838 
Davip SHEPARD HoLMAN, the inventor of 
accessories to the microscope and other devices, 
died on May 13th. He was for a long time 
actuary of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 
for which he frequently lectured. Recently he 
has been an expert in the laboratory of the 
Atlantic Refining Company. 
THERE will be a civil service examination on 
June 3d for the position of soil analyst in the 
Bureau of Soils, Department of Agriculture, at 
a salary of $750. The subjects of the exam- 
‘ination are physical chemistry, soil analysis, 
soil physics and German. 
THE Godard and Bertillon prizes of the 
Anthropological Society of Paris will be awarded 
during the present year. The Godard prize 
(500 fr.) will be given for the best memoir on 
an anthropological subject, and the Bertillon 
prize (500 fr.) for the best memoir on a subject 
concerned with demography. Manuscripts or 
publications in competition for the prizes 
should be in the hands of the secretary of the 
Anthropological Society (15 rue de 1’Ecole de 
Médicine, Paris) not later than July 11, 1901. 
THE Federation of the Agricultural Unions 
of Italy has decided to offer an international 
prize of the value of about $200 to be awarded 
to the person who discovers and makes public 
the best method for obtaining exact and con- 
stant results in the determination of the fine- 
ness of the flowers of sulphur and of mixtures 
of sulphur and copper sulphate. Competitors 
must send in their papers in a sealed envelope 
to the head office of the Federation (Ufficio 
direttivo della Federazione Italiana dei Con- 
sorzi agrari, Piacenza, Italy) before March 1, 
1902. The papers will be examined by a special 
commission to be named by the Reale Accademia 
dei Lincei, Rome. 
THE extensive herbarium of the late Dr. T. 
Bernard Brinton has been presented to the 
Botanical Garden of the University of Penn- 
sylvania. 
CABLEGRAMS to the daily papers report that 
the observations of the solar eclipse on the 17th 
instant were only partially successful, the 
sun being more or less obscured by clouds. 
The corona was of the expected minimum type, 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Von. XIII. No. 334. 
being more diffuse and less definite than in the 
case of the eclipse a year ago. 
A TELEGRAM was received on May 16th, at 
the Harvard College Observatory, from Pro- 
fessor R. H. Tucker, Lick Observatory, stating 
that Comet Queenstown was observed by Dr. 
R. G. Aitken, May 157.6668 Greenwich Mean 
Time in R. A. 5° 38™ 255.8 and Dec. + 8° 52/ 
WAY, 
New YorK UNIVERSITY’s Hall of Fame will 
be dedicated on May 30th with elaborate cere- 
monies. The different tablets will be unveiled 
and addresses will be made. Professor B. L. 
Robinson, of Harvard University, and Professor 
B. D. Halsted, of Rutgers College, will unveil 
the tablet to Asa Gray, and Professor R. H. 
Thurston the tablet to Eli Whitney. The tablet 
to S. F. B. Morse has been assigned to the 
American Institute of Electrical Engineers, to 
be represented by Carl Hering, president, who 
will associate with him the president-elect. 
The tablet to Robert Fulton will be unveiled 
by James R. Croes, president, and Charles 
Warren Hunt, secretary, of the American So- 
ciety of Civil Engineers. It has not yet been 
announced who will unveil the tablet to the 
memory of Audubon. 
ACCORDING to a preliminary program, issued 
by the American Society of Electrical Engin- 
eers, the summer meeting of the Institute will 
open on August 14th, when a formal reception 
willbe held in New York City. It is planned to 
spend the two following days in visits to the elec- 
trical works in the neighborhood, and on Sunday 
to go to Albany, traveling in part by boat up the 
Hudson River. On August 19th, the works of 
the General Electrical Company at Schenectady 
will be visited, after which the party will pro- 
ceed by special train to Buffalo. It is proposed 
to hold the general meeting at Buffalo on Tues- 
day morning and to visit the Exposition in the 
afternoon, On the three following days the 
morning sessions will be devoted to the reading 
and discussion of papers, August 22d will, if 
possible, be devoted to an excursion to Niagara 
Falls, where the electrical works will be visited. 
The various sub-stations at Buffalo will also be 
open to members. The closing meeting will 
probably be held on August 24th. 
