126 



NAT DEAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



short for the work that is to be 

 done — the verification of the lec- 

 tures or the study of some forms 

 kindred to those presented by the 

 instructors. 



Let us go about the room dur- 

 ing one of these experimental 

 hours. We may find some stu- 

 dents watching the development 

 of newly fertilized eggs of oysters 

 or squids. Here a young man is 

 working out the nervous system of 

 a species of worm — no easy task. 

 We notice that a group is studying 

 the lobster. They are at various 

 stages of progress; one lady is 

 making careful drawings of each 

 of the appendages, while another 

 is already tracing the digestive 

 tract, and a third is finding the 

 chain of nerve ganglia and their 

 connections. The instructors 

 are going about from place to 

 place, adjusting a lens for one 

 student, directing a cross section 

 here, advising a better mode of 

 procedure, helping or suggesting, 

 as the case may be, but always at- 

 tentive and unflagging in interest. 



Many students are taking two 

 courses, and in the afternoon two 

 more lectures are given; one in the 

 course in botany, by Prof. John- 

 son, of Michigan University, the 

 other by Prof. Conn, on bacteriol- 

 ogy. The afternoon laboratory 

 work is largely botanical. Here is 

 an enthusiast who has scarcely 

 been seen since the day of his ar- 

 rival without a quantity of mush- 

 rooms about him; he draws them 

 makes water color sketches of 

 them, dries them, labels them, 

 calls your attention to their beau- 

 ties and peculiariites — does every- 

 thing but eat them. Across the 

 room we find several students are 

 making slides. Their skill and 

 success is evident if they invite 

 you to look through their micro- 

 scopes, for you find they have 

 captured sea anemones and hy- 

 droids with tentacles spread, and 

 the delicate forms have all the in- 

 terest of a living specimen, save 

 that they are motionless. 



The students may be divided in- 

 to three general classes: First, 

 investigators who are working 

 toward Ph. D. degrees in some 

 college or university; second, 

 teachers of science who have come 

 to learn better methods, to get 

 laboratory practice and to find out 

 the latest opinions on unsettled 

 questions in science; for example, 

 whether both botanists and zoolo- 

 gists are still claiming volvex. 

 The third class is composed of the 

 youngest students, who are still 

 undergraduates in college, or are 



supplementing the work which 

 they have just completed there, 

 preparatory to teaching or other 

 practical science work. Most of 

 these are from Wesleyan Univer- 

 sity. 



But whatever the attainments or 

 objects of all these students, there 

 is no discounting the zeal and en- 

 thusiasm with which they study. 

 The generous willingness to show 

 what they find out so characteris- 

 tic of the great scientists prevails 

 here. Not a day passes but we 

 see as interesting objects through 

 other microscopes as our own. 



The later parts of the day are 

 devoted more or less to bathing, 

 boating on the harbor or one of 

 the ponds close by, or to rambles 

 in the tempting woods. The 

 wheelmen are among us, of course, 

 and come into breakfast or dinner 

 with cyclometer records that fill us 

 with amazement, but which they 

 assure us are quite within the 

 bounds of moderation. Some- 

 times we have an evening of col- 

 lege songs, jolly, rollicking and 

 care-dispelling as nothing else 

 can be. 



Once a week an evening lecture, 

 semi-popular in its character, is 

 given, and to this residents and 

 summer dwellers or visitors at 

 Cold Spring Harbor are invited. 

 Prof. Conn opened the course with 

 a suggestive lecture on "Evolu- 

 tion." Prof. Fernald followed 

 with a charming account of "Three 

 Months in the Bahamas," 



This week we have had an illus- 

 trated lecture on our common 

 wild flowers by Mr. Van Brunt, of 

 New York. The beautiful colored 

 photographs which he shows are 

 his own and his wife's work, and 

 very difficult to make, he says, 

 "because the flowers are so full of 

 life and move so much." But 

 they have succeeded in getting 

 pictures as poetic as they are true. 



Reference has already been 

 made to Prof. Conn's course to 

 lectures on bacteriology. His in- 

 vestigations in this field, which 

 have put him among the foremost 

 bacteriologists, are carried on at 

 the laboratory during the summer. 

 Some ninety colonies of bacteria 

 are under examination, the prepar- 

 ation of their culture media, their 

 sterilization and that of the uten- 

 sils used about them, the daily 

 record of growth, multiplication, 

 etc. — all this work is carried on 

 under Prof. Conn's direction by 

 his students and assistants. In 

 time these ninety colonies will be 

 differentiated and their value or 

 deleterious effects will be tested. 



Besides this work, the cultiva- 

 tion of Prof. Conn's famous "Bac- 

 illus Number 4:" is carried on 

 here, and from here it is mailed to 

 creameries far and near where it 

 has been adopted. The fact is 

 that the application of this bacillus 

 to butter making is revolutioniz- 

 ing the business, for not only does 

 its introduction into the cream 

 give a superior flavor to the but- 

 ter, but it also makes it keep bet- 

 ter. Already, some Iowa cream- 

 eries have made between $20,000 

 and $30,000 by its use, for the 

 reason that whereas they were for- 

 merly not able to get their butter 

 into the seaboard markets soon 

 enough to command the highest 

 price, now they do, for they can 

 sell their products for fresh butter. 



This practical outcome of inves- 

 tigation with the bacteria which 

 thrive in milk can hardly fail to 

 act as a stimulus to some students 

 at the laboratory to persevere in 

 their patience-taxing study, and it 

 is not unlikely that the world may 

 some day see important results 

 from their work. To the students 

 least ambitious for renown or re- 

 ward of any sort there is a stimul- 

 us in the thought of Mr. Benjam- 

 in Kidd that "in our time biology 

 has been raised from a mere record 

 of isolated facts to a majestic story 

 of orderly progress." — A. D., Cold 

 Spring Harbor, L. I., in Scientific 

 American. 



September Insects. 



Few new insects make their ap- 

 pearance for the season during this 

 month. Most of the species which 

 abound in the early part of the 

 month are the August forms, which 

 live until they are killed by the 

 frosts late in the month. From 

 this cause there is towards the end 

 of the month a very sensible di- 

 minution of the number of insects. 



The early frosts warn these del- 

 icate creatures of approaching cold. 

 Hence the whole insect population 

 is busied late in the month in look- 

 ing out snug winter quarters, or 

 providing for the continuance of 

 the species. W. rned by the cool 

 and frosty nights, multitudes of 

 caterpillars prepare to spin their 

 dense silken cocoons, which guard 

 them against frost and cold. Such 

 are the "Spinners," as the Ger- 

 mans call them, the Silk moths, of 

 which the American Silk worm is 

 a fair example. The last of Sep- 

 tember it spins its dense cocoon, 

 in which it hibernates in the chry- 

 salis state. 



