Decembee 29, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



911 



Professor W. C. Brogger (Christiania), 

 Professor T. Ciirtius (Berlin), Professor P. 

 A. Guye (Geneva) and Professor H. Eubens 

 (Berlin) have been elected honorary members 

 of the Eoyal Institution. 



Professor Waldeyer, of Berlin, has been 

 elected president of the International Com- 

 mittee of the forthcoming International Cong- 

 ress of Medicine, in the room of the late Dr. 

 Pavy. 



Professor Jopin P. Hayford, director of the 

 College of Engineering, Northwestern Univer- 

 sity, has been appointed by the chief justice 

 of the United States a member of a commis- 

 sion of engineers to obtain the data necessary 

 to settle the boundary betvreen Costa Eica and 

 Panama. 



The Academy of Sports of France has 

 awarded its gold medal to Admiral Peary for 

 the " admirable lesson of physical energy and 

 moral courage that you have given to the 

 entire world in the midst of fatigues, suffer- 

 ings and difficulties, the conquest of the North 

 Pole." The resolution was moved by Dr. 

 Charcot. 



A $1,000 industrial fellowship has been given 

 the College of Agriculture of the University of 

 Wisconsin for the purpose of studying pea 

 diseases with a view to their prevention. E. E. 

 Vaughn, a graduate of the University of 

 Vermont in the class of 1907, has been ap- 

 pointed to the fellowship for the present aca- 

 demic year. 



Mr. D. T. Griswold, of College Station, 

 Texas, has accepted a position to do extension 

 work in agriculture for the Agricultural Col- 

 lege of Porto Eico. He will sail for Porto 

 Eico soon. 



Professor Newstead has returned from the 

 expedition to Central Africa, on which he had 

 been sent by the Liverpool School of Tropical 

 Medicine in connection with the commission 

 on sleeping sickness, which the government is 

 sending out under Colonel Sir David Bruce. 



The chief speaker at the public exercises of 

 Johns Hopkins Commemoration Day, on Feb- 

 ruary 22, will be Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, of 



Philadelphia. His subject will be " George 

 Washington." 



Professor J. McKeen Cattell, of Columbia 

 University, addressed the Huxley Society of 

 the Johns Hopkins University on December 20, 

 his subject being " Some Problems of Univer- 

 sity Administration." 



Professor Charles W. Brown, of Brovsm 

 University, lectured on November 25 before 

 the Yale Geological Club on " The Human 

 Aspects of the Jamaica (1907) Earthquake," 

 showing how geological investigations should 

 decide upon the location and mode of con- 

 struction of buildings, and how by the cooper- 

 ation of geologists and structural engineers 

 the damage from earthquakes in most seismic 

 regions could be almost eliminated. Professor 

 M. L. Pernald, of the Gray Herbarium, Har- 

 vard University, lectured before the club on 

 December 7 on " The Distribution of the 

 Coastal Plain and Maritime Plants in North 

 America." The great dominance of the plants 

 of the New Jersey coastal plain in the New- 

 foundland flora was pointed out and its im- 

 portant geologic significance was emphasized. 

 The inland distribution of maritime plants 

 into the Mississippi valley and over the 

 western part of the continent was also dis- 

 cussed. On December 8, Professor Fernald 

 gave a lecture to the Yale Chapter of the 

 Society of Sigma Xi on " Botanical Evidences 

 bearing on the Exploration of the Norsemen," 

 in which it was shown that the accounts which 

 have been assumed by historians to show their 

 exploration along the eastern coast of the 

 United States did not reach in fact south of 

 the St. Lawrence estuary. 



At a representative meeting of former stu- 

 dents and friends of the late Professor P. G. 

 Tait, at the University of Edinburgh, it was 

 decided to undertake to establish an additional 

 memorial to him in the form of an endowment 

 of a Tait chair of mathematical physics at the 

 University of Edinburgh. 



It is proposed to erect a statue of Joseph 

 Priestley, at Birstall, near which he was born 

 in 1733. 



Miss Susan Maria Hallowell, professor 

 emeritus of botany in Wellesley College, where 



