SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1886. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 There is no more importakt subject for both 

 thought and action than the wholesomeness of the 

 milk-supply of our large cities. It has been esti- 

 mated that in the city of Brooklyn the daily con- 

 sumption of milk amounts to 152,575 quarts. A 

 considerable part of this forms the sole food of 

 thousands of children and invalids, and it is there- 

 fore of the greatest importance that it should be of 

 the highest degree of purity attainable. The influ- 

 ences at work to deterioriate milk are manifold. 

 The cows themselves may be affected witli tuber- 

 culosis or some other form of disease which may 

 by the medium of the milk be communicated to 

 its consumer, or the sanitary condition of the 

 stable in which these animals are confined may be 

 so defective as to render the atmosphere impreg- 

 nated with filth and the germs of decomposition, 

 which act most perniciously upon the milk. In 

 speaking on this subject before the Massachusetts 

 medical society. Dr. B. F. Davenport called atten- 

 tion to the readiness with which milk will absorb 

 impurities, and also to the fact that the milk which 

 is delivered in Boston is, at the time of its delivery, 

 nearly three days old, and that it has been exposed 

 to such a probability of contamination as to be 

 practically on the very point of souring. He 

 attributes no inconsiderable part of the summer 

 diarrhoea to this changed condition of the milk. 

 Dr. Davenport believes that the difference in the 

 coagulation of human and cow's milk in a child's 

 stomach is owing to the difference in their chemi- 

 cal reaction ; that of cows being acid, and the 

 other neutral or slightly alkaline. If mUk could 

 be served to the consumers on the same day of its 

 production, and in a condition free from all im- 

 purities, there is no doubt that this would be an 

 important factor in reducing the sickness and 

 death of the infantile population. 



but surely benefited by all progress in science. 

 The premises from which Professor Pickering 

 starts are these : observatories with good instru- 

 ments but no funds to pay observers, and good 

 astronomers with no instruments or money to get 

 them. Like all schemes of this day. Professor 

 Pickering's is one of consolidation. He would 

 have a fund raised the income of which should be 

 available for paying the cost of astronomical 

 work, whether it be done at Harvard, at the Lick 

 observatory, or in Europe, — no matter where, 

 so long as the workers were fit for their labor. 

 As Pi-ofessor Pickering is cognizant of the good 

 results obtained with the Elizabeth Thompson fund 

 for scientific investigation in general, being one 

 of the trustees, we judge he must be encouraged 

 to employ the same method in his own field. The 

 plan as given in the pamphlet is one deserving the 

 attention of all able to aid scientific work. 



Prof. E. C. Pickering, the director of the Har- 

 vard college observatory, has put forth a pamphlet 

 in which he broaches a scheme which may result 

 in much advantage to the astronomical world, 

 and in time to the outer world, which is slowly 



No. 190. — 1S36. 



The Lick observatory, although so well equipped, 

 is a case in point. Of the $700,000 given by Mr. 

 Lick, $500,000 have been expended for the ' plant.' 

 Although the whole plan of the observatory has 

 been made with direct reference to keeping its 

 running expenses low, it is clear that the company 

 of astronomers will have to be kept small. It 

 would require a staff of at least ten astronomers to 

 return the full results from the outfit, and at j)res- 

 ent not more than three can be employed. The 

 work of these must be concentrated on the large 

 equatorial, and even then their energies will not 

 be sufficient to utilize every moment. Now, this 

 is Professor Hold en's plan, and we suspect he was 

 hard-pressed to devise it : " We mean to put the 

 large telescope at the disposition of the world by 

 inviting its most distinguished astronomers to visit 

 us one at a time, and to give to them the use of 

 the instrument during certain specific hours of the 

 twenty-four. Each day there will be certain hours 

 set apart when theobservatory staff will relinquish 

 the use of the equatorial to distinguished special- 

 ists who will come from the United States and 

 from Europe to solve or to attack some one of the 

 many unsolved problems of astronomy. In this 

 way we hope to make the gift of Mr. Lick one 

 which is truly a gift to science, and not merely a 

 gift to California and to its university." 



