December 24, 1909] 



SCIENCE- 



9ir 



yet recorded. The silver mining industry pre- 

 sents a condition far less satisfactory, owing 

 to the low prices of silver, lead, copper and 

 zinc. Important mines in Colorado and Utah 

 found it difficult to make profits on low-grade 

 ores, and large smelters in these states were 

 closed during part of the year or were operated 

 with reduced capacities. A temporary lack of 

 demand for silver in India, and a very heavy 

 production in Canada contributed to the de- 

 pression in price. The average price per 

 ounce during the year was 53 cents, as against 

 66 cents in 1907. The Geological Survey's re- 

 port on gold and silver in 1908, prepared by 

 Messrs. Waklemar Lindgren and H. D. Mc- 

 Caskey, may be had by applying to the direc- 

 tor of the survey at Washington. 



According to a notice in the London Times 

 the project described recently by Sir William 

 Willcoeks at a meeting of the Eoyal Geo- 

 graphical Society promises to be the most im- 

 portant engineering undertaking of the near 

 future. An irrigation scheme is being planned 

 for the rehabilitation of Mesopotamia upon 

 such a scale that 3,000,000 acres of the best 

 land in that country will be provided with 

 water. If it is carried out, the Tigris, the 

 Euphrates and the Al^kar Kuf Lake will form 

 part of a controlled system of canals, weirs 

 and barrages, whereby the pernicious silt is to 

 be separated, floods are to be prevented and 

 wheat-bearing land is to be nourished with 

 water. It is estimated that the cultivated 

 area will be doubled, and that the crop of 

 wheat along the Euphrates will be trebbled. 

 The scheme would also result in a vast in- 

 crease in the yield of cotton. Briefly, it con- 

 sists of providing a means of escape for the 

 flood waters of the Euphrates along the de- 

 pressions of the Pison, but it also entails the 

 construction of a great central canal, regu- 

 lators to control the supply from the Euphrates 

 at the head of the Sakhlawia, a weir on the 

 Tigris, a canal for irrigation to the north of 

 Baghdad, another canal along the right bank 

 of the Tigris and the building of a railway 

 along the left bank of this canal for the trans- 

 port of the harvests. Moreover, the construc- 

 tion work would include a railway to connect 



Baghdad with the Mediterranean by a short 

 and cheap route. 



UXIVEESITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 The trustees of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania announce that Mr. Henry Phipps, of 

 New York, founder of the Phipps Institute 

 in Philadelphia, has presented to the univer- 

 sity $500,000, to be used in the campaign 

 against tuberculosis. The management of the 

 Phipps Institute will be in the hands of the 

 university, and the study, treatment and pre- 

 vention of the disease will be continued in a 

 new hospital to be erected at Seventh and 

 Lombard Streets. Six years ago Henry 

 Phipps founded the Phipps Institute for 

 Tuberculosis Research in Philadelphia, with 

 a large endowment. In 1908 he gave $500,- 

 000 to the Johns Hopkins University for the 

 foimding of a psychiatric clinic. 



The eleventh industrial fellowship at the 

 University of Kansas has been established by 

 the Pacific Coast Borax Company of Oakland, 

 California, and will be known as the Borax 

 fellowship. The amount which this company 

 will pay to support the work of its fellow is 

 $750. The purpose of the fellowship is to in- 

 vestigate the uses of borax and to discover if 

 possible new commercial utility in this prod- 

 uct. 



The cornerstone of the new science hall of 

 Howard University was recently laid by Rich- 

 ard A. Ballinger, secretary of the interior. 

 Addresses were delivered by Dr. Robert S. 

 Woodward, president of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington and Dr. Charles Wardell 

 Stiles, director of the Rockefeller fund for 

 combating the hook-worm disease. An ap- 

 propriation of $90,000 was made by the last 

 congress for the erection of this hall. 



Lectures in veterinary science are to be 

 given in the College of Agriculture of the 

 University of Wisconsin this year during the 

 second semester as a result of the appointment 

 of Dr. John Spencer, of Pulaski, Va., as spe- 

 cial lecturer in veterinary science. In addi- 

 tion to his lectures Dr. Spencer will have 



