March 29, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



361 



these new somethings is kirs. This is no 

 t'ommou mangy kirs. but a new kind of kirs 

 altogether. He or it — for the author says 

 enough about the relations of the atoms to 

 make one careful — is introduced to our 

 notice as follows : 



'■ The most resultant discovery of all is that kire 

 is a hydrate of nitrogen, having the atomic form 



The second something new is Stuart, 

 which is N3H, it seems. According to the 

 author this, as well as kirs, is unobserved. 

 We understood that Curtius not many years 

 since discovered a compound liaving the 

 symbol of Stuart. Init this is perhaps a mis- 

 take. Carbon has lieen found to be AN., ice 

 is Aq. and made up of Stuart, Cyanogen and 

 more Stuart. Coke equals kars and A. 

 ^^'e are nowhere informed what is meant 

 hy A, nor is it easy to see what difterence 

 there is between • combining constituents ' 

 and ■ constituents " except with the eye of 

 faith. The author explains, however, that 

 " The grand difficulty of the calculation is 

 that the revelations at the end constantly 

 contradict the premises at the beginning." 



Everything about this wonderful pam- 

 phlet is new, even the spelling is sui generis. 

 For example : Flourine, Ghicium, Rube- 

 dium, Phosphorous. Telerium. Tantalium, 

 Lanthanium. Paladium. 



We hope that E. H. Lisk, printer, Troy, 

 N. Y., turned oft" a large edition of these 

 pamphlets. They will all be needed, and 

 when obtained ought to be carefully pre- 

 served as an illustration of the magnificent 

 reach sometimes attained by the American 

 intellect. Edward Hart. 



■NOTES AND NEWS. 

 BIOLOGY. 



The Tenth Annual Fish Commissioner.s' 

 Report fi-om Michigan is entirely in the field 

 of fresh-water biology. It is important to 

 mark the rapid development of biological 

 work in the central universities of this 



country, and to note that the work carried 

 on by the State is so largely by the cooper- 

 ation of the biologists of the University. 

 Thus two of the papei-s of this report are 

 by Professor Jacob Reighard, the first being 

 a study of the development of the wall-eyed 

 Pike, the second a valuable resum6 of the 

 whole subject of artificial fertilization. The 

 Bulletm, No. 4, of the Commission, which 

 we receive at the same time, contains a pre- 

 liminarj' account of the biological examina- 

 tion of Lake St. Clair during the summer of 

 1803. This was suggested by the continued 

 decrease in the number of Whitefish, but 

 very wisely the work extended over a 

 broader field. The objects of this examina- 

 tion are .stated as follows : "(1) To study 

 carefully and in the broadest possible way 

 the life in the lake. After examining the 

 physical characteristics of the lake, such as 

 the color, transparency and chemistry of the 

 water, a study of this sort should include a 

 determination of the kinds of animals and 

 plants in the lake. Every species should be 

 sought out, carefully described and figured, 

 and a specimen of it preserved. Then the 

 habits of each species should be known, its 

 habitat, its food, its enemies and its para- 

 sites. The numbers of animals and plants 

 of each species in a given volume of water 

 should be determined and the variations in 

 these numbers in different parts of the lake 

 and at different seasons of the year. Such 

 a collectio7i of data would form a complete 

 picture of the biology of the lake." The 

 work was under the direction of Professor 

 Reighard, assisted by Dr. Ward, of the Uni- 

 versity of Nebraska, by Mr. Frank Smith, 

 of the University of Illinois, and bj' several 

 assistants from the Univei-sity of Michigan. 

 The materials collected were widely dis- 

 tril)uted for dt'termination, and the reports 

 are by Dr. Blanchard, of Paris, Dr. E. A. 

 Birge, of the University of Wisconsin, and 

 others. The survey seems to have been 

 carried on with all the thoroughness both 



