798 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 411. 



This result may be checked by the geocen- 

 tric positions. At November 29^.5, the geo- 

 centric coordinates of Mercury are E.A. = 

 151150^585, Dec. = — 20°1'.6, log. 3 = 0.1500. 

 The coordinates of the comet, according to 

 the ephemeris mentioned above, are E.A. = 

 15li53'n23s, Dec.=— 20°44'.3, log. ^=0.1451. 

 According to Nijland's ephemeris (A. N. 

 160.14), the coordinates of the comet are 

 E.A. = 151 54™ 54s, Dec. = — 20°37'.7, log. 

 d =0.1443. The comet vcill probably be vis- 

 ible for some time after passing perihelion, as 

 is shown by the following extension of the 

 ephemeris by Mr. Seagrave. 



The effect of the disturbance by Mercury 

 can, therefore, be determined with such accu- 

 racy that it is hoped that it will give a good 

 value of the mass of that planet. In any 

 case, careful measures of the position of the 

 comet after November 29 are greatly to be 

 desired. Edward C. Pickering. 



Harvard College Observatory. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



Mr. William Sellers has been nominated 

 for the presidency of the American Society of 

 Mechanical Engineers. 



Professor Marston Taylor Bogert, of Co- 

 lumbia University, has recently been elected 

 a vice-president of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry (of England). 



Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology, has left Washington for 



Porto Rico to continue his ethnological and 

 archeological studies of the West Indian 

 aborigines. His plan of work embraces an 

 examination of caves, village sites, shell heaps 

 and other places of occupation of the prehis- 

 toric inhabitants, and a collection of such 

 ethnological data as may shed light on the 

 manners and customs of the Porto Rican 

 Indians. Dr. Eewkes will remain in the West 

 Indies during the winter, and in the course 

 of his work expects to visit Santa Domingo 

 and the Lesser Antilles as far south as the 

 coast of Venezuela. 



Dr. a. E. Kennelly has returned to Har- 

 vard University from an expedition to super- 

 vise the laying of a cable in Mexican waters. 

 Ernst A. Bessey, explorer for the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, has re- 

 turned from his journey into Turkestan, and 

 has entered the University of Halle for further 

 botanical study. The easternmost point reached 

 by him was Andijan, in the province of 

 Eerghana. 



At the annual meeting of the American 

 Antiquarian Society, held at Worcester, Mass., 

 on October 21, 1902, Dr. Albert S. Gatschet, 

 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and Dr. 

 Alexander F. Chamberlain, of Clark Univer- 

 sity, were elected members. 



The Hon. C. A. Parsons, F.E.S., known for 

 his work on the steam turbine, has been elected 

 an honorary fellow of St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge. 



Northwestern University will confer the 

 degree of LL.D. on Professor Adolf Lorenz, 

 the Viennese surgeon, at present in this 

 country. 



The comiuittee on science and arts of the 

 Franklin Institute has recommended the 

 award of the John Scott legacy medals and 

 premiums to William A. Doble, of San Fran- 

 cisco, for his improvements in tangential 

 water wheels ; to Norton P. Otis, Rudolph C. 

 Smith, John D. Ihlder and August Sundt for 

 their improvements in electric elevators for 

 private residences ; to James Reagan, of Phil- 

 adelphia, for his improvements in grate bars, 

 and to H. Ward Leonard, of Bronxville, N. T., 

 for his system of motor control. 



