July 31, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



141 



find here a number of other words suggested by 

 him — ' cosmopathic, ' ' hyperpromethia,' 'me- 

 thectic,' 'telergy,' etc., which we may not only 

 soon find in the Century Dictionary, but may 

 also hear on the street corners some day. 



Dr. Leon Bbrtrand, of Antwerp, describes 

 in the Medical Record a fluoroscope in which 

 double fluoride of uranyl and ammonium was 

 used as the fluorescent substance. This is said 

 to be fully as good as other substances, such as 

 tungstate of calcium and to be much cheaper. 



On July 4th the Royal Societies' Club gave a 

 complimentary dinner and reception to the 

 newly elected Fellows of the Eoyal Society and 

 the newly elected Royal Academicians and 

 Academicians-elect. Speeches were made by 

 Sir Clements Markham, Sir Robert Ball, Prof 

 Ray Lankester and others. 



The Railway Review describes a foul-air indi- 

 cator exhibited at the Industrial Exposition at 

 Zurich, Switzerland, which is designed to show 

 whether and in what degree the air in a work- 

 shop or other inhabited room is contaminated. 

 The apparatus is described as consisting of an 

 air-tight closed glass vessel filled with a red 

 fluid. Through a glass tube that dips into the 

 liquid and is bent at the top a drop falls every 

 100 seconds on a cord that hangs beneath and 

 that is somewhat stretched by a weight. The 

 fluid from which the drop comes has the prop- 

 erty of changing its color by the action of car- 

 bonic acid. The more carbonic acid there is in 

 the air the quicker this change in color takes 

 place. If the air is very foul the drop becomes 

 white at the upper end of the cord, while the 

 change of color corresponding to a slight pro- 

 portion of carbonic acid does not take place 

 till the drop has run further along the cord. 

 The exact condition of the air can be ascer- 

 tained by observing a scale that is placed along- 

 side the cord and divided into convenient parts, 

 bearing the designations, 'extremely bad,' 

 'very bad,' 'passable,' 'pure.' 



MM. Beauregard and Dupuy have re- 

 ported to the Paris Academy, experiments on 

 electrical variation in the acoustic nerve when 

 excited by a sound with one electrode placed 

 on the tympanum and one on the nerve it was 



possible to note the variation of the current 

 with the pitch of the sound which gives a 

 method for determining the range of audibility 

 for pitch in the lower animals. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN COLLEGES AND 

 UNIVERSITIES. 



In the Atlantic Monthly for August President 

 Gilman takes the appearance of the memoirs of 

 Barnard and McCosh as an occasion to review 

 the progress and outlook of universities in 

 America. President Gilman' s article is of special 

 interest, as he not only writes from wide 

 knowledge, but also with the power to carry 

 into effect the ideas that he advocates. He 

 says : ' ' Barnard came very near the right ex- 

 pression when he claimed that the university 

 must be ' a school of all learning that the ne- 

 cessities of the age demand.' Whatever may 

 be the best definition of a university, its func- 

 tions are clearly to be discovered. It must 

 above all things be a seat of learning, where 

 the most cultivated scholars reside, where libra- 

 ries, laboratories, and scientific collections are 

 liberally kept up, and where the spirit of in- 

 quiry and investigation is perpetually mani- 

 fested. It must be a shrine to which the out- 

 side world will resort for instruction and guid- 

 ance upon the problems of the day, scientific, 

 literary, educational, political. It must be a 

 place from which are sent forth important con- 

 tributions to science — theses, memoirs, books. 

 Here every form of scientific investigation 

 should be promoted. Researches too costly for 

 ordinary purses should be prosecuted at the ex- 

 pense of the general chest. Expeditions should 

 be sent forth from time to time to engage in in- 

 vestigations on the seashore or on the moun- 

 tains. Physical and astronomical instruments 

 of the most improved forms should be devised, 

 procured and frequently renewed. The litera- 

 tures of all nations, ancient and modern, should 

 have their devotees. Every school of philoso- 

 phy should be interpreted. Historical and polit- 

 ical inquiry should be diligently promoted. 

 The problems of modern society, economical, 

 industrial, financial, administrative, philan- 



