200 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 474. 



ment consists of a large Cassegrain reflecting 

 telescope with clear aperture of 36J inches ; a 

 modern three-prism spectrograph; a thirty- 

 foot Warner & Swasey steel dome, and office 

 buildings. Spectrograms had been secured by 

 November 1 for determining the radial veloc- 

 ities of twenty-five or more stars. It is ex- 

 pected that results will rapidly accumulate, 

 as the equipment is devoted to this purpose 

 exclusively. The station is in charge of 

 Acting Astronomer William H. Wright of the 

 Lick Observatory staff, who is assisted by Dr. 

 Harold K. Palmer. 



Sr. rRANCisco M. EoDRiGUEZ, director of the 

 Museo Nagional, City of Mexico, reports sev- 

 eral interesting discoveries of ancient remains 

 in the valley of Mexico. In the southeastern 

 part of the valley, a number of hieroglyphic 

 inscriptions cut in the rock have been found. 

 In the southwestern part of the valley Mr. 

 Rodriguez has discovered the remains of an- 

 cient habitation sites in nearly a score of 

 places, and also rock inscriptions which seem 

 to date back to a remote epoch. The museum 

 authorities have plans for the removal to the 

 museum of the famous tablets at the ruins of 

 Palenque. 



A DESPATCH from Yakutsk, eastern Siberia, 

 dated January 15, says that boatmen of the 

 expedition commanded by Lieutenant Kolchak 

 had arrived there and reported that the efforts 

 of the expedition to find Baron Toll on New 

 Siberia and Bennett Islands, in the Arctic 

 Ocean, have been unsuccessful. Baron Toll 

 left documents on Bennett Island showing that 

 he turned southward on November 8, 1902. 



The president of the British Board of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries has appointed a depart- 

 mental committee to inquire into and report 

 upon the present position of fruit culture in 

 Great Britain, and to consider whether any 

 further measures might with advantage be 

 taken for its promotion and encouragement. 

 Mr. A. G. Boscawen is chairman and Mr. 

 Ernest Garnsey secretary of the committee. 



UNIVERSTTY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

 The will of the late Charles F. Doe, a lum- 

 ber manufacturer of San Francisco, bequeaths 

 about one fourth of his estate to the Uni- 



versity of California for a library. The uni- 

 versity will receive over $500,000. 



Towards the fund being raised by the senate 

 of the University of London for the proposed 

 Institute of Medical Sciences, Mr. Butlin, the 

 dean of the Faculty of Medicine, has con- 

 tributed £1,000, and Sir William Church, 

 president of the Royal College of Physicians, 

 and Mr. Tweedy, president of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons, £100 each. 



Assemblyman DA^^s of the Committee of 

 Public Education has introduced in the 

 assembly of New York State a bill providing 

 for educational unification and the reorgan- 

 ization of the Board of Regents. The bill 

 provides that the secretary of state shall draw 

 nine names from a box containing the names 

 of the present Board of Regents, and the 

 persons thiis indicated shall constitute the 

 Board of Regents, serving for from one to 

 nine years. Thereafter one regent is to be 

 elected each year, to serve for a period of nine 

 years. They are to elect a commissioner of 

 education, to serve during the pleasiire of the 

 board, at an annual salary of $Y,500 a year. 

 He shall perform the duties now devolving 

 upon the superintendent of Public Instruc- 

 tion and the secretary of the board of regents, 

 both of whose offices are abolished. The first 

 commissioner is to be elected by the legisla- 

 ture. Neither the state superintendent nor 

 any member of the Board of Regents, nor 

 any employee or appointee of either shall be 

 eligible. 



Governor Odell has sent to 4he senate the 

 report of the director of the New York State 

 School of Forestry and a letter from Presi- 

 dent Schurman of Cornell University. In his 

 letter President Schurman states that Gov- 

 ernor Odell's recommendation that the experi- 

 mental work be resumed subject to the condi- 

 tion that the state assume liability for the 

 contracts that Cornell University has already 

 entered into, is acceptable. The university 

 is willing to acquiesce to a discontinuance 

 provided it is protected against any liability 

 on contracts which as agent of the state it 

 has made in connection with the operation of 

 the school. 



