302 
Tue Rev. Francis BasHrortH, distin- 
guished by his experiments in ballistics, for- 
merly professor of applied mathematics at 
Woolwich, died on February 12, at ninety- 
three years of age. 
M. Jacos AMSLER, corresponding member 
of the Paris Academy of Sciences in the sec- 
tion of mechanics, has died at the age of 
eighty-nine years. 
Tue New York State Civil Service Com- 
mission announces among other examinations 
that of medical superintendent at the Mat- 
teawan State Hospital for the Insane at a sal- 
ary of $3,000, with maintenance for the super- 
intendent and his family, and of specialist in 
agricultural education at a salary of $2,500. 
Tue Kaiser Wilhelm Foundation for the 
Advancement of Science has under considera- 
tion the establishment of a biological research 
institution. 
Mr. W. Leo Butter has presented to the 
Dominion Museum, Wellington, New Zealand, 
a collection of about 700 Maori ethnological 
specimens which had been collected by his 
father, Sir Walter Buller. 
AccorDING to a note in Nature the 
possibility of the discovery of a remedy 
for cancer has been advanced a stage by the 
preparation of Professor Wassermann, of Ber- 
lin, of a substance which possesses a curative 
action experimentally on cancer of mice. Pro- 
fessor Wassermann reasoned that since the 
cancer-cells are growing rapidly, their oxygen 
requirements would be different from, and 
greater than, those of the cells of the body 
generally. He sought for some substance 
which might interfere with the oxygen supply 
to the cancer-cells, and finally adopted sele- 
nium as a means to do this. The next prob- 
lem was to convey selenium to the cancer-cells 
by means of the blood stream, and after test- 
ing some hundreds of preparations a com- 
pound of selenium with an aniline dye eosin 
was found to fulfil this condition. If the 
eosin-selenium compound is injected into a 
healthy mouse it becomes pink all over, 
but’ if ‘Into a mouse with a cancerous 
tumor the tumor only becomes colored, 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 896 
demonstrating the selective absorption of 
the substance. After two or three injec- 
tions of the substance into a mouse the sub- 
ject of cancerous tumors, the tumors are found 
to have softened, and after six to eight doses 
they become cystic, diminish in size and 
finally disappear, and no recurrence takes 
place. The eosin-selenium compound is, how- 
ever, poisonous, and a certain number of mice 
succumb under the treatment. Moreover, 
only small tumors (up to the size of a cherry) 
are definitely cured; with larger tumors so 
much disturbance ensues that the animals die. 
Tue U. S. Bureau of Education has re- 
cently issued Bulletins Numbers 13 and 16 
for 1911, the former containing the Report of 
the American Committees I. and II., on 
Mathematics in the Elementary Schools of 
the United States, and the latter containing 
the Report of the American Committees IIT. 
and IV., on Mathematics in the Public and 
Private Secondary Schools. These reports 
are prepared under the direction of the Amer- 
ican commissioners of the International Com- 
mission on the Teaching of Mathematics. 
They may be secured by addressing the U. S. 
Commissioner of Education at Washington. 
In commemoration of the seventieth birth- 
day of Professor J. J. Rein, January 27, 1905, 
the friends of this well-known German geog- 
rapher instituted a fund, the yearly income of 
which should be devoted to the furtherance of 
geographical research. We learn from the 
Geographical Journal that the contributions 
made then and since to the fund reached, in 
November last, a total of nearly 9,000 marks, 
and in the same month the rules for the ad- 
ministration of the fund were drawn up. It is 
proposed, unless reason to the contrary should 
arise, to wait until the fund has accumulated 
to 10,000 marks before making a grant of ‘the 
interest, which alone is to be expended, the 
capital remaining intact. - Grants will be 
made with a view to giving young geographers 
the opportunity of travel and research, and the 
recipients must be Germans or Japanese, while 
preference will be given to students in the 
University of Bonn and in the Commercial 
College at Cologne. The fund will be admin- 
