Apeil 2, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



543 



was obscured^ and the country is covered witli 

 a thin coating of volcanic dnst. At Wan- 

 garnii, some sixty miles distant, a thick haze 

 overhangs the town, and the air is distinctly 

 sulphurous. Violent explosions and rum- 

 blings have been heard many miles away. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



A BILL now before the Pennsylvania legis- 

 lature provides for the appropriation of $950,- 

 000 to the University of Pennsylvania, $475,- 

 000 for each of the two years beginning June 

 1, 1909, and June 1, 1910, the money to be 

 used for: hospital maintenance; new hospital 

 building; the continuation of the new vet- 

 erinary building; the maintenance of the new 

 veterinary building; maintenance of the gen- 

 eral university; increase of the library, and 

 a new building for the department of archi- 

 tecture. 



The Hall of Engineering of Northwestern 

 University, given by Mrs. G. P. Swift and 

 Mr. E. P. Swift, at a cost of $100,000, was 

 opened on March 24. It will be remembered 

 that Mr. John P. Hayf ord, of the U. S. Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, has accepted the direc- 

 torship of the new school of engineering. 



Mr. Prederick W. Vanderbilt, in addition 

 to his recent gift of a dwelling house for the 

 use of the SheiEeld Scientific School of Tale 

 University, has purchased an adjacent house 

 for $50,000 for the school. With the sale 

 of these two houses the entire square bounded 

 by Wall, College, Grove and Temple streets, 

 with the exception of the building of the New 

 Haven Colony Historical Society and the 

 house on the corner of Grove and Temple 

 streets, in which Noah Webster wrote his dic- 

 tionary, has passed into the hands of the Shef- 

 field Scientific School. 



A PIoNG-KONG Chinaman residing at Saigon 

 has ofFered to contribute $4,000 to the uni- 

 versity endowment fund, and he also under- 

 takes to raise $40,000 among his compatriots 

 in Saigon. 



PoR the purpose of founding a Capper Pass 

 chair of chemistry at Britol University Mr. W. 

 Capper Pass, son of the late Mr. Alfred Cap- 

 per Pass, who was a member of the council of 



Bristol University College, has increased his 

 subscription of £4,000 to £10,000. 



A CONFERENCE of the deans of the colleges 

 of liberal arts in state universities of the 

 middle west was held at the University of Wis- 

 consin on March 25. Dean Olin Templin, of 

 the college of liberal arts and sciences at the 

 University of Kansas, who is chairman of 

 the meeting, announced a program of four 

 papers to be presented for discussion, as fol- 

 lows : " Method of Grading," by Dean John 

 C. Jones, of the University of Missouri ; " Stu- 

 dent Organizations," by Dean L. G. Weld, of 

 the University of Iowa ; " The Relation of the 

 College to the Other Schools of the Univer- 

 sity," by Dean Evart B. Greene, of the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, and " Advanced Standing," 

 by Dean J. O. Read, University of Michigan. 



The department of engineering of Colorado 

 College will conduct a summer school of sur- 

 veying at Manitou Park, elevation 7,500 feet, 

 for four weeks beginning June 7. Professor 

 T. B. Sears, of the department of civil engi- 

 neering at the University of Nebraska, has 

 been chosen director. Several cottages are 

 available for the school and tents are being 

 erected for the accommodation of the students. 

 Manitou Park is on the reserve of the Colo- 

 rado School of Forestry, twenty miles west of 

 Colorado Springs. 



Dr. J. H. KIastle, for the past three years 

 chief of the division of chemistry, of the 

 Hygiene Laboratory, Washington, D. C, has 

 been elected professor of chemistry in the 

 University of Virginia. 



M. Perrot, of the Observatory at Meudon, 

 has been appointed professor of physics in the 

 Paris Polytechnic School to succeed M. Bec- 

 querel. 



M. Caullery has been appointed professor 

 of zoology at Paris to succeed the late M. 

 Giard. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



AMERICAN CHEMICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 



To THE Editor of Science : Having been ap- 

 pointed historian of the American Chemical 

 Society and having arranged for the care of its 

 documents by the Smithsonian Institution, I 



lY ^V 



