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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 945 



pamphlets and other official documents, has 

 found it possible, in spite of its limited re- 

 sources, to issue from time to time a few spe- 

 cial works, until it now publishes seven peri- 

 odicals and more than eighty books, ranging 

 from treatises on Indie philology to practical 

 directions for American lumbermen. To or- 

 ganize and extend this activity, so as to make 

 the university properly effective as a publish- 

 ing center for scholarly books, is the object of 

 the new foundation. The press announces 

 several noteworthy volumes as in preparation, 

 including books by the late Professor James 

 Barr Ames, of the Law School, and by Pro- 

 fessors George Poot Moore, Eugene Wam- 

 baugh, Arthur E. Kennelly, George L. Kit- 

 tredge, Charles H. Haskins, George A. Eeisner 

 and W. B. Munro. The board of syndics who 

 will decide on the books to be published are 

 Robert Bacon, fellow of Harvard College, 

 chairman; George Foot Moore, professor of 

 the history of religion; Arthur E. Kennelly, 

 professor of electrical engineering; George L. 

 Kittredge, professor of English; Charles H. 

 Thurber, member of the firm of Ginn and 

 Company; Edwin F. Gay, professor of eco- 

 nomics and dean of the graduate school of 

 business administration, and W. B. Cannon, 

 professor of physiology. The director of the 

 press is Charles Chester Lane, for the last five 

 years publication agent of the university. 



It will be remembered that after the con- 

 ference for the discussion of theories of radia- 

 tion, held in Brussels in 1911, Mr. Ernest 

 Solvay, of that city, established an Interna- 

 tional Physical Institute with an endowment 

 of $200,000. An article by Professor E. 

 Rutherford, in Nature, states that part of the 

 income is to be devoted to the foundation of 

 scholarships for the promotion of scientific re- 

 search in Belgium, part to defray the ex- 

 penses of international meetings to discuss 

 scientific problems of interest, and the residue 

 to be awarded in the form of grants to scien- 

 tific investigators to assist them in their re- 

 searches. For the first year, which terminates 

 on May 1, 1913, a sum of about 17,500 francs 

 is available for the latter purpose. It is the 

 intention of the committee each year to give 



grants for special lines of work. As the first 

 international meeting was engaged in the dis- 

 cussion of the theories of radiation, it is pro- 

 posed this year to assist preferentially re- 

 searches on the general phenomena of radia- 

 tion, comprising Rontgen rays and the rays 

 from radio-active bodies, general molecular 

 theory, and theories of units of energy. The 

 grants will he awarded without distinction of 

 nationality by the administrative committee 

 of the institute on the recommendation of an 

 international scientific committee. The ad- 

 ministrative committee is composed of Pro- 

 fessors P. Heger, E. Tassel and J. E. 

 Verschaffelt, of Brussels; the scientific com- 

 mittee is composed of H. A. Lorentz (Haar- 

 lem), Mme. Curie (Paris), M. Brillouin 

 (Paris), E. B. Goldschmidt (Brussels). H. 

 Kamerlingh-Onnes (Leyden), W. Nernst 

 (Berlin), E. Rutherford (Manchester), E. 

 Warburg (Berlin), and M. Knudsen, secre- 

 tary (Copenhagen). 



As the result of a conference which was 

 held under the auspices of the U. S. Bureau 

 of Mines last September, of men who are 

 interested in the saving of the lives of miners, 

 there has been formed a society known as the 

 American Mine Safety Association, with 

 headquarters at 40th and Butler Streets, 

 Pittsburgh, Pa. This association, which is 

 now enrolling among its members the leading 

 coal and metal mine operators, mining engi- 

 neers and mine safety engineers of the coun- 

 try, has for its purpose the conservation of the 

 lives and health of the miner and a reduction 

 in property loss due to explosions or fires in 

 mines. It will attempt to place before the 

 miners standard methods to be used in rescue 

 work and in first-aid to the injured. The work, 

 of the Bureau of Mines in reducing the num- 

 ber of deaths in the mines has led to the 

 adoption of many different types of rescue 

 apparatus, such as the oxygen helmets which 

 the rescuers wear in a gas-filled mine, and 

 also to the use of many different methods of 

 resuscitation and first-aid to the injured. 

 Hundreds of mines within the last three or 

 four years have been equipped with rescue 

 apparatus, rescue corps and first-aid corps. 



