Marcu 1, 1912] 
istered by a small committee, on which Pro- 
fessor Rein will serve during his lifetime. 
Nature states that the council of the Royal 
Sanitary Institute offers the Henry Saxon 
Snell prize for competition this year. The 
prize was founded to encourage improvements 
in the construction or adaptation of sanitary 
appliances, and is to be awarded by the council 
at intervals of three years, the funds being 
provided by the legacy left by the late Henry 
Saxon Snell. The prize will consist of fifty 
guineas and the silver medal of the institute, 
and is offered for an essay on “ Suggestions 
for Improvements in the Ventilating, Light- 
ing, Heating and Water Supply Appliances 
and Fittings for an Operating Room and its 
Accessory Rooms for a General Hospital of 
400 Beds.” 
THE conference of representatives of forty- 
two states which was convened last November 
under the auspices of the International Office 
of Public Hygiene, and which has been sitting 
in Paris under the presidency of M. Camille 
Barrére, the French ambassador in Rome, has 
now signed a convention making regulations 
for the prevention of pestilential diseases, es- 
pecially plague, cholera and yellow fever. 
This agreement supplements the earlier Paris 
convention of 1903 in accordance with the 
latest scientific requirements. 
Tue annual meeting of the Illinois Society 
of Engineers and Surveyors for 1912 was held 
at the University of Illinois on January 17, 18 
and 19: The more important engineering 
topics discussed were stream pollution, sewage 
disposal, accuracy in surveying, road and pave- 
ment problems and the bridge work of the 
Illinois highway commission. Two illustrated 
lectures were given, one by Professor I. O. 
Baker‘on the Panama Canal, and one by Mr. 
H. L: Cooper, chief engineer, on the Keokuk 
Water Power Plant. An afternoon was spent 
in inspecting the buildings and discussing the 
work of the College of Engineering. 
Tue Physical Science Club of Oberlin Col- 
lege is an organization composed of instruc- 
tors and students in the departments of chem- 
istry and physics, with affiliated members 
SCIENCE 
333 
drawn from the departments of botany and 
zoology and mathematics. The most recent 
open meeting of the club was devoted to a 
lecture by Professor A. W. Menzies, of the 
University of Chicago, who spoke on “The 
Uses of Quartz in Physical and Chemical 
Apparatus.” Recent regular meetings of the 
club have been devoted to talks and illus- 
trated lectures by E. J. Moore, associate pro- 
fessor of physics, who has been for two years 
working in the laboratories of the University 
of Chicago under Professor Millikan. Dr. S. 
R. Williams, head of the department of phys- 
ics, has read a series of papers on “ A Model 
of the Elementary Magnet,” while Professor 
G. D. Hubbard, head of the department of 
geology, has brought to the meetings the re- 
sults of his work under the State Geological 
Survey, on the investigation of preglacial con- 
ditions and present topography in the Ohio 
Valley. 
In connection with the Centenary Celebra- 
tion of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia, the following invitation has been 
mailed to correspondents. 
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 
delphia, founded in the year eighteen hundred and 
twelve for the cultivation of the natural sciences, 
in March nineteen hundred and twelve will have 
completed one hundred years of active devotion to 
this purpose. 
For the adequate celebration of its centenary 
anniversary the Academy will call in convention 
at its Hall the learned men and institutions of 
the world—its collaborators. 
The Academy has the honor to invite..... : 
to be present at this event which will take place 
at Philadelphia on Tuesday, Wednesday and 
Thursday, the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty- 
first of March nineteen hundred and twelve. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 
Tue council of Bedford College has an- 
nounced that the £100,000 required to erect 
the new buildings at Regent’s Park and to 
inaugurate an endowment fund has now been 
obtained. Of this amount the London County 
Council has contributed £30,000. 
Proressor Henry WILLIAMson Haynes has 
bequeathed to the Peabody Museum of Har- 
