July 17, 1891.J 



SCIENCE. 



observatory, will receive students and explain the uses of astron- 

 omical instruments. Arrangements will also be made for taking 

 small parties of students to the observatory at night. Single lec- 

 tures will be delivered by various eminent Cambridge men, and 

 in this part of the work scienoe will be represented by Professor 

 G. E Darwin, who will lecture on the history of the moon or 

 some allied subject. It may be noted that the students in science 

 will be allowed to read in the Philosophical Library. 



— William Weber, the illustrious physicist, died at Gottingen 

 on June 23. 



— The biological laboratory of the Brooklyn Institute, located 

 at Cold Spring harbor, Long Island, opened for its second season 

 of instruction on July 1, with a full complement of teachers 

 and scholars. Of these latter the greater number are professors 

 and advanced scholars in the various colleges and schools of 

 Brooklyn, New York, and vicinity. The success of the biological 

 laboratory has been due in great measure to the efforts of Pro- 

 fessor Franklin W. Hooper, the curator of the Brooklyn Institute, 

 who ha■^ been heartily aided by Fish Commissioner Eugene G. 

 Blackford and Mr. John D Jones, as well as a large number of 

 interested Brooklynites and residents at Gold Spring. 



— A I the last meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania Dr. George A. Plersol was chosen professor 

 of anatomy, succeeding the late Professor Leidy; Dr. Harrison 

 Allen, professor of comparative anatomy, to succeed to Dr. Leidy's 

 chair in the biological school, and Dr. John B. Deaver. assistant pro- 

 fessor of applied anatomy. Dr. Edward Martin was elected to the 

 chair of special surgery. In the veterinary department Dr. S. S. 

 J. Harger was elected professor of veterinary anatomy, and Dr. 

 Leonard Pearson, who is now pursuing special studies at the Royal 

 Veterinary School of Berlin, assistant professor of veterinary med- 

 icine. 



— Last spring, Professor Forbes of Champaign, 111., State en- 

 tomologist received from the Smithsonian Institution a few of 

 the larvas of a parasite supposed to be destructive to the Hessian 

 fly, and said to be found only in Europe. He undertook to ex- 

 periment to prove whether these larvse are destructive to the fly 

 here, and if so, in what degree. In order to determine this, a 

 small patch of wheat was inclosed in a box arranged so that the 

 grain could have light and air. A number of Hessian flies and 

 the larvae mentioned were put in, and the box so closed that they 

 could nut escape or other insdCts get in, and thus the experiment 

 was begun. According to recent reports the larvae have hatched 

 and art flourishing. They are almost microscopical and seem to 

 have been created solely to prey upon the Hessian fly. The para- 

 site is a neatly- formed, wasij-shaped little mite, supplied with a 

 sharp sting or auger. With unerring instinct it finds the place 

 where the fly has laid its eggs under the husk of the straw and, 

 boring down into it, the parasite lays its egg inside the egg of the 

 fly. There it develops into a grub, consuming the egg of the fly 

 and destroying it. This is an outline of what has been proved by 

 the experiment made. The parasite was first discovered making 

 its depredations upon the Hessian fly in the wheat-fields of south- 

 ern Russia. 



— The following circular to colleges, dated June 6, 1891, has 

 been issued by the secretary of the Illinois State Hoard of Health, 

 Dr. John H. Ranch: " There is a demand from medical' teachers, 

 and young men that intend to study medicine, for a literary 

 cour.se preparatory to the study of medicine. This demand has 

 been met by a fetv of the literary institutions in the United States, 

 and it is hoped and belie^'ed that it will be much more generally 

 met dm-ing the next two years. The following institutions now 

 ■offer science courses for students that intend to study meilicine, 

 or that intend to teach or otherwise engage in biological work : (1) 

 University of Wisconsin, (3) University of Pennsylvania, (3) Johns 

 Hopkins University, (4) University of Notre Dame. (-5) Yale Uni- 

 versity. (6) Cornell University, (7) Princeton University. (8) Lake 

 Forest University, (9) Northwestern University, (10) West Vir- 

 ginia University, (11) University of Kansas As must be obvious, 

 such a course should be based on biology, and should imlude 

 thorough work in this science, as well as in osteology, comparative 

 anatomy, and chemistry, with English, French, German, some 



Latin, clay modelling, free-hand drawing, mineralogy, mathe- 

 matics through trigonometry, physics, mechanics, logic, general 

 and pharmaceutical botany, and (in the last year) psychology. It 

 is of course understood that botany, being a branch of biology, 

 should have a prominent place in the course. The catalogues of 

 the universities mentioned contain the lists of studies offered in 

 their science courses. Such a course should extend over four 

 years. This will involve no loss or waste of time to the student. 

 The Illinois State Board of Health now requires that students of 

 medicine matriculating in the autumn of 1891, or thereafter, must 

 study medicine four years, and must attend three courses of lec- 

 tures, no two in the same twelvemonth, in order to obtain a license 

 to practise in IlUnois. This rule will apply also in some other 

 States. The Illinois State Board will, however, recognize a 

 thorough course in science, such as indicated above, as equivalent 

 to two years' study and one course of lectures, thus enabling the 

 student to enter the second class in the medical colle.^e. This 

 makes the full time of study six years in the literary and medical 

 schools, or two years less than is required of the student pursuing 

 a strictly classical course. Not only will time be thus saved, but 

 the science student will be much better prepared to enter the 

 second course of the medical school than will the classical student 

 to enter the first year. The Illinois State Board wishes to make 

 up a science course that can be recommended to any college wish- 

 ing to adopt such a course, and having but little time to study 

 the subject, I desire to enlist your aid and have your advice in the 

 matter so as to make the course as practical and as beneficial as 

 possible. Will your faculty, therefore, make out such a course 

 as it thinks best for the purpose, and send it to the secretary of 

 the board ? The demand from medical teachers and from students 

 of medicine having been met by some universities, must be met 

 by all that would continue to hold a high rank as educators of 

 young men for the work of life." 



— In a note communicated to the French Academy of Sciences, 

 says the International Journal of Microscopy, M. A. Lothelier 

 states that in Berberis vulgaris, Robinia pseudacacia, Olex Euro- 

 poeiis, and other plants, the formation of spines is dependent on 

 the access of light. Plants grown in comparatively little light 

 present very few spines, but those grown with free access to it 

 have more numerous, more differentiated, and more developed 

 spines. M. Lothelier has observed that the loss of assimilation 

 power caused by the development of spines is usually balanced by 

 the stronger growth of the axillary leaves. 



— The skin of toads and salamanders has lately been submitted 

 to microscopical examination by Mr. Schulz (Intern. Joum. 

 micros.), who finds that there are two kinds of glands present in the 

 skin of these animals, viz., mucous, and poisonous. The former 

 are present all over the body ; the latter are confined to the back 

 of the body and limbs and the ear region behind the eyes ; and in 

 the salamander are present at the angle of the jaw. The poison- 

 glands are larger than the mucous glands in the salamander, are 

 oval, and have a dark granular appearance, due to strongly re- 

 fractive drops of poison, a good reagent for which is copper 

 hsematoxylm. The poison is secreted by epithelial cells lining the 

 glands and, when the animal is stimulated by electricity, it is 

 exuded slowly in drops by the toad, but discharged in a fine jet, 

 sometimes to the distance of a foot or more, by the salamander. 

 The ansesthetic action of the poison of the toad and the use to 

 which it is put in medicine by the Chinese have frequently been 

 pointed out. 



— K Hartmann, in Gesundheits Ingenieur, relates a case in 

 which a lead pipe was cut through by an insect that was actually 

 found with ils head in the hole pierced by it. A workman was 

 called in to repair a defective pipe which had been injured on a 

 previous occasion, as was reported, by a '• nail hole" occurring in 

 a soldered joint. This time the worm (a wood wasp) causing the 

 mischief was found in situ. The hole on the exterior of the pipe 

 was of a rounded form, about one-quarter of an inch long by one- 

 eighth inch wide, and the penetratiim was through the entire 

 thickness of the metal. Though of rare occurrence, says the 

 Scientific American, well-authenticated instances of similar in- 

 juries by insects are on record. 



