Septembek S, 1905.] 



SCIENCE, 



315 



voted to the several departments in which re- 

 search work is conducted is surprisingly large. 

 The study of all questions bearing directly 

 upon the anatomy and finer histology of the 

 brain is carried on in a perfectly equipped 

 laboratory. Two smaller adjoining rooms are 

 reserved for the use of the director of the 

 laboratory. Seven rooms are set apart for 

 the use of those who are engaged in following 

 lines of work in experimental psychology or 

 physiology, while separate quarters have been 

 assigned to both the clinical and chemical 

 laboratories. Among the more interesting 

 items of the new equipment noticed in the 

 psychological department was an elaborate, 

 but exceedingly ingenious, apparatus for the 

 exact measurement of the pupillary reactions 

 in response to light, sound and smell stimuli. 



A word may be said with reference to the 

 duties of the director of the clinic, who is also 

 professor of psychiatry in the university. His 

 word as to what patients shall or shall not be 

 admitted to the clinic is final and he may, at 

 any time he thinks proper, discharge or have 

 a patient transferred to an asylum. 



Although not forbidden to engage in private 

 practise, it is expected that the director's time 

 will be chiefly occupied in teaching students, 

 supervising the work done in the various labo- 

 ratories and in carrying on scientific investi- 

 gations. The fact that professorships of 

 psychiatry in Germany are in the true sense 

 of the word academic positions, enables the 

 director of a clinic to keep au courani with 

 his profession, to have more time for study, 

 and is thus fitted to be a more stimulating 

 teacher and more intelligent investigator than 

 is possible in those countries where the alienist 

 devotes most of his energies to administrative 

 duties or to private practise. 



The incalculable advantage of having a 

 director of a hospital who, not only by precept, 

 but also by practise, encourages his assistants 

 and students to undertake the solution of new 

 problems is of the greatest importance. 



The American who visits the Munich clinic 

 and takes a comprehensive view of the great 

 forward movement in medicine to which this 

 institution is a monument may well ask him- 

 self the question. How long will our leading 



universities be without adequate means and 

 opportunities for the organized systematic 

 study of the most important organ of the 

 body, whose functions professors and teachers 

 seek to train? The most liberal contribution 

 from a private individual that has yet been 

 made in Germany to an institution devoted 

 to the study of the brain was that of Herr 

 Krupp, the maker of big guns. This far- 

 sighted and philanthropic man saw that the 

 time had come when the study of the brain of 

 the man behind the guns was a matter of the 

 greatest importance to the German empire, 

 and with this aim in view he not only founded, 

 but endowed, the Neurobiologieal Institute in 

 Berlin. This institution has for its sole ob- 

 ject the investigation of various problems con- 

 nected with the structure and functions of the 

 nervous system, and, although deserving a 

 fuller description, is briefly referred to here, 

 in order to direct attention to the widespread 

 interest that these questions are receiving in 

 Germany. Stewart Paton. 



STANDARD TIME IN AMERICA. 



The annual report of the Superintendent 

 of the U. S. IsTaval Observatory for 1904 has 

 stated on page 14 that the adoption of the 

 standard time system of this country is the 

 outgrowth of the efforts of the naval officers 

 on duty at that institution. 



The more detailed history of this interest- 

 ing subject is about as follows : The astron- 

 omers in charge of the numerous observatories 

 of this country (usually connected with uni- 

 versities) have always felt the necessity of 

 contributing their quota to the public welfare, 

 and whenever possible have regulated the local 

 public clocks and the time systems for the 

 local railroads. This work began with the 

 labors of W. C. Bond (1820-1860), whose pri- 

 vate observatory in Boston developed into the 

 magnificent Harvard College Observatory at 

 Cambridge. Bond not only regulated the time 

 furnished to the shipping in Boston and to 

 jewelers and that shown by the public clocks, 

 but also especially the clocks of the railroads 

 centering in that city. About 1840 Professor 

 O. M. Mitchell began to regulate from the 

 Cincinnati Observatory the time used by the 



