November 28, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



865 



lieulties in the application of the system to 

 the war-vessel may not be fatal to employ- 

 ment there. 



Incidentally, a fact in sociology and eco- 

 nomics comes into view. It was found im- 

 practicable to carry on work of research with 

 men employed under the conditions obtaining 

 in civil life and enlisted men were necessarily 

 put on the work. Only men who would obey 

 orders, work when required by the exigencies 

 of the service and faithfully attend to duty, 

 as in army, and navy, could be relied upon. 

 The trade-union rules were found to be fatal 

 to efficiency, and the inference seems to have 

 been plain that, in the industrial army as 

 in the public service, effectiveness is not pro- 

 moted where the rank and file take command. 



The workings of the ' personnel bill ' are 

 conunented upon with the conclusion that 

 Mr. Roosevelt's bill is correct in plan and in 

 principle, but that it has not been executed 

 with either zeal or faithfulness, and that the 

 efficiency of a navy dependent upon technical 

 knowledg'e and practical experience, conjoined 

 with high scientific attainments, is being seri- 

 ously jeopardized by this disloyalty to law and 

 to the service. Junior officers, it is stated, 

 are not given either the scientific training or 

 the professional training as mechanical en- 

 gineers which are essential to the efficient 

 operation of the ' engineer's war-engine,' as 

 tlie writer has called the modern armored ves- 

 sel, with its interior crowded with steam- 

 engines and other machinery and electrical 

 apparatus. Without extensive practical ex- 

 perience and a sound scientific education 

 high efficiency cannot be hoped for, and the 

 safety of the nation is too 'serious a matter 

 to be subject to such risks as are sure to fol- 

 low lack of zeal or of training in the manage- 

 ment of so tremendous an engine of war as 

 the armor-clad or cruiser. An ' emphatic gen- 

 eral order ' and rigid enforcement is demanded 

 as essential, and immediately. 



National ascendency on the seas and perma- 

 nent safety against foreign aggression can 

 only be insured by a sufficient and an efficient 

 personnel as well as an amply powerful fleet. 

 The navy of the United States, like that of 

 Great Britain, needs men more than ships. 



to-day, and every proper means should be re- 

 sorted to to make the service attractive and 

 to secure competent officers, particularly in 

 its departments of applied science. 



Admiral Melville retires presently and this 

 is his last official report. It is wise, frank 

 and emphatic in its discussions of the require- 

 ments of a ' new navy ' in the twentieth cen- 

 tury. The influence of this testimony should' 

 be powerful and efl^ective. The Chief of 

 Bureau goes out of office leaving behind him 

 a magnificent record of accomplishment, not 

 only in the building up of the navy, but in 

 achievements which, in variety as in impor- 

 tance, have probably never been rivaled. 



E. H. Thurston. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The Journal of Physical Chemistry^ Oc- 

 tober. — ' Solubility, Electrolytic Conductivity 

 and Chemical Action in Liquid Hydrocyanic 

 Acid,' by Louis Kahlenberg and Herman 

 Schlundt. This is a continuation of the re- 

 searches of the authors on solutions with other 

 solvents than water. Lists of substances 

 soluble and insoluble in liquid hydrocyanic 

 acid are given. In the case of some solutes 

 the electrical conductivity is greater than in 

 water, while in other cases, notably with the 

 acids, it is less. ' The Expansion of a Gas into 

 a Vacuum and the Kinetic Theory of Gases,' 

 by Peter Eireman. An abstract of this paper- 

 has already appeared in this journal (Science, 

 N. S., XVI., 285). 'On the Displacement 

 of Equilibrium,' by Paul Saurel. ' On the 

 Critical State of a One-Component System,' 

 by Paul Saurel. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



At the 557th meeting of the Society, held 

 on November 8, Mr. C. G. Abbot, of the 

 Astrophysical Observatory, described ' a de- 

 vice to obtain time signals of any desired 

 interval from a clock work of uniform mo- 

 tion.' A ehronogTaph with the attachment 

 was exhibited. Signals at equal intervals 

 of from one half second up to ninety seconds 

 could be obtained. An adjustment was iiro- 

 vided by means of which the whole series 



