December 24, 1886.] 



SCIEN'CE, 



587 



his account of the colleges and universities of the 

 United States. In this last article he describes 

 Yale, University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins uni- 

 versity, the American school for classical studies 

 at Athens, and colleges for the higher education of 

 women. 



— The new vice-chancellor of Cambridge uni- 

 versity is Dr. Taylor, master of St. John's col- 

 lege. 



— The various state teachers' associations take 

 advantage of the Christmas vacation to hold their 

 annual or semi-annual meetings. Among others, 

 the New Jersey teachers are to meet at Trenton : 

 the Iowa teachers, at Des Moines ; the Michigan 

 teachers, at Lansing ; the Associated academic 

 principals of New York state, at Syracuse. 



— M. Goblet, the minister of public instruction 

 in M. de Freycinet's cabinet, has become premier 

 of France. The new minister of public instruction 

 is M. Berthelot, who has been for some time an in- 

 spector of secondary schools. 



— Dr. W. W. Ireland, the well-known alienist, 

 publishes in the Journal of mental science (Octo- 

 ber, 1886) an admirable account of the insanity of 

 King Louis II. of Bavaria. The influences of 

 hereditary neuroses, the gratification of what 

 were at first slight eccentricities, and the gradual 

 evolution of the most serious symptoms of hope- 

 less insanity, make this case almost a type of the 

 influences most favorable to mental instability. 

 The king was not only insane, but typically in- 

 sane. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*t*Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 wHter's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Pleuro-pneumonia. 



In joxiT issue of Nov. 26 you speak of the preva- 

 lence of pleuro-pneumonia in the counties of Harvard, 

 Clinton, Newton, Jasper, and Benton. 



1*. There is no Harvard county : presumably you 

 mean Howard. 



2°. Dr. Salmon and the officers of the state board of 

 health declare the disease to be ' black leg,' and ujj 

 to date about 400 head have died in this state. Dr. 

 Salmon announces there is now no pleuro-]jneumonia 

 in the western states except at and near Chicago, 111. 



Amos W. Butlek. 

 BrookviUe, Ind., Nov. 29. 



[The reports that contagious pleuro-pneumonia 

 existed in Indiana are denied, and it is now stated 

 that what was reported to be that disease is pro- 

 nounced by Dr. Salmon and the officers of the state 

 board of health to be ' black leg,' from which 400 

 head of cattle are said to have died. It is also stated 

 that Dr. Salmon of the U. S. bureau of animal in- 

 dustry has announced that there is no contagious 

 pleuro-pneiimonia in the western states except at 

 and near Chicago, 111. 



On this subject we quote from a letter just received 



from Dr. D. E. Salmon, chief of the bureau of animal 

 industry : "In reference to the districts in which 

 contagious pleuro-i^neumonia exists in the United 

 States, would say, that beginning with Long Island, 

 New York, and Westchester counties, in the state of 

 New York, we have found it to exist in various parts 

 of New Jersey and the south-eastern part of Penn- 

 sylvania. The points of infection are continually 

 changing in these states, and it is a very difficult 

 thing to make a definite statement by counties. In 

 Maryland there is a good deal of the disease in Balti- 

 more and vicinity, but the remainder of the state 

 appears to be nearly free. The District of Columbia 

 has been infected for a long time, but I do not know 

 of any herds here in which the disease exists now. 

 Probably a vigorous inspection would discover some. 

 In Virginia I do not know of any infected district ex- 

 cept Norfolk. This is all there is east of the Alle- 

 ghanies. In the Mississippi valley states there is but 

 one outbreak at present, and that is in Cook county, 

 111. The disease which I investigated in Indiana 

 was ' verminous bronchitis,' or lung worms." — Ed.] 



Liberty's torch. 



The noble statue of Bartholdi in New York harbor 

 suffers a great injustice, so far as the idea of its con- 

 ception goes, and the requisites for its most com- 

 plete artistic presentation is concerned, in being 

 made to hold a star in its hand instead of a wavering 

 pile of flame. The blue orb of intense light shining 

 from the uplifted hand poorly represents the lam- 

 bent and rolling stalks of fire which the thought of a 

 torch suggests, and fails to accentuate the statue 

 with any dramatic or spectacular force. 



The attempt should be made to burn a large vol- 

 ume of gas properly distribvited over the present sur- 

 face of the torch, and this would seem altogether 

 feasible. A consumption of from a thousand to two 

 thousand cubic feet of gas per hour might be re- 

 quired, but the result would be incomparably more 

 striking and noteworthy. A series of one-inch pipes 

 passing up into the torch, emerging at various points 

 so as to completely invest it with the confluent flames 

 issuing from their openings, woiild probably serve 

 the purpose, the gas being permitted to burn under 

 a pressui'e but slightly in excess of its own ascen- 

 sional power. Two objections might be urged 

 against this proposition, — first, the smokiness of 

 the flame, producing an ugly and dirty ajDijearance ; 

 second, the probability of its extinction in high 

 gales. The first objection has not really much 

 weight, as the tail of drifting smoke would hardly 

 detract from the splendor of the j)illar of flame, and 

 in any case could be considerably overcome by an 

 efferent tube with a perforated circular cap feeding 

 air to the summit of the torch, somewhat on the 

 plan of the central air-channel in the popular climax 

 oil-lamp. The second objection is valid, but only in 

 extreme cases ; and, as the gas should be lit by elec- 

 tricity, the highest gales would only alter the 

 constancy of the light, its extinction being succeeded 

 by the renewed flame. Again by curving the ex- 

 tremities of the pipe, even these exceptional cases 

 might be yet further reduced in number. The gas 

 might be supplied from the mainland, or if that ap- 

 pears too expensive, or itself impracticable, naphtha 

 or gasoline gas (enriched air) could be safely used, 

 ihe precaution being taken of substituting for the 

 large tubes bundles of smaller pipes. 



