278 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. i>fo. 685 



for the study of tlie parasitic and infectious 

 diseases of man, animals and plants, and for 

 the preparation of serums. 



The foundation stone of an institute for 

 the teaching of the history of medicine in 

 connection with the University of Vienna will, 

 says the British Medical Journal, shortly be 

 laid. The state has promised a subvention, 

 and the medical pr fession has contributed 

 with a generous hand. In the institute there 

 will be a museum containing collections of all 

 sorts of things relating to medical history — 

 portraits, books, instruments, apparatus, etc. 

 One section of this will be devoted to a col- 

 lection showing the development of the heal- 

 ing art in Austria. The establishment of the 

 institute is due to the untiring efforts of 

 Professors Neuburger and von Toply, both of 

 whom have won deserved fame as medical 

 antiquarians. 



In October, 1891, Thomas George Hodgkins, 

 of Setauket, New York, made a donation to 

 the Smithsonian Institution, the income from 

 a part of which was to be devoted to " the 

 increase and diffusion of more exact knowl- 

 edge in regard to the nature and properties 

 of atmospheric air in connection with the wel- 

 fare of man." In the furtherance of the 

 donor's wishes, the Smithsonian Institution 

 has from time to time offered prizes, awarded 

 medals, made grants for investigations and 

 issued publications. In connection with the 

 approaching International Congress on Tuber- 

 culosis, which will be held in Washington, 

 September 21 to October 12, 1908, a prize of 

 $1,500 is offered for the best treatise that may 

 be submitted to that Congress " On the Eela- 

 tion of. Atmospheric Air to Tuberculosis." 

 The treatises may be written in English, 

 French, German, Spanish or Italian. They 

 will be examined and the prize awarded by a 

 committee appointed by the Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in conjunction with 

 the officers of the International Congress on 

 Tuberculosis. The right is reserved to award 

 no prize if in the judgment of the committee 

 no contribution is offered of sufficient merit 

 to warrant such action. The Smithsonian In- 



stitution reserves the right to publish the 

 treatise to which the prize is awarded. 



Professor H. McE. Knower, Secretary of 

 the American Society of Naturalists, has sent 

 the following resolution, adopted by the coun- 

 cil of- the society, advocating a biological 

 survey of the Panama Canal zone: 



Realizing tliat the work in the Panama Canal 

 is changing biological conditions in Panama and 

 that the completion of the Canal will enable the 

 fresh-water faunae of the two slopes to mingle 

 freely and that many marine animals will succeed 

 in passing tlie completed Canal, the American 

 Society of Naturalists urges upon the President 

 and Congress to make provision for a biological 

 survey of the Panama Canal zone. 



Since the conditions will be permanently changed 

 as soon as the Canal is completed and the work 

 can not be satisfactorily done after the completiom 

 of the canal, there is great urgency that provisio» 

 for the work be made at once. 



Resolved, That the secretary be instructed to 

 send copies of this resolution to the President, the 

 Vice-President, the Speaker of the House and the 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Nature says : " Last spring Dr. J. Elberts, 

 the German geologist, conducted an expedi- 

 tion to investigate further the fossiliferous 

 deposits of the Bengawan River, near Trinil, 

 in Java, rendered famous by the discovery of 

 Pithecanthropus erectus by Dr. Eugene Du- 

 bois in 1891-2. Although extensive collections 

 were made and fresh forms discovered, no 

 trace of Pithecanthropus was found; but, ac- 

 cording to the correspondent of the Pall Mall 

 Gazette (January 17), Dr. Elberts found 

 roughly fashioned implements of bone, " a 

 fireplace, and the remains of extinct animals, 

 from which he became convinced that the 

 ape-man must have existed at a remoter 

 period." Unfortunately, this statement is so 

 vague that nothing can be accepted until 

 more information comes to hand. The impli- 

 cation is that some beings made fires and 

 cooked animals, now extinct, before the gravel 

 beds were deposited which contain Pithecan- 

 thropus and other extinct forms. In the prov- 

 ince of Madium a fireplace was discovered 20 

 feet below the surface containing stone 

 arrow-heads and fragments of pottery, 

 broken and partly burned bones, and charred 



