984 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 808 



on June 15. In the afternoon an address on 

 " The Contribution of Astronomy to General 

 Culture " was given by Edwin B. Prost, of 

 the Yerkes Observatory, and in the evening 

 an illustrated lecture on " The Eevelations of 

 the Telescope " was delivered by John A. 

 Brashear, of Pittsburgh. 



The observatory is a very beautiful struc- 

 ture of white marble, and its interior finish is 

 in excellent harmony with the elegant exterior. 

 The principal instrument is a nine-inch tele- 

 scope, with object-glass by the J. A. Brashear 

 Company, with the latest style of mounting by 

 Warner & Swasey, complete in every detail, 

 and with a filar micrometer by the same firm, 

 of which the donor is vice-president. A fine 

 four-inch combined transit and zenith-tele- 

 scope is also provided, together with a chrono- 

 graph, all by the same makers. The equip- 

 ment also includes two Eiefler clocks, for 

 mean and for sidereal time, and a sidereal 

 clock for the dome. The observatory is very 

 well situated upon a high ridge commanding 

 the horizon, and is admirably adapted for its 

 purpose, principally educational, but the equip- 

 ment is also sufficient for useful contributions 

 to research. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 The Paris Academy of Sciences has con- 

 ferred the Janssen Prize, consisting of a gold 

 medal, on Director W. W. Campbell, of the 

 Lick Observatory, University of California. 



Dr. John Benjamin Murphy, professor of 

 surgery in Northwestern University, has been 

 elected president of the American Medical 

 Association, for the meeting to be held next 

 year at Los Angeles. 



The University of Pittsburgh has con- 

 ferred the doctorate of science on Professor 

 H. L. Fairchild, professor of geology in the 

 University of Rochester. 



Dr. Oscar Bolza, professor of mathematics 

 in the University of Chicago since its estab- 

 lishment eighteen years ago, has been made 

 non-resident professor, and will live in Prei- 

 burg, Germany. He will receive his regular 

 salary. 



We learn from the Journal of the Ameri- 

 can Medical Association that a bronze relief 

 portrait of Dr. William Osier has been placed 

 in Osier Hall of the Medical and Chirurgical 

 Faculty, Baltimore. It is by F. C. V. de 

 Vernon, a French sculptor, and is an enlarge- 

 ment of a small one made in 1903 by the 

 same artist and now in the Johns Hopkins 

 Medical Library. It wiU be placed by the side 

 of the Osier portrait by Corner on the north 

 wall, and on the other side will be hung the 

 Welch medallion. 



After nearly continuous service of nine 

 years in the American Museum of Natural 

 History, Director Hermon C. Bumpus has 

 been granted a vacation by the trustees, be- 

 ginning June 15. Dr. Charles H. Townsend, 

 director of the New York Aquarium, has been 

 released from his duties for the same period 

 and has been appointed acting director of the 

 museum during the absence of Director Bum- 

 pus, which will probably extend to December 

 15, 1910. Professor Raymond C. Osburn, 

 Ph.D. (Columbia), of the Biological" Depart- 

 ment of Barnard College, has been recalled 

 from Naples to take charge of the aquarium, 

 during the same period, under Director Town- 

 send's general supervision. It is the inten- 

 tion of the Zoological Society to make Pro- 

 fessor Osburn a permanent member of the 

 aquarium staflF. 



Dr. Harvey W. Gushing, of the Johns Hop- 

 kins University, has been appointed chief of 

 the surgical staff of the new Peter Bent Brig- 

 ham Hospital at Cambridge, Mass. The hos- 

 pital, which is the teaching hospital of the 

 Harvard Medical School, will not be com- 

 pleted until about 1912. The fund has been 

 accumulating for about twenty-five years and 

 the original bequest of $1,800,000 has grown 

 to about $8,000,000. 



Professor H. A. Edson, of the University 

 of Vermont, has resigned, to accept a position 

 in the Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, 

 D. C. 



Dr. Theodore Whittelsey has resigned as 

 associate professor of chemistry in Northwest- 

 ern University to become chief chemist of the 



