I'BBEUAEY 21, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



319 



Professor Baskford Dean in Japan was 'pur- 

 chased' for the American Museum of Natural 

 History. It should have been said that the 

 museum reimbursed Professor Dean for the 

 sum which he advanced in making the pur- 

 chases, and that he contributes as his share in 

 the collection his field expenses and services. 



A BILL appropriating $50,000 to enable Pro- 

 fessor John B. Smith of Rutgers College to 

 make experiments for the eradication of mos- 

 quitoes has been reported favorably in the 

 New Jersey legislature. 



The position of assistant in pathology with 

 a salary of $840 and of assistant in physiology 

 at a salary of $1,000 in the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, Department of Agriculture, will be 

 filled by civil service examination on February 

 26. 



A TELEGRAM has been received at the Har- 

 vard CoUege Observatory from Professor W. 

 W. Campbell at Lick Observatory stating that 

 Professor Perrine finds that the remarkable 

 coronal disturbance in the Sumatra eclipse 

 was immediately above the prominent and 

 only sunspot visible during eleven days. 



At the meeting of the Connecticut Academy 

 of Sciences on February 12, Professor 

 A. E. Verrill exhibited several remark- 

 able photographs in natural colors, made direct 

 from nature by a new autochromatic process, 

 invented by Mr. A. Hyatt VerriU. of New Ha- 

 ven. One of these photographs was a Bermuda 

 landscape in which the beautiful tints of the 

 water, etc., were well brought out. Three other 

 plates were copies of water-color drawings of 

 brilliantly colored Bermuda fishes. The photo- 

 graphic reproduction of these showed accurate- 

 ly all the delicate shades of green, blue, pink, 

 purple, yellow and orange. The intense red 

 colors appear to be the most difiicult to render 

 by this process at present, but no doubt this 

 will soon be remedied by further experiments 

 now in progress. 



The third annual Charter Day meeting of 

 the Sigma Xi Society at the University of Ne- 

 braska was held on February 14. Professor 

 Samuel Calvin, of the University of Iowa and 

 director of the Iowa Geological Survey, was 

 the guest of the Society at the annual banquet 



and delivered the annual address on 'Records 

 of the Great lee Age in the Upper Mississippi 

 Valley.' The lecture, which was illustrated by 

 lantern slides, presented the important discov- 

 eries of the speaker on the precise limits and 

 characteristics of the v.arious ice sheets which 

 have been demonstrated as present during the 

 ice age in Iowa and the adjacent States. 



Nature reports that at the recent annual 

 general meeting of the Royal Scottish Arbori- 

 cultural Society, Lord Mansfield said he was 

 authorized to state that it was Mr. Hanbury's 

 intention to appoint a departmental commit- 

 tee to inquire into and report upon the pres- 

 ent position and future prospects of forestry 

 and the planting and management of wood- 

 lands in the United Kingdom, and to consider 

 whether any further measures might be taken 

 with advantage, either by the provision of 

 further educational facilities or otherwise, for 

 their promotion and encouragement. Mr. 

 Munro-Ferguson, M.P., has been invited and 

 has consented to act as chairman of the com- 

 mittee. 



The London Times states that the recent 

 acquisitions to the zoological department of 

 the British Museum of Natural History in- 

 clude the interesting collections made by Sir 

 Harry Johnston in Uganda. The great inter- 

 est attaching to the discovery of the now cele- 

 brated okapi has overshadowed the rest of the 

 collection forwarded to the museum by Sir 

 Harry. It contained, nevertheless, many speci- 

 mens of considerable scientific interest. Mr. 

 Oldfield Thomas, the mammalogist of the de- 

 partment, has been unable to separate specifi- 

 cally the five-homed giraffe obtained near 

 Mount Elgon from the ordinary North African 

 form. The specimen has unusually developed 

 horns, and on that account is of special inter- 

 est. The collection of birds, though small in 

 number, was particularly welcome, since it was 

 made up chiefly of big birds, such as vultures, 

 storks and herons. Travelers, as a rule, wiU 

 not take the trouble to skin and bring home 

 birds of this description. The fishes also 

 proved to be very valuable, as they were the 

 first specimens received from Lakes Victoria 

 and Baringo. They included two specimens 

 new to science, described by Mr. Boulenger. 



