SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 340 



SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES. 



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NEW YORK, August 9, iS 



No. 340. 



CONTENTS: 



Electrical Devices of the Mutual 

 Electric Company's System . . . 



The Sprouting of Seeds 



Inheritance of Injuries . . 



Amateur Photography in the Sum- 



L of 1 



Health Matters. 

 The Alleged Spontaneous Combus- 

 tion of the Human Body 94 



Elimination of Poisons 95 



Hygienic Police Regulations in Ber- 

 lin 



95 



Sir Spencer Wells on Cremation ... . 95 



Notes and News 95 



Editorial 96 



The World's Fair and Men of Sci- 



fi What and Why of Agricul- 

 tural Experiment St.ations... 96 



EMIES of the PlANT-LoUSE 100 



Book-Reviews. 

 A Practical Guide 



the Clii 



and Weather of India, Ceylon and 

 Burmah and the Storms of the 



Numbers Universalized : An Ad- 

 vanced Algebra 102 



Among the Publishers 102 



A Possible Elephant G. E. Culver 103 

 Are_ Beech-Trees ever struck by 



Lightning? E. E, Bogue 103 



Mosquitoes and Science 



E. H, Willimns^jun, 103 

 Queries and Answers 103 



The week's progress in the preparation for the world's fair in 

 this city in 1892 shows mainly, as is to be expected, in the recom- 

 mendation, by various commercial and industrial bodies, of persons 

 whom they wish to represent them on the committee of one hun- 

 dred which the mayor proposes to appoint. So far, no action has 

 been taken by scientific men toward giving suggestions as to the fea- 

 tures of the exposition in which they would care to take part ; and, 

 while naturally scientific interests are not as keen as those which 

 give the main impulse to the undertaking, it is desirable that the 

 scientific men of the country should be heard from ; and we cor- 

 dially invite a free discussion in the columns of Science of the ways 

 by which the interests of American scientific men may be served 

 best by the exhibition. An accompaniment of every exhibition is 

 a series of scientific congresses. To be sure, such congresses to 

 the number of nearly a hundred will have been held in Paris before 

 the close of the summer ; but all questions will not be settled by 

 them, and by the summer of 1892 the scientific men of the world 

 will be ready for further debate. 



At the present stage of affairs the discussion of the site is going 

 on vigorously. Governor's Island finding a good many advocates. 

 When there was talk of a world's fair eleven years ago, the witty 

 editor of the then flourishing Appletons Journal, Mr. O. B. Bunce. 

 urged Governor's Island as a site in the following terms : " This 

 island is one of the general government military centres, but we 



may assume that Congress or the executive, wherever the power lies, 

 would promptly surrender it for the purpose proposed. The situa- 

 tion is superb. It is nearly at the junction of the Hudson and East 

 Rivers, less than a mile from the Battery, and is equidistant from 

 Brooklyn and New York. It lies directly upon the channel which 

 leads to the sea ; is fanned by breezes from the ocean and rivers ; 

 is healthful, salubrious, and every way charming. Ships from 

 abroad could land their cargoes for the exhibition at the doors of 

 the structures without a foot of land-carriage. Boats down the 

 Hudson, boats from the East through the Sound, steamers from 

 Southern ports, and lighters from the great railroad-depots at Jer- 

 sey City, could do the same. A ferry would have to be established 

 at the Battery, where are the termini of the elevated railways, 

 which reach through the city to its uppermost limits, thus giving 

 easy and convenient access from every point ; while with ferry- 

 boats in addition at points along each river, at Brooklyn, and at 

 Jersey City, the great crowd of visitors could be gathered and dis- 

 persed with so little friction and so much comfort as to make this 

 world's fair memorable compared with all others. Those who 

 recollect the fatigue and torment of getting to and from the Phila- 

 delphia exhibition must welcome this feature of the prospect with 

 delight ; and in all of the exhibitions, so far, the journeyings to and 

 fro have been fatiguing and tedious to a degree almost to over- 

 weigh the pleasure derived from the wonders on display. Gov- 

 ernor's Island is between sixty and seventy acres in extent, and, as 

 the area of the Philadelphia buildings is over fifty acres, the place 

 may at first thought seem too small. This difficulty can be met by 

 having galleries in the buildings, as was the case in the first Crys- 

 tal Palace, and by erecting somp of the structures over the beach 

 supported by piles. Superb fagades could be constructed at the 

 water's edge, facing the harbor and the city, presenting a grand 

 picture to the approaching visitors." 



In a recent communication to the Evem>ig Post, Mr. Bunce 

 states that the island is a mile and a quarter in circumference, its 

 shape being elliptical. A building encircling the island at the 

 water's edge (which might rest partly on sea-walls) would be 

 of greater length than the united length of the buildings at the 

 Centennial Exhibition, the dimensions of which were as follows : 

 main building, 1,876 feet ; machinery hall, 1,402 feet; art gallery, 

 365 feet; horticultural hall, 383 feet; agricultural hall, 820 feet; 

 making a total of 4,846 feet, with an average width of about 350 

 feet. A structure encircling 4he island 400 feet in width would 

 exceed the capacity of the Philadelphia structures fully fifty per 

 cent, and leave the greater part of the island free for the erection 

 of special buildings by the States or otherwise. Whether the form 

 of building here suggested would be adopted is not yet to be de- 

 cided, but the figures show that there is considerable room on the 

 island, and engineers might be depended on for a few annexed 

 strips out over the water if need should be. The exhibition is to 

 be held, unless all signs fail ; it is to be held in New York as the 

 great commercial centre, made so by its being the most accessible 

 city in the United States ; and we now urge on scientific men to 

 take such action as will give due prominence to what they are 

 doing for the world's advancement. 



THE WHAT AND WHY OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERI- 

 MENT STATIONS. 



Professor W. O. Atwater, director of the Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations, of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 has issued Farmers' Bulletin No. i of that office, containing a brief 

 statement of the history, work, and aims of the agricultural experi- 

 ment stations. 



This bulletin is intended as the first of a series the object of 

 which is to give information about the experiment stations and 

 their work by collating results bearing upon special topics, and 

 putting them into brief, clear, practical form for farmers and others 



