SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1884. _ 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 The custom-house at Philadelphia and the 

 Treasury department at Washington are wres- 

 tling over a difficulty growing* out of the special 

 tariff upon ' philosophical instruments.' Such 

 instruments are, under the law of 1883, sub- 

 ject to a duty of thirty-five per cent, while 

 instruments of glass or metal, not ' philosophi- 

 cal,' are subject to forty-five per cent duty. 

 Where can the line be drawn ? An astronomi- 

 cal telescope is evidently philosophical, as the 

 word goes. But there are instruments of every 

 grade, from the 26-inch equatorial to the little 

 glass through which the opera-goer contem- 

 plates the movements of his favorite prima 

 donna : shall they all be classed together ? If 

 not, who can define what telescopes, sp3 7 glasses, 

 binoculars, lorgnettes, microscopes, and other 

 instruments for aiding vision, are entitled to 

 patents of nobilit}' which shall distinguish them 

 from the plebeian mass of ' manufactures not 

 specialty provided for in this act ' ? Of course 

 the same question arises in the case of chemi- 

 cal and pln*sical instruments of all sorts, which 

 may be used either in a laboratory, private or 

 public, in a factory or telegraph-office, or in a 

 children's playroom. It is understood that the 

 aid of the National academy of sciences will be 

 invoked to furnish a solution of the problem, 

 and the result will be looked for with great 

 cariosity. 



The problem, how to make scientific assem- 

 blies more profitable to those who attend them, 

 is constantly recurring. It is conceded that 

 the more profound and special a paper may be, 

 the fewer will be the number of those who take 

 an interest in hearing it. On the other hand, 

 if those who are special and profound are not 

 to be encouraged to present their papers to 

 scientific associations, who shall have the 

 privilege? Certainly not the vague and the 



No. 93.— 1884. 



shallow. Papers must be presented, as elabo- 

 rate and recondite as can be secured ; but 

 such papers repel the auditors. What shall be 

 done in the dilemma ? How can the mathemati- 

 cian presenting some new development of the 

 theory of functions expect to interest the bot- 

 anist? How can the petrographer discussing 

 the microscopic aspects of rocks command the 

 attention of the morphologist ? Or, in a philo- 

 logical association, how can an elaborate paper 

 on some point in the grammar of the Veclas 

 command the attention of linguists who have 

 never learned the Sanscrit alphabet ? Has the 

 advancement of knowledge reached such a 

 point that there is no place left for the general 

 societ}', the academy of science, and is spe- 

 cialization to be so special that each line of 

 inquiry is to be considered only in a limited 

 compan} T of those who are devoted to it? 



We venture to make a few suggestions which 

 seem to us worth considering b} 7 those who are 

 called upon to manage scientific meetings, 

 especially the annual gatherings which bring 

 from a great distance, at a great expense, 

 those who are desirous of securing the utmost 

 advantage from the meeting. First, Let the 

 committee in charge make arrangements of a 

 positive character for the conduct of the meet- 

 ing, and require conformity to their regula- 

 tions. Among these rules should be, (1) a 

 strict adherence to the allotted time ; (2) the 

 presentation, in advance, of an abstract of what 

 is to be read (and this should be printed, par- 

 ticularly if it contains any tabular statement, 

 mathematical formulas, chemical formulas, or 

 other rigidby technical statements) ; (3) the 

 allowance of a definite time for discussion, ques- 

 tions, answers, and comments. Second, Let 

 eveiy speaker or reader form the habit of stat- 

 ing in general terms the purpose of his inves- 

 tigation, its relations to other work, and its 

 results, refraining from going into minute de- 

 tails unless he is sure that a considerable part 



