364 



SCIEI^'CE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 219 



tion, which concerns the vane itself, and not the 

 regfistration of its movements ; and in justice to the 

 signal office it ought to be said that a method of 

 registration precisely similar to Dr. Draper's has 

 been in use for many years. Indeed, it is through 

 the study of the records made by this method that 

 the imperfections of the vane are made to appear. 



T. C. M. 



Terre Haute, April 11. 



The power of a voter. 

 In the general election of 1884 the total number of 

 votes cast in the country was 10,048,061. The num- 

 ber of senators is 76, and the number of representa- 

 tives is 325. With these numbers, and the total vote 

 of each state in this election, the following table has 

 been computed, in which the figures of "the columns 

 give the relative power of votes in the different 

 states : — 



Alabama 



Arkansas 



California 



Colorado 



Connecticat 



Delaware 



Florida 



Georgia 



Illinois 



Indiana 



Iowa 



Kansas 



Kentucky 



Louisiana 



Maine 



Maryland 



Massachusetts 



Michigan 



Minnesota 



Mississippi 



Missouri 



Nebraska 



Nevada 



New Hampshire . . 



New Jersey 



New York 



North Carolina 



Ohio 



Oregon 



Pennsylvania 



Ehode Island 



South Carolina 



Tennessee 



Texas 



Vermont 



Virginia 



West Virginia 



Wisconsin 



Senatorial 

 power. 



86 



105 

 68 



199 

 96 



439 



221 

 92 

 20 

 27 

 35 

 50 

 48 



121 



102 

 71 

 44 

 33 

 70 



110 



30 



98 



1,033 



156 

 51 

 11 

 49 

 17 



251 

 15 



403 



144 

 51 

 41 



223 

 46 



100 

 41 



Eepresenta- 



tive 



power. 



52 

 40 

 31 

 15 

 29 

 33 

 33 

 70 

 30 

 26 

 29 

 26 

 40 

 55 

 31 

 32 

 40 

 27 

 26 

 58 

 32 

 22 

 78 

 24 

 27 

 29 

 34 

 27 

 19 

 30 

 61 

 76 

 38 

 .34 

 34 

 35 

 30 



Presidential 

 power. 



65 

 56 

 41 

 45 

 44 



100 

 67 

 84 

 33 

 30 

 35 

 34 

 47 

 73 

 46 

 43 

 46 

 32 

 37 

 75 

 36 

 37 



234 

 47 

 34 

 31 

 41 

 29 

 57 

 32 



122 



In many of the states the conditions are such that 

 a full vote is rarely polled. The smallest percentage 

 of voters to males over twenty-one years was in 

 Rhode Island, where it was less than 43 per cent. In 

 Massachusetts and Mississippi the percentage was 

 about 60. In Florida it was more than 90 per cent. 

 Notwithstanding this defect, the table shows very 

 well how political power is distributed among the 

 voters with respect to the legislative and executive 

 branches of the general government. It will be seen 

 that the distribution of this power is much more uni- 

 form in the house of representatives, as was intended; 

 and this fact will evidently be a source of power to 

 this house in its conflicts with the other branch of 



the legislature. On the other hand, the difference of 

 the senatorial power of voters in the states has be- 

 come very marked. Thus a single voter in the state 

 of Nevada has as much senatorial power as 91 voters 

 in New York; and a voter in Delaware, 39 times as 

 much as one in New York, and 9 times as much as 

 one in Kentucky. The New England states have 

 more than 9 times the power of New York. In ad- 

 dition to this, in some of the states the senators are 

 elected by a minority of the voters. Where political 

 power is so unequally divided, the respect for the 

 legislative body will depend largely on its wisdom, 

 and the fairness of its conduct towards the whole 

 country. But it is doubtful whether such a condi- 

 tion is permanent. Asaph Hall. 

 Washington, April 4. 



On tiptoe. 



Allow me to say a few final words. The fulcrum, 

 of a lever is that axis of rotation with reference to 

 which an equation of moments, consistent with the 

 principle of work, can be stated. It is my belief that 

 the ankle is the fulcrum of the foot under the cir- 

 cumstances of the problem before us. 



How can Professor LeConte's equation be correct 

 as it stands, P X CA= TF X CB + PX OB, unless 

 the traverse of P he the distance ' virtually ' moved 



over by the point A of his figure ? I claim to have 

 proved that the traverse of P is not that distance, but 

 that the arm of P is BA, if the arm of W be CB. If 

 the toe must he the fulcrum, a proper equation of 

 moments may be stated by regarding the case as of 

 the third order, with power ' virtually ' applied at a 

 distance from toe equal to the distance between heel 

 and ankle. On this view, a foot might be con- 

 structed which could be regarded as of the second 

 order, by putting ankle nearer to toe than to heel, 

 or an indeterminate case could occur if ankle were 

 midwaj' between toe and heel. Why not proceed as 

 in the case of the Roberval balance, for instance, by 

 tracing the pressures, produced by bodies applied to 

 the system, to the axes of rotation where such press- 

 ures become effective as 'power' and 'resistance'? 



Finally, I regard the case under discussion as of 

 the first order, because, first, no proper equation of 

 moments seems possible with power at heel and 

 fulcrum at toe ; secondly, a ' virtual ' axis must be 

 assumed with power at ankle and fulcrum at toe ; 

 thirdly, with jsower at heel and fulcrum at ankle, the 

 conditions are as usual, except that the mutual ten- 

 dency of the earth and the ' weight ' to approach 

 each other — which tendency produces the ' resist- 

 ance ' — is exerted by the earth at the end of the 

 lever and by the weight at the fulcrum, instead of 

 vice versa. F. C. Van Dyck. 



New Brunswick, N.J., April 9. 



