1022 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 443. 



association, Mr. E. Howarth, Public Museum, 

 Sheffield, England. 



The English electrochemical society, to the 

 steps for the organization of which we have 

 already referred, will be known as the Fara- 

 day Society, and will hold its first meeting 

 on June 30. 



The Lake Laboratory buildings at Cedar 

 Point, Sandusky, Ohio, will be formally 

 opened on July 2. Addresses will be made 

 by Professor Herbert Osborn, director of the 

 laboratory and professor of zoology in the 

 Ohio State University, by Professor C. J. 

 Plerrick, president of the Ohio Academy of 

 Sciences and professor of zoology at Denison 

 University, and others. 



The whaling ship Gjoa, with an expedition 

 under the command of Captain Ammundsen, 

 has left Christiana to study the conditions 

 about the magnetic North Pole. 



Reuter's Agency is informed of the arrival 

 on June 11 at Obbo, to the southeast of Gon- 

 dokoro, of Major Powell-Cotton, Northumber- 

 land Eusiliers, who for the past year has been 

 traveling in Central Africa. When last heard 

 of he had been studying the cave dwellers at 

 Mount Elgon and was proceeding towards the 

 Upper Nile. He then expected to reach 

 Wadelai in February. 



Nature reports that in the House of Com- 

 mons Mr. Austen Chamberlain, speaking on 

 the vote for the telegraph services, referred at 

 some length to the relations between the post- 

 oifice and the Marconi Wireless Telegraph 

 Co. He said that the postoffice had no desire 

 to check the progress of wireless telegraphy, 

 nor could they have done so had they wished, 

 as their monopoly did not extend beyond the 

 three-mile limit. The Marconi Co. had, how- 

 ever, asked for too much; in the first instance 

 they asked to be given a permanent and ex- 

 clusive right to work wireless telegraphy in 

 this country, which he could not grant, es- 

 pecially after the postoffice's experience with 

 the telephone system. He had, however, 

 granted them a private wire to Poldhu on the 

 ordinary terms as soon as they asked for it, 

 but before undertaking to act as their agents 

 for the collection of messages, as was done for 



the cable companies, the postoffice required 

 that certain conditions should be fulfilled in 

 order to safeguard the admiralty, and also 

 asked that their experts should be satisfied 

 that the company were able to carry on their 

 business and transmit messages across the 

 Atlantic commercially. He was still waiting 

 an answer to this request, which was made last 

 March. 



The Experiment Station Record states that 

 the legislature of Hawaii at its recent regular 

 session provided for a reorganization of the 

 office of the commissioner of agriculture by 

 placing the duties of that office under the con- 

 trol of a non-salaried board of five commis- 

 sioners. The new law defines the duties of 

 the board and provides for the enforcement of 

 its regulations. Under the new arrangement 

 particular attention of the board is given to 

 forestry, entomology and inspection of plants, 

 fruits, etc., to prevent the admission of in- 

 jurious fungi and insects. For this work paid 

 superintendents and assistants are provided. 

 For the development of general agriculture, 

 cooperation with the experiment station es- 

 tablished by the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture is to be sought. 



We learn from the New York Times that 

 as the result of plans that have been developed 

 since early in the spring the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History has arranged to loan 

 to the biology departments of as many of the 

 public schools of Greater New York as may 

 make proper application collections of inverte- 

 brate specimens for use in coimection with the ■ 

 school biological work. It was found that two 

 sets of collections could be prepared, one, 

 known as the duplicate collection, consisting 

 of about forty-five specimens, covering be- 

 tween thirty and forty species and illustrative 

 of general characteristics, and the other, a 

 specialized collection of from one hundred to 

 one hundred and fifty specimens, collected 

 and arranged with a view to showing 

 typical forms of different species, and where- 

 ever possible, bring out some essential fact in 

 the development of the type. ■ Ten schools 

 have applied for the first of the collections, 

 now ready for distribution. 



