476 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 147. 



— Prof. W. D. Holmes, of the photographic 

 laboratory, Lehigh university, offers a prize of 

 fifty dollars for the best instantaneous shutter for 

 out-door work presented before Feb. 1, 1886. 

 Further information can be obtained of C. W. 

 Canfield, 1321 Broadway, New York. 



— The secretary of the treasury has appointed 

 Mr. Artemas Martin of Erie, Penn., librarian of the 

 coast and geodetic survey, having first consoli- 

 dated the archives with the library. This will be 

 gratifying news to the many readers of Science 

 who have long held Artemas Martin in high 

 esteem as a mathematician and a man. 



— The December number of the Botanical 

 gazette is to be a laboratory number, but will con- 

 tain, in addition, a full description of the memorial 

 vase presented to Dr. Gray, with illustrations of 

 both sides. 



— The fourth series of the ' Johns Hopkins uni- 

 versity studies in historical and political science ' 

 (beginning in January, 1886) will be chiefly devoted 

 to American city government, state constitutional 

 history, and agrarian topics. Among the monthly 

 monographs will be the following : Dutch village 

 communities on the Hudson River, by Irving 

 Elting; Rhode Island town governments, by 

 WiUiam E. Foster ; The Narragansett planters, 

 by Edward Channing ; Pennsylvania boroughs, 

 by William P. Holcomb : Introduction to state 

 constitutional history, by J. F. Jameson ; City 

 government of Baltimore, by John C. Rose ; City 

 government of Philadelphia, by Edwin P. Allin- 

 son ; City government of Chicago, by F. H. 

 Hodder ; City government of St. Louis, by Mar- 

 shall Snow ; City government of San Francisco, 

 by Bernard Moses ; City government of New York. 



— A unique institution is the Antlu-opological 

 school of Paris. A good idea of its comprehensive- 

 ness is gained from its programme for the coming 

 year. There are no less than six courses of lectures. 

 M. Mathias Duval lectures on zoological anthro- 

 pology, including comparative embryology and 

 kindred topics. General anthrojDology is in the 

 able hands of Dr. Paul Topinard, whose lectures 

 will centre about the discussion of races and tyi^es. 

 M. Manouvrier lectm-es on ethnology, giving special 

 attention to normal and abnormal craniology. Med- 

 ical geography, by which is understood the action 

 of the environment, is the subject of a course by 

 M. Bordier. The remaining courses are on Pre- 

 historic anthropology, by M. Gabriel de Mortillet ; 

 and on the History of civilizations, by M. Letour- 

 neau. The lectures are held weekly, and, in 

 addition, conferences are held from time to time. 

 The course of lectures was begun on Nov. 9. 



— Dr. Topinard has published a revised series 

 of anthropometric instructions for travellers. The 

 traveller, he says, need not trouble himself with 

 questions of race, but should merely observe vari- 

 eties of type. For this purpose he should take 

 measures of as large a number of individuals as 

 practicable, ten different measurements of one 

 hundred individuals being more valuable than 

 fifty of twenty-five persons. The measurements 

 must be so simple as to reduce the personal equa- 

 tion as low as possible. They should also be so 

 arranged as not to keep the subject in one attitude 

 any longer than necessary. Men should be selected 

 for measurement rather than women. All the 

 instruments requked may be collected into a small 

 anthropometric box, the slide being the most 

 useful. Dr. Topinard furnishes a form for record- 

 ing results and remarks. 



— M. Mercadier recently described before the 

 Paris academy of sciences experiments under- 

 taken in order to show that the elasticity of the 

 metal diaphragms at the extremity of telephonic 

 wires counts for nothing in the transmission of 

 sonorous vibrations, or rather that it merely gives 

 to the voice the nasal tone associated with tele- 

 phonic conversation. M. Mercadier successively 

 substituted for such diaphragms plates of greater 

 and greater thickness, pieces of cardboard, and 

 finally iron-filings. The intensity of the vibrations 

 was diminished, but the tone of the voice became 

 normal, and the most delicate inflections were 

 transmitted with perfect exactitude. 



BOSTON LETTER. 



Visitors to Boston many years ago were struck 

 by the then novel sight of large labels attached to 

 the stately trees on the Common, designating their 

 scientific and common names and the country of 

 their origin. This simple device for the instruc- 

 tion of the public was almost entirely the work of 

 a single public-spirited man, the late Dr. A. A. 

 Gould, the naturalist, whom more than one gener- 

 ation of Bostonians held in the highest esteem. 

 Snatching the early hours from a laborious prac- 

 tice, he could be seen by early risers tacking his 

 tins upon one tree after another for a whole sea- 

 son. After his death, I think it was, when these 

 had grown dilapidated, some city forester, who, 

 like many others since appointed, had no other 

 than political claim to the place, instead of restor- 

 ing, removed them. All efforts since made to re- 

 new the work have failed until now, when, thanks 

 to the energy of a few interested persons, and the 

 personal attention of Mr. John Robinson of Salem, 

 the Common has again become a good botanical 

 object-lesson. 



