652 
THE lecture on “ North American Deserts ” 
given by Dr. D. T. MacDougal before the 
Royal Geographical Society of London in 
December was repeated by him on request 
before the four branches of the Royal Scottish 
Geographical Society in Dundee, Aberdeen, 
Edinburgh and Glasgow during the first week 
in April. 
Proressor Frepertc S. Ler, of Columbia 
University, lectured before the International 
Y. M. C. A. Training School at Springfield, 
Massachusetts, on April 12, on “Some As- 
pects of Muscular Action.” 
Dr. Frank D. Kern, of Purdue University, 
gave an illustrated lecture on April 15 before 
the local Academy of Agricultural Science on 
the “Floral and Scenic Features of Colo- 
rado.” A number of seasons spent in study- 
ing the plant rusts of that state supplied the 
basis for the lecture. 
Proressor Francis E. Luoyp has recently 
lectured before the botanical seminar of the 
Johns Hopkins University on some of his 
recent work on the tannin content of the acorn 
(Quercus laurtfolia). Somewhat later he lec- 
tured also before the students of the depart- 
ment of biology, Teachers College, Columbia 
University, on recent advances in the teaching 
of botany. 
Unpber the auspices of the department of 
geology two lectures by Professor Isaiah Bow- 
man, of Yale University, were on April 4th 
delivered at the University of Michigan. 
The subjects of these lectures were: “The 
Mountains and Deserts of Bolivia” and 
“ Geographical Explorations in the Peruvian 
Andes.” 
Dr. Irving A. FIELD, special investigator 
for the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, lectured at 
Trinity College on the evening of April 18, 
on the subject “ Utilization of Hitherto Un- 
used Marine Organisms as Food.” 
Dr. Marte Stopss has given a course of ten 
lectures on the general and geological aspects 
of paleobotany at University College, London. 
It was the first course on this aspect of the 
subject to be given in London. 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 904 
On the evening of March 29, the Pennsyl- 
vania Chapter of the Society of the Sigma Xi 
was addressed by Professor William J. Gies, 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia 
University, on the subject, “ Chemistry in the 
Service of Biology.” Professor Gies reviewed 
the history of biological chemistry, explained 
the problems now being attacked by biological 
chemists and outlined the problems still open 
for investigation. 
At the Washington birthday celebration of 
the University of Pennsylvania it was an- 
nounced that a donation had been received to 
endow “The Leidy Memorial Lecture in Sci- 
ence” in memory of the late Professor Joseph 
Leidy. 
WE learn from Nature that the Essex Field 
Club has recently appointed a committee for 
the purpose of raising a small fund to put in 
order the tombs of John Ray and Benjamin 
Allen (which stand adjacent to one another 
in the churchyard at Black Notley, but have 
been allowed to fall into disrepair), and to 
erect at Braintree a memorial to Samuel Dale, 
of that town, to whom no memorial exists. 
These three naturalists were friends and con- 
temporaries, living at Braintree or in its im- 
mediate vicinity in the closing years of the 
seventeenth century and the opening years of 
the eighteenth. 
Dr. Epwarp Divers, F.R.S., emeritus pro- 
fessor of chemistry in the University of 
Tokyo, died on March 8, aged seventy-five 
years. 
Dr. A. Pactnotti, professor of physics at 
Pisa, has died at the age of seventy-one years. 
Tue U. S. Civil Service Commission an- 
nounces an examination on May 8, to fill va- 
cancies as they may occur in the position of 
scientist in soil survey, at a salary of $1,600 
per annum, in the Department of Agricul- 
ture, for duty in the field. 
THE Columbia Chapter of the honorary 
Society of Sigma Xi held its annual initia- 
tion and banquet on April 4. At the initia- 
tion ceremonies, the 36 new members elected. 
to the society were welcomed by the president 
of the chapter, Professor George F. Sever. 
