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POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY. 



which occurred in 1836, 1847, 1858, 1869. 

 1880 and 1891. So also the mean condi- 

 tions between maxima and minima 

 which came in 1852-53, 1863-64, 1874-75 

 and 1885-86, are very close to the famine 

 years 1854, 1865-66, 1876-77 and 1884-85. 

 The possibility of predicting famines in 

 India is too obvious for comment. The 

 present famine is, according to the Lock- 

 yers, to be explained by abnormal solar 

 temperature. A mean temperature 

 would, acording to precedent, have been 

 reached in 1897 or 1898, but observa- 

 tions of the spectrum show that it has 

 not even yet been reached. To the ab- 

 sence of the minimum condition, which 

 should have obtained in 1899 and caused 

 rain from the southern ocean, the pres- 

 ent famine is due. 



Among recent events of scientific in- 

 terest we note the following: Professor 

 W. W. Campbell has been elected direc- 

 tor of the Lick Observatory, in the room 

 of the late Professor James E. Keeler. — 

 Otto H. Tittman, assistant superintend- 

 ent of the United States Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey, has been promoted to the 

 superintendency, vacant by the resigna- 

 tion of Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, to accept 

 the presidency of the Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology.— The vacancy 

 caused by the death of William Saun- 

 ders, for the past thirty-eight years su- 

 perintendent of Experimental Gardens 

 and Grounds, United States Department 

 of Agriculture, has been filled by the ap- 

 pointment of B. T. Galloway, who in 

 turn has been succeeded by Albert F. 

 Woods as chief of the Division of Vege- 

 table Physiology and Pathology. — Presi- 

 dent D. C. Gilman, of the Johns Hopkins 

 University, has privately intimated to 

 the trustees his intention of resigning 

 at the close of the present academic 

 year, which will complete twenty-five 

 years of service since the opening of the 

 university in 1876. — Sir William Hug- 

 gins, the eminent astronomer, has suc- 



ceeded Lord Lister as president of the 

 Royal Society. The medals of the Soci- 

 ety have been presented as follows: 

 The Copley Medal to M. Berthelot, For. 

 Mem. R. S., for his services to chemical 

 science: the Rumford Medal to M. Bec- 

 querel, for his discoveries in radiation 

 proceeding from uranium; a Royal 

 medal to Major MacMahon, for his con- 

 tributions to mathematical science; a 

 Royal Medal to Prof. Alfred New- 

 ton, for his contributions to ornithol- 

 ogy; the Davy Medal to Prof. Gugli- 

 elmo Koerner, for his investigations on 

 the aromatic compounds; and the Dar- 

 win Medal to Prof. Ernst Haeckel, 

 for his work in zoology. — Lord Avebury 

 has given the first Huxley Memorial 

 Lecture, which the Anthropological In- 

 stitute of London has established to 

 commemorate Huxley's anthropological 

 work. — It is proposed to found two me- 

 morials in honor of the late Miss Mary 

 Kingsley, one a small hospital at Liver- 

 pool for the treatment of tropical 

 diseases and one a society for the study 

 of the natives of West Africa. — The 

 death is announced of Dr. John Gar- 

 diner, until recently professor of biology 

 in the University of Colorado, and of 

 Dr. Adolf Pichler, formerly professor of 

 geology at the University at Innsbruck, 

 and an eminent German poet and man 

 of letters. — Mr. D. O. Mills, of New 

 York, has promised the University of 

 California about $24,000, to defray the 

 expenses of a two years' astronomical 

 expedition from the Lick Observatory to 

 South America or Australia, the object 

 of which is to study the movement of 

 stars in the line of sight. — Surgeon Ma- 

 jor Reed and a board of experts 

 are continuing the investigation into 

 the propagation of yellow fever by 

 mosquitoes, and an experimental sta- 

 tion will be established outside Ha- 

 vana. — Tufts College will open at 

 South Harpswell, Me., next summer, a 

 small marine biological laboratory un- 

 der the direction of Prof, J. S. Kingsley. 



