932 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1096 



Carl Lumlioltz, dated Batavia, Java, August 

 6, 1915, said that his plans for leaving Borneo 

 with a party, about the middle of 1914, for ex- 

 ploration in Dutch New Guinea along the 

 Digul River and among the interior islands 

 had been defeated on account of the war. He 

 was about ready to start when the governor- 

 general informed him that he could not fulfill 

 his promise to provide facilities until after 

 the war. The explorer then visited India, 

 where he spent seven months, chiefly at Be- 

 nares. When he wrote, he was preparing for 

 an expedition to central Borneo, the govern- 

 ment supplying him with a photographer, two 

 men to collect the zoological specimens and a 

 small escort of soldiers. His destination was 

 the mountainous region between the two 

 northwestern tributaries of the Barito Eiver, 

 which empties into the Java Sea at the city 

 of Banjermasin. He expected to start on 

 August 14 and to return to Batavia in Febru- 

 ary or March next, when he hopes to be able 

 to set out on his Kew Guinea explorations. 



Peesident Charles W. Dabnby, of the 

 University of Cincinnati, spoke last week 

 before the Cincinnati section of the American 

 Chemical Society, on " Reminiscences of 

 Cincinnati Chemists." This meeting of two 

 days celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary 

 of the founding of the section. 



"The Scientific "Work Developed by Dr. 

 Nef " is the title of an address made in Chi- 

 cago by Professor Lauder W. Jones of the 

 XJniversity of Cincinnati on December 17, 

 before the Chicago section of the American 

 Chemical Society. The meeting was a mem- 

 orial in honor of the late Professor J. W. Nefi 

 of the University of Chicago. Dr. Jones was 

 a student and later a colleague of Dr. USTef in 

 the University of Chicago. 



On the initiative of the American Institu- 

 tion of Mining Engineers and the American 

 Mining Congress, there will be held in Wash- 

 ington on January 15, a meeting of delegates 

 from a number of scientific societies to ar- 

 range plans for a memorial to Dr. Joseph A. 

 Holmes with a special view to favoring the 

 ideals that he advanced for the increased 



safety of the mining and metallurgical work- 

 ers and for the conservation of the mineral 

 and natural resources of the United States. 



Dr. Rudolph A. Witthaus, known for his 

 work in chemistry and toxicology, who died on 

 December 19, leaves most of his estate of more 

 than $150,000 to the ISTew York Academy of 

 Medicine. Dr. Witthaus left to the Academy 

 of Medicine all his books and the estate for 

 the benefit of the library. 



Professor Arthur Willums Wright, 

 professor of experimental physics at Tale from 

 1872 until his retirement as professor emeritus 

 in 1906, died on December 19 at his home in 

 New Haven, in his eightieth year. 



Sm Henry Enfield Eoscoe, the distin- 

 guished chemist, emeritus professor in the 

 University of Manchester, has died at his home 

 in Surrey, aged eighty-two years. 



A press despatch from Albany says that 

 Governor Whitman has endorsed the work of 

 Dr. Hermann M. Biggs, head of the State 

 Department of Health, by approving practic- 

 ally all the requests for health extension work 

 laid out for the coming fiscal year. Dr. Biggs 

 has submitted requests for appropriations 

 amounting to $626,525, as against $380,775 ex- 

 pended this year. The increased expenditures 

 provided are largely for the departmental lab- 

 oratories and for expert service. 



According to a telegram from Chicago to 

 the daily papers, the Illinois supreme court 

 has upheld the decision of the appellate court 

 and ordered the removal of the present board 

 of directors of the American Medical Associa- 

 tion. The decision is rendered in the suit 

 filed five years ago by Dr. G. Frank Lydston, 

 of Chicago, who claimed the affairs of the as- 

 sociation were controlled by an oligarchy. He 

 attempted to prevent Dr. George H. Sim- 

 mons, of Chicago, then secretary of the asso- 

 ciation, from holding three offices at once. 

 Under the ruling of the court, members of the 

 present board of directors were elected ille- 

 gally, inasmuch as the association was incor- 

 porated under a charter from Illinois and 

 therefore must hold its meetings in that state. 



