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SCIENCE. 
SCIENCE: 
A Weekly Record of Scientific 
Progress. 
JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 
Published at 
229 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
P. O. Box 3838. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1880. 
The annual session of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science has been most bril- 
liantly opened in Boston. The intellectual force now 
concentrated there will soon be flowing through all 
the channels of knowledge. Our columns next week 
will contain our reporter’s account of the proceed- 
ings, and will be enriched by an address, in full, of 
the distinguished retiring President, Professor George 
F. Barker, whose learning and devotion to Science 
alone placed him in that elevated position. We have 
also obtained valuable and interesting papers by Pro- 
fessors Agassiz, Hall of Washington, and other distin- 
guished participants, which will duly appear. 
Mr. Paget Higgs, the well-known English electri- 
cal engineer, now in Boston, has given his opinion, 
through the New York Herald (August 27), on the 
durability of electric motors and their actual return in 
work. As the general introduction of Edison’s elec- 
trodyramo-machine is being anxiously looked for 
wherever a constant supply of cheap power is neces- 
sary, it becomes of the first importance to consumers 
to know how long the new engines will last. Mr. 
Higgs’ positive statement of their length of life will 
no doubt confirm many small manufacturers in New 
York in their intention to profit by this convenient 
source of power, which, rumor says, will soon be gen- 
erally placed at their disposal. Mr. Higgs has run 
some of the older and less perfect electro-motors 
since 1867, and finds them to-day in perfect condi. 
tion. As the fruit of his own experiment and obser- 
vation of the work of the most experienced European 
electricians, Mr. Higgs emphatically denies that there 
is any extraordinary loss in using them to communi- 
cate power at a distance. 
We drew attention to an educational scheme 
which has been recently inaugurated at the Paris Ob- 
servatory for the purpose of training young astrono- 
mers. It may be interesting in this connection to 
know that Professor Stone, of the Cincinnati Obser- 
vatory, has for a number of years been quietly but 
successfully pursuing a plan in almost every respect 
identical with that more recently inaugurated in Paris. 
A small number of selected graduates are admitted 
as students at the Observatory, pursue a systematic 
course of study in theoretical and practical Astronomy, 
and upon its successful completion receive a post- 
graduate degree from the authorities of the University. 
The course of study carried on at the Paris Obser- 
vatory is described in Science, August 14th. If there 
are other Observatories in the United States offering 
the same facilities as those initiated by Professor 
Stone, we shall be glad to hear from those who can 
give authentic information. 
We are not surprised that universal regret is ex- 
pressed at the loss by the New York Fishery Commis- 
sion of their annual appropriation. It appears to be 
acknowledged that the Commission was doing good 
work, and we trust their present difficulties are but 
temporary, and will be removed when the matter can 
be considered by the Legislature. 
We think the Commissioners would strengthen 
their hands in efforts to obtain a renewal of their 
appropriation, if they gave some attention to the 
coarser kinds of fish, the supply of which appears to 
be practically unlimited at our very doors, and yet 
for unaccountable reasons is retailed at exorbitant 
prices, even averaging that of meat. 
Fish is a natural food product for the poor of cities 
situated on the coast, but the dealers combine to 
make it an expensive luxury, by limiting the supply. 
We are even told that they destroy it, rather than 
effect sales below the prices they have arbitrarily fixed. 
There appears to be little encouragement for the 
Legislature to grant appropriations to increase the 
supply of fish and lower its price, if the dealers in 
combination have finally the power to limit the supply 
and to create an artificial value. 
As one of the New York Fishery Commissioners is 
himself one of those who are most largely interested 
in the sale of fish, his knowledge on the subject must 
be considerable, and he would certainly promote the 
interest of the Commission by assisting to remove the 
evil of which we complain. While it may be a good work 
to load the table of the epicure with choice fish, it 
should be more satisfactory to restore to the poorer 
classes an article of food which nature has supplied 
with such a bountiful hand, 
