Mabch 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



417 



tended chiefly for the purposes of veterinary 

 and public health researches. 



The University of Heidelberg has received 

 from a foreign benefactor interested in the 

 advancement of science the sum of over $30,- 

 000 towards the foundation of a radio- 

 graphic institute. 



Dr. Francis Elgar, F.E.S., the naval archi- 

 tect, who died on January 17, aged sixty- 

 three, left an estate of the value of £80,000. 

 The testator left £1,600 to the Institution of 

 Naval Architects for the endowment of a 

 scholarship. After making other bequests, 

 he left half of the residue of his property 

 (which- will apparently amount to about 

 £33,000), subject to the interest of his wife 

 during widowhood, as to one half to the Insti- 

 tution of Naval Architects for the encourage- 

 ment of the science and art of naval archi- 

 tecture, and one half to the University of 

 Glasgow, to be held upon trust for the further- 

 ance of the objects of the John Elder chair of 

 naval architecture in that university. 



A BALLOT of the proprietors of the London 

 Institution on the proposed amalgamation 

 with the Eoyal Society of Arts has been taken 

 and resulted as follows: Eor amalgamation, 

 322; against, 218. The proprietors, of whom 

 there are 850, were asked to say whether they 

 approved of the drafting of an act of parlia- 

 ment for the amalgamation of the two insti- 

 tutions on the lines of the scheme which was 

 drawn up by the joint committee in 1905. In 

 a preliminary postcard poll 524 voted in favor 

 of the proposal and only 84 against it. 



Official information has been received by 

 the U. S. Bureau of Education at "Washing- 

 ton that an International Musical Congress 

 will be held at Vienna at the end of May, 

 1909, in connection with the centennial cele- 

 bration of the birth of Josef Haydn, the 

 composer. A desire has been expressed that 

 the United States should be represented in 

 this congress. 



An International Exhibition of Hygiene 

 will be held at Turin during September, Oc- 

 tober and November. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal 

 that the second International Conference on 



Leprosy will be held this year at Bergen 

 from August 16 to 19. The preliminary 

 program includes the following subjects: 

 The geographical distribution of leprosy; 

 the forms and diagnosis of the disease; its 

 causes and manner of propagation; its path- 

 ological anatomy, and its treatment. The 

 conference will be held under the patronage 

 of the Norwegian Government and King 

 Haakon. The president will be Dr. G. 

 Armauer Hansen, discoverer of the Bacillus 

 leprw. The vice-president is Professor C. 

 Boeck, of the University of Christiania, 

 another recognized authority on leprosy. The 

 secretary is Dr. H. P. Lie, of Bergen, to 

 whom! all communications relative to the con- 

 gress should be addressed. 



We learn from the London Times that at 

 a meeting of the joint organizing committee 

 of the International Congress of Applied 

 Chemistry, held in the rooms of the Chemical 

 Society at Burlington House, the secretary 

 presented a report giving details of the prog- 

 ress made since the last meeting of the com- 

 mittee in June, 1908. It was stated that 

 £4,400 had been received in response to a 

 special appeal issued in December. The gov- 

 ernment was stated to be considering the 

 question of defraying the cost of the South 

 Kensington group of buildings, belonging to 

 the University of London, for the meetings 

 of the congress. Several members of the 

 government have accepted the offices of hon- 

 orary vice-presidents of the congress, inclu- 

 ding Lord Morley (Secretary of State for 

 India) and Mr. Haldane (Secretary of State 

 for War). The Society of Chemical Indus- 

 try, which numbers over 4,000 members, has 

 arranged to hold its- annual meeting for 1909 

 in London on May 26, the day preceding that 

 of the opening of the congress, and the Lon- 

 don members of this society have also ar- 

 ranged to entertain the members of the con- 

 gress on the evening of May 29. Foreign' and 

 colonial governments, and the leading scien- 

 tific and technical societies, have been asked 

 to appoint delegates to represent them at the 

 congress. These delegates will rank as hon- 

 orary and as ordinary members of the con- 

 gress respectively. 



