June 11, 1886 ] 



SCIENCE. 



517 



tion changing the general administration of the 

 office, unless the proposed abolition of the ' study- 

 room ' and of the school at Fort Meyer be con- 

 sidered such. The commission says that any in- 

 telligent young man of good education can learn 

 every thing necessary to the practical work of an 

 observer in six weeks, and sees no occasion for so 

 elaborate a scheme of instruction as that provided. 

 It is not, however, intended to dispense with the 

 services of the able meteorologists who have been 

 employed by the office. 



On the question of the military control of the 

 meteorological service, the report is extremely 

 mild. It is found that the work is in no sense 

 military, and that military discipline and law are 

 not necessary to its efficiency. If the question were 

 a new one, whether a civilian bureau with a civil 

 head should be established rather than an exten- 

 sion of a military bureau, the commission would 

 recommend this rather than a military organiza- 

 tion. As the matter stands, the commission is 

 equally divided on the question of leaving the ser- 

 vice in its present hands. Three do not see why 

 it cannot be as well managed by the chief signal- 

 officer of the army as by a civilian head ; three 

 think such a head necessary to its efficiency. All, 

 however, are in favor of cutting down the mili- 

 tary staff as it now exists. As with the other 

 bureaus, the commission does not find that con- 

 gress can advantageously define the operations of 

 the signal -office by other legislation than such 

 limitations as may be imposed on expenditures in 

 framing the appropriation bills. 



The principal minority report is signed by Sen- 

 ator Morgan and Representative Herbert. It con- 

 sists largely ot severe criticisms upon the work of 

 both the coast and geological surveys. The topo- 

 graphical system of the coast survey is strongly 

 condemned on the score of extravagance in delin- 

 eating minute features of no use whatever to the 

 navigator, and of little or no use to any one else. 

 It favors the transfer of the office to the navy, 

 and would abolish entirely the further prosecution 

 of other geodetic measurements than are neces- 

 sary to map-making. 



Such are the main points of the report. Com- 

 ment is unnecessary, because there is no reason- 

 able chance of legislation on the subject. The 

 surveys will be left, as they have heretofore been 

 left, in the hands of the appropriation committees. 

 It is expected that the house committee will sym- 

 pathize with the minority rather than the ma- 



jority, so far at least as the coast survey is con- 

 cerned, and will therefore be disposed to reduce 

 the appropriations to the lowest limit, and perhaps 

 cut clown the force also. 



HATCHING, REARING, AND TRANSPLANT- 

 ING LOBSTERS. 



The experiments of Dannevig in hatching the 

 ova of the European lobster, naturally awakened 

 an interest in the propagation of the American 

 species, which, as has been shown by Mr. Rath- 

 bun, is becoming less abundant on what were 

 formerly the best lobster-fishing grounds on our 

 coast. This depletion of the supply of lobsters is 

 very probably due in large part to the fact that 

 vast numbers of females are annually caught and 

 killed, together with the many thousands of eggs 

 hanging to their abdominal legs. It happens in 

 this way that not only the individuals most di- 

 rectly concerned in reproducing their species are 

 destroyed, but that almost countless millions of 

 partly developed young are also sacrificed, in the 

 ordinary process of supplying the markets with 

 this crustacean. 



Recent experiments under the direction of Capt. 

 H. C. Chester at the U. S. fish-commission station 

 at Wood's Holl, Mass. , have demonstrated that it is 

 possible to hatch the ova of the lobster in unlimit- 

 ed quantities in the same device in which the ova 

 of the cod were successfully hatched last year. The 

 eggs, at any stage, may, in fact, be removed from 

 the parent female without injuring her, or an ap- 

 preciable number of ova making up the masses of 

 eggs hanging to her swimmerets. The eggs, if 

 then placed in the hatching-apparatus, w T ill de- 

 velop and become embryos, which will free them- 

 selves from then investing envelopes in due course 

 of time. The length of the period of incubation 

 is not known, as artificial fertilization of the eggs 

 of this creature is not practicable ; though with 

 greater experience, and a wider range of accurate 

 observation, it may soon be possible to state the 

 length of that period pretty accurately. The 

 approach toward the completion of development 

 in the egg is marked by the gradual diminution 

 in the bulk of the yelk, as a result of which the 

 eggs become more and more translucent ; so that, 

 by the time they are ready to hatch, they are 

 dirty-yellowish in color instead of dark greenish- 

 brown as at first. At the same time the ova be- 

 come larger by about one-half their original 

 diameter. Towards the close of the period of 

 development, the eggs also lose their original 

 globular form, and become decidedly oval. Dur- 

 ing the later stages of development the eggs show 



