OCTOBEB 19, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



507 



cies arose from differences in determining the 

 coast lines. 



Eealizing the desirability of but one govern- 

 ment statement of areas of the states and ter- 

 ritories, an attempt has been made by Mr. 

 Frank Bond, chief draftsman of the General 

 Land Office; Mr. C. S. Sloane, geographer of 

 the Census Office, and Mr. Henry Gannett, 

 geographer of the Geological Survey, to come 

 to an agreement on these figures. The results 

 of their conference and cooperation are set 

 forth in the aforementioned bulletin. 



By this adjustment the area of the United 

 States proper, which is given as 3,026,789 

 square miles, is increased over the Census 

 Office figures by 1,188 square miles. 



The area given for Alaska is 590,884 square 

 miles. It is subject to considerable modifica- 

 tion in the future as the position of the coast 

 line becomes better known. The area given 

 for the Philippine Islands is 115,026 square 

 miles, and was determined by the Coast Sur- 

 vey of that archipelago, prepared at the in- 

 stance of the Philippine Census. It also is 

 subject to modification as accurate charts of 

 the archipelago are made. The areas of 

 Hawaii, 6,449 square miles, and Porto Rico, 

 3,435 square miles, are probably subject to 

 only slight changes, as the charts from which 

 they were measured are quite accurate. The 

 areas given for the other small possessions of 

 the IJnited States, Guam, 210 square miles; 

 Samoa, 77 square miles, and the Panama 

 Canal strip, 474 square miles, will probably 

 be changed in the future as their limits be- 

 come more correctly defined. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 At the last meeting of the Rumford com- 

 mittee of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, the following grants for research 

 were made: $300 to Professor Arthur A. 

 Noyes, of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, for the construction of a calorim- 

 eter for the determination of heat reactions at 

 high temperatures; $200 to Professor Robert 

 W. Wood, of Johns Hopkins University, for 

 the continuation of his researches on the 

 optical properties of sodium vapor. 



Mr. Alfred Akerman, state forester of 

 Massachusetts, has resigned to accept the Pea- 

 body chair of forestry recently endowed in the 

 University of Georgia. He is succeeded by 

 Professor Frank Wra. Rane, professor of horti- 

 culture and forestry at the New Hampshire 

 College. Mr. Pane's present address is. Room 

 7 State House, Boston, Mass. 



Mr. George A. Coleman, M.S. (Stanford, 

 '05), has been appointed forest supervisor in 

 charge of the Shasta Reserve. 



Dudley Moulton, M.S. (Stanford, '06), at 

 present stationed in Nebraska investigating 

 the codlin moth, has been appointed field as- 

 sistant in the U. S. Bureau of Entomology. 



Professor Mansfield Merriman, Ph.D., 

 head of the department of civil engineering, 

 of Lehigh University, has been granted a year's 

 leave of absence. He will reside in South 

 Bethlehem and will attend to the administra- 

 tive duties of his department. 



A complimentary luncheon to Professor 

 Ronald Ross, C.B., Professor R. Boyee and 

 Dr. J. L. Todd, in recognition of the decora- 

 tion recently conferred on them by the King 

 of the Belgians for the work done by the 

 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, was 

 given on October 1 by the Lord Mayor of 

 Liverpool. 



Professor Raymond H. Pond, of the North- 

 western University, has been awarded a re- 

 search scholarship at the New York Botanical 

 Garden for six months, beginning October 1. 



The Duke of Abruzzi is planning an expedi- 

 tion to the Himalaya Mountains. 



Dr. John Gifford is now engaged in de- 

 livering ten lectures on ' Tropical Pomology,' 

 at Cornell University. 



M. Pierre Janet will shortly give a course 

 of fifteen lectures at the Harvard Medical 

 School on ' The Symptoms of Hysteria.' 



The Harvey Society of New York announces 

 its second course of lectures. These are given 

 at the Academy of Medicine building, 17 West 

 43d Street, on Saturday evenings at 8 :30 p.m. 

 The lectures are open to the public and all 

 interested are cordially invited to attend. The 

 program for the year is as follows : 



