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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



what is now the Ohio Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity. He taught natural history 

 and the physical sciences in western 

 institutions until called to Tufts Col- 

 lege in 1874. He was early an inventor 

 and later made inventions which led 

 him to believe that had anticipated 

 both the telephone and wireless teleg- 

 raphy. He was, however, unsuccessful 

 in his suit against the Bell Telephone 

 Company. But Dr. Dolbear did not 

 confine himself to inventions ; he did 

 experimental work in various direc- 

 tions, wrote text-books and made ad- 

 dresses, and in his last work, entitled 

 " Matter, Ether and Motion," discussed 

 the fundamental principles of his sci- 

 ence. Dr. Dolbear, in whose person- 

 ality were commingled some of the 

 traits of the scholar, the clergyman, 

 the mechanic and the farmer, won the 

 affectionate regard of all who were 

 associated with him. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 



We record with regret the deaths of 

 Dr. Charles' R. Barnes, professor of 

 plant physiology at the University of j 

 Chicago; Dr. Henry Byron Newson, 

 professor of mathematics in the Uni- 

 versity of Kansas; Professor J. Ed- 

 mund Wright, associate professor of 

 mathematics in Bryn Mawr College; 

 Dr. J. A. Bergstrom, professor of peda- 

 gogy in Sanford University, and Dr. 

 Charles F. Wheeler, botanical expert 

 in the Department of Agriculture. 



Lord Rayleigh has been elected a '■ 

 foreign associate of the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences in succession to the late 

 Simon Newcomb. — The Edison medal 

 of the American Institute of Electrical 

 Engineers has been presented to Pro- 

 fessor Elihu Thomson. — Dr. Hugo 

 Miinsterberg, professor of psychology 

 at Harvard University, has been ap- 

 pointed exchange professor to lecture 

 at Berlin in 1910-11.— Dr. S. Weir 

 Mitchell celebrated his eightieth birth- 

 day on February 15. On the following 

 day he gave a lecture before the Col- 

 lege of Physicians of Philadelphia on 

 " William Harvey, the Discoverer of 

 the Circulation of the Blood."— Sir 



William Huggins, F.R.S., the eminent 

 astronomer, celebrated his eighty-sixth 

 birthday on February 7 at his resi- 

 dence at Tulsehill. 



Fob the meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, 

 which is to take place this year at 

 Sheffield, beginning on August 31, 

 under the presidency of the Rev. Pro- 

 fessor T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., the fol- 

 lowing presidents have been appointed 

 to the various sections : Section A 

 (Mathematical and Physical Science), 

 E. W. Hobson, F.R.S.; Section B 

 (Chemistry), J. E. Stead, F.R.S.; Sec- 

 tion C (Geology), Professor A. P. 

 Coleman, Ph.D.; Section D (Zoology), 

 Professor G. C. Bourne, .D.Se. ; Section 

 E (Geography), Professor A. J. Her- 

 bertson, Ph.D.; Section F (Economic 

 Science and Statistics), Sir H. Llew- 

 ellyn Smith, K.C.B.; Section G (Engi- 

 neering), Professor W. E. Dalby, D.Sc. ; 

 Section H (Anthropology), W. Crooke, 

 B.A. ; Section I (Physiology) , Professor 

 A. B. Macallum, F.R.S.; Section K 

 (Botany), Professor J. W. H. Trail, 

 F.R.S.; Section L (Educational Sci- 

 ence), Principal H. A. Miers, F.R.S. — 

 The French Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science will hold its 

 thirty-ninth annual meeting at Tou- 

 louse in August under the presidency 

 of M. Gariel, professor of biological 

 physics in the faculty of medicine of 

 the University of Paris. 



Columbia University has received 

 an anonymous gift of $350,000 for a 

 building for the faculty of philosophy. 

 — A gift of $150,000 for the erection of 

 an administration building and library 

 at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 

 has been made by the Pittsburgh 

 Alumni Association. — The medical 

 school of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania has been given $100,000 by an 

 unnamed alumnus to endow a chair to 

 be known as " the Benjamin Rush 

 professorship of physiological chem- 

 istry."— Tufts College has been made 

 the residuary legatee under the will of 

 John Everett Smith, and will, it is 

 said, receive on the death of Mrs. 

 Smith the sum of $500,000. 



