78 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 393. 



lessor of chemistry at the Kose Polytechnic 

 Institute. 



We regret to record the deaths of Dr. Fer- 

 dinand Sommer, formerly professor of, anat- 

 omy and director of the Anatomical Institute 

 at Greifswald, at the age of seventy-four 

 years ; and of Dr. Schroder, professor of math- 

 ematics in the Technical Institute at Karls- 

 ruhe. 



We announced recently a civil service ex- 

 amination for piece work computers in the U. 

 S. Naval Observatory and the Nautical Alma- 

 nac OiEce. The position in the Nautical Al- 

 manac Office will be filled by an examination 

 on July 15 and 16, but we are now informed 

 that the examination for the position in the 

 Naval Observatory will be for a miscellaneous 

 computer at a salary of about $900 a year, and 

 that the examination will be held on August 

 12 and 13. Appointments to the $1,200 grade 

 of computer at the Naval Observatory are 

 made by promotion from the grade of miscel- 

 laneous computer. 



There will also be a civil service examina- 

 tion on August 12 and 13 from which it is ex- 

 pected that certification will be made to the 

 position of hydrographic siirveyor U. S. S. 

 Ranger, at a salary of $1,600 per annum, and 

 to other similar vacancies as they may occur. 



The Council of the Horticultural Society 

 of New York announces that it has completed 

 arrangements for the holding of an Inter- 

 national Conference on Plant Breeding and 

 Hybridization on September 30 and October 

 1 and 2 of the present year. Acting under the 

 instruction of the society at its annual meet- 

 ing in May, 1901, the chairman of the council 

 addressed letters of inquiry to prominent 

 scientific societies and individuals interested 

 in progressive horticulture, both at home and 

 abroad, to all the Agricultural Experiment 

 Stations in America, the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture and the Minister of 

 Agriculture for the Dominion of Canada, in 

 order to enlist a widespread support and to as- 

 certain views as to the most convenient date 

 for the attendance of the majority of those in- 

 terested. The responses were unanimously in 



favor of holding such a conference and the 

 dates announced were finally selected by the 

 conference committee, consisting of Dr. N. L. 

 Britton, chairman. Dr. F. M. Hexamer, J. de 

 Wolf, IT. A. Siebrecht and Leonard Barron, 

 secretary. By the cooperation of the Ameri- 

 can Institute of the City of New York, it is 

 arranged to hold the sessions of the conference 

 in the Lecture Hall of the Berkeley Lyceum 

 Building, 19-21 West 44th street. New York 

 City. Arrangements are being made for the 

 publication of a complete report of the papers 

 and discussions in book form under the aus- 

 pices of the Society. In connection with the 

 Conference there will be an exhibition of hybrid 

 plants and their products, and of the related 

 literature, to which everyone is invited to con- 

 tribute. Awards of the society in the form of 

 medals, diplomas and certificates may be made 

 to exliibits of plants and plant products of hy- 

 brid origin illustrating some particular plant 

 or plant industry. 



Dr. W. Seward Webb, one of the trustees 

 of the University of Vermont, has given it 

 $6,000 for the purchase of the herbarium of 

 Cyrus G. Pringle. 



The American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, New York City, has sent an expedition 

 to eastern Colorado to examine the unex- 

 plored portions of the Protohippus Beds in 

 the hope of securing a complete skeleton of 

 this animal. At the same time search will 

 be made in western Nebraska for the same 

 fossil species of horse, in the locality where 

 Professor Leidy first discovered it. The ex- 

 penses of these expeditions are defrayed by 

 the gift of Mr. William C. Whitney. 



The Windward is being fitted for its fifth 

 and last trip and will soon sail via Etah for 

 Cape Sabine on Smith Sound, where it is ex- 

 pected that Lieutenant Peary will be found. 



A Bll,L is now before the British parliament 

 which if passed will make still more stringent 

 the provision interfering with experiments on 

 living animals in Great Britain. The British 

 Medical Journal thus sums up the proposed 

 new legislation: (1) The abolition of all an- 

 esthetics which are not respirable. (2) The 



