SCIENCE. 
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 1884. 
COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 
Two bills are before Congress for the better 
administration of the naval observatory. One 
places the control of the observatory in the 
hands of a board, under the secretary of 
the navy, consisting of the superintendent, the 
senior line officer attached to the observatory, 
and the four senior professors of mathematics 
actually engaged in astronomical work at the 
observatory: the other is intended to give 
the positions of assistant astronomers that at- 
traction in the way of promise of promotion 
necessary to induce young men to enter on the 
work, looking upon it as a permanency, and 
not as a make-shift till something better may 
turn up. It appears that in the past twenty- 
two years, from the corps of three assistant 
astronomers, there have been eleven resigna- 
tions and only four promotions, and of the 
latter only one in the last nineteen years. It 
would seem that these bills are both in the 
direction of placing the working of the obser- 
vatory on a more permanent footing, and of 
making it less subject to interruption from 
changes in the corps of observers, as well as a 
step towards giving the direction of the scien- 
tific work of the institution into the hands of 
those capable of making it tell better than in 
the past. 
A RECENT Statistical inquiry into the work- 
ing of the system of German universities dur- 
ing the last half-century, is a model of pains- 
taking research and accuracy. ‘The author 
is Dr. I. Conrad of Halle, well known as 
a professor of political science; and the vol- 
ume before us is the fifteenth paper in a 
series of studies produced, under his direc- 
tion, by the seminary at Halle, of which he is 
the director. We might almost as well en- 
deavor to cull interesting facts from a volume 
No. 61.—1884. 
of the census as to draw from these pages, 
crowded with statistical tables, and illustrated 
by numerous diagrams, examples of the im- 
portant and curious lessons brought out by this 
study. One fact, however, is so patent, and 
is such an index of the social condition of 
Germany, that it is worth mentioning. Dur- 
ing the last thirty years the attendance on the 
seven universities of old Prussia has enormous- 
ly increased, and especially since 1874, when 
there was a brief temporary retrograde. All 
the faculties, except that of Roman-catholic 
theology, show this increase ; but that of phi- 
losophy has gained far the most, as might 
indeed be surmised from the growth of modern 
departments of scientific instruction. In all 
the universities of Germany, similar progress 
may be seen. In the decade prior to 1850 
(the period of 1848) there was a diminution 
in the aggregate attendance; in the next two 
decades there was a slight increase: but since 
1870 the number of students has rapidly 
augmented. Philosophy has: gained most, 
law next, medicine next, and then protestant 
theology. Catholic theology alone has less fol- 
lowers in these institutions than it had twenty 
years ago. A summary carefully prepared, 
of these two hundred and fifty pages, would 
make an excellent contribution to an American 
journal of education. A kindred study of the 
attendance upon American colleges, such as 
Dr. Barnard of Columbia college initiated a 
few years ago, would make an admirable basis 
for the inquiries now in progress as to possible 
improvements in our institutions of learning. 
Is there not some agency in this country by 
which this investigation may be promoted ? 
THERE has not yet appeared any good and 
. trustworthy illustration of a tornado at work, 
in spite of the comparatively common occur- 
rence of these storms within sight of many 
observers. This is natural enough, to be sure ; 
for in addition to the difficulty of the subject, 
