March 13, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



403 



engaged in the study of these sciences, and a 

 number of new members have been elected and 

 nominated with a view to the organization of 

 this section. The Academy now meets in three 

 sections — Astronomy and Physics, Biology, and 

 Geology and Mineralogy — which take up the 

 evenings of the first three Mondays of the 

 month. The fourth Monday will be alloted to 

 the new section. At the first meeting, which 

 will be on April 27th, papers will be presented 

 ■ by Drs. Giddings, Cattell, Farrand and Boas. 

 For the May meetings a philological program . 

 will be arranged. 



The annual exhibition and reception of the 

 New York Academy of Sciences will be held on 

 the evening of March 26th at the American 

 Museum of Natural History. The two exhibi- 

 tions that have preceded have been very suc- 

 cessful both from a scientific and from a social 

 point of view, and the program and arrange- 

 ments of the present meeting promise an even 

 more notable success. Many of the exhibits, 

 representing the progress of science during the 

 past year, are sent from places outside New 

 York, and members of scientific societies in 

 other cities will be welcomed at the reception. 

 Invitations may be obtained from the chairman 

 of the executive committee, Prof. 11. F. Osborn, 

 Columbia University. 



President Cleveland has been invited to 

 formally open the International Commercial 

 Museum at Philadelphia in the autumn. 



The British Medical Jownal states that in 

 the course of a communication to the Paris 

 Soci6t6 de Biologic on Feb. 22d, M. Chante- 

 messe said that last June he had succeeded in 

 immunising several horses against the virus of 

 typhoid fever. He had obtained the serum of 

 such strength, that one-fifth of a drop inoccu- 

 lated into a guinea-pig twenty-fours before in- 

 fection protected it against a dose of typhoid 

 virus fatal to animals not previously injected 

 with the protective serum. It was ascertained, 

 also, that injections of the serum produced no 

 injurious eflects upon a healthy man. M. 

 Chantemesse stated that he had since employed 

 injections of serum in three cases of typhoid 

 fever. The temperature showed a regular fall 

 from the time the first injection was made, and 



seven days after the commencement of the in- 

 jections all three patients were quite free from 

 fever, and had commenced to convalesce. M. 

 Chantemesse added that the cases were not yet 

 sufficiently numerous to permit any trustworthy 

 conclusion to be drawn. 



At a meeting of the board of managers of 

 the National Geographic Society, on March 

 6th, Mr. Grip, the minister of Sweden and 

 Norway, asked the Society's assistance in dis- 

 tributing among the inhabitants of arctic Amer- 

 ica sketches of the balloon to be used by Mr. 

 Andree, and explanations in native languages 

 in order ' ' to prepare the populations of those 

 northern tracts for the possible appearance at 

 their places of the balloon and its occupants, 

 partly in order that they may report the bal- 

 loon if they should see it at a distance, and 

 partly to prevent them from doing any harm 

 to its occupants when they descend unex- 

 pectedly." 



Me. W. J. L. Whaeton states in Nature that 

 Captain Balfour, of H. M. S. Penguin, has ob- 

 tained three soundings of over 5,000 fathoms, 

 the deepest being 5,155 fathoms. The positions 

 of the soundings are : 



Depth. 



Lat. S. Long. W. , ' > Nature of bottom. 



Fnis. Feet. 



23° 39' 175.04 5022 30,132 (Wire broke.) 



28° 44' 176.04 5147 30,882 Red clay. 



30° 28' 176.39 5155 30,930 Eed clay. 



The extreme soundings are 450 miles apart, 

 and are separated by areas of considerably less 

 water. The deepest trustworthy sounding here- 

 tofore known is 4655 fathoms near Japan, ob- 

 tained by U. S. S. Tuscarora in 1874. 



Mr. Roy W. Squires goes to Venezuela as a 

 representative of the department of botany of 

 the University of Minnesota and under the 

 auspices of the Orinoco Company. He will 

 make collections in the unexplored mountain 

 regions southeast of Barancas. The region 

 covered will lie considerably south of that vis- 

 ited by previous botanists and a valuable col- 

 lection may be looked for. Mr. Squires will be 

 absent from Minnesota about six months. 



We regret to learn that Dr. Herbert Haviland 

 Field is seriously ill at Zurich and is at present 

 prevented from attending to his work in the 



