THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



479 



The Tomb of James Smithson in the Smithsonian Institution. 



States accepted the bequest, which 

 amounted to $550,000, and after long 

 discussion within and without congress 

 the institution was established, which 

 has so completely carried out the 

 wishes of its founder. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 

 We regret to record the death of 

 Nathanial Southgate Shaler, professor 

 of geology at Harvard University; of 

 James Mills Peirce, Perkins professor 

 of astronomy and mathematics at Har- 

 vard University, and of Robert Ogden 

 Doremus, emeritus professor of chem- 

 istry at the College of the City of Xew 

 York. 



Professor E. C. Pickering, director 

 of the Harvard College Observatory, 

 has been elected a corresponding mem- 

 ber of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. 

 — Dr. Henry F. Osborn, professor of 

 zoology at Columbia University, and 

 curator of paleontology at the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History, has 

 been elected a foreign member of the 

 Linnean Society of London. — Dr. Wil- 



liam Osier, regius professor of medicine 

 at Oxford University, has been elected 

 a member of the Athenaeum Club, un- 

 der the provisions which empower the 

 annual election of nine persons ' of dis- 

 tinguished eminence in science, litera- 

 ture, the arts, or for public services.' 



Father J. G. Hagen, S.J., professor 

 of astronomy in Georgetown University, 

 and director of the observatory, has 

 been offered the directorship of the 

 Vatican Observatory. — Mr. Arthur Ed- 

 dington, B.A., B.Sc. (Manchester), of 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, senior 

 wrangler in 1904, has been appointed 

 chief assistant in the Royal Observa- 

 tory. Greenwich. 



The American Philosophical Society 

 is holding as we go to press a meeting 

 in memory of the two-hundredth anni- 

 versary of the birth of Benjamin Frank- 

 lin, its founder. In addition to the 

 scientific program, which includes 

 papers by Sir George Darwin and Pro- 

 fessor Hugo de Vries, there are a num- 

 ber of special addresses. Professor 

 Edward L. Nichols, of Cornell Univer- 



