790 



SCIENCE. 



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



Lund will find no little interest in the com- 

 paratively recent collections at the ethnograph- 

 ical museum illustrating many phases of rural 

 life. Old peasant houses have been taken 

 down, brought from considerable distances, 

 and set up at Lund, among the buildings be- 

 ing an old church and an inn. Models of 

 interiors of houses with costumed figures of 

 inmates give an excellent idea of rustic condi- 

 tions, reminding one, though on a smaller 

 scale, of the Cecho-Slavonic museum in the 

 Kinsky Park at Prague. 



Professor Charles Baskerville, of the 

 College of the City of New York, has closed 

 a series of six lectures, at the Brooklyn Insti- 

 tute of Arts and Sciences, on physical chem- 

 istry under the title of ' The Elements,' The 

 lectures were extensively illustrated with ex- 

 periments and samples; the subjects treated 

 were the following: (1) Chemistry at Low 

 Temperatures. Stability of the Elements. 

 (2) Chemistry at High Temperatures. Insta- 

 bility of the Elements. (3) Ultra- Violet Light 

 and its Bole in Chemistry. Production of 

 the Elements. (4) The Methods for Deter- 

 mining the Integrity of a Chemical Element 

 and their Defects. (5) Badium and the 

 Transmutation of the Chemical Elements. 

 (6) Phase Eule and the Elements. Harmon- 

 izing of Divergent Views. 



The following letter has been received by 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences, of Phila- 

 delphia, in acknowledgment of the receipt of 

 books sent to the California Academy of 

 Sciences as a help toward the replacing of the 

 library destroyed by earthquake and fire: 



Caxifobnia 



Academy of Sciences, 

 San Fbancisoo. 



1812 GouGH Street, 



San Feancisco, Cal., 

 November 16, 1906. 

 Me. Edwaed J. Nolan, Recording Secretary and 

 Librarian, 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 



Philadelphia, Pa. 

 Bear Sir: — Your letter of September 26th 

 reached us some weeks before the books arrived 

 through the Smithsonian Institution. 



You have certainly sent us a magnificent gift, 



and no pleasanter task has ever been given us 

 than the unpacking and shelving of box after box 

 of such treasures. The shelving capacity of one 

 room in our temporary quarters is taxed to the 

 utmost, and by common consent it is generally re- 

 ferred to as " The Philadelphia Academy room." 



We appreciate it all, — ^your own publications, so 

 complete and so beautifully boimd, the magnificent 

 folios, the rare old books, the early volumes of so 

 many valuable sets, the goodly number of works 

 relating to expeditions, some of which we had 

 long desired but had never owned, the great 

 variety of subjects represented by the collection, 

 and the book-plate, the mute reminder of the 

 friends who succored us at the time of our almost 

 overwhelming disaster. And so we thank you, 

 with hearts full of gratitude for your generous 

 gift of books and time and labor. 



A formal vote of thanks will be passed at the 

 next meeting of our members, and a copy will be 

 sent you. 



Cordially yours, 



(Signed) Leveeett Mills LooMis, 



Director of the Museum. 



The New York Evening Post says : " The 

 poorly paid college professor has even his 

 financial compensations. No one has more 

 brilliant opportunities to get rich without 

 effort than he. During the present fall he has 

 been kindly offered at least half-a-dozen dif- 

 ferent positions on the ground floor of a 

 western marble quarry containing nearly a 

 billion feet of marble which is to be taken 

 out and sold at a profit of nearly two billions 

 of dollars, as soon as a little necessary ma- 

 chinery is secured by the sale of a few bonds 

 at about par, with something like an equiva- 

 lent amount of stock thrown in. When one 

 considers that this investment is to pay 100 

 per cent, profit annually as soon as it gets its 

 machinery well oiled, it is evident that, as a 

 benefactor to indigent college professors, Car- 

 negie has been easily distanced. For such as 

 have any moral objections to profits of that 

 size, the same company has an alternative in 

 an Ohio coal proposition which is practically 

 certain not to net more than 50 per cent, clear 

 annual gain." The above scheme is promi- 

 nently supported by the name of a professor 

 in an American university. If this is done 

 without his knowledge, he should take early 



