September 16, 1010] 



SCIENCE 



373 



and the practicability of the international 

 auxiliary language. 



Although the first Esperanto Congress here, 

 it is the sixth international congress of Es- 

 peranto — five having been held previously, the 

 first at Boulogne in 1905 and the others an- 

 nually thereafter at Geneva, Cambridge, 

 Dresden and Barcelona, in the order named. 

 The congress of 1911 will sit in Antwerp. 

 The same results as to easy intercommunica- 

 tion between peoples of different tongues, de- 

 scribed above in connection with the Wash- 

 ington Congress, are reported as having been 

 attained at all the former congresses, and it 

 seems fair to assume that this outcome of con- 

 tinued experiment upon a large scale raises 

 the presumption, that Esperanto is in position 

 to make good its claims as an international 

 means of communication. Even if we take 

 uo account of the rapidly spreading Esperanto 

 movement, nor of the testimony which is al- 

 most daily to hand regarding its ability to 

 smooth the way of the scientist, the philoso- 

 pher or the merchant, whose interest reaches 

 out beyond the narrow borders of his own 

 land, still the success of these annual Es- 

 peranto congresses, which can not be gain- 

 said, at least provides sufficient prima facie 

 evidence touching the worth of the language, 

 as to demand thoughtful and thorough investi- 

 gation upon the part of those interested in 

 international conferences of any kind, or in 

 furthering international intercommunication 

 of any description. J. D. Hailman 



Pittsburgh 



SCIEyTIFIG NOTES AND NEWS 



At a special Degree Congregation held at 

 Sheffield University in connection with a visit 

 of the British Association, honorary degrees 

 were conferred as follows : Doctor of Science 

 —Mr. W. Bateson, F.E.S., the Eev. Professor 

 T. G. Bonney, F.E.S., Sir William Crookes, 

 F.E.S. , Mr. Francis Darwin, F.E.S., Professor 

 T. W. Ehys Davids, Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 F.E.S., Professor E. W. Hobson, F.E.S., Sir 

 Oliver Lodge, F.E.S., Sir Norman Lockyer, 

 r.E.S., Dr. H. A. Miers, F.E.S.. Sir William 

 Eamsay, Professor C. S. Sherrington, F.E.S., 



Sir J. J. Thomson, F.E.S. Doctor of Engi- 

 neering — Sir Joseph Jonas, Sir W. H. White, 

 F.E.S. Doctor of Metallurgy— Mr. J. E. 

 Stead, F.E.S. 



Dr. E. Schdltze, professor of agricultural 

 chemistry at the Zurich School of Technology, 

 has been given an honorary doctorate by the 

 University of Heidelberg. 



M. Urbain, professor of chemistry at Paris, 

 has been elected a corresponding member of 

 the Madrid Academy of Sciences. 



Among the representatives appointed to at- 

 tend the opening of the Mexican National 

 University on September 22 are Professor F. 

 W. Putnam and Eoland B. Dixon, from Har- 

 vard University, and Professor Franz Boas, 

 from Columbia University. 



Professor Junius Henderson and Instruc- 

 tor Wilfred W. Bobbins, of the University of 

 Colorado, have been engaged in investigation 

 in New Mexico, being connected with an ex- 

 ploring party of the Archeological Institute 

 of America. Professor Henderson has been 

 studying the geology and Mr. Bobbins the 

 botany of the Cliff Dweller region. 



A COLLECTION of minerals, containing 200 

 specimens, for every high school in the state 

 of Colorado, will be one of the results of the 

 work done this summer by the State Geolog- 

 ical Survey under the direction of Professor 

 Eussell D. George, state geologist. He is 

 supervising five parties which are studying 

 and reporting on the clays and minerals in 

 various parts of the state. A volume contain- 

 ing reports from two of the districts has al- 

 ready been issued. 



Nature states that Mr. J. Hewitt, assistant 

 for lower vertebrates in the Transvaal Mu- 

 seum, and formerly curator of the Sarawak 

 Museum, has been appointed director of the 

 -Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa, 

 in succession to Dr. S. Schonland, who has 

 resigned owing to pressure of other work. 

 The herbarium is still under the care of Dr. 

 Schonland. 



M. Eugene Eouche, member of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, in the section of mathe- 



