April 17, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



215 



so many demands for information about the common insects as 

 to cause the expenditure of a large amount of time in answering 

 inquiries about them. Numerous experiments on insecticides 

 have been conducted during the past two years, but with such re- 

 sults that Mr. Fernald does not feel ready to report them as yet. 



— In the winter and spring of 1887 and 1888, the steamer 

 "Albatross" made a cruise from Norfolk, Va., to San Francisco, 

 In the service of the United States Fish Commission. The collec- 

 tion made at this time in the harbor of Bahia, and a small col- 

 lection made in deep water off Cape San Matios in north-eastern 

 Patagonia, form the subject of a paper by David Starr Jordan, 

 president of the University of Indiana, and containing a list of 

 fishes obtained in the harbor of Bahia, Brazil, and in adjacent 

 waters, published by permission of Hon. Marshall McDonald, com- 

 missioner of fisheries, in the "Proceedings of the United States 

 National Museum," vol. xiii. The collection from Bahia includes 

 one hundred and twelve species. As the number of specimens 

 taken does not exceed two hundred, it is evident that the results 

 which would have come from extensive collecting might have 

 been exceedingly valuable. 



— An ingenious process of spinning and welding copper pipe 

 has recently been introduced in America, says Engineering of 

 March 27. The inventor, Mr. J. H. Bevington, discovered that if a 

 tube was made to enter an annular bell-mouthed die, revolving at 

 a sufficient velocity, the diameter of the tube was reduced to that 

 of the hole through the die, and thus a copper tube could be re- 

 duced in diameter to any desired extent. The friction between 

 the surfaces of the die and the tube is so great that the latter is 

 softened locally by the heat, and flows easily. If the bottom of 

 the die be closed, the end of the tube will be welded over, and the 

 end solidly closed. By a modification of the process two lengths 

 of tubing can be welded together. 



— The sixth annual meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Physical Education was held in Boston, 

 April 3 and 4. Dr. D. A. Sargent presiding. The papers read were 

 as follows : " Is Physical Training a Trade or a Profession?" by 

 the president; "Physical Education in Colleges," by Rev. W. D. 

 Hyde, D.D. ; "A Comparison of Measurements of Men and 

 Women from our Colleges," by E. Hitchcock, M.D. ; "The 

 Growth of Children," by Professor H. P. Bowditch, M.D. ; "The 

 Delsarte System of Esthetic Exercises," by Mrs. Coleman Bishop ; 

 "Physical Education in the Young Men's Christian Association," 

 by Luther Gulick, M.D. ; " Athletics versus Gymnastics at Home 

 and Abroad," by E. M. Hartwell, M.D. ; " Physical Training in 

 the Regular Army," by Charles R. Greenleaf, M.D., U.S.A.; 

 " Some of Galton's Tests," by Kate C. Hurd, M.D. ; "A System 

 of Gymnastic Exercises for Public Schools," by Mr. Carl Betz; 

 "The Muscular Strength of Growing Girls," by C. L. Scudder, 

 M.D. At the business meeting Dr. E. M. Hartwell was elected 

 president for the coming year. 



— The prizes offered by the American Economic Association 

 for the best essays on the subject of women wage-earners have 

 just been awarded. There were about thirty competitors for the 

 prize. The first prize, of three hundred dollars, was given to Miss 

 Clare de Graffenreid of Washington, D.C. The essay written by 

 Mrs. Helen Campbell of New York received the second prize of 

 two hundred dollars. The essayists were invited to discuss " the 

 early and present condition of working- women ; their growth in 

 numbers, both absolutely and in proportion to population; the 

 present extent of their sphere of labor; the economic and social 

 evils connected with their various occupations as wage-earners, 

 and the remedies for these evUs." They were asked to deal prin- 

 cipally with the American aspects of the subject, though it was 

 not intended that the experience of foreign countries should be 

 excluded. Miss de Graffenreid ia a descendant of Baron de Graf- 

 fenreid, one of the eminent companions of Oglethorpe, who planted 

 a colony in Georgia. Her father was a lawyer of distinction who 

 resided in Macon, where she was bom, and spent her early days. 

 Her girlhood was passed amid the strife and strain of the civil 

 war. After her father's death she taught in a private school some 

 thirteen years. She has always been interested in educational 



and social questions. After her appointment, in 1886, to the posi- 

 tion in the United States Department of Labor, which she at 

 present holds, her studies led her into a very active acquaintance 

 with the industrial conditions of this country. In her economic 

 studies she has travelled over a large part of the East, West, and 

 South. In company with Miss Dodge, she spent a month last 

 summer in London, investigating the conditions of labor there. A 

 recent number of The Century contains an article from her pen on 

 the Georgia Cracker, and she was one of the two who equally 

 divided a prize offered by the Economic Association in 1889 for 

 an essay upon child-labor. This essay has been published. A 

 paper by Miss de Graffenreid, on " The Needs of Self-Supporting 

 Women," has also been published in connection with " Johns 

 Hopkins University Studies in History and Politics." Mrs. Helen 

 Campbell is a native of Lockport, N.Y. She contributed sketches 

 to magazines and newspapers at an early age, and later gave spe- 

 cial attention to problems relating to the condition of the poor in 

 cities. She began in October, 1886, a series of articles on the 

 working-women of New York, which appeared weekly in the New 

 York Tribune, and was subsequently published in book form with 

 the title " Prisoners of Poverty." Similar observations, in person, 

 were continued the year following in London, Paris, Italy, and 

 Germany, the results of which were embodied in her " Prisoners 

 of Poverty Abroad." Besides this, she has written a number of 

 novels and books on related topics. The first prize essay will 

 probably soon be published by the association. 



— A press despatch from Paris, dated April 10, says that an 

 enormous reservoir of water one hundred and twenty feet below 

 the surface has been discovered at El-Golea, a small caravan sta- 

 tion in the midst of the Sahara Desert. The reservoir was dis- 

 covered while a number of workmen were sinking a well at 

 El-Golea. The shaft sunk already gives forty gallons of good, 

 clear water per minute, and it is expected that this amount can 

 readily be increased should it be found that a larger quantity is 

 necessary. This is said to be the first time that water has been 

 found at so slight a deptli in the Sahara. 



— An appeal for funds for aiding in the teaching of speech and 

 lip-reading to the deaf has been issued by William Pepper, provost 

 of the University of Pennsylvania; D. Hayes Agnew, M.D. ; Emma 

 Garrett, principal of the Pennsylvania Oral School for the Deaf, 

 Scranton, Penn.; Horace Howard Furness; Lawrence TurnbuU, 

 M.D. ; Charles S. TurnbuU, M.D. ; J. Sobs-Cohen, M.D. ; Harrison 

 Allen, M.D. ; Wharton Sinkler, M.D. ; Edw. H. Magill, ex-president 

 of Swarthmore College ; Charles C. Harrison ; Thomas Chase, ex- 

 president of Haverford College ; and Mary S. Garrett. In the 

 appeal it is stated that it has been demonstrated that deaf children 

 can be taught speech and lip-reading, be educated, and be enabled 

 to communicate with their families and friends through the same; 

 and a number of pure oral schools for such instruction are in ex- 

 istence in the United States. To the complete success of the 

 method, however, it is necessary that these deaf children should 

 be guided and trained to speech from the age when hearing chil- 

 dren begin to learn to talk. As the majority of these children are 

 poor, and as all mothers, even of those who are not poor, do not 

 understand how to train them to speech. Miss Fuller, principal of 

 the Horace Mann Day School for the Deaf (pure oral), Boston, 

 established, two years ago, a home for the training in speech of 

 deaf children before they are of school age. The necessary funds 

 for commencing the good work in New England were raised by 

 the mother of a successfully trained deif child. The children are, 

 of course, under the care of persons specially trained for that 

 purpose, and their progress already gives great encouragement. 

 Miss Fuller, who has been principal of the Horace Mann Day 

 School for the Deaf for many years, says, " Does it not seem 

 almost unaccountable that the earliest years of deaf children's 

 lives have been so long overlooked in the plans for their mental 

 development ? " It is proposed to establish in the Middle States, 

 as speedily as possible, such a home as Miss Fuller has established 

 in New England; and the public are earnestly requested to con- 

 tribute to the endowment fund required for the same. Subscrip- 

 tions may be sent to I 'rank K. Hippie, 1340 Chestnut Street, Phila- 

 delphia, Penn., -vLr- tjas consented to act as treasurer. 



