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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 875 



state for tlie colonies, on the recommendation 

 of the Kew authorities, curator of the Hak- 

 gala Gardens, Ceylon. 



Mr. Maeconi has been elected president of 

 the Junior Institution of Engineers in succes- 

 sion to Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S. 



M. G. Fayet, of the Paris Observatory, has 

 been appointed astronomer at the Nice Ob- 

 servatory, in succession to M. Simonin. 



It is stated in Nature that Dr. R. Karsten, 

 lecturer in comparative religion in the Uni- 

 versity of Helsingfors, has started on an ex- 

 pedition to Gran Chaco and Bolivia for the 

 purpose of making investigations on the so- 

 ciology and religion of various tribes of na- 

 tives, some of vchom are little known, while 

 others have never been visited. He will be 

 accompanied by his cousin, O. Lindholm. 



A BRONZE statue has been erected at Poley- 

 meux, in the Rhone Department, France, in 

 memory of Ampere. 



Mr. Edward Whymper, known for his ex- 

 plorations among the Alps, in the Andes and 

 elsewhere, died at Chamonix on September 16, 

 aged sixty-one years. 



Dr. Louis Beaundet, professor of anatomy 

 at the medical school at Reims, has died from 

 anthrax, contracted in the course of his pro- 

 fessional duty. 



The Civil Service Commission will hold an 

 examination for assistant forest ranger on 

 October 23-24, 1911. The U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture estimates that 400 eligibles will 

 be needed during the field season of 1912. 

 Assistant forest rangers are paid an entrance 

 salary of $1,100 per annum. The examination 

 will be held at National Forest headquarters 

 in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, 

 Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, 

 Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, 

 Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, 

 Washington and Wyoming. The law requires 

 that, when practicable, forest rangers must be 

 qualified citizens of the state or territory in 

 which the national forest on which they are 

 appointed is situated. Since the list of local 

 eligibles must be exhausted before eligibles 

 residing in other states can be appointed, the 



chance of citizens of outside states who go to 

 National Forest states and take the examina- 

 tion to secure an appointment is small. 



The eleventh intercollegiate geological ex- 

 cursion will be held on October 13 and 14 in 

 the vicinity of Boston under the direction of 

 Professor A. C. Lane, of Tufts College. The 

 north side of the Boston basin will be visited 

 to study shore changes, salt marsh peat as 

 evidence of subsidence, beach cusps, the gab- 

 bro diabase of Nahant and Medford, and the 

 Cambrian contact zone. Further informa- 

 tion may be obtained from the secretary, Pro- 

 fessor Herdman F. Cleland, Williams College. 



At the last meeting of the Ohio State 

 Archeological and Historical Society, G. F. 

 Wright was elected president; E. 0. Randall, 

 secretary, and W. C. Mills, curator. The leg- 

 islature at its last session, in addition to its 

 ordinary appropriations for field work and 

 general expenses, voted $100,000 for a mu- 

 seum building to be erected on the grounds of 

 the State University at Columbus, also $40,- 

 000 for the erection of a fire-proof building in 

 Fremont, Ohio, to preserve the valuable library 

 of Americana and political documents left by 

 the late President Hayes. This also secures 

 to the state, for a public park, the grounds, 

 to the extent of twenty-five acres, surround- 

 ing the homestead of ex-President Hayes. 



The meeting of the International Sanitary 

 Conference to revise the provisions of the 

 convention of 1903 for the prevention of the 

 invasion and propagation of plague and 

 cholera, is to take place in Paris on October 

 10 next. 



Fifty thousand dollars will be sought of 

 congress by the Public Health and Marine 

 Hospital Service for the suppression of pel- 

 lagra. The annual report of Surgeon-Gen- 

 eral Wyman, soon to appear, will show the 

 great strides that have been made by the dis- 

 ease in the last two years. It is said that it is 

 increasing annually more than 100 per cent. 

 It is said that there are in the south more 

 than 10,300 cases. 



We learn from Nature that an agreement 

 has been signed by the representatives of the 



