Deckmbkr 25, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



839 



Storrs, Conn., on December 17, at the age of 

 fifty-five years. 



We learn from the London Times that a 

 meeting was held on December 10 at the Pho- 

 totherapeutie Institute, Copenhagen, in cele- 

 bration of Professor Finsen's success in ob- 

 taining the Xobel prize for medicine. It was 

 announced that Professor Finscn had decided 

 to give 50,000 kroner from the amount awarded 

 to him to the institute, and that two members 

 of the governing body would each present it 

 with a like sum. 



Thk following bill has been introduced into 

 the House of Representatives by Mr. Sliafroth 

 and referred to the committee on coinage 

 weights and measures. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- 

 resentatives of the United Slates of Ameiica in 

 Congress assembled, That on and after the first 

 (lay of January, nineteen hundroci and five, all the 

 Departments of the Government of the United 

 States, in the transaction of all business requiring 

 the use of woiglit and measuremenf, except in 

 completing the survey of public lands, shall em- 

 ploy and use only the weiglits and measures of the 

 metric system; and on and after the first day of 

 .January, nineteen hundred and six, the weights 

 and measures of the metric system shall be the 

 legal standard weights and measures of and in 

 the United States. 



The following are the lecture arrangements 

 at the Royal Institution before Easter: A 

 Christmas course of lectures (illustrated by 

 lantern slides and adapted to a juvenile audi- 

 tory) on Extinct Animals, by Professor Ray 

 Laukester; Professor L. C. Miall, Fullcrian 

 l)rofessor of physiology, R.I., six lectures on 

 the Development and Transformations of Ani- 

 mals ; Mr. E. Foxwell, three lectures on 

 Japanese Life and Character; Dr. E. A. Wallis 

 Budge, two lectures on the Doctrine of Heaven 

 aiul Hell in Ancient Egypt, and the Books of 

 the Underworld; Mr. G. R. M. Murray, three 

 lectures on the Flora of the Ocean ; Mr. A. D. 

 Hall, three lectures on Recent Research in 

 Agriculture; Professor II. L. Callendar, three 

 lectures on Electrical Methods of Measuring 

 Temiierature; Mr. Sidney Lee, two lectures 

 on Shakespeare as Contemporaries knew him ; 

 Mr. J. A. Fuller-Maitland, three lectures on 

 British Folk-Song (with vocal illustrations) ; 



ilr. W. L. Courtney, two lectures on Comedy: 

 Ancient and Modern ; and six lectures by Lord 

 Raylcigh on Physics. During the season li)04 

 tiie lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays will 

 be delivered at five o'clock, and the Saturday 

 lectures at three o'clock. The Friday even- 

 ing meetings will begin on January 15, when 

 a discoiir.sc will be delivered by Lord Rayleigh 

 on Shadows ; succeeding discourses will prob- 

 •ably be given by the Rev. Walter Sidgreavcs, 

 Mr. D. G. Hogarth, Mr. Alfred Austin, the 

 Dean of Westminster, Mr. II. Brereton Baker, 

 Mr. Alexander Siemens, Professor W. Stirling, 

 Professor F. T. Trouton, Mr. Henry Artliur 

 Jones, Professor Dewar, and other gentlemen. 



Siu XoRji.\x LocKVER, as we learn from the 

 London Times, was the chief guest at the an- 

 nual dinner of the Sheffield University College 

 on Friday night, December 4. His recent 

 address at Southport as president of the 

 British Association was followed, he said, by 

 200 leading articles in the newspapers. A 

 great majority of those articles were in favor 

 of the views that he urged, one of those views 

 being that a considerable sum should be set 

 apart by the nation so as to put its educational 

 house in order. Some objections were raised 

 to that address. There was the question of 

 the sum necessary to do this educational work. 

 The sum he estimated as necessary in relation 

 to the actual conditions at the various centers 

 of learning was the sum, capitalized, of £2-1,- 

 000,000— not 24 millions a year. He did not 

 ask for the making of eight new universities; 

 ho merely pointed out that England had a 

 commerce to defend and was determined to 

 defend it; that we had gone about that task 

 in a common-sense way and were resolved to 

 lie twice as strong as our neighbors, and, carry- 

 ing out that principle, had built a two-power 

 navy; and he simply suggested that univer- 

 sities were as important in one direction as 

 battleships were in another, and it seemed 

 rather a pity that, if in the matter of battle- 

 ships England was going to be twice as strong 

 as one power, we should be content to remain 

 only half as strong as one power in regard to 

 universities. There was another critic of his 

 sclieme who called it grandiose. But he would 

 like to point out that 24 millions at 2.J per 



