Maech 4, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



315 



election of the Council was announced, Mr. S. 

 W. Johnson being elected President, and Mr. 

 Arthur Keene and Sir William White, Vice- 

 Presidents. 



A MAGNETIC observatory with an excellent 

 equipment has been recently fitted up in the 

 Pare Saint-Maur, Paris. But M. Mascott was 

 compelled to announce recently at the Paris 

 Academy that the City Council had given per- 

 mission to an electric railway to pass near the 

 observatory, which will entirely destroy its 

 usefulness. 



Nature states that on December 18, 1897, a 

 hall was opened at Bologna for the reception of 

 the herbaria, preparations and sections of the 

 botanist Aldrovandi. It has been erected at 

 the cost of the city and province. 



The bacteriological laboratory established 

 in Constantinople by Pasteur at the request of 

 the Sultan has been reopened after a period of 

 neglect. This action has been taken after pro- 

 tests by the Imperial Society of Medicine and 

 the French Charg6 d' Affaires. It is said that 

 the work of the laboratory will now be ex- 

 tended under Dr. Nicole. 



Mme. Emile DtJRAND has given $7,500 to 

 the Pasteur Institute for the purpose of making 

 further researches on tuberculosis. The dona- 

 tion has been accepted. 



The weekly mortality for the plague at Bom- 

 bay is now over 1,000, while the total number 

 of deaths is over 2,000. The rate of the city is 

 120 per thousand inhabitants. 



The item in the Sundry Civil Appropriation 

 Bill under consideration at Washington pro- 

 vides $520,000 for the representation of the 

 United States at the Paris Exposition of 1900. 

 Germany proposes to spend about $1,250,000, 

 and the English government has announced its 

 Intention of asking an appropriation of $375,- 

 000. A Royal Commission to provide for the 

 representation of Great Britain has been ap- 

 pointed, which includes Lord Kelvin, Lord 

 Lister, Sir John Lubbock and other men of 

 science. 



An amendment to the Sundry Civil Service 

 Bill authorizes the holding of a National 

 Exposition of American Products and Manu- 



factures, especially suitable for export, in Phila- 

 delphia in 1899. The amendment carries an 

 appropriation of $350,000, of which $300,000 is 

 to be used to provide buildings for the Exposi- 

 tion and the remaining $50,000 to be expended 

 in collecting exhibits. 



The party that has been collecting specimens 

 of natural history in the Galapagos Islands, on 

 behalf of the Frank Blake Webster Company, 

 of Hyde Park, Mass., have returned, having, it 

 is said, secured valuable collections. 



The Publisher's Weekly gives details of the 

 books published in the United States during 

 1897. The number of new books was 4,171, 

 being 1,018 fewer than in 1896. The decrease 

 has been especially noticeable in fiction, belles- 

 lettres and political science. There was, how- 

 ever, an increase in ' physical and mathematical 

 science,' which apparently includes the natural 

 sciences, the number of new books being 166, as 

 compared with 136 in 1896. 



The F. a. Stokes Company will publish in 

 April an account of Lieutenant Peary's seven 

 arctic expeditions. 



The Osprey, the first volume of which was 

 published at Galesburg, 111., has been removed 

 to New York City, the offices being at 141 East 

 25th Street. 



The Maryland State Historical Society was 

 organized at Baltimore on January 26th, and 

 the following officers were elected : President, 

 Charles G. Biggs, Sharpsburg; Vice-President, 

 Captain R. S. Emory, Chestertown; Secretary 

 and Treasurer, James S. Harris, Kent county. 

 Vice-Presidents were chosen by the delegates 

 from the twenty-three counties of the State, 

 thus giving a complete representation. A Leg- 

 islative Committee, composed of J. P. Blessing, 

 C. L. Rogers, E. A. Pry, Henry Brown and W. 

 A. Shiplej', was authorized to petition for an 

 appropriation of $500 annually to aid in its 

 work. The first business to come before the 

 organization was the report of the Legislative 

 Committee appointed by order of the conven- 

 tion. The chief recommendations of the report 

 were as follows: " To provide for the formation 

 of a Maryland State Horticultural Department; 

 to protect the horticultural interests of the 

 State of Maryland in the suppression and ex- 



