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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1347 



the university corporation, involves the send- 

 ing to New Zealand by the university of appa- 

 ratus to photograph the stars of the southern 

 hemisphere for compiling zone catalogues. 



As has been noted in Science, a special con- 

 ference was called together by the Royal So- 

 ciety to consider the future of the Interna- 

 tional Catalogue of Scientific Literature. We 

 learn from Nature that the conference held its 

 first meeting at Burlington House on Septem- 

 ber 28, Sir Joseph Thomson in the chair. The 

 following is the list of delegates: Sir David 

 Prain, Sir Arthur Schuster, Mr. J. H. Jeans, 

 Professor H. E. Armstrong, Dr. F. A. Bather, 

 and Dr. P. C. Mitchell, representing the Royal 

 Society; Professor M. Knudsen, Denmark; M. 

 A. Lacroix, France; Dr. G-. van Rijnberk, Hol- 

 land; Professor R. ISTasini and Comm.-Ing. E. 

 Mancini, Italy; Dr. H. Nagaoka, Japan; Mr. 

 R. Laache, Norway; Baron Alstromer, Sweden; 

 Dr. H. Escher, Dr. M. Godet and Dr. H. Field, 

 Switzerland; Dr. R. M. Terkes, Dr. L. E. Dick- 

 son, Mr. L. C. Gunnell and Dr. S. I. Franz, 

 U. S. A. ; Sir Henry Hayden and Dr. S. W. 

 Kemp, India ; Sir Thomas Muir, South Africa ; 

 Sir Edward Parrott, Queensland; Professor E. 

 "W. Skeats, Victoria ; Mr. C. B. Rushton, West- 

 ern Australia; and Professor A. Dendy, New 

 Zealand. The delegates were the guests of H. 

 M. Government at a dinner at the Carlton 

 Hotel on Septemlber 29. 



Dr. Raymond Pearl, director of the depart- 

 ment of biometry and vital statistics, school 

 of hygiene and public health, Johns Hopkins 

 University, Baltimore, will give a course of 

 Lowell lectures in Boston beginning on De- 

 cember 1. The subject is " The Biology of 

 Death," and the subjects of the separate lec- 

 tures are: (1) Senescence and death; (2) The 

 chances of death; (3) The causes of death; 

 (4) Correlation of death rates; (5) Inheritance 

 of life duration; (6) The trend of mortality 

 and some of its consequences. 



The following course of public lectures on 

 the "History of Science" is being given at 

 Tale University under the auspices of the 

 Gamma Alpha Society: "History of mathe- 

 matics," Professor E. W. Brown ; " History of 



chemistry," Professor John Johnston; "His- 

 tory of biology," Professor L. L. Woodruff; 

 " History of psychology," Professor R. P. 

 Angier ; " History of physics," Professor H. 

 A. Bumstead; "History of geology," Pro- 

 fessor H. E. Gregory, and " History of astron- 

 omy," Professor Frank Schlesinger. 



President E. A. Biege, of the University of 

 Wisconsin, gave an address at the dedication 

 of the biological buildings which have been 

 erected at Fairport, Iowa, by the Bureau of 

 Fisheries. 



A JOINT meeting of the American Institute 

 of Chemical Engineers, the American Section 

 of the Society of Chemical Industry, the New 

 York Section of the American Chemical So- 

 ciety and the New York Section of the Ameri- 

 can Electrochemical Society, was held at the 

 Chemists Club in New York City on October 

 15. The subject of the evening was " Proposed 

 new departures in government chemical work," 

 and the meeting was addressed by Dr. S. G. 

 Cottrell, director of the Bureau of Mines, and 

 Dr. Carl Al^berg, chief of the Bureau of 

 Chemistry, Department of Agriculture. 



The regular October meeting of the Phys- 

 ics Club of Philadelphia is to be held on 

 Friday evening, October 29, at the Randal 

 Morgan Laboratory of the University of 

 Pennsylvania. It will be addressed on the 

 work of the Bureau of Standards by Dr. F. 0. 

 Brown, assistant to the director. 



Dr. Rudolf Eucken, recently retired from 

 the chair of philosophy at the University of 

 Jena and at one time German exchange pro- 

 fessor at Columbia University, will give lec- 

 tures during the winter semester at the Uni- 

 versity of Helsingfors. 



Dr. Isadore Dyer, dean of the medical 

 school of Tulane University, known for his 

 work on leprosy and malignant skin diseases, 

 died at his home in New Orleans, on 

 October 12. 



The United States Civil Service Com- 

 mission announces for November 23, 1920, an 

 open competitive examination for superntend- 

 ent and director in the Bureau of Fisheries. 

 Two vacancies exist, one for duty at Key 



