836 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 728 



Spear Zoological Laboratory. Some of those 

 who were students under Albert A. Wright, 

 the former professor of geology and zoology, 

 have placed in this building a tablet bearing 

 the words : 



To 



Albert Allen Weight 



for thirty-one years 



Professor of Geology and Natural History 



in Oberlin C!ollege 



1874-1905 



An expression of the honor and love of its pupils. 



Labor that in lasting fruit outgrows 



Par noisier schemes, accomplished in repose, 



Too great for haste, too high for rivalry. 



The Empress Auguste Victoria has pre- 

 sented to the Senokenberg Natural History 

 Society of Frankfort a bust of Goethe by the 

 sculptor Ernst Freese, which has been erected 

 in the entrance hall of the new museum of the 

 society. 



Dr. Andrew J. McCosh, professor of clin- 

 ical surgery at Columbia University and emi- 

 nent as a surgeon, died on December 2 at the 

 age of fifty years. His death resulted from 

 being thrown from his carriage while on the 

 way to the Presbyterian Hospital, where he 

 had been a surgeon for nineteen years. 



The attendance of the joint Conservation 

 Conference, meeting at Washington this week, 

 is composed of men who have been active 

 participants in the work for conservation 

 since the White House Conference. About 

 haK the governors have definitely said that 

 they will be present and the others will send 

 representatives of their states. These gov- 

 ernors or their representatives are accom- 

 panied by the members of the state conserva- 

 tion commissions which have been named dur- 

 ing the summer and fall. In addition to these 

 there wUl be present the special conservation 

 committees which have been formed by twenty- 

 five or more national organizations. The ses- 

 sion on the morning of the eighth was a more 

 or less informal gathering in the Red Room 

 of the Wniard Hotel for the purpose of organ- 

 izing. At 4 :15 o'clock that afternoon was the 

 general meeting at the Belasco Theater, at 



which President Roosevelt and President-elect 

 Taft were among the speakers to address the 

 members of the joint Conservation Confer- 

 ence, the Rivers and Harbors Congress, the 

 Southern Commercial Congress and other or- 

 ganizations with allied objects whose sessions 

 in Washington at that time wiU help to make 

 up what has been called " Conservation Week." 

 After that the joint conference was to take up 

 its business at the Hubbard Memorial HaU. 

 The plan was to take up one after another the 

 main subjects which the National Conserva- 

 tion Commission has been studying — ^waters, 

 lands, forests, minerals. 



At the General Assembly of the Interna- 

 tional Institute of Agriculture, held in Rome 

 on November 27, Signor Tittoni, the Italian 

 minister for foreign affairs, was appointed 

 president, and M. Muravieff, the Russian 

 ambassador, and Sidney A. Fisher, the Can- 

 adian minister of agriculture, were chosen 

 vice-presidents. 



A FREE public museum and scientific labora- 

 tory has recently been established in Reading, 

 Pa. The public school board is furnishing the 

 cases for the exhibition of material now on 

 hand. The museum is located in the old 

 boys' high school, recently vacated. The ma- 

 terial now on hand is largely of the nature of 

 commercial interests although it is proposed to 

 include all branches of natural history. The 

 administration is under the direction of the 

 Reading school district. Professor Levi W. 

 Mengel is the director. 



The Garden of the Gods, is to become by 

 gift of the children of the late Charles E. 

 Perkins, of Boston, the property of Colorado 

 Springs. Papers have been filed whereby the 

 six children and heirs deed to three trustees 

 the 480 acres comprising the Garden of the 

 Gods, authorizing them to transfer the same 

 free of charge to the city of Colorado Springs 

 before January 1, 1911. The tract compri- 

 sing the Garden of the Gods was secured by 

 Mr. Perkins in 1879, and has always been free 

 to the public. It was his wish that this 

 scenic attraction forever be open to the world, 

 and it is in accordance with his expressed 

 wishes that the transfer is made. 



