JANTJABT 20, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



105 



be of French nationality, and who will be as- 

 sisted by a committee of French and foreign 

 authorities. The new foundation will be in- 

 stalled in a building of its own which is to be 

 erected in Paris, and in addition to a capital 

 of over $300,000 the institute will be presented 

 with the Monaco collections. 



The five academies of the French Institute 

 held their quarterly plenary sitting on Jan- 

 uary 6, when the meeting discussed the ques- 

 tion of the eligibility of women candidates for 

 the institute. The motion in favor of the ad- 

 mission of women, which was prompted by the 

 candidature of Mme. Curie for one of the 

 vacant seats in the Academy of Sciences, was 

 rejected by 90 votes to 52. A resolution was 

 adopted in which it was declared that, al- 

 though the institute did not pretend to dictate 

 to the separate academies, there was an " im- 

 mutable tradition " against the election of 

 women, which it seemed eminently wise to 

 respect. 



There has been presented to the American 

 Museum of Natural History and placed on ex- 

 hibition in the Morgan-Tiffany Gem Room a 

 specimen of the new gem Morganite (rose 

 beryl). It is a .long oval stone of rich rose 

 color and weighs 57i carats. This gem was 

 named by Dr. George F. Kunz, the honorary 

 curator of gems of the American Museum, at 

 a meeting of the New York Academy of Sci- 

 ences on December 3, 1910. 



According to the London Times the Ger- 

 man Antarctic expedition, under the com- 

 mand of the Bavarian explorer. Lieutenant 

 Filchner, wiU leave Germany early this year 

 for Buenos Aires, and will proceed from there 

 at the beginning of October via South Georgia 

 and the Sandwich Islands to the Weddell Sea. 

 The route has been chosen so as to allow of 

 oceanographical research on the way. On ar- 

 rival in the Weddqll Sea it is proposed to es- 

 tablish a base station on the eastern coast as 

 far south as possible, with the necessary 

 equipment for a year's research. A party of 

 ten men will be landed, of whom six — a geol- 

 ogist, a meteorologist, an astronomer, a doc- 

 tor who is also a biologist, a cook and a sailor 



— will stay in the station, while the remaining 

 four will undertake a long sledge expedition 

 into the interior of the South Polar continent. 

 Meanwhile the ship will return to the Atlantic 

 Ocean to carry out coastal observations and 

 oceanographical work. 



A LETTER from Professor Frost received at 

 the Harvard College Observatory states that 

 Nova Lacertse was observed at the Terkes 

 Observatory on December 31, 1910, and Jan- 

 uary 2 and 3, 1911. An excellent photograph 

 of the spectrum was obtained by Frost with 

 the 40-inch telescope which showed that the 

 spectrum closely resembled that of Nova 

 Aurig83 and Nova Persei, No. 2. The posi- 

 tion of the Nova for 1911.0 was determined 

 by Professor Barnard as follows: E. A. 

 22" 32" 11'.79 ; Dec. ■+ 52° 15' 19".8. A star 

 in the exact position of the Nova, of about 

 magnitude 14.0, was found on plates made on 

 August 7, 1907, August 22, 1909, and August 

 24, 1909. From a photograph made with the 

 24-inch reflector, Parkhurst and Slocum sus- 

 pect nebulosity about the Nova, and find the 

 photographic magnitude on January 2 and 3 

 to be 7.12 and 7.21. Professor Campbell 

 writes that very satisfactory observations of 

 the Nova were obtained at the Lick Observa- 

 tory on December 31 and January 1 and 2. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Journal 

 of the American Medical Association writes 

 that on December 10 a mausoleum for Eobert 

 Koch was opened in the institute for infec- 

 tious diseases of which he was director for 

 many years. It was formed from some rooms 

 of the institute. The funds for the rebuild- 

 ing, amounting to about $5,000, were con- 

 tributed by his many pupils and friends. The 

 mausoleum consists of two rooms, the first a 

 small antechamber in which some of the scien- 

 tific instruments used by Koch, his numerous 

 domestic and foreign honorary diplomas, mod- 

 els of the medals awarded to him and other 

 memorials of his life are placed. Here also is 

 the so-called " golden book " of the Eobert 

 Koch Foundation for the War on Tubercu- 

 losis that contains in an artistic setting the 

 history of the foundation and the autographs 

 of the larger contributors to the fund. In the 



