32 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No. 493 



blanket of fine soil on the surface during a hot, dry week can be 

 of great value to the crop and really become the turning-point for 

 profit if present when loss might result from its absence." 



— The North Carolina Experiment Station has just published a 

 26-page Bulletin (No. 84) dealing with the fungous and insect 

 enemies of garden and truck crops. The trucking interest has 

 become one of the most important in the State. Good home gar- 

 dens are not, however, so plentiful as they would be were it not 

 for the ravages of insects and diseases. This Bulletin gives ten 

 different formulas for compounding insecticides and fungicides, 

 and explains the necessity for garden hygiene. The most approved 

 forms of spraying apparatus are illustrated and described, and 

 some trustworthy dealers in fungicidal chemicals are named. 

 Everyone who has even a small garden is interested in the matters 

 this Bulletin treats of. It is sent free to all residents of North 

 Carolina, and will be sent as long as the supply lasts to residents 

 of other States who send 6 cents in postage stamps. Address N. C. 

 Experiment Station, Raleigh, N.C. 



— Dr. Arthur MacDonald, specialist in education as related to 

 criminal and abnormal classes. United States Bui-eau of Educa- 

 tion, Washington, D.C., has been appointed ofificial representative 

 of the United States to attend the international congress for ex- 

 perimental psychology at London and also the international con- 

 gress upon criminology at Brussels. The congress at Brussels 

 will consider crime in its relation to biology and sociology. The 

 congress is extremely cosmopolitan not only as to nalionalities, but 

 in the different departments of knowledge which it includes. The 

 criminal must be studied as a member of the race, and this gives 

 rise to the new science of criminal anthropology, or, in short, 

 criminology. Here such questions will be discussed as to whether 

 there is a criminal type distinguished by shape of cranium and 

 face, anatomy of ears and nose, size of orbits and length of jaws. 

 Another important question under this head is whether the crim- 

 inal is born so or becomes so from his surroundings. In this 

 division of the programme are the names of the celebrated Cesare 

 Lombroso, professor of legal medicine at Turin, and Dr. Brovardel, 

 president of the medical faculty at Paris, and Professor Ferri, 

 senator at Rome. But the criminal must be studied psychologi- 

 cally, that is, as to the nature of his mind and will, and their re- 

 lation to insanity and moral insanity. Among those who will 

 speak in the congress on this phase of criminality are Dr. Magnan, 

 chief physician of the Saint Ann Insane Asylum of Paris; Dr. 

 Benedikt, the celebrated o-raniologist at the University of Vienna; 

 ami the brilliant Freoch. writer and legalist. Judge Tarde. Another 

 and very important side of the criminal is included under the 

 head of Criminal Sociology. This takes up crime in history and 

 ■politics, the influence of profession and trade on ci'iminality and 

 their bearing in the determination of penalty. But there is a 

 practical as well as a scientific point of view in the study of the 

 criminal. This will be considered -in the congress under the title 

 of " Legal and Administrative Applications of Criminal Anthro- 

 pology." TliusDr Alimena of Naples will discuss what measures 

 are applicable to incorrigible criminals. Then there are the gen- 

 eral and fundamental principles of the school of criminal anthro- 

 pology, which will be considered by Dimtri Di-ill of Moscow. Dr. 

 Manouvrier, professor in the School of Anthropology at Paris, is 

 to read a paper on the • ' Innateness and Heredity of Crime; " Dr. 

 Bruxelles on "The Functional Causes of Crime;" Dr. Sernal on 

 "Suicide and Insanity in Criminals." The distinguished Lacas- 

 sagne, profes-3or at the University of Lyons, will speak on "The 

 Primordial Sentiments in Criminals." and Dr. Fioretti of Naples 

 on "The Applications of Anthropology to Civil Law." Thus it 

 will be seen that not only specialists in criminology, but those in 

 medicine, insanity, law, psychology, anthropology, and sociology, 

 all will consider the criminal from their respective points of view. 

 The congress for experimental psychology represents the precedent 

 tendency of applying scientific methods to study the relation be- 

 tween mind and body, or mind and brain, subjects which are of 

 as much interest and importance in the case of criminals as of 

 normal men. This is illustrated by the new psycho-physical in- 

 strument called the plethysmograpb. which indicates the least 

 increase of blood in the arteries of the arm. Thus it ha& been 



found, that when the sentence of the judge is read before the 

 criminal, there is a decrease in the flow of blood in the arm, but 

 the sight of a glass of wine increases the flow ; when, for example, 

 it is required to multiply nine times seventy-three an increase in 

 blood flow is the result. The flow is little affected in a brutal 

 murderer or bom criminal, when a pistol is shown to him, whereas 

 in the normal man the plethysmograpb indicates a decided effect. 

 The importance of this new instrument lies in this, that involuntary 

 testimony is given as to the nervous and physical nature of the 

 criminal. It is often unknown, to him, and in spite of himself. 

 Dr. MacDonald, after attending these congresses, will visit and 

 study a few of the principal prisons and charitable institutions in 

 England, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, and 

 Italy. A work of Dr. Macdonald's, entitled "Criminology," will 

 soon be published by Funk & Wagnalls of New York. It is dedi- 

 cated to Professor Lombroso, who writes the introduction and who 

 himself is the founder of the new science. 



— A society which may have opportunities of doing much valu- 

 able work has been formed in Wellington, New Zealand, as we 

 learn from Nature. It is called the Polynesian Society, '• Poly- 

 nesia" being intended to include Australia, New Zealand. Mela- 

 nesia, Micronesia, and Malaysia, as well as Polynesia proper. The 

 president is Mr. H. G. Seth-Smith, chief judge of the native land 

 court, while the Queen of Hawaii is patron. There has just ap- 

 peared the first number of the society's Journal, in which there 

 are papers on the races of the Philippines, by Elsdon Best; Maori 

 deities, by W. L. Gudgeon; the Tahitian "Hymn of Creation," 

 by S. P. Smith; Futuna, or Home Island, and its people, by S. 

 P. Smith ; Polynesian causatives, by E T. ; and the Polynesian 

 bow, by E. Tregear. There is also a paper giving the genealogy 

 of one of the chieftainesses of Rarotonga, by a native of Raro- 

 tonga. The original was written in 1857, and is printed in the 

 Journal, with a translation by Mr. Henry Nicholas, and notes by 

 the editors. The editors are of opinion that the paper "appa- 

 rently supports by direct traditional testimony the theory pro- 

 pounded by Hale, and subsequently advocated by Fornander, of 

 the occupation of the Fiji Group by the Polynesian race, and of 

 their later migration eastward to Samoa and the Society Group." 



— The second annual meeting of The Mechanical Engineering 

 Teachers' Association will be held at Rochester, N.Y. , beginning 

 Aug. 18, 1893. This place and time of meeting is chosen as coin- 

 cident with that of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science in order to accommodate those who will wish to 

 attend both meetings, and who may not be aVde to do so if at 

 different times and places. The object of this association perhaps 

 is best stated in Art. II. of its Rules, viz.: "To determine upon, 

 and to secure by co-operation, the best courses of study, and the 

 general adoption of methods of instruction, leading to the highest 

 efficiency of schools of mechanical engineering." The meeting 

 last year was largely occupied with the organization of the asso- 

 ciation, so that comparatively little time could be devoted to the 

 consideration of courses, methods, or appliances, either by reading 

 of papers or discussion. But it is hoped that the Rochester meet- 

 ing of this year will be productive of great good in crystallizing 

 the views of the now quite large body of professors and teachers 

 into such tangible and acceptable matters of opinion as to form a 

 working basis for all. The following points are suggested as of 

 importance for study by way of preparation for good work at the 

 meeting, either in the presentation of papers, topical or general 

 discussion, viz.: What subjects should be embraced in the course 

 of mechanical engineering leading to graduation? Should any of 

 them be optional? Should there be a post-graduate course, and 

 if so in what should it consist ? What should be the degrees for 

 the above, and what the studies? Should there be included one 

 or two modern foreign languages? What engineering studies 

 should be included? What amount of mechanical laboratory 

 should there be included? What subjects should be included in 

 the mechanical laboratory ? How much practice with the object of 

 mechanical and manual training? How much fine mechanical 

 practice such as scraping of surface plates, grinding of standards, 

 etc. ? Should the construction of articles of manufacture be at- 

 tempted at the school laboratory V What testing should be at- 



