Dkcembek 14, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



935 



mission of mail matter. It is now in use in 

 New York, Philadelphia and Boston, and is 

 asked for in other large cities. 



A DESPATCH from Berkeley states that Mr. D. 

 O. Mills, of New York, has promised the Uni- 

 versity of California about $24,000, to defray 

 the expenses of a two years' astronomical ex- 

 pedition from the Lick Observatory to South 

 America or Australia, the object of which is to 

 study the movement of stars in the line of sight. 



Me. Geoege Wharton James will lecture 

 before the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 

 Sciences on the 14th instant on 'The Wallapais : 

 the Bedouins of the Painted Desert of Arizona.' 

 The illustrations will be from photographs taken 

 last summer. Dr. John W. Harshberger will 

 make a communication at the regular meeting 

 of the 18th inst. on the ' Ecology of the New 

 Jersey Strand Flora.' 



Dr. a. Donaldson Smith, the African ex- 

 plorer, is to lecture before the Philadelphia 

 Geographical Society on January 2d. 



Wb regret to hear that the fine collection of 

 Mr. Jas. L. Bowes, of Liverpool, the basis of 

 Audsley and Bowes' ' Ceramic Arts of Japan ' is 

 likely to be sold and dispersed. 



A collection' of 1,200 Indian baskets has 

 been presented to the Ferry Museum of Tacoma, 

 Washington, by Captain Tozies. 



The geological survey of Louisiana will be 

 continued this winter as usual under the im- 

 mediate direction of Professor Harris, of Cor- 

 nell University. He leaves for New Orleans, 

 December 20th, taking with him Mr. J. Pacheco, 

 a student in the University from Brazil, as as- 

 sistant in place of Mr. A. Veatch, who has re- 

 signed to continue his work at the University. 



A TELEGEAM has been received at the Har, 

 vard College Observatory, through Mr. Percival 

 Lowell, stating that Mr. A. E. Douglass, while 

 observing the planet Mars on December 7th, 

 saw a projection on the north edge of Icarium 

 Mare, which lasted seventj' minutes. 



The Paris correspondent of the London Times 

 reports that M. Emile Berr has just announced 

 a scheme, at the head of which are M. Baudin, 

 Minister of Public Works ; M. Millerand, Min- 

 ister of Commerce ; M. Leygues, Minister of 



Education ; and M. Alfred Picard, the General 

 Commissioner. The scheme consists in the 

 preservation in that portion of the banks of the 

 Seine on the Quai d'Orsay of 12 out of the 16 

 Palaces of the Nations in the recent exhibition. 

 The palaces to be taken down would be those 

 of Italy, Turkey and Servia at either end, and 

 the palace of Spain in the middle, the space 

 left vacant to be filled up by the pretty pavilion 

 of Finland, now in the second row. Each 

 palace thus preserved would become a special 

 museum, the fine characteristic country house 

 of England being converted into a museum of 

 hygiene and bacteriology — a museum of honor 

 to the memory of Pasteur and Lord Listtr. 

 These 12 museums, which will last ten years at 

 least, would be kept up by the organizers, and 

 the project honors both those who have in- 

 vented the idea and the nations which designed 

 these palaces. The cost of the undertaking 

 would be about 1,000,000 f. 



The Philippine Commission is about to estab- 

 lish an experimental farm about 200 miles from 

 Manila which will be under the direction of 

 Mr. Phelps Whitmarsh. 



In his annual report to the President, the 

 Secretary of the Interior says, concerning the 

 value of Forest preservation by the govern- 

 ment : " The forest policy, as inaugurated by my 

 immediate predecessor in office, has been con- 

 tinued during the year, and the results obtained 

 in the conservation of the national forests and 

 the protection of timber on reserved as well as 

 unreserved lands have demonstrated the wis- 

 dom of its adoption, and the necessity, in the 

 interest of the public, for its continuance and 

 increased appropriations by Congress for the 

 carrying on of the work. I concur in the com- 

 missioner's recommendation that not less than 

 the appropriation of $300,000 for the forest ser- 

 vice, in connection with the creation and admin- 

 istration of forest reserves, be continued for next 

 year, with a possible increase in case additional 

 lands are set aside as forest reservations." 



The Association for Promoting Scientific Re- 

 search by Women offers a prize of one thousand 

 dollars for the best thesis presented by a woman 

 on a scientific subject, embodying the results of 

 her independent laboratory research in the bio- 



