Febeuaby 21, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



279 



Excluding the Weather Bureau, no less than 

 eight divisions are doing worli which in the 

 main is purely scientific, and each of these has 

 its independent laboratory or laboratories. In- 

 cluding the Weather Bureau and the meat in- 

 spection service of the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry, 993;ofatotal of 2,019 employees are en- 

 gaged chiefly upon scientific and technical sub- 

 jects, and $1,700,000 of the $2,400,000 appro- 

 priated for the Department of Agriculture is ex- 

 pended upon this work. But the greater part 

 of the work of the Weather Bureau and Bureau 

 of Animal Industry, while fundamentally scien- 

 tific in method and character, is not in the line 

 of original investigation, and therefore may be 

 omitted in the present statement. Still, each 

 of these Bureaus conduct at Washington cer- 

 tain investigations in pure science, the cost of 

 which, added to that of the eight scientific di- 

 visions already mentioned, amounts annually to 

 nearly half a million dollars. Nevertheless no 

 cooperative organization or classification of 

 these scientific divisions, except those of the 

 Weather Bureau, has been as yet undertaken. 



It would seem a simple business proposition, 

 needing no argument, that this comprehensive 

 and vastly important work, promoting, as it 

 does, the development of almost every resource 

 of our land and every industry of our people, 

 and concerning the food and health of a large 

 part of our population, should have a perma- 

 nent, broadly educated and experienced scien- 

 tific head, free from the disquieting influence of 

 politics. 



The first, and in some respects the most difli- 

 cult, step toward the accomplishment of this end 

 was taken when Secretary Morton secured for 

 the Department of Agriculture the protection of 

 the Civil Service, thus putting an end to the 

 terrors of political pressure in filling vacancies 

 in the scientific divisions. 



Should the amendment now before Congress 

 become a law — and it is believed the friends of 

 science and education throughout the land will 

 give it their unqualified support — it is by no 

 means improbable that other scientific bureaus 

 of the Government will seek the protection and 

 support provided thereby, and that in the near 

 future we may boast a National Department of 

 Agriculture and Science. 



ASTEONOMY. 



The Lick Observatory has just published 

 'Contributions,' No. 5, a volume of 86 pages 

 octavo, devoted to meteor and sunset phenom- 

 ena. One of the most interesting papers in the 

 volume is by Prof. Schaeberle, and contains a 

 discussion of a series of meteor observations 

 made simultaneously at Mount Hamilton and at 

 Mount Diablo, forty miles distant. The Mount 

 Hamilton observations were made by Messrs. 

 Colton and Perrine ; those at Mount Diablo by 

 Mr. Schaeberle. . The formulae needed for the 

 complete reduction of observations of this kind, 

 including the criterion for determining whether 

 the observations of both stations in any given 

 instance really refer to the same meteor, are 

 fully developed. Nine meteor paths were suc- 

 cessfully worked out in this way in August, 1894. 

 The heights of the meteors range from four to 

 fifty-seven miles. Prof. Schaeberle concludes 

 by pointing out that much more reliable methods 

 of observation must be devised, if orbits having 

 any approach to precision are to be secured for 

 meteors. We can only hope that the experi- 

 ments now in progress at the Yale College Ob- 

 servatory will lead to the possibility of observ- 

 ing these interesting bodies photographically. 



We learn from the last number of the Publi- 

 cations of the Astronomical Society of the 

 Pacific that several important instruments have 

 recently been completed at the works of Mr. 

 Saegmuller in Washington. These include a 

 nine-inch photographic instrument with collim- 

 ators for the Observatory of Georgetown Col- 

 lege, and a four-and-one-half-inch meridian 

 circle for the Catholic University. Numerous 

 other important instruments are in course of 

 construction. We hope this new and very 

 powerful photographic transit instrument will 

 enable F. Hagen and F. Fargis to carry their 

 very promising experiments in the direction of 

 determining right ascensions photographically 

 to a successful conclusion. If it shall prove 

 possible to photograph the collimators with suc- 

 cess, there can be little doubt that most impor- 

 tant results will flow from the use of this new 

 method. 



Messes. Macmillan & Co. announce that 

 Dr. G. W. Hill's ' Celestial Mechanics ' will be 



