16 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 705 



in Detroit, Mich., from June 23 to 26. A 

 session was devoted to papers on the con- 

 veyance of materials, hoisting and conveying 

 machinery including belt conveyors, the use 

 of conveying machinery in cement plants, etc., 

 being discussed. The Gas Power Section of 

 the society held a session, and the Society for 

 the Promotion of Engineering Education and 

 the Society of Automobile Engineers held a 

 meeting in Detroit at the same time. 



The twenty-fourth Congress of the Eoyal 

 Sanitary Institute will be held at Cardiff on 

 July 13 to 18, under the presidency of the 

 Earl of Plymouth. 



The results of a poll taken by the Geolog- 

 ical Society, London, to ascertain the opinion 

 of the fellows resident in the United Kingdom 

 as to the admission of women to the society 

 have been announced. The number of voting 

 papers sent out was 870, and 477 replies were 

 received. Two hundred and forty-eight fel- 

 lows were in favor of the admission of women 

 as fellows and 217 against their admission, 

 but of this number 84 were in favor of their 

 admission as associates. 



On June 1 the Grand Duke Michael opened 

 the International Congress on Navigation, 

 which is being held for the first time in St. 

 Petersburg. 



The Second International Anatomical Con- 

 gress will be held at Brussels, Belgium, in 

 1910, in accordance with a decision reached 

 by the international committee at a meeting 

 held during the session of the Anatomische 

 Gesellschaft at Berlin. The exact date of the 

 congress has not yet been fixed, but the prob- 

 able date is the latter part of August or early 

 in September. Brussels offers many advan- 

 tages for such a congress, and the city has an 

 established reputation for its hospitality 

 towards scientific guests. It is hoped that 

 there will be a considerable attendance from 

 America, and early notice of the proposed 

 congress is therefore issued that American 

 anatomists may ^lan so as to be able to 

 participate in it. The development of anat- 

 omical science in this country has been so 

 rapid that we now have a large number of 



persons actively engaged in scientific research, 

 and there ought to be a large American dele- 

 gation in attendance at the congress. 



The steam-yacht Nimrod, which took Lieu- 

 tenant Shackleton's party to the Antarctic, 

 and which returned to New Zealand some 

 months ago, is lying at Lyttleton, the expedi- 

 tion's headquarters. Captain England, who 

 took the Nimrod down to King Edward the 

 Seventh Land, has resigned from his com- 

 mand, and has gone to the United Kingdom. 

 The arrangement was that the Nimrod should 

 make a magnetic survey of New Zealand 

 waters until she was ready to go to the Ant- 

 arctic again in December, 1908, to bring back 

 Lieutenant Shackleton and his comrades, but 

 as no commander has yet been appointed in 

 Captain England's place, that arrangement 

 has been abandoned. Professor David, of 

 Sydney, at the last moment, decided to ac- 

 company Lieutenant Shackelton. In a pri- 

 vate letter, sent by the Nimrod, after leaving 

 the party at its headquarters near Mount 

 Erebus, Professor David states that he expects 

 to be back in New Zealand by April, 1909, 

 when the whole party will return. 



The Danish explorer, Captain Ejnar Mik- 

 kelsen, has returned to Copenhagen after his 

 two years' sojourn in the regions north of 

 Alaska. According to his statements in the 

 Copenhagen papers, as summarized in the 

 London Times, the expedition proved a suc- 

 cess, and the scientific investigations were of 

 value. He hopes to be able to continue the 

 work next year. The chief object of the 

 expedition was to decide whether there is land 

 to the north of Alaska or a deep sea. Captain 

 Mikkelsen's ship, the Duchess of Bedford, 

 arrived on September 17, 1906, at Elaxman 

 Island, where she was soon frozen in. The 

 whole of that autumn was spent in mapping 

 the surrounding country and observing the 

 tide. About 40 miles from the coast the 

 party found mountains from 10,000 feet to 

 12,000 feet in height, hitherto not marked on 

 any map, and Mr. Lefiingwell, the companion 

 of Mr. Mikkelsen, undertook some geological 

 researches. In March, 1907, Captain Mikkel- 

 sen, Mr. Leffingwell, and the mate of the 

 Duchess of Bedford, a Norwegian named 



