462 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 332 



SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES, 



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NEW YORK, June 14, 18 



No. 332. 



CONTENTS: 



Dv 



Geological Survey of New Jer- 

 sey ' 



The Medbery Underground Sys- 



453 



:Un 



Edible Mushroo.ms of 



St.a,tes 453 



Mineral Products of the United 



States 455 



The Rainfall of the Pacific 



Slope 457 



Primary Education in Germany,. 458 

 Do Warm Summers follow Warm 



W: 



459 



ND News 459 



The Prevention of Consumption. — 

 The Health of Providence, R.I.— 

 An American Chemical Society. 



Clark University 



To Prevent Consumption 



Sixth Annual Report of the Su- 

 perintendent OF Health of 



Providence 



Book-Reviews. 



Mechanics of Engineering 



Elementary Synthetic Geometry of 

 the Point, Line, and Circle in the 



Plane 



Go to the Ant and learn Many 



Wonderful Things 



A Treatise on Spherical Trigonom- 



etry 



A Laboratory Guide 



A'nalysis 



Elementary Statics . . . 



Chemical 



Some time since, we referred to the appointment of a 

 commission by the New York City Board of Health for the pur- 

 pose of formulating a concise statement regarding the contagious- 

 ness of tuberculosis and the means of protection therefrom. This 

 commission was formed of Drs. Prudden, Biggs, and Loomis, 

 pathologists to the Board of Health, and in this number we publish 

 their report. In this report the position is taken that consumption 

 is not necessarily an hereditary disease, and that in certain stages 

 its cure is possible. If this dread disease may now be ranked 

 among preventable evils, it is desirable that this should be widely 

 known, and that the means by which this result may be reached 

 may be understood by the public at large. To aid a free discus- 

 sion of the questions at issue, we print on one of our advertising 

 pages a few questions to which we should be pleased to receive 

 answers. 



The REPORT of the superintendent of health of Providence, a 

 full abstract of which we give in this number, contains many items 

 of interest. The most important of these is the statement that 

 typhoid-fever germs were found in three of the filters in use in that 

 city, in houses where typhoid-fever e.xisted. In this report Dr. 

 Chapin states that the house-filters in common use collect filth and 

 microbes from the water, and act as incubators for the latter. 

 There is no doubt, that, when first put into use, a filter may be of 



advantage so far as sifting out the grosser particles of suspended 

 matter ; but it soon becomes itself filthy, and the constantly accu- 

 mulating filth furnishes the most favorable nidus for the growth of 

 disease-germs. 



The CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENNIAL of the discovery of 

 oxygen at Priestley's grave at Northumberland, Penn., in 1874, by 

 a gathering of distinguished American chemists, was the occasion 

 for the suggestion of the formation of an American chemical so- 

 ciety, with headquarters in New York. This suggestion was due 

 principally to H. Carrington Bolton ; but nothing resulted until 

 1876, when the American Chemical Society was started, with J. W. 

 Draper as president. After him Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, Professor 

 C. H. Chandler, and Dr. James C. Booth filled the presidential 

 chair. The meetings flourished for a time ; but, after a little, the 

 more prominent New York members failed to appear with any 

 regularity, and the management of the society fell into the hands 

 of the lesser members, with the result of a languishing condition of 

 affairs ever since. Some two or three years ago the matter was 

 brought up at a meeting of the American Association, and the for- 

 mation of a national chemical society, with headquarters at Wash- 

 ington, was advocated. This did not, however, meet the views of 

 all ; and a proposal is now made that the American Chemical So- 

 ciety shall be resuscitated, and that the meetings shall be held in 

 conjunction with the meetings of the American Association for the 

 advancement of Science. A committee has been appointed to con- 

 sider this matter at the Toronto meeting, and delegates from the 

 American Chemical Society and from the chemical section of the 

 Franklin Institute have been appointed. 



CLARK UNIVERSITY. 



Clark University was founded by the munificence of a native 

 of Worcester County, whose plans, conceived more than twenty 

 years ago, have gradually grown with his fortune. Plis affairs have 

 been so arranged as to allow long intervals for travel and study. 

 During eight years thus spent, the leading foreign institutions of 

 learning, old and new, were visited, and their records gathered 

 and read. These studies centred about the means by which the- 

 highest culture of one generation is best transmitted to the ablest 

 youths of the next, and especially about the external conditions 

 most favorable for increasing the sum of human knowledge. To 

 the improvement of these means and the enlargement of these con- 

 ditions, the new university will be devoted. 



It is the strong and express desire of the founder that the highest 

 possible academic standards be here forever maintained ; that 

 special opportunities and inducements be offered to research ; that 

 to this end the instructors be not overburdened with teaching or 

 examinations ; that all available experience, both of older countries 

 and our own, be freely utilize'd ; and that new measures, and even 

 innovations, if really helpful to the highest needs of modern sci- 

 ence and culture, be no less freely adopted ; in fine, that the great 

 opportunities of a new foundation in this land and age be diligently 

 explored and improved. 



He has chosen Worcester as the seat of the new foundation 

 after mature deliberation, first, because its location is central 

 among the best colleges of the East, and, by supplementing rather 

 than duplicating their work, he hopes to advance all their interests, 

 and to secure their good will and active support, that together 

 further steps may be taken in the development of superior educa- 

 tion in New England ; and, second, because he believes the culture 

 of this city will insure that enlightened public opinion indispensa- 

 ble in maintaining these educational standards at their highest, 

 and that its wealth will insure the perpetual increase of revenue 

 required by the rapid progress of science. 



As the first positive step towards the realization of these long- 

 formed plans, Mr. Clark invited the following gentlemen to consti- 

 tute with himself a board of trustees : Stephen Salisbury, Charles 

 Devens, George F. Hoar, William W. Rice, Joseph Sargent, ^ Joha 

 D. Washburn, Frank P. Goulding, and George Swan. 



