APRIL 5, 1901.] 
News has been received from the eclipse ex- 
pedition sent out by the Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology to observe the total eclipse 
of the sun at Sumatra. Professor Burton and 
his assistants took the Dutch steamship Koni- 
gin Regentes at Genoa on March 12, and found 
on this steamer an official expedition sent out 
by the Netherlands Government. All the in- 
struments were safely placed on board the 
steamer, which goes directly to Padang. 
THE ground occupied by the building of the 
U.S. Fish Commission, at Washington, has been 
granted to the Baltimore and Potomac Rail- 
road, and the building will be removed to an- 
other part of the Mall, west of its present po- 
sition. The railway company must pay $40,- 
000 towards the cost of rebuilding. 
Ir has been announced that Mr. J. P. Morgan 
was the donor not only of the Tiffany collection 
of gems and pearls, but also of the Bement 
collection of minerals and meteorites to the 
American Museum of Natural History. 
THE Department of Zoology and Entomology 
of the Ohio State University has secured a very 
interesting and valuable collection of Ohio 
birds through the generosity of Mr. W. L. 
Hayden, of Columbus. It includes representa- 
tives of a large number of native birds and is 
noteworthy from the fact that the different 
species are shown with their natural surround- 
- ings, nests, eggs and often young, as well as old, 
birds of both sexes. Some particularly striking 
effects are produced with the nests of owls and 
woodpeckers included in sections of the trees 
in which they were constructed. The collec- 
tion is arranged in forty-two handsome cases, 
finished in oak, and is stated to have cost over 
one thousand dollars in its preparation, not 
counting the time, ingenuity and skill which 
Mr. Hayden has lavished upon it. 
THE father and uncle of Dr. Walter Myers, 
whose life was sacrificed in the study of yellow 
fever, have given £1,500 to the Liverpool 
School of Tropical Medicine for the prosecution 
of its investigations. 
PROFESSER WILLIAM OSLER of Johns Hopkins 
University, has been invited by the manage- 
ment of the Congress of Tuberculosis, to be held 
in London at the end of July, to arrange for 
SCIENCE. 
507 
American representation. Among those who 
have already signified their intention to be 
present are Professor Truedeau, of Massachu- 
setts, Professor Solly, of Colorado, Dr. Herman 
Biggs, of New York, Dr. J. G. Adami, of Mon- 
treal, and Professor McKachran, of Quebec. 
THe American Academy of Political and 
Social Science will hold its fifth annual meeting 
at Philadelphia on April 12th and 13th. Pro- 
fessor Samuel McCune Lindsay has been elected 
president of the Association by the directors in 
succession to Professor EK. J. James, of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, who was the founder of the 
Academy and its first president, from the date 
of organization in 1889, until January 1, 1901. 
A CIVIL service examination for the position 
of aid in the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 
with a salary of $725, will be held on April 
23d. The subjects are mathematics, astronomy, 
physics, surveying, geography and modern 
languages. 
Mr. MaArcont has won the suit brought 
against him for $100,000 damages and to re- 
strain him from further use of wireless tele 
graphy by the assignee of Professor A. E. 
Dolbear. 
SENATOR SLATER has introduced a bill, at Al- 
bany, appropriating $400,000 for the use of the 
Palisade Commission in purchasing the Pali- 
sades. The first section of the bill is as follows : 
The sum of $400,000, or so much thereof as may be 
necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys 
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the 
use of the Commissioners of the Palisades Inter-State 
Park, to be expended in acquiring land lying be- 
tween the top of the steep edge of the Palisades of the 
Hudson River and the high-water line of said river, 
and lands lying under water and riparian right ad- 
jacent thereto between Fort Lee and Piermont Creek, 
in such name or names and under such conditions as 
the commission may deem necessary or wise, and for 
such other purposes as the commission may deem 
necessary and proper in carrying out the purposes and 
intent of Chapter 170 of the Laws of 1900. 
THE Ways and Means Committee of the As- 
sembly of New York State has reported the 
bill of Assemblyman Snyder, appropriating 
$250,000 for the purchase of forest lands for 
the State preserves. Of the sum appropriated 
$200,000 is to be expended in the purchase of 
