674 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. XLIV. No. 1141 



cuse. Field studies and plans have already- 

 been prepared for portions of the main high- 

 way between Utica and Albany and the state 

 highway between Utica and Syracuse is now 

 being carefully studied. It is not the 

 idea of Professor Francis to line the high- 

 ways with straight rows of trees. Natural 

 vistas showing beauty spots away from the 

 highways will be left open, and it will be sug- 

 gested that other vistas be made so that the 

 highways will not alone be well planted with 

 trees and shrubs, but there will be more nearly 

 a park-like effect with opportunities of seeing 

 the beauty of the country on either side. Pro- 

 fessor Francis is urging the use of native trees 

 and shrubs, taking advantage in so far as 

 possible of the material on the ground. It is 

 expected that these studies of highway plant- 

 ing will result in a publication showing just 

 how definite areas of highway may be treated 

 to best advantage. This will supplement a 

 bulletin on " Suggestions for Street Tree 

 Planting " which has already been given wide 

 distribution by the college. 



United States patents have been issued 

 to Dr. Clifford Eichardson on an improved 

 "bituminous substance" and on the process 

 by which this product is manufactured. Sim- 

 ilar patents have also been granted in Canada, 

 Great Britain, France and Italy. It is said 

 that these are the first patents covering a 

 product and process involving the introduc- 

 tion of colloidal matter into bitumens of all 

 types. According to the inventor, he obtains 

 "an increased degree of body or stability in 

 these bituminous substances, by means of the 

 addition to and intimate and uniform disper- 

 sion through the bituminous substance of a 

 proper proportion of a substance in the state 

 of a disperse colloid. The process consists in 

 the introduction of clay in the form of a col- 

 loidal aqueous paste and combining this paste 

 with the bitumen in such a way that when the 

 water is subsequently driven off, the bitumen 

 forms the continuous phase of the colloidal 

 material. The products resulting from this 

 method of incorporating clay in colloidal form 

 with bitumen has markedly different prop- 



erties from products into which the mineral 

 matter is introduced in the form of a dry 

 powder. The products made by the Eichard- 

 son method range all the way from materials 

 resembling vulcanized rubber to plastic, but 

 at the same time very stable mixtures suitable 

 for paving and many other uses. 



The Journal of the American Medical Asso- 

 ciation reports that an institute for vaccines, 

 bacteriology and chemistry at Buenos Aires was 

 recently inaugurated. Penna, chief of the pub- 

 lic health service, Malbran, chief of the bac- 

 teriologic service, and various professors with 

 university chairs in these specialties, all de- 

 livered addresses. Magnin, chief of the chem- 

 ical department, reported that already he had 

 researches under way which might aid mate- 

 rially in remedying the scarcity of imported 

 drugs. A number can be made and many are 

 now being made in the workrooms connected 

 with his department. An isolated pavilion has 

 been set apart for a training school in applied 

 chemistry. The national board of health has 

 had a chemical department since 1880, but this 

 new triple institute is said to be equipped for 

 the science and needs of to-morrow as well as 

 to-day. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



The Carborundum Company of Niagara 

 Falls, N. T., will construct an administration 

 building on lands of the Niagara Falls Power 

 Company on the Niagara Eiver front. It is 

 proposed to tender the use of the present offices 

 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 which has decided to establish a research labo- 

 ratory at Niagara Falls. 



Charles Gilman Hyde, professor of sani- 

 tary engineering in the University of Cali- 

 fornia, has been appointed acting dean of its 

 college of civil engineering, to serve during 

 the present year because of the absence on 

 account of illness of Professor Charles Der- 

 leth, Jr. 



The following former members of the 

 Medico-Chirurgical College faculty have been 

 duly elected members of the faculty of under- 



