November 29, 



■] 



SCIENCE. 



367 



— The medals of the Royal Society have this year been awarded 

 - as follows : the Copley medal to the Rev. Dr. Salmon, F.R.S., for 



his various papers on subjects of pure mathematics, and for the 

 valuable mathematical treatises of which he is the author ; a royal 

 medal to Dr. W. H. Gaskell, F.R.S., for his researches in cardiac 

 physiology, and his important discoveries in the anatomy and physi- 

 ology of the sympathetic nervous system ; a royal medal to Pro- 

 fessor Thorpe, F.F.S., for his researches on fluorine compounds, 

 and his determination of the atomic weights of titanium and gold ; 

 and the Davy medal to Dr. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., for his re- 

 searches on magnetic rotation in relation to chemical constitution. 



— The rapid decrease in the number of kangaroos is beginning 

 to attract the attention of scientific societies in Australia. From 

 the collective reports of the various stock-inspectors it was esti- 

 mated that in 1887 there were 1,881,510 kangaroos. In 1888 the 

 number fell to 1,170,380, a decrease of 711,130. The chief obstacle 

 to the adoption of measures for the effectual protection of the kan- 

 garoo, says Nature, is his vigorous appetite. One full-grown 

 kangaroo eats as much grass as six sheep ; and graziers, who as a 

 class are not, it is to be feared, readily accessible to the influence of 

 sentiment, find that the food eaten by this interesting animal might 

 be more profitably utilized otherwise. In a communication on the 

 subject, lately submitted to the Linnean Society of New South 

 Wales, Mr. Trebeck suggested that the National Park might be 

 used for the preservation not only of kangaroos, but of very many 

 members of the Australian fauna and flora. 



— The following, from a circular in regard to a one-thousand- 

 dollar prize manual, may interest some of our readers : " The 

 American Secular Union, a voluntary association having for its ob- 

 ject the complete separation of Church and State in practice as well 

 as in profession, and in no way committed to any system of reli- 

 gious belief or disbelief, acting herein by its president, Richard B. 

 Westbrook, A.M., LL.D., as its special trustee and attorney-in- 

 fact, hereby offers a premium of one thousand dollars lawful money 

 of the United States for the best essay, treatise, or manual adapted 

 to aid and assist teachers in our free public schools and in the 

 Girard College for orphans, and other public and charitable institu- 

 tions professing to be unsectarian, to thoroughly instruct children 

 and youth in the purest principles of morality without inculcating 

 religious doctrines ; thus recognizing the legal right under our Fed- 

 eral Constitution of all our citizens, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics 

 and Protestants, Liberals and Agnostics, and all other classes, 

 whether believers or disbelievers, to have their children instructed 

 in all the branches of a common secular education in our State 

 schools, without having their tender minds biased for or against 

 any sect or party whatever. It is desired that the manual for which 

 this premium is offered shall not be a reading-book for schools, nor 

 a mere code of morals, much less a system of ethical philosophy 

 but rather a concise yet comprehensive and suggestive exhibit 

 with familiar and practical illustrations of those universal founda- 

 tion principles and axiomatic truths which underlie all sound 

 morality and rightfulness, thus developing and educating that in- 

 herent moral sense which is more or less common to all rational 

 human beings. In short, to show how to teach children the nat- 

 ural and essential difference between right and wrong, and the 

 reasons therefor, without reference to sacerdotal creeds and sec- 

 tarian dogmas, is the chief object to be kept in mind in writing for 

 this premium ; as it is the unquestionable right of every tax-payer 

 and citizen of this free Republic to have their children educated in 

 our common schools without having their minds prejudiced on 

 those disputed subjects which may safely be intrusted to the 

 family, the churches, and the Sunday-schools, where they properly 

 belong. While each writer will be expected to confine him- 

 self or herself to the main object of this offer, the widest practical 

 freedom in the form and range of treatment will be allowed, but 

 all prejudice and partisanship regarding current controversies 

 should be scrupulously avoided. The manual should not contain 

 less than 60,000 words, nor more than 100,000, though these limits 

 will not be insisted upon in a work of special merit. The papers 

 should all be submitted by April I, 1890, though more time will 

 be granted if necessary ; but the committee will be ready to receive 

 manuscripts by the first day of January, 1890. Each manuscript 



should be in typewriting, or at least should be very legibly written, 

 to insure a careful reading, and should have a special mark or 

 designation, and the name and post-office address of the author 

 should be sent at the same time in a sealed envelope — not to be 

 opened until after the award is made — bearing the same mark, and 

 both addressed to R. B. Westbrook, No. 1707 Oxford Street, Phila- 

 delphia, Penn., post or express prepaid. Unaccepted manuscripts 

 will be returned to the writers at their own expense, and the ac- 

 cepted manuscript shall become the exclusive property of the Union, 

 to be held in trust by the trustee herein named ; and the premium 

 of one thousand dollars vvill be promptly paid, without discount, 

 when the copyright is thus secured. The money is now on de- 

 posit, in trust, with the Guarantee Trust and Safe Deposit Com- 

 pany in Philadelphia, for the object contemplated. A representa- 

 tive and impartial committee shall in due time be carefully selected 

 by the subscribers to this fund or a majority of them, to act as 

 judges of the manuscripts submitted, and to award the prize. The 

 trustee herein named shall be a member and the chairman of said 

 committee, whether he continues in the presidency of the Ameri- 

 can Secular Union or not. Writers of all nations are invited to 

 join in the friendly contest, and the award will be made without 

 regard to nationality or sex." 



— -The National Educational Association and Council of Educa- 

 tion have decided to hold their next annual conventions at St. Paul, 

 Minn., July 4 to 11, 1890. Hon. James H. Canfield of Lawrence, 

 Kan., is president of the association. It is expected that there will 

 be twenty thousand teachers present from all points of the Union. 

 The Westerri railroads have already agreed to give half rates, plus 

 two dollars membership fee, to all persons who attend ; and East- 

 ern and Southern roads will make low rates, which will be an- 

 nounced at an early date. St. Paul has organized a local executive 

 committee, and the most complete arrangements are being made 

 to give the teachers a welcome to the North-west, and to make the 

 meeting a great success. There will be ample hotel accommoda- 

 tion at reasonable rates. Local excursions are being planned to all 

 important points of interest in the North-west and on the Pacific 

 coast, which will furnish teachers with the finest summer holiday 

 trips that they ever enjoyed. The official " Bulletin," containing 

 programmes, rates, and full particulars, to be issued in March, will 

 be sent free by addressing S. Sherin, secretary local executive 

 committee, St. Paul, Minn. 



— A remarkably interesting paper on the last living aboriginal 

 of Tasmania was read by Mr. James Barnard at the meeting of 

 the Tasmanian Royal Society about two months ago. It has 

 hitherto been generally believed that the aboriginal Tasmanians 

 are extinct. Mr. Barnard, however, as we learn from Nature, con- 

 tends that there is still one survivor, — Fanny Cochrane Smith of 

 Port Cygnet, the mother of six sons and five daughters, all of whom 

 are living. She is now about fifty-five years of age. Fanny's 

 claims to the honor of being a pure representative of the ancient 

 race have been disputed, but Mr. Barnard makes out a good case 

 in her favor. He himself remembers her as she was forty years ago, 

 when there were still about thirty or forty natives at Oyster Cave ; 

 " and certainly at that time," he says, " I never heard a doubt ex- 

 pressed of her not being a true aboriginal." 



— No question in the range of agricultural subjects discussed is 

 awakening more interest among New York's 350,000 farmers than 

 the subject of cattle-foods and their economical use in feeding 

 rations for the production of milk, and its products butter and 

 cheese. This being true, it is believed that the information derived 

 from scientific investigation, along with the practical experience of 

 New York cattle-feeders, will be welcomed by dairymen as one 

 advance step towards successful dairying. New York State has 

 one and a half million milch cows, probably producing, on an 

 average, less than three thousand pounds of milk per year ; and the 

 average annual butter product per cow for the State is undoubtedly 

 less than one hundred and thirty pounds. This should not be, 

 when there are whole herds averaging three hundred and some 

 four hundred pounds of butter per year for each cow. Animals 

 producing these by no means phenomenal yields are not confined 

 to any particular breed, and are often grades of our so-called native 



