Decembee 18, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



883 



terson, Adam Smith, John Law, Arthur 

 Young, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Herbert 

 Spencer, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Jeremy 

 Bentham, P. J. Proudhon, Charles Fourier, 

 Sir William Petty, Eobert Owen. 



The necessary appropriation having been 

 made by the trustees of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington, on December 8, 1908, the 

 contract for the construction of the magnetic 

 survey yacht Carnegie was awarded on De- 

 cember 9, as the result of competition, to the 

 Tobe Yacht Basin Company, of Brooklyn, 

 N. Y. The vice-president and manager of 

 this firm, Mr. Wallace Downey, has had charge 

 of the building of several well-known yachts, 

 e. g., the Meteor (Kaiser WiLhelm's yacht) 

 and the Atlantic, which won the Atlantic cup 

 race of 1906. The vessel is to be completed 

 by July 1, 1909. Mr. Henry J. Gielow, of 

 New York City, is the naval architect and 

 engineer-in-charge ; he will be assisted in the 

 work of inspection by Mr. W. J. Peters, for- 

 merly in command of the Galilee and to have 

 charge of the Carnegie. The general dimen- 

 sions of the Carnegie will be: length over all, 

 155i feet; length on load water line, 128 J 

 feet; beam molded, 33 feet; draught, 12 feet 

 7 inches. 



According to despatches to the London 

 papers from New Zealand, the Nimrod sailed 

 on December 1 from Lyttelton for King Ed- 

 ward VII. Land, to take on board Lieutenant 

 E. H. Shackleton, E.N.R., and his party of 

 explorers, who, for the best part of the year, 

 have been engaged in an attempt to reach the 

 South Pole. The Nimrod left England in 

 August, 1907, and arrived at New Zealand on 

 November 23, 1907. After embarking Lieu- 

 tenant Shackleton and the other scientific men 

 and explorers, the Nimrod left Lyttelton on 

 January 1, 1908, and made her way southward 

 to the ice-pack. The explorers landed and the 

 Nimrod came back to Lyttelton. Since then 

 she has undergone a thorough overhaul, and 

 the scientists' quarters on deck have been en- 

 larged to nearly twice their original size, so 

 that in the event of any of the shore party 

 being iU they would have some place to use as 

 a hospital. It is anticipated that six weeks 



wiU be taken in the passage from Lyttelton to 

 the landing place in the far south. Lieutenant 

 Shackleton and his party wiU, it is hoped, put 

 in an appearance before the end of February, 

 after which the Nimrod would make her way 

 back to Lyttelton. It appears improbable that 

 the ship will have to winter in the Antarctic. 

 The vessel takes with her from Lyttelton to 

 the Antarctic 280 tons of coal, and stores suffi- 

 cient to last thirty-eight men for one year. 

 She is now commanded by Lieutenant F. P. 

 Evans, E.N.E., who was master of the steamer 

 which towed the Nimrod from Lyttelton to the 

 ice-pack at the beginning of the present year. 



The third series of Norman W. Harris lec- 

 tures at Northwestern University, given by 

 Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, from December 

 3 to 8 on "The Age of the Mammals of 

 Europe and America," was as follows : 



Lecture I. Rise and Progress of Paleontological 

 Discovery in Europe and America. Relations of 

 Exploration, Research and Theory of Interpreta- 

 tion. Leaders in American Discoveries and Paleon- 

 tological Methods. 



Lecture II. General Comparison of the Physiog- 

 raphy of America and Europe during the Age of 

 Mammals and the Close of the Reptilian Age. 

 Principals of Paleogeography. Sources of the 

 World Stock of Mammals and of Successive Migra- 

 tions. 



Lecture III. Decline of the Archaic or Meso- 

 zoio Mammals, and Rise of the Modernized Mam- 

 mals in America and Europe during the Eocene 

 and Oligocene Periods. The Common and Inde- 

 pendent Evolution on the Two Continents. Prin- 

 ciples of Adaptive Radiation or Divergence. 



Lecture IV. The Middle or Miocene Period. 

 Invasion and Prevalence of African Types and 

 Conditions of Life. 



Lecture V. The Pliocene Period, Invasion and 

 Intermingling of South American Forms. Con- 

 trasts and Resemblances between American and 

 European Conditions. 



Lecture Vt. The Early and Mid-Pleistocene 

 Periods. Extinction of the Large American Na- 

 tive Animals, and Repopulation from Europe and 

 Asia. Causes of Extinction. Conclusions as to the 

 Nature and Causes of Evolution of the Mammals. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the Transcript writes 

 that simplified phonetic spelling is to be in- 

 troduced in the public schools of France by 



