128 
sity, was elected President for the ensuing year. 
The Council’s report, which was adopted, stated 
that the number of members on the register was 
3,312 compared with 3,185 at the last annual 
meeting. The President, in the course of his 
‘address, dealt with the rapid exhaustion of 
British coalfields and the serious increase of 
smoke pollution. The remedies were broadly 
divided into two classes: first, improved appli- 
ances for the combustion of raw coal and distri- 
bution of the air supply in furnaces ; and, sec- 
ondly, the transformation of the raw coal into 
smokeless fuel by preliminary treatment. The 
effects of the natural development of certain 
industries on the markets for by-products were 
next considered. It was pointed out that if 
any considerable part of the 137 million tons of 
coal which is at present burned in the raw con- 
dition were to be converted into gas, coke and 
ammonia an altogether new condition of things 
would arise which would need to be foreseen 
and provided for. A careful study of the whole 
subject has led to the conclusion that the 
natural outlet for the coke and pitch would be 
found in the manufacture of fuel briquettes, 
and the President advocated the turning of the 
very best technical skill to the perfecting of the 
manufacture. He believed that with skill and 
enterprise it would be possible to make bri- 
quettes exactly suited for every purpose from 
boiler firing to domestic cooking. As a means 
of bringing all of the different interests which 
are concerned in this matter into line, it was 
suggested that the Society might arrange for 
the holding of a conference on the subject of 
fuel and smoke, at which the leading technical 
societies, as well as the actual industries con- 
cerned, should be fully represented. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
O. H6LTERHOFF, a banker of Honnet, has 
bequeathed his property valued at about 1,000,- 
000 Marks to the University at Bonn. 
Mrs. Joun L. NEWBERRY, of Detroit, Mich., 
has given to Western Reserve University, 
Cleveland, O., $2,500 to found the Handy 
philosophical prizes, in honor of her father, 
Mr. J. P. Handy, of Cleveland. 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. X. No. 239. 
PROFESSOR BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER, of Cor- 
nell University, has accepted the presidency of 
the University of California. 
Mr. E. A. Mincuin, Fellow of Merton Col- 
lege, Oxford University, has been elected to 
the Jodrell professorship of zoology in Univer- 
sity College, London, in succession to Professor 
W. F. R. Weldon, who, it will be remembered, 
was recently called to Oxford. 
Dr. A. Fick, professor of physiology at 
Wiirzburg, has retired. The chair was offered 
to Professor W. Biedermann, but he has refused 
to leave Jena. 
Dr. B. PETER has been made associate pro- 
fessor of astronomy at Leipzig and sub-director 
of the observatory. 
Dr. A. PHILIPPSON, geography, and Dr. K. 
Monnichmeyer, astronomy, docents at Bonn, 
have been made titular professors. 
AN associate professorship for physical an- 
thropology has been established at Zurich and 
filled by the election of Dr. R. Martin. 
AT the University of Paris courses have been 
authorized by M. Guignard on the application 
of chemistry to brewing and distilling; by M. 
Loisel on comparative embryology, and by M. 
Martel on speleology or subterranean geog- 
raphy. 
THERE are during the present summer 
semester 4,997 students matriculated at the 
University of Berlin, which is an increase of 
349 as compared with last year. There are 
655 foreigners. 
ACCORDING to the Hochschul-Nachrichten 22 % 
of the professors in the German universities are 
engaged in lecturing or laboratory supervision 
2to 6 hours a week and 51% from 7 to 12 
hours. Of the associate professors 60% are en- 
gaged from 2 to 6 hours per week and of the 
privatdocents 82%. Only 4% of all privatdo- 
cents are engaged in lecturing or laboratory 
supervision more than 12 hoursa week. The 
leisure, accompanied it must be admitted by 
poverty, of the German associate professors and 
docents explains in large measure the amount 
of research work accomplished in German 
universities. 
