August 24, 1888. J 



SCIRNCE. 



87 



channel of the MUsissippi from C liro to its mouth may be re- 

 lieved of this destroying agency; and the fiood-plain valley of the 

 Mississippi itself can be protected from the destroyer ; and the 

 channel of the river may be made far more stable, and its cross- 

 section far more uniform, and sufiTiciently ample to carry the waters 

 of the greatest floods, — all by spreading the rivers of the West 

 over the upper valleys of the Rocky Mountains and over the arid 

 plains. It is thus, and thus only, that the lower Mississippi can be 

 protected; and it is thus, and only thus, that the arid lands can be 

 redeemed. The two problems are inseparably joined. Irrigate the 

 deserts and make them gardens and wheat-fields, and by the same 

 process you protect the flood-plain of the Mississippi and make 

 corn-fields and cotton-fields. 



THE THIRTY-SEVENTH MEETING OF THE AMERI- 

 CAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF 

 SCIENCE. 



The thirty-seventh meeting of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, which was held the past week at Cleve- 

 land, O., was not as well attended as the meetings of this great asso- 

 ciation usually are ; but it was nevertheless as successful, and as 

 useful for science, as those of the preceding years. The meeting 

 opened on Wednesday, Aug. 15. with 81 members in attendance. 

 Before the close of the day the number swelled to 258, on Thurs- 

 day to 303, and on the following day many citizens of Cleveland 

 joined it. A very remarkable feature of this meeting was that only 

 a few citizens of Cleveland numbered on the lists of the first 

 three days, although they showed their interest in the proceedings 

 of the association in other ways, — first of all, by their hospital- 

 ity, which was very much appreciated by their guests; by attending 

 the evening sessions ; and by very full and well-edited reports in 

 the local newspapers. The meeting of the association this year, 

 though not showing as great a number of members attending as 

 last year, and consequently a smaller increase in membership, is re- 

 markable for the great number of eminent scientists taking part in 

 it. The scientific departments of Washington were well represented ; 

 and the New England States, as well as all the States from New 

 York to Arkansas and Minnesota, sent most of their prominent 

 scientists. 



The meetings were held in the Central High School. In order 

 to bring about closer social meetings between members of the asso- 

 ciation, brief general sessions were held every morning, and the 

 members met in the hall where these sessions were held. Social 

 intercourse was also promoted by a very enjoyable arrangement of 

 the local committee, who served every day a lunch to the members 

 of the association in the High School, thus inducing them to spend 

 the interval between the morning and afternoon sessions at the 

 school. As the promotion of social intercourse during these meet- 

 ings is of equal importance with the papers read and the discus- 

 sions in the various sections, these arrangements are well worth 

 being recorded, and greatly contributed to the success of the 

 meeting. 



The programme was similar in character to those of former meet- 

 ings of the association. The meeting was called to order on Wednes- 

 day, Aug. 15. by the retiring president. Prof. S. P. Langley, who re- 

 signed the chair to the new president. Major J. W. Powell. A hearty 

 welcome was extended to the members of the association by repre- 

 sentatives of the city of Cleveland and of the local committee, to 

 which the president replied, and the sections were organized in 

 their respective halls. At the general meeting the permanent 

 secretary reported on the financial state of the association, from 

 which we were glad to learn that the property of the association 

 has increased materially, and that the research fund, which con- 

 sists of the contributions of life-members, amounts to more than 

 $4,400. 



In the afternoon the vice-presidents of the sections delivered their 

 addresses. In the evening the retiring president. Professor Langley, 

 addressed the association on the subject of the history of the 

 theory of radiant heat, in which address he forcibly brought home 

 the truth that the progress of science is not always on the right 

 line, but that it is only found after many futile attempts, and fre- 

 quently after long following the wrong track. Thus he proved 



the importance of the study of the history of science. The address 

 was printed in the last number of Science. 



On Tuesday a number of geologists had held a meeting, and ap- 

 pointed a committee to bring in a constitution and by-laws for an 

 American geological society. The committee consisted of Prof. A. 

 Winchell of Ann Arbor, John S. Stevenson of New York, C. H. 

 Hitchcock of New Hampshire. Edward Orton of Ohio, and John R. 

 Proctor of Kentucky. On Wednesday, after the organization of 

 the section, a meeting was held, which was well attended, and it 

 was resolved that the society should be formed on the basis pro- 

 posed by the committee. 



On Thursday the sections began their regular sessions, of which 

 a report will be given next week. The important feature of this 

 day was a lecture delivered by President G. Stanley Hall of Clark 

 University of Worcester, Mass. It was the first time that the 

 new psychology had been given a place on the programme of the 

 association ; and nobody was better qualified to introduce this im- 

 portant subject in the. association than Professor Hall, who was the 

 first to cultivate this branch of science in America. It is to be 

 hoped that this study, now that attention has been called to it, will 

 continue to form part of the proceedings of the association. 



Professor Hall gave a brief review of the scope of experimental 

 psychology. He dwelt on the researches made in the study of 

 psychologic physiology, and on the functions of brain and nerves ; 

 he mentioned the methods of psychophysic inquiries, and the im- 

 portant bearing of ethnological studies upon psychologic questions. 

 He concluded his sketch, which was listened to with the greatest 

 attention, with a reference to the study of hypnotism, which is one 

 of the most promising fields of psychic research. 



On Friday evening Major J. W. Powell delivered a lecture on 

 ' Competition as a Factor in Human Progress.' In his forcible and 

 graphic way, the lecturer gave the results of his study of the history 

 of civilization and of human progress, which is based on his views 

 as an ethnologist. He compared the evolution of society to that of 

 animals and plants, and showed that the term ' survival of the 

 fittest ' does not apply in the same way in sociology and in biology. 

 Saturday was devoted to an excursion to Put-in-Bay, one of the 

 islands in the western extremity of Lake Erie. The day was very 

 pleasantly spent, the weather being fine. The remarkable glacial 

 strias of Kelley's Island were visited on this trip. 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS IN WASHINGTON. 



The Latest Public-School Statistics : Some Interesting Figures and 

 Comparisons of School Population, Enrolment, and Attendance. 

 — • Plastering Wines in France : a Searching Investigation by the 

 French Academy of Medicine : Adverse Rei^ort. 



School Attendance in the United States. 



The annual report of the United States commissioner of educa- 

 tion for 18S6-S7 is now going through the press at the Government 

 Printing-office, but copies of the volume will not probably be ready 

 for distribution until next winter. The report of Commissioner 

 Dawson, besides giving the usual statements of the organization 

 and administration of his office, is supplemented with an explana- 

 tion of his plan to publish in a series of monographs a histor)' ol 

 education in the United States, and an account of his visit to 

 Alaska, with suggestions as to the education of the people of that 

 far-off Territory. 



The commissioner's statement is followed by twenty-two chap- 

 ters, which, in addition to pi:esenting the usual statistics, digests of 

 State school reports, etc., treat of the training of teachers, kinder- 

 gartens, secondary instruction, superior instruction, professional 

 instruction, manual and industrial training, education of special 

 classes, libraries in the United States, and many other important 

 educational subjects, and a chapter of papers on important educa- 

 tional topics by men of recognized authority on the subjects upon 

 which they write. 



In addition to the usual statistical tables accompanying the re- 

 port. Commissioner Dawson has directed the preparation of several 

 new and quite important ones, and the addition of new columns to 

 some of the old ones. This work has been done by Mr. F. E. 



