618 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 120. 



a member of the institution wherever found 

 possessed that amount of scientific knowledge 

 on which all civil engineering must be based. 

 It would also be of great value to the institu- 

 tion, raising it as a body to its proper position 

 and enabling it to keep pace with those great 

 developments of scientific research which were 

 continually being brought to light. 



A BILL before the German House of Eepre- 

 sentatives appropriates about two and a-half 

 million dollars for rebuilding the hospitals and 

 clinics of the University of Berlin, and about 

 two million dollars for the establishment of the 

 Botanical Gardens with its museum and the 

 pharmaceutical laboratory at Dahlem. 



The interest of the Frohschammer fund of 

 the University of Munich, amounting to $400, 

 is offered for an essay on ' A Psychological 

 Analysis of the Facts of Volition, ' which must be 

 presented before October 1st, 1899. 



The Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bor- 

 deaux offers a prize of $600 for a paper on the 

 culture of fresh-water fishes. 



The University of St. Petersburg has received 

 a gift of 100,000 roubles from M. Ssimin for a 

 bacteriological observatory. 



The Boston Museum of Fine Arts receives 

 $50,000 through the will of the late Miss Mary 

 G. Morrill. 



We learn from the Revue Scientifique that the 

 Geographical Society of Paris has awarded its 

 gold medal to Dr. Nansen ; the Ducros-Aubert 

 prize, 14,000 frs. and a gold medal to Lieuten- 

 ant Hourst for his expedition to the Niger, and 

 gold medals to M. Flamand for his studies in 

 the south of Algeria, to M. Versepuy for his ex- 

 pedition across Africa, to M. ChafFanjon for his 

 journey from the Caucasus to Mandjourie, to 

 commander Koch for his maps of French colo- 

 nies, and to M. de Flotte for his map of Mo- 

 rocco. 



The library of the late Professor G. vom 

 Rath, the mineralogist, has been presented by 

 his widow to the University at Bonn. 



De. Kuno Fischee, of Heidelberg, the well- 

 known writer on the history of philosophy, 

 celebrated on the 19th of March the fiftieth 

 anniversary of his doctorate. 



Peofessor a. Bastian has asked for leave of 

 absence for another year from the University 

 of Berlin to continue his anthropological inves- 

 tigations in the East. 



AccoHDiNG to the latest reports there has 

 been a decided decrease in the prevalence of the 

 plague at Bombay, the number of deaths for the 

 last week of which reports are at hand number- 

 ing only 360, with 323 new cases. Dr. Yersin 

 reports that flies as well as rats play an impor- 

 tant part in the dissemination of the plague. 



In the Bulletin of the American Museum of 

 National History, Dr. J. A. Allen describes a 

 new species of mountain sheep from the British 

 Northwest Territory, which he calls Ovis stonei. 

 It is very closely related to 0. dalli, from which 

 it differs chiefly in the darker coloration and 

 restriction of the white to well defined areas, 

 and, in fact, it would seem entirely probable 

 that 0. stonei may prove to be merely a sub- 

 species whose darker coloration is correlated 

 with its more southern and less elevated habitat. 



The Committee on Units and Standards of 

 the American Institute of Electrical Engineers 

 has recommended that Hefner- Alteneck Amyl- 

 Acetate Lamps furnished with test certificates 

 from the Physikalisch-Technische Eeichsanstalt 

 at Charlottenburg, Berlin, should be temporarily 

 adopted as concrete standards of luminous in- 

 tensity, or candle power. It ought not to be 

 necessary to go to Germany for a photometric 

 standard. The existence of the Eeichsanstalt 

 at Charlottenburg has an undoubted influence 

 on the great increase of exports from Germany. 

 Figures for 1896 are not at hand, but in the 

 course of the preceding five years the annual 

 exports from Germany increased in value by 

 nearly $250,000,000, while in the same period 

 those in England decreased to the extent of 

 $100,000,000. 



At the annual general meeting of the fellows 

 of the Eoyal Horticultural Society, London, it 

 was reported that in order to celebrate the 

 Queen's long reign the Council had decided to 

 strike a special medal or medallion, to be called 

 the Victoria medal of horticulture, and to be 

 awarded honoris causa in the domain of horti- 

 culture. The Society has now £4,000 and 

 wishes to increase this amount to £40,000 in 



