Maech 27, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



477 



solved not to insure any building in wliich 

 acetylene gas is regularly used. 



A TELEGRAM to the daily papers states that 

 a meteorite, said to be twenty feet in diameter, 

 has fallen on Pine Mountain, which is located on 

 the Kentucky Eiver, about twenty-five miles 

 from Hindman; Ky. A house is said to have 

 been destroyed and the family buried beneath 

 the debris. While no great reliance can be 

 placed on such reports, the one in question per- 

 haps deserves investigation. 



We have received from the publishers J. it. 

 Kern's Verlag, Breslau, and also from the im- 

 porters, Lemcke and Buechner, New York, the 

 first number of a new quarterly journal, Cen- 

 trallblatt fur Anthropologie, Ethnologie imd Urge- 

 sckichte, edited by Dr. G. Buschan, with the co- 

 operation of the leading students of anthropol- 

 ogy, including Dr. D. G. Brinton, Dr. Franz Boas 

 and Dr. W. Hoffman. The present number 

 contains, in additon to a preface by the editor 

 and a short article by Prof. Sergi, reviews of 112 

 books and articles. 



The Cambridge University Press has in pre- 

 paration, as the second volume of the Cambridge 

 Geographical Series, 'The Geographical Distri- 

 bution of Mammals,' by R. Lydekker. 



The Association for Improving the Condition 

 of the Poor has arranged a series of lectures for 

 the promotion of the agricultural, horticultural 

 and dairy interests of Westchester county. At 

 Pleasantville, last week, Mr. George T. Powell 

 spoke on apple culture; Mr. M. V. Slingerland, 

 assistant entomologist. at Cornell University, on 

 insects; Prof. J. W. Sanborn, Lower Gilman ton, 

 N. H., on 'Intensive Methods of Eastern Farm- 

 ing,' and Mrs. Ann B. Comstock, of Ithaca, on 

 flowers and their insect friends. In the neigh- 

 borhood of places such as Ithaca, where agricul- 

 tural instruction is given, improvement in 

 methods of farming and gardening has taken 

 place, and it is the object of the Association to 

 exttend such instruction more widely. 



It is reported that platinum in quantities 

 sufficient to repay mining has been discovered at 

 Swift Water, a small camp at the foot of Buffalo 

 Peek, Colo. 



M. Paul de Humy, a French naval officer, 



has invented a process for solidifying petroleum. 

 It is said that common oil has been converted 

 into a solid block as hard as anthracite coal, 

 and that it will burn slowly, giving off intense 

 hejat. A ton of this fuel is said to represent 

 thirty times its weight of coal. 



The Paris Society of Geography, which al- 

 ready possesses a large collection of photo- 

 graphs, requests travelers, missionaries and 

 others to send geographical and ethnographical 

 photographs, especially such as are taken in re- 

 mote and partly unexplored regions. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The annual report of President Eliot, of Har- 

 vard University, states that the following gifts 

 and bequests have been made to Harvard Uni- 

 versity during the past four years: 



1891-92 $516,532.20 



1892-93 551,136.10 



1893-94 182,890.32 



1894-95 171,060.92 



Miss Mary E. Garrett, of Baltimore, has 

 endowed a second travelling fellowship of the 

 value of $500 at Bryn Mawr College. The 

 holder, who must have pursued graduate studies 

 for one year at Bryn Mawr College, is enabled 

 to study for one year at some foreign univer- 

 sity. 



, There are this year 160 applicants for the 

 twenty-four fellowships annually awarded by 

 Columbia University — 75 in the School of Po- 

 litical Science, 42 in the School of Philosophy, 

 and 43 in the School of Pure Science. The can- 

 didates in the natural and exact sciences are 

 distributed as follows : Mathematics, 5; me- 

 chanics, 1; astronomy, 2; physics, 7; electricity, 

 2; chemistry, 6; geology, 5; botany, 5; zoology, 

 9; physiology, 1; psychology, 4. 



The convocation of the University of the 

 State of New York will be held on the last Wed- 

 nesday, Thursday and Friday of June. On Wed- 

 nesday afternoon the subject for discussion will 

 be ' Aim and Methods in Science Study in 

 Schools below the College,' in which Prof. C. 

 B. Scott, Oswego Normal School; Prof. S. H. 

 Gage, Cornell University, and Prof. C. W. 

 Dodge, University of Rochester, will take part. 



