916 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 235. 



curves. Other experiments have been made, 

 also, at Berlin, which are thought to offer some 

 encouragement, and it is suggested that such a 

 plan may prove satisfactorily operative with 

 large vessels. 



The idea is, however, very old ; no one 

 knows where or when it originated. Some 

 twenty-five years ago Mr. Gerner, a then well- 

 known inventor and patent attorney, of New 

 York, proposed a somewhat similar scheme, em- 

 ploying rafts or floats at the stern and on either 

 side, which, with the rolling and pitching of 

 the vessel, and the relative motion thus pro- 

 duced, should operate levers on board the ves- 

 sel, and through them a system of mechanism 

 which should drive a screw and thus impel the 

 ship. Nothing came of it, however. 



E. H. T. 



REMEASUEEMENT OF TBE ABC OF PERU. 



Under date of May 12th the Minister of Pub- 

 lic Instruction and Fine Arts announced to the 

 French Academy of Sciences the coming depart- 

 ure from Bordeaux, on the 26th of May, of M. 

 Maurain, captain of engineers, and M. La- 

 combe, captain of artillery, for Quito. These 

 two oificers constitute a commission to visit the 

 stations of the old arc of Peru, measured be- 

 tween 1736 and 1739 by Bouguer, La Conda- 

 mine and Godin, with the view of a remeasure- 

 ment of the arc and its extension so as to com- 

 prise from five to six degrees of latitude. 



This action is hailed with jjleasure by geod- 

 esists everywhere. It is the direct outcome of 

 the renewal of the suggestion for its remeasure- 

 ment made at the last meeting of the Interna- 

 tional Geodetic Association, at Stuttgart, in 

 October, 1898. 



The proposition that the work should be soon 

 undertaken was brought up by the American 

 delegate, Mr. E. D. Preston, of the U. S. Coast 

 aud Geodetic Survey, at that Conference, and 

 his action was interpreted to mean that if 

 France would not undertake it some other 

 nation, probably ours, would take steps to- 

 wards the remeasurement of the ax-c whose re- 

 vision is considered of such great importance to 

 geodesy. 



LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY. 



By the recent gifts of Mrs. Stanford, Leland 

 Stanford Jr. University becomes the richest 

 university in the world, far surpassing in its 

 resources Harvard, Columbia or any foreign 

 university. Situated where the development 

 of civilization has been most rapid, and where 

 its future promise is unlimited, under a wise 

 and far-sighted administration, the University 

 will become within a generation one of the 

 greatest universities in the world. Correct de- 

 tails of the gifts and bequests of Senator Stan- 

 ford, and of the gifts of Mrs. Stanford, will be 

 of interest to readers of this Journal. 



The resources of the University consist of 

 three great farms, aggregating 95,000 acres of 

 land, deeded by Act of Legislature. On one of 

 these farms, which constitutes the University 

 Campus, buildings to the value of $1,000,000 

 were erected before Senator Stanford's death. 

 By his will the University received $2,500,000 

 in cash, invested in interest-bearing bonds. 

 During the litigation following his death Mrs. 

 Stanford deeded to the University her own 

 private fortune, amounting to about a million 

 dollars. The bulk of his fortune was left by 

 Senator Stanford by will to his wife, with the 

 understanding between them that in case she 

 survived him she would do all for the institu- 

 tion that he would have done. This wish she 

 has carried out to the letter, although, as a mat- 

 ter of fact, idle litigation has prevented her 

 from doing anything until very recently. By 

 her recent gift she transferred the residue of 

 the estate to the University, it being necessary 

 to do this by deed of gift under the laws of the 

 State. Mr. Stanford's purpose was a chival- 

 rous one, emphasizing the equality of his wife 

 in their mutual work. The property just 

 turned over has a commercial value — judging 

 from the revenue stamps put upon the deeds — 

 of $35,000,000. It would probably bring in the 

 market about $13,000,000. What its actual 

 value may be only the future can determine. 

 The income arising from this final gift is at 

 present relatively small, as by agreement among 

 the railroads, in bonds and stock of which it 

 largely consists, the earnings are for a time to be 

 used in freeing the property from debt and in 

 making improvements. 



