Febbuaby 19, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



319 



and otlier pathogenetic microorganisms. The 

 conditions are that the president and censors 

 of the college shall select a lecturer once in 

 every two years, who shall give a record of 

 original researches on the above subject, made 

 by himself and others, and that he shall re- 

 ceive a fee of £50 for so doing. These lec- 

 tures are to be continued biennially, as long 

 as a suificient amount of the £500 and its 

 accumulated interest remains. The first lec- 

 ture will be delivered during the year 1904. 



At the recent meeting of the Society for 

 Psychical Eesearch, it was announced that the 

 sum of $30,000 had been collected for a 

 scholarship, which it was hoped would be in- 

 creased to $40,000. The English society now 

 numbers 832 members, and the American So- 

 ciety 530 members. 



The Philadelphia JSTeurologieal Society cele- 

 brated its twentieth anniversary on January 

 27 by a dinner at University Club. Speeches 

 were made by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Dr. E. 0. 

 Spitzka, Dr. George Lincoln Walton, Dr. 

 Wharton Sinkler and Dr. Charles K. Mills. 



The annual meeting of the American Insti- 

 tute of Mining Engineers, which was to have 

 been held in Baltimore from February 16 to 

 20, has been called in Atlantic City, N. J., 

 owing to the Baltimore fire. 



A CONGRESS for experimental psychology is 

 to be held at Giessen, beginning on April 20. 



The tenth Congress of Polish Physicians 

 and Scientific Men will be held at Lemberg, 

 Austrian Poland, on July 20-24, 1904. Pro- 

 fessor E. Machek is chairman, and Professor 

 W. Sieradzki is secretary of the committee of 

 arrangements. 



The British parliamentary committee on 

 physical deterioration is now holding sittings. 

 Evidence has been given by Dr. D. J. Cun- 

 ningham, professor of anatomy at the Univer- 

 sity of Edinburgh and chairman of the an- 

 thropometric committee of the British, Asso- 

 ciation, by Sir Lauder Brunton, M.D., F.R.S., 

 Mrs. H. G. Close, Mr. J. B. Atkins, London 

 editor of the Manchester Guardian, Dr. Ed- 

 ward Malins, president of the Obstetrical So- 

 ciety and others. 



A PETITION" is being extensively signed in 

 Great Britain in support of the bill for the 

 adoption of the metric weights and measures 

 which wiU be introduced in the house of lords 

 by Lord Belhaven, and seconded by Lord 

 Kelvin. 



An industrial and. agricultural exposition is 

 to be held at ISfantes during the present year, 

 beginning on May 5 and ending on September 

 22. The exposition is to be international in 

 character and is to comprise four sections — 

 agriculture, industry, marine and fine arts. 



The Davenport Academy of Sciences gave 

 during January and February a course of 

 seven lectures as follows : ' Some Interesting 

 Features of Insect Life,' by Dr. L. O. Howard, 

 Division of Entomology, Washington, D. C. ; 

 ' Protective Coloration among Animals,' by 

 Professor C. C. Nutting, University of Iowa; 

 ' Alamogorda, A Problem of the Desert,' by 

 Professor Thomas H. Macbride, University 

 of Iowa ; ' Sanitary Engineering,' by Professor 

 Charles S. Magowan, University of Iowa; 

 ' Man in the Tropics,' by Professor Bohumil 

 Shimek, University of Iowa ; ' The Geology 

 and Scenery of the Pipestone Region,' by Pro- 

 fessor Samuel Calvin, University of Iowa. 



The U. S. Geological Survey has published 

 a paper on ' Chemical composition of igneous 

 ]'0cks, expressed by means of diagrams, with 

 reference to rock classification on a quantita- 

 tive chemico-mineralogical basis,' by Pro- 

 fessor J. P. Iddings, of the University of 

 Chicago. The materials erupted from the 

 depths of the earth vary greatly in composi- 

 tion. Silica, alumina, iron, magTiesia, lime, 

 soda and potash are present in considerable 

 amounts in most eruptive rocks, and other sub- 

 stances often occur in notable quantities. The 

 mineralogical composition and, through that, 

 various other features of igneous rocks, de- 

 pend in large degree upon the chemical com- 

 position of the fliiid magmas of which they 

 represent the solid forms. It is, however, 

 difficult, even for the specialist in this sci- 

 ence, to perceive readily the significance of 

 the differences in composition between two 

 rocks when presented in the form of long 

 chemical analyses ; hence petrographers have 

 for many years sought to express in the form 



