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SCIENCK 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 230. 



spector of Field Work in Hydrograpliy and 

 Topography, Mr. H. G. Ogden ; Inspector of 

 Field Work in Geodesy, Mr. John F. Hayford ; 

 Inspector of Field Work in Terrestrial Magnet- 

 ism, Dr. L. A. Bauer. 



M. Prilleux, known for his researches on the 

 parasitic diseases of plants, has been elected a 

 member of the Section of Botany of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences. The other candidates 

 nominated by the Section were MM. Bureau, 

 Maxime, Cornu, Renault and Zeiller. 



Three botanists — Professors E. Pfitzer, of 

 Heidelberg ; O. Brefeld, of Miinster, and E. 

 Warmung, of Copenhagen — have been elected 

 corresponding members of the Berlin Academy 

 of Sciences. 



Me. W. H. Preece, C.B., F.R.S., has ac- 

 cepted the presidency of the 18th Congress of 

 the Sanitary Institute, to be held in Southamp- 

 ton from August 29th to September 2d. 



Cambridge University has conferred the 

 degree of Doctor in Science, honoris cavsa, on 

 Alexander Kowalevsky, professor of zoology in 

 the Imperial University, St. Petersburg. 



The Prince of Monaco has been elected an 

 honorary member of the Royal Geographical 

 Society of London. 



Mr. Philip Thomas Main, Fellow of St. 

 Johns College, Cambridge, died on May 5th. 

 He lectured on chemistry at St. John's College 

 and did much to promote the study of natural 

 science in the College and in the University. He 

 was also the author of a treatise on astronomy 

 which has passed through several editions. 



Mr. Henry William Jackson, a retired sur- 

 geon, died at Louth, Lincolnshire, on May 14th, 

 aged 67 years. He founded the Lewisham and 

 Blackheath Scientific Association and was in- 

 terested in anthropology and astronomy, being 

 a member of the London and Paris Anthropo- 

 logical Societies and a Fellow of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society.- 



Through some as yet unknown 'accident,' the 

 annual appropriation for the N.Y. State Weather 

 Service were stricken out of the appropriation 

 bill, April 24th last, and it is thus apparently 

 impossible to continue a series of observations. 



meteorological and agricultural, that has been 

 carried on without interruption for a genera- 

 tion. In this service, which has its headquar- 

 ters at Ithaca, in the College of Civil Engineer- 

 ing, nearly 2,500 persons are engaged without 

 cost to the State, including the Director of that 

 College, who is also the Director of the Service. 

 The work of the Bureau has been largely in the 

 interests of the farmers of the State, and the 

 compilation of weekly 'Crop Bulletins,' and 

 the maintenance of a weather-signal station, 

 which operates in conjunction with the U. S. 

 Bureau at Washington, has been considered an 

 important service to the whole Commonwealth, 

 The minute appropriations hitherto made, but 

 $4,500 per annum, by the great State of New 

 York have been entirely inadequate to the op- 

 portunities of the Bureau ; but the volunteer 

 labor of a corps whose services, if fully compen- 

 sated, would amount to probably over a quarter 

 of a million of dollars annually have gone far 

 to make up for the defect. Even if re-estab- 

 lished, this interruption for a single year will 

 make a break in the files which can never be 

 repaired and which may deprive the State of 

 previously interested, and even enthusiastic, 

 observers by so disheartening them that they 

 w'ill not resume their connection with the sys- 

 tem ; thus destroying stations having records 

 of a length approximating thirty years. 



A meeting was held on May 20th, at Co- 

 lumbia University, for the purpose of discussing 

 the formation of an American Physical Society, 

 which would hold meetings in New York for 

 the reading and discussion of papers. The 

 meeting was called by the following committee 

 of physicists, representing important American 

 universities : Professor A. G. Webster, Clark 

 University, Worcester ; Professor J. S. Ames, 

 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore ; Profes- 

 sor E. L. Nichols, Cornell University, Ithaca ; 

 Professor Carl Barus, Brown University, Provi- 

 dence ; Professor M. I. Pupin, Columbia Uni- 

 versity, New York ; Professor B. O. Peirce, 

 Harvard University, Cambridge ; Professor W. 

 F. Magie, Princeton University, Princeton. It 

 is intended that the new organization shall be 

 for this country what the Physical Society is for 

 England and the Deutsche physikalische Gesell- 

 schaft for Germany. 



