Marcu 22, 1912] 
Brrorr the Chemical Society, London, on 
February 29, Sir William Ramsay delivered 
a memorial lecture in honor of Henri Moissan, 
the eminent French chemist who died five 
years ago. 
Tue death is announced of Dr. Dittmar 
Finkler, professor of hygiene at Bonn; of Dr. 
Richard von Stoftela, professor of medicine at 
Vienna; of Professor Richard Andree, the 
eeographer of Brunswick, and of Dr. A. Griin- 
hegen, professor of medical physics at Kénigs- 
berg. 
Mr. James J. Hit has announced that he 
will build and maintain in St. Paul a reference 
library to cost not less than $350,000. 
THE Medical Record states that at the 
fourth annual meeting of the national 
committee for mental hygiene, held in New 
York, on February 17, a campaign was 
inaugurated which has as its object the im- 
provement of conditions affecting the men- 
tally afflicted. An anonymous gift of $50,000 
enables the committee to start the work with- 
out delay. Dr. William L. Russell, superin- 
tendent of Bloomingdale Hospital, was ap- 
pointed chairman of a subcommittee which 
will survey the national field, under the per- 
sonal leadership of Dr. Thomas W. Salmon, 
of the United States Public Health and Ma- 
tine Hospital Service, who has been granted 
leave of absence for this purpose. Dr. 
Llewellys F. Barker, of Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, was elected president of the com- 
mittee. 
Avr a meeting held on Tuesday evening, 
February 20, the Minnesota Pathological So- 
ciety was formed, with nearly fifty charter 
members present. The following officers were 
elected: 
President, Dr. A. S. Hamilton. 
Vice-president, Dr. J. S. Gilfillan. 
Secretary, Dr. H. E. Robertson. 
Treasurer, Dr. J. F. Corbett. 
Censors, Drs. F. Lu. Adair, R. H. Mullin and 
H. A. Tomlinson. 
Tur American Scenic and Historic Preser- 
vation Society takes pleasure in announcing 
that it has been accorded by the United 
SCIENCE 
449 
States Department of the Interior the honor 
of exhibiting for the first time a collection of 
pictures of National Parks, made by the In- 
terior Department for the purpose of illus- 
trating the work of the federal government in 
the protection of regions of great landscape 
beauty and natural phenomena. By the cour- 
tesy of the National Arts Club of New York, 
the pictures will be hung in its galleries at 
Jo. 15 Gramerey Park, and will be on ex- 
hibition under the auspices of this society 
from Wednesday, March 13, until and inclu- 
ding Saturday, March 30. During this period 
the public will be admitted without cards on 
week days, from 10 a.m until 6 p.m. After 
this exhibition the pictures will be sent on a 
tour for similar display in different parts of 
the United States. 
THE statement appearing in the issue of 
Sorence of February 2, on page 197, regarding 
the passage of a resolution by the American 
Economic Association in favor of an Interna- 
tional Commission on the Cost of Living, was 
inaccurate. At a round table discussion led 
by Professor Fisher the persons present voted 
unanimously in favor of such a commission, 
but owing to a provision in its constitution 
providing that the Economic Association will 
not commit its members to any position on 
practical economic questions, no formal resolu- 
tion was passed. 
THERE will be a U. S. Civil Service examina- 
tion on March 30, for the position of dairy 
chemist, in the Bureau of Animal Industry, 
at a salary of $1,800. 
An astronomical bulletin from the Harvard 
College Observatory states that seven excel- 
lent photographs of the spectrum of Nova 
Geminorum No. 2 were taken at Harvard on 
March 13 and the same number on March 14. 
A marked change occurred in the spectrum, 
the photographs on the first date showing 
only dark lines while the hydrogen lines Hf, 
Hy, H§ and He have well marked bright lines 
on the edge of greater wave length, on the 
second date. Those last photographs closely 
resemble those of Nova Persei No. 2, on Feb- 
