NovEi&EB 20, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



723 



Secretary Wright has forwarded to the 

 secretary of the treasury the detailed esti- 

 mates for the war department for the next 

 fiscal year. For the purchase of aerial ma- 

 chines, either dirigible balloons or aeroplanes, 

 $500,000 is asked. 



The annual meeting of the American 

 Anthropological Association will be held in 

 Baltimore, December 28, 1908, to January 2, 

 1909, in afiiliation with the American Folk- 

 Lore Society and Section H of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 Titles (and abstracts) of papers should be sent 

 immediately to Dr. George Grant MacOurdy, 

 Yale University, New Haven, Conn., who is 

 responsible for the combined program. 



In the Hall of Fossil Mammals of the 

 American Museum of Natural History several 

 important additions and changes have been 

 made during the past few months. A speci- 

 men of the four-toed horse (Orohippus os- 

 lornianus Cope) from the Middle Eocene beds 

 of the Bridger Basin, "Wyoming, has been 

 placed on exhibition. This was a small ani- 

 mal of about the same size as its ancestor in 

 the Lower Eocene beds. It had four toes in 

 the fore feet and three in the hind feet, but 

 there are no vestiges of the fourth toe remain- 

 ing. Last year's expedition to Egypt is 

 brought to mind by an exhibit consisting of 

 the skuli and lower jaws of the Horned Arsi- 

 noithere. This gives one, too, some hint of 

 the strange appearance of one of the animals 

 inhabiting northeastern Africa in Upper Eo- 

 cene time. The large skeleton of the great 

 saber-tooth tiger, Smilodon, from the Pleisto- 

 cene beds of South America, has been put into 

 a case by itself, in which is also exhibited an 

 oil painting by Charles E. Knight representing 

 the animal as it is supposed to have appeared 

 in life. There has been placed in the Ambly- 

 pod Alcove at the west entrance to the hall a 

 splendid composite skeleton of Uintatherium. 

 This was a huge four-toed, elephantine, hoofed 

 animal with large dagger-like tusks. 



Mr. H. M. Taylor, F.E.S., of Trinity Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, has been instrumental in col- 

 lecting about $2,500 for the publication of 



works of a scientific nature in embossed type 

 for the use of the blind. The managers of 

 the fund have agreed that the first three books 

 in the publication of which they undertake to 

 assist shall be " Sound and Music," by Mr. 

 Sedley Taylor; "A Primer of Astronomy," by 

 Sir Robert Ball, F.E.S.; and "An Introduc- 

 tion to Geology," by Dr. Marr, F.E.S. 



Arrangements have been made at Columbia 

 University for a series of non-technical lec- 

 tures on the various aspects of the science of 

 meteorology, to be delivered on Tuesday after- 

 noons at five o'clock, beginning January 12. 

 These will include a general introductory lec- 

 ture by President Woodward, of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington (formerly professor 

 of mechanics at Columbia, and the following 

 lectures on specific topics : " The Geological 

 Eelation of Meteorology," by Professor A. P. 

 Brigham, of Colgate University ; " Climate in 

 Some of its Eelations to Man," by Professor 

 E. DeC. Ward, of Harvard ; " Astronomical 

 Climate," by Professor William Libbey, of 

 Princeton ; " Storms and Weather Forecast- 

 ing," by Willis L. Moore, chief of the United 

 States Weather Bureau ; " Circulation of the 

 Atmospheres of the Sun and the Earth," by 

 Professor F. H. Bigelow, of the Weather 

 Bureau; "Exploration of the Atmosphere by 

 Kites and Balloons," by Professor W. E. 

 Blair, of the Weather Bureau ; " Seismology," 

 by Professor C. F. Marvin, of the Weather 

 Bureau ; " Atmospheric Phenomena and Phys- 

 ical Theory," by Professor J. H. Jeans, of 

 Princeton University, and " Outstanding 

 Problems in Meteorology," by Professor Cleve- 

 land Abbe, of the Weather Bureau. 



The Medical Record states that the first of 

 the new buildings at Bellevue Hospital, New 

 York City, has been opened. This has just 

 been completed at a cost of something over a 

 million dollars. The building is seven stories 

 high, and contains two pavilions, known as A 

 and B, of eight wards each, altogether accom- 

 modating about four hundred patients. The 

 top floor wiU be devoted to wards for ma- 

 ternity eases, and the children's and medical 

 wards will be housed on the lower floors. In 

 the main building it will now be possible to 



