48o 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



impurities in the gas from the burners 

 and especially to arsenic. The slight- 

 est trace of this element at once in- 

 hibits the action of the platinum. 



The success of this process has not 

 only introduced a competitor which 

 must eventually very much restrict the 

 use of lead chambers, but one which 

 possesses two important advantages, 

 one in that it is more economical to 

 manufacture a strong acid at once, thus 

 doing away with concentration plants, 

 and the other that it furnishes an acid 

 which is free from arsenic. This may 

 well be considered the greatest triumph 

 of technical chemistry in the last dec- 

 ade. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEM 8. 



Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, pro- 

 fessor of philosophy and education, and 

 since the resignation of Dr. vSeth Low 

 acting-president of Columbia Univer- 

 sity, was elected president of the Uni- 

 versity on January 6 by unanimous 

 vote of the trustees. The ceremonies of 

 installation will take place on April 19. 



Johns Hopkins University cele- 

 brated on February 21 and 22 its 

 twenty-fifth anniversary, when Presi- 

 dent Remsen was formally installed. 

 Dr. D. C. Oilman, president emeritus, 

 delivered the commemorative address on 

 the afternoon of February 21. Presi- 

 dent Eemsen made his inaugural ad- 

 dress on February 22. 



' The Races of Europe,' originally 

 published as a series of articles in this 

 magazine, by Professor W. Z. Ripley, 

 of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology, and professor-elect of economics 

 at Harvard University, has been 

 ' crowned ' by the award of the prix 

 Bertillon of the Society d' Anthropol- 

 ogic of Paris. — Professor J. W. Gregory 

 has been appointed acting head of the 



Geological Survey of Victoria, with a 

 view to its reorganization. — Dr. Eugen 

 Warming has been appointed director 

 of the Geological Survey of Denmark. 

 — At the meeting of the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences on January 6, M. Bouquet 

 de la Grye, the engineer, succeeded to 

 the presidency. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie and the de- 

 scendants of Peter Cooper have respec- 

 tively given $300,000 to Cooper Union, 

 New York City, doubling the gifts made 

 by them to the Union three years ago. 

 — Mr. and Mrs. Harold S. McCormick, 

 of Chicago, have founded a memorial 

 institute for infectious diseases to com- 

 memorate their son who died recently 

 from scarlet fever. The endowment of 

 the institute is said to be $1,000,000. 

 Dr. Frank Billings is president of the 

 board of trustees and Dr. Ludvig Hek- 

 toen has been appointed director of the 

 institute. — ^The Laboratory of Engi- 

 neering, presented to the Stevens Insti- 

 tute of Technology by Mr. Andrew Car- 

 negie, at a cost of $55,000, was dedi- 

 cated on February 6. — The British Na- 

 tional Physical Laboratory at Bushy 

 House will be officially opened on 

 March 19. 



Dr. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., pro- 

 fessor of zoology at University College, 

 Liverpool, sailed for Ceylon on Decem- 

 ber 26, 1901, to undertake for the gov- 

 ernment an investigation of the pearl 

 oyster fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar. 

 — Professor Ralph S. Tarr, of Cornell 

 University, is spending the winter in 

 geological study in Italy and will spend 

 the spring and summer in the study of 

 the glacial deposits of Germany and the 

 British Isles. — Professor C. H. Eigen- 

 mann has leave of absence during 

 March, and will visit some of the caves 

 of western Cuba to secure a series of 

 the cave fauna. 



