404 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol, IX., No. 221 



interest ; but the impression left by a careful 

 perusal of them is not altogether satisfactory. In 

 some cases a large amount of data has been ob- 

 tained, as in the feeding experiment ; but the 

 results are presented without any adequate dis- 

 cussion, — a too prevalent habit among our sta- 

 tions. Others of the experiments would be more 

 properly called observations, and, while of value, 

 scarcely require the apparatus of an experiment- 

 station for their making ; while still others seem 

 to lead to no definite end. While much has been 

 done, and in various directions, we fail to find in 

 the report any exhaustive investigation of any 

 subject, such as it is the peculiar province of the 

 experiment-station to undertake. The tendency 

 appears to have been to select those simpler forms 

 of experiment which give an answer in gross to 

 some question of present interest in practice, 

 rather than to attempt to reduce the question to 

 its elements and elucidate the action of the various 

 factors which enter into the answer. 



Perhaps no one is better fitted by training and 

 experience to discuss intelligently the problem of 

 municipal government in the United States than 

 Mr. Seth Low of Brooklyn, and his address on this 

 topic before the Historical and political science 

 association of Cornell university is very full of 

 information and suggestion. It has needed neither 

 de Tocqueville's warning nor the data given in 

 the current issue of the Andover review to im- 

 press upon us the fact that this is the age of great 

 cities, and that it is in the cities that republican 

 institutions will be put to the severest test. Mr. 

 Low points out that the task of administering a 

 large city's affairs is more difficult in this country 

 than in Europe, because of its heterogeneous pop- 

 ulation and rapid growth. He adds that " the 

 struggle in city government in the United States 

 is not so much to secure the doing of a necessary 

 thing, as it is to procure the doing of it economi- 

 cally, efficiently, and honestly." 



The problem is therefore one in administrative 

 science. The first consideration is to eliminate 

 national politics from municipal elections. In 

 order to this, Mr. Low recommends that munici- 

 pal elections be held at a time when there can 

 arise no complication between its issues and those 

 of national administration. Then the city charter 

 should carefully separate executive and legislative 

 functions. The mayor should have the power of 



appointment and removal of executive officers 

 during the time for which he is responsible for the 

 government of the city. The extent to which 

 cities may incur debt should be absolutely fixed 

 by constitutional limitation. All these and sev- 

 eral other essentials are strongly urged by Mr, 

 Low. He shows very clearly by practical illus- 

 trations just what the lack of such provisions has 

 resulted in. The whole address is thoroughly 

 scientific in character, and leaves the impression 

 that the government of cities is a matter requir- 

 ing far more intelligence and devotion than it 

 usually has bestowed upon it. 



The Sanitary news reports that the sanitary 

 committee of the Philadelphia board of health has 

 decided that there is no harm in using distillery 

 slops to feed milch-cows when supplemented by 

 more nourishing food. If such action has been 

 taken, it is certainly a step backward in sanitary 

 administration. It is well settled that distillery 

 swill in any amount is an unnatural food for 

 milch-cows, and that the milk produced from 

 animals so fed is unwholesome and injurious. A 

 case is reported by the Brooklyn board of health 

 in which it is believed to have caused the death 

 of a child. Swill acts as a stimulant to the milk- 

 glands, and the quantity of milk secreted is in- 

 creased, while the quality is depreciated. It is 

 to obtain a greater amount of the product that the 

 dairymen desire to use swill ; and a long experi- 

 ence has convinced the writer, that, if this food 

 is permitted to be used at all, it will soon be the 

 principal, if not the sole, food. We sincerely 

 hope that the Philadelphia board of health will 

 reconsider its action, and make a more extended 

 investigation into the subject ; for we feel sure 

 that there is ample evidence on record to demon- 

 strate to the satisfaction of any board of health 

 that distillery swill is totally unfit food for milch- 

 cows, even though it is given in restricted amount 

 and in connection with other food. 



GATSCHET8 ETHNOLOGICAL MAPS OF 

 THE GULF STATES. 



Mr. a. S. Gatschet's researches on the history 

 and ethnology of the Creek Indians have led him to 

 a thorough examination of the available literary 

 material referring to the Indians of the Gulf states. 

 The results of his studies are contained in his book, 

 'A migration legend of the Creek Indians,' and 

 may be seen by a single glance at the maps pub- 



