January 28, 1887.1 



SCIENCE. 



89 



mended in the bill is $563,730. The conamittee 

 also recommend that the statistician of the depart- 

 ment be sent to Europe to attend the international 

 agricultural convention, and that $15,000 be ap- 

 propriated therefor. 



— The report of Mr. J. R. Dodge, statistician 

 of the U. S. agricultural department, on the sugar- 

 production of the world, contains some interesting 

 data. According to the figures presented, the 

 amount of beet-root sugar produced in the season 

 of 1886-87 exceeds the cane-sugar by 163,000 

 metric tons, thus showing that more than half the 

 sugar used in commerce is extracted from the 

 beet. The manufacture of beet-sugar is entirely 

 a European industry. Mr. Dodge states that its 

 success in Europe is largely due to the 'beet-stock' 

 plan, where each shareholder in the stock of a 

 beet-sugar factory is required to furnish so many 

 beets per share. The farmers are therefore, in 

 reality, the manufacturers, and, since they obtain 

 the profits of the manufac ure, they are the most - 

 interested in raising good beets at a nominal price. 

 The total consumption of sugar in this country in 

 1885 was 1,245,574 tons, of which only 40,000 tons 

 (or about throe per cent) were produced here. 

 There is only one beet-sugar factory in this coun- 

 try, and that is in California, which f)roduces 

 sugar at five cents per pound, and has to com- 

 pete with free sugar from the Sandwich Islands. 

 The report further states that our sugar-consumj)- 

 tion amounts to about one-fourth of all the sugar 

 reported from the countries of principal produc- 

 tion, and that within twenty -five years more than 

 2,000,000 tons will be required, almost sufficient to 

 swallow up the present production of beet-sugar, 

 or the whole of the present cane-sugar of com- 

 merce. The report concludes as follows : "At a 

 time when labor is in excess of demand, and corn 

 and wheat and cotton, and other old staples of a 

 primitive agriculture, exceed the wants of domes- 

 tic and foreign markets, we scour the world for 

 food-products costing more than $200,000,000 per 

 annum, the larger portion of which should be pro- 

 duced in the United States. This primitive and 

 unenterprising situation must be surmounted by 

 a more skilful, scientific, and inventive agricul- 

 ture." 



— The first number of the Centralhlatt fur 

 hacteriologie und parasitenkunde, edited by Dr. 

 Oscar Uhlworm of Cassel, is announced for the 

 beginning of the present year. Professor Leuck- 

 art of Leipzig, and Dr. Loetfler of Berlin, are 

 associated with Dr. Uhlworm. At the urgent 

 request of the editor, Dr. George M. Sternberg, 

 U.S.A., has consented to act as a collaborator in 

 the United States. As its title implies, this pub- 



lication is to be devoted to bacteriology in all its 

 branches and to animal parasites which affect 

 man, the lower animals, and plants. The editor 

 is especially desirous of securing all original 

 American papers relating to this field of investiga- 

 tion, whether recording experimental work or im- 

 provements in technique. Authors of such papers 

 are kindly requested to send reprints to Dr. Stern- 

 berg, in care of Johns Hopkins university, Balti- 

 more, Md. 



— The new chemical laboratory of the Univer- 

 sity of Nebraska was dedicated Jan. 14. 



— Gaillard's medical journal states that Dr. 

 Valentine Mott has been making a series of pre- 

 ventive inoculations in the case of two sons and 

 an office-boy of Dr. Foster of Yazoo county, Miss., 

 who were bitten by a rabid dog in November, 

 The process has been completed, and the children 

 are all in good condition. 



— Small-pox, which has been so notably absent 

 from New York City, has now made its appear- 

 ance there, eighteen cases having been reported 

 during the week ending Jan. 22, of which two 

 were fatal. 651 cases of measles with 86 deaths, 

 and IdO cases of diphtheria with 38 deaths, are re- 

 ported for the same period. 



— Three new comets are announced. The first 

 was discovered by Thome, Dr. Gould's successor 

 at the Cordoba observatory in South America, on 

 Jan. 18, in the constellation Grus. The despatch 

 states that it resembles the great southern comet 

 of 1880, and is likely to become a brilliant object. 

 The second comet was discovered by Brooks on 

 Jan. 22, in the constellation Draco, and in this 

 latitude is now visible, with the help of a tele- 

 scope, throughout the night. The third was dis- 

 covered by Barnard on Jan. 23, and is in Vul- 

 pecula ; it is also telescopic, setting in the early 

 evening. 



— Dr. F. V. Hayden, formerly director of the 

 U.S. geological and geographical survey of the 

 territories, has resigned from the position that he 

 has held for several years in the present U.S. 

 geological survey. 



— Indianapolis, Ind., has been considerably ex- 

 cited of late over an instance of remarkable pres- 

 ervation of the human body after death. A lady 

 died in that city some thirty years ago, and her 

 body, incased in an iron coffin, was placed in a 

 vault. A recent examination showed that the 

 body was in a wonderful state of preservation. 

 The Indiana pharmacist says that even the color 

 of her eyes, a deep blue, could be recognized. The 

 hair had grown to a length of two feet. It was 

 supposed by the sexton to have turned to stone, 



