March 26, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



511 



entific work. It is only by keeping fully abreast 

 of the scientific progress of the world and by 

 contributing its share to this progress that the 

 United States can maintain a position equal to 

 that of Great Britain and Germany. We can 

 afford to confine our considerations to material 

 wealth, even though we may regard as far 

 more important than this, health of body, in- 

 tellectual development and mioral balance. 

 Even those who wish to limit the paternal 

 functions of government believe that it should 

 encourage education and science. It seems in- 

 credible that a bill intended to protect the 

 industries of the United States, enacted by a 

 party representing a large part of the intelli- 

 gence of the nation, should contain provisions 

 tending to suppress science, literature and art. 

 The President and faculties of Yale University 

 have presented a petition against these duties, 

 and this example should be followed by other in- 

 stitutions. Men of science should also write in- 

 dividually to their Representatives in Congress. 

 "When the character of such taxes is properly 

 understood, the bill containing them can scarcely 

 be passed by Congress and signed by the Presi- 

 dent. 



GENEEAL. 



The forcible arguments urged by Lord Lister 

 and other members of the recent deputation to 

 the British Prime Minister on the question of 

 the establishment of a National Physical Lab- 

 oratory apply equally to a similar institution 

 at Washington. We may especially call atten- 

 tion to the able advocacy of this plan by Pro- 

 fessor F. W. Clarke in this Journal (January 

 22d). A department that will do for the man- 

 ufactures and commerce of the nation what the 

 Department of Agriculture now does for the 

 agricultural interests might properly begin 

 with an institution at Washington similar to the 

 German Beichsanstalt and the National Physical 

 Laboratory now urged by English men of 

 science. 



In view of the present advocacy of a depart- 

 ment of health under our government, it may 

 be worth noting that the Lancet commends a 

 similar plan for Great Britain, proposing that 

 there be a minister of health with a seat in the 

 Cabinet having charge of the following depart- 



ments : (1) The Registration Department ; (2) 

 the Local Government Department ; (3) the 

 Factory and Workshop Department ; (4) the 

 Analytical and Chemical Department ; (5) the 

 Veterinary Department ; (6) the Public Works 

 and Prisons Departments ; and (7) the Lunacy 

 Department. 



Me. Joseph H. Beigham has been appointed 

 Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. According 

 to the biographical notice in the New York 

 Evening Post his qualifications for the office are 

 as follows : "The new Assistant Secretary of 

 Agriculture is a farmer living near Delta, O., 

 in the western part of the State. He has an 

 excellent war record as an officer in the Union 

 army, and is well known in Ohio political cir- 

 cles, having been his party's nominee in several 

 hot fights. Among the agriculturists he is 

 widely known as Master of the Grange, which 

 office he held for some time. He has lectured 

 to granges in all parts of the country, and was 

 warmly endorsed by granges for Secretary of 

 Agriculture. He is six feet five inches tall. In 

 the Harrison administration he was one of the 

 commissioners to negotiate with the Shoshone 

 and Arapahoe Indians for a cession of a part of 

 the Wild River Reservation in Wyoming." 



Mr. Bobeet T. Hill, of the United States 

 Geological Survey, has just returned from the 

 fourth of a series of annual studies in the Tropi- 

 cal American regions, made under the auspices 

 of Professor A. Agassiz. The present expedition 

 was devoted to a further study of the geology, 

 paleontology and geomorphology of the Antilles, 

 Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, and their 

 relations to continental problems. Mr. Hill re- 

 ports that much new and valuable information 

 was obtained upon these subjects. 



Me. S. F. Emmons, also of the Survey, is in 

 South America, under a month's furlough, 

 working in mining geology. 



Heney L. Marindin, an assistant in the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, has been appointed 

 a member of the Mississippi River Commission. 



It is proposed to erect a memorial to Galileo 

 Ferreris, the eminent student of electrical sci- 

 ence, in the Industrial Museum at Turin. A 

 strong committee has been formed for the pur- 

 pose, including a number of leading Italian 



