August 2, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



133 



current, literature should be cared for first 

 as being the more important. The expense 

 of this undertaking would be from $16,000 

 to $30,000. The committee believed that 

 the index should include brief notes as to 

 the chai'acter or scope of articles, since a 

 single line of description would save the 

 looking up of probably seven-eighths of the 

 possible references. 



In The Atlantic Monthly for August Mr. 

 Percival Lowell concludes his series of ai-ti- 

 cles on Mars treating the 'oases.' He 

 reviews the evidence on which he finds it 

 probable that we see the effects of local in- 

 telligence on the surface of the planet as fol- 

 lows: " We find, in the first place, that the 

 broad physical conditions of the planet are 

 not antagonistic to some form of life ; sec- 

 ondly, that there is an apparent dearth of 

 water upon the planet's surface, and, there- 

 fore, if beings of sufficient intelligence in- 

 habited it, they would have to resort to irri- 

 gation to support life ; thirdlj^, that there 

 turns out to be a network of markings cover- 

 ing the disc precisely counterparting what a 

 system of iri'igation would look like ; and, 

 lastly, that there is a set of spots placed 

 where we should expect to find the lands 

 thus artificially fertilized, and behaving as 

 such constructed oases should." 



De. D. W. McGee, lecturer in Orien- 

 tal literature in Toronto Universitj^, was 

 drowned on July 22d. 



Dr. Eenest Henri Baillon, the well- 

 known naturalist, died recently in Paris at 

 the age of seventy-two. He was professor 

 of medical botany in the School of Medi- 

 cine, and of hj'giene in the Central School of 

 Arts and Manufactures. He was the au- 

 thor of a number of books on botanical sub- 

 jects. 



Professor Charles C. Babington, pro- 

 fessor of botany in Cambridge University, 

 died in Cambridge on July 22d, at the age 

 87 years. 



Dr. N"orton S. Townshend, professor of 

 agriculture in the State "University of Ohio, 

 died recently at the age of seventy-nine. 

 He was a student of medicine and graduated 

 in New York in 1840. In 1863 he was ap- 

 pointed medical inspector in the United 

 States army, in which capacity he served 

 until the end of the war. In 1869 he ac- 

 cepted the professorship of agriculture in 

 Iowa Agriciilture College, of which he was 

 one of the founders. He resigned a year 

 later to assist in founding the Agricultural 

 and Mechanical College of Ohio, in which 

 institution, now known as the University 

 of Ohio, he held the chair of agriculture 

 from 1873 to the time of his retirement as 

 professor emeritus. 



Professor Julius Zupitza, the celebrated 

 philologist, died recently in Berlin at the 

 age of 51. He held the chair of English 

 in Berlin University for nineteen years. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The Board of Trustees of the City of New 

 York have selected a site for the new Col- 

 lege Building on Covent Hill. It consists 

 of 127 city lots bound north by ISStli street, 

 south by 14:0th street, east by St. Nicholas 

 avenue and west by Amsterdam avenue. 

 The appropriation for the site is limited to 

 $600,000, but it is believed that the price of 

 this land will come within the required 

 limits. 



The accommodation of Eadcliffe College 

 has been enlarged by the purchase of a new 

 house. 



The trustees of the estate of the late Miss 

 Margaret Harris have given securities val- 

 ued at £14,000 and yielding about £470 to 

 establish a chair of physics in the Dundee 

 University College. 



It is proposed to establish an economic 

 museum in the University of Pennsylvania. 

 The museum will contain samples of the 

 products and materials of all the arts, in- 



