May 15, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



735 



logical Commission, which is to report to the 

 Secretary for Agriculture. Natural Science in 

 its May number states that : ' ' The Commis- 

 sion has now appointed the following gentle- 

 men to begin the work of surveying and mapping 

 the country: Geologist, G. S. (Jorstorphine, 

 B.Sc. (Edin.), Ph.D. (Munich); Assistant Geo- 

 logists, A. W. Rogers, B.A. (Cantab.), and B. 

 H. L. Schwarz, A.B.C.S. The Commission also 

 intends to publish in Juue a bibliography of 

 South African geology, which has been compiled 

 by Mr. Harry Savmders, the Secretary to the 

 Commission. During the last ten years some 

 £35,000 has been spent by the government of 

 Cape Colony for geological purposes ; but com- 

 plaints have been made that^ although science 

 may have been advanced by the contribution 

 of a scattered paper or two to English publica- 

 tions, or by the enrichment of the British Mu- 

 seum with a skeleton of Pareiasaurus, still the 

 Colony itself has nothing tangible to show. 

 For the present Commission an appropriation 

 of £1,500 has been made for the months of De- 

 cember, 1895 — June, 1896. It is hoped that 

 the future work of the Commission will be car- 

 ried on by annual grants of £2,000. Although 

 South Africa abounds in mining engineers, pros- 

 pectors and such-like practical geologists, of 

 more or less competence, still not much ad- 

 vance in our purely scientific knowledge of its 

 geology has been made since the days of A. G. 

 Bain. The Commission intends to devote its 

 energies purely to the scientific aspects of the 

 science and to steer as clear as possible of the 

 ordinary siseculator. By this means a secure 

 foundation will be laid for the geology of Cape 

 Colony. The Commission will be glad to re- 

 ceive copies of any geological publications, in 

 return for which they offer to forward the re- 

 ports on the geology of the Colony. ' ' 



THE METRIC SYSTEM. 



At the business meeting, held April 18, 1896, 

 the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia discussed 

 certain preambles and resolution in regard to 

 the Metric System. 



After a full debate it was decided that a let- 

 ter ballot be taken on the following preambles 

 and resolution : 



Whereas, The adoption of an international 



system of weights aud measures is a subject of 

 great practical importance, and 



Whereas, The Metric System is the most con- 

 venient general system now in use, and its con- 

 tinued extension indicates that it is the only 

 existing system of weights and measures that 

 bears a promise of universal adoption, and 



Whereas, It is believed that the diflSculties in 

 the way of its adoption are far more than com- 

 pensated by the advantages to be gained by its 

 use, and 



Whereas, The question of the establishment 

 of the Metric System is now under considera- 

 tion by Congress ; therefore be it 



Resolved, That the Engineers' Club of Phila- 

 delphia respectfully urges its Representatives 

 at Washington to advocate the adoption of the 

 Metric System as the only legal standard in 

 the United States, and to promote such inter- 

 national cooperation as will provide unity of 

 practice amongst commercial nations. 



The result of this letter ballot has just been 

 announced and shows 100 to 60 in favor of the 

 preambles and resolution. 



general. 



The second annual meeting of the Botanical 

 Society of America will be held in Buffalo, N. 

 Y., on Friday and Saturday, August 21 and 22, 

 1896. The Council will meet at 1:30 p. m. on 

 Friday, and the Society will be called to order 

 at 3 p. m. by the retiring President, Dr. William 

 Trelease, Director of the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden. The President-elect, Dr. Charles E. 

 Bessey, professor of botany in the University of 

 Nebraska, will then take the chair. The after- 

 noon session will be devoted to business. At 

 the evening session the retiring President will 

 deliver a public address on ' Botanical Oppor- 

 tunity. ' The sessions for the reading of papers 

 will be held on Saturday at 10 a. m. and 2 p. m. 

 The Botanical Society of America is afiiliated 

 with the American Association for the Advance- 

 of Science, whose sessions this year begin on 

 Monday, August 24th, in Buffalo. 



The dissolution of the New England Meteor- 

 ological Society was decided upon at a meeting 

 held April 25th in Boston. The various under- 

 takings of the Society have either been trans- 

 ferred to other organizations or discontinued 



