March 27, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



461 



sity on March 24 and 26, the subjects of his 

 lectures being " The Origin of Petroleum and 

 Natural Gas, New and Old Theories " and 

 " Proposed Methods of Securing an Increased 

 Yield from Oil-wells." 



Professor Arthur W. Goodspeed, of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, lectured at Buck- 

 nell University on March 13 on " Radio- 

 activity with Special Reference to Radium." 



Professor F. E. Lloyd, of McGill Univer- 

 sity, recently gave a lecture before the Ottawa 

 Field Naturalist's Club on the subject of 

 " Abscession in Flowers, Fruits and Leaves." 



Professor George Grant MaoCurdy, of 

 Yale University, completed on March 10 a tour 

 of the eastern Canadian circuit, where he lec- 

 tured on " The Dawn of Art " by invitation 

 of the Archeological Institute of America at 

 St. John, Halifax, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, 

 Toronto and Hamilton. 



Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier, a 

 distinguished authority on South American 

 archeology, lecturer in Columbia University, 

 died in Madrid, Spain, on March 20, aged 

 seventy-four years. 



Dr. W. T. Dutton, professor of mathe- 

 matics and civil engineering at Allegheny 

 College, in Meadville, Pa., has died at the age 

 of sixty-two years. 



Professor Giuseppe Mercalli, director of 

 the Mount Vesuvius observatory, and professor 

 of vulcanology and seismology in the Univer- 

 sity of Naples, has died at the age of sixty- 

 four years, having been burned by the over- 

 turning of a lamp, or perhaps murdered. 



Dr. Edward C. Pickering, director of the 

 Harvard CoUege Observatory, has sent under 

 date of March 10, the following biilletin: 



The following statement has been received from 

 Professor W. H. Pickering, in charge of the 

 Mandeville Station of this observatory: Attention 

 was called to the lunar crater, Einmart, in A. N. 

 4704. It is there stated that its interior was very 

 brilliant in January, 1913, but since March had 

 been very much darker. This darkness persisted 

 throughout the remainder of the year, and through 

 January of this year. In February, however, it 

 again brightened up, being about as bright as it 



was in February, 1913, though by no means as 

 brilliant as in January of that year. As it is a 

 large crater, 25 miles in diameter, the brightness 

 of its interior may be easily observed, even with a 

 small telescope and under unfavorable atmospheric 

 conditions. This past month it has been clearly 

 brighter than any area of similar size between it 

 and the limb. This had not been the case since 

 the previous March. In the preceding January it 

 was the brightest area of that size visible at that 

 time upon the Moon. All observations should be 

 made immediately following the first quarter. The 

 interior is full of fine brilliant detail, constantly 

 varying, not only from night to night, but also 

 from month to month. This observation is, how- 

 ever, probably too difficult for any northern tele- 

 scope, since it requires not merely one, but a suc- 

 cession of fine nights. 



There is in the Paris Museum of Natural 

 History a skull, which, according to tradition, 

 once enclosed the brain of Descartes. The 

 British Medical Journal says that the Acad- 

 emy of Fine Arts recently invited Dr. Paul 

 Richer, professor of anatomy in the Paris 

 School of Fine Arts, and a member both of 

 the Academy of Medicine and the Academy 

 of Fine Arts, to compare by scientific meth- 

 ods, in collaboration with M. Gaston Darboux, 

 the supposed skull of Descartes with the dif- 

 ferent portraits of the famous philosopher. 

 Dr. Richer indicated on a plaster cast given 

 him by the museum certain distinctive char- 

 acters which are well marked on the head of 

 the portrait painted by Franz Hals. It is 

 said to be on these resemblances that Cuvier 

 based the opinion that the skull is authentic, 

 which he expressed in 1821. He next drew a 

 skull, as closely adapted as possible, resembling 

 that outlined in the portrait. Then he made 

 a drawing of the museum skull posed with the 

 same orientation and on the same scale as the 

 head of the portrait. Lastly, he superim- 

 posed the two drawings. In his first drawing 

 Dr. Richer marked certain points — at the root 

 of the bones of the nose, on the external 

 orbital apophyses, and on the nasal spine. 

 These same points were repeated on the cast 

 of the skull in the museum. By means of 

 these marks it was easy to place with almost 

 mathematical precision the skull in the posi- 



