46 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 915 



concerning the smoke nuisance, and into the 

 history of the subject as a whole. 



Recognizing the interest in the smoke prob- 

 lem manifested by a large number of Ameri- 

 can cities, and in response to inquiries that 

 have been made, the department announces 

 that the members of its staff are prepared to 

 lecture on the following phases of this prob- 

 lem: 



1. The Smoke Nuisance (a general presentation of 



the main phases of the subject). 



2. Smoke and the Public Health. 



3. Smoke and the Cost of Living. 



4. Smoke and Plant Life. 



5. Methods and Means of Smoke Abatement. 



6. The Effect of Smoke on Buildings and Building 



Materials. 



7. The Psychology of Smoke. 



8. The Smoke Nuisance and the Housekeeper. 



E. C. Benner 

 .Department of Industrial Eesearch, 

 University of Pittsburgh 



■A SCIENCE LIBBABY FOB CHILBBEN 

 In association with the educational work 

 which the Chicago Academy of Sciences has 

 been conducting during the past few years a 

 strong demand has arisen or a Children's Li- 

 brary and Eeading Room. In response to this 

 demand the trustees of the academy have fur- 

 nished one of the rooms in the museum as a 

 Children's Library and about seven hundred 

 books have now been selected as a nucleus. 

 Appropriate periodicals and a picture collec- 

 tion, in part for exhibition on the bulletin 

 board and in part for study at the tables, will 

 also be included. Stereoscopic views have been 

 selected for their importance in geographic 

 studies of foreign lands and for illustrating 

 the agricultural and industrial activities of 

 rarious parts of the world. 



It is proposed to make this a carefully se- 

 lected library of books suitable for children to 

 read. A few of the books are of a somewhat 

 technical nature, although most of them are 

 in non-technical language. A few biogra- 

 phies of the great scientists, several historical 

 sketches of the progress in pure and applied 

 science, stories based, in part at least, on nat- 

 'ural history studies and accounts of explora- 



tions which are instructive along scientific 

 lines have been selected. Miss Mary A. Hard- 

 man, a member of the academy staif who has 

 been offering courses of instruction to chil- 

 dren at the academy during the last two years, 

 has been appointed librarian. This Children's 

 Library will be open to the public on and after 

 August 5, 1912. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Among the degrees conferred by the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan at its recent celebration 

 was the doctorate of laws on Dr. William H, 

 Howell, professor of physiology at the Johns 

 Hopkins University, and the doctorate of sci- 

 ence on Dr. John J. Abel, professor of phar- 

 macology. 



At the annual commencement of Lehigh 

 University, the honorary degree of doctor of 

 laws was conferred upon Charles Leander 

 Doolittle, professor of astronomy and director 

 of the Flower Astronomical Observatory of the 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



Dr. Harvey W. Wiley received the degree 

 of doctor of science from Lafayette College. 



Dr. Henry Prentiss Armsby, director of the 

 Institute of Animal Nutrition of the Pennsyl- 

 vania State College, has been elected a foreign 

 member of the Royal Academy of Agriculture 

 of Sweden. 



A banquet in honor of Dr. J. A. Wither- 

 spoon, president elect of the American Medical 

 Association, was given under the auspices of 

 the Nashville Academy of Medicine and the 

 Nashville Board of Trade, on July 3. 



Three portraits were presented to the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania at its recent com- 

 mencement: one of Provost Edgar P. Smith, 

 the gift of the class of 1902 college, painted 

 by H. H. Breckenridge ; one of the late Pro- 

 fessor Henry W. Spangler, the gift of alumni 

 and students of the mechanical and electrical 

 engineering departments, painted by M. H. 

 Kevorkian; one of the late Professor Joseph 

 Leidy, the gift of his friends, painted by A. P. 

 S. Haeseler. 



Dr. W. M. Davis has retired from the 

 Sturgis Hooper professorship of geology at 



