492 
of the new star, Nova Geminorum, No. 2, is 
given below. Results obtained at Harvard are 
indicated by the letter (H). Sunday, March 
10, Nova not visible on a plate showing stars 
of magnitude 11.5 (H). Monday, March 11, 
Nova well seen, magn. 5 (H). Tuesday, 
March 12, Nova discovered by Enebo, at Dom- 
baas, Norway. Magn. 4. Wednesday, March 
13, cablegram received at Harvard and dis- 
tributed throughout America. In evening, 
Yerkes and (H) find spectrum of class F 5, 
unlike other nove. Hydrogen lines strong 
and dark. University of Michigan finds 
hydrogen lines bright and recession 5 km. 
from dark lines. Magn. 3.8 (H). Thursday, 
March 14, Yerkes and (H) find marked change 
in spectrum, hydrogen lines bright on edge of 
great wave length, like other nove. Magn. 3.5 
(H). Friday, March 15, photograph through 
thick clouds show nova faint magn. 5. Hydro- 
gen lines very bright (H). Saturday, March 
16, magn. 6, spectrum like normal nova spec- 
trum. Nebulz lines first seen. A star magni- 
tude 14 in place of Nova on several early plates. 
A letter received at this observatory from 
Professor Frost states that a photograph of 
Enebo’s Nova, taken on the evening of March 
15, shows that “The bright lines of hydrogen 
are very broad and there are many other bright 
bands and dark lines throughout the spectrum. 
The bright H and K, at about their normal 
positions, are strong and broad and are crossed 
by very sharp, dark lines. The helium lines 
4 4923 and ) 5016 are strong, both bright and 
dark. Helium ) 4472 is not conspicuous, but 
probably present.” The following telegram, 
dated March 19, has been received from. Dr. 
W. F. King, of the Ottawa Observatory: 
“Spectrum Nova Geminorum by Plaskett 
March eighteen seven tenths, numerous bright 
bands, maxima to red, and several narrow 
absorption lines, calcium, magnesium, iron. 
Velocity of recession about seventeen kilo- 
meters, magnitude about five and a half.” 
AmonG the changes recommended at the Uni- 
‘versity of Chicago in the recent report of Presi- 
dent Judson, is a readjustment of the time ele- 
ment in precollegiate courses by the School of 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 900 
Education, a tentative scheme being as fol- 
lows: “From the age of six to twelve, the ele- 
mentary school; twelve to fifteen, the secon- 
dary school; fifteen to eighteen, the college (a 
junior college); the years following eighteen, 
the university. From the university at the 
age of twenty the student might take the bac- 
calaureate degree, at twenty-one the master’s 
degree, at twenty-two or three the various doc- 
tors’ degrees. At the age of twenty-five or six 
if he enters on professional life he should be 
engaged in its practise, and by the time he is 
thirty he should be well established. In like 
manner at the age of twenty, if a student de- 
sires to enter on business he should be ready 
to do so, or if on the whole he prefers to enter 
business immediately from the three years of 
the college instead of entering the university 
at all he could do that with good training at 
the age of eighteen.” 
THE two federal bureaus engaged in the 
search for potash—the Bureau of Soils of the 
Department of Agriculture and the Geolog- 
ical Survey of the Department of the Interior 
—are in receipt of promising telegraphic news 
from their field representatives. A potash de- 
posit of apparently great importance has been 
discovered at Borax or Searles Lake in the 
northwestern corner of San Bernardino 
County, California. This lake or playa is the 
last remaining pocket of a once much greater 
lake which has almost dried up and its central 
depression contains a large body of crystalline 
salts known to consist of common salt and sul- 
phate and carbonate of soda with smaller 
quantities of borax. This salt body is satu- 
rated with brine, and interested persons stimu- 
lated by the governmental search for potash 
recently secured an analysis of old sample ma- 
terial from this brine. The result being sig- 
nificant, the lake was visited jointly by repre- 
sentatives of the Geological Survey and of the 
Bureau of Soils who took brine samples from 
six wells distributed over the salt flat. 
Analyses of these samples have been made by 
the cooperative laboratory at the Mackay 
School of Mines, at Reno, Nevada, and show 
an average of 6.78 per cent. of potassium 
