600 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 225. 



ology of Yellow Fever; (7) The Relation of 

 Forestry to the Public Health ; (8) Demog- 

 raphy and Statistics in their Sanitary Relations; 

 (9) The Causes and Prevention of Infectious 

 Diseases ; (10) Public Health Legislation ; (11) 

 The Cause and Prevention of Infant Mortality; 

 (12) The Period during which Each Contagious 

 Disease is Transmissible and the Length of Time 

 for which each Patient is Dangerous to the 

 Community ; (13) Sanitation, with special ref- 

 erence to Drainage, Plumbing and Ventilation 

 of Public and Private Buildings ; (14) Method 

 of International Arrangement for Protection 

 against the Transmission of Infectiovis Diseases; 

 (15) Disinfectants ; (16) To Examine into the 

 existing Sanitary Municipal Organizations of 

 the Countries belonging to the Association with 

 a view to Report upon those most successful in 

 Practical Results ; (17) Laboratories ; (IS) To 

 define What Constitutes an Epidemic ; (19) Na- 

 tional Leper Home ; (20) Revision of Classi- 

 fication of Diseases ; (21) Dangers to the Pub- 

 lic Health from Illuminating Gas Leakage. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the London Times calls 

 attention to a passage in The Spectator (No. 

 241, 1711) which is interesting in connection 

 with wireless telegraphy and telegraphy in 

 general. The passage read thus : ' ' Strada in 

 one of his Prolusions gives an account of a 

 chimerical correspondence between two friends 

 by the help of a certain loadstone, which had 

 such virtue in it that if it touched two several 

 needles, when one of the needles so touched be- 

 gan to move, the other, though at never so 

 great a distance, moved at the same time and in 

 the same manner. He tells us that the two 

 friends, being each of them possessed of one of 

 these needles, made a kind of dial-plate, in- 

 scribing it with the four and-twenty letters in 

 the same manner as the hours of the day are 

 marked upon the ordinary dial- plate. They 

 then fixed one of the needles on each of these 

 plates in such manner that it could move round 

 without impediment so as to touch any of the 

 fonr-and-twenty letters. Upon their separating 

 from one another into distant countries they 

 agreed to withdraw themselves punctually into 

 their closets at a certain hour of the day and to 

 converse with one another by means of this 

 their invention. Accordingly when they were 



some hundred miles asunder each of them shut 

 himself up in his closet at the time appointed, 

 and immediately cast his eye upon his dial- 

 plate. If he had a mind to write anything to 

 his friend he directed his needle to every letter 

 that formed the words which he had occasion 

 for, making a little pause at the end of every 

 word or sentence to avoid confusion. The 

 friend, in the meanwhile, saw his own sympa- 

 thetic needle moving of itself to every letter 

 which that of his correspondent pointed at. By 

 this means they talked together across a whole 

 continent, and conveyed their thoughts to one 

 another in an instant over cities or mountains, 

 seas or deserts." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

 In its session just closed the Legislature of 

 Nebraska made provision for the University of 

 Nebraska for the biennium ending March 31, 

 1901, as follows : University salaries, $230,- 

 000 ; University expenses (including U. S. 

 funds for agricultural and mechanic arts), $172,- 

 500 ; buildings and other improvements, $93,- 

 500. 



The Queen has appointed the Earl of Kim- 

 berley, K.G., to be Chancellor of the University 

 of London, in lieu of the late Lord Herschell. 



The University of Chicago has awarded 

 eighty-one fellowships, of which the following 

 are given in the sciences : mathematics, G. A. 

 Bliss, H. Lloyd, W. Findlay, D. N. Lehmer, 

 J. H. MacDonald ; astronomy, C. E. Rood, W. 

 S. Adams, A. C. Lunn ; physics, H. O. Murfee, 

 R. F. Earhart, C. W. Chamberlain, F. Reich- 

 mann ; chemistry, H. E. Goldberg, W. Mc- 

 Cracken, M. D. Slimmer, S. F. Acree ; geology, 

 W. W. Atwood, W. N. Logan, R. George, W. 

 T. Lee, W. G. Tight; zoology, H. E. Davies, 

 R. S. Lillie, F. M. Guyer, H. H. Newman; 

 botany, A. C. Moore, B. E. Livingston, S. M. 

 Coulter, F. M. Lyon ; physiology, R. R. Rogers, 

 W. E. Garrey, R. W. Webster ; neurology, D. 

 M. Shoemaker ; sociology, R. G. Kimble, A. 

 T. Freeman, A. D. Sorenson ; anthropology, 

 A. W. Dunn ; pedagogy, W. A. Clark ; philos- 

 ophy and psychology, H. W. Stuart, H. B. 

 Thompson, R. L. Kelly, H. H. Bawdin. 



