912 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 887 



she had taught since the establishment of the 

 institution in 1875, until her retirement in 

 1902, has died at the age of seventy-six years. 

 Mr. Arthur Cottam, who, while engaged in 

 the service of the British government, carried 

 forward valuable work as an amateur astron- 

 omer, died on November 23, aged seventy-five 

 years. 



Dr. Giorgio Spezia, professor of mineralogy 

 at Turin, died on November 10 at the age of 

 sixty-nine years. 



Nature states that the premises of the Insti- 

 tute of Chemistry, the lease of which will 

 expire shortly, and can not be renewed, have 

 become inadequate for the increasing activities 

 of the institute. To carry on the work, the 

 council of the institute requires new buildings, 

 which should include more commodious meet- 

 ing rooms, library, laboratories, examination 

 rooms, and offices. It is proposed to begin the 

 preparation of plans next year, and it is esti- 

 mated that the necessary building and fittings 

 will cost about 15,000 I. An appeal has been 

 made to fellows and associates of the institute, 

 which has already resulted in the receipt of 

 contributions and promises amounting to more 

 than 8,000 I. 



A bill (H. E. 14,120) has been introduced 

 in the House of Eepresentatives by Congress- 

 man J. Hampton Moore, which calls for an 

 appropriation of $80,000 to enable the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, in cooperation with the 

 various state authorities, to take necessary 

 measures for checking the chestnut tree 

 blight. Of this amount, $20,000 is to be im- 

 mediately available, and $10,000 is to be spent 

 in studying the relations of insects to the dis- 

 ease. A bill carrying essentially the same 

 provisions (S. 3,557) has been introduced in 

 the Senate by Senator Penrose. 



Eepresentatives of the Imperial Health 

 Office, of the medical faculties and a number 

 of journalists met on December 20 at the 

 Ministry of the Interior at Berlin and organ- 

 ized a committee with the object of promoting 

 German participation in the fifteenth Inter- 

 national Congress on Hygiene and Demo- 

 graphy to be held at Washington in September, 

 1912. 



The Medical Record states that the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Conservation of Vision 

 is inaugurating a wide-spread campaign of 

 public education to call the attention of people 

 to the care and preservation of their eyesight. 

 The association has recently moved to new 

 offices at 105 East Twenty-second street. New 

 York City. A recent election of officers leaves 

 the personnel as follows : President, Dr. F. 

 Park Lewis; Vice-President, E. L. Elliott; 

 Acting Secretary, Douglas C. McMurtrie; 

 Acting Treasurer, T. Commerford Martin. 

 Dr. Hiram Woods, of Baltimore, is on the 

 board of managers and Dr. G. E. de Schwei- 

 nitz, of Philadelphia, is director of the De- 

 partment of Diseases and Defects of the Eye. 

 Among the publications of the association are 

 its Bulletin and Monograph Series, the first of 

 a popular and the latter of a technical nature. 

 The first issue of the Bulletin is entitled 

 " Conserving Vision," compiled by Douglas C. 

 McMurtrie and edited by G. E. de Schweinitz, 

 M.D., P. Park Lewis, M.D., Louis Bell, Ph.D., 

 and E. Leavenworth Elliott. The first issue 

 of the Monograph Series, edited by Douglas C. 

 McMurtrie, is entitled " Ophthalmia Neo- 

 natorum in Ten Massachusetts Cities " by 

 Henry Copley Greene. The association has 

 now in press additional booklets of a popular 

 nature. 



The state school fund of Wisconsin will 

 soon be distributed to the various school dis- 

 tricts of the state. The per capita apportion- 

 ment for persons of school age is $2,783, as 

 compared with $2,423 last year. It is a sur- 

 prising fact that there are 6,236 fewer persons 

 of school age reported for the year ending 

 June 30, 1911, than for the year ending June 

 30, 1910. The loss in the number of persons of 

 school age is pretty well distributed over the 

 state. Excluding cities under city superin- 

 tendents, only 24 of the 71 counties show a 

 gain. The increase ranges from 614 for Clark 

 County to 3 for Langdale County. Of the 

 68 cities under city superintendents 38 show a 

 gain in school population, the largest gain, 767, 

 being in Milwaukee. 



A CORRESPONDENT calls attention to the fact 

 that Nature says : " It is proposed to establish 



