Januaky 30, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



199 



of construction, returning to Philadelphia in 

 time to attend the regular meeting of the Club. 



Mr. Andrew Caknegie has offered to the 

 College of Physicians in Philadelphia $50,000 

 for the maintenance of its library, conditioned 

 upon the college raising $50,000 more. Of 

 this sum Mr. F. W. Vanderbilt has given 

 $10,000 and Mr. Clement A. Griscom $5,000. 



The will of the late Dr. Buslirod "W. James 

 bequeaths to the city of Philadelphia a prop- 

 erty on Mount Vernon street, all his instru- 

 ments and office appliances, and $55,000 for 

 the maintenance of ' an institution for the 

 examination, treatment and operation of eye, 

 ear, nose, throat, cardiac and pulmonary dis- 

 eases.' His books and an endowment of $40,- 

 000 are given for the support of a free library. 



The Electrical World states that the Mu- 

 nicipal Council, of Paris, France, has voted 

 $600 for the creation of a bureau of scientific 

 information for foreigners. Many foreign 

 scientific men annually visit Paris for inquiry 

 and study in holiday times, when heads of 

 museums, collections and libraries are away. 

 A competent linguist has now been appointed 

 to reply to inquiries, verbally or in writing. 



The Scotia of the Scottish National Ant- 

 arctic Expedition arrived at the Falkland 

 Islands on January 6. 



The New York Association of Biology 

 Teachers wiU meet in the Board of Education 

 building, 59th Street and Park Avenue, on 

 Friday, January 30, at 8:15 p.m. The sub- 

 ject for the evening is ' The Public Scientific 

 Institutions and the School System,' which 

 will be discussed by Dr. H. C. Bumpus, direc- 

 tor American Museum Natural History; Dr. 

 N. L. Britton, director-in-chief New York 

 Botanical Gardens; Dr. C. H. Townsend, di- 

 rector New York Aquarium, and Dr. A. G. 

 Mayer, curator Division of Natural Science, 

 Brooklyn Museum. The members of the As- 

 sociation wiU be glad to welcome to this meet- 

 ing all teachers and school officers who are 

 interested in the progress of nature study, as 

 well as those whose chief concern is with high 

 school biology. 



The national convention of delegates from 

 the various State Boards of Health, called to 



consider the danger threatened by the possible 

 introduction of the bubonic plague into the 

 United States, was held in Washington on 

 January 19. Resolutions were adopted sta- 

 ting that the presence of the jjlague in San 

 Francisco has been established beyond doubt 

 and blaming severely the gross neglect of 

 otficial duty by the State Board of Health 

 of California, the obstructive influence of the 

 recent governor of California and the failure 

 of the city government of San Francisco to 

 support its city Board of Health. 



New information regarding the coal, gas, 

 and oil fields of western Pennsylvania, which 

 was obtained last summer by the U. S. Geo- 

 logical Survey, through Mr. E. W. Stone, in 

 cooperation with the state of Pennsylvania, is 

 soon to be made public by the government 

 in the form of a new geologic map, which will 

 form a part of the Waynesburg geologic folio. 

 The folio will include, also, descriptive text. 

 The map will embrace a section 13 by lY miles 

 in eastern Greene County, and will be based 

 upon a topographic map previously issued by 

 the same survey, showing in detail the sur- 

 face features of the region. The geologic 

 map will be of special importance in showing 

 the outcrops of the workable coal beds of the 

 quadrangle. One of its most prominent fea- 

 tures will be the representation of the geologic 

 structure of the region by contour lines drawn 

 on the floor of the Pittsburg coal. These con- 

 tours show that the strata have been thrown 

 into broad folds which cross the territory in a 

 northeast-southwest direction. Since the ac- 

 cumulation of oil and gas is directly influenced 

 by such structures, their accurate representa- 

 tion is of the greatest importance to operators 

 searching for the productive territory. The 

 most important fold in the quadrangle is 

 known as the Waynesburg anticline. Upon 

 the crest and western flanli of this arch is 

 located the Waynesburg gas field, which is 

 one of the most important producers in west- 

 ern Pennsylvania. Future demands for bi- 

 tuminous coal will probably cause shafts to 

 be sunk to the Pittsburg seam in many parts 

 of this territory, in which case the structural 

 features as shown on this map will be of great 

 value in determining the location of such 



