598 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 174. 



the foundation of the Students' Association fo 

 the Institute, and the new school buildings were 

 utilized for the proceedings. Among the papers 

 discussed was one by Mr. E. E. Whitfield, of 

 Galashiels, on ' Commercial Education in Great 

 Britain.' The questions brought forward com- 

 prised the entire range of commercial education. 



The Section of Astronomy of the Paris Acad- 

 emy of Sciences has recommended the pub- 

 lication by the Academy of Pingre's ' History of 

 Astronomy in the 17th Century.' This work 

 has had a curious history. At the recommenda- 

 tion of Lagrange the Academy decided to pub- 

 lish it in 1791, and made an appropriation for 

 this purpose. But owing to the death of Pingr6 

 and to the French Revolution the printing was 

 suspended after some sheets had been prepared. 

 Both these sheets and the balance of the manu- 

 script have been lost for a hundred years, but 

 now M. Bigourdan has discovered a single copy 

 of the sheets in the hands of a French collector 

 and the balance of the manuscript in the ar- 

 chives of the Paris Observatory, lost among 

 observations of Tycho's. The work is said to 

 be not only of historical interest, but also of 

 value to contemporary astronomy in view of 

 the careful observations that it records. 



A VERY important contribution to the an- 

 thropology of European populations is prom- 

 ised for publication in the forthcoming Comptes 

 liendus of the Association frangaise pour 

 I'Avancement des Sciences. Dr. J. Deniker, 

 librarian of the Musee d' Histoire Naturelle at 

 Paris, will publish, with full bibliographic data, 

 a large and detailed map of the cephalic index 

 of Europe. This is based not only upon an 

 exhaustive collection of published material, but 

 upon much new data from Portugal, the Balkan 

 States and other out-of-the-way regions, of 

 which little has heretofore been known. This 

 valuable work is to be followed by similar 

 treatment of the stature and> pigmentation as 

 well, large maps in color having already been 

 constructed for each characteristic. 



Dr. Daniel G. Beinton, of the University 

 of Pennsylvania, read a paper entitled ' Before 

 the Dawn — Literature Among Savage Tribes ' 

 before the members of the Comparative Litera- 

 ture Society, in Carnegie Lyceum, on April 9th. 



' Thunder Cloud,' an Indian of pure American 

 descent, elucidated Dr. Brinton's remarks by 

 chants and recitatives in several Indian dia- 

 lects. 



The Cartwright Lectures of the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 

 will be given at the Academy of Medicine, 

 New York, on Tuesdays, April 26th, May 3d 

 and 10th, at 8:15 p.m., byW. W. Keen, M.D., 

 professor of the principles of surgery and of 

 clinical surgery in Jeiferson Medical College. 

 His subject will be, ' The Surgery of the 

 Stomach.' 



On account of the frequent requests received 

 at the Yerkes Observatory for lantern slides and 

 prints from astronomical photographs, it has- 

 been thought advisable to make provision for 

 supplying them. Mr. G.Willis Ritchey, Optician 

 of the Observatory, who has had wide experi- 

 ence in making and copying astronomical nega- 

 tives, has undertaken to furnish such photo- 

 graphs at moderate expense. He is prepared 

 to supply lantern slides, transparencies and 

 paper prints from any of the negatives in the 

 collection of the Yerkes Observatory. Among 

 the subjects available at the present time may 

 be mentioned : Professor Hale's photographs of 

 prominences, faculce and other solar phenomena, 

 and of stellar spectra ; Professor Barnard's por- 

 trait-lens photographs of the Milky Way, 

 nebulte, comets and meteors ; Professor Burn- 

 ham's photographs of the Moon, Winter and 

 Summer views of Mt. Hamilton and the Lick 

 Observatory ; Mr. EUerman's photographs of 

 the buildings and instruments of the Yerkes- 

 Observatory ; and Mr. Ritchey's Kenwood Ob- 

 servatory photographs of the Moon. A more 

 complete list of subjects may be had on appli- 

 tion to G. Willis Ritchey, Yerkes Observatory, 

 Williams Bay, Wisconsin, to whom all orders 

 should be addressed. 



The Vienna correspondent of the London 

 Times telegraphs that some interesting particu- 

 lars of a new application of the Rontgen rays 

 for curative purposes were communicated by 

 Dr. Edward Schiff, lecturer at the Vienna Uni- 

 versity, at the last sitting of the Imperial and 

 Royal Medical Society. A series of experiments 

 conducted by Dr. Schiflf and his assistant proved 



