September 25, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



455 



from America. Under date of August 14th, 

 for instance, its New York correspondent sent 

 this dispatch : 



"Still the heat continues, and the odor of the 

 charnel house reigns over the city. From hundreds 

 of decomposing human hodies, and from the rotting 

 carcasses of horses there exhales a stench that is posi- 

 tively sickening. Added to this horror is an epidemic 

 of rahies. Mad dogs are running ahout the streets, 

 and already more than a score of children have heen 

 bitten. The mortality due to the heat yesterday 

 totals up 85 persons. ' ' 



Academy of St. Petersburg, has been appointed 

 full professor of comparative anatomy and em- 

 bryology in the University of Dorpat. Dr. 

 Lynen, of Charlottenberg, has been appointed 

 professor of mechanical engineering in the Poly- 

 technic Institute at Aachen. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Mrs. Edward Eoby, Mr. E. A. Shedd and 

 Mr. C. B. Shedd have offered the University 

 of Chicago a large tract of land around Wolf 

 Lake and the channel connecting it with Lake 

 Michigan, for the purpose of a lake biological 

 station, and it is also understood that they will 

 erect the buildings for the purpose if the offer 

 is accepted. The gift is valued at $500,000. 



The Lewis Institute, the new Chicago school 

 of technology, the foundation stone of which 

 was laid two years ago, has now been dedicated. 

 The late Allan G. Lewis left, in 1877, $500,000 

 for the purpose, which has now accumulated 

 so as to make the value of the endowment 

 $1,600,000. 



The Ohio State University is now erecting 

 three new buildings, viz : Townshend Hall, for 

 the accommodation of agriculture and agricul- 

 tural chemistry, to cost $75,000 ; a Gymnasium 

 and Armory, to cost $65,000 ; and one for phy- 

 siology, zoology and entomology, to cost $35,- 

 000. 



At Amherst College Mr. F. B. Loomis has 

 been appointed assistant in biology and Mr. E. 

 S. Newton assistant in chemistry. At Lafay- 

 ette College Mr. W. O. Pennell has been ap- 

 pointed instructor in mathematics and drawing ; 

 P. C. Nugent, instructor in civil engineering, 

 and R. E. Dennis, instructor in chemistry. At 

 Wellesley College, Miss A. M. Claypole has 

 been appointed instructor in zoology, and Miss 

 J. Evans instructor in botany ; Miss M. E. 

 Maltby will be acting professor of physics dur- 

 ing the absence abroad of Miss S. F. Whiting- 

 head, of the department. 



Dr. Tschermak, of the Military Medical 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 MR. LOWELL'S BOOK ON 'MARS.' 



The strong title, "The Lick Review of 

 ' Mars ' ' ' which Mr. Douglass prefixes to his 

 paper is a misnomer. The book was read, the 

 review was written, the MS. was forwarded to 

 the editor and pvit in type, wholly in the ab- 

 sence of those of my colleagues who were speci- 

 ally interested in Mars. The responsibility for 

 every statement lies with me and is cheerfully 

 accepted. Nor are any changes now required. 



It is a matter of extreme regret to me that 

 Mr. Douglass' comments on my review are 

 so largely personal. I had hoped that one or 

 more of the scientific questions involved might 

 be discussed. My review covered a very lim- 

 ited number of the points which I had desired 

 to bring up ; at many points in Mr. Lowell's 

 argument the connection of cause and effect is 

 not clear ; and the subject is important. I sin- 

 cerely hope that Mr. Douglass will write an- 

 another paper and devote it to the scientific 

 side of Mars. 



I again wish to acknowledge my indebtedness 

 for the quotations from one of Schiaparelli's 

 papers translated at Flagstaff by Prof. W. H. 

 Pickering, from which I quoted and to which I 

 gave credit. But many of us had previously 

 read Schiaparelli's earlier papers in Himmel und 

 Erde, in Flammarion's Mars and in the transac- 

 tions of the Beale Accademia dei Lincei, and 

 had found them full of facts determined and 

 theories faintly suggested to which the modern 

 writer of a book on Mars could conscientiously 

 give credit. 



It is true, as Mr. Douglass suggests, that 

 Schiaparelli claimed to have observed seasonal 

 changes on Mars. It is also only too true that 

 Mr. Lowell's book does not mention the emi- 

 nent Italian's observations of such changes. 

 For my pains in quoting Schiaparelli's own de- 

 scription of the seasonal changes observed by 



