SCIENCE. 
79 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
The following record of original work in progress at Har- 
vard University, forms part of an interesting article by J. R. 
W. Hitchcock, A. B. : 
In the last publication of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, in which, by the way, seven of the eight papers 
are by Harvard investigators, appear the following “ Pro- 
positions in Cosmical Physics,” by Professor Benjamin 
Peirce : 
1. All stellar light emanates from superheated gas. Hence 
the sun and stars are gaseous bodies. 
2. Gaseous bodies, in the process of radiating light and 
heat, condense and become hotter throughout their mass. 
3. It is probable that their surface would become colder 
if there were not an external supply of heat from the collision 
of meteors. 
4. Large celestial bodies are constantly deriving super- 
ficial heat from the collision of meteors, till at length the 
surface becomes superheated gas, which constitution must 
finally extend through the mass. 
5. Small celestial bodies are constantly cooling till they 
become invisible solid meteors. 
6. The heat of space consists of two parts : first, that of 
radiation principally from the stars, which is small, except 
in the immediate vicinity of the stars ; the second portion 
is derived from the velocity with which the meteors strike 
the planet at which the observation is taken ; and this 
velocity partly depends upon the mass of the star by which 
the orbit of the planet is defined, and partly upon the mass 
of the planet itself. 
7. If the planets were originally formed by the collision of 
meteors, it is difficult to account for an initial heat sufficient 
to liquefy them, and, al the same time, to account for their 
subsequent cooling without a great change in the number 
and nature of the meteors ; and an}' such hypothesis seems 
to invalidate the meteoric theory. 
8. If the planets were not originally formed by the colli- 
sion of meteors, their common direction of rotation becomes 
difficult of explanation. 
Professor J. M. Peirce has recently published a set of 
“ Mathematical Tables,” in which the part relating to “ Hy- 
perbolic Functions” is entirely original. Other work in 
this department is represented by Professor Byerly’s “ Dif- 
ferential Calculus” and Mr. Wheeler’s “ Elementary Plane 
and Spherical Trigonometry.” 
The forbidding granite building called “Boylston Hall” 
conceals scenes of strange activity. Unwonted odors irri- 
tate the inexperienced nose of the visitor, and in the labora- 
tories spectral shapes flit backward and forward behind 
clouds of vapor, occasionally lit up by lurid flames. These 
are the students ; but in their private laboratories the pro- 
fessors pursue their own researches. Professor Cooke has 
been dealingwith that unprincipled element, antimony, which 
has obdurately persisted in claiming two atomic weights, 
until he has successfully limited it to one. In connection 
with his laboratory-work. Professor Cooke is preparing a 
new edition of his “ Chemical Philosophy.” The results of 
his inorganic work have appeared from time to time in the 
publications of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
Since the “ Organic Laboratory ” was established, in 1875, 
Professors Hill and Jackson have published twenty-five 
papers giving the results of their work, and have discov- 
ered one hundred new compounds. The discovery of new 
compounds, however, possesses as a rule no special im- 
portance, and is rather incidental to, than the result of, the 
main work. Two examples will indicate somewhat the 
character and object of organic investigations. The compo- 
sition of uric acid has been long known to be Cs^N^Os, 
but its constitution — the exact arrangement of the atoms — 
has been uncertain. Chemists all over the world had en- 
deavored to settle the question, but their failures resulted 
in eleven different formulae for this one substance. Pro- 
fessor Hill, taking this uric acid C5H4N4O3, marked one 
part by replacing H by CH 3 (methyl) ; then treating the 
acid so as to split it up, he determined to which part the 
methyl was attached, and, by continuing his treatment, was 
enabled to reduce the possible formulae from eleven to 
three, with strong probabilities in favor of one. This pos- 
sesses a practical value, inasmuch as it will lead to a knowl- 
edge of the method of formation of uric acid in the animal 
body. Professor Hill’s work on “ Fur ferrol,” found in 
the products of the distillation of wood, is interesting, as 
chlorophyll can probably be obtained from it. 
An example of the curious subtleties of science is af- 
forded bv Professor Jackson’s investigations of anthracene, 
which is obtained from coal-tar, and yields alizarine (mad- 
der-dye), used in dyeing pink and purple calicoes, Turkey 
reds, etc. Anthracene was known to consist of two hexa- 
gons of carbon with hydrogen atoms attached, united by 
two other carbon-atoms. Professor Jackson proved, by 
making anthracene artificially, that these two carbon-atoms 
are united to adjacent corners in each hexagon, thus : 
■'""'C — C — O 
-\ c > 
These are but stray examples of the researches that are 
constantly being made by Professors Hill, Jackson, and 
their assistants. Brom-benzylbromides, parachlorbenzyls, 
and benzaldehyds, however fascinating they may be to 
chemists, would offer few charms to the general reader. 
Since 1841 Dr. Asa Gray has devoted such leisure as he 
could command to his great work “The Flora of North 
America,” a labor the magnitude of which only an exper- 
ienced botanist can appreciate. Mr. Watson, Curator of 
ihe Herbarium, is assisting Professor Gray, and at present 
is classifying the flora of California. The new series of 
botanical text-books, edited by Dr. Gray, will shortly be 
completed. The titles will be as follows : 
1. *• Structure and Morphological Botany of Phaenoga- 
mous Plants,” by Dr. Gray. 
2. “Physiological Botany” (Vegetable Histology and 
Physiology), by Dr. Goodale. 
3. “ Introduction to Cryptogamous Botany,” by Professor 
Farlow. 
4. “Natural Orders of Phaenogamous Plants and their 
Special Morphological Classification, Distribution, Pro- 
ducts,” by Dr. Gray. 
One of the most recent of Dr. Gray’s botanical contribu- 
tions to the Academy of Arts and Sciences was a paper on 
the “ Characters of some New Species of Compositae in 
the Mexican Collection, made by C. C. Parry and Edward 
Palmer,” and a notice of “Some New North American 
Genera, Species, etc.” 
Professor Farlow’s work in cryptogamic botany is doubly 
interesting on account of its direct practical application. 
At the Bussey Institution Professor Farlow has been inves- 
tigating the diseases of plants, and latterly has been en- 
gaged upon algae and fungi. Among his recent work is a 
paper on algae for the United States Fish Commission, an 
examination of the causes of onion-smut and the diseases 
of trees for the Board of Agriculture, and an investigation 
of the algae producing disagreeable tastes and smells in 
water, for the State Board of Health. His work resolves 
itself, speaking generally, into two kinds — one, the abstract 
descriptions and arrangements in families of algae and 
fungi, and the other the detection of fungi in disease. As 
an example of the first, there is a European species of alga 
which constitutes the green scum on stagnant water. Sev- 
eral different varieties may be found in different places, but 
they have all been discovered to belong to the same family. 
To illustrate the second, there is a certain kind of fungus 
on cedar trees, but this has been ascertained to be only a 
first stage, and the fungus in its second stage is found upon 
several members of the apple family. 
Professor Wolcott Gibbs has been carrying on researches 
on complex inorganic acids, and Professors Lovering and 
Trowbridge have been conducting purely physical in- 
vestigations. Professor Trowbridge has introduced a 
method of instruction that necessitates a large amount of 
original research on the part of his students. This consists 
of lectures, given by the students instead of by the instruc- 
tor, to the class. Although all the wcrk at the Observatory 
really comes under the head of original investigation, the 
observations constantly taken in connection with the Ob- 
servatory Time Service resolve themselves into mere rout- 
ine work. An immediate and practical benefit is conferred 
