24 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 105. 



This action will undoubtedly lead to a diminu- 

 tion of contagious diseases among children. 



According to the British Medical Journal 

 the Italian General Medical Council has pre- 

 sented a request to the government to the effect 

 that all foreign doctors should be prohibited 

 from practicing in Italy. 



An exhibition will be held early next year at 

 the Imperial Institute, London, illustrating 

 progress in sea-fishing, yachting and life-saving 

 appliances. 



The Secretary of the Interior has recom- 

 mended, through the Treasury Department, an 

 increase in the salaries of the Commissioner of 

 Education and of some other oflBcers of the 

 Bureau. The present Commissioner, Dr. W. 

 T. Harris, to whom education and philosophy 

 in America is so greatly indebted, receives an 

 annual salary of $3,000 only, which is no more 

 than that of some of the principals in the New 

 York City public schools. There seems no 

 reason why the Commissioner of Education 

 should not receive as high a salary as the Com- 

 missioners of Indian Affairs or of Railroads, for 

 as Mr. Francis, the Secretary of the Interior, 

 writes : ' ' The dignity of the Bureau of Educa- 

 tion is certainly equal to that of other Bureaus 

 of the Department, and the character of the 

 work done therein is certainly of no less impor- 

 tance. ' ' 



A CASE of alleged telegony was exhibited by 

 Mr. Chalmers Mitchell at a recent meeting of the 

 London Zoological Society. Sir Everett Millais, 

 who has had much experience in the breeding 

 of dogs, believed it to be a case of reversion, 

 and so explained all cases of reputed telegony. 

 Mr. Tegetmeier, who has also had much experi- 

 ence in breeding, concurred in this conclusion. 

 At the same meeting Mr. Leonard Hill reported 

 that he was unable to confirm Brown S6quard's 

 results on the Inheritance of Aquired Charac- 

 teristics following division of the cervical sym- 

 pathetic nerve. 



A RECENT issue of the Washington Star con- 

 tains an account, by Mr. Frank G. Carpenter, of 

 a trial of Prof. Langley's Aerodrome witnessed 

 by him on November 28th, together with an 

 interesting interview with Prof. Langley on his 

 researches. On the day in question the aero- 



drome was launched from a boat in the Potomac 

 River about 30 miles below Washington, and 

 flew nearly a mile in If minutes, when it gently 

 rested on the water. Its flight was only limited 

 by the exhaustion of the water, less being used 

 than the machine could carry. Prof. Langley is 

 reported to have said: ' ' I have proved both 

 theoretically and practically that machines can 

 be made which will travel through the air. 

 The question of the development of the fact is 

 one of the future. My motive and interest in 

 the work up to this time have been purely 

 scientific ones, but if I had the time and money 

 to spend upon the construction of a large ma- 

 chine I believe I could make one on a scale 

 such as would demonstrate to the world that a 

 large passenger-carrying flying machine can be 

 a commercial as well as a scientific success. 

 There are many things yet to be learned con- 

 cerning it, but I have no doubt that they will 

 be discovered in the future. The moment that 

 men see that such machines are not only prac- 

 ticable, but that they may be made commercially 

 profitable, there will be a thousand inventors 

 working upon the problem where there is now 

 one. I believe, however, that the flying ma- 

 chine will first come into national use in the arts 

 of war rather than those of peace. In an event 

 of a great war by means of an aerial machine 

 the armies of one nation will be able to know 

 exactly what those of the enemy are doing, thus 

 radically changing present military strategy 

 and tactics, to say nothing of their power of 

 dropping down bombs out of the sky. I believe, 

 however, that such inventions will finally be of 

 even greater advantage in the arts of peace. I 

 have faith that the swiftest, and perhaps the 

 most luxurious, if not the safest, traveling in 

 the future may be through the air." 



We recently noted the transfer of the pub- 

 lication of the Botanical Gazette to the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago, where it is printed in an en- 

 larged form and with the highest degree of 

 typographical excellence. In the current num- 

 ber of the American Naturalist Dr. Bessey 

 gives some interesting details in regard to the 

 evolution of the journal. It first appeared 

 twenty-one years ago, in November, 1875, under 

 the name of the Botanical Bulletin, edited by 

 John M. Coulter, then professor of Natural 



