598 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
Tur National Academy of Sciences will hold 
its stated annual meeting at Washington on 
April 16th, 17th and 18th. 
THE spring meeting of the Council of the 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science will be held in the Assembly Hall of 
the Cosmos Club, Washington, on Wednesday, 
April 17th, at 4.30 p. m. 
Dr. GeoRGE Dayrpson, professor of geog- 
raphy in the University of California, has been 
elected a correspondent of the Paris Academy 
of Sciences. 
Proressor F. G. Hesse, who holds the chair 
of mechanical engineering in the University of 
California, was offered a banquet at San Fran- 
cisco on March 29th to celebrate his twenty-five 
years of service in the University of California. 
About 150 of his friends and former students 
were present and speeches were made by Pro- 
fessor Joseph Le Conte and others. 
A PORTRAIT of Dr. W. W. Keen, professor of 
surgery in the Jefferson Medical College, Phila- 
delphia, has been presented to the institution 
by his colleagues and students. Dr. Keen, as 
we have already noticed, has been granted a 
long leave of absence for travel abroad. 
Tue fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Abraham 
Jacobi’s doctorate was celebrated at the New 
York Academy of Medicine on April 3d. Dr. 
Jacobi was introduced by Dr. R. F. Weir, 
the president of the Academy, and read a paper 
on ‘German Medical Text-books of Half a Cen- 
tury Ago.’ 
PROFESSOR J. MARK BALDWIN, of Princeton 
University, has sailed for Europe to supervise 
the publication of the second volume of the 
‘Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology,’ 
which is printed by the Oxford press, and to 
arrange for the translation of the work into 
foreign languages. It is expected that the first 
volume will be published in a week or two. 
Dr. J. A. BERGSTROM, associate professor of 
psychology and pedagogy in the University of 
Indiana, has been given leave of absence in 
order that he may study the school systems in 
Germany and Sweden. 
PROFESSOR GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT was 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 328. 
given a reception on April 4th, by the students 
of Oberlin College, on the occasion of his re- 
turn from his geological trip round the world. 
E. R. Cumines, of the department of geology 
of the University of Indiana, has been given 
leave of absence in order to carry on his studies 
at the Johns Hopkins University. 
Mr. CHARLES P. STEINMETZ has been nom- 
inated by the Council of the American Institute 
of Electrical Engineers for president. In the 
ballot of members Mr. Steinmetz received 
seventy-six votes, Mr. L. B. Stillwell sixty five 
and Professor M. I. Pupin forty-four. The 
Institute will hold a conversazione at Columbia 
University on April 12th. 
M. Faye has been appointed president of the 
Council of the Paris Observatory for the pres- 
ent year. 
M. SapatiEr, of Toulouse, has been elected 
a correspondent in the section of chemistry at. 
the Paris Academy of Sciences. 
THE Midland Railway Company, of Great. 
Britain, is sending two engineers, Messrs. 
Seeley and Woollinscroft, to the United States 
to study American railway methods, including 
the use of electricity. 
Mr. VAUGHAN CoRNISH has returned, as we 
learn from the London Times, from an expedi- 
tion in search of snow waves in Quebec, Mani- 
toba, the Northwest Territories and British 
Columbia. These waves were found to be well 
developed on frozen rivers and lakes and on the 
open prairie, where photographs and measure- 
ments were taken. They are produced with- 
out the intervention of any obstruction, and 
sometimes occur in groups or trains of waves 
comprising 100 succeeding ridges. Their move- 
ment is sufficiently rapid to be readily visible. 
Tn certain conditions of the snow true ripples are 
also formed, which are similar to the ripples 
produced by wind in loose, dry sand. In both 
ripples and waves the steeper face is on the lee 
side. In moist or coherent snow, such as 
usually falls in England, the wind carves the 
surface into ridges, which have their steep face 
on the windward side. 
Mr. WILLIAM KENT, of New York City, 
author of ‘Kent’s Mechanical Engineers’ Note 
