August 26, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



263 



following men of science abroad : Dr. Axel 

 BIytt, professor of botany at Christiania, at 

 the age of iifty-fovir years ; Dr. Carlo Giaco- 

 mini, professor of anatomy in the University of 

 Turin, on July 5th, and Dr. Ernest Candez, the 

 coleopterologist at Glain, near Liittich, on 

 June 30th. 



The will of the late Dr. William Pepper was 

 admitted to probate on August 8th. A bequest 

 of $75,000 as an endowment for the William 

 Pepper Laboratory of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania was revoked by a codicil dated about 

 two weeks before his death. The codicil is as 

 follows: " By my said will I made a bequest of 

 $75,000 as an endowment for the William Pep- 

 per Clinical Laboratory of the University of 

 Pennsylvania. I have since the date of my 

 will determined to make a gift during my life- 

 time of $75,000 to the department of archaeol- 

 ogy and paleontology of the University of 

 Pennsylvania for the purposes of the University 

 Museum. Hoping at some future time to be in 

 a position to carry out my original intention, 

 notwithstanding my gift to the Museum, but 

 finding it inconvenient at this time to make both 

 provisions I hereby revoke the provision of the 

 first paragraph of the third item of my said 

 will." The executors state that Dr. Pepper 

 did not have time to make this gift to the Uni- 

 versity Museum before his death, but that the 

 desire of the family is to carry out his known 

 wishes. 



The will of the late Adolph Sutro, of San 

 Francisco, who during his life-time made liberal 

 gifts to the University of California, sets aside 

 1,000 acres of valuable land in San Francisco 

 for charitable and educational purposes. 



Madame Pean, in accordance with the wishes 

 of her husband, has presented to the Hopital 

 Saint-Louis, Paris, his valuable collection of 

 anatomical and pathological casts. 



The monument to Professor Wilhelm Meyer, 

 the discoverer of post-nasal vegetations, will be 

 unveiled in Copenhagen during October. An 

 address will be made by Sir Felix Simon. 



Professor W. M. Davis, of Harvard Uni- 

 versity, has sailed for Europe, where he will 

 spend next year. Correspondence may be ad- 

 dressed care of Baring Brothers & Co., London. 



Dr. C. H. Hitchcock, of Dartmouth, has 

 left for the Hawaiian Islands, where he expects 

 to spend a year in geological exploration. His 

 address will be at Honolulu. 



We noted last week that some anxiety was 

 felt concerning the safety of the Belgica. Col- 

 onel de Gerlach, father of the commander of 

 the expedition, has since made a statement to 

 the efiect that the steamship was provisioned 

 for three years, and, though it may have got 

 blocked in the ice, there is no cause for appre- 

 hension regarding its safety. The Belgica was 

 expected to arrive at Melbourne last month, 

 after having carried out explorations of Graham 

 Land and Weddell See. 



At a meeting of the Council of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of England on August 2, 

 1898, it was resolved : That in view of the 

 proposed alterations in the laws relating to vac- 

 cination now contemplated in the bill before 

 Parliament, the Council do reaifirm the follow- 

 ing resolution adopted by them and forwarded 

 to the Koyal Commission on Vaccination on 

 May 11, 1893, viz: "We, the Council of the 

 Eoyal College of Surgeons of England, desire 

 to put on record at the present time our opin- 

 ion of the value of vaccination as a protection 

 against smallpox. We consider the evidence 

 in favor of its life-saving power to be over- 

 whelming, and we believe, from evidence 

 equally strong, that the dangers incidental to 

 the operation, when properly performed, are 

 infinitesimal. Experience has satisfied us that, 

 even when vaccination fails to afford complete 

 exemption from smallpox, it so modifies the 

 severity of the disease as not only to greatly 

 reduce its mortality, but to lessen the frequency 

 of blindness, disfigurement and other grave 

 injuries. We should, therefore, regard as a na- 

 tional calamity any alteration in the law which 

 now makes vaccination compulsory. We are, 

 moreover, firmly convinced that revaccination 

 is an additional safeguard and should be univer- 

 sally practiced. We would add that we be- 

 lieve that the instructions of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board for public vaccinators are well de- 

 signed to secure the greatest efficiency in vacci- 

 nation and to avoid the liability to risks from 

 the operation." 



