AucustT 6, 1897. ] 
GREAT BRITAIN has accepted the proposal of 
the United States for an international confer- 
ence on the question of pelagic sealing in the 
Bering Sea, to be held in Washington during 
the coming autumn. 
THE fourth congress for the study of tuber- 
culosis will be held at Paris during the last 
week of July, 1898, under the presidency of M. 
Nocard. The following four questions are pro- 
posed for discussion: Sanitaria for consump- 
tives, serums and toxins, the X-rays in diag- 
nosis and treatment, and tuberculosis in the 
lower animals. 
In connection with the Brussels Exposition, 
there will be held, from August 9th to 14th, a 
Congress of Hygiene and Medical Climatology 
of Belgium and the Congo. 
AT the last monthly general meeting of the 
London Zoological Society it was reported 
that the additions to the Society’s menagerie 
during the month of June had amounted to 178. 
Special attention was called to two fine adult 
King Penguins (Aptenodytes pennanti) purchased 
on June 23d, and a young female Orang-outang 
(Simia sotyrus), brought home from Sumatra, 
and presented by Dr. H. Dohrn, on June 30th. 
Mrs. VIRGINIA MONROE has given $30,000 to 
the Pequot Library Association, the building of 
which was the gift of the late Albert B. Monroe. 
Mr. ANDREW CARNEGIE has offered the town 
of Stirling, Scotland, the sum of £6,000 for a 
public library building. 
THE issue of Nature for July 15th contains 
an appreciative review, by Professor A. G. 
Greenhill, of the text-book of higher mathemat- 
ics edited by Professors Merriman and Wood- 
ward: ‘‘ This is a style of mathematical treatise 
to which we are not accustomed in this coun- 
try, from the luxury of the print and size of 
page, as well as for the refreshing novelty and 
interest of the contents. TiJl recently it was 
thought that the study of mathematics was not 
likely to flourish in America as trop vieux jeu 
by the side of the new physical and biological 
sciences. To-day, however, it is the American 
student who is the most enthusiastic follower of 
recent mathematical development, while we in 
this country are being left far behind. * * * * * 
The account, given by the editors in the preface, 
SCIENCE. 
213 
of the work expected of the average American 
student, shows that the standard of requirement 
is much higher than in this country and not 
hampered by traditional prejudice.’’ 
THE anatomical departments of the Journal 
of Anatomy and Physiology will hereafter be 
edited by Professors Turner, MacAlister, Cun- 
ningham and Thane. Professor M’Kendrick 
will continue to edit the physiological depart- 
ment. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
THE University of London Bill has been in- 
troduced into the House of Lords by the Duke 
of Devonshire and has been read for the second 
time. 
THE United States Circuit Court at Baltimore, 
on July 29th, handed down a decision that the 
Johns Hopkins University and other holders of 
first preferred 6 per cent. stock of the Balti- 
more and Ohio Railroad are not preferred 
creditors. The trustees of the University hold 
nearly $2,000,000 of the preferred stock, be- 
queathed by the founder of the University, the 
late Johns Hopkins, and this decision, if up- 
held by the higher Courts, will seriously and 
permanently curtail the income of the Univer- 
sity. 
As was stated in this JouRNAL last autumn, 
it is proposed to draw up plans for buildings 
such as the University of California hopes ulti- 
mately to erect. We fear, however, that the 
sum of $4,000,000, which the daily papers re- 
port to have been subscribed for the erection 
of these buildings, has not as yet been secured. 
Ir is reported in the daily paper that Dr. E. 
Benjamin Andrews, who resigned the presi- 
dency of Brown University for reasons given in 
our last issue, has accepted the presidency of a 
new ‘university’ to be founded by Mr. John 
Brisben Walker, proprietor and editor of the 
Cosmopolitan Magazine, and to be known as the 
‘Cosmopolitan University.’ It is to be modelled 
after the Chautauqua School and to be conducted 
by correspondence. 
PROFESSOR HENRY KRAEMER, of the North- 
western University, has been called to the 
chair of botany and microscopy in the Phila 
delphia College of Pharmacy, and Dr. Albert 
