428 



SCIEXCE, 



[Vol. VII., No. 171 



was officially settled by the board of overseers 

 last week. The subject has excited great interest, 

 because Harvard is generally looked to as the 

 leader in the matter of higher education in this 

 country ; and it was pretty generally felt that 

 whatever course Harvard should take in this 

 regard would be quite generally followed, in the 

 course of time, by ether institutions of learning. 

 Pending the settlement of the question, — and it 

 was one which a conscientious president or over- 

 seer could not settle in a day, — the Harvard au- 

 thorities and one or two of the professors have 

 been subjected in some quarters to a criticism 

 which was as unnecessary as ill-timed. A de- 

 liberative body of any force of character is not to 

 be deterred from doing its duty as it sees it, by 

 the noisy clamor and abuse of ex-parte advocates. 

 The subject is now settled, and it will give gen- 

 eral satisfaction when it is known that the guid- 

 ing principle of the solution found is unsectarian 

 Christianity. Whether this will be found possible 

 of attainment in practice is a question, but the 

 overseers have provided for it as best they 

 could. Rev. Francis S. Peabody becomes Plum- 

 mer professor of Christian morals, and head of 

 the department of religious instruction in the 

 college. He will also be the university pastor. 

 As coadjutors, Professor Peabody is to have five 

 college preachers, who are to be clergymen of 

 reputation and large experience. These college 

 preachers will, with the professor, have charge of 

 the chapel services and of the religious instruc- 

 tion. As we understand the scheme, each college 

 preacher is appointed for a year, but fulfils the 

 duties of his position only one-fifth of the time. 

 In this way a constant succession of able clergy- 

 men of various denominations will be in co-opera- 

 tion with Professor Peabody. In theory this plan 

 seems excellent, but we shall await its practical 

 application with interest and not a little incre- 

 dulity. 



That scientific men believe that the claim of 

 Pasteur has merit enough to entitle it to investi- 

 gation, if not to credence, is evidenced by the 

 fact that commissions are being sent to Paris to 

 examine into the methods now practised for the 

 prevention of rabies. The English government 

 has appointed such a commission, having selected 

 some of the most eminent men in the kingdom. 

 Sir James Paget, T. Lauder Brunton, Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, and Burdon Sanderson are names which 

 will satisfy every one that justice and caution 



will be exercised in the inquiry. Germany, by 

 the selection of Virchow and Koch, has shown 

 her interest in the matter. The Academy of med- 

 icine of Rome has sent delegates for the same 

 purpose ; while the Archduke Charles Theodore of 

 Bavaria, a physician, has started for Paris to 

 make an investigation on his own account. It 

 would seem reasonable to expect some decided 

 results from an investigation made by such talent- 

 ed men as most of them are known to be, and 

 that the truth or falsity of Pasteur's claim was in a 

 fair way to be established beyond a peradventure. 



It is to be hoped that congress will not fail to 

 pass the bill authorizing the appointment of a 

 commission to inquire into the merits of inoculation 

 for the prevention of yellow-fever. This bill was 

 introduced at the instance of Dr. Joseph Holt of 

 New Orleans, and has received the indorsement 

 of the American public health association. From 

 the daily press we learn that the physicians of the 

 military garrison at Vera Cruz have already com- 

 menced inoculations for the prevention of yellow- 

 fever. The material employed is injected hypo- 

 dermically at intervals of eight days. Such a 

 commission as could be selected from this country 

 could establish the value of this method of pre- 

 vention of yellow-fever, so strongly advocated by 

 Freire and Carmona. 



A TASK FOR ANATOMISTS. 

 "Wallace," writes Oscar Schmidt, "might 

 well say that we live in a world which is zoologi- 

 cally very impoverished, and from which the 

 hugest, wildest, and strangest forms have now 

 disappeared." But old as the world appears, who 

 shall say that it has passed or even reached matur- 

 ity — if so be that worlds, like animals, have their 

 day, as some have been bold enough to assert? It 

 is true that the fishes no longer predominate, that 

 the reptiles have dwindled into insignificance, and 

 that of the mammals only a handful of great forms 

 remain. But another type, the last to appear, and, 

 of all, the most notable, — man, — is in the as- 

 cendant. His age is but begun. If we look upon 

 the world of to-day as poorly furnished with strik- 

 ing animal forms, what must be the verdict of the 

 man of the fiftieth or sixtieth century, when Eu- 

 rope will be a chain of cities, Africa and South 

 America densely peopled continents, and North 

 America the home of a population to be counted 

 by hundreds of millions ! The increase of pow- 

 erful appliances for the subjection of the earth to 

 human needs, within the memory of men now 



