Mabch 9, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



143 



contains the usual reports of the entomologist, 

 the superintendent of grounds, the botanist, 

 the chemist, and the statistician, besides special 

 reports relating to the diseases of animals and 

 to the boring of artesian wells on the arid 

 lands of the west. The tone and matter of 

 the special reports and of the reports of special 

 character compare so favorably with most of 

 those of the old-st^'le ' regulars, ' that the thought 

 suggests itself, that a much larger proportion 

 of the work of the department than has hither- 

 to been customar}- could best be done by spe- 

 cial commissioners outside of Washington and 

 far awaj^ from its influences. From the very 

 nature of the situation and surroundings of the 

 Department of agriculture ; the irregularitj' of 

 its income ; and its dependence for support 

 upon the favor of political parties, — let alone 

 the merciful dispensation that the tenure of 

 office of its chief is short, — it cannot be ac- 

 counted competent to carrj' on continuous sci- 

 entific researches ; and it is in no sense desir- 

 able that it should do so. Works of longue 

 haleine such as must necessarily run on con- 

 secutivelj' from j-ear to year are be3'ond its 

 powers ; and it will be well for Commissioners 

 of agriculture, present and future, to accept 

 the fact. Rather than try to grasp the unat- 

 tainable, it will assuredly' be wiser to study 

 special finite questions as thej' present them- 

 selves ; and to this end the best means is the 

 emploj^ment of special scientific men of ap- 

 proved competenc}', each one to grapple with 

 his own particular question in such place and 

 manner as he may deem fit. 



One commendable feature of the present 

 volume is the comparative brevity of the re- 

 ports of the superintendent of grounds and 

 the botanist (of the report of the entomolo- 

 gist we shall speak at another time). The 

 report of the chemist, on the other hand, is 

 extended, and it has somewhat the effect of a 

 twice-told tale. It was interesting and impor- 

 tant to prove that the proportion of true sugar 

 in sorghum-stalks increases continuallj' until 



the plant is well advanced toward maturity ; 

 but the evidence of this fact presented in pre- 

 vious report' ^eemed convincing, and many of 

 the result ded in the present volume have 



the efl'ect of 1; 'ng little more than refine- 

 ments upon good work. The reader is inclined 

 to ask whether it is not about time for the de- 

 partment to let its scientific corps drop sor- 

 ghum, and to relegate the subject to the arts- 

 men i^roper ; that is to say, to those farmers 

 and manufacturers who are specially interested 

 in this line of business. 



From a letter of the ' commissioners for locat- 

 ing artesian wells upon arid and waste lands,' 

 as well as from the statements of the commis- 

 sioner of agriculture himself, it appears that 

 in their opinion the first trial- well at Fort Lj'on 

 in Colorado was not a success. The onus of 

 this ' failure ' is made to rest, of course, on the 

 shoulders of a preceding administration ; but 

 the lesson it teaches is none the less instructive. 

 It suggests the reflection, that while one impor- 

 tant function of the Department of agriculture 

 has been to show the American people ' how 

 not to do it,' there are various waj's in which 

 the lesson is enforced. Impracticable borings 

 in Colorado undoubtedly represent one mode 

 of tuition, but in the appointing and changing 

 of employes for political reasons we have 

 another ; and to the same end must inevitably 

 work all changes of base which are hasty, 

 spasmodic, and inconsequent. It will be of 

 interest to notice how far down the next bor- 

 ings will be permitted to reach before a new 

 incumbent says, ' Hold, enough ! ' 



From a couple of modestly printed tables on 

 pp. 25 and 692, it appears that the Depart- 

 ment of agriculture disbursed ^256,129.68 

 during the year ending June 30, 1881, and 

 8353,748.60 during the year ending June 30, 

 1882. It will convey no new information, either 

 to scientific men or to the agricultural commu- 

 nitj', when we saj' that the results obtained by 

 this class of expenditures have hitherto been, 

 out of all proportion, small. 



WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



MATHEMATICS. 



The polar quadrilateral. — As a geometrical in- 

 terpretation of a property of the roots of an equation 

 of the fifth degree, A. BriU shows that the six points 

 in which a conic circumscribing a triangle can be made 

 to osculate a fixed conic are the same for certain five 

 triangles connected with a polar quadrilateral of the 

 fixed conic. — [Math, ann., xx. 331.) c. l. f. [288 



Ruled spaces. — In a thesis presented to the Sor- 



bonne, M. Koenigs studies the infinitesimal properties 

 of au extensive class of linear complexes, basing his 

 researches upon the earlier investigations of Pliicker, 

 Kummer, etc. M. Koenigs observes, that in punctual 

 space, tangential space, and in space of which the 

 sphere is an element, every infinitesimal property is 

 expressed as a property of involution. He com- 

 mences by defining certain primordial elements which 

 he regards as necessary and sufficient for the expres- 

 sion of all mutual relations of the infinitesimal prop- 



