JANUAET 27, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



143 



public purposes now amount to about $200,- 

 000,000. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



At its last meeting the Eumford Com- 

 m.ittee of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences made the following grants: To Pro- 

 fessor Joel Stebbins, of the University of 

 Illinois, $200, in further aid of his researches 

 on the selenium photometer. To Professor M. 

 A. Eosanoif, of Clark University, $300, in 

 further aid of his investigation on the frac- 

 tional distillation of binary mixtures. 



The Society of American Bacteriologists 

 will meet in Washington, D. C, the last week 

 in December of this year. The officers are: 

 President, F. P. Gorham, Brown University; 

 Secretary, Charles E. Marshall, Michigan 

 Agricultural College. 



At the annual meeting of the New York 

 Pathological Society, held at the Academy of 

 Medicine, on January 11, the following 

 officers were elected: President, Dr. William 

 G. MacCallum; Vice-president, Dr. John H. 

 Larkin; Secretary and Editor, Dr. A. M. 

 Pappenheimer ; Treasurer, Dr. Prancis C. 

 Wood. Dr. T. M. Prudden and Dr. E. K. 

 Dunham were reelected trustees of the so- 

 ciety to serve for a term of three years. The 

 next meeting will be held in conjunction with 

 the Philadelphia Pathological Society in 

 Philadelphia on February 9. 



Mr. S. p. Jones, formerly assistant state 

 geologist of Georgia, is with the New Jersey 

 Geological Survey. 



Mr. C. E. Bradley has resigned as chemist 

 of the Agricultural Experiment Station at 

 Corvallis, Oregon, to accept the position of 

 research chemist with the Rubber Regener- 

 ating Company, of Mishawaka, Indiana. 



The program of the Section of Astronomy, 

 Physics and Chemistry of the New Tork 

 Academy of Sciences on January 27 included 

 the following papers on Aviation : " Experi- 

 ences in Aviation," Mr. Clifford B. Harmon; 

 " Practical Utility of Flying Machines," Mr. 

 Hudson Maxim; "The Aeroplane" (illus- 

 trated by lantern slides). Lieutenant Phillip 

 Wilcox, U. S. A. R.; "Taking the First 



Photographs of the Flights of the Wright 

 Brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina" 

 (illustrated by lantern slides), Mr. James H. 

 Hare. 



Professor W. P. Mason, of Rensselaer Poly- 

 technic Institute, delivered a lecture before 

 the Williams College Natural Science Club 

 on " Water and Disease," on January 19. 



The Smithsonian Institution is about to 

 come into possession of a bequest by the re- 

 cent death of George W. Poore, Esq., of 

 Lowell, Mass. His will provides, after certain 

 minor legacies, that the residue of his estate 

 be given to the Smithsonian Institution to 

 form the Lucy T. and George W. Poore Fund, 

 the income of which is to be used for the pur- 

 poses for which the institution was founded. 

 The will further requires that this fund shall 

 be kept separate from all other funds and the 

 income to be added to the principal until it 

 shall have reached the sum of $250,000. Mr. 

 Poore explains in his will that he makes this 

 bequest in the hope that " it will form an 

 example for other Americans to follow by 

 supporting and encouraging so wise and 

 beneficent an institution as I believe the 

 Smithsonian Institution to be." 



Mr. Alcan Hirsh, a graduate student in 

 electro-chemistry at the University of Wis- 

 consin, has succeeded in producing about half 

 a pound of metallic cerium, one of the rare 

 elements which heretofore has been isolated 

 only in small quantities. 



Sir Ernest Shackleton hopes in the course 

 of next year to undertake an expedition to 

 Spitzbergen, spending two and a half or three 

 months in the islands. His party will prob- 

 ably consist of six, including Mr. J. Murray, 

 the biologist, and other members of the Nim- 

 rod expedition. 



Hon. Charles H. Sherrill, United States 

 Minister to Argentine Republic, will give an 

 address on February 16 to the officers and 

 students of Columbia University on the op- 

 portunities for American engineers in public 

 works and other fields in Argentine. 



Dr. H. W. Wiley, chief of the division of 

 chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, 



