48o 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



persons. A group of buildings in keep- 

 ing with the dignity and importance of 

 agriculture in our national economy 

 and significant of the service of the 

 Department of Agriculture to the coun- 

 try at large, is greatly to be desired. 

 A year from now congress will probably 

 be asked to provide further funds, so 

 that the administration building (esti- 

 mated to cost $1,000,000) and possibly 

 other laboratory buildings may be 

 erected. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 

 We regret to announce the deaths of 

 Dr. Charles Emerson Beecher, professor 

 of historical geology at Yale University 

 and a member of the governing board 

 of the Sheffield Scientific School ; of 

 Dr. Emil Alexander de Schweinitz, 

 chief of the Biochemic Division, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture; of Arthur 

 William Palmer, D.Sc. (Harvard), head 

 of the Department of Chemistry of the 

 University of Illinois, and of Miss 

 Anna Winlock, computer and assistant 

 in the Harvard College Observatory. 



Dr. David Duncan, having been en- 

 trusted by the late Mr. Herbert Spencer 

 with the writing of his biography, will 

 be obliged to persons who may possess 

 letters from him of value if they will 

 kindly lend them for the purpose of 

 such biograpny. All letters addressed 

 to Dr. D. Duncan, care of H. R. Tedder, 

 Esq., secretary, the Athenaeum, Pall- 



mall, London, S. W., will be carefully 

 preserved and returned in due course 

 to their o^vners. Mr. Spencer's auto- 

 biography will be published by Messrs. 

 D. Appleton & Co., on March 25. 



The steamship Princess Irene, bring- 

 ing the remains of James Smithson, 

 arrived in New York on January 20. 

 These were transferred to the Dolphin 

 of the U. S. Navy and taken to Wash- 

 ington. They have been deposited in 

 the Smithsonian Institution until ar- 

 rangements can be made for suitable 

 burial in the grounds of the institution 

 and the erection of a monument. The 

 remains were brought to this country 

 by Dr. A. Graham Bell, at whose in- 

 stance the regents arranged for the 

 removal, owing to the fact that the 

 English cemetery at Genoa in which 

 Smithson was buried was to be aban- 

 doned. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society on February 12, 

 Ambassador Choate received the so- 

 ciety's gold medal on behalf of Pro- 

 fessor George E. Hale, of the Yerkes 

 Observatory. — The Lalande prize in 

 astronomy has been conferred upon 

 Director W. W. Campbell, of the Lick 

 Observatory, by the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences. — The French minister of pub- 

 lic instruction and fine arts has con- 

 ferred the degree of officer of public 

 instruction upon Dr. Lester F. Ward 

 for his scientific and sociological works. 



