July 10, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



47 



If the student does not attend the lectures, the 

 professor carries no responsibility, no matter 

 how uninteresting or how uninstructive they 

 may be. Yet the beauty of the courses of lec- 

 tures is that the professor carries no responsibil- 

 ity if the student does not know his anatomy. 



" I believe that there is but one way to learn 

 any subject, and that is through study. The 

 very name student tells what the person so 

 named should be doing ; and with a natural 

 science, dealing with a most complex object, 

 extending through the three dimensions of 

 space, any other method besides studying the 

 object itself is practically useless. 



' ' Lectures with demonstrations are certainly 

 valuable — more valuable than the lectures with 

 text-books alone. Yet analyzing the object it- 

 self is infinitely more valuable than to watch 

 the results exposed by another. Wrestling 

 with the part which is being studied, handling 

 it and viewing it from all sides, and tabulating 

 and classifying the parts worked out, give us 

 the greatest reward. All this may be accom- 

 plished by practical laboratory work. If we 

 can make the student work thoughtfully and 

 carefully a great result is achieved. It makes 

 of him an artist, an actor, an expert, not a di- 

 lettant. He is upon the stage, not in the audi- 

 ence." 



GENERAL. 



The degree of LL. D. has been conferred by 

 Harvard University on Prof. Alexander Graham 

 Bell, of Washington; on Prof. William E. Ware, 

 of Columbia University, and on Prof. William 

 G. Farlow, of Harvard University ; by the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan on Prof. E. L. Mark, of 

 Harvard University, and by Amhei'st College 

 on Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, of Dartmouth Col- 

 lege. 



The discovery of Rayleigh and Kamsay is be- 

 ing extended into unexpected fields of research. 

 Wm. SchlcBsing (fils) and Jules Eichard have 

 recently read before the French Academy a pa- 

 per in regard to researches upon Argon in the 

 gas within the swim-bladders of fishes. 



The national collection of plants placed 

 many years ago by the Smithsonian Institution 

 in the custody of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture has been returned to the Institution by 



Secretary Morton, who is unwilling longer 

 either to be responsible for work in botany, ex- 

 cept as related directly to agriculture, or to 

 keep so valuable a collection in a building 

 which is not fire proof. It is now arranged in 

 the east balcony of the National Museum build- 

 ing. The following members of the museum 

 staff are assigned to the Department of Plants: 

 Curator of Plants, (Honorary) Mr. F. V. 

 Coville, Botanist of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. Assistant Curators, Dr. J. N. Eose, 

 Mr. O. F. Cook, Mr. Charles Louis Pollard. Aid, 

 Mrs. Carrie Harrison. Clerk, Miss Flora N. 

 Vasey. Mounters, Mrs. Anna T. Moore, Miss 

 Louise Zimmerman, Miss Frederica Wern- 

 heimer. Miss L. V. Schaeffer. Messenger, 

 Felix Moore. 



An International Congress of Maritime Fish- 

 eries, Oyster culture and Marine Agriculture 

 will be held September 3d to 7th at Sables 

 d'Olonne, in Vendee, under the auspices of the 

 Society V Enseignement Professionnel et Technique 

 des Peches Maritimes. M. E. Perrier, of the In- 

 stitute, professor in the Museum of Natural 

 History in Paris, will preside. 



Observations sur les prestidigitateurs by Joseph 

 Jastrow, an article translated from Science, 

 appears in the Eevue Scientifique for June 20th. 



Prof. S. P. Langley sailed for Europe on 

 July 8th, for a two months' stay. 



Dr. C. a. Doremus, of New York Citj^, has 

 been appointed, by the Secretary of State, dele- 

 gate from the United States to the International 

 Congress of Applied Chemistry in Paris. 



Garden and Forest states that the old home of 

 the naturlist Audubon, in Pennsylvania, is on 

 the south bank of the little Eiver Perkiomen, 

 about three miles to the eastward of Phoenix- 

 ville. .The house, which is locally famous as 

 the Mill Grove House, was built nearly a cen- 

 tury and a-half ago, and stands on a knoll which 

 affords a fine prospect. It is of stone, solid and 

 substantial, thickly overgrown with ivy and 

 shadowed by a number of tall pines, under the 

 branches of which Audubon produced some of 

 his best work. In spite of certain interior 

 changes, the chimney-corner where his study- 

 ing was done still remains as he knew it. 



