them as equivalent to one element. Doing this puts the rare earth elements on a somewhat different footing from the other elements. While this is justified to a certain extent by the chemical properties, it can not, in the nature of things, be a final solution. If we are not to throw over the periodic law, we must either split other so-called elements into groups of elements or we must show that certain groups of elements alone are possible. To succeed in the first would be to revolutionize chemistry. To succeed in the second would be to explain the reason for the periodic law—which would also revolutionize chemistry. Whatever the outcome, Mendeléeff's law will be for many years one of the dominant factors in chemical progress.
APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
The agricultural appropriation bill for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1907, as finally passed by the recent session of congress, carries an appropriation of $9,932,940. Of this amount the sums appropriated for what may be termed work in applied science are distributed as follows: The Bureau of Animal Industry receives $4,029,400, but of this amount $3,000,000 are to be devoted to the meat inspection, the discussion of which has occupied so much of the time of congress and of the public press during the past few weeks; Weather Bureau, $1,439,240; Bureau of Plant Industry, $1,024,740; Forest Service, $1,017,500; Agricultural Experiment Stations, including the Department Office of Experiment Stations, $974,860; Bureau of Entomology, $262,100; Division of Publications, $248,520; Bureau of Soils, $221,460; Bureau of Statistics, $210,560; Bureau of Chemistry, $174,180; Office of Public Roads, $70,000; Bureau of Biological Survey, $52,000; Library, $25,880. Large as is the annual appropriation
