SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 2i 



which the National Museum is being arranged, by means of a 

 number of cases showing the geographical distribution and physi- 

 cal characteristics of the races of men, the processes and results of 

 some of the most primitive arts, and also by a collection illustrat- 

 ing the subject of biblical archaeology, and a collection of remains 

 of prehistoric man in Europe, Asia, and America. The Bureau of 

 Ethnolog)' will also make a display in connection with this depart- 

 ment, choosing for its topic the pueblo of Zufii, its arts and indus- 

 tries, and also an exhibition of models of Indian mounds of the Mis- 

 sissippi valley. 



In the department of arts and industries two subjects will be il- 

 lustrated. The first will be the history of trade and commerce of 

 the United States, in connection with which will be shown a series 

 of models exhibiting the history of water-transportation in the Ohio 

 valley, and another series showing the histor)' of land-transporta- 

 tion for three centuries, especially in connection with the migration 

 across the Alleghany Mountains. There will also be a series of 

 models showing the different rigs of sea-going vessels. 



The other subject to be illustrated in this department is the his- 

 tory of the graphic arts in America. This collection is in prepara- 

 tion under the direction of Mr. S. R. Koehler, who has recently set 

 up in the National Museum a collection of a similar nature. The 

 exhibit to be sent to Cincinnati will be an extension of this series. 

 It will consist, first, of a series of selected specimens showing each 

 method of engraving ever practised, one group illustrating wood- 

 engraving, another etching, another copperplate, another mezzo- 

 tint, and so on. There will also be shown, as fully as possible in 

 the space assigned, a collection illustrating the history and present 

 condition of the art of engraving and etching in America and by 

 American artists. There will also be shown in considerable detail 

 the history of engraving by mechanical processes, beginning with 

 photo-lithography, and extending through all the modern processes 

 of photo-engraving, autotype, photogravure, etc. 



The foundation of this part of the exhibit will be the magnificent 

 historical collection presented to the Smithsonian Institution by J. 

 W. Osborne of Washington. Other series taken from the museum 

 collections also form the nuclei of exhibits that have been greatly 

 extended by loans from representative American engravers and 

 etchers. 



Another collection will show the history and applications of 

 photography in America. This was begun four years ago by Mr. 

 Smillie, the photographer of the National Museum, and will be ex- 

 hibited for the first time in Cincinnati. A collection of engraved 

 portraits of men connected with the history of American science, 

 which has been accumulating in the Smithsonian Institution for 

 twenty years, will also be sent to Cincinnati. Photographs of ob- 

 jects in the museum too valuable or too large to be removed, a 

 complete set of photographs of the Grant and Washington relics, 

 and a set of photographs showing each exhibition hall and labora- 

 tory in the National Museum and Smithsonian Institution, complete 

 the list of exhibits by these two bureaus. Many objects sent to 

 Cincinnati in 1884, and which are therefore familiar to those who 

 will visit the exhibition this year, have been omitted from the pres- 

 ent contributions. 



The United States Fish Commission has been assigned three 

 thousand feet of space in the exhibition-building. The centre 

 forty-five feet of this space will be devoted to aquaria, representing 

 a sloping, rocky hillside with plants and trees and a rustic fence. 

 Over the rocks will fall a cascade into a pool below, six feet nme 

 and one-half inches long, and three feet seven inches wide. From 

 this pool the water will be conducted by a miniature McDonald 

 fishway into a basin twelve feet long and six feet wide. The pools 

 will be filled with fish, and water-plants will grow about the edges. 

 The aquaria, thirty-eight in number, will be constructed in two 

 rows in the rocks in the rear of the waterfall. They will contain speci- 

 mens of all the SalmojiidcE available, the brook-trout, the rainbow- 

 trout, the Loch Leven trout, the lake-trout, and land-locked salmon, 

 besides specimens of the principal species of food-fishes of the Ohio 

 valley and Lake region, and carp and goldfish. These aquaria will 

 be in charge of Mr. W. P. Seal, and the entire Fishery Commission 

 exhibit will be managed by Capt. J. W. Collins. 



In the remaining space will be shown the apparatus used in 

 scientific investigation by the officers of the Fish Commission, — 



an outfit for deep-sea dredging and exploration, etc. ; a collection 

 of implements and pictures illustrating fish culture and distribution ; 

 a series of casts and other representative specimens of fishes, mol- 

 lusks, and marine invertebrates that are sought for food, to illus- 

 trate the objects of the fisheries. 



In a separate department the story of the fisheries will be told, 

 mainly by an extensive collection of large photographs and crayon 

 drawings illustrating the methods employed in the fisheries, the 

 boats and apparatus used, and even the manner and condition of 

 life of those engaged in the fisheries. Among other interesting 

 objects to be shown will be four large maps illustrating the distri- 

 bution of the principal food-fishes, and fish used for bait in the 

 Atlantic from Cape Hatteras to Labrador ; a statistical map show- 

 ing the yield of the fisheries of the country ; a map showing in a 

 graphic manner the work done in shad-propagation on the Atlantic 

 coast, and one showing the increase in the catch of shad from 1880 

 to 1888. 



MANNERS AND MEALS. 



In a paper by Garrick Mallery, on manners and meals, pub- 

 lished in the July American Anthropologist, the author makes no- 

 attempt to exhume ancient customs from the ruins of the past, nor 

 to describe those found in the low strata of culture represented by 

 savage and barbaric peoples, which also explain details of our own 

 prehistoric past. The line of thought deals rather vvith the cus- 

 toms of our own daily life in civilization. Its object is to notice 

 those which show instructive peculiarities, and to ascertain their 

 cause or occasion and their origin, in which attempt antiquarian 

 research and ethnic parallel must be invoked for aid, though ap- 

 proached in a manner rather the converse of the usual anthropo- 

 logic discussions. 



It is perhaps not too much to say that a dinner-party thoroughly 

 good in mcntc, cookery, service, sesthetic appliances of sheen and 

 color, culinary chemistry, the conquest over nature shown in con- 

 diments from every clime, roses in winter, and in summer ice, and 

 last, though by no means least, in the guests with educated palates, 

 affords altogether the strongest every- day evidence of high civiliza- 

 tion. Brutes feed. The best barbarian only eats. Only the cul- 

 tured man can dine. Dinner is no longer a meal, but an institution. 

 An eminent jurist pronounced that the whole result and aim of the 

 institutions and laws of England was to get twelve men in a box. 

 It would hardly be a parody to contend that the most obvious re- 

 sult of our modern sesthetic and industrial triumphs is to get twelve 

 legs under a table. Few will now assert that asceticism is intellec- 

 tual. It is now truly regarded as a reversion to the plane of sav- 

 ages ; and this is made more clear by the fact, that, when asceticism 

 as regards food prevailed, it was accompanied with filth, and even 

 want of decency in clothing. ^ 



A large part of the important work of the civilized world is ac- 

 complished or regulated at social dinners. Theodore Hook was 

 reproached for bringing so many dinner details into his novels, and 

 he defended himself with the assertion that the dmner was the 

 great theatre of London life. Our fellow-citizens, some decades 

 ago, were foolish enough to procure the recall of Reverdy Johnson 

 as minister to the Court of St. James on the ground that he was- 

 spending all his time at dinners, but it was at them that he was 

 successfully prosecuting his work. In Washington, not only diplo- 

 matic but many legislative and official transactions are arranged at 

 dinners. This is in contrast with savage and barbaric life. Feasts- 

 were then the means of bringing people together ; but the delibera- 

 tions were before or after, and even ordinary conversation was un- 

 known at the feeds. This perhaps is more strictly true among 

 peoples who did not use alcoholic intoxicants as beverages ; for the 

 ancient Persians had a rule to vote in council twice, once sober 

 and once drunk, so as to observe the mooted question from two 

 points of view. 



Anciently (and still in the lower stages of culture) no regular 

 hours for meals were observed. Savages eat when they can get 

 food, and continue to eat so long as the food lasts. The history of 

 civilization may be traced in the changing hours of refection. Con- 

 fining the examination to Europe since the middle ages, the ma.xim 

 in the reign of Francis I. of France was " to rise at 5, dine at 9,. 



