384 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 114. 



each of the subjects in A and B — a major examination 

 for specialists and a minor examination for those Tvho 

 take the subject as an adjunct to their specialty. 



III. — Rules for Examinations. 



Candidates must elect one of the subjects in Divi- 

 sion A or B as their specialty or major, the examina- 

 tion in -which shall count 50. 



In addition to the major special subject, candidates 

 must be examined on two minor subjects chosen by 

 themselves from Divisions A, B and C, at least one of 

 ■which must be from Division A and one from either 

 B or C. Each of these subjects shall have a maxi- 

 mum value of 10. 



Each candidate »io)/ take as many additional exami- 

 nations from Division A, B or C as he chooses, but no 

 one examination will count more than 5. 



Each candidate shall submit a statement of his edu- 

 cational history and opportunities for scientific train- 

 ing and experience, which shall be accessible to the 

 Secretary of Agriculture in selecting eligibles for 

 special positions. 



IV.— Eligible Lists. 



A record will be kept for each person on the eligible 

 list of all the subjects in which he has passed. 



Eligible registers shall continue two years from the 

 date of examination. 



Eligibles shall be drawn from the lists thus estab- 

 lished to fill all vacancies in the scientific and tech- 

 nical service of the Department of Agriculture. In- 

 spectors, assistant inspectors, meat inspectors, stock 

 examiners, microscopists and assistant microsoopists 

 in the Bureau of Animal Industry outside of AVash- 

 ington, and river, rainfall and other special observers 

 in the Weather Bureau, are not considered within 

 this class, and these positions are to be filled, as pro- 

 vided under VI. 



V. — Appointments and Promotions. 

 Candidates on the lists thus established shall be 

 eligible to appointment to any position in the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture below the grade of Assistant 

 Chief, under regulations to be established by the 

 Commission. Vacancies occurring in any grade in 

 the Department shall, as far as practicable, be filled by 

 promotion from lower grades on such tests of fitness 

 as the head of the Department shall prescribe. When 

 this is not practicable, the Secretary of Agriculture 

 shall call upon the Civil Service Commission to make 

 certification from the aforesaid list of eligibles in ac- 

 cordance with the statement which he shall make re- 

 garding the duties of the position to be filled and the 

 relative importance of these duties. It is expected 

 that the positions of Assistant Chief and Chief will 

 ordinarily be filled by promotion, but in case this is 



not practicable special examinations shall be held in 

 which the employees of the Department shall be al- 

 lowed to compete. 



VI. — Temporary Service in Minor Positions. 

 Each candidate shall, at the time of examination, 

 state whether or not he is willing to accept tempo- 

 rarily a position in the service of the Department out- 

 side the class of ' Assistant ' here provided for, and, if 

 so, what branch or branches of work he prefers. A 

 record of this shall be kept in connection with the 

 eligible lists of the branches thus selected, and when- 

 ever the Department of Agriculture shall ask for a 

 veterinary inspector, microscopist, clerk-copyist, book- 

 keeper, stenographer, compiler, artist, curator, propa- 

 gator, skilled laborer, or other class of eligible outside 

 the class of ' Assistant ' here provided for, the Civil 

 Service Commission shall give the person who has- 

 passed the Assistant's examination (if there be one) 

 preference in the certification. In case of failure to 

 to find such scientific eligible, these positions shall be 

 filled, as heretofore, from the list of eligibles for the 

 general departmental service. 



THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY. 



In consideration of the changes that will 

 follow the appointment of a new Secretary 

 of the Treasury, it is to be hoped that a 

 searching investigation will be made into 

 the policy which has resulted in such great 

 injury to the Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



This Bureau, organized at the instance of 

 President Jefferson, has occupied a position 

 in the esteem of men of science and afifairs^ 

 at home and abroad, which has amply justi- 

 fied the wisdom of its projector — a result, 

 in no small measure, due to the wise appre- 

 ciation of the administrations which from 

 1807 to 1885 recognized the folly of subject- 

 ing to political vicissitudes the management 

 of a service whose success depended upon 

 the labors of a trained body of men, valued 

 for their acquirements as hydrographers, 

 topographers, astronomers and physicists, 

 and dependent for their employment upon 

 their merits and devotion to duty. During 

 these years the Survey, either by discovery 

 or improvement, has won many a laurel for 

 American science, and no other body under 

 the government has done more to make 



