May 13, 1898.] 



SCmNGE. 



673 



the revised statutes, however, which author- 

 izes its creation, it appears simply as a division 

 clerk, to be appointed by the Secretary of the 

 Treasury, to 'superintendent of the bureau.' 

 The question is likely to arise, therefore, how 

 Secretary Gage is going to get Mr. Austin into 

 the position vacated for him, as he is not now 

 in the civil service. 



One of two things may be done — either the 

 same plan will be followed to which resort was 

 had in the casesof Chief Clerk Michael, of the De- 

 partment of State, and the late Director Smith, 

 of the Bureau of American Republics, the ap- 

 pointment being temporarily made and a special 

 examination held afterward, or advantage may 

 be taken of the use of the term ' appoint ' in the 

 statute, and the assumption made that the power 

 of appointment was absolutely vested in the 

 Secretary, as distinguished from those positions 

 of which he simply '' designates ' a clerk to take 

 charge. 



The University of St. Andrews will confer 

 its honorary LL.D. on Professor William Osier, 

 of Johns Hopkins University. 



Mk. W. H. Peeeoe has been elected Presi- 

 dent of the British Institution of Civil Engi- 

 neers. 



Professor Ch. Richet, the well known 

 physiologist, editor of the Revue Scientifique, 

 has been elected membre titulaire of the Paris 

 Academy of Medicine in the room of the late 

 M. Luys. 



The Paris Society of Anthropology offers in 

 1898 the Brocca prize (1,500 fr.) for a work on 

 Somatology, and the Bertillon prize (500 fr.) 

 for a work on Demography. 



The steamship Belgica, carrying the Belgian 

 Antarctic expedition, has, it appears, grounded 

 on an island near Cape Horn, which will pre- 

 vent the expedition proceeding to the far South 

 this year. 



De. Nansen left London on April 23d for 

 St. Petersburg, where the Geographical Society 

 will hold a reception in his honor and listen to 

 an address by him. Dr. Nansen will next pro- 

 ceed to Vienna to lecture before the Geograph- 

 ical Society of that city and receive its Hauer 



Medal. He will also lecture in Budapest and 

 Pressburg. 



Here Keupp, of Essen, who has recently 

 made a number of gifts for educational and sci- 

 entific purposes, has presented the Berlin Geo- 

 graphical Society with 10,000 Marks for the 

 foundation of a gold medal to be named after 

 Nachtigall, the African explorer, and to be 

 given by preference for discoveries in Africa. 



The Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden 

 hold their ninth annual banquet at the St. Nich- 

 olas Hotel, St. Louis, to-morrow. 



The United States Civil Service Commission 

 announces that, on June 7, 1898, examination 

 may be taken at any city in the United States 

 where the Commission has a competent board 

 of examiners to establish an eligible register for 

 the grade of expert computer and geodesist. 

 There is at present a vacancy in the U. S. Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, Treasury Department, at 

 a salary of $2,400 per annum, which it is de- 

 sired to fill. The duties of the position for 

 which this examination will be held will be 

 partly administrative, but principally they will 

 be in the line of geodetic computations conse- 

 quent upon the field work of the Survey. Such 

 computations will embrace the whole subject of 

 geodesy and allied subjects, the astronomical 

 determination of latitude, longitude and azi- 

 muth ; triangulation, magnetic, gravity, tidal, 

 physical hydrography, leveling, deflections of 

 the vertical, etc. The examination will consist 

 of the subjects named below which will be 

 weighted as follows : 



Ability and experience in the discussion o£ geo- 

 detic problems and administration of compu- 

 ting work 25 



Publications in the line of geodesy, mathematics 

 and astronomy 25 



Positions held by the applicant in professional 

 life 25 



Answers to questions which will be furnished on 



examination 25 



Total 100 



The Department states that it is desirable 

 that applicants should not be over 35 years of 

 age. 



There is also a vacancy in the position of 

 nautical expert in the U. S. Coast and Geodetic 



