Fkbeuakv 20, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



319 



Academy; of Joseph Chavanne, the Austrian 

 geographer and meteorologist, and of Dr. 

 Rudolf Franz, a Berlin physicist. 



The bill creating a department of com- 

 merce, with a secretary in the cabinet, has 

 passed the house and senate. The new depart- 

 ment will consist of the Bureau of Corpora- 

 tions, the Bureau of Labor, the Lighthouse 

 Board, the Lighthouse Establishment, the 

 Steamboat Inspection Service, the Bureau of 

 Navigation, the Bureau of Standards, the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Commissioner 

 General of Immigration, the Commissioners of 

 Immigration, the Bureau of Immigxation and 

 the immigration service at large, the Bureau 

 of Statistics of the Treasury Department, the 

 Shipping Commissioner, the Bureau of For- 

 eign Commerce (now in the Department of 

 State), the Census Bureau, and the Fish 

 Commission. 



The senate judiciary committee has made a 

 favorable report on the bill to establish a 

 laboratory for the study of the criminal, 

 pauper and defective classes, a similar bill 

 having been reported favorably by the house 

 judiciary committee. 



It will be remembered that last year con- 

 gress made an appropriation of $5,000 to pre- 

 pare plans for the building for the National 

 Museum. We understand that the tentative 

 plans have been prepared and transmitted to 

 the House of Representatives. They call for 

 a fireproof steel brick and terracotta building 

 to cost $3,000,000, only one half of which is to 

 be erected at present. It is to be hoped that 

 congress will find time to attend to the matter, 

 as it is universally admitted that the present 

 building is entirely inadequate. 



Announcement has been published to the 

 effect that the land purchased for the Rocke- 

 feller Institute for Medical Research is part 

 of the old Schermerhorn farm. It extends 

 from Avenue A to the East River, and from 

 64th to 67th St. The price paid for the land 

 is reported to be $700,000, and it is said that 

 the laboratory to be erected on it will be the 

 most complete institution of its kind in the 

 world. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie will erect a library 

 at Atlantic City at a cost of $60,000 ; and one 

 at Dover, England, at a cost of £10,000. 



The Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. 

 Petersburg in cooperation with the govern- 

 ment offers 7,500 roubles in prizes for research 

 solving the cause of poisoning through the 

 use of salted raw fish. The papers, which may 

 be in English, must be presented by January 1 

 next. 



The Michigan Academy of Sciences meets 

 at the University of Michigan on March 26, 

 27 and 28. 



The French Congress of Scientific Societies 

 will hold its forty-first annual meeting at 

 Bordeaux from April 14 to 18. 



The International Congress of Historical 

 Science will meet at Rome from April 2 to 

 9. One of the eight sections is devoted to 

 the history of science. 



The Linnean Society of London has taken 

 action to alter its charter so that hereafter 

 women may be elected as fellows. 



It is reported that German explorers have 

 recently discovered a fossil horse in central 

 Africa. We may soon look for rapid exten- 

 sion of our knowledge of the fossil Equidse 

 of this continent. 



The United States Geological Survey, in 

 cooperation with the state of Maine, has re- 

 cently issued a new map of the region sur- 

 rounding the entrance to the Penobscot River, 

 known as the Castine quadrangle. The map 

 is uniform with the maps already issued by 

 the government of other parts of the state. 

 It differs from the charts issued by the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey in giving the details of 

 features on the islands and the mainland, 

 whereas the latter maps are confined almost 

 exclusively to the marine features of the re- 

 gion — soundings, channels and the outlines 

 of the coast. Like other maps of the Geo- 

 logical Survey, the Castine sheet illustrates 

 the topography or relief of the land features, 

 giving at the same time in great detail all 

 roads, settlements and rivers, and, in addi- 

 tion, the elevation above sea level of all parts 

 of the region shown. 



