Mat 22, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



755 



Dr. Zentaro Kawase, professor of forestry 

 in the University of Tokio, Japan, is in 

 America to make observations in original for- 

 est areas, especially those in the southern 

 Appalachian Mountains. 



Dr. E. L. Ekman, assistant in the botanical 

 department of the National Museum at Stock- 

 holm, recently visited the New York Botanical 

 Garden for nearly tv70 weeks on his way on 

 an exploration for two years to Santo Do- 

 mingo and the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. 



Mr. a. N. Hall has been appointed govern- 

 ment curator of the ancient monuments of 

 Rhodesia. His headquarters will be at Great 

 Zimbabwe, but he hopes to spend four months 

 of each year in examining or searching for 

 other remains. 



Dr. a. G. Webster, professor of physics, 

 Clark University, gave on May 8 a lecture on 

 " Sound and Its Measurements," before the 

 Columbia chapter of Sigma Xi. 



On April 23 and 24, Dr. Oscar Eiddle, of 

 the Carnegie Institution, lectured before the 

 Sigma 2i Societies of Indiana University and 

 Ohio State University on " The Determina- 

 tion of Sex and Its Experimental Control." 



Hiram Percy Maxim lectured on " The 

 Annihilation of Noise " and demonstrated 

 the Maxim silencers before the Middletown 

 Scientific Association at Wesleyan University 

 on May 12. 



Professor Charles H. Haskins, dean of the 

 graduate school of Harvard University, de- 

 livered the annual address before the Zeta 

 chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and the student 

 body of Oberlin College, on May 8, on the 

 subject " The Medieval Scholar." 



The retiring president of the Geographic 

 Society of Chicago, Professor Henry C. 

 Cowles, gave on May 8 before the society an 

 illustrated account of his observations and 

 experiences in guiding a party of distinguished 

 plant geographers through the western United 

 States in the summer of 1913. 



The Halley lecture for 1914 will be delivered 

 at the University of Oxford by Colonel C. F. 

 Close, director of the Ordnance Survey, on 



May 20. Subject, " The Geodesy of the United 

 Kingdom." 



The celebration of the seven hundredth 

 anniversary of the birth of Roger Bacon will 

 be celebrated at the University of Oxford on 

 June 10. 



Mr. Robert Kaye Gray, an electrical engi- 

 neer, active in the promotion of scientific re- 

 search in England, died on April 28, at 

 Brighton, at the age of sixty-two years. 



M. Paul Louis Toussaint Heroult, known 

 for his work with aluminum and the electric 

 furnace, died on May 10, aged forty-one years. 



The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine 

 plans to establish a permanent laboratory in 

 Sierra Leone for the purpose of carrying on re- 

 search work. 



The old chateau at Les Eyzies (Dordogne) 

 has been purchased by the French government 

 and win be converted into a museum of pre- 

 historic archeology. 



Nature calls attention to an arrangement 

 now established at the Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 Kew, whereby a competent guide accompanies 

 visitors on week days through the gardens and 

 explains the objects of botanical interest. A 

 small charge is made for the services of the 

 guide, 6d. for each person attending a morningj 

 tour, and 3d. for each person attending an 

 afternoon tour. The present arrangements are 

 of the nature of an experiment, and their con- 

 tinuance beyond September next will depend 

 on the extent of the public demand for the serv- 

 ices of the guide. 



We learn from the Journal of the Society of 

 Arts that preliminary steps have been taken for 

 the establishment of an institute of oceanog- 

 raphy for the study and exhibition of marine 

 life and products at Ste. Adresse, a suburb of 

 Havre, overlooking the Bay of the Seine. Plans 

 for a handsome building, about 275 feet long 

 and 40 feet wide, have been drawn up by a 

 well-known Paris architect. It will be con- 

 structed in a park of 323,000 square feet. It 

 is estimated that the building and equipment 

 will cost about $150,000. It is hoped to have 

 the building completed and opened in time 



