476 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 771 



ophy, died on September 17, at the age of 

 seventy-three years. 



Mr. Bryan Cookson, assistant at the Cam- 

 bridge Observatory, has died at the age of 

 thirty-six years. 



A BRONZE tablet, three by two feet, has been 

 installed in the building of the New York 

 Aquarium, it being the New York Zoological 

 Society's contribution to the Hudson-Fulton 

 Celebration. The tablet is inscribed: 



This building first known as West Battery, 

 erected 1807-1811 — Called Castle Clinton after 

 the war of 1812 — Ceded by Congress to New York 

 Oity 1823 — Subsequently known as Castle Garden 

 —General Lafayette received here 1824, President 

 Jackson 1832, Kossuth 1851, the Prince of Wales 

 1860 — Jenny Lind first sang here 1850 — The land- 

 ing place of eight million immigrants, 1855-1890 

 — Connected with the land by a bridge prior to 

 1869 — Converted into an Aquarium 1896 — Placed 

 ur.der control of New York Zoological Society 

 1902 — Aquarium visitors twenty-one million to 

 1909. 



The last legislature of North Dakota passed 

 a comprehensive pure seed law intended to 

 regulate the sale of agricultural and garden 

 seeds, providing for proper labeling of such 

 seeds, and for the establishment of a Seed 

 Control Laboratory at the North Dakota Agri- 

 cultural College, in connection with the de- 

 partment of botany. Dean H. L. Bolley was 

 made state seed commissioner and Mr. Grin A. 

 Stevens, of the Agricultural College of Kan- 

 sas, was elected assistant in charge of the 

 laboratory. The laboratory is well equipped 

 for all types of seed investigation and opened 

 for work on October 1. 



At a meeting of the board of directors of 

 the American Chemical Society held at the 

 Chemists' Club, New York, on September 13, 

 it was voted that an additional amount not to 

 exceed seven hundred dollars be appropriated 

 for the purposes of the Journal of Industrial 

 and Engineering Chemistry for the balance of 

 the fiscal year provided that no issue of the 

 journal to which this appropriation is to apply 

 shall exceed sixty-four pages exclusive of ad- 

 vertisements and cover. The amount of ma- 

 terial offered for publication having become so 

 great, it was voted that the directors recom- 



mend that the editors of both journals should 

 not feel obliged to print all matter that passes 

 their respective boards, but should conduct 

 their journals from the standpoint of those 

 who read rather than from that of those who 

 write, making a selection of those articles 

 which, having passed their boards, are in their 

 opinion of the greatest value to chemical sci- 

 ence and industry. 



The London Times states that a group of 

 French, German and Belgian patrons of avia- 

 tion are offering a prize of 250,000 f. (£10,000) 

 to be awarded to the aviator who rises, with a 

 fixed point as center, to a height of 250 meters, 

 flies a thousand meters from this altitude in a 

 horizontal direction, and finally, returning, 

 soars for a quarter of an hour at a height of 

 20 meters over the point of departure. An 

 alternative feat is to make a flight from 

 Brussels to Paris or from Brussels to Cologne, 

 without a stop, at a speed of 60 kilometers an 

 hour. At Spa the final preparations for the 

 competition have now been made, and MM. 

 Paulhan, Sommer, Druet, Delagrange and 

 Le Blond have their machines ready in their 

 sheds for the trials. 



The New York Evening Post states that 

 Dr. Paul Vouger, of the Museum of Neu- 

 ehatel, Switzerland, has given the archeolog- 

 ical branch of Peabody Museum, of Yale 

 University, two cases of prehistoric imple- 

 ments in stone, iron, horn and bronze. A col- 

 lection of Indian antiquities has been received 

 from G. W. Eittenour, '09. By an exchange 

 there has been received from Stockholm, 

 Sweden, an ethnographical collection made 

 among the African tribes of the Congo. From 

 the EgsTptian exploration fund has come a 

 collection from the tombs at Mahaska and 

 Abydos. It includes articles in ivory, vases, 

 beads, ornaments, palettes and pottery. 



In the Public Health Eeports for August 

 27, 1909, appears an article on " Plague among 

 Ground Squirrels in Contra Costa County, 

 California." In 1894 plague began to spread 

 from central Asia. Since then it has been car- 

 ried to practically all parts of the world, in- 

 cluding the Pacific Coast of the United 

 States, where the disease has appeared in man. 



