850 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 182. 



North America, and on the archaeology, ethnol- 

 ogy and philology of North America, were this 

 year given in the latter group. The first prize 

 of $1,000 was awarded to Mr. W. H. Holmes, 

 of the United States National Museum, and the 

 second prize of $400 to Dr. Franz Boas, of the 

 American Museum of Natural History and of 

 Columbia University. We hope to publish 

 later the detailed report of the committee, 

 ■which consisted of Professor H. T. Peck, 

 Professor D. G. Brinton and Dr. W J McGee. 



Pbofessor Jacob Eeighaed, of the Univer- 

 sity of Michigan, will, during the present sum- 

 mer, make, under the auspices of the United 

 States Fish Commission, a biological examina- 

 tion of Lake Erie. His party will include Pro- 

 fessor H. B. Ward, of the University of Ne- 

 braska ; Mr. A. J. Pieters, and others. During 

 the month of July the party will be engaged in 

 a laboratory established in ^he United States 

 Fish Hatchery at Put-in-Bay Island, O. In Au- 

 gust the work will be continued in a steamer 

 chartered for that purpose. 



Professor Kreutz telegraphs that Bncke's 

 periodical comet has been observed at Mr. John 

 Tebbutt's Observatory, Windsor, N. S. W. 

 Professor Keeler announces the discovery, pho- 

 tographically, on June 11th, of a bright comet, 

 by Mr. E. F. Coddington, of the Lick Observa- 

 tory. 



Professor Ramsay has discovered another 

 gaseous element in the air and called it krypton. 

 It was first announced by M. Berthelot at a 

 meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences on 

 June 6th, and was exhibited at the conversazione 

 of the Royal Society on the 8th. The new gas 

 is closely related to helium, and exists in com- 

 mon air in the proportion of about one to twenty 

 thousand. We hope to give further details 

 when the scientific publication of the discovery 

 has been made. 



Professor Nernst, of the University of Got- 

 tingen, has recently devised a new form of elec- 

 tric lamp that promises to be of the very highest 

 importance. It differs from the ordinary lamp 

 in that it has a filament composed of magnesia 

 mixed with rare earths, instead of the ordinary 

 filament in a vacuum. The vacuum is not 

 necessary in the new lamp. The filament of 



Nernst's lamp is non-conducting when cold, 

 but on being warmed it conducts, and then 

 glows with a very brilliant light. The advan- 

 tages are that it suffers no decomposition in the 

 air and requires very much less current (about 

 one-third) than the old electric lamp. The 

 problem at present seems to be to find a con- 

 venient method for warming the filament, as 

 that cannot be done directly by the current. 



Major Gibbon left England on May 26th, 

 with seven other members of his party, for 

 South Africa, with a view of traversing the 

 continent from the Cape to Cairo. He expects 

 to make a journey of about 12,000 miles in 

 eighteen mbnths. The party has the support 

 of the Royal Geographical Society and of the 

 government. 



News has been received from M. de Behagle, 

 the African explorer, in which he was on 

 March 2d about to ascend to Mobai to meet M. 

 Liotard, Governor of Upper Ubangi, who had 

 accompanied the Marchand mission and was 

 descending to Brazzaville. On his return to 

 Wadda he intended to go north in the direction 

 of Lake Chad. 



Professor Warren K. Moorehead, of 

 Columbus, O., has returned from a trip to 

 southern Arizona, where he has made valu- 

 able archseological discoveries in the Slado 

 Valley. 



A meeting of the general committee to make 

 arrangements for the Bristol meeting of the 

 British Association was held on June 6th. It 

 was reported that the sum of nearly $20,000 had 

 been collected locally for the reception of vis- 

 itors. It is expected that there will be about 

 2,000 members present. 



The second of the conversaziones of the Royal 

 Society, to which, as usual, ladies were invited, 

 was held on June 8th. The most remarkable 

 exhibit was Professor Ramsay's new gas kryp- 

 ton, the spectrum of which was shown along 

 side of those of sodium and helium. Though 

 part of the exhibits were similar to those shown 

 at the soiree a month or so ago, there were sev- 

 eral new exhibits of interest. 



The British Institution of Civil Engineers 

 held its annual conversazione at its rooms In 

 London on May 26th. There were many ex- 



