December 20, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



887 



early man did exist in North America, con- 

 vincing proof of the fact from the standpoint 

 of physical anthropology still remains to be 

 produced." 



The London Times states that the president 

 of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 

 Sir Alfred Jones, has received a short report 

 from the Blackwater Fever Expedition of the 

 Liverpool School, dated October 10, from 

 Blantyre. The expedition, consisting of Dr. 

 Wakelin Bannaii and Dr. Yorke, sailed from 

 Marseilles in August last. They report that 

 suitable laboratories have been placed at their 

 disposal by the government of British Central 

 Africa at Blantyre and at Zomba. Six days 

 after the arrival of the expedition at Blantyre 

 two cases of Blackwater fever occurred on the 

 Shire Highlands Railway. The expedition 

 visited the cases at once, and kept them under 

 close observation until recovery occurred. The 

 British government are defraying a portion 

 of the cost of the Blackwater Fever Expedi- 

 tion. 



A COURSE of popular lectures on natural 

 history and travel, under the auspices of the 

 Illinois State Museum of Natural History, 

 will be given in the Arsenal Auditorium, 

 Springfield, HI., on Saturday evenings at eight 

 o'clock as follows : 



November 30 — "Diamond Mining" (illustra- 

 ted) , by A. R. Crook, Ph.D., curator, Illinois State 

 Museum of Natural History. 



December 7 — " Greater Steps in Human Prog- 

 ress," by W J MeGee, LL.D., director of the St. 

 Louis Public Museum. 



December 14 — " Zoological Collecting in British 

 East Africa " (illustrated), by C. E. Akcley, Field 

 Museum, Chicago. 



January 4 — " Mt. Pel6 and the Destruction of 

 St. Pierre" (illustrated), by E. O. Hovey, Ph.D., 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York 

 City. 



January 11 — -"The Canadian Rockies" (illus- 

 trated ) , by C. S. Thompson, commercial agent, 

 Illinois Central R. R., Milwaukee. 



According to the Paris correspondent of the 

 British Medical Journal an interesting cere- 

 mony took place on November 19 in the Clinic 

 Charcot. In the presence of M. Briand, the 

 minister of public instruction. Dr. Jean Char- 



cot handed over the library of his father to 

 the administration of the Assistance Publique. 

 The library, which was slowly collected by 

 Professor Charcot, and contains works in all 

 languages on diseases of the nervous system, 

 is now permanently housed in the Salpetriere 

 Hospital, in the actual bookshelves and sur- 

 rounded by all the consulting-room furniture 

 and ornaments amidst which Charcot lived 

 and worked. In addition to the minister and 

 Dr. Jean Charcot there were present on the 

 platform M. Mesureur, the director of the 

 Assistance Publique; Professor Eaymond, 

 Charcot's successor in the clinical chair of 

 diseases of the nervous system; Professors 

 Bouchard, Marie, Brissaud, Dejerine, Segond, 

 Madame Jean Charcot, Madame Jeanne Char- 

 cot, Madame Eaymond, and many old pupils 

 and friends of Charcot. Dr. Jean Charcot, 

 in making the gift, said that it was not with- 

 out a pang that he separated himself from 

 these souvenirs, among which he had grown 

 up, and which he had seen his father collect- 

 ing and adding to, searching among the book- 

 stalls on the quays, where he was well known, 

 but he thought his father would have approved 

 his action, seeing that he himself had sought 

 other outlets for his energies. Professor Eay- 

 mond thanked Dr. Jean Charcot for his gift, 

 which, when it was originally offered to the 

 faculty of medicine to be placed in the Sal- 

 petriere, had been refused owing to lack of 

 funds. The money, however, was offered by 

 the Assistance Publique, and the library would 

 always be open to workers from France and 

 abroad. On Charcot's death his son refused 

 a large German offer for the valuable library, 

 and proposed that it should form part of the 

 clinic which his father founded and made 

 famous. M. Mesureur also thanked Dr. Jean 

 Charcot for his act of filial piety. The As- 

 sistance Publique was glad to be associated 

 with the state in the matter of teaching, for 

 with its numerous hospitals and organizations 

 for the relief of the poor, it really formed a 

 large school of medicine. M. Mesureur ex- 

 pressed hope that the state would give further 

 help to different clinics which were in want 

 of funds, and thus increase the renown of 



