440 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. l^o. 978 



coast of Kotelnyi Island, in the New Siberia 

 group— the starting-point of the explorer and 

 his companions on their last journey. 



Professor John Milne has left his books, 

 albums and scientific instruments relating to 

 seismology to the British Association; and 

 subject to his wife's interest £1,000 to the 

 chairman of the seismology committee of the 

 association, for the study of earth physics. 



Dr. Alexander Macfarlane, formerly in- 

 structor in physics in Edinburgh University 

 and professor of physics in the University of 

 Texas, recently residing in Chatham, Ontario, 

 known for his contributions to vector analysis 

 and quaternions, died on August 28, aged 

 sixty-two years. 



Dr. Hugh Marshall, F.E.S., professor of 

 chemistry in University College, Dundee, 

 died on September 6, aged forty-five years. 



Dr. George Friedrich Kinkelin, the geolo- 

 gist of the Frankfort Senckenberg Natural 

 History Society, has died at the age of seventy- 

 eight years. 



Dr. Bernhard Baedenhauer, professor of 

 surgery at Cologne, has died at the age of 

 seventy-three years. 



Dr. Wilhelm Muthmann, professor of 

 chemistry in the Technical School at Munich, 

 known for his work on the rare earths, has 

 died at the age of fifty-two years. 



Dr. Friedrich Seiler, professor of pharma- 

 ceutical chemistry at Lausanne, has died at 

 the age of fifty years. 



Dr. O. M. Eeuter, emeritus professor of 

 zoology in the University of Helsingfors, died 

 on September 2, at the age of sixty-three years. 



Columbia University opened its 160th aca- 

 demic year on September 24, when Professor 

 James F. '.Kemp, head of the department of 

 geology, made the address, his subject being 

 " The Appeal of the Natural Sciences." 



The sum of 90,000 francs has been be- 

 queathed to the Pasteur Institute at Paris for 

 the founding of a prize for the best original 

 work in the treatment of meningitis. 



The sixth annual meeting of the Associa- 

 tion of Official Seed Analysts will be held in 



Washington, D. C, November 14 and 15, at 

 the time of the meetings of the Agricultural 

 Group of Societies. 



The Prussian ministry of education, which 

 a short time ago made grants of money to the 

 university clinics at Berlin, Halle and Kiel, 

 enabling them to procure radium or meso- 

 thorium for the treatment of cancer, is now 

 said to have placed $200,000 in the estimates 

 of next year for further purchases. 



It is stated that the Maharaja Scindia of 

 Gwalior is giving special attention to the 

 archeological relics and treasures in his state, 

 and is taking steps to create an archeological 

 department in Gwalior. In furtherance of 

 this object he has sought the advice and co- 

 operation of the director-general of archeology 

 in India. 



Lord Murray, of Elibank, has concluded 

 with the government of Ecuador a contract 

 for the development of the oil resources of the 

 republic. Under this contract Lord Murray 

 undertakes to spend £100,000 within ten years 

 in exploring for oil in Ecuador. Work is to 

 begin within a year of the publication of the 

 proposed law, and competent geologists and 

 engineers are to be employed who are to sup- 

 ply the government with detailed maps of the 

 country they survey and to keep the govern- 

 ment specially informed as to discoveries of 

 artesian water. 



A further grant of £5,000, making £10,000 

 in all, has been made by the federal govern- 

 ment of the commonwealth of Australia 

 towards completing the work of the Mawson 

 Antarctic Expedition and bringing the explor- 

 ers back. 



The Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation says that the initiative of the med- 

 ical profession of Philadelphia and Pennsyl- 

 vania has brought into legal existence large 

 new institutions that will bring the city and 

 state well into the advance along social lines: 

 Mentally defective women of childbearing age, 

 of whom at least 15,000 'are known to be within 

 the state, will now be permanently segregated 

 in a great farm colony in a remote mountain 

 forest reserve, thus preventing further multi- 



