36 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 389 



SCIENCE: 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES, 



47 Lafayette Place, New York. 



Subscriptions. — United States and Canada $3.50 a year. 



Great Britain and Europe 4.50 a year. 



Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Abstracts of scientific 

 papers are solicited, and twenty copies of the issue containing such will be 

 mailed the author on request in advance. Rejected manuscripts will be 

 returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accom- 

 panies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenti- 

 cated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily for publication, 

 but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for 

 any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. 



Attention is called to the "Wants" column. All are invited to use it in 

 soliciting information or seeking new positions. The name and address of 

 applicants should be given in full, so that answers will go direct to them. The 

 "Exchange " column is likewise open. 



Vol. XVI. 



NEW YORK, July 18, 1890. 



No. 389. 



CONTENTS: 



Sun-Spots and Predictions 



H. A. Bazen 29 



Notes and News 33 



News from Clark University... 36 

 Present Condition of Silk-Cul- 



tdre in France 36 



Health Matters. 



Oxygen-Gas in Pneumonia 37 



An Epidemic of Pulmonary 



Phthisis 37 



Tissue Metabolism in Cancer... 38 



Kola- Nut for Seasickness 38 



Electrical Science. 

 Electric Welding and Ice-Ma- 

 chines 38 



Atmospheric Electricity in the 



Tropics 38 



Storms and Electric Wires 38 



Letters to the Editor. 

 A Stony Meteorite from Wash- 

 ington County, Kan. 



F. H. Snow 38 

 Another Meteorite from Kiowa 



County, Kan. F. H. Snow 39 



A Supposed Footprint in Rock 



A. W. 40 

 Book-Reviews. 



School Supervision 40 



Among the Publishers 41 



NEWS FROM CLARK UNIVERSITY. 



A one-tear's course in the history and principles of education 

 will begin in October next at Clark University, and continue till 

 June, 1891. This course will be given by the president of the uni- 

 versity, Dr. G. Stanley Hall, and by Dr. William H. Burnham, 

 decent in education, and will be divided as follows: I. General his- 

 tory of educational ideas and institutions in antiquity. II. Gen- 

 eral history of educational ideas and institutions during the middle 

 ages and down to the early decades of the present century. III. 

 Contemporary educational institutions. A good part of the year 

 will be spent in this field, which will be treated as follows: The 

 educajional system of Germany will first be considered, and each 

 class'of institution from the kindergarten to the university will 

 be described, including legislation, administration, financial 

 methods, supervision, buildings, curricula, training, testing and 

 examination of teachers, methods of instruction in the leading 

 subjects, educational literature, brief biographies, etc.; French 

 educational institutions will then be described in the same way; 

 and then will follow Italian, Scandinavian, Russian, British, and 

 American educational institutions. While the presentation of the 

 systems will necessarily be more or less historical, the chief object 

 will be to describe these systems as they exist to-day. While 

 considering elementary work and grades, much stress wiU be 

 given to intermediate and higher education, including such topics 

 as the constitution of universities, with historical sketches and 

 descriptions of typical institutions, both European and American; 



the relations of government to science in the various countries; 

 learned societies, associations, and academies; professional and 

 technical instruction; examinations; etc. IV. Philosophical con- 

 clusions and practical applications of this survey; general views 

 concerning the end, direction, and methods of education, with 

 reference to the needs and problems of our own country. 



In preparation for these courses, Dr. Burnham, a Harvard grad- 

 uate, who gave his chief attention to philosophical courses, taught 

 successfully in a normal school, and studied psychology and edu- 

 cation three years in Baltimore, taking the degree of doctor of 

 philosophy there in 1888, was some time since sent to Europe by 

 Clark University, to study special problems and institutions in 

 several European countries. Dr. Hall, who represented this de- 

 partment at the Johns Hopkins University, spent last year in vis- 

 iting educational institutions and collecting literature and other 

 material for this course in every country in Europe except Por- 

 tugal. A carefully chosen collection of educational literature 

 covering the topics of this course will be placed at the disposal of 

 students, and their reading will be individually directed in it. 

 The methods will consist of lectures, general and individual con- 

 ferences, special lines of reading, etc. Certificates of attendance 

 will be given to those who follow the entire course, and certifi- 

 cates of proficiency to those who desire to pass an examination at 

 the end of the year. Should the attendance warrant it, and 

 should it be desired, pedagogical excursions may be conducted to 

 institutions in Worcester and other neighboring cities. In addi- 

 tion to these strictly educational courses, the philosophical and 

 psychological courses may, by special arrangement, be attended 

 by students of education. This course is intended for those who 

 desire to qualify themselves for professors of education in colleges 

 or normal schools, and for superintendents, principals, and others 

 who desire to make a specialty of education. For further infor- 

 mation address the clerk of the university, Worcester, Mass. 



PRESENT CONDITION OF SILK-CULTURE IN FRANCE. 



With reference to the recent demand of certain delegates rep- 

 resenting the agricultural, and especially the silk- growing, indus- 

 try of southern France for a protective duty upon imported 

 cocoons and raw sUks, with certain restrictions upon silk-manu- 

 facturers in respect to "loading" their goods in the process of 

 dyeing, the United States consul at Marseilles gives a sketch of 

 the history and pressnt condition of this branch of French indus- 

 try. 



The cultivation of the mulberry-tree for the rearing of silk- 

 worms began in the south of France early in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, but it was not until a hundred and fifty years later that the 

 industry became important or largely profitable. By the year 

 1780 the annual product of cocoons had risen to 6,600,000 kilo- 

 grams, which were then worth about 3s. a kilogram. Tbis was a 

 lucrative result in those frugal times; and the business continued 

 to flourish until 1853, when the crop reached 36,000,000 kilograms 

 at about 3s. 9d. the kilogram, thus adding a sum of about 

 £4,700,000 to the wealth of the rural classes. The country was 

 admirably adapted to the growth of the mulberry-leaf ; the warm, 

 dry climate of Provence and Comtat Venaissin was favorable for 

 the worm; the labor of raising the cocoons and reeling them 

 could be performed by women, aided to some extent by children 

 and aged people, thus entailing scarcely any increase in the ex- 

 penses of the farm ; and the permanent prosperity of the industry 

 seemed for a time assured. 



Then a series of disasters began. The peasants, in their eager- 

 ness to raise every possible silk-worm, had for years overstocked 

 their premises, and in the crowded, ill-ventilated, and often dirty 

 and neglected magnaneries the worms degenerated from year to 

 year until they became a prey to several new and destructive dis- 

 eases. The most serious of these were the muscadine, which was 

 thought to have been imported with silk-worm eggs from Turkey ; 

 and the pebrine, a malignant cryptogamous infection, generated 

 by the conditions above cited, and which is commonly cited in 

 France as la maladie. The muscadine caused a loss of £800,000 

 in a single season. In thousands of cases every silk-worm in a 

 farmhouse or breeding-establishment perished ; and this disease 



