352 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 559. 



phenomena of radioactivity, and even until 

 quite a short time ago M. Curie was forced to 

 prosecute his studies in radium in a shed 

 vphich, in its poverty of mechanical or other 

 equipment, rivaled even the room under the 

 roof in vphich Pasteur did some of his epoch- 

 making work. An examination of the budget 

 for 1904 reveals the fact that for scientific 

 purposes the sum voted for the universities of 

 France is over 13,000,000 francs. Besides this 

 there is a credit of 556,500 francs for the Col- 

 lege de France, with its forty professors, and, 

 in addition, for the Museum of Natural His- 

 tory in the Jardin des Plantes one of over 

 1,000,000 francs ; so that the budget for science 

 for the past year reaches a sum of something 

 less than £600,000. In France, as in England, 

 the great difficulty appears to be the combina- 

 tion of teaching duties with those of research. 

 The budget draws no distinction between 

 money allocated for teaching purposes and that 

 for research. The chief exception, perhaps, 

 in a modified way, is that for the College de 

 France. Each professor must give forty lec- 

 ture per annum, but it is not possible to go 

 on, year in year out, giving something new at 

 every lecture. The same obtains at the mu- 

 seum. A professor at the Sorbonne or at the 

 Faculty of Medicine, during six months has 

 to devote his time to giving instruction to 

 the students who attend his course, while a 

 very large part of his time is necessarily con- 

 sumed in the examination of the numerous 

 candidates in the Paris Faculty. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The University of Pennsylvania will receive 

 $60,000 from the estate of the late Professor 

 Maxwell Sommerville, who held a chair of 

 archeology in the university. 



President Thwing, of Western Eeserve Uni- 

 versity, has announced that Mr. Andrew Car- 

 negie had given $25,000 towards the estab- 

 lishment of a fund of $100,000 for the endow- 

 ment of a chair of political economy at West- 

 ern Reserve University, to bear the name of 

 the late Senator Hanna. 



The Dominion government has made a 



grant of £500 to the McGill University for 

 work in railway engineering and transporta- 

 tion. This is the government's contribution, 

 as owner of the Inter-Colonial, ta a scheme to 

 which the Grand Trunk and Canadian-Pacific 

 have given £1,000, and the Canadian Northern 

 £400, for the instruction of young men in 

 railway construction and operation. 



The Board of Trustees of the University of 

 the Pacific has ordered the museum moved 

 from West Hall to East Hall where it will 

 have more commodioiis quarters. New cases 

 will be constructed for collections not now on 

 exhibition. Funds have also been appropri- 

 ated with which to purchase additional ap- 

 paratus for the geological and chemical labo- 

 ratories to meet the demand of an increasing 

 number of students in these departments. 



Owing to the interruption of travel caused 

 by the quarantines against New Orleans and 

 other infected points, it has been decided to 

 postpone the opening of the session of the 

 Louisiana State University until October 18. 

 By that time the yellow fever will, it is hoped, 

 be under such complete control and the quar- 

 antines so relaxed that unrestricted travel 

 may be resumed on all railroads. There is 

 no yellow fever in Baton Rouge, and there is 

 every reason to believe that the efforts of the 

 health authorities to prevent its introduction 

 there will continue to be successful. 



Mr. Clarence E. Reid, of the National 

 Bureau of Standards, has been appointed as- 

 sistant professor of electrical engineering in 

 the Case School of Applied Science. 



Mr. Arthur H. Ford, professor of electrical 

 engineering at the Georgia School of Tech- 

 nology, Atlanta, Georgia, has been appointed 

 professor and head of the department of elec- 

 trical engineering in the College of Applied 

 Science of the State University of Iowa. 



The Experiment Station Record states that 

 Professor F. Wohltmann, for ten years director 

 of the agricultural experiment station at Bonn- 

 Poppelsdorf, and professor of agriculture in 

 the academy, has accepted a call to Halle. In 

 his lectures at Halle Professor Wohltmann 

 will include a course in tropical agriculture 

 with special reference to the German colonies. 



