jANtTAB-Sr 17, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



117 



Variation" (Magnetic Declination). It was 

 found that in the Pacific Ocean the charts 

 previously possessed were erroneous along cer- 

 tain well traversed routes by as much as three 

 or five degrees, and that systematically at 

 times. Hence these errors were of sufficient 

 magnitude to he taken into account in prac- 

 tical navigation. 



ELIZABETH THOMPSON SCIENCE FUND 

 This fund, which was established by Mrs. 

 Elizabeth Thompson, of Stamford, Connecti- 

 cut, " for the advancement and prosecution of 

 scientific research in its broadest sense," now 

 amounts to $26,000. As accumulated income 

 is now available, the trustees desire to receive 

 applications for appropriations in aid of scien- 

 tific work. This endowment is not for the 

 benefit of any one department of science, but 

 it is the intention of the trustees to give the 

 preference to those investigations which can 

 not otherwise he provided for, which have for 

 their object the advancement of human knowl- 

 edge or the benefit of mankind in general, 

 rather than to researches directed to the solu- 

 tion of questions of merely local importance. 

 The trustees are disinclined, for the present, 

 to make any grant to meet ordinary expenses 

 of living or to purchase instruments, such as 

 are found commonly in laboratories. Decided 

 preference will be given to applications for 

 small amounts, and grants exceeding $300 will 

 be made only under very exceptional circum- 

 stances. 



Applications for assistance from this fund, 

 in order to receive consideration, must he 

 accompanied hy full inform,ation, especially 

 in regard to the f ollovnng points : (1) Precise 

 amount required; (2) exact nature of the in- 

 vestigation proposed; (3) conditions under 

 which the research is to be prosecuted; (4) 

 manner in which the appropriation asked for 

 is to be expended. 



All applications should be sent at once to 

 the secretary of the board of trustees. Dr. C. 

 S. Minot, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 

 Mass. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 Dr. W. W. Keen has been elected president 

 of the American Philosophical Society, Phila- 



delphia, succeeding Dr. Edgar E. Smith, who 

 declined reelection. 



At the recent meeting of the American 

 Society of Zoologists, Eastern Branch, held 

 at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale Uni- 

 versity, the following officers were elected: 

 President, Dr. William Morton Wheeler, Am- 

 erican Museum of Natural History; Vice- 

 president, Professor Herbert S. Jennings, 

 Johns Hopkins University; Secretary-Treas- 

 urer, Dr. Lorande Loss Woodruff, Tale Uni- 

 versity; Memher of the Executive Committee, 

 Professor Gilman A. Drew, University of 

 Maine. 



At the recent Madison meeting of the Am- 

 erican Economic Association Professor Simon 

 N. Patten, of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 was elected president, to succeed Professor 

 Jeremiah W. Jenks, of Cornell University. 



M. GoNNESSiAT, of the Paris Observatory, 

 has been appointed director of the Observatory 

 of Algiers. 



Professor Cornil, of Paris, having reached 

 the age limit of seventy years, has been re- 

 tired from the chair of pathological anatomy 

 and histology, which he may be said to have 

 first founded in Erance. 



Dr. David Hilbert, of the University of 

 Gottingen, has been made a member of the 

 Bavarian-Maximilian Order for Science and 

 Art. 



Lord Brassey has been elected a correspond- 

 ing member of the geographical section of the 

 French Academy of Sciences in succession to 

 the late M. Oudemans. 



Professor Eaphael Meldola, F.E.S., past 

 president of the Chemical Society, has been 

 elected president of the Society of Dyers and 

 Colorists, in succession to the late Sir W. H. 

 Perkin. 



The University of St. Andrews has resolved 

 to confer the honorary degree of LL.D. upon 

 the following scholars, on February 16 : Lord 

 Avebury; Mr. Francis Darwin, president-elect 

 of the British Association; Mr. Philip Nor- 

 man, treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries; 

 Sir E. J. Poynter, Bart., president of the 

 Eoyal Academy; Mr. Charles Hercules Eead, 

 past president of the Anthropological Insti- 

 tute ; and Principal MacAlister, Glasgow. 



