Apeil 30, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



691 



Newcomb desire to manifest their afl'ectionate 

 regard and their high appreciation of his ser- 

 vices to science and to this University, and to 

 mark an epoch in his life, by asking him to sit 

 for a portrait to be painted in oil and presented 

 to the Johns Hopkins University. It is just 

 forty years since he left the work of a school 

 teacher in the State of Maryland to engage in 

 the mathematical service of the United States 

 government. It is twenty years since he be- 

 came senior professor of mathematics in the 

 United States navy and editor of the American 

 Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. For many 

 years he held the post of Astronomer in the 

 Naval Observatory at Washington. With the 

 Johns Hopkins University he has been closely 

 associated since its foundation. He has been 

 honored in unusual degree by academic dis- 

 tinctions and by election to membership in 

 learned societies both in this country and 

 Europe. His numerous contributions to science 

 have received the highest possible recognition. 

 This is not the occasion, nor am I the one, to 

 attempt to estimate, in detail, the significance 

 and the value of these contributions. The 

 judgment of one's own peers is the test of the 

 worth of discoveries in pure science. The 

 great mathematician, Professor Cayley, has 

 pointed out the rare combination, in Professor 

 Newcomb's publications, of mathematical skill 

 and power and of good, hard work devoted to 

 the furtherance of mathematical science. When 

 the blue ribbon of science, the Copley medal, 

 was conferred upon our colleague by the Royal 

 Society of London, attention was publicly 

 called to the fact that he had won his distinc- 

 tion especially by his contributions to the 

 science of gravitation and that his name was 

 worthy to be remembered in the domain for- 

 ever associated with the illustrious Isaac 

 Newton. Professor Newcomb, your friends 

 and colleagues now ask permission to place 

 your portrait by the side of that of your col- 

 league, Professor Gildersleeve, that thus there 

 may be here silent and enduring tokens of the 

 honor which this University bestows upon the 

 man of letters and the man of science." Pro- 

 fessor Newcomb responded briefly, acceding to 

 this request. 



We recently expressed the hope that the 



valuable physiological library of the late Pro- 

 fessor Du Bois-Eeymond might be secured for 

 an American institution. We now learn that Dr. 

 Nicholas Senn has bought the library and has 

 presented it to the Newberry Library of Chicago. 

 It is stated that the widow of the late Pro- 

 fessor Charcot has resigned the annual pension 

 of 2,000 francs which she received from the 

 State, in favor of other widows and children of 

 professsors or Agreges of the Faculty of Medi- 

 cine of Paris who have died without leaving 

 provision for their survivors. 



Princeton University will send its four- 

 teenth geological expedition to the West during 

 the coming summer. The party will be under 

 the direction of Professor Scott and will make 

 paleontological and geological studies and col- 

 lections in South Dakota. 



Professor Lawrence Bruner, of the Uni- 

 versity of Nebraska, sailed April 27th for 

 Buenos Ayres, where he will spend a year in- 

 vestigating the injurious locusts which have 

 recently increased enormously in three of the 

 eastern provinces of the Argentine Republic. 

 Professor Bruner goes out under the employ- 

 ment of a commission of business men and 

 bankers of Buenos Ayres, who have raised a 

 large sum of money for the purpose of fighting 

 the locusts, and who, very wisely, decided that 

 the first step should be to engage an expert of 

 great experience and acknowledged reputation. 

 The commission applied to the United States 

 Minister, Mr. W. I. Buchanan, and Mr. Bu- 

 chanan wrote at once to Major H. E. Alvord, 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 asking him to consult with several of the direc- 

 tors of the agricultural experiment stations in 

 the United States and to select the best-fitted 

 person for the work. The committee at once 

 chose Professor Bruner, who has secured a 

 year's leave of absence from the University of 

 Nebraska. No better choice could possibly 

 have been made. Professor Bruner was con- 

 nected with the U. S. Entomological Commis- 

 sion in its thorough investigations of the Rocky 

 Mountain locust, or Colorado grasshopper, in 

 1876 to 1880, and has since become known as 

 one of the foremost workers on the order of 

 Orthoptera in the United States. He has de- 



