876 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 781 



The annual joint meeting of tlie Iowa So- 

 ciety of the Archeological Institute of Amer- 

 ica, the Iowa Anthropological Society and the 

 Iowa branch of the American Folk-Lore So- 

 ciety, was held at the State University of 

 Iowa, November 26 and 27. At the opening 

 session on Friday afternoon, a greeting was 

 extended to the visitors by President George 

 E. MacLean, of the university, which was re- 

 sponded to by State Librarian Johnson Brig- 

 ham, of Des Moines. Papers on many sub- 

 jects of interest were presented, among them 

 a report on the Boone Mounds in Iowa by 

 Curator Harlan, of the state historical de- 

 partment; a discussion of the human popula- 

 tion of the Hawaiian Islands by Professor 

 Charles C. JSTutting, of the State University 

 of Iowa, and a lecture by Mrs. A. M. Mosher, 

 of Cambridge, Mass., entitled " The Story of 

 the Isle of Man." OflBcers of the societies 

 elected for the coming year are the following : 

 Iowa Society of the Archeological Institute: 



President — E. K. Putnam, of Davenport, Iowa. 



Secretary-Treasurer — Professor Charles H. Wel- 

 ler, of the State University of Iowa. 

 Iowa Anthropological Society: 



President — E. K. Putnam, of Davenport, Iowa. 



Secretary — J. H. Paarmann, of Davenport, Iowa. 

 Iowa Branch of the American Folk-lore Society: 



President — Charles B. Wilson, of the State Uni- 

 versity of Iowa. 



Secretary — E. K. Putnam, of Davenport, Iowa. 



The regular monthly meeting of the Oregon 

 State Academy of Sciences was held on October 

 10, the speakers being Dr. David Walker and 

 Dr. L. J. Wolf, on " Arctic Explorations." 

 Dr. Walker had been on two expeditions, the 

 first with McClintock, and Dr. Wolf has been 

 with Peary in 1905-6. Dr. Walker gave an 

 account of early explorations and Dr. Wolf of 

 his ovm experiences. 



The United States Commissioner of Educa- 

 tion, Dr. E. E. Brown, has announced that 

 at the request of the Belgian government he 

 has appointed an American committee to have 

 charge of American interests at the third 

 International Congress of Home Education to 

 be held in Brussels in 1910. The membership 

 of the American committee is Professor M. V. 

 O'Shea, the University of Wisconsin, chair- 



man; Professor W. C. Bagley, the University 

 of Illinois, secretary ; President Wm. L. Bryan, 

 the University of Indiana; Mr. Wm. H. Allen, 

 expert for the Sage Eoundation, New York; 

 Professor Irving Fisher, Tale University, 

 chairman of the Committee of One Hundred; 

 Judge Ben B. Lindsey, Denver; Superinten- 

 dent Frank B. Cooper, Seattle; Mary E. 

 Ahern, editor Public Libraries, Chicago; 

 President E. E. Johnstone, New Jersey; 

 President Lewis H. Jones, State Normal Col- 

 lege, Michigan; Charlotte Perkins Oilman, 

 editor, New York; Mrs. H. K.' Schoff, presi- 

 dent of the National Congress of Mothers, 

 Philadelphia; Dean W. S. Sutton, University 

 of Texas; Professor Henry Suzzalo, Columbia 

 University; Bertha Payne Miller, the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago. 



The International Congress of Mining, 

 Metallurgy, Applied Mechanics and Practical 

 Geology, held at Liege in 1905, resolved to 

 accept the invitation of the Rhenish-West- 

 phalian Mining Industry to hold the next con- 

 gress in Rhenish-Westphalia, and it is now 

 announced that the congress will be convened 

 at Diisseldorf, the last week in June, 1910. 

 It will be divided into the following sections : 

 (1) Mining, (2) Metallurgy, (3) Applied 

 Mechanics, (4) Practical Geology. 



One of the most widely known of the rarer 

 metals is tungsten. The production of this 

 metal in the United States, however, is not 

 large, as a little of it goes a long way for some 

 of its most important uses. As by far the 

 largest part of the tungsten produced is used 

 in making tool steel, the demand for tungsten 

 decreased greatly during the recent depression 

 in the steel industry. In 1908 the domestic 

 production of tungsten ore, reduced to an 

 equivalent of ore carrying 60 per cent, of 

 tungstic trioxide (WO,), the ordinary com- 

 mercial basis in the United States, was 671 

 short tons, valued at $229,955, as against 

 1,640 tons, valued at $890,048, in 1907. The 

 statistics at present available from foreign 

 countries show a similar decline. These fig- 

 ures are taken from a report by F. L. Hess, of 

 the United States Geological Survey, pub- 

 lished in an advance chapter from " Mineral 



