JlAKCil 10, 1899.] 



SCIENCE, 



383 



■with the disease. For illustrative purposes iu 

 class rooms or elsewhere it forms one of the 

 most striking examples of the effects produced 

 by a bacterial plant disease. Shoots the size of 

 a lead pencil or a little larger are cut from pear 

 trees, and after being washed in a clean water 

 their upper ends are cut in a slanting way 

 with a sharp sterilized knife. The shoots are 

 then placed in a glass containing water, with 

 the slanting ends free. The glass and its con- 

 tents are now set in a plate or dish containing 

 water, and a bell jar or large beaker placed 

 over them in such a way that the rim is im- 

 mersed in the water in the plate. This insures 

 a saturated atmosphere and other conditions 

 unfavorable to the shoots, but favorable to the 

 germs themselves. Infections with pure cul- 

 tures of the blight bacillus on the slanting cut 

 surfaces of the shoots begin to show as beautiful, 

 pearly-white, bead-like colonies in from 36 to 48 

 hours, and as the disease progresses, which it 

 does more or less rapidly under varying con- 

 ditions of heat, the changes in the host and para- 

 site may be easily watched. 



The new Turbinia, of 220 feet in length and 

 330 tons displacement, is, as we learn from the 

 London Times, in an advanced state of construc- 

 tion at Ellswick, and hopes are being enter- 

 tained of her being tried in two months from 

 the present time. The modifications found to 

 be desirable after the exhaustive trials of her 

 predecessor are considerable. The new vessel 

 has eight propellers on four shafts, instead of 

 the original Turbinia's three shafts and nine 

 propellers. Her ' going-astern ' arrangements 

 are far in advace of those of the pioneer boat, 

 whose extreme speed caused great excitment 

 in the Solent at the time of the Naval Review 

 of 1897. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



President Taylor, of Vassar College, has 

 declined the call to the presidency of Brown 

 University. 



Mr. a. E. H. Love. F.R.S., Fellow of St. 

 John's College, Cambridge, and University lec- 

 turer in mathematics, has been appointed Sed- 

 leian professor of natural philosophy in succes- 

 sion to the late Professor Bartholomew Price. 



Mr. a. W. Hill has been appointed dem- 

 onstrator in botany in Cambridge University. 



Rollins A. Emerson, of Washington, D. C. 

 who was elected to the chair of horticulture in 

 the University of Nebraska iu June, 1898, as- 

 sumed the duties of the position March 1st. 

 After resigning his position in the Division of 

 Experiment Stations in the Department of 

 Agriculture, he spent some time in study in 

 Cornell University before taking up his new 

 duties. 



Dr. H. E. Annett has been appointed 

 demonstratorof tropical pathology in the newly- 

 founded school of tropical diseases in Liverpool. 

 Both Edinburgh and Aberdeen have taken steps 

 to establish lectureships on the diseases of 

 tropical climates. 



The chair of natural history at Aberdeen, 

 vacant by the death of Professor Nicholson, will, 

 it is expected, be divided, and professorships of 

 geology and zoology will be established. 



The late Mrs. Martha S. Pomeroy has be- 

 queathed to Wellesley College $60,000 for the 

 erection of a dormitory, and also the residue of 

 her estate. 



We are also glad to record the following gifts 

 and bequests : Miss Maria Hopper has given 

 $10,000 to Bryn Mawr College for the founda- 

 tion of a scholarship. Syracuse University has 

 i-eceived $5,000 from the heirs of H. H. Crary, 

 of Binghamton, in accordance with the wishes 

 he had expressed. The University of North 

 Carolina has been given $15,000 by Mr. Julian 

 S. Carr. Swarthmore College has received 

 $5,000 by the will of the late Daniel Underbill. 



The late Professor Rutherford has bequeathed 

 to Edinburgh Univei-sity his valuable medical 

 library and his collection of physiological and 

 microscopical specimens. 



On the fifteenth of February the University 

 of Nebraska celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. 

 It has been the custom for manj' years to ob- 

 serve ' Charter Day ' as a holiday, and to have 

 parades, military exercises, addresses, etc., and 

 for several years degrees have been conferred 

 upon such students as completed their work at 

 this time. On the present occasion seven stu- 

 dents received the bachelor's degree and two 



