October 16, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



511 



The district foresters who will be in charge 

 of the six field districts of the Forest Service, 

 beginning on January 1, 1909, have been 

 selected by United States Forester Gifford 

 Pinchot. Thoy are as follows: District 1, W. 



B. Greeley, Missoula, Montana; District 2, 

 Smith Kilcy, Denver, Colorado ; District 3, A. 



C. Ringland, Albuquerque, Now Mexico; Dis- 

 trict 4, Clyde Leavitt, Ogden, Utah; District 

 5, F. E. Olmsted, San Frnncisco, California; 

 District 6, E. T. Allen, Portland, Oregon. 



Professor Harry Gideon Wells, dean of 

 the Medical Department of the University of 

 Chicago, will spend the fall in some special 

 study and investigation at the Sheffield Phys- 

 iological Laboratory, Tale University. 



F. W. FoxwoRTHY, who is connected with 

 govermnent scientific work in the Philippine 

 Islands, has during the past summer been 

 engaged in the stiidy of the trees in Sarawak 

 and the Federated Malay States. He intends 

 to return for a visit to the United States in 

 the near future. 



Dr. E. E. Downing, of the Northern State 

 Normal School, who has been studying the 

 past year in the biological laboratories of Eu- 

 rope, has returned and may be addressed again 

 at Marquette, Michigan. 



E. B. Grieg, lecturer on agTiculture at 

 Marisehal College, Aberdeen, and E. P. 

 Wright, principal of the West of Scotland 

 Agricultural College, at Glasgow, have been 

 visiting the leading American agricultural 

 colleges, with view to securing information to 

 be used in improving agricultural education 

 in Scotland. 



The College of Arts and Sciences of the 

 University of Maine announces for the fall 

 semester a series of lectures on the history of 

 science. Dean Hart will lecture on the his- 

 tory of mathematics, Dean Stevens on the his- 

 tory of physics. Professor Aubert on the 

 history of chemistry. Professor Merrill on the 

 history of biological chemistry. Professor 

 Drew on the history of zoology, and Professor 

 Chrysler on the history of botany. 



Dr. Daniel Coit Gilman, professor of geog- 

 raphy at Yale University from 1863 to 18Y2, 

 president of the University of California from 



1872 to 1875, first president of the Johns Hop- 

 kins University from 1875 to 1901, first presi- 

 dent of the Carnegie Institution from 1902 to 

 1904, eminent for his services to higher educa- 

 tion, died suddenly on October 14, at Norwich, 

 Conn., where he was born on July 6, 1831. 



The deaths are announced of Dr. Alexander 

 Korkin, professor of mathematics at St. 

 Petersburg, at the age of seventy-one years; 

 of Dr. Alexis Hansky, associate astronomer in 

 the Pulkowa Observatory, at the age of thirty- 

 eight years, and of M. D. Clos, director of 

 the Botanical Garden at Toulouse. 



United States civil service examinations 

 are announced as follows: On November 5, 

 for biological chemist in the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry in the Department of Agriculture, at a 

 salary of $1,200; on November 9, for chief of 

 the cattle and grain investigation laboratory 

 in the same bureau at a salary of $2,500, and 

 for assistant in agricultural education in the 

 Office of Experiment Stations, at a salary of 

 from $1,400 to $1,800. 



In the belief that our knowledge of comets 

 may be considerably enlarged through a proper 

 use of the opportunities presented by the ap- 

 proaching return of Halley's comet and the 

 systematic observation of such other cometary 

 phenomena as may be presented during the 

 next few years, the Astronomical and Astro- 

 physical Society of America has appointed a 

 committee upon comets, consisting of Pro- 

 fessors George C. Comstock, chairman, Edward 

 E. Barnard, Charles D. Perrine and Edward 

 C. Pickering. It is the purpose of this com- 

 mittee to canvass the whole field of cometary 

 research, inquiring what parts of that fiell 

 will best repay systematic cultivation at the 

 present time and securing, so far as possible, 

 cooperation in such research. 



At the Johns Hopkins University two acres 

 of ground at the new site have been devoted 

 to a botanical garden. On this plot a green- 

 house, 80 feet long, and a laboratory for plant 

 physiology have been erected. An acre and a 

 quarter of land has been laid out in four 

 foiTual squares bounded by hemlock hedges. 

 Within these squares are beds and pools which 

 have been planted with some thi'ee hundred 

 types illustrating the adaptation of vegeta- 



