318 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 505. 



Beloit College conferred at its recent com- 

 meneement the degree of doctor of laws on 

 Professor George E. Hale, director of the 

 Terkes Observatory, and on Professor Eollin 

 ~D. Salisbury, head of the department of geog- 

 raphy of the University of Chicago. 



The gold medal of the American Geograph- 

 ical Society has been presented to Dr. Sven 

 von Hedin by the United States Ambassador 

 at Stockholm. 



Dr. N. L. Britton, director of the N. Y. 

 Botanical Garden, and Dr. J. IST. Eose, of the 

 U. S. IsTational Museum, have taken up the 

 study of the Cactacese. They propose to 

 gather large living collections both at New 

 York and Washington, miich as they have 

 done with the Crassulaceae, and to continue 

 their studies for a series of years, basing de- 

 scriptions largely on living plants. Extensive 

 field work will be done, especially in Mexico, 

 and the earnest cooperation of botanists 

 traveling in the southwest is solicited. The 

 National Museiim will gladly furnish means 

 for sending material to Washington. 



At the meeting of the board of regents of 

 the University of California held on August 

 ■9, 1904, Professor C. A. Kofoid, of the depart- 

 ment of zoology, was granted leave of absence 

 from the university until March 15, 1905. 

 Professor Kofoid will have charge of the 

 plankton work of the Tropical Pacific cruise 

 of the Albatross, to be conducted by Mr. Alex- 

 ander Agassiz during the coming winter. 



Mr. C. E. Austin, of the Maryland Agri- 

 cultural College, has been appointed agri- 

 culturist at the central Cuban station. 



Professor F. Kohlrausch has retired from 

 the presidency of the German Eeichsanstalt. 



Professor W. Eorster, who celebrated the 

 fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate on August 

 5, will retire from the directorship of the Ber- 

 lin Observatory on October 1. 



Dr. Karl von Voit, of the Physiological 

 Laboratory at Munich, celebrated, on August 

 8, the fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate. 



Mr. S. a. McDowell,, B.A., Trinity College, 

 ■Cambridge, has been appointed assistant to the 

 superintendent of the Museum of Zoology. 



Dr. TI. C. MiJLLER, vice-director of the ex- 

 periment station at Halle, has been appointed 

 director of the chemical control station at the 

 same place, to succeed the late Dr. L. Biihring. 



Dr. K. Windisci-i, of Berlin, has been ap- 

 pointed director of the agricultural institute 

 at Hohenheim. 



Dr. Th. Loesner has been appointed curator 

 in the botanical museum of Berlin University. 



At a recent meeting of the state board of 

 agriculture an appropriation was voted for a 

 geological survey of the mineral resources of 

 Virginia. The survey will be conducted 

 jointly by the state board of agriculture and 

 the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Dr. 

 Thomas L. Watson, professor of geology in the 

 Polytechnic Institute, was appointed geologist- 

 in-charge of the survey. 



The museum of the University of Michigan 

 has sent a party to the Porcupine Mountains 

 and Isle Royale in Northern Michigan. The 

 object of the trip is to make a preliminary 

 ecological survey of the fauna and flora of the 

 areas visited and to collect specimens for the 

 museum. The field exiaenses of the party are 

 met by the combined gifts of Mr. Bryant 

 Walker, of Detroit, and the Hon. Peter White 

 and Mr. N. M. Kaufmann, of Marquette. The 

 party will spend about two months in the field. 



We credited last week to the daily papers 

 the statement that Professor Frederick Starr, 

 professor of anthropology at the University of 

 Chicago, would resign and would make an 

 extended expedition to Japan and China. We 

 are informed that this statement is entirely 

 incorrect. 



Dr. H. H. Turner, Savilian professor of 

 astronomy in the University of Oxford, gave 

 six illustrated lectures on astronomical dis- 

 covery, and Professor Hugo de Vries, professor 

 of botany at the University of Amsterdam, 

 gave four lectures on the mutation theory at 

 the University of Chicago during the present 

 summer. 



Stanford Unu'ersity publishes the bibli- 

 ography of its staff in zoology, professors and 

 students to 1903. In the list are 127 titles 

 of papers by Professor Charles Henry Gilbert, 

 4 by Associate Professor George Clinton Price, 



