638 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 381. 



appropriation was increased by $80,000, while 

 the House was sitting as committee of the 

 whole. 



Dr. S. Weir Mitchell has established a 

 prize of $50 in the School of Biology at the 

 University of Pennsylvania, for an original 

 investigation on the autumnal coloration of 

 plants. 



In pursuing its purpose to encourage the 

 study of local natiiral history the Springfield 

 Science Museum offers two prizes for collec- 

 tions of beetles. These prizes are open to chil- 

 dren who are pupils below high school grade in 

 any Springfield school. Specimens to show how 

 beetles and notes are to be prepared maybe seen 

 at the museum, and two talks on 'Beetles, and 

 How to Collect Them,' have been arranged. 



The French Chamber has voted a subsidy of 

 25,000 frs. for the International Bureau for 

 the unification of physiological instruments 

 established at Paris by Professor Marey. 



The Prussian government offers three prizes 

 of the value of 5,000, 3,000 and 2,000 Marks 

 for the best instrument for the measurement of 

 the pressure of the wind; and a further prize 

 of 3,000 Marks will be awarded if the instru- 

 ment proves serviceable after long use. The 

 plans must be submitted to the Deutsche 

 Seewarte in Hamburg before April 15, 1903. 

 The competition is open to foreigners. 



luNG Edward, who is patron of the National 

 Antarctic expedition, has contributed £100 

 towards the funds for the equipment of the 

 relief ship, which must sail in June next. 



The seventy-fourth meeting of German 

 Naturalists and Physicians will be held at 

 Carlsbad, beginning on September 21. 



Dr. Lederle, president of the New York 

 City Department of Health, has asked the 

 board of estimate and apportionment for $1,- 

 025,000 with which to provide repairs and new 

 hospitals for the treatment of contagious 

 diseases. 



The Hoiise of Eepresentatives has passed a 

 bill making the petrified forest of Arizona a 

 national park. 



A bill creating the National Appalachian 

 Forest Reserve has been reported to the House. 



It authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

 purchase not more than 4,000,000 acres of 

 mountain and forest lands in Virginia, West 

 Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee for a forest 

 reserve, at a cost not exceeding $10,000,000, of 

 which $2,000,000 is appropriated by the bill. 



A BILL has been introduced in the Senate 

 authorizing the establishment of a biological 

 station on the Great Lakes, under the control 

 of the United States Commission of Fish and 

 Fisheries. 



A BILL has been introduced in the Senate by 

 Senator Depew proposing that the United 

 States erect a building in Paris, at a cost not 

 exceeding $250,000, to be known as the Ameri- 

 can National Institute, on groimd donated by 

 the Municipal Coimcil. 



The physicians of Chicago are planning to 

 erect a building for a meeting place and as a 

 club house. It is proposed to cooperate with 

 the John Creerar Library in the establish- 

 ment of a medical library. 



The growing demand for qualified teachers 

 of nature study in the public schools has led 

 to the foundation of a new summer school un- 

 der the direction of members of the faculty 

 of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

 The Sharon Summer School, as it is called, 

 is designed to furnish teachers and lovers of 

 nature with sound training in the principles 

 of natural science and a practical knowledge 

 of the connnoner forms of living things, rather 

 than to provide specialists with opportunities 

 for research. The curriculum provides for 

 fundamental work in physiography and gen- 

 eral biology, and for elective courses on trees, 

 wild flowers, birds, insects, mammals and sea- 

 shore life. Laboratory facilities are available 

 at the Institute of Technology, and an oppor- 

 tunity for outdoor study and experimentation 

 is furnished by the control of 300 acres of 

 natural country, in the town of Sharon, where 

 most of the field work of the school will be 

 carried on. Information about the course, 

 which will be given during the four weeks fol- 

 lowing July 9, may be obtained from G. W. 

 Field, director, or C. E. A. Winslow, secretary, 

 Sharon Summer School, Mass. Inst. Tech., 



