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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Murray Butler, of Columbia University ; 

 Director Melvil Dewey, University of 

 the State of New York. More than one 

 hundred and fifty international con- 

 gresses, dealing with various subjects of 

 scientific, industrial and social impor- 

 tance, are held this summer in Paris, 

 and form no small part of the interest 

 of the Exposition, supplementing as 

 they do the exhibits, furnishing the 

 theory, as the exhibits set forth the 

 accomplishments, of art and industry. 

 The magnitude of these congresses may 

 be seen from the fact that the thir- 

 teenth International Medical Congress 

 had a registration of over six thousand 

 members, of whom over four hundred 

 were from America. 



Friends of scientific investigation 

 and the teaching of science will rejoice 

 at the recent decision in the courts con- 

 cerning the Fayerweather will case. 

 For the eighth time the grant of $3,000,- 

 000 to the colleges has been confirmed. 

 The case will probably be appealed to 

 the Supreme Court of the United States, 

 but the probability is large that Mr. 

 Fayerweather's wishes will in the end 

 be carried out. At the present time, 

 money left to colleges is likely to be 

 used to a very large extent to promote 

 the progress of science. Required 

 courses in linguistics are decreasing, 

 and the extension of college teaching 

 and university research is largely along- 

 scientific lines. New departments, such 

 as those of physiography, physical chem- 

 istry, anthropology and experimental 

 psychology are being established, while 

 economics and sociology are becoming 

 less speculative and more like the nat- 

 ural sciences in their methods. The 

 college student of to-day gets propor- 

 tionately more training in the professed- 

 ly natural sciences than ever before, and 

 gets scientific training in connection 

 with courses which were once mere ex- 

 ercises in learning the opinions of more 

 or less important people. 



We called attention last month to 

 the completion of the plans for an in- 

 ternational catalogue of scientific lit- 



erature, and stated that Great Britain 

 and Germany had each subscribed for 

 forty-five of the three hundred sets that 

 must be sold in order to defray the cost. 

 It is obvious that the United States, 

 with such a large number of libraries 

 and educational institutions, should 

 subscribe for its share of the sets, 

 namely, not less than forty-five. The 

 Smithsonian Institution has provision- 

 ally undertaken to represent the inter- 

 ests of the catalogue in the United 

 States, and will receive promises of sub- 

 scriptions. The catalogue will be issued 

 in seventeen volumes, comprising the 

 following subjects: Mathematics, me- 

 chanics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, 

 meteorology (including terrestrial mag- 

 netism), mineralogy (including petrol- 

 ogy and crystallography), geology, 

 geography (mathematical and physical), 

 palaeontology, general biology, botany, 

 zoology, human anatomy, physical an- 

 thropology, physiology (including ex- 

 perimental psychology, pharmacology 

 and experimental pathology) and bac- 

 teriology. At least one volume will be 

 given to each subject, and it is proposed 

 that not all the volumes shall be issued 

 at once, but in four groups, as soon as 

 possible after the first of January, 

 April, July and October, respectively. 

 The subscription price for a complete set 

 of the whole catalogue, in seventeen vol- 

 umes, is £17, say $85. The volumes will 

 vary in price and can be obtained sep- 

 arately, but it is necessary to secure 

 the guarantee of the sale of forty-five 

 sets in America during the month of 

 September, and all libraries used for 

 scientific research, and those individuals 

 who can afford the cost, should send 

 subscriptions to Dr. Richard Rathbun, 

 Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, Washington, D. C. 



In the July number of the Monthly 

 Dr. H. C. Bolton gave an account of 

 the radio-active substances which have 

 been found in pitchblende, the chief ore 

 of uranium. The subject continues to 

 excite the interest of both chemists and 

 physicists, though just at present the 



