342 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 326. 



SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES, 



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Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be 

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 manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name 

 and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good 

 faith. We Ho not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the 

 )ur correspondents. 



NEW YORK, May 3, \l 



Storage-Batteries for Street- 

 Cars 331 



Ivory Varnish 332 



TheJull Snow-Excavator 332 



Improved Steam Apparatus for 



Heating AND Ventilating 334 



Brick for Street-Paving 



J. G. Shea 335 



A Five-Masted Sailing-Ship 336 



Electric-Lighting Stations IN Eu- 

 rope, and their Lessons 337 



Notes and News 338 



Editorial 342 



Weather Reports for the Bay of 

 North America. 



The Seventh Annual Report of 

 THE Director of the United 

 States Geological Survey 342 



Twelfth Annual Report of the 

 New Jersey State Board of 

 Health 343 



CONTENTS: 



Book-Reviews. 

 Psychology as a Natural Science. . . 

 Reports on Elementary Schools, 



1852-82. 



The Principles of Empirical, or In- 

 ductive, Logic 344 



Home Gymnastics for the Well and 

 the Sicic 345 



Among THE Publishers 345 



Letters to the Editor. 



Magnetic Storms and their Astro- 

 E, Dolbear ■ 



nomical Effects 

 Chrome Yellow 



Poison 

 A Mound in Calhi 



isidered as a 



Wtn. Glenn 347 

 County, 111. 

 Cyrus Thomas 349 

 f Heat 



Henry M, Howe 349 



The " Pilot Chart " of last month contained a small tele- 

 graph chart (reproduced in Science of April 5) of the Bay of North 

 America, to illustrate the admirable facilities that exist for the estab- 

 lishment of a more complete system of telegraphic weather-reports 

 and storm-warnings for the benefit of commerce, to include Mexico, 

 Central America, the West Indies, and the Windward Islands. A 

 hurricane chart accompanying the " Pilot Chart " for May, with the 

 tracks of a few hurricanes selected as typical of those that occur in 

 this region, illustrates still more strikingly the importance of this 

 project, besides containing information of value to navigators 

 during the coming hurricane season. The recent terrible disaster 

 at Samoa, March 16, caused by a tropical cyclone, may well call at- 

 tention to the fact that West Indian hurricanesareamong the most 

 severe that occur anywhere in the world. Every consideration of 

 expediency, economy, and common sense, urges the importance of 

 taking full advantage of every possible facility for getting early and 

 reliable information regarding the formation and progress of these 

 terrific storms, for the benefit of commerce along the Atlantic and 

 Gulf coasts, and in the West Indies, the Caribbean Sea, and the 

 Gulf of Mexico. The completion of the Nicaragua Canal will add 

 tenfold importance to this subject, but its importance to American 

 commerce is already so great that such a system should be in full 

 operation now. 



THE SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



Ever since the foundation of the present United States Geo- 

 logical Survey, its scope and fitness to accomplish the great work 

 intrusted to it, have grown, its work thus steadily gaining greater 

 economic and scientific importance. It would be useless at the- 

 present day to dwell upon the value of geological work, to the- 

 appreciation of which the people of the United States have fully 

 awakened. Even the people of the Western States, who are so- 

 entirely guided by practical considerations, acknowledge their 

 necessity by appropriating funds for geological investigations or by 

 maintaining geological surveys. 



The lack of trustworthy maps has compelled the United States- 

 Geological Survey to include this indispensable preliminary work 

 in its operations, and the great and important work is furthered 

 with commendable energy. Ever since the first of the topographic 

 sheets were printed, and since they have become accessible to the 

 public, the demand for such maps has increased, and the lack is- 

 more sorely felt in regions where they do not exist. The publica- 

 tion of the map of New Jersey, the first of the States that caa 

 boast of a good map, and the imminent completion of the map of 

 Massachusetts, will greatly help to bring home to the pubUc the- 

 necessity of providing for the publication of the maps of the whole 

 country. In the year 18S6, considerable portions of New Jersey 

 and Massachusetts, of the Appalachian region, of Kansas and 

 Missouri, a portion of Texas, a small part of Arizona, and several- 

 valleys of California, were surveyed, and the mapping of the Yel- 

 lowstone National Park was completed. 



Regarding the scope of the geological work of the survey, the 

 following passage of Major Powell's report will be read with in- 

 terest : " The Geological Survey inherited much unfinished work of 

 different surveys in the Western Territories, previously prosecuted 

 under the auspices of the government. Since it seemed desirable 

 to carry forward and complete these surveys as rapidly as possible,, 

 investigations were continued in the fields covered by them, and 

 thus the early organization of the survey was determined in part 

 by antecedent geologic work. At the same time, however, demands 

 for local geologic and mineralogic investigations came from various- 

 portions of the country, including the older and long settled States ;_ 

 and, as soon as the legality of such action was established, the 

 geologic operations of the survey were e.\tended into the other 

 States, and a number of divisions were organized, and intrusted! 

 with the investigations. 



" It should be explained that by its organic law the Geological 

 Survey is inhibited, both implicitly and directly, from making a 

 geologic survey upon a cadastral plan ; i.e., from making investi- 

 gations relating to the value of properties of individuals. Accord- 

 ingly, its work in economic geology is limited to the observation and. 

 mapping of the formations within which mineral resources lie ; the 

 general distribution and characteristics of coal-beds, ore bodies,- 

 and other valuable mineral deposits ; and the investigation of ques- 

 tions relating to the origin and vtaxonomic relations of the forma- 

 tions themselves and of their contained minerals. 



" Within the above limitations it has been found possible to make 

 the scientific investigation of the survey of high economic value 

 (i) by extending its operations into those portions of the different 

 States in which the natural resources have not yet been fully de- 

 veloped, and (2) by developing and applying such systems of classi- 

 fication of the formations as will at the same time enable and 

 compel the geologist to discriminate in the field, and clearly dis- 

 tinguish on the maps of the survey those rock-masses which are 

 economically important. Both of these means of rendering these 

 investigations of the survey of maximum value to the country have 

 been adopted. Moreover, friendly relations exist between the 

 United States Geological Survey and the geologic surveys prose- 

 cuted under the auspices of different States of the Union ; and in 

 many cases partial co-operation with these States has been effected' 

 in such manner that the State geologists leave to the federal survey 

 the investigation of such general scientific questions as involve 

 operations beyond the limits of their own States as well as within 

 them, and avail themselves of the results of this investigation, and 

 in return permit the general survey to utilize the results of their 

 own more strictly economic studies." 



