62 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 550. 



well as of the great importance and difficulty 

 of the problem that had been put into his 

 hands, the Department of Agriculture has 

 sustained a very heavy loss in his death. His 

 fellow workers feel that they have lost a more 

 than usually upright and conscientious asso- 

 ciate and a true-hearted, unselfish friend. 



country and Alaska. He was a member of 

 the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 

 the Geological Society of America and the 

 Geological, the Anthropological and the Har- 

 vard Societies of Washington. 



GEORGE HO MAN 8 ELD RIDGE. 



We regret to record the death of Mr. Geo. 

 H. Eldridge, geologist of the Geological Sur- 

 vey, which occurred on June 29. The Wash- 

 ington Evening Star says of Mr. Eldridge: 

 " Born in Yarmouth, Mass., on Christmas day, 

 1854, he gained his early education at the 

 Boston Latin School, where he took high rank 

 in scholarship and in military affairs. Enter- 

 ing Harvard College with the class of '76, 

 he devoted special attention to geological 

 studies, and was taken on the 'varsity glee 

 club. After graduation he taught until 

 selected by Raphael Pumpelly as special expert 

 on coal and base metals for the tenth census. 

 At the conclusion of that investigation he was 

 placed in charge of responsible work as geol- 

 ogist of the northern transcontinental survey 

 and rendered valuable service in determining 

 the extent and value of the coals of the Rocky 

 Mountain region. In 1884 he entered the 

 United States Geological Survey. For several 

 years thereafter he was engaged in field work 

 in several western states and Florida. In 

 1898 he was in charge of geological investiga- 

 tions in Alaska, and in recent years has been 

 occupied almost entirely in making extended 

 studies of special mineral deposits. Mr. Eld- 

 ridge won an international reputation as an 

 expert on asphalt, was an authority on phos- 

 phate and coal, and when his last sickness over- 

 took him was engaged in preparing an ex- 

 haustive report on the oil of California. He 

 has contributed valuable knowledge to the sci- 

 ence of geology and has published ' Report on 

 Montana Coal Fields,' ' Industries of the Base 

 Metals,' an important portion of a monograph 

 on ' Geology of the Denver Basin of Colorado,' 

 ' Report on Asphalt and Bituminous Rock 

 Products of the United States,' and numerous 

 papers on various mineral deposits in this 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



Dr. E. Ray Lankester, director of the Brit- 

 ish Museum of Natural History, has been 

 elected president of the British Association 

 for the meeting to be held next year at York. 



The Rev. Dr. Nathan C. Schaefier, Penn- 

 sylvania state superintendent of public in- 

 struction, has been elected president of the 

 National Educational Association. 



BERLIN College has conferred the degree 

 of D.Sc. on the Rev. John C. Gulick, known 

 for his work on the shells of the Hawaiian 

 Islands and his theories regarding segregation 

 and isolation as factors in organic evolution. 



Amherst College has conferred its LL.D. 

 on President Carroll D. Wright, of Clark Col- 

 lege, and its D.Sc. on Mr. Henry Noel Potter, 

 an electrical engineer of New York City, and 

 on Dr. J. F. McGregory, professor of chem- 

 istry at Colgate University. 



HoBART College has conferred the degree of 

 doctor of science on Dr. James M. Coit, 

 teacher of natural science in St. Paul's school. 



The University of Dublin has conferred its 

 doctorate of science on Professor E. A. 

 Schafer, professor of physiology at Edinburgh 

 University, and on Professor Sydney Young, 

 professor of chemistry, at University College, 

 Dublin. 



Mr. T. a, Rickard has resigned the editor- 

 ship of the Engineering and Mining Journal, 

 his resignation having taken effect on June 30, 



Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, chief of the Bureau 

 of Chemistry, of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, has gone to Europe under instructions 

 from Secretary Wilson to make an exhaustive 

 investigation of methods of preparing and pre- 

 serving food products for shipment to America. 



The United States cruiser Minneapolis, con- 

 veying Rear Admiral Colby M. Chester, 

 superintendent of the United States Naval 

 Observatory, and the other members of the 



