no 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 309 



"That delineation and construction are natural, early, and simple 

 •modes of thought-expression, cannot be doubted, and needs no 

 demonstration before this council. That these modes of mental 

 activity should be trained at school, where the sense-perception, 

 the memory, the reasoning-power, and the verbal expression of 

 thought, are trained, also needs no demonstration. The statement 

 must be accepted as true as soon as it is made ; for the proposi- 

 tion that certain mental powers shall be intentionally omitted from 

 the school-training has not as yet found any conscious defenders, 

 though numerous cases might be cited where men have uncon- 

 sciously argued in support of it. 



" The powers of thought-expression by delineation and by con- 

 struction are among the activities for which Froebel made so 

 prominent a place in his kindergarten. The principle underlying 

 the kindergarten and the manual-training school is one and the 

 same. It must be recognized, and its application extended to the 

 .primary and grammar grades. Then we may speak of the man- 

 ual-training movement and mean something definite thereby, and 

 we may still speak of the manual-training school and mean a 

 school which represents the principle of the manual-training move- 

 ment in the instruction it offers to pupils of high-school age. 



" We urge upon the council the determination to use the phrase 

 in this sense. It is the sense which is warranted by educational 

 ihistory, and the only sense that views manual training as involving 

 the application of a great pedagogic principle, and not as an at- 

 tempt to improve the methods of high-school instruction alone. 

 We therefore submit the following resolution, and recommend its 

 adoption : — 



** Whereas there are several and conflicting uses of the term ' manual 

 training,' be it hereby 



" Resolved thai the New Jersey Council of Education defines ' man- 

 ual training ' as ' training in thought-expression by other means than 

 gesture and verbal language, in such a carefully graded course of study 

 as shall also provide adequate training for the judgment and the execu- 

 tive faculty.' This trainmg will necessarily include drawing and con- 

 structive work, but experience alone can determine by what special 

 ■means this instruction may best be given." 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS IN WASHINGTON. 



Sanitary Precautions in Florida. — That " Bureau of Health." — Two 

 Other Bills. — Oil on Water. — The Ores of Nickel IVIountain. — 

 Fossil Wood. — National Geographic Society. — Philosophical So- 

 ciety. 



Sanitary Precautions in Florida. 



The last three of the weekly health reports of Surgeon-Gen. 

 Hamilton have presented shocking accounts of the deplorable san- 

 itary condition of the cities of Florida, and of the general neglect of 

 health precautions, especially in sewage, that prevails there. The 

 •correspondent of " Science " called on Gen. Hamilton, and asked 

 some questions bearing on these reports, eliciting the following 

 statement. 



" In general terms," said Gen. Hamilton, " it should be under- 

 stood that the condition of the towns in Florida, so far as investi- 

 gated, has revealed a shameful neglect of the commonest sanitary 

 precautions. In Jacksonville the sewage system is quite inade- 

 quate, the sewers having been made largely of terra-cotta pipe ; 

 and in many of the towns cesspools were constructed where the 

 contents were allowed permanently to percolate the soil. In view 

 of the theory concerning yellow-fever germs being in the alimentary 

 •canal and found in the excretions, the conditions existing were 

 exactly those most favorable to the propagation of the disease. If 

 the people of Florida would themselves obey the ordinary laws of 

 self-preservation, and look after their own interests, they would 

 have much less trouble with epidemics. The Federal Government 

 is enforcing in the yellow-fever districts more radical measures than 

 •ever before known in the history of this country : establishing gra- 

 tuitous public laundries for the cleansing of possibly infected bedding 

 and clothes, and fumigating with the consent of municipalities." 



That " Bureau of Health." 



The following report to the secretary of the treasury, here printed 



for the first time, will be likely to seal the fate of the bill which 

 was referred to him for his judgment as to its expediency : — 



Treasury Department, 

 Office of Supervising Surgeon-General, 

 U. S. Marine Hospital Service, 

 Dec. 28, 1888. 

 The Hon. C. S. Fairchild, 'Secretary of the Treasury. 



Sir, — I have to report, concerning House Bill No. 11,454, 'hat this 

 bill, which offers a reward of $100,000 to any person of any nationality 

 who discovers the true germ of yellow-fever, is wrongly conceived in my 

 judgment, and should not pass. It was recently made the suliject of 

 strong ridicule in the American Health Association, and not a word was 

 raised in its defence. The effect of the mere introduction of the bill 

 has been to flood ihe bureau with " crank*' letters of every description, 

 many of the remedies recommended being preposterous. It will be bet- 

 ter for the government to pay the prize as a reward of merit after the 

 discovery shall have been made and established. The history of prizes 

 for the discovery of remedies in times past is a blot on legislation not 

 only in our own country, but in several countries of Europe ; and the 

 rewards bestowed have generally turned out to have been improperly 

 given. It is recommended, therefore, that the bill be indefinitely post- 

 poned. Respectfully yours, 



John B. Hamilton, 

 Safej-jtsing Surgeon-General, M.H. S. 



Two Other Bills. 



Dr. Hamilton has reported favorably on so much of House Bill 

 No. 7,731 as provides for the establishment of a public laboratory 

 in Washington; also on House Bill No. 11.533, providing for a 

 board of yellow-fever commissioners to investigate the sanitary 

 condition of foreign infected places, and to provide for the co-op- 

 eration of Spain and Mexico. 



House Bill No. 11,723, for the creation of a bureau of health, 

 etc., referred to the secretary of the treasury, is reported back to 

 the committee adversely by Dr. Hamilton, whose opinion the sec- 

 retary asked. It is held that the.twenty experts which the bureau 

 would call for could not be had for two reasons : i. Because there 

 are no such experts whose practice has been limited to scarlet-fever, 

 diphtheria, small-pox, and the like ; 2. If there were, $1,200 a year 

 would not be adequate compensation. 



Oil on Water. 



The United States Signal Office publishes accounts of eleven 

 vessels which report that they used oil with great effect during the 

 hurricane off the Bahamas in November. The following are some 

 of the reports : Bark "Auburndale " " used oil with great success, 

 safety of vessel and lives of all on board attributed to its use, only 

 four gallons needed ; " bark " Hale," " fish oil used in bags at Cat- 

 heads, vessel and crew saved by its use ; " brig " Hussey," " blew a 

 hurricane, lay to, and used oil constantly, thus saving the vessel ; " 

 schooner " St. Croix," " in constant danger, but all damage pre- 

 vented by timely use of oil ; " barkentine " Retriever," heavy gale, 

 " but rode it out without breaking a rope-yarn, thanks to the use of 

 oil." The vessels seem generally to have used only a few gallons 

 of oil each. 



The Ores of Nickel Mountain. 



The interesting ores of Nickel Mountain, Oregon, are described 

 in Dr. Day's new volume of " Mineral Resources of the United 

 States." 



" The mountain has an elevation of 2,800 feet above Riddle, or 

 about 3,600 feet above the sea. At an elevation of i ,000 feet above 

 the valley, the nickel ores are first found ; and from this height, on 

 all sides of the mountain to the very summit, are found beds of ore 

 covering areas from one to twenty acres, and averaging six feet in 

 thickness. The ores are invariably found either in bowlders dis- 

 seminated through a highly ferruginous earth, or in a stratified bed 

 underlaid by an altered serpentine. In places the ore in these beds 

 is not more than a foot in thickness, but in others it will run to a 

 depth of thirty feet. Nothing like vein-formation has yet been en- 

 countered. Occurring with the nickel ores is chromic iron and 

 chalcedonic silica. Sometimes the latter contains nickel o.xides, 

 forming the beautiful gem stone chrysoprase. Nearly all the hy- 

 drated nickel and magnesium silicates are found in greater or less 

 quantities at these mines. No nickel minerals other than the sili- 



