Februakt 9, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



139 



It is stated in Nature that Professor and 

 Mrs. Herdman have recently established and 

 endowed an institute at Port Erin, Isle of 

 Man, for social and educational purposes, as a 

 memorial to their son, Lieut. George A. Herd- 

 man, who was killed in action near Montaubon, 

 in the battle of the Somme, on July 1, 1916. 

 Lieutenant Herdman spent a great part of his 

 boyhood at Port Erin, associating with the 

 local fishermen and working at the Marine 

 Laboratory. 



Dr. ISr. H. J. Miller, who since 188Y has 

 worked at the Eothamsted Station in England, 

 died suddenly on January 12. 



J. B. A. Chauveau, member of the section 

 of agriculture of the Paris Academy of Sci- 

 ences, has died at the age of eighty-nine years. 



The Agassiz house, at the corner of Broad- 

 way and Quincy Street, Cambridge, has been 

 damaged by fire to the amount of $15,000 to 

 $20,000. It will be hardly worth while to re- 

 build from the structure that remains. Prac- 

 tically all the partitions from the roof down to 

 the second story are destroyed. The house, 

 which since 1910 has been the property of Har- 

 vard College, was insured for $10,000. After 

 Louis Agassiz's death the house was used by 

 Alexander Agassiz, and, together with the house 

 occupied by Professor Hurlbut, was later be- 

 queathed to Harvard College. 



At a meeting of the Board of Managers of 

 the Biological Laboratory of the Brooklyn 

 Institute of Arts and Sciences at Cold Spring 

 Harbor, ]Sr. T., the completion of an endow- 

 ment of $35,000 for the laboratory was an- 

 nounced. The principal donors are : Mr. W. J. 

 Matheson, estate of Colonel Robert B. Wood- 

 ward, Mr. Walter Jennings, Mr. A. A. Healy, 

 Mr. August Heckscher, Mr. Cleveland H. 

 Dodge, Mr. Louis C. Tiilany, Mr. Howard C. 

 Smith, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Colonel T. S. 

 Williams, Mr. Henry E. Noyes, Miss Cornelia 

 Prime, Mr. Albert Strauss and Mr. Donald 

 Scott. 



The " ISTorsk hydroelektrisk Kvaelstof aktie- 

 selskab " has set aside 100,000 kr. to be trans- 

 ferred to the Nansen fund trustees, Christiania, 

 !N"orway, for the promotion of chemical and 



physical research. In as much as the founder 

 of this company, Sam. Eyede, celebrates his 

 fiftieth birthday on the twenty-ninth of Octo- 

 ber the company desires that this fund be 

 known as " The Sam. Eyede fund for the pro- 

 motion of chemical and physical research." 



Mr. Benjamin W. Arnold has presented to 

 the ISTew York State Museum his large oolog- 

 ical collection, which contains nestings of 

 about 1,000 species of North American birds, 

 and several hundred species from South Amer- 

 ica, the West Indies, the islands of the South 

 Atlantic, New Zealand, and the countries of 

 Europe. It also contains a large series of nests 

 and other scientific material. Mr. Arnold has 

 been a life-long student of birds, and in view 

 of his gift and his continuing interest in the 

 subject, has been appointed honorary curator 

 of ornithology in the State Museum. 



Harvard University has recently acquired 

 the mineralogical collection of the late Elwood 

 P. Hancock of Burlington, N. J. It contains 

 more than 2,000 pieces, almost all of which are 

 native to the state of New Jersey. Many of 

 the finest specimens were obtained in the 

 vicinity of the zinc mines at Franklin Fur- 

 nace, ]Sr. J. During Mr. Hancock's researches, 

 which covered every part of the state, he dis- 

 covered a new mineral to which his name was 

 subsequently attached by the Museutm of Nat- 

 tu-al History in New York. 



The Philippine govermnent has made avail- 

 able funds for the establishment of a perma- 

 nent tobacco experiment station in the upper 

 Cagayan Valley. The station is to be adminis- 

 tered by the Bureau of Agriculture, with the 

 Bureau of Internal Revenue and the College 

 of Agriculture of the Philippines contributing 

 advice and other assistance. D. B. Paguidigan 

 and Alfonzo B. Cagurangan will be members 

 of the staff. 



The finance cormnittees of the senate and 

 assembly of New York State have agreed on a 

 plan for state institutions covering a period of 

 ten years and involving the expenditure of 

 $20,000,000. This money will be used to build 

 new hospitals for the insane and institutions 



