August 28, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



287 



Washington early in the month, and to have 

 social sessions in New York, Philadelphia, 

 Baltimore and Chicago, with a final session 

 in conjunction with the World's Congress of 

 Science and Arts in St. Louis. It is provi- 

 sionally planned also to provide an excursion 

 from St. Louis to Mexico, and thence to points 

 of geographic interest in western United States 

 and Canada. A preliminary announcement is in 

 press and will shortly be issued to officers and 

 members of geographic societies in all coun- 

 tries, and to geographers who may express 

 interest in the congress and its work. Details 

 have been entrusted to a committee of ar- 

 rangements made up of representatives from 

 geographic societies in all parts of the United 

 States. The officers of the committee are: 

 Dr. W J lIcGee (vice-president National 

 Geographic Society), chairman; Mr. John Joy 

 Edson (president of the Washington Loan and 

 Trust Company), treasurer; and Dr. J. H. 

 McCormick, secretary. The office of the com- 

 mittee is in Hubbard Memorial Hall, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, where communications may be 

 addressed. 



The sixth annual session of the American 

 Mining Congress will meet at Deadwood and 

 Lead, South Dakota, beginning on Septem- 

 ber 7. 



The fourteenth annual meeting of the 

 British Institution of Mining Engineers will 

 be held in the University College, Notting- 

 ham, beginning on September 2. 



The ship Terra Nova has now sailed from 

 Dundee to relieve the Discovery. The British 

 government, which has appropriated £45,000 

 for the expedition, is apparently acting with- 

 out the advice of the Eoyal Geographical 

 Society and the Eoyal Society, which origin- 

 ally sent the expedition, assisted by a grant 

 from the government. Mr. Balfour in the 

 House of Commons criticized the societies for 

 not foreseeing the difficulties into which the 

 Discovery has fallen, but afterwards withdrew 

 his criticism as far as the Royal Society is 

 concerned. At almost the same time the 

 Fritchjof sailed from Sweden for the relief of 

 the expedition under Professor Nordenskjold. 



The Swedish parliament has appropriated 

 $50,000 for this purpose. 



There will be a civil service examination 

 on September 23 and 24 for the position of 

 draftsman in the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 with a salary of $1,400 a year. The examina- 

 tion will consist chiefly of practical work, 

 retouching photographs for photoengraving 

 and pen-drawing from photographs. 



P. BuDiN in his report to the Commission 

 de Depopulation on infant mortality gives 

 statistics, which are summarized in the British 

 Medical Journal. In Paris 145 out of every 

 1,000 deaths are of children under a year old, 

 and in St. Pol-sur-Mer the proportion is as 

 high as 509 per 1,000. During the years 1896- 

 1900 the average annual mortality of chil- 

 dren under one year in France was 134,434; 

 in fact the proportion of death to survivors 

 of the same age was higher for the first year 

 than for any other year below the 91st. The 

 report first discusses the direct medical causes 

 of this mortality. The three most important 

 are infantile diarrhoea, respiratory diseases, 

 and congenital debility. Of these, infantile 

 diarrhoea accounts for far the greatest number 

 of deaths. Out of every 1,000 infants dying 

 in Paris 380 die from diarrhoea, in Eouen 510, 

 in Dijon 584, in Troyes 682. The system of 

 feeding is the most important factor in this 

 result. Of 69 children dying of diarrhoea at 

 Boulogne, 8 only were breast-fed children, 20 

 were bottle-fed, and to 41 solid food had been 

 prematurely given. The diarrhoea of breast- 

 fed children is caused by excessive and 

 irregular feeding. Bottle-fed children are 

 often enormously overfed, a fault which acts 

 most injuriously in hot weather, when least 

 food is needed. The milk given is often of 

 bad quality, containing bacteria, adulterated, 

 or wanting in cream. The chief cause of 

 death amongst congenitally weak children, es- 

 pecially if they are undersized, is exposure to 

 cold. The feeding of these children requires 

 skill. If too little food is given they become 

 cyanosed and die, if too much they succumb 

 readily to diarrhoea. Coming next to non- 

 medical conditions tending to increase infant 



