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FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1887.

A FEW WEEKS AGO Stanley's death was announced by a cable despatch from St. Thomé. A missionary at Matadi was said to have received the news from a negro who had come from the upper Kongo. A few days ago the French government received a telegram to the same effect from Zanzibar. Both these reports are utterly unreliable. The last letters from Stanley were dated from Aruwimi Falls, June 18. He informed his friends of his safe arrival there, and says that the natives report numerous falls and rapids farther up the river. Therefore he was about to begin his land journey to the Mvutan Nsige. No later news has been received at

TWO LOSSES TO SCIENCE.

THIS week we have to chronicle the deaths of two leading American scientific men. Spencer F. Baird, born at Reading, Penn., Feb. 3, 1823, died at Wood's Holl on Aug. 22. Alvan Clark died the same day at his home in Cambridge, at the age of eightythree, having been born, at Ashfield, Mass., March 8, 1804. We have already told, in Science, of Baird's life. He was from youth interested in natural history, and so devoted his time and energies that he was early an honored companion of the best. His executive powers finally led to his being singled out as a fit head for first one and then another of the rapidly growing government scientific organizations, and it is for his good conduct of these affairs that we now best know him, and for which he received the sincere respect of the public. Of Clark it might be said that we came near losing him. He was forty before he began his life-work which made him famous. His oldest son, as many a boy has before and since, wished a telescope, and, per force of circumstances, must make it.

ALVAN CLARK.

the mouth of the Kongo, and the arrival at Zanzibar of letters or news from his expedition at this date is out of the question, as the distance is very great and part of the route difficult. It is probable that at the present time Stanley is very near Emin Pacha, or has met him. The messengers who were sent from Zanzibar to inform Emin of Stanley's expedition were detained some time by Mwanga, and only recently reached Unyoro. Here they learned that Emin had crossed the Mvutan Nsige, and gone up the river which probably connects the Muta and Mvutan Nsige. They were unable to see him, and therefore were expecting his return. From these reports it appears that Emin never intended to make his way through Uganda, as was said some time ago. News from Central Africa reaches us now with such wonderful speed that we may expect to hear soon of the meeting of Emin and Stanley on the shore of the Mvutan Nsige. Emin's latest letters show that the condition of his province has greatly improved, and that at the present time peace prevails on the banks of the upper Nile; but he says that the negro tribes are at the present time much more powerful than they were before the war, as they have obtained numerous guns. Therefore Stanley's help will be very welcome, and probably enable him to carry on the work of civilization which he has so successfully begun.

SPENCER F. BAIRD.

He asked his father's help in grinding and polishing the piece of speculum metal he had obtained for his reflector. The father had never seen a mirror or lens ground and polished. But, as he once said, "a father tries pretty hard when a child asks for help ;" and this father did try, so that now the renown of his achievements as a maker of lenses is world-wide.

Mr. Clark had been in his usual good health up to a fortnight ago, when he complained of illness, and though no disease of an organic nature appeared, he gradually failed, and death resulted from old age. He was essentially a New England man. He labored on the farm until he reached his twenty-second year, and then, having by

his own endeavors acquired considerable skill at painting, secured a position as a calico engraver at Lowell. Here he married Miss Maria Pease, and last year they celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of their wedding. From 1826 to 1835 he was employed at the Merrimac works at Lowell, designing patterns, a part of that time being employed at other establishments of a similar character.

During all that period he kept up his practice as a painter, he being an enthusiast in that direction. In 1835 he discontinued his business as a calico designer and engraver, and moved to Boston and established a studio on Tremont Street, selecting Cambridge as a place of residence, his home being on Prospect Street. His pictures of the late Dr. Hare of Philadelphia and that of Dr. Hill of Cambridge are specimens of his skill and taste. At the house on Brookline Street there are a number of specimens of his art, among which are the faces of Daniel Webster, Constable Clapp, renowned in his day as a skilful detector of crimes, and of a son who died when a youth, painted from memory. During this time sons and daughters were born to him, George B. in 1827 and Alvan G. in 1832, both of whom are living.

He began with his sons in 1846 the manufacture of telescopes. The younger son, Alvan G., at first entered into other business, but finally settled down to that of telescope making, and all three, under the name and style of Clark & Sons, have worked together for nearly forty years.

In 1850 Mr. Alvan Clark went to Europe and spent a great deal of his time with Mr. W. R. Dawes, the English astronomer, and while in his observatory discovered a new star, now known as companion to '99 Hercules.' Mr. Clark afterward had an extensive correspondence with Mr. Dawes, and spoke of his connection with him as the closest friendship of his life. Soon after his return from Europe in 1860 he received the first order for a large telescope in this country from the University of Mississippi, the glass being 181 inches, three inches larger than any that had been hitherto successfully used in the world. The war prevented its sale to the southern college, and it was finally purchased by the University of Chicago. Then followed the construction of two glasses of twenty-six inches each, one being disposed of to the University of Virginia and the other placed in the observatory at Washington. Their reputation rapidly spread through Europe, and orders came faster than they could be filled. The number of instruments they have made is very large. The cheapest one cost $300, while the national telescope was sold for $46,000, and the cost of the Lick glass was set at $50,000 without the mounting.

This was the work of a man who never had seen a lens in process of construction in the hands of any one out of his own shop. Mr. Clark was emphatically a self-made man. His only education was what he received in the public schools of western Massachu

setts.

His reputation was patiently, steadily, and justly earned, His extraordinary power seemed to be acuteness of the eye, of the touch, and of the understanding, combined with unlimited patience. Not long since he said: "I owe largely my recognition by the scientific world to Mr. Dawes. I had, as I thought, with one of my telescopes discovered several new double stars. I wrote to Dawes, asking him to verify my observations. He answered that they were real discoveries. I reported other discoveries. Mr. Dawes wrote: 'Where did you get your telescope?' 'I made it,' was my reply. I sold him that glass and five others."

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION.

Section C.

THE address of Vice-President Prescott was on the chemistry of nitrogen as disclosed in the constitution of the alkaloids. He said, "The character of nitrogen is a challenge to chemical skill. Mocking us by its abundance in its free state, the compounds of this element are so sparingly obtained that they set the rate of value in supplies for the nourishment of life, — the agent chosen and trusted for projectile force in arts of war and of peace, yet the manufacture of its most simple and stable compound has been a vain attempt, and it is one urged anew by the chemical industries. Moreover, nitrogen holds the structure of the aniline dyes, and governs the constitution of the vegetable alkaloids. In research the nearest approaches to the molecule as a chemical centre have been reached

through organic chemistry. Carbon was the first and hydrogen has been the second element to give to organic chemistry a definition. At present, carbon is looked upon as the member for fixed position, and hydrogen as the member for exchange, in organic families. Nitrogen comes next in turn to receive attention. The study of the carbonaceous compounds of nitrogen promises to do for organic chemistry what the latter has done for general science."

The speaker then outlined the history and present state of the structural chemistry of the vegetable alkaloids, as follows: "I. Nitrogenous bases as derivatives of ammonia. 2. Nitrogenous bases represented by aniline. 3. The pyridine type in the vegetable alkaloids. The constitution of the pyridine and quinoline series was ascertained by Koerner and by Baeyer in 1870. These bodies can be obtained from bone-oil and from coal-tar. They are of a remarkable chemical structure. Like aniline, they have the closed chain of six positions, but, unlike aniline, they have one of these positions held by nitrogen. The introduction of the atom of nitrogen into the closed ring so affects the qualities of the molecule that stable addition-products are formed. About 1879 it began to appear that the vegetable alkaloids in general are of the pyridine type, of aromatic' composition. In this type the structure of ammonia is not violated; and the theories of Liebig, Wurtz, and Hofmann are not superseded. Within the last three or four years the veil has been drawn from the structure of the chief alkaloids of plants. Even before that, the alkaloids of black pepper, tobacco, and hemlock, of very simple composition, were studied with success. The alkaloids of the belladonna-root, the cinchona-bark, and the coca-leaf, are now subject to an increasing measure of constructive operation in the laboratory. Morphine is convertible into codeine, and the efforts to convert strychnine into brucine, and cinchonine into quinine, ought to succeed. The necessary studies of position in the pyridine molecule are being entered upon. Some good medicinal alkaloids are being made by art. It may come that the identical alkaloids of nature will be made by art. Not by chance efforts, however, nor by premature short-cuts, but, if at all, through the well-earned progress of the world's chemistry, will these results be gained. And it speaks enough for the rate of this progress to say that one of the very first of the forward steps here recounted was taken by a man still living as a contributor. Due honor for what his hands have done, and all gratitude for what his eyes have seen."

Thirty-five papers and two committee reports were presented to the section. The papers may be classified as follows:- Analytical Chemistry, on a new apparatus for fractional distillation, by T. H. Norton; on the improvement in stand for electrolysis, by W. H. Herrick; on a process for separation of alkaloidal poisons, by Arthur L. Greene; on the determination of nitrogen by soda-lime, by W. O. Atwater; on indirect determination of calcium, by W. H. Herrick; on a new method for the preparation of anhydrous aluminum chloride, by C. F. Mabery. Plant Chemistry (agricultural and pharmaceutical), on the composition of wild-cherry bark, by F. B. Power and Henry Weimar; on the chemical composition of the juices of sorghum-cane in relation to the production of sugar, by H. W. Wiley; note on the chemistry of germination, and on the absorption of nitrogenous nutriment by the roots of plants, by William McMurtrie; on a compound rich in carbon occurring in some plants, by Helen C. DeS. Abbott. Organic Chemistry, on the fatty acids of drying oils, by L. M. Norton; on some higher homologues of cocaine, by F. G. Novy; on the salts of benzene-sulphonic acid with the amines, on some new metallic salts of benzene-sulphonic acid, on the amine salts of para-toluene-sulphonic acid, on the action of silicon fluoride on acetone, on the limits of the direct bromination of acetone and on the action between ammonium sulphocyanide and monobrom-acetone, on the action of chlorine on acenaphthene, on the urates of ammonium and the amines of the fatty acids, and on some new nitro-prussides, by T. H. Norton; on the action of aromatic amines upon certain substituted unsaturated acids, and on the constitution of the sulphur compounds in crude petroleum oils, by C. F. Mabery. Mineral Chemistry, on the composition of Lockport Sandstone, by H. W. Weld; on the processes of soil-formation from the north-western basalts, by E. W. Hilgard; on the occurrence in nature of a copper antimonide, and on certain alloys of calcium and zinc, by T. H. Norton; analyses of two manganese minerals, by F. C. Novy. Theoretical Chemistry,

on the significance of 'bonds' in structural formulas, by Spencer B. Newberry; on positive and negative units of valence, by Albert B. Prescott. Physiological Chemistry, on the percentage of ash in human bones of different ages, by W. P. Mason; on chemical changes accompanying osmose in living organisms as illustrated by the oyster, by W. O. Atwater; on the delicacy of the sense of taste, by E. H. S. Bailey and E. L. Nichols; on the scientific basis of feeding infants, by A. R. Leeds. Medical Chemistry, on the causes, progress, and cure of a recent great outburst of typhoid-fever at Mount Holly, N.J., by Albert R. Leeds. Committee Reports, on methods of stating water-analysis, by G. C. Caldwell; on indexing chemical literature, by H. C. Bolton.

Prof. L. M. Norton, in his experiments in drying oils, has detected the presence of several fatty acids, which are not mentioned in the books. Especially is this the case with cottonseed-oil, which contains several acids in addition to oleic. Owing to easy oxidation, it is difficult to separate these acids. The method of distillation in a vacuum was found most effective. Prof. T. H. Norton's papers on organic chemistry disclosed numerous lines of original investigation undertaken in connection with advanced students, and emphasized the growing importance of mingling original researches with instruction, which is now practised so successfully by the leading laboratories of the world. The papers on analytical chemistry contained nothing of general scientific interest. The alloys of copper and antimony and of calcium and zinc presented by Professor Norton disclosed many important facts. He found it impossible by any known method to obtain an alloy of zinc and calcium containing more than five or six per cent of the latter metal. The properties of the compound are also profoundly affected by the proportion of calcium present.

Dr. Wiley presented, in the paper on sorghum, the means of all the recorded analyses of sorghum-juices. The important fact is brought to light that this average juice is unfit for sugar-making, containing at the rate of a little over twenty pounds of available sugar to the ton of cane. In many instances, however, the percentage of sucrose in the juice is remarkably high. The successful solution of the problem of sugar-making from sorghum depends on the production of a uniform grade of sorghum reasonably rich in sucrose. This should be the work of the agricultural experimentstations.

The sense of taste, as shown by the experiments of Professors Bailey and Nichols, is in general more delicate in females than in males. Bitter is detected in far greater dilutions than sweet or saline tastes.

This session of Section C was remarkable in being almost free from papers of a 'cranky' nature. No lurid schemes for the regeneration of the human race by chemical affinity were presented, and no intensely improbable properties of matter were described. While many of the papers were crude and some of them quite elementary, it is nevertheless true that the Chemical Section is progressing in numbers and influence and the character of its work.

Section I.

THE Section of Economic Science and Statistics this year exercised its usual latitude in the consideration of a great variety of subjects; but, under the close scrutiny of its sectional committee and the rulings of its chairman, everything objectionable was excluded and a high standard maintained. Thus, while all the subjects presented were treated in a scientific manner, the proceedings were so conducted as to meet with popular favor. Although inconveniently located on the upper floor of Hamilton Hall, so that those unacquainted with the ways of the association had difficulty in finding the place, the sessions of this section opened with a room nearly full, on Thursday, and the attendance daily increased until the closing session on Tuesday (Aug. 23), when the hall was uncomfortably crowded by the largest audience present at any sectional meeting during the week.

The Food-Question' was, by special arrangement, made the sole topic for Thursday. The sessions, both forenoon and afternoon, were opened by Prof. W. O. Atwater of Connecticut, who treated the subject much after the style of his articles in current issues of The Century Magazine. He was enabled to add much interest by a fine collection of illustrative material, some of the

charts being his own, but the rest prepared at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and loaned for this occasion by The Industrial Education Association of No. 9 University Place in this city, through the kindness of Miss H. R. Burns. Much interest was manifested at both sessions, and the discussion took a wide range, including the economy of food in its physiological and pecuniary aspects, the food of workingmen in its relation to work done, and the preparation of food, together with the 'cooking-schools and their results. The most prominent participants in the discussions of the day were Prof. W. H. Brewer of New Haven, E. J. James of Philadelphia, S. A. Lattimore of Rochester, J. M. Ordway of New Orleans, Dr. D. E. Salmon of Washington, Mrs. Richards and Mrs. Lincoln of Boston, and R. T. Colburn of this city.

On Friday the section gave its attention to statistical and financial questions. The leading paper was by Prof. Edmund J. James of the University of Pennsylvania, and was mainly a sharp and well-presented criticism of the recent essays of Mr. Edward Atkinson upon the growth and rapidly increasing wealth of this country. Dr. James showed grave omissions in Mr. Atkinson's figures, which greatly modified the deductions from them, and, by marshalling the same statistics in a different form, reached very different conclusions, both as to the country's accumulating wealth as a whole, and the earnings of laborers. Charles S. Hill of Washington followed with a statistical paper somewhat similar in character. Then E. B. Elliott, actuary of the Treasury Department, continued his last year's exhibit of the rates of interest realized by investors in the bonded securities of the United States. He showed, that, based upon the market-prices of the government 4 and 4 per cent bonds, the actual interest during the past year has never exceeded 2 per cent, and at times it has fallen below 2 per cent. He predicted a net rate for some time to come, closely approximating 2 per cent.

As with the other sections, business was suspended from Friday noon till Monday morning, by the various excursions, - an interruption emphatically disapproved by many active members.

The morning session of Monday took a rather philosophic turn, although the title of the paper which gave rise to most discussion made a claim to belonging within the realm of science: it was 'The Science of Civics,' by Dr. Henry Randall Waite, and while covering broader ground, served especially as an argument and justification for the American Institute of Civics, of which Dr. Waite is president, and its work. An animated discussion ensued, dealing with ethics, politics (in its best sense), and economics, and their relations to one another. Monday afternoon, Section I joined with that of Mechanical Science in considering the question of Isthmian transit. This subject in its various bearings was clearly presented by Commodore Taylor, Surgeon Bransford, and Engineer Peary, of the United States Navy, and Mr. J. W. Miller of this city; and the interested audience seemed well convinced of the superiority of the ship-canal and the Nicaragua route over all other schemes, and the certainty of the early completion of this enterprise by American capital, and to be under the control of the United States.

Manual training, its methods and results, in public schools and special institutions, from economical, industrial, and educational aspects, formed the principal subject of the final session of the section on Tuesday. Prof. Calvin M. Woodward of St. Louis, and Prof. James of Philadelphia, read papers, and a general discussion followed entirely favorable to manual training in every form.

Yan Phou Lee of New Haven closed the session with an eloquent address upon the Chinese question from a Chinese standpoint, delivered before as large and enthusiastic an audience as any assembled at Columbia College during the meeting of the association. It was a telling arraignment of the policy and conduct of the United States in reference to the Chinese, and reminded one of an epitome of Helen Hunt Jackson's 'Century of Dishonor.'

HEALTH MATTERS.

Cure of Consumption.

AMONG the first to use Bergeon's treatment for the cure of consumption by gaeous enemata in this country, and certainly the first in Philadelphia, was Dr. E. T. Bruen. As a result of the treatment

of twenty-five patients, Dr. Bruen deduced the following conclusions:

1. In nearly all cases lasting effects have been secured in the reduction of temperature, suspension of night-sweats, lessened cough and expectoration, and in some all physical signs of bronchial catarrh abolished.

2. Temporarily reduction of pulse-rate fifteen to twenty beats, and temperature one-half a degree to one degree during the administration of the gas.

3. The amount of gas introduced into the bowel has varied from three quarts to a gallon at each injection. It has been introduced very slowly, from fifteen minutes to half an hour being demanded by the operation. The administration has been practised in most cases twice in the twenty-four hours. No injurious effects from the gas have as yet been observed.

4. Administration of the gas in different amounts and varying degrees of concentration is now being practised, and also investigations into the characteristics of the sputa.

5. In only one of the cases of phthisis the effects of the gas have been entirely negative.

6. In cases of phthisis complicated by intestinal lesions, experience is still insufficient to make it possible to state positive results.

7. The ultimate value of the treatment can certainly only be established by time. The probable mode of action would seem to be antiseptic, and, by reducing suppuration and the relief of the attending serious symptoms, the patient is permitted to gain by food, exercise, and general treatment. Thus far, the value of the gas seems to be that of a useful therapeutic measure, rather than a curative plan of treatment.

8. The method of preparing the gas for use in the hospital is as follows: the carbonic-acid gas is passed through a solution of chloride of sodium and sulphide of sodium in twenty-two ounces of water. The proportion of the salts has been increased in some cases, and some trials of other combinations are being made.

Of the twenty-five cases treated in the early part of the year, Dr. Bruen has been able to follow fourteen of them continuously. Two have since died. In twelve the physical signs remain unchanged, the temperature still above normal, the flesh and strength not increased after the first gain of an average of five pounds. Yet the patients undeniably feel better. The process of suppuration, with its attendant evils, has been modified, suppressed, or controlled, and it must be admitted that the patients have been benefited by the treatment. More recently Dr. Bruen has applied this method in the treatment of twenty-four cases in private practice, and to thirteen additional hospital cases; so that, in all, he presents sixtytwo cases in which the treatment has been applied in a systematic

manner.

In commenting on the cases which have come under his care, in a paper read before the Association of American Physicians, Dr. Bruen says that two suggestions may be given for the failure of the treatment to give better results. The first applies only to hospital cases. It is impossible, in a large general hospital, to secure the detailed attention to diet necessary to suit the capricious appetite of the consumptive. In treating consumption it is absolutely necessary to increase the vitality of the tissues so that they will be unfavorable culture-media for the bacilli. The second suggestion is, that in cases with inherited tendencies to phthisis, or in those who acquire a phthisical tendency, there is great vulnerability of the mucous membrane, which even fosters an outbreak of catarrhal processes in the bronchial structures. In this way the good effects of the treatment are constantly opposed. He thinks that suitable climatic environment is an all-important adjunct to the proper settlement of the value of Bergeon's treatment. But it is certainly an important addition to the therapeutic equipment to have an agent capable of influencing very markedly bronchial catarrh in so many cases, especially the stay-at-homes. In a word, Bergeon's treatment is chiefly valuable in those cases of pulmonary disease attended with bronchial catarrh; but it is to be feared that the trouble and detail necessary to its successful use will prevent many from employing the method, and the limitation of its power will cause it often to be set aside for other plans of treatment.

It is more desirable, in the treatment of consumption, to adopt those measures which tend to establish the general health, than to

hunt up specific forms of treatment. Suitable climatic conditions, judicious alimentation, and appropriate personal hygiene, are the first principles in the therapeutic management of phthisis, and Bergeon's method should be considered an adjunct to these.

HYDROPHOBIA INOCULATION IN NEW YORK.-Dr. Sommer, an Hungarian physician, obtained the consent of the mayor and president of the Board of Health of New York to conduct experiments with the virus of hydrophobia upon the dogs collected by the dog-gatherers and taken to the pound. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have, however, interfered, and require the doctor to obtain the authority of some medical college or university in the State before they will permit him to conduct his investigations. We should think that an application, properly made, to any of the medical institutions of the city, would be followed by the granting of the requisite authority.

USE OF OPIUM. - Dr. Boynton is authority for the statement that Woodstock, Vt., consumes a large quantity of opium. There are four druggists in the town, and they report that their sales of opium in a single year are sufficient to make one hundred gallons of laudanum, equivalent to one hundred and sixty-seven ounces of morphine. Of this, only five per cent is sold to physicians. It can hardly be possible that there is any greater demand for opium in Woodstock than in other towns of the same size, and yet we can hardly believe that this represents the true condition of things in our New England towns. If so, the thought is a startling one, and should receive more than passing notice.

SEASICKNESS. We have already mentioned a number of remedies for seasickness. Dr. Sutherland suggests another, which he employed successfully in crossing the English Channel, he escaping when almost every one was sick. He takes a tight hold of one of the pillars supporting the deck, and, as the boat rises in going over a wave, he runs uphill, as it were, reversing the direction of his run when the boat descends the wave.

CETTI'S FAST. — It will be remembered that Cetti, a Norwegian, fasted for twelve days in Berlin under the observation of Professor Virchow. In June he began another fast, of thirty days, for scientific purposes. During the fast he was detected eating gelatine jujubes, about a half-pound of which were found on his person.

SCARLET-FEVER. - Dr. Edington of Edinburgh claims to have discovered a bacillus in the blood, and desquamation, of patients suffering with scarlet-fever. The Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh has appointed a committee to investigate the bacillus and its relations to scarlet-fever.

IN the current issue of an American weekly this volume is reviewed under the heading of A Curious Book.' This epithet it most decidedly merits. Though the first impression of the work is that of its uncommon character, this feeling gradually gives way to an ever-increasing recognition of the intrinsic importance of the argument it sets forth, until in closing its pages one feels that something has been added to his stock of knowledge, a new light has been more or less brightly cast upon many problems, and that these acquisitions will always be associated with Mr. Finck's book.

The fundamental note of the book is the evolution of love, the most conservative element of human nature, that which poets and essayists delight in pronouncing as always and always to be the same, is shown on proper analysis to be subject to that same developmental process which Darwin has associated with his name. Not only have the affections a natural history in the animal world closely affiliated with appearances in early man, but that form of love that to-day is the love par excellence - romantic love — is. itself only a very modern development, not a thousand years old.

The passion that gives the ground-tone to modern social life, that plays the chief role in imaginative literature, that attracts the attention of all travellers and observers, that has revolutionized and is modifying many of the problems which to the sociologist are of