Febeuaky 5, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



225 



" An Optical Interpretation of some Problems 

 in Statistics." 



At the meeting of the Eoyal Microscopical 

 Society on January 20, Lord Avebury deliv- 

 ered bis presidential address on seeds, with 

 special reference to British plants. 



Professor Karl Pearson gave last month 

 before the Eoyal Institution of Great Britain 

 two lectures on "Albinism in Man." 



Sir Thomas "Wardell, known for his re- 

 searches on silk fiber, died on January 3, in 

 his seventy-eighth year. 



Major Percy B. Molesworth, who had 

 made valuable observations on Jupiter and 

 Mars, died in Ceylon on December 26, in his 

 forty-second year. 



M. Dominique Clos, honorary professor of 

 botany at Toulouse, has died at the age of 

 eighty-eight years. 



The House of Representatives has included 

 in the military appropriation bill an appro- 

 priation of $500,000 for air-ships. The Eus- 

 sian war office has reserved for this purpose a 

 fund of $750,000. The Aero Club of America 

 offers a prize of $10,000 for a race from New 

 York City to Albany as part of the Hudson- 

 Fulton memorial celebrations to be held in the 

 autumn. 



The sum of $100,000 has been given to the 

 medical school of the London Hospital, the 

 income to be expended in the advancement of 

 medical research and the promotion of higher 

 education in medicine. 



Baron Bessieres has left a legacy of $16,000 

 to the Pasteur Institute, Paris, to be employed 

 in scientific researches. 



A Eoyal British Eadium Institute is to 

 be established through a gift from Sir Ernest 

 Cassel. It is intended to investigate espe- 

 cially the therapeutic action of radium. In 

 this connection it is reported that a syndicate 

 has been formed in connection with the insti- 

 tute to extract radium from the pitch-blend 

 deposits of an old copper mine recently re- 

 opened at St. Ives, Cornwall. This is said to 

 be the only place where radium can be pro- 

 duced outside of Austria. 



A society of radiology has been founded in 

 Paris for the scientific study of the medical 

 applications of radiations in general. 



The important George G. Heye collection 

 of American antiquities will soon be placed on 

 exhibition in the Museum of the University of 

 Pennsylvania. 



Two additions to the series of North Amer- 

 ican habitat groups in the American Museum 

 of Natural History have recently been com- 

 pleted. These are the Duck Hawk group, rep- 

 resenting a scene along the Palisades of the 

 Hudson Eiver, and the Hackensack Meadow 

 group, which represents the nesting habits of 

 the birds which frequent it in August. 



A MEDICAL congress is to be held in Bombay, 

 beginning on February 22. Sir George Clarke 

 will deliver the presidential address, and the 

 sectional meetings will last four days. 



Arrangements for the North American' 

 Conservation Conference between representa- 

 tives of the United States, Canada and Mex- 

 ico, at the White House, February 18, are 

 going forward rapidly, following the cordial 

 acceptance by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Premier, 

 and Earl Grey, Governor-General, of Canada, 

 and President Diaz, of Mexico, of President 

 Eoosevelt's invitation to send delegates. The 

 conference will discuss the situation with re- 

 gard to the natural resources of the respective 

 countries and help prepare a general plan 

 adapted to promote the welfare of the nations 

 concerned in accordance with President Eoose- 

 velt's suggestion. This International Confer- 

 ence will meet at the White House by Presi- 

 dent Eoosevelt's invitation. It will not be a 

 large gathering as was the Conference of Gov- 

 ernors at the White House last May, or the 

 joint Conservation Conference last December 

 between the National Conservation Commis- 

 sion, the Governors and the representatives of 

 State Conservation Commissions and Conser- 

 vation Committees of national organizations. 

 The attendance will be limited to the represen- 

 tatives of Canada and Mexico and representa- 

 tives of the State Department of the United 

 States Government and of other executive de- 

 partments which can render particular assist- 

 ance to the conferees in their deliberations. 



