686 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 569. 



rences of the Magdalena and Black Eange 

 districts of New Mexico for the U. S. Geolog- 

 ical Survey. 



Professor G. F. Hull, of Dartmouth Col- 

 lege, is spending the year at the Cavendish 

 Laboratory, Cambridge. He has been elected 

 fellow commoner by the council of St. John's 

 College. 



Dr. Sven Hedin is on the way to Persia, 

 where he proposes to explore thoroughly, from 

 a scientific point of view, the salt deserts of 

 Dasht-i-Kavir and Dasht-i-Lut in the eastern 

 part of the country. He hopes afterwards to 

 proceed through Afghanistan to India, and 

 there organize an expedition for the explora- 

 tion of Central Tibet. 



Nature states that at the inaugural meeting 

 of the eighty-seventh session of the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers, held on Tuesday, Novem- 

 ber 7, Sir Guilford Molesworth, K.C.I.E., the 

 retiring president, formally introduced to the 

 members his successor in the chair. Sir Alex- 

 ander Binnie, who delivered an address to the 

 members, in which he traced the influence of 

 scientific thought and investigation upon the 

 development of engineering practise. 



Sir Archibald Geikie expected, on behalf 

 of the board of geographical studies, of Cam- 

 bridge University, to deliver a public lecture 

 in the Sedgwick Museum, on November 21, 

 on ' The Evolution of a Landscape.' 



Professor George M. Stratton, of the 

 Johns Hopkins University, lectured last week 

 before the department of philosophy, of Wes- 

 leyan University, on ' Optimism and the Sci- 

 entific Method.' 



A PUBLIC meeting on the mosquito question 

 was held at the Johns Hopkins University, 

 Baltimore, on November 1, at which Professor 

 John B. Smith, state entomologist of New 

 Jersey, delivered an illustrated lecture. 



An oil portrait of Dr. John Eodman Coxe, 

 was presented, by his grandson, to the depart- 

 ment of medicine of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, on October 20. In 1809 Dr. Coxe 

 was appointed professor of chemistry in the 

 University of Pennsylvania, and from 1818 to 

 1835 he was professor of materia medica and 



pharmacy. He was a trustee of the university 

 and one of the founders of the Philadelphia 

 College of Pharmacy. 



Dr. E. a. MiJLLER, formerly professor in the 

 veterinary institute of the University of 

 Yienna, died on October 16 at the age of 

 eighty-nine years. 



The death is also announced of Professor 

 Albert Engelbrecht, of the Government Labo- 

 ratory for Chemistry, at Plamburg. 



We learn from Nature that at a meeting of 

 the council of the British Association on 

 November 3, it was decided that, in conse- 

 quence of representations by the local com- 

 mittee, the meeting at York next year shall be 

 opened on Wednesday, August 1, which is 

 earlier than the usual date. The council of 

 the association has received a gift of £60 from 

 Mrs. John Hopkinson, to be devoted to some 

 investigation which may be suggested at the 

 next meeting by the committee of recom- 

 mendations. 



The fourth meeting of the California 

 Branch of the American Eolk-Lore Society 

 was held at the University of California in 

 Berkeley, on Tuesday, November 14. Pro- 

 fessor John Eryer delivered a lecture on ' Fox- 

 Myths in Chinese Folk-Lore,' illustrated by 

 specially prepared lantern slides.' 



There will be a New York State civil 

 service examination on December 9, when 

 positions will be filled of assistant chemist in 

 the Cancer Laboratory at Buffalo, with a sal- 

 ary of $720; for physician in the State Hos- 

 pitals, beginning at an annual salary of $900 

 and increasing to $1,200 with maintenance, 

 and of assistant statistician in the Depart- 

 ment of Excise, with a salary of $1,500 to 

 $1,800. 



A TELEGRAM lias been received at the Scot- 

 tish National Antarctic ofiices in Edinburgh 

 from Mr. Angus Rankin, announcing the ar- 

 rival of the Ben Nevis Observatory staff at 

 Buenos Ayres, from which place they leave 

 shortly for the Antarctic station at Scotia 

 Bay, South Orkneys. 



The British registrar-general has issued his 

 returns relating to the births and deaths in the 



