Jantjabt 6, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



23 



fund is now available, and the trustees 

 desire to receive applications for appropria- 

 tions in aid of scientific work. The trustees 

 are disinclined, for the present, to make 

 any grant to meet ordinary expenses of living 

 or to purchase instruments, such as are found 

 commonly in laboratories. Decided preference 

 will be given to applications for small 

 amounts, and grants exceeding $300 will be 

 made only under very exceptional circum- 

 stances. Applications for assistance from this 

 fund, in order to receive consideration, must 

 he accompanied hy full information, especially 

 in regard to the following points: (1) Precise 

 amount required. Applicants are reminded 

 that one dollar is approximately equivalent to 

 four English shillings, four German Marks, 

 five French francs, or five Italian lire. (2) 

 Exact nature of the investigation proposed. 

 (3) Conditions under which the research is to 

 be prosecuted. (4) Manner in which the ap- 

 propriation asked for is to be expended. All 

 applications should reach, before February 1, 

 1911, the secretary of the board of trustees. 

 Dr. C. S. Minot, Harvard Medical School, 

 Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 



It is stated in Nature that a prize of 100,000 

 francs is to be awarded to the inventor of a 

 practical apparatus which will make it pos- 

 sible to save the crews of wrecked subma- 

 rines, enabling them to regain the surface un- 

 injured. The French minister of marine is 

 able to ofFer the prize, as he has received an 

 anonymous gift from a French lady for the 

 purpose. 



Mr. Thomas Lupton, of Great Britain, 

 solicitor to the Eoyal Institution, who died 

 on October 30 last, aged 90 years, left £10,000 

 for the general purposes of that institution. 



The department of zoology and entomology 

 of the Ohio State University has recently re- 

 ceived the gift of a fine collection of Lepi- 

 doptera from Mrs. Catherine Tallant, of 

 Eichmond, Indiana. The collection was made 

 by Mr. W. N. Tallant and contains mainly 

 species occurring in central Ohio, especially at 

 Columbus, but has also a number of species 

 from different parts of the United States, and 



also some fine samples of species occurring 

 in South America, Japan, China, India, Cey- 

 lon and Africa. The collection contains' 

 about 10,000 specimens in most excellent con- 

 dition, very beautifully mounted, and many 

 of the species contain very full series, show- 

 ing variations, etc., which will make them of 

 special value for scientific study. They are, 

 for the most part, carefully identified and will 

 be kept under the name of the " Tallant Col- 

 lection." Taken with the other collections in 

 Lepidoptera, the collection of Odonata left by 

 Professor Kellicott, and those in various 

 groups which have been accumulated by the 

 efforts of the members of the department, the 

 university is now provided with excellent 

 series of insects, including representatives in 

 all the different orders. The total number of 

 specimens in all orders probably approaches 

 close to 100,000. 



The expedition sent by the Carnegie Insti- 

 tution of Washington for geologic exploration 

 in China in 1903-04, in charge of Dr. Bailey 

 Willis, secured a number of large negatives 

 of Chinese scenes representing the scenery; 

 the geological conditions, particularly of loess 

 landscapes, and also of Chinese buildings, 

 monuments and people. The route of the 

 expedition through the provinces of Chili, 

 Shansi and Shensi, led through the loess dis- 

 trict and some remote mountain regions of 

 great interest and scenic beauty. This col- 

 lection of photographs has been placed on file 

 with the Smithsonian Institution and copies 

 may be had for educational purposes by appli- 

 cation to the secretary of the institution and 

 payment of costs. 



Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., has re- 

 tained the Ealph B. Carter Company, of 50 

 Church Street, New York, to install a circula- 

 tion sea-water system in the five marine tanks 

 in Boardman Hall, similar to the one which 

 they placed in the aquaria house at Princeton. 

 Hard rubber piping and valves are used to 

 convey the sea-water from cedarwood tanks, 

 and return the water to the reservoir, also of 

 cedar, by way of a sand filter. The water will 

 pass through a bronze motor-driven compressor 



