August 15, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



277 



Edinburgli, and of Dr. P. M. Garibaldi, pro- 

 fessor of physics at Genoa. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie has given £10,000 to 

 build a free library at Cork, Ireland. 



The University at Tomsk has received a 

 gift of one hundred thousand roubles for the 

 establishment of a biological station. 



The Berlin Academy of Sciences has an- 

 nounced that its academic prize, 5,000 Marks, 

 will be awarded in 1904 for an investigation 

 of the kathode rays and in 1905 for an inves- 

 tigation of the theory of functions of several 

 variables which admit of linear substitution. 

 The income of the Cothenius legacy — $2,000 — • 

 for 1904 will be awarded for investigations on 

 new varieties of grain. The papers may be 

 written in English and must be presented 

 without the name of the author to the Bureau 

 of the Academy, Universitat Strasse, 8, Ber- 

 lin. 



Steps are being taken for the establishment 

 of a medico-historical department in the Ger- 

 manic Museum at Niirnberg on the occasion 

 of the fiftieth annivei-sary of its foundation. 

 It will contain a collection of medical and 

 surgical instruments and apparatus, drawings, 

 portraits, books and manuscripts, illustrating 

 the history of the art of healing. 



The British Medical Association held its 

 seventieth annual meeting at Manchester, be- 

 ginning on July 29. The business of the As- 

 sociation was conducted in seventeen sections 

 which held their meetings at Owen's College. 

 There were somewhat over 1,500 members in 

 attendance. The meeting next year will be 

 held at Swansea under the presidency of Dr. 

 Griffiths. 



The first conference of the International 

 Bureau for combating tuberculosis will meet 

 at Berlin from October 22 to 26. 



The German Society for Mechanics and 

 Optics, consisting of those engaged in making 

 instruments of precision, will this year meet 

 at Halle on August 15, 16 and 17. 



The Paris correspondent of the London 

 Standard states that the Ministers of Foreign 

 Affairs and Agriculture, just before the sum- 

 mer recess, presented to the Chamber a bill 



approving the international convention for 

 the protection of birds useful to agriculture. 

 The international convention has been signed 

 by eleven European states. Encouraged by 

 the constantly renewed resolutions of the 

 Councils General and the agricultural socie- 

 ties, which deplored the systematic destruc- 

 tion of certain birds useful to agriculture, the 

 French Government, in 1892, took the initia- 

 tive in the matter by inviting the European 

 powers to send their representatives to an 

 international commission intrusted with the 

 task of elaborating a convention. That com- 

 mittee met in Paris in June, 1895. After long 

 negotiations the convention thus framed has 

 now obtained the adhesion of France, Ger- 

 many, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Hun- 

 gary, Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden, Swit- 

 zerland, and the Principality of Monaco. All 

 the other states are empowered by the terms 

 of the agreement to adliere, if they think fit, 

 to this convention for the protection of birds. 

 The various contracting governments under- 

 take to prohibit the employment of snares, 

 cages, nets, glue, and all other means for the 

 capture and destruction of birds in large num- 

 bers at a time. In addition to this general 

 measure of protection, no one is to be allowed 

 to capture or kill, between March 1 and Sept. 

 15, any of the birds useful to agriculture, and 

 of which a complete list is contained in the 

 international agreement. This list of useful 

 birds comprises sparrows, owls, common brown 

 owls, tawny owls, sea eagles, woodpeckers, roll- 

 ers, wasp-eaters, pewits, martins, fern owls, 

 nightingales, redstarts, robin redbreasts, white 

 bustards, larks of all kinds, wrens, tomtits, 

 swallows, flycatchers, etc. 



A LINE of work recently taken up by the 

 Bureau of Forestry, and for the first time 

 receiving adequate attention in the United 

 States, is the study of the tendency of natural 

 forests to extend over the land devoid of forest 

 growth. This tendency has been noticed in 

 many parts of the country, but has never been 

 studied with a view of controlling it for prac- 

 tical use, or assisting it where desirable. A 

 field party from the Bureau is now investi- 

 gating the reproduction of white pine on 



