600 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. YOL. XXXIV. No. 879 



site has' been provided by the city of St. Pet- 

 ersburg. 



Professor Florentino Ameghino, the well- 

 known paleontologist and director of the 

 Museo Nacional in Buenos Aires, died on 

 August 6 at La Plata, at the age of fifty-six 

 years. 



Dr. Joseph Bell, a distinguished Edin- 

 burgh surgeon, has died at the age of seventy- 

 four years. 



M. Louis-Joseph Troost, the eminent 

 French chemist, has died, aged eighty-five 

 years. 



A MONUMENT to Michael Servetus was un- 

 veiled at Vienne in Dauphine, where he re- 

 sided as the medical attendant of the Arch- 

 bishop Paul Paulmier from 1541 to 1553. 

 According to the London Times the monu- 

 ment represents the burning of Servetus at the 

 stake (October 27, 1553). He stands in the 

 midst of the faggots chained to a stone with 

 his book of theological tracts tied to his girdle. 

 On his head is a wreath of leaves covered with 

 brimstone. The representative of the IJniver- 

 sity of Paris, Professor Charles Kichet, spoke 

 of the discovery by Servetus of the pulmonary 

 circulation of the blood as marvellous and as 

 prolem sine matre creatam since Servetus, 

 unlike Harvey, had not practised vivisection, 

 nor had he proceeded by a complete inductive 

 study of anatomy. His contemporaries could 

 not appreciate his discovery; it was not imme- 

 diately followed up, and seventy-five years 

 elapsed before it was scientifically established 

 by Harvey. Professor RudoK Berger, of Ber- 

 lin, deposited a wreath on the pedestal of the 

 monument in the name of " democratic and 

 liberal Germany." M. Edouard Montet, rector 

 of the University of Geneva, was one of those 

 who spoke of the intolerance of the sixteenth 

 century, and of Calvin's share in the prosecu- 

 tion and condemnation of Servetus. He char- 

 acterized Servetus as " that Spaniard of genius 

 with the encyclopedic mind," and said that his 

 name had become the symbol of modern tolera- 

 tion. M. Ferdinand Buisson, one of the 

 deputies for the Seine department, described 

 Servetus as having " maintained with sublime 



simplicity against the pope of Rome and the 

 pope of Geneva the right of free thought and 

 the right to be the servant of his conscience 

 and his reason alone." 



The members of the syndicate appointed to 

 consider the provision of pensions for pro- 

 fessors and others in the service of the Uni- 

 versity of Cambridge have issued their report. 

 According to the abstract in the London 

 Times they say that while they can not recom- 

 mend a contributory scheme they propose that 

 the university should establish its own pension 

 fund rather than enter into an arrangement 

 with an assurance company. They have aimed 

 at providing pensions for professors, readers 

 and certain officers on the basis of compulsory 

 retirement at a given age; the maximum pen- 

 sion to be £500 a year, or five sixths of the 

 stipend, whichever is less, and to be inclusive 

 of any college pension, stipend or emolument. 

 They recommend that 70 should be the age at 

 which retirement should be required, but they 

 think that, if and when funds are available, 

 this age should be lowered to 68 or even 65. 

 Their main recommendations are: (1) That 

 every professor, reader and university officer 

 appointed to an office included in one of three 

 schedules should be required to retire at the 

 end of the academic year in which he attains 

 the age of 70, and should receive a pension if 

 he has served in the office of professor, reader 

 or university officer for 15 years in all. (2) 

 That professors and readers retiring at the age 

 of 65 should become emeriti professors and 

 readers without statutory duties and powers. 

 (3) That professors with a stipend of £600 or 

 more, the university librarian and the registrar 

 should receive a maximum pension of £500 a 

 year, and other professors, the readers and the 

 other university officers a maximum pension 

 equal to five sixths of their stipend. (4) That 

 professors, the readers and the university offi- 

 cers should receive as a pension an annual 

 payment equal to one twenty-fifth of the maxi- 

 mum pensions for each year of service. (5) 

 That professors, readers and university officers 

 under the age of 60 when the scheme comes 

 into operation shall have the option within a 

 year of joining the scheme. 



