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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 406 



wards. It may be hoped that the constructi<'n of the East Coast 

 Railway, and the branch from it through the heart of the Viza- 

 gapatrim district to the Central Provinces, will tend in a great 

 measure to reduce the number of wild animals in the districts 

 whei-e they now do very considerable damage. Cultiration and 

 population in tracts now given up to jungle and grass will increase 

 largely, and the need of wood for the rail.vays will lead i)robably 

 to the destruction of large are'as of jungles, which now exist in 

 tracts which should be devoted to agriculture." 



— The Cornell University Experiment Station has made a series 

 of experiments in setting milk for cream-raising by different 

 methods, the results of which, as summarized in Bulletin No. 20 

 of that station, are as follows: in eleven trials where the milk was 

 set in the Cooley creamer with ice -water at a temperature of 44", 

 the average per cent of fat in the skim milk was .2't; in eleven 

 trials where milk vs-as diluted with an equal weight of cold water, 

 and set in the open air, the average per cent of fat in the skim 

 milk was 1 38; in six trials where milk was diluted with 20 and 50 

 per cent of cold water, the average per cent of fat in the skim 

 milk was 1.21; in ten trials where milk was diluted with 10 to 100 

 per cent of its weight of hot water, the average per cent of fat in 

 the skim milk was 1.11 ; in t«o trials where milk was set in deep 

 cans without dilution, in running water at 60° to 63°, the average 

 per cent of fat in the skim milk was .89; in two trials where 

 milk was set in shallow cans, at 60° and 64°, the average per cent 

 of fat in the skim milk was .48; in one trial where milk was set 

 in shallow pans, and one-tliird of its weight of water at 120° added, 

 the per cent of fat in the skim milk was .75. 



— Plans, and estimates of time and cost of construction, will be 

 received by Professor R. H. Thurston, director of Sibley College, 

 Cornell University, not later than Dec. 25, 1890, for an experi- 

 mental steam-engine, such as is customarily made a part of the 

 equipment of technical schools of the higher class, and used by 

 them in researches in steam engineering. This institution already 

 has a number of engines adapted in various ways for this work ; 

 but it is desired that one should be there installed which shall 

 present peculiar facilities for illustration, and for investigations in 

 connection with the higher graduate courses of instruction, and 

 in the schools of steam -engineering, of marine engineering and 

 naval architecture, now making preparation for their work, and 

 in the school of railway mechanical engineering which it is an- 

 ticipated may be organized should the former prove useful and 

 successful. Plans, and estimates of cost of construction and of 

 time required, will be received slso from builders of testing-ma- 

 chines not later than Dec. 25, certain conditions being prescribed. 



— The Harveian oration was delivered by Dr. Andrew on Satur- 

 day, Oct. 18, at the Royal College of Physicians. In the course 

 of the oration, as we learn from Nature, Dr. Andrew referred to 

 the fact that the relationship between physiology and medicine 

 has in many ways greatly changed during the last^ two hundred 

 and fifty years, and that such change is a necessary consequence 

 of the progress made by physiology. " The goal of physiology is 

 truth, e.g , i^erfectly trustworthy knowledge of a certain class of 

 facts and laws; and this independently of any use, good or bad, to 

 which that knowledge may be put. The goal of medicine is 

 power; e.g., ability to manipulate certain given forces in such 

 fashion as to produce certain effects. No doubt theoretically the 

 two ends coincide, and we may hope in some remote future they 

 ■will do so in reality and perfectly. For the present we must be 

 content with having in one direction much knowledge which con- 

 fers little or no power, and, on another side, very imperfect knowl- 

 edge which yet brings with it very great power, too often ill 

 idirected. Again, their methods are different. Physiology by slow 

 degrees has come to rely more and more on purely scientific modes 

 and instruments of research, and to apply them by preference to 

 matters which can be brought to the test of direct experiment. 

 Medicine, on the other hand, has no choice but to remain, so far 

 as it has a scientific side, a science of observation ; for any thing 

 like effective investigation of the matters with which it deals by 

 direct experiment is impossible. As physiology slowly reduces to 

 order the apparently hopeless confusion of so-called vital actions, 

 the easiest questions are attacked and answered firsr, and thus 



those which have lo be faced later in their turn are more and more 

 difficult, more and more refractory to scientific analysis. Now, 

 these more difficult questions are often of vital importance to medi- 

 cine, and in them lie dormant vast possibilities of increased knowl- 

 edge of the nature of disease, of increased power over it. And 

 yet, from the great difficultv of subjecting them to experiment, 

 physiology may seem for a time to fail us, and the task of employ- 

 ing physiological results to explain clinical facts, or to form the 

 basis of rational ti-eatment, becomes harder than ever." 



— In the great experiments of Sir John B. Lawea, which have 

 been conducted on Rothamsted Farm for more than forty years, 

 potash seems to have had no effect as a fertilizer for wheat, except 

 when combined with both phosphoric acid and nitrogen. In the 

 experiments now in progress at the Ohio Experiment Station, 

 potash seems lo have no effect on wheat, whether used alone or 

 in any combination. At the experiment station of Kentucky (at 

 Lexington), potash has produced a very marked increase of crop 

 when used on corn, hemp, tobacco, and potatoes; but here, again, 

 it fails to increase the yield of wheat, whether used alone or in 

 com 'ination, as indicated by experiments published in Bulletin 

 No 30 of that station, for August, 1890. The Ohio and Kentucky 

 expei-iments are as yet in their infancy; and it is probable, that, 

 as the soil becomes more worn, even wheat will show some benefit 

 from applications of potash; but the present indications are that 

 this substance is seldom needed in fertilizers intended for this 

 crop. It may be that the clover following the wheat will make 

 good use of the potash, but this point should be determined by 

 experiment, not by guess-work. 



— In the numerous experiments in feeding hogs conducted at 

 the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wis- 

 consin, where corn-meal was the exclusive feed for a considerable 

 length of time, it has been found that the bones of animals so fed 

 are less strong in breaking-tests than the bones from hogs receiv- 

 ing other feeds. The question naturally arose as to the ability of 

 Indian-corn to supjjly ash material for building up strong frames 

 in animals to which it was fed. Successful feeders and observing 

 farmers have long recommended tlie use of charcoal and hard- 

 wood ashes for bogs, e-specially during periods when large amounts 

 of corn were fed. Their experience with weak bones, and the 

 ideas held by feeders, led the station to experiments in which 

 hard-wood ashes were fed to some hogs receiving corn, and with- 

 held from others. Knowing that meal made from the bones of 

 animals, usually used for fertilizer, contains large amounts of 

 phosphorus and lime, it was deemed proper to feed this at the same 

 time that ashes was being fed, in order to ascertain if it was 

 superior to ashes In the sixth report of this station, two experi- 

 ments in this line are given. Desiring to settle the question more 

 definitely, the work was continued, and report made of two addi- 

 tional experiments, svith the following results: 1st, that the effect 

 of the bone-meal and ashes was to save about 130 pounds of corn, 

 or 28 per cent of the total amount fed in producing 100 pounds of 

 gain, live weight; 2d, that by feeding the bone-meal the strength 

 of the thigh bones was doubled, and ashes nearly doubled the 

 strength of the bones; 3d, that there was about 50 per cent more 

 ash in the bones of the hogs receiving bone-meal and hard- wood 

 ashes than in ttie others. 



— The " Listener " had a most curious thing happen to him not 

 many nights ago, as he states in the Boston Transcript of Nov. 3. 

 He was asleep, and dreamed pprsistently of a gentleman of his 

 acquaintance whose name is Hale. Nothing in the events or 

 changes of his dream could get this Mr. Hale out of the fore- 

 ground : he was always there; he did not transform himself into 

 anybody else; he did not do any thing in particular nor say any 

 thing in particular; he was simply Mr. Hale, and seemed to be 

 there solely for the purpose of being Mr, Hale, and enfoi'ciug his 

 constant, steady, vivid personality on the presence of the dreamer. 

 This went on for some little dream-space, and then the dreamer 

 awoke. It was in the middle of the night. His first conscious 

 thought or perception was that it was raining very hard on the 

 zinc roof of the porch. The rain seemed to beat down with im- 

 mense violence. He rose to close a window, thinking that the 

 water would beat in. As he advanced toward the window, the 



