370 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



ing apparatus, consisting of from three to four projections, situated on the an- 

 terior portion or mouth parts of the animal. The precise form of the mouth 

 parts is not easily defined, and its ascertainment is rendered more difficult by the 

 great tendency of these animals to shrink and become distorted in most of the 

 mounting fluids, or to become too transparent in others. Under a power of 

 seventy-five diameters the general structure is very well defined, but a one-tenth 

 immersion is required to give proper defination of the nervous system. In prac- 

 tice I find that a strong solution of pure white glucose serves the purpose of a 

 mounting fluid better than any of the mounting fluids in general use. 



ECONOMIC SCIENCE. 



ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 



The economic science and statistical section met at half past two to hear the 

 address of its Vice-President, Mr. E. B. Elliott, of the Treasury Department, at 

 Washington, U. S. There was a good attendance of members. Mr. Elliott 

 said : — In 1857, at the former meeting held in Montreal, I had the honor of read- 

 ing a paper on the mortality statistics of the State of Massachusetts. A resolution 

 was presented at that meeting inviting Congress to commence a registry of births, 

 deaths and marriages. A committee was appointed to report on the various reg- 

 istration systems and what was desirable in order to come to some practical end. 

 At the last session of Congress a resolution was introduced into the Senate re- 

 quiring the bringing about of a co-operation of the General Government with the 

 several State Governments to secure some uniformity. The Cherokee Indians 

 had made a very full census, and the conclusion arrived at was that we might 

 have full tables from them before we had them from some of our own States. 



This section enters on its separate action this year. Economic Science and 

 statistics, economics relating to man and his welfare, man, what he is, what he 

 controls, and the surroundings over which he has little or no control. The sub- 

 jects of this section are scientific, they had to deal with facts. They might, how- 

 ever, attain to questions to which statistical methods are adapted. Facts sus- 

 ceptible of numerical statement and of arrangement into groups, numerical laws 

 based upon and eliciting facts which will admit of, and offering facilities for their 

 trustworthy production in the future, as, for example, the construction of life and 

 annuity tables, and the financial condition of communities. It may be desirable, 

 at some not very distant date, to organize a sub-section to consider the applica- 

 tion of the mathematical doctrine of probabilities to statistics. One of the sub- 

 jects pertaining to this section is that of standard time. Man, until a few years 

 ago, might be considered as stationary, of late moving. There are more than 

 seventy different standards of railway time in this country, and these might be re- 



