general organization of the town. Borough and guild as well as burghers and guild-brethren were now synonymous terms. In the eighteenth century the Guild Merchant was merely the shadowy phantom of an institution long dead,- hazy indefinite term, the significance of which was unknown even to the few municipal magistrates in whose mouths it was still current. Even to this day it exists in a single town of England. The Guild Merchant of Preston is a feast which for more than three centuries has been celebrated once every twenty years. The last Guild Merchant was observed in September, 1882. The centuries have wrought a marvellous change in an institution that once held a most important place in the local annals of England. The Virginia Parish. BY EDWARD INGLE. [Abstract of a paper read before the Seminary of Historical and Political Science, January 11, 1884]. The parish in Virginia was a growth acquiring, or casting aside powers as necessity arose. Parishes were originally laid off within plantations; later, parish and county limits were coincident. With an increase of population, the parish was divided into smaller ones, which afterwards became the basis for counties. At first, the officers in a parish were the minister and four best men, who developed gradually into the rector, churchwardens, and vestrymen. A vestry of twelve were elected for an indefinite period, and could be dissolved only by Act of Assembly. They met at least twice in each year-at Easter to elect wardens, in the fall to lay the levy. They were the trustees of any free school and directed the affairs of the parish workhouse. Their executive officers were the two church wardens, elected annually from among themselves. The wardens looked after the parish poor and saw that they were comfortably housed in private dwellings or in the workhouse. They preserved order in church, and had to seat everyone according to his station. They could commit vagrants to the workhouse, and had to keep a list of poor people in the parish. With the minister, they presented immoral persons to court, and could sell a woman convicted of bastardy for a term of five years. They kept the church in order and provided the ele ments for communion. The minister was either employed by the year, inducted by the governor, or by the parish. This matter was in dispute for over a century, and was settled only by the Revolution, which resulted in destroying the parish, save as an ecclesiastical organization. Recent Discussion on the Study of Roman Law in Universities. By W. B. SCAIFE. [Abstract of a paper read before the Seminary of Historical and Political Science, January 4, 1884]. Of original historical sources the law is in many respects the most important and the most trustworthy; law is "a sort of skeleton," says Mr. Froude, "upon which flesh and blood and color can be laid on from other authorities, with a certainty that the true proportions are still observed." As to the value of law for this purpose we can add the authority of Gibbon and Froude, besides that of other men of less note. Gibbon said: "The laws of a nation form the most instructive portion of its history." In an essay entitled "Suggestions on the best means of teaching English history," Froude asserts again and again that the only true way of teaching history is by the use of the statute book as the basis. He says, "the study of history in the Statutes will form the most wholesome corrective to that particular form of error now so prevalent *** that of looking for the causes of great popular movements, of great events, which determine the fates of kingdoms, in the small whims and caprices of individual princes and ministers." Priestley said as long ago as the last century, that "the laws of a country are necessarily connected with everything belonging to the people of it; so that a thorough knowledge of them, and of their progress, would inform us of everything that was most useful to be known about them," [the people]. Mr. Bryce believes that "the study of law enables the historian to correct theoretical views of politics and civil society." In the law, he finds "a record of the action of the forces of society, the prevailing ideas of the times, ans for gaining an insight into the intellectual condition of the country, in a limited extent the evidence of the moral attitude of the people, and the expression of the economic will and needs of the lawgiving authority and through it of those of the people." The laws of each country are generally of historical use only for that country. But Roman law is of wider significance, of more extended influence; for to it every civilized nation of the earth owes more or less of its laws and institutions. Wherever, then, history is taught to any considerable extent Roman law should be taught in connection with it. The sense of this need is growing in American universities. The universities of continental Europe have long taught it. But they had a very obvious reason, in that the legal systems of their countries were evidently founded on the Roman; while the fact that a knowledge of Roman law throws light on many questions of ancient and modern history was probably not generally recognized until after the appearance of Savigny's great work early in the present century. For a long time Englishmen and Americans generally were under the impression that Roman law had had little or no effect on English law, and hence, that the study of it would be to them of little practical value. But better historical knowledge has proven the contrary; and it is now universally acknowledged that English law owes much to civil law. On a Cilio-flagellate Infusorian recently observed in Baltimore Drinking Water. By C. S. DOLLEY. [Abstract of some remarks before the University Scientific Association, February 6, 1884]. Having had my attention called to the presence of large numbers of a peculiar minute, green organism in the water supply of the Biological Laboratory, I became interested in identifying the same and find it to be a species of Peridinium. So far as I have been able to ascertain the only member of the family Peridiniidae hitherto described as occuring in America is a salt water species from the coast of South Carolina. After examining the specimens found here, very carefully, and comparing them with the specific descriptions given by Kent, I find that while they agree in most respects with Peridinium tabulatum, they also have many points in common with Peridinium apiculatum, though differing in several particulars from both. They would therefore seem to constitute an intermediate species, or variety, if in accordance with Stein, P. apiculatum be regarded as only a variety or older phase of P. tabulatum. The characters of our Baltimore specimen are as follows: Body ovate or sub-globose as seen in dorsal or ventral aspect, with a convex dorsal and concave ventral surface as seen in lateral aspect: cuirass composed of numerous polygonal facets which in the row next to the equatorial furrow are separated by a clear space, the edges of these spaces as well as of the longitudinal and equatorial furrows are finely hispid. The remaining facets are closely united, all the facets have a very marked reticulate structure with the exception of the narrow linear ones in the equatorial furrow. There is a deep notch or sulcus in the extremity of the posterior segment continuous with the longitudinal furrow of the ventral surface. The equatorial groove does not remain in the same plane in passing around the body, but upon the ventral surface where it is joined by the longitudinal furrow it exhibits a fault, being in fact one turn of a spiral. The margins of the equatorial groove are everted and present laterally the appearance of tooth-like processes. The flagellum is very delicate and inserted at or near the posterior sulcus in the longitudinal furrow. I was only able to detect it in specimens killed with osmic acid. I could detect cilia only at the posterior sulcus, on each side of which they present a tuftlike appearance. The eye-like pigment spots are rather infrequently present, and vary from one to three or four in an individual, being located at one side of the longitudinal fissure. The color of the Infusorian is a yellowish green, and its diameter 1.-520. It moves with a rolling motion about its dorso-ventral axis, and was mistaken at first for a Volvox or Zoospore. It is attracted by light, moves about freely on the slide, but ceases its motion if the slide be jarred or struck. Many of the specimens which had been kept in a large dish seemed to have taken on a resting stage; the endoplasm being retracted from the walls of the cuirass, and containing numerous oil globules. I was not able to find any of the "lunate encystments" mentioned by Kent, nor could I make out the existence of an endoplast. The observations of Mr. Carter of Bombay indicate that the gregarious habit of Peridinium may at times render it a potent factor in the contamination of drinking water and the peculiar taste of Baltimore water at times may be due in part to large numbers of Peridinia dying and decaying in the pipes. MINERALOGY. Barite Crystals from De Kalb, N. Y. By G. H. WIL LIAMS. The University Mineral Collection has recently received from Mr. C. D. Nims of Jefferson Co., N. Y., a fine suite of barite crystals found on the land of Mr. McIntyre, in the township of De Kalb, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. Dana mentions barite from De Kalb, but this particular locality is altogether new and therefore deserves a brief notice. Mr. Nims could give no very definite information about the mode of occurrence as he had not himself visited the locality. The crystals occur in large aggregates radially arranged about a spherical core which is from 4 to 6 inches in diameter. The crystals recently received, 23 in number, were all loose, having been broken away from the central mass. They were generally single, although, in some instances, three or four are grown together with their axes approximately parallel. The largest are 8 cm, long and about 3 cm. broad. They are elongated in the direction of the brachydiagonal, exhibiting only the simple combination, OP.Po and †Pɔ̃. In one instance P was observed. The cleavage is very distinct, parallel to OP and coP. When fresh the crystals are colorless and quite transparent, but as a rule they are more or less altered. This alteration appears first as a roughening of the Poo and Poo planes by minute, regularly arranged indentations, resembling in their position, but not in their form, the artificial etched figures. As the alteration proceeds the substance of the crystal is changed, always parallel to the planes mentioned, into a white, opaque material, which a qualitative chemical analysis showed to be only sulphate of barium. The basal plane always remains intact and the effect is as though the domes had been coated to a greater or less thickness by a secondary substance. The edge PP seems especially subject to this alteration, and is hence often apparently replaced by oo Poo. OP is also apparently produced in the same manner. A similar process of weathering is mentioned by Roth (Allgemeine ch. Geologie, I, p. 91,) in the case of celestite, and was observed on one crystal of that mineral in the collection from Put in Bay. Interesting is the deposition, subsequent to the alteration, of minute plates of barite arranged exactly parallel to the large crystal upon the faces OP and P. REPORTS OF RECENT LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. IV. Dr. Hartwell's Address on Physical Culture. On the occasion of the opening of the New Gymnasium, December 7, 1883, an address was made by Dr. E. M. HARTWELL, in Hopkins Hall, to the students of the University and others. The speaker contrasted the theories concerning the nature of body and mind and their relations each to each as held by the ancient Greeks, with those propounded by the early Fathers of the Church, and also with the theories and ideals which the monks on the one hand and the knights on the other, strove to realize during the Middle Ages; and briefly reviewed the different systems of training based upon them. Special attention was called to the clear distinction made by the Greeks, between gymnastics and athletics, and to the low esteem in which professional athletes were held by Greek physicians, philosophers, and soldiers. He then spoke of modern ideas concerning bodily training and the means adopted to further it. "In modern schemes of education," he said, "the part allotted to bodily training and recreation has been determined chiefly by the dominion exercised singly or in combination over the minds of Faculties and Boards of Trust by the Greek, the monkish, or the knightly ideal of manly excellence. The Germans under the lead of Gutsmuths and of Jahn, the father of the famous Türnvereins, have been enamored of the example of the Greeks, and have striven in an elaborately systematic way to embody Greek gymnastics in modern forms. France, apparently out of respect for Prussia, has recently given physical training a prominent place in its revised educational code." . . . "In England where there is an aversion to systematic efforts to train the bodies of scholastic youth, gymnasiums exist chiefly as private ventures or in connection with the recruiting service for the army; they are not maintained or regulated by the great educational foundations. Certain national sports are considered by the educated class as being an undoubted and important factor in British supremacy; and in spite of the marked survival of mediaeval monkish ideals and forms in the organ ization and administration of Oxford, Cambridge, and the Public Schools, chivalric notions as to bodily force and grace are most clearly traceable in the sober passion of the British school boy and undergraduate for athletic games and manly sports; which, it should be remembered, are regulated almost entirely by the force of custom among the pupils themselves. The English and the German modes of bodily training are natural outgrowths from congenial soil, to such a degree that both Germans and Englishmen seem incapable of appreciating the merits of each other's ideas and methods." "In the United States prior to 1825, there was little interest in anything akin to gymnastics for students. American educators were ruled largely by English notions as to curriculum and discipline, and American collegians, who were not too serious to play, disported themselves after inherited English fashions. In one of our prominent colleges, the faculty used to grant the students a full holiday, on the condition that they would devote it to re-gravelling the college walks 'for the purpose,' as we learn, of forming in the students the habit of physical exercise, so essential to vigorous mental exertion.' The first gymnasiums in this country were constructed out of doors in bald imitation of the GraecoGerman model, and a transient interest in gymnastics was evoked by exiles from Germany. Professors Beck, Follen, and Lieber were foremost in introducing the ideas and exercises of the German Turners. The Round-Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1825, seems to have been the first institution in this country to make gymnastic exercise a part of the regular course of instruction. Harvard and Yale were provided with out-of-door gymnasiums in 1826. From these beginnings have been evolved the American college gymnasium as it exists to-day at Amherst and Harvard, at which institutions costly buildings, elaborately fitted with gymnastic appliances, are in charge of competent medical men in good and regular standing as members of the college faculty." The speaker reviewed the experience of the Department of Physical Culture at Amherst, where gymnastic exercise has been required of the students since 1860. The athletic revival of late years was alluded to, and the increasing attention paid by college authorities to the physi cal needs of students was commented upon. A somewhat detailed statement was made concerning the aims and results of the Sargent System of developmental training introduced into Harvard University in 1879. The reasons for adopting the Sargent System in the Johns Hopkins University were given, and the aims and plans of the new department briefly outlined. V. Dr. Waldstein's Lecture on the Influence of Athletic Games on Greek Art. DR. CHARLES WALDSTEIN, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and University Reader in Classical Archæology in the University of Cambridge, gave a lecture on the Influence of Athletic Games on Greek Art, on January 14. The following extracts are given as of interest to those desirous of promoting the best interests of athletic sports. "In the first and earliest stages of the palæstra, the athletic games are not completely organized; they have not yet established a character of their own, but are a class of religious institutions without the human life and interest which they gain when once they are brought down from gods to man. From having been religious, they must, in the great period of their development, which coincides with the great period of political and intellectual life, become a national institution. This step is made during the period called in the history of Greek art the period of transition. In the highest period of the palæstra, the institution has a real national aim, to provide and encourage perfect physical education for the youths and men who are to form the strength of the nation. It is a noble aim, and, throughout, the character of the great games and of the palæstra is of the wide and lofty nature which stamps itself upon its artistic productions, and thus affects the spirit of art. The statues in honor of athletic victors are broad, large and monumental in character, in subject, and in execution. An individual victory is not commemorated by the portrait-statue of the victor, but by a perfect type of that class of athlete and that game. It is that which lasts when the individual passes away, just as in the representation of gods during this period all that is ephemeral and individual in mortal life was avoided. So too in the execution of the works, the transient and sensational is shunned. The attitudes are restful, however great the life and the suggestions of active vitality may be; there are no sensational momentary poses; the modeling is broad and large, without any of the tricks of craft and the display of technical skill which distinguish the later works." . . . "The same causes which led to the growth of individualism affected the great change in the spirit of athletic institutions. While before they were a means to a great political and social end, they now become ends in themselves to which all other considerations become subservient. While before athletic exercise was a part of the daily occupation of the Greek youth, which was meant to contribute its share to the great end of making him a sound and normal being, harmoniously developed both in mind and body, and thus a serviceable citizen to his state, it now, step by step, becomes itself the great aim to which time, life, and aspirations of the youth are devoted, and to which they are made subservient. It is the step recurring in the history of athletic games in all times, the step from the gentleman athlete to the professional athlete. In art we see the signs of the loss of proportion in such works, which increase in the next period. We hear from ancient authorities how pugilists and pancratiasts were fattened up and made bulky, how muscular development was exaggerated even to ugliness. In the mythical figure most immediately influenced by athletic art, in Hercules, we see this in later instances, where the muscular development is abnormal and repulsive. The germs of the rapid decline of this great institution are to be found in the fungus growth of its own importance, growing till it obscured the great aim which gave it life and characterized its highest development. It leads to degeneration, or, as the pathologist would more accurately term it, to hypertrophy. Let me only bring before you one interesting instance to illustrate this step towards professional athleticism. This coin of Amyntas III, of Macedon, who reigned from 389 to 359 B. C., representing a horse with its rider, is typical in one respect of all similar representations before the middle of the fourth century B. C., namely, in respect of the relation of rider and horse, and of the corresponding importance of both in the mind of the people of that time. Like all representations of riders down to the middle of the fourth century, the rider is here large in comparison with the horse. If now we turn to this coin of Philip of Macedon, there is a striking difference in this respect, the horse being disproportionately large, while the rider has dwindled down to an undergrown jockey. The whole matter is explained by the fact that this coin of Philip represents his racer whom he sent to Olympia, and who there came out the winner. Now, in the previous periods it was for the rider's sake that horse-racing existed, it was to show and encourage his skill in horsemanship, and he got the glory; there existed no jockeys. In the time of Philip, the horse became the great center of interest, and the gentleman rider and warrior of the Parthenon frieze is no longer to be found at Olympia. In the course of this natural or unnatural selection the horse too has altered its form, merely to excel in fleetness. It is curious to consider how similar the action of these "laws" has been in ancient and in modern times. Thus, not only with the human form, but even with animals the course taken by the athletic games in the later periods tended to destroy the ideal of form established, during the great age of Greek culture, by art through the earlier influence of the same institution." ... "The history of the Greek boxing-gloves, the iuávres, typifies and illustrates the three chief phases in the history of the palæstra, from its height to its decline. The earliest form were the μɛixo, which were to soften the blow to the striker and the one struck, and were thus subservient to the exercise. The second form was the iuàç óçíç, a leather thong wound round the hand, protecting the hand of the striker, but increasing the severity of the blow. This belongs to the period when professional athleticism was beginning to be introduced. The third form, marking the period of decline, the Græco-Roman and Roman age was the brutal cæstus, garnished with leaden balls, which produced disfiguring blows, sometimes leading to death." VI. Professor Trelease's Lectures on the Fertilization of Flowers. During the progress of PROFESSOR TRELEASE'S class-room and labora tory instructions in Botany (see page 45), he gave to a public audience, in Hopkins Hall, a course of four lectures on the Fertilization of Flowers. The lectures began with a brief acccunt of the phaenogamic flower and the functions of its several organs, after which the mode of pollination by various agencies was illustrated by a detailed account of the process in the following plants: 1. Anemophilous (wind fertilized); Phleum, Zea, Pinus. 2. Hydrophilous (water fertilized); Zostera, Vallisneria, Lemna (in part). 3. Zoophilous (animal fertilized): Malacophilous (snail fertilized); Rhodea Japonica, Philodendron bipinnatifidum. Entomophilous (insect fertilized): a. Flies; Rafflesia, Arum dracunculus, Amorphophallus, Smilax herbacea, Trillium erectum; Symplocarpus, Arum maculatum, A. triphyllum, Aristolochia; Pterostylis, Veronica. b. Beetles; Lemna (in part), Paeonia, Magnolia, Victoria. c. Wasps; Symphericarpus, Scrophularia. d. Bees; Berberis, Goldfussia, Erica tetratix, Westringis, Cypri e. Moths and Butterflies; Habenaria, Orchis pyramidalis, Aquilegia At the end of the course cleistogene flowers (adapted exclusively to selffertilization) were briefly considered; but it was shown that no species of flowering plant is entirely cleistogene, and that, as a rule to which there are few exceptions, the grouping, poise, form, color, and fragrance of flowers, as well as their possession of many structural and physiological peculiarities varying with the species, are closely connected with their cross-pollination by one or other of the means indicated. The reason for the many contrivances favoring crossing was found in the results of Mr. Darwin's experiments on the effects of cross- and self-fertilization on plants, which show a marked superiority in the offspring resulting from the former. The mode of pollination in Arum dracontium, and the presence or absence of mid-styled flowers of Oxalis violacea were indicated as worthy of special study. SECOND FLOOR. E Popkins Hall. Bridgeway to THE NEW CHEMICAL LABORATORY. The original laboratory for Chemistry was built in the expectation that it would be large enough for a period of five years. At the end of that time there was not room for all who wished to avail themselves of its privileges, and consequently the Trustees, on June 5, 1882, after much deliberation, decided to enlarge it. Plans were accordingly drawn and contracts made, and on the third of May, 1883, the building in its improved and extended form was completed and thrown open to public observation. It now covers an area of about fifty by one hundred feet and has three full stories and a basement. In the basement are the necessary conveniences for assaying and other furnace operations; on the first floor there are large rooms devoted mainly to qualitative and quantitative analysis; on the second, are rooms for research, for the study of the director, the library, and for lectures in General Chemisty. On the third floor are rooms for the chemical and mineralogical collections, a working and lecture-room for mineralogy and a second lecture-room for chemistry. The entire laboratory will conveniently accommodate about ninety working students. 14'0% 19'0" Private Labtory DIAGRAMS SHOWING THE ARRANGEMENT OF ROOMS, 18'6 19'4" Library Corridor. W The basement contains store rooms for chemical apparatus, two well lighted rooms for assay work and other furnace operations; besides the boiler room and fuel vaults. FIRST FLOOR. E W The advanced work is carried on in the second floor. Laboratory C (measuring 15.6 by 53.6 feet, and cased with enamelled bricks), is used as the research laboratory. The principal lecture room and the Chemical library as well as the Director's rooms, are also on this floor. THIRD FLOOR. E N S N W The principal room on the third floor (30 by 53.6 feet, in extent) is intended for a cabinet of chemical substances, including examples of industrial processes and results. At present this room also contains a good working collection of minerals. There are also two smaller lecture rooms, one of which is conveniently arranged for instruction in mineralogy. N PUBLIC LECTURES. (The regulations in regard to the admission of the public to these courses of lectures are given on p. 48 of this Circular). Six lectures by Dr. A. EMERSON, Fellow in Greek: 1. Wednesday, March 26. The Olympian Festival. 2. Friday, March 28. Topography of the vicinity of Olympia and History of the Locality to the time of the Completion of the Excavations. 3. Monday, March 31. The Description of Pausanias. 4. Wednesday, April 2. Chief Architectural Features of the Altis. 6. Friday, April 4. The Sculptures of the Temple of Zeus. 6. Monday, April 7. Chief Pieces of Free Sculpture: Nike of Paionios; Hermes of Praxiteles. V. A concluding Lecture on the Relations of Literary and Plastic Art, on Wednesday, April 9, by Professor GILDERSLEEVE. XI. FRENCH LITERATURE. PROFESSOR L. RABILLON, Lecturer on French Literature, will give a series of lectures and readings (in French), on successive Saturdays, till further notice. A course of lectures on selected topics in historical chemistry will be given during the second half-year by the instructors and advanced students in the Chemical Laboratory. The lectures will be given in the main lecture room of the Chemical Laboratory at 9 A. M., on Fridays, beginning Friday, February 8. This course is open to the students in Chemistry only. I. Feb. 8, 15. Two lectures by Mr. D. T. Day, on "The History of the Two lectures by Mr. H. N. Stokes, on "The History of III. March 7, 14. Two lectures by Mr. E. H. Keiser, on "The Chemistry of Iron, historically considered." IV. March 21, 28. Two lectures by Dr. J. R. Duggan, on "The History of the Azo and Diazo compounds." V. April 4. One lecture by Dr. G. H. Williams, on "The Relation between Crystalline Form and Chemical Constitution." VI. April 11. One lecture by Mr. A. G. Palmer, on "The History of Benzene." VII. April 18. One lecture by Mr. H. W. Hillyer, on "Stas's Work on Atomic Weights." VIII. April 25. One lecture by Mr. J. E. Talmage, on "The History of the Alkali Metals." IX. May 2, 9. Two lectures by Professor Morse, on "The History of Phosphorus." X. May 16, 23. Two lectures by Professor Remsen, on "The Basicity of Acids." |