SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1866. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



The annual report for 1885, of Prof. J. P. 

 Lesley, state geologist of Pennsylvania, contains 

 a review of the conditions of the survey since its 

 re-establishment in 1874 that does not show a 

 highly enlightened policy on the part of the 

 Pennsylvania legislature. The total appropria- 

 tions for the thirteen years from 1874 to 1886 were 

 $545,000, averaging $42,000 a year ; but for 1885 

 a total expenditure of under $24,000 was allowed, 

 and at the beginning of this year there was a 

 balance of less than $36,000 on hand for the ex- 

 penses of all of 1886 and the first part of 1887. So 

 small a sum is entirely insufficient to insure 

 proper official care of the enormous mineral in- 

 terests of the state. The reduction of the appro- 

 priation for last year and this is the more embar- 

 rassing on account of the requirement that the 

 work done shall include a greater variety of in- 

 vestigation than had been planned by the survey. 

 The more important subjects reported upon for 1885 

 are the oil and rock gas about Pittsburgh, by Carll ; 

 the structure of the Pittsburgh coal-region, by 

 d'Invilliers ; the origin of coal-beds, by Lesque- 

 reux ; and the anthracite survey and the kaolin 

 deposits of Delaware county, by Ashburner. The 

 anthracite survey, of the greatest technical and 

 practical value, has been seriously hampered for 

 want of funds. The same report gives an account 

 of the method of distribution of the survey pub- 

 lications followed until lately, which, to put it 

 mildly, does not reflect credit on the legislators at 

 Harrisburg. The original regulation in 1874 

 ordered, that, after supplying a very moderate 

 number of persons and institutions at the cost of 

 the state, all others should obtain the desired 

 volumes only by purchase at cost. But there was 

 little or no sale, because citizens of the state were 

 well accustomed to obtaining state documents f/ee 

 of cost from their representatives : consequently, 

 when the first volumes appeared in 1875, and a 

 demand for them was made on the members of 

 the legislature, an act was at once passed provid- 

 ing for a sxjecial edition of 5,000 copies of every 

 report, for the use of the senate and house. In 



No. 182. — 1S8C. 



this way, 425,931 copies have been distributed by 

 the legislators ; and it is safe to say that a good 

 part of this distribution has been made indis- 

 criminately, while the survey has had practically 

 no copies to dispose of ; and of the editions pub- 

 lished for sale, counting up to 110,569 copies, 

 there remained unsold 43,118. copies in 1885. In 

 view of this, an act was passed last year dispos- 

 ing of reports as follow^s : 500 copies to the senate, 

 2,000 to the house, 150 to the state geologist, 600 

 to the board of commissioners, for local institu- 

 tions and general exchanges, 250 to certain state 

 officials. This will greatly reduce the careless 

 distribution by the legislature, and will allow the 

 board of commissioners an authority that should 

 have been theirs from the first. The attempt to 

 establish a topographical survey of the state has 

 been unfortunately a failure. The coast survey 

 is proceeding with the triangulation of the state, 

 and has covered about one-third of its area ; but 

 the legislature would not accept the offer of the 

 U. S. geological survey to assist in carrying on the 

 topographic work, even though the survey agreed 

 to expend $30,000 a year while the state should 

 expend only $10,000. The proper mapping of the 

 state will cost, it is estimated, half a million 

 dollars, and, if supported only by state appro- 

 priations of ten thousand dollars a year, would 

 require half a century for its completion. That is 

 too long for an intelligent state to wait. 



COMPOSITE PORTRAITURE. 



The composite portraits which are published 

 to-day were made from groups of undergraduates 

 of Smith college. Figs. 1 and 2 each contains 

 forty-nine members of the last senior class ; fig. 

 4 is a composite of a selected group of the same 

 class, containing twenty individuals ; while fig. 3 

 was made from ten members of the class of '85, 

 who formed an elective division in physics. The 

 average age of all the groups is about twenty-two 

 years. 



These portraits may serve as text and illustra- 

 tion for a few remarks on some points of interest 

 iu this method of obtaining ' pictorial averages.' 



The great difference between figs. 1 and 3 

 strikes one at once, and yet they were both made 

 from exactly the same negatives and under the 

 same conditions, except that in fig. 2 the nega- 



