May 2, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



719 



M. Alfred Coenu, the eminent physicist, 

 since 1867 professor at the^cole polytechnique, 

 Paris, has died at the age of sixty-one years. 



The American Mathematical Society, at its 

 recent meeting in New York City, authorized 

 the establishment of a section of the Society on 

 the Pacific coast. It is expected that the new 

 section will be organized at San Francisco on 

 May 3. 



The Eoyal Geographical Society, London, 

 has established a gold medal for geographical 

 research, to be called the Victoria medal. The 

 first award has been made to Mr. E. G. Raven- 

 stein for his work in scientific cartography, 

 and especially for his map of east central 

 Africa. 



The Catalonia Academy of Medicine, at 

 Barcelona, oilers a prize of about $500 for the 

 best essay on the comparative histology of the 

 fovea centralis, to be received before the end 

 of the present year. 



The marine laboratory which the Prince of 

 Monaco has built at Monaco is now nearly 

 complete, and will soon be ready for use. It 

 is understood that naturalists of all nationali- 

 ties will be welcomed to work at the laboratory 

 and that the equipment will be very complete. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie has informed the 

 mayor of Stratford-on-Avon that he will 

 defray the total cost of a library and reading- 

 room for the town if the corporation will pro- 

 vide a suitable site. 



We have already noted the bill before Con- 

 gress appropriating $10,000 to establish a 

 biological station on the Great Lakes. Pro- 

 fessor Jacob Reighard, to whom the move- 

 ment is chiefly due, writes as follows in regard 

 to the importance of the station: 



The purpose of such a station would be as fol- 

 lows : ( 1 ) The investigation of the problems con- 

 nected with the fisheries of the Great Lakes 

 throughout their extent. Such work should be 

 largely experimental like that of the agricultural 

 experiment stations. These problems are: 



(a) Breeding times, places and conditions of 

 the fishes. 



(6) Food, feeding habits, feeding grounds and 



the migrations of the immature and adult com- 

 mercial fishes. 



(c) The enemies of the commercial fishes. 



(d) Special studies of the whitefiah and stur- 

 geon, which are decreasing and of the carp which 

 have been recently introduced and enormous in- 

 crease of which appears a serious problem and is 

 a possible danger to the other fishes. 



(e) A careful study of the general biological 

 conditions surrounding the fishes and which 

 appear to be favorable for their growth and 

 development. 



Such work is a necessity not only for successful 

 artificial propagation but for a proper framing of 

 suitable fisheries laws. Such work should be car- 

 ried on year after year in connection with the regu- 

 lar work of the United States Fish Commission, for 

 the reason that it is not only germane to its 

 investigations but essential to the success of its 

 operations and to the prosperity and increase of 

 the commercial fisheries. Just as the National 

 Government supports large numbers of experi- 

 mental stations in the interests of agriculture, so 

 should it support such a station in the interest of 

 fish culture, an aquacultural experimental station. 



Mrs. C. P. Huntington and Archer M. 

 Huntington, Esq., have provided liberally for 

 the continuation of the work begun in 1899 

 by the Anthropological Department of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York, among the Indians of California, 

 through the liberality of Mr. CoUis P. Hunt- 

 ington. Some of the results of the work 

 already accomplished by the Huntington ex- 

 pedition among the California Indians have 

 been published this winter in the Bulletin of 

 the Museum by Dr. Roland B. Dixon. The 

 'Basketry Designs of the Indians of Northern 

 California' is the title of the first of the series 

 of publications issued by this expedition. 



Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, Surgeon F. S. Army, 

 to whom the Museum is already indebted for 

 many thousand specimens, has recently 

 donated to the department of conchology a 

 large series of specimens illustrating the 

 littoral molluscan fauna of the vicinity of 

 Newport, Rhode Island. Through the gen- 

 erosity of Percy R. Pyne, Esq., the Museum 

 was enabled in March to purchase two un- 

 published paintings of birds by John J. 

 Audubon. The subjects of these paintings 



