remarkably accordant results. The fifth part of the volume is a Catalogue of 1,001 southern stars for 1850.0, from observations by Signor P. Tacchini, at Palermo, in the years 1867, 1868, 1869,' by Rev. Father Hagen, S.J., and Edward S. Holden. The original observations had never been reduced to mean place; but being good ones, and in a part of the sky where needed, we have here the anomaly of European work reduced and published in this country; and Father Hagen and Professor Holden are to be highly commended for making it available, while its comparison with Oeltzen's Argelander (south) and the Washington zones served to detect many errors in these catalogues. The sixth part gives the observations of 437 southern stars made with the Washington transit-circle, and also the position of the same stars (whenever occurring) from the catalogues of Yarnall, Gould's zones, and Stone, all the positions being reduced to 1850.0 by Father Hagen. This is the first opportunity for easy comparison on a large scale between these four systems of southern declinations, and the comparison develops the following important differences of north polar-distance: = +1′′.12 (from 220 stars) = 66 66 Yarnall Gould (Z.C.) + 1".96 ( 215 66) Stone 238 = +1′′.00 ( 66 ) It is a rather unexpected anomaly to find the Cordoba zone-catalogue and Stone differing by nearly a second, but that the Washington transitcircle should be so much out will not probably occasion much surprise to any one. The volume closes with a count of the Durchmusterung stars between -2° and 13°, a determination of the constants of some of the other instruments, meteorological observations for 1884, a summary of the same as taken at Madison continuously from 1853 to 1884, and is throughout a highly creditable publication. In his new field at the Lick observatory, Professor Holden will have the satisfaction of having left behind a valuable monument in these three volumes. ARTIFICIAL WINDS. A NOVEL apparatus has been constructed by M. Rougerie, a priest of Pamiers, in France, and brought recently before the French academy of sciences. It gives rise to air currents similar to the great winds of the earth's atmosphere, and hence its name, the anémogène. As described in Engineering, the apparatus consists of a small artificial terrestrial globe put into rapid rotation An in the surrounding air. In fact, it is a miniature of the earth, and by its rapid rotation it gives rise to air currents resembling the trade and other dominant winds of the world. These currents are shown by girouettes placed round the globe at small intervals, like the wind marks on the French marine charts. The apparatus reveals the following facts: The north-east and south-east trades are reproduced, and the equatorial zone of calms caused by their meeting. The gentle breezes from north and south, which disturb the equatorial calms, are also seen. So is the overthrowal of the north-east trade in the south-west monsoons in the gulfs of Oman and Bengal. ascending current in the equatorial regions is shown, and a descending current near the Azores under the centre of maximum barometrical pressure of the North Atlantic; also a descending current is indicated between St. Helena and the meridional coast of Africa, under the centre of maximum barometric pressure of the South Atlantic. At the poles there is a current descending from the zenith. The south-east trade at the Canaries is represented, while at the same time a south wind blows at the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe. Ascending currents from the east and west over Central America combine with the upper returning current of the north-east trade, thus explaining how the ashes of the volcano of Conseguina, on Lake Nicaragua, were transported to Jamaica during the eruption of the 25th of February, 1835. Owing to the defects of construction, the anémogène, however, does not reproduce in a perfect fashion the variable winds between the tropic of Cancer and 50° N. lat., nor the corresponding winds between the tropic of Capricorn and 50 S. lat. In the same way the south-west and north-west winds of 50° N. and S. lat. are not very faithfully imitated. EVERY student of biology knows of Huxley and Martin's Elementary text-book of biology.' Most teachers have either used the book, or been influenced by it in forming or modifying their laboratory courses. But the lack of illustrations, and brevity of the text, made the book to many almost useless. Mr. Howe's atlas (Macmillan) is intended to supplement the text-book in the first of these particulars. Its plates show the student exactly the points to which the text refers. It is a series of twenty-four large plates containing some five hundred figures. Each plate is accompanied by two or three pages of explanation, and the work closes with a few admirable practical directions and a bibliography. In anatomical accuracy the book is all that any one could reasonably desire. The figures, however, differ greatly in clearness and finish. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1885. COMMENT AND CRITICISM. THE RECENT COMPLETION of the new crematory at Mount Olivet, near Brooklyn, has again revived the subject of cremation versus inhumation.' An article by Dr. Rohé of Baltimore, recently published, takes the ground that there is no necessity of any radical change in our method of burial. While we are inclined to agree with him in his conclusions, we must take exception to a number of his statements. He says that, although the impression is general that cemeteries have an unfavorable influence upon the health of those living in the vicinity, there is very little trustworthy evidence to that effect. There is, we think, abundant evidence that in times past great injury to health has been caused by the burying of the dead in great numbers within city walls. Within recent times, when cemeteries are, as a rule, removed from the abodes of men, and are maintained in a far more sanitary way than formerly, these injuries have been reduced to a minimum. history of New York City gives us proof of this. What is now Washington Square was seventy years ago the potter's field: from it arose most sickening odors at times. Troops stationed near it were seized with diarrhoea and fever, from which they did not recover until removed to another place. Trinity church cemetery was always regarded by the late Dr. Elisha Harris as contributing to the spread of cholera during epidemics of that disease in New York. He says, "Trinity churchyard, New York, has been the centre of a very fatal prevalence of cholera whenever the disease has occurred as an epidemic near or within a quarter of a mile of it." Other instances, almost without number, might be quoted as tending to show the prejudicial effect which some cemeteries have had upon the public health. The Dr. Rohé further states that "the generally observed good health of workmen in cemeteries and knackeries contradicts the opinion that the gaseous emanations from decaying animal matter are necessarily dangerous to health." This argument is one which needs great caution in its No. 147.-1885. handling. It is one which is applied to every pursuit in life when for any reason that pursuit is charged with being detrimental to health. Thus scavengers, factory hands, and even children brought up on swill-milk, are, by those whose interest it is to make the claim, always represented as being in typical health. Statistics are appealed to oftentimes to bear evidence to the fact that the mortality in such a business is very small, when, as a matter of fact, the occupation of the decedent is stated as clerk or laborer,' and the particular line of his occupation does not appear. Dr. Wicker, in his Sepulture and its methods,' calls attention to the depreciation in health of those who spend much time in the dissecting-room, suffering also from derangements of the digestive organs and diarrhoea. He has also found that those engaged about knackeries suffer similarly. "They begin to emaciate and present a cadaverous appearance, slight wounds fester and become difficult to heal, and, upon the whole, they are a short-lived class." That there is some danger to be apprehended from the fouling of water in wells situated near cemeteries, is shown by the fact that sanitary authorities find it necessary to limit the distance within which wells may be dug. Dr. Rauch believed that the water-supply of Chicago was at one time affected by the proximity of an old cemetery to its source. This question, like all others, has two sides; and while there is at the present time no urgent reason why earth-burial should be abandoned, in this country at least, there are many reasons why cremation should not be discouraged. The sentiment in its favor is certainly growing, and many of its promoters are among the best thinkers of our day. We certainly believe that those who prefer incineration to inhumation should have every opportunity to gratify their wishes, and, if necessary, that they should be protected by legal enactment. IN VOLUME XIX. of the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica,' published during the present year, in the article Polar regions,' by Clements R. Markham, p. 326, we find the following paragraph on the geographical work of the Greely arctic expedition: "Lieutenant Lockwood made a journey along the north coast of Greenland, and reached a small island in 83° 24' [N. Lat.] and 44° .05′ [W. Gr.]. Dr. Pavy and another went a short distance beyond the winter quarters of the Alert, and a trip was made into the interior of Grinnell Land. But all this region had been explored and exhaustively examined by the English expedition in 1875-76." The italics are our own. Attention has recently been called to this statement by the author, Charles Lanman, of a little memorial volume on the life and arctic work of Lieut. James B. Lockwood. It appears certainly most astonishing that a writer on geographical subjects, especially those relating to the arctic regions, should allow haste, international feeling, or any other impulse, to lead him to make a statement in an authoritative publication which is not only untrue, but unjust in the highest degree to an explorer who died of privation in the very field of his labors. No explanation seems possible. It has long been a matter of record that Lockwood's farthest was not only the highest latitude reached by civilized man, but more than one hundred geographical miles in a direct line beyond Beaumont's farthest, and that the English expedition neither mapped nor explored and exhaustively examined' that part of the Greenland coast, nor the interior of Grinnell Land westward from Lady Franklin Bay and Archer fiord. It would seem a duty for the publishers, in another volume of the encyclopaedia, to place on record some disclaimer of this falsification of history. THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION, which was recently organized at Saratoga, is represented as obtaining hearty support and co-operation, not only from professional students in political economy, but also from business men, who take a wide interest in the financial and industrial questions of the day. Among its members there are already professors representing more than a score of colleges and universities in all parts of the country, several college presidents, lawyers, editors of some of the most influential journals in the country, and a large number of clergymen, among whom may be named Dr. Barrows and Newman Smythe, not to mention Dr. Gladden and Lyman Abbot, who are actively engaged in the council of the association. Leading manufacturers are interested in its success, one of whom employs several thousand working-people, and another has more than a thousand names on his pay-rolls. The spirit of this broad and diversified support is well expressed in a letter from Dr. Elisha Mulford, the author of 'The nation,' in which he remarks that "in the transitions of human thought none has been more significant than the humanization of political economy." Committees are being organized for investigation on the co-operative plan. Under the leadership of Dr. Henry C. Adams, of the university at Ann Arbor, the committee on municipal finance is engaged in the special consideration of productive city property. It is collecting information concerning the relations of American municipalities to corporate institutions, such as railways, telephone lines, gas and water works, in order to determine the nature of the franchises which have been so freely bestowed by our cities. It will seek to learn, for instance, in what way rates of lighting-companies are controlled, and if any attempt is made to raise revenues from such institutions. This strikingly resembles the system of Le Play, and is thoroughly scientific in method. By such means an immense amount of economic data can be collected and synthesized in the light of economic science. THOSE WHO ARE ANXIOUS to draw attention to themselves as claiming possible consideration from other scientific men too frequently have recourse to the use of all the titles which by accident or otherwise may have fallen to them. This tendency appears to have increased somewhat of late years, and, so far as this country is concerned, is doubtless an importation from Europe. It is, nevertheless, a tendency which should be deprecated. Aside from the very bad taste which it usually reveals, the indiscriminate use of all the titles which a man may possess, argues, in the first instance, a weakness which is thereby confessed to his scientific confrères. That titles have a definite value when properly used cannot be denied, and their attachment to a name on a business-card or in official correspondence is quite allowable; but even then, unless in exceptional cases, they should be reduced to the lowest terms consistent with the object in view. On the other hand, for one to go beyond his college and university degrees, and append the initials of all the scientific societies of which he may have become a member, savors of the methods adopted by the sciolist to gain cheap reputation. The modesty which usually characterizes true merit always shrinks from an undue display of the rewards which may have fallen to it. workmanship is highly artistic, as well as remarkably accurate, and reflects credit upon the designers, Messrs. Bigelow, Kennard, & Co., of Boston. The vase stands on a low ebony pedestal, which is surrounded by a silver hoop, bearing the inscription, 1810 November eighteenth- 1885. in token of the universal esteem The greetings, by card and letter, of the one hundred and eighty contributors, were presented on a plain but elegant silver tray. They contain the warmest expressions of esteem and gratitude. In the afternoon Dr. and Mrs. Gray received, quite informally, many of their friends. A NEW SYSTEM OF OYSTER-CULTURE. THE hope that I might solve, or help to solve, the oyster-problem practically, has served to constantly encourage me for the five years that I have been working with that object in view. In the belief that what I now have to offer presents one of the only possible practical solutions of the oyster-question, I submit it to the oystermen of our country as a method by the help of which they may be enabled to rear an abundance of 'seed' upon areas which are positively and absolutely under individual, proprietary control. The first principles of the new method are given below, and it will be seen that they include or embrace all that it has been proposed to accomplish by the use of any other plans hitherto proposed; that is, it is proposed to utilize the three dimensions of a body of water, moved automatically back and forth in a canal by the tides, for the purpose of spat-collecting. In such a canal an enormous amount of cultch or collecting surface will be exposed to the fry, diffused throughout the three dimensions of the surrounding water, during the spawning season. In this way the maximum amount of spat can be obtained with a minimum expanse of water. The first principles of the new method of spat or 'seed-culture,' which I here propose, are the following: 1. Oyster embryos diffuse themselves throughout the three dimensions of a body of water, and will affix themselves to collecting surfaces similarly distributed, up to and even above low-water level. 2. The floating fry will adhere to smooth surfaces as well as rough ones. 3. The surfaces upon which spatting occurs must be kept as free as possible from sediment and organic growths, in order that the very tiny young mollusks may not be smothered and killed during the most critical period of their lives. 4. Artificial fertilization of the eggs of the oyster is feasible, and will become an important adjunct to successful spat-culture. 5. The water charged with embryo oysters may be passed through a steam-pump without injury. 6. Oyster fry usually adheres most freely to the under surfaces of shells or other collectors, because the lower side is cleanest, and most favorable to the survival of the animals. 7. The spat of the oyster will grow and thrive with comparatively little light. 8. The specific gravity of the water may range from 1.003 to 1.0235. 9. The most favorable temperatures of the water for spatting seem to be from 68° to about 78° to 80° F. 10. Spatting will occur just as freely in ponds or tanks with a free circulation as in open water. These are the elementary principles upon which we must base our new method. All have been verified by observation, and none of them are hypothetical; but to give an account of all the data upon which they are based would take up too much space here. The methods of spat-collecting used in Europe are too cumbersome and expensive; besides, they are inefficient when applied to the American oyster, largely because of its low price. The thing to do is to arrange the collectors in such a way as to expose an enormous area of surface to which the billions of fry, swimming about in the water, may become adherent. To effect this it is proposed to provide a pond, natural or artificial, and connect it by way of a long, zigzag canal with the open water. The area of the pond, for a good reason, should be about the same as that of the canal. The canal and pond should be of about the same depth, or contain about three and a half feet of water at low tide. No filters are needed, except, perhaps, a screen at the mouth of the canal to keep out starfishes, large crustacea, and predaceous gastropod mollusks. The canal is provided with ledges near the top, at about the level of low-water mark, to support the receptacles for the cultch. These are formed of vertical wooden strips six inches wide, six feet long, and secured parallel to each other, and three feet apart, by a cross-piece at the top, and two horizontal side-pieces six inches wide, secured two feet six inches from the top of the vertical pieces. Coarse galvanized wire netting is then secured around the edges and lower ends of the vertical strips below the two parallel cross-pieces. This netting will then form, with the wooden frame, a basket three feet wide, three feet deep, A and six inches thick. Such a basket will hold somewhat over three bushels of oyster-shells as cultch. The two cross-pieces which project beyond the vertical pieces will support the receptacle, with the shells which it contains. One of these receptacles is allowed to every running foot of canal, in which its position is vertical. The receptacles are therefore placed six inches apart. pond forty feet square, and accommodating 100 bushels of spawning oysters, on two superimposed platforms, will supply enough fry for a canal 400 feet long, and holding 1,200 bushels of shells as cultch in 400 receptacles. The latter will cost, at the lowest rate for material and labor, $50 per hundred, or $200 for 400 feet of canal. One bushel of oysters will yield about one billion of eggs and fry. The pond, with its hundred bushels of spawning adults, will therefore yield about 100 billions of fry. This vast multitude of oysterbrood will be wafted back and forth through the collectors by the tides 360 times during the spatting season, which lasts for ninety days. That is, 100 billions of fry will be wafted through 1,200 bushels of shells 360 times during the season, thus insuring the fixation of the largest possible percentage of embryos. The shells can be kept clean by vibrating the receptacles on the ledges which support them. It will thus be seen that on one-tenth of an acre I can place as much cultch as could ordinarily be placed on four acres. Or, by my method, on one acre I can put down as many shells as could be put on forty acres by those who simply sow the shells; that is to say, the business of getting 'sets' for planting in the open water may be so condensed as to cover only one-fortieth of the ground now covered. After the lapse of ninety days, the cultch, with its adherent spat, is removed from the collectors, and sown in the open water. The method is therefore solely for the purpose of propagating the oyster, and commends itself as the most feasible in the Chesapeake region, where it is hoped that private enterprise will establish nurseries where seed-oysters alone will be cultivated, to supply the demand for planting new beds. Thousands of acres of the flat, marshy land skirting the Chesapeake and Chincoteage bays are available, and may now be converted into establishments for the culture of oyster-spat. The plans set forth above are justified in detail by the facts observed by myself in the course of the experiments instituted by me during the last five years, under the auspices of the U. S. fish commission. In nature the theory is also abundantly verified, as, for example, at Wood's Holl, Cohasset, and Fortress Monroe. The fullest justification of the conclusions above presented is also given by the results obtained at Cherrystone in 1881, and at |