November 20, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



755 



physical and natural sciences: ' Practical Work 

 in Electricity and Magnetism,' by W, G. Wooll- 

 combe. 



A NEW Bericht will hereafter be published by 

 the Nordoberfrankischer Verein for natural his- 

 tory, located at Hof, Bavaria. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie has let the contract 

 for building a free library at Homestead at 

 once, and will immediately prepare for similar 

 institutions at Duquesne and Carnegie. He 

 has announced that he will found as many 

 branch libraries in Pittsburg as may be needed. 



It is stated in Nature that the objects ex- 

 hibited in the ethnographical section of the 

 Millennial Exhibition at Budapest are to be 

 used as the nucleus of an ethnographical mu- 

 seum. The collection of machines in the special 

 exhibition of the means of transport are to 

 form a railway museum, and the bulk of the 

 exhibits in the agricultural section will be used 

 for the foundation of an agricultural museum. 



The Astrophysical Journal announces the es- 

 tablishment of a new astrophysical observatory 

 at Rossgen, Mittweide, Saxony. The principal 

 instrument, which was to be ready for use by the 

 middle of October, is a refractor of 170 mm. 

 aperture, made in the workshop of Hans Heele, 

 in Berlin. It is provided with both visual and 

 photographic objectives, and the mounting em- 

 bodies a number of new features. The pro- 

 gram of the work prepared by Dr. Friedrich 

 Krueger, the director of the observatory, in- 

 cludes : (1) The formation of a photometric 

 catalogue of all colored stars within the limits 

 of the director's catalogue of colored stars. (2) 

 Photometric determinations of comparison stars 

 used in the observation of variables, including 

 such stars as are communicated to the director 

 by observers of variables and those which are 

 found in published papers. (3) Construction of 

 star charts by the aid of photography of regions 

 containing variables. 



We called attention to the celebration this 

 year of the 150th anniversary of the Zurich 

 Scientific Society. The Society has now issued, 

 in commemoration of the event, two volumes 

 edited by Dr. F. Rudio, with the cooperation of 

 Drs. A. Heim and A. Lang. The first volume 



contains a history of the Society with portraits 

 of some of its distinguished members, and the 

 second volume contains scientific papers. 



It is stated in Cosmos that the International 

 Geodetic Congress, which met recently at Lau- 

 sanne, under the presidency of M. Faye, re- 

 ceived reports on the organization of the pro- 

 jected four international observatories for the 

 study of small movements of the earth's axis. 

 The statutes adopted last year at Berlin have 

 been ratified by fourteen of the twenty-one 

 states taking part. The ratification of the re- 

 maining seven is expected before the close of 

 the year. 



The Massachusetts State Board of Agricul- 

 ture will hold a public meeting at Greenfield on 

 December 1st, 2d and 3d, when a number of 

 interesting papers will be read. It is expected 

 that the question of prosecuting the work of the 

 extermination of the gypsey moth will be promi- 

 nently brought forward. 



At the Convention of the Agricultural Chem- 

 ists of the United States, held recently at Wash- 

 ington, officers were elected as follows : Presi- 

 dent, William Frear, Pennsylvania ; Vice-Presi- 

 dent, A. L. Winton, Connecticut ; Secretary, 

 H. W. Wiley, Washington, D. C. ; Executive 

 Committee, B. W. Kilgore, North Carolina, 

 and Arthur Goss, New Mexico. 



A Congress of Medical Climatology and Hy- 

 drology, to be held at Brussels in connection 

 with the exhibition of 1897, is being organized 

 under the auspices of the Belgian Royal Society 

 of State Medicine. 



The Paris Society of Hypnology and Psychol- 

 ogy has decided to hold an International Con- 

 gress of Experimental and Therapeutic Hypno- 

 tism in Paris in 1900. 



The repeal of the law practically forbidding 

 the use of motor carriages in Great Britain was 

 celebrated on November 14th by a race from 

 London to Brighton. Fifty carriages took part 

 in the race, it being won by a Duryea motor, 

 which traversed the distance of 47 miles in four 

 hours. 



Physiological efiects caused by the Rontgen 

 rays were, we believe, first reported in this 



