Mabch 10, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



369 



ornithology, experimental zoology, embryol- 

 ogy, general botany and ecology, each in 

 charge of a specialist in the subject. The op- 

 portunities of work in these lines are very 

 favorable, the laboratory being located on 

 Cedar Point with access to Lake Erie, on the 

 one side, and Sandusky Bay, with its marshes 

 and open water, on the other side. It is also 

 quite near the islands and to all points of zo- 

 ological interest. The session opens on June 

 19, and further information concerning the 

 work or copies of the announcement may be 

 obtained by application to the director, Pro- 

 fessor Herbert Osborn, Ohio State University, 

 Columbus, Ohio. 



A BIOLOGICAL club has been organized at the 

 Oregon Agricultural College by the faculty 

 and graduate students to make studies of the 

 biology of the state. Professor H. S. Jackson, 

 of the department of botany, was made chair- 

 man for the coming year with George F. 

 Sykes, of the department of zoology, as secre- 

 tary. The club voted to make one of its first 

 problems a thorough biological survey of 

 Mary's Peak, a work which will occupy at 

 least two years. Through the meetings, field 

 trips and collection of material, it is hoped to 

 add materially to the present knowledge of the 

 biology of the state, while at the same time 

 interest will be stimulated in the study of 

 biology. 



The sixty-third meeting of the American 

 Society of Mechanical Engineers will be held 

 in Pittsburgh, Pa., from May 30 to June 2, 

 inclusive. The society has not met in this 

 city since 1884. The headquarters of the so- 

 ciety are in New York City, and Col. E. D. 

 Meier, of St. Louis, is president this year. 

 The society has in the Pittsburgh district 

 alone a membership of about one hundred and 

 sixty. Last year the society held a joint meet- 

 ing in England with the British Society, the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers. An 

 executive committee consisting of E. M. Herr, 

 chairman; George Mesta, J. M. Tate, Jr., 

 Chester B. Albree, D. F. Crawford, Morris 

 Knowles and Elmer K. Hiles, secretary, will 

 have charge of the Pittsburgh meetings. 

 There will be professional sessions when 

 papers will be read and discussed. There will 



also be inspection trips through the leading 

 local industrial establishments. 



The progress of the graduate electrical engi- 

 neering work at the Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology is indicated by the number of 

 students who are candidates for higher degrees, 

 which number is now greater than last year. 

 The number of students iti the undergraduate 

 course in electrical engineering is also steadily 

 increasing so that additional teaching stafF is 

 being added to the corps of laboratory instruc- 

 tion. Various lines of research are being car- 

 ried on in the department mostly under the 

 direction of Professor Pender and Professor 

 Wickenden. Some of these relate to the ef- 

 fects of heat treatment on the magnetic qual- 

 ities of silicon iron, certain transient phe- 

 nomena that may occur in long electric 

 circuits, the efl^ect of high frequencies on the 

 permeability of iron, the effective resistance 

 and reactance of steel rails when conveying 

 alternating currents, the selective action of 

 spark gap lightning arresters with respect to 

 frequency, the reflection of light from walls 

 and ceilings, the disruptive strength of rub- 

 ber insulated coatings, on wires, etc. Certain 

 of these are continuations of work started last 

 year, and researches in each will be carried on 

 as may be convenient and needful to get 

 knowledge of the phenomena under investi- 

 gation. The results of the thesis research of 

 Dr. Harold Osborne on whom the degree of 

 doctor of engineering (the first conferred by 

 the institute) was conferred last June, were 

 embodied in a paper presented before the 

 American Institute of Electrical Engineers at 

 its October meeting. The subject of illumi- 

 nation and photometry has been added to the 

 subjects taught in the electrical engineering 

 department. This is treated from the stand- 

 point of what is generally called illuminating 

 engineering and is made an optional study. 



It is reported that the Italian government 

 will establish a Vulcanologieal Institute, for 

 which the chief governments will be invited 

 to contribute £60,000. Mr. Immanuel Fried- 

 laender, who resides in Naples and is the au- 

 thor of a work on the volcanoes of Japan, has 

 promised, it is said, £4,000 towards this fund. 



