September 12, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



147 



single one, is any one of ten colors, but finds a greater in- 

 crease (ISff, difference of II. and III.) when the stimulus 

 re-acted to, instead of being a single one, is one of ten 

 colors, though the particular kind of color need not be recog- 

 nized. Both the stimulus re-acted to and the one not re- 

 acted to might be one of a larger or smaller, a more or less 

 homogeneous group; but I am unable to find a record of 

 such an experiment. The somewhat modified form of ex- 

 periment adopted by Tigerstedt and Bergrist shows a similar 

 result. They re acted to a light, when either the light or a 

 one to three place number might appear, in 297 (T, and to the 

 number (including its recognition) in 318(7. If the number 

 of digits of the numbers that may appear is foreknown, the 

 time is considerably reduced ; and when either the light or a 

 foreknown letter might appear, the time for recognizing the 

 light was still further shortened (190(T). The same series of 

 variations could be applied to adaptive re-actions (i.e., one 

 or more, or all, of the modes of re-action might be associated 

 with any member of a variable group of stimuli), but experi- 

 ments designed to show the effect of such variations are 

 lacking. Mention should be made, however, of the experi- 

 ments of Milnsterberg, in which he first re-acts with the five 

 fingers to 6ve categories, each limited to one term (XXIV. 

 and XXV.); then to five categories, each comprising three 

 terms (XXVI.); and then to five categories, each com- 

 prising a practically indefinite number of terms (XXVII., 

 XXVIIJ., XXIX.) ; and finds an increase of time in making 

 these steps, not only in the sensory mode of re-action (as 

 cited in the table), but in the motor as well (as will be no- 

 ticed below). Although other factors contribute to this in- 

 crease in time, part of it may be referred to the decreasing 

 definiteness of the foreknowledge of the subject. It may be 

 added, that the mechanism by which an increase in the 

 number of possible re-actions increases the re-action time 

 is allied to that by which a decrease in the foreknowledge of 

 the subject does so. 



[Continued on p. 148.] 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A PEOCESS of manufacture of filtering material is described by 

 the Engineering and Mining Journal as consisting essentially in 

 reducing ferric oxide by heating it in contact with gaseous fuel. 

 Small pieces of iron ore, preferably hematite, are packed into a 

 aetort heated externally, preferably by producer gas. When the 

 charge is at a cherry-red heat, gaseous fuel is admitted into the 

 retort and brought into thorough contact with the ore. At the 

 ■end of four or five hours, if the exit gas be inflammable, the pro- 

 cess is finished, and the charge raked out and allowed to cool. 

 Ordinary coal-gas or other gaseous fuel may be used instead of 

 producer gas. The magnetic oxide so produced is available for 

 Altering water, sewage, sugar sirups, alcoholic liquors, etc. 



— The fourth annual session of the Iowa Academy of Sciences 

 ^was held Sept. 4 and 5, at Des Moines, lo., in the High School 

 Building, Science Rooms, corner of Fifteenth and Centre Streets. 

 The following is a list of the papers read: "The Gall-Pro- 

 •ducing Cynipidse of Iowa," by C. P. Gillette; "Evolution of 

 .Strophostylus," by Charles R. Keyes; "Two Quaternary Sections 

 near Des Moines," by R. Ellsworth Call; "Abnormal Pelage in 

 Lepus Sylvaticus," and '• Additions to Catalogue of Iowa Hemip- 

 tera," by Herbert Osborn ; " Further Notes on the Geology of 

 TS'orth-western Iowa," and "Exhibition of Volcanic Ashes from 

 Omaha, Neb.," by J. E. Todd ; " Varieties and Structure of Oolite," 

 by E. H. Barbour; "The Woody Plants of Western Wisconsin, a 

 ■Contribution to the Local Flora of La Crosse, Wis ," by L. H. 

 Pammel; "On a Quaternary Section Eight Miles South-east of 

 Des Moines," by R. Ellsworth Call and Charles R. Keyes; annual 



address, by President F. M. Witter, Muscatine; " A New Cecido- 

 mid Infesting Box-Elder," by C. P. Gillette ; "Age of the Iowa City 

 Sandstones," and " Notes on the Red Rock Sandstone," by Charles 



E. Keyes; "Preliminary Notes on Fishes of Polk County and Cen- 

 tral Iowa (exhibition of specimens), by R. Ellsworth Call; "Notes 

 on the Life-Histories of Certain Hemiptera," by Herbert Osborn; 

 "The Shore-Lines of Ancient Glacial Lakes," by J. E. Todd; 

 " Some Parasitic Diseases of Iowa Forage-Plants," by L. H. Pam- 

 mel; "Fishes of the Cedar River Basin," by Seth E. Meek; and 

 " Report of the Committee on Iowa Fauna," by C. C. Nutting 

 (chairman). The following are the oflBcers for 1890: president, 



F. M. Witter, Muscatine; first vice-president, C. C. Nutting, 

 Iowa City ; second vice-president, C. P. Gillette, Ames ; secretary 

 and treasurer, R. Ellsworth Call, Des Moines; executive council, 

 the officers, and Professors J. E, Todd (Tabor), Herbert Osborn 

 (Ames), and L. H. Pammel (Ames). 



— "Little Giant "Edwin Checkley, who has just broken the 

 long-distance bicycle record between New York and Chicago, 

 making the distance in a little over fourteen days, undertook the 

 task without any previous special training, pursuant to the theo- 

 ries set forth in his book, "A Natural Method of Physical Train- 

 ing," which has been creating so much talk among athletes and 

 members of the medical profession. Mr. Checkley opposes mod- 

 ern athleticism as practised in and out of the colleges, and argues 

 that his own-extraordinary strength and agility are to a great ex- 

 tent possible even to persons of comparatively sedentary habits, if 

 a certain simple course is followed. Checkley, who was educated 

 as an engineer, and is now studying medicine, is five feet five 

 inches iu height, and weighs only one hundred and twenty-five 

 pounds; but he can lift two men, each weighing two hundred 

 pounds, and trot with them for one hundred yards. 



— The American Bankers' Association have devoted much time 

 lately to a consideration of the question, " What can be done to 

 prepare for their future careers those youths who expect to follow 

 banking as a business?" In the course of their investigation, 

 their attention was attracted by the work of the Wharton School 

 of Finance and Economy, — a department of the University of 

 Pennsylvania which has, among other courses, one in banking. 

 Professor Edmund J. James, one of the senior professors in the 

 school, who has devoted much time and thought to educational 

 questions, was invited to deliver an address upon the school and 

 its work before the convention at Saratoga, which met from the 

 3d to the 6th of September. The address, which was delivered 

 on the evening of the 3d of September, includes, besides an ac- 

 count of the Wharton School of Finance and Economy, a discus- 

 sion of the general subject of what our colleges are doing for the 

 education of our business-men. It is pointed out that Mr. Carnegie, 

 in his famous interview on the subject, was practically correct 

 when he said that the colleges, speaking generally, are not edu- 

 cating the business-men of the community. A smaller and smaller 

 proportion of the youth of the country are going to college. This 

 is true even of those who expect to become lawyers and physi- 

 cians, and still truer of the immensely greater number who ex- 

 pect to take up business careers. This fact is also emphasized by 

 Professor Shaler of Harvard, in an article on the subject in the 

 August Atlantic. Professor James takes the ground that this is 

 very natural, considering the curriculum of our colleges. It is, 

 however, very unfortunate. The higher education of our business 

 classes is absolutely essential to our permanent welfare. Whether 

 for good or ill, the control of our modern life, the school, society, 

 politics, — the church, in a word, of our civilization itself, — is slip- 

 ping into the hands of our business classes. The professional 

 world is losing, the business world gaining. It is no longer the 

 great lawyer, statesman, or clergyman, but the great banker, 

 manufacturer, railroad manager, who speaks the decisive word in 

 many matters of public importance. The higher education of 

 these classes is therefore of fundamental importance to our social 

 and political existence. The problem is to be solved by the addi- 

 tion to our existing college curricula of courses which have a direct 

 relation to the wants of educated business- men in some such way as 

 existing courses correspond to the wants of the future teacher, or 

 engineer, or architect. 



