ma, WA E. 
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1884. 
COMMENT AND. CRITICISM. 
Tue Philadelphia local committee for the 
reception of the American and British associa- 
tions for the advancement of science, which will 
meet in that city on the 3d of next September, 
is taking active’steps to make the meeting a 
memorable one. The well-known hospitality 
of Philadelphia, together with the unusual at- 
tractions offered by the combined meeting ot 
the two great scientific bodies, will undoubtedly 
secure a very large attendance. Under the 
auspices of the Franklin institute, an inter- 
national electrical exhibition will be opened 
' simultaneously with the meeting of the asso- 
ciations, and a congress of electricians will at 
the same time be convened. Excursions of 
unusual interest and extent are being planned. 
Hon. John Welsh is president, and Prof. H. 
Carvill Lewis and Dr. E. J. Nolan secretaries, 
of the local committee, which consists of a 
hundred and fifty of the most influential citi- 
zens, representing all the prominent institu- 
tions of the city. Communications for the local 
committee should be addressed to its head- 
quarters, —the Academy of natural sciences. 
The meeting will probably be held in the build- 
ings of the University of Pennsylvania, which 
have been offered for that purpose. 
It is sincerely to be hoped that the local com- 
mittee at Montreal will take no steps which, 
by excursions or otherwise, may prevent a full 
attendance at Philadelphia of members of the 
British association. The committees at Mon- 
treal and Philadelphia should work harmoni- 
ously, arranging for combined excursions at 
the close of the Philadelphia meeting. With 
the aid of the Montreal committee, the Phila- 
delphia meeting can be made the most impor- 
tant scientific gathering that has ever been 
held in this country. 
No. 50.—1884. 
Mr. THeopore Link, in the Naturalist for 
December, pleads forcibly for the betterment 
of zodlogical gardens. These ordinarily are, 
indeed, to speak paradoxically, nothing but 
stationary travelling-shows, — Barnum’s me- 
nageries called to ahalt. What is required for 
the animals’ happiness and health is obvious 
enough ; but, as questions like the present are 
generally decided from man’s point of view, 
let us shift to that. The mission of these 
gardens, as Mr. Link says, is ostensibly ‘‘ the 
study and dissemination of a knowledge of the 
natural habits of the animal kingdom.’’ There- 
fore an opportunity for such habits among 
these animals is essential to the student visiting 
them. Perhaps most visitors, however, go for 
amusement, or for the pleasure of easy instruc- 
tion. We go to see something opposite to the 
restraints of our own civilization, to behold 
the wonders of untrammelled instincts, to en- 
joy the beauties of free motion. But as it 
is, we seek a pleasure-garden, and find it a 
prison. We find no animated vigor there to 
cheer and to excite us, but helpless misery too 
much like the poorer side of human life. 
The great difficulty, it seems to us, is in 
attempting with limited means too big and mis- 
cellaneous collections, imperfect, unsatisfac- 
tory, and uninstructive, about in proportion to 
their excess of size. Would it not be better 
in a given half-acre to have a single pair of 
lions, or of any other much admired brute, 
rather than a subdued camel, a cramped tiger, 
a dilapidated ostrich, and a discouraged croco- 
dile, all obliged to stand as nearly as possible 
on one leg, for want of any thing better to do? 
Any chance and inducement given to the ani- 
mals to breed naturally and freely, certainly 
might be a direct and valuable economy to any 
zoological society in keeping up its stock. 
ACCORDING to a2 communication made to the 
London section of the Society of chemical in- 
