424 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 197 



is disappointing to find that these advantages have 

 been so little utilized by an association numbering 

 evidently members of marked ability. They will 

 do V7ell to bear in mind, that, in the publications 

 of a scientific association, one paragraph describ- 

 ing the results of original investigation is likely 

 to be v^orth more than many pages of compilation. 



Dr. William A. Hammond has been amusing 

 a medical association vs^ith some humorous ac- 

 counts of his experience with cocaine. He is 

 reported to have said that there is no danger of 

 the formation of a cocaine habit. Dr. Hughes, 

 writing in the Medical review, takes a different 

 view, and in his summing-up claims that cocaine 

 is a tonic and stimulating exhilarant of con- 

 siderable power in melancholia, mental depression, 

 and nerve weariness, being more rapid and at the 

 same time more evanescent in its action than 

 morphia. He distinctly says, moreover, that, 

 when used to excess, it intoxicates, and converts 

 melancholia into mania, and that its continuous 

 use is difficult to break off ; that it is a dangerous 

 therapeutic toy, and ought not to be used as a 

 sensational play thing ; that it will probably help 

 to fill rather than to deplete the asylums, both 

 inebriate and insane, if it should come into as gen- 

 eral use as the other intoxicants of its class ; that 

 as an intoxicant it is more dangerous, if continu- 

 ously given, than alcohol or opium, and more 

 diflScult to abandon. 



The friends of technical education in the 

 New York public schools are evidently not per- 

 mitting themselves to be discouraged by the dis- 

 position by the board of education of the special 

 committee's report on that subject, of which men- 

 tion was made in Science (viii. No. 195) at the 

 time. At the meeting of the board of education 

 last 'week, a communication was received from 

 the Industrial education association, of which 

 Gen. Alexander S, Webb is president, and Miss 

 Grace H. Dodge vice-president, offering to make 

 a practical test of the value of instruction in 

 certain branches of manual labor, by giving in- 

 struction to a number of public-school children 

 this year during school hours and under school 

 discipline. The number of pupils that can be 

 accommodated by the association in their build- 

 ing at No. 21 University Place is, in industrial 

 drawing and modelling, forty ; in carpentry, 

 twenty-four ; in sewing, forty ; in cooking, forty- 



eight ; in domestic economy, three hundred. In 

 addition to this offer, it was stated that a series 

 of lectures on industrial education is to be given 

 at an early date, and will be open to public- 

 school teachers. The proposition of the associa- 

 tion is a generous one, and will serve admirably 

 for a beginning in this important matter. We 

 trust that the committee on the course of studies, 

 to which the communication was refeiTed, will 

 recommend that the offer be accepted, and the 

 necessary arrangements made for carrying it out. 



We have pointed out from time to time the 

 important bearing that the study of local institu- 

 tions has on historical science in general, and 

 have found frequent evidence of a growing ap- 

 preciation of this fact. To be sure, the best of 

 things maybe carried to excess, and this probably 

 has given rise to the complaints that have been 

 made by some critics, that this ' history of the 

 town-pump business' is being overdone. We be- 

 lieve, however, that such critics are mistaken, 

 and forget that the chroniclers of the fortunes of 

 the town-pump are not writing a history in the 

 broad sense of the word, but are furnishing ac- 

 curate data for wide-reaching historical general- 

 izations. A recent reviewer in the Athenaeum, 

 writing of Mr. Gomme's book on ' The literature 

 of local institutions,' may be quoted as giving 

 evidence on this point. He says that Mr. Gomme 

 holds the opinion that many of the English 

 boroughs existed long before their earliest charters, 

 which were royal confirmations of existing cus- 

 toms, not the creation of something new. " This, 

 in our opinion," he continues, "does not admit 

 of doubt. The battle now rages between those 

 who hold them to be survivals from the time of 

 the Roman occupation, and a strong and learned 

 b ody who affirm that the evidence we have points 

 in most cases, though not in all, to their being 

 of Teutonic origin. We feel assured" — this is 

 the significant sentence for our purpose — " that, 

 if all corporation and manorial documents were 

 m ade accessible, the war would soon come to an 

 end." 



A CIRCULAR from Prof. Geo. H. Cook, state 

 geologist of New Jersey, announces the formation 

 there of a state weather service, after the kind of 

 those already existing in other parts of the coun- 

 try. Two hundred volunteers are desired : they 

 will be supplied with forms for records, and with 

 certain publications of the signal office. Instru- 



