212 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 789 



special researches in chemistry. Professor 

 Morse and his assistant, Dr. W. W. Holland, 

 are engaged on the subject of osmotic pres- 

 sure, especially at higher temperatures. Pro- 

 fessor Jones and Dr. W. W. Strong are 

 studying quantitatively the absorption spectra 

 of various solutions. Professor Acree and Dr. 

 B. B. Turner will continue their investigations 

 on tautomerism and the theory of catalysis. 



Dr. T. C. ChamberlIjST, professor of geology 

 in the University of Chicago, has been elected 

 president of the Geological Society of Chicago. 



The Chanute Medal, which is each year 

 awarded by the Western Society of Engineers 

 for the best paper presented to the society in 

 the field of civil engineering during the pre- 

 ceding year, has been given to Professor Ar- 

 thur N. Talbot, of the University of Illinois. 

 Professor Talbot's paper is entitled " Tests of 

 Cast-iron and Eeinforced Concrete Culvert 

 Pipe." The foundation for the medal given 

 by the Western Society of Engineers was es- 

 tablished by Dr. Octave Chanute. The ar- 

 rangement provides for three medals, one for 

 work in mechanical engineering, one in civil 

 engineering and one in electrical engineering. 



The council of the Royal Astronomical So- 

 ciety has awarded the gold medal of the so- 

 ciety to Professor F. Kiistner, director of the 

 University Observatory of Bonn. 



Dr. Chas Morrey, head of the department 

 of bacteriology in the Ohio State University, 

 has been given leave of absence for the next 

 academic year. 



Mr. W. H. Pew, assistant professor of ani- 

 mal husbandry in the Iowa State College, has 

 declined the directorship of the New Hamp- 

 shire Agricultural Experiment Station. 



A COMMITTEE has been formed in England, 

 the membership of which includes the Italian 

 ambassador, the Marquis of San Guiliano, Sir 

 Thomas Clifford Allbutt, regius professor of 

 physics at Cambridge, and a number of prom- 

 inent scientific men and physicians, to pro- 

 mote the investigation and study of pellagra. 



Sir Ernest Shackleton has denied the re- 

 port that he is to lead another expedition to 

 the Antarctic. 



Eeuter's Agency learns that the first mem- 

 ber of the British Antarctic Expedition under 

 Captain Scott, Mr. Cecil H. Meares, has left 

 England. He is going to Siberia to obtain 

 dogs and ponies for use in the expedition. 

 Except that he is to make a brief stay at Mos- 

 cow, Mr. Meares travels direct to Vladivostock. 

 Thence he will proceed north to the Amur 

 and by means of sledges will press further 

 north to Yakut, a great sable center in Ya- 

 kutsk, where animals will probably be procur- 

 able. Later he may leave to go to Okhotsk 

 and on to the Verkhoiansk Mountains, a re- 

 gion which is described as being almost, if not 

 quite, the coldest in the world. Mr. Meares 

 intends to get most of his dogs, particularly 

 the main team leaders, in Siberia. This 

 part of the work is likely to occupy between 

 three and four months. Mr. Meares will then 

 begin the collection of ponies in the country 

 round Harbin, and, with his animals, will 

 join the main body of the expedition on board 

 the Terra Nova in New Zealand in December. 



Professor Joseph Jastrow, of the depart- 

 ment of psychology of the University of Wis- 

 consin, has acceijted the general editorship of 

 a new series of psychological manuals for the 

 general reader, to be known as the " Conduct 

 and Mind Series." His own contribution to 

 the series will be a work on " Character and 

 Temperament." The introduction to an Eng- 

 lish edition of Professor Gross's " Criminal 

 Psychology," about to be issued as the first 

 number of a series of translations of important 

 foreign works on the subject by the American 

 Institute of Criminology, will be written by 

 Dr. Jastrow. He leaves the university the 

 second week of Eebruary to spend the second 

 half year as lecturer at Columbia University. 



Dr. Arthur T. Hadley, president of Yale 

 University, will deliver the oration on golden 

 jubilee day. May 17, next, when the fiftieth 

 anniversary of the foundation of the College 

 of California, the precursor of the University 

 of California, will be celebrated. 



Professor John Dewey, of Columbia Uni- 

 versity, gave, at the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, from January 31 to Eebruary 5, a course 



