656 



SCIENCE. 



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



has made all the necessary observations of the 

 formation of the mountain and the different 

 heights, it will proceed to explore the mountain 

 of Tupungato and also Mercedario, in the prov- 

 ince of Coquimbo, which is nearly as high as 

 Aconcagua. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Harvard University receives $50,000 by 

 the wills of the late Miss E. A. Haven and Miss 

 C. M. Haven. Dartmouth College receives 

 $15,000 from the same source, and Smith Col- 

 lege $3,000 from Miss E. A. Haven. 



Mr. C. W. Spaulding, lately Treasurer of the 

 University of Illinois, is said to have used for 

 his own purposes $400,000 in bonds and a 

 large amount of money belonging to the Uni- 

 versity. 



President Dwight, of Yale University, in 

 his annual report recommends that the fiftieth 

 anniversary of the Sheffield Scientific School, 

 which occurs this year, be celebrated by suitable 

 exercises. He states that a new building for 

 the departments of physiology and morphology 

 is needed and hopes that funds will be provided 

 during the year. Gifts and bequests to the 

 University during the last ten years have 

 amounted to more than $4,000,000. 



From the report of Cambridge University 

 for 1896 it appears that during the year the 

 University conferred 679 degrees of Bachelor 

 of Arts, 33 of Bachelor of Law, 6 of Doctor of 

 Science and 1 of Doctor of Letters. The total 

 receipts of the University were upwards of 

 £41,000. 



We stated recently that in nearly all cases 

 the State universities had remained non-parti- 

 san. We must now record with regret the 

 fact that the Populists, on securing a majority 

 in the Board of Regents of the Kansas State 

 Agricultural College, have dismissed a President 

 who had served for eighteen years, to make 

 room for a young man ' in harmony with the 

 fundamental principles of the administration,' 

 and have removed other members of the faculty 

 and employees. 



Mr. Junius Morgan, a Princeton graduate 



resident in New York, who is known for his 

 bibliographical collections, some of which he 

 has recently contributed to the Princeton Uni- 

 versity library, has been appointed associate 

 librarian in that institution. It may be added 

 that the north stack room of the new library 

 building at Princeton is nearing completion and 

 the main collections are to be removed to it dur- 

 ing the coming summer. 



Mr. W. B. Morton has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of natural philosophy in Queen's College, 

 Belfast, filling the vacancy caused by the resig- 

 nation of Dr. J. D. Everett. 



Professor B. von Lendenfeld, of Czerno- 

 witz, has been appointed professor of zoology 

 in the German University at Prague. Dr. v. 

 Below, of the Miinster Academy, has been called 

 to the chair of zoology at Marburg. Dr. Lud- 

 wig Heim has been appointed assistant profes- 

 sor of bacteriology. Dr. Gadamer has quali- 

 fied as docent in pharmaceutical chemistry, at 

 the University of Marburg. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



MR. LOWELL'S OBSERVATIONS OF MERCURY 



and VENUS. 



The Monthly Notices of the Eoyal Astronom- 

 ical Society for January, 1897, contains plates of 

 drawings of Mercury and Venus, made by Mr. 

 Lowell, at the Flagstaff' Observatory, in 1896, 

 The markings on Mercury were ' at once con- 

 spicuous ' with the new twenty-four-inch ob- 

 ject-glass ; those on Venus are 'perfectly dis- 

 tinct and unmistakable.' The undersigned 

 made a considerable number of observations of 

 Mercury in the years 1873-1885, and a very- 

 large number of Venus in the years 1873-1890, 

 with telescopes of six, sixteen, twenty-six, 

 thirty-six inches in aperture, without ever once 

 seeing markings of the character depicted by 

 Mr. Lowell. Other markings of the class drawn 

 by Schiaparelli and many other observers have, 

 on the other hand, been seen and recorded 

 whenever the conditions of vision were good. 

 I have no hesitation in saying that such mark- 

 ings as are shown by Mr. Lowell did not exist on 

 Venus before 1890. It is my opinion that they 

 do not now exist on the planet, but that they 



