386 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1373 



chronological order. In addition to tlie texts, 

 there will be considerable illusti-ative material 

 touching on hospitalization and treatment, the 

 use of baths, venesection, new remedies, pest 

 banners, broadsides and medals, also Saint 

 Eoch and Saint Sebastian, and various as- 

 pects of the plague and syphilis dealt with in 

 the graphic arts. General texts illustrating the 

 Greek, Byzantine, Mohammedan and medieval 

 practise in fevers will occupy half of the space 

 allotted. The other half will contain tracts 

 on the plague and syphilis, original descrip- 

 tions, new diseases and primary treatises on 

 the doctrine of contagium vivum. A descrip- 

 tive catalogue will be ready for distribution 

 at the time of the annual session. 



The London County Council according to 

 the British Medical Journal has adopted the 

 recommendations of the committee appointed 

 by the Illuminating Engineering Society to 

 inquire into eyestrain in cinematograph halls. 

 These recommendations will be put into force 

 at once so far as new halls are concerned, and 

 will be applied to existing halls as opportunity 

 offers. The chief recommendation sets out 

 the limit of the vertical angle of view. The 

 committee believes that ocular discomfort 

 arises mainly from the abnormal angle at 

 ■which very often the eyes of spectators are 

 directed upwards, and that conditions suitable 

 for the eyes would be secured if a moderate 

 value for the angle of elevation were adopted. 

 It is therefore proposed that the angle of ele- 

 vation subtended at the eye of any person 

 seated in the front row by the length of the 

 vertical line dropped from the center of the 

 top edge of the picture to the horizontal plane 

 passing through the observer's eye shall not 

 exceed 35 degrees. In some of the London 

 halls this condition is complied with, and in 

 others it is approached, but in others again 

 the angle in question exceeds 60 degrees. 



Nature states that the members of Mr. L. 

 H. Dudley Buxton's expedition have now re- 

 turned from a stay of some weeks in the 

 Island of Malta. The object of the expedi- 

 tion was to collect material for a study of the 



physical anthropology of this island. About 

 1,000 adults, men and women, were measured. 

 The fine series of ancient bones which Pro- 

 fessor Zammit excavated in the Hypogseum 

 at Hal-Saflieni and elsewhere was collected 

 together and measured. A long series of 

 skeletal remains from a modern ossuary were 

 also examined. A special visit, lasting for 

 two days, was paid to Gozo by Mrs. Jenkinson 

 and Miss Moss to work at the physical anthro- 

 pology of that island. The expedition has 

 collected an immense mass of valuable mate- 

 rial, which will take some time to arrange and 

 digest. As soon as this work is sufiiciently 

 far advanced Mr. Buxton hopes to submit a 

 preliminary account of the results of the ex- 

 pedition to the Royal Anthropological In- 

 stitute. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



By the will of Edmund Cogswell Converse, 

 who died on April 4 in Pasadena, California, 

 Amlierst College receives a bequest of about 

 $250,000. Of this amount $200,000 will be 

 used for the upkeep and development of the 

 Converse library, for the building of wHch 

 Mr. Converse donated $250,000 in 1916, the 

 building to be a memorial to his brother, 

 James B. Converse. The remaining $50,000 

 of the bequest will be used to establish an 

 Edmund Cogswell Converse scholarship fund. 



The Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation writes that " much disappointment 

 is being expressed in university circles in 

 Toronto at the failure of the Ontario govern- 

 ment to take action during the present session 

 of the legislature on the report of their own 

 appointed special commissions which has been 

 inquiring into the status of the universities 

 of the province. As the University of Toronto 

 expected $1,000,000 from the Eookefeller 

 Foundation there will be for the present no 

 available funds for further expansion as it 

 will be doubtful if even this sum will be forth- 

 coming owing to the failure of the govern- 

 ment to come to the assistance of the uni- 

 versity." 



