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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1139 



farther south. Dr. W. D. Matthew was with 

 Mr. Thomson's party during the early part of 

 the season, engaged chiefly in an extensive 

 reconnaissance of the later Tertiary fossil heds 

 in western Nebraska. Professor H. F. Oshorn 

 joined the party for a short time, visiting on 

 his way some of the more important localities 

 in Nebraska. 



The University of Chicago paleontological 

 expedition to northern Texas the past season, 

 which was in charge of Mr. Paul Miller, of the 

 department of geology and paleontology, se- 

 cured some valuable material, which is now 

 being prepared for exhibition in Walker Mu- 

 seum. Mr. Miller was accompanied by Messrs. 

 Jillson and Bridge, fellows in geology. The 

 most important of the specimens are several 

 nearly complete skeletons of Labidosaurus. In 

 northern New Mexico Professor S. W. Willis- 

 ton and his son spent several weeks exploring 

 the Permian deposits along the Puerco River. 

 He brought back the skull and a large part of 

 the skeleton of a large carnivorous reptile, 

 Sphenacodon. Dr. Williston also secured most 

 of the skeleton of a smaller reptile, perhaps 

 five feet in length, which is new to science. 



The expedition from the American Museum 

 of Natural History to Nicaragua, under 

 Messrs. Clarence B. Halter and L. Alfred 

 Mannhardt, will remain in the field until Jan- 

 uary. Scientific collections of reptiles and 

 fishes have been made from the eastern coastal 

 belt — and shipments north of living specimens 

 of Basiliscus and Caiman are being prepared 

 for use in the reptile group work of the mu- 

 seum. The expedition will now carry the sur- 

 vey into the mountains of the interior, to Lake 

 Nicaragua, and the western coast. 



" Aspects of Modern Science " is the gen- 

 eral subject of a series of lectures being given 

 under the auspices of the University Lecture 

 Association in cooperation with the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago. In the Oak Park center of 

 the association, on October 16, Professor Ed- 

 win Oakes Jordan, chairman of the depart- 

 ment of hygiene and bacteriology, gave the 

 fourth lecture in the series, on the subject of 

 " Bacteria and the Prevention of Disease." 

 On October 25 Associate Professor William 



D. Harkins, of the department of chemistry, 

 spoke on " Eadium, the Breaking-up of Atoms, 

 and the Evolution of the Elements." The 

 final lecture in the course will be that by Pro- 

 fessor Eollin D. Salisbury, dean of the Ogden 

 Graduate School of Science, on the subject of 

 " The New Geology." The series was intro- 

 duced by Professor Eobert A. Millikan, of the 

 department of physics, who discussed " Mod- 

 ern Views of Electricity." 



At University College, London, a series of 

 six public lectures is being delivered by Pro- 

 fessor J. A. Fleming on "Long-distance 

 Telegraphy and Telephony." 



Professor A. J. Carlson, of the University 

 of Chicago, lectured in Toronto before the 

 Academy of Medicine, on October 3, on " Some 

 Eecent Studies of the Physiology and Pathol- 

 ogy of the Stomach." 



A statue of Eobert Koch was recently un- 

 veiled at Berlin, six years after his death. 



Virgil Gay Bogue, of New York City, 

 widely known as a civil engineer, died on 

 October 14, at the age of seventy years. 



The thirty-fourth stated meeting of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union will be held 

 at the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Phila- 

 delphia, November 14-16, with a business 

 meeting of fellows and members on the 13th. 



In anticipation of a possible epidemic of 

 poliomyelitis next summer, the Illinois State 

 Board of Health has arranged for a number 

 of conferences on the subject at different 

 points in the state during the winter months. 



Funds have been contributed which make 

 possible the opening of the psychopathic labo- 

 ratory at the New York City police head- 

 quarters. This laboratory was opened last 

 December in order to cull from the prisoners 

 each day those who were mentally defective 

 and to send them to suitable institutions. The 

 list of those subscribing to the support of this 

 laboratory include Andrew Carnegie, F. W. 

 Vanderbilt, Daniel Guggenheim, Mortimer L. 

 Schiff, William Eockefeller and Mrs. George 

 B. Alexander. 



Director W. T. Hornaday, of the New York 

 Zoological Park, announces that the fund to 



