Juny 16, 1897.] 
At the University of Indiana A. L. Foley, 
Ph. D. (Cornell), has been elected professor of 
physics; R. J. Aley, Ph. D. (Pennsylvania), 
professor of mathematics; E. B. Copeland, of 
the University of Wisconsin, assistant professor 
of botany, and E. B. Bryan, assistant professor 
of pedagogy. 
Henry C. Minton, of San Francisco, was 
elected President of Centre College this week. 
Dr. G. J. PraRce has been elected assistant 
professor of botany in Stanford University. 
In the newly organized high schools of New 
_ York City, as the result of a competitive exam- 
ination, there have been appointed as first as- 
sistants, at a salary of $3000, Mr. Frank Rol- 
lins, chemistry ; Mr. R. H. Cornish, physics, 
and Mr. EB. W. Sampson, physical geography. 
THE University of Strasburg has celebrated, 
by fétes lasting several days, the 25th amnni- 
versary of its foundation. 
PROFESSOR W. TH. ENGELMANN, of the Uni- 
versity of Utrecht, has been offered the chair of 
physiology at Berlin, vacant by the death of 
Du Bois-Reymond, but it is stated that he will 
not accept. The position had previously been 
twice declined. 
Dr. JAEGER and Dr. Brodhun have been ap- 
pointed professors at The Reichsanstalt at 
Charlottenburg; Dr. Ignaz Zakezewski has 
been made full professor of experimental 
physics at the University at Lemburg, and Dr. 
H. Finger, of Giessen, has been appointed as- 
sistant professor of organic chemistry at the 
Polytechnic Institute in Darmstadt. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
A BRILLIANT METEOR. 
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: On June 22d a 
brilliant meteor was observed in broad daylight 
passing over Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. 
In order that some permanent record of the 
fact may exist, I beg to forward for publication a 
letter received from Mr. George Kennan, who 
was an eye-witness of the occurrence. 
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL. 
BEINN BHREAGH, NEAR BADDECK, C. B., 
Nova Scorr4, July 1, 1897. 
SCIENCE. 
99 
Letter from Mr. George Kennan. 
My DEAR Mr. BELL: I will gladly give you 
all the information I can in regard to the meteor. 
Between half-past eight and nine o’clock, Tues- 
day morning, June 22d, as I was going into my 
garden to work, avery large and extraordinarily 
bright meteor suddenly made its appearance 
nearly southwest of the zenith, at a height of 
about 70 degrees from the horizon and almost 
directly under the old waning moon. I hap- 
pened at that time to be looking upward and 
westward, and I think I saw it at its place of 
origin—that is, at the point where it first became 
visible. It was not a mere point of light, like 
a brilliant star, but seemed to have a large, 
well-defined disc, resembling in shape a some- 
what elongated and almost inverted balloon 
with itstop or larger end foremost—that is, 
turned in the direction ofits fall. It came into 
N. 
S. 
the field of vision so near the waning moon 
that I was able to compare the one with the 
other in point of size, and the impression made 
upon my mind was that the dise of the meteor 
was nearly as large as the filled-out circle of the 
moon would have been. Of course, the eye un- 
consciously exaggerates the size of a brilliant 
object, and it probably did so in this case, but 
such was the impression made upon me, and I 
give it for what it may be worth. I don’t think 
the meteor had any decided color. At any 
rate, all that I noticed was its extraordinary 
brilliancy. If it had been decidedly green, red, 
