fast as the opposite effect from mete- in 1899; those of anilin oil and salt oric dust. In fact, if the average mass from 1,713 tons in 1885 to 7,135 in of meteorites is no greater than one 1895, and of alizarin colors from 4,284 gram, it will require a million million to 8,927 tons in the same period. The years, at the present rate of influx, to values of the coal-tar colors exported lengthen the day by so much as a quar- increased from 2,600,000 pounds sterter of a second. ling in 1894 to 3,500,000 pounds in It is clear, therefore, that, if the 1898. In fifteen years the imports of regularity of the earth as a timekeeper coal-tar dyestuffs into England have during historic times is to be ques- increased fifty per cent., while the extioned, one must look to other causes ports from England have decreased over than secular cooling and meteoric dust. thirty per cent. The Bradford Dyers' Association uses at present 80% GerENGLAND'S CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. man coloring-matters and only 10% THERE has been much agitation in English. The British Cotton and Wool England during the last few years over Dyers' Association imports 78% of its the fact that Germany is steadily forg- anilin colors and over 98% of its ing ahead in all lines of chemical in- alizarin colors. The English Sewing dustry. As long ago as 1886, Professor Cotton Company used, out of a total Mendola, in a paper read before the of sixty tons of coloring-matters, only Society of Arts, reviewed the English 9% of English manufacture. In addicolor industry, and sounded a warning tion to this, the indigo industry, which note regarding its future progress. now yields to India an income of three English manufacturers have, however, million pounds sterling a year, is serimanfully stood by their old methods, ously threatened by the synthetic and are seeing their trade gradually, but surely slipping from their grasp. At the Glasgow meeting of the British Association, Arthur C. Green, who is well qualified to speak on the sub-preciation of science on the part of the ject, read a paper on the relative progress of the coal-tar industry in England and Germany during the last fifteen years, in which he handles the matter with almost brutal frankness. After sketching the wonderful advance- This theme has more than an indiment which has been made in the de-rect bearing upon American industries. velopment of the industry during the period covered by his paper, the discovery of thousands of new dyestuffs, the introduction of hundreds of new synthetic pharmaceutical products and the great advances in the production and design of chemical plant, occasioned by the vast requirements of the industry, he brings out the comparative statistics of the industry in the two countries. Among them the following are worthy of reproduction. The exports of coal-tar colors, exclusive of alizarin, from Germany have increased from 4,646 tons in 1885 to 17,639 tons indigo from Germany, and its days are in all probability numbered. The cause of this state of affairs Mr. Green finds in the almost utter inap English Government, manufacturers and people. As he says, 'it is not so much the education of our chemists which is at fault as the scientific education of the public as a whole.' We are just beginning to reap the harvest which awaits us in the application of scientific principles to our industries. Until recently we have been following the English 'rule o' thumb' method, but along many lines there has now been a radical change, and in these England is finding her commercial supremacy threatened from this side of the water. There are yet enormous fields for us to conquer, in which we have a great advantage over Germany in the natural resources of the country. The enormous industrial strides which this country is taking, which command the admiration as well as the fear of the world, are after all the fruitage of the ideas which the teachers of science in our colleges and technological schools have been pounding into the often unwilling brains of their students during the last quarter of a century. SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. DR. RICHMOND MAYO-SMITH, professor of political economy and social science at Columbia University died as the result of a fall on November 11.-A memorial meeting in honor of the late Henry Augustus Rowland was held at the Johns Hopkins University, on October 16. The principal address was made by Dr. T. C. Mendenhall. THE Rumford medals of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences have been presented to Professors Carl Barus and Elihu Thomson.-Professor Geo. J. Brush, emeritus professor of mineralogy and formerly director of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, received a loving cup from his former students, on the occasion of the recent bicentennial exercises. THE second annual Huxley lecture of the Anthropological Institute was delivered by Dr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., on October 29, his subject being 'The Possible Improvement of the Human Breed under the Existing Conditions of Law and Sentiment.' PROFESSOR HUGO MÜNSTERBERG, of Harvard University, began, on November 11, a series of eight Lowell lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on 'The Results of Experimental Psychology.' MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE has given an additional million dollars towards the endowment of the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, and a second million dollars for the Polytechnic Institute to be established in that city.-Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge, late Minister to France, has given a fund of $50,000 to the Jefferson Physical Laboratory of Harvard University for physical research.-Mr. John D. Rockefeller has promised to contribute $200,000 toward the endowment fund for Barnard College, Columbia University, provided that an equal sum is given by others before January 1, 1902.-The preliminary plans have been accepted for a new building for the Department of Agriculture at Washington. These plans contemplate a marble structure, something over 300 feet long, with wings at either end extending to the rear to accommodate the various laboratories of the department. THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. JANUARY, 1902. THE MINNESOTA SEASIDE STATION. BY PROFESSOR CONWAY MACMILLAN, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. WHEN, in 1900, a tract of land on the Straits of Fucă was offered for the uses of a marine station to be operated in connection with the University of Minnesota, the transfer was made and the construction of a laboratory-camp begun. Previous and full information concerning the site had been received. It had been personally examined by a member of the University staff and had been highly commended. Being at the entrance of the Straits it was easily accessible to the Sound and to the open sea, while its littoral fauna and flora were known to be uncommonly interesting and rich both in species and individuals. One difficulty existed: there was no road from Port Renfrew to the laboratory site a distance of about three miles. Consequently the whole matter was laid before the British Columbian Parliament then in session at Victoria, and through the assistance of the honorable members from the districts of Esquimalt and San Juan, with the approval of H. M. Commissioner of Works, a grant was obtained for a suitable road, work upon which was in progress during the summer of 1901. In the initial movements incident to the establishment of the Station many Victorians were both interested and effective. From Sir Henri Joly de Lotbiniere, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, to the humblest citizen there was received only the most uniform and delightful courtesy. To acknowledge so many kindnesses is indeed a pleasure, and to the members of the Government and of the Natural History Society of Victoria, and to all others who were of assistance sincere appreciation and thanks are due. VOL. LX.-13. FIG. 1. BUILDINGS OF MINNESOTA SEASIDE STATION AS SEEN ACROSS STATION COVE. THE FIG. 2. GROUP OF STUDENTS HOLDING CYSTIS PRIAPUS. JUST OF The usefulness of a marine station on the Pacific as an adjunct to the laboratories of a university located far inland naturally needs no proclamation. During more than two decades, experience gained by American students at such points as Beaufort, Woods Holl, Cold Spring Harbor, Pacific Grove and elsewhere has demonstrated that the broadest and best foundations for a knowledge of morphology can not be laid. without the assistance of instruction and research at the shore. More and more must the recognition of this fact become general, and with each succeeding year the number of serious students at the ocean-side and facilities for their work must increase and improve. That there should be stations upon both the eastern and the western coasts is imperative, and each will come to have its peculiar excellences and will develop its special lines of work. The eastern station has the advantages of accessibility while the western enjoys those of remoteness. At the laboratory on the eastern shore one may perhaps look for more conveniences and refinements; at that on the western coast one may expect more novelty and a greater openness and freedom of opportunity. To the student in the far west nothing can be more helpful than contact with the east; for the student in the east nothing is more to be desired than a sojourn in the west. Apparently, then, stations upon the Atlantic and Pacific coasts are alike desirable, and each with its own field of usefulness may be the complement of the other. Not only does the truth of this appear from the point of view of sound and broad instruction, but quite as impressively in connection with research. The living organisms of the two great oceans are by no means identical. To the student who turns his face from the Atlantic to the Pacific feeling that the New England or New Jersey shore has become somewhat trite and habitual, there is a fresh inspiration and enthusiasm to be derived from the coast of California or Vancouver. One very distinct advantage enjoyed by a west coast station is the surpassing interest of the journey by which it is reached from a midcontinental or eastern point. While the tourist from Chicago to New York or Boston finds the journey swift and luxurious, he is passing through a relatively monotonous and uninteresting country. It is quite otherwise with the traveler from Minneapolis to Port Renfrew. In estimating the advantages of the Minnesota Seaside Station as an outpost of natural science and nature-study, there must certainly be taken into account not only its own immediate environment, but the route by which it is most conveniently reached from an eastern city. The journey over the Canadian Pacific, made in special cars and with the privilege of stopping at will, cannot be paralleled elsewhere on the continent. From the forest of central Minnesota the train speeds on through illimitable wheat-fields billowing and shimmering from horizon to horizon. It climbs from the valley of the Red river out upon the vast and lonely |