li 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 680 



of the Executive ComwAttee, Albert H. Van 

 Vleet, professor of botany. The object of the 

 club is " to promote original research " among 

 its members. The following papers have al- 

 ready been read: 



" The Snakes of Oklahoma," by Professor Van 

 Vleet. 



•■ Modern Methods in the Extraction of Ores," 

 by Professor De Barr. 



" Recent Advances in Serum-therapy," by Pro- 

 fessor Williams. 



" Some Observations n the Cuban Cave Fishes," 

 Professor Lane. 



The department of anthropology of the 

 University of California has come into pos- 

 session of the linguistic and ethnological 

 manuscripts of the late P. S. Sparlanan, of 

 Valley Center, California, comprising the re- 

 sults of his many years' studies of the Luiseiio 

 Indians. 



A RESTORATION of the skull of a great horned 

 dinosaur has just been installed for exhibition 

 in Peabody Museum, Yale University. It is 

 nearly nine feet long, and about six feet broad, 

 and is said to be the largest skull of any pre- 

 historic land animal. 



Austrian papers announce the formation, 

 by the joint action of the Academies of Sci- 

 ences in Vienna, Prague and Krakow, of an 

 Austrian Egyptological institute at Cairo. 

 The yearly expenses are estimated at 30,000 to 

 40,000 crowns. The first excavations are to be 

 made at Fayum. 



In order to observe the eclipse of the sun 

 on January 3, which appeared as a total eclipse 

 in the tropical Pacific Ocean, Mr. C. G. Abbot, 

 director of the Astrophysical Observatory of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, has been sent 

 to Flint" Island, 400 miles northwest of Tahiti. 

 The eclipse was total between eleven and 

 twelve o'clock in that longitude, which corre- 

 sponds to between four and five o'clock Wash- 

 ington time. Mr. Abbot, with an assistant, 

 joined a party headed by Professor W. W. 

 Campbell, of Lick Observatory, California, 

 sailing on the steamship Mariposa from San 

 Francisco to Papeete, Tahiti, on November 22. 

 The gunboat Annapolis furnished transporta- 

 tion between Tahiti and Flint Island. Mr. 

 Abbot's observations comprise an examination 



with the Langley bolometer of the sun's corona, 

 especially toward its inner part, to help decide 

 what is the most probable cause of its lumin- 

 osity. For this coronal light three sources 

 have been suggested: (1) the reflection of or- 

 dinary sunlight, (2) the emission of light 

 owing to the high temperature of small par- 

 ticles near the sun, and (3) the emission of 

 light by luminescence like that of the aurora 

 borealis. It was proposed also to observe with 

 instruments the peculiarities of sky light be- 

 fore the day of the eclipse so that even if 

 clouds should obscure the eclipse, there would 

 still be something of value brought back from 

 the trip. 



According to the London Times Dr. Sven 

 Hedin, writing from Gargunsa, under date of 

 November 8, states that he has been down to 

 Nepal from Tradum, crossing the Pass of 

 Kore-la. The explorer afterwards crossed for 

 the fifth time the mountain range, about 2,000 

 miles longi from the Salwin to the Panj, col- 

 lecting valuable details. Dr. Sven Hedin has 

 discovered the true source of the Brahmaputra 

 River — namely, the Kubitsampo, which rises 

 from a glacier on the northern side of the 

 northernmost parallel range of the Himalayas. 

 The Marium-chu, which has hitherto been re- 

 garded as the source, is merely a small tribu- 

 tary flowing in from the west. After a care- 

 ful study of the hydrographic problems re- 

 garding the Manasarowar and the Sutlej, Dr. 

 Sven Hedin proceeded round the Troly Kailas, 

 discovered the true source of the Indus, and 

 traveled northeast to the thirty-second degree 

 of latitude north. He is now proceeding to 

 Ladakh and Kiotan via the road running east 

 of the Karakoram Pass. In the spring he will 

 travel either to Peking or India. 



There was a meeting at the Carnegie In- 

 stitute, Pittsburg, on January 2, of those in- 

 terested in medical education, at which the 

 following questions were discussed: 



First — Realizing that four years in college and 

 four years in a medical school are too much of 

 a man's life to ask in preparation for his profes- 

 sion, the Academy of Medicine proposes to so ar- 

 range the college courses and the medical courses 

 that six years only will be required. 



Second — " State medical examination laws." 



