358 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No. 516 



lowed to, and is easily caught, while after dark I must corner it 

 to catch it. I have heard it make no vocal sound save a slight 

 squeak if accidentally hurt. It appeared to be fully adult when 

 caught, but I have no other means of knowing how old it then 

 was. It now acts as if feeling the effects of age. At first I tried 

 feeding it grain, seeds, and green food. It would eat no green 

 food that I gave it and would not touch water. For two years I 

 have given it only dry barley or dry wheat and no water. It 

 ^eems to prefer the wheat. It is a mystery to me how such an 

 animal can live and thrive for years on dry grain without water 

 or moisture in any form. Once or twice a year I empty its box 

 and put in fresh, dry sand, and set the box in an angle in the hall 

 where it is perfectly dry. I put nothing more in the box but dry 

 grain and a little cotton to make a nest of, yet under these con- 

 ditions it has lived three years. Many birds and animals do not 

 <drink water, or but rarely, but most such eat either green food, 

 soft insects, or freshly-killed flesh, from all of which sources some 

 moisture is obtained. 



From where does my pocket-mouse get its moisture? Some 

 :seems necessary to make blood, replace water evaporated from 

 the lungs and skin and other waste. F. Stephens. 



Santa Ysabel, Cal., Nov. 22. 



Confusion in Weights and Measures. 



The interesting article in Science Nov. 25, on "weights and 

 •measures in England versus the decimal and metric system,' re- 

 --calls to my mind the difficulties I once experienced in stating the 

 •value in grains of a U. S. gallon of water at 60° F. A telegram 

 "Was handed me one morning, requesting the above information, 

 -and I requested the messenger to wait until I had wriDten a re- 

 ply. Much to my astonishment, there existed the greatest con- 

 fusion among the authorities upon this simple point, and it took 

 «ie several months of investigation before I could write a satis- 

 factory answer to the above telegram. Among the values noted 

 were the following : — 



U. S. Pharmacopoeia, 1870, 58338.8863 grains. 



1880, 583i9.6 



Miller's Chemistry, 58317 3 " 



Am. Chemist, Vol. I., p. 318, 58319.8 " 



U. S. Dispensatory (last edition), 53328.886 " 



Oldberg's Weights and Measures, 58335.218 " 



U. S. Treasury Department, 8.3813 pounds. 



The report on "Weights and Measures," by the Secretary of 

 -the Treasury (Senate Doc, 1857). says: "The gallon is a vessel 

 containing 58373.2 grains (8.3389 pounds avoirdupois) of the 

 standard pound of distilled water, at the temperature of maxi- 

 mum density of water, the vessel being weighed in air in which 

 the barometer is 30 inches, at 63° F." 



In view of all this confusion I thought it best to calculate a 

 value for myself, basing my work upon the weight of a cubic 

 inch of water as given in Barnard's " Metric System." My re- 

 rsult was: "The TJ. S. gallon of distilled water at 60° F., weighed 

 -in air at 60° F., with barometer at 30 inches, weighs 

 58334.94640743 grains. 

 Referring to this result, Dr. Rice, Chairman of the Committee 

 of Revision of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia, was good enough to say: 

 -"Until further information is supplied, the value reported de- 

 serves preference before all others. It seems, however, highly 

 desirable that this whole question of standards and relation of 

 ■weight to measure, be finally settled by law, and preliminary to 

 this, by a new scientific investigation which might be most suit- 

 •ably conducted under the auspices of the National Academy of 

 .Sciences or some other representative scientific body." 



This U. S. gallon, of which we have been speaking, is, as is 

 ■generally known, a survival of the old English wine gallon of 231 

 -cubic inches, which has become disused in England since the Im- 

 perial gallon was introduced in 1836. It is not generally known, 

 however, that although dignified by an apparently "standard" 

 title, the U. S. gallon has no statutory existence whatever. In 

 ^his lack of formal recognition the gallon does not stand alone, 

 loY not one of our common weights and measures, with the sin- 

 3;le exception of the " Troy " pound has any place upon the na- 



tional statute books. In 1873 an act was passed providing that 

 "For the purpose of securing a due conformity in weight of the 

 coins of the United States, the brass troy pound weight procured 

 by the Minister of the United States at London in the year 1827, 

 for the use of the mint and now in the custody of the mint at 

 Philadelphia, shall be the standard troy pound of the mint of the 

 United States, conformably to which the coinage thereof shall be 

 regulated." Thus even the troy pound is seen to have no official 

 I'ecognition for general use, but only for the special purposes of 

 the mint. 



It is curious in this connection to note that the metric system, 

 as a whole, was legalized in this country by act of Congress of 

 July 38, 1866. The act reads: " It shall be lawful throughout 

 the United States of America to employ the weights and meas- 

 ures of the metric system; and no contract, or dealing, or plead- 

 ing in any court shall be deemed invalid or liable to objection 

 because the weights or measures expressed or referred to therein 

 are weights or measures of the metric system." By act of Con- 

 gress the Secretary of the Treasury was directed to lurnish each 

 State with " one set of the standard weights and measures of the 

 metric system." It is true that an act passed June 14, 1836, di- 

 rected a distribution to be made to the several States of complete 

 sets of "all the weights and measures adopted as standards," 

 reference being made to the weights and measures then and 

 now in common use, but it will be found upon inquiry that the 

 expression "adopted as standards" refers to an action of the 

 Treasury department made on the recommendation of Mr. Hassler 

 in 1832, and not to any action on the part of Congress. 



To quote from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury for 

 1857:- 



■' The actual standard of length of the United States is a brass 

 scale of eighty-two inches in length, prepared by Troughton of 

 London, and deposited in the Office of Weights and Measures. 

 The temperature at which this scale is standard is 62? F. , and 

 the yard-measure is between the 27th and 63d inches of the 

 scale." 



" The gallon is a vesssel containing 58372.2 grains of the stand- 

 ard pound of distilled water, at the temperature of maximum 

 density of water, the vessel being weighed in air in which the 

 barometer is 30 inches at 62° F." 



"The standard of weight is the troy pound, copied by Captain 

 Kater in 1837 from the imperial troy pound. The avoirdupois 

 pound is derived from this; its weigiit being greater than that of 

 the troy pound, in the proportion of 7,000 to 5,760" 



This troy pound was, as has been said, afterwards recognized 

 by act of Congress, thus becoming distinguished from the other 

 so-called "standards." WAliam P. Mason. 



Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.T., Dec. 13. 



Is There a Sense of Direction ? 



On the first of May last, my camping outfit started from Austin, 

 Texas, bound for the northwestern part of the State. They went 

 through the country, taking with them our camp dog, "Old 

 Rock,' a common cur. 



Professor Cope of Philadelphia and myself joined the party at 

 Big Springs, two hundred and fifty miles from Austin. Our des- 

 tination was the upper Red River and the Slaked Plains. We 

 travelled northward along the foot of the plains, sometimes with- 

 out a road, for about one hundred and fifty miles. Thence we 

 went west one hundred miles, and thence south across the high 

 plateau of the Staked Plains one hundred miles. Thence we 

 turned east, crossing our former route at Clarendon, continuing 

 southeastward to Archer County, a distance of one hundred miles. 

 We then went southwestward seventy-five miles, and then back 

 eastward to Archer and Montague Counties. From there we 

 turned southward to near Dallas, where I disbanded my party, 

 and started my outfit back to Austin, the last of October. We 

 had been in the field six months. "Old Rock" had faithfully 

 followed the wagon except at one time, when, his feet getting sore 

 from travelling in the hot sand, he had been hauled for a few 

 days. 



After the outfit started for Austin and when at Hillsboro, one 



