SCIENCE. 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 



Verite sans peur. 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS.: THE SCIENCE COMPANY. 



FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1884. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



The ' sundry civil bill,' which is still under 

 discussion by congress, provides $501,470 

 for the coast-survey; $244,500 for the fish- 

 commission ; $500,000 for the participation by 

 the government departments in the industrial 

 exposition at New Orleans, of which sum one- 

 fifth is given to the Smithsonian institution, 

 including the national museum and the fish- 

 commission ; $40,000 for the protection and 

 improvement of the Yellowstone national park ; 

 $467,700 for the geological survey ; $10,000 for 

 the census of 1880, providing for its close in 

 November next ; $149,500 for the national mu- 

 seum ; $55,000 for the Smithsonian institution 

 (construction) ; and $868,038.60 for the signal- 

 service. 



It also disposes, for the time, of the ques- 

 tion raised concerning the coast-survey, by 

 providing for a joint commission of three sen- 

 ators and three representatives, to " consider 

 the present organizations of the signal-service, 

 geological survey, coast and geodetic survey, 

 and the hydrographic office of the navy depart- 

 ment, with the view to secure greater efficiency 

 and economy of administration of the public 

 service in said bureaus,'' and to report next 

 December. It further appropriates seven hun- 

 dred dollars for a commission of scientific men, 

 to be appointed by the president, " to inquire 

 into the organization, work, expenses, and 

 reconstruction of the naval observaton T , and 

 to report to congress the best S3 T stem for its 

 future management." 



We shall look with deep interest and concern 



No. 74. — 1884. 



for the reports of these commissions. On the 

 one hand, we are to have a commission of 

 men of affairs, called to consider the mutual 

 standing of several different government bu- 

 reaus, whose work is more or less inter-related ; 

 on the other, a scientific commission, dealing 

 with a purely scientific bureau under naval 

 control, but the vitaluYy and usefulness of 

 which has come, with rare exceptions, from 

 men drawn from the ranks of civil life. Let 

 us hope for good appointments, that these 

 often-recurring and unseemly antagonisms be- 

 tween different departments may be put to rest 

 by excellent reports and wise adjustments. To 

 the question of the relations of the army and 

 navy to science, we ma} T again recur. We may 

 here only regret that it was not arranged that 

 the scientific commission should be taken from 

 names recommended to the president b}~ the 

 National academy. 



With this exception, we have no fault to find 

 with another provision of the bill, by which, 

 as we hoped last week would be the case, the 

 appointment of two additional members to the 

 meridian conference is provided for, and an 

 appropriation of two thousand dollars made for 

 the expenses of the commission ; nor with a 

 similar provision for a national conference of 

 electricians, in connection with the interna- 

 tional electrical exhibition at Philadelphia, for 

 which a meagre five thousand dollars is appro- 

 priated, and a scientific commission authorized. 

 The more closely the government can identify 

 the National academ}' with its scientific under- 

 takings and appointments, the more confident 

 we shall feel that neither science nor our coun- 

 try will be belittled. 



The use of the comma as an instrument for 

 assisting or impeding a reader's comprehen- 



