384 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. .32. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



With this number our report of the meeting of the 

 American association is completed. No session of 

 section G was held, and no vice-presidential addresses 

 delivered in sections C, D, or G. In our next num- 

 ber we shall print in full the promised papers of 

 Messrs. Carhart and Dana. At some future time we 

 may also take occasion to refer more particularly to 

 the report of the committee upon the removal of 

 duties on imported text-books and the discussion 

 of the same, of wliich we have a full account. Few 

 other committees besides this, and those already 

 announced, made any reports; and the several com- 

 mittees on weiglits, measures, and coinage, on stand- 

 aid time, on primary meridian and international 

 standard time, and on the records of science, were 

 discontinued, that on standard time in consequence 

 of the favorable action of the railways of the country 

 in the proper direction. The committee on the intro- 

 duction of science teaching in the public schools, on 

 the registration of deaths, births, and marriages, 

 on stellar charts, and on an international convention 

 of scientific associations, reported progress, and were 

 continued. 



A by-law to the constitution was passed, providing 

 that every member should have the privilege of regis- 

 tering the members of his family at meetings of the 

 association (not including men over twenty-one years 

 of age), by paying three dollars for each registration; 

 the person so registered being entitled to all privileges 

 offered members by the local committee. The stand- 

 ing committee also passed a rule that hereafter no 

 paper will be accepted for reading before any of the 

 sections, unless accompanied by such abstract as 

 the writer deems ready for publication. 



Sections H and I had, in some respects, a similar 

 experience at Minneapolis. Both were unable to 

 organize until the week of the meeting was half over. 

 To each there came, almost at the very last moment, 

 a paper of unusual interest. In the anthropological 

 section. Miss Babbitt's paper announced the dis- 

 covery, in Minnesota, of traces of human labor be- 

 neath a deposit of twelve or fifteen feet of the material 

 which forms one of the terraces of an ancient river. 

 This seems to be a confirmation of tlie theory ad- 

 vanced by Dr. Abbott, respecting his similar dis- 

 coveries in New Jersey, that man existed on this 

 continent during at least a portion of the glacial 

 epoch. There will, of course, be a lively discussion 

 between experts, as to whether these quartz speci- 

 mens are actual relics of human industry. Thus 

 far, at best, the glacial workman is known only by 

 his chips. 



In the section devoted to statistics, Mr. Dodge an- 

 nounced what may perhaps be accounted a disciivery 

 in that dry branch of science. He has found that a 

 singular and quite definite relation exists, in large 

 communities, between an excess of non-agricultural 

 over agricultural workers, and an increase of values 

 in the land, products, and wages of agriculture. The 

 figures may soothe the fears of those political econo- 

 mists who from time to time predict national disaster 



because so few American youths take kindly to farm- 

 ing pursuits. An obvious inference from llio statis- 

 tistics is that prosperity comes where industry ia 

 diversified. Weapons of argument may thence be 

 drawn by those who believe in a public policy tend- 

 ing to encourage non-agricultural industries. 



— The Royal academy of medicine of Turin has 

 unanimously awarded the Riberi prize of 20,000 

 francs (§4,000) to Prof. Bizzozero for his researches 

 on the ' Physiopathology of blood,' the subject 

 proposed by the academy. The commissioners of 

 award received several essays: those of Wharton 

 Jones, Norris, Hayem, and Bizzozero were consid- 

 ered to deserve special consideration. The last two 

 were assigned the first rank. The most important 

 matter in both of these is the investigation of the 

 third morphological element of the blood (Hayem' 3 

 haematoblasts). The commissioners, all well-known 

 savants, judged that Hayem did not completely dem- 

 onstrate that the red globules are derived from the 

 haematoblasts. Bizzozero solves the important prob- 

 lem of the origin of the red globules, determines the 

 relation of the haematoblasts to coagulation, and 

 throws new light on the formation of tlirombi. 

 His memoir was therefore deemed the more impor- 

 tant, and to Bizzozero accordingly the very valuable 

 award has been made. 



— The officers of the Cincinnati society of natural 

 history inaugurated about June 1 a course of free 

 lectures on botany. The first was given on June 9, 

 to a company of forty-seven, many of them teachers 

 in the public schools. The lectures have been con- 

 tinued weekly, and the last was given on Aug. 11. 

 The object of the society in the establishment of this 

 course was to get the public generally interested in 

 scientific pursuits; and the success of this, the first 

 attempt of the kind in this city for many years, has 

 been most gratifying. The average attendance has 

 been over thirty, notwithstanding the hot weather, 

 lateness of the season, and the absence from the city 

 of many who would otherwise have attended. The 

 officers hope, in the autumn, to have courses in other 

 branches of science, so that a general interest may be 

 awakened among tlie citizens, and atttntion called 

 to the importance of the study. 



— News has been received from the French meteor- 

 ological station at Orange Harbor, Patagonia: all 

 ■were in good health, and work progressing favorably. 

 The cattle which had been brought from Montevideo 

 had perished, but those from Puiita Arenas were 

 flourishing. The surgeon of the party, Dr. Hyades, 

 had made full anthropological investigations of the 

 Fuegians who were settled near the station. Casts 

 of heads and limbs had been secured, and many 

 photographs taken. A collection of utensils, etc., 

 had been brought together, including a large caime 

 with its entire outfit. He was engaged in studying 

 the language, which appeared to be somewhat dif- 

 ferent from the vocabularies collected by Darwin 

 nearly half a century ago. 



— Professor W. A. Rogers wishes us to state that 

 the relation between the imperial yard and the metre 

 des archives is wrongly given in our abstract of his 



