Septembers, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



301 



gestion being made that a grant of £500 a year 

 should be made for five years. 



Experiments are being undertaken by Pro- 

 fessor Lawrence Bruner, of the University of 

 Nebraslia, to determine the methods that might 

 be used in spreading among our native species 

 a locust disease discovered by him in South 

 Africa last year. The disease is closely related 

 to the fungus used for destroying chinch bugs 

 in some parts of the United States. Professor 

 Bruner contributes an article on the subject to the 

 July bulletin of the Nebraska Section of the Cli- 

 mate and Crop Service of the Weather Bureau. 



The British Medical Journal, quoting from 

 the Morning Post, states that two members of 

 the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Signor Leo- 

 poldo Franchetti and Signor Fortunato, have 

 issued a circular proposing the foundation of a 

 society for studying the phenomena of malaria. 

 "The malaria," they state, "keeps 2,000,000 

 hectares (nearly 5,000,000 acres) of ground in 

 Italy from cultivation ; it effects, more or less, 

 63 provinces and 2,823 communes ; and every 

 year it poisons about 2,000,000 inhabitants, kill- 

 ing 15,000 of them. It is impossible to esti- 

 mate the economic damage done to our country 

 by the scourge, and no sanitary problem is 

 more intimately bound up with the question of 

 our prosperity." The authors of the circular, 

 therefore, propose that a society be formed for 

 studying malaria and for discovering the best 

 means of combating it. Those who contribute 

 500 lire will have the title of founders, and 

 ordinary members will pay 36 lire a year. 

 Signor Franchetti and Signor Fortunato have 

 subscribed 1,000 lire each. 



The first Congress of Legal Medicine will be 

 held at Turin in October, under the presidency 

 of Professor Lombroso. 



A METEOROLOGICAL department in connection 

 "with the Federal telegraph service hasjust been 

 established in Mexico. 



The government of British Guiana has lately 

 taken steps of great practical utility in arrang- 

 ing for geological surveys in the gold districts. 

 Nature, quoting from a report on the gold and 

 forest industries of British Guiana, states that 

 a survey has already been conducted by Pro- 

 fessor J. B. Harrison in the northwest district 



and the results embodied in a report, while an 

 additional report on the petrology of the dis- 

 trict is awaiting publication. A further expedi- 

 tion to examine the formations of the Potaro- 

 Conawarook district is now being organized. 

 The great importance of this work will be 

 recognized in view of the fact that there are no 

 trustworthy official reports on the geology of 

 British Guiana in existence. The experience 

 of the past ten years has proved that British 

 Guiana is rich in gold ; and what is now needed 

 is the importation into the colony, and the 

 adoption of, mechanical washing appliances for 

 alluvial gold. By such means deposits of allu- 

 vial gold, vast areas of which are known to 

 exist, but would not pay to work by the means 

 now employed, could be made to produce large 

 quantities of gold. During the year ending on 

 June 30th the amount of gold exported from 

 the colony was 117,265 ounces, or a decrease of 

 10,326 ounces upon the output of 1896-97. 

 This serious decrease is partly ascribed to ex- 

 ceptionally bad weather, and partly to the ex- 

 haustion of alluvial workings in the Barima 

 district. 



The N. Y. Fisheries, Game and Forest Com- 

 mission proposes to purchase about 50,000 acres 

 of land in the Catskills, in addition to the 56,212 

 acres already owned by the State. The Com- 

 mission reports that deer are increasing very 

 rapidly in the Catskills. It is estimated that 

 the 44 animals turned loose about a year ago 

 have increased to 150, and that there will be 

 between 400 and 500 of these animals at the 

 expiration of the five year period during which 

 their killing is prohibited. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The second cousins of Dr. Elizabeth H. Bates, 

 who died at her home at Port Chester, N. Y., 

 a few months ago, leaving the University of 

 Michigan an estate valued at $125,000, for the 

 establishment of a chair for diseases of women 

 and children, have filed a notice at Ann Arbor 

 that they will contest the will. 



At the New Mexico Agricultural College and 

 Experiment Station, Professor C. H. T. Town- 

 send has been appointed Biogeographer and Sys- 

 tematic Entomologist to the Station ; E. O. 



