Dbokmbbr 19, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



997 



iological laboratories at the Gordon Memorial 

 College, Elartoum. These laboratories are 

 equipped with the most modern appliances, 

 and are the gift of Mr. H. S. Welcome, who 

 recently visited the Soudan. 



Me. Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.S., is 

 about to start for a tour in Ceylon and India, 

 hoping to confirm his hyiDothesis that the con- 

 sumption of badly-cured fish is the cause of 

 Ic-prosy. 



The death is announced of Mrs. Alice Free- 

 man Palmer, formerly president of Wellesley 

 College. After her marriage to Professor 

 Palmer, of Harvard University, she continued 

 to take an active interest in educational 

 matters. 



Me. Ludwig Kumlien, who was naturalist 

 of the Howgate Polar expedition in 1877, and 

 was afterward connected with the Smithson- 

 ian Institution and the Fish Commission, 

 has died at his home in Milton, Wisconsin. 



The directors of the Ben Nevis observa- 

 tories have obtained funds to keep the ob- 

 servatories open until October, 1904. 



The ISfew York Evening Post states that 

 an important meeting of the New York State 

 Electrical Laboratory Commission was held in 

 New York on Monday, December 8. There 

 were present State Engineer Bond; Harold 

 W. Buck, of Niagara Falls; C. P. Steinmetz, 

 of New York city, and State Architect Hines. 

 Plans already submitted to the commission 

 were approved, and Messrs. Buck and Stein- 

 metz reported on the amount of space needed 

 for the electrical apparatus. The cost of the 

 proposed buildings and equipment will be be- 

 tween $250,000 and $300,000. The buildings 

 alone will cost in the neighborhood of $100,- 

 000. The cormnission decided to make a pre- 

 liminary draft of its report to be presented 

 to the legislature at the nest session of that 

 body. 



The Carnegie Institution has made a grant 

 of $500 to Professor Bancroft, of Cornell Uni- 

 versity, for a systematic study of the bronzes. 

 The work will be similar to that recently pub- 

 lished on the alloys of bismuth, lead and tin, 

 and will consist primarily in the analytical 

 determination of the solid phases. 



The medical papers report that the Car- 

 negie Institution has made an annual grant 

 of $10,000 to revive the Index Medicus, for- 

 merly published under the direction of Dr. 

 John S. Billings. The New York Evening 

 Post states that the institution has made a 

 grant of $1,000 to the astronomical depart- 

 ment of Vassar College to enable Dr. Caro- 

 line E. Furness to make measurements and 

 reductions of photographs of the stars in the 

 region of the North Pole. 



A BILL has been passed by the House of 

 Eepresentatives for the incorporation of a 

 ' general educational board ' the incorporators 

 named in the act being the following well- 

 known educators: Daniel C. Gilman, George 

 Foster Peabody, Morris K. Jesup, Robert C. 

 Ogden, William H. Baldwin, Jr., Jabez L. 

 M. Curry, Frederick T. Gates, Walter Page 

 and Albert Shaw. This is a movement for 

 advancing education in the south, in which 

 Mr. John D. Rockefeller and others have 

 taken an interest. The scope of the board is, 

 however, very broad, being described as fol- 

 lows : " To build, improve, enlarge, or equip 

 buildings for elementary or primary, indus- 

 trial, technical, normal or training schools 

 for teachers, or schools of any grade, or for 

 higher institutions of learning, or, in connec- 

 tion therewith, libraries, workshops, gardens, 

 kitchens, or other educational accessories; to 

 establish, maintain, or endow such schools; 

 to employ or aid others to employ teachers 

 and lecturers; to aid, cooperate with or endow 

 associations or other corporations engaged in 

 educational work within the United States; 

 to collect educational statistics and informa- 

 tion and to publish and distribute documents 

 and reports containing the same." 



It is stated in the London Times that the 

 royal commission on arsenical poisoning has 

 recently held a series of meetings in connec- 

 tion with a report received from their As- 

 sistant Commissioner, Mr. H. Hammond 

 Smith, on the liability of articles of food and 

 drink other than beer to contain arsenic, and 

 have taken evidence from certain manufac- 

 turers on this part of their reference. Sev- 

 eral chemical and other inquiries which the 



