July 27, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



143 



Colorado R. R. in 1852 near Harrisburg. It is 

 now known as the Galveston, Harrisburg and 

 San Antonio Railway. Construction on the 

 Houston and Texas Central R. R. began in 

 1853 ; on the Galveston, Houston and Hender- 

 son in 1854 ; and on the Texas and Pacific in 

 1856. By 1860, 284 miles of railway were in 

 operation in Texas; by 1870, 583 miles; by 

 1880, 2581 miles ; by 1890, 8486 miles ; and by 

 1900, 9869 miles. Texas has donated to the 

 railways of the State 34,179,055 acres of public 

 land, or 53,405 square miles, or one-fifth of its 

 total area. This territory would form a State 

 as large as Arkansas. 



Of the States of the Union Texas is third in 

 railway mileage. Were it as well developed in 

 proportion to area as Illinois it would have 

 50,759 miles; if as well as Pennsylvania, it 

 would have 57,900 miles of railway. 



The effect upon the mileage of the State re- 

 sulting from the donation of land to the rail- 

 ways was also shown. 



Professor Nagle's paper dealt with a few of 

 the more important questions which present 

 themselves to the sanitary engineer and their 

 relation to public health. Statistics regarding 

 the death rate from preventable diseases were 

 given, special attention being devoted to typhoid 

 epidemics as affected by impure water supplies. 

 Methods of water purification were described 

 and their relative values discussed and the 

 necessity of preventing water waste emphasized. 

 Methods of sewage treatment and garbage dis- 

 posal were similarly treated, and figures given 

 to show the degree of purification attainable. 



It was pointed out that during the past fifty 

 years the medium age of man has been in- 

 creased about 25 per cent, and this was attrib- 

 uted to the marvelous discoveries in bacteriol- 

 ogy. That the sanitary engineer has provided 

 means to greatly diminish the death rate due 

 to bacteriological diseases there can be no 

 question. The remarkable vitality of certain 

 forms of bacterial life under what appear to be 

 unfavorable conditions was illustrated by refer- 

 ence to actual examples as were also the effects 

 attained by changes in water supplies and the 

 treatment of sewage. 



The speaker took the position that the engi- 

 neer should not only execute such works as 



may be entrusted to him but should endeaver 

 in every legitimate way to mould public opinion 

 in such matters, and furthermore, that when 

 the fact is recognized that the assistance of the 

 engineer is often-times as necessary as that of 

 the physician, then will a more sanitary condi- 

 tion exist, especially in the cities and towns of 

 the south and west. 



The following officers were elected for the 

 ensuing year : President of the Academy, 

 Henry Winston Harper, M.D., F.C.S., Profes- 

 sor of Chemistry in the University of Texas ; 

 Vice-President, O. C. Charlton, Professor of 

 Science in Baylor University, Waco ; Secre- 

 tary, Frederic W. Simonds, Ph.D., Professor of 

 Geology in the University of Texas ; Treasurer, 

 R. A. Thompson, M.A., C.E., Engineer to the 

 Texas Railroad Commission, Austin ; Librarian, 

 Wm. L. Bray, Ph.D., Professor of Botany in 

 the University of Texas ; other Members of the 

 Council : H. L. Hilgartner, M.D., Austin ; J. 

 C. Nagle, M.A., M.C.E., Professor of Engi- 

 neering in the Agricultural and Mechanical 

 College of Texas, and T. U. Taylor, M.C.E., 

 Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Uni- 

 versity of Texas. 



F. W. S. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 



BPITROPISM, APOTEOPISM AND THE TEOPAXIS. 



In an article published in Science for July 

 13, 1900, entitled 'The Structure and Signifi- 

 cation of Certain Botanical Terms,' I men- 

 tioned epitropism, apotropism and tropaxis as 

 among terms of that kind which I had long per- 

 sonally used but never before published. The 

 following notes illustrate the manner in which I 

 originally used them in my college lectures 

 and, in rewriting them, I have found it con- 

 venient to retain in part their original didactic 

 style. It is not my present purpose to com- 

 pare my method of treating this subject with 

 the methods of other writers, and I shall there- 

 fore not refer to them. 



The archetype, or elemental form, of every 

 highly organized plant, especially every pheno- 

 gam, is a simple erect shaft, which becomes 

 the main shaft of the mature plant. As the 

 main shaft increases in growth from the plant- 

 let secondai'y shafts spring from it, those from 



