August 28, 1891.J 



SCIENCE. 



117 



Ly heat, eleetrieity, aad cViemical action, or even when cross- 

 ■examined by the spectroscope ? Does not gold exhibit an in- 

 tegrity worthy of a noble nature ? Does it hold out to alchemy 

 the most distant hint of a multiple nature by means of wLich 

 she may hope to divide and conquer ? 



The hypothesis of the evolution of the chemical atoms by 

 aggreg-ation or polymerization of one matter substance chal- 

 lenges scientific thought. Based upon broad assumptions 

 and sustained entirely by analogy, it will hardly disturb 

 the relative coinage value of the metals by holding out hopes 

 of alchemic transmutation. The advice of Mr. Crookes to 

 treat it simply as a provisional hypothesis is conservative 

 and wise. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



To MEET the desire for instruction in the modern branches of 

 astronomy, which have been so wonderfully developed in the last 

 few years, a post-graduate course in astronomy and astro-physics, 

 open to a limited number of students, has been established at the 

 Western University of Pennsylvania. Exceptional facilities for 

 such a course are afforded by the library and apparatus of the 

 Allegheny observatory. Instruction will be given by means of 

 lectures, recitations, and examinations, and by the practical use 

 of instruments in observation and measurement. A knowledge of 

 mathematics equivalent to that given in the undergraduate depart- 

 ment of the university is requisite for admission to the course, 

 which will extend over a term of two years. Further informa 

 tion may be had of Dr. W. J. Holland, chancellor of the uni- 

 versity, or of Professor J. E. Keeler, director of the Allegheny 

 observatory. 



— At Hanover, Penn., a system is used for cooling water, that 

 is both simple and beneficial, according to a description of it in the 

 Railroad and Engineering Joui~nal. The town is described as 

 being closely built, and without any system of drainage, so that 

 the water in the wells is unfit to drink. Some years ago these 

 reasons led to the introduction of a supply of very excellent water 

 from a large spring about three miles distant. This water is 

 brought through iron pipes, and when it reaches the consumer in 

 summer is warm, while the water in the wells is cool. For this 

 reason many of the inhabitants drink the well-water, and, as a 

 consequence, typhoid-fver is a prevalent disease in that commu- 

 nity. In order to obtain pure cool water, not impregnated with 

 lime, some of the inhabitants of the place have adopted a plan 

 which is so simple and gives such excellent results that it is worthy 

 ■of general adoption wherever there is a water supply other than 

 wells or springs. The plan is as follows. A cylindrical galvan- 

 ized sheet-iron tank twelve inches in diameter and four or five 

 feet long, is placed in the bottom of a well. The tank is then con- 

 nected by a galvanized iron pipe with the water-supply pipes, and 

 another pipe is carried from the tank to the surface of the ground, 

 or to any convenient point for di'awing water, and has a cock at 

 the upper end. The tank is consequently always filled with water 

 from the water-supply, and being in the bottom of the well, the 

 water is cooled off and acquires the temperature of the well, so 

 that that which is drawn from the tank is as cool as well-water, 

 and is without any of the impurities with which the latter is con- 

 taminated. The water drawn from the tank in one of the wells 

 in the place named had a temperature of 56° when the thermome- 

 ter in the atmosphere above stood 76°. This method gives an 

 abundant supply of cool water during the whole summer, and can 

 ;be adopted in all cities, towns, or in the country. If a well is 

 available, it can be used ; if not, by simply digging a hole in the 

 ground deep enough so as not to be affected by the surface tem- 

 perature, and burying the tank, it will answer equally well. This 

 ihole might be dug in a cellar or outside the building. If the water 

 has any impurities in suspension, such as mud, the tank should be 

 made accessible, so that it can be cleaned separately. 



— A writer in the Illustrated American says that in work which 

 requires the application of great strength combined with good 

 judgment the elephant is supreme ; but as a mere puller and 



hauler he is not of great value. In piling logs, for example, the 

 creature soon learns the exact manner of arranging them, and will 

 place them upon each other with a regularity not to be excelled 

 by a human workman. Sir Emerson Tennent, in his work on 

 Ceylon, mentions a pair of elephants who used to raise their wood- 

 piles to a great height by rolling the logs up an inclined plane of 

 sloping beams. The same writer was once riding near Kandy, 

 toward the scene of the massacre of Major Davies' party in 1803. 

 He heard a queer sound in the jungle, like the repetition, in a 

 hoarse and discontented tone, of the ejaculation of "Urmph, 

 urmph !" Presently a tame elephant hove in sight, unaccompa- 

 nied by any attendant. He was laboring painfully to carry a 

 heavy beam of timber which he balanced across his tusks, but, 

 the pathway being narrow, he had to keep his head bent in a very 

 uncomfortable posture to permit the burden to pass endways, and 

 the exertion and inconvenience combined led him to utter the dis- 

 satisfied noise which had frightened the horse. When the crea- 

 ture saw the horse and rider halt, he raised his head, reconnoitered 

 them for a moment, and then he flung down the timber, thor- 

 oughly appreciating the situation, and pushed himself backward , 

 among the bushwood so as to leave a passage for the horse. But 

 as the horse did not avail itself of the path, the elephant impa- 

 tiently thrust himself deeper into the jungle, repeating his cry of 

 "Urmph!" but in a voice meant to invite and encourage. Still 

 the horse trembled, and the rider, anxious to observe the instinct 

 of the two intelligent creatures, forbore any interference with 

 them. Again the elephant wedged himself farther in among 

 the trees and waited for the horse to pass, and after the horse had 

 done so timidly and tremblingly, the wise creature stooped, took 

 up his heavy burden, and, balancing it on his tusks, resumed his 

 route, hoarsely snorting his discontented grunt as before. 



— Experiments in seeding with different quantities of wheat 

 were begun on the farm belonging to the Ohio State University 

 several years previous to the establishment of the experiment sta- 

 tion. These enperiments have been continued on the same farm 

 by the station, and the tenth experiment has just been harvested. 

 In this experiment two varieties of wheat were used, Dietz and 

 velvet chaff (Penquite's velvet). The land on which they were 

 sown had borne nine successive crops of wheat, having been 

 dressed three times with barnyard manure during that period. 

 The land occupied by the velvet wheat lies upoc a gravel knoll, 

 sloping to the west, the gravel coming in some places to within 

 two or three feet of the surface. The wheat on this knoll has for 

 several seasons been less vigorous than in other parts of the field, 

 and this season especially it was badly infested with the wheat 

 midge, commonly known as the red weevil. The Dietz wheat 

 grew upon land of a little better quality, and sloping to the east 

 instead of the west. It was but slightly injured by insects. 

 While the yields of the velvet are irregular, they do not favor 

 very thin seeding. In the case of the Dietz, however, the results 

 are decisive. Every time the seed faUs below four pecks or rises 

 above seven there is a falling off in yield. In the long run, seed- 

 ing at from five to seven pecks has given a larger harvest than 

 when less or more seed was used. 



— The idea of university extension had its first expression at 

 Oxford as far back as 1845. Since then its advance has been con- 

 stant and of late years very rapid. Though Oxford was the first 

 university to give a form to the wide spread desire for higher edu- 

 cation, it was almost the last to enter upon the practical details 

 of the work. That it now has by far the larger number of exten- 

 sion students is due in great measure to the energy and skill of 

 Michael E. Sadler, secretary to the Oxford Delegacy, who. in the 

 current number of University Extension, discusses the future of 

 this movement in England. Other articles show the relation of 

 this work to the common school teacher and to American women. 

 One of the most successful experiments of last season in extension 

 teaching was at Providence in connection with Brown University, 

 and is described in this August issue by Professor Appleton of 

 that faculty. In the department of Notes is an interesting hint 

 as to the natural connection of this movement with the Chautau- 

 quan system, so excellently developed by Bishop Vincent and his 

 assistants. 



