May 17, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



795 



explorers of Central Asia are agreed as to the 

 fact of eHmatic change. Thus Dr. Stein, the 

 anthropologist, writing from Kiria to the 

 OeograpMcal Journal (January, 190Y), reports 

 concerning the desert east of Klotan that cul- 

 tivation in the fertile Hanguya tract is stead- 

 ily advancing towards areas previously aban- 

 doned to the desert, so that much of this deso- 

 late Tati is likely to be recovered by man from 

 the desert at no distant time. Dr. Stein was 

 much struck by the considerable extension of 

 cultivated ground during the past six years. 

 Extended areas lying waste or drift-covered 

 in 1900-1, have again been brought under cul- 

 tivation. The great advance in prosperity 

 which is taking place in the western oasis of 

 Chinese Turkestan seems to have had a marked 

 effect in Khotan on the extent of the ctJti- 

 vated area and the numbers of the population. 



FRANKLIN, THE KITE AND THE LIGHTNING ROD 



' Did Benjamin Franklin fly his Electrical 

 Kite before he invented the Lightning Rod ' 

 is the title of a paper read by Professor A. L. 

 Eotch before the American Antiquarian So- 

 ciety in Worcester, Mass., October 24, 1906. 

 Professor Eotch believes: (1) that the kite 

 experiment was probably performed later than 

 has been supposed; (2) that even before this 

 experiment certain buildings in Philadelphia 

 were provided with ' points,' probably as light- 

 ning conductors; (3) that prior to Franklin's 

 first accoimt of the kite experiment he had 

 drawn up precise directions for placing light- 

 ning rods upon all kinds of buildings. 



R. DeC. Ward 

 Haevaed Univeesitt 



A MONUMENT TO LAMABCK 

 The professors of the Museum national 

 d'histoire natureUe, Paris, have undertaken to 

 erect a monument in the Jardin des Plantes 

 to their illustrious predecessor, the philosopher 

 and naturalist Lamarck. To this end they 

 have secured subscriptions in Paris and have 

 formed a committee to enlist the support of 

 botanists and zoologists throughout the world. 

 The proposed monument, designed by M. 



Fagel, gives a bronze bust of Lamarck, sur- 

 mounting, after the fashion of recent French 

 sculpture, a large granite pedestal with figures 

 in relief. These portray the philosopher aged 

 and blind, seated at the base of his monu- 

 ment, and close by, reading to him, his 

 devoted daughter— a pathetic picture of 

 Lamarck's last days when in poverty and in 

 disfavor, on account of his evolutional wri- 

 tings, he was living as a recluse in the ancient 

 house of Buffon, near which, probably on the 

 very spot which he crossed in his daily walk, 

 the monument is to stand. 



It is only within recent years that the posi- 

 tion of Lamarck among the pioneers of evolu- 

 tion has come to be understood. Darwin 

 himself was distinctly unjust in his treatment 

 of him. But from the work of the modem 

 paleontologist on the one hand and the ex- 

 perimentalist on the other, tribute is com- 

 ing to be paid to Lamarck's wonderful in- 

 sight, imperfect though the materials of his 

 inductions were, into the processes and factors 

 of organic evolution. The 'American school 

 of evolutionists,' headed by Cope, Osbom, 

 Hyatt, Eyder, Packard, has indeed touched so 

 closely the lines of his philosophy that it has 

 often merited the title of ' Neo-Lamarckian.' 

 And it is to our countryman, Packard, that 

 we are indebted for the only work upon the 

 life and teachings of Lamarck which has 

 hitherto appeared. 



The present project in memory of Lamarck 

 is one, in short, which may justly enlist the 

 cooperation and support of the botanists and 

 zoologists throughout the United States — to 

 give by this means tangible recognition of his 

 services to science. The Aruerican zoologists 

 who have been designated to receive subscrip- 

 tions in behalf of the Committee in Paris are 

 Professors Alexander Agassiz, Henry Fairfield 

 Osborn and Bashford Dean. 



TEE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL ZOOLOG- 

 ICAL CONGRESS 

 The revised program of the Seventh Inter- 

 national Zoological Congress, to be held at 

 Boston, August 19-23, under the presidency 

 of Mr. Alexander Agassiz, is as follows: 



