144 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 943 



East Africa to visit the protectorate to lecture 

 and advise upon ostrich farming. 



The president of the British Board of Edu- 

 cation has appointed an advisory council for 

 the Science Museum, London. The council 

 will be asked to advise the hoard on questions 

 of principle and policy arising from time to 

 time and to make an annual report on their 

 proceedings to the board, together with any 

 observations on the condition and needs of 

 the museum which they may think fit to make. 

 The following will be the first members of the 

 council: Sir Hugh Bell, Bt., chairman; Mr. E. 

 Elliott Cooper; Dr. J. .L Dobbie, E.E.S.; Mr. 

 W. Duddell, F.E.S.; Mr. E. B. Ellington; Sir 

 Maurice FitzMaurice; Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 F.E.S.; Dr. E. T. Glazebrook, F.E.S.; Sir 

 Alfred Keogh; Sir William Mather; Sir John 

 Murray, F.E.S. ; Sir William Eamsay, F.E.S. ; 

 Sir Henry E. Eoscoe, F.E.S. ; and Sir William 

 H. White, F.E.S. The secretary will be Cap- 

 tain H. G. Lyons, F.E.S., of the Science 

 Museum. 



Professoe Charles S. Minot, who is now 

 serving as the Harvard Austausch-Professor 

 at Berlin, delivered from December 16 to 21 

 six lectures on " Moderne Probleme der Biol- 

 ogie " before the University of Jena. The 

 subjects were : 



1. The new cell doctrine. 



2. Cytomorphosis. 



3. The doctrine of immortality. 



4. The development of death. 



5. The determination of sex. 



6. Tlie conception of life. 



The lectures were delivered before the uni- 

 versity in the Aula and were attended by both 

 students and professors. At the third lecture 

 the Grand-duke of Saxe-Weimar was present 

 in his official capacity as rector of the uni- 

 versity. It was at his suggestion that the 

 arrangement was made with the Prussian 

 ministry of education by which the Harvard 

 professor was to visit Jena, as an acknowledg- 

 ment of the visit to America of Professor 

 Eucken, who is a member of the philosophical 

 faculty of Jena. It is the first time that an 

 American exchange professor has served offi- 



cially at any German university besides that 

 at Berlin. Professor Minot's lectures were 

 delivered in German and will be published 

 shortly by the firm of Gustav Fischer. 



Under the auspices of the department of 

 geology of Columbia University, Professor 

 William Morris Davis delivered a series of 

 three lectures from January 14 to 16 on 

 " Dana's contribution to Darwin's theory of 

 coral islands," " The Valley of the Armangon : 

 a study in physiographic analysis," and " The 

 principles of geographical exposition." On 

 January lY Mr. Donald F. MaeDonald, geol- 

 ogist of the Panama Canal, addressed the 

 students of the department on " The general 

 geology of the Panama Canal Zone." 



During the week of December second. Dr. 

 S. W. Williston, professor of vertebrate pale- 

 ontology in the University of Chicago, gave 

 the annual Sigma Xi lectures in a circuit 

 composed of Washington University, Univer- 

 sity of Missouri and the University of Kan- 

 sas. His subjects were " The Earliest Land 

 Animals " and " The Evolution and Distribu- 

 tion of the Earliest Land Animals." 



Dr. George C. Comstock, of the University 

 of Wisconsin, gave the Sigma Xi address at 

 Purdue University on January 17, his subject 

 being " The Study of the Stars." 



Dr. J. A. Detlpsen, of the Agricultural Col- 

 lege of the University of Illinois, has deliv- 

 ered a series of lectures before the Kansas 

 Agricultural Board and University on " Ge- 

 netics in the Agricultural College." 



Professor H. J. Wheeler, manager of the 

 agricultural service bureau of the American 

 Agricultural Chemical Company, Boston, 

 Mass., lectured on the eighth inst. before the 

 New Jersey State Board of Agriculture on 

 " Some Interrelations of Plants, Soils and 

 Fertilizers." 



Me. S. a. Courtis, head of the department 

 of science and mathematics in the Home and 

 Day School of Detroit, and supervisor of test- 

 ing work in the Boston public schools, spoke 

 on January 17, under the auspices of the Har- 

 vard chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, an honor 

 society in the division of education. Mr. 



