A.PEIL 3, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



511 



A BESOLTJTION has been adopted by the 

 Senate permitting Prof. Simon Newcomb to ac- 

 cept the decoration of the cross of an oflScer of 

 the Legion of Honor, and Prof. Asaph Hall that 

 of chevalier, respectively, conferred on them 

 by the French Republic, on the occasion of the 

 centenary establishment of the French Insti- 

 tute, for services to the French Academy of 

 Sciences as corresponding members. 



The Senate Committee on Public Buildings 

 and Grounds has reported favorably the bill pro- 

 viding for the erection of an additional iire- 

 proof building for the National Museum. 



The department of geology and geography 

 of Harvard University has placed on exhibition 

 in Cambridge the Gardner collection of photo- 

 graphs, which consists of more than 3,000 

 mounted photographs and about 1,500 stere- 

 opticon views of geological subjects and land- 

 scapes, mainly purchased from the income of a 

 fund established in 1892 by George A. Gardner, 

 of Boston. 



Mb. M. a. Lawson, government botanist in 

 India and formerly professor at Oxford, died at 

 Madras on February 14th. 



Macmillan & Co. announce an English trans- 

 lation, by D. E. Jones and G. A. Scholt, of the 

 Miscellaneous Papers of Heinrich Hertz, with 

 an introduction by Prof. Lenard. 



Nature states that Mr. Edwin Wheeler has 

 presented to the Natural History Museum a 

 valuable series of water-color drawings of fungi, 

 2449 in number. 



It is reported in the daily papers that locusts 

 are doing much damage in South Africa. In 

 Natal a ' chief locust officer ' has been appointed 

 and $35,000 has been spent in the attempts to 

 check the plague. 



The German naturalist John Gundlach has 

 died in Havana. According to the New York 

 Sun, Gundlach was born at Marburg, Hesse - 

 Cassel, in 1810, where his father was a professor 

 in the University. He published in his native 

 country some notable articles on natural history. 

 The wealthy Cuban, Mr. Booth, proposed to him 

 to come to Cuba and write a book on the natural 

 history of the island. Mr. Gundlach accepted, 

 and in 1839 he landed at Havana, and never 



returned to Europe, except for short visits. In 

 1844 he began his collection of Cuba's fauna, 

 now preserved at the institute in Havana, and 

 valued at over $200,000. He completed it in 

 1856. In 1873 and 1875 he went to Puerto Rico, 

 to 'gather final materials for his book on the 

 fauna of both the Antilles. Mr. Gundlach was 

 also the author of a work on Cuban ornithology. 



Dr. a. W. Beketon, professor of botany in 

 the University of St. Petersburg, has retired, 

 owing to ill health. 



Nature for March 12th and 19th contains ex- 

 tended and appreciative articles reviewing the 

 recent work of the U. S. Geological Survey. 



At the anniversary meeting of the London 

 Chemical Society, on March 26th, the President, 

 Mr. A. G. Vernon Harcourt, was expected to 

 give the annual Presidential address before the 

 Society. 



Me. Bebnaed Richaedson Green, who suc- 

 ceeds General Casey as Superintendent of the 

 construction of the Congressional Library build- 

 ing, has been his chief assistant in all his great 

 engineering enterprises, and was responsible 

 for many of the brilliant and novel devices em- 

 ployed in the critical task of completing the 

 Washington Monument, and replacing its old 

 foundation by a new one. He is a graduate of 

 Harvard University and is Recording Secretary 

 of the Philosophical Society of Washington. 



The nomination of John J. Brice, of California, 

 for Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries was con- 

 firmed by the Senate on March 25th. 



A EECENT act of the British Parliament pro- 

 vides for the opening of the Government Mu- 

 seums for a portion of each Sunday. It provides 

 that no employee shall be required to be on 

 duty more than six days in the week and that 

 those who have scruples against Sunday service 

 shall be excused from attendance on that day. 



Mr. Hieam S. Maxim has written a series of 

 articles on the evolution and manufacture of 

 Automatic Firing Guns, the first of which ap- 

 pears in the current issue of Industries and Iron. 



Mr. Thomas A. Edison has invented an im- 

 proved form of the fluoroscope proposed by Prof. 

 Salvioni, and at about the same time by Prof. 

 McGee, of Princeton University. In this instru- 



