418 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 741 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



By action of the corporation the chair of 

 the theory and practise of medicine at Tale 

 University will hereafter be known as the 

 John Slade Ely professorship of the theory 

 and practise of medicine. This action was 

 made possible by the gift to the university 

 of $50,000 by an unknown donor for the pur- 

 pose of establishing a memorial to Professor 

 Ely, '81S., who filled this chair from 1897 

 until his death, February 7, 1906. Dr. 

 Greorge Blumer at present holds this profes- 

 sorship. 



It is announced that Hamilton College will 

 receive a bequest of $50,000 from Mrs. Annie 

 P. Burgess, of New York City, who died about 

 three years ago, leaving for educational and 

 charitable purposes upward of $200,000. 

 This included $10,000 to Columbia University 

 and to Barnard College for scholarships. 

 After making some other specific bequests 

 she left the remainder of her estate to Hamil- 

 ton College, Columbia University and Bar- 

 nard College. 



Among the bequests left by the late Mrs. 

 Emma Cummings, of East Hampton, L. I., 

 are $25,000 to Dartmouth College and $25,000 

 to Bowdoin College. 



The late Dr. Charles H. Roberts, of High- 

 land, N. J., in his will provided for the found- 

 ing of five scholarships of $240 annually at 

 Oomell University. 



Hahvaed University has received a gift of 

 $150,000 for the endowment of the University 

 Chapel. The fund is to be known as the Ed- 

 ward Wigglesworth Memorial Fund. 



Maryville College, Tennessee, has se- 

 cured an endowment of $227,000, of which 

 $50,000 is from the General Educational 

 Board and $50,000 from Mr. Andrew Car- 

 negie. 



The University of Michigan has acquired 

 by gift of an alumnus, and from the city of 

 Arm. Arbor, a tract of land of about ninety 

 acres to serve as a botanical garden and 

 arboretum. This land has an exceptional 

 variety of soil, elevation and exposure, in- 

 cluding a border of over one half mile on the 

 Huron River, easily accessible from the 



campus. The Woman's League of the imi- 

 versity has purchased a seven-acre tract of 

 land, convenient of access, which will be de- 

 veloped as an athletic field for the women of 

 the university. Another gift is of about fif- 

 teen hundred acres of land, lying along the 

 shores of Douglas lake in Cheboygan county. 

 This land will serve as the site for the sum- 

 mer engineering camp, and its topography, 

 including forest and open, land and water, 

 various elevations, etc., is well adapted to the 

 purpose. In honor of the donor it has been 

 named The Bogardus Engineering Camp. 



Mrs. S. T. Robinson, of Lawrence, Kan- 

 sas, is offering an opportunity to all women 

 who graduate from the science department of 

 the University of Kansas to do research work 

 in connection with the research table sup- 

 ported by her in the Marine Biological Labor- 

 atory at Woods Hole. 



The Russian government has decided to 

 establish a new university at Saratoff, and the 

 duty of organizing it has been entrusted to 

 Dr. Rasumowsky, professor of surgery at 



Governor Draper, of Massachvisetts, has 

 appointed Mr. Frederick P. Fish, of Brook- 

 line, to be a member of the State Board of 

 Education, to succeed the late Carroll D. 

 Wright. Mr. Fish is a member of the board 

 of overseers of Harvard College and a mem- 

 ber of the corporation and executive com- 

 mittee of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology. 



DIS0U8&I0N AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE MISSISSIPPI CHANNEL BOTTOM AND GULP 



LEVEL 



To THE Editor of Science : The remarkably 

 slight elevation above the sea of the lower 

 flood plains of large rivers like the Mississippi, 

 the Ganges and the Amazon is a matter of 

 frequent comment. The facts are often put 

 rather strikingly by saying that at St. Louis, 

 1,250 miles by river from the sea, the valley 

 flat is but 400 feet above sea level; at 

 Memphis, 842 miles from the sea, 220 feet; 

 and at Vicksburg, 472 miles from the sea, 90 

 feet. The same fact is commonly expressed 



