38-2 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 507. 



ampton, to be superintendent of sea fisheries 

 in place of the late Captain Dawson. 



Dr. Frederick B. Loomis, of Amherst Col- 

 lege, has during the present summer been en- 

 gaged in exploring for fossils in Wyoming. 



A LIFE of Andree is to be issued by the 

 Geographical Society of Stockholm, of which 

 he was a prominent member. 



Mrs. Imogen W. Eddy, computer in the 

 Harvard College Observatory, was killed by a 

 fall from an elevator on September 4. 



The death is announced of Dr. Frederic 

 Zahn, formerly professor of anatomy at the 

 University of Geneva; and of .Dr. Emilio 

 Valleri, professor of experimental physics at 

 Naples. 



Dr. Alexander Graham Bell has presented 

 to the Station for Experimental Evolution of 

 the Carnegie Institution, at Cold Spring Har- 

 bor, Long Island, a six-nippled ram and two 

 five-nippled ewes, one white and one black, 

 from the remarkable race of multi-nippled 

 sheep that he has created on Cape Breton 

 Island. The sheep will be used to test the 

 method of inheritance of characters. 



The late Dr. Albert W. Warden, of Union 

 Hill, West Hoboken, has bequeathed $1,000 to 

 the New York Academy of Medicine. 



The Peruvian government is about to found 

 a national museum of natural science, which 

 will have its home in Lima, and in which there 

 will be three departments, one devoted to ani- 

 mal life, another to plant life, and a third to 

 minerals. 



The British antarctic expedition steamer 

 Discovery arrived at Plymouth on Septem- 

 ber 10. 



It is announced that a powerful steamer 

 will be built immediately at the McKay & 

 Dix shipyard at Verona, on the Penobscot, for 

 Commander Peary's next polar expedition. 

 The steamer will be equipped with powerful 

 engines and it is said that some new features 

 will be embodied in the construction. It will 

 cost between $300,000 and $400,000. 



According to a press despatch the Ceylon 

 mineralogical survey report gives details of 

 the discovery of a mineral existing in small 

 black cubical crystals in the refuse of the gem 



washings at Balangoda. The principal con- 

 stituent is thorium oxide, of which there is 

 present more than 75 per cent. The mineral 

 appears to be new, and it is suggested that 

 the name of thorianite be given to it, as it is 

 radio-active. 



There will be a civil service examination 

 on September 14 for the position of aid and 

 deck officer in the Coast and Geodetic Survey 

 and one for the position of computer on Sep- 

 tember 19. Deck officers are appointed with 

 salaries of $720 to $900 and computers receive 

 salaries of from $1,000 to $2,000. Further in- 

 formation may be obtained from the active 

 superintendent of the survey. Applications 

 for the position of scientific aid (female) in 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of 

 Agriculture, will be received by the Civil 

 Service Commission until September 28, 1904. 

 Applicants must be graduates of colleges in 

 courses of study tending to qualify them for 

 the scientific work of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. They are not assembled for this ex- 

 amination, but must submit all the required 

 material with their applications. 



The U. S. Geological Survey has in the 

 government building of the St. Louis Exposi- 

 tion an exhibit of radio-active substances, pre- 

 pared under the direction of Dr. George F. 

 Kunz, which will be of interest to scientific 

 men who visit the exposition. It includes 

 specimens from M. Becquerel, Sir William 

 Crookes and Professor Ernest Rutherford and 

 others. Everything obtainable relating to the 

 source, manufacture and application of ra- 

 dium is exhibited, including all chemicals 

 obtained from the separation of various ra- 

 dium compounds, and all instruments and 

 devices with which it is proposed to ap- 

 ply radio-activity in medicine, science and 

 the arts. A feature is the portraits and 

 the publications of investigators, together 

 with photographs of their laboratories and 

 apparatus, and autograph letters from some 

 of them. Two halls have been set aside for 

 demonstration of the properties of radium. 

 In one are grouped the specimens of ores and 

 minerals containing radium. In the other 

 illustrated lectures are given daily at 11 :30 

 A.M. and 3 p.m. on a variety of subjects re- 



