(.7 voiran•••••••••••11 [CE FOUR, CENTS. AN IMPORTANT VENTURE-. ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW AMER- ICAN SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL. "SCIENCE." AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY—A REMARKABLY STRONG ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEN AND PATRONS OF SCIENCHI IN ITS INTEREST—THE SCOPE AND MAGNI- TUDE OF THE ENTERPRISE. Neither the President nor the governor has comprehended in his proclamation all the causes for thanksgiving at this time. Mr. Longfellow has reminded us of the author who had the bells rung when he had found a name for toe hero of his romance, and it is not many years since a New York publisher announced a new book by a grand discharge of blank cartridges in City Hall Park. In these latter days of the Age of Elec- tricity, there would be a special fitness in a tele- graphic and telephonic announcement of a new weekly scientific journal ueder auspices which give the work more than ,usual significance. A joint stock company has been formed, with abun- dant capital, for the publication of "Science," an illustrated weekly journal. The president of the company, and, indeed, founder of the enterprise is Dr. A. Graham Bell, the eminent physicist, and it erinelcateve of the catholic character of the journal that the editor who has, been chosen is not a physicist, but a biologist. Mr. Samuel H. Scudder, the president of the Boston Society of Natural History, and well known as a specialist in entomology, has resigned his position as as- sistant librarian of Harvard University, to take charge of"Science." The journal will be published in Cambridge by the young Harvard publisher, Mr. Moses King, who has already won his spurs in the periodical field, and "Science" will present itself to the public early in the new year, well e nipped and ready for the important service which it aims to render. If this new journal were merely a business en- terprise, intended to yield the company, conduc- tors and . publisher a good income, we should leave "Science" to make its own announcement in our advertising columns. But in this case the associated stockholders are exclusively scientific men or recognized patrons of science, who subscribe their fifty thousand dollars merely to petee on a self-supporting basie a periodical which shall from the start be an ac- ceptable organ of the scientific men of America. It is an attempt on the part of thoet most interest- ed to give concentration and direction to the ener- getic and scattered forces which, under the gener- al name of science, are so busy throughout Amer- ica. The American Association is a great mass- meeting once a year of scientific students and in- vestigators. The National Academy is a compact body of specialists. who meet in a rarer atmos- phere than is breathed lor most students. The Smithsonian Institution is a powerful collecting and distributing organization. There is in every great city and there are in smaller places learned societies with their memoirs and bulleties. Every university, college and scientific school is a scien- tific station, and there are departments under the government like the coast survey, the weather bureau, tne national museum, the fish commis- seen and the bureau of ethnology, which are engaged in important works of observation and record. Heretofore there has been no journal to which we (mule look tor anything like a survey and summary of this vigorous scattered work. "Nature" has done well what it hes done, but it is obvious that an English journal cannot occupy the field with the fulness and comprehensiveuess possible to one organized in America. A princi- pal function, then, of "Science" will be to digest for the reader the vast volume of scientific facts which cannot be accessible to any student, how- ever diligent. Except by a systematic collection of details from all quarters it is hopeless to at- tempt to know what is going on in the world, and "Science" proposes to make this collection .as a daily or weekly political and commercial jour- Dal collects its news in general affairs. • Arrange- ineni, have been made for the regular forward- ing t the office of scientific intelligence, often in advance of its formal publicatioe, and by orderly\grouping and succinct statement, it is intended that the specialist, in whatever branch, shall here rind, with the least expenditure of time ana labor, not only the news which con- cerns him, but a full guide to curren literature. • periodical and otherwige, by which he may know • where to look for detailed information. By means of its correspondents in America and Eu- rope, and through its careful sifting of special journals, government reports, memoirs and bul- letins, "Science" intends to be a weeely news- paper within its large field. So considerable is the material from which news will be drawn that the condensation will undoubtedly have to be very emphatic to give room for those special contributions which will make "Science" not only a newspaper, but a jour- nal of opinion and original research. On this side, the assurances which are given of catholic. ity and freedom rind their confirmation in tits personal support which is promised. Mr. Scud. der himself has a fair name for honesty and in- dependence. He was, like so many of his peers, a pupil of Agassiz, and he learned of that great master the spirit in which science should be studied, as well as the methods of research. His principal assistant will be a physicist, so that the two great fields pf science will be im- partially occupied, and he has secured the active cooperation, it may be said in a word, of all ,the leading scientific men in tun country. The journal must he published from one place, but if any one supposes that "Science" is to be mei eiy a Cambridge journal, or the ex- ponent of any one school. a reference to the list of contributors and supporters would quite as likely lead him to ask if it is not to be a Balti- more or ik ashingtou or Philadelphia or New Haven journal. Near the door of the publishing-house will be found those men whose names are only more familiar to us because we know them socially as well as by reputation. President Eliot (educa- tion), Professors J. D. Whitney (geology), J. M. Peirce (mathematics), J. P. Cooke (chemistry), C. Pickering (astronomy), G. L. Goodale (botany), Joseph Lovering (physics), N. S. Shaler (geology), W. G. Farlow (botany), Alexander Agassiz (zoology), Justin Winsor (cartography), John Trowbridge • (physics), F. W. Put- nam (archwology), F. H. Storer (chemistry), H. A. Hagen (entomology), C. S. Sargent (fores- try), A. Hyatt (biology), C. S. Minot(histology), H. P. Bowditeh (physiology), M. E. Wadsworth (lithology), C. L. Jackson (chemistry), E. L. Mark (embryology), A. E. Dolbear (physics) of Tufts, Mr. E. Burgess (entomology) of the Boston So- ciety of Natural History, President Walker csta- tistics), and Professors Cross (physics), Richards (metallurgy) and \Fos() (engineer- ing) of the Institute of Technology. Looking farther away one may find in the gener- ous list which "Science" puts forth the names of such national officers as Professor Cleveland Abbe of the weather bureau, Colonel Mallery of the bureau of ethnology, Mr. G. Brown Goode of the United States .National Museum, Captain Dad of the United States coast survey, Mr. Gilbert, of the United States geologi- cal survey. Professor Pumpelly, chief of the northern transcontinental survey, and Brigadier-General A bbot, of the United States engineers. The veteran palontologist, Pro- fessor James Hall, and tbe geographer, Professor Arnold Guyot, are distinguished supporters. Dr. J. S. Newberry represeuts geology; astronomy is represented by Professors Langley, Charles A. Young and Dr. C. H. F. Peters; chemistry by Dr. Sterry +hint of Montreal, and Remsen of Johns Hopkins. Yale again appears in 0. C. Marsh, the acting president of the National Academy of Science, and Professors Brush, Smith, Brewer. Wright and Verrill, while Johns Hopkins also has its president, D. C. Gilman, and Columbia appears in the names of Professors Rood and Chandler. President Morton, of the Stevens Institute, and Professors Barker and Leidy, of the University of Pennsylvania, add strong elements. It may be hoped that the presi- dent of the "Science" company will himself con- tribute. This is not a mere parade of names. The men who stand by the new journal and oth- er* who are not enumerated above are faithful and diligent workers. We speak lightly some- times of devotees of science, but the student knows that there is such a thing as devotion which does not count costs, but gives freely, and in a spirit of real service. Such a spirit is be- Roved to be the impulse of this new journal, and for this reason it will address itself both to the scientific; student, to whom it will be a necessary tool, to the teacher, who will find in it direct and practical help in teaching science, and to the in telligent reader, who knows very well that his in- terests and his thougpts are constantly under the influence of the mighty movement of the day which we call science. In several respects this new journal will differ from every other attempt in this country to pro- duce a scientific journal. At the outset it ac- quires the three requisites of any successful jour- nal,—ample capital, editorial and contributing support of acknowledged ability, and competent business management. It asks for no contribu- tion of articles or news without offering fair compensation for them. It will accept no an- nouncements or reports of new inventions or improvements, excepting for their scientific mer- its, and then only on the same basis as it admits other reading matter, no pecuniary or equiva- lent considerations influencing decision in the slightest degree.