choice of a Profession : Science ' in- 

 tended to be ' of distinct use to young men and 

 women of the Cosmopolitan University.' In 

 the course of the article occurs the following : 



Among the advantages of following science as a 

 profession we must certainly reckon its nndoubted 

 tendency to prolong the lives of its votaries. It is 

 not a little remarkable that men of science, astrono- 

 mers among them, are particularly long lived. The 

 average longevity of men is about thirty-three years. 

 Some one has had the patience to determine the aver- 



age age of some seventeen hundred astronomers and 

 mathematicians, and it turns out to be sixty-four 

 years ! That is, astronomers live nearly twice as 

 long as men in general. * * * I think no one can 

 fail to be surprised at the foregoing statistics. 



Professor Holden is certainly right as to the 

 surprise likely to be awakened by these sta- 

 tistics. An exclamation mark or a question 

 mark would perhaps be sufficient comment for 

 scientific men ;-but for the benefit of the young 

 persons of the Cosmopolitan 'University' it may 

 be explained that none of the 1,700 eminent 

 astronomers and mathematicians died when 

 they were infants. We do not know the average 

 age at which work was done that would entitle 

 a man to be included in this list of astronomers 

 and mathematicians, but if it were forty years, 

 we know that the expectation of life for men of 

 that age is (according to tables of the Institute 

 of Actuaries) 27.4 years. The average age at 

 death of ordinary men would then be 67.4 

 years and of the astronomers and mathema- 

 ticians, 64 years. 



J. McK. C. 



THE REVIVAL OF ALCHEIIY — A REJOINDER. 



In Science of December 10th Dr. H. Car- 

 rington Bolton makes personal mention of me 

 and inferentially describes me as being an 

 ' educated charlatan ' and as having ' cracked 

 brains.' He also says, inferentially, that I 

 belong to a class of persons who ' wear their 

 feather in their heads,' an expression that is 

 not very clear to me, but I suppose implies 

 something more and worse than the feat ascribed 

 in popular song to Yankee Doodle. But, how- 

 ever, this may be, I presume that, as a matter 

 of even-handed justice, space will be accorded 

 me in Science for the following reply : 



1. Dr. Bolton's characterization of me is 

 either a simple expression of his opinion or a 

 conclusion from premisses. 



2. Opinions need to be weighed before ac- 

 ceptance. Dr. Bolton says that "Sir Isaac 

 Newton dabbled with furnaces and chemicals 

 in true hermetic style ; and Leibnitz showed 

 the courage of his convictions by acting as Sec- 

 retary of an Alchemical Society in Germany," 

 and, further, that "so eminent a chemist as 

 Sir Humphry Davy did not hesitate to affirm 



