112 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



has, however, a heavier load and is 

 cheeked by necessary slacking as it 

 passes through crowded streets and 

 past level crossings. The fastest long- 

 distance train in England is 'The Fly- 

 ing Scotsman,' which goes from London 

 to Edinburgh, a distance of 393* miles, 

 at a rate of 50.77 miles per hour. The 

 United States holds the record for 

 short distances in the run from Cam- 

 den to Atlantic City, which is made by 

 the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad 

 at a rate of 66.6 miles per hour and by 

 the Pennsylvania Railroad at a rate of 

 64.3 miles per hour. There is a consid- 

 erable number of trains run at these 

 rates or nearly as fast, and the rate is 

 sometimes as great as eighty-eight miles 

 an hour for distances of twenty miles. 

 England seems to be now distinctly in- 

 ferior to France and America in the 

 speed for both long and comparatively 

 short distances, although the road- 

 beds are better, and although they do 

 not have to contend with level cross- 

 ings and runs through streets. The 

 greater speed of the American trains 

 appears to be due to the superiority of 

 the engines. It is a fact that the speed 

 of railway trains has increased little 

 in recent years — scarcely at all in Great 

 Britain for thirty years. If more rapid 

 transit is required it will probably be 

 found in the use of light trolley cars. 

 There seems to be no technical difficulty 

 in establishing a ten-minute service be- 

 tween Jersey City and Philadelphia, the 

 time being reduced to one hour. 



Among recent events of scientific in- 

 terest we note the following: Prof. H. 

 A. Rowland, of the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity, lias been awarded the grand 

 prize of the Paris Exposition for his 

 spectroscopic gratings, and Prof. A. 

 Michelson, of the University of Chicago, 

 the same honor for his echelon spectro- 

 scope. —The Balbi-Valier prize (3.000 

 francs) of the Venetian Institute of 

 Sciences lias been awarded to Profes- 



sor Grassi, at Rome, for his work on 

 the relation of Mosquitoes to malaria. 

 — The Paris Academy of Moral and Po- 

 litical Sciences has awarded its Audi- 

 fred prize of the value of 15,000 francs to 

 Dr. Yersin for the discovery of his anti- 

 plague serum. — A movement has be- 

 gun in London for the erection of a 

 memorial in honor of the late Sir Wil- 

 liam Flower, which will consist of a bust 

 and a commemorative brass tablet to be 

 placed in the Whale Room of the Nat- 

 ural History Museum — one of the de- 

 partments in which he was most inter- 

 ested and to which he devoted special 

 care and attention. — A monument in 

 honor of Pelletier and Caventou, the 

 chemists, to whom the discovery of 

 quinine is due, was unveiled at Paris 

 on August 7. An address was made by 

 M. Moissan, president of the committee, 

 who presented the monument to the city 

 of Paris, and by other speakers. — Milne 

 Edwards has by his will bequeathed his 

 library to the Paris Jardin des Plantes, 

 of which he was a director. It is to be 

 sold and the proceeds to be applied to- 

 ward the endowment of the chair of 

 zoology which he held. He also leaves 

 20,000 francs to the Geographical So- 

 ciety, of which he was president, for the 

 establishment of a prize and 10,000 francs 

 to the SociSte des Amis des Sciences. 

 — The collection of jewels arranged by 

 Mr. George F. Kunz and exhibited by 

 Messrs. Tiffany & Co. at the Paris Ex- 

 position has been presented to the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History by Mr. 

 J. Pierpont Morgan. — The New York 

 Board of Estimate and Apportionment 

 has authorized the expenditure of $200,- 

 000 for the Botanical Garden and $150,- 

 000 for an addition to the American 

 Museum of Natural History. — The 

 Peabody Academy of Science at Salem, 

 Mass., is trying to raise $50,000 for an 

 addition to the museum building. Al- 

 ready over $26,000 has been pledged for 

 the purpose. 



