UtroiiKi: '.'. 1903. J 



SCIENCE. 



475 



nient. Of o<iiii-s«\ we must inclmlc in the esti- 

 mate the millions being expended at the Nnval 

 Academy for the improvement of its facilities. 

 To exi)end such sums in training officers to 

 perform duty that civilians are now carrying 

 on at far less cost would be a most unjusti- 

 fiable expenditure of the public money. 



The sliglit reason for the employment of 

 naval officers on civil duty which formerly 

 existed has entirely disappeared with the lapse 

 of time. For several years after the civil 

 war we had more officers than were necessary 

 for the management of our ships and the ad- 

 ministration of shore stations. Under these 

 circumstances tliere was no objection to their 

 employment on such outside service as might 

 be appropriate. But all this has now been 

 changed. Tlie cry in every department of 

 the naval service is for more officers. We 

 hear daily stories of the department's inability 

 to man its ships properly. Why should the 

 service be deprived of its trained officers if 

 this is the case? 



The practice of foreign nations has been 

 cited in favor of the proposed action. It is 

 true that the hydrographic surveys of the 

 leading countries of Europe are carried on to 

 a large extent by their respective naval de- 

 partments. But this statement needs to be 

 supplemented by two others. Both the admin- 

 istration and the r>ersonnel of foreign sur- 

 veys are to a greater or less extent distinct 

 from thase which relate to naval duty prop- 

 erly so calle<l. In France the surveys are all 

 conducted by a special corps of ' hydrographic 

 engineers.' and not by line officers at all. In 

 F.ngland, by custom, the hydrographer of the 

 admiralty is permanently withdrawn from 

 military duty. He can, of course, be restored 

 to it if such a course is desirable, but prac- 

 tically this is seldom, if ever, done. 



These features of foreign hydrographic sur- 

 veys have always been successfully antago- 

 nized by our naval authorities, and we can not 

 suppose that they have changed their minds 

 on the subject. The transfer of the Coast 

 Survey to the Navy Department, whatever 

 may be the intentions of those who favor it, 

 practically means the administration of the 



survey and tlie perfornuiuce of its most diffi- 

 cult work by officers of the navy, eacli tem- 

 iwrarily withdrawn from naval service proper 

 for this special duty, which he is expected to 

 abandon for life about the time when lie has 

 obtained a respectable measure of skill in its 

 ])crformance. A civilian organization under 

 the Secretary of the Navy, however plausible 

 it may be made to appear, is an impossibility 

 in the present state of naval opinion. 



The law organizing the Department of 

 Commerce gave the President authority to 

 transfer to it bureaus from other departments 

 of the government, that of the navy included. 

 There is good reason to believe that this pro- 

 vision was expected to lead to the inclusion of 

 the National Observatorj-, and perhaps of the 

 Hydrographic Office also, within the new 

 department. The transfer of the former is 

 loudly called for by all the facts of its history 

 and present position, and if any unification 

 of the government hydrographic surveys is 

 to be carried out. it should be done by trans- 

 ferring the Hydrographic Office also, for it 

 has no necessary relation to the Navy De- 

 liartment wliatsoever, and properly belongs to 

 tlic Department of Commerce. 



yuTRirioy txpERiUEsra. 



In response to the many inquiries regarding 

 the investigation on nutrition now being car- 

 ried on at New Haven, Professor Chittenden, 

 Director of the Sheffield Scientific School, has 

 made the following statement: 



Through the courtesy of Secretary Root and 

 Surgeon General O'Reilly of the Army, the 

 War Department will cooperate with the Shef- 

 field Laboratory in a physiological study of 

 the minimal amount of proteid or albuminous 

 food required for the maintenance of health 

 and strength under ordinary conditions of life. 

 In carrying out this purpose, twenty men have 

 been detailed from the Hospital Corps of the 

 Army, and will be in New Haven on Monday, 

 under the charge of Lieutenant Wallace De- 

 Witt, Assistant Surgeon in the U. S. Army, 

 and three non-commissioned officers. The 

 Scientific School has fitted up a house on Van- 

 derbilt Square, at the corner of Temple and 



