894 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 521. 



ing as far as possible in concert with the 

 authorities engaged in the reduction of the 

 observations of the German and Scottish Ant- 

 arctic Expeditions, which in part covered the 

 same period of time. It was proposed that 

 the special scientific results of the expedition 

 should be published in a uniform series of 

 volumes similar to the published records of 

 the Challenger Expedition. The subject of 

 Mediterranean fever was referred to the trop- 

 ical disease committee of the society. At the 

 request of the Colonial Olfice an advisory 

 board was constituted as a sub-committee of 

 the tropical diseases committee, with Colonel 

 Bruce, F.E.S., as chairman. The president 

 and council had received from the Court of 

 the Goldsmiths' Company a grant of £1,000 

 ' for the purpose of aiding the prosecution of 

 original research work in connection with the 

 character and properties of radium,' accepting 

 the responsibility of the proper application of 

 the grant. In December, 1902, the Lords of 

 the Treasury appointed a committee, under 

 the chairmanship of Sir Herbert Maxwell, 

 F.E.S., M.P., to inquire into and report upon 

 the administration of the parliamentary grant 

 by the Meteorological Council, and to make 

 such recommendations as might seem to them 

 to increase the utility of the grant. The com- 

 mittee reported last May and commented 

 forcibly on the insufficiency of the funds re- 

 maining over for progressive meteorological 

 research. They advised that the service 

 should be attached to one of the great govern- 

 ment departments, in which case the present 

 council would not be required. They pointed 

 out how savings to the amount of £2,500 a 

 year might be effected. The National Phys- 

 ical Laboratory had continued its work with 

 success during the year, the last of the five 

 for which the original annual grant of £4,000 

 was made by the Treasury. A memorandum 

 had been sent to the Treasury which recom- 

 mended (1) that a sum of nearly £30,000 was 

 required for capital expenditure, and (2) that 

 the annual grant should be raised in the course 

 of four years to £10,000; while, with a view to 

 supporting these proposals, a request was made 

 for an oiEcial inquiry into the work and organ- 

 ization of the laboratory. The question was 



still under consideration. The donations and 

 subscriptions promised to the laboratory, in 

 most cases for five years, had increased and 

 now reached about £2,000. Work had been be- 

 gun on the new magnetic observatory at Esk- 

 dale Muir, for which a sum of £3,000 was 

 provided in the Treasury estimates for the 

 year. Other matters dealt with in the report 

 were publications, the government publication 

 grant of £1,000, and the library. The report 

 also contained the Eoyal Society's statement 

 on scientific education in schools, made last 

 January, which was forwarded to all the uni- 

 versities in the United Kingdom, and to which 

 many sympathetic replies had been received. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



Professor James F. Kemp, head of the De- 

 partment of Geology of Columbia University, 

 has been elected president of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences. 



Professor C. P. Neill, who holds the chair 

 of political economy in the Catholic University 

 of America, has been appointed U. S. commis- 

 sioner of labor to succeed the Hon. Carroll 

 D. Wright, who will hereafter devote his whole 

 time to the presidency of Clark College. Dr. 

 Wright was given a farewell banquet by the 

 Unitarian Club, at Washington, on the even- 

 ing of December 14. 



Professor Willet M. Hays, who holds the 

 chair of agriculture in the University of Min- 

 nesota, has been appointed assistant secretary 

 of agriculture. 



At the twelfth annual meeting of the 

 Geological Society of Washington, after listen- 

 ing to a paper by Mr. G. K. Gilbert on 

 ' Crescentic gouges on glaciated surfaces,' the 

 following officers were elected for the ensuing- 

 year : 



President — G. P. Merrill. 



Vice-presidents — Waldemar Lindgren, A. H. 

 Brooks. 



Secretaries — G. 0. Smith, H. Foster Bain. 



Treasurer — M. L. Fuller. 



Members of the Council — T. W. Vaughan, David 

 White, F. L. Ransome, M. R. Campbell, T. W. 

 Stanton. 



Mr. G. K. Gilbert was selected to represent 

 the society as vice-president of the Washing- 

 ton Academy of Sciences. 



