Apeil 26, 1907] 



SCIENCE. 



679 



collections from Peru, given to the Berlin 

 Museum, died on March 31. 



To the list of government appropriations 

 for scientific purposes for the fiscal year end- 

 ing June 30, 1908, published in Science last 

 week, should be added the foUovcing, under the 

 head of Permanent Appropriations: 



To the Agricultural Colleges in 48 States 

 and Territories, under act of August 

 30, 1890 (Morrill Act) $1,200,000 



To the Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tions in 48 States and Territories, for 

 original research, under act of March 

 16, 1906 (Adams Act) $432,000 



Medical journals state that among the ap- 

 propriations recently voted by the German 

 parliament is $50,000 for repression of typhoid 

 fever and $30,000 for tuberculosis; $16,000 for 

 study of sleeping sickness; $17,500 for the 

 approaching International Congress for Hy- 

 giene at Berlin, September 23-29; $25,000 for 

 research on syphilis; $6,500 for investigation 

 of the statistics of accidents and $10,000 for 

 combating infant mortality. 



It is reported that Mr. A. P. Widener has 

 offered to erect in the city of Philadelphia a 

 municipal art gallery at a cost of $10,000,000 

 and to cooperate v?ith others in providing a 

 collection of paintings. 



Sir Andrew Noble has given £200 to the 

 Eoyal Institution for the fund for the promo- 

 tion of experimental research at low tempera- 

 tures. 



The committee on seismology appointed at 

 the recent meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, held its 

 first meeting at the Cosmos Club, Washington, 

 on the morning of April 19. The question of 

 a National Bureau of Seismology was one of 

 those considered by the conunittee. 



The A m erican Academy of Political and 

 Social Science held its eleventh annual meet- 

 ing at Philadelphia, beginning on April 19. 

 The special topic for consideration was ' Amer- 

 ican Colonial Policy and Administration.' 

 Ambassador Bryce made an address on ' Some 

 Difficulties in Colonial Government encoun- 

 tered by Great Britain, and how they have 

 been met.' 



The American Mosquito Extermination So- 

 ciety held its fourth annual meeting in New 

 York City on April 19. Addi-esses were made 

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

 of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and Dr. E. P. Pelt, New York state 

 entomologist. 



A telegram was received at Harvard Col- 

 lege Observatory on March 15 from Pro- 

 fessor G. C. Comstock, director of "Washburn 

 Observatory, stating that a comet was dis- 

 covered by Mellish at Madison, Wis., on April 

 141.679 G. M. T. in E. A. 6^ 50" and Dec. 

 + 8'. 



Daily motion in R. A. + 3°. 

 Dec. + 7°. 



The comet is large, faint and diffuse, and is 

 visible in a small telescope. The comet has 

 since been observed at the Yerkes Observatory, 

 the Lick Observatory and the U. S. Naval 

 Observatory. At the latter institution the ele- 

 ments and ephemeris have been computed 

 from observations made on April 15 and 16 as 

 follows : 



Elements 

 Time of passing perihelion = T= 1907, March 27.56 G. M. T. 

 Perihelion minus node = o = 328° 47' 

 Longitude of node = a = 189° 07' 



Inclination = t = 110° 12' 



Perihelion distance = 9 = 0.924 



Ephemeris 

 G. M. T. R. A. Dec. Light 



d h m 3 o / 



1907 Apr. 18.5 7 19 49 + 26 01 0.59 

 " " 22.5 7 45 40 +35 36 

 " " 26.5 8 3 41 +40 58 



" 30.5 8 17 08 +44 17 0.11 



The British Medical Journal says : " Just 

 twenty-five years ago, on March 24, 1882, 

 Kobert Eoch gave to the world his discovery 

 of the tubercle bacillus. At a meeting of the 

 Berlin Physiological Society he read a paper 

 on tuberculosis, in which he reported fully his 

 culture experiments, and ended by saying that 

 the result of these researches was that certain 

 bacilli were invariably present in tuberculous 

 tissue, that these bacilli could be detached 

 from the organism and preserved in pure cul- 

 tures for a length of time, and that animals 

 infected by various methods with the isolated 

 bacilli become tuberculous. From this it is 

 fair to conclude that tubercle bacilli consti- 



