J0NE 4, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



875 



We have already called attention to the ap- 

 pointment of physicians to visit the New York 

 schools. Mr. C. B. Hubbell, President of the 

 Board of Education, advocates the appointment, 

 under the Board of Health, of ten or twelve 

 specialists to examine the eyesight and hearing 

 of the children. 



The daily papers report that an earthquake 

 shock of some severity was felt in Canada and 

 in the northern parts of the State of New York 

 at 10.15 p. m. on May 27th. 



Lieutenant Robert E. Peaey has received 

 leave of absence from the navy for five years. 

 He will go this summer to Whale Sound, where 

 he expects to find several families of Esquimaux 

 who will form a colony further north and will 

 spend the year collecting meat, furs, etc. , which 

 colony will be the base of supplies for a further 

 northward advance. Lieutenant Peary will be 

 accompanied as far as Melville Bay by several 

 scientific parties, one under Professor G. H. Bar- 

 ton, of the Massachusetts Institvite of Tech- 

 nology, and one under Professor C. H. Hitch- 

 cock, of Dartmouth College. 



It is announced that the Thomson Yates 

 Laboratory of pathology and physiology of the 

 medical department of University College, 

 Liverpool, will be oppened by Lord Lister 

 next spring. Mr. Thompson Yates has made 

 further donations for interior fittings and for 

 apparatus, bringing the amount of his gift to 

 $125,000. 



The town of Dundee has decided to estab- 

 lish a bacteriological laboratory, thus granting 

 the petition presented to the Town Council by 

 the District Branch of the British Medical As- 

 sociation. 



The popular magazines for June contain a 

 number of articles of scientific interest. Pro- 

 fessor S. P. Langley contributes to McClure\s 

 an account of the successful working of his aero- 

 dome. The Century includes three illustrated 

 articles : an account by Professor W. O. At- 

 water, of the experiments carried out under his 

 direction regarding the use of food in the body; 

 a description of the Harvard Observatory and 

 its branch at Arequippa by Mrs. Todd, and a 

 record of personal experience of home life 

 among the Indians by Miss Alice C. Fletcher. 



In Harper^s Mr. H. S. Williams writes on the 

 meteorological progress of the century ; in the 

 New England Magazine Mr. G. E. Walsh 

 describes forest culture of to-day, and in the 

 Arena President David Starr Jordan publishes 

 an article on the Heredity of Richard Roe. 



The Philadelphia Commercial Museum was 

 formally opened on June 2d, in the presence 

 of President McKinley and a number of other 

 distinguished guests. Under the directorship 

 of Professor William P. Wilson the Museum 

 has assumed much importance and now con- 

 contains 50,000 exhibits of raw products and 

 many manufactured articles. In addition to 

 the collections of the Museum there is a library 

 especially rich in statistical publications, con- 

 sular reports, etc. , and a Bureau of Information 

 prepared to answer questions on all subjects 

 germane to the scope of the Museum. The 

 Museum is now occupying temporarily the old 

 offices of the Pennsylvania Railroad on Fourth 

 street, but the City of Philadelphia has set aside 

 a site an appropriation of $200,000 for a build- 

 ing. The primary object of the Museum is to 

 bring before manufacturers, dealers and con- 

 sumers the products of the world, so that they 

 may know what to purchase and what to ex- 

 port. In cooperation with our consular ser- 

 vice and with the governments of foreign coun- 

 tries, the Museum will undoubtedly fulfill an 

 important mission, not only for commerce and 

 manufactures, but also for science. 



The first of the two annual conversaziones 

 of the Royal Society was held on May 19th. 

 Among the exhibits described in the English 

 journals were the following : The new process 

 (Dansac-Chassagne) of producing photographs 

 in color, still kept secret, was illustrated in a 

 series of prints in the various stages of treat- 

 ment by Sir H. Truman Wood. In regard to 

 recent work with the X-rays Mr. A. A. C. 

 Swinton showed his new focus tubes, in which 

 the distance between the cathode and anti- 

 cathode may be adjusted so as to allow the 

 production of rays of a maximum penetrative 

 value. Mr. Heycock and Mr. Neville showed 

 photographs when the X-rays had been allowed 

 to pass through a sodium gold alloy, showing 

 separately the crystals of gold (opaque) and of 



