158 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 605. 



tively small — mostly 3, 4 and 5 per cent. It 

 is noticeable that in Alsace-Lorraine, the popu- 

 lation of which declined from 18Y1 to 1885, 

 there has been since the latter date a pro- 

 gressive increase in population, the percentage 

 of growth during the past five years being 5.63 

 and the actual population last December 

 1,814,626, or 265,000 more 'than in 1871. The 

 continued tendency of population to accumu- 

 late in large cities is illustrated by the returns 

 for the Hanse towns, the increase in the case 

 of Hamburg (free city and state) being 13,89 

 per cent., in the case of Bremen 17.14 per cent., 

 and in the case of Liibeck 9.38 per cent. The 

 male population of Germany (29,868,096) is 

 still slightly less than the female population 

 (30,737,087) ; but, taking the empire as a 

 whole, the proportional increase in the former 

 (7.68 per cent.) has been slightly in excess of 

 the increase in the latter (7.36 per cent.). 



SCIENTIFIC N0TE8 AND NEWS. 



Professor Seubert, hitherto the German 

 member of the international committee on 

 atomic weights, has resigned, and Professor 

 Ostwald has been appointed his successor. The 

 committee now consists of F. W. Clarke, 

 United States, chairman; T. E. Thorpe, Great 

 Britain ; H. Moissan, France, and W. Ostwald, 

 Germany. 



Mrs. W. p. Fleming, curator of astronom- 

 ical photographs in the Harvard College Ob- 

 servatory, has been elected an honorary mem- 

 ber of the Royal Astronomical Society. Mrs. 

 Fleming has also been appointed honorary 

 fellow in. the department of astronomy in 

 Wellesley College, in recognition of her dis- 

 tinguished work in astronomy and in grati- 

 tude for her helpful cooperation in the estab- 

 lishment of astronomical work in Wellesley 

 College. 



Dr. Ch. Wardell Stiles, of the Public 

 Health and Marine Hospital Service, has been 

 elected correspondant etranger of the Societe 

 Centrale de Medeeine Veterinaire de France. 



Professor Edmund Weiss, professor of as- 

 tronomy in the University of Vienna, has been 

 elected a corresponding member of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences in the room of the late 

 O. Struve. 



Dr. a. Weismann, professor of zoology at 

 Freiburg, celebrated, on July 9, the fiftieth an- 

 niversary of his doctorate. 



Dr. Adolf Wullner, professor of physics at 

 Aachen, has celebrated his seventieth birthday. 



Professor Conway MaoMillan has resigned 

 the chair of botany at the University of Min- 

 nesota, and will, it is understood, go into busi- 

 ness. 



Mr. Edward A. Fath, instructor in astron- 

 omy in the University of Illinois, has been 

 appointed fellow in the Lick Observatory. 



According to a press despatch from Wash- 

 ington, the commission appointed by the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Com- 

 merce and Labor and the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture to formulate rules and regulations for 

 the enforcement of the pure food law, held its 

 first meeting on July 23 at the Department 

 of Agriculture. Dr. H. W. Wiley, chemist 

 of the Department of Agriculture, was elected 

 president, and James L. Gerry, chief of the 

 divisions of customs of the treasury, secretary. 

 It was decided to begin work immediately 

 upon the regulations, and the committee will 

 meet from time to time for consultation as 

 opportunities will be presented. Public hear- 

 ings will be held, beginning in New York 

 City, on September 17. 



A NUMBER of his old pupils have indicated 

 their intention to join in the presentation of 

 his portrait to Sir Henry Littlejohn, emeritus 

 professor of forensic medicine in the Univer- 

 sity of Edinburgh. 



The Cambridge Philosophical Society has 

 awarded the Hopkins prize for the period 

 1897-1900 to Mr. S. S. Hough, F.R.S., chief 

 assistant at the Royal Observatory, Cape of 

 Good Hope, for his work on the dynamical 

 theory of the tides. 



The London Chemical Society has awarded 

 its Longstaff medal to Professor W. N. Hart- 

 ley for his spectroscopical researches. 



The Ceylon government has added a hos- 

 pital to the pathological laboratory which it 

 recently established at Colombo. Both insti- 

 tutions are under the charge of Dr. Castellani. 



The states of Maryland and Nprth Carolina 

 will cooperate this summer with the U. S. 



