38 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 366. 



The Misses Olivia and Caroline Phelps 

 Stokes have presented to the Board of Man- 

 agers of the New York Botanical Garden, 

 $3,000, on condition that the interest of 

 this fund shovild always be used for the in- 

 vestigation and preservation of native plants, 

 or for bringing the need for such preservation 

 before the public. The income this year is 

 offered in three prizes for papers on the sub- 

 ject mentioned. The papers must be presented 

 not later than February 1, 1902. 



At a meeting of the trustees of the Connec- 

 ticut Agricultural College, on December 27, a 

 resolution was passed favoring a bill now be- 

 fore Congress providing for the study of for- 

 estry and mining in the agricultural colleges. 



An Anthropological Club was recently or- 

 ganized at Yale University. Dr. Kellar pre- 

 sided and Professor Sumner outlined the sub- 

 jects to be treated. The attendance was eigh- 

 teen. 



The Society of College Gymnasium Direc- 

 tors met at Columbia University on December 

 27 and 28. The following officers were elected : 

 President, Professor Paul C. Phillips, Amherst 

 College; First Vice-President, Edward Hitch- 

 cock, Jr., Cornell University; Second Vice- 

 President, Dr. Frederick E. Parker, Brown 

 University; Secretary and Treasurer, Dr. 

 James A. Babbitt, Haverford College; Ex- 

 ecutive Committee, Dr. E. Tait McKenzie, 

 McGill University, Montreal; Dr. Dudley A. 

 Sargent, Harvard, and Dr. William G. Ander- 

 son, Yale; Council and Committee on Admis- 

 sions, Dr. Casper W. Miller, University of 

 Pennsylvania; Dr. Watson Lewis Savage, Co- 

 lumbia ; Professor A. Alonzo Stagg, University 

 of Chicago, and the officers of the Society, ex- 

 offlcio- Committee on Strength Tests and In- 

 spection of Instruments, Dr. Sargent, Har- 

 vard; Dr. Savage, Columbia, and Dr. Jay W. 

 Seaver, Yale. Committee on Nomenclature, 

 Dr. Anderson, Yale; Dr. Sargent, Harvard, 

 and Professor George Goldie, Princeton. 



The twelfth annual banquet provided for in 

 the will of the late Henry Shaw, the founder 

 of Shaw's Botanical Garden, was given on 

 December 7, at the Mercantile Club, St. Louis. 



The Lancet states that the fellows and asso- 



ciates of the Institute of Chemistry assembled 

 under Professor J. Millar-Thomson, F.R.S., 

 the president, for their annual dinner on 

 December 4. The president was supported 

 by a distinguished company. The minister of 

 agriculture emphasized the importance of 

 scientific chemistry to agriculture. The presi- 

 dent gave a general report on the condition of 

 the institute, pointing to the advance that that 

 body was steadily making in the high standard 

 of its examinations. 



The Archeological Institute of America held 

 its annual meeting at Columbia University, on 

 December 27 and 28, under the presidency of 

 Professor John W. White, of Harvard Univer- 

 sity. 



At a meeting held in London on December 

 5, under the presidency of Dr. W. E. Smith, 

 a medico-legal society was organized. 



The Lancet states that at the meeting held 

 on November 25, M. Gaule laid before the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences the result of some 

 researches which had been undertaken by him- 

 self with a view to ascertain whether the re- 

 sults of a balloon ascent were comparable with 

 those obtained at a high altitude on land — ■ 

 e. g., at the top of a mountain. The most 

 notable of these is a marked augmentation in 

 the number of red corpuscles. Viaux and 

 sundry observers who followed him have ascer- 

 tained that at a high altitude there is a great 

 increase in the number of red corpuscles. Thus 

 in the Cordilleras at a height of 4,000 meters, 

 Viaux found 8,000,000 red corpuscles per cubic 

 millimeter. M. Gaule wished to see whether 

 in a balloon ascent, where ascension is very 

 rapid and entails no muscular exertion, a 

 similar phenomenon would occur. He made 

 two investigations at heights of 4,200 and 

 4,700 meters and found in himself 8,000,000 

 red corpuscles per cubic millimeter. Further, 

 M. Gaule at a height of over 4,000 meters 

 made some blood-films stained after Ehrlich's 

 method with eosin and hajmatoxylin. He 

 foimd numerous red corpuscles which showed 

 a nucleus colored blue by the hsematoxylin. 

 This nucleus was in many instances segment- 

 ing, and also groups of three or four corpuscles 

 were seen as if they had undergone subdivi- 



