-652 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 121. 



in a way rarely equalled in the history of 

 science, the consecration of a powerful intellect 

 to the pursuit of the knowledge of nature. To 

 an almost unerring accuracy of observation he 

 conjoined admirable judgment. He was unex- 

 celled as an expert in the field of vertebrate 

 zoology of both present and extinct forms ; he 

 discovered great numbers of genera and spe- 

 cies ; he announced startling and epoch-making 

 schemes of classification ; he framed compre- 

 hensive systems of philosophy based on biologic 

 premises. One hesitates which to admire the 

 most, the tenacity of his memory, the brilliancy 

 of his wit, or the ease with which he used his 

 enormous erudition. To any community and 

 at any time the loss of such a man is a calamity. 



Mb. M. E. D. TR0WBKIDC4E writes from De- 

 troit that Professor F. W. Putnam, Permanent 

 Secretary of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, visited Detroit on the 

 8th inst., in the interests of the meeting to be 

 held in this city next August. He reported 

 himself highly pleased with the facilities offered 

 by the new high school building for the accom- 

 modation of the several sections of the Associa- 

 tion. At present there is promise of a most 

 successful meeting. Local committees are at 

 work to provide interesting features for the en- 

 tertainment of their guests. While in the city 

 Professor Putnam spoke upon the Ruins of 

 Copan, Honduras, under the auspices of the 

 Detroit Archseological SocietJ^ There was an 

 interested audience of 2,500 people. Professor 

 Putnam was introduced bj^ Professor M. L. 

 D'Ooge, of the University of Michigan, Presi- 

 dent of the Detroit Archseological Society. 



A CONFERENCE was held on April 15th by 

 Provost Harrison, of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania ; President Schurman, of Cornell Univer- 

 sity, and President Low, of Columbia Univer- 

 sity, at the house of the latter, at which it 

 was decided to ask Congress not to change the 

 present law in regard to apparatus, books, etc. 

 imported for public institutions. All the lead- 

 ing newspapers, Republican as well as Demo- 

 cratic, have protested against the imposition of 

 a tax on science, literature and art, and it 

 seems unlikely that the Senate committee will 

 disregard this unanimous expression of public 

 opinion. 



Mb. H. "Wilde, President of the Manchester 

 Scientific and Literary Society, has given the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences the sum of £5,500 

 to be used for an annual prize of 4,000 fr. for a 

 discovery or publication in physical science. 

 The prize is to be international. Mr. Wilde 

 states that he has made this gift as a return for 

 the benefit he has drawn from French science. 



M. Radatt, the astronomer, has been elected 

 a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences in 

 the room of the late M. Tisserand. 



As we have already noted, the British Med- 

 ical Association will hold its sixty-fifth annual 

 meeting in Montreal, beginning on August 31st. 

 The address of the President-elect, Dr. Rod- 

 dick, will be on medical education in Canada. 

 The address in medicine will be by Professor 

 W. Osier, of Johns Hopkins University, and 

 that in surgery by Mr. W. M. Banks, of Liver- 

 pool. 



The Board of Managers of the New York 

 Zoological Society held a meeting on April 13th 

 at which the plans of the park were discussed 

 and especially the methods to be used in col- 

 lecting the needed $250,000. Several subscrip- 

 tions of $5,000 and others for smaller amounts 

 were made by the managers. 



Professor Leon du Pasquier, of Neuchatel, 

 died after a brief illness on April 1st in his 

 thirty-third year. He will be recalled by 

 geologists as one of the most accomplished 

 expert guides during the excursions offered in 

 connection with the International Geological 

 Congress at Zurich in 1894, and as author of 

 a number of essays on the glacial geology of 

 northern Switzerland. 



Dr. G. a. Kenngott, professor of mineralogy 

 at Zurich, died on March 14th, aged seventy- 

 nine years. He had made important contribu- 

 tions to crystallography and petrogi'aphy and 

 was one of the editors of ' Handworterbuch der 

 Mineralogie, Geologie and Palaontologie.' 



We also regret to record the deaths of Dr. 

 F. W. Klatt, known for his contributions to 

 botany; of Dr. Ludwig Hollaender, a writer on 

 anatomy of the teeth; of Dr. Schols, professor 

 of geology in the Polytechnic Institute at Delft; 

 of Dr. Alfred Deweore, the botanist ; of Dr. 

 Thollen, the geologist ; of Dr. Ed. Freiherr 



