48 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. IV., No. 76. 



skilfully draped with a cloak. In the right 

 hand a crystal is held, the only symbolism 

 which the artist has employed. The inscrip- 

 tion is restricted to the name, the title, and 

 the dates ; and it might well be supplemented, 

 on the other side of the pedestal, with some 

 descriptive phrase or with an appropriate 

 motto. Without such accessories, the monu- 

 ment barely suggests the affectionate regard 

 in which Professor Silliman was held by those 

 who graduated at Yale during the first half of 

 this century. The regret has also been ex- 

 pressed, that the statue was not placed in or 

 near the Peabody museum of mineralogy and 

 geology, where ever3 T body would be reminded, 

 that, when Silliman began his work, the collec- 

 tions of Yale college (now so magnificent) 

 were packed in a candle-box, and carried to 

 Philadelphia for identification. The man and 

 his influence would thus be inevitably asso- 

 ciated. If these two changes could be made 

 in the inscription and the position, this well- 

 deserved and well-executed memorial would 

 be still more satisfactory than it is to those 

 who honor the teacher whom it represents. 



The other honor to which we refer is that 

 of a medal struck at the U.S. mint in Phila- 

 delphia, at the request of the colleagues and 

 friends of Professor S3 T lvester, to commemorate 

 his residence in Baltimore during a period of 

 seven }*ears, marked, among other things, by 

 the establishment of the American journal of 

 mathematics. The medal, in size and general 

 aspect, is not unlike that which was struck in 

 commemoration of the life of Agassiz. On 

 one side is an accurate and spirited portrait 

 of the mathematician, with the name S}'lvester : 

 on the reverse a Latin inscription commemo- 

 rates the fact that he was for seven } T ears pro- 

 fessor of mathematics in the Johns Hopkins 

 university, — from 1876 to 1883. The original 

 medal in gold was sent to Professor Sylvester, 

 in his new home in the University of Oxford ; 

 a duplicate in silver was retained in Balti- 

 more ; and a few impressions in bronze have 

 been distributed among his scientific friends 

 nnd correspondents. 



Attention is called elsewhere in our col- 

 umns to the laborious researches and brilliant 

 discoveries by Koch before he was sent by the 

 German government to Egypt and India to 

 study cholera. Work of value upon the sub- 

 ject of micro-organisms is not done in this 

 countay, nor will it be until some such encour- 

 agement is offered to investigators, as is the 

 case in France and Germany. This kind of 

 research requires the rare combination of many 

 forms of training, added to a critical, analyti- 

 cal, and judicial mind. These we can have ; 

 but until the facilities for the work are offered, 

 until the necessity for personal sacrifice and 

 self-denial is done away with, we can hope for 

 no better work in the future than has been 

 done in the past : in other words, what is first 

 needed in order to place our own investiga- 

 tions upon an equality with those of the two 

 countries mentioned above, is a thoroughly 

 equipped, fully endowed laboratory, with a 

 strong corps of well-trained and salaried 

 officials. _______ 



The congressional bill, offering a reward of 

 one hundred thousand dollars to the discov- 

 erer of the cause of yellow-fever, will meet 

 with no claimants worthy of the name from 

 workers in this country. It may, and proba- 

 bly will, attract a crowd of mycologists ; but 

 the hope that any thing, of permanent value 

 will come from it is an exceedingly faint one. 

 The investigation can only be made through 

 the outlay of private capital, which will be 

 slow to seek any such channel for investment. 

 The first expense would be great, and the total 

 disbursements necessary for any complete ex- 

 perimental evidence upon the subject would 

 be beyond the calculations of any but those 

 familiar with such work. The true way to 

 encourage such an inquiry lies in the estab- 

 lishment of a commission composed of men 

 thoroughly trained and qualified for the work, 

 and then to treat it as the German government 

 has treated its cholera commission ; that is, 

 to give it full powers and funds to allow the 

 prosecution of its labors to the end. 



So far as Koch's work upon tuberculosis is 



