The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-16

II such information was obtainable.
You must have a marvellous fund OF
information, said a friend to him one
day.
:" Not at ALL he replied; I only know
the men who have It,
Prof Young said that In the course OF
his long experience at the Smithsonian
he had never had a question propounded
that somebody in Washington was not
able TO answer. All these questions GO to
Prof. Langley, secretary OF the Smitn-
sonian, and are referred by him to the
proper departments. A few days ago
had one from man In Kansas, VINO
wanted TO know IL at some time the let
ter u was not included in a numeraI
system. He could not find II In his Cham
beers nor In the Encyclopedia Britain
ntcas but l dug 1t up out Of an old British
encyclopaedia for him. The letters tU'
and " in the Roman alphabet are the
same, so IL was In this way that his at
tention had been attracted to 1t. Another
case was that OF a young girl In Mary
land, who wanted to know how to study
Maryland grasses. ] told her that a book
fully explaining these grasses and giving
copious illustrations had been written by
one Of the scientists of the department
of agriculture and referred her to him.
few days ago two young boys, Sunday
school scholars, came to the museum AMI
asked for the widows mite They had
and wanted 10 see &C. Mr. Cazenovitch
the Hebrais expert, took them to the case
In which we keep the specimens OF the
widows mite and took the coins from
the case. He allowed them to examine
the coins minutely and they went away
very happy.
THE Smithsonian Institute Is Of more
benefit in the general distribution OF
knowledge than all the scientific institu-
lions of England combined. Its Famihca-
tions extend TO ali quarters of the globe.
There is not a country in which there Is
a postoffice where we have not a CORE
spondent Not only do they keep us In
formed Of all that is going on IN the SOL
entifc word, but they send US a great num-
Der Of books, which we distribute 10 other
scientists free Of charge. For Instance.
suppose a scientist IN Iceland writes
book on the temperature OF the water
giving the time Of taking II and other OH
servatlons. He does not know how TO
reach other scientists to send them his
book, and II left 10 himself would have a
hard time TO distribute the copies advan-
tageously. So he sends them 20 us Ia bulk
From here we redlstribute them 20 an
quarters Of the world, as We keep a record
Of scientists engaged in different lines OF
work and are thus able 20 reach them az
VIII. Sometimes we receive books from
one scientist which are to so to another
scientist IN The same country the Smith
sonian being the medium Of exchange on
these books tho institution pays the ex-
pensos Of transportation In France the
books sent 20 the minister OF public IN
struction go free, but IN England we can
not frank them anywhere. This system OF
International exchange IS extremely benc-
ficial By u many scientists are saved
from spending their time In making what
they believe TO be original researches by
the knowledge that some one else has al
ready done the work. You know that
soon after Darwin had completed his work
on the Origin Of Species he received from
Wallace, IA the Malay Archipelago a letter
giving tine same idea and leading 20 the
same results and asking his opinion. IL
Darwin had had his book published IN Bor-
neo or some other out-of-the-way place.
we would now have the wallace theory
Of natural selection instead OF the Oar
wlnian"