Mabch 24, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



415 



when in electrical contact with the earth still 

 retain characteristic charges which are ca- 

 pable of inducing electric separations in other 

 bodies brought near them. 



That when two metals are brought near to- 

 gether, their induced free charges will escape 

 to the earth or to any other conductor with 

 which they may be in metallic contact. 



Their bound charges remain in or on the 

 metal. If after their free charges have es- 

 caped the metals be insulated and then sepa- 

 rated, the bound charges become free, and are 

 the so-called contact charges of Bennett and 

 Cavallo. 



The magnitude of the natural charge of a 

 metal seems to be determined by its internal 

 cohesion, and hence presumably by its specific 

 inductive capacity. Whatever changes the 

 specific inductive capacity of the metal, or 

 even of its surface, will accordingly produce 

 a change in the fixed charge of the metal. 



This point of view consists merely in intro- 

 ducing the earth into the contact series. It 

 seems certain that the same metal will hold 

 different charges when in contact with differ- 

 ent parts of the earth, as it will when in con- 

 tact with the interiors of different hollow con- 

 ductors. 



Fernando Sanford 



Stanford Universitt 



THE FIRE AND THE MUSEUM AT 

 OTTAWA 



The Museum of the Geological Survey, 

 Ottawa, Canada, is to Canada practically what 

 the ISTational Museum is to the United States 

 and the British Museum to the United King- 

 dom. This museum has been greatly affected 

 by the fire which, beginning about 9 p.m., 

 Thursday, February 3, 1916, destroyed the 

 Dominion Parliament building and caused 

 the loss of several lives. Before 2 a.m., Feb- 

 ruary 4, while the flames were still spreading, 

 a member of the cabinet was considering the 

 use of the large auditorium in the Victoria 

 Memorial Museum building as possibly a 

 suitable place for the meetings of the House 

 of Commons, and members of the Geological 

 Survey were holding themselves in readiness 



to clear any of the other space necessary. It 

 will be remembered that this museum building 

 was the home of the Geological Survey of 

 Canada and the temporary quarters of the 

 ISTational Gallery of Canada. It was open to 

 the public from nine till five daily except 

 Sundays, Christmas day and Good Friday, and 

 from two till five on Sundays during the 

 winter. 



On the ground floor were the central ball, 

 usually with special and timely exhibits, the 

 main floor of the auditoriiun, the west hall with 

 tentative mineralogical exhibits, the west wing 

 for geology, but containing boxed specimens 

 and camp equipment, the east hall with in- 

 vertebrate paleontological exhibits, and the 

 east wing with tentative exhibits of vertebrate 

 paleontology. 



On the first floor were the tower hall with 

 some ethnological specimens, the lecture hall 

 gallery, the west hall — three fourths devoted to 

 tentative archeological exhibits and one fourth 

 occupied by entomological exliibits — the west 

 wing with permanent archeological and ethno- 

 logical exhibits, and the east hall with zoolog- 

 ical exhibits. On this same floor the east wing 

 was occupied by Canadian pictures, and 

 Greek, Roman and Italian renaissance sculp- 

 ture, of the National Gallery. On the second 

 floor were most of the offices and the library 

 of the Geological Survey, and in the north- 

 eastern room of the east hall an office of the 

 National Gallery. On the same floor the east 

 wing was occupied by Medieval and French 

 renaissance sculpture, Eoyal Canadian Acad- 

 emy Diploma Pictures and colored prints of 

 the world's most famous pictures, of the Na- 

 tional Gallery. On the third or top floor were 

 offices, the much used though small and tenta- 

 tive museum lecture hall, the gallery of the 

 library, the drafting room, study and stor- 

 age rooms. On this floor the east wing was 

 occupied by the oil and water colors, prints, 

 etchings, drawings and bronzes of the Na- 

 tional Gallery. In the basement were work 

 shops, laboratories, distribution offices, photo- 

 graphic department, and half a hall devoted to 

 a workshop of the National Gallery. 



The Geological Survey, it miay be seen, oc- 



