May 18, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



797 



Friday evening, June 29, formal opening 

 of the new Physical Laboratory, Eoekefeller 

 Hall, with short addresses by several well- 

 known speakers. 



Saturday, June 30, special local excursions 

 will be arranged for botanists, geologists, zool- 

 ogists, entomologists, chemists, etc., also an 

 excursion to the George Junior Eepublic and 

 trips to local points of scenic interest. It is 

 probable that a trip to Niagara Falls, return- 

 ing Sunday evening, will be arranged. 



Monday evening, July 2, public meeting 

 under the auspices of the local chapter of 

 Sigma Xi in celebration of the twentieth anni- 

 versary of the founding of the society, with 

 an address by some eminent man of science. 



The permanent secretary has arranged for 

 a special railroad rate of one and one third 

 fares plus twenty-five cents on the certificate 

 plan, and other passenger associations are ex- 

 pected to cooperate. Tickets may be obtained 

 not earlier than June 25 and not later than 

 June 30 and will be good for the return 

 journey up to July 6. 



The preliminary program will be sent out 

 about June 1. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



The University of Edinburgh has conferred 

 its doctorate of laws on Professor A. Graham 

 Bell, who was born in Edinburgh in 1847. 



Dr. Morris K. Jesup, president of the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History, New York, 

 has been elected a corresponding member of 

 the Frankfort Society of Natural History. 



Dr. J. H. FiNLEY, president of the College 

 of the City of New York, has been elected 

 president of the American Social Science 

 Association. 



"We are glad to learn that Mr. William T. 

 Hornaday, director of the New York Zoolog- 

 ical Park, who has been seriously ill from 

 actinomycosis, supposed to have been con- 

 tracted from a chimpanzee, is in an improved 

 condition after an operation. 



Dr. John K. Rees, professor of geodesy and 

 astronomy in Columbia University and direc- 

 tor of the observatory, has been made pro- 

 fessor emeritus. We regret that his retire- 



ment from active work is due to continued ill- 

 ness following a stroke of apoplexy. 



Dr. L. O. Howard, chief of the Division of 

 Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 and permanent secretary of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 expected to return on the Oceanic, which was 

 due in New York on the sixteenth. 



Among the members of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey in the neighborhood of San Francisco 

 at the time of the recent earthquake was Mr. 

 G. K. Gilbert, geologist, who has been en- 

 gaged for several months in making hydraulic 

 experiments in the mining laboratory of the 

 University of California at Berkeley. In- 

 structions were telegraphed him immediately 

 to make as thorough a study as possible of the 

 earthquake phenomena. 



Mr. F. H. Newell, chief engineer of the 

 U. S. Reclamation Service, has recently re- 

 turned from an inspection of the works under 

 construction in the territories of Oklahoma, 

 New Mexico and Arizona, and in the states 

 of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and 

 Kansas. Rapid progress is being made on 

 construction. The work in its general magni- 

 tude now stands well toward the front of 

 public undertakings. The expenditures on 

 water storage and distribution systems aggre- 

 gate about $1,000,000 a month. Most of the 

 large engineering problems have been worked 

 out. The present rate of construction and 

 expenditure is probably at the maximum and 

 will decrease gradually, many of the most 

 expensive structures being now at the period 

 of greatest activity. During his absence in 

 the west Mr. Newell has been elected a mem- 

 ber of the corporation of the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, of which he is a 

 graduate; also a member of the board of 

 trustees of the Washington (D. C.) College 

 of Engineering of the George Washington 

 University. He has also been elected as one 

 of the board of directors of the Washington 

 Society of Engineers and chairman of the 

 committee on meetings. 



Dr. Julius Wiesner, professor of the physi- 

 ology and anatomy of plants in the University 

 of Vienna, has been made a life member of 



