SCIENCE. 



79 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



The following record of original work in progress at Har- 

 vard University, forms part of an interesting article by J. R. 

 W. Hitchcock, A. B. : 



In the last publication of the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences, in which, by the way, seven of the eight papers 

 are by Harvard investigators, appear the following " Pro- 

 positions in Cosmical Physics," by Professor Benjamin 

 Peirce : 



i. All stellar light emanates from superheated gas. Hence 

 the sun and stars are gaseous bodies. 



2. Gaseous bodies, in the process of radiating light and 

 heat, condense and become hotter throughout their mass. 



3. It is probable that their surface would become colder 

 if there were not an external supply of heat from the collision 

 of meteors. 



4. Large celestial bodies are constantly deriving super- 

 ficial heat from the collision of meteors, till at length the 

 surface becomes superheated gas, which constitution must 

 finally extend through the mass. 



5. Small celestial bodies are constantly cooling till they 

 become invisible solid meteors. 



6. The heat of space consists of two parts : first, that of 

 radiation principally from the stars, which is small, except 

 in the immediate vicinity of the stars ; the second portion 

 is derived from the velocity with which the meteors strike 

 the planet at which the observation is taken ; and this 

 velocity partly depends upon the mass of the star by which 

 the orbit of the planet is defined, and partly upon the mass 

 of the planet itself. 



7. If the planets were originally formed by the collision of 

 meteors, it is difficult to account for an initial heat sufficient 

 to liquefy them, and, at the same time, to account for their 

 subsequent cooling without a great change in the number 

 and nature of the meteors ; and any such hypothesis seems 

 to invalidate the meteoric theory. 



8. If the planets were not originally formed by the colli- 

 sion of meteors, their common direction of rotation becomes 

 difficult of explanation. 



Professor J. M. Peirce has recently published a set of 

 " Mathematical Tables," in which the part relating to " Hy- 

 perbolic Functions " is entirely original. Other work in 

 this department is represented by Professor Byerly's " Dif- 

 ferential Calculus" and Mr. Wheeler's " Elementary Plane 

 and Spherical Trigonometry." 



The forbidding granite building called " Boylston Hall" 

 conceals scenes of strange activity. Unwonted odors irri- 

 tate the inexperienced nose of the visitor, and in the labora- 

 tories spectral shapes flit backward and forward behind 

 clouds of vapor, occasionally lit up by lurid flames. These 

 are the students ; but in their private laboratories the pro- 

 fessors pursue their own researches. Professor Cooke has 

 been dealingwith that unprincipled element, antimony, which 

 has obdurately persisted in claiming two atomic weights, 

 until he has successfully limited it to one. In connection 

 with his laboratory-work, Professor Cooke is preparing a 

 new edition of his " Chemical Philosophy." The results of 

 his inorganic work have appeared from time to time in the 

 publications of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. 



Since the " Organic Laboratory " was established, in 1875, 

 Professors Hill and Jackson have published twenty-five 

 papers giving the results of their work, and have discov- 

 ered one hundred new compounds. The discovery of new 

 compounds, however, possesses as a rule no special im- 

 portance, and is rather incidental to, than the result of, the 

 main work. Two examples will indicate somewhat the 

 character and object of organic investigations. The compo- 

 sition of uric acid has been long known to be C5H4N4O3, 

 Dut its constitution — the exact arrangement of the atoms — 

 has been uncertain. Chemists all over the world had en- 

 deavored to settle the question, but their failures resulted 

 in eleven different formulae for this one substance. Pro- 

 fessor Hill, taking this uric acid C6H4N4O3, marked one 

 part by replacing H by CH 3 (methyl) ; then treating the 

 acid so as to split it up, he determined to which part the 

 methyl was attached, and, by continuing his treatment, was 

 enabled to reduce the possible formulae from eleven to 

 three, with strong probabilities in favor of one. This pos- 

 sesses a practical value, inasmuch as it will lead to a knowl- 



edge of the method of formation of uric acid in the animal 

 body. Professor Hill's work on " Fur ferrol," found in 

 the products of the distillation of wood, is interesting, as 

 chlorophyll can probably be obtained from it. 



An example of the curious subtleties of science is af- 

 forded by Professor Jackson's investigations of anthracene, 

 which is obtained from coal-tar, and yields alizarine (mad- 

 der-dye), used in dyeing pink and purple calicoes, Turkey 

 reds, etc. Anthracene was known to consist of two hexa- 

 gons of carbon with hydrogen atoms attached, united by 

 two other carbon-atoms. Professor Jackson proved, by 

 making anthracene artificially, that these two carbon-atoms 

 are united to adjacent corners in each hexagon, thus : 



H C \c- 



H H ( 



-C — C C"-" 



-C C — C. , 



H ^< 



x H 



These are but stray examples of the researches that are 

 constantly being made by Professors Hill, Jackson, and 

 their assistants. Brom-benzylbromides, parachlorbenzyls, 

 and benzaldehyds, however fascinating they may be to 

 chemists, would offer few charms to the general reader. 



Since 1841 Dr. Asa Gray has devoted such leisure as he 

 could command to his great work "The Flora of North 

 America," a labor the magnitude of which only an exper- 

 ienced botanist can appreciate. Mr. Watson, Curator of 

 the Herbarium, is assisting Professor Gray, and at present 

 is classifying the flora of California. The new series of 

 botanical text-books, edited by Dr. Gray, will shortly be 

 completed. The titles will be as follows : 



1. '• Structure and Morphological Botany of Phaenoga- 

 mous Plants," by Dr. Gray. 



2. "Physiological Botany" (Vegetable Histology and 

 Physiology), by Dr. Goodale. 



3. " Introduction to Cryplogamous Botany," by Professor 

 Farlow. 



4. "Natural Orders of Phaenogamous Plants and their 

 Special Morphological Classification, Distribution, Pro- 

 ducts," by Dr. Gray. 



One of the most recent of Dr. Gray's botanical contribu- 

 tions to the Academy of Arts and Sciences was a paper on 

 the " Characters of some New Species of Compositae in 

 the Mexican Collection, made by C. C. Parry and Edward 

 Palmer," and a notice of " Some New North American 

 Genera, Species, etc." 



Professor Farlow's work in cryptogamic botany is doubly 

 interesting on account of its direct practical application. 

 At the Bussey Institution Professor Farlow has been inves- 

 tigating the diseases of plants, and latterly has been en- 

 gaged upon algae and fungi. Among his recent work is a 

 paper on algae for the United States Fish Commission, an 

 examination of the causes of onion-smut and the diseases 

 of trees for the Board of Agriculture, and an investigation 

 of the algae producing disagreeable tastes and smells in 

 water, for the State Board of Health. His work resolves 

 itself, speaking generally, into two kinds — one, the abstract 

 descriptions and arrangements in families of algae and 

 fungi, and the other the detection of fungi in disease. As 

 an example of the first, there is a European species of alga 

 which constitutes the green scum on stagnant water. Sev- 

 eral different varieties may be found in different places, but 

 they have all been discovered to belong to the same family. 

 To illustrate the second, there is a certain kind of fungus 

 on cedar trees, but this has been ascertained to be only a 

 first stage, and the fungus in its second stage is found upon 

 several members of the apple family. 



Professor Wolcott Gibbs has been carrying on researches 

 on complex inorganic acids, and Professors Lovering and 

 Trowbridge have been conducting purely physical in- 

 vestigations. Professor Trowbridge has introduced a 

 method of instruction that necessitates a large amount of 

 original research on the part of his students. This consists 

 of lectures, given by the students instead of by the instruc- 

 tor, to the class. Although all the wcrk at the Observatory 

 really comes under the head of original investigation, the 

 observations constantly taken in connection with the Ob- 

 servatory Time Service resolve themselves into mere rout- 

 ine work. An immediate and practical benefit is conferred 



