August 14, 1885.1 



SCIENCE. 



123 



Nevertheless, all this scientific research is 

 appreciated b}' a \Qvy small number of persons. 

 Indeed, the more valuable it is, the less obvi- 

 ous may be its merits. Every seaman knows 

 the value of a good chart : not every seaman, 

 not QYQvy scholar, not ever}" statesman, knows 

 the conditions by which a good chart is pro- 

 duced. It is onlj^ the expert who appreciates 

 the subtle sources of error which must be elimi- 

 nated : he only knows the infinitude of mathe- 

 matical, physical, astronomical, and geodetic 

 problems, which are involved in an endeavor to 

 portra}" faithfully such a coast line as that of the 

 United States, and to keep the portrayal in ac- 

 curate correspondence with the changing sands. 



The judge of what to do, and how to do it, 

 must be the superintendent. Congress must 

 say how much money ma}" be spent, and the 

 secretary" of the treasury must exercise an 

 authority over the methods of expenditure : 

 but the master of the works must be the head 

 of the surve}' ; and, although he is liable to 

 error, like the general in the field, or the sea- 

 man on the deep, the ultimate results, attained 

 under his guidance, are the criterion of his 

 scientific eflScienc}'. 



In the zeal for civil-service reform, which 

 has characterized the new administration, it 

 will not be surprising if outlaw's for scientific 

 observation, experiment, and research should 

 be regarded as questionable if not extravagant. 

 It is not to be w^ondered at, that an auditor of 

 accounts should consider as needless, expendi- 

 tures which experience has shown to be abso- 

 lutely necessary for the efficient management 

 of a scientific bureau. It will not be strange 

 if a commission of government officials pro- 

 nounces many of the investigations of the coast- 

 survey to be incomplete, useless, or unduly 

 costl}". It will be easy to gain a reputation 

 for economy, and for discovering the faults of 

 preceding administrations, by striking at work, 

 the methods of which, from their very nature, 

 are incomprehensible to the public. It is easy 

 to furnish witticisms to innumerable writers 

 by a judicious repetition of scientific technical- 

 ities. But, happil}'. Congress is not likely to 

 be misled by such combined misapprehensions 



and misrepresentations. The president, un- 

 less we mis-read his official and personal char- 

 acter, will insist upon wise econom}-. Beyond 

 the administration and Congress, there lies an 

 appeal to the intelligence of the people, who 

 certainly do not want parsimony in the stud}" 

 of the sea-coast. Honesty and accountability 

 will be demanded by the public in all branches 

 of the government service : they will rejoice 

 in every check which may be devised to pre- 

 vent the misappropriation of funds, but they 

 will not want the efficiency of the coast-survey 

 impaired. An administration will indeed ap- 

 pear awry, which proposes in one breath to 

 restore the navy to efficiency, and in another to 

 interfere with the accurate study of the coast, 

 and with the perfection of our knowledge of 

 harbors and reefs. Let there be fair play in 

 considering the affairs of the coast-survey, and 

 we shall have no fears of the result. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 A mad stone. 



The Sedalia and other papers lately contained ac- 

 counts of the application of a ' mad stone ' to a Mr. 

 Girard of this city, who had been bitten by a supposed 

 mad dog. 



The stone was owned by Mr. J. M. Dickson of 

 Kansas City, who advertises the use of the stone, and 

 states that it lias been in possession of his family for 

 more than a hundred years, and was brought by one 

 of the family from Scotland. From the large number 

 of references given in Mr. Dickson's advertisement 

 to the mayor and other officials, and physicians of 

 Kansas City, we may take it as true that Mr. Dick- 

 son is honest in his belief as to the virtues and his- 

 tory of the stone. 



To a reporter Mr. Dickson made a statement that 

 he had applied the stone to more than five hundred 

 cases of bites by various kinds of mad animals and 

 wild skunks ; his opinion evidently being, that the 

 bite of this animal, whether rabid or not, will produce 

 hydrophobia. He gave the method of application, 

 which was to place the stone upon the wound, or 

 upon an abrasion of the skin made on any part of 

 the body, first soaking the stone in sweet milk. He 

 stated, that, if the person contained any virus, the 

 stone would adhere to the wound or abrasion until it 

 was saturated with the poison, when it would fall off; 

 and that it was then cleaned by again soaking it in 

 sweet milk, and this was repeated until the stone 

 would no longer adhere. 



We may presume, that, of the five hundred treated 

 by him, a large number had been bitten by animals 

 which were not mad; and statistics show, that, of 

 those bitten by dogs which are mad, not more than 

 one-third to one-half will have hydrophobia; and yet 

 we can hardly suppose, that, of five hundred persons 

 who believed themselves to be in danger of hydro- 

 phobia, not one would have taken it even if no pre- 

 ventive measures had been taken. Mr. Dickson 



