38 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 679 



Kasai Eiver in 1904-6 are well known, has 

 returned to inner Africa, to make further 

 investigations. He is accompanied by Dr. 

 Hugershofi as surveyor and geologist and Mr. 

 Fritz Nansen as cartographer and photog- 

 rapher. The party will study, for a year, the 

 little-known region to the south of the great 

 Niger bend. Another year will be spent along 

 the lower Niger, and, if the health and re- 

 sources of the expedition permit, similar in- 

 vestigations may be extended to Togo and the 

 Cameroons. 



Dr. Ernest H. Starling, professor of physi- 

 ology in the University of London, will give 

 the Herter lectures of the year on the subject 

 " The Fluids of the Body," beginning on Jan- 

 uary 6 at 4 P.M. and continuing at the same 

 hour throughout the week at the Carnegie 

 Laboratory of the University and Bellevue 

 Hospital Medical College, 338 East 26th 

 Street, New York City. 



Dr. Frank Thilly (A.B. Cincinnati, '87), 

 Sage professor of philosophy at Cornell Uni- 

 versity, made the address on the occasion of 

 the first reunion of the colleges of the Uni- 

 versity of Cincinnati. The subject of his 

 address was " University Ideals." 



At a meeting of the Geographical Society 

 at Philadelphia on December 19, Captain 

 Roald Amundsen gave an illustrated account 

 of his discovery of the Northwest passage. 



It is reported that the remains of the philos- 

 opher Kant are to be transferred to the Fiirst- 

 engTuft of the cathedral in Konigsberg. 



We regret to record the death on December 

 29 of Dr. Coleman Sellers, at the age of fifty- 

 nine years. Dr. Sellers was chief engineer 

 of ths'; Niagara Falls Power Company and 

 chief mechanical engineer of the Canadian 

 Niagara Power Company. He had been presi- 

 dent of the American Society of Mechanical 

 Engineers and of the Franklin Institute of 

 Philadelphia. 



The death is announced of Mr. M. Walton 

 Brown, secretary of the British Institution 

 of Mining Engineers. 



The Rev. George Nelson Webber, D.D., who 

 had been professor of philosophy at Middle- 



bury College and Smith College, died on De- 

 cember 20, at the age of eighty-one years. 



Professor Oskar Lassar, of the University 

 of Berlin, known for his work in dermatology, 

 died on December 23, at the age of fifty-eight 

 years. 



There will be a civil service examination 

 on January 15 and 16 to fill four vacancies in 

 the position of aid in the U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey with a salary of $750 per 

 annum. An examination is also announced 

 for the position of chemist aid in the Bureau 

 of Chemistry, department of agriculture, at a 

 salary of $1,000. Applicants will not be as- 

 sembled for this examination, but will be 

 graded on their education and training. On 

 January 29-30, 1908, there will be an examina- 

 tion to fill at least three vacancies in the posi- 

 tion of miscellaneous computer. Naval Ob- 

 servatory, Washington, D. C, and vacancies 

 requiring similar qualifications as they may 

 occur in that observatory. The department 

 states that miscellaneous computers are paid 

 by the hour and earn from $1,000 to $1,200 per 

 annum. Promotions are made from this 

 grade, without further examination, to the 

 grade of assistant, at $1,200 per annum, as 

 vacancies occur. 



At the meeting of the Department of 

 Superintendence of the National Education 

 Association in Washington, D. C, February 

 25-26-27, considerable attention will be given 

 to agricultural education. A round table con- 

 ference will be held at which will be discussed 

 among other things " Cooperation between the 

 State Agricultural College and the State Nor- 

 mal School in Training Teachers for Element- 

 ary Agriculture " and " Cooperation between 

 the United States Department of Agriculture 

 and State School Authorities in Promoting 

 Agriculture in the Public Schools." Arrange- 

 ments have also been completed to organize at 

 the February meeting a " Department of Rural 

 and Agricultural Education " coordinate with 

 other departments of the National Educa- 

 tion Association. Permission to organize this 

 department was given by the board of direc- 

 tors of the National Educational Association 

 at the meeting in Los Angeles in July, 1907. 



