January 24, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



133- 



Natural Science has adopted with its January 

 number the plan recently reported in this journal 

 of underlining the most important word or 

 words in the title of each article, and of giving 

 at the head of the article the index number 

 under which the article is placed in the Dewey 

 system of classification. The index number, 

 supposing a satisfactory system of classification 

 can be agreed upon, would seem to satisfy the 

 requirements of bibliographical classification. 

 The significant word in the title is usually easy 

 to discover, and when the title is well chosen 

 all the words are apt to be significant. Thus 

 the articles in the current number of Natural 

 Science on ' The Endeavor After Well Being ;' 

 ' The Constantinople Earthquake of July 10, 

 1894,' and 'The Perth Museum of Natural His- 

 tory,' have all the words excepting the articles 

 and prepositions partly or entirely underlined. 

 It might, however, lead authors to be more 

 careful in the choice of titles if they considered 

 the necessity of underlining the words significant 

 of the contents of the article. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Contracts have been awarded for the con- 

 struction of the Schemmerhorn Hall of Nat- 

 ural Sciences and the Hall of Physics for 

 Columbia College. The buildings will be 

 ready for occupancy in the summer of 1897. 

 The Trustees of Barnard College, at a meeting- 

 held on the 17th ult. , accepted the plans and 

 specifications for the proposed new building to 

 be erected at the Boulevard and 119th street. 

 The building is to be 200 by 160 feet, and will 

 cost about $500,000. 



The Council of the University of the City of 

 New York has decided to continue the summer 

 courses inaugurated last year. The session 

 will be held at University Heights from July 

 13th to August 21st. Courses will be offered 

 in ten departments. 



Prof. J. H. Van't Hoff, the brilliant chem- 

 ist, now at Amsterdam, has resigned, probably 

 to take a place created for him in the University 

 of Berlin. The city of Amsterdam and the 

 Dutch government made every effort to prevent 

 him from leaving Holland. The authorities of 

 the University offered to appoint an assistant 

 professor whose duty it should be to give all the 



lectures and attend to all examinations. All 

 that they required of Van't Hoff was the givin 

 of two lectures a week. It is doubtful whether 

 any professor has ever received a more flatter- 

 ing offer. 



' The Boston Transcript states that some years 

 ago J. H. Armstrong, of Plattsburg, deeded 

 a considerable property to Union College, but 

 retained a life interest in it. On January 2d of 

 this year he died, and by his will added to the 

 gift, which now amounts to $100,000. Mr. 

 Armstrong was a lawyer, and it was his inten- 

 tion that the department of sociology should be 

 benefited by his will. 



The Legislature of Massachusetts has passed 

 the bill appropriating $25,000 to the Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology. 



Mrs. Josiah N. Fiske has given Barnard 

 College $5,000 for the foundation of a scholar- 

 ship which will be open to competition. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 marsh gas under ice. 

 An interesting chemical experiment, quite 

 new to me, was performed by a party of skaters 

 in the neighborhood of Baltimore a few days 

 ago. It is possible that it has been performed 

 before, but I have not yet found any one who 

 has seen or heard of it, and I therefore think it 

 may interest the readers of Science. The 

 skaters were on a large artificial lake upon which 

 remarkably clear ice had formed. In various 

 places white spots were noticed in the ice, sug- 

 gesting, as one of the skaters said to me, ' air- 

 bubbles.' Some one bored a hole through one 

 of these white places, and applied a flame to the 

 gas, which took fire. This led to further ex- 

 periments, and it was found that, by boring a. 

 small hole, a long thin jet of flame could be ob- 

 tained, and this continued for some time. The 

 gas was, of course, marsh gas, formed by the 

 decomposition of the vegetable matter at the 

 bottom of the lake. The above method of 

 demonstrating the formation of this gas in 

 nature is, from the aesthetic point of view, a. 

 great improvement on the usual method de- 

 scribed in the text-books, which consists in stir- 

 ring a pool of stagnant water with a stick, and 

 collecting the gas that rises to the surface.. 



