June 24, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



967 



An International Association to combat 

 Tuberculosis was opened at Copenhagen on 

 May 26. Among the delegates were Lord 

 Lister from England and Professor Brouardel 

 from France. 



M.. Hamy, assistant astronomer at the Paris 

 Observatory, has been appointed astronomer 

 in the room of the late 11. Callandreau. 



The Jardin des Plantes, Paris, has received 

 from M. Eugene Potron a legacy of $10,000 

 for the erection of a statue in honor of Ber- 

 nardine de St. Pierre, at one time director 

 of the garden. 



Foe a memorial of the late Dr. George 

 Salmon, to be erected in St. Patrick's Cath- 

 edral, Dublin, the sum of £430 has been sub- 

 scribed. The proposal to place within the 

 precincts of Trinity College a memorial of 

 the late provost has also been cordially re- 

 ceived. 



We record with regret the death of M. 

 Leaute Sarrau, professor of mechanics in the 

 Polytechnic School of the University of Paris 

 and member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 

 on May 10 ; of Dr. Fedor Bredichin, professor 

 of astronomy at St. Petersburg, at the age of 

 seventy-three years; of Dr. Adolf o Oancani, 

 professor of terrestrial physics in the Univer- 

 sity of Modena; of Dr. Karl Bopp, professor 

 of physics at the Stuttgart Polytechnic 

 School; and of Dr. Max Kaech, who a few 

 months since went from Basle to accept the 

 position of chief of the Geological Institute 

 at Para, Brazil, where he contracted yellow 

 fever. 



The herbarium of the late Professor Marc 

 Micheli has been presented to the town of 

 Geneva by his widow. 



The act of congress making appropriations 

 for the Department of Agriculture for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, contains the 

 following : " The Secretary of Agriculture is 

 hereby directed to obtain in the open market 

 samples of seeds of grass, clover, or alfalfa, 

 test the same, and if any such seeds are found 

 to be adulterated or misbranded, or any seeds 

 of Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa) are ob- 

 tained under any other name than Canada 

 bluegrass or Poa compressa, to publish the 



results of the tests, together with the names 

 of the persons by whom the seeds were offered 

 for sale." Announcement is made that the 

 collection and testing of seeds as directed by 

 this act will begin July 1, 1904. 



We learn from the London Times that only 

 two days before the death of the late Mr. 

 Jamsetjee ~N. Tata the government of India ' 

 issued a communique to the press describing 

 as ' absolutely without foundation ' the asser- 

 tion of certain newspapers that Mr. Tata's 

 offer of property valued at £200,000 towards 

 founding an institute of science iiad been re- 

 jected by the government. The communique 

 points out that a year ago the government 

 made financial concessions which cleared the 

 ground of the pecuniary difficulties previously 

 existing, and the principal question which re- 

 mained under discussion was the procedure 

 for the valuation of the trust property. The 

 government of Bombay has recently been com- 

 municated with as to the progress made in this 

 and other essential preliminaries, and when 

 these have been carried out the needful legis- 

 lation will be introduced. So far from having 

 rejected Mr. Tata's offer, the government of 

 India have promised a large subsidy to the 

 scheme, and they have throughout the nego- 

 tiations ' done everything within their power 

 to facilitate the progress and to aid the real- 

 ization of a project which has their fullest 

 sympathy." In its detailed memoir of Mr. 

 Tata, the Times of India says that there is 

 every probability that the scheme will sooner 

 or later come into force, but, in case it did 

 not, it was Mr. Tata's intention to divert the 

 proposed endowment to another trust, which 

 would enable Indian students to proceed to 

 Europe to qualify for the Indian civil and 

 other services and for the electrical and en- 

 gineering professions until such time as it 

 became possible, with the proper aid of gov- 

 ernment, to start the research institute as 

 originally planned. 



Nature states that at a sale recently held 

 by Mr. Stevens in King Street, Covent Gar- 

 den, a great auk's egg in fine condition was 

 sold for two hundred guineas, the purchaser 

 being Mr. Pax. This is a considerable fall- 



