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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 256 



would doubtless be in existence to-day, having had nearly ten years 

 of experience, which would have enabled it to cope with any epidem- 

 ic which might visit our shores. But petty jealousies arose, and as a 

 result that board has now no existence. Its work was of the best, 

 and five volumes of its records attest this fact. The need of a 

 national health department in some form was dwelt upon at length 

 by the president. Dr. Sternberg, in his address. He thinks that at 

 the present time it would be useless to ask that the sanitary inter- 

 ests be placed under the charge of another cabinet officer, a minis- 

 ter of public health, but that sanitarians should demand that their 

 interests receive the same consideration from the national govern- 

 ment as is accorded to the educational and industrial interests of 

 the country. He recommends the organization of a bureau of pub- 

 lic health, with a commissioner at its head, with the necessary as- 

 sistance to make it efficient. It has been suggested that a board 

 of health would be better than this plan contemplates, its members 

 coming from different sections of the country. Dr. Sternberg is 

 right, we think, when he speaks of such a board as not calculated 

 to do the best work. Another plan is to have such a board made 

 up of the surgeon-generals of the army, navy, and marine-hospital 

 service ; but these officers are already fully occupied with their 

 duties, and could not with advantage undertake the executive work 

 of a central health bureau. Such a board would act well as an ad- 

 visory body, but its work should be limited to that. It is sincerely 

 to be hoped, that, as a result of the discussion of this important 

 question, the next Congress will provide for a central health organ- 

 ization. Such action would meet with the hearty support of sani- 

 tarians throughout the United States, and would do much to quiet 

 the minds of these gentlemen who to-day look with anxiety and 

 concern upon the possibilities which might occur should cholera or 

 other epidemic disease visit this country in the present unsettled 

 condition of its sanitary administration. 



SNOW HALL OF NATURAL HISTORY AT LAWRENCE, 

 KAN. 



The Legislature of the State of Kansas, during its biennial ses- 

 sion of the year 1885, appropriated fifty thousand dollars for the 

 purpose of erecting a natural history building for the University of 

 Kansas. The erection of such a building was rendered imperative 

 by the extensive botanical, entomological, zoological, and geologi- 

 cal collections brought together under the supervision of Prof. F. 

 H. Snow, whose connection with the institution dates from its 

 foundation in the year 1866. The building was completed in the 

 autumn of 1886, and was formally named and dedicated to the pur- 

 poses for which it was erected, on Nov. 16 of that year. It has two 

 principal stories, each sixteen feet in height, together with a base- 

 ment and attic so commodious and well lighted as to make the 

 structure practically four stories in height. The building from 

 basement floor to attic roof is divided into two portions, partially 

 separated from each other by the main entrance-hall and stairways. 

 The portion to the west of the entrance is devoted to the exhibition 

 of the various cabinets, while the opposite portion is assigned to 

 the work of instruction. The collections belonging to each de- 

 partment are upon the same f^oor with the laboratories of that de- 

 partment, easily accessible to both students and instructors. The 

 arrangement of the various apartments is so well indicated in the 

 accompanying plans as to require no verbal description. This 

 arrangement was suggested by Mr. J. H. Emerton of New Haven, 

 Conn., who furnished the prehminary plans which formed the basis 

 upon which the Legislature was solicited to make the appropriation. 

 Mr. Emerton's outlines were placed in the hands of Architect J. G. 

 Haskell of Topeka, Kan., who completed the architectural adapta- 

 tions in the matters of construction, light, heat, ventilation, and ex- 

 terior style, in a successful and satisfactory manner. The rooms 

 most naturally grouped themselves so as to form a rectangular 

 building ; but for the purpose of increasing the volume of light, 

 and also improving the architectural effect, their form was some- 

 what changed. 



The building is most admirably lighted ; the volume being so 



great that on a cloudy day the occupants of laboratories need not 

 seek proximity to the windows for microscopical work, and the 

 museum halls may have cases arranged in any desired relation. 

 The large museum rooms are lighted on three sides, and necessarily 

 have one side not lighted. To prevent this from being a dark side, 

 a plate-glass window, eight feet wide and eleven feet high, opposite 

 the centre of the unlighted wall, was added to the ordinary means 

 of lighting, and has the effect of giving uniformity of volume 

 throughout the entire space. 



The exterior is in the Romanesque style, with rock-face ashlar 

 and cut stone dressings, the stone being from the well-known Cot- 

 tonwood quarries of Kansas. The main approach is by a broad 

 flight of buttressed stone steps under a handsomely decorated por- 

 tico, the decorations being suggestive of the uses of the building. 

 Numerous stone panels are provided about the building, which 

 may, if desired, be utilized for illustrations of natural history sub- 

 jects cut in bas-relief. 



The construction of the building is nearly fire-proof. All bear- 

 ing-girders are of iron, and all floors are deadened with mortar on 

 corrugated iron laid between the joists. All partitions are non- 

 combustible, all lathing is of wire cloth, the roof is covered with 

 slate and dressed with iron cornices, ridge and hip rolls. All in- 

 terior finish is polished hard wood, so that little material is presented 

 to feed combustion. 



Heating is by steam, the ' indirect ' method being employed to 

 furnish the rooms with warm fresh air, and the ' direct ' method for 

 securing proper temperature. 



Fresh air is introduced into the building by means of a ' plenum ' 

 extending under the entire building, and connecting with the outer 

 air by arched openings and areas. Ventilation is accomplished by 

 means of large flues leading from near floor and ceiling of all rooms 

 to a large iron chamber in the attic, in which sufficient radiation is 

 located to insure a successful movement of the foul air through a 

 ventilating cupola to the exterior. 



The construction of the building was by contract with McFar- 

 land & Son of Lawrence, and completion was accomplished within 

 the prescribed appropriation, and without ' extras.' 



INDIAN WHEAT. 



At a recent meeting of the English Farmer's Club, Professor 

 Wallace of Edinburgh University read a paper on agriculture in 

 India. 



Professor Wallace said he went to India not only to study agricul- 

 ture in view of the important influence it was likely to exercise over 

 British agriculture, and forestry in view of the likelihood of a chair 

 of forestry being established at his university, but he had the further 

 object of wishing to see for himself why it was that the government 

 had practically given up the idea of improving Indian agriculture. 

 He found that the apathy on the part of the government in the di- 

 rection of advancing agriculture was exhibited not only in the. case 

 of the native scholars, but was general. Practically all that was 

 left of the Agricultural Department was the name, and this was 

 not always recognized in the presidencies. The ryots' faith in the 

 proposals of the government to improve their practices had entirely 

 vanished. The speaker then went on to explain the character of 

 the Indian cattle, and showed that these were raised, not for 

 meat, but for sinew ; and he pointed out the lessons to be learned 

 from color, the black cattle better resisting heat. As to the wheat- 

 growing, he said, that, in order to produce wheat for the market, 

 the ryots increased the area cultivated by taking in more land from 

 the wastes or jungle the most convenient, in the first instance, to 

 their holdings ; but, in addition to this, they grew wheat in many 

 cases in place of some other crop. There was a limit to the exten- 

 sion of the so-called ' substitution ' wheat area ; and the area (ft ex- 

 tended wheat-growth was, as time went on, always becoming more 

 difficult to increase, and, even after difficulties are surmounted, less 

 remunerative. A tract of country where extension would be the 

 main source of wheat-supply skirted the eastern border of the 

 desert of north-western India. Supplies of wheat were also expected 

 to be forthcoming from the rich black soils of the southern Mah- 

 ratta country when the railway communication was better estab- 

 lished. It had been thought by some that the future supplies of 

 Indian wheat would so increase as to flood the English markets to 



