January 31, 1908] 



SCIENCE. 



199 



of a vessel especially designed and adapted 

 for magnetic work. Such a vessel, it is said, 

 will not only greatly facilitate the observa- 

 tional work by getting rid of the troublesome 

 deviation corrections but will likeveise ma- 

 terially reduce the office computations. As 

 soon as this vessel is completed similar work 

 to that of the Pacific Ocean is to be under- 

 taken in the other oceans. With the aid of 

 such a specially adapted vessel and the co- 

 operation already secured by the Department 

 of Terrestrial Magnetism from various coun- 

 tries, it seems reasonably sure now that a 

 general magnetic survey of the globe will be 

 completed within a period of ten to fifteen 

 years. 



Number 6 of the Augustana Library Pub- 

 lications has just been issued by Augustana 

 College at Eock Island. It is a Linne 

 Memorial number and the principal paper is 

 by Dr. P. A. Rydberg, curator of the New 

 York Botanical Garden, and is on the subject 

 " Scandinavians who have contributed to the 

 knowledge of the Flora of North America." 

 The author says that his national pride helped 

 him in choosing his subject, and well he 

 might, for on the forty-nine pages of his 

 paper he gives biographical and bibliographical 

 notes on no less than 101 Scandinavian sci- 

 entists who have contributed to the knowledge 

 of systematic botany of North America, in- 

 cluding Greenland, Mexico, the West Indies 

 and Central America. The lists of the wri- 

 tings by the various authors contain 280 titles. 

 One of these works, " Peter Kalm's Travels in 

 North America," is in three volumes and is 

 generally known as one of the best accounts 

 of this country in the early days, and has 

 been published in three languages. In all his 

 writings, the author states, Linne described 

 no less than 2,000 American species of plants. 

 Of Scandinavian American botanists, who are 

 now, or who have been residents in this 

 country, the author enumerates no less than 

 twenty-eight, himself being one of the num- 

 ber. Apparently he is easily foremost, as it 

 appears from the long list of his own papers 

 which has been inserted without the author's 

 intention by the editor. Altogether the paper 



is a worthy memorial of the two hundredth 

 anniversary of the birth of the illustrious 

 Swede whose life's work gave the first great 

 and world-wide impetus to the study of 

 systematic natural history, and it is particu- 

 larly fitting that such a memorial paper 

 should be issued by an institution that has 

 been reared by the descendants of the great 

 botanist's countrymen in America. 



Mr. H. M. Taylor, formerly tutor of 

 Trinity College and mayor of Cambridge, is 

 trying to promote the provision of scientific 

 books for the blind. He has made a state- 

 ment in which he says : " The blind who are 

 interested in subjects of a scientific character 

 are very heavily handicapped. An embossed 

 copy of any book occupies a very much larger 

 space than a printed copy of the same book. 

 Lately the British and Foreign Blind Associa- 

 tion has published Mr. Charles Smith's ' Ele- 

 mentary Algebra,' the published price of 

 which is 3s. 6d. The embossed edition con- 

 sists of five ' large royal quarto ' volumes, con- 

 taining in the whole 800 pages. The pub- 

 lished price in cloth is 16s. 6d. Books in 

 embossed type are very much needed, I am 

 told, on such subjects as mechanics, physics, 

 astronomy, chemistry, and geology. I hope 

 that I shall not be disappointed in my belief 

 that there are many persons interested in 

 science who would be willing to contribute to 

 a fund which would enable books on such 

 subjects as I have mentioned to be embossed 

 for the use of the blind, and to be sold at a 

 more moderate price." 



The Exhibition Committee announces that 

 the Grand Exhibition of Japan will be opened 

 in Tokio on April 1, 1912, and will be closed 

 on October 31 of that year. It will be held 

 on a site covering about 292 acres. All for- 

 eign governments and peoples are invited to 

 participate in this exhibition. For foreign 

 exhibits belonging to the five different depart- 

 ments of education, science, machinery, elec- 

 tricity, and manufactured goods, space will be 

 allotted in the exhibition buildings erected 

 by the administration ofiice of the Grand Ex- 

 hibition of Japan. For exhibits other than 

 those above designated, any nation may erect 



