206 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 7. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



— The Compendium of the tenth census, which is 

 now being distributed by the interior department, is 

 comprised in two octavo volumes, each of about 900 

 pages. This is about double the size of 'the compen- 

 dium of the ninth census. This great increase is 

 produced in the main by the introduction of more 

 detailed tables, and of subjects which were not taken 

 up by the ninth census, or, if taken up, their statis- 

 tics were not summarized in the compendium. 



The contents of the work before us may be sum- 

 marized as follows: to the statistics of population, 

 including, as allied topics, occupations, illiteracy, the 

 defective, dependent, and delinquent classes, and 

 mortality, are given about 800 pages. These include 

 the statistics of the aggregate population, of race and 

 nativity, by states, counties, and minor civil divisions ; 

 a classification of the native population by state of 

 birth, and of the foreign element by country of birth; 

 and the statistics of sex and age. The latter are very 

 full, comprising, among others, a table giving the 

 number in each state of each successive year of age. 



This matter is followed by the statistics of agricul- 

 ture, which occupy about 275 pages. These comprise, 

 In general terms, the area and size of farms, extent 

 of cultivated land, and the vegetable and live-stock 

 productions. They are given by states and coun- 

 ties. 



The statistics of manufactures, which follow, occu- 

 py about the same number of pages as those of agri- 

 culture. These are particularly full and complete, 

 containing, besides tables of general statistics by 

 states and counties, the statistics of no less than 332 

 different industries. Tables of power used in manu- 

 factures, a subject new to the census, follow. The 

 statistics of mineral production, petroleum, and of 

 quarries, succeed; then those of railroads, steam- 

 craft, canals, telegraphs, and telephones. Statistics 

 of occupation are sandwiched in between the last and 

 those of fisheries. Then follow foreign parentage, 

 areas, families, and dwellings; Alaskan statistics ; fire, 

 life, and marine insurance; wealth, debt, and tax- 

 ation; illiteracy and public schools; the defective, 

 dependent, and delinquent classes; and, as a fitting 

 finale, mortality. 



As will be noticed, the arrangement of the work is 

 not all that could be desired. While the great bulk 

 of the statistics regarding the population are grouped 

 in the earlier part of the work, a number of subjects 

 closely related to it are scattered in toward the end. 

 It is very probable that this was a necessity, growing 

 out of the order, in time, in which the different 

 subjects were prepared for publication. 



As this work contains abstracts of all the statistical 

 matter of the census, its completion presupposes that 

 of the more extended tables, which form the statis- 

 tical matter of the full reports ; and their appearance 



may be expected as rapidly as the capacity of the 

 Government printing-office will permit. 



— The third meeting of German geographers will 

 be held at Frankfort-on-the-Main on the 29th, 30th, 

 and 31st of this month. As at the previous meetings 

 at Berlin and Halle, the morning sessions will be 

 given up to scientific addresses, and the afternoons to 

 questions of school method. There will also be an 

 exhibition of geographic teaching-material, to remain 

 open for two or three weeks. 



— As the city of Buenos Aires was separated from 

 the province of the same name in December, 1880, 

 and made federal territory, it has been decided to 

 establish a new city for the provincial capital, to be 

 called La Plata. Its first foundations were laid Dec. 

 9, 1882, about twenty-five miles east of Buenos Aires, 

 and three miles west of the harbor of Ensenada. 



— Professor Owen, in the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological society of London for 1882 (p. 571), objects 

 to the current statement that Hilton was the first to 

 discover the Trichina spiralis, and points out that 

 Hilton saw only the calcified cysts in the muscles of 

 cadavers. To Professor Owen himself properly be- 

 longs the honor of the important discovery of the 

 parasitic worm, — a discovery which has led to the 

 prevention of so much suffering by having guided us 

 to the means of avoiding trichinosis. 



— For the past five years the Department of agri- 

 culture has been endeavoring to encourage the pro- 

 duction of raw silk in the United States by the 

 dissemination of eggs, and by publishing for free 

 distribution a manual of instruction. A definite im- 

 pulse to the industry was looked forward to, when the 

 tariff commission recommended that a small duty be 

 placed upon reeled silk and cocoons ; but this recom- 

 mendation was unheeded by the Senate committee 

 having the bill in charge. A most interesting dis- 

 cussion was brought out, however, by the amend- 

 ment offered by Senator Morgan of Alabama, Feb. 8, 

 to strike out those articles from the free-list, and to 

 place a duty of ten per cent ad valorem upon them. 

 Senator Morgan defended his amendment in a very 

 able manner, and was seconded by Senator George of 

 Mississippi. The amendment was defeated by a vote 

 of 39 yeas to 7 nays. Strangely enough, the two prin- 

 cipal arguments were diametrically opposed to each 

 other. Senator Hawley of Connecticut stated that 

 the production of silk had been attempted in this 

 country, at intervals, for two hundred years without 

 success, and held that it could not succeed with all 

 the protection the government could give it; while 

 Senator Ingalls of Kansas pictured in glowing colors 

 the success attained by M. de Boissiere at Silkville, 

 Kan., and argued, that, while such results are possi- 

 ble without an import-duty, the necessity for levying 

 such a tax does not exist. As a commentary on 

 this latter argument, we may state that Boissiere's 

 silk-experiment is now, and has been for some years. 



