42 2 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 359 



SCIENCE; 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES. 



47 Lafayette Place, New York. 



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Great Britain and Europe 4.50 a yeai. 



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- 

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 correspondents. 



Attention is called to the " Wants " cohimn. 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 

 likewise open. 



Vol. XIV. 



NEW YORK, December 20, iS 



No. 359 



CONTENTS: 



Engine. . . 



The Shortt HiGi 

 Electrical News. 



New Insulatmg Compound 414 



Electric Traction 414 



Agricultural Research on the 



Pacific Coast 415 



Caus.\tion of Hog-Cholera 416 



Rumination in the Human Subject 418 



Highway Improvement 418 



R. A. Proctor Memorial Fund — 419 

 A New Method of preparing 

 Fluorine 419 



Me 



. SCIE 



Diseases of the Memory 420 



Notes and News 421 





ED Map of Massa- 

 chusetts ;r. M. D. 422 

 Book-Reviews. 



Aspects of tile Earth 423 



" Evolution of Sound " evolved. . . . 424 



Mountaineering in Colorado 424 



The Graphic System of Ohject 



Drawing 424 



Among the Publishers 424 



Letters to the Editor. 

 A Peculiar Case of Adhesion 



W. Simon, Ph.D. 427 

 Convectional Currents in Storms 



H. A.Hazen 42S 

 Industrial Notes. 

 Calendars 429 



One of the disadvantages of a popular form of government 

 and of thorough democracy, recognizing absolute equality of all 

 citizens, whether rich or poor, wise or stupid, familiar with busi- 

 ness or ignorant of all its forms, is illustrated by the fact that the 

 current technical journals are describing an ironclad " designed " 

 by a distinguished lawyer, who happens to be a member of Con- 

 gress and of the Naval Committee of the House of Representatives. 

 It would seem that this distinguished lawyer has thought himself, 

 and has been thought by his colleagues, competent to plan what, 

 in its highest form, is the very culmination of scientific knowledge, 

 of engineering talent, and of the mechanic's inventive power. In 

 other countries it is supposed, both popularly and by the officials 

 of governments, that such a construction could only be safely at- 

 tempted when the designs have been prepared by engineers and 

 naval architects of the most exceptional experience, and who have 

 shown by their works that they possess those combinations of 

 talents (vastly more rare than those of the successful general) 

 which are essential, as has been supposed, to highest perfection of 

 construction. It would sooner be proposed, in any other country 

 than the United States, to intrust the life of a sick man|to the care 

 of an uneducated laborer of the docks rather than to that of an edu- 

 cated physician, as to place in the hands of a non-professional the 

 planning of structures which are expected to cost millions of dol- 



lars, to illustrate the grandest results of modern engineering, and 

 protect the interests and the honor of a great nation. 



The story, if told abroad, will undoubtedly be received with ab- 

 solute incredulity, as one of those incomprehensible American 

 " jokes " which the average European mind can never hope fully 

 to appreciate ; but, were it believed, the average American can 

 probably as little conceive the astonishment that it is likely to 

 awaken. The conceit of the lawyer, turned engineer and naval 

 architect, who could imagine himself fitted for performing the 

 work of a member of another profession ; the social, and especially 

 the official, customs that could make such a thing possible ; the 

 quietness with which the proper departments and officials could 

 thus permit themselves to be set aside while an amateur under- 

 takes their work ; the even more e.xtraordinary attitude of the com- 

 mittees of Congress, of Congress itself, in looking on with indiffer- 

 ence while this curious and remarkable phenomenon is being ex- 

 hibited, and actually, as is reported, voting the million dollars and 

 a half required for the still more remarkable experiment in the in- 

 version of the commonly accepted principles of business, — would 

 appear, then, about equally extraordinary and incredible. In fact, 

 it would seem quite as incredible to some of our own citizens, were 

 it not for the fact that the name of the distinguished amateur is 

 given, and the details of his proposed construction are presented 

 in full. 



Our only explanation of this singular incident seems to be sug- 

 gested by the extent to which details are given in the specifications 

 published, which indicate, that behind the great lawyer, and hidden 

 by his grander proportions, is somewhere a naval architect who is 

 too modest, or who, for some more inscrutable reason, either does 

 not care or does not dare come into view as the responsible de- 

 signer of this expensive toy. Could it be possible that the whole 

 performance represents the catering of a bureau of the Navy De- 

 partment to the political friend relied upon to promote its interests 

 or those of its officials in Congress ? If this be the case (and we 

 would not like to believe it, suggestive as the circumstances are of 

 such an explanation), the danger to the interests of the govern- 

 ment and of the people ; the injury to the reputation of the con- 

 structive bureaus of the Navy Department and to that of the secre- 

 tary of the navy ; the compromising of the unquestionably able and 

 distinguished lawyer who is the victim of this scheme, and who 

 must appear before the world, at home and abroad, as enormously 

 conceited and equally unwise, — should promptly lead to the reve- 

 lation, by the officials concerned, of the real state of the case. 

 The people of the United States cannot afiord to hand over a mil- 

 lion dollars and a half to an amateur, or to risk its success in 

 battle, and its honor on the sea, in any such wild experiment ; 

 much less can it afford to place in official position men who have 

 so little knowledge of the first principles of ordinary business. 



THE CONTOURED MAP OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Five years ago the United States Geological Survey and the 

 Commonwealth of Massachusetts entered into an agreement con- 

 cerning a topographic survey of the State, the results of which are 

 now gradually coming before the public. The field-work was 

 completed two years ago. A number of the inch-to-a-mile, con- 

 toured, quarter- degree sheets have been engraved, and proofs have 

 been struck off for use in the survey. It is to be hoped that they 

 may all be soon published by the State, and placed on sale at the 

 cost of printing. New Jersey has reached this desirable stage, and 

 its invaluable atlas of twenty sheets can now be bought for twenty- 

 five cents apiece, or five dollars for the entire set. 



The map of Massachusetts here referred to more particularly is 

 in four sheets on a reduced scale of about four miles to an inch 

 (i : 250,000), with contours every hundred feet. The irregular shape 

 of the State gives the map an unsatisfactory form, that will be 



