September 20, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



377 



The cable despatches state that the meet- 

 ings of the British Association opened at 

 Ipswich on September 11th. In the absence 

 of Lord Salisbury, Sir Douglas Galton, the 

 president, was introduced by Lord Kelvin . 

 Sir Douglas is stated to have fainted while 

 reading his address. On his recovery, the 

 remainder of the address was read by Sir 

 John Evans. 



Me. H. C. Mercer, editor for Anthro- 

 pology of the American Natiiralist, writes in 

 the September number: " I asked the Bish- 

 op of Yucatan the question propounded by 

 Mr. Oris T. Mason in Science for August 

 2, 1895 — whether the sandal now in com- 

 mon use among the Mayas, strapped across 

 the instep and fastened further by a single 

 round thong between the ' first and sec- 

 ond toes, was an inheritence from pre- 

 Spanish times. He was unable to answer 

 the question more particularly than to show 

 me from his collection the foot of an earthen 

 statue from Izamal, moulded with a sandal 

 fastened by two toe thongs instead of one. 

 These passed between the first and second 

 and third and fourth toes to reach a strip 

 on the instep. I question whether the ex- 

 isting sandals have been attentively studied 

 in Central America. Some Indians may 

 wear the double toe strap still, but given 

 the existence of the sandal with double toe 

 straps in ancient America, we might rea- 

 sonably suspect that the old Mayas some- 

 times used the simpler single thong between 

 the first and second toes, now so common." 



The numbers of the Lancet and of the 

 British Medical Joxirnal for September 7th 

 are educational numbers being almost en- 

 tirely filled with accounts of the medical 

 courses in the English universities, schools 

 and hospitals. 



Nature states that Prof. John Milne has 

 established a small station at Shide New- 

 port, Isle of Wight, for the study of earth- 

 quakes having their origin in distant locali- 



ties. Communications respecting the Trans- 

 actions of the Seismological Society and the 

 Seismological Journal should be made to 

 Prof. Milne at the above address. 



The 23d Annual Meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Public Health Association will be held 

 at Denver, Col., October 1st to 4th. 



La Natitre states that the municipal ad- 

 ministration has taken an important step 

 in the development of meteorological study 

 in the district surrounding Paris. M. 

 Joseph Jaubert, founder and director of the 

 Observatory of Saint Jacques, will also 

 undertake the directorship of the Observa- 

 tory of Montsouris. The observatories will 

 now have increased facilities for cooperation 

 in observing meteorological phenomena. 

 The observatories are 5 kilometers apart, 

 and are connected by telephone. 



Longmans & Co. have in press the ' Life 

 and Letters of George John Eomanes,' pre- 

 pared by Mrs. Eomanes. The book contains 

 many of Romanes' letters to men of science 

 and to private friends, and correspondence 

 between Eomanes and Charles Darwin. 



On May 1st of next year an industrial ex- 

 hibition will be opened in Berlin. The time 

 has been chosen to coincide with the 25th 

 anniversary of a united German Empire. 



At the meeting of the British Dental 

 Association held recently at Edinburgh, 

 under the presidency of Mr. W. Bowman 

 Macleod, the report of the committee on 

 the condition of the teeth of school children 

 showed that in all 11 ,422 had been examined. 

 The investigations indicated that the teeth 

 of children of the rich were more prone to 

 decay than those of children of the poor. 



The first meeting of the recently organ- 

 ized and incorporated Binghamton (N. Y.) 

 Academy of Science after a vacation of two 

 months was of unusual interest and enthu- 

 siasm. A revised constitution drafted by 

 the Executive Council was adopted and or- 

 dered printed, together with a list of the 



