518 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 639 



at salaries ranging from $600 to $2,000 per 

 annum, depending upon experience and quali- 

 fications. As a result of this examination 

 certification will be made to fill a vacancy in 

 the position of scientific assistant qualified in 

 seed testing, in the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 at $900 -per annum. 



There will be a civil service examination 

 on April 24-25 to fill positions as assistant 

 geologist and geologic aid in the Geological 

 Survey, at salaries ranging from $1,000 to 

 $1,600 a year. The department estimates 

 that ten appointments will be made at an 

 early date as a result of this examination, the 

 salary depending upon qualifications and ex- 

 perience. In certain cases where only a por- 

 tion of the time of the appointee can be given 

 to the work of the department, the compensa- 

 tion will be upon a per diem basis for the 

 service rendered. Appointments to the posi- 

 tion of temporary field assistant will also be 

 made from the resulting eligible list as far as 

 possible. The compensation of such positions 

 ranges from $60 to $100 per month, and the 

 length of employment from three to seven 

 months. At the same time there will be an 

 examination for the position of geologist in 

 the Philippine service at a salary of $1,800. 



Funds have been donated by Mr. William 

 C. Sproul, state senator, of Chester, Pa., for 

 the purchase of one of the largest telescopes 

 on the Atlantic Coast for Swarthmore Col- 

 lege. The exact amount of the gift or the 

 size of the telescope is not known, but the 

 instrument will be quite as efficient as the 

 government's telescope at Washington or the 

 University of Virginia's telescope at Char- 

 lottesville, which are the two largest instru- 

 ments in the east. The telescope will be in 

 charge of Dr. John A. Miller, professor of 

 mathematics and astronomy. Senator Sproul 

 is a member of the board of managers and has 

 been active in the advancement of the institu- 

 tion since his graduation in 1891. 



There has been placed in the case in the 

 paleontologieal museum of the University of 

 Kansas a fine skeleton of the extinct Bison 

 occidentalis. This unique specimen was col- 



lected by Mr. H. T. Martin in Give County, 

 Kans., and mounted by him. It has an ex- 

 treme length of 122 inches and a height of 

 79| inches. 



It is said that a compromise has been ef- 

 fected by which the city of Philadelphia will 

 receive $1,000,000 from the estate of Dr. 

 Thomas W. Evans for the establishment of a 

 dental institute and museum. 



The commissioners for the 1851 Exhibition 

 have appropriated a site on their estate at 

 South Kensington for the Institute of Medical 

 Sciences. It is understood that the site will 

 be reserved for one year, during which it is 

 hoped that the additional sum of about £30,000 

 required to build and equip the institute may 

 be obtained. 



The fourth International Congress of Math- 

 ematicians will meet at Rome, from April 6 

 to April 11, 1908. The membership fee is 

 twenty-five francs, and the general secretary 

 on organization is Professor G. Castelnuovo. 



The eighth meeting of the Association of 

 Teachers of Mathematics of the Middle States 

 and Maryland will be held at Teachers College, 

 Columbia University, New York, on April 6, 

 under the presidency of Professor Edwin S. 

 Crawley, of the University of Pennsylvania. 



The House of Commons on March 23, by 

 150 to 118 votes, rejected the bill proposing 

 to introduce the metric system into Great 

 Britain. 



According to the daily papers, letters from 

 Messrs. Ernest Leffingwell and Elmar Mikkel- 

 sen, containing the fijst news from the Anglo- 

 American polar expedition since the expedi- 

 tion left Alaska, have been received at Port- 

 land, Ore., by Mr. H. A. Andree, assistant in 

 the local weather bureau. The letters were 

 dated November 21 and November 23 and were 

 carried over the ice fields to Point Barrow, 

 where they were delivered to the Canadian 

 mounted police. Mr. Lefiingwell states that 

 the ship, the Duchess of Bedford, was frozen 

 in solid ice, about 200 miles ofi Point Barrow 

 and that the preparations were at that time 

 almost completed for starting the expedition 

 into the unknown country lying to the north. 



