Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/289

 FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1895.

��^f COMMENT AND CRITICISM.

The two latest issues of volumes of obaer- ^'ations. astroDomical »ud meteorological, made »t the U. S, naval observatory, to which we refer in anolher cotiima, weie recciveii at our office presumably as soon as they were rcaily for general distribution; and we regret the necessity of ealling attention to the delay with which the work of this inalitulion is given to the scientific pnhlic. We are informed that this is due in no wise to neglect on the part of any officer of the observatory, but to the repeated eshauslion of the printing- funds annually allotted to the navy department to meet its current needs. However this may be, it is noticeable that the last four volumes — those issued since the delay at the govern- ment printing-office is said to have been the greatest hinderance — have only about half the number of pages of many former issues. owing largely to the abbreviated form of pre- senting the details of observation which the observatory wisely adopted in the volume for 1877.

��immediate availabilitj' for scientiGc use; and the publication, in part, of mere results in asti-oiiomical journals, does not relieve the in- convenience and uncertainty attending one's inability to refer, when desirable, to the ex- tended details of the work as presented in the coroptele volnraes.

��There would seem to be no good reason why the printing of these volumes, requiring a specific sum each year, should not be provided for independently of the naval allotment of the printing appropriation, just as is now the case with many of the scientific publications of the government which are issuetl at stated intervals. It is to be hoped that the measure alreadj- on foot to secure this result may not end in defeat, as the gain wiU be groat at no in- crease of expense whatever. The obseri'atory is so far in arrears in this regard, that its fore- most work should now be to bring the pub- lication of its work up to date at any cost. The chief reason for malting certain classes

S observations lies in the expectation of their

Flatland,' to which we referred a short lime ago, besides giving the general wader an easy view of the road by which the mathema- tician enters the world of n dimensions, con- tains also a clever picture of the ludlcrousncss of \'arious social theories now under discussion, when pushed to their legitimate consequences. The inhabitants of that country have the shape of various plane figures, — triangles, squares, t>entagons, and polygons, — and the degree of their intelligence is In dii'ect ratio to the num- ber of their sides; so that ' intellectuality ' be- comes synonymous with ' angularity," and the circle is a member of the priestly order, — the highest class of all. Beyond the soldiers and the lowest class of workmen, who are tri- angles with only two sides equal, — a figure so irregular that it can hardly be considered human, — it is a law of nature that each male child shall have one more side than his father.

Evolution is thus a perfectly regular and definite process; and a man's remoteness from the Sat a|>es, his ancestors, can be known by simply counting the number of his sides. Any slight irregularity in a figure is equivalent to a moral imperfection; and to train up a child in the path of virtue is to keep him straight in a literal sense. If he is born wUh any marked nuevenness, he must be taken to one of the regular hospitals for the euro of that disease, or he is in danger of ending his days in the state prison. There is no way of know- ing whether a particular delinquency calls for punishment or rewnid as a means of reform.