SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1S87. 



The meeting just closed in New York, of the American 

 Association, has been generally voted a success. The attendance 

 was not so large as had been hoped, but the character of the papers 

 was satisfactory. Against the ordinarily large attendance at the 

 meetings held in Eastern cities, there were this year registered not 

 many over seven hundred. This may have been due partly to the 

 late announcement of the place of meeting, and to a slight change 

 from the usual date, — two circumstances which may have rendered 

 it impossible for many to change their summer plans so as to allow 

 of a week's visit to New York. The fear of hot weather in New 

 York City has not been fulfilled. The next meeting of the associa- 

 tion will be held at Cleveland, O. An invitation from Toronto un- 

 fortunately came just too late to allow of its being accepted. A list 

 of the officers for the next meeting will be found in another column. 

 In the general meeting of the association a few important resolu- 

 tions were passed. The association expressed its opinion that the 

 efficiency of the United States Geodetic Sur\'ey would be greatly 

 increased if a superintendent were appointed who was thoroughly 

 trained in the methods of geodesy; and it was resolved to ask 

 the President of the United States to appoint a scientist to this 

 position, instead of the present superintendent, who was only tem- 

 porarily appointed. The second resolution which was passed by 

 the association refers to the establishment of a bureau of standards, 

 in which standard measures of electricity, heat, weight, length, etc., 

 may be obtained. A motion of Prof. Cleveland Abbe was passed, 

 requesting Congress to have an index of the publications of the 

 Signal Service published. Scientists would be gratified if Congress 

 should make a reduction in the tariff on scientific books and 

 instruments. 



The subject of medical legislation is attracting the 

 attention of both the medical and legal profession throughout the 

 country ; and while it is generally conceded that the laws have in 

 the past, either by reason of innate defects or their non-enforce- 

 ment, permitted the practice of medicine by quacks and charla- 

 tans of the most pronounced type, still there is a sentiment, which 

 is growing, that the State can go too far in its restrictions and ex- 

 actions. This sentiment forms the basis of an address, entitled 

 ' State Control of Medicine,' which was read before the Monroe 

 County Medical Society by its president, Dr. Louis A. Weigel, the 

 full text of which is published in the July number of the Medical 

 Press of Wes/ern New York. In his opening remarks, Dr. Weigel 

 says that it is usually considered absolutely necessaiy that there 

 should be medical legislation to protect the public against quackery 

 and imposture ; that the lives of the people are directly endangered 

 by incompetent and ignorant charlatans ; and that it is the duty of 

 the State to exercise a paternal control over its subjects, and dictate 

 to them whom they shall employ when sickness invades their 

 homes. He proposes in this address to investigate the practical 

 results obtained by State interference in medical practice, and en- 

 deavors to show that no law has yet been passed which has had 

 the slightest effect in suppressing quackery or protecting the com- 

 munity against imposture. The report of Drs. Dunglison and Marcy 

 a committee of the American Academy of Medicine appointed to 

 ascertain the practical working of laws regulating the practice of 

 medicine in the United States, is referred to at length by Dr. 

 Weigel. The facts presented by this committee were obtained by 

 correspondence with physicians in the various States and Terri- 



tories. In New York the law has been inefficacious. From 

 Michigan the answer came that the entire good of the law has been 

 to give lots of quacks a legal standing. In Tennessee any and all 

 may set up for physicians, and starve or make money, as the people 

 decree. After referring to other States, the president says, " If any 

 further proof of the inefficiency of legal enactment to suppress 

 charlatanism is needed, I am at a loss to know what additional 

 evidence I could present that would be more conclusive." He 

 firmly believes, that, if no attempt at medical legislation had ever 

 been made, the profession to-day would be held in higher estima- 

 tion by the people, and occupy a still loftier position than now ob- 

 tains. It is somewhat singular that the remedy for all this, in ac- 

 cordance with the viewof Dr. Weigel, should be more legislation ; 

 and yet that is practically the outcome of what he proposes. He 

 says that every year the multitude of medical colleges throughout 

 the land send forth a large contingent of half-educated stupidity, 

 endowed with the coveted half-yard of parchment, which a con- 

 fiding public accepts as a guaranty of competency. It certainly 

 has no standard to go by. The remedy for this suggests itself. 

 The teaching and licensing bodies must be separated. The sug- 

 gestion here made by the doctor is not a new one in this State, and 

 is practically in operation in other States. It is more than probable 

 that the next New York Legislature will be called upon to enact 

 some such law as this. While theoretically it seems to be what is 

 needed, we have never been able to see how it can be practically 

 accomplished in this State without the danger of making it a 

 political measure. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



Section A. 

 The Mathematical Section was without a vice-president through 

 the absence of Professor Ferrel of Washington, who had been 

 elected to that office, but at the opening meeting of the association 

 the vacancy was most satisfactorily filled by the election of Prof. J. 

 R. Eastman of the Naval Observatory. A further consequence of 

 this change of officers was that there was no vice-presidential ad- 

 dress in Section A, which therefore held no meeting on Wednesday 

 afternoon. On Thursday morning, however, the section convened 

 with a fair attendance, including at times a number of ladies, who 

 apparently did not find the abstruse subjects discussed at all beyond 

 their comprehension or interest. Several papers were upon what is 

 known as ' personal equation.' One by Professor Eastman called 

 forth remarks by Professors Hough, Harkness, and others, from 

 which it appeared that there is still considerable uncertainty in the 

 matter ; it being by no means sure that the results derived from the 

 personal-equation machine are comparable with the personal error 

 of actual observations, nor that the error is the same for light and 

 dark illumination. Professor Eastman concluded that many of the 

 Washington observations on record can only be made valuable 

 after a further discussion of the personal equations involved. Mr. 

 Farquhar criticised Mr. S. C. Chandler's conclusions in regard to 

 the dependence of personal equation upon the stars' velocity. Mr. 

 H. B. Fine gave a general proof that the singular solutions of 

 differential equations of the second order have always atangencyof 

 the second order with the consecutive curves in the system to which 

 they belong. 



Professor Harkness's interesting paper on the visibility of objects 

 seen with a telescope was an account of the result of some experi- 

 ments on the distance at which objects become invisible when 

 viewed through small holes of different sizes. It incidentally 

 brought out the fact, that, when the image of the object fills the 

 pupil of the eye, further magnification is of no value, and led to the 



