December 18, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



917 



-of appending subject indices to the papers pub- 

 lished by the Society. Sir Joseph Lister then 

 referred to the universal attention attracted to 

 Rontgen's great discovery. He then passed 

 in review some of the more important papers 

 -communicated to the Society during the year, 

 and, in speaking of biology, alluded especially 

 to the work of Prof. Schafer, Prof. Farmer and 

 Mr. Lloyd Williams. The presentation of med- 

 als then took place in the manner that we have 

 already announced. In the evening Sir Joseph 

 Lister presided at a dinner at which were pres- 

 ent many distinguished guests and a large num- 

 ber of Fellows of the Society, 



The Appalachian Mountain Club, of Boston, 

 has secured new and commodious rooms in the 

 Tremont Building. They are centrally located 

 and with a fine view, stretching from Big Blue 

 to Prospect (the highest elevations near Boston), 

 and including the Charles River basin and the 

 State House. The library is now safely housed 

 in a fire-proof building. The rooms are used 

 for Council and Committee meetings, exhibi- 

 tions and small social gatherings; they contain 

 the library and collections, and are the work- 

 shop and ofl&ce headquarters of the Club, The 

 rooms are under the general supervision of the 

 Room Committee and are open to all members 

 from 3 to 5:30 p. m., under the charge of vol- 

 unteer custodians. 



Natural Science gives some account of the 

 Institute of Jamaica, taken from its report for 

 the year ending March, 1896. The museum 

 has been removed from the lower floor of Date 

 Tree Hall to adjoining new premises. These 

 consist of two floors, the lower devoted to the 

 collections of the Government Geological Sur- 

 vey, the Jamaica woods and most of the nat- 

 ural history collections; the upper floor is filled 

 with the anthropological and the rock and min- 

 eral collections. By reason of these changes 

 the library accommodation has been greatly in- 

 creased, and the art department given room to 

 develop. An attempt has been made to increase 

 the public interest in the museum and natural 

 history generally by the publication of museum 

 notes in the Kingston newspapers. There has 

 been an increase of 28 per cent, in the attend- 

 ance of visitors to the museum. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Peof. M. J. Elrod, of the Illinois Wesleyan 

 University, has resigned to accept the chair of 

 biology in the Montana State University. 



The following further appointments have 

 been made at the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology : Samuel C. Prescott, instructor in 

 biology; Edward M. Bragg, assistant in me- 

 chanical engineering; Leonard H. Goodhue, 

 assistant in analytic chemistry ; Amadeus W. 

 Grabau, assistant in geology ; Minor S. Jame- 

 son, assistant in civil engineering; Albert J. 

 Wells, assistant in mechanical drawing ; Clar- 

 ence W. Perley, assistant in biology. 



M, PoiNCARi;, now professor of mathematical 

 physics and the theory of probabilities in the 

 faculty of sciences of the University of Paris, 

 has, at his request, been transferred to the chair 

 of mathematical astronomy, M. Boussinesq, 

 now professor of mechanics, takes the chair 

 vacated by M. Poincar6. 



There is now once more a University of 

 Paris, The various faculties at Paris have been 

 reorganized with a certain freedom from gov- 

 ernment control. The inauguration of the Uni- 

 versity has been celebrated in the new build- 

 ings of the Sorbonne with suitable ceremonies, 

 which included an oration by M, Lavisse. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 

 X-RAYS. 



To THE Editor of Science : The remark 

 has been frequently made that the almost com- 

 plete absence of specular reflection in the case 

 of the X-rays may depend upon the want of 

 sufficient polish of the reflecting surface. So 

 far as I have noticed, no one has tried the ex- 

 periment with mercury as the reflector. Very 

 simple arrangements would admit of obtaining 

 a perfectly plane surface, which, as to reflect- 

 ing power, would leave nothing to be desired, 

 A concave surface of mercury might be found 

 to converge the rays, M, Carey Lea. 



REPLY TO PROFESSOR HALSTED. 



In the last number of Science Prof. Halsted, 

 by bringing into juxtaposition two statements 

 which were widely separated in a recent note 



