774 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 73. 



were given in 1895. The Duke of Norfolk was 

 elected president for the ensuing year. 



D. Appleton & Co. will publish shortly, as a 

 new volurae in the International Scientific 

 Series, Ice Work, Present and Past, by Dr. T. G. 

 Bonney, professor in University College, Lon- 

 don. It is said that in his work Prof. Bonney 

 will give special prominence to those facts of 

 glacial geology on which all inferences must be 

 founded. After setting forth the facts shown 

 in various regions, he will give the various in- 

 terpretations which have been proposed, adding 

 his comments and criticisms. He will also ex- 

 plain a method by which he believes we can 

 approximate to the temperature at various 

 places during the Glacial epoch, and the differ- 

 ent explanations of this general refrigeration 

 will be stated and briefly discussed. 



It is reported in the daily papers that in 

 order to carry out still further certain recom- 

 mendations of the recent committee on prisons, 

 the directors of convict prisons in Great Britain 

 have decided that, with a view to raise the 

 moral tone and relieve the monotony of the 

 life of convicts undergoing long sentences of 

 penal servitude, lectures on scientific and in- 

 teresting subjects shall be periodically given, 

 and arrangements are in progress for giving 

 early effect to this innovation. 



It is stated in the New York Evening Post 

 that the British Government has determined to 

 send two naturalists to Alaska to make a study 

 of the causes of the mortality of the seals. Thirty 

 thousand pups were found dead on the Pribylof 

 Islands last year, due, it is said, to starvation 

 following pelagic sealing. That the report of 

 these naturalists may not be ex parte, and 

 therefore inconclusive to the minds of the 

 American people, it is desired that at least one 

 thoroughly qualified American shall accompany 

 them. 



The Astor Library will hereafter be open 

 till 6 o'clock p. m. Electric light is being 

 introduced into the library in order that the 

 alcoves may be better lighted, and this will 

 probably lead to the opening of the library in 

 the evening. When the new consolidated 

 library on Bryant Park Square has been built, 



it is intended to open the library on Sundays 

 as well as in the evenings, and part of the books 

 will be allowed to be taken from the build- 

 ing. 



The death is announced of Dr. Adelbert 

 Kriiger, director of the observatory at Kiel and 

 editor of Astronomische Nachrichten. Kriiger 

 was born in 1832 and studied under and acted 

 as assistant to Argelander, whose daughter he 

 married. In 1862 Kriiger was made director 

 of the Observatory at Helsingfors ; in 1875 he 

 removed to Gotha and in 1879 succeeded Peters 

 at Kiel. 



The annual field meeting of the National 

 Geographic Society was held at Charlottesville, 

 Virginia, on Saturday, May 16. The principal 

 exercises of the day were held at Monticello, 

 the home of Jefferson. This was followed by a 

 visit to the University of Virginia and other 

 points of interest in Charlottesville. Accord- 

 ing to the program an address of welcome 

 was made by Mayor Patton, of Charlottesville, 

 and responded to by President Hubbard. An 

 address by Dr. Kandolf, rector of the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia, was responded to by Gen- 

 eral A. W. Greely. Addresses were also made 

 by Postmaster-General Wilson, on 'Jefferson at 

 Home ' ; by Dr. McGee, on the ' Physiography 

 of the Charlottesville Region ' ; by Dr. Goode, 

 on ' Old Albemarle in the Revolutionary 

 Period,' and by Prof. Thornton on ' Spottis- 

 wood's Journey Across the Blue Ridge.' 



The civil service examinations in New York 

 and elsewhere are, it seems, often passed by 

 proxy, and the Civil Service Commission follow- 

 ing Mr. Francis Galton's recommendation, 

 which they seem to have learned through a 

 story of ' Mark Twain,' have resolved that, for 

 the jjurpose of identification, candidates in ex- 

 amination for the position of fireman and po- 

 liceman be required to make an imprint of their 

 right and left thumbs upon paper. 



MM. Augusts Geeaedin and Maurice 

 Nicloux report to the Paris Academy a method 

 for measuring smells in the air due to organic 

 vapors. By means of incandescent platinum 

 they burn out the organic vapors and determine 

 the decrease in volume. They have thus been 

 able to find, for example, that the smell of 



