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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 312. 



instance, when a voluntary action such as 

 writing or drawing is executed. To students 

 of psychology the further problem to be solved 

 is how such centers act in relation to each other, 

 and, above all, how far they are organizations 

 for the reception of sensory impressions, as well 

 as stations which issue outgoing orders, as it 

 were, to the muscles. It is universally admitted 

 that apperception must immediately precede all 

 acts of so called volition. This question the lect- 

 urer regarded as answered by the view that, 

 at least in the carnivorous animals, brain con- 

 ceptions and ideas of the movement to be per- 

 formed by any part of the body are represented 

 in the so-called motor center, which unques- 

 tionably is the starting point from which the 

 final nerve impulse for the execution of that 

 movement issues. After referring to the de- 

 gree in which Dr. Jackson's original deductions 

 have been confirmed by subsequent physiological 

 as well as clinical investigations. Professor 

 Hitzig dwelt on the fact that all workers in 

 science are united in one camp in the battle 

 against ignorance and against the opposition 

 which some offer to the progress of natural 

 knowledge. He felt that the invitation to him 

 as a foreign investigator to deliver this lecture 

 was an honorable expression of their common 

 interests in their science. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



A CIRCULAR letter issued by the Yale Bi-cen- 

 tennial Committee states that besides conditional 

 pledges of $250,000, subscriptions to the amount 

 of $900,000 have been received since the bi- 

 centennial movement was started. 



Fire in the main college building of the Iowa 

 State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 

 destroyed on December 8th a large amount of 

 valuable botanical material. The Parry her- 

 barium was saved, except the duplicates which 

 were nearly all burned. A part of the grass 

 collection was saved and a few of the other 

 specimens. The general collection contained 

 about 80,000 specimens ; more than 50,000 of 

 these were burned, besides a large number of 

 duplicate specimens numbering many thou- 

 sands. Many valuable western plants collected 

 by the writer, representing four years of labor, 



were destroyed. Also sets of plants from Porto 

 Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado and 

 Texas were burned and much of the private 

 library was also ruined, as well as the depart- 

 ment library. Most of the microscopes and 

 other apparatus were burned. Manuscript on 

 grasses of the State, besides one on thistles and 

 some smaller papers ready for publication, 

 were also destroyed. 



Myron L. Fuller, S.B., formerly instructor 

 in geology at the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, is now an assistant geologist in 

 the United States Geological Survey. He has 

 been spending the summer in association with 

 Mr. M. R. Campbell in the coal fields of western 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. Charles H. 

 Warren, Ph.D., has been appointed instructor 

 in mineralogy and geology at the Institute in 

 the place formerly occupied by Mr. Fuller. 

 Dr. Warren was previously instructor in Pro- 

 fessor S. L. Penfleld's Laboratory in New 

 Haven. 



Mr. John Sealy Townsend, M.A., fellow of 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, lecturer and dem- 

 onstrator in the Cavendish Laboratory, has 

 been appointed to the newly-established Wyke- 

 ham professorship of physics at Oxford. Pro- 

 fessor Townsend, as we learn from the London 

 Times, was student and exhibitioner in the 

 University of Dublin, where he was gold medal- 

 ist in mathematics and physical science, and 

 obtained the mathematical studentship of 1900, 

 besides other prizes and distinctions. In 1896 

 he was appointed demonstrator in physics at 

 the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. He 

 was Clerk-Maxwell scholar in 1899, and was 

 elected to a fellowship at Trinity in the same 

 year. The subjects of this chair, of which the 

 income is provided from the revenues of New 

 College, are electricity and magnetism, which 

 are thus withdrawn from the province of the 

 professor of experimental philosophy, by whom 

 they have hitherto been taught. Merten Col- 

 lege has contributed £700 towards fitting up, 

 and £500 towards the maintenance of, a new 

 electrical laboratory for the use of the professor. 



It is announced that Sir William Muir, who 

 is now 81 years of age, will shortly retire from 

 the presidency of the University of Edinburgh. 



