916 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 103. 



the Academy to promote the study of the Bra- 

 zilian flora. Every six years it yields about 

 £1,150, which is applied in sending two Swedish 

 botanists to Brazil for two years. The first ex- 

 pedition was undertaken by Drs. C. A. M. 

 Lindman and G. O. A. Malme, 'who in 1892-94 

 explored Rio Grande, Paraguay and Matto 

 Grosso. Dr. T. N. Tschernyschew, of the Rus- 

 sian Geological Survey, has completed his ob- 

 servations on Nova Zembla. This island bears 

 traces like those in north Russia, of a formid- 

 able glaciation, followed by subsidence, during 

 which the whole territory was transformed into 

 an archipelago. Terraces, containing the shells 

 of arctic molluscs, extend along the shores to a 

 height of 160 meters. The present glaciers 

 are in a period of growth. Prof. F. Regel, of 

 Jena, went to Columbia last July on a voyage 

 of exploration, to last some nine months. M. 

 Maindron, the entomologist, has been com- 

 missioned by the French government to make 

 a collecting expedition to the Persian Gulf and 

 India. 



The publication of The Astronomical Journal 

 will be continued by Dr. S. C. Chandler, who 

 cooperated with Dr. Gould in editing the 

 Journal. With the assent of the family, it has 

 been decided to place in the title-heading of 

 each number, and upon the title-page of each 

 volume, the words ' Founded by B. A. Gould,' 

 as a permanent memorial. 



The Torrey Botanical Club, New York, of- 

 fers to supply a complete set of the Memoirs, 

 five volumes, of which a considerable number 

 remain undistributed, published at $15.00, for 

 half price, or $7.50, the offer to hold good only 

 until January 1, 1897. It is proposed to apply 

 the money derived from these sales to reprint- 

 ing the numbers of the Bulletin which are out 

 of print. 



The Commissioner of Labor, Mr. Wright, has 

 submitted to the House of Representatives 

 a plan for the organization of a permanent 

 Census Bureau in Washington. He pro- 

 poses a separate Census Bureau under the 

 control of a Director of the Census, at a salary 

 of $6,000 a year, with an assistant, at $4,000 a 

 year. The other officers include a chief clerk, 

 at $2,500 ; a disbursing clerk, at $2,500, and five 



chief statisticians, at $3,000, each, a year. Such 

 further assistance as may be necessary shall be 

 employed from time to time, the appointments 

 being under civil service laws. It is provided 

 that a general census shall be taken April 15, 

 1900, and every ten years thereafter, which 

 will include a wide field of inquiry and investi- 

 gation, of which we hope to give the details 

 when settled. 



We called attention last week to the meeting 

 of the New York State Science Teachers' Asso- 

 ciation, at Syracuse, on December 29th, 30th 

 and 31st. The leaders in the discussions have 

 now accepted and are as follows : Physics and 

 Chemistry, Prof. A. L. Arey, of the Rochester 

 Free Academy, and Dr. E. L. Nichols, of Cor- 

 nell University; Physical Geography and Geology, 

 Prof. R. S. Tarr, of Cornell University ; Dr. 

 Richard E. Dodge, of the Teachers' College, 

 New York City, and Dr. Frank McMurry, of 

 the Buffalo School of Pedagogy ; Biology, Prof. 

 Charles Wright Dodge, of Rochester Univer- 

 sity, and Dr. Thomas B. Stowell, Principal of 

 the Potsdam Normal School. 



The anniversary meeting of the Royal So- 

 ciety was held at Burlington House on Novem- 

 ber 30th. The President, Sir Joseph Lister, 

 made an address. He said, according to the 

 report in the in the British Medical Journal, that 

 the Council, in framing new rules for the con- 

 duct of the meetings and as to the publications 

 of the Society, had desired, in the first place, 

 to increase the interest of the meetings by giv- 

 ing greater freedom in their conduct and by en- 

 larging the opportunities for discussion ; and in 

 the second place to obtain more secure and more 

 rapid judgment on the value of papers, so that 

 while the high standard of the Philosophical 

 Transactions was retained, or even raised, 

 greater rapidity in the publication both of them 

 and of the Proceedings might be attained. The 

 International Conference on the desirability and 

 possibility of compiling and publishing, by in- 

 ternational cooperation, a complete catalogue of 

 scientific literature had agreed to the proposal, 

 and had advised that the scheme should be car- 

 ried out by an international central bureau, 

 under the direction of an international council. 

 Steps had been taken to encourage the practice 



