2 
WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
GEORGE A. WILD. 
[DIED AT LAS ANIMAS, COL., NOV. 12, 1881.] 
We regretfully announce the death of George 
A. Wild, a young man formerly in the employ of 
this establishment, and of whom brief mention 
was made in the Historical Sketch in the last 
number of our Bulletin. 
He belonged to that band of patient, plodding- 
workers in the walks of science of whom the 
great outside world hears little or nothing, and 
who, dying early, are destined to leave their im- 
press more particularly on those immediately sur- 
rounding them. Coming to this establishment in 
1876, fresh from the Illinois Industrial University 
(through which he had characteristically worked 
his way unassisted), with the tone and vigor of 
the Great West in his veins, his willing hands 
and earnest mind soon conquered the respect and 
admiration of those with whom he came in con- 
tact, as the writer hereof can abundantly testify. 
Endowed with an intellect neither exceptionally 
acute nor many-sided, his patient and untiring 
industry, seconded by an excellent memory, ena- 
bled him to conquer for himself what greater 
ability and less power of application would have 
utterly failed to accomplish. While adhering 
tenaciously to his opinions, he commanded atten- 
tion by that wholesome respect for himself and 
faith in his own abilities common to those who, 
unaided, work their way successfully through 
life. He kept his object constantly in view. 
After his brief sojourn here— where he applied 
himself zealously to the practical work of taxid- 
ermy and osteology (often working until late at 
night) — he returned in January, 1878, to take 
charge of the museum of his college. In the au- 
tumn of 1880 he went abroad to pursue his favor- 
ite science, under Prof. Huxley, where he distin- 
guished himself, and later, under Prof. Balfoui, 
when ill-health compelled him to relinquish his 
studies and return home in J une last. Going to 
Colorado to regain his health, he died there of 
pulmonary disease on November 12th, in the 27th 
year of his age, when almost ready to entei on 
original work. He lived just long enough to say : 
‘ ‘ In nature’s infinite book of secrecy a little 
have I read.” 
In his death the fact is once more forced upon 
us of the wonders that patience and perseverence 
will accomplish, even in a short time; and that 
other more saddening, but so often associated 
fact, that neglect of necessary rest will do much 
to destroy the most vigorous, and may abruptly 
terminate what might otherwise prove a highly 
useful career. F. Y\ . S. 
Scientific Demands. 
BY PROF. W. S. BARNARD, OF CORNELL 
UNIVERSITY. 
The many great biological questions which 
have come up for public discussion within the 
last few years have aroused general interest in 
most zoological matters, revivifying the materials 
of museums, giving them new interest and im- 
portance. This is also being intensified by the 
adoption of the objective system of instruction 
in schoois and colleges. Laboratory studies on 
actual specimens, and class observation of real 
things put in the hands of students must be em- 
ployed hereafter instead of books and the imagi- 
nation as the means of imparting available 
knowledge of the forms and stiuctuies of natural 
objects. Information thus obtained can be prac- 
tically applied in after life, whereas if gained 
from books or oral instruction alone, it is liable 
to be forgotten soon and so unnaturally fanciful 
that the things learned of are not known token 
seen. Nothing is better calculated to develop 
originality of observation, thought and investi- 
gation, or the linguistic power of describing 
accurately, than to be taught by nature herself 
and speak what she dictates. 
The recent rapid advances in science have cre- 
ated strong demands for this kind of education, 
and those institutions which do not provide nec- 
essary equipments with which to afford it will 
certainly be regarded as behind the times and of 
low rank, besides being damaged by the reputa- 
tion of having poor appointments. The natural 
sciences must now be properly taught, not only 
to specialists, but in all general courses, and for 
no profession or calling is a man qualified with- 
out them. 
These facts, their practical bearings on all the 
applied sciences, and the endless source of enter- 
tainment which they afford cannot fail to im- 
press us that biological and other natural studies 
have at present assumed an importance of the 
highest order. 
Some Queer Science. 
The kind of science furnished forth by the gen- 
erality of newspaper and magazine writers, and 
disseminated by certain popular lecturers, is 
already sufficiently notorious, but some, out of a 
number of illustrations which the writer recently 
happened on, may be interesting from a humor- 
ous point of view. Such “science,” indeed, as 
the “Rev.” Joseph Cook inflicted on an Edin- 
burgh public early in the year, and which one of 
the British medical journals declined to charac- 
terize, on the ground that it would be “ insulting 
to the sense of its readers,” is, in some aspects, 
saddening. The alcohol-and-egg experiment is 
here alluded to, where the aforesaid gentleman 
showed the effects of liquor on the albumen in 
the human body by coagulating the albumen of an 
egg with alcohol ! That there are many persons 
unacquainted with the facts who accept such 
stuff seriously is, alas, only too true, and this de- 
tracts from what in another light would be 
intensely amusing. 
Again, where such statements as the following, 
taken from a certain text- book on Zoology, are 
taught as fact, the mischief they do quite over- 
balances their comicality. In a note on the habits 
of the sloth, the author says: 
“ In avoiding pursuit they spring from tree to 
tree with great rapidity , particularly in a gale of 
wind, when the branches are swaying toward 
one another. Their flesh is good eating, and 
they need all their agility to escape their numer- 
ous enemies.” 
This is certainly the newest contribution to our 
knowledge of an animal whose very name is sup- 
posed to indicate its habits, and which credible 
observers assert is captured by being literally 
pulled from the tree. 
A slip of the pen may charitably be assumed 
to, in part, account for the above, but such slips 
are dangerous. 
In Scliwatka’s recently-published volume are 
two bits nearly as good, as where the snipe is 
alluded to as a “sweet little songster,” whose 
melody is a “simple, sweet song, somewhat simi- 
lar to the lark’s,” thus flatly contradicting that 
much older opinion: 
“ ‘ The lark,’ says he, 
1 Has got a wild, fantastic pipe, 
But no more music than a snipe ’ 
and where we are told, in another place, that 
with Eskimo dogs “ often twenty days will inter 
vene between meals. ” 
In the April Scribner that genial writer and 
usually accurate observer, John Burroughs, 
gravely relates a story (repeated from “A Re- 
cent American Traveler in Mexico”) of a “^Mex- 
ican black squirrel nearly as large as a cat,” cap- 
tured by some boys, and which, in escaping from 
its captors, was compelled to jump “ down a 
precipice six hundred feet high,” where it “landed 
on a ledge of limestone, * * * and scamp- 
ered away.” He naively remarks that 1 ‘ the story 
at first blush seems incredible,” but hastens to 
add that he does not doubt it. Unfortunately, 
however, sober fact compels us to say that even 
at the hundredth blush the story would be equally 
incredible. In the first place, there is no Ameri- 
can squirrel nearly the size of a cat — the one re- 
ferred to being, probably, Sciurus hypopyrrhus ; 
in the second place, six hundred feet is too great 
a height for any mammal to fall from without 
injury, since even monkeys are known to break 
their limbs in falling from trees whose measure 
is no comparison with this vast abyss. 
In a little periodical issued by a Natural Sci- 
ence Society in a New Jersey town, a writer pro- 
mulgates as his opinion that the curious concre- 
tionary structure known as “cone-in-cone” is a 
group of fossil cup corals ! and mineralogists will 
surely appreciate the following extract from an 
otherwise excellent work on popular science 
(“The Earth and its Treasures,”) in speaking of 
Pyrite, as: 
“The sulphuretted ore of iron which mineralo- 
gists call Pyrites, or Yellow Pyrites, is known in 
jewelry by the name of Marcassite. Its crystal- 
ization belongs to the cubic hemsedric system, 
with parallel faces; * * * its color is some- 
times an iron-gray, and sometimes a yellow, like 
rich milk, or even gold. It is found principally 
in Peru. ” 
This is a sample of the absurdity which ipex- 
actness in statement is apt to confer. Occasion- 
ally, however, such choice bits as the following, 
written years ago when the Connecticut Yalley 
tracks were supposed to be ornithic, and due to 
a slip of the pen, will escape the most searching 
proof-reader: “The Brontozoa were probably 
scansores, like the Ostrich and Dinornis.” Imag- 
ine the ostrich coolly climbing a tree — but whis- 
per it gently, for man is but mortal, and that 
passage was^written in this establishment. 
But to refer once more to the more serious 
phase of the subject, what shall be said of such 
“science” as the following, which appeared in 
a Western educational journal, under the heading 
of “The Remarkable Planetary Phenomena of 
1881: 
“ We are told that our planet is entering a 
magnetic condition relative to other bodies in the 
solar system; that during this period— termed the 
“perihelion passage” — great physical changes 
will be wrought upon the earth’s surface; mighty 
and continued earthquakes and deluges in vari- 
ous quarters of the globe, accompanied by fam- 
ine, war and pestilence. These are among the 
terrors which may be looked for during this re- 
markable epoch. This period began about the 
middle of the year 1880, and will continue until 
about the close of the year 1885. The most start- 
ling phenomena occurring during this time will 
be about 1881-2, or thereafter.” 
After reciting numerous conjunctions of plan- 
ets to occur in 1881, “all in the sign Taurus” 
(which would seem to exert a potent influence on 
mundane affairs), the article proceeds: 
“.As Asia Minor was declared by Ptolemy to 
be ruled or influenced by Taurus, and as Zadkiel 
says disastrous events befell those countries dur- 
ing the last conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter 
in the sign Taurus, in the year 1146, we shall 
await with interest the development of events in 
those countries in 1881 and the years immediately 
following.” 
Then come more quotations from the astrologic 
ravings of “ Raphael, another English astrologer 
of celebrity,” and his predictions of “a general 
European war and great pestilence in 1881, more 
especially in places influenced by Taurus,” and 
then — 
“ These and many similar prophetic perihelion 
consequences are common in all astral ephemeris 
for 1881. It is worthy of note that Zadkiel fore- 
told, within six days, the assassination of the late 
Czar of Russia. And many truthful sign read- 
ings are, indeed, a matter of record. In the 
cabala nine is a mystic number, signifying 
“completion,” and 1881 has the singular prop- 
erty of being divisible thus: l-|-8=9; 8-i-l=9. 
Nine is a peculiar number, for in all its multiples 
the sum is nine”— a very important and novel 
fact — after which the question is asked, “ What, 
then, do. these mystic numbers portend?” which 
is answered in the following lucid fashion : 
“Pythagoras said: ‘ Numbers and music are the 
principles of the entire universe, that the world 
is regulated by numerical harmony.’” 
If science is, as Huxley says, only the educated 
common sense of mankind, we must look else- 
where for it. F. W. Staebner. 
