838 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 438. 



We regret also to record the deaths of Dr. 

 C. H. Dufour, professor of astronomy in the 

 University of Lausanne; of M. Rene Mam- 

 mert, professor of chemistry at the University 

 of Freiburg in Switzerland; of Dr. Clemence 

 von Kahlden, professor of pathological anat- 

 omy at Freiburg i. B. ; and of Dr. Heinrich 

 Hartel, formerly professor of geodesy at 

 Vienna. 



The American Institute of Electrical En- 

 gineers held its annual meeting in New York 

 City on May 19. 



The fifteenth international medical congress 

 will be held at Lisbon in 1906 with Professor 

 Alfredo da Costa as president. 



The government has introduced a bill in 

 the Swedish Riksdag granting about $50,000 

 for the equipment of a vessel to be sent to the 

 relief of the ISTordenskjold Antarctic expedi- 

 tion. 



Oswald Wiegel, of Leipzig, will sell at 

 auction on June 11-13 the library of the late 

 Dr. Julius Platzmann, which contains some 

 fourteen hundred works on American lan- 

 guages, especially on the languages of South 

 America. 



During the last field season Mr. Whitman 

 Cross, of the United States Geological Survey, 

 visited the Hawaiian Islands for the purpose 

 of observing the results of volcanic activity 

 at Kilauea. Critical comparisons were made 

 between the modern volcanic rocks of thesg 

 islands and the areas of old volcanic rocks 

 occurring in the Rocky Mountain country. 

 The larger islands of the group were all 

 visited, advantage being taken of this oppor- 

 tunity to gather data for use in planning fu- 

 ture work in Hawaii by the Geological Survey. 



A PRESS despatch from Washington, dated 

 May 13, says : " The executive committee of 

 the Carnegie Institution reports that the en- 

 tire sum of $200,000 allotted to grants for 

 original research has been distributed, and 

 that of the $40,000 set aside for publications 

 to be made this year $20,000 has been assigned 

 to special publications, leaving $20,000 still 

 at the disposal of the executive committee. 

 No more grants for researches will be made 

 until after the next meeting of the board of 



trustees, which will be held in December. At 

 the meeting of the executive committee to- 

 day the question of giving more publicity to 

 the grants of the institution was not taken 

 up. The policy hitherto has been to permit 

 the receivers of grants to make them public, 

 but for the officials of the institutions to 

 refrain from giving out names of the for- 

 tunate scientists who receive these grants. It 

 is probable that this policy will be continued." 



A CHAPTER of the university scientific so- 

 ciety of the Sigma Xi has recently been estab- 

 lished at the University of Chicago. Chapters 

 of this society are now maintained at the 

 following universities : Cornell, V. A. Moore, 

 president; Union, 0. H. Landreth, president; 

 Kansas, F. H. Snow, president; Rensselaer, 

 W. P. Mason, president; Yale, J. P. Tracy, 

 president; Brown, W. W. Bailey, president; 

 Nebraska, L. Bruner, president; Minnesota, 

 J. J. Flather, president ; Iowa, T. H. McBride, 

 president; Ohio, W. R. Lazenby, president; 

 Pennsylvania, E. F. Smith, president; Stan- 

 ford, V. L. Kellogg, president; California, 0. 

 L. Cory, president; Columbia, J. F. Kemp, 

 president; Chicago, H. H. Donaldson, presi- 

 dent. 



The International Mathematical Congress 

 will meet at Heidelberg in August of next 

 year. 



It is expected that the International Elec- 

 trical Congress will be held at St. Louis, dur- 

 ing the week beginning September 12, 1904. 

 It will thus immediately precede the Inter- 

 national Congress of Arts and Sciences. 



A MEETING of the committee of the Central 

 International Bureau for the Prevention of 

 Consumption was held in Paris on May 4 and 

 5 to make preliminary arrangements for the 

 next international congress, which is to take 

 place at Paris in October, 1904. 



A CABLEGRAM from Paris to the daily papers 

 states that the airship constructed for the 

 Lebaudy Brothers made a highly successful 

 trip on May 8 under Pilot Juchmes and 

 Engineer Rey. The start was made at 9 a.m. 

 from St. Martin during a light rain and with 

 a brisk wind blowing. The dirigible airship 



