June 19, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



989 



otlier colossal reptiles. The collection of 

 Chelonians is large. There are five skeletons 

 of Grocodilus viceniinus from Italy. A thou- 

 sand species of fossil fishes are represented, 

 among them a splendid assemblage of speci- 

 mens from the old red sandstone of Scotland. 

 There is a splendid collection of fossil insects 

 from Solenhofen, and a number of magnifi- 

 cent slabs showing the palm trees of Monte 

 Bolca. One slab has upon it the stem, roots 

 and seven leaves of a dwarf pahn. There has 

 been hitherto no representative collection of 

 the fossils of Europe on this side of the At- 

 lantic, and the acquisition of this splendid 

 and very costly collection at one stroke puts 

 the section of paleontology of the Carnegie 

 Museum in a position to make it a point of 

 central attraction to American students, who 

 may desire to institute comparisons between 

 the extinct fauna and flora of Europe and 

 America. 



The exhibition room on the second floor of 

 the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 

 formerly used for the Semitic collections, 

 has been fitted with ethnological collections, 

 mostly relating to the Indian tribes along the 

 west coast of America. 



The British Anatomical Society will hold 

 its summer meeting this year at University 

 College, Liverpool, on June 19 and 20. 



A MEETiiSTG of the council of the Inter- 

 national Association of Academies was held 

 during the first week of this month, at the 

 rooms of the Eoyal Society, that society being 

 the directing academy of the association for 

 the three years' period ending with 1904. 

 Nature states that the meeting was attended by 

 delegates from nearly all the principal learned 

 academies of Europe, who discussed several 

 matters of importance to international science 

 and philosophy, preparatory to the meeting of 

 the general assembly which is to be held in 

 London next year. Representatives of both 

 sections of the association, the natural science 

 section and the history and philosophy section, 

 attend the council. In connection with the 

 meeting of the council there was a meeting 

 of a special committee appointed to deal with 

 a proposal for the establishment of an inter- 



national organization for the investigation of 

 the anatomy of the brain. The foreign dele- 

 gates were received by the president and fel- 

 lows of the Eoyal Society at Burlington House 

 on June 3. 



The International Congress for applied 

 chemistry was formally opened on June 3. 

 We learn from notices in Nature and the 

 Times that Geheimrath Professor Dr. Otto 

 Witt presided, and there was a large gathering 

 of leading authorities on chemistry from all 

 parts of the world. Speeches were delivered 

 by Count Posadowsky, Imperial Secretary of 

 State for the Interior, and Dr. Studt, Prus- 

 sian minister of education. They referred to 

 the enormous importance of applied chemistry 

 both for industry and agriculture, and in- 

 stanced among other achievements the de- 

 velopment' of the production of beetroot sugar. 

 Dr. Studt stated that in Germany alone chem- 

 ical industries created products to the value 

 of more than one milliard of marks. Among 

 the foreign delegates who spoke were Professor 

 Moissan, president of the Paris Chemical So- 

 ciety, Professor Tilden, of the Royal College 

 of Science of London, Professor Ludwig, from 

 Vienna, and Professor Jakobkin, from St. 

 Petersburg. About 2,200 members were pres- 

 ent. The Congress was divided into eleven 

 sections and three subsections. The German 

 Electrochemical Society, which last year 

 adopted the name of German Bunsen Society 

 for Applied Physical Chemistry, also held its 

 annual meeting at Berlin during the week, 

 and took charge of the electrochemical section. 

 There were 350 papers and reports on the pro- 

 gram. 



The Civil Service Commission will hold a 

 competitive examination during the summer 

 or fall to fill a position as assistant chemist 

 in the Geological Survey, salary $1,200. No 

 applicants who are unable to do independent 

 research work in mineralogy and crystallog- 

 raphy will be considered. Ability to do in- 

 dependent chemical research work, while de- 

 sired, is not an essential condition, although 

 a good knowledge of analytical chemistry is 

 demanded. For information as to dates and 

 places for holding the examination and sub- 



