November 12, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



425 



ments have to be, for the present at least, bought 

 by the observer. In the list of prices, the rain- 

 gauge is marked at $1.25, and we doubt whether 

 it can be of desirable accuracy at so low a price. 

 It is strange that states as advanced as New York 

 and Pennsylvania do not join their neighbors in 

 meteorological work. 



The experiment of making optional the attend- 

 ance at the daily chapel service at Harvard college 

 is being watched with interest by college authori- 

 ties all over the country. Professor Peabody, the 

 Plummer professor of Christian morals, and his 

 five coadjutors, took charge of the chapel service 

 on Oct. 3, under the new regulations ; and now 

 Dr. D. G. Lyon, HoUis professor of divinity at 

 Harvard, writing in last week's Independent, tells 

 of the new plan and its results so far as they 

 have already been developed. The chapel services 

 are more interesting and more inspiring than they 

 ever were, for now no student attends who does 

 not go from choice. The average attendance is 

 between 400 and 450, as against about 600 under 

 the compulsory system, but the gain in force and 

 spirituality is enormous. Professor Lyon assures 

 us that so far the predictions of the conservative 

 party, which opposed the change, remain unful- 

 filled, and he firmly believes that they will remain 

 so. 



A RECENT NEWSPAPER REPORT {GMcago joumal , 

 Oct. 26) tells the story of a remarkable case of 

 fracture of the spine and cord. Mr. Andrew 

 Hamilton was ' coaching ' some college men in the 

 gymnasium, and, while showing some simple per- 

 formance on a low cross-bar, dropped about four 

 or five feet on the mattress. By some peculiar 

 wrenching of the neck, he cracked the fifth 

 cervical bone and compressed the spinal cord. 

 From that moment on, the whole of the body be- 

 low the neck was completely insensible ; nor could 

 he move a single muscle, except to contract two 

 fingers on each hand. He had to caU the attend- 

 ant to open the hand. He was kept alive on milk, 

 which was poured down the mouth ; and his body 

 was supported by floating it on a rubber sheet in a 

 tub of water. His mind was perfectly clear ; he 

 talked, read the daily papers, and even consulted 

 his professor on reading a mathematical work. 

 This continued for fourteen days. He then broke 

 down, and died on the sixteenth day after the fall. 

 It seemed hardly possible that life should continue, 

 and the brain go on acting, if the cord were 



severed, and yet the post-mortem examination 

 showed plainly that the cord was reduced to a 

 mass of pus. 



From Ohio comes a report that the authorities 

 in that state propose to construct an intermediate 

 penitentiary to which shall be committed prisoners 

 sentenced for the first time or for short periods, in 

 the hope that their reformation may be effected. 

 That this is a thorougly practicable plan is shown 

 by the success of the Elmira reformatory in New 

 York state, under the efficient management of Mr. 

 Brockway. The harm done to convicts who are 

 imprisoned for the first time by confining them 

 together with older and hardened criminals can 

 hardly be estimated, and Ohio is taking a step in 

 the right direction. Its example should be widely 

 imitated, and probably will be when the results of 

 the experiment are made known. 



The SEVENTH Oriental congress, held at 

 Vienna last month, was thoroughly successful, and 

 its proceedings were deemed of sufficient interest 

 to warrant general notice in the newspapers. The 

 congress numbers about five hundred members, 

 three hundred of whom were present. They 

 came from all quarters, — Japan, China, India, 

 Persia, Arabia, Asia Minor, Egypt, Tunis, and 

 every country of Europe and America. Vienna 

 is so situated that many eastern representatives 

 could conveniently be present. The official lan- 

 guages of the congress were German, French, 

 English, and Italian. Latin was permissible, and 

 by special permission some papers were read in 

 Arabic. The list of members of the congress 

 comprises the names of all the great professors of 

 oriental languages in Europe. The members from 

 this country are not many, and among them are 

 Professors Briggs and Brown of Union theologi- 

 cal seminary, Haupt of Johns Hopkins university, 

 and Dr. William Hayes Ward. The congre-ss was 

 divided by the committee on organization into five 

 sections, — 1°, Semitic, which was subdivided into 

 a section for Arabic and one for the Semitic lan- 

 guages other than Arabic; 2°, Aryan ; 3°, 

 African ; 4«', central and east Asian ; 5°, Polyne- 

 sian, — of which the Aryan section was the most 

 interesting. This section passed a resolution 

 asking the government of India to make a 

 thorough and systematic survey of the languages 

 of India. By invitation of the King of Sweden 

 the next congress will be held at Stockholm in 

 August, 1888. 



