44 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No, ^2,7 



SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES, 



47 Lafayette Place, New York. 



Subscriptions. — United States and Canada §3.5° a year. 



Great Britain and Europe 4.50 a year. 



Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): 



1 subscription i year..... = S 3-50 



2 " I year 6.00 



3 ** I year 8.00 



4 " I year.. 10.00 



Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be 

 returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the 

 manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name 

 and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good 

 faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the 

 communications of our correspondents. 



NEW YORK, July 19, iS 



No. 337. 



CONTENTS: 



The Sprague Electkic-Rail 



Girdling Ti 



FULNESS. 



) IMPROVE FrUIT- 



36 



Life Insurance 37 



The Primitive Home of the Ar- 

 yans A. If. Sayce 38 



The Grain Plant-Louse _.... 42 



Notes and News 42 



Editorial 44 



Suggestions for Census-Taking. 



The Enumeration of the Deaf... 44 



Health Matters. 



Baking Bacilli 47 



Professor Huxley and M. Pasteur 

 on Hydrophobia 47 



Book-Reviews. 



Der Hypnotismus 48 



Among THE Publishers 48 



Letters to the Editor. 



Are Beech-Trees ever struck by 



Lightning ? 

 A Navajo Tri 



H. D. Post so 

 R. IV. Shu/eldt 50 



We PUBLISH IN THIS NUMBER certain suggestions that have 

 been made, by those best able to judge, as to improvements in the 

 taking of the census of the deaf. At the same time we would call 

 attention to certain suggestions by Dr. A. Graham Bell on the 

 census-taking of the deaf which may lead to important results in 

 the study of the heredity of this affection, and to its introduction 

 into certain families through unfortunate marriages. One of the 

 sections in the article to which we refer has reference to the off- 

 spring of first-cousin marriages. This is a point of grave impor- 

 tance, and one upon which, up to this time, no special data have 

 been obtained in this country. The committee of the deaf, as it 

 will be seen, recommends the introduction into the census sched- 

 ules of a question bearing on this point, and it is certainly to be 

 hoped that such a question will be inserted. In examining the 

 ancestry of deaf-mutes, Dr. Bell has had occasion to consult the 

 original population schedules of former censuses, which are pre- 

 served in the Department of the Interior, and he has found little 

 difficulty in tracing the families backward from census to census 

 in the male line of ascent. If the name of the father had been 

 given in former censuses, it might now be possible for genealogical 

 experts to trace from these records the American ancestry of every 

 person now living in the United States in every branch, for the 

 name of the father would give the maiden name of females. Dr. 

 Bell therefore suggests that in the census of 1890 the father's 



name should be noted in that part of the schedule that relates to 

 the nativity of the parents, so that the people of the United States- 

 may leave to their descendants genealogical records from which 

 their full ancestry may at any time be ascertained. This sugges- 

 tion is full of interest to the genealogists of the country, and, if 

 carried into effect, would undoubtedly prove of great value to 

 them. The committee of the New England Historical and Genea- 

 logical Society, to whom this matter was referred, has strongly 

 indorsed it, and it is hoped that a question on this point, as shown 

 in the proposed schedule, will be inserted. 



THE ENUMERATION OF THE DEAF. 



A MEETING of the executive committee of the conference of 

 American instructors of the deaf was held in Washington, May 9 

 of this year, to consider the best method of enumerating the deaf 

 of the next census, and confer with the superintendent of the cen- 

 sus, Hon. Robert D. Porter, on the subject. Dr. Alexander Gra- 

 ham Bell and Mr. Frederick Howard Wines were invited to act 

 with the committee. All the members of the committee, including 

 Dr. Bell, were present ; but Mr. Wines was unable to attend. 

 After a discussion of several hours and a pleasant interview with 

 Mr. Porter and Dr. J. S. Billings, who has charge of the mortality 

 and vital statistics of the " Eleventh Census," Mr. Porter acceded 

 to the request of the committee, that in the next census the deaf 

 should be separated from the pauper and criminal classes, and 

 promised to give careful consideration to any suggestions the com- 

 mittee might make. In accordance with this, the committee, — 

 consisting of Edward M. Gallaudet, president of the National Col- 

 lege for Deaf-Mutes ; Isaac Lewis Peet, principal of the New York 

 Institution for the Deaf and Dumb ; Philip G. Gillett, superintendent 

 of the Illinois Institution for the Deaf and Dumb ; J. L. Noyes, 

 superintendent of the Minnesota School for the Deaf ; Caroline A. 

 Yale, principal of the Clarke Institution for the Deaf at Northamp- 

 ton, Mass.; Alexander Graham Bell ; and Edward Allen Fay, editor 

 of the American Annals of the Deaf, — on June 21, addressed a let- 

 ter to Mr. .Porter, in which they made the following statements and 

 suggestions : — • 



" At the sixth conference of principals and superintendents of 

 American schools for the deaf, held at Jackson, Miss., April 14-17, 

 1 888, — a body representing all the schools for the deaf in the 

 United States, numbering last year 8,372 pupils, — we were ap- 

 pointed a committee to endeavor to effect a reform in the method 

 of enumerating the deaf in the United States census, in the hope 

 of securing fuller and more accurate statistics in 1890 than have 

 heretofore been obtained. In accordance with your request at our 

 interview on the 9th of MayMast, that we should make such sug- 

 gestions as might seem desirable in this direction, we respectfully 

 submit the following recommendations : — 



" I. Section 17 of the act of Congress, entitled 'An Act to pro- 

 vide for taking the tenth and subsequent censuses' [approved 

 March 3, 1879], provides that 'Schedule No. i (here reproduced) 

 shall contain inquiries ... as to the physical and mental health 

 of each person enumerated, whether active or disabled, maimed, 

 crippled, bedridden, deaf, dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic, and 

 whether employed or unemployed, and, if unemployed, during what 

 portion of the year.' In accordance with this provision, inquiries 

 were made in the ' Tenth Census ' concerning the disabled ; and - 

 full returns were sought of all the classes named in the act, except- 

 ing the deaf and the dumb. Only those dumb were enumerated 

 who were also deaf, and only those deaf who had lost hearing be- 

 fore the age of sixteen years. We urge that in the ' Eleventh Cen- 

 sus ' all the classes named in the act be fully enumerated ; and we 

 specially urge that the returns of the deaf be not limited to that 

 sub-class of the deaf formerly denominated the ' deaf and dumb.' 

 If the requirements of the law are fully complied with, the returns 

 will be much more useful to us, as teachers of the deaf, than if the 

 plan pursued in former censuses of inquiring only for the ' deaf and 

 dumb ' is continued. Pupils are admitted to the schools we repre- 

 sent, not on account of their dumbness, but on account of their 

 deafness. Persons who are merely dumb are not received : per- 

 sons who are merely deaf are received. Our schools are open to 



