SCIENCE 



Editokial Committee : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodward, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickering, As- 

 tronomy ; T. C. Mendenhall, Physics ; E. H. Thdeston, Engineering ; Iea Remsen, Chemistry ; 

 J. Le Conte, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. Maesh, Paleontology; W. K. Beooks, 

 Invertebrate Zoology ; C. Haet Meeeiam, Vertebrate Zoology ; S. H. Scuddee, Entomology ; 

 N. L. Bkitton, Botany ; Henry F. Osboen, General Biology ; H. P. Bowditch, 

 Physiology ; J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; J. McKeen Cattell, Psychology ; 

 Daniel G. Beinton, J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Friday, Decembee 20, 1895. 



CONTENTS: 

 The Law of the Long Bun : T. C. Mendenhall..825 



Hortimlture at Cornell: L. H. Bailey 831 



On School Hygiene: Edward M. Haetwell 839 



A Simple Apparatus for Collecting Samples of Water 



at Various Depths : G. C. Whipple 841 



The Loiachevski Prize : George Beuce Halsted..842 



American Society of Mechanical Engineers 843 



Current Notes on Anthropology ( XVI. ) ; — 



Tlie Pithecanthropus erectus ; Affinities of the Chaco 



Languages: D. G. Beinton 845 



Scientific Notes and News ; — 



Astronomical : H. J. Bibliographies of the Sci- 

 ences ; The Anniversary Meeting of the Boyal 

 Society; The American Society of Naturalists; 



General 845 



University and Educational News 849 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Last Word on Erect Vision •• Joseph Le 

 CoNTE. Mountain Climbers and the Perception of 

 Distance: Hieam M. Stanley. 3Ir. Spencer 

 ■ on Tactual Perception and ^Natural Selection:^ J. 

 MoKeen Cattell. Bibliography of North 

 American Paleontology : CHARLES R. Keyes . . .850 

 Scientific Literature : — • 



Meyrick's Handbook of British Lepidoptera : S. 

 H. Scudder. Debierre's Atlas d'osteologie : 

 Feank Bakee. Pilsbry's Catalogue of the 3Ia- 



rine Mollusks of Japan: W. H. Dall 854 



Academies and Societies: — 



The New York Section of the American Chemical 

 Society : DuEEAND WoODMAN. TliC Anthropo- 

 logical Society of Washington : Geoege R. Stet- 

 son. Geological Conference of Harvard Univer- 

 sity : T. A. Jaggae, Jr. Alabama Industrial 

 Scientific Society: Eugene A. Smith. St. 



Louis Academy of Science: A. W. Douglas 856 



Scientific Journals : — 



'Ihe American Geologist 860 



New Books 860 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 

 tor review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prot. J. 

 McKeen Cattell, Garrison on Hudson, N. Y. 



Subscriptionsand advertisements should be sent to Science, 

 41 N. Queen St., Lancaster. Pa., or 41 East 49th St., New York. 



THE LAW OF THE LONG EUN. 



"Men were surprised to hear that not 

 only births, deaths and marriages, but the 

 decisions of tribunals, the results of popular 

 elections, the influence of punishments in 

 checking crime, the comparative values of 

 medical remedies, the probable limits of 

 error in numerical results in every depart- 

 ment of physical inquiry, the detection of 

 causes, physical, social and moral, nay 

 even the weight of evidence and the validity 

 of logical argument, might come to be sur- 

 veyed with the lynx-eyed scrutiny of a dis- 

 passionate analysis." 



So wrote Sir John Herschel, a good many 

 years ago, of the Calculus of Probabil- 

 ities, which had just come into prominence 

 through important practical applications. 

 The ' Doctrine of Chance ' is apparently 

 miscalled because it is chiefly applied to the 

 study and development of natural laws in 

 the operation of which there can be no such 

 thing as chance. 



Popularly the word ' chance ' is often 

 used as if to imply the absence of any cause, 

 but this is an unreasonable, if not an un- 

 thinkable condition. Really such words as 

 'chance,' 'accident' and the like imply 

 only the absence of any assigned or recog- 

 nized cause, and the doctrine of chances is 

 a study and development of the laws rela- 

 ting to a series or aggregation of events, 

 concerning the individual components of 

 which we are absolutely ignorant. Thus, if 



