380 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 219. 



a statistician, and possesses none of those expert 

 qualifications which the place imperatively de- 

 mands. He is a spoilsman, and can be trusted 

 to run the bureau on a spoils basis, from top to 

 bottom. No appointment could be made which 

 would so certainly secure the failure of the next 

 census as a trustworthy and creditable work." 



Mr. F. H. Wines, who has been appointed 

 Assistant Director of the Census, is an expert 

 statistician. 



The nomination of Mr. Barrows as Librarian 

 of Congress has failed of confirmation by the 

 Senate. It is to be hoped that the action of the 

 Senate was due to the fact that Mr. Barrows is 

 not a librarian by profession, and not to the 

 fact that he is a good executive officer, who 

 would probably have administered the National 

 Library without regard to party considerations. 



The civilian members of the United States 

 Philippine Commission, President Schurman, of 

 Cornell University ; Col. Charles Denby, and 

 Professor Dean C. Worcester, of the University 

 of Michigan, have arrived at Manila. 



D. Anton Fritsch, Director of the Natural 

 History Museum of Prag, who has just begun 

 publishing the fourth volume of his Fauna der 

 Gaskohle of the Permian of Bohemia, sails for 

 New York in the Kaiser Wilhelm on March 

 28th, to visit the museums of this country. 



Professor T. E. Thorpe, F.R.S., has been 

 nominated for the presidency of the Chemical 

 Society, London, and Mr. William Whitaker, 

 F.R.S., has been elected President of the Geo- 

 logical Society, London. 



We regret to learn that Dr. J. J. Valentini, 

 the student of Mexicana, Is seriously ill with 

 pneumonia at St. Luke's Hospital, New York 

 City. 



Dr. H. Foster Bain, Assistant State Geolo- 

 gist of Iowa, is delivering a course of lectures 

 on economic geology to the graduate students 

 in geology at the University of Chicago. Dr. 

 W. S. Beyer, professor of geology and mining 

 in the Iowa State College of Agriculture and 

 Mechanic Arts, has charge of the office of the 

 Iowa Geological Survey at Des Moines during 

 Dr. Bain's absence. 



Mr. M. a. Carleton, who has been engaged 



for several years upon an investigation of the 

 rusts affecting cereals, has just returned from 

 Russia, where he has been collecting cereals 

 for use in this country in connection with the 

 investigations now being carried on by the 

 Section of Seed and Plant Distribution. Mr. 

 Carleton has collected much valuable material 

 and information which will further the work 

 of the Division of Vegetable Physiology and 

 Pathology on cereal diseases and the breeding 

 of new and valuable varieties. 



Arrangements have been made by the 

 Rothschilds to send Mr. G. W. Dunn on an 

 expedition to the Philippine Islands for the col- 

 lection of objects of natural history. Mr. Dunn 

 has made many collecting expeditions to South 

 America and Mexico. He is at present 85 years 

 of age. 



Signor Marconi described and demonstrated 

 his method of wireless telegraphy at a meeting 

 of the British Society of Electrical Engineers on 

 March 2d. 



The Academy of Sciences of Vienna has 

 made a new departure in entertaining at a ban- 

 quet Dr. Gerhardt Hauptmann, the eminent 

 dramatic writer. Dr. Ed. Suess, the President, 

 presided and made an address in honor of Dr. 

 Hauptmann. 



On the retirement of Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B, 

 the British Postmaster-General has appointed 

 Mr. J. Hookey, previously assistant engineer- 

 in-chief, to be engineer-in-chief of the post office, 

 and he has also appointed Mr. J. Gavey to be 

 assistant engineer-in-chief and electrician. 



M. Bouquet de la Grye has been appointed 

 President of the Council of the French Bureau 

 of Meteorology. M. Darboux has been ap- 

 pointed Vice-President and M. Anthoine, Secre- 

 tary. 



Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton, professor of 

 mental diseases in Cornell Medical College, has 

 been elected a member of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh. 



A Civil Service examination will be held 

 on April 11-12, 1899, for the position of Assist- 

 ant in Irrigation, Office of Experiment Stations, 

 Department of Agriculture, at a salary of $1,500 

 per annum. The examination will consist of 



