132 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 342 



SCIENCE: 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES. 



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NEW YORK, August 23, i£ 



No. 342. 



Aeon's Electric Mete 

 Railroads in the Uni' 

 BUHACH 



CONTENTS: 



123 I Organiz 



Sawing Stone by Wire Cord 127 



Sewage Purification 128 



Health Matters. 



Leprosy 12S 



. Death from Electricity 129 



Cancer 129 



Typhus Bacillus in Water 129 



Notes and News 129 



Editorial 132 



The World's Fair. 



HE AgRICULTU- 



Stations 



E, Paris 133 



ThernTody: 



of the Steam En- 



AiMONG THE Publishers 



Letters to the Editor. 



Sunset Glows Sereno E. Bishop 

 " Suggestion " W. i 

 Minute Aeronauts R. J. Bromley 

 Queries 



Of the progress toward the World's Fair of 1892, we have to 

 report this week the first meeting of the finance committee. Of 

 the twenty-five appointed on the committee by Mayor Grant, sev- 

 enteen responded to their names on the call of the roll. These 

 were William L. Bull, Calvin S. Brice, August Belmont, Samuel D. 

 Babcock, Robert Dunlap, Henry B. Hyde, John H. Inman, Freder- 

 ick A. Kursheedt, Jay Gould, Eugene Kelly, John McKesson, Her- 

 mann Oelrichs, William Rockefeller, Charles Stewart Smith, Wil- ' 

 liam Steinway, J. Edward Simmons, Jesse Seligman. Oswald 

 Ottendorfer, the absentees being C. P. Huntington, H. O. Have- 

 meyer, Morris K. Jesup, Ogden Mills, Joseph J. O'Donohue, Elliott 

 F. Shepard, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. The last named sent a 

 telegram expressing regret at his inability to attend the meeting, 

 pledging his endorsement in any action taken, and promising to 

 take a hand in the enterprise as early as possible. A motion by 

 Mr. Bull to add the name of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan was promptly 

 ■carried. Mr. Babcock was elected chairman by a unanimous vote. 

 He expressed the hope that the committee would be harmonious in 

 its action, as had been. the Plan and Scope Committee of the Cen- 

 tennial. He had been connected with that committee for eighteen 

 months and they never had had a divided vote. The chairman 

 ■suggested that the first business should be the election of a treas- 

 urer. His suggestion was promptly adopted, and J. Edward Sim- 

 mons was chosen. The subject of permanent secretary was next 



discussed. Secretary Wilson of the Chamber of Commerce was 

 named by Mr. Smith and endorsed by Mr. Simmons. Mr. Belmont 

 thought it was not well to act hastily, and believed it was of far 

 more importance to get an executive committee of five or seven 

 members. This committee, he said, could name a secretary, con- 

 sider all the plans submitted to the Mayor, and be accountable to 

 the general finance committee. Mr. Belmont finally made a mo- 

 tion for the immediate appointment of an executive committee of 

 five by the chairman, and it was seconded by Mr. Bull. Mr. Smith 

 withdrew his motion, and after some discussion the motion of Mr. 

 Belmont was carried. Mr. Babcock named this executive commit- 

 tee : Messrs. Belmont, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Smith, Inman. On 

 motion of Mr. Smith, Chairman Babcock and Treasurer Simmons 

 were added to the committee. At the suggestion of Mr. Belmont, 

 the chairmanship of the executive committee was transferred to 

 Mr. Morgan. Mr. Belmont declared that his health would not 

 permit him to do justice to the place. Mr. Smith offered the use 

 of the Chamber of Commerce to the committee, and the place be- 

 ing convenient, it was accepted with thanks. The committee ad- 

 journed until I J A.M. Wednesday at the Chamber of Commerce. 



At the last meeting of the American Institute of Electrical En- 

 gineers it was decided to appoint a committee of fifteen to form a 

 plan of organization for an international electrical convention to be 

 held in this city coincident with the World's Fair of 1892. Secre- 

 tary R. W. Pope was instructed to inform President Mascart of the 

 electrical conference at Paris of this action, and to suggest that the 

 unfinished work of the.present conference be taken up at the pro- 

 posed conference of 1892. The following were elected delegates 

 to represent the institute at the Paris conference now in session : 

 Thomas A. Edison, E. Wilbur Rice, jr., Carl Hering, Joseph 

 Wetzler, and Nikola Tesla. All of them are now in France or on 

 the way there. President Elihu Thompson will in a few days 

 announce his appointments on the committee of fifteen and the 

 work of organization will then be taken up. An invitation will be 

 extended to all the electrical organizations of the country to par- 

 ticipate in the proposed international conference. ~ 



ORGANIZATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERI- 

 MENT STATIONS. 



The Office of Experiment Stations in the Departmant of Agri- 

 culture was established Oct. i, 1888. The Department can aid the 

 stations in their relations to "each other, in their use of the results 

 of research, and in their connection with the agricultural 

 public. To be first among the stations, the department should be 

 the servant of them all. It should exercise not dictatorship, but 

 leadership. Its influence should be powerful in bringing the sta- 

 tions together and in co-ordinating their work ; in making the fruits 

 of other research and experience, past and present, at home and 

 abroad, available to them ; in prosecuting lines of pioneer research 

 which will in a measure relieve the stations of a difficult but neces- 

 sary task, and enable them to apply their energies more fully and 

 successfully to the study of the questions which bear directly upon 

 the practice of agriculture, and will at the same time prepare the 

 way for the abstract inquiry which earnest station workers aspire 

 to, but which the public have not sufficiently learned to appreciate ; 

 in collating, condensing, and distributing their results, and in help- 

 ing to carry the practical outcome to the farmer in a form in which 

 he will appreciate and use it. 



It is vitally important that the highest scientific ideal be main- 

 tained, and every effort be made toward its realization. The future 

 usefulness of the stations will depend upon what they discover of 

 permanent value, and this must come largely from the most ab- 

 stract and profound research. To forget this will be fatal. The 

 stations must also remember that it is their office not only to ex- 

 periment, but to teach ; that it is their duty to gather information 

 as well from accumulated stores as from the fields in which they 

 are working, and to bring it not " down to the farmer," but home 

 to him. By thus using their most honest and earnest effort to 



