506 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1005 



for further observation. The supposition of a 

 desiccated saline lake to explain the origin of 

 the colemanite has little to support it beyond 

 rather general assumptions. The character of 

 the deposits themselves indicates rather a vein 

 type of formation. Other salines which would 

 naturally be expected in desiccation deposits 

 resulting from natural saline solutions are not 

 found in association with the colemanite. 

 Those who have supported the desiccation 

 theory have offered no explanation of the cause 

 which might produce colemanite in such mas- 

 sive deposits as a product of water evapora- 

 tion, while, on the contrary, its formation 

 from limestone in veins by replacement of 

 carbonic acid with boric acid is a natural 

 hypothesis that deserves further investigation. 

 The relations of the deposits to basalt lava 

 flows indicate the probable origin of the boric 

 acid at the time of the extrusion of these 

 lavas, although it may be assumed that this 

 acid continued to find its way into solution of 

 the circulating ground waters long after the 

 period of the extrusions. 



UNIVEBSITT AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 Provisions for the creation of a trust fund 

 said to be approximately $500,000 for the 

 maintenance of male graduates of the 

 Williamsport, Pa., high school at Cornell 

 University are made by the will of Albert 

 Dubois Hermance. 



Mr. Edgar Palmer, a Princeton graduate 

 of the class of 1903, has offered to build and 

 present to Princeton University a stadium 

 costing $300,000. Mr. Palmer is a son of the 

 late Stephen S. Palmer, who was for many 

 years a trustee of Princeton University and 

 gave large sums to the university, including 

 the Palmer Physical Laboratory. 



Through the cooperation of the estate of the 

 late Dr. C. Annette Buckel, of Oakland, a 

 research fellowship for the study of feeble- 

 minded children has been established at Stan- 

 ford University. The department of educa- 

 tion, under the direction of its head. Professor 

 E. P. Cubberly, will have the appointment of 

 the fellow, who will work in cooperation with 

 Professor Lewis M. Terman. Dr. Buckel was 



an Oakland physician known for her charita- 

 ble work in Oakland and for her interest in 

 feeble-minded, backward and delinquent chil- 

 dren. On her death her estate was left in 

 trust to Miss Charlotte S. Playter, of Pied- 

 mont, to be used to advance the condition of 

 backward and feeble-minded children. Miss 

 Playter has turned the money over to Stan- 

 ford. The income amounts to about $500 a 

 year, and the board of trustees of the univer- 

 sity have added an additional $500 to the 

 fellowship. 



Work has begun on a temporary recitation 

 and administration building for Wellesley 

 College. It will be a wooden structure, one 

 story high, of the simplest possible construc- 

 tion. It is contracted to be finished by May 1. 

 Classes will begin on April Y, the regular date _ 

 for the opening of the spring term. There 

 are no plans as yet to replace the geological, 

 physical, psychological and zoological labora- 

 tories which were destroyed by the burning of 

 College Hall. 



The recent disastrous fire at Wellesley Col- 

 lege wiped out the entire equipment of the 

 department of physics. This department, or- 

 ganized in 18Y8, was pne of the first in the 

 country to offer laboratory practise for under- 

 graduates and possessed much apparatus of 

 value. Within the last few years extensive 

 additions had rendered the equipment thor- 

 oughly modern and up to date. The library 

 of nearly three thousand volumes contained 

 complete files of most of the leading periodi- 

 cals, English, French and German, including 

 the Annalen der Physik, the Philosophical 

 Magazine, and the Philosophical Transactions 

 since 1800. The loss is total. 



Yale Uni\'ersity and the University of 

 California will exchange professors next year. 

 Professor John Wurts, of the Tale Law School, 

 will lecture at California, and Professor G. H. 

 Boke, of the School of Jurisprudence at 

 California, will lecture at Yale. 



Dr. Thomas H. Macbride, professor of 

 botany, has been appointed acting president of 

 the State University of Iowa. 



Dr. Nathaniel E. Loomis, assistant pro- 

 fessor of chemistry at Bowdoin College, has 



