288 
were of greatinterest. These were in most cases 
on general topics, and in accordance with the 
custom of the Association a special title was 
not given to most of the addresses and the 
subjects were withheld until they were deliy- 
ered. The programs promise the discussion of 
many interesting topics, American men of sci- 
ence being well represented. 
THE French journals publish the programs 
for the meeting of the French Association for 
the Advancement of Science, held last week at 
Saint-Etienne. There were fifteen papers pre- 
sented in mathematics, fifteen in the physical 
and chemical sciences, seventy-two in the 
natural sciences and twenty-eight in the eco- 
nomic sciences. Many interesting topics were 
brought forward, but, contrary to the usual 
programs of the British Association, there is a 
noticeable absence of the names of French men 
of science having an international reputation. 
The Association appears, however, to be in a 
flourishing condition as regards number of 
members and finances, the annual receipts 
amounting to nearly $20,000. 
THE British Treasury has appointed a com- 
mittee ‘‘to consider and report upon the desir- 
ability of establishing a National Physical 
Laboratory for the testing and verification of 
instruments for physical investigation, for the 
construction and preservation of standards of 
measurement, and for the systematic determi- 
nation of physical constants and numerical data 
useful for scientific and industrial purposes, and 
to report whether the work of such an institu- 
tion, if established, could be associated with 
any testing or standardizing work already per- 
formed, wholly or partly at the public cost.” 
The members of the committee are: Lord 
Rayleigh (chairman), Sir Courtenay Boyle, Sir 
Andrew Noble, Sir John Wolfe Barry, W. C. 
Roberts-Austen, Esq., Robert Chalmers, Esq., 
A. W. Ricker, Esq., Alexander Siemens, Esq., 
and T. E. Thorpe, Esq. 
Tue bill regarding the use of the metric sys- 
tem in Great Britain has been passed by the 
House of Lords. 
Tur American Museum of Natural History, 
New York, has been presented with two fine 
collections of butterflies. Mr. William Shaus, 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. VI. No. 138. 
formerly of New York, but now resident in 
London, has given his collection of tropical 
butterflies, said to contain over 10,000 speci- 
mens and yalued at $20,000. Dean HK. A. Hoff- 
man, of the General Theological Seminary, 
New York, is the other donor, and his collec- 
tion is said to be complete with regard to North 
American species. 
THE Arnold Aboretum, Harvard University, 
has received from Miss Abbey A. Bradley, of 
Hingham, Mass., a gift of $20,000. The money 
has been given in memory of her father, the 
late William L. Bradley, the income to be used 
in scientific investigations on arboriculture. 
THE British House of Commons has voted 
£809,992 for the Department of Science and 
Art and £162,439 for the British Museum. 
M. FALGUImRE has now completed his model 
for the statue of Pasteur. It is expected that 
the Municipal Council will permit the erection 
of the statue on the space between the Panthéon 
and l’Odéon. 
Dr. JosEPH J. KINYOUN, of the U. S. Ma- 
rine Hospital Service, has been designated by 
the Secretary of the Treasury as a delegate to 
the International Conference on Leprosy, to be 
held at Berlin during October, and has also 
been directed to visit the Continental bacterio- 
logical laboratories for the information of the 
Marine Hospital Service. 
Mr. T. I. PockocKk has been appointed As- 
sistant Geologist in the British Geological Sur- 
vey. Dr. W. F. Hume and Mr. L. Gorringe 
have been appointed assistants of the Geolog- 
ical Survey of Egypt, the work of which, as 
we announced last week, has been greatly en- 
larged. 
THE Brooklyn Institute announces that Dr. 
Fridjof Nansen is one of the lecturers engaged 
for the coming season. 
THE Royal College of Physicians, London, 
has conferred the Moxon gold medal on Sir 
Samuel Wilks, President of the College, for his 
work in clinical medicine, and the Baly medal 
on Professor Schifer, for his work in physi- 
ology. 
THE Ciyil Service Commission announce a 
vacancy in the position of computor in the 
