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SCIENCE 



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



securing fine surface prospects are very re- 

 mote. The bones weather out in pure white 

 color, are very conspicuous and can be seen 

 a long distance. In fact, the halcyon days of 

 easy collecting have passed, just as they have 

 passed in our western tertiaries. A party will 

 only succeed through thorough, systematic and 

 prolonged search and excavation. On these 

 lines and with this expectation the work of 

 the American Museum has been established 

 by Professor Osborn on a two or three months' 

 footing or as long as the weather is tolerably 

 cool. A train of eight camels is constantly 

 moving to and fro, keeping the camp sup- 

 plied with water, a three to four days' round 

 journey. Mr. Walter Granger, assisted by Mr. 

 George Olsen, is left in charge. It is hoped 

 that with the aid of fifteen selected workmen, 

 not only a representative collection of these 

 very important mammals may be secured, but 

 considerable additions may be made to our 

 knowledge, especially of the smaller mam- 

 mals of the Upper Eocene period in Northern 

 Africa. 



H. F. 0. 

 Caibo, February 25, 1907 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 M. Pierre Edgene Marcellin Berthelot, 

 the eminent chemist, died in Paris on March 

 18, at the age of eighty years. M. Berthelot 

 was permanent secretary of the Paris Aca- 

 demy of Sciences. He was a life member of 

 the French senate and had been minister of 

 public instruction and minister of foreign 

 affairs. The Chamber of Deputies, after 

 making an appropriation for a public funeral, 

 adjourned in his memory. 



Mr. C. G. Abbot, who had been for a num- 

 ber of years Secretary Langley's principal as- 

 sistant in the Astrophysical Observatory of 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, 

 and latterly its acting director, has been ap- 

 pointed director of the observatory, and Mr. 

 F. E. Fowle, Jr., hitherto junior assistant, has 

 been apxwinted aid. 



Professor W. K. Brooks, of the Johns 

 Hopkins University, will join Dr. A. G. 

 Mayer, the director of the Tropical Marine 

 Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, at 



Nassau in April, for zoological research in 

 the deep waters of the Bahamas. 



The organizing secretary of the SectioQ 

 on Embryology of the Seventh International 

 Zoological Congress is Professor E. G. Conk- 

 lin, of the University of Pennsylvania. Pend- 

 ing his return from a short trip to the Ba- 

 hama Islands, he desires to call the attention 

 of workers in the fields of normal and ex- 

 perimental embryology to the opportunities 

 which will be offered for the presentation of 

 important papers in these subjects, and to re- 

 quest their cooperation in making the meet- 

 ing's of this section highly successful. 



Dr. Francis Henry Smith, professor of 

 natural philosophy in the University of Vir- 

 ginia since 1853, has retired from active 

 service. 



Professor G^tano Lanza, head of the de- 

 partment of mechanical engineering of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has re- 

 ceived a decoration from the king of Italy,^ 

 conferred by the Italian consul at Boston, 

 Dr. Gustavo Tosti, at a banquet given in his 

 honor. 



The London Society of Dyes and Colors 

 has founded in honor of Sir William Perkiis 

 a Perkin medal to be conferred for scientific 

 and industrial work connected with the dyeing- 

 industries. 



The centenary of the Imperial Operating 

 Institute, a department of the University of 

 Vienna, was celebrated on March 15. Many 

 distinguished surgeons attended the evening 

 proceedings, which took the form of a Lister' 

 festival, in honor of Lord Lister's eightieth- 

 birthday. 



M. Henri Poincare has been appointed a 

 member of the council of the Observatory of 

 Physical Astronomy at Meudon, in the room 

 of the late M. Moissan. 



The Technological Institute in Vienna has 

 conferred an honorary doctorate of engineer- 

 ing science on Baron Auer von Welsbach. 



The University of Glasgow will confer its 

 doctorate of laws on Sir George Watt, author' 

 of the ' Dictionary of the Economic Products^ 

 of India ' ; M. Emile Boutroux, professor of 

 philosophy and director of the Fondation 



