368 
The institution of these two societies was al- 
most coincident with the opening of the three 
Universities of Kharkof, Kazan and Vilna by 
the Emperor Alexander I. Before his reign 
there had been but one university in the Empire, 
that of Moscow. Towards the close of his 
reign, in 1819, still another university, that of 
St. Petersburg, was opened; and in the same 
year the Society of German Practitioners in St. 
Petersburg was formed. This was followed a 
year later by the formation of a similar society 
in Warsaw. A gap of over thirty years, corre- 
sponding to the reign of the Emperor Nicholas 
T., succeeded, during which but one medical 
society was instituted in Russia. This was the 
Society of Russian Practitioners in St. Peters- 
burg. From the date of the accession of Alex- 
ander II. the number of these societies has 
rapidly increased. There are now no fewer 
than 120 in the whole of the Empire, the total 
capital of which amounts to over $600,000. 
The majority of Russian medical societies have 
libraries attached to them; while some have 
museums, laboratories and even free dispen- 
saries. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
Tr is announced that M. Eulogius Georgieff, 
the founder of the Sofia University, who died 
recently, bequeathed 20,000,000 fr. to the Bul- 
garian government for public purposes, includ- 
ing 6,000,000 fr. for a technical school to be es- 
tablished at Sofia. 
Mr. 8. B. BROWNELL has presented Barnard 
College, New York, with a building for a dor- 
mitory to cost $150,000, which will be erected 
at once. 
THE endowment left by Patrick B. O’Brien, 
of New Orleans, for establishing chairs of chem- 
istry, of physics and of Roman law in the Cath- 
olic University of America will be available this 
autumn. The Rey. Father W. J. Kirby has 
been appointed professor of sociology. 
A COMMITTEE of the Trustees of the Univer- 
sity of Missouri has been appointed to investi- 
gate the political views of Professor C. H. 
Hicks, since 1892 professor of political economy 
in the University. The report of the committee 
will probably result in the removal of Professor 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Vou. VI. No. 140. 
Hicks, and it is said that Dr. W. G. Brown, 
professor of chemistry, is likely to share the 
same fate. 
THE Council of the University of Lyons has 
devoted the sum of 42,000 fr. to complete the 
construction of the laboratory of biology of 
Tamaris, near Toulon, and it is expected that a 
sum will be appropriated to the support of the 
laboratory. 
THE School of Applied Chemistry, founded 
last year under the auspices of the faculty of 
science of the University of Paris, has celebrated 
its first anniversary. M. Darboux presided, and 
an address was made by M. Friedel, director of 
the laboratory. 
THE University of Berlin offers holiday 
courses for teachers of science in the higher 
schools from the 29th of September to the 9th 
of October of the present year. Lectures will 
be given by Drs. van’t Hoff, Dames and other 
leading professors, and excursions and visits of 
scientific interest have been arranged. 
Dr. KIHLMAN: has been appointed associate 
professor of botany in the University at Hel- 
singfors. Dr. Theodor Petersen and Dr. Josef 
Epstein, of the Physical Institute of Vienna, 
have been appointed to professorships. Mr. 
Stanley Dunkerley, of the department of ap- 
plied mechanics, Cambridge, has been appointed 
professor of applied mechanics at the Royal 
Naval College, Greenwich. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
‘THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN.’ 
In ScreNcE of July 2d, pp. 33-35, Professor 
T. D. A. Cockerell published a kind and appre- 
ciative review of my book ‘The Present Evolu- 
tion of Man,’ for which Iam more than grateful. 
He disagreed with me, however, as to several 
matters, and as on these precisely I have failed 
to carry conviction to many critics I am forced 
to believe either that I am wrong or that my 
explanations have not as yet been adequate nor 
sufficiently clear. I would fain hope the latter, 
and therefore am glad to seize the opportunity 
Professor Cockerell’s review affords of making 
some reply in the pages of SCIENCE. 
Professor Cockerell does not entirely agree 
with my theory of retrogression. Put very 
