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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 920 



eluding Pennsylvania, which has already ap- 

 propriated $275,000 for the purpose. 



Dr. Wilhelm Paul Gerhardt, of Brooklyn, 

 N. T., has given a collection of books, num- 

 bering 275 volumes, to the sanitary and bio- 

 logical department of the College of the City 

 of New York, and a geographical collection of 

 about 150 text-books and atlases to Teachers 

 College, Columbia University. A third col- 

 lection of several hundred volumes has been 

 presented to the Illuminating Engineering 

 Society of New York City. 



A DONOR who wishes for the present to re- 

 main anonymous, has given the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer a sum of £10,000, of which 

 £3,000 is to be handed to the National Mu- 

 seum of Wales, Cardiff, £2,000 to the Univer- 

 sity College of Wales, Cardiff, and £5,000 to 

 the National Library of Wales, Aberystwith. 



Under the will of Sir James Inglis, a former 

 president of the Institution of Civil Engi- 

 neers, the institution has received a legacy 

 of £5,000, to be applied to its new building 

 which is now in course of erection in Great 

 George Street, Westminster, and to which he 

 had during his lifetime contributed liberally. 



Nature states that in response to a joint 

 appeal made by the Eoyal Society of South 

 Africa and the South African Association for 

 the Advancement of Science to the Union 

 government, a sum of £500 has been voted 

 during the current financial year as a grant- 

 in-aid for the purpose of assistance in scien- 

 tific work in or relating to South Africa. A 

 scheme for the administration of this and 

 future funds available for the same purpose 

 on lines similar to that of the Government 

 Grant Fund of the Eoyal Society has been 

 prepared by a joint committee representing 

 the two above-mentioned societies. 



The report of the American members of the 

 commission appointed by the International 

 Mathematics Congress, held in Rome in 1908, 

 to study the subject of the teaching of mathe- 

 matics in the several countries has been pub- 

 lished for free distribution by the United 

 States Bureau of Education. 



A PERMANENT memorial of the recent cele- 

 bration of the two hundred and fiftieth anni- 

 versary of the Royal Society in the form of a 

 volume of collotype facsimiles of the signa- 

 tures of the founders, patrons and fellows of 

 the society recorded in its first journal-book 

 and the charter-book from 1660 to the present 

 time is to be issued shortly by Mr. Henry 

 Frowde. The work will contain a preface by 

 Sir Archibald Geikie. The third edition, re- 

 vised and rearranged, of " The Record of the 

 Royal Society of London," is also announced. 



We learn from the Journal of the American 

 Medical Association that on June 1 the su- 

 perior health magistracy of Saxony, the 

 Landesmedizinalkollegium, was substantially 

 extended and converted into a national health 

 department. Its field includes the making of 

 reports on matters of medical and veterinary 

 interest, the advice of the government in the 

 preparation and execution of sanitary laws, 

 and the supervision and management of the 

 scientific institutes subordinate to it. 



Petroleum production in the United States 

 in 1911 surpassed its own record made in 

 1910 by an increase of nearly 11,000,000 bar- 

 rels. In 1910 the output was 209,557,248 bar- 

 rels. The total production of the world also 

 surpassed all previous records, amounting to 

 over 345,000,000 barrels, and of this the United 

 States produced more than 63 per cent. The 

 value of this enormous output of oil in the 

 United States for 1911 was $134,044,752, the 

 average price being 60.8 cents a barrel. 

 Final figures have been compiled by David T. 

 Day, the petroleum statistician of the United 

 States Geological Survey, and have just been 

 made public in a statement issued by the sur- 

 vey. The increase for the year was caused 

 principally by the gain in California, which 

 was by far the largest producer, its output 

 being over 81,000,000 barrels. Another fac- 

 tor in the increase was the discovery of oil at 

 Vinton, La., and the comparatively new Caddo 

 field in Louisiana also grew in importance. 

 A find of high-grade oil at Electra, in north- 

 ern Texas, was another notable event of the 

 year. With a gain in production of nearly 



