stomach on the upper side, and involved in numerous loops of the intestine. There seems to be no doubt that the poison lay in this part exclusively. Changes of size, color, and fatty degeneration were affirmed by Coldstream to exist in the liver when of a poisonous nature, but Dr. Wolff says that none of these changes are sufficiently constant to base a positive decision upon them. The last-named writer does not believe that the poison is due to any foreign substance, such as copper, etc., in the organ, but that it originates there. Virchow has shown the resemblance between the action of this poison and that from fishes, which not seldom occurs; and it is not at all improbable that many cases of the latter are due to the ingestion of the liver.

The symptoms of the mussel-poisoning were of three different kinds, - exanthematous (dermal eruptions), choleraic, and paralytic. On rabbits, experiments only produced paralysis and loss of power, with increasing difficulty in respiration, ending in death.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine in any given case whether a mussel is dangerous or not; and Dr. Wolff, therefore, advises that this food should be avoided as much as possible, at least when one does not know whence it is obtained. Under all circumstances the liver should not be eaten. It has further been ascertained, however, that the poison is rendered inert by cooking the shell-fish in a solution of soda.

NEW BOOKS.

WATER-METERS,' by R. E. Browne (New York, Van Nostrand), is one of the well-known science series, and gives a description of certain mechanical devices. The book will be of service to hydraulic engineers. The preservation of timber by the use of antiseptics,' by S. B. Bolton (New York, Van Nostrand), is another of the series, and contains a reprint of a paper read before the English institution of civil engineers.

Rameses the Great,' from the French of F. De Lanoye (New York, Scribner), is a history of Egypt thirty-three hundred years ago, and attempts to picture Egyptian life of that date.

"The in

The phenomena and laws of heat,' by A. Cazin (New York, Scribner), is a popular account of the modern theory of heat, based upon experimental results. The author avoids referring to heat as a mode of motion, or trying to give any conception of what its ultimate nature may be. telligence of animals,' by E. Menault (New York, Scribner), contains descriptions of the intellectual manifestations displayed among various insects, fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals, interspersed with numerous anecdotes of their intelligence.

It contains a number of illustrations of varying excellency, and will be of more especial interest to a younger class of readers. 'A farmer's view of a protective tariff,' by Isaac W. Griscom (Woodbury, N.J., The author), is a farmer's plea for free trade. It is written in a more sober and judicious spirit than characterizes many of the pamphlets belonging to the tariff discussion. He denies that the agriculturist is getting any more for his products than before the civil war. No system of protection can have much influence upon the prices of those staples of agriculture of which the country produces more than it consumes; and the law of equalization of profits will quickly modify the prices of such crops as are supposed not to depend for their price on a distant market. 'La photographie appliquée à l'histoire naturelle,' by M. Trutat (Paris, Gauthier-Villars), contains an intelligent and fresh account of the apparatus and methods for photography of natural-history objects, illustrated with fifty-eight woodcuts. number of phototype plates are given, showing both the excellences and defects of photography for the production of natural-history figures. The work lacks conciseness, and contains considerable matter in zoölogy and botany not germane to the subject under consideration. The author, also, is rather too strongly prejudiced in favor of the merits of photography to be an altogether safe guide. 'Chemical tables for schools and science classes,' by A. H. Scott-White (New York, Scribner & Welford), purports to be a text-book for examinations in which a knowledge of elementary analysis is required. The book is the outgrowth of the difficulty found by the author in having notes satisfactorily taken.

A

THE German quinquennial census, on the 1st of December last, so far as the published returns reach, gives a decided increase of the city populations. Berlin, especially, shows an unexpected growth. This city, which now numbers 1,316,382 inhabitants, ranks as the third European city in size; and this does not include the close-lying suburbs. Since 1880 the increase has been over sixteen per cent, and within twenty years the city has doubled in size. A few of the other more important cities show the following populations: Breslau, 298, 893, an increase of 15,981; Munich, 260,005, with 30,082 increase: Dresden, 245,550, with 24,732 Leipzig, 170,076, with 20,995; Frankfort, 153,765, with 17,934. Some of the middle German towns have grown remarkably, not a few showing an increase of from twenty to forty per cent. Only a single city has fallen off in population, Ausbach, which has a loss of 0.15 per cent.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1886.

COMMENT AND CRITICISM. PROFESSOR FREDERICQ of the University of Ghent, who has previously published essays on the modes of teaching history in Germany and in France, has recently issued a pamphlet on the study of history at the English and Scotch universities. At the latter he finds that little or no university instruction in history is given, but passes much favorable criticism on the methods in the historical schools of Oxford and Cambridge. Professor Fredericq makes one remark that we may well take home to ourselves; and that is, that the English universities provide no adequate education in what the Germans call 'Quellenstudie.' Anyone who has seen an historical seminar at a German university knows what an important part of historical instruction is made up by the study of chronology, paleography, and documents: in fact, the study of authorities forms the basis of all historical teaching in Germany. Edward A. Freeman, in his inaugural lecture, on The office of the historical professor,' delivered at Oxford in the autumn of 1884, touched upon this point, and announced his intention of giving much attention to the study of authorities. It is well known that Professor Seeley of Cambridge, and Prof. S. R. Gardiner also, have not failed of their duty in this particular; but with them we fear that the list ends. And in America we have until lately almost entirely overlooked this essential in historical knowledge. But the Johns Hopkins university, and, in a less degree, Columbia college, are pursuing the right method; and at both the historical student is taught to estimate and handle original materials, not merely stuffed with facts and dates at secondhand. It is only in this way that the student can ever obtain any thing more than a superficial knowledge of his subject, and come thoroughly in contact with the times he is investigating. It is not too much to say that the study of history without historical method is empty, and historical method is the greatest part of the study of history. If Professor Fredericq ever includes America in his investigations, we fear that the list of historical

No. 160.-1886.

teachers who appreciate the value of 'Quellenstudie' will be even smaller than in England.

MR. BRADFORD LESLIE, in a paper read before the British institution of civil engineers, 'On an improved method of lighting vessels under way at night,' attempts to solve the difficult problem of enabling ships which are rapidly approaching at night, to determine their respective courses in time to manoeuvre with safety. To secure this result, many arrangements of lights have been proposed, but none, we believe, exactly like that suggested by Mr. Leslie. His plan, in general, is for a steamer to carry three white lights forward (two for a sailing-vessel), one at the masthead, one on the forestay, and one on the stem; the three in line, and making an angle of 45° with the horizon. These would be plainly visible for eight or nine miles through a forward arc of 220°, or from two points abaft the beam on each side. It is evident that the course of the ship, under favorable circumstances, could be known always by observing the divergence between the line of the lights and the vertical. This angle decreases from 45°, for a course at right angles to the observer, to 0° when the ship is approaching head on. The latter, and those which approximate to it, are obviously the most critical courses, for which this system is especially valuable. The apparent angle of the line of lights with the vertical coincides nearly enough, for all practical purposes, up to 20°, or about two points, with the angle between the course of the approaching ship and the line of vision. This fact is of great value when there is no time to determine angles, either by plotting or calculation. It is not proposed to abandon the use of the colored side-lights, although, if the arrangement were entirely satisfactory in practice, they would be no longer necessary. The most serious obstacle to the success of this plan is the rolling and heeling motion of the ship, to which Mr. Leslie refers, but which, we believe, he underestimates. The principle involved in his suggestion is not new. It has been already proposed to arrange the masthead and side-lights to form an equilateral triangle in a plane parallel to the midship section, and also to place the masthead light so far aft that the line through it and either

of the side-lights should make an angle of 45° with the horizon. The system which has received the most attention, however, is known as that of the double side-lights. Various arrangements of these have been proposed, but all include the use of two lights on each side, in different positions with respect to each other, and at different distances apart. The subject of lighting ships, and also that of the rules of the road,' should be referred to an international commission, whose recommendations should be accepted and rigidly enforced by all maritime nations.

THE STUDY OF THE POLITICAL SCIENCES has made great progress of late in this country. Columbia, Cornell, and the University of Michigan, have established special schools of political science, all of which are successful; special attention is paid to these subjects at Harvard and Johns Hopkins; and the historical, economic, and social science associations, which have sprung up during the last decade, with their published proceedings, have all contributed to stimulate an interest in the scientific treatment of history, law, and economics. The latest advance in this field is the establishment of the Political science quarterly, edited by the faculty of political science of Columbia college, and published by Ginn & Co. The first number of this new quarterly will appear in March, and it will furnish a field for the discussion of all questions - historic, economic, or legal

which concern the organization of the state, the evolution of law, the relation of states one to another, and the relation of government to the individual. The quarterly will demand no political or economic orthodoxy, but will admit all articles within its scope which are at once scientific and of general interest. A feature of the publication will be its bibliography, which will be very complete and elaborate. The great success of the Johns Hopkins series of studies in historical and political science has doubtless led the Columbia professors to the establishment of this journal; and there is every prospect that it, too, will meet with favor. The whole development of which the above are the indications is a healthy and vigorous one. It betokens the introduction and application of scientific tests and methods in a domain which has in the past been too fruitful of partisan strife and dissensions.

IN 1880 A SITE was purchased for a new naval observatory a short distance beyond Georgetown,

in the District of Columbia; but no appropriation has yet been made for erecting the necessary buildings, and removing the instruments from the present location. On account of this delay the secretary of the navy, in April, 1885, called upon the National academy of sciences for an expression of opinion as to the advisability of proceeding promptly with the erection of a new naval observatory; and the reply of the committee of the academy is contained at length in a letter from the secretary of the navy, just published as Executive document No. 67. The conclusions of the committee we give in the language of the report. This report is signed by F. A. P. Barnard, A. Graham Bell, J. D. Dana, S. P. Langley, Theodore Lyman, E. C. Pickering, C. A. Young. 1. It is advisable to proceed promptly with the erection of a new observatory upon the site purchased in 1880 for this purpose. 2. It is advisable that the observatory so erected shall be, and shall be styled, as the present observatory was styled originally, the National observatory of the United States,* and that it shall be under civilian administration. 3. It is advisable that the instruments in the present observatory, with the exception of the 26-inch telescope, the transit circles, and the prime vertical transit, shall be transferred to the observatory at Annapolis, with such members of the astronomical staff as may be required to operate them; also that such books of the library as relate chiefly to navigation shall take the same destination; the instruments above particularly specified, with the remainder of the library, being reserved as part of the equipment of the new national observatory, to which also the remaining officers of the astronomical staff shall be assigned for duty. 4. It is advisable that the observatory at Annapolis shall be enlarged, if necessary, and adapted to subserve as effectually as possible the wants of the naval service, whether practical, scientific, or educational; that it shall be under the direction of the department of the navy, and shall be styled the Naval observatory of the United States.' The grounds upon which this decision is based are set forth in the document to which we have referred; and numerous letters are appended, from astronomers and others, in regard to the administration of the observatory, and from physicians of Washington, upon the healthfulness of the portion of the city in which the observatory is at present situated. It will be seen immediately that this report is intended to favor the establishment of an observatory worthy