542 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 617. 



Professor F. W. Kane, state forester of Massa- 

 chusetts. 



Dr. G. H. Whipple has been appointed as- 

 sistant pathologist at the Johns Hopkins Hos- 

 pital, to succeed Dr. C, H. Bunting, who has 

 resigned to accept the position of professor of 

 pathology at the University of Virginia. 



Dr. Henry M. Hurd, professor of psy- 

 chiatry in the Johns Hopkins Medical School, 

 has been given a year's leave of absence and 

 will spend it in Europe, leaving about No- 

 vember 15. 



A Reuter message from Wellington, New 

 Zealand, reports that a monument to Captain 

 Cook was unveiled on October 8 in the pres- 

 ence of a large gathering of both races at 

 Poverty Bay, on the east coast of the North 

 Island, at the spot where the explorer landed. 



The German Dermatological Society has 

 decided to subscribe 6,000 Marks to the Fritz 

 Schaudinn fund, and to give the first volume 

 of the society's publications the title ' In 

 Memoriam Fritz Schaudinn.' 



The Museo Goeldi at Para, in Brazil, de- 

 sires an American naturalist, a young man 

 of solid character, who can adapt himself to 

 new suiTOundings, as taxidermist and gen- 

 eral preparator in the museum. Application 

 may be made to Dr. Goeldi, 399 Caixa Postal, 

 in Para, or to Dr. John C. Branner, at Stan- 

 ford University, Cal. 



Sir George Darwin has invited the Inter- 

 national Geodetic Congress to meet at Cam- 

 bridge in 1909. 



Since October 1, 1906, no publications are 

 sold by the Nautical Almanac Office or by 

 the Bureau of Equipment. All orders for 

 copies of the American Ephemeris, Nautical 

 Almanac or astronomical papers should now 

 that date be addressed to the superintendent 

 of documents. Government Printing Office, 

 Washington, D. C. 



We learn from the Journal of the American 

 Medical Association that the mother of the 

 late professor of chemistry at Basle, George 

 W. A. Kahlbaum, has presented $9,500 to the 

 National Society for the Study of the His- 

 tory of Medicine and Science, which was re- 



cently founded by her deceased son. She has 

 also given the Berlin branch of the same so- 

 ciety $5,000. 



The Chemical Engineer states that the com- 

 mittee on the purity of reagents of the Ameri- 

 can Chemical Society, J. H. Long, chairman, 

 has decided that it is inadvisable at this time 

 to publish a book on the testing of reagents, 

 as the amount of new data collected is so 

 small that such a work would be only a dupli- 

 cate of the well-known work of Dr. Krauch. 

 It was also decided to limit the work of this 

 committee, in the immediate future, to the 

 conxmoner acids and alkalies, and to send out 

 circulars to prominent manufacturers, in this 

 coimtry and Europe, inquiring as to the 

 methods in use by them for testing for im- 

 purities found in the reagent grades of these 

 acids and all^alies. Dr. H. N. Stokes, of the 

 Bureau of Standards, has been chosen secre- 

 tary of the committee. This bureau now has 

 two chemists working upon methods of test- 

 ing for reagents. So far their attention has 

 been chiefly devoted to perfecting an accurate 

 colorimetrie method for determ.ining traces of 

 iron in reagents. 



Two years ago, after two years' continuous 

 effort, the New York Zoological Park secured a 

 fine specimen of the almost extinct California 

 condor. The bird has been kept in fine health 

 until a few days ago. Last Saturday, how- 

 ever, it showed signs of illness, and on Tues- 

 day it died, evidently in great pain. Previous 

 to the autopsy its death was a mystery; but 

 Dr. Blair's examination soon revealed the 

 cause. This fine bird, worth at least $300, 

 and the only specimen obtained in four years, 

 was killed by si large rubber band, presumably 

 administered by some visitor. The rubber 

 band had lodged in the pyloric orifice of the 

 stomach, completely closing it, and arresting 

 the entire process of digestion. It is such 

 exasperating occurrences as this and the mur- 

 der of a valuable bear with four peach-stones 

 that compel the Zoological Society to forbid 

 the feeding of animals by visitors. Hereafter 

 the vigilance of the keepers and police will be 

 redoubled, and visitors must refrain from 

 offering any object to any of the wild crea- 



