348 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 87. 



ordinary pursuits of life, 12,000 are of school age, 

 and from 1,000 to 2,000 are uneducated adults. There 

 are fifty-eight schools and one college, for this class, 

 in this country. The usefulness of the educated and 

 the pitiful condition of the uneducated were described 

 by Professor Chickering. Professor Gordon main- 

 tained, in opposition to the views of Dr. A. Graham 

 Bell, that the complete education of those born deaf 

 demands social knowledge, special training, and 

 special methods which are not possible in common 

 schools; while the literal co-education of those born 

 deaf, with hearing children, is an admitted impossi- 

 bility. Deaf children prepared by special instruction 

 to join regular classes in common schools without 

 detriment to themselves, or to their classmates, do 

 not need common-school instruction, having incident- 

 ally accomplished the work of the common school in 

 gaining this mastery of language. The advantages 

 of association with hearing children in the public 

 schools are largely illusory, the environment being 

 substantially the same as that of all deaf children 

 before leaving their families to enter special institu- 

 tions. Parents and public-school teachers can readily 

 qualify themselves to render valuable help to deaf- 

 mutes by beginning their education, and supplying, 

 as far as possible, the training corresponding to the 

 material education of infants and the earlier part 

 of the work of kindergarten and infant schools. No 

 satisfactory plan has ever been found for supplying 

 deaf classes, in public schools, with teachers having 

 the special fitness, knowledge, and training requisite 

 for the satisfactory education of those born deaf. 

 Special institutions remain a necessity for the great 

 majority of deaf children; and they show superior 

 results with the greatest economy of time, money, 

 and men, irrespective of method, system, or devices 

 of instruction. 



Mr. William Kent of New York read a paper on 

 irregularity in railroad-building as a chief cause of 

 recent business depressions, which he supported with 

 statistics and diagrams. He proved some remarkable 

 coincidences during four periods from 1860 to 1S83, 

 1869 to 1873 and 1S79 to 1883 having been periods of 

 great activity in railroad-building. The paper was 

 discussed by Mr. Loren Blodget of Philadelphia, Mr. 

 James H. Kellogg of Troy, N.Y., Mr. J. K. Dodge, 

 and Mr. E. T. Peters. It was not generally conceded 

 that cause and effect had been proven. Mr. Blodget 

 referred to similar irregularities in English rates of 

 interest, and Mr. Dodge to similar irregularities in 

 cereals produced. In 1873 and 1874 these fell off six 

 hundred millions of bushels, and the price rose from 

 forty to sixty-four cents. 



Mr. P. H. Dudley described his dynagraph and 

 track-inspection car, and many members visited the 

 car at West Philadelphia. This is one of the great- 

 est of the many recent inventions for the safety of 

 the travelling public. 



Mr. L. A. Smith of Washington pointed out the 

 advantages of great expositions to consist in 1°. 

 stimulating the development of material resources, 

 2°. the introduction of profitable industries, 3°. the 

 improvement of manufactures, 4°. the increase of 



trade, 5°. the founding of institutions, 6°. the social 

 development of the people, 7°. advancement of sci- 

 ence, and 8°. the promotion of technical education. 



Don Arturo de Marcoartu of Madrid spoke upon 

 the commercial relations of the United States with 

 Spain and her colonies. He showed the meagreness 

 of the present trade, and urged the importance of a 

 treaty which should increase it. A line of steamers 

 from Vigo or Lisbon to Boston or Baltimore is needed. 

 The Umbria could make the voyage in six days. He 

 desires to see the tariffs arranged so as to allow the 

 exportation all over the Spanish territory of the 

 American cereals, bread, coal, wood, cattle, and meats, 

 and some other products wanted by the Spanish col- 

 onies; and to allow at the same time, on the other 

 hand, the importation into the American union of 

 wines, spirits, molasses, sugar, fruits, salt, and other 

 Spanish products required in the United States. 



Mr. George F. Kunz of Tiffany & Co. read a valu- 

 able paper on the American pearl, describing its form, 

 color, lustre, and giving a list of the important ' finds.' 

 He estimated the yield from 1881 to 1884 at $17,500 

 worth. 



Dr. Charles Warren, statistician of the U. S. bu- 

 reau of education, read a paper on the learned pro- 

 fessions and the public, 1870-1880. Deriving the 

 number of persons engaged in law, medicine, and 

 divinity, from the occupation tables of the census, he 

 showed that the rate of increase for each profession 

 during the decade was much greater than the rate of 

 increase in the general population. He commented 

 upon the marked increase in the number of clergy- 

 men of foreign birth, and the great increase in law- 

 yers, particularly in states situated north of the 

 Potomac and Ohio rivers. Admitting that the num- 

 ber of clergymen is within the control of the sects 

 purely, and not subject to legal interference, he 

 observed that there is precedent for considering law- 

 yers as officers of the state, and eminent propriety in 

 making physicians also unpaid state officers. When 

 this is done, the qualifications will be under state 

 control, and indirectly the supply can be limited to 

 actual needs. In 18S0 he believes there was a surplus 

 of sixty-four thousand in these three professions, and 

 that decisive measures should be taken to remedy it. 



Mr. Smiley of the U. S. fish-commission illustrated 

 what is doing by the government in fish-culture, by 

 presenting tables illustrative of the California salmon- 

 work. An average of 2,500,000 young were deposited 

 in the McCloud River from 1873 to 1883. The average 

 annual catch has increased, since propagation began, 

 by 4,391,882 pounds. This increase is worth, as it 

 comes from the water, $313,700 annually. The an- 

 nual cost of propagation is $3,600, leaving a net profit 

 of $310,100 annually. 



The sessions were all well attended; the number of 

 persons in attendance frequently reaching fifty, and 

 on a few occasions seventy-five. The popular char- 

 acter of the subjects induced this, and also induced 

 the local press to give of this section much fuller re- 

 ports than it gave of any other. The section has 

 improved very materially since its organization at 

 Montreal in 1882. 



