340 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 716 



or liistorieal evidence may not lead to a con- 

 trary result. 



An additional construction appropriation 

 of $25,000 for the New York Botanical Gar- 

 den, voted on June 26, and approved on 

 August 4, will be expended in the continua- 

 tion of construction of driveways and paths,, 

 principally on the eastern side of the grounds, 

 in the completion of the grading operations 

 necessary at the museum building, in the ex- 

 tension of the system of water-supply and 

 drainage, and for minor works. All the earth 

 and rock to be excavated at the museum build- 

 ing is required for filling and for telford 

 foundation of roads and paths, so that the 

 same money will effect two pieces of work, 

 as has been the case in nearly all the grading 

 operations hitherto accomplished, a result 

 made possible by following the original plan 

 of development approved by the Board of 

 Managers in December, 1896. It is now 

 planned to complete the driveway system and 

 to build at least an additional mile of paths. 



According to Charities reports from Alaska 

 through a special charge to the Grand Jury 

 sitting at Juneau show that tuberculosis, tra- 

 choma, and other diseases are spreading to 

 such an extent among the Indians that their 

 very existence is threatened. From the data 

 furnished it would appear that within a few 

 decades, if the mortality of the race continues 

 as in the recent past, there will be no longer 

 any native inhabitants. The statistics taken 

 from a typical settlement of the natives, 

 show a greater mortality than that of any 

 other primitive race which has come in eon- 

 tact with Anglo-Saxon civilization. An ap- 

 pended report by Army Surgeon Paul 

 Churchill Hutton states that he doubts if any 

 country in the world can show such a per- 

 centage of tuberculous natives, and the mor- 

 tality from this disease is really terrible. He 

 proposes that Alaska be divided into sanitary 

 districts and that sixteen sanitary officers be 

 appointed. He also suggests that an intelli- 

 gent Indian inspector be appointed for each 

 town having 200 or more inhabitants, and 

 that each Indian inspector study under the 

 regular inspector and disseminate his knowl- 

 edge among his own people. 



The work accomplished by the Eeiehsan- 

 stalt last year, according to an abstract of the 

 annual report in Nature, includes the follow- 

 ing: In accordance with a commission re- 

 ceived by the institution, tests were started 

 on the exact measurement of very small pres- 

 sures (of the order of between 10"* and 10" 

 mm.), the pressures being determined from the 

 deflection of a metallic membrane of 25 cm. 

 diameter by means of the Fizeau interference 

 method. The absolute velocity of sound in 

 dry air (free from carbonic acid) has been 

 investigated and found to be 33,192±5 cm. 

 per second. Dr. Scheel has tested some fur- 

 ther materials for expansion between — 191° 

 and -+-16° C. with the Fizeau dilatometer 

 described in the previous year's report, and 

 has obtained results varying from 2,120 

 microns per meter for palladium to — 41 

 microns per meter for quartz glass. Scheel 

 and Schmidt have obtained a much lower 

 value for the refractive index of helium than 

 that found previously by Lord Kayleigh and 

 by Eamsay and Travers, the figures of the 

 former being 1.0000340. Some useful work 

 has been done in regard to the specific heat 

 of nitrogen, CO, and water-vapor, up to 

 1,400° C, and experiments to determine the 

 saturation-pressure of water-vapor above 100° 

 C. have been commenced. In the Electrical 

 Standards Department the variations in man- 

 ganin resistances have been found to be very 

 slight and the "humidity effect" only just 

 perceptible. Eesistance coils are now being 

 woimd on metallic spools with longitudinal 

 slots to render them somewhat flexible; in this 

 way it is hoped to make any effect due to 

 humidity practically negligible. Measure- 

 ments of the wave-length of electric oscilla- 

 tions can be made with an accuracy within 1 

 part in 1,000 for long waves (above 1,000 

 meters), and for shorter wave-lengths the 

 accuracy is within 1 per cent. Other experi- 

 ments have been made with undamped electric 

 oscillations produced after the Poulsen method 

 by means of an arc burning in oxygen. A 

 research of importance to opticians was car- 

 ried out in regard to the secular variation of 

 the planeness of surfaces of optical glasses, 



