^fkciENCE. 



FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1885. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 The National academy of sciences is holding 

 its autumn session at Albany as we go to press. 

 The number of papers read at these autumn 

 gatherings, which are held now in this city, now 

 in that, is never so great as at the spring meetings 

 held in Washington ; but the quality if not the 

 quantity of papers is apt to be equally good, since 

 the session is called, except for specific reasons, 

 for this purpose only. The session at Albany 

 would seem to be no exception to the ordinary 

 rule, and, although there is but a single member of 

 the academy resident in the city, — the veteran 

 geologist, Prof. James Hall, — the attendance has 

 not been insignificant, nor the meeting lacking 

 in good points. Besides the usual papers of 

 only technical importance, there have been a 

 number of very general interest, prominent among 

 which are those of Prof. E. C. Pickering, opening 

 what may fairly be looked on as a new and 

 promising field in astronomy, that of stellar 

 photography ; the paper of Prof. S. P. Langley on 

 obscure heat, a continuation of his remarkable 

 researches with the bolometer ; that of Dr. Graham 

 Bell, recounting the first fruits of his investigation 

 into the influence of heredity in deafness ; and 

 that of Prof. Simon Newcomb, discussing the 

 vexed question at what hour the astronomical day 

 shall begin. In our next issue we hope to present 

 an account of the entire meeting. 



The reply of Director Powell, which we pub- 

 lish in another column, to the newspaper attacks 

 on the geological survey, will strike the fair- 

 minded reader by its conclusiveness. It is true 

 that the prosecution, if there were any, would stiU 

 have the right to prove its allegations by rebut- 

 ting evidence ; but the very fact that the reply of 

 the defence, is couched in such terms as to make it 

 easy to do this, renders it doubtful whether any 

 such evidence wiQ be forthcoming. The director 

 does not enter into any long explanations, requir- 

 ing an exhaustive inquiry into their validity, but 

 in all the important cases interposes a direct denial 

 that the allegations have any foundation. The 



No. 145,-1885. 



issue is thus brought down to one of easily ascer- 

 tained facts, which it would be impossible for the 

 director to pervert without speedy exposure. For 

 example, it was distinctly charged that he had 

 paid salaries as high as $4,000 per year to state 

 geologists. He replies that the name of everv^ 

 geologist employed by the survey is a matter of 

 published record, and challenges the accuser to 

 show that any one of them is a state geologist. 

 For more reasons than appear on the surface, our 

 government science is to be congratulated on the 

 completeness of the defence. 



The case has some peculiarities, which render it 

 noteworthy that the director should have been 

 able to vindicate himself so completely, in the face 

 of such an attack. Rarely has a government of- 

 ficer been intrusted with so large an annual ex- 

 penditure, so completely at his own discretion, as 

 the officer in question. The organization, under 

 which the work was to be done, was largely his 

 own creation, and the funds had to be expended 

 in distant parts of the country, through agencies 

 not in personal contact with the supreme power. 

 Just as the system has been got well into opera- 

 tion, searching investigation is commenced. The 

 disaster which overtakes a sister institution, when 

 exposed to such scrutiny, leads to the confident 

 expectation that this one may also be found want- 

 ing in some point, when searched by eagle eyes. 

 That some errors in detail would be found, might 

 almost be taken as a matter of course, and in such 

 a case the extraordinary character of the circum- 

 stances might have been plead as a valid excuse 

 for many such errors. And yet the latest report 

 is that the vigilant first auditor has found no fault 

 in the legality of any of the expenditures of the 

 bureau, and finds aU the accounts in good shape. 



The cases of poisoning at Momence, 111., re- 

 corded at length in a report just issued by the board 

 of health of that state, are of great interest as bring- 

 ing to Ught a source of danger hitherto but little 

 regarded. In the course of the investigation it 

 was found that the thu-ty-seven individuals 

 affected had all eaten of dried beef purchased 

 from the same butcher; of the number seized with 

 the symptoms of poisoning, but one died. Although 



