February 26, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



341 



shortly in Victoria Land, under the direction of 

 Dr. Rudolph Mewes. The station will be in 

 connection with the German South Polar ex- 

 pedition, and will have for its object the de- 

 termination of meteorological conditions dur- 

 ing the anarctic winter. 



The library of the late Professor du Bois- 

 Eeymond is offered for sale by Gustav Fock, 

 Leipzig. It contains 14,000 books and pam- 

 phlets, including many valuable sets of period- 

 icals. The heirs wish it to be sold as a unit 

 and offer it for 22,000 Marks. It would be an 

 unusually desirable acquisition for an American 

 university library. 



It is reported that Mme. Larapidie has given 

 money for a meteorological and astronomical 

 observatory and a museum at Jerusalem. 



The Academy of Sciences of Vienna has sent 

 to Bombay a commission, composed of Dr. 

 Hermann Miiller, Dr. Ghon, Dr. Albrecht and 

 Dr. Poch, to investigate the nature of the 

 plague. The expenses are defrayed by the Treitl 

 lund, left to the Academy by the late Herr 

 Treitl, and aniounting to $500,000. 



A BILL has been introduced into the New 

 York Legislature, authorizing New York City 

 to spend $2,500,000 in the erection of a library 

 building on the site of the reservoir adjoining 

 Bryant Square. The income of the Astor, 

 Lennox and Tilden foundations is about $160,- 

 000 annually, and if the building were pro- 

 vided this would be sufficient to maintain an 

 adequate reference and circulating library in 

 New York City. 



The fourth Annual Exhibit and Reception of 

 the New York Academy of Sciences will be held 

 at the American Museum of Natural History 

 on Monday and Tuesday, April 5th and 6th, 

 and will be open from eight to ten in the eve- 

 ning, and on April 6th from three to five in the 

 afternoon. Arrangements are in progress for 

 having a demonstration and lecture of about 

 half an hour in length in the lecture hall each 

 evening. Exhibits of newly invented apparatus 

 will be welcomed from men of science, not resi- 

 dent in New York, who should address the 

 Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, 

 Professor R. E. Dodge, Teachers' College, New 

 York. 



The second annual convention of the Ameri 

 can Association of Manufacturers met at Phila- 

 delphia on January 26th, 27th and 28th. The 

 membership of this Association has during the 

 past year increased from 800 to 900 and the 

 revenue for the year amounted to $40,000. The 

 Association has sent commissions to South 

 America, Mexico and Japan to study manu- 

 factures and commerce, and the reports of 

 these commissions and the results of the dis- 

 cussions on these and other subjects have a 

 certain amount of scientific interest. It was 

 recommended that a Department of Commerce 

 and Manufacture be established under the gov- 

 ernment and that the consular service be placed 

 under this proposed department. 



As we reported sometime since, the sum of 

 $60,000 left by the late Sir William Macleay, 

 for the establishment of a lectureship in bac- 

 teriology in Sydney, was not accepted by the 

 University, and reverted to the Linnean Society 

 of New South Wales. The Society is now pre- 

 pared to equip a laboratory and wishes to receive 

 applications for the lectureship, the duties of 

 which are chiefly research. The salary is £350. 



D. Appleton & Co. announce for early publi- 

 cation 'Pioneers of Evolution,' from Thales to 

 Huxley, by Edward Clodd; ' The Aurora Bore- 

 alis,' by Alfred An got ; and new editions of 

 'Dynamic Sociology,' by Professor Lester E. 

 Ward, and 'Sight,' by Professor Joseph LeConte. 



Dr. John W. Haeshbergee, of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, has now in manuscript a 

 book entitled 'The Botanists of Philadelphia and 

 their Work.' It will contain about 500 pages 

 of printed matter and 50 full-page plates. 



The British Balneological and Climatological 

 Society has published the first number of a new 

 quarterly journal edited by Dr. Samuel Clyde, 

 Chairman of the Council of the Society. 



The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House 

 of Representatives will report favorably a bill 

 for the reorganization of the Consular service. 

 According to this bill a commission would be 

 appointed by the President, which would reor- 

 ganize the service by a system of civil service 

 examinations for admission, the abolition of the 

 fee system and the rating of Consular offices in 

 grades at stated salaries and tenure of office 



