SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1886. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 The Smithsonian eeport for 1885, which we 

 may hope will be issued with less delay than its 

 predecessors have been, will contain an account 

 of the progress in astronomy for that year, by 

 Mr. William C. Winlock of Washington, which 

 has already appeared with sufficient promptness 

 as a separatum. Mr. Winlock forestalls at once 

 any criticism we might otherwise like to make by 

 pleading the brief time necessarily available as an 

 excuse for any shortcomings that may be found, 

 and remarks that his record is intended primarily 

 for the large and increasing class of those who 

 have a general rather than a special interest in 

 tlae progress of astronomy, while it may be of 

 use to the professional astronomer also, as a con- 

 venient collection of reviews and notes. Abstracts 

 of the most important papers are given, while other 

 papers appear by title only, and free use has been 

 made of reviews in such periodicals as Science, 

 The athenaeum, The observatory, and Bulletin 

 astronomique. Comets, a specialty of IVIr. Win- 

 lock's, are very fully and accurately dealt with ; 

 and his method of indicating the names of all 

 these objects, now become so numerous with 

 every year, is an important advance. 



Independently of the excellences or shortcom- 

 ings of the present work, we think the question 

 may fairly be raised whether these annual re- 

 ports are worthy of continuance or not. They 

 are, through no fault of the author, rather tame 

 reading for those having only a general interest 

 in astronomy, being largely a mere recital of the 

 new facts of the year's finding out, with no con- 

 necting-link to the astronomy of the past. To be 

 sure, the developments of astronomy within a 

 twelvemonth are rarely sufficiently far-reaching 

 for even the practical astronomer to keep in 

 mind the precise relations of past and present 

 research. Again, if these reports are prepared 

 for the convenience of the professional astrono- 

 mer, it may weU be doubted whether they are 

 worth what they cost the astronomer who under- 

 takes to prepare them ; for the work is no ap- 

 No. 188. — 1886. 



proach, in point of serviceableness, to a complete 

 bibliography for the year, such, in fact, as Mr. 

 Winlock himself broaches the preparation of, per- 

 haps through the co-operation of astronomers. If 

 this is found practicable, then the editor of the 

 Smithsonian report might well confine himself to 

 the presentation of a quinquennial history of 

 astronomical progress, to be prepared by the 

 ablest astronomer who would undertake the task, 

 and who would be expected to indicate clearly 

 the bearings of recent research upon that of pre- 

 vious years, and weld the scattering links into a 

 continuous chain. It is easy to see that the 

 work executed in this manner would have an im- 

 portant bearing upon ' the diffusion of knowledge 

 among men,' which, in its present form, it does 

 not possess. 



Judging by the scientific agitation which 

 has shaken England for so many years, one would 

 hardly credit the statement made by Sir John 

 Lubbock in his address at the unveiling of the 

 statue of the founder of the Mason science college, 

 that, in 54 of 240 endowed schools for boys which 

 have reported, no science whatever is taught ; in 

 50, one hour is devoted to it per week ; in 76, less 

 than three hours ; while only 56 devoted as many 

 as six hours to it. According to the report of the 

 Technical commission last year, there were only 

 three schools in Great Britain in which science is 

 fully and adequately taught. In urging the bene- 

 fits of science. Sir John Lubbock says, "In the 

 first place, science adds immensely to the interest 

 and happiness of life. It is altogether a mistake 

 to regard science as dry or prosaic. The technical 

 works, descriptions of species, etc., bear the same 

 relations to science as dictionaries to literature. 

 . . . Occasionally, indeed, it may destroy some 

 poetical myth of antiquity, such as the ancient 

 Hindoo explanation of rivers, that ' Indradug out 

 their beds with his thunderbolts, and sent them 

 forth by long continuous paths.' But the real 

 causes of natural phenomena are far more striking, 

 and contain more real poetry, than those which 

 have occurred to the untrained imagination of 

 mankind." 



Dr. Thomas Taylor's microscopic method for 

 detecting the adulteration of butter with foreign 



