SEPTEMBE3 27, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



423 



Professor Wilbur Olin Atwater, since 

 1873 professor of chemistry at Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity, died, on September 22, aged fifty-three 

 years. 



Dr. George Washington Plympton, pro- 

 fessor of physics and engineering in the 

 Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute since 1863, 

 died, on September 11, at the age of eighty 

 years. 



Dr. Elmer R. Eeynolds, examiner of pen- 

 sions under the government, known as an 

 author and for writings on archeology, died 

 in Washington, on September 18, at the age 

 of sixty-one years. 



Mr. Timothy Holmes, an eminent British 

 surgeon and anatomist, has died at an ad- 

 vanced age. He graduated from Cambridge 

 University in 1847. 



Dr. Freidrich Vogel, docent in applied 

 mathematics and electrical engineering at the 

 Technical Institute at Berlin, died on August 

 28. 



At the recent Los Angeles meeting of the 

 National Educational Association three new 

 departments were added, increasing the num- 

 ber to twenty-one, viz., department of tech- 

 nical education (authorized at the Asbury 

 Park meeting) ; department of rural school 

 and industrial education; department of edu- 

 cational committees of women's clubs. The 

 board of directors authorized the appointment 

 of seven committees of investigation, and 

 made an appropriation of $500 for the ex- 

 penses of each committee, viz., on the Culture 

 Element in Education ; on a System of Teach- 

 ing Morals in Public Schools; on Industrial 

 Education in Rural Schools; on Shortage of 

 Teachers; on Provisions in Public Schools for 

 Exceptional Children; on a National Univer- 

 sity; on Courses in Manual Training for Ele- 

 mentary Schools. 



At the recent meeting of the Anti-alcoholic 

 Congress at Stockholm the physicians present 

 formed an international society, the next meet- 

 ing of which will be held in London in 1908. 

 The subject of alcoholism also received much 

 attention at the tenth Congress of Polish Nat- 



uralists and Physicians, recently held in Lvov, 

 Galicia. 



According to Mr. A. T. Coons in a chapter 

 in " The Mineral Resources of the United 

 States," about to be issued by the U. S. Geo- 

 logical Survey, more salt was produced in the 

 United States in 1906 than in any previous 

 year, and the value of the product was greater 

 than in any year since 1890. The quantity 

 was 3,944,133 short tons, or 28,172,380 barrels, 

 valued at $6,658,350, a gain of 308,876 tons, 

 or 2,206,588 barrels, over the production in 

 1905. This increase in production was accom- 

 panied by a slight increase in price, from $1.68 

 to $1.69 per ton — not sufficient, according to 

 some producers, to offset the increased cost of 

 labor and supplies. In 1906, as in 1905, a 

 large part of the output of salt was used in 

 chemical works, as brine, without concentra- 

 tion into salt. The quantity of dry salt re- 

 ported in 1906 was 2,603,818 short tons, or 18,- 

 598,700 barrels, valued at $6,179,666, an aver- 

 age value of $2.37 per ton or 33.226 cents per 

 barrel. The corresponding figures for 1905 

 were 2,533,467 short tons, or 18,096,191 barrels, 

 valued at $5,702,425, an average value of $2.25 

 per ton, or 31.512 cents per barrel. These 

 figures show an increase for 1906 in the re- 

 ported production of dry salt of 502,509 bar- 

 rels, or 70,351 short tons in quantity ; of $477,- 

 241 in value; and 1.714 cents per barrel, or 

 12 cents per short ton, in average price. New 

 York leads in value of output, closely fol- 

 lowed by Michigan. The output of Michigan, 

 however, is considerably greater than that of 

 New York. The average net price per barrel 

 in New York in 1906 was 23.4 cents; in 

 Michigan, 20.3 cents. Ohio ranks next, fol- 

 lowed by Kansas. In 1905 Kansas exceeded 

 Ohio in value of output; each shows an in- 

 crease for 1906. California, Texas and Utah 

 show an increase, and Louisiana and West 

 Virginia a decrease, in value of output. 

 Michigan and New York combined contributed 

 more than two thirds (67.14 per cent.) of the 

 total production of the United States. Of the 

 five leading salt-producing states during 1906, 

 Michigan produced 9,936,802 barrels (35.27 per 

 cent). New York 8,978,630 barrels (31.87 per 



