540 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 744 



neers, American Society of Mechanical En- 

 gineers and American Institute of Electrical 

 Engineers) held a joint meeting in the Engi- 

 neering Societies Building in New York City 

 devoted to the conservation of our natural 

 resources. In the absence (due to illness) of 

 Onward Bates, president of the senior society. 

 Dr. James Douglas, president of the Institute 

 of Mining Engineers, presided. Addresses 

 were delivered on behalf of the four organiza- 

 tions on " The Conservation of Water," by 

 John R. Freeman; on "The Conservation of 

 our Natural Resources by Legislation," by 

 Dr. E. W. Raymond ; on " The "Waste of our 

 Natural Resources by Fire," by Charles 

 Whiting Baker, and on "Electricity and the 

 Conservation of Energy," by Lewis B. Still- 

 weU. In addition to the set addresses. Dr. 

 Douglas outlined in general terms the devel- 

 opment of the conservation idea and the im- 

 portant part played by the engineering socie- 

 ties in directing attention to the nature and 

 extent of resources and to the enormous wastes 

 in utilizing them ; while John Hays Hammond 

 read a communication addressed to the meet- 

 ing by President Taft commending its pur- 

 poses and reiterating his deep interest in the 

 natural resources and their conservation. The 

 meeting was especially notable as marking a 

 definite policy of cooperation on the part of 

 the engineering interests of the country and 

 of the four great national organizations in 

 which these interests find expression. The 

 attendance was large, including a number of 

 engineers and guests from other cities. 



W J McGee 



80IENGE Br CABLE 

 We reproduce the following cablegrams to 

 the daily papers which, in so far as they are 

 correct, are certainly of interest : 



London, March 26 — Addressing the Chemical 

 Society yesterday afternoon, Sir William Ramsey 

 announced that he had succeeded in transmuting 

 four different substances into carbon; namely, 

 ziconium, thorium, hydro-lutorsilicic acid and bis- 

 muth. Experiments with silver nitrate, with the 

 object of transforming silver in the same manner 

 as copper is transformed into lithium, gave nega- 

 tive results. 



Paris, March 23. — ^The astronomer Gaillot an- 

 nounced before the Academy of Sciences last night 

 that he had discovered two new planets situated 

 beyond Neptune, which is the outermost known 

 planet of the solar system. M. Gaillot stated that 

 he had used the methods which had enabled Le- 

 verrier by mathematical calculation to assign to 

 Neptune a position within the boundaries of a 

 certain region, which permitted of its discovery 

 in 1846. M. Gaillot estimated that one of the 

 planets was forty-five times and the other sixty 

 times the distance of the earth from the sun, or 

 4,185,000,000 and 5,580,000,000 miles respectively. 

 The planet Neptune it is estimated is 2,800,000,000 

 miles from the sun. 



Berlin, March 26. — Professor Richard GreeflF, of 

 the Berlin University Eye Hospital, announced 

 the discovery of the germ of trachoma. The find- 

 ing of this germ resulted from experiments with 

 apes conducted with funds supplied by the Ger- 

 man government. 



SOIENTIFIO NOTES AVD NEWS 

 The return of Lieutenant Ernest H. 

 Shackleton, of the British navy, from his 

 Antarctic explorations and his remarkable re- 

 sults in reaching a point within a hundred 

 miles of the South Pole, in reaching the mag- 

 netic pole, in ascending Mt. Erebus and in 

 making discoveries of importance in many 

 directions, were announced in the daily papers 

 of March 24:. 



Dr. E. Pflijger, professor of physiology at 

 Bonn, has been awarded the gold medal for 

 art and science by the German emperor, on 

 the occasion of the celebration of the fiftieth 

 anniversary of his appointment to the full 

 professorship. 



Dr. Albrecht Penck, professor of geog- 

 raphy at Berlin, has been elected an honorary 

 member of the Geographical Society at Rome. 



Mr. B. E. Dahlgren, formerly modeler at 

 the American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York, has been appointed modeler to the 

 botanical department of the Field Museimi of 

 Natural History, Chicago. Mr. Dahlgren is 

 now in Jamaica making studies for the re- 

 production of a series of tropical plants rep- 

 resentative of structural characteristics as 

 well as economic use. 



