Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/549

 FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1885.

��COMMENT AND CRITICISM. I Thb bill to establish a board of registra- tion in medidne and surgery for MassactiitaettB was rejected in the house of representatives, in Ihc latter Aays of the session, l>,v a verj- decided majority. A brief statement of the reasons for this action is interesting, inasmuch as the same body had already created a com- mission for the regulation of pharmacy. The law pro])ose(I, — substanlially the same as that so euecessfiiJly enforced in Illinois and West Virginia, — would, with a proper machinery for its execution, have been a benefit to the com- munity. The measure did not, however, excite a very warm interest in the medical profession as a whole, was opposed in some important details hy prominent members of one of the great medical societies, and at do time attract- ed suflaeiently the attention of the public, with Ihe exception of that loud-mouthed iwrtion that naturally belongs to the quack and charlatan. The men who appeared in favor of legislation were those most competent to testify to the needs of it, — the honest practitioners of medi- cine. The ordinary legislator, thereFore, looked upon the proiwsed law as a privilege desired by a class; and when he found that it was advocated by that class mainly, from his limited point of view, not unreasonably perhaps, voted against the measure. With the warning fur- nished by this year's experience, it is safe to assume that the medical profession will insist that the public, which is aloue concerned, shall hereafter take the lead in any effort to procure legislation for the regulation of the practice of medicine.

��TuE ESTABLiBHsiENT of a botauic garden in Montreal may now be considered an assured fact. The organization has beeu completed by the formation of a corporation, from whom

No.ltt.-U».

��there is elected a boani of management of five persons, one of whom is the director of the garden, in the person of Professor Peuhallow. With a grant from the provincial government for preliminary work, land from the city, and the hearty good will and co-0|ieration of the citizens, the garden will without doubt prove successful. The site chosen for the garden is on Mount Royal, and embraces about seventy- five acres of land well adapted for the purposes of both a garden and an arboretnm. A large stone building, now on the grounds, will be used as the offices, library, museum, etc., and around this the plant-honses will be built.

��Itk okder that composite pholi^raphs may be of use as a scientific method for revealing the traits common to some group, it seems neces- sary thai each step of the process employed should be subjected to careful exiwriment. The presumption is, that any change in the order in which the negatives are used in mak- ing the composite will have uo perceptible effect in altering its appearance. Yet this should be a matter of actual experiment: and, should composites so obtained not be substantially identical, the conditions forsuch identity must be found, before we can feel much certainly that a composite exhibits the essential features of the group in question, as distinguished from such as might be termed accidental. It might happen, for instance, that undue prominence had been given to part of a group by variation in the intensity of the illumination during the printing, or other circumstances might inter- fere with the accuracy of the representation.

Uiit a more serious question respecting the truth to nature, of the average expressed by the composite, is contained in the query, whether composites of a given group made by different photographers would he recognizably the same picture, and whether they AWct 'sswt -"jEvssjti,

�� �