734 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 4C6. 



astronomical observations at Canoplas, N. 

 S. W. 



Commander Egbert E. Peary, U.S.N., 

 Lieut.-Commander William S. Sims, Lieut. H. 

 A. Bispham and Surgeon Henry G. Beyer, 

 U.S.N., who have been inspecting the bar- 

 racks system of British and German naval 

 stations with a view to determining the ad- 

 visability of building similar barracks at the 

 navy-yards in this country for the housing of 

 seamen to take the place of receiving ships, 

 have returned to America. 



Dr. E. D. Murray, of the Public Health and 

 Marine Hospital Service, died in Laredo, 

 Texas, on November 22, at the age of sixty- 

 four years. His death was the result of the 

 runaway accident noted in the last issue of 

 this journal. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie had offered to give 

 $300,000 to New Haven for a public library 

 if the city would appropriate $30,000 a year 

 to maintain it. It will be accepted by the 

 city, but legislative power will first have to be 

 obtained. 



The Warren Triennial Prize of the value of 

 $500 will be awarded next year for a research 

 on some topic in physiology, surgery or path- 

 ology. Particulars may be obtained from Dr. 

 H. B. Howard, Massachusetts General Hos- 

 pital, Boston. 



There will be a civil service examination 

 on January 5, 6 and 7, 1904, for mammal 

 taxidermist in the U. S. National Museum at 

 a salary of $900 a year. 



The American Society of Mechanical En- 

 gineers will hold its forty-eighth annual meet- 

 ing in New York City on December 1-4. 

 President J. M. Dodge will deliver an address 

 on ' The Money Value of Technical Training.' 



The American Historical Association and 

 the American Economic Association will hold 

 their annual conventions in New Orleans, La., 

 on December 29, 30 and 31. 



The Eontgen Eay Society meets at the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania on December 9 and 10. 



The fourteenth International Congress of 

 Americanists will meet at Stuttgart from 

 August 18-23, 1904. Dr. Karl von den 



Steinen is president of the committee on 

 organization. The vice-presidents are Count 

 von Linden and Dr. Eduard Seler. The sub- 

 jects to be discussed by the congress relate to 

 (a) ' The Native Eaces of America ; their 

 Origin, Distribution, History, Physical Char- 

 acteristics, Languages, Inventions, Customs 

 and Eeligions'; (&) ' The Monuments and the 

 Archeology of America'; (c) 'The History 

 of the Discovery and Occupation of the New 

 World.' Communications may be oral or 

 written, and in English, German, French, 

 Italian or Spanish. The time allowed for 

 each paper shall, as a rule, not exceed twenty 

 minutes ; but exceptions may be made for sub- 

 jects of particular interest and general im- 

 portance. For the discussions the limit of 

 time is five minutes. All papers presented to 

 the congress will, on the approval of the bu- 

 reau, be printed in the volume of Proceedings. 

 Members are requested to send in the titles of 

 their papers to the general secretary as soon as 

 possible. Abstracts, which may not exceed 

 1,000 words, of any paper accepted for the pro- 

 gram, should be sent in before July 1; they 

 will be printed in the daily bulletin during 

 the session. Applications for membership in 

 the congress, the cost of which is $3.00, should 

 be made to the secretary. Dr. Xurt Lampert, 

 Archivstrasse, 3., Stuttgart. 



The steamship Gauss has safely arrived at 

 Kiel after its Antarctic expedition. 



The Antelope House at the New York 

 Zoological Park was open to the public on 

 November 26. The building, which is 142 x 

 78 feet, has been erected at a cost of about 

 $80,000. 



The British Medical Journal states that 

 the botanical part of the Museum of Natural 

 History of Owens College has just been en- 

 riched by the gift of one of the governors of 

 the college, Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill, of this Gen- 

 eral Herbarium of the World. It embraces 

 one third of all known plants, about 40,000 

 species, exhibited through half a million speci- 

 mens, gathered from most parts of the world, 

 arctic, temperate and tropical. It is one of 

 the three last private herbaria existing in 

 Great Britain, and the only one of the three 



