March 22, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



!25 



— The favorable reception accorded in the past to the Easter- 

 card packets put up by H. H. Carter & Co., Boston, has encour- 

 aged this enterprising house to prepare their 1889 pacloges with 

 even greater care than heretofore. Being one of the largest 

 dealers in this class of goods in the country, and selling paper 

 directly from the mills, they are enabled to give exceptionally good 

 values. People dealing with them are sure to find their goods 

 satisfactory. 



— Contortionists and "Snake-men" will be described in the 

 April Scribner by Dr. Thomas Dwight of the Harvard Medical 

 School, who has made a thorough investigation of their peculiar 

 anatomy. Photographs of several expert contortionists in their 

 most wonderful feats will be reproduced in the article. Henrik 

 Ibsen, the Norwegian dramatist, a literary genius little known in 

 this country, is the subject of a paper in the same number. 

 Charles Francis Adams's paper on " The Prevention of Railway 

 Strikes " was written nearly three years ago, but held back by the 

 author for fear that, in existing conditions, it might result in more 

 harm than good. A practical scheme for giving employees a part 

 in the management of the road is suggested. Pictures showing 

 stages in the building of the great ocean steamers, the " City of 

 New York " and others, will illustrate Mr. Rideing's article on 

 " Ocean Greyhounds." 



— At a regular meeting of the Nineteenth Century Club, New 

 York, on the 9th of November last, a resolution was passed ap- 

 pointing a committee to prepare and publish a memorial volume to 

 the founder and first president of the club, and to solicit subscrip- 

 tions to defray the expenses. This volume is now ready for pub- 

 lication. The book will contain the funeral orations, the addresses 

 delivered at the memorial meetings, and essays and letters since 

 received. It will consist of about two hundred pages, octavo, 

 printed on heavy Holland paper, and richly bound in levant mo- 

 rocco. This edition, upon which no pains or expense will be 

 spared to make it worthy of the club and of the occasion, will cost 

 t^ve dollars per copy. For those who desire it, an edition, hand- 

 somely bound in cloth, will be supplied at a cost of three dollars 

 per copy. As frontispiece there will be a portrait of Courtlandt 

 Palmer. As the committee have decided to print only such copies 

 of the memorial volume as are ordered in advance, it is desirable 

 that no time should be lost in notifying John H. Beach, 25 East 

 57th Street, of the number of copies and the kind of binding which 

 may be desired. 



— Mr. Andrew Lang is a frequent contributor of leading articles 

 on social and literary topics to the London Daily News; and some 

 of his admirers think that not a little of his most characteristic 

 writing is to be found in these " leaders," as the English call them. 

 One of these admirers, with the author's permission, has gathered 

 some thirty of these essaylets in a volume which Longmans, Green, 

 & Co. will publish shortly, under the apt title of " Lost Leaders." 

 Among the subjects treated are " Thackeray's Drawings," the "Art 

 of Dining," " Phiz," " Amateur Authors," and the " Lending of 

 Books." 



— James W. Queen & Co., 924 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 

 announce a clearance sale of microscopes, objectives, accessories, 

 and sundries, and have issued a new catalogue. The firm's stock- 

 taking strongly calls attention to the fact that some microscopical 

 accessories (and other goods) have not shown, of late, such activ- 

 ity of commercial movement as is desirable. They have therefore 

 picked them out, described them in their special catalogue, and 

 cut the prices, to make them move along. The articles described 

 in this list are new and perfect unless otherwise noted. 



— The following are from the table of contents of the April 

 number of The Chmitauquan : " Gossip about Greece," by J. P. 

 Mahaffy, M.A., of Dublin University ; " Agesilaus," by Thomas 

 D. Seymour. M.A., of Yale LIniversity ; " Greek Art," by Clarence 

 Cook ; " Color in the Animal World," by the Rev. J. G. Wood ; 

 "What Inventors have done for Farming," by James K. Reeve; 

 "The Care of the Insane," by A. G. Warner, Ph.D.; "Sunday 

 Labor," by the Rev. Jesse H. Jones ; " The First Presidential In- 

 auguration," by Charles Carleton Coffin ; "English Pronunciation," 

 by Robert McLean Cumnock, of Northwestern L'niversity ; "Stu- 



dent Life in Paris," by F. M. Warren; "British Columbia," by 

 Sheldon Jackson, D.D., United States general agent of education 

 in Alaska ; " Women's Clubs in London," by Susan Hayes Ward ; 

 " A Virginia Plantation," by C. W. Coleman ; "The Secret Service 

 of the Treasury Department," by Mrs. Carl Barus. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



si3/e. The writer's name i 

 fjiik the character 0/ 

 nication -will be furnishet* 



* ^* Correspondents are requested to be as brief as p< 

 in all cases reg^tired as proo/ o/ good faith. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries 

 the journal. 



Twenty copies o/ the nitinber containing 

 free to any correspodent on request. 



Origin of Fish in Isolated Waters. 



A FEW months ago I called attention to the abundance of fish, 

 in certain isolated ponds in Florida, which become dry at timea 

 {Science, xii. p. 280). Mr. Henry W. Howe of Boston suggested in 

 reply that fish may be transported from one pond to another by^ 

 birds. This is an interesting suggestion, as indicating a possible 

 explanation, though I am not aware that there is any evidence to. 

 that effect at present. Alligators might also be mentioned as a 

 possible transporting agency. But any such means would seem to 

 be inadequate to produce the observed results. Since my former 

 communication, I have had further opportunity to investigate this 

 subject. The past season in Florida has been a very unusual one.. 

 The rainy season, which usually begins in the peninsular portion 

 of the State, about the ist of June, failed to make its appearance,, 

 and a severe drought resulted. Ponds, swamps, creeks, and wells 

 became dry. Then in the fall, when the rainy season usually closes^ 

 " the windows of heaven were opened," and a very wet fall and 

 winter followed. But the ponds, which were dry for many weeka 

 during the hottest part of the year, now swarm with little fish; and 

 during the heavy rains fish could be seen not only in ponds, but in 

 ditches beside the railroad, in ditches beside the fields, and in 

 shallow rain pools which would dry in a few days, and had no. 

 connection with other waters. In fact, minnows have been almost 

 abundant enough to give color to the old notion of the raining~ 

 down of fish, frogs, tom-cats, lean meat, etc., reports of which are 

 occasionally seen in the newspapers. There is certainly some 

 certain and rapid means of populating the waters of isolated and 

 temporary pools, which is well worth investigating. 



Chs. B. Palm er^ 



Orange Heights, Fla., March ii. 



The Soaring of Birds. 



I HOPE I may be allowed space for a few short comments on 

 Messrs. Gilbert and Kimball's letters in Science, xiii. pp. 169 and 

 170. 



My conception of relative velocity does not differ from Mr. Gil- 

 bert's, as he supposes, and accordingly the statements of his 

 paper were as clear to me as the restatements of his letter. So. 

 far as his presentation of the differential motion theory of soaring 

 is concerned, my only criticism was that his assumption as to the 

 dynamical effect of the wind on the bird during the turn seemed 

 to demand more than mere assertion. One of my statements as ta 

 what this assumption implied, Mr. Gilbert questions as follows : 

 " I do not admit ' that during the turn his [the bird's] velocity 

 relative to the earth will change by an amount equal to twice the 

 velocity, relative to the earth, of the medium in which the turn is 

 made.' His velocity relative to the earth will change by an 

 amount equal to twice his velocity relative to the medium." Both 

 positions are correct, however. We are merely using the term 

 "velocity" in different senses, — Mr. Gilbert as connoting both 

 rate and direction of motion, I as connoting rate of motion simply. 

 I used the term in this sense, because it was the sense in which 

 Mr. Gilbert had used it when he asserted that the velocity of the 

 bird relative to tne air would be the same after a turn as before. 



Both Mr. Gilbert and Dr. Kimball hold that the velocity of wind 

 or bird relative to the earth " has nothing to do with the question."' 

 That surely depends, however, upon what the question is. If we 

 undertake, as I did, to account for the fact that some birds are 

 able, without flapping of wings, to describe paths which, relatively- 

 to the earth, are spirals about lines inclined upwards, velocities 

 relative to the earth must be taken into consideration. If, how- 



