Mat 22, ^t)Ou] 



SCIENCE 



839 



Physicians of London, and by Sir Isaac Pen- 

 nington, John Haviland and Sir George Paget, 

 who were Eegius professors of physic in the 

 ■university. William Heberden was also a 

 Linacre lecturer, so were Henry Paman and 

 Henry Briggs, who were also Gresham pro- 

 fessors. The last named was the inventor of 

 the decimal system of logarithms, and was not 

 a medical man. Perhaps the most distin- 

 guished members of the laity who have held 

 the lectureship were Matthew Prior, the poet 

 and diplomatist, and Edward Stillingfleet, 

 Bishop of Worcester. Prom 1894 until his 

 appointment to be principal of Glasgow Uni- 

 versity the lectureship was held by Dr. Donald 

 MacAlister. The first lecture under the new 

 scheme was given on May 6, by Dr. Osier, 

 regius professor of medicine in the University 

 of Oxford, who took for his subject Thomas 

 Linacre, his life and work. 



The total cost of the buildings erected in 

 the principal cities of the United States in 

 1907 was $661,076,286, according to Mr. Jef- 

 ferson Middleton, of the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, who has collected statistics on this subject 

 in connection with his work on the clay- 

 working industries. Compared with the cost 

 of buildings in the same cities in 1906, these 

 figures show a net decrease of $17,634,683, or 

 2.60 per cent.; they are, however, 2.55 per 

 cent, in excess of the figures for 1905 and 

 40.86 per cent, greater than in 1904. Although 

 the total cost of buildings in the 49 cities re- 

 porting was decreased, the number of permits 

 increased from 181,174 in 1906 to 184,055 in 

 1907. In some cities more than one building 

 was erected under one permit, but as a rule 

 a permit was issued for each building. The 

 city showing the greatest decrease in cost of 

 buildings is New York, the value of whose 

 operations fell off $41,591,982, or 26.84 per 

 cent. St. Louis showed the next largest de- 

 crease — $8,045,526, or 26.87 per cent.; next is 

 Chicago, which reported a falling ofE of $5,- 

 616,245, or 8.68 per cent. Philadelphia, Bos- 

 ton and Brooklyn also showed decreases in 

 1907, though Brooklyn nearly held its own, 

 the decrease being only $149,304, or 0.21 per 

 cent., a better showing than that of any other 



of the very large cities in which normal con- 

 ditions prevailed. In Baltimore, where large 

 gains had been reported in 1904 and 1905 as 

 the resudt of the fire in 1904, the cost of build- 

 ing operations also decreased, though it was 

 more than twice as great in 1907 as in 1903, 

 when the cost was but $3,327,225. It is prob- 

 able that most of the decreases were due to 

 the financial disturbance during the latter part 

 of the year, although the decrease in Los An- 

 geles, which has shown remarkable increases 

 in past years, appears to have been due rather 

 to scarcity and high cost of material than to 

 the business depression. Twenty-five cities 

 reported an increase in cost of building opera- 

 tions. In San Prancisco, owing to the local 

 conditions following the fire, the increase was 

 $56,574,844, the total amount being nearly 162 

 per cent, in excess of the cost for 1906. The 

 total number of permits issued in 1907 for 

 buildings in San Prancisco was 12,126, and 

 the cost of the buildings was $91,502,240. In 

 1905, the year prior to the fire, its building 

 operations cost $18,268,753. In Cambridge, 

 Mass., which, with the exception of San Pran- 

 cisco, showed the largest proportionate gain, 

 the erection of several large mercantile build- 

 ings swelled the total. Cleveland's building 

 industries seem not to have been affected by 

 the financial depression, showing an increase 

 of $2,915,433, or 22.47 per cent., over the fig- 

 ures for 1906. The reports for Milwaukee 

 show an increase of more than a million dol- 

 lars, due to the increase in the number of fire- 

 proof or fire-resisting buildings erected. 



VNIVEBSITT AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 A RESEARCH laboratory of applied chemistry 

 will be established shortly at the Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology, with Professor 

 W. A. Walker in charge. 



The Hong Kong correspondent of the Brii- 

 ish Medical Journal writes that the governor. 

 Sir Frederick Lugard, convened a meeting on 

 March 18, to consider the possibility of estab- 

 lishing a university in Hong Kong. He an- 

 nounced that Mr. Mody, a Parsee, had' placed 

 £15,000 at his disposal for that purpose. The 

 governor was willing to recommend the gov- 



