334 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 354 



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 ?3.50 a yeai . 



Great Britain and Europe 4.50 a year. 



Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Abstracts of scientific papers 

 are solicited, and twenty copies of the issue containing such will be mailed the author 

 on request in advance Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only 

 when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is in- 

 tended 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 our- 

 selves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our 

 ■correspondents. 



Attention is called to the " Wants " column. All are invited to use it in soliciting 

 'information or seeking new positions. The name and address of applicants should be 

 given in full, so that answers will go direct to them. The '" Exchange " column is 

 Jikewise open. 



Vol. XIV. NEW YORK, November 15, r88g. No. 354 



CONTENTS 



Electric Accumulators 325 



Magnolia-Metal 327 



Atmospheric Nitrogen as Pl 

 Food 



3=8 



Warm and Cold Water for Milch 

 Cows in Winter 330 



The Ethnological Significance 



England's Coal-Resources 



In 



H Matters. 



lity following Surgical Ope 



332 



Transplantation of Skin from a 



Corpse to a Living Person 332 



'Cocaine Hallucinations 332 



"Notes and N ews 332 



Editorial.. 



334 



A New Stage in the Prosperity of 

 Johns Hopkins University. — 

 Will Schools and Colleges make 

 known their Wants as to Addi- 



tional Instructors? — Cave-Air 

 for "Ventilation. 



The Horn-Fly 



The Kansas Academy of Science 



337 



Book-Reviews. 



Studies in Pedagogy 337 



Seven Thousand Words often Mis- 

 pronounced 337 



The State. Elements of Historical 

 and Practical Politics 338 



Among the Publishers... 



338 



Letters TO the Editor. 

 A Precocious Botanist C.S.M. 340 



The Cha 



I Valley 



Harvey B. Bashore 340 



Industrial Notes. 



Microscopes and Photographic Sup- 

 plies 340 



Sanitary Ventilation 340 



The Merritt Type- Writer 34r 



When Johns Hopkins University was first opened, it was 

 "feared by some that it would liave to depend for support on the 

 'funds left it by Johns Hopkins, and that others who might give 

 freely to any of the older educational institutions would hesitate 

 about aiding an institution which is so young as Johns Hopkins 

 University, and whose prosperity is yet a credit to the memory of 

 the founder. The events of the last few months show, however, 

 that Johns Hopkins University has entered on a second stage in 

 its development. It is known to all that when, on the stopping 

 of the dividends on Baltimore and Ohio stock, it became impera- 

 tive that funds be raised to supplement the income from other 

 sources, enough admirers of the stand the university has taken 

 among American educational institutions were found willing and 

 able to give one hundred thousand dollars to enable the university 

 to maintain the high grade of teaching and investigation so charac- 

 teristic of it from the start. This was well enough, so far as it went ; 

 but this seems now to have been merely No. i in the list of gener- 

 ous gifts to the university this year. There followed the gift of 

 twenty thousand dollars by Mr. Eugene Levering to the Christian 

 Association, which has been used in erecting a building, now 

 nearly completed. Mr. John W. McCoy gave the university, upon 

 his death, more than one hundred thousand dollars, a magnificent 

 library, and made the university the residuary legatee of a large 

 «state, from which it will realize another considerable sum. The 

 gift of twenty thousand dollars to found the TurnbuU lectureship 



of English poetry preceded the bequest of Mr. McCoy, and filled a 

 long-felt want in the English department. In all, during the last 

 six months, the university has been the recipient of more than four 

 hundred thousand dollars, including the amount that will probably 

 be realized from the residuum of the McCoy estate. This does 

 not include the McCoy library. 



A most satisfactory gift, as showing approval of the work done 

 by Johns Hopkins University, is that of Mrs. Caroline Donovan, 

 which we chronicle this week. Mrs. Donovan in her letter stated 

 she had observed with satisfaction the work at the university, and 

 as an evidence of her appreciation she asked the trustees to accept 

 a gift of one hundred thousand dollars, provided that the income 

 thereof should be used in the endowment of a chair in the univer- 

 sity. Mayor Latrobe of Baltimore, the legal adviser of Mrs. Dono- 

 van, through whom the gift was announced to the university 

 trustees, said, in his presentation address, " My friend, Mrs. Caro- 

 line Donovan, directs me to say in this connection, first, that she 

 has written two letters, — one of them designating English litera- 

 ture, the other not naming any particular branch of instruction for 

 which the chair is to be established. Her preference is thus shown 

 for the study of English literature, but at the same time she does 

 not wish to encumber the gift with this condition, and therefore 

 leaves it to be decided by the university, she desiring to found such 

 a chair as may be of the most practical service. From her con- 

 versations with me on the subject, I can say, however, that Mrs. 

 Donovan would greatly prefer if the decision of the university in 

 this connection was not for instruction in any of the so-called 

 ' dead languages.' Second, Mrs. Donovan desires me to say that 

 the money she gives is her own, made by herself, and not by gift 

 or devise. Third, She also instructs me to say that before making 

 this gift she has liberally provided for all those having any claim 

 upon her through blood relationship or otherwise. No just com- 

 plaint can therefore be made by any one, that he or she has been 

 wronged by her thus disposing of her own money." Mrs. Dono- 

 van is the widow of William Donovan, who died several years ago. 

 She is about eighty-six years of age, and resides in Baltimore 

 County, a few miles from Catonsville, and is a liberal giver to many 

 worthy charities, all of which she does secretly, in a very unosten- 

 tatious manner. Her greatest fear was of having the matter men- 

 tioned in the newspapers, but Mr. Latrobe told her that it was im- 

 possible to keep any thing from them. When Mayor Latrobe 

 suggested the gift should be called " The Caroline Donovan Chair," 

 she objected on the ground that a chair bearing a woman's name 

 was unusual. This succession of gifts marks the advent of a grow- 

 ing prosperity in the life of this university, of which all Americans 

 are proud. 



Will schools and colleges take advantage of the opportu- 

 nities we offer them to make known, free of all cost, their needs as 

 to additional teachers } We want to publish such items as news, 

 and news of very great interest to many of our readers, but we 

 find it next to impossible to rouse the school owners and managers 

 to use what we offer. So far, in the several months that our 

 " Want " column has been open, but one, " M. H.," has availed 

 himself of it to advertise for a teacher. That he did so to good pur- 

 pose may be judged by the following extract from his letter : " I 

 have to thank you and your admirable paper for securing a most 

 competent man as teacher of natural science in Ogden College. I 

 have had, I suppose, thirty or more applications, and they are still 

 coming." This feature has been urged on us occasionally ; but, to 

 make it of due value, there is need of a great waking-up on the 

 part of those most interested. The backbone of any of the nu- 

 merous engineering papers published in this country is the weekly 

 list of new engineering undertakings, showing manufacturers and 

 others where they can place their goods. The goods of some of 

 our readers are their teaching capacities, and we hope that both 



