292 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 738 



everywhere known as products of the "Lincoln 

 Schools of Science." 



It is the opinion of this academy that by so 

 designating these schools, while an immaterial and 

 uncostly honor would be conferred on the greatest 

 American citizen, such honor would be likely to 

 be more influential and more durable in the per- 

 petuation of his memory than the expenditure of 

 large sums of money in material monuments of 

 any kind. 



ter instead of the map of the world. It is 

 about three inches in diameter. 



FIRST AWARD OF THE LANGLEY MEDAL 

 The first award of the gold medal recently 

 established by the Smithsonian Institution in 

 memory of the late Secretary Samuel Pier- 

 pont Langley and his contributions to the 

 science of aerodromies is made to Wilbur and 

 Orville Wright. The board of regents of the 

 institution has adopted the following resolu- 

 tion: 



Resolved, That the Langley medal be awarded 

 to Wilbur and Orville Wright for advancing the 

 science of aerodromies in its application to avia- 

 tion, by their successful investigations and demon- 

 strations of the practicability of mechanical flight 

 by man." 



Following the establishment of the Lang- 

 ley medal. Secretary Walcott appointed the 

 following-named gentlemen of known com- 

 petence in the subject of aerodromies as a 

 committee on award, announcement of which 

 is hereby made: Mr. Octave Chanute, of 

 Chicago, Chairman; Dr. Alexander Graham 

 BeU; Major George 0. Squier, U. S. A.; Mr. 

 John A. Brashear, of Allegheny, Pa., and 

 Mr. James Means, formerly editor of The 

 Aeronautical Annual, Boston. The Langley 

 Medal was founded " to be awarded for speci- 

 ally meritorious investigations in connection 

 with the science of aerodromies and its appli- 

 ■ cation to aviation." The original design to 

 be used for this medal was made by Mon. J. 

 C. Chaplain, of Paris, a member of the 

 French Academy. The medal bears on its 

 obverse a female figure, seated on the globe, 

 carrying a torch in her left hand and in her 

 right a scroll emblematic of knowledge and 

 the words "Per Orbem." The reverse is 

 adapted from the seal of the institution as 

 designed by Augustus St. Gaudens, the 

 special inscription being inserted in the cen- 



8CIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has 

 awarded its Bruce gold medal for the year 

 1909 to Dr. G. W. Hill for distinguished 

 services to astronomy. 



The eminent mathematician, M. Henri 

 Poincare, was officially received on January 

 28 into the French Academy, taking the seat 

 vacant by the death of the poet Sully Prud- 

 homme. M. Frederic Masson, the historian 

 of Napoleon, made the address of welcome. 



Lord Eayleigh, who left England with Lady 

 Eayleigh for a six months' tour around the 

 world, has been seriously ill in South Africa, 

 but is now better. He has given up his plan 

 of going to Australia, and will probably finish 

 the winter in Egypt. 



The celebration of Haeckel's seventy-fifth 

 birthday was held in Jena on February 16. 

 As a gift from the American Museum of 

 Natural History to the Phyletic Museumi Pro- 

 fessor Osborn has sent a series of the large 

 reproductions of Charles E. Knight's restora- 

 tions of the extinct vertebrates of North 

 America. 



Db. S. Weir Mitchell celebrated his eigh- 

 tieth birthday on February 15. 



Professor Eamon y Cajal, the anatomist, 

 has been created a senator of Spain. 



M. Louis Mangin has been elected a member 

 of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in the sec- 

 tion of botany, to succeed M. Van Tieghem, 

 who has been elected permanent secretary. 



Professor William Z. Ripley, of Harvard 

 University, has been elected an honorary fel- 

 low of the Royal Anthropological Institute of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, in recognition of 

 his researches in the field of European and 

 American demography. 



Portraits of Professor George J. Brush 

 and of Professor William H. Brewer have 

 been hung in the recently fitted-up faculty 

 room of the Sheffield Scientific School, Tale 

 University. Professor Brush and Professor 



