May 4, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



shops than those in more moderate circumstances, and, as a rule, 

 desire that their sons shall have the manual training, even though 

 they intend to enter professions. 



What is claimed for the Washington experiment is, that it is an 

 attempt to ingraft upon the common schools a system of manual 

 training that shall give to all the boys a practical knowledge of the 

 use of the most common tools used in working in wood and iron, 

 and to all the girls a similar knowledge of plain cooking and sew- 

 ing. This it is intended to do without interfering with the regular 

 studies ; each class, when the schools are completely organized, 

 devoting two hours a week to the manual training. 



The shops in Washington have not been established long enough 

 to make it possible to determine whether the experiment will be 

 successful or not. The only thing that can be said of it is that the 

 results thus far seem to be encouraging. Of the single school of 

 carpentry established in the High School last year, and attended by 

 225 pupils, Superintendent Powell says, " The work was successful. 

 It was not difficult to manage it with the other regular courses of 

 study of the school. The boys seemed to like the work, and 

 showed no disposition to withdraw from the class. Although but 

 one hour's instruction per week was given each pupil, a marked im- 

 provement in the use of tools was noticed ; and it is known that 

 many boys did corresponding work at home for practical and "use- 

 ful purposes, which was furthered at least, if not induced, by the 

 training and suggestions received at the school shop." The late 

 principal of the High School, in his annual report of the first year's 

 instruction in carpentry, said, " It is certain that it did not hinder 

 the general progress of any boy engaged in it, and it is equally cer- 

 tain that the influence of the work was beneficial in various ways in 

 the school." 



Superintendent Powell recommended an appropriation of ten 

 thousand dollars for manual training in the Washington schools for 

 the next year, and it is probable that eight thousand will be granted. 

 This will make it possible to increase the number of schools of 

 cookery and of the shops, and to provide additional instruction. 

 Opportunities will thus be provided for all the pupils of the highest 

 two grades of the grammar-schools and of the High School, and 

 probably the number of hours of instruction can be increased from 

 one to two hours a week for each class. 



The Yellow-Fever Germ. 



Something more than a year ago it was positively announced that 

 a Mexican physician had discovered the yellow-fever germ ; that it 

 could be cultivated ; and that, by inoculation with it, human beings 

 could be rendered unsusceptible to the disease. Subsequently a 

 similar report was received from Brazil, and together they caused 

 wide-spread discussion both in this country and Europe, not only 

 in the medical journals, but in the popular press. So important was 

 this matter considered in Washington, that the President deter- 

 mined to have a special inquiry made in regard to it, and Dr. George 

 M. Sternberg of Johns Hopkins University, a man of large practical 

 experience with fevers, was appointed to make it. He visited Mex- 

 ico and Brazil ; and, although he has not yet submitted his official 

 report, he obtained permission to prepare and read in advance of 

 it a paper on the subject, setting forth in a general way the results 

 of his inquiry. This paper was read before the College of Physi- 

 cians, of Philadelphia. 



The amount of time accorded Dr. Sternberg not only prevented 

 the investigation from being as thorough as was desirable, but it 

 made it necessary for him to visit Brazil in June, which is in the 

 winter season south of the equator, and Mexico in September, when 

 there were comparatively few cases of yellow-fever. His opportu- 

 nities for observation, therefore, were not as good as could be 

 wished. But his inquiries did go far enough to justify him in say- 

 ing that he found really nothing to sustain the sanguine expectations 

 of the Mexican and Brazilian scientists. Such examination as he 

 had been able to make in Havana, Vera Cruz, Rio Janeiro and 

 other Brazilian ports, which had yellow-fever, had not discovered 

 any such micro-organisms as these gentlemen say they have found. 

 These investigations were not confined to the blood alone, but to 

 the alimentary canal and other parts of the digestive organs, and 

 were extended also to the muscles and other tissues. 



In order to show the exact degree of success in preventing yellow- 



fever by inoculation. Dr. Sternberg said that out of 44 inoculated in 

 Rio Janeiro, 22, or 50 percent, had been seized with the disease; 

 and of these, 9, or 40 per cent, had died. " This is important," ob- 

 served Dr. Sternberg, " when taken in connection with the usual 

 rate of mortality, which is 30 per cent, as showing, that, so far from 

 being a protection, inoculation increased the effects." • 



Dr. Sternberg said that in his official report to the government 

 he had laid stress upon the fact that certain experiments which 

 ought to have been carried out were rendered abortive by his hav- 

 ing to return to Washington in accordance with his official orders. 

 Under these circumstances, he had thought it best to advise that 

 the investigation be continued by means of autopsies and with the 

 blood taken from the living patient. In accordance with this rec- 

 ommendation, the President had directed him to continue his in- 

 quiry. So far as a practical analysis of the blood of the subjects 

 referred to by the Mexican and BraziHan doctors was concerned, 

 he had failed to find any such condition as they had described. 

 At the same time further experiments ought to be made, although 

 he had found no evidence to prove that the Mexican and Brazilian 

 doctors had solved the problem of preventing yellow-fever by their 

 inoculation and microbe theories. 



Copper, Lead, and Zinc. 



Prof. David T. Day, geologist in charge of the Division of 

 Mining Statistics and Technology, of the United States Geological 

 Survey, has issued a preliminary statement of the production ant! 

 consumption of copper and of the production of lead and tin in the 

 United States for the year 1887. The production was as fol- 

 lows : — 





1885. 

 Pounds. 



1886. 

 Pounds. 



1887. 

 Pounds. 





165,875,766 



5,086,841 

 170,962,607 



156,735-381 



4,500,000 

 161,235.381 





From imported pyrites and 

 Total 



3,750,000 

 181,170,524 





Short Tons. 



Short Tons. 



Short Tons. 





107,437 

 =1,975 



129,412 

 40,688 



114,829 

 20,800 



I3S.«29 

 42,641 





Non-argentiferous lead 



25,148 



Total 



160,700 







It is very difficult to secure trustworthy statements of stocks of 

 copper in producers' and dealers' hands, and in transitu, and there- 

 fore Professor Day has adopted the plan of obtaining statements 

 from the consumers of the country of the amount of copper used 

 by each for a series of years. Answers were received from every 

 brass and copper mill and from every brass foundery of any conse- 

 quence in the country. The consumption of the copper and brass 

 rolling-mills and wire-drawers was, in 1885, 51,110,522 pounds ; in 

 1886,63,921,217 pounds; and, in 1887, 72,521,287 pounds. The 

 brass-founders used, in 1886, 8,146,866 pounds, which rose to 

 9,822,731 pounds in 1887, — an increase of 20.5 per cent in one 

 year. Adding the two series of figures, a total consumption is 

 reached of 82,344,018 pounds in 1887, as against 72,068,083 pounds 

 used in 1886 by the same establishments, — an increase of 14 per 

 cent. Professor Day reaches the conclusion, therefore, that the 

 copper-consumption of the United States has been generally over- 

 estimated, and that in 1887 it was not much, if any, in excess of 

 100,000,000 pounds of new copper. 



ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. 

 Intensity and Consumption of Different Sources of Light. 



The following are results of careful measurements, the unit be- 

 ing a standard English candle. The tables are summarized. 

 Petroleum Lamps. 

 A number of different lamps were used. The general result was 



