350 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 



difficulties of which the lecturer did not at- 

 tempt to conceal. It is, however, expected 

 that the lectures will cover the ground of 

 molecular physics .in general, including the 

 theory of vortex atoms, of which the lecturer 

 himself, is, perhaps more than any one else, 

 the originator. 



At the last session of congress, provision 

 was made for an electrical commission, to be 

 appointed by the president, and seventy-five 

 hundred dollars appropriated for the work of 

 the commission. The commission was ap- 

 pointed, numbering among its members some 

 of the best electricians of our county. It 

 was generally expected that the commission 

 would make some electrical experiments or 

 tests pertaining to dynamos and secondary 

 batteries. We believe such was the intention 

 of the commission ; but the Franklin institute 

 of Philadelphia announced its determination 

 to conduct experiments upon both these sub- 

 jects, and the commission probably deem it 

 inexpedient to make experiments in similar 

 lines. We would suggest, that there are other 

 subjects of as great or greater general public 

 interest, upon which experiments might be ad- 

 vantageously made. We refer to underground 

 wires and induction. These are interesting 

 scientific questions, and of vital importance to 

 both public and private interests. There are 

 many patents for the laying of underground 

 wires and for the prevention of induction. It 

 is peculiarly proper that the merits of these 

 different inventions should be investigated by a 

 commission of scientific electricians, as a great 

 difference of opinion exists between city cor- 

 porations, and the telegraph, electric-light, 

 and telephone companies, as to the use of such 

 wires ; the former requiring that all wires should 

 be run underground, the latter contending that 

 there is no means now known for the success- 

 ful use of underground wires extending any 

 considerable distance. The questions of in- 

 duction and ' leakage ' are also most impor- 

 tant, as every one knows who has listened to a 

 telephone connected with one of our large city 

 exchanges. 



Microscopical science has been completely 

 revolutionized by a series of inventions, which 

 have followed one another by such slow grad- 

 uation, that the result is far more noticeable 

 than the progress of the advance, — we see 

 the change, but not the changing. Thirty 

 years ago, there was little to do about a micro- 

 scopical preparation. The object was placed 

 under the microscope, and looked at. Of tech- 

 nique, little was known beyond squeezing the 

 object between slide and cover-glass to make 

 it thin, giving a dose of acetic acid, and mount- 

 ing in Canada balsam. To-day a vast variety 

 of methods are in use, the gradual accumu- 

 lation of the experience and experiments of 

 numerous workers. The most delicate and 

 fugitive phases of organization- can now be 

 caught and fixed ; the softest and the hardest 

 materials can be made to yield sections of 

 the extremest thinness and consequent trans- 

 parency ; dyes are skilfully used so that the 

 pattern of colors shows the distribution of 

 parts of different constitution, and that which 

 it is desired to see is marked out from its 

 surroundings. Perfected microtomes, working 

 automatically and driven by mechanical power, 

 are made to cut an entire object into sections 

 as thin as two thousand or three thousand 

 to an inch, and keep every section in its proper 

 place in the series. Indeed, the present per- 

 fection of the art of preparing objects for 

 microscopical examination was unlocked for, a 

 generation ago. Nevertheless, the progress 

 here has been equalled by that in the micro- 

 scope itself: the cameras and illuminating ap- 

 paratus, the application of the spectroscope, 

 of photographic and measuring devices, and 

 of the electric light, etc., have immensely 

 increased the efficiency of the modern instru- 

 ment. Yet there is another improvement 

 greater than any of these, — the introduction 

 of oil immersion objectives. Although the 

 progress we have hinted at has been enormous, 

 it still continues more rapid than ever, as the 

 well-filled pages of the new microscopical jour- 

 nal, referred to in our notes this week, amply 

 testify. Nothing is more remarkable than the 

 rate of scientific progress to-day: men seem 



