2^2 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 430 



prize shall be awarded for the best essay written by a graduate 

 student upon some suViject in historical or political science, ancient 

 or modern, and submitted by him or for him to the academic 

 council. The prize shall consist of a bronze replica of a likeness 

 of Chief Justice Marshall, together with printed copies of his de- 

 cisions (if they can be obtained). The i^rize shall be known as 

 The John Marshall Prize of the Johns Hopkios University. To 

 indicate the character of the work which the donor desires to en- 

 courage, she requests that three copies of the likeness be given as 

 prizes for three essays to be selected by competent judges from 

 the essays already published by recent members of the university. 

 She desires that the further regulations for the bestowal of the 

 prize shall be made by the president of the university, with the 

 concurrence of the academic council. If, at the end of ten years, 

 any balance shall remain unexpended, it shall be devoted by the 

 trustees to the continuation of the prize, or to any other object 

 that they may select. 



— An expedition into southern and eastern Maryland has been 

 organized, through the co-operation of the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, the United States Geological Survey, and the Maryland 

 Agricultural College. The project has been approved by the gov- 

 ernor and Board of Public Works of the State, and one or more 

 steamers of the Maryland Oyster Navy will be detailed for the ac- 

 commodation of the members of the expedition. 'I'he object of 

 the expedition is to study the natural resources of the southern 

 and eastern portions of the State. The heads of the Johns Hop- 

 kins University, the United States Geological Survey, and the 

 State Agricultural College have designated the following persons 

 as a board of control: Professor W. B. Clark of the Johns Hop- 

 kins University, chairman ; Professor Milton Whitney of the State 

 Agricultural College, secretary and treasurer; Mr. W. J. McGee 

 of the United States Geological Survey. The expedition was to 

 leave Baltimore April 23. 



— Among the results already obtained from the oceanographic 

 expedition of the " Pola," organized by the Academy of Sciences 

 of Vienna, are the following, as we learn from Nature of April 16 : 

 The water of the central basin of the Mediterranean was found to 

 be warmer, denser, and richer in dissolved salts, than the western 

 basin. As regards the penetration of light into the sea, a white 

 disk was visible only at a depth of 43 metres, but photographic 

 plates were affected at a depth of 500 metres. Starting from the 

 surface of the sea, the quantity of oxygen dissolved at first in- 

 creases with the decrease of temperature, but then again decreases, 

 so that at a depth of 3,000 metres the proportion is the same as 

 that at the surface. In no case was any free carbonic acid found. 

 The nitrogenous substances in solution vai'y in inverse proportion 

 to the depth: that of ammonia varies but slightly, but is greater 

 in the lower strata. 



— The next annual meeting of the Royal Society of Canada will 

 open in Montreal on Wednesday, May 27, 1891. The sessions 

 usually last one week. It is anticipated that the meeting will be 

 attended by many distinguished persons eminent in literature and 

 science from Europe and the United States as well as from the 

 Dominion of Canada. The ordinary sessions of the society will 

 be held in the buildings of the McGill University, and the popular 

 evening lectures will be delivered in the Queen's Hall on St. 

 Catherine Street. The museums and art galleries, with the edu- 

 cational, industrial, and other institutions of the city, will be 

 opened to visiting members and associates. Local excursions to 

 places of interest in the neighborhood will be arranged for ; and 

 receptions, garden-parties, and entertainments of various kinds, 

 will also be provided. To members and associates attending the 

 meeting, tlie Intercolonial Railway of Canada will issue re- 

 turn tickets over its system at a single fare. The Grand Trunk 

 and the Canadian Pacific Railways, together with their connect- 

 ing railways in the United States, will issue similar tickets at a 

 fare and a third for the double journey. The committee are en- 

 gaged in the preparation of a handbook, for gratuitous circula- 

 tion among intending visitors, which will include an historical 

 account of the society, together with other intersting scientific 

 and local information, a copy of which will be sent on applica- 

 tion. It will greatly facilitate the arrangements of the committee 



if intending visitors will promptly advise the local secretaries, 33 

 University Street. Montreal, of their intention. All persons inter- 

 ested in literature and science may become associates for this 

 meeting, and are cordially invited by the local committee to be 

 present thereat. 



— At a meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society, April 15, 

 the following papers were read: — "Some Remarkable Features 

 in the Winter of 1890-91," by Mr. F. J. Brodie, in which the au- 

 thor points out the peculiarities or special features of interest in 

 the weather which prevailed over the British Isles during the past 

 winter, and states that in addition to the prolonged frost, which 

 lasted from the close of November to about Jan. 33, he finds 

 that the barometric pressure for the whole winter was about a 

 quarter of an inch above the average, and that when the wind 

 was not absolutely calm there was an undue prevalence of breezes 

 from some cold quarter ; that the percentage of winds from the 

 southward did not amount to one-half of the average, the num- 

 ber of foggy days in London was no less than twice the average, 

 and the rainfall over the greater part of the British Isles was less 

 than half the average ; that ' ' almost every element in the weather 

 has been influenced to an abnormal degree by the remarkable preva- 

 lence of high barometrical pressure, and, if we were called upon 

 to define the season 1890-91, we should have little hesitation in 

 giving it the name of the ' anticyclonic ' winter : '' " The rainfall 

 of February, 1891," by Mr. H. S. Wallis, in which the author 

 states that this was one of the dryest months upon record, the mean 

 rainfall over England, excluding the Lake District, being only .066 

 of an. inch, or about one-fortieth of the average : "On the Variations 

 of the Rainfall at CherraPoonjeeintheKhasi Hills, Assam, "by Mr. 

 H. F. Blanford.in which it is stated thatCherra Poonjee has long 

 been notorious as having a heavier rainfall than any other known 

 place on the globe, the mean annual fall being frequently given as 

 about 600 inches. Mi. Blanford has made a critical examination 

 of the various records of rainfall kept at this place, and has come 

 to the conclusion that the above amount is too high, and that the 

 average annual rainfall is probably only a little over 500 inches. 



— The "Hopkins House of Commons," founded in 1884 under 

 the impulse given by Professor Woodrow Wilson, and for some 

 years a very popular organization of Johns Hopkins University, 

 has been revived. A preliminary gathering was recently held, 

 and it was determined to continue the society by obtaining as 

 many new members as possible, and resuming regular sessions. 

 Four meetings have now been held with an average attendance of 

 about twenty-five, and it is hoped that the success of the organi- 

 zation is assured. Both graduates and undergraduates are eligi- 

 ble to membership, and the meetings are open to visitors. They 

 are held in College Hall at 8 o'clock every Monday evening. 



— An attempt is to be made to establish an engineering labora- 

 tory at Cambridge University (England) on the model of those at 

 the Central Institution, Kensington, and at University College, 

 Liverpool. The syndicate appointed to consider the question re- 

 port that " the study of mechanics gains much in utility, and loses 

 nothing in educational value, by being approached from the stand- 

 point of the engineer." " This is an important admission," says 

 Engineering of AprU 17, "as the unfortunate engineer has had to 

 stand any quantity of abuse from physicists, such as Professor 

 Lodge, because he does approach these matters from his own 

 standpoint, and works with quantities be understands, and meas- 

 ures daily, sucb as weights rather than masses, and pounds per 

 square inch instead of dynes per square centimetre. Professor Green- 

 hill, vvho is an old Whitworth scholar, has, it is true, supported 

 the engineers ; but many physicists seem to consider him as more 

 or less of a traitor who profanes their mysteries, in making them 

 intelligible to the practically trained man. Apart from this, how- 

 ever, every one will agree with the dictum of the syndicate quoted 

 above. The abstract ideas of the mathematician become concrete 

 entities in the practice of the engineer, and both pure and applied 

 physics should benefit from the establishment on a proper scale of 

 an engineering laboratory at Cambridge. The principal difficulty 

 is one of money. A sum of $100,000 is required; and, Cambridge 

 not being a large business town like Liverpool, there is no one 

 there able to imitate the generosity of Sir A. B. Walker at the 



