798 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 437. 



The Walker Grand Prize, which is be- 

 stowed once in five years by the Boston So- 

 ciety of Natural History, has just been 

 awarded to J. A. Allen of the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History 'for his able and 

 long continued contributions to American 

 ornithology and mammalogy.' The amount 

 of the prize is $500, but in view of the high 

 character of Mr. Allen's investigations, it 

 was voted to increase the amount to one thou- 

 sand dollars. Among the chief of Mr. Allen's 

 investigations are his ' Birds of Florida,' ' A 

 Monograph of the Pinnepeds,' * Monographs 

 of North American Eodentia ' and ' The 

 Geographical Distribution of North American 

 Mammals.' The prize was last given (1898) 

 to Samuel H. Seudder, of Cambridge, Mass., 

 in recognition of his entomological work. 



Dr. John H. Musser, of Philadelphia, has 

 been elected president of the American Medi- 

 cal Association. 



A BRANCH of the American Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers has been organized at 

 Washington, with Dr. Frank A. Wolff, Jr., as 

 chairman. 



Sir Frederick Treves, the well-knovm Eng- 

 lish surgeon, has been given the LL.D. degree 

 by the University of Aberdeen. 



The Geographical Society of Paris has con- 

 ferred the La Eoquette gold medal on Captain 

 Sverdrup, the Arctic explorer. 



About fifty German students of agriculture 

 are at present in the United States and will 

 remain here about three months investigating 

 agricultural methods. 



Dr. Edmund Otis Hovey returned on May 

 8 from a three months' trip to the Caribbean 

 Islands. He was sent out by the American 

 Museum of Natural History to continue and 

 extend the observations on the West Indian 

 volcanoes which he began directly after the 

 great eruptions of a year ago. During the 

 present trip. Dr. Hovey visited all the vol- 

 canoes from Saba to St. Vincent, devoting 

 most of his time to Martinique and St. Vin- 

 cent. Many fine specimens and photographs 

 were obtained for the museum. 



Professor Henry S. Graves, director of the 

 Tale School of Forestry, has gone abroad, and 

 will spend the summer on the continent study- 

 ing schools and methods of forestry. 



Dr. F. S. Earle, assistant curator at the 

 New York Botanical Garden, sailed for Porto 

 Rico on May 9 to make an investigation of 

 the diseases which affect the vegetable prod- 

 ucts of the island. 



Professor J. C. Merrum, of the depart- 

 ment of geology. University of California, 

 will go to the southeastern part of Idaho this 

 summer to search for reptilian remains in a 

 portion of the Triassic formation lower than 

 those in which such remains have been found. 



Professor A. A. Veblen, of the department 

 of physics at the State University of Iowa, 

 will spend his summer vacation in making a 

 visit to Norway. While absent he will study 

 the history and development of ancient ship 

 building as evidenced by the remains of old 

 vessels preserved in the museums of that 

 country. 



The board of regents of the University of 

 Michigan at their April meeting granted leave 

 of absence for the year 1903-04 to Dr. Herbert 

 S. Jennings, assistant professor of zoology. 

 Dr. Jennings will spend the year at the Zoo- 

 logical Station at Naples, Italy, in prosecuting 

 investigations on the behavior of the lower 

 organisms, continuing researches on which he 

 has been engaged for some years. For the 

 furtherance of this work the Carnegie Insti- 

 tution has made a grant of $1,000, in addition 

 to the sum of $250 granted last fall, together 

 with the use for the year of one of the tables 

 maintained by the institution at the Naples 

 Zoological Station. Dr. Jennings expects to 

 leave for Italy at the close of the summer 

 session in August. 



The large number of fossil fishes collected 

 during the excavations at Boonton and else- 

 where in the Triassic area of New Jersey dur- 

 ing the last year or two are being studied by 

 Dr. Charles R. Eastman, of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 



The first link, Vancouver to Fanning Island, 

 of the transpacific longitude, of which Mr. 



