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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 624. 



of the three continents are determined by 

 exact and thorough comparison of their struc- 

 ture, any explanation of their curious geo- 

 graphical distribution is highly conjectural. 

 It is clear, however, that, as now known, they 

 can no longer be regarded as an exclusively 

 southern group, nor is there any necessity for 

 believing that the South African genus is 

 derived from South America via Antarctica. 

 The most reasonable conjecture appears to be 

 that we have here the scattered remnants of a 

 group of very early specialization and wide 

 distribution in pre-Tertiary times, which with 

 the rest of the zalambdodont insectivores and 

 many other archaic types, disappearing before 

 more progressive competitors, found its last 

 place of refuge in the southern continents and 

 the greater tropical islands. 



W. D. Matthew. 

 Ameeican Museum of Natural Histoby, 

 October 25, 1906. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Nobel prizes were on December 10 

 awarded as follows: Physics, Professor J. J. 

 Thomson, of Cambridge; chemistry, M. Mois- 

 san, of Paris; medicine. Professor S. Kamon 

 y Cajal, of Madrid, and Professor Camillo 

 Golgi, of Pavia; literature, Professor Giosue 

 Garducci, of Bologna; for the promotion of 

 peace among nations. President Roosevelt. 



Mrs. Shaleb is preparing to write a life of 

 the late Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, which is 

 to be published in the near future. She has 

 made an appeal for letters or reminiscences 

 that would be useful and has asked that these 

 be sent to her at 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Under the auspices of the Peary Arctic 

 Club, Commander Robert E. Peary gave an 

 account of the voyage of the Roosevelt and 

 his expedition 'furthest north' at the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History on Saturday 

 afternoon, December 8. Commander Peary 

 was introduced by Mr. Morris K. Jesup, presi- 

 dent of the Peary Arctic Club and of the 

 museum. It is said that some thirty thousand 

 people tried to obtain entrance to the hall and 

 to the informal reception which was held after 

 the address. A dinner was given by the Peary 



Arctic Club to Commander Peary at the Uni- 

 versity Club on December 12. 



M. Mascart will retire from the director- 

 ship of the Central Bureau of Meteorology in 

 Paris on January 1. He will be succeeded 

 by M. Angot. 



Professor Gariel has resigned the secre- 

 taryship of the council of the French Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, a posi- 

 tion which he has held for the past thirty 

 years. 



Dr. William H. Brooks, director of Smith 

 Observatory and professor of astronomy at 

 Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., has received 

 a medal from the Astronomical Society of 

 Mexico, for his discoveries of twenty-five 

 comets. 



Mr. L. a. Peringuey has been appointed to 

 the directorship of the South African Mu- 

 seum, Cape Town, to fill the vacancy caused 

 by the resignation of Mr. W. L. Sclater. 



At the recent meeting of the Association of 

 Teachers of Mathematics of the Middle States 

 and Maryland, Professor Edwin S. Crawley, 

 of the University of Pennsylvania, was re- 

 elected president. 



Dr. William J. Mayo, of Rochester, Minn., 

 retiring president of the American Medical 

 Association, has recently been visiting Phila- 

 delphia as a guest of the dean of the medical 

 department of the University of Pennsylvania. 



The fifth lecture in the Harvey Society 

 course will be given by Dr. S. J. Meltzer, of 

 New York, on Saturday evening, December 

 15, at 8:30 p.m., at the New York Academy 

 of Medicine, on ' The Factors of Safety in 

 Animal Structure and Animal Economy.' All 

 interested are cordially invited to be present. 



Professor Pierre Janet, of the University 

 of France, has delivered three lectures in the 

 Johns Hopkins University on ' Mind and 

 Medicine.' 



Dr. Hugo Munsterberg, professor of psy- 

 chology at Harvard University, has received 

 leave of absence from November 21, 1906, to 

 January 12, 1907, for a visit to Germany, 



