July 6, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



31 



su, under date of April 6 : " Dr. Albert Taf el, 

 the eminent German geologist and explorer, 

 who has traveled in many parts of Asia, and 

 who took part in the expedition to Tibet in 

 1904 with Lieutenant Filchreer, when they 

 barely escaped with their lives, has again just 

 left this border city for the Tsaidam and 

 Tibet. In January last he visited the Koko 

 Nor in order to ascertain the depths of the 

 lake at different places. His camp was at- 

 tacked one evening by Tibetan robbers, and a 

 hand-to-hand fight ensued. In trying to 

 rescue one of his men Dr. Tafel received a 

 sword wound in the forehead, and the attack 

 was not repulsed without some difficulty. In 

 Shan-si Dr. Tafel found some very interesting 

 and rare fossils, and he has also secured some 

 good photographs of a large waterfall on the 

 Yellow Kiver in the north of that province." 

 Nature states that the Society of German 

 Engineers, which with its 20,000 members is 

 now the largest technical society in the world, 

 celebrated on June 11-14 the completion of 

 the fiftieth year of its existence. The opening 

 ceremony was held in the Reichstag building 

 in Berlin, under the presidency of Dr. A. 

 Slaby. Congratulatory addresses were deliv- 

 ered by the Prussian Home Secretary, the 

 Prussian Minister of Education, the Ober- 

 biirgermeister of Berlin and the rector of the 

 Berlin Technical School, as well as by nu- 

 merous representatives of kindred societies in 

 Germany and other countries, Mr. Bennet 

 Brough (Iron and Steel Institute) speaking 

 for the British societies and Professor K. E. 

 Hilgard (American Society of Civil Engi- 

 neers) for the American. The proceedings 

 terminated with a lecture by Dr. W. von 

 Oechelhauser on technical work past and pres- 

 ent, in which he compared the engineering 

 works of the ancients with those of modern 

 times, and endeavored to forecast what the 

 future of engineering would be. On June 12 

 a lecture was given by Dr. A. Riedler, on the 

 development and present importance of the 

 steam turbine; and on June 13 papers were 

 read by Professor Muthmann, on methods of 

 dealing with atmospheric nitrogen; and by 

 Dr. Hoffmann, on the utilization of power in 

 mines and metallurgical works. Throughout 



the week an elaborate program of visits, ex- 

 cursions and social functions was arranged 

 for the 1,231 members and 464 ladies who took 

 part in the meeting. The German Emperor 

 honored the society by accepting the Grashof 

 gold medal, and by conferring decorations on 

 the president and other prominent members. 

 An interesting history of the society is given 

 in Engineering of June 8. The growth of the 

 society has certainly been remarkable. It was 

 founded in 1856 at Alexisbad, in the Hartz, 

 by twenty-three young engineers. Friedrich 

 Euler was elected the first president, and 

 Franz Grashof the first secretary and editor, 

 the work of the society being carried on in the 

 secretary's pi^vate study. The society now has 

 a stately house of its own and a staff of forty- 

 seven officials. Its weekly journal last year 

 cost £26,162 for publishing and £6,425 for 

 jKJstage. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

 At the recent alumni meeting at Harvard 

 University, it was stated that during the year 

 graduates had contributed $1,801,539.89 to the 

 productive funds of the university, and that 

 $88,116.09 had been received for immediate 

 use, making a total of $1,889,655.98. This 

 sum does not include the more than $113,000 

 that the class of '81 has given to the univer- 

 sity to be used as the corporation sees fit. It 

 was also announced that through an anony- 

 mous gift of $60,000 from a graduate and the 

 cooperation of the city of Boston, a boulevard 

 100 feet wide with a forty- foot drive and broad 

 park space and walks, will be laid out from the 

 Eenway to Longwood Avenue as an approach 

 to the new Harvard Medical School buildings. 



It was announced by President Hadley at 

 the Yale Alumni dinner that the total of the 

 alumni fund for the year amounted to $129,237 

 as compared with the $53,500 announced a 

 year ago. 



A FUND of $150,000, of which Mr. Carnegie 

 contributed $75,000, has been raised at Am- 

 herst College and will be \ised to provide for 

 the work in geology and biology. It is planned 

 to spend $100,000 on a building and to use the 

 balance of the money as an endowment fund. 



