350 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 62. 



the honorary president the Duke de Lou- 

 bat. 



It has begun the publication of a journal 

 in large quarto form, the first number of 

 wliich has forty-one pages and several illus- 

 trations. Its contents are two articles, one 

 by Dr. Hamy on the American collections 

 brought together at G-enoa on the occasion 

 of the fourth centenary of the discovery of 

 America; the second on the present state 

 of the Fu Sang question. They are both in- 

 teresting, and it is especially gratifying to 

 see that M. Henri Cordier, the author of the 

 latter, follows the opinion of the eminent 

 Sinologue Professor Schlegel in wholly dis- 

 missing the discovery of Fu Sang from the 

 list of possible pre-Columbian voyages to 

 America. (I gave Prof Schlegel's argu- 

 ment in these notes September 9, 1892). 



It is not stated what relation, if any, tMs 

 new society bears to the long-existent ' So- 

 ciete Americaine de France,' which has at 

 times published highly valuable material. 

 D. G. Brinton. 



SCIENTipiC NOTES AND NEWS. 



A DIRECTOB IN CHIEF OP SCIENTIFIC BUREAUS 

 IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



A LARGE number of letters have been ad- 

 dressed to Senator Redfield Proctor, Chairman 

 of the Committee on Agriculture, urging the 

 appointment of a permanaut Director in Chief 

 of the scientific bureaus and investigations 

 under the charge of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. The writers of the letters 

 include the presidents and members of the 

 faculties of Johns Hopkins University and of 

 Yale University, the president of Columbia 

 University, Professors Brewers, Slialer and 

 others most competent to judge of the import- 

 ance of this measure. 



The Joint Commission of the Scientific Socie- 

 ties of Washington has adopted the following 

 resolutions : 



Whereas, The work of the Department of 

 Agriculture in the discovery, exploration, de- 

 velopment, conservation and proper utiUzatiou 



of the resources of our country is of the utmost 

 importance; and whereas the Department's 

 capacity for originating, procuring and dis- 

 seminating knowledge of vital importance to 

 farming and other interests, though already 

 large, is capable of much extension in the future; 

 and whereas the results accomplished through 

 the system now in existence have been exceed- 

 ingly great, and the one thing above all others 

 necessary to increase the efliciency of this or- 

 ganization is a permanent policy with regard 

 to its work and personnel: 



Besolved, That the Joint Commission of the 

 Scientific Societies of Washington, composed of 

 the officers of the several scientific societies of 

 the city, comprising in all a membership of 

 nearly 2,000, heartily approves the proposition 

 to create the office of ' Director-in-Chief of 

 Scientific Divisions in the Department of Agri- 

 culture," to be filled by a broadly educated 

 and experienced scientific administrative officer, 

 holding office during good behavior. 



Besolved, That the plan of having a perma- 

 nent officer in charge of the scientific and tech- 

 nical work under the executive head of a de- 

 partment represents a distinct advance in good 

 government, and is therefore not only of 

 national importance, but if carried out certain 

 to have a beneficial effect upon the scientific 

 standing of Government work in all its rela- 

 tions. 



RONTGEN RAYS AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



The London papers give the following ac- 

 count of the meeting of the Royal Society 

 on February 13th: A paper by Lord Kelvin 

 on The Generation of Longitudinal Waves in 

 Ether described an arrangement for obtaining 

 pressural disturbance through a considerable 

 space of air, accompanied by a very small pro- 

 portion of ordinary transverse waves. His ap- 

 paratus would afford the means of exposing 

 sensitive plates to these longitudinal vibrations, 

 and thus might assist in elucidating the nature 

 of the Rontgen rays. A paper by Prof. J. 

 J. Thomson was also read relating to experi- 

 ments from which he concludes that all sub- 

 stances when transmitting the Rontgen rays 

 are conductors of electricity. A discussion fol- 

 lowed the reading of these papers, in which de- 



