600 
Special interest, owing to the small increase in 
the population in recent years. In the census 
taken five years ago the population of France 
was 38,517,975. 
THE Navy Department for some time has 
been giving attention to the subject of wireless 
telegraphy, with a view of ascertaining how 
far it can be practically applied to the naval 
service, and Secretary Long has appointed a 
special board of officers to make a thorough in- 
quiry on the subject. The board consists of 
Captain Chadwick, Lieutenant Powellson and 
Lieutenant Commander Hodgson. The meet- 
ing of these officers will take place at Newport, 
and it is expected that their conclusions will 
determine to what extent the wireless system 
can be utilized for the Navy. 
In order to make the free distribution of 
seeds by the U. 8. Department of Agriculture 
as useful as possible, Secretary Wilson has se- 
cured authority to send out young trees as well 
as seeds. 
THE Senate of Minnesota has passed Sena- 
tor Chilton’s bill prohibiting the marriage of 
insane, epileptic and idiotic persons, and re- 
quiring a medical certificate of all applicants 
for marriage licenses. 
THE American Social Science Association 
will hold its general annual meeting at Wash- 
ington, beginning on Monday evening, April 
15th, and continuing four days. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
Ir is said that the litigation over the Lamson 
estate, bequeathed several years ago to Yale 
University, has ceased and the University will 
at once receive about $450,000. Of this sum 
$150,000 is to be used for an auditorium and 
the balance for the endowment of professorships 
in Greek, Latin and English. 
Ir has been announced that the donor of the 
$200,000 to the University of Pennsylvania for 
a new physical laboratory is Mr. Randolph 
Morgan, of Phitadelphia, one of the trustees. 
The laboratory will be known as the Morgan 
Laboratory of Physics. 
THE senate of Cambridge University has ac- 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. XIII. No. 328. 
cepted a tender for the erection of the new 
botany schools at a cost of over $100,000. 
THE trustees of Harvard University have 
purchased about 400 acres of land near Centre 
Harbor, on Squam Lake, in New Hampshire, 
to be used as a camp where surveying will be 
taught during the summer months. 
A ROYAL commission is to be appointed to 
enquire into the question of university educa- 
tion in Ireland. 
THE Committee of Fifteen, appointed by the 
National Council of Education in 1898, to con- 
sider and report upon the question of a national 
university at Washington, will hold a meeting 
to formulate its final report, at Columbian Uni- 
versity, Washington, on Thursday, May 23d, 
and following days. It will be remembered 
that the preliminary report of the Committee 
was adverse to the establishment of a national 
university, in the usual use in which the word 
‘university’ is used ; but it has in contempla- 
tion the development of a plan to make system- 
atic use of the resources of the Government 
at Washington for research and investigation 
by university students. 
THE courses in medicine for women, in con- 
nection with the University of St. Petersburg, 
have been closed indefinitely, owing to the re- 
cent riots in that city. 
Dr. G. A. MILLER, instructor in mathematics 
in Cornell University during the past four years, 
has just accepted an assistant professorship in 
the Leland Stanford, Jr., University, and will 
leave for his new field of work soon after the 
close of the Cornell Summer School in which 
he takes part. Readers of ScIENCE will recall 
that only a few months ago, Dr. Miller was 
awarded the prize offered by the Royal Acad- 
emy of Sciences of Cracow for the solution of a 
question in groups, this competition being open 
to the world. 
Dr. C. N. MecALLIsTER, assistant in the Yale 
psychological laboratory, has been appointed 
lecturer in experimental pedagogy at Yale Uni- 
versity. 
THE Trustees of Ohio State University have 
elected John A. Bownocker professor of inor- 
ganic geology and Charles S. Prosser professor 
of geology and head of the department. 
