Pebeuabt 25, 1910] 



SCIENCE' 



295 



died suddenly on February 18, at the age of 

 fifty years. 



SiE Chaeles Todd, F.E.S., well known for 

 his astronomical and meteorological work in 

 South Australia, has died at the age of eighty- 

 three years. 



Professor W. Hillhouse, until recently 

 professor of botany in the University of Birm- 

 ingham, has died at the age of sixty years. 



Professor F. Purser, professor of natural 

 philosophy in the University of Dublin, and 

 the author of works on mathematics, died on 

 January 28, at the age of seventy years. 



Dr. J. VoLHARD, professor of chemistry at 

 Halle, author of the "Life of Liebig," pub- 

 lished last year, has died at the age of seventy- 

 five years. 



There will be a civil service examination 

 on March 3 to fill two vacancies in the position 

 of ethnologist (male). Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, at an in- 

 itial salary of $1,500. 



The beautiful new lecture hall of the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia was 

 opened with a short address by Dr. Edward J. 

 Nolan to the Delaware Valley Naturalists' 

 Union on the afternoon of January 29, pre- 

 ceding a lecture by Witmer Stone, one of the 

 curators, on " The Conservation of Bird Life 

 in the United States." The new lecture room 

 has a capacity of 500 and is a great improve- 

 ment, acoustically and otherwise, on the one 

 heretofore used. The latter will be fitted up 

 as one of the museum halls in remodeling the 

 building in connection with the completion of 

 the new wing, in which the library has been 

 successfully installed. In the old hall vacated 

 by the library the geological and paleontolog- 

 ical collections will ultimately be arranged. 



Arrangements have been perfected between 

 Captain Eoald Amundsen and the Department 

 of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Li- 

 stitution of Washington regarding cooperation 

 in magnetic work on the proposed Amundsen 

 polar expedition to leave Norway this summer 

 on Nansen's vessel, the Fram. After some 

 general explorations in the South Atlantic and 

 in the South Pacific Oceans, the Fram is 



expected to arrive at San Erancisco in the 

 summer of 1911. After outfitting there, she 

 will head for Behring Sea and after entering 

 the polar basin will then drift with the ice. 

 It is expected that it will be about four years 

 before she emerges again from the ice. While 

 Captain Amundsen hopes that his vessel will 

 drift across the North Pole or close thereto, 

 his prime object is that of general geographic 

 exploration. Dr. Harry M. W. Edmonds has 

 been selected by him to fill the difficult post of 

 surgeon and scientific observer. Dr. Edmonds 

 had previously received training in magnetic 

 observations while Dr. Bauer was in charge 

 of the magnetic work of the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey; he furthermore has had ex- 

 perience in polar regions and was in charge of 

 the Sitka Magnetic Observatory from the date 

 of its establishment. He reported at Dr. 

 Bauer's office in Washington early in Febru- 

 ary for the purpose of making the necessary 

 preliminary arrangements and perfecting the 

 instrumental outfit to be used. He expects to 

 leave for Norway next June. Similar instru- 

 ments will also be used on Captain Scott's 

 Antarctic expedition. As the result of an 

 effective cooperative arrangement with the 

 recently returned Canadian Arctic expedition 

 on the Arctic, commanded by Captain Bernier, 

 the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism has 

 just been furnished by Professor E. F. Stu- 

 part, director of the Canadian Meteorological 

 Office, with the observations made by the spe- 

 cial observer on board the Arctic, Mr. Jackson, 

 of the Meteorological Office. 



Professor J. C. Beattie, director of the 

 department of physics of the South African 

 College, Cape Tovsm, and Professor J. T. Mor- 

 rison, in charge of department of physics at 

 Victoria College, Victoria, South Africa, have 

 returned to their collegiate duties. Since No- 

 vember, 1908, they have been associated with 

 the Carnegie Institution of Washington 

 through the department of terrestrial mag- 

 netism, and have now completed successfully 

 magnetic surveys in the regions of southwest- 

 em and eastern portions of Africa where mag- 

 netic data were most urgently needed. Previ- 

 ous to their association with the Carnegie In- 



