quently all librarians prefer untrimmed copies, and the publishers of this magazine must provide for some fifteen hundred libraries. Then, we are not prepared to admit that it is unscientific to regard aesthetic considerations. Untrimmed copies look better to most people, and there are a few who even enjoy the use of the paperknife. This preference may be in large measure a survival; still a trimmed magazine seems to be ready for the waste-paper basket, whereas an uncut copy seems to be waiting for its place on the library shelf. Accordingly, copies of this magazine with the edges cut are supplied to the news-stands, but untrimmed copies are mailed to subscribers. Any subscriber, however, who asks for trimmed copies will receive them.
The second remark to which the editorial in the 'Electrical World' gives occasion is more important. It is indeed a matter for congratulation that this country is able to support a journal which calls itself popular and yet publishes only articles strictly scientific in character. Such a journal obviously does not appeal to children or to superficial readers; and its very existence bears witness to the presence in America of a large class of highly educated and thinking people. It may be, however, that some of those who have read the magazine for thirty years regret a certain change in its character and do not appreciate that this is simply an evolution fitting it to existing conditions. Some years ago the truths of evolution needed a fearless advocate, but when these are preached from the pulpit there is no longer need of a special organ. The daily press now publishes articles everywhere of a readable and light character on scientific topics, and no monthly magazine is complete without one or two such articles. What the country needs is a journal that will set a standard of accuracy and weight, and will separate the real advances of science from the vagaries of the charlatan. An article such as Professor Thomson's 'On Bodies Smaller than Atoms' must be read with care, but when understood, it is, as the 'Electrical World' remarks in the editorial from which we have quoted, 'more entertaining than the story of the early crusades and more astounding than those of the Arabian Nights.'
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS.
By the death of Charles Anthony Schott, the government loses one of its most distinguished officers. He was born in Germany, but was for fifty-three years connected with the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. His distinguished position in the scientific world is sufficiently indicated by the fact that the Paris Academy of Sciences made to him the first award of the Wilde prize, which is given without regard to nationality for the most important researches in the physical sciences.—We regret also to record the death of H. W. Harkness, a student of the cryptogams and prominent for his services to science on the Pacific coast, having been for many years president of the California Academy of Sciences; of James Marvin, formerly professor of mathematics and astronomy and chancellor of the University of Kansas; of Williis H. Barris, known for his contributions to paleontology and long president of the Davenport Academy of Sciences; of George K. Lawton, an astronomer of the U. S. Naval Observatory, and of Charles Mohr, a well-known botanist, recently connected with the Geological Survey of Alabama.—Among foreign students of science the following deaths are announced: of Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers, the eminent French zoologist; W. Schur, professor of astronomy at Göttingen; Johannes Lamp, a geodesist of Kiel University; Henri d'Orléans, known for his geographical explorations in Asia and Africa; of C. E. Peek an English meteorologist;
