Maech 8, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



399 



It has been decided that there shall be twenty 

 sections, namely, anatomy, physiology, general 

 pathology, therapeutics, internal medicine, 

 surgery, obstetric medicine, ophthalmology, 

 children's diseases, neurology, psychological 

 medicine, dermatology, urology, laryngology, 

 otology, stomatology, hygiene, forensic medi- 

 cine, military hygiene, and industrial hygiene. 



A COURSE of nine lectures upon science and 

 travel has been arranged by the Field Museum 

 of Natural History, Chicago, for Saturday 

 afternoons in March and April, at three 

 o'clock. These lectures will be illustrated by 

 stereopticon views and will be given in Fuller- 

 ton Hall, Art Institution, Michigan Avenue 

 and Adams Street. The lectures are as fol- 

 lows: 



March 2 — ' The Iron Ores of the Minnesota 

 Ranges,' Professor C. W. Hall, University of 

 Minnesota. 



March 9 — ' Scientific Notes on the Russian Con- 

 vict Island of Sakhalin,' Mr. Charles H. Hawes, 

 M.A., University of Cambridge, England. 



March 16 — ' Bird Husbandry,' Dr. N. Dearborn, 

 iissistant Curator, Division of Ornithology, Field 

 Museum of Natural History. 



March 23— ' The Blackfoot Indians,' Dr. Clark 

 Wissler, Curator of Anthropology, American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History. 



March 30 — 'A Superposed Vegetation — The 

 Plant Rusts,' Professor J. C. Arthur, Purdue Uni- 

 versity, Lafayette, Indiana. 



April 6 — ' The Monuments of a Prehistoric 

 Race,' Mr. Frederick I. Monsen, New York. 



April 13 — ' The Indiana of Nature — Its Evolu- 

 tion,' Professor W. S. Blatchley, State Geologist, 

 Indiana. 



April 20 — ' How some Insects have solved the 

 Problem of Life,' Professor Herbert Osbom, Ohio 

 State University. 



April 27 — ' Physiography and Life in Western 

 Norway,' Professor Mark S. W. Jefferson, State 

 Normal College, Ypsilanti, Michigan. 



Quoting from the Beilage zur allgemeinen 

 Zeitung for January 30, Nature states that an 

 expedition is in course of being organized, 

 under the auspices of the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences of Berlin and the government of the 

 Dutch East Indies, for the purpose of ex- 

 ploring Java in search of further remains of 



Pithecanthropus. The originator of the idea 

 appears to be Frau Professor Selenka, widow 

 of the late Professor Selenka, of Munich, who 

 has already traveled extensively in Borneo for 

 the purpose of collecting embryos of the orang- 

 utan. Dr. Elbert is attached to the expedi- 

 tion as gefologist, whilst Dr. Maskowski, of 

 Berlin, goes out as zoologist. A Dutch engi- 

 neer, Mr. Oppenoorth, will have charge of the 

 surveying and excavating operations. The 

 Pleistocene volcanic breccia from which the 

 original remains of Pithecanthropus were ob- 

 tained by Professor Dubois at Trinil is be- 

 lieved to have a wide extent in the mountains 

 of Java, reaching in some places to a height 

 of 100 meters or more above sea-level, and it is 

 proposed to examine this stratum thoroughly 

 in a number of the more promising localities. 



We learn from The American Museum 

 Journal that the museum has acquired by pur- 

 chase a collection from the Samoan Islands. 

 Among other things this contains a complete 

 outfit for the manufacture of bark or ' tapa ' 

 cloth. In the manufacture of this cloth, 

 single strips of bark from a species of mul- 

 berry are prepared by scraping and soaking in 

 water, after which they are beaten out very 

 thin by means of small wooden clubs. These 

 thin sheets, while still wet, are laid one over 

 another and the whole beaten together to form 

 a large sheet of uniform thickness. Such 

 bark cloth is in some respects a kind of paper, 

 but it is serviceable as cloth since it is not 

 easily damaged by water. The finished cloth 

 is often ornamented by printing, or rather 

 rubbing. For this purpose designs in relief 

 are carved on wood or built up of palm-leaf 

 cuttings, upon which the cloth is laid and 

 rubbed with sticks of coloring matter, like 

 crayon. This leaves an impression of the 

 raised portion of the carving similar to that 

 produced when a school-boy rubs the impres- 

 sion of a coin into the fly-leaf of his book. 

 Aside from the tapa outfit, the collection con- 

 tains several handsome pieces of finished cloth 

 and a number of costumes, household utensils 

 and other implements. It is proposed to in- 

 stall this collection together with other ma- 

 terial in the museum as a special exhibit from 



