March 5, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



399 



Training, The Influence of Exercise on Growth, 

 The Brooklyn Public Bath, and a report of a 

 committee of the Boston Physical Education 

 Society suggesting a substitute for the Manual 

 of Arms as a means of physical exercise in the 

 military training of school boys. There are 

 also reports from local societies, editorial notes, 

 book notices and an index of the proceedings 

 and the reports of the Society issued during 

 the past ten years. The American Society for 

 the Advancement of Physical Education is ac- 

 complishing an important work, which will 

 doubtless be increased by the publication of 

 this review. 



The second annual report of Mr. F. A. 

 Crandall, the Superintendent of Documents, is 

 of considerable interest, more especially in view 

 of the bill now before Congress. As everyone 

 knows, a great number of important scientific 

 papers and books are published each year by 

 the government, but in such a manner as to 

 lose a considerable part of their value. The 

 documents are printed late and are often not 

 bound and distributed for years after they have 

 been printed. They are in large part given 

 away where they are not wanted, while even 

 their existence is unknown to many who would 

 like to buy them. The present Superintendent 

 has made great improvements in the publica- 

 tion of the Document Catalogue of the Fifty- 

 Third Congress, and more especially in the 

 issue of a monthly catalogue. The bill now 

 before the Senate provides for uniform pub- 

 lication, so that there shall not be more than 

 one original edition of each book. There are 

 now often four editions of the same book bound 

 in such a manner that no one could tell from 

 the title on the cover that they are the same. 

 The bill also provides for the more prompt 

 binding and distribution of volumes. Other 

 desirable provisions of the bill are that the 

 publications of the several Departments and 

 Commissions shall be bound in distinctive 

 colors, so that their origin may be recognizable 

 at sight ; that the octavo size shall be used, ex- 

 cept in unusual cases ; that volumes shall be 

 volumes and not parts ; that series shall be 

 series and not volumes ; that gold leaf instead 

 of base metal shall be used in lettering docu- 

 ments ; that better cloth shall be used for bind- 



ing than has sometimes heretofore been used ; 

 that sheep bindings for the library supply of 

 public documents shall be abolished ; that the 

 back titles shall show the actual subject-matter 

 of the books ; that the bound volumes of Con- 

 gressional documents and reports shall be paged 

 consecutively through the volumes. The need 

 of a reform is shown by the fact that during 

 the year covered by the report nearly 200,000 

 documents were distributed, while only 3,581 

 were sold. Of many important publications, 

 such as the Memoirs of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, only one or two copies were sold. The 

 Monthly Catalogue of public documents is for the 

 present distributed without charge, and men of 

 science should apply for this before the edition 

 of 2,000 is exhausted. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Me. Swante Palm, Swedish Vice-Consul at 

 Austin, has given the University of Texas his 

 library of 25,000 volumes. 



We have received a letter from Dr. I. Mad- 

 dison. Secretary to the President of Bryn Mawr 

 College, calling attention to the fact that in the 

 article on ' Science in College Entrance Exam- 

 inations,' printed in the issue of this Journal 

 for December 25, 1896, Bryn Mawr College was 

 not included in a list of those institutions recog- 

 nizing a proper preparation in physical and 

 natural science. Colleges for women were not 

 considered in the report in question, but we 

 are glad to state that in this as in most other 

 respects Bryn Mawr College has followed the 

 admirable example of the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity. As Dr. Maddison writes: "Bryn 

 Mawr College has from its foundation included 

 science in its entrance requirements. Some 

 slight changes have been made in the regula- 

 tions from time to time, but the latest program 

 states that candidates for matriculation must 

 be examined in the elements of one of the fol- 

 lowing sciences: Physics, chemistry, botany, 

 physiology or physical geography. No student 

 can obtain an A. B. degree at Bryn Mawr 

 College without having attended lectures in 

 science (biology, chemistry, physics or geology), 

 for at least five hours weekly for one year, and 

 doing, in connection with the science chosen, 

 the prescribed amount of laboratory work." 



