Marcu 1, 1901.] 
his last illness was brought on by too close study 
and attention to the work of his department. 
THE House of Representatives has agreed to 
the Senate amendments to the Agricultural Ap- 
propriation Bill, reorganizing the Department 
of Agriculture in the direction explained in 
recent issues of this JOURNAL. 
THE following amendment to the General 
Deficiency Appropriation Bill was introduced 
into the House of Representatives on February 
21st, by Mr. Ray, of New York: 
That facilities for study and research in the Gov- 
ernment Departments, the Library of Congress, the 
National Museum, the Zoological Park, the Bureau 
of Ethnology, the Fish Commission, the Botanic Gar- 
dens and similar institutions hereafter established 
shall be afforded to scientific investigators and to duly 
qualified individual students and graduates of insti- 
tutions of learning in the several States and Terri- 
tories, as well asin the District of Columbia, under 
such rules and restrictions as the heads of the Depart- 
ments and Bureaus mentioned may prescribe. 
A joint resolution to the same effect was in- 
troduced in the Senate on February 18th, by 
Mr. Perkins and referred to the Committee on 
Education and Labor. 
Mme AzouLay has endowed, at the Uni- 
versity of Lyons, a lectureship for foreign men 
of science. Professor Forel, of the University 
of Zurich, lectured on this foundation on Janu- 
ary 27th, and Professor Schreiner, director of 
the observatory at Potsdam, is expected to 
lecture next month. 
Girts for public libraries, conditional on their 
maintenance, have been made by Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie, to the following towns: Schenectady, 
N. Y., $50,000; Marion, Ind., $50,000; Gales- 
burg, Ill., $50,000; Mount Vernon, N. Y., $35,- 
000; Cumberland, Md., $25,000 and Port Jer- 
vis, N. Y., $20,000. 
THE Royal Institution, London, has received 
gifts of £50 each from Sir Frederick Abel and 
Professor Dewar for the fund for the promo- 
tion of experimental research at low tempera- 
tures. 
A TELEGRAM was received at the Harvard 
College Observatory, on February 22d, from Dr. 
T. D. Anderson, at Edinburgh, stating that a 
SCIENCE. 
307 
new star had been discovered by him in the con- 
stellation Perseus. The position is R. A. 3" 24™ 
24s and Dec. + 43° 34’. Its magnitude on Feb- 
ruary 21st was 2.7 and its color bluish-white. 
This star was observed at the Harvard College 
Observatory through clouds on February 22d. 
It was then first magnitude. A photograph of 
this region taken on February 19th showed that 
it was then fainter than the magnitude 10.5. 
This result was confirmed by photographs taken 
on February 2, 6, 8 and 18, 1901. 
WHILE making an examination of the copper 
deposits in the vicinity of La Barranea, Sonora, 
Mexico, Mr. J. Owen, assistant to Dr. E. T. 
Dumble, found two deposits of torquoise. They 
occur in what is regarded as the equivalent of 
the volcanic complex described as ‘ Trincheras.’ 
The deposits at Turquoise, Ariz., are in similar 
rocks. 
MiIcHIGAN has long been known as a pro- 
ducer of copper andiron, and, more recently, 
as a source of salt supply for the West and the 
middle West. Still more recently large quanti- 
ties of the secondary product of salt—caustic 
soda, soda ash and sodium carbonate have been 
sent out from the various plants in the neigh- 
borhood of Detroit. This has stimulated the 
search for coal, and Michigan coal, mainly from 
the Saginaw Valley, isnow largely used. Within 
the past year attention has been called to the 
numerous deposits of marl and clay suitable 
for the manufacture of Portland cement, in 
Southern Michigan, and this interest is being 
rapidly developed. \ 
THE seventy-third annual meeting of the Ger- 
man Men of Science and Physicians will be held 
this yearat Hamburg from the 27th to the 29th 
of September. 
THE French Association for the Advancement 
of Science will hold its annual meeting this year 
at Ajaccio, in Corsica, probably about the mid- 
dle of September, and will be presided over by 
Dr Hamy. 
THE British Medical Journal states that an 
Italian Society of Biology has recently been 
founded on the initiative of Professors Albertoni, 
Antonelli, Bizzozero, Bonome, Borzi Briosi, 
Bufalini, Camerano, Celli, Cervello, Chiarugi, 
