876 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 729 



physics in tlie newly created Free Academy, 

 now the College of the City of New York, 

 and in 1853 married Josephine, daughter of 

 Oroondates and Martha Eddy Mauran. He 

 remained professor for fourteen years, when 

 he was elected Eumford professor in Harvard 

 University, to fill the vacancy occasioned by 

 the resignation of Professor E. N. Horsford 

 and removed to Cambridge in August, 1863. 

 At the outbreak of the civil war, he took an 

 active part in the creation of the Union 

 League Club. In 1887 he resigned the Eum- 

 ford professorship in Harvard University and 

 built and equipped a laboratory near his resi- 

 dence at Newport, Ehode Island. Dr. Gibbs 

 received the degree of LL.D. from Columbia 

 College, Harvard University, the University 

 of Pennsylvania and the Columbian Univer- 

 sity of Washington. He was an honorary 

 member of the German, English and Ameri- 

 can Chemical Societies, of the Eoyal Society 

 of Berlin and of the Philosophical Society 

 of Philadelphia. 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S AFRICAN TRIP 

 In March, 1909, Mr. Eooscvelt wiU head a 

 scientific expedition to Africa, outfitted by the 

 Smithsonian Institution and starting from 

 New York City. This expedition wiU gather 

 natural history materials for the government 

 collections, to be deposited by the Smithsonian 

 Institution in the new United States National 

 Museum, at Washington, D. C. 



Besides the president and his son, Kermit 

 Eoosevelt, who will defray their own expenses, 

 the personnel of the party, on leaving New 

 York, wiU consist of three representatives of 

 the Smithsonian Institution: Major Edgar A. 

 Mearns, Medical Corps, U. S. Army (retired), 

 Mr. Edmund Heller and Mr. J. Alden Loring. 

 On arriving in Africa, the party will be en- 

 larged by the addition of Mr. E. J. Cuning- 

 hame, who is now in Africa preparing the 

 president's outfit. He will have charge of a 

 number of native porters, who, with necessary 

 animals, will be formed into a small caravan. 

 Mr. Eoosevelt and his son will kiU the big 

 game, the skins and skeletons of which will be 

 prepared and shipped to the United States by 



other members of the party. Mr. Kermit 

 Eoosevelt is to be the official photographer of 

 the expedition. 



The national collections are very deficient 

 in natural history materials from the Dark 

 Continent; and an effort will be made by the 

 expedition to gather general collections in 

 zoology and botany to supply some of its defi- 

 ciencies; but the main effort will be to coUect 

 the large and vanishing African animals. 



Mr. E. 3. Cuninghame, who is now engaged 

 in assembling the materials for Mr. Eoose- 

 velt's use, has been employed to act as guide 

 and manager of the caravan. Mr. Cuning- 

 hame is also an experienced collector of nat- 

 ural history specimens, having made collec- 

 tions for the British Museum in Norway and 

 Africa. He is an English field man, who has 

 guided numerous hunting parties in Africa 

 and who was chief hunter for the Field 

 Columbian Exposition. 



Mr. Edmund Heller, a graduate of Stanford 

 University, class of 1901, is a thoroughly 

 trained naturalist, whose special work will be 

 the preparation and preservation of specimens 

 of large animals. Mr. Heller is about thirty 

 years of age. His former experience, when 

 associated with Mr. D. G. Eliot and Mr. 

 Ackley, of the Field Columbian Museum, in 

 collecting big game animals in the same por- 

 tions of Africa which Mr. Eoosevelt will visit, 

 will be a valuable asset to the expedition. 

 Mr. Heller has had large experiences in animal 

 collecting in Alaska, British Columbia, United 

 States, Mexico, Central America and South 

 America. In the year 1898 he made a collect- 

 ing trip of eleven months to Gallapagos 

 Islands, starting from San Francisco. He is 

 the author of scientific papers on mammals, 

 birds, reptiles and fishes. At present he is 

 assistant curator of the Museum of Vertebrate 

 Zoology of the University of California. 



Mr. J. Alden Loring is a field naturalist, 

 whose training comprises service in the Biolog- 

 ical Survey of the Department of Agriculture, 

 and in the Bronx Zoological Park, New York 

 City, as well as on numerous collecting trips 

 through British America, Mexico and the 

 United States. He is about thirty-eight years 



