December 6, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



785 



tkis metal was ever worked, except in this 

 locality, by a prehistoric people. Through the 

 generosity of Mr. J. P. Morgan, Jr., the mu- 

 seum secured recently the collections of min- 

 erals and meteorites left by the late Stratford 

 0. H. Bailey, of Oscawana-on-Hudson. Mr. 

 Bailey had assembled representatives of nearly 

 three hundred falls and finds of meteorites. 

 At least twenty-two of these are new to the 

 museum's already great collection. The en- 

 dowment fund of the museum has recently 

 received an addition of five thousand dollars 

 from Mrs. William H. Bliss. Mrs. Bliss has 

 been elected a patron of the museum in recog- 

 nition of her gift. 



The surgeon general of the army announces 

 that preliminary examinations for the ap- 

 pointment of first lieutenants in the army 

 medical corps will be held on January 20, 

 1913, at points to be hereafter designated. 

 Full information concerning these examina- 

 tions can be procured upon application to the 

 " Surgeon General, U. S. Army, "Washington, 

 D. C." The essential requirements to se- 

 curing an invitation are that the applicant 

 shall be a citizen of the United States, shall 

 be between twenty-two and thirty years of 

 age, a graduate of a medical school legally 

 authorized to confer the degree of doctor of 

 medicine, shall be of good moral character and 

 habits, and shall have had at least one year's 

 hospital training as an interne, after gradua- 

 tion. The examinations will be held simul- 

 taneously throughout the country at points 

 where boards can be convened. Due consid- 

 eration will be given to localities from which 

 applications are received, in order to lessen 

 the traveling expenses of applicants as much 

 as possible. The examination in subjects of 

 general education (mathematics, geography, 

 history, general literature and Latin) may be 

 omitted in the case of applicants holding 

 diplomas from reputable literary or scientific 

 colleges, normal schools or high schools or 

 graduates of medical schools which require an 

 entrance examination satisfactory to the fac- 

 ulty of the Army Medical School. In order 

 to perfect all necessary arrangements for the 



examination, applications must be completed 

 and in possession of the adjutant general at 

 least three weeks before the date of examina- 

 tion. There are at present thirty-five vacan- 

 cies in the medical corps of the army. 



It is stated in the Yale Alumni Weehly 

 that a pictorial story of iron from the time the 

 ore is mined until it has been transformed 

 into the finished product, such as steel rails or 

 sheet piling, was a special feature of an ex- 

 hibit of Eogers, Brown & Company, at the 

 convention of the American Foundrymen's 

 Association held in Buffalo, N. T. For many 

 months experts in motion pictures worked 

 under the supervision of Henry B. B. Ter- 

 gason, of Rogers, Brown & Company; the 

 result is pronounced one of the most complete 

 series of moving picture films ever made of an 

 industrial subject. 



In spite of the decrease in the production 

 of iron, the value of the total mineral pro- 

 duction of the United States for 1911 reached 

 the enormous figure of $1,918,184,384. Of 

 this the value of the metals was $672,179,600, 

 the remainder representing the non-metals. 

 Coal led the list, with a value of $626,366,876; 

 pig iron was second, with a value of $327,234,- 

 624; clay products third, $162,236,181; copper 

 fourth, $137,154,092, and petroleum fifth, 

 $134,044,752. These and other figures of pro- 

 duction are discussed in an advance chapter 

 from " Mineral Resources of the United 

 States" for 1911, by W. T. Thom, of the 

 United States Geological Survey. While the 

 total value for 1911 is about $70,000,000 less 

 than for 1910 it is greater than that of any 

 other year except the banner year of 1907, 

 when the $2,000,000,000 mark was passed. 

 Indeed it is only in the last 13 years that the 

 mineral output of the country has been above 

 the billion dollar mark. Fourteen years ago, 

 in 1898, it was only $724,272,854 and 10 years 

 before this, in 1888, it was but a little over 

 $500,000,000. In spite of the decrease in the 

 total value of the mineral output in 1911, a 

 considerable number of products showed a 

 marked increase, 45 of the minerals for which 

 statistics were collected by the Geological 



