May 21, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



811 



Holland, director of the Carnegie Museum, 

 spoke on behalf of Pittsburgh and Dr. Tal- 

 cott Williams, on " Henry Phipps, a native of 

 Philadelphia." 



Lord Avebury took the chair at the annual 

 conversazione of the Selborne Society on May 

 7. ffwo lectures were given, the first on 

 "How Birds Fly," by Mr. F. W. Headley, 

 F.Z.S., science master at Haileybury College, 

 and the second on " How Men Fly," by Mr. T. 

 W. K Clarke, A.M.I.C.E., the first engineer to 

 build aeroplanes in Great Britain. Mr. James 

 Buckland exhibited a number of lantern 

 slides illustrating the birds that are in danger 

 of extermination in various parts of the world. 

 There was also a display of microscopes and 

 natural history exhibits. 



The seventy-seventh annual meeting of the 

 British Medical Association will be held in 

 BeKast on July 23-31. The president-elect is 

 Sir William Whitla, professor of materia 

 medica and therapeutics. Queen's College, Bel- 

 fast. The address in medicine will be deliv- 

 ered by Dr. E. W. Philip, that in surgery by 

 Professor A. E. J. Barker, and that in obstet- 

 rics by Sir John W. Byers. The popular lec- 

 ture will be delivered by Dr. J. A. Macdonald. 



News has been received from Dr. Charcot's 

 Antarctic expedition which has arrived at De- 

 ception Island, one of the South Shetland 

 group, on December 22. The Pourquoi-Pas 

 left the island on Christmas day for Port 

 Lockroy, from which it was to proceed to the 

 south. Dr. Charcot hopes to establish his 

 winter quarters on Alexander Land, the name 

 given to the region lying to the south of Gra- 

 ham Land in about 70° south latitude, which 

 wiU form a p»int of departure either for ex- 

 ploring the coast line towards King Edward 

 VLL. Land or for penetrating into the interior. 

 No further news may be expected from Dr. 

 Charcot for at least a year. 



A NATIONAL conference on criminal law and 

 criminology in celebration of the fiftieth anni- 

 versary of the founding of the Northwestern 

 University School of Law will be held in the 

 Northwestern University building, Chicago, 

 on June 7 and 8. 



The annual meeting of the Naples Table 

 Association for Promoting Scientific Eesearch 

 by Women was held on AprU 24 by invitation 

 of Director Bumpus, at the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History. Miss Caroline 

 McGill, of the University of Missouri, was ap- 

 pointed a scholar of the association at the 

 Naples Station. The award of the prize of 

 one thousand dollars offered every second year 

 for the best thesis written by a woman on a 

 scientific subject, embodying new observations 

 and new conclusions based on an independent 

 laboratory research in biological, chemical or 

 physical science, was made to Miss Florence 

 Buchanan, D.Sc, of London University, fel- 

 low of University College, London, for a 

 thesis entitled " The Time taken in the 

 Transmission of Reflex Impulses in the Spinal 

 Cord of the Frog." Of the eleven theses pre- 

 sented in competition five were sent from 

 England and one from Canada, The subjects 

 of four were morphological, of two bacterio- 

 logical, of two zoological, one physiological, 

 one was in parasitology and one in physical 

 chemistry. 



The seventh Congress of the International 

 Institute of Sociology will meet in Bern, from 

 July 20 to 24 next at the invitation of the 

 Swiss government. The sessions will be held 

 in the university and under its auspices. 

 Senator Baron E. Garofale, of Venice, wiU 

 preside, and the subject of social solidarity 

 will be discussed from a variety of wholly 

 scientific points of view. Eepresentatives of 

 many countries, including the United States, 

 will be in attendance. It will be remembered 

 that the last congress was held in July, 1906, 

 at the University of London, under the presi- 

 dency of the eminent French economist, M 

 Levasseur, when the opposite question of social 

 struggles was exhaustively canvassed. 



The International Congress of Psychology 

 will hold its sixth meeting in Geneva this year 

 from August 3-7, under the Presidency of 

 Professor Thomas Flournoy. The program, 

 as noted in the British Medical Journal, 

 includes discussion of general and special 

 topics, questions of standardization, demon- 



