32 
station at the South Foreland with unvarying 
distinctness. The experiments began at 8 
a. m., and were continued throughout the day. 
In the afternoon the Channel was enveloped ina 
dense fog, but this did not in any way interfere 
with the transmission of the messages. The 
vessel was fitted up with a wire passing up the 
masthead, and messages were exchanged while 
the vessel was travelling at various conditions 
of speed with the same result. An interesting 
feature in the experiments was the facility with 
which Signor Marconi’s latest development for 
cutting out a station was applied. The mes- 
sages were sent at will either to Wimereaux or 
to South Foreland, without the other station 
being able to intercept them. The results of 
the experiments are to be reported to the 
French government. 
ConsuL SKINNER, of Marseilles, under date 
of May 4, 1899, writes to the Department of 
State that reports from Algeria indicate that 
standing crops will be seriously damaged and 
in some cases destroyed by the clouds of grass- 
hoppers now moving in a northerly direc- 
tion. Ten thousand frances have already been 
placed at the disposal of the general of the 
division for the first expenses incurred in fight- 
ing against the invasion, and steps have been 
taken to secure $38,600 additional for the same 
purpose. Near Biskra 3,200 camels are being 
employed in the transportation of inflammable 
material which is being burned where deposits 
of eggs are found. In all parts of the colony 
men are at work plowing up eggs and destroy- 
ing them. It is hoped that the energetic meas- 
uses being taken will prevent a now menaced 
catastrophe. The Algerian wheat crop of 1898 
was estimated at 24,118,000 bushels. The ex- 
ports of cereals from the colony during 1897 
were as follows, intons: Wheat, 54,178; corn, 
971; barley, 33,492; oats, 32,781; flour, 2,826. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
Weregret to learn that a decision, handed 
down by Judge Lacombe, reopens the Fayer- 
weather will by which some five million dollars 
was bequeathed to educational institutions. 
THE Board of Visitors appointed to inspect 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8S. Von. X. No. 236. 
the U. S. Naval Academy has handed in a re- 
port recommending the expenditure of $461,000 
on buildings and land. 
£10,000, half given by an anonymous bene- 
factor and half appropriated from university 
funds, will be used for the erection of a patho- 
logical laboratory at Oxford. 
YALE University, at its recent commencement, 
conferred 599 degrees as follows: B.A., 294; 
Ph.B., 186; C.D.S.,22; B.F.A.,2; LL.B., 65; 
M.D.,7; M.A., 34; D.C.L., 3; C.H.,1; M.E., 
8; M.S., 2; Ph.D., 30. 
THE Rey. George Harris, D.D., professor of 
theology at the Andover Theological Seminary, 
has been elected President of Amherst College. 
CHANCELLOR MACLEAN, of the University of 
Nebraska, has been offered the presidency of 
the University of Iowa. 
Dr. E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS has been re- 
elected Superintendent of the Chicago public 
schools. 
Dr. JAMES Ewine has been appointed pro- 
fessor of pathology in the Cornell University 
Medical College, and in the University assist- 
ant professors have been appointed as follows : 
Dr. John Gifford in forestry, Dr. B. F. Kings- 
bury in histology and embryology, and M. V. 
Slingerland in entomology. 
THE following appointments and promotions 
have also been made: Charles W. Wardner, 
Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins), to be professor of 
physics in Williams College; H. G. Byers, 
Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins), to be professor of 
chemistry in the State University of Washing- 
ton; Alfred H. Seal, Ph.D. (Pennsylvania), to 
be professor of chemistry in Girard College, 
Philadelphia; J. F. Collins, now curator of the 
herbarium in Brown University, to be instruc- 
tor in botany ; Howard Opdike, now instructor, 
to be assistant professor of mathematics at 
Union College; S. Alfred Mitchell, Ph.D. 
(Johns Hopkins), to be tutor in astronomy in 
Columbia University ; Dr. Oliver L. Fassig, to 
be instructor in climatalogy in Johns Hopkins 
University, and Miss Robinson, of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, to be instructor in biology in 
Vassar College. 
