606 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 567. 



with special attention to the view that prog- 

 ress in culture is in accordance with definite 

 natural laws. The class meets on Thursdays 

 at four P.M. in the Museum of Fine Arts, 

 Nineteenth and Locust streets; the first meet- 

 ing occurred November 2. The details were 

 arranged by Mrs. D. W. Knefler, secretary of 

 the class. 



A MONUMENT in honor of Z. Gramme, known 

 for his discoveries in electricity, will be erected 

 at Liege, near which city he was born. 



Major General Sir Charles Wilson, 

 K.C.B., r.E.S., director-general of the British 

 Ordnance Survey and of military education, 

 known for his work on topography, died on 

 October 25 at the age of sixty-nine years. 



The death, in his eighty-first year, is an- 

 novmced from Alsfeld, in Oberhessen, of Karl 

 Miiller, author of works on natural history, 

 written conjointly with his brother. 



Dr. Kostling, vice-director of the Meteoro- 

 logical Bureau at Vienna, died on October 7. 



The inaugural meeting of the British Sci- 

 ence Guild formed in April, 1904, was held on 

 October 30, at the Mansion House. The ob- 

 jects of the guild are (1) to bring together as 

 members of the guild all those throughout the 

 empire interested in science and scientific 

 method, in order, by joint action, to convince 

 the people, by means of publications and meet- 

 ings, of the necessity of applying the methods 

 of science to all branches of human endeavor, 

 and thus to further the progress and increase 

 the welfare of the empire; (2) to bring before 

 the government the scientific aspects of all 

 matters affecting the national welfare; (3) to 

 promote and extend the application of scien- 

 tific principles to industrial and general pur- 

 poses; (4) to promote scientific education by 

 encouraging the support of universities and 

 other institutions where the bounds of science 

 are extended, or where new applications of 

 science are devised. 



A conference of delegates from the corre- 

 sponding societies afiiliated with the British 

 Association was held in the rooms of the Lin- 

 nean Society, London, on October 30 and 31, 

 under the presidency of Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 ward, F.R.S. 



A CITIZEN of Denmark has given sufficient 

 money to provide for a biological station in 

 Greenland, and it is expected that the Danish 

 government will defray current expenses. 



British journals state that the ITeriot trust 

 governors have decided to establish a labo- 

 ratory at the Heriot Watt College, Edinburgh, 

 for the study of bacteriology in its relation to 

 various industries. The laboratory has been 

 fitted with the best appliances, and the services 

 of Dr. Westergaard have been retained to 

 supervise it. The laboratory was formally 

 opened by a lecture by Professor Hansen, on 

 October 18. 



The Physieo-Chemical Club of Boston and 

 Cambridge held the first meeting this autumn 

 on November 1 in the Harvard Union. Pro- 

 fessor Wilhelm Ostwald was present and was 

 elected an honorary member. Professor T. 

 W. Richards and Professor A. A. Noyes were 

 reelected, respectively, president and vice- 

 president, and Dr. G. S. Forbes was elected 

 secretary and treasurer. Sixty-three members 

 were present, who listened to a paper by Pro- 

 fessor Noyes on the ' Hydrolysis of Ammo- 

 nium Acetate and the Ionization of Water at 

 100°, 156° and 218°,' as well as one by Pro- 

 fessor Richards on compressibility in relation 

 to atomic volume and structure. Each paper 

 was based upon entirely new data, and was 

 followed by lively discussion. 



According to a telegram received by the 

 Japanese consul-general in Copenhagen, the 

 Japanese government will shortly send a spe- 

 cial expert to Copenhagen and to the Baltic 

 and North Sea waters in order to study the 

 methods of carrying out international sea ex- 

 ploration. 



The removal of the Heidelberg University 

 library, containing more than 700,000 volumes, 

 into a new sandstone library building has just 

 been completed. Each separate book was 

 freed from dust by a cleaner operated by an 

 electric motor, of the form used in house and 

 carpet cleaning, the back and edges of each 

 book being subjected to the powerful suction 

 of the cleaner. The library requires about 

 21 miles of shelf room. 



