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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 305. 



are now prepared to receive subscriptions. Any 

 contribution will be acceptable, but the com- 

 mittee are especially anxious to receive a large 

 number of small individual subscriptions. These 

 may be sent to the treasurer of the committee, 

 the Hon. B. G. Blackford, Fulton Market, New 

 York City. 



The Eighteenth Congress of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union will convene in Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., on Monday, November 12th at 

 8 o'clock P. M. The evening session will be 

 devoted to the election of officers and the trans- 

 action of other routine business. The meet- 

 ings, open to the public and devoted to the read- 

 ing and discussion of scientific papers, will be 

 held in the Nash Lecture room. University 

 Museum, Oxford St., beginning Tuesday, No. 

 vember 13th, at 10 A. M., and continuing for 

 three days. 



The Trustees of the Carnegie Institute, Pitts- 

 burg, have sent invitations for the celebration 

 of Founders Day in Music Hall and for an ex- 

 hibition of the Art Gallery, Library and Mu- 

 seum on Thursday afternoon, November 1st. 

 The Museum has been greatly enriched during 

 the present year by the fossil vertebrates of 

 Wyoming and South Dakota, which will be 

 described by Dr. J. B. Hatcher in the next 

 issue of this Journal. 



The lecture arrangements of the London In- 

 stitution for the present season include the fol- 

 owing : 'The Eise of Egyptian Civilization,' 

 by Professor Flinders Petrie ; ' The Earth's Be- 

 ginning,' by Sir Kobert Ball; 'The Earth's 

 Earliest Inhabitants,' by Professor Grenville 

 Cole; 'The Caves of Jenolan,' by Mr. F. Lam- 

 bert ; ' The Tercentenary of the Science of Elec- 

 tricity,' by Professor Sylvanus Thompson ; ' The 

 Evolution of the Brain,' by Dr. Alex Hill; 

 'Modern Aeronautics,' by Mr. Eric S. Bruce; 

 'The First Ascent of Mount Kenya,' by Mr. 

 H. J. MacKinder ; ' The Effect of Alcohol on 

 the Nervous System,' by Professor Victor Hors- 

 ley ; ' The Decorative Art of Primitive Peoples,' 

 by Professor A. C. Haddon, and ' Aquatic Au- 

 tocrats and Fairies,' by Mr. F. Enock. 



A CIVIL service examination will be held on 

 November 20th to fill the position of assistant 

 biologist in the Division of Biological Survey, 



Department of Agriculture, at an annual salary 

 of $1,500. The subjects and their weights are 

 as follows : Essay writing, 1 ; French, 1 ; Ger- 

 man, 1 ; physical geography of the United 

 States, 1 ; ornithology and mammalogy, 3 ; 

 identification of specimens, 3. 



AccoEDiNG to the St. Petersburg Gazette, the 

 Russian Government has decided to adopt the 

 metric standard of weights and measures, and 

 the ministry of finance is now engaged in con- 

 sidering the time and manner of introducing 

 this reform. 



The expedition sent by the Harvard Observa- 

 tory to observe the planet Bros in its approach- 

 ing opposition has arrived at Kingston, Jamaica, 

 and is being afforded facilities for its work by 

 the Government. 



A CABLE dispatch to the New York Sun states 

 that an ofiicial report of the Duke of the Ab- 

 ruzzi's discoveries in the north is published in 

 the Rivista Maritima. It says the expedition 

 corrected the position of Cape Flora, and re- 

 ports that King Oscar Island and Petermann 

 Land do not exist. 



A PATHOLOGICAL INSTITUTE is being bullt at 

 Quala Lumpoy, the capital of the federated 

 Malay States, and Dr. Hamilton Wright has 

 been appointed director. The British Colonial 

 Office has offered to pay the expenses of stu- 

 dents who wish to study beri-beri and malaria 

 at the new institute. 



ViCE-CoNSTJL General Hanauer, of Frank- 

 fort, under date of September 29, 1900, says : 

 Molten wood is a new invention by Mr. De 

 Gall, inspector of forests at Lemur, France. 

 By means of dry distillation and high pressure, 

 the escape of developing gases is prevented, 

 thereby reducing the wood to a molten condi- 

 tion. After cooling off, the mass assumes the 

 character of coal, yet without showing a trace 

 of the organic structure of that mineral. This 

 new body is hard, but can be shaped and pol- 

 ished at will ; is impervious to water and acids, 

 and is a perfect electrical non-conductor. 



The London Times states, that a meeting of 

 the British and American members of the Inter- 

 national Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, Arts and Education was held in the 



