correspondence about it, several quotations from eminent physicists, which she imagines support her theory, and a lot of irrelevant matter. Her screed is a "terrible example" of the way untrained persons form conclusions about scientific matters in absolute defiance of the scientific method of investigation. She says,"I assume that heat always causes bodies to expand, and that cold always causes bodies to contract, but never expand." Again, "I claim that cold water is always more dense than that of a more elevated temperature, and can not rise upon the surface of that which is warmer." Not a measurement nor a test of any sort does she bring forward in support of these assumptions, and, of course, can not, for her statements are flat contradictions of readily demonstrable facts. Further, she says, "As electricity is diffused throughout all space, it pervades water to a certain extent, and it always remains in a latent state except it is excited to action by some disturbing influence. And, again, as cold increases in temperature the water increases its density, and when it reaches the freezing-point it condenses to that extent that the pressure and fraction excites the electricity to heat and converts little particles of ice into steam, which moves with great velocity and power; as the steam rushes out the cold air rushes into the little voids and takes the place of the steam, which causes the report called cracking of the ice. . . . It is first little particles upon the surface that are condensed into ice, and they would instantly sink if they were not arrested in their course and rendered light by the above-mentioned process." Has Mrs. Hemiup ever observed any one of these phenomena? Has she ever detected an electric current in a dish of freezing water with the galvanometer? Has she ever collected any of the little puffs of steam as it escaped from the forming ice? Has she ever seen, either with the naked eye or the microscope, the first-formed little particles of ice floating free on the surface of the water? Other people have seen the first ice-particles attached to the sides of the containing vessel or the shore; hence it can not be true that "they would instantly sink if they were not arrested in their course" by the action she describes. The letters about her theory which she has extracted from prominent scientific men are no indorsement of it, but are either politely non-committal or frankly opposed to her view. She gives the reader no reason to believe that she has ever performed a single experiment to test her supposition, or that in the twenty years or more during which she has speculated on scientific subjects, she has found out what valid evidence is, or what makes a hypothesis tenable. The effect of such a publication is harmful if it falls into the hands of persons whose common sense is not of the robust type, for it is sure to increase any tendency to foggy thinking which the reader may have.
The second annual report of the Photographic Study of Stellar Spectra, conducted at the Harvard College Observatory, and constituting the Henry Draper Memorial, relates that the additional facilities provided by Mrs. Draper have permitted a considerable extension of this research during the past year. The 1 1-inch refractor belonging to Dr. Draper, and an 8-inch photographic telescope, have been kept at work throughout every clear night. The 28-inch and 15-inch reflectors constructed by Dr. Draper have been moved to Cambridge, and the first of these instruments will probably soon be employed regularly. Four assistants take part in making the photographs, and five ladies have been employed in the measurements and reductions. The catalogues of spectra of bright and of faint stars, and the detailed study of the spectra of the brighter stars, will be finished, except for about one quarter part of the sky, which is too far south to be conveniently observed at Cambridge, in about a year, and it is proposed to then send an expedition to the southern hemisphere to complete the work to the south pole. The 28-inch reflector will be used for observing faint stellar spectra.
Bulletin No. 3 of the New York State Museum is an account of the Building-Stone in the State of New York, by John O. Smock (Albany, State Museum). All the large quarries were visited, to obtain material for this paper, and information was obtained also from quarry-owners and managers. The Bulletin comprises an account of the geological position and geographical distribution of building-stone in New York, and descriptive notes of quarry districts and quarries.
