October 13, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



475 



and +40° and the mean cloudiness varies 

 from 2 in summer to 5 in winter. The annual 

 rainfall amounts to 8Y0 mm. Dr. Curt Hessen 

 will be in charge of the observatory. 



Both these stations are in latitude — 31° 

 65'. 



At the Observatory of Pulkowa, in latitude 

 + 59° 46', a series of observations is in prog- 

 ress to supplement the observations at the 

 stations of the International Geodetic Associa- 

 tion and it is expected that the observatories 

 at Leyden (latitude + 52° 09') and at Tokyo 

 (latitude +35° 39') will cooperate in this 

 work. 



PROFESSOR BJERENES'S LECTURES. 

 The lectures which Professor V. F. K. 

 Bjerknes, of the University of Stockholm, will 

 give at Columbia University during December 

 are as follows : 



FIELDS OF FORCE. 



Friday, December 1, 1905, 4 to 6 p.m. : ' Elemen- 

 tary Investigation of the Geometric Properties of 

 Hydrodynamie Fields' (with experiments). 



Saturday, December 2, 1905, 10 to 12 a.m.: 

 ' Elementary Investigation of the Geometric Prop- 

 erties of Hydrodynamie Fields' (with experi- 

 ments ) . 



Friday, December 8, 1905, 4 to 6 p.m. : ' Geo- 

 metric Properties of Electromagnetic Fields Ac- 

 cording to Maxwell's Theory.' 



Saturday, December 9, 1905, 10 to 12 a.m.: 

 ' The Dynamic Properties of Electromagnetic 

 Fields according to Maxwell's Theory.' 



Friday, December 15, 1905, 4 to 6 P.M. : ' Trans- 

 formation of the Hydrodynamie Equations to 

 Forms which prove the Analogy of Hydrodynamie 

 and Stationary Electromagnetic Fields.' 



Saturday, December 16, 1905, 10 to 12 a.m.: 

 ' Further Development and Discussion of the 

 above Analogy.' 



Friday, December 22, 1905, 4 to 6 p.m. : ' Gen- 

 eral Conclusions: Remarks on Methods of Re- 

 search and of Instruction in Theoretical Physics.' 



Saturday, December 23, 1905, 10 to 12 a.m.: 

 ' Supplementary Lecture : The Hydrodynamie 

 Fields of Force in the Atmosphere and the Sea; 

 Discussion of the Fundamental Problem of 

 Meteorology and Hydrography.' 



The lectures will be open without charge to 

 teachers and advanced students of physics. 



PERMIAN GL AC I AT I ON IN SOUTH AFRICA. 

 The following note of greeting has been ad- 

 dressed to Professor T. C. Chamberlin, of the 

 Unversity of Chicago : 



Members and guests of the British Association 

 in South Africa, returning from a geological ex- 

 cursion, provided by the hospitality of the Natal 

 government, send you greetings and wish you 

 might have been with us to-day to see the Dwyka 

 glacial formation (Permian) lying on a glaciated 

 surface of Barberton (Archaean?) beds. The 

 evidence of extensive glaciation, with southward 

 movement of the vast ice sheet, is not to be 



doubted. 



J. Lomas, Liverpool. 



G. N. MoLENGRAAFF, Johannesburg. 



A. Penck, Vienna. 



B. HoBSON, Manchester. 

 Dr. Pr. Beck, Freiberg. 

 William Anderson, Natal. 

 A. P. Coleman, Toronto. 



F. G. Katzenstein, Vryheid, Natal. 

 W. M. Davis, Cambridge, Mass. 

 Vryheid, Distr. Natal, 

 Aug. 26, 1905. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



We regret to learn that the condition of Dr. 

 William E. Harper, president of the University 

 of Chicago, is now very serious. 



Professor Eberth, director of the Patho- 

 logical Institute in Halle and discoverer of 

 the bacillus of typhoid fever, celebrated his 

 seventieth birthday on September 21. 



Professor Franklin C. Eobinson, head of 

 the department of chemistry of Bowdoin Col- 

 lege, has been elected president of the Amer- 

 ican Public Health Association, which will 

 hold its anniial meeting in January in the 

 city of Mexico. 



Professor Wilhelm Ostwald, of Leipzig, 

 who, as we have already announced, will give 

 courses in physical chemistry and philosophy 

 at Harvard University during the first half of 

 the present academic year, arrived at Cam- 

 bridge on the second instant. 



Professor J. A. Holmes, of the University 

 of North Carolina, is in Germany to investi- 

 gate for the U. S. Geological Survey the use 

 of brown lignite bricquettes for fuel and 

 methods of protecting railway ties. 



