2 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 74. 



sion of an author's meaning is neither a very- 

 important nor a very scientific subject of dis- 

 cussion. But man} 7 English writers of scien- 

 tific text-books try one's patience so sorely 

 and so wantonly on this point, that it seems 

 proper something should be said about it. The 

 evil to which we refer usually takes the shape 

 of the insertion of superfluous commas, which 

 in the least obnoxious cases are annoying, and 

 in many cases seriously interfere with the 

 sense. These violations of the literary code 

 of minor morals are so abundant in any work 

 which is seriously subject to them at all, that 

 it is not necessary to go outside the book which 

 happens to be before us at the moment for as 

 long a list of examples as might be desired. 

 The following sentence contains three un- 

 pardonable commas, the fourth alone being 

 rightly used: "Thus we shall suppose that 

 the external cause of the cooling determines 

 always the state of the ver} 7 thin envelope, in 



dv 

 such a manner that the value of — which re- 

 cta 



suits from this state, is proportional to the 

 value of v, corresponding to x = X, and that 

 the constant ratio of the two quantities is 



h 



— ~." And before we have finished a page, 



we come upon this: "It consists in finding 

 the value of v, by means of the general con- 

 dition, and the two special conditions to which 

 it is subject." Here the insertion of the first 

 comma seems to us bad enough, but this may 

 possibly be regarded as a matter of taste ; 

 that of the second is an inexcusable error. 



The September meeting of the mechanical 

 section (D) of the American association for 

 the advancement of science, at Philadelphia, 

 promises well. It is under the leadership of 

 a chairman whose name will go far to insure 

 success ; and Professor Thurston's opening 

 address is confidently expected to be a paper 

 of much interest. The circular of invitation, 

 issued by the committee, has been sent to a 

 large number of engineers, representing the 

 most of the American societies ; and it has 

 also been laid before them officially through 



their secretaries, besides being published in a 

 number of prominent technical journals. The 

 work is now going forward of interesting the 

 foreign engineering public directly, and through 

 their societies and journals ; and it is believed 

 that a large foreign attendance may be ex- 

 pected. The programme is also being made 

 up, and contains the announcement of several 

 important papers. 



After an existence of eight years, the New- 

 York state survey is brought to a close by the 

 will of one man. Like nearly all scientific 

 work done in this countr} 7 under state patron- 

 age, the life of the survey hung by the thread 

 of an annual appropriation. The usual appro- 

 priation of $15,800 was made by the legisla- 

 ture ; but the item was vetoed by the governor, 

 who thinks, that, " after an expenditure of a 

 sum considerably in excess of a hundred thou- 

 sand dollars, very little seems to have been 

 done of practical benefit to the people," and 

 who says that he is " not able to appreciate 

 the importance of the elaborate, slow, and ex- 

 pensive survey of the state which this appro- 

 priation is intended to continue." 



As Gov. Cleveland is commonly reported to 

 give his reasons for official action with perfect 

 frankness, it is evident that this unfortunate 

 close of the survey is due to his ignorance of 

 the value and of the cost of geodetic work. 

 Had he urged that the work was one which 

 should be undertaken by the general govern- 

 ment rather than b} 7 the state, he would have 

 found many to agree with him, and, at most, the 

 question would have been one of policy ; but, 

 when he declares that he is " of the opinion 

 that a sufficiently correct and exact location of 

 boundary-lines and monuments to answer every 

 useful purpose could be conducted ... at a 

 comparatively small expense," it is plain that 

 his ' opinion ' on such a topic is not of weight. 

 Even on economic grounds, it would not be 

 difficult to show that the exact location of bases 

 for local surveys would, in time, save its cost 

 in diminished boundary litigation. 



