414 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 456-. 



Professor H. S. Graves has returned from 

 Europe where he has been making a study 

 of the schools of forestry in Germany and 

 Austria. 



Dr. C. E. Beecher, professor of historical 

 geology at Yale University, has during the 

 summer been carrying on paleontological 

 work in Canada, especially in the Lake St. 

 John region of Quebec. 



President H^vrper, of the University of 

 Chicago, has returned to the United States. 

 He has spent most of the summer in Turkey 

 making arrangements for the proposed Baby- 

 lonian explorations. 



The Vienna Academy of Sciences has ap- 

 pointed a committee to study pitchblende, the 

 substance from which radium is derived. 

 Baron Auer von Welsbach, has placed his 

 laboratories at the disposal of the committee. 



Several members of the commission on 

 London traffic, including Sir David Barbour 

 and Baron Eibblesdale, have sailed for the 

 United States to inquire into the street rail- 

 way systems of New York and Boston. 



The Emperor of Germany has conferred 

 the title of WirMicher Geheimer Bath, on 

 Professor E. von Behring, the eminent pa- 

 thologist. 



Professor Frederick C. Claeke, head of 

 the Department of Economics and Sociology 

 of the Ohio State University, committed sui- 

 cide on September 19. 



Dr. Frank A. Hill, secretary of the Massa- 

 chusetts State Board of Education, a trustee 

 of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 of the State Agricultural College at Albany 

 and of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, died 

 on September 12, at the age of sisty-two years. 



Professor Alexander Bain, for many years 

 professor of logic in the University of Aber- 

 deen, died on September 17, at the age of 

 eighty-five years. Dr. Bain was the author 

 of an important series of books on psychology, 

 logic and English. His works on ' The Senses 

 and the Intellect,' in 1855, and ' The Emo- 

 tions and the Will,' in 1859, in many ways 

 laid the foundations of modern scientific psy- 

 chology. 



The directors of the Dallas Commercial 

 Club have called a national convention to be 

 held in Dallas on October 8, to consider the 

 boll weevil situation in the cotton growing 

 districts. The attendance of delegates from 

 all the cotton states and of representatives of 

 the national Department of Agriculture is 

 desired. 



A PRESS despatch from Berlin states that the 

 imperial budget for 1904, now in preparation, 

 allots $37,500 for combating typhus, which 

 is specially virulent in Bavaria, Prussia and 

 Alsace-Lorraine. The contamination of the 

 rivers appears to be frequently the cause of 

 the fever. 



We learn from Nature that shortly before 

 his death, the late Professor Nocard, of Paris,. 

 strongly urged the authorities of the Liverpool 

 School of Tropical Medicine to make the in- 

 stitution available for the instruction of veter- 

 inary surgeons. A committee has now been 

 formed for the purpose of giving effect to this- 

 suggestion, and the veterinary branch is open 

 for the reception and instruction of students. 

 It is under the direction of Professors Boyce 

 and Sherrington, with adequate assistance^ 

 and a farm has been provided at Runcorn 

 for its requirements. 



The Electrical World and Engineer states 

 that M. H. Duportal, the French inspector- 

 general des Ponts et Chaussee, has selected 

 St. Gervais as the starting point for the rail- 

 way which, it is hoped, in a few years, will 

 reach the summit of Mont Blanc. The pro- 

 ject is identified with the name of M. Yallot, 

 the director of the Mont Blanc Observatory, 

 and is for a railway starting from Les 

 Houches. The idea seems to be to get the 

 shortest possible and most sheltered line, en- 

 abling the summit to be reached in all seasons ; 

 and it is conceded that M. Yallot's survey is 

 the best possible for the purpose. M. Dupor- 

 tal's scheme does not supersede its predecessor, 

 however; rather it will prepare the way for 

 it ; and it has the great merit of serving the- 

 immediate and practical necessities of the- 

 district. The first section of the proposed 

 electric line reaches the Aiguille de Gouter- 

 almost direct from Fayet by way of the Bion- 



