318 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 477. 



paper on February 9, on ' The Volcanic Erup- 

 tions in the West Indies'; on March 8, Sir 

 Frederick Manson will read a paper on ' Trop- 

 ical Diseases.' 



The prizes in the gift of the Journal of 

 Tropical Medicine for prize essays on subjects 

 connected with tropical diseases have been 

 awarded as follows: The Belilios prize of 

 £10, presented by the Hon. E. K. Belilios, 

 C.M.G., for the best article on 'The system 

 of drainage and sewerage best suited for 

 tropical climates,' has been awarded to Cap- 

 tain J. W. Cornwall and Major E. Smith. 

 The Lady MacGregor prize of £10, presented 

 by Lady MacGregor, for the best article on 

 ' A critical examination of the practical value 

 of anti-typhoid inoculation,' has been awarded 

 to Major E. Smith. The Sivewright prize of 

 £10, presented by Sir James Sivewright, for 

 the best essay on 'Intestinal affections in 

 warm climates,' was not awarded. 



Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, 

 died at Northumberland, Pa., February 6, 

 1804. On February 7, 1904, the Unitarian 

 Club of Washington held a meeting to com- 

 memorate the centenary of that event. The 

 speakers were F. W. Clarke, on Priestley as a 

 discoverer; Eev. TJ. G. B. Pierce, who dis- 

 cussed Priestley's religious career, and the 

 Eev. Edward Everett Hale, who spoke of 

 Priestley's connection with America. 



Dr. David Duncan, having been entrusted 

 by the late Mr. Herbert Spencer with the 

 writing of his biography, will be obliged to 

 persons who may possess letters from him of 

 value if they will kindly lend them to him 

 for the purpose of such biography. All letters 

 addressed to Dr. D. , Duncan, care of PI. E. 

 Tedder, Esq., secretary, the Athenasum, Pall- 

 mall, London, S. W., will be carefully pre- 

 served and returned in due course to their 

 owners. 



Dr. Charles Emerson Beecher, professor of 

 historical geology at Yale University and a 

 member of the governing board of the Shef- 

 field Scientific School, died suddenly from 

 heart-disease on February 14. 



Me. W. B. Powell died at Mount Vernon, 

 New York, on February 6, at the age of sixty- 



seven years. Mr. Powell was for many years 

 superintendent of schools in Illinois and occu- 

 pied this position at Washington, D. C, from 

 1885-1900, where he introduced many reforms. 

 He was a brother of J. W. Powell, the late 

 eminent anthropologist. 



There will be on March 1 a civil service 

 examination to fill the position of pharma- 

 cologist in the Bureau of Plant and Animal 

 Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 at a salai-y of $800 a year. On March 2 and 

 3 there will be an examination for miscel- 

 laneous computer in the U. S. Naval Ob- 

 servatory, the salary of the position amount- 

 ing to from $800 to $1,000 a year. On March 

 16 and 23 there will be examinations for the 

 position of aid in the National Museum in 

 the Division of Fishes and in the Division 

 of Birds' Eggs, with salaries of $600 and $540 

 a year, respectively. 



Mr. Samuel H. Scudder has given to the 

 Boston Society of Natural History his pri- 

 vate library of nearly eight thousand pam- 

 phlets and volumes. This addition makes the 

 society's coUectiop. of entomological works one 

 of the foremost in the country. 



The New York Evening Post states that 

 Professor J. Laurence Laughlin, of the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, has been authorized by a 

 Chicago business firm to offer four prizes for 

 the best essays on topics relating to commerce 

 and industry. The first prize will be $1,000, 

 the second $500, the third $300, and the fourth 

 $150, and any person who has received the 

 degree of bachelor of arts from an Amer- 

 ican college since 1893 is eligible to compete. 

 The essays are to be judged by Professor 

 Laughlin; Professor Clark, of Columbia Uni- 

 versity; Professor Adams, of the University 

 of Michigan ; Dr. Carroll D. Wright, of Wash- 

 ington, and Horace Wliite, of New York. 



At the ordinary quarterly comitia of the 

 London Eoyal College of Physicians, held on 

 January 30, the President, Sir William 

 Church, announced that Dr. Horace Dobell, 

 of Dorset, had presented a sum of £500 in 

 cumulative consols to the college for the pro- 

 motion of original research into the ultimate 

 origin, evolution and life history of bacilli 



