340 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 37. 



Holsteinburg the Kite took aboard Pro- 

 fessor Dyche, one of the members of the 

 expedition, and sailed again that same even- 

 ing. Very little ice was reported south of 

 Greenland waters. The crew of the Mac- 

 kenzie think the Kite will have no difficulty 

 in reaching Whale sound, where Peary's 

 headquarters are located. The return of 

 the relief party is expected about the end of 

 this month. 



The conditions attached to the bequest 

 of $60,000 made by the late Sir William 

 Macleay to the Sj^dney University to found 

 a chair of bacteriology are such that the 

 University has decided to decline the be- 

 quest. The money will now revert to the 

 Linnsean Society to maintain a bacteriolo- 

 gist who will carry on bacteriological inves- 

 tigations and also take i^upils. 



M. C. H. Fremont described before a re- 

 cent meeting of the Paris Academy of Sci- 

 ences a special microscope for the observa- 

 tion of opaque bodies. A concave mirror 

 is placed within the tube of the microscope 

 which reflects a ray of light through the 

 lenses of the objective to the object. 



Among recent appointments abroad, Pro- 

 fessor Strahl, of Marburg, has been called to 

 the chair of anatomy in the University of 

 Giesen; Professor Hans Lenk, of Leipsig, 

 to the professorship of geology in the Uni- 

 versity of Erlangen; Dr. Haecker, of Frei- 

 burg i. B., and Dr. v. Dalla-Torre, of the Uni- 

 versity of Innsbruck, have been made assis- 

 tant professors of zoology. 



On August loth, Dr. Miinch, the phy- 

 sicist, died at the age of 75 years. The 

 deaths are also announced of M. H. Witt- 

 meur, professor of minerology and geology 

 in the Univer.sity of Brussels, and of Dr. AV. 

 Fabritins, astronomer in the Observatory of 

 Kiew. 



La Nature states that an Ethnographical 

 Exposition has been opened at Paris on the 

 Champ-de-Mars by MM. Barbier, exhibit- 



ing a negro village of western Africa; not 

 only the inhabitants, but also the manners 

 and customs of the people are represented. 

 The negro families occupy houses grouped 

 according to their race, the arcliitecture 

 being a faithful imitation of the originals. 

 Even native animals and plants have been 

 introduced. 



Prof. H. H. Powers, now of Smith Col- 

 lege, has been called to the professorship 

 of economics at Stanford University. 



It is stated that Professor Carl Barus has 

 constructed a new top for educational pur- 

 poses. The ' peg ' of the toj] consists of a 

 writing stylus, adapted to pencil a graphic 

 record of its motions upon a slate or sheet 

 of paper. This motion of the ' peg ' simu- 

 lates the motion of precession about a mov- 

 able axis which, in its turn, is in both 

 rotational and translational motion. The 

 complex spiral and cycloidal curves which 

 may be thus obtained present an exceed- 

 ingly beautiful appearance. 



The American. Engineer and Railroad Jour- 

 nal gives a full account, of the Japanese 

 Industrial Exliibition opened in Kioto on 

 April 1st. The present exhibition is the 

 fourth of a series instituted in 1877 by im- 

 perial ordinance of Japan with the object 

 of encouraging the development of agricul- 

 ture, the arts and commerce. The former 

 exhibitions were held in Tokio in the years 

 1877, 1881 and 1890. The fourth exhibi- 

 tion is held on the occasion of the eleven 

 hundredth anniversary of the founding of 

 the city of Kioto by Emperor Kwammu. 

 The site for the exhibition is near the in- 

 cline of the Lake Biwa Canal. The exhibi- 

 tion grounds are 42i acres in extent. The 

 buildings, eight in number, occupying 

 an area of .305,388 sq. ft. are as follows : 

 Industrial Building, Machinery Hall, Agri- 

 cultural and Forest Building, Marine Pro- 

 ducts Building, Aquarium, Fine Arts Build- 

 ing, Live Stock Building and Ceremonial 



