566 



SCIENCE 



FN. S. Vol. L. No. 1303 



installed and so strongly impressed by their 

 scientific and educational value, that he at 

 once expressed the wish that he mi^ht be per- 

 mitted to assist the museum in its efforts to 

 be of service to the public. After conference 

 with Dr. Evermann, director of the museum, 

 Captain Van Antwerp selected the Eoosevelt 

 elk group as the one that he would like to 

 finance. This group is now being prepared 

 under Dr. Evermann's supervision. Paul J. 

 Fair is installing the group and Charles Brad- 

 ford Hudson is painting the background. The 

 animals will be shown at the edge of a heavy 

 redwood forest such as is found in their 

 natural habitat in the northwestern part of 

 California. 



The erection of a new building for the De- 

 partment of Health in New York City has 

 been made possible by an appropriation of 

 $1,000,000 granted by the Board of Estimate. 

 The new building will be erected on a plot of 

 ground, 100 x 100 feet, on West Thirtieth 

 Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. 

 It will provide space for the offices of the 

 director of the Bureau of Hospitals and for 

 the director of the Bureau of Laboratories. 

 Three or four floors will be given to the labora- 

 tories. The first floor will be for the Bureau 

 of Records and another floor will be a modern 

 health station where clinical work will be 

 done. One floor will also be devoted to a 

 medical library. 



The Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation states that the Eeale Aceademia 

 delle Scienze of Turin, Italy, announces that 

 the Vallauri prize of 26,000 lire, is to be 

 awarded for the best work on any of the 

 physical sciences that was published in the 

 four years ending December 1, 1918. The 

 prize is open to foreigners as well as to 

 Italians. The works sent in to compete for 

 the prize must reach the Academy Via Po 18, 

 Turin, before December 31, 1919. A further 

 prize of 1,200 lire is offered for the best manu- 

 script or article published since January 1, 

 1915, on the etiology of endemic cretinism. 



We learn from the Journal of the American 

 Medical Association that a new hygienic lab- 



oratory jjrovided with the most modern equip- 

 ment has been recently inaugurated at Val- 

 paraiso, Chile, in connection with the hospital 

 of San Juan de Dios. The laboratory com- 

 prises sections devoted among others to bac- 

 teriology, chemistry and serum manufacture. 



It is stated in Nature that the British Min- 

 istry of Ways and Communications Bill was 

 read a third time in the House of Commons on 

 July 10. Sir Eric Geddes, the minister-desig- 

 nate, announced the names of the prospective 

 heads of departments as follows: Civil Engi- 

 neering: Sir Alexander Gibb, civil engineer- 

 in-chief, Admiralty, 1918. Mechanical Engi- 

 neering : Lieutenant-Colonel L. Simpson, E.E., 

 chief mechanical engineer in charge of rail- 

 way equipment and rolling-stock of the British 

 Armies in France. Consultant Mechanical 

 Engineer: Sir John Aspinwall, president of 

 the Institution of Civil Engineers. Traffic 

 Department: Sir Philip Nash. Finance and 

 Statistics: Sir J. George Beharrell. Develop- 

 ment Department: Bear- Admiral Sir Charles 

 Martin de Bartolome. Puhlic Safety and 

 Labor: Sir William Marwood, joint permanent 

 secretary of the Board of Trade. Roads De- 

 partment: Brigadier-General Sir Henry P. 

 Maybury. Secretarial and Legal: Sir E. 

 Francis Dunnell. 



Steps are being taken by the Common- 

 wealth Advisory Council of (natural) Science 

 and Industry of Australia to establish a forest 

 products laboratory, at Perth, West Austrialia, 

 for the purpose of experimenting in the utili- 

 zation of the by-products of the timber mills 

 and of the forests. With a view to securing 

 all the information available at similar lab- 

 oratories such as those at Madison, Wisconsin, 

 and Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mr. I. H. 

 Boas, M.Sc, lecturer in chemistry at the 

 Perth Technical School, has been sent to the 

 United States to conduct inquiries. 



The board of overseers of Harvard Univer- 

 sity has recommended that the Harvard Bo- 

 tanical Gai'den should be combined with the 

 Bussey Institution and moved to the grounds 

 of the latter at Jamaica Plains following a 

 report to the board of overseers of the uni- 

 versity by the committee visiting the Botanic 



