428 
specially economical advantages. It would, in 
short, be wasteful of the public purse. 
Tue recent glacial studies in the western 
states, mentioned in our notes, serve to call 
attention to more than their technical result. 
Important as this is, we believe a greater value 
lies in their standing as an example of non- 
professional work. <A problem of the greatest 
interest has been successfully attacked, not by 
organized state surveys, but by persevering 
private enterprise, in time spared from regular 
pursuits ; and success in such an endeavor is 
a hopeful sign of our progress toward the more 
popular and practical appreciation of theoreti- 
cal geology, that has been fairly attained in 
England and Switzerland. We trust there may 
be many others working to the same end on 
the numerous problems that await them. The 
evidence found by Mr. Wright to suggest 
the former existence of a glacial dam across the 
Ohio, so as to form a long, irregular lake above 
Cincinnati, has been eagerly accepted by some 
of the Pennsylvania geologists to explain the 
high-level terraces farther up the river-valley. 
The southern _Shore- line of this hypothetical 
Jake remains to be searched for, and, in con- 
nection with the physical history of the Ohio, 
forms a most attractive problem for detailed 
local study. The shore-lines of the Great 
Lakes, in the once expanded condition as 
marked by the lake-terraces, are also subjects 
for patient tracing from town to town. Scat- 
tered observations on them are already old. 
How long must we wait before local observers 
give a full picture of these inland seas? 
Ir is time for a reform in the relations ex- 
isting between the public and the college-pro- 
fessor, as regards the asking and giving of 
advice on matters which are not educational in 
character. We suppose that every professor is 
willing to answer questions that pertain to edu- 
cation or to pure science, — not only willing, 
but glad to do so, if there is a fair prospect 
that the answer will be of real assistance ; but 
it does not follow that he ought to answer ques- 
tions bearing upon business-matters. Why, 
SCIENCE. 
for instance, should a chemist known to us be 
expected to comply with such requests as, 
‘ Please give me asketch of Glinsky’s dephleg- 
mator?’ ‘ Would papier-maché be a good sub- 
stitute for leather in the manufacture of shoe- 
soles?’ ‘ Please describe an easy method for 
making a complete analysis of water,’ ete. ; 
all of which, besides many others, have been 
received within a few days past? This amounts 
to asking for professional advice, and is to be 
compared with asking the advice of a lawyer 
or physician. No one expects these gentle- 
men to dispense their knowledge freely to all 
comers, and they are protected by the under- 
standing that answers to professional questions 
involve pecuniary compensation. ‘The clergy- 
man is the only professional man, besides the 
professor, who is expected to give advice with- 
out compensation ; but it is not probable that 
his advice in business-matters is often asked. 
Advice in spiritual matters he is, no doubt, 
ever ready to give, as the professor is in edu- 
cational matters ; but if, in addition to being 
a clergyman, he happened at the same time to 
be a physician or a chemist, it is not probable 
that he would feel it to be his duty to answer 
all questions pertaining to medical or chemical 
subjects. 
The view of the matter here taken may ap- 
pear to be a mercenary one, but that is not the 
point we wish toemphasize. We desire simply 
that the professor should be protected from un- 
necessary demands upon his time. If it were 
once understood that he is not expected to give 
free advice to any one who may care to ask for 
it, he would be saved a great deal of annoy- 
ance, and much time, which could, and presum- 
ably would, be put to better use. If the notion 
could once be spread abroad that a letter ask- 
ing advice must be accompanied by a certain 
sum of money, most of the letters of the kind 
now written would never find their way into 
the mails, and the world would be the gainer — 
A simple remedy for the dif-— 
in every way. 
ficulty complained of would appear to consist — 
in ignoring the annoying letters ; but experience 
has shown that this remedy, however simple it 
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