934 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 311. 



nition of the distinction which he has attained 

 as a mineralogist, and also of the great services 

 rendered by him to the Society as curator dur- 

 ing the period when he held the appointment 

 of inspector of mines for Cornwall and Devon. 



The committee on a memorial of the late Dr. 

 Joseph Coats, who was the first occupant of the 

 chair of pathology in the University of Glas 

 gow, has established a scholarship to be known 

 as the ' Joseph Coats Memorial Scholarship in 

 Pathology,' for the encouragement of original 

 research. The value of the scholarship, which 

 will be awarded once in two years, is the in- 

 come of the endowment of £1,200. A brass 

 memorial tablet will be placed in the Patholog- 

 ical Institute at the Western Infirmary, Glas- 

 gow. 



Professor John Gardiner, LL.D., who oc- 

 cupied the chair of biology in the University 

 of Colorado, at Boulder, Colorado, from 1889 

 to 1898, died as a victim of consumption on 

 November 26. Professor Gardiner, who was 

 thirty-eight years of age, was a graduate of 

 the University of London, B.Sc, 1884, and was 

 awarded the table of the British Association 

 at the Naples Biological Station in 1887. He 

 was an enthusiastic student of biology, a man 

 of rare culture in other lines and a stimulating 

 teacher and lecturer. 



We regret to record the death of Dr. Adolph 

 Pichler, at Innsbruck, at the age of 81 years. 

 Dr. Pichler was for many years professor of 

 geology at Innsbriick and was at the same time 

 one of the more eminent German poets and men 

 of letters. He was the author of tragedies, 

 epics and lyric poems which are much esteemed 

 by the critics. Even if there were only the 

 names of Pichler and Camisso, the eminent 

 German poet and botanist, it would be proved 

 that a man of science is far more likely to be a 

 poet than is the average man. 



The death is announced of Professor M. F. 

 Kovalskij, professor of pure mathematics at 

 Charkow ; of Emanuel Form^nek, professor of 

 pharmacology at the Bohemian Uuiverisity of 

 Prague, and of M. A. Pellerin, director of the 

 botanical garden at Nantes. 



Professor George E. Hale, director of the 

 Yerkes Observatory, asks us to announce that 



appointments will be made to two new positions 

 on the staff of the Observatory, before July 1, 

 1901. The holders of these positions will be 

 expected to devote the principal part of their 

 time, a specified number of hours per day, to 

 the measurement and reduction of photographs 

 of spectra or to other work of computing. Op- 

 portunity will also be given to become familiar 

 with the investigations in progress at the Ob- 

 servatory, and perhaps to take part in them 

 during hours not devoted to measures and re- 

 ductions. The applicant should be familiar 

 with the practical use of the method of least 

 squares, and must possess good eyesight. Pref- 

 erence will be given to men trained in the 

 measurement and reduction of photographs. 

 It is probable that one of the positions will be 

 given to a man experienced in astronomical 

 methods, the other to one whose work has been 

 mainly in a physical laboratory. In neither 

 case can assurance be offered that the appoint- 

 ment will be for more than one year, as funds 

 are not now available for a longer period. The 

 salary will be $800. As it is desired to fill one 

 of the positions about January 1, 1901, appli- 

 cations may be sent at once to the director of the 

 Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin. 

 The Postmaster-General issued, December 

 5th, the following order, No. 1,851 : " Ordered : 

 That Theodore C. Search, President of the Na- 

 tional Association of Manufacturers, Philadel- 

 phia, Pa.; R. H. Thurston, director of Sibley 

 College, Ithaca, N. Y. ; Wm. F. King, president 

 Merchants' Association, New York ; Alfred 

 Brooks Fry, chief engineer and superintendent 

 of repairs, U. S. Public Buildings, New York, 

 N. Y. ; Wm. T. Manning, consulting engineer, 

 Baltimore, Md. ; and Frederick A. Halsey, me- 

 chanical engineer and editor American Ma- 

 chinisi, New York, N. Y., be and they hereby 

 are appointed a committee of experts to give 

 consideration to all matters pertaining to the 

 use of pneumatic tubes for the transmission of 

 mail and to advise the Postmaster-General 

 thereon pursuant to the Act of Congress ap- 

 proved June 2, 1900." The committee met 

 December 10th and will report within ten days, 

 advising the Postmaster-General regarding the 

 lease or the purchase, the extension, the re- 

 striction, or the disuse, of that system of trans- 



