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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1144 



tablet on the house at Castellersol where had 

 been born Dr. M. Fargas Boca, professor of 

 obstetrics and gynecology at the University of 

 Barcelona, and senator of the realm. After 

 this ceremony the procession passed to the city 

 hall, where his portrait was installed. 



Dr. Francis J. Keany, trustee of the Boston 

 City Hospital, and professor of dermatology 

 at Tufts Medical School, died on November 23, 

 at the age of fifty years. 



Dr. Henry Gunder, formerly professor of 

 mathematics at Findlay College, Ohio, and 

 later at Little Bock University, Arkansas, died 

 on November 20, at the age of seventy-nine 

 years. 



James S. Duff, of Toronto, minister of agri- 

 culture for Ontario, died on November 17, at 

 the age of sixty years. 



Dr. Oskar Backlund, the eminent director 

 of the Imperial Observatory at Fulkova, Rus- 

 sia, died on August 29. He was in his seventy- 

 first year and had been the director of the 

 Pulkova Observatory since 1893. 



Emeritus Professor John Ferguson, who 

 last year resigned the regius chair of chemis- 

 try in the University of Glasgow, which he had 

 held since 1874, died on November 3, aged 

 seventy-nine years. In addition to his work 

 in chemistry he was a well-known archeologist. 



Professor H. M. Waynforth, professor of 

 engineering, King's College, University of 

 London, died on November 5, at the age of 

 forty-nine years. 



Professor H. H. W. Pearson, professor of 

 botany in the South African College, died at 

 Mount Royal Hospital, "Wynberg, on Novem- 

 ber 3. The London Times says: "His 

 death is a great loss to botanical science, in 

 which he had a European reputation, particu- 

 larly by his discovery of missing links in evo- 

 lutionary botany. His death is felt with pe- 

 culiar intensity in South Africa, where Mr. 

 Pearson's professional enthusiasm and keen 

 perception of scientific possibilities were 

 mainly responsible for the establishment a few 

 years ago of the Kirstenbosch Botanic Gar- 

 dens, which on the testimony of the director 

 of Kew is likely to become one of the most 



valuable, economically and scientifically, in the 

 world." 



Nature reports the death of Lance-Corporal 

 J. W. Hart, who, having volunteered in the 

 early days of the war, was killed on Septem- 

 ber 15. At the beginning of the war he held 

 the post of horticultural assistant at Bedford 

 College, London, and was in charge of the 

 botanical garden, the successful development of 

 which was largely due to his skill and energy. 

 The death is also reported of Lieutenant John 

 Handyside, who fell in one of the recent ad- 

 vances on the Somme, at the age of thirty-five ; 

 he was a distinguished graduate of Edinburgh 

 and Oxford, and since 1912 had been lecturer 

 in philosophy in the University of Liverpool. 



A clipping sent us from a Munich newspaper 

 reads : " Dr. Oskar Piloty, professor of chem- 

 istry at Munich, son of the distinguished 

 painter, lost his eldest son in battle. In order 

 to avenge his death, the father of his own ac- 

 cord joined the army in France, and he too 

 has now been killed." 



After conference with many of the verte- 

 brate and invertebrate paleontologists in differ- 

 ent parts of the country it has been deemed 

 wise for the vertebrate paleontologists to meet 

 in the State Museum, Albany, "Wednesday, De- 

 cember 27 in company with the geologists and 

 invertebrate paleontologists. On Thursday 

 and Friday, December 28 and 29, an adjourned 

 meeting of the Vertebrate Paleontologists will 

 be held in the American Museum of Natural 

 History, New York, at hours to be announced 

 later. Members are invited to send immedi- 

 ately titles of papers or discussions directly to 

 Dr. W. D. Matthew, acting secretary of the 

 Vertebrate Paleontological Section. Arrange- 

 ments will be made for a reunion dinner on 

 Friday evening, December 29. 



The Association of American Agricultural 

 Colleges and Experiment Stations met at the 

 new Willard Hotel, Washington, D. C, on 

 November 15, 16 and 17. 



The fifteenth anniversary of the Ohio So- 

 ciety of Mechanical, Electrical and Steam 

 Engineers was celebrated in its thirty-fourth 

 meeting, which was held on the campus of the 



