March 4, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



203 



who are practised upon, and it is to be hoped that 

 this view may now prevail. Twenty-seven of our 

 states already have laws that close the profession 

 of dentistry to men not properly fitted for it, so 

 that Massachusetts has become, as it were, an 

 asylum for the unskilled, and is already flooded 

 with them, thereby working great hardship on 

 the educated and capable members of the profes- 

 sion. Good reasons against such regulation as the 

 Massachusetts legislature is now considering, are 

 difficult to discover. 



at Cambridge, where also the observations made 

 at the new station will in general be reduced and 

 prepared for publication. 



In the same line as this, but in a less advanced 

 stage, is a move in Pennsylvania to allow the pre- 

 scription of spectacles only to properly instructed 

 oculists, and withhold it from opticians, whose 

 duties end with supplying the glasses that have 

 been prescribed. We could adduce here the same 

 arguments that uphold the propriety of permitting 

 none but physicians to prescribe medicines, while 

 druggists may compound the medicines thus pre- 

 scribed ; while the objections to the proposition 

 would come only from those who accept the not 

 uncommon impression, encouraged by most op- 

 ticians, that the choice of suitable glasses is not a 

 difficult matter. This is true enough in many 

 simple cases ; but every oculist can quote ex- 

 amples of harmful effects following the use of 

 lenses not adapted to the needs of the eyes. Few 

 opticians have more than a mechanical training 

 in their art, while the oculist should be a special- 

 ized physician. He and his patients deserve the 

 same protection that is extended to other doctors 

 and theirs. 



By the will of the late Uriah A. Boyden, 

 property, the present value of which exceeds two 

 hundred and thirty thousand dollars, was left in 

 trust for the purpose of astronomical research "at 

 such an elevation as to be free, so far as practica- 

 ble, from the impediments to accurate observa- 

 tions which occur in the observatories now exist- 

 ing, owing to atmospheric influences." The trus- 

 tees of this fund have transferred the property to 

 the President and fellows of Harvard college, in 

 order that the researches proposed by Mr. Boyden 

 may be directed at the Harvard college observa- 

 tory. These researches will be supported by a 

 portion of the means of the observatory, in addi- 

 tion to the trust-fund itself. The establishment 

 and general management of the proposed moun- 

 tain observatory will form a part of the work done 



This donation opens a new field to astronomical 

 activity. Heretofore the establishment of observ- 

 atories has depended upon local or personal influ- 

 ences, which have usually confined them to the 

 neighborhood of large cities, obviously not the 

 best situation for astronomical work. The new 

 observatory can be placed in what may appear, 

 after sufficient inquiry and experiment, to be the 

 best attainable location. Many obvious reasons 

 suggest the selection of some place in the southern 

 hemisphere. The southern heavens are still com- 

 paratively unknown, much as has been effected 

 during the present century by the southern expe- 

 ditions of astronomers from Europe and the United 

 States, and by the gradual establishment of per- 

 manent observatories south of the equator. More- 

 over, if the present observatory of Harvard college 

 is aided by a new station in the southern hemi- 

 sphere, a scheme of work may be planned at Cam- 

 bridge for the survey of the entire heavens upon 

 a uniform plan. It is also probable that the sta- 

 tions combining the advantages of the greatest 

 elevation with comparative ease of access and a 

 climate not too severe may be found upon some 

 southern mountains. Before the project can be 

 executed, it will be necessary to obtain as much 

 information as possible upon all geographical and 

 climatic topics which may affect the establish- 

 ment of the new observatory. All who have such 

 information at command will accordingly be ren- 

 dering a service to the cause of science by com- 

 municating it to the observatory of Harvard col- 

 lege. 



THE INDIANA EARTHQUAKE. 



The U. S. geological survey has received infor- 

 mation from about seventy towns within, and ad- 

 jacent to, the area shaken by the earthquake of 

 Feb. 6, 1887, in Indiana and Illinois. The accom- 

 panying map shows the derived isoseismal lines 

 numbers 3 to 6 on the Rossi-Forel scale of in- 

 tensity. The survey is greatly indebted to Prof. 

 T, C. Mendenhall of Terre Haute for his courtesy 

 in distributing printed letters of inquiry, and it is 

 mainly from the replies to these letters that the 

 data have been obtained. The only exact time- 

 observation also was made by him with a seis- 

 moscope connected with a clock. The time he 

 gives was 4ii 15°i 6^ reduced to the 90th meridian 



