September 20, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



193 



alcohol, or any part thereof, shall be used for any purpose other 

 than that specified." 



Bond and Application to be filed with the Collector for Ap- 

 proval. 



The " bond, together with the first application for permit, will be 

 deposited by the applicant with the collector of internal revenue for 

 the district where the institution in which the alcohol is to be used 

 is located." It is the collector's duty to forward the bond and ap- 

 plication to the commissioner of internal revenue, with his certifi- 

 cate of approval, etc. He keeps " a copy of the bond, or a memo- 

 randum of its date, penal sum, and the names of the signers ; and 

 whenever an application for alcohol is made after the first one, the 

 collector will certify to the commissioner of internal revenue that 

 the bond remains good, or will notify him of any change affecting 

 the responsibility of the signers." " Upon the approval of the 

 bond by the commissioner of internal revenue," applications may 

 be made on the prescribed form " for the withdrawal of alcohol as 

 occasion may require" by the duly authorized officer or agent: 

 "provided, the penal sum of the bond is- equal to double the 

 amount of tax on the alcohol to be withdrawn, after deducting all 

 outstanding charges on the bond." The commissioner transmits 

 the applications "to the secretary of the treasury, with a notifica- 

 tion of the approval of the bond when the first application is for- 

 warded, and afterwards with a reference to the bond under which 

 the application is made." 



Cancellation of Bond. 

 To cancel the bond " or for the purpose of obtaining a credit on 

 said bond," a sworn certificate is " required of the officer or officers 

 of the institution under whose direction or supervision the alcohol 

 has been used." The certificate is "filed with the collector named 

 in the bond, and if approved, to be forwarded by him to the com- 

 missioner of internal revenue with his approval indorsed thereon." 



Extension of Time named in Bond. 

 It sometimes happens that the alcohol is not entirely used up in 

 the time specified in the bond, and that' consequently " the princi- 

 pal to the bond is unable, for good cause, to furnish the required 

 proof " of su"h use. He may obtain an extension of the time 

 named in the bond upon application to the commissioner of inter- 

 nal revenue, "accompanied by the consent of the sureties to the 

 bond to such extension ; such . application and consent to be ap- 

 proved by the collector with whom the bond was originally filed." 

 "The extension asked for must be for a specified time," " not ex- 

 ceeding one-half the period named in the bond." The application 

 " must be sv^forn to," and state " the reasons why the conditions of 

 the bond as to the presentation of proof have not been complied 

 with." The consent of the sureties must be " under seal, and wit- 

 nessed as in the case of giving an original bond." 



Permits to be issued by the Secretary of the Treasury. 



" The secretary of the treasury will issue," " upon receipt of th6 

 application " " and notice of the approval of the bond," " and 

 transmit through the commissioner of internal revenue, a permit 

 in duplicate, one copy of which will be forwarded to the applicant 

 and the other copy to the collector of internal revenue for the dis- 

 trict in which the distillery warehouse is located," to withdraw 

 from the specified warehouse the number of proof gallons of alco- 

 hol described in said application. 



The collector notifies " the storekeeper at the bonded warehouse 

 from which the spirits are to be withdrawn " of the receipt of 

 the permit, a copy of which is sent to him, and authorizes him " to 

 deliver the spirits to the person named therein, or his duly-author- 

 ized agent, without the paymt-nt of tax, upon delivery to such store- 

 keeper and cancellation by him of the duplicate permit issued to 

 such person." This " cancellation shall be made by writing across 

 the face of said duplicate permit the words ' The spirits herein de- 

 scribed were delivered to the person herein named this day 



of , 1 8 — ; ' to be signed by the storekeeper." " There shall 



also be indorsed on the back of said permit the following receipt : 



' Received the spirits within mentioned this day of , 



iS— ,' which receipt shall be signed by the person named in said 

 permit." 



Such in detail are the steps to be followed as prescribed by the 

 regulations of the secretary of the treasury under date of March 

 26, 1889. 



Blank forms are not furnished by the Treasury Department ; and 

 such forms, either printed or written, must be supplied by the par- 

 ties making the application and bond. The forms to be followed 

 are contained in Circular No. 34, 1889, of March 26, 1889, Treasury 

 Department. , 



Are Agricultural Experiment Stations entitled to this 

 Privilege ? 



The laws, quoted above, restrict this privilege of the withdrawal 

 of alcohol free of tax to four specified beneficiaries : viz., (i) " any 

 scientific institution" or (2) " college of learning," " incorporated 

 or chartered ; " (3) " any scientific university " or (4) " college of 

 learning " " created and constituted such by any State or Territory 

 under its laws, though not incorporated or chartered ; " which are 

 further qualified as using alcohol (a) to preserve specimens of 

 anatomy, {b) physiology, or (c) natural history, or {d) to be employed 

 in its chemical laboratory. With the latter qualification the mem- 

 bers of this association are chiefly concerned. 



The act, approved March 2, 1887, " to establish agricultural ex- 

 periment stations in connection with the colleges established in 

 the several States under the provisions of an act approved July 2, 

 1862, and of the acts supplementary thereto " (24 U. S. Stat. 440), 

 commonly called the " Hatch bill," provides in section 8 that these 

 " agricultural experiment stations established by law " may or may 

 not be " in connection with any university, college, or institution 

 iiot distinctly an agricultural college or school," or may or may not 

 be " separate from " " colleges entitled " " to the benefits of this 

 act ; " i.e., land-grant agricultural colleges. 



Section 2 provides " that it shall be the object and duty of said 

 experiment stations to conduct original researches or verify experi- 

 ments on . . . the chemical composition of useful plants at their 

 different stages of growth ; . . . the analysis of soils and water ; 

 the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial ; with 

 experiments designated to test their comparative effects on crops of 

 different kinds ; . . . the value of grasses and forage plants ; the 

 composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for 

 domestic animals ; the scientific . . . questions involved in the 

 production of butter and cheese ; and such other researches or 

 experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the 

 United States as may in each case be deemed advisable, having 

 due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective 

 States or Territories." 



These experiments evidently require a well- equipped chemical 

 laboratory, in which alcohol would be often used as a solvent and 

 re-agent in addition to any use of it as a fuel in the laboratory. 



Taking the above quoted qualifications and provisions of law 

 into consideration, it would seem that any agricultural experiment 

 station that is established in conformity to the provisions of the 

 act of March 2, 1887, by any State or Territory as such, when such 

 station is connected with a "university or college of learning," is 

 entitled on presentation, by its duly authorized officer or agent, of 

 documentary evidence to that effect submitted to the secretary 

 of the treasury through the commissioner of internal revenue and 

 the collector of internal revenue of the district in which the experi- 

 ment station is situated, and by filing a bond and otherwise con- 

 forming to the regulations, above specified, to the privilege of with- 

 drawing alcohol, free of tax, for use in its chemical laboratory ; 

 also that when the experiment is not connected with a college, 

 etc., it may obtain free alcohol under the same regulations, provided 

 it is shown to the satisfaction of the internal revenue officers and 

 the secretary of the treasury that it is of itself a " scientific institu- 

 tion " as construed by those officers, that is, such an institution 

 whose object is educational. Edgar Richards. 



When an electric current, says a French contemporary, is led 

 through the leaf of a rose, the leaf loses its color, leaving a white 

 line. This peculiarity was recently turned to account at a great 

 dinner in Paris, when, instead of the ordinary card, the seat of each 

 guest was indicated by his name being inscribed in white letters 

 upon a rose-leaf in his couvert. 



