338 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 767 



An instance of the kind was found by Dr. 

 Huntington in part of a Brenham pallasite 

 in the Harvard University Museum, and was 

 illustrated in Plate III. of his above-cited 

 paper. The scientific and exhibitional value 

 of the Brenham pallasites is shown by the fact 

 that, while the total " fall " was scattered over 

 an area of about a half mile by two miles, and 

 aggregated well toward a ton in weight, the 

 largest specimen offered in the 1907 price-list 

 of one of the largest firms in America dealing 

 in meteorites, weighs less than five and a half 

 pounds, and is listed at $150. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



Harvard IJNn'ERSiTY has received the sum of 

 $15,000 from Mrs. James Augustus Eumrill, 

 of Springfield, in memory of her husband, who 

 received his degree of A.B. from the univer- 

 sity in 1859. It is to be used to establish three 

 scholarships for southern students. 



While the British are reorganizing the Col- 

 lege of Medicine and the Technical Institute 

 at Hong Kong into a university, the Germans 

 have established a school of university grade 

 at Kiao-ehau. It is said that the German 

 government has appropriated $160,000 for its 

 establishment and will contribute $50,000 an- 

 nually for the support of the institution. 



It is proposed to reorganize the schools of 

 higher education of Algiers into a university. 



The Tulane University of Louisiana dur- 

 ing the past year has come into possession of 

 the following amounts: Two million eight 

 hundred dollars from the Newcomb estate. 

 This goes to the Newcomb College — the wo- 

 man's department of the University — founded 

 by Mrs. Josephine Louise Newcomb as a me- 

 morial to her daughter, and to which Mrs. 

 Newcomb before her death gave about one 

 million dollars. Mrs. Ida A. Eichardson has 

 made a donation of $50,000 to the university 

 towards the establishment of a chair of botany. 

 By the will of Miss Linda Miles, who died re- 

 cently in Washington, D. C, the university 

 library is the recipient of $5,000 to purchase 

 books. The following persons have been added 

 to the scientific departments of the university 

 for the session of 1909-10: Charles K. Bur- 



dick, New York City, professor of law; Irving 

 Hardesty, Ph.D., University of California, 

 professor of anatomy; Henry W. Stiles, Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, assistant professor of 

 anatomy; H. Hays Bullard, University of 

 Missouri, instructor in anatomy; D. F. Mac- 

 Donald, University of Chicago and U. S. Geo- 

 logical Survey, assistant demonstrator in 

 chemistry and geology; J. G. Gage, assistant 

 in clinical medicine. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



" MARS AS THE ABODE OF LIFE " 



The recent letters in Science on the geo- 

 logic facts in " Mars as the Abode of Life " 

 have an origin which readers of Science 

 should have the opportunity to know. The 

 geologic facts in " Mars as the Abode of Life " 

 are taken from recognized sources, chiefly 

 Dana, Geikie, Dr. Lapparent and recent re- 

 search; only the weaving together is new. 

 They are not res gratae to certain geologists 

 because they clash with a new cosmogeny de- 

 vised by the Chicago geologist. Professor 

 Chamberlin, who associated with himseK for 

 the mechanical and mathematical proof of it, 

 on which all such hypotheses must rest, the 

 assistant professor of astronomy of his uni- 

 versity, Professor Moulton. It becomes per- 

 tinent, therefore, to consider the basis of their 

 belief which is necessarily astronomic. From 

 the latter writer's exposition of the hypoth- 

 esis given in most detail in his " Introduction 

 to Astronomy," we shall now quote. 



We shall begin with a statement on page 

 380, which in itself is sufficient to render the 

 reader cautious when he finds himself adven- 

 tured later upon the exposition. It is with re- 

 gard to the speed of meteors when they strike 

 the earth. It runs as follows : 



Let us assume provisionally that the meteors 

 are moving around the sun in sensibly parabolic 

 orbits, like the orbits of the comets, and let us 

 find the greatest and least velocities with which 

 they can encounter the earth's atmosphere. If it 

 were not for the earth's attraction they would 

 pass the earth's orbit at the rate of twenty-five 

 miles per second, the velocity being independent 

 of the angle at which they crossed. The earth's 



