212 



SCIENCE. 



LVOL. VIII., No. 187 



ham sheet and a large portion of the work north 

 of that place, covering, in all, eighty-five square 

 miles ; Mr. Johnson's forces in the western moun- 

 tainous part of the state have completed forty- 

 nine square miles ; Mr. Bodfish's division have 

 finished altogether two hundred and twelve square 

 miles in Massachusetts, one-half of which was 

 partly done last year ; of the region around the 

 District of Columbia, thirty-five square miles have 

 been completed ; Mr. Griswold has a very large 

 party at work in northern Virginia, who have 

 completed seven hundred square miles ; the cen- 

 tral division, under Mr. Renshaw, is getting under 

 way ; Mr. Davis is at work in central Arizona, and 

 has completed eight hundred square miles ; Mr. 

 Wilson is at work in the gold region around Ore- 

 ville, in the gold belt, with two topographical par- 

 ties and one triangulation party ; the topographical 

 work covers three hundred and seventy-seven 

 square miles, but both parties were retarded some- 

 what by bad weather. Up to Aug. 27, 53 sheets 

 of the general topogi-aphical atlas of the United 

 States have been published ; there are 48 sheets in 

 proof. 



— The coast-survey parties are now in the field 

 busily engaged in pushing the work forward. Two 

 topographic parties and one hydrographic party 

 are aheady at work on the resurvey of San Fran- 

 cisco Bay. Owing to the very limited appropria- 

 tion for the Alaska work (only $4,000 being appro- 

 priated in lieu of -$9,000 asked for), the steamers 

 especially employed for this work at an expense of 

 several hundred thousand dollars are to be imme- 

 diately called from the field, there being no money 

 to carry forward the necessary work for which an 

 admirable plant had been provided. Professor 

 Davidson has returned from Portland, Ore., where 

 he w^as engaged in astronomic and magnetic "work, 

 to San Francisco, and has resumed his duties in 

 charge of several parties on the Pacific coast. The 

 parties on the transcontinental arc are all at work 

 except Assistant Eimbeck, who would be in the 

 field were it not for the lateness of the season, 

 which is inopportune for locating stations on the 

 summit of the Rocky Mountains. The telegraphic 

 longitude parties are at Salt Lake and Ogden. Sub- 

 assistant Marr is ordered from the magnetic obser- 

 vatory at Los Angeles to report for duty in tele- 

 graphic longitude work at Salt Lake. The physical 

 hydrography of Delaware bay and river has been 

 completed as far as this year's appropriation will 

 carry it, and Assistant Merinden is about to trans- 

 fer his party to New York bay and harbor, where 

 the work of last summer will be continued. If 

 progress is as rapid as it has been heretofore, the 

 resurvey of Long Island Sound will be completed 



the present season. Assistant Weir wiU take up 

 the topographical work in the vicinity of Chatham, 

 Mass., in connection with Professor Mitchell's 

 physical survey of Monomoy Shoals. Mr. F. M. 

 Thorn, superintendent of the coast survey, who 

 left Washington for Orchard park near Buffalo, 

 N.Y., has returned to his official duties. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*t*Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



' Thumb-marks.' 



The letter on * thumb-marks' in No. 185 of Science 

 recalls to mind an extract cut from a newspaper in 

 March, 1883, headed ' Thumb portraits.' The matter 

 was taken from the 'World of wonders.' In it ref- 

 erence is made to the spiral grooves on the skin of 

 the thumb, with the remark that the figure on each 

 thumb remains the same during life, but the marks 

 are different on each. It then goes on to state, 

 " The Chinese take advantage of all this to identify 

 their important criminals, at least in some parts of 

 the empire. We photograph their faces ; they take 

 impressions from theii thumbs These are stored 

 away, and if the delinquents should ever again fall 

 into the hands of the police, another impression at 

 once affords the means of comparison. The Chinese 

 say that, considering the alteration made in the 

 countenance by hair and beard, and the power many 

 men have of distorting or altering the actual features, 

 etc., their method affords even more certain and 

 easy means of identification than our plan of taking 

 the criminal's portrait." 



A year or more ago a gentleman of Cincinnati pro- 

 posed to take advantage of this fact, and apply the 

 thumb-mark to railroad tickets, to prevent their fall- 

 ing into the hands of scalpers. He brought it to the 

 attention of several railroad managers, who thought 

 favorably of it ; but meeting with considerable difii- 

 culty in making arrangements to get the mark with- 

 out too great inconvenience to the purchaser, and 

 likewise, I believe, discovering that the process 

 could not be patented, it was given up. At least, I 

 have not heard any thing of it lately. 



Joseph F. James. 



Miami university, Oxford, O. 



Revivification. 



It is well known by all zoologists that many ani- 

 mals, such as tardigrades, rotifers, anguillulae, and 

 others, are subject to revivification, as Needham, 

 Spallanzani, Doyere, and others have shown. Could 

 some reader of Science tell me whether experiments 

 of a similar nature have been performed in America 

 on these same animals, and let me know the name of 

 the experimenters, as well as the title, date, and 

 place of publication of their papers ? I would be also 

 much obliged if any one could tell me whether the 

 experiments have been performed on other animals, 

 of superior organization. Lastly, can some one give 

 me information concerning Hindoo fakirs, who, it is 

 said, can fall into a state of trance, and remain 

 seemingly dead, and in fact buried for a long time, 



