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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 673 



Protozoa." The subjects of the lectures are 

 as follows: (1) "The Lowest rorms of Ani- 

 mal Life." (2) " Their Habits and General 

 Physiology." (3) " Protozoa and Protoplasmic 

 Old Age." (4) "Problems of General Biol- 

 ogy. Fertilization and Growth." (5) " Pro- 

 tozoa and Parasitism." (6) " Protozoa and 

 Pathology. Malaria and Sleeping Sickness." 

 (7) " Protozoan Parasites of Dysentery, Hy- 

 drophobia and Smallpox." (8) " Some Doubt- 

 ful Protozoan Diseases." General Conclu- 

 sions. 



De. de Castro Barbasa, Inspector-general 

 of railways and public works in Brazil, has, 

 according to foreign papers, arrived in 

 Paris from the United States, where he has 

 been investigating the Mallet locomotive. 

 Next month he proceeds to Italy to inspect 

 the canalization of the River P6, and to Egypt 

 in order to visit the Assuan Dam and the 

 irrigation works connected therewith. On his 

 return to Brazil he proposes to undertake the 

 irrigation of the region of the River San 

 Francisco and the interior of Bahia, Pernam- 

 buco, Sergipe, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceara 

 by means of a system of canals which he pro- 

 poses to construct on a scale similar to those 

 in India and Egypt, and thus to develop large 

 regions which, up to the present, have been 

 almost unexplored. 



The Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation reports that the hundredth anniver- 

 sary of the birth of Dr. L. R. de la Loza, an 

 eminent physician and chemist in Mexico dur- 

 ing the last century, is to be celebrated by 

 official decree with due honors to his memory. 

 Besides a special ceremony on November 15, 

 a souvenir volume is to be published contain- 

 ing articles on chemistry from the professors 

 of this science throughout the republic, and 

 Loza's works are to be collected and published 

 in a separate volume. The chiefs of the na- 

 tional medical, agricultural and preparatory 

 schools form the committee, appointed by the 

 secretary of public instruction, to take charge 

 of the matter. 



Prom the same source we learn that the 

 issue of the Eevista Medica for September is 

 almost entirely devoted to doing homage to 



G. Barreda, a physician who died in 1881, who 

 revolutionized medical education in Mexico, 

 and was one of the pioneers in organization 

 of the profession and a leader in science. A 

 notice is published from President Diaz and 

 congress, announcing that $40,000 has been 

 appropriated from the public treasury for the 

 erection of a suitable monument to Barreda. 

 He occupied the chair of medical natural his- 

 tory and later of general pathology in the 

 National Medical Institute, and was a leading 

 practitioner in Mexico. 



Dr. Lucien Marcus IJndeewood, head of 

 the Department of Botany, Columbia Uni- 

 versity, and chairman of the Board of Scien- 

 tific Directors of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, eminent for his researches on the 

 ferns, hepaticse and fungi of North America, 

 died by his own hand, while apparently suffer- 

 ing from an attack of acute mania, on No- 

 vember 16. 



There will be New York State examina- 

 tions on November 30, when a zoologist for 

 the Education Department, with a salary of 

 $1,200, and an assistant to the state entomolo- 

 gist, with a salary of $700, will be selected. 

 There will also be at the same time examina- 

 tions for electrical engineers and gas engi- 

 neers with salaries ranging from $1,500 to 

 $3,600. 



There will be a civil service examination 

 on December 4 and 5 for the position of mis- 

 cellaneous computer in the U. S. Naval Ob- 

 servatory. Computers are paid by the hour 

 and earn from $1,000 to $1,200. On December 

 11 and 12 there will be an examination for 

 the position of assistant chemist in the Bureau 

 of Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, with a salary of $1,200 to $1,800. 



Me. H. H. Taylor, manager of the North 

 American Commercial Company, has under 

 date of November 6, addressed a letter to Presi- 

 dent David Starr Jordan, which reads as fol- 

 lows: 



On September 1, at Dutch Harbor, and in its 

 vicinity, a heavy shower of volcanic ash occurred. 

 At the time, it was generally supposed that Maku- 

 shin had increased its activity, but investigation 

 proved that the ash had not originated there. The 



