M2 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. l^o. 113. 



during good behavior, with removals only by 

 the action of a board after a trial on charges. 

 A reform in the American Consular service might 

 contribute to scientific progress, as it certainly 

 would to economic and commercial interests. 

 It is doubtful whether United States Consuls 

 would be competent to write reports such as 

 those of the British Consuls on the advantages 

 of the metric system published in the last num- 

 ber of this JoTJKNAL. 



Kollikbr's well-known and esteemed shorter 

 treatise on embryology entitled ' Grundriss der 

 Entwickelungsgeschichte' is now being reissued. 

 The preparation of the new edition (the third) 

 has been entrusted to Professor Oscar Schultze. 

 The first part has been issued by Engelmann, 

 at Leipzig, and follows closely in typography 

 and so forth the previous editions, which means 

 that the illustrations are superior to what is 

 usual in American and English scientific books. 

 The present part deals with the early stages, the 

 development of the external form and the fcetal 

 envelopes and placenta. The scope of the text 

 has been extended so as to make the book 

 really a manual of mammalian embryology, 

 and this has involved rewriting so extensive 

 that we have practically a new work. It is one 

 of very great merit; the difficult descriptions 

 are both clear and concise, and the author dis- 

 plays a broad and accurate knowledge of his 

 subject. We hope to give a fuller notice of the 

 work upon its completion. 



Up to February 18th the returns of the health 

 authorities of the plague report that since its 

 outbreak there have been 6,853 cases and 5,447 

 deaths from the disease in Bombay, and in the 

 entire Presidency 9,911 cases and 8,006 deaths. 

 The mortality attributed to other sources has 

 also been excessive. 75 per cent, of the inhabit- 

 ants have left Bombay. The conference on the 

 plague now meeting in Venice has been divided 

 into two bodies, but details regarding its work 

 are lacking. It may, however, be well to quote 

 from the Times some facts regarding this and 

 preceding conferences : It will be practically 

 the fourth of a series of international sanitary 

 conferences, and will, it is expected, complete a 

 system of eflScaeious measures for the preven- 

 tion of the spread of epidemics. Now, as in 



the three preceding instances, the initiative is 

 due to Austria-Hungary and has been taken ex- 

 clusively for the general welfare. The upshot 

 of the first sanitary conference, held at Venice 

 in 1891, was to close the door in Egypt to the 

 spread of epidemics to Europe. The result 

 of the second conference, which was held at 

 Dresden in 1893, was to adopt a maximum 

 of protection accomplished by a minumum of 

 hindrances to international traffic. On the 

 basis of the Dresden Conference almost all the 

 Powers concluded territorial conventions with 

 their neighbors on very broad lines. The third 

 conference, which met in Paris in 1894, sup- 

 plemented the work of the two previous con- 

 ferences with regard to the pilgrimages from 

 India to the sanctuaries of the Sunnite Mahom- 

 edans at Mecca and Medina. 



An editorial article in the current number of 

 the Journal of Geology recommends that the 

 winter meetings of the Geological Society of 

 America be held regularly in Washington. It 

 is argued that the success of the recent meeting 

 of the Geological Society was undoubtedly due 

 to the fact that it was held in Washington. No 

 other city in the country offers so many attrac- 

 tions to geologists in the winter time as the 

 National capital. Containing, as it does, the 

 largest body of geological investigators to be 

 found in any one place in the world, it has be- 

 come a center of geological activity and the re- 

 pository of many valuable collections. Lo- 

 cated within easy reach of the universities of 

 the East and South and of the Middle West, it 

 has become a favorite rendezvous for geologists 

 scattered throughout these parts of the country. 

 For these reasons the writer of the article holds 

 that the suggestians made by Mr. Walcott, Di- 

 rector of the U. S. Geological Survey, that the 

 Society hold all its winter meetings in Wash- 

 ington and its summer meetings elsewhere is 

 an excellent one. It was heartily endorsed by 

 the retiring President, Professor Le Conte. 



Dr. E. Ellsworth Call has directed our 

 attention to a report in the Indianapolis Journal 

 of perhaps the most extraordinary piece of 

 legislation ever undertaken. A bill has been 

 passed by the Indiana Legislature, part of 

 which reads as follows : 



