SCIENCE. 
*53 
SCIENCE: 
A Weekly Record of Scientific 
Progress. 
JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 
Published at 
229 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
P. O. Box 3838. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1880. 
An article in the North American Review , 
over the signature of Edison, confirms our editorial 
remarks, made on the 10th of July last, respecting 
the true condition of his system of electric illumin- 
ation. 
The course of Edison has been consistent, and 
from first to last he has emphatically stated that the 
results arrived at last January practically demon- 
strated the success of his system for the ends in 
view, and that nothing remained to be done but to 
improve his lamp and generator, to bring both 
to as near a state of perfection as a long series 
of exhaustive experiments would permit. 
Of course, Edison has also had to master the 
enormous mass of details incident to the practical 
working of his electric lamp on a large scale for 
general use, and that he has accomplished both 
tasks within a year must be a matter of astonish- 
ment to all who have any conception of the work 
done ; but Edison seems born to overcome diffi- 
culties that appall other men, and the fertility of 
his mental resources appears unbounded. 
In the discussion of scientific questions affecting 
vested interests, impartial treatment and justice to 
the innovator are lost sight of. Better things, how- 
ever, might have been expected from some of those 
who have misled the public in regard to this 
matter. Under the belief that Edison’s electric 
lamp was a failure, thousands of dollars have been 
lost by those who have invested their money in 
electric light companies which have tried to force 
systems of lighting, fundamentally wrong in prin- 
ciple, and ridiculously unfit for general illuminating 
purposes. 
There is one fact which places the sincerity of 
Edison above reproach ; he has left the merit of his 
system of electrical illumination to assert its own 
supremacy with the public, and has neither para- 
ded his light in great cities, nor gone on a lectur- 
ing tour, as other eminent inventors have done ; 
and lastly, he has spent thousands upon thousands 
of dollars in perfecting his system. 
On his system of electric illumination Edison has 
staked his time, money, and reputation. He now 
states that he has succeeded. Let those who are 
wise accept the situation. 
— We see by a notice in a recent number of the 
Veterinary Gazette that a French palaeontologist has 
discovered the osseous remains of an extinct species 
of horse at one of the “ palaeolithic stations ” in his 
country. The species resembled our recent horse 
more closely than any other fossil species, but the re- 
markable feature was noted that the so-called “ splint 
bones” (the lateral metacarpals) are separate and dis- 
tinct from the great metacarpal or “canon bone,” 
while in the modern horse these are co-ossified for the 
greater part of the length of the former. It thus 
constitutes a connecting link between the Hipparion 
and Equis genera. The number of fossil remnants 
discovered indicated that over a hundred thousand 
animals ho. d perished in that locality, and the expla- 
nation gi-J en for this accumulation is that a large herd 
of anima\s, seized with that panic that horse-herds 
are liable to, rushed over a precipice and were thus 
killed en masse. A fuller account is promised in 
Kostnos, the journal from which the notice is taken> 
and we will refer to it in due time more fully. 
■, There appears to be an uneasy feeling in cer- 
tain English scientific circles ; the complaint is 
openly made that the recognition of science (when 
compared with that received from society by the 
liberal arts) is inadequate, and calls for an im- 
mediate remedy. Contributions, to be levied 
from the State, and distinctions to be conferred 
by Government or the Crown, are suggested, and 
one writer proposes that new life peerages should be 
conferred on eminent scientific men, the titles being 
endowed with the salary of a junior lord, which, we 
believe is about five or ten thousand dollars a 
year ; the selection in some cases to be made from 
the holders of certain offices, such as the Master of 
the Mint, the Astronomer Royal, or the Presidents 
of the Royal Society and British Association. 
THE AUGUST PERSEIDS, 1880. 
Bv Edwin F. Sawyer. 
The annual display of August meteors occurring 
during the first half of the month, with a strong max- 
imum on the 9th and 10th, has been watched for this 
year with the usual attention of meteor observers, and 
a successful series of observations have been ob- 
tained. 
Although little important information has been 
added to our present knowledge of this well-known 
meteor stream, yet its fluctuating intensity from year 
to year is an important element to record. 
The results of the observations so far as heard 
from indicate that the display as observed this year 
exceeded but slightly in intensity the shower as re- 
corded last year, when, instead of a maximum display 
as anticipated being observed, the shower proved to 
be a very meagre one, in fact, representing a mini- 
mum phase of its return. Thus the existence of an 
eight-year period for this shower, as suspected and 
pointed out by Dr. Phipson,* appears to lack con- 
firmation. 
* See his work entitled 14 Meteors, Aerolites and Falling Stars,” page 
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