226 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 86. 



attraction to the Eoyal Gardens. There has 

 just been established near what is known as the 

 rhododendron dell in the arboretum a small 

 bamboo garden. The species are mostly Japan- 

 ese, Chinese and Himalayan and are probably 

 the finest collection now in Great Britain. The 

 naturalized bamboos have already created a 

 great deal of interest, which may be followed 

 by their more general cultivation. Two inter- 

 esting ofl&cial publications may also be men- 

 tioned — one in course of being issued and the 

 other projected by the staff at Kew. The 

 former is a complete list of the plants cultivated 

 in the gardens, which it is hoped will fix a 

 standard nomenclature, thus doing away with 

 the confusion of identical plants known under 

 two or more names. The other book will be a 

 guide to the economic plants, and will include a 

 summary of their qualities and uses. 



The London Times states that a Pasteur filter 

 on a large scale has been exhibited by Messrs. 

 J. Defries and Sons on their premises in Houns- 

 ditch. It has been constructed by them for the 

 municipal authorities of Darjiling, with the 

 sanction of the Indian government, and will 

 be sent out there immediately. The filter con- 

 sists of a series of iron ' cells, ' o^" circular ves- 

 sels, each of which contains 250 Pasteur porce- 

 lain tubes. These tubes resemble hollow can- 

 dles and stand upright in the floor of the cell. 

 The water filters through them from the out- 

 side to the inside under pressure or by grav- 

 ity, and all impurities are arrested on the sur- 

 face of the porcelain, which is formed of 

 a special clay or mixture of clays. The filter 

 is cleaned periodically, or as often as may be 

 necessary, by scraping ofi" the deposit from the 

 surface of the tubes and by passing through 

 them dilute hydrochloric acid, which dissolves 

 and carries away the earthy salts deposited in 

 the interstices of the porcelain. The principal 

 of this filter and its successful application to 

 domestic purposes have been well known for 

 several years and have gradually overcome the 

 distrust with which sanitary science is inclined 

 to regard all fillters. Its efficiency seems to be 

 well established not only by laboratory experi- 

 ments, but — far more convincingly — by the prac- 

 tical results in the reduction of water-borne dis- 

 ease obtained by its use in the French army. 



The interest of the present exhibit lies in the 

 size of the installation. It consists of 38 cells 

 and 9,500 tubes, which will deliver 150,000 gal- 

 lons per day. 



As we are going to press with the present 

 number of Science we have received provi- 

 sional programs of the several sections of the 

 approaching meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the advancement of science. The num- 

 ber of papers entered at a date considerably in 

 advance of the meeting is as follows : Section 

 A. Mathematics and Astronomy, 8 ; Section B. 

 Physics, 19 ; Section C. Chemistry, 60 ; Section 

 D. Mechanical Science and Engineering, 23 ; 

 Section E. Geology and Geography, 17 ; Section 

 F. Zoology, 17 ; Section G. Botany, 35 ; Section 

 I. Social and Economic Science, 9. In each of 

 the sections other papers will doubtless be 

 offered, which will be entered on the daily pro- 

 grams published during the meeting. It is a 

 great advantage to have the programs in ad- 

 vance of the meeting and we regret that it is 

 now too late to print them in full in this issue 

 of Science. We hope to publish full reports of 

 the sectional meetings, but no one who is able to 

 be present at Buffalo should neglect to attend a 

 meeting which promises to be of especial inter- 

 est. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

 THE HULL BIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES. 



The Chicago University Record gives an ac- 

 count of the exercises held on the occasion of 

 the laying of the corner stone of the Hull Bio- 

 logical Laboratories on July 3d. The address 

 in the convocation tent was given by Prof. G. 

 L. Goodale, of Harvard University, who spoke 

 on ' Some of the Relations of Natural History 

 to Thought and Modern Life.' President 

 Harper made a statement regarding the impor- 

 tance of Miss Culver's gift for the development 

 of science, in the course of which he made the 

 following important announcement regarding 

 the place of investigation in the medical school: 

 "In laying these corner stones to-day we are 

 laying the foundations of a school of medicine, 

 for aside from the distinct work outlined in each 

 department there is that great and important 



