Decembek 4, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



837 



March 5, Col. Ira Ayer, Special Agent U. S. Treas- 

 ury Department, New York. ' The Tin Plate Indus- 

 try in the United States. ' 



March 12, Prof. D. S. Jacobus, Stevens Institute of 

 Technology, Hoboken, N. J. 'Artificial Light: Mod- 

 ern Methods Compared — Electric-Incandescent, Wels- 

 bach, Acetylene.' 



March 19, Prof. W. P. Mason, Rensselaer Poly- 

 technic Institute, Troy, N. Y. ' Sanitary Problems 

 connected with Municipal Water Supplies. ' 



March 26, Mr. Alfred E. Hunt, President Pittsburg 

 Eeduction Co., Pittsburg, Pa. 'The development of 

 the Use of Aluminum in the Arts. ' 



April 2, Dr. Conrad Berens, Philadelphia. ' Deaf- 

 ness and its Causes. ' 



April 9, Mr. George F. Kunz, with Tiffany & Co., 

 New York. ' Precious Stones as they have influenced 

 Geography. ' 



May 14, Prof. John B. DeMotte. Bryn Mawr, Pa. 

 'The Physical Basis of Mind.' 



Me. J. D. Weeks has just made a report, 

 says the Bailroad Gazette, on the supply of 

 natural gas and its decline, from whicli it ap- 

 pears that the supply has fallen to half in seven 

 years. In 1888 the value of the gas produced 

 was $22,629,875. In 1895 it was $13,006,650. 

 In Pennsylvania the fall has been much greater 

 than in Ohio and Indiana. In 1888 the gas 

 produced in Pennsylvania was worth $19,282,- 

 375 ; in 1895 it was $5,852,000. The decrease 

 has been less rapid since 1891, owing to the 

 general introduction of meters, but it has gone 

 on at the rate of about 5 per cent, a year. As 

 the product shrinks rapidly when pressure falls, 

 it may not be over 10 or 15 years before very lit- 

 tle gas is produced. 



It is announced that the Edinburgh Medical 

 Journal, which is now owned by Mr. Young J. 

 Pentland and is to be edited by Dr. G. A. Gib- 

 son, begins a new series with the issue for 

 January, 1897. 



The report of the Manchester Museum for 

 1895-6 (says Natural Science) notes the impor- 

 tance of the recognition of the museum as a 

 public institution by the Manchester City Coun- 

 cil, in that a sum of £400 has been apportioned 

 to the museum out of the Free Library Rate. 

 The average Sunday attendance is 519, and may 

 be considered highly satisfactory, seeing that the 

 largest attendance ever recorded on a week 



day was 1,079, The increase in the collections 

 and library is very marked. The arrangement 

 of the minerals by Mr. Gilbert Rigg, under the 

 supervision of Dr. Burghardt, has been com- 

 pleted as far as the end of the silicates, and it is 

 hoped that a guide to this collection may 

 shortly be published. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The tenth annual convention of the Associa- 

 tion of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the 

 Middle States and Maryland was held at the 

 University of Pennsylvania on November 27th 

 and 28th. The subject to which the meeting 

 was especially devoted was the consideration of 

 college entrance requirements. The require- 

 ments in history and in science were discussed 

 separately, the latter by Prof. Ira Remsen, 

 Prof. George F. Barker and Mr. O. D. Clark. 

 The conference on college entrance require- 

 ments, with special reference to the age at 

 which students now enter college and graduate 

 from the professional schools, was taken part in 

 by a large number of speakers, including Super- 

 intendent Edward Brooks, Philadelphia ; Presi- 

 dent Eliot, Harvard University ; Vice-Provost 

 Fullerton, University of Pennsylvania ; Presi- 

 dent Gilman, Johns Hopkins University ; Com- 

 missioner of Education Harris ; Chancellor Hol- 

 land, Western University of Pennsylvania ; 

 President McCracken, New York University ; 

 President Patton, Princeton University ; Presi- 

 dent Schurman, Cornell University ; Presi- 

 dent Sharpless, Haverford College ; President 

 Thomas, Bryn Mawr College ; Principal Thur- 

 ber, Morgan Park Academy, and President 

 Warfield, Lafayette College. On the evening 

 of November 27th Dr. J. C. McKenzie gave the 

 President's address, and brief addresses were 

 made by Superintendent Brooks and President 

 Eliot. 



The Hamilton Court Building Company, com- 

 posed of friends of Columbia University, have 

 bought for about $200,000, sixteen lots having 

 a frontage of 200 feet on the east side of Amster- 

 dam avenue and a depth of 200 feet on 121st 

 and 122d streets. It is proposed to erect at a 

 cost of $1,000,000 a dormitory that will accom- 

 modate about 900 students. 



