Marow 22, 1912] 
position of at least £10 (frs. 250), will receive 
free all future publications of the congress. 
The funds received in respect of Life Compo- 
sitions will be invested, and only the interest 
will be at the disposal of the executive com- 
mittee. Sir Daniel Morris, D.Sc., and the 
Hon. N. Charles Rothschild, M.A., F.E.S., 
have kindly consented to act as trustees of 
the funds. Members who propose joining the 
congress, or presenting papers, are requested 
to address the general secretary of the execu- 
tive committee, Malcolm Burr, D.Sce., care of 
Entomological Society of London, 11 Chandos 
Street, Cavendish Square, London, W. 
ANTARCTIC EXPLORATIONS 
As every one knows from the daily press 
the Norwegian explorer, Captain Roald 
Amundsen, who made the first northwest 
passage ever accomplished by ship, has added 
to his laurels by reaching the South Pole. 
He verifies Shackleton’s report that the pole 
is on an ice-capped plateau more than ten 
thousand feet above the ocean. Amundsen 
also discovered ranges of mountains, the 
peninsularity of King Edward VII. Land, 
and the origin of the oceanic ice-cap, known 
as Ross’s Barrier. As soon as information as 
to the extent of the scientific work is received 
it will receive proper notice from SCIENCE. 
Of the highest importance to the standing 
of American antarctic explorers is the infor- 
mation that the Australian antarctic expedi- 
tion, in the ship Aurora, has verified in a 
general manner the accuracy of the discover- 
es of Captain Charles Wilkes, U. S. Navy, in 
1840, of the Antarctic Continent. The leader 
of this expedition was Dr. Douglas Mawson, 
well-known to the readers of Scrmncr through 
his location of the South Magnetic Pole, in 
72°94’ S,, 155°16’ KE. (Scrmnce, May 10, 
1910). Dr. Mawson landed, February 19, on 
the glaciers of Adelie Land, with a party that 
remains there during the Antarctic winter. 
Another party under Dr. White is pursuing 
its scientific work at Termination Land, 
where it landed January 18. It is hoped that 
this confirmation of the reliability of Ameri- 
SCIENCE 
447 
can work will be set clearly before the Ameri- 
can people as soon as details are obtainable. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 
Rear ApMiIRAL GEORGE WALLACE MELVILLE, 
U.S.N., retired, known for his Arctie explora- 
tions and eminent as a mechanical engineer, 
formerly engineer in chief of the U. S. Navy, 
died on March 18, aged seventy-one years. 
Dr. W. H. Witty has resigned the position 
of chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of the 
Department of Agriculture, which he has held 
since 1883. 
Amone the degrees conferred, on the oc- 
casion of the exercises commemorating the 
one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of 
the University of Pittsburgh, were the fol- 
lowing on men of science: The doctorate of 
laws on Edgar F. Smith, provost of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania; N. L. Britton, direc- 
tor of the New York Botanical Garden, and 
L. O. Howard, chief of the Bureau of Ento- 
mology and permanent secretary of the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. The doctorate of science on Ira 
N. Hollis, professor of engineering at Har- 
vard University; O. F. Scott, professor of 
electrical engineering at Yale University; 
H. D. Campbell, dean of Washington and 
Lee University; A. D. Mead, professor of 
comparative anatomy at Brown University; 
©. M. Snelling, dean of the University of 
Georgia; R. K. Dunean, director of the de- 
partment of industrial research of the Uni- 
versity of Pittsburgh; James Ewing, pro- 
fessor of pathology at the Cornell University 
Medical School, and Milton J. Greenman, 
director of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy. 
Tue Smithsonian Institution was repre- 
sented at the centennial celebration of the 
founding of the Academy of Natural Sci- 
ences of Philadelphia this week by Dr. Charles 
D. Walcott, Dr. Richard Rathbun, Dr. Fred- 
erick W. True and Dr. Theodore Gill. Dr. 
Leonhard Stejneger represented the U. S. Na- 
tional Museum, and Mr. F. W. Hodge the 
Bureau of American Ethnology on this oc- 
casion. 
