462 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1004 



tion whicli Hals had given his model. The 

 superimposition of the two drawings showed 

 an almost absolute agreement. On the other 

 hand, other drawings made under the same 

 conditions of several skulls taken at random, 

 showed notable discrepancies. The same ex- 

 periment was repeated with the other portraits 

 of Descartes, namely, that by Sebastian Bour- 

 don in the Louvre; that of Beck, of which 

 there is a copy in the library of the institute, 

 the terra cotta medallion of the Versailles 

 Museum, and an old portrait by an unknown 

 painter belonging to M. Rulhe, of Courvevoie. 

 The comparison of the skulls in these different 

 portraits with that of the museum shows some 

 striking resemblances, but never so complete 

 an agreement as was found with the Hals por- 

 trait. Before Dr. Eicher began his investiga- 

 tion much the same procedure was employed 

 by Dr. Verneau, professor of anthropology at 

 the museum, who came to the same conclusion. 

 As a matter of history it is known that the 

 skuU was detached from the philosopher's body 

 in 1666 by Israel Planstrom, Captain of the 

 Queen of Sweden's Guards, and it was given 

 to the French nation by Berzelius. Now that 

 the relic has been satisfactorily identified, it 

 is suggested that it should be placed in the 

 coffin which contains the decapitated skeleton 

 of the philosopher. This is in the Church of 

 Saint Germain des Pres, where it lies in one 

 of the chapels between the remains of Mabil- 

 lon and those of Montfaucon. Another sug- 

 gestion is that the skeleton and skull might be 

 solemnly transferred to the Pantheon in ac- 

 cordance with a decree of the Convention of 

 October 2, 1793, to which effect was never 

 given. At a meeting of the Academie des 

 Sciences on January 20, Professor Edmond 

 Perrier declared that the identification having 

 been made conclusively, it was no longer right 

 that this relic of the great thinker should be 

 left amidst the collections of the gallery of 

 anthropology and paleontology in the museum. 

 He undertook to have a kind of reliquary con- 

 structed in one of the rooms of the museum 

 where there are already relies of other famous 

 men. There the skull of Descartes will be 



deposited, together with the documents estab- 

 lishing its authenticity. 



UNIVEBSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



Tentative plans for buildings to replace the 

 burned College Hall of Wellesley College pro- 

 vide for a quadrangle, including four build- 

 ings, on the old site. It is expected that the 

 college will be able to reopen on April 7. 



Amherst College has received a bequest of 

 $5,000 for a scholarship under the will of Addi- 

 son Brown, late of New York, and a non-grad- 

 uate of the dass of 1852. 



Under the will of the late Dr. Eosewell 

 Park the medical department of the Univer- 

 sity of Buffalo will receive his entire medical 

 library of about three thousand volumes. 



The valuable psychological library of Dr. 

 Arthur Henry Pierce, late professor of psy- 

 chology at Smith College, has been given to 

 the college. 



It is said that the secretary of the interior 

 has written to the chairman of the house com- 

 mittee on education expressing disapproval of 

 the bill to establish a national university. 



The first structure that the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology has erected for its own 

 uses on its site in Cambridge is the new aero- 

 dynamic laboratory. The building is finished 

 and the apparatus is in process of installation. 

 The portion of its equipment that is first to be 

 installed is the four-foot wind tunnel with its 

 accompanying blower. This is of the pattern 

 now in use at the National Physical Labora- 

 tory at Teddington, England, which has fur- 

 nished the plans. 



It is expected that a school of fisheries will 

 be established at the University of Washing- 

 ton. If the plans mature, the resulting school 

 will be the first school of its kind in the 

 United States, though there are such schools 

 in Japan and other countries. 



Professor Eredeeick Slocum, who for the 

 past four years has been in charge of the solar 

 observations and stellar parallax work at the 

 Yerkes Observatory, has been elected professor 



