July 17, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



73 



Paris; Prof. Henri Moissan, University of 

 France, Paris ; Prof. Nicholaus Oumor, of tlie 

 University of Moscow ; Prof. Emile Picard, 

 University of France, Paris ; Prof. George 

 Quinciie, University of Heidelberg, and Prof. 

 Woldemar Voigt, Eoyal Society of Science, 

 Gottingen. 



The new volume of The i)mZ, which in twenty 

 volumes has maintained a high standard of lit- 

 erary criticism, opens with an editorial article 

 on science in the secondary schools, taking as 

 its text Prof. Shaler's Presidential address be- 

 fore the Geological Society(SciENCE, April 24th). 

 The editor writes: ' ' We must resolutely seek to 

 subordinate the ideal of information to the 

 ideal of discipline, and be willing to relegate to 

 personal tastes and later opportunities the ac- 

 quisition of knowledge upon many subjects of 

 the highest scientific importance. What is all 

 important to the student is a comprehension of 

 the method of science ; he may safely be left, if 

 this is once given him, to possess himself of as 

 much of the matter as his inclinations and in- 

 terests may demand." 



We regret to record the death, on June 17th, 

 at the age of 63, of Lord Lilford, who was well 

 known for his contributions to natui^al history 

 and especially to ornithology. He published 

 many papers in the Ihis, the journal of the 

 British Ornithologists' Union, of which, at the 

 time of his death, he had been president for 

 many years. He also contributed papers to 

 The Zoologist and to the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society of London. The thirty- 

 second pai't of his colored figures of the birds 

 of the British Islands, nearly completing the 

 work, was published in April, and last year he 

 published an excellent volume on the birds of 

 his native county, Northamptonshire, with 

 beautiful illustrations. Lord Lilford had an 

 extensive collection of living animals at his 

 country seat in Northamptonshire. 



The death of Lord Lilford reminds us how 

 much science in England is indebted to the 

 ■class having ample means and time, which are 

 in so many cases devoted to the pursuit of 

 science. Many of the greatest leaders, such as 

 the Darwins and the Herschels, belonged to 

 this class. It is perhaps not generally known 



in America that Sir Joseph Prestwich, whose 

 death we were compelled to record last week, 

 was a wine merchant in London until he Avas 

 sixty years old, being called to the chair of 

 geology at Oxford when he was 62. It would 

 probably be impossible to instance in America 

 examples similar to those offered by Lord Lil- 

 ford and Sir Joseph Prestwich. 



The Boston Transcript^ which perhaps devotes 

 as much space to scientific matters as any daily 

 paper published in America, contains in its is- 

 sue of July 7th an editorial article beginning, 

 " Everything seems to be possible to science " 

 and going on to describe a paper which, it says, 

 was read by ' Dr. Baraduc, of Paris, ' before the 

 Paris Academy of Medicine, on the j)hotog- 

 raphy of thought. ' 'In the oflS.cial confirmation 

 of the experiments it is shown that the new 

 psychology expects to capture the secrets of the 

 universe with the utmost readiness. It is ex- 

 tremely interesting that one of those sensitive 

 and imaginative persons known as ' mediums ' 

 proved an excellent subject in the experiments. 

 The medium was desired by the man of science 

 to will that some historical personage should 

 appear. The first plate merely showed a cha- 

 otic, cloudy shaping of thought ; but the next 

 was a portrait thrown upon the' film, giving the 

 medium's idea of what Mahomet looked like. 

 Photographs of the thought of other persons 

 who fixed their gaze upon the sensitized films 

 which are used have been obtained." Indeed, 

 everything seems to be possible to the daily 

 newspapers ! 



The twenty-eighth annual meeting of the 

 American Philological Association was held at 

 Brown University from July 7th to 10th. 



Mr. Gideon H. Diall, DePauw University, 

 Greencastle, Ind., wishes to secure data to in- 

 vestigate the psychology of the aggregate mind 

 or of crowds, and would be glad to send a circu- 

 lar with questions on the subject to public 

 speakers and others who would be willing to 

 answer them. 



At the recent meeting of the American Pedi- 

 atrical Societj'- in Montreal, a committee re- 

 ported statistics secured from 615 physicians on 

 the use of anti-toxin. The total mortality was 

 12.3 per cent., but if cases are excluded in which 



