SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 465 



such as it is alone the province of the specialist of the university 

 to collect and promulgate. . 



Finally it has been assumed that as nothing save advantage can 

 come to those seeking the special knowledge, whether for use or 

 culture, so nothing save advantage can accrue to the university 

 extension system or to the university itself froQi the adoption of 

 a scheme of evening instruction fairly suited to the needs of the 

 individual student. M. B. Snydee. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



It will interest cremationists to hear that the Japanese, who 

 some time ago adopted burial of the dead, in imitation of European 

 nations, have reverted, according to the Indian Medical Gazette, 

 to their own custom of burning the dead on account of its sanitary 

 recommendations. 



— The death of Dr. F. C. Dietrich, keeper of the Botanical 

 Museum at Berlin, is announced. He was eighty-six years of 

 age, 



— A despatch to the New York Tnbiine, from Franklin, Ind., 

 Dec. 26. states that Professor Gorby, State Geologist, has given his 

 collection to Franklin College. The collection consists of 40,000 

 to 60 000 specimens, gathered from almost every State in the 

 Union, and from many foreign countries. 



— At the Dec. 10 meeting of the Royal Society, according to 

 Nature, the president read from the chair a letter from Professor 

 Dewar, which had been put into his hand as he entered the meet- 

 ing-room, in which Professor Dewar stated that he had at 3 p.m. 

 that afternoon "placed a quantity of liquid oxygen in the state of 

 lapid ebullition in air (and therefore at a temperature of — 181° 

 U.) between the poles of the historic Faraday magnet in a cup- 

 shaped piece of rock salt (which is not moistened by liquid oxygen 

 and therefore keeps it in the spheroidal state)," and to his surprise, 

 Professor Dewar saw the liquid oxygen, as soon as the magnet 

 was stimulated, " suddenly leap up to the poles and remain there 

 permanently attracted until it evaporated." 



— The educated classes of Italy are delighted with the proposed 

 changes at the ancient University of Bologna. The commission 

 appointed by the Government to consider the advisability of making 

 reforms in the old institution has recommended the adoption of 

 the plans of Signer Buriani, the well-known engineer. The cost 

 of the new buildings, which will be an ornament to the city, is 

 estimated at 5,000,000 lire. The philosophical and legal faculties 

 will be housed in future in the old '■ Archiginnasio," while the 

 School of Mines will occupy the present university building on the 

 Via Zamboni. The library united with the royal and city libraries 

 will be placed in a new palace. Great improvements will be made 

 also in the School of Medicine, which in recent years has suffered 

 somewhat in reputation. The University of Bologna has as grand 

 traditions as any university in the world, and college men in all 

 countries feel an interest in its welfare. It is, in many ways, the 

 mother of universities, and had centuries ago 13,000 students. 



— Dr. Danger, says The Medical Record, has been investigating 

 the subject of suicide among the soldiers in European armies, his 

 statistics including the years from 1875 to 1887. The largest num- 

 ber of suicides occurred in the Austrian army, averaging 133 'a 

 year in each 10,000 soldiers. Next to Austria is Germany, which 

 averaged 63 suicides to every 10,000 soldiers. In the Italian army 

 on the average 40 soldiers in every 10,000 committed suicide every 

 year. The French array from 1872 to 1889 lost in Europe 29 

 soldiers to every 10,000 annually, and in Algeria it lost just twice 

 as many by suicide. In Belgium there occurred 21, in England 

 33, in Russia 20, and in Spain 14 to every 10,000. The cause of 

 suicide in the army appears in most cases to be the fear of punish- 

 ment, though not a few are driven to the act through aversion to 

 military service and despair of ever being able to return to civil 

 life. 



— In a paper, read before the Sanitary Convention at Vicksburg, 

 the proceedings of which are published, Dr. Baker of the Michigan 

 State Board of Health gave official statistics' and evidence which 

 he summarized as follows: "The record of the great saving of 



human life and health in Michigan in recent years is one to which, 

 it seems to me, the State and local boards of health in Michigan 

 can justly ' point with pride.' It is a record of the saving of over 

 one hundred lives per year from small-pox, four hundred lives per 

 year saved from death by scarlet fever, and nearly six hundred 

 lives per year saved from death by diphtheria — an aggregate of 

 eleven hundred lives per year, or three lives per day saved from 

 these three diseases. This is a record which we ask to have ex- 

 amined, and which we are willing to have compared with that of 

 the man who ' made two blades of grass grow where only one 

 grew before.' " 



— A recent press dispatch states that Superintendent Johnson 

 of the Deaf and Dumb Institute at Indianapolis has been making 

 experiments with the phonograph, and believes that in connection 

 with it he can teach the majority of the deaf-muies under his 

 charge to talk. He finds that the instrument concentrates the 

 sound at the drum of the ear in such a way that many of the 

 pupils otherwise deaf are enabled to hear. He intends to carry 

 the experiments further, and thinks the phonograph may become 

 a means of teaching the use of their voices to some mutes whose 

 inability to speak is due to the fact that they have never heard 

 speech. He tried the phonograph with 27 boys and 29 girls. Of 

 these, only 3 girls were unable to hear something. Twenty boys 

 and girls could hear instrumental music, while 11 boys and 15 

 girls could distinguish spoken words. Of the 56 whose hearing 

 was tested, 38 could hear better with the left ear and 14 with the 

 right, while 11 heard alike in both. 



— It is much to be feared that, after all the stir which has been 

 made about it, the Antarctic expedition which was to have been 

 sent out next year, at the joint expense of the Australian colonies 

 and Baron Oscar Dickson of Gothenburg, may have to be dropped 

 owing to the supineness of the Australians. In July last it was 

 announced that the Queensland Government was to place £3,000 

 in the colonial estimates as a contribution to the expedition. Sir 

 Henry Parkes undertook to get £2,000 from New South Wales, 

 while from "Victoria a sum was expected commensurate with the 

 importance of that colony. Sir Thomas Elder also promised 

 £5,000 on certain conditions, while Baron Oscar Dickson under- 

 took to give another £5,000, and, indeed, was quite prepared to 

 spend double that amount to insure that the expedition should be 

 a success. What with cash and promises, the sum of £!4 000 

 seemed secure in July last, and it was confidently expected that 

 £3,000 should be raised, so as to be well over the £15,000 which it 

 was calculated the expedition would cost. Baron Nordenskjold 

 was quite prepared to take charge of the expedition ; and, as slated 

 in the London Times. Baron Dickson had actually selected the 

 two ships which he thought suitable for the work. Now we learn 

 that the Queensland Parliament has refused to pass the vote of 

 £2,000 which was placed upon the estimates. It is not only the 

 direct loss of this subscription which is to be deplored, but it 

 affects the other promises, which were made conditionally. Baron 

 Dickson's offer of £5,000 lapses at the end of this month, and as 

 he has had no information from Australia that the remainder of 

 the £15,000 is secured, he has probably made up his mind that the 

 whole scheme has fallen through, as did the similar proposal a 

 few years ago. Indeed, it would seem as if Baron Dickson had 

 not been treated with the courtesy which might have been ex- 



^pected. He had not been informed of the progress of matters in 

 Australia, and has received no certain information as to the actual 

 state of the movement. The fact is, the movement seemes to have 

 been sadly mismanaged. No proper steps have been taken to en- 

 list the sympathies and the active support of the public in Aus- 

 tralia, where there is i^lenty of money to spare for purposes of 

 this kind. True, one or two newspapers appear to have supported 

 the proposal with some energy, but much more is wanted than 

 that in Australia, where evidently the public is not too enthusias- 

 tic for the promotion of knowledge. The leaders of the movement 

 on behalf of the proposed Antarctic expedition seem to have been 

 a few members of learned societies, not quite in touch with the 

 general public. The result is that the wealthy Australian colonies 

 have lieen placed in the ridiculous position of having appealed to 

 a small nation like Sweden for assistance, and in the end have 



