O16 
director of the Bacteriological Laboratory of 
the Department of Health. 
COLONEL PETER SmirH MrcuHts, professor of 
natural and experimental philosophy at the 
West Point Military Academy, died on Febru 
ary 16th, of pneumonia. He was born in Scot- 
land in 1839, graduated from West Point in 
1863, and has been professor there since 1871. 
He was the author of a number of scientific and 
other works, including ‘HKlements of Wave 
Motion relating to Sound and Light,’ ‘ Hle- 
ments of Analytical Mechanics,’ ‘Elements of 
Hydro-Mechanics’ and ‘ Practical Astronomy.’ 
Dr. J. H. LINSLeEy, director of the Vermont 
Laboratory of Hygiene, died on February 17th 
at the age of forty-one years. 
THE expedition sent by the U. 8. Naval Ob- 
servatory to observe the eclipse of May 17th 
was expected to leave San Francisco for Manila 
on February 16th. From Manila it will be 
transported to Sumatra by a U.S. warship, and 
headquarters will be established at Padang 
about a month before the occurrence of the 
eclipse. The party includes Professor Skinner, 
of the U. S. Naval Observatory; Professor 
Barnard, of the Yerkes Observatory ; Dr. 
Mitchell, of Columbia University ; Dr. Hum- 
phreys, of the University of Virginia, and Mr, 
Jewell, of the Johns Hopkins University. 
Ir is reported in the N. Y. Evening Post that 
Mr. Marshall A. Saville, of the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History, has made important 
discoveries in the ruins of the Palace of Mitla, 
in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, his excavations 
having disclosed a number of chambers under 
the palace. 
THROUGH the efforts of Mrs. William Bouton, 
the St. Louis Academy of Science has secured a 
fine collection of native and foreign butterflies, 
Mr. J. STANLEY-GARDINER, M.A., fellow of 
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, has 
presented the university with a collection of 
ethnological objects from the Maldive Islands 
and Minikoi Island. 
THE Medical Department of the University of 
Buffalo is in receipt of a gift of $50,000 for the 
purpose of erecting a laboratory to be devoted 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. XIII. No. 321. 
to research work and to be known as the Grat- 
wick Research Laboratory. 
WE learn from foreign exchanges that at a 
recent conference of German biologists, held at 
Berlin, a resolution was passed calling the at- 
tention of the Imperial Government to the im- 
portance of establishing five floating stations on 
the Rhine for the purpose of biological inyesti- 
gation. Great stress was laid on the practical 
advantages which pisciculture would derive 
from these establishments, and it was resolved 
that if the Government failed to provide the 
necessary funds, an appeal should be made to, 
the States of Baden, Bavaria, Alsace-Lorraine, 
Hesse and Prussia. 
PROFESSOR J. A. FLEMING reports that Mr. 
Marconi has succeeded in sending wireless mes- 
sages between St. Catharine’s, Isle of Wight, 
and the Lizard, a distance of two hundred 
miles. 
THE Portuguese Government is sending a 
commission to the Portuguese possessions in 
West Africa to study the sleeping sickness 
which occurs there. 
Ir appears that the plague is increasing in 
Bombay, about 1,000 deaths having occurred 
during the last week of which reports are at 
hand. 
Ir is proposed to hold an Industrial and Poly- 
technic Exhibition in Birmingham during the 
coming summer, with the object of raising funds 
to endow scholarships at the University for the 
benefit of the children of the working classes. 
THE inauguration. of the work of the British 
National Physical Laboratory has been delayed 
by the opposition to the site at Richmond first 
proposed and by the alterations required in 
Bushy House, the building finally granted for 
the laboratory. The report of the executive 
committee for 1900, of which an abstract. is 
given in Nature, describes the building and the 
alterations that are in progress. Bushy House 
itself will be used for the more delicate physical 
measurements; for the engineering work a new 
«building, 80 by 50 feet in area, will be con- 
structed. The work in prospect for the labora- 
tory includes the connection between a magnetic 
quality and the physical, chemical and electrical 
