572 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



to 1900 was at the rate of 3.45 per de- 

 cade. Should this decrease continue 

 the percentage of increase would cease 

 in 1950 and thereafter a decrease in 

 population would ensue. The popula- 

 tion of the country would then be 

 88 millions in 1910, 101 millions in 

 1920, 111 millions in 1930, 119 millions 

 in 1940 and 123 millions in 1950, at 

 which time the population of the coun- 

 try would have reached its maximum 

 and would thereafter decline. It is of 

 course unlikely that this will be the 

 future of our population. The per- 

 centage of increase will almost cer- 

 tainly become smaller, but probably 

 with increasing slowness. The data 

 from 1860 to 1900, however, give indi- 

 cations of these results,, and they are 

 more probable than the boundless in- 

 crease of population of the country and 

 of the world which lias sometimes been 

 predicted. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 



At the meeting of the National 

 Academy of Sciences, held in Washing- 

 ton last week, President Ira Remsen, of 

 the Johns Hopkins University, was 

 elected president to succeed Mr. Alex- 

 ander Agassiz. The vacancy in the 

 vice-presidency thus created was filled 

 by the election of Dr. Charles D. Wal- 

 cott, secretary of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution. — Members were elected as 

 follows: Joseph P. Iddings, professor 

 of petrology, University of Chicago; 

 Harmon N. Morse, professor of chem- 

 istry, Johns Hopkins University; 

 Franklin P. Mall, professor of anat- 

 omy, Johns Hopkins University, and 

 Elihu Thomson, Thomson-Houston and 

 General Electrical Companies. 



Oxford University has conferred its 

 doctorate of science on Dr. A. Graham 

 Bell. — Dr. Franz Boas, professor of an- 

 thropology in Columbia University, 

 was presented on April 16 with a vol- 

 ui nr of researches by his colleagues and 

 former students in honor of the twenty- 

 fifth anniversary of his doctorate. — 



Dr. Francis Galton has been appointed 

 to deliver the Herbert Spencer Lecture 

 for 1907, at Oxford, and proposes to 

 lecture on ' Probability, the Founda- 

 tion of Eugenics.' 



Mr. Edward B. Moore, assistant 

 commissioner of patents, has been ap- 

 pointed commissioner to succeed Mr. 

 Frederick I. Allen, who has resigned. — 

 Count de Montessus de Ballore, of 

 Abbeville, France, one of the leading 

 authorities on earthquakes, has ac- 

 cepted a call from the government of 

 Chili to establish for them a seismolosr- 

 ical service of the first rank. This 

 action on the part of the Chilian gov- 

 ernment is a direct result of the 

 disastrous Valparaiso earthquake of 

 last August. 



Among gifts to educational institu- 

 tions the following may be noted: 

 Princeton University has received from 

 donors whose names are for the present 

 withheld a gift of $1,200,000, for the 

 erection and endowment of two scien- 

 tific buildings — one for physical sci- 

 ence and one for biology and geology. 

 In each case the building will be 

 erected as a cost of $400,000, and 

 $200,000 is provided for equipment and 

 maintenance. — By the will of Edward 

 W. Currier Amherst College receives 

 the sum of $500,000. Two legacies are 

 released by Mr. Currier's death; one 

 of $180,000 to Williams College and 

 one of $100,000 to Yale University- 

 Mr. John D. Rockefeller has given to 

 the University land fronting the south 

 side of Midway Plaisance of the value 

 of $1,500,000.— Barnard College, Co- 

 lumbia University, has been made the 

 residuary legatee of the estate of Miss 

 Emily O. Gibbes. It is estimated that 

 the college may receive $750,000 — Miss 

 Anna T. Jeanes, of Philadelphia, has 

 created an endowment fund of $1,000,- 

 000, the income from which is to be 

 applied toward the maintenance and 

 assistance of elementary schools for 

 negroes in the southern states. 



