August 12, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



185 



the inventor of a match containing no yellow 

 phosphorus. Mr. Cunningham has called at- 

 tention to the fact that if the head of an ordi- 

 nary ' safety ' be dipped in the paste which is 

 put upon the sides of the match box, and which 

 contains red phosphorus and sulphide of anti- 

 mony, the match will be found capable of igni- 

 ting upon any surface. Meanwhile it is said that 

 in France the State engineers have succeeded 

 in giving a formula for making lucifer matches 

 which does not include either white phosphorus 

 or any substance injurious to the health of the 

 hands or that of the public. Machinery has 

 also been ivented which will contribute to the 

 health and safety of the hands. The machin- 

 ery has been tested ; after a few improvements 

 have been made in it, it will be generally 

 adopted in the government lucifer match fac- 

 tories. 



The Governor of Madagascar, the native 

 government of which has recently been sup- 

 planted by that of civilized France, has issued an 

 order forbidding any except Frenchmen to col- 

 lect fossils in the island. Natural Science, which 

 takes this information from the Geographical 

 Journal, which finds it in the Politique Coloniale 

 for May 25th, properly asks whether the natural- 

 ists of France, official and otherwise, have been 

 consulted on this subject, or whether it is 

 merely the order of a politician ignorant of the 

 methods of scientific men. 



Dr. Geoeg "Waltemath, of Hamburg, is in- 

 satiable of moons. He has sent us, under the 

 date of July 20th, an announcement of a third 

 moon for the earth. This moon is said to be 

 427,250 kg. distant and is 746 km. in diam- 

 eter. It is nearer than Dr. Waltemath' s other 

 moon, and is a 'wahrhafter Wetter-und Mag- 

 net-Mond.' Perhaps it is also the moon pre- 

 siding over lunacy. 



Under the editorship of Professor Joseph S. 

 Ames, of Johns Hopkins University, the Har- 

 pers announce a series of scientific reprints 

 similar in plan to Oswald's Klassiker der 

 exacten Wissenschaften. The first volume of 

 the series will include the papers by Guy- 

 Lussac and Julien Thomson on the free expan- 

 sion of gases, and the second, Fraunhofer's 

 papers on prismatic and diffraction spectra. 



The Berlin correspondent of the London 

 Times telegraphs that an appeal has just been 

 made to patriots, thinkers, writers, and to the 

 world of thought and culture in Germany at 

 large, to unite together in the foundation of a 

 Kaiser Wilhelm Library for Posen, similar to 

 that subscribed for and presented to the city of 

 Strassburg after the war of 1870-71. The 

 library is to be presented to Posen for the pur- 

 pose of furthering German culture and influence 

 among the Slavonic population and for com- 

 bating the ever-increasing antagonism of the 

 Poles. The importance of Germanizing the 

 Poles has been recognized as a growing neces- 

 sity, and for that purpose a provincial library 

 in Thorn and a technical high school in Danzig 

 are to be established. The ultimate founda- 

 tion of a German university in the province of 

 Posen is considered as a future possibility. In 

 the meantime donations and offerings of books 

 are earnestly solicited, and by spreading Ger- 

 man knowledge it is hoped to diffuse a strong 

 feeling for German ideas among the peasantry 

 of East Prussia. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Professor Simon Newcomb will next year 

 resume the active superintendency of the work 

 in mathematics and astronomy in Johns Hop- 

 kins University. He expects to give a course 

 of lectures on the Encyclopaedia of the Mathe- 

 matical Sciences, and will especially direct 

 students pursuing advanced work in celestial 

 mechanics. 



The chair of physics in McGill University 

 has been filled by the election of Mr. Ernest 

 Rutherford, and the chair of organic chemistry 

 by the election of Dr. J. W. Walker. Profes- 

 sor Rutherford comes from New Zealand, but 

 has recently been in residence at Trinity Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, holding the Couttes-Trotter 

 Studentship. Professor Walker has been since 

 1896 lecturer in organic chemistry in Univer- 

 sity College, London. 



The assistant professorship of civil engineer- 

 ing in McGill University is vacant. Candidates 

 should apply by letter to the principal, whose 

 present address is 81 Ifliey Road, Oxford. 



Buildings of the Niagara University, a Cath- 



