810 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 360. 



noticeable when they are compared with the 

 delicate figures of Biitschli. Scarcely more 

 than one tenth of the figures are original, and al- 

 though the author has endeavored to avoid the 

 commonplace in his selections from other 

 writers, there is still a goodly array of the old 

 and tiresome figures which seem to be as im- 

 mortal as the Protozoa they represent, if one 

 may judge from their perpetual metempsychoses 

 in our zoological charts and text-books. The 

 volume closes with an extensive, but by no 

 means complete, bibliography and a good double 

 index. 



There can be no doubt that the volume 

 should and will find a place in all our labora- 

 tories as a handy compendium of a marvelous 

 group of organisms of basic importance in all 

 our work in zoology, physiology and compara- 

 tive psychology. 



W. M. Wheeler. 



Annual Report of the Chief of the Bureau of 

 Steam Engineering. 1901. Washington, Gov- 

 ernment Print. 1901. 8vo. Pp. 70. 

 Admiral Melville reports in this document 

 upon the condition and progress of the engi- 

 neering branch of the United States navy, its 

 personnel and material. The report is concise, 

 clear, frank and illuminating. This Bureau has 

 charge of all the machinery, of the navy, de- 

 signs the engines, the boilers and machinery of 

 the naval fleet, writes the specifications and 

 contracts for such as may be built by private 

 constructors, supervises the construction, makes 

 the tests of completed machinery and has charge 

 of the maintenance and repair of all such ma- 

 chinery. It expends $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 

 each year, mainly in repairs and preservation 

 of the engines and boilers of the fleet. Of this 

 work the report gives a detailed account, which 

 is, however, not of special interest to the lay- 

 man. 



The new Naval Academy buildings, now 

 under construction, are expected to cost about 

 $7,000,000. Admiral Melville asks that, of this 

 total, about $250,000 be applied to the construc- 

 tion of a laboratory for research in the physical 

 sciences having direct application in engineer- 

 ing and marine construction. The building is 

 to be two stories in height and 150 by 110 feet 

 in plan, conforming in style of architecture 



to the buildings, planned for the Academy, 

 now in progress. It is proposed to appropriate 

 $150,000 for its equipment. This enterprise, if 

 perfected, is another step in the direction of 

 conforming the plan and workings of the Naval 

 Academy to those of the great technical col- 

 leges of the world, and especially in the incor- 

 poration into its curriculum of experimental 

 work in research as well as professional instruc- 

 tion. 



With the resources of the general govern- 

 ment available, the comparatively small ex- 

 penditures needed to make the military and 

 naval academies professional schools of the 

 highest class, not only, as previously, in their 

 organization and administration, but also in 

 their equipment and in a complete and thor- 

 oughly modern curriculum, should be readily 

 obtained, and these schools should take their 

 rightful places as ideal, representative and 

 model professional schools, in the extra-profes- 

 sional departments as well as in those which are 

 purely vocational. In the applied sciences, 

 particularly, they should be made perfect ex- 

 emplars of the type which every civil as well 

 as naval and military institution of learning 

 should approximate as closely as means and 

 the character of its faculty may permit. 



Admiral Melville is pioneering here as effect- 

 ively as when within the arctic circle and more 

 usefully than ever did any explorer. He de- 

 mands that the scientific departments of the 

 Naval Academy, and especially the professional 

 engineering division, be ' placed upon an equal- 

 ity with several universities whose colleges of 

 mechanic arts and science in equipment far 

 surpass the engineering outfit of the academy 

 plant.' 



The staff for this laboratory is to be organ- 

 ized from cadets and their teachers with, per- 

 haps, one of the oflBcers of the old engineer 

 corps as its director. It is not only to be 

 used in the investigation of the technical prob- 

 lems of the engineer department and of the 

 naval service, but in the furtherance of the 

 schemes of inventors where promising to be 

 useful to the government or the public, also in 

 testing all the appliances related to naval work; 

 the materials and apparatus purchased by the 

 Navy Department ; and in the investigation of 



