292 SCIENCE. 
amount of carbon monoxid in the end product 
is increased. This is interpreted to mean that 
the primary combustion product at 500° is not 
exclusively at least carbon dioxid. Dixon is 
of the opinion that both carbon monoxid and 
carbon dioxid are formed at 500° and that in 
each instance there is sufficient heat of forma- 
tion to occasion a secondary reaction, in the 
one case with oxygen, in the other with carbon. 
THE third paper is on the action of nitrogen 
monoxid on nitrogen dioxid, in which the con- 
clusion is drawn from experiments that, con- 
trary to the views of Lunge and others that 
N,O; cannot exist in the gaseous state, NO and 
NO,do unite to a limited degree to an un- 
stable compound, whichis the more dissociated 
the higher the temperature. The reaction 
N.O,= NO -+ NO, is reversible and the prop- 
erties of the mixed gases thus accounted for. 
In the same number of the Proceedings of 
the Chemical Society Szarvasy and Messinger 
describe a new compound of arsenic and tellu- 
rium. Proceeding from the fact that the dif- 
ference in molecular weight of the arsenic com- 
pounds of the sixth group, As,O,, As,S,, As,Se, 
is 15-16 units, they calculated that the tellu- 
rium compound should have the formula As;Te,, 
and accordingly fused together the components 
in this proportion under pressure and deter- 
mined the properties and vapor density of the 
resulting compound. 
dp Wis Jel 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
PRESIDENT SCHURMAN, of the Philippine 
Commission, has returned to the United States. 
Dr. A. B. Meyer, Director of the Dresden 
Museums, is now in the United States on a 
commission from the Saxon government to in- 
spect American museums before the new build- 
ings are erected at Dresden. He is accom- 
panied by Professor P. Wallot, who is one of 
the international commission of architects 
selected to decide on the plans of the Univer- 
sity of California in accordance with Mrs. 
Hearst’s arrangements. 
TuHE Duke of Bedford has been elected Pres- 
ident of the Zoological Society of London, in 
the room of the late Sir William Flower. 
[N. S. Vou. X. No. 242. 
THE Baly gold medal of the Royal College of 
Physicians, London, awarded for distinguished 
services to physiology, has been conferred upon 
Dr. C. §S. Sherrington, F.R.S., professor of 
physiology in University College, Liverpool. 
Mr. G. A. Sronrer, formerly Geographical 
Surveyer for New South Wales, has been ap- 
pointed specialist in mining under the Geolog- 
ical Survey of India. 
Mr. Eustace Gurney, of New College, has 
been appointed by Oxford University to the 
University Table at the Naples Biological Sta- 
tion. 
AN aid in cryptogamic botany in the Smith- 
sonian Institution, at a salary of $75 a month, 
will be appointed as a result of a civil service 
examination to be held on November 5th and 
6th. 
Dr. J. WEINGARTEN, professor of mathe- 
matical physics in the Technical School of 
Berlin, has been elected a foreign member of 
the Accademia dei Lincei at Rome. 
CoLONEL HEINRICH HARTL, professor of 
geography in the University of Vienna, has been 
made an honorary doctor by the University. 
PROFESSOR GUIDO CorA, of Rome, has been 
elected a member of the Italian Council of 
Geodesy. 
W. D. Hunter, Assistant Entomologist of the 
Experiment Station of the University of Ne- 
braska, has been given a month’s leave of ab- 
sence in order to act as Special Agent for the 
Division of Entomology of the United, States 
Department of Agriculture. He is to investi- 
gate the locusts of Minnesota and North Da- 
kota. 
AVEN NELSON, Botanist of the Wyoming Sta- 
tion, left Laramie early in June on an extended 
botanical survey of the Yellowstone National 
Park and the adjacent forestry reserves. In 
addition to large collections of the entire flora 
a careful study of the forage plants and range 
conditions is contemplated. 
We learn from the Botanical Gazette that the 
botanical plans of the University of Iowa for 
the summer are as follows: Professor B. Shimek 
will be engaged in special studies of the forestry 
problems in Iowa, under the direction of the 
