712 



SGIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 177. 



read before the Engineers' Club of Philadel- 

 phia, December 4, 1S97, and now iu type. The 

 method adopted is described and the statement 

 above confirmed. As the English editor says, 

 after reading it and frankly admitting its 

 truth : " It is the old story of Columbus's egg ; 

 the thing is very simple when you know how 

 to do it, and American engineers deserve credit 

 for knowing how." 



Mk. J. G. Jack is conducting a series of lec- 

 tures and field meetings at the Arnold Arbore- 

 tum, Jamaica Plains, during May and June, for 

 the purpose of supplying popular instruction 

 about the trees and shrubs which grow in New 

 England. The lectures are held on Saturday 

 mornings at ten o'clock and on "Wednesday 

 afternoons at three o'clock, beginning on Sat- 

 urday, May 7th, and closing June 25th. The 

 class assembles each day in the lecture-room 

 of the Bussey Institution, where a review is 

 given of certain groups of trees and shrubs. 

 It then adjourns to the Arboretum for an in- 

 formal out-door study of the plants. 



The bill before the Massachusetts Legislature 

 for the promotion of anatomical science, a 

 measure amending the present law relative to 

 the disposal of bodies for dissection, so that the 

 four leading colleges of the State shall have 

 the bodies of paupers from State institutions, 

 unless the pauper requests an ordinary burial, 

 during his last illness, or the same request is 

 made by one of his friends, has been ordered for 

 a third reading by a vote of eighty-three to 

 forty. 



The Governor of Hong Kong has reported to 

 the Secretary of State for the Colonies that 

 there have been 609 cases of plague in that 

 colony during the current year. The return is 

 complete up to April 25th, and in the last week 

 which it embraces there were 127 cases, or 

 over one-fifth of the total for the four months. 

 Cultures of bacilli from suspicious cases of 

 illness in Calcutta have been sent to Bombay to 

 be subjected to Professor HafFkine's examina- 

 tion and have been pronounced to be those of 

 true bubonic plague. 



. It is stated in Nature that the Liverpool Ma- 

 rine Biology Committee's Easter party, at 

 the Port Erin Biological Station, included Mr. 



Isaac C. Thompson, Mr. Frank J. Cole, Mr. R. 

 A. Dawson, Mr. H. C. Chadwick, Professor 

 Herdman, and several students from Univer- 

 sity College, Liverpool. The Lancashire Sea 

 Fisheries steamer is also at Port Erin, and 

 several dredging and trawling expeditions are 

 taking place. Spawn of several fishes has been 

 obtained and fertilized, and is now developing 

 in the tanks. Under the care of Mr. Chadwick, 

 Curator of the Station, the aquarium is in a 

 flourishing condition, and contains a number of 

 interesting animals, some of which are spawn- 

 ing. A recent addition to the laboratory ac- 

 commodation at the Station has been completed, 

 which gives five additional work windows for 

 students, so that there is now plenty of room 

 for other workers. 



The will of the late Mr. Oliver A. Judson, of 

 Philadelphia, has bequeathed to the College of 

 Physicians of that city SI, 000, the interest, when- 

 ever it amounts to $100, to be ofiered as a prize 

 for the best original essay on ' The Practical Pre- 

 vention of Disease.' The essay must be written 

 in English, but the competition is open to for- 

 eigners. 



Mr. Bernard Quaritch, London, offers for 

 sale a complete set of the transactions of the 

 Zoological Society, London, beginning in 1833, 

 for £52 10s. The set is very rare and being 

 sold much below the cost of publication would 

 be a valuable addition to many American 

 libraries. A copy of the first edition of Izaak 

 Walton's Compleat Angler was sold recently in 

 New York for $240. 



The arrangements for laying the cable from 

 Iceland by way of the Faroe Islands have been 

 completed, and the cable will be laid during the 

 summer. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Owing to demonstrations upon the part of the 

 students, the Universities of Naples, Bologna 

 and Rome have been closed. 



The next meeting of the Association of Col- 

 leges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle 

 States and Maryland will be held at Columbia 

 University, New York City, N. Y., on Friday 

 and Saturday November 25 and 26, 1898. 



Plans have been completed for a new build- 



