500 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 18. 



latitude has been recently indicated by an 

 oiier, from the Royal Geodetic Institute at 

 Potsdam, of a considerable sum of money 

 to be used in employing computers to re- 

 duce the results. 



A SOCIETY has been incorporated in the 

 State of New York for the preservation of 

 scenic and historic places and objects. Mr. 

 Andrew H. Greene, to whom the move- 

 ment is chieflj^ due, is president of the so- 

 ciety, which includes among its trustees a 

 number of the leading citizens of New 

 York. 



The Universitjr of Kansas will send into 

 the field the present season five different 

 scientific expeditions. Professor Dj^che 

 leaves the first of May to collect and 

 ■study the birds and mammals of Green- 

 land and adjacent regions; Professor Wil- 

 liston will have two expeditions for the col- 

 lection of vertebrate fossils, one in Western 

 Kansas and one in Wyoming; Chancellor 

 Snow, it is expected will spend the summer 

 in the Southwest with a partj'^ collecting en- 

 tomological specimens; a fifth party under 

 Professor Haworth will be in the field dur- 

 ing the next six months engaged in map- 

 ping the Tertiary outcrops of the State. 

 The cost of the three geological expeditions 

 is borne by special appropriations from the 

 State Legislature. 



Mb. Mark W. Haeeingtdn, Chief of the 

 Weather Bureau, has issued a circular stat- 

 ing that a periodical is proposed, devoted to 

 Climatology and its relation to health and 

 disease, similar in size and general appear- 

 ance to the monthly weather review. The 

 cooperation is requested of sanitary boards 

 and societies, and of individuals interested 

 in this work. 



The Italian Botanical Societj^ met this 

 year at Palermo on the 13th and 26th of 

 April. The German Zoological Society 

 will meet at Strasburg on the 4th to the 

 €th of June. 



According to the Zeitschrift fib- Luftschrift- 

 fahrt and the Revue Scientifique, Herr Bei-son, 

 on December 4, made the highest baloon 

 ascent on record, attaining an altitude of 

 9,100 metres. The temperature at this alti- 

 itude was — -47.8° C. The highest tempera- 

 ture, 6 .1 ° C. , was at a height of 1 ,400 metres. 



The death is announced of Dr. Peck, 

 director of the Museum of Natural History 

 in Gorlitz. 



Among recent new appointments in Ger- 

 many we note that Dr. Himstedt, professor 

 of physics in Giessen, has been called to 

 Freiburg ; Dr. Czermak, professor of oph- 

 thalmology in Innsbruck, to Prague, and 

 Dr. Steinmann, professor of minerology in 

 Freiburg, to Tiibingen. Dr. Minkowski has 

 been made professor of mathematics in 

 Konigsberg. 



The mathematician, Dr. E. D. F. Meissel, 

 died at Kiel, on March 11, at the age of 

 sixty-eight years. 



The Revue Scientifique of April 13th reports 

 the speeches made at the banquet given in 

 honor of M. Berthelot on April 4th. 

 Speeches were made bj^ MM. Poincare, Bris- 

 son, Perrier, Richet, Zola and M. Berthelot 

 himself. 



Professor Ryder at the time of his death 

 had nearly completed the MS. of a book, 

 and left other scientific work of importance 

 which will probably be published shortly 

 under very competent editorship. 



The Prince of Wales has formally pre- 

 sented to Sir Joseph Lister the Albert 

 Medal of the Societ}^ of Arts for "the dis- 

 covery and establishment of the antiseptic 

 method of treating wounds and injuries, by 

 which not only has the art of surgery been 

 greatly promoted and human life saved in 

 all parts of the world, but extensive indus- 

 tries have also been created for the supply 

 of materials required for cariying the treat- 

 ment into eifect." 



