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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 687 



soula, during the montli of December. Dr. 

 H. H. Swain, president of the State Normal 

 School at Dillon, was elected president, and 

 Dr. W. D. Harkins, professor of chemistry 

 at the University of Montana, secretary and 

 treasurer. 



Me. J. C. Pearson, magnetic observer of 

 the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 

 formerly on the magnetic survey yacht 

 Galilee, has gone abroad to make magnetic 

 observations in the regions of Asiatic Turkey 

 and of Persia, where but few data have 

 hitherto been obtained. 



The Belgian government jiroposes to send a 

 meteorological expedition to the Arctic next 

 summer. The expedition will be under the 

 command of M. Georges Lecointe, director of 

 the Royal Observatory at Uccle. 



Dr. George H. Shull, of the Station for 

 Experimental Evolution, Cold Spring Harbor, 

 addressed the Scientific Association of Johns 

 Hopkins University, at the meeting of Febru- 

 ary 17, on " Recent Aspects of Mendelism." 



The board of managers of the Franklin In- 

 stitute gave a reception on the evening of 

 February 14, when there was an exhibition of 

 historical models and new inventions and a 

 lecture by Dr. Persifor Frazer on " The 

 Franklin Institute, its Services and Deserts." 



The Association of Technical Institutions 

 of Great Britain was entertained at luncheon 

 by the Drapers' Company, on February 21. 

 The anniial meeting followed, when Sir Nor- 

 man Lockyer delivered his presidential ad- 



A RESOLUTION was passed at a committee 

 meeting of the London section of the Society 

 of Chemical Industry, held on February 7, 

 recording the great loss the society has suf- 

 fered through the premature death of its 

 chairman, Mr. Richard John Friswell. 



Dr. Rudolf Bueckhardt, director of the 

 Zoological Station, Rovigno, has died at the 

 age of forty-two years. 



Dr. Maximillian Meissner, curator in the 

 Berlin Zoological Museum, died on January 

 27, at the age of forty-seven years. 



Dr. Albert Thierfelder, professor of 

 pathological anatomy at Rostock, has died at 

 the age of sixty-five years. 



The U. S. Civil Service Commission an- 

 nounces an examination on March 25, 1908, 

 to fill the position of soil chemist, in the 

 Bureau of Soils, Department of Agriculture, 

 at a salary of from $2,000 to $2,500 per an- 

 num. Applicants will not be assembled for 

 any of the tests. 



The British Treasury has agreed to give an 

 annual grant of £200 to the Royal Scottish 

 Geographical Society in Edinburgh in lieu of 

 rent of premises. The society has had to 

 vacate the rooms in the National Portrait 

 Gallery, which it had leased from the govern- 

 ment at a low rent for a considerable number 

 of years, in favor of the recently created board 

 of trustees of the national galleries of Scot- 

 land. 



The following recommendations were adopt- 

 ed at the general meeting of the Geological 

 Society of America, held December 31, 1907, 

 at Albuquerque, New Mexico. The action of 

 the society was taken as a result of an over- 

 ture made to it by the Association of State 

 Geologists of the Mississippi Valley. 



The Geological Society of America reeommends 

 to the various organizatioris concerned: 



1. That a general committee on geological nom- 

 enclature be formed; one fifth of its members to 

 be from the United States Geological Survey, one 

 fifth from the state geological survey organiza- 

 tions, one fifth from the Canadian Geological Sur- 

 vey organizations, one fifth from Mexico and one 

 fifth from geologists at large as selected by the 

 Geological Society of America. 



2. That this general committee have authority 

 to appoint special committees on nomenclature 

 from within or without its own membership for 

 the investigation of the particular questions re- 

 ferred to them, the special committees to report 

 back their conclusions to the general committee 

 with full reasons therefor; the different sections 

 to report in turn to their own organizations. 



3. That the fact that any subject is under dis- 

 cussion by this general committee be made known 

 to the scientific public at large. 



The purpose of the recommendations is to pro- 

 vide a source from which any geologist may on 

 application obtain advice regarding nomencla- 

 ture. 



