SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1886. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 The exercises whicli have just been concluded 

 at Cambridge are memorable. Age is not that of 

 which we can usually boast in this country, but it 

 is a source of genuine pride to be able to chronicle 

 the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth an- 

 niversary of our oldest and greatest university. 

 Founded when the colony was yet a child, Harvard 

 has grown with the nation's growth. From a pro- 

 vincial theological training-school in 1636, living 

 on a colonial grant of four hundred pounds (in- 

 creased in 1638 by the bequest of John Harvard), 

 it has become in 1886 a many-sided university, 

 expending the annual income of five millions of 

 dollars ; and even now its abilities do not keep 

 pace with its desires and its opportunities. Its 

 past and its present, and we trust its future too, 

 are linked with all that is great and noble in our 

 country's history. This splendid story has been 

 fitly told and commemorated during the formal 

 celebration by the chosen orators and poets, and 

 as Harvard enters on her new quarter-mUlennium 

 the good wishes of the country are with her. 

 May she ever hold her place in the front rank of 

 oiu- great educational institutions. 



The movement in favor of appointing women 

 as members of the board of education in New 

 York city is gaining force, and the prevailing be- 

 lief is that it will be successful. It is reported, 

 with how much accuracy we do not know, that 

 New York, Brooklyn, and Buffalo are the only 

 cities in New York state that have no female 

 representatives on the school-boards, and Mayor 

 Grace is said to be inclined to favor the new de- 

 parture. The whole matter is in his hands, for 

 he wiU shortly have the appointment of successors 

 to the outgoing members of the present board. 

 We fancy that the principal obstacles in the way 

 of the innovation will be political rather than 

 sentimental. It is hardly probable that any of 

 the members whose terms are about to expire 

 will want to be set aside ; and even if they should 

 so desire, there are plenty of male candidates, as 

 is usual in New York city, for the places thus 



No. 197. — 1S86. 



made vacant. Under the circumstances Mayor 

 Grace's position is a difficult one, but great pres- 

 sure is being brought to bear upon him to appoint 

 at least one woman to a vacancy. Numerous 

 petitions to that effect are in circulation, and 

 they are being signed by the most intelligent and 

 influential class of citizens. A large proportion 

 of the female teachers have signed these petitions, 

 and among the host of prominent names ap- 

 pended to them we have noticed those of the 

 president and a large number of the faculty of 

 Columbia college, such clergymen as Bishop Henry 

 C. Potter, Dr. Henry Y. Satterlee, Dr. Howard 

 Crosby, Father McGlynn, and Rev. Heber New- 

 ton, and men like William E. Dodge, Senator 

 Evarts, Felix Adler, Joseph H. Choate, and 

 Charles A. Dana. 



The city op Hamilton, Ontario, has a prosper- 

 ous society, the Hamilton association, devoted to 

 philosophical and scientific studies, which has lately 

 issued a respectable collection of Proceedings. 

 Besides the inaugural address of the president, the 

 leading papers are : ' On birds and bird matters,' 

 by Thomas Mcll wraith ; on ' Early Greek philoso- 

 phy,' by the Rev. I. W. A. Stewart ; on ' A re- 

 markable land-slide near Brantford, Ontario,' by 

 J. W. Spenser ; on ' Burlington Bay and the city 

 drainage,' by C. S. Chittenden ; on ' Race identity 

 of the old and new worlds,' by William Glyndon ; 

 on ' The early home, separation, and re-union of 

 the Aryan family,' by the Rev. E. L. Laidlaw ; 

 and on ' Some evidences of commercial transac- 

 tions in prehistoric times,' by William Kennedy. 

 These are all well-written and scholarly papers, 

 evincing much learning and thought. Unfortu- 

 nately, with the exception of those of Messrs. 

 Mcll wraith, Spenser, and Chittenden, none of 

 them are based on original observation, or add 

 any thing to the world's stock of knowledge. 

 Hamilton, near an important dividing-Une of for- 

 mations and climate, is singularly well situated 

 for the study of geology and the biological sciences. 

 It was also, not long ago, a noted centre of the 

 Indian tribes, and some fragments of these still 

 remain in the neighborhood. Its district, there- 

 fore, offers a particularly inviting field for the 

 study of American archeology and ethnology. It 



