of blotting paper saturated with sea-water and applied in the same way was not seized; when soaked in the juice of fish, it was seized with the same energy as the piece of fish, but was often given up ultimately without being swallowed; soaked with sugar, it was accepted more daintily; but if saturated with quinine it was refused, the tentacles drawing back. On the outer surface of the body, and on the part between the tentacles and the mouth, quinine had no effect; nor did several other drugs of similar properties. Meat placed within or near the mouth of a widely open animal was not noticed; it was seized only when the tentacles were touched. AMONG Some recently observed interesting results of application of cold, M. Raoul Pictet has found that at -150° all chemical reaction is suppressed. Thus, if sulphuric acid and potash are brought together at this temperature, they do not combine. Litmus paper, introduced, keeps its color. It is possible to restore energy to these substances by passing the electric current, and the current passes readily, whatever the substances; at 150° all bodies are good conductors. The disappearance of affinity at a low temperature can be utilized to get absolutely pure substances; and M. Pictet has thus obtained alcohol, chloroform, ether, and glycerin. A LAW has been enacted in Ontario for bidding the spraying or sprinkling of fruit trees while they are in bloom with any mixture containing Paris green or other substances poisonous or injurious to bees. The object of the legislation is to protect the bees from harm, the honey from possible taint of poisoning, and to avoid possible obstacles to the complete fertilization of the fruit. THE Prussian Government has decided to introduce the use of the centigrade thermometer instead of that of Réaumur, which was still in use in some parts of the kingdom. FROM a careful review of the characteristics as to inheritability of certain diseased conditions of the human system, Henry J. Tilden has drawn the conclusion that pathology, so far from offering any support to the hypothesis of the transmission of acquired characters, pronounces against it. AMONG the congresses to be held at Chicago by the World's Congress Auxiliary of the Columbian Exposition will be an international conference on aerial navigation. Its objects will be to bring about the discussion of some of the scientific problems involved, to collate the results of the latest researches, to procure an interchange of ideas, and to promote concert of action among the students of this inchoate subject. The meetings will be held on the afternoons of August 1st, 2d, and 3d. The topics to be discussed will be arranged under the three headings of Scientific Principles, Aviation, and Ballooning. OBITUARY NOTES. THE death is announced of John Obadiah Westwood, President of the British Entomological Society. He was born in 1805, at Sheffield, and was appointed a Professor of Zoology at Oxford in 1861. He received a royal medal from the Royal Society for his scientific work in 1855, and was elected a member of the Entomological Society in Paris, to succeed Humboldt, in 1860. He was author of an introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, British Butterflies and their Transformations, and other works of a similar nature. F. VON HELLWALD, a well-known Austrian writer on ethnography, died in Bavaria, November 1, 1892, in the fiftieth year of his age. He entered the army, but left it in 1864 to engage in scientific studies, then reentered it and took part in the Austro-Prussian War. He was for several years editor of Das Ausland. Since 1882 he had devoted himself chiefly to the production of works relating to geography and the history of civ ilization. JAMES PLANT, of Leicester, a distinguished English local geologist, died in November, 1892, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was chairman of the British Association's Committee on Erratic Blocks. PROF. E. N. HORSFORD, of Harvard University, died in Cambridge, Mass., January 1st. After four years of service as teacher of mathematics and natural sciences in Albany Female Academy, he spent two years of study and research in the Liebig Laboratory at Giessen. Returning home, he became Rumford Professor of Science applied to the Arts. He afterward submitted plans which led to the foundation of the Lawrence Scientific School, where he spent nineteen years. He then went into business in the manufacture of chemicals, and became President of the Rumford Chemical Works. He published a paper more than thirty years ago on stilling the waves with oil. He was interested in archæology; published a lexicon of five Inlocation of the ancient settlement of Norumdian languages; and tried to determine the bega on Charles River, Mass. AMEDÉE GUILLEMIN, one of the most successful and eminent French popularizers of science, died early in January, at his native village of Pierre, France. He was born in 1826, and began the publication of his celebrated works in physics and astronomy in 1864, with La Ciel (the sky). This was followed by similar works on comets, etc., The Physical World, the Petit encyclopédie populaire, in sixteen volumes, the books on Steam and Railroads in the Library of Wonders, etc. He was a frequent contributor to La Nature. THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. APRIL, 1893. SCIENCE AND THE COLLEGES.* BY DAVID STARR JORDAN. E have come together to-day to do our part in raising one of the milestones which mark the progress of education in America. Our interest in higher education brings us here, and our interest in science; and, more than ever in the past, we find these two interests closely associated. More and more each year the higher education of America is becoming steeped in science; and in the extension of human knowledge the American university now finds its excuse for being. I hope that in what I shall have to say I shall not be accused of undue glorification of science. I recognize in the fullest degree the value of all agencies in the development of the human mind. But the other departments of learning may each have its turn. We are here to-day to dedicate a hall of science. We are here in the interest of science teaching and scientific research. When, in a few years to come, we may dedicate a hall of letters, we shall sing the praises of poetry and literature. But to-day we speak of science, in the full certainty that the humanities will not suffer with its growth. All real knowledge is a help to all other, and all real love of beauty must rest on love of truth. At this time, as we stand together by the side of the milestone we have set up, on the breezy upland which marks the boundary of our nineteenth century, it is worth while to glance back over the depressing lowlands from which we have risen; and, in our discussion of the relations of the American college to science, * Read at the dedication of the Science Hall of the University of Illinois at Champaign, November 16, 1892. VOL. XLII.-49 we find depression and darkness enough without going back very far. I am still numbered, I trust, with the young men. I am sure that I have never yet heard the word "old" seriously joined to my name. When they speak of "old Jordan," I know that they mean the river, and not me. Yet, in the few years during which I have taught biology, the relation of science to education has undergone most remarkable changes. I remember very clearly that, twenty years ago, when, in such way as I could, I had prepared myself for the two professions of naturalist and college professor, I found that these professions were in no way related. I remember having in 1872 put the results of my observations into these words: "The colleges have no part or interest in the progress of science, and science has no interest in the growth of the colleges." The college course in those days led into no free air. A priori and ex cathedra, two of its favorite phrases, described it exactly. Its essentials were the grammar of dead languages, and the memorized results of the applications of logic to number and space. Grammar and logic were taught in a perfunctory way, and the student exhausted every device known to restless boys in his desire to evade the instruction he had spent his time and money to obtain. Then, when all the drill was over, and the long struggle between perfunctory teachers and unwilling boys had dragged to an end, the students were passed on to the president to receive from him an exposition of philosophy. This was the outlook on life for which three years of drill made preparation. And this philosophy was never the outgrowth of the knowledge of to-day, but simply the débris of the outworn speculations of the middle ages. We well remember the first invasion of science in the conventional programmes of study. This came in response to an outside demand for subjects interesting and practical. It was met in such a way as to silence rather than to satisfy the demand. A few trifling courses, memorized from antiquated text-books, and the work in science was finished. The teachers who were capable of higher things had no opportunity to make use of their powers. Their investigations were not part of their duties. They were carried on in time stolen from their tasks of plodding and prodding. It is to the shame of the State of Indiana that she kept one of the greatest astronomers of our time for forty years teaching boys the elements of geometry and algebra. That he should have taught astronomy and made astronomers occurred to no one in authority until Daniel Kirkwood was seventy years old, and by the laws of Nature could teach no longer. What was true in his case was true in scores of others. The investigator |