232 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 215, 



3 ft. in height. They never go outside the 

 forest. During the whole time I was with them 

 they were perfectly friendly." 



The British Medical Journal reports that all 

 observations up to the present time tend to 

 show that the presence of tubercle bacilli in 

 butter is a rare event. Rabinowitsch, whose 

 previous work on this subject was published in 

 1897, has lately conducted some further experi- 

 ments in Berlin with the object of testing pre- 

 vious investigations. Fourteen butter manu- 

 factories were examined, and 15 experiments 

 made. The produce of one factory was thus 

 examined twice, and tubercle bacilli were found 

 on both occasions in the butter. The remain- 

 ing 13 showed no trace of true living tubercle 

 bacilli, but in many instances pseudotuber- 

 culous bacilli were found. Inoculation experi- 

 ments were made in all cases. During June and 

 July the daily produce coming from the infected 

 factory was examined. The result showed that 

 70 per cent, of the butter contained living 

 tubercle bacilli. Professor Koch thought this 

 result so remarkable that he requested Rabino- 

 witsch to inspect another factory. In this sec- 

 ond experiment no tubercle bacilli were found, 

 but in some instances pseudo-tubercle bacilli had 

 to be carefully differentiated from the true 

 bacilli. Animals when injected with this 

 pseudo-tuberculous material died of peritonitis. 

 The ' isolation ' of this butter factory iu Berlin, 

 which is a source of danger to the community, 

 is certainly a triumph for the scientific method 

 of food examination. The question whether 

 the pseudo-tuberculous material so often present 

 in butter is harmful to human beings will be a 

 matter for future investigation. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The sum of $50,000 is given to the Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology by the will of the 

 late Edward B. Hosmer, of Boston. 



By the will of Mr. David Aicheson £10,000 

 is left to the University of Melbourne for the 

 foundation of scholarships. 



The convocation of the University of the 

 State of New York will be held on June 26th to 

 28th. President Harper, of the University of 

 Chicago, will deliver the annual address, his 



subject being '"Waste in Education.' Superin- 

 tendent Horace S. Tarbell will present a paper 

 on the schools of that city, describing their 

 methods of dealing with especially bright and 

 especially backward students. 



Haevabd University will spend $175,000 

 in the erection of a new building for the de- 

 partment of engineering of the Lawrence Scien- 

 tific School. The building will be situated on 

 Holmes Field. 



The number of students matriculated at the 

 University of Edinburgh during the past year 

 was 2,813, of whom 211 are women. The en- 

 rollment in the different Faculties is as fol- 

 lows : Arts, 817 ; science, 147 ; divinity, 63 ; 

 law, 373; medicine, 1,387; music, 26. 



At a recent meeting of convocation of the 

 University of London the following resolution 

 was carried: That the value of the B.A. de- 

 gree has been distinctly lowered by the recent 

 changes in the final examination, which enable 

 a candidate to obtain the degree without taking 

 any of those subjects («. g., mathematics and 

 mental and moral science) which involve a 

 discipline in the more abstract kind of thought. 



Harvard University some time since estab- 

 lished a class somewhat similar to the docents 

 of the German University, though the lecture- 

 ships are limited to a period not exceeding four 

 months, and the University does not even collect 

 such fees as may be charged. The first lectures 

 under this system are now announced. They 

 are a course on the geology and geography 

 of the oceans by Dr. R. A. Daly and a course on 

 history of the philosophical tendencies of the 

 19th century by Dr. W. P. Montague. 



The resignation of Dr. D. T. MacDougal, to 

 accept a position in the New York Botanical 

 Garden, leaves a vacancy in the assistant pro- 

 fessorship of botany at the University of Min- 

 nesota. It will probably be filled at the April 

 meeting of the Board of Regents. 



De. J. Tafel has been promoted to an 

 assistant professorship of chemistry in the Uni- 

 versity at Wiirzberg, and Dr. E. O. Schmidt, 

 of Leipzig, has been made professor of chem- 

 istry in the medical school at Cairo. Dr. Otto 

 Niisse, professor of pharmacology in the Univer- 

 sity at Rostock, has retired. 



