November 13, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



679 



and Welch, and the Hon. Charles J. Bona- 

 parte, United States attorney-general. 



Dr. Althoff, who a year ago retired from 

 the directorship of the ministry in charge of 

 the Prussian universities, and eminent for his 

 services to higher education, has died at the 

 age of sixty-nine years. 



The deaths are also announced of Professor 

 Paul Henning, curator of the Royal Botanical 

 Museum, at Berlin ; of Dr. Cuthbert Colling- 

 wood, at the age of eighty-two, the author of 

 " Rambles of a Naturalist in the China Seas," 

 and of various scientific papers ; of M. Gustave 

 Canet, past president of the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers, of Prance, and one of the 

 founders of the French Association for the 

 Advancement of Science; and of Mr. Henry 

 Chapman, known for his work on the de- 

 velopment of the application of machine tools 

 actuated by hydraulic power, the perfecting of 

 torpedo machinery, and with air compressors. 



The Swedish Medical Society of Stock- 

 holm celebrated the hundredth anniversary of 

 its foundation on October 25. 



At the Baltimore meeting of the American 

 Nature Study Society, December 29-31, there 

 will be a session devoted to the relation of 

 nature study and agriculture in elementary 

 and ungraded rural schools, and another on 

 relation of nature study to high-school sci- 

 ence. Teachers and others who have sugges- 

 tions to contribute are invited to send state- 

 ments of their views and experience to the 

 secretary of the society, Professor M. A. 

 Bigelow, Teachers College, New York City. 



Professor William James is now giving at 

 Harvard University the course of eight lec- 

 tures that he gave last spring at Oxford Uni- 

 versity on the Hibbert lectureship. The title 

 of the lectures is " The General Situation in 

 Philosophy," and the subjects of the several 

 lectures are as follows: 



November 6 — The Types of Philosophic Think- 

 ing. 



November 9 — ^Monistic Idealism. 



November 13 — On Hegel. 



November 16 — On Feehner. 



November 20 — The Compoxmding of Conscious- 

 ness. 



November 23 — Bergson's Critique of Intellec- 

 tualism. 



November 27 — The Continuity of Experiences. 



November 30 — ^A Pluralistic Universe. 



Jesup lectures will be delivered, under the 

 auspices of Columbia University, at the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History, on Wed- 

 nesday evenings at eight o'clock, by Professor 

 Richard C. Maclaurin, professor of mathe- 

 matical physics. Professor Maclaurin's gen- 

 eral subject will be " Light." The lectures, 

 ten in number, will begin November 18. 



Hewitt lectures, which are similarly con- 

 ducted by the university at Cooper Union, will 

 be given by Dr. WiUiam J. Gies on Monday 

 evenings, beginning February 8. Dr. Gies, 

 who is professor of biological chemistry at the 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons, is arrang- 

 ing a series of experimental demonstrations to 

 accompany his eight lectures, the subject of 

 which will be " The Chemistry of Nutrition." 

 The Shaler memorial expedition to Brazil, 

 by whose provisions Professor Woodworth and 

 several other members of the Harvard depart- 

 ment of geology are now working in South 

 America, has been the subject of a conference 

 in the lecture room of the mineralogical mu- 

 seum. Professor R. DeCourtney Ward, who 

 spent part of his summer in the country with 

 Professor Woodworth, spoke of the weather 

 and climate of Brazil, and Mr. Winthrop P. 

 Haynes described the geology of eastern 

 Brazil. 



According to foreign exchanges Professor 

 Ehlers, of Copenhagen, well known as an 

 authority on leprosy, is now in Paris with the 

 view of organizing a scientific expedition to 

 the Danish West Indies, which comprise the 

 islands of St. Thomas, St. John and Santa 

 Cruz. The object of the expedition is said to 

 be to endeavor to determine the part played 

 by blood-sucking insects, especially fleas and 

 bugs, in the dissemination of leprosy. If the 

 negotiations for the purpose come to a prac- 

 tical issue the expedition will consist of an 

 equal number of Danish and French workers. 

 The German Meteorological Society offers 

 a prize of 3,000 Marks for the best treatment 

 of meteorological observations obtained in the 

 international ascents. The paper must be 



