May 8, 190S.] 



SCIENCE. 



757 



mand of the expedition, as well as director of 

 the scientific observations. 



The Russian Geographical Society will send 

 a scientific expedition into Mesopotamia dur- 

 ing the year. The expedition will be under 

 the leadership of M. Kaznakoff, and will in- 

 clude among its members M. Alferaki, the 

 zoologist, and M. Tolmatcheff, the geologist. 



M. Lacroix, sent by the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences to Martinique, has returned to Paris, 

 after six months spent in studying the condi- 

 tions on the island. 



Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson has returned 

 from India, where he has been investigating 

 the cause of leprosy. 



A WINDOW in honor of Horace Wells, the 

 discoverer of anesthesia, has been placed in 

 the First Congregational Church at Hart- 

 ford, Conn., by his son, Mr. Charles T. Wells. 

 The cartoon was designed by Mr. Frederick 

 Wilson and executed by the Tiffany Company, 

 New York City. 



Paul Belloni Du Chaillu, the explorer 

 and author, died at St. Petersburg on April 

 29. He was born in ISTew Orleans in 1838, 

 and in 1855 he went from New York to the 

 west coast of Africa, where he made the well- 

 known expedition described in his ' Explora- 

 tions and Adventures in Equatorial Africa.' 



The death is announced of M. E. Duporcq, 

 secretary of the French Mathematical Society, 

 at the age of thirty-one years. 



The American Medical Association is meet- 

 ing this week at New Orleans under the presi- 

 dency of Dr. Frank Billings. 



The American Social Science Association 

 meets in Bq^ton on May 14, 15 and 16. Ses- 

 sions are to be devoted to the discussion of 

 public health and education in physiology and 

 hygiene, the speakers including Professor W. 

 T. Sedgwick, Dr. W. T. Councilman and Dr. 

 E. M. Hartwell. 



The Medical Record and The Medical News 

 publish cable reports of the fourteenth inter- 

 national Medical Congress, which met at 

 Madrid last week. On the first day five thou- 

 sand delegates were registered, proportioned 

 as follows: Germany and Austria, 1,000; 



France, 825; Great Britain, 235; Russia, 290; 

 Italy, 335; other European countries, 327; 

 United States, 193 ; South America, 136. The 

 Moscow prize for original research, established 

 by the city of Moscow, in honor of the meet- 

 ing of the Congress in that city in 1897, was 

 awarded to Professor Metchnikoff, and that 

 of Paris to Professor Grassi. It is expected 

 that the next congress will be at Buda Pesth. 

 No discoveries of an epoch-making character 

 appear to have been presented to the congress, 

 though the programs are said to contain the 

 titles of many papers of importance. 



The Boston Transcript states that a bill 

 has been favorably reported to the Connecticut 

 General Assembly providing for the establish- 

 ment of a geological and natural history sur- 

 vey of the State. The work is to be eon- 

 ducted under a commission composed of the 

 governor, the presidents of Yale and Wesleyan 

 Universities, of Trinity College and of the 

 Connecticut Agricultural College. The com- 

 mission is to serve without compensation ex- 

 cept for necessary expenses. It is directed to 

 appoint as superintendent of the survey a 

 scientist of established reputation and such 

 assistants as may be deemed necessary. The 

 bill carries an appropriation of $3,000. The 

 objects of the survey as explained in the bill 

 are as follows : First, an examination of the 

 geological formations of the State with special 

 reference to their economic products, namely, 

 building stones, clays, ores and other mineral 

 substances ; second, an examination of the ani- 

 mal and plant life of the State with special 

 reference to its economic and educational 

 value; third, the preparation of special maps 

 to illustrate the resources of the State; and 

 fourth, the preparation of special reports, with 

 necessary illustrations and maps, which shall 

 embrace both a general and a detailed descrip- 

 tion of the geology and natural history of the 

 State. It is expected that the bill will pass 

 without opposition. 



Nature states that the French Physical So- 

 ciety has held its annual exhibition of ap- 

 paratus in Paris. The entrance hall and vesti- 

 bule were lighted with 'heliophone' lamps of the 

 French Incandescent Gas Company, the stair- 



