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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



horizontally on either side of the arch 

 in the photograph denotes high water 

 mark. The railings give a scale. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 



We record with regret the death of 

 Dr. John Bell Hatcher, curator of 

 vertebrate zoology at the Carnegie 

 Museum, Pittsburg; of Dr. N. S. Davis, 

 of Chicago, a voluminous writer on 

 medical subjects and chairman in 1845 

 of a committee whose report led to the 

 establishment of the American Medical 

 Association; of M. Anatole de Bar- 

 thelemy, the eminent French archeol- 

 ogist; of M. Leaute Sarrau, professor 

 of mechanics in the Polytechnic School 

 of the University of Paris, and of Dr. 

 Fedor Bredichin, professor of astron- 

 omy at St. Petersburg. 



Dr. W. H. Maxwell, superintendent 

 of schools in New York City, has been 

 elected president of the National Edu- 

 cational Association. — Dr. Louis S. Mc- 

 Murtry, of Louisville, Ky., has been 

 elected president of the American Med- 

 ical Association for the meeting to be 

 held next year at Portland, Ore. — Pro- 

 fessor George Darwin, of Cambridge, 

 will succeed Mr. Balfour, the British 

 premier, as president of the British 

 Association, and will preside over the 

 meeting to be held in South Africa next 

 year. 



Professor Simon Newcomb, U.S.N. 

 (retired), has been elected correspond- 

 ing member of the Berlin Academy of 

 Sciences. — The honor of knighthood has 

 been conferred on Professor James 

 Devvar, the chemist, by King Edward. — 

 The new chemical laboratory of the 

 University of Utrecht, named in honor 

 of Professor J. H. van't Hoff, has been 

 formally opened. On the occasion 

 Professor van't Hoff was given the 

 honorary doctorate by the university. 



President E. A. Alderman, of 



Tulane Univeristy, has been elected 

 president of the University of Virginia. 

 The University of Virginia, in accord- 

 ance with the democratic ideas of Jef- 

 ferson, has hitherto been governed by a 

 board of visitors and the faculty with- 

 out a president. — Dr. Charles Schu- 

 chert, of the U. S. National Museum, 

 has been appointed professor of his- 

 torical geology in the Sheffield Scientific 

 School of Yale University and curator 

 of the geological collections in succes- 

 sion to the late Professor Beecher. — Dr. 

 Roux has been elected director of the 

 Pasteur Institute in the room of the 

 late M. Duclaux. Drs. Chamberland 

 and Metchnikoff have been elected sub- 

 directors of the institute. 



At the alumni dinner of the State 

 University of Iowa, the former students 

 of Professor Samuel Calvin, to the 

 number of over two thousand, united in 

 the commemoration of the completion 

 of his thirtieth year in a professorship 

 at that institution. The recognition 

 took the form of a costly silver loving- 

 cup, designed especially for the purpose 

 of symbolizing the scientific achieve- 

 ments of the recipient. The cup is a 

 classic Greek vase, sixteen inches in 

 height, and stands on a base of serpen- 

 tine five inches high. It is adorned 

 with casts taken directly from fossils, 

 with a drainage-map of Iowa, with 

 crossed geological hammers, a micro- 

 scope, and the more conventional spray 

 of laurel, owl of wisdom and torch of 

 learning, — all in relief. One side bears 

 an appropriate inscription in raised 

 letters. Professor Calvin was elected 

 to the chair of natural history in Iowa's 

 university thirty years ago. The chair 

 has since been subdivided into four 

 distinct departments. Professor Calvin 

 retaining the department of geology. 

 He has been state geologist of Iowa 

 (luring the last twelve years. 



