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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. ( 



The foreign papers state that the reporter 

 of the inter-ministerial committee recently ap- 

 pointed by M. Barthou, minister of public 

 works, to examine the various proposals for 

 making a shorter route to Italy and to Central 

 Europe has concluded in favor of the piercing 

 of Mont Blanc. The report of the committee 

 will now be discussed by the government, 

 which will eventually propose a hill to parlia- 

 ment. 



The Goldsmith's Company has contributed 

 the sum of 1,000Z. to the research fund of the 

 Chemical Society, London. 



A GRANT of £1,000 has been made by the 

 Mercers' Company to the Imperial Institute 

 for scientific research in regard to the eco- 

 nomic prodiiets of British Colonies and Pro- 

 tectorates. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 At the recent session of the legislature 

 $25,000 a year was added to the appropriation 

 for maintenance of the University of North 

 Carolina and $25,000 a year for building and 

 repairs. The annual appropriation for sup- 

 port is now $70,000. 



The Alabama state legislature has recently 

 passed a bill, since signed by Governor Comer, 

 appropriating $400,000 for buildings at the 

 University of Alabama (at the rate of $100,- 

 000 annually during this and the next three 

 years), and $25,000 a year towards mainten- 

 ance. The latter is a continuing appropria- 

 tion. This is the first time in the university's 

 seventy-five years' history that the state has 

 made a distinct appropriation for the regular 

 work of the institution. 



In the state of West Virginia the new tax 

 laws have yielded less revenue than the state 

 has had formerly. The legislative appropria- 

 tions for educational institutions have con- 

 sequently been kept down to the level of 

 previous years and have been further greatly 

 reduced by the governor's veto. The state 

 university, in spite of its recent rapid growth, 

 receives considerably less than two years ago. 

 To meet expenses the board of regents has 

 been compelled to institute a system of tuition 

 in the professional schools. The fund for 



salaries in the medical school was cut out by 

 the governor and no way has yet been found 

 for making good the deficit. 



At the semi-annual meeting of the board of 

 trustees of Princeton University on March 

 15, gifts amounting to more than $75,000 were 

 announced. Among the gifts was one of 

 $10,000 from Mr. Morris K. Jesup to increase 

 the endowment of the Morris K. Jesup fund. 

 Through the generosity of alumni the Car- 

 penter building, situated on Nassau Street, has 

 been purchased for the university. 



At a recent meeting of the board of trustees 

 of Carroll College it was announced that Mr. 

 Andrew Carnegie had offered to give the last 

 $25,000 of $100,000 towards increasing the 

 endowment. It was reported that $75,000 had 

 been pledged conditional, however, on raising 

 a total of $175,000. It is expected that the 

 full amount of $175,000 will be raised by 

 June, 1908. 



The Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

 has received a further anonymous gift of 

 $5,000 for the support of its Sanitary Eesearch 

 and Sewage Experiment Station. 



Dr. Edward Charles Jeffrey has been pro- 

 moted to a professorship of plant pathology at 

 Harvard University. 



Reginald Aldworth Daly, head geologist 

 of the Canadian internal boundary commis- 

 sion, and formerly instructor in Harvard Uni- 

 versity, has been appointed professor of phys- 

 ical geology at the Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology. 



Dr. a. D. Cole, professor of physics at the 

 Ohio State University, has accepted a call to 

 Vassar College, to succeed Professor Cooley 

 who retires at the close of the academic year. 



William D. Ennis has been appointed to 

 the chair of mechanical engineering at the 

 Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. 



Dr. James Martin Beattie, senior assistant 

 to the professor of pathology. University of 

 Edinburgh, has been elected by the council to 

 the chair of pathology, in the place of Dr. 

 Cobbett. Dr. Cobbett resigned the chair on 

 his appointment as lecturer on bacteriology 

 at Cambridge. 



