May 9, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



705 



education in the U. S. Bureau of Education. 

 He sailed May 1 for Europe to continue stud- 

 ies of the British universities upon which he 

 will prepare a bulletin somewhat along the 

 lines of his bulletin on " Present Standards 

 of Higher Education in the United States," 

 just issued by the bureau. 



The adjudicators of the Adams Prize of the 

 University of Cambridge report that the two 

 essays submitted to them with the following 

 titles are of distinction : " The Theory of 

 Eadiation," by Mr. S. B. McLaren, and " The 

 Fundamental Spectra of Astrophysics," by 

 Dr. J. W. Nicholson, between whom the prize 

 is divided in equal shares. 



Professor C. J. Keyser, of Columbia Uni- 

 versity, delivered the annual lecture before 

 the Minnesota chapter of the Society of the 

 Sigma Xi on April 24. The subject of his 

 lecture was " Concerning the Figure and the 

 Dimensions of the Universe of Space." 



Professor Willum Marshall, of the de- 

 partment of mathematics, addressed the 

 Purdue Chapter of Sigma Xi on " The Theory 

 of Relativity and the New Mechanics," on 

 April 23. 



Professor Bernhard Kronig, professor of 

 obstetrics at Freiburg, has accepted an invi- 

 tation to lecture on Eontgen and radium 

 therapy for the American surgical society, 

 Chicago. 



Professor Willum Morris Fontaine, for 

 thirty-one years professor of natural history 

 and geology in the University of Virginia, dis- 

 tinguished for his researches in paleobotany, 

 died suddenly of heart failure about one 

 o'clock on April 30. Professor Fontaine was 

 in his seventy-eighth year. After eminent 

 service for forty years as teacher and investi- 

 gator. Professor Fontaine retired in Septem- 

 ber, 1910, on the Carnegie Foundation. 



Professor A. C. Elliott, professor of engi- 

 neering at the University College of South 

 Wales and Monmouthshire, has died at the 

 age of fifty-two years. 



Dr. Ernst Georg Eavenstein, the distin- 



guished geographer and cartographer, has 

 died at the age of seventy-nine years. 



The U. S. Civil Service Commission an- 

 nounces an examination on June 2, 1913, for 

 associate physicists, qualified in mechanical 

 or civil engineering and in electrical engineer- 

 ing, to fill vacancies in these positions in the 

 Bureau of Standards, at Washington, D. C, 

 at salaries ranging from $2,000 to $2,700 a 

 year, the salaries actually paid depending 

 upon the qualifications of those selected. 



The British Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries proposes to award in October next 

 twelve research scholarships in agricultural 

 science, of the annual value of £150 and ten- 

 able for three years. These scholarships have 

 been established in order to train promising 

 students under suitable supervision, with a 

 view to their contributing to the development 

 of agriculture, either by carrying out inde- 

 pendent research or by acting in an advisory 

 capacity to agriculturists. They will be 

 granted only to students who show distinct 

 promise of capacity for advanced study and 

 research in some one of the sciences bearing 

 on agriculture. Applicants must be gradu- 

 ates of a university or holders of a diploma of 

 a university or college of university rank, and 

 application should be made not later than 

 June 9 next on a form to be obtained from 

 the secretary, Board of Agriculture and Fish- 

 eries, Whitehall-place, London, S.W. 



An industrial fellowship in plant pathology 

 for the study of diseases of the potato has been 

 established at Eutgers College, New Bruns- 

 wick, N. J. Candidates for this appointment 

 should write to Professor Mel. T. Cook at the 

 above address. 



Governor Sulzer of New York has signed 

 a law creating a State Board of Geographic 

 Names, which is to consist of five members, of 

 which the commissioner of education and the 

 state geologist are ex officio members, and 

 three of whom shall be appointed by the gov- 

 ernor. The state geologist is the secretary 

 and executive ofiicer of this board. According 

 to the wording of the law, the board is to have 

 power as follows: 



