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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



in three years at Washington, is an 

 affiliation of national medical societies 

 devoted chiefly to different depart- 

 ments, but including the Association 

 of American Physicians, which is a 

 small and select body of practitioners. 

 These societies, sixteen in number, had 

 special programs, holding their sessions 

 in the mornings, while the congress met 

 as a whole in the afternoons and even- 

 ings. The president. Dr. W. W. Keen, 

 of Philadelphia, chose as the subject 

 of his address ' The Duties and Re- 

 sponsibilities of Trustees of Medical 

 Institutions.' The subjects for special 

 discussion were ' The Pancreas and 

 Pancreatic Diseases ' and ' The Medical 

 and Surgical Aspects of the Diseases 

 of the Gall-bladder and Bile Ducts.' 



SCIE^'TIFIG ITEMS. 



Paul Belloki Du Chaillu, the ex- 

 plorer and author, died at St. Peters- 

 burg on April 29. He was born in 

 New Orleans in 1838, and in 1855 he 

 went from New York to the west coast 

 of Africa, where he made the well- 

 known expedition described in his ' Ex- 

 plorations and Adventures in Equa- 

 torial Africa.' 



At the recent meeting of the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences new mem- 

 bers were elected as follows : T. C. 

 Chamberlin, professor of geology, Uni- 

 versity ol Chicago; William James, 

 professor of philosophy, Harvard Uni- 

 versity; E. L. Mark, professor of an- 

 atomy, Harvard University; Arthur G. 

 Webster, professor of physics, Clark 

 University; Horace L. Wells, professor 

 of analytical chemistry anu metallurgy, 

 Yale University. 



The board of regents of the Univer- 

 sity of Wisconsin on April 21 elected 

 Dr. Charles R. Van Hise, professor of 

 geology, to the presidency of that in- 

 stitution. — The Walker Grand Prize, 

 which is bestowed once in five years 

 by the Boston Society of Natural His- 

 tory, has just been awarded to J. A. 

 Allen of the American Museum of 

 Natural History ' for his able and long 

 continued contributions to American 

 ornithology and mammalogy. — Pro- 

 fessor Simon Newcomb, of Washington, 

 has been appointed a delegate from the 

 National Academy of Sciences to the 

 International Association of Acad- 

 emies, which meets in London this 

 coming June. Mr. S. F. Emmons and 

 Mr. Geo. F. Becker, of Washington, 

 and Professor C. R. Van Hise, of Madi- 

 son, Wis., have been appointed dele- 

 gates to the International Geological 

 Congress, which meets in Vienna in 

 August of this year. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie has given 

 $1,000,000 for a building for the en- 

 gineering societies. It is to be situated 

 in New York City, and will provide an 

 auditorium, a library and headquarters 

 for five engineering societies, namely, 

 the American Society of Civil Engin- 

 eers, the American Society of Mechan- 

 ical Engineers, the American Society of 

 Electrical Engineers, the American In- 

 stitute of Mining Engineers and the 

 Engineers Ckib. Mr. Carnegie has also 

 given $1,500,000 for the erection of a 

 court house and library for the per- 

 manent court of arbitration at The 

 Hague and $600,000 to the endowment 

 fund of the Tuskegee Normal and In- 

 dustrial Institute.' 



