JANUARY 25, 1901.] 
in the meanwhile, other institutions are intelli- 
gently collecting wholesale in diverse interest- 
ing regions, while we are content with occasional 
specimens which usually have no history, or at 
most a very imperfect one, and for these we 
often have to pay a stiff profit to a dealer.’’ 
THE New York Times lays stress on its an- 
nouncement that the newspaper contains ‘all 
the news that’s fit to print.’ Does the editor 
regard the following, taken from a recent issue 
as ‘fit to print’? 
“James Conroy, of 127 Hopkins Avenue, Jersey City, 
claims to have devised asystem of springs and weights, 
which, operating as a balance, will run machinery 
without the aid of fuel, electricity, or any other motive 
power. The system is so simple, he says, that the 
only wonder about itis that it was never discovered 
before. Itmay be operated, he says, by a boy. While 
it is not perpetual motion, he says it will run until 
one of the springs or some other part of the arrange- 
ment breaks, but that will only mean a cessation of 
movement untila new partis substituted for that 
which is broken. He will not exhibit his machinery, 
but says he has demonstrated its power by operating 
a pump in his house. All he will say is that the 
power is furnished according to a decimal system 
making ten pounds the unit of weight. This unit 
may be increased by multiples of ten until the’desired 
power for any machine is. attained. He says he can 
easily satisfy any engineer of the validity of hisclaims. 
Another thing Mr. Conroy claims is that should any 
part of the machinery break the machine will not be 
wholly disabled, but will continue to run with a 
power diminished only by the broken part, which 
will be one-tenth, the diminution continuing in that 
ratio for each broken part.”’ 
THE Calcutta correspondent of the London 
Times cables that since the Pasteur Institute 
was opened at Kasauli about 100 patients bitten 
by mad dogs have been treated, among whom 
not a single death has occurred. Appeals for 
funds from the municipalities, however, have 
been rejected. Native opinion, especially 
among the Hindus, joins the Buddhists in pro- 
nouncing against the Institute owing to a mis- 
taken idea that cruel operations are practised 
upon living dumb animals. Memorials have 
been submitted to the Government protesting 
against State aid, though this is only given to 
enable British soldiers to be treated in India 
instead of proceeding to Paris, thus saving a 
SCLENCE. 
159 
large sum annually. Bishop Welldon, preach- 
ing in the cathedral, referred to the opposition 
to the Institute in England and India. He said 
he had visited Kasauli and seen the operations, 
and stated that the medical process was charac- 
terized in all its aspects by the most thoughtful 
and scrupulous humanity. Anesthetics were 
employed, and the animals showed no visible 
sign of suffering, dying eventually, not of hy- 
drophobia, but of paralysis. He urged people 
to be slow to condemn a remedial process which, 
at the cost of a slight infliction of pain on ani- 
mals, relieved and removed suffering so intense 
as hydrophobia in the case of human beings. 
THE report of the Meteorological Council of 
the Royal Society for the year ended March 31, 
1900, has been issued. The work of the coun- 
cil is summarized under the heads of ocean 
meteorology, weather telegraphy and climatol- 
ogy. The inquiry relative to the unusually 
severe weather which prevailed in the Atlantic 
during the winter 1898-99 has been completed, 
and the charts illustrating the results of the 
investigations will be ready for publication 
shortly. A table is given comparing the fore- 
casts for the United Kingdom with the subse- 
quent weather actually experienced. The com- 
plete success, partial success, partial failure 
and complete failure of the forecasts are esti- 
mated according to definite rules. Partial 
success and partial failure are defined as mean- 
ing that the forecast was correct or incorrect 
for more than half the elements dealt with at 
the places of observation situated in the dis- 
trict in question. This table, when summar- 
ized, gives 55 percent. of complete successes, 27 
per cent. of partial successes, 12 per cent. of 
partial failures and 6 per cent. of complete 
failures. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
THE following large gifts for education have 
been made during the week: John D. Arch- 
bold of New York City, a vice-president of the 
Standard Oil Company, has given $400,000 to 
the endowment fund of Syracuse University, 
on the condition that a like amount be raised 
among other friends of the institution; Mr. 
Andrew Carnegie has given $225,000 to the 
