26 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 1. 



A European agency was also established for the col- 

 lection of statistics indicating the prospective Euro- 

 pean demand for American grains and meats. The 

 agency is in charge of Mr. Edmund J. Moiiatt, and its 

 headquarters are at the office of the consul-general at 

 London. The results of this widening of the scope 

 of the statistical division have already proved highly 

 satisfactory. 



Meeting of agriculturists. — Commissioner Loring 

 has issued another call for a series of meetings of 

 prominent agriculturists at the department at Wash- 

 ington, commencing Jan. 23. The subjects an- 

 nounced for discussion were: agricultural colleges 

 and their work, the animal industries of the country, 

 and the cotton crop and its relation to agriculture iu 

 the cotton States. 



National experiment stations. — A bill is now be- 

 fore Congress, introduced by Representative Car- 

 penter of Iowa, jjroviding for the establishment of 

 national experiment stations in connection with the 

 agricultural colleges of the different States, and under 

 the control of the department. An annual appropri- 

 ation of $15,000 for each station is provided for, to 

 be expended in salaries and the expenses of experi- 

 ments. The bill has received the indorsement of 

 Commissioner Loring, and is considered the soundest 

 and most practical scheme in the way of agricultural 

 legislation which has been brought before Congress 

 since the agricultural college land grant of 1862. 

 Small as the appropriation is, it will give a much- 

 needed stimulus to the work of some of otu- smaller 

 agricultural colleges, especially in the south. 



Sorghum. — Since 1S77, the efforts of the depart- 

 ment to i^rove the possibility of profitable sugar- 

 making from sorghum have attracted much attention 

 throughout the country, and been variously com- 

 mented on by the agricultural press. Some time 

 since, the results of the investigations of Professor 

 Collier, chemist of the department, were submitted to 

 the National academy of sciences for an opinion as to 

 their value. The report of the committee of the acad- 

 emy, first made, was withdrawn for revision on the 

 21st of last July, and returned to the commissioner 

 on the 15th of November, when an abstract was given 

 to the daily press. The entire report will be pub- 

 lished as a special document. Realizing the fact that 

 the results of the mill-work at Washington during 

 the two previous years had been discouraging. Dr. 

 Loring devoted the congressional appropriation for 

 the continuance of experiments in 188.3 to the re- 

 muneration of the successful manufacturers through- 

 out the country, for operations conducted under his 

 direction. In this way a great amount of practical 

 experience from different sections has been obtained, 

 and will soon be published in a special report. This 

 course was heartily indorsed by the Cane-growers' 

 association of the Mississippi valley at its recent an- 

 nual meeting in St. Louis, and before which the 

 commissioner delivered an address, in which he re- 

 viewed the whole subject of sorghum sugar-making, 

 and urged that the effort to establish so important an 

 industry as the production of sugar in the Northern 

 States should be conducted with the same judgment, 

 patience, and perseverance as have been applied to 

 the great industries already established. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. 



Mnseam of comparative zoologyi Camtridge, Mass, 

 Selections from embryological monographs. — One 

 of the last numbers of the memoirs of the museum 

 contains the first of a series of Selections from 

 embryological monographs, compiled by Alexander 

 Agassiz, Walter Faxon, and E. L. Mark. The 



object of these selections is to give to the student 

 in an easily accessible form a more or less complete 

 iconography of the embryology of each group of the 

 animal kingdom. This selection is not intended as 

 a handbook, but rather as an atlas to accompany 

 any general work on the subject. The plates will be 

 issued in parts, each part covering a somewhat limited 

 field. The quarto illustrations are accompanied by 

 a carefully prepared explanation of the plates, and 

 by a bibliography in octavo, to be made as complete 

 as possible. 



The first part, Crustacea, is by Mr. Faxon. It 

 consists of fourteen plates and twenty-eight pages of 

 explanatory matter. The source from which each 

 figure is taken is invariably indicated, while a general 

 heading for the principal groups treated gives a list 

 of the authors whose figures have been copied. A 

 number of unpublished original drawings by Mr. 

 Agassiz have been incorporated wherever they suj)- 

 plement published material. 



We may form some idea of the activity of the dif- 

 ferent nations in the field of morphology by stating 

 that these illustrations were copied from the memoirs 

 of nine Germans, five Americans, four Russians and 

 as many English, of three Scandinavians, two Bel- 

 gians, one Dutchman, and one Frenchman; the im- 

 portance of the contributions is also fairly repre- 

 sented in the above enumeration. 



Dr. A. S. Packard, jun., and Dr. J. W. Fewkes, will 

 assist the editors of the ' selections ' in the preparation 

 of the Insects and Acalephae. The second number 

 of the bibliography, Echinodermata, by Alexander 

 Agassiz, has been issued as No. 2 of vol. x. of the 

 museum bulletin; the illustrations of that part will 

 be published during the coming summer. 



Academy of natnral sciences, Philadelphiai Penn. 



The Vaux gift. — Arrangements are being made 

 for the reception and arrangement of the fine collec- 

 tions of minerals and antiquities belonging to the 

 late William S. Vaux. The gift includes a suflicient 

 endowment to provide for the appointment of a 

 special curator and for the annual increase of both 

 collections by purchase of specimens. 



Professor A. Heilprin began a course of twenty- 

 five lectures on physiography and paleontology, on 

 Jan. 12, to be given on the successive Tuesdays and 

 Fridays of each week. The lectures involve the con- 

 sideration of the following general subjects: The 

 rock masses of the earth's crust; present and past 

 climates; wind and currents; geographical and geo- 

 logical distribution of animals ; and the succession of 

 life on the globe. 



At the close of Professor Heilprin' s lectures, Pro- 

 fessor H. Carvill Lewis will deliver a course on min- 

 eralogy and lithology, a large portion of which will 

 consist of a series of field-lectures upon the miner- 

 alogy and lithology of Philadelphia and vicinity, of 

 which a fuller account will be given in a future issue. 

 Similar courses delivered last year by Professors 

 Heilprin and Lewis were well attended, principally 

 by teachers in the colleges and higher schools of the 

 city. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 — A telegram from London, Jan. 17, informs us 

 that Mr. George H. Darwin has been elected pro- 

 fessor of astronomy and experimental philosophy in 

 the University of Cambridge. Professor Darwin is 

 a son of the late Charles R, Darwin, and, until very 

 recently, has been a Fellow of Trinity College. Al- 



