Mat 25, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



499 



■who worked in botany because of bis ardent 

 love of plants. Mr. Alexander was nearly 

 eighty years old at the time of his death, but 

 still kept up his studies in spite of illness 

 that limited his active collecting for the past 

 three years. For the last ten years his chief 

 studies were on the perennial sunflowers, of 

 which he found great numbers of forms and 

 of which he hoped to be able to publish a 

 monograph. He was at one time city forester 

 for Detroit and furthered the planting and 

 care of trees in that city at a time when there 

 were but few voices advocating such things. 

 He entered the Michigan Agricultural College 

 in the early spring of 1861 but left in a few 

 days as the first volunteer from that institu- 

 tion for the war. 



"We learn from Nature that Major A. C. B. 

 Geddes, who had begun work in natural sci- 

 ence has been killed in the war at the age of 

 twenty-five years. He was the eldest son of 

 Professor Patrick Geddes. 



The death is announced of S. Tolver Pres- 

 ton, known for his writings on cosmical 

 physics. 



M. Henri Bazin, distinguished for his work 

 on hydraulics, has died at the age of eighty- 

 eight years. 



The sixteenth biennial Dutch Congress of 

 Natural and Medical Sciences was held at 

 The Hague on April 12 and following days. 

 We learn from Nature that in connection 

 with this, the geography section had organized 

 an interesting historical exhibition, mainly of 

 the work of Mercator and the Dutch carto- 

 graphers of the seventeenth century. The 

 chief general lecture was delivered by Pro- 

 fessor H. A. Lorentz, of Leyden, on "Ein- 

 stein's Gravitational Theory and Fundamental 

 Ideas in Physics." Prom a discussion, in one 

 of the sections, on chemical industry in Hol- 

 land, it appears that the manufactiu-e of ani- 

 line and other intermediate materials for the 

 dye industry was started in 1916. 



The next meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion of Pathologists and Bacteriologists will 

 be held at Minneapolis on March 29 and 30, 

 1918. 



The twelfth annual meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Association of Museums was held in iSTew 

 York City from May 21 to 23, inclusive. The 

 association consists of directors and curators 

 of leading American institutions. The ses- 

 sions on Monday and Wednesday were at the 

 American Museum of ISTatural History. Those 

 on Tuesday were at the Metropolitan Museiun 

 of Art and on Tuesday evening there was an 

 inspection of the New York Aquarium and 

 an informal smoker. On Thursday the dele- 

 gates visited the Central Museum of the 

 Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and 

 the Children's Museum of the Brooklyn Insti- 

 tute. On Friday they inspected the New York 

 Botanical Gardens. Trips were also arranged 

 to the Public Museum of the Staten Island 

 Association of Arts and Sciences and to the 

 Newark Museum. An especially interesting 

 phase of the sessions was the report of the 

 committee on training for museum workers, 

 which was devoted to finding ways and means 

 of increasing the practical usefulness of mu- 

 seiuns. 



The Electrical World states that as a result 

 of the present war conditions the Manitoba 

 branch of the American Society of Civil Engi- 

 neers has organized a scientific and industrial 

 research committee to organize and develop 

 the natural resources in industry and sci- 

 ence. At present this committee is listing 

 all available research laboratories in its juris- 

 diction, also all men engaged in scientific and 

 engineering pursuits and the qualifications of 

 each man in his particular line of research or 

 engineering. After organization is completed 

 a study will be made of the requirements of 

 the Province of Manitoba as regards manu- 

 factured articles, and more especially imports, 

 with a view to supply all local demand for 

 such material and, if possible, to provide for 

 export, if it can be economically accomplished. 



The trustees of Purdue University have ap- 

 proved the organization of an engineering 

 experiment station. This station will be em- 

 ployed for the supervision of engineering re- 

 search. Arrangements have also been made 

 for the extension and equipment of a high- 



