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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 681 



Fernandez de Castro, president of the Agra- 

 rian League of the island, and empowered to 

 prepare a report and submit a draft of a law 

 for the amelioration of agricultural conditions 

 in Cuba. 



Consul-General Eichard Guenther, of 

 Frankfort, says it is reported that a Hamburg 

 joint stock company has purchased a large 

 tract of land along the mouth of the Elbe at 

 Cuxhaven, where power works are to be erect- 

 ed. The action of the ebb and flow of the 

 tide is to be employed in generating electric 

 energy to be used in factories about to be 

 established. The works will also furnish elec- 

 tric power to the town of Cuxhaven and other 

 towns in the vicinity. The daily capacity of 

 the plant will reach 14,000 horse power. 



The French Administration des Postes et 

 Telegraphes is, according to the Paris corre- 

 spondent of the London Times, engaged in 

 making some interesting experiments with a 

 view to the improvement of telephone com- 

 munication. On an underground cable be- 

 tween Lille and Eoubaix a certain number of 

 self-induction coils on the system of Professor 

 Pupin, of Columbia University, have been 

 intercalated. As was found to be the case in 

 America, the results obtained have been ex- 

 cellent, and there is some talk of greatly in- 

 creasing the use of these coils on a number of 

 other telephone lines. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 Mr. Andrew Carnegie will erect a $50,000 

 building for Bates College for the study of 

 science, providing a similar sum is raised to 

 support the department. 



Harvard University has received from the 

 trustees ' under the will of Miss Harriet N. 

 Lowell the sum of $2,000, this being the first 

 annual payment of a part of the income of her 

 estate in accordance with a provision by which 

 the money will be for surgical research. In 

 addition to this immediate benefit, the uni- 

 versity has the remainder of the estate, subject 

 to the life tenancy above mentioned. The uni- 

 versity has received from Mr. Francis Skinner 

 $2,500 as his final payment on account of his 

 gift of $5,000 for the purchase of books for the 



Arnold Arboretum, in memory of his father, 

 Francis Skinner, of the class of 1862. 



Columbia University has received for the 

 equipment of the Department of Mining and 

 Metallurgy three gifts of $2,500 each from 

 estate of D. Willis James, Adolph Lewisohn 

 and the Nichols Copper Company. 



Steps have been taken by the authorities of 

 the University of Wisconsin to increase the 

 practical value of the instruction in agricul- 

 ture by establishing a full two-year course to 

 include the maximum amount of scientific and 

 practical work. The present four-year course 

 in agriculture has been revised with view to 

 introducing into the first two years a number 

 of subjects bearing directly upon farming, 

 instead of confining the first years of the 

 course as heretofore to purely scientific work. 

 Graduation from high school or equivalent 

 preparation will be required for entrance to 

 the new two-year course, as well as to the 

 present four-year course. At least six months 

 of practical farm experience will be required 

 for the completion of either of these courses. 



According to a decree issued by the ministry 

 of education, ceremonial matriculation is 

 henceforth to be dispensed with in Austrian 

 universities. 



Dr. Albert Eoss Hill has accepted the 

 presidency of the University of Missouri to 

 succeed President E. H. Jesse. Dr. Hill 

 was dean of the College for Teachers at 

 Missouri until last year when he accepted the 

 deanship of the College of Arts and Sciences 

 at Cornell University. 



Dr. E. 0. LovETT, professor of mathematics 

 at Princeton University from 1900 to 1905 

 and since professor of astronomy, has resigned 

 to accept the presidency of the institute estab- 

 lished at Houston, Texas, by the late William 

 M. Eice, with an endowment, which after long 

 litigation is said still to amount to over $2,- 

 000,000. 



Mr. a. T. Stuart has been appointed super- 

 intendent of schools in Washington to suc- 

 ceed Dr. William E. Chancellor, who has been 

 dismissed by the Board of Education. The 

 main charge against Dr. Chancellor appears 

 to have been lack of judgment and tact. 



