March i8, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



159 



acter, took a larger placf than ever in the popular religion, and so 

 it came to pass that fetishism was never more conspicuous in 

 Egypt than at the time when the ideal absolute God, 'self-be- 

 gotten.' liad been realized in man's most noble thoughts, and been 

 fitly described in man's most noble words." 



— The death, on Feb. 30, of Professor Hermann Kopp is an- 

 nounced by Nature. He died at Heidelberg, after a long and pain- 

 ful illness, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. 



— The friends of the late Henry Edwards have subscribfd 

 $10,000 and the American Museum of Natural History has sub- 

 scribed |5,000 for the purchase of the Edwards Entomological 

 Collection, consisting of more than 350,000 beautiful specimens of 

 insect life, and this scientific treasure goes to the American 

 Museum. The widow of Mr. Edwards will receive $15,000. This 

 enterprise has been carried thi'ough by A. M. Palmer, and is one 

 of the many good works done by that energetic manager and pub- 

 lic spirited citizen of New-York. 



— Two international scientific congresses are to be held at BIos- 

 cow in August, as we learn from Nature. One will relate to an- 

 thropology and archaeology, the other to zoology. There will be 

 exhibitions in coanection with both congresses, and appeals have 

 been issued for the loan of objects which are likely to be useful 

 and interesting. Among the things wanted for the Anthropologi- 

 cal Congress are phonograms of the language and songs of diflferent 

 races. French will be the official language of the two meetings. 

 The more important papers will be printed before members come 

 together, so that discussion may be facilitated. 



— The prevalent notion that the mistletoe is injurious to the 

 apple or other tree on which it grows is disputed, says Nature, by 

 Dr. G. Bonnier, the professor of botany at the Paris Sorbonne, who 

 maintains, not only that this is not the case, but that it is actually 

 beneficial to its host, the relationship beini; not one of simple 

 parasitism, but rather one of symbiosis. He determined from 

 a series of observations on the increase in the dry weight of the 

 leaves, that, while in summer the mistletoe derives a large por- 

 tion of its nutriment from the host, in winter these conditions are 

 reversed, and the increase in weight of the mistletoe is less than 

 the amount of carbon which it has obtained from the atmosphere 

 — in other words, that it gives up to its host a portion of its assim- 

 ilated sub.itance. 



— In order that the exhibition of weeds at the World's Colum- 

 bian Exposition may be large and representative of all sections of 

 the country, Byron D. Halsted, New Brunswick, N.J., having 

 this feature in charge, asks for specimens of the worst weeds from 

 all States and Territories. It is suggested that each botanist or 

 local collector who may be pleased to assist in the work secure at 

 least three specimens each of the worst weeds in his Stale or sec- 

 tion. In making the specimens it is important that the following 

 points be considered: 1. Seeds are e-ipecially desired; 3. seed- 

 lings are important in various stages of development; 3. the root 

 system is essential, also. 4, the flower and flower cluster, and 5, 

 the seed vessel. It may be necessary, therefore, to secure these vari 

 ous essentials at different times during the coming season. If the 

 weed is a large one, stress i?! laid upon the procuring of specimens 

 while they are small enough so that the whole plant, roots and 

 all, can be mounted without bending upon an berbarian sheet of 

 ordinai'y size; that is, not over a foot in length. They are not to 

 be mounted, however, by the collector. That unnecessary dupli- 

 cation may be avoided, persons who contemplate collecting sptci 

 mens should signify their intention to Professor Halsted, and 

 allotments will then be made, the assignments depending largely 

 upon the locality. It is hoped that each State in the Union may 

 be represented by specimens in this national exhibit of our worst 

 weeds. The collecting must all be done during the present sea- 

 son, and the specimens sent in fur mounting, labelling, etc., by 

 Dec. 1. 



— The January number of Prfer7?ia?!ra's Mitteilungen contains an 

 interesting map, by Dr. E. Hahn, of the "Kulturformen " of the 

 earth, showing the areas within which different methods of get- 

 ting a living out of the soil are employed. Dr. Hahn discards the 

 old-fashioned division into hunters, fishermen, shepherds, and 



agriculturists as containing a fundamental ei-ror; for these thiee 

 successive "stages" he substitutes six "forms." The simpler 

 forms may have been more widely spread in the earlier periods of 

 the world's history, but all exist side by side at the present time, 

 as methods of cultivation arising from the physical and climatic 

 conditions of the regions in which each is employed. The simplest 

 form is hunting and fishing. The large area which Dr. Hahn as- 

 signs to this form in Nr.rth- eastern Europe and Asia is somewhat 

 remarkable. Next comes what Dr. Hahn calls Hackbau, which 

 we may translate by hand-tillage. This form is characteristic of 

 Central America, the basins of the Orinoco and Amazons, tropical 

 Africa, Further Imlia, and the Malay Archipelago, with the ex- 

 ception of certain coast districts. Plantations, the third form, are 

 found wherever coffee, rice, sugar, are grown on a large scale. 

 Next comes what Dr. Hahn calls "our European and West Asia- 

 tic agriculture," characterized by the use of the plough, the em- 

 ployment of oxen as beasts of burden, and the growing of corn. 

 Originating in Mesopotamia, this foim has spread with but slight 

 changes over all the more civilised parts of the world. With 

 regard to the fifth form, cattle farming. Dr. Hahn states that the 

 only circumstance which was considered characteristic of the 

 shepherd's life was the fact of his being a nomad. This excluded 

 all whose herds consisted of other animals than sheep or goats. 

 Larger cattle require better food than could always be obtained 

 on the march. He therefore puts all owners of herds in one cate- 

 gory, whether nomads or settlers. They are spread over all Cen- 

 tral and Northern Asia, and are found in Arabia, on the borders 

 of the Sahara, in South Africa, and in certain portions of North- 

 ern Europe, America, and Australia. A curious feature is along, 

 narrow strip extending from Somaliland into South Africa at vary- 

 ing distances from the East Coast; by his own account, however, 

 it should not have been reckoned to the cattle-farming regions, as 

 the cowherds make little or no use of the milk given by their 

 animals, which are looked upon as mere standards of value and 

 wealth. The last is the elaborate form of cultivation in small 

 plots, which is the only method by which the exhausted soil of 

 China can be got to maintain its huge population. 



— Dr. Ira Eemsen, professor of chemistry in Johns Hopkins 

 University, Mar. 11, addressed a communication to President 

 Harper of the Chicago University, declining his invitation to a 

 profe.=;=orship in that institution. Professor Remsen's decision is 

 the cause of great gratification in B.^ltimore university circles. 



— Dr. C. W. Stiles, medical zoologist of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, has been elected foreign corresponding member 

 of the Societe de Biologic, Paris, France, to fill the vacancy caused 

 by the death of Professor Joseph Leidy of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania. 



— Joel Chandler Harris's new liook. "On the Plantation,'' is 

 said to contain fresh stories of Brer Rabbit, Brer Owl, Brer Buz- 

 zard, and other characters immortalized in "Uncle Remus." 

 Much of the book, however, is understood to be the story of the 

 author's own life, and it is described as a singularly fascinating 

 narrative. E. W. Kemble has illustrated the book, which is to 

 be published immediately by D. Apiileton & Co. 



— E & J. B. Young & Co. of New York have sent us a copy of 

 the "Star Atlas," for amateur astronomers, with explanatory text 

 by Dr. Hermann J. Klein, and translated and adapted for English 

 readers by Edmund McClure, M.A., M.R.I. A. Itconlains eighteen 

 mips printed by E. A. Funke, Leipsic, and is published, under the 

 direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education 

 appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 

 London, at the low price of three dollars. The maps show all the 

 stars from 1 to 6.5 magnitude between the North Pole and 3f^ 

 south declination, and all nebulaj and star clusters in the same 

 region which are visible in telescopes of moderate powers. The 

 "Atlas" is an imperial 4°, strongly bound in cloth, with illumi- 

 nated cover, and contains 72 pages of descriptive text, with 18 

 charts beautifully printed from heliogi-aphical reproductions of 

 photographs. It is a model of its kind, being handy, compact, 

 accurate, and of practical service to amateurs, comet-huuter.-=, and 

 students. 



