October 23, 1886. J 



SCIENCE. 



359 



violation was made a misdemeanor, it was found 

 that houses might be constructed with serious de- 

 fects ; and, before any legal measures could be 

 taken, the houses would be occupied, and the 

 health of the occupants imperilled. In order to 

 assist the health department in the enforcement of 

 the law, the city works commissioner jpassed a rule 

 that Ridgewood water should not be furnished to 

 any new house until the plumbing- work was com- 

 pleted in accordance with the sanitary rules. For 

 five years this rule has been enforced, and has 

 been of great aid to the health officials in their 

 endeavors to have houses properly sewered. Re- 

 cently a row of houses has been constructed in 

 which the soil-pipes were of light iron, in viola- 

 tion of the law ; and, as the health department 

 would not accept the work, no water could be 

 obtained. On an application for a mandamus to 

 compel the city to furnish water, one of the judges 

 of the supreme court granted it, although the 

 soil-pipes are of such weight as not to comply 

 with tbe regulations. He holds that the city must 

 grant permission to introduce water entirely irre- 

 spective of the regulations of the health depart- 

 ment, and that, if any of these are violated, there 

 is a remedy provided by the law. The result of 

 this decision will be to embarrass the health de- 

 partment, temporarily at least, although ultimately 

 it will doubtless find some way of speedily pun- 

 ishing offenders against the law. 



from cooked food. The subject has attracted 

 such general attention, that it will probably be 

 dealt with as part of a general act, applicable to 

 all India, to prevent the adulteration of food. 



It seems that the ' bogus butter issue,' as the 

 politicians call it, is not confined to the United 

 States. A similar agitation to that recently wit- 

 nessed here is taking place in India ; and a bill 

 dealing with the adulteration of ghee, or clarified 

 butter, hurriedly drawn and introduced in re- 

 sponse to the urgent demands of the native com- 

 munity, has recently been passed by the Bengal 

 council. The scope of the measure is very broad ; 

 and it applies, not to Calcutta only, but to all 

 municipalities in the province. The result will 

 be, it is hoped, the subsidence of the panic which 

 has prevailed for several months. The reason for 

 the panic is apparent, for ghee enters into the 

 composition of every kind of cooked food used by 

 all classes of the natives, and its adulteration with 

 beef or pork fat meant loss of caste to Hindoos, 

 and defilement to Mohammedans, So great has 

 the panic been, that the wealthier natives have 

 been importing ghee from Persia, while those un- 

 able to afford that have been abstaining altogether 



THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE COAST 

 SURVEY. 



The administration of President Cleveland 

 presents no greater enigma than the contrast be- 

 tween the high standard of public fidelity which 

 its head has infused into most branches of the 

 pubUc service, and the unending succession of 

 personal quarrels, charges, and counter-charges 

 which he has allowed to discredit the adminis- 

 tration of the coast survey, and impair its cha,rac- 

 ter and efficiency. The present condition of that 

 work is such as almost to make us forget that 

 there was a time, and that within the memory of 

 every reader, when it was the model branch of 

 the civil service, enjoying a world-wide reputation 

 for the perfection of its organization, the stand- 

 ard of its work, and the character of its assistants, 

 and cited by the advocates of reform as an ex- 

 ample of what the civil service might become 

 under an improved system of appointment to and 

 tenure of office. One wanting to know on what 

 system a scientific bureau ought to be administered 

 cannot do better than study Bache's administra- 

 tion of the coast survey, and note how he com- 

 bined the greatest liberality with the most 

 scrupulous regard to the forms of law, the re- 

 sponsibilities of a public officer, and the requke- 

 ments of a disciplined service. 



Fifteen months have now elapsed since this 

 dream of perfection was suddenly interrupted by 

 the alleged discovery of grave irregularities and 

 the forced resignation of a superintendent. Men 

 were not unprepared for the latter result. It had 

 become widely known that physical and mental 

 infirmity, intervening at the end of a long and 

 honorable career in the public service, had in- 

 caj)acitated the superintendent for the proper ex- 

 ecution of his office ; but wise and thinking men 

 reserved their judgment when they were assured 

 through the public prints that general corruption 

 had eaten into the vitals of the organization, and 

 that the work made famous by Bache had become 

 a nest for peculators of the public funds. 



The first act of the administration after learn- 

 ing of the seemingly demoralized condition of the 

 survey was the appointment as superintendent, of 

 the man on whose report of irregularities that of- 

 fice had been made vacant. For such an apiDoint- 



