March 20, 1885. 



SCIENCE. 



229 



profound truths from the partisan testimoiry of 

 each witness. 



The most expensive and important of the 

 organizations studied b} T the commission is the 

 signal-service ; and considerable interest at- 

 tached to the testimony of Professor Abbe, 

 himself a member of the National academy of 



that the proper interpretation of all and even 

 of his own testimony affords an unanswerable 

 argument against a purely military adminis- 

 tration, and rather in favor of a purely civilian 

 business and scientific one. The committee 

 has evidently failed to obtain an exposition 

 of the arguments for and against the present 



Wfr ! JUT 



■H 



THE NEW PHYSICAL LABORATORY AT HARVARD COLLEGE 





sciences, as it was hoped he would contribute 

 facts favoring its transfer to a civilian sci- 

 entific bureau. It is difficult to believe that 

 he does not appreciate the strong arguments 

 on this side of the question ; but, like most 

 government employees, he has chosen to con- 

 sider the commission as an aggressive body, 

 inquisitive as to whether the laws of congress 

 have been properly carried out by his branch 

 of the executive : he has therefore not touched 

 upon questions of the general policy of the 

 federal government, but has simply defended 

 the present administration of the signal-office 

 as being quite efficient and economical, and 

 is especially strong in his defence of Gen. 

 Hazen. He thus leaves it to his examiners to 

 penetrate to the core of the matter, and to show 



management of such institutions as the naval 

 observatory, the signal-office, nautical alma- 

 nac, geodetic survey, etc. 



THE JEFFERSON PHYSICAL LABORA- 

 TORY. 



The Jefferson physical laboratoiy, which has 

 recently been completed at Harvard university, 

 is a three-story brick building with a basement, 

 the floor of which is nearly on a level with the 

 surface of the ground. The building is 209.4: 

 feet long. The two wings are 67 feet square, 

 and are connected b}' the main walls of the 

 building, which are 4(3.8 feet apart. The 

 ground-plan thus consists of two squares con- 

 nected by a rectangle. The longest line of the 

 laboraton r runs ver} T nearly east and west: there 

 is therefore a great southern exposure, with no 



