SEPTKjrBEE 21, 1900. ] 



SCIENCE. 



453 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The Bi-itish Association will meet next year 

 at Glasgow, beginning on September 11th under 

 the presidency of Professor A. W. Riicker. In 

 1902 the meeting will be at Belfast. 



We regret to learn that up to the present 

 time, but 30 complete subscriptions have been 

 received in the United States for the Interna- 

 tional Catologue of Scientific Literature. The 

 successful beginning of the project is dependent 

 upon at least 45 subscriptions from the United 

 States, and it is necessary that these should all 

 be in before the end of September. The Cata- 

 logue will comprise 17 volumes per annum, the 

 subscription per annum is $85, and, in order to 

 give the undertaking some sort of permanence, 

 it is desired that these subscriptions shall be for 

 five years. All subscriptions from the United 

 States should be addressed to the Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, "Washington, D. C. 



Professor H. T. Todd, having reached the 

 age limit, has retired from the directorship of 

 the Nautical Almanac. Professor S. J. Brown, 

 astronomical director of the U. S. Naval Ob- 

 servatory, has untertaken the duties of the 

 office. 



Popular Astronomy quotes from the ' Navy 

 Register ' of 1900 the rank of all the mathe- 

 matical officers in the navy on January 1, 

 1900. They are as follows : On the active list 

 'Rank of Captain': Professors Hendrickson, 

 Todd and Oliver. ' Rank of Commander ' : 

 Professors Brown, Rawson, Alger and Dodge. 

 ' Rank of Lieutenant ' : Professors Paul, Skin- 

 ner, See and UpdegraflF, On the retired list : 

 ' Rank of Rear Admiral ' : William Harkness. 

 ' Rank of Captain ' : Professors Newcomb, Hall 

 and Eastman. 'Rank of Commander': Pro- 

 fessors Frisby, Prudhomme and Rice. 



Professor Baldwin Spencer has been given 

 leave of absence from Melbourne University 

 to study the ethnology of the natives of the 

 northern part of South Australia. 



M. Faye, the eminent French astronomer, 

 has been elected a foreign member of the Reale 

 Accademia dei Lincei of Rome. 



Professor E. A. Schaffee has retired from 

 the position of General Secretary of the British 



Association which he has held in conjunction 

 with Sir William Roberts-Austin. Dr. D. H. 

 Scott has been elected to the vacant place. 



Dr. J. M. Da Costa, formerly professor of the 

 theory and practice of medicine at the Jeffer- 

 son Medical College, died near Philadelphia on 

 September 11th. He was perhaps the most 

 prominent physician in Philadelphia, and was 

 the author of numerous contributions to pa- 

 thology, his work on ' Medical Diagnosis ' 

 having passed through numerous editions and 

 having been translated into several foreign lan- 

 guages. 



Mr. Wm. Saunders, the well-known horti- 

 culturist, died at Washington, on September 

 11th, in his 78th year. He had been connected 

 with the U. S. Department of Agriculture since 

 its organization in 1862. He was well-known 

 as a landscape gardener, having planned Fair- 

 mount Park in Philadelphia, and done much 

 similar work at Washington and elsewhere. 



We learn from Popular Astronomy of the death 

 of Mr. David Plannery, of Memphis, Tenn. He 

 was interested in astronomy and had made ob- 

 servations of variable stars. 



AocoEDiNG to Popular Astronomy the will of 

 Professor Piazzi Smyth makes provision for the 

 publication of his spectroscopic manuscripts, 

 and also for the assistance or promotion every 

 ten or twenty years of an exceptional expedi- 

 tion for the study of some particular branch of 

 astronomical spectroscopy at mountain eleva- 

 tions of not less than 6000 feet. 



The will of Mr. Charles H. Smith of Provi- 

 dence contains the following public bequests : 

 $3000 to the Rhode Island Historical Society, 

 $2000 to the Rhode Island Horticultural So- 

 ciety, $1000 to the city public schools for the 

 purchase of microscopes, $3500 to Brown Uni- 

 versity, and real estate valued at upwards of 

 $200,000 for the maintenance of the botanical 

 specimens in the city park. 



Those who have seen reference made to a 

 forthcoming bulletin on the fishes of Porto 

 Rico, to be issued by the U. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion, may not know that the publication has 

 been delayed by a fire in New York, in which 

 the drawings in black and white and such 

 plates as had been engraved were destroyed- 



