286 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



This is a safe policy. The original 

 deed of gift and the act of incorpora- 

 tion leave more to the imagination, 

 and many, men of science had dreams 

 of an institution that would become the 

 chief center of scientific organization 

 and inspiration for the country. But 

 it is not fair to expect the impossible, 

 and we should perhaps be satisfied if 

 the institution conducts a geophysical 

 laboratory as efficiently as it would be 

 conducted under the Geological Survey 

 and an astronomical observatory on 

 Mt. Wilson doing as good work as 

 that on Mt. Hamilton. 



The large projects received, last year, 

 grants as follows: 



Station for Experimental Evolution % 12,000 



Tortugas Marine Biological Laboratory.. 15 700 



Desert Botanical Laboratory 6.000 



Horticulture ". 10,000 



Economics and sociology HO. 000 



Terrestrial magnetism 25,000 



Historical research 14 000 



Solar observatory 150. 0> 



Geophysical research 24.000 



Nutrition 16,000 



Paleontology (trauslened to minor 



grants) 1.800 



Total $304,500 



The minor grants amounted to 

 $130,025, including $26,000 to Pro- 

 fessor R. Pumpelly for work in archeol- 

 ogy and $10,000 for the conduct of the 

 ' Index Medicus.' The following gen- 

 eral appropriations have been made for 

 the current year: 



Publication fund to be continuously 



available $ 50,000 



Administration 50,000 



Grants for departments and large proj- 

 ects 552,600 



Grants for miscellaneous iesearches, in 



eluding grants previously implied... 13 1,000 



Totil $786,600 



No official announcement has been 

 made of the new work that will be 

 undertaken by the institution, but it 

 may be assumed from the recommenda- 

 tions in the report of the president 

 that the larger part of the appropria- 

 tion for departments will go to the 

 solar observatory on Mt. Wilson, an 

 astronomical observatory in the south- 

 ern hemisphere and a geophysical labo- 

 ratory in Washington. It appears fur- 

 ther that a department of botanical 

 research has been established and 



placed under the direction of Dr. D. T. 

 MacDougal. 



An establishment such as the Car- 

 negie Institution is face to face with 

 many new and difficult problems. We 

 regret that means have not been found 

 to make the organization more truly 

 democratic and representative of the 

 scientific men of the country; we re- 

 gret that its great resources have not 

 been more directly applied to what it 

 only could do. But whatever criti- 

 cism may be directed against the insti- 

 tution, men of science will agree that 

 the conduct of its work could not be 

 in abler and safer hands than Presi- 

 dent Woodward's. 



PROFESSOR ADOLF VON BAEYER 

 We noted here recently the award 

 of the Nobel prize in chemistry to 

 Professor von Baeyer. The students 

 and friends of the great German chem- 

 ist have now published his collected 

 works in celebration of his seventieth 

 birthday, and thanks to the charming 

 autobiographical sketch that is pref- 

 aced to the volumes we are able to 

 give some facts in regard to his life 

 and work, together with a portrait. 

 Baeyer was born in Berlin, October 31, 

 1835, a member of the scientific and 

 literary aristocracy of Germany. His 

 father was an eminent geodesist, his 

 mother's father, J. E. Hitzig, and his 

 uncle, Franz Kugler, were at the cen- 

 ter of the literary life of the city, and 

 he had every advantage in the way of 

 association and education. He began 

 systematic chemical experiments at the 

 age of nine and made a discovery of 

 some importance at the age of twelve. 

 While a school boy he made botanical 

 excursions with Paul Ascherson, now 

 professor of botany at Berlin, and ex- 

 tended explorations with Ferdinand 

 von Richthofen, afterwards famous as 

 a geographer. After three semesters 

 at Berlin, Baeyer went to Heidelberg, 

 where Bunsen's laboratory was the 

 chief center of chemical research in 

 Germany. Here he gained much from 



