July 26, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



159 



It is stated in Nature that the Loudou Insti- 

 tution of Mining and Metallurgy will award 

 twenty-five guineas each for the best papers on 

 the comparative merits of circular and rectan- 

 gular shafts for mines of great depth. 



The Association of Military Surgeons pro- 

 poses as a subject of its Enno Sander prize for 

 1901-1902 ' The Most Practicable Organization 

 for the Medical Department of the United 

 States Army in Active Service.' The prize is a 

 gold medal and $100. The essays must be sub- 

 mitted before the end of February, 1902. 

 Further particulars may be obtained from the 

 secretary, James Evelyn Pilcher, Carlisle, Pa. 



The physiological laboratory given to the 

 University of Edinburgh by Mrs. Cox in mem- 

 ory of her father, the late Professor John 

 Hughes Bennett, was dedicated on July 20, an 

 address being made by Sir J. Burdon Sander- 

 son. 



The Board of Supervisors of San Francisco 

 adopted a resolution on July 15 accepting the 

 offer of Mr. Carnegie to give to this city 

 $750,000 for the establishment of a central and 

 branch libraries. The concluding sections of 

 the resolutions read as follows : 



Be it resolved, That the gift of Andrew Carnegie 

 be and the same is hereby accepted, and that the 

 thanks of the Board of Supervisors of the city and 

 county of San Francisco he and are hereby extended 

 to him. And be it further 



Resolved, That the example set by Mr. Carnegie in 

 distributing his vast private fortune to great public 

 purposes, and at the same time inducing municipal 

 cooperation in channels vyhich might otherwise be 

 neglected, should serve as an example to other citizens 

 and meet the approval and encouragement of all. 



Baron Iwasaki has purchased the library of 

 the late Professor Max Miiller, containing 13,- 

 000 volumes, for presentation to the University 

 of Tokyo. 



Aided by a special fund presented by a friend 

 of the American Museum, Professor Osborn has 

 sent out two expeditions especially in search of 

 fossil horses — one to Texas and one to eastern 

 Colorado. Word has just been received at the 

 museum that the very first discovery made by 

 the Texas party included a deposit of skulls of 

 the three-toed horse, ProtoMppiis, associated 



with parts of the limbs, feet and backbone. 

 This is one of the stages especially desired in 

 the long series leading up to the modern horse. 

 The skulls are reported to be the best that have 

 thus far been found, and this discovery is an 

 auspicious opening to this special series of ex- 

 plorations. Protohippus belongs to the Plio- 

 cene, and is belie^^ed to be the immediate an- 

 cestor of the true horse. 



The New York Zoological Park has just I'e- 

 ceived from the Galapagos Islands via San 

 Francisco, five very large giant tortoises, repre- 

 senting three species, Testudo microphyes, vidua 

 and elephantopus. The largest is a very old 

 specimen measuring, in straight lines, 42 inches 

 in length, 30 j in width, and in height 20 inches. 

 Its weight is 310 pounds. Three other speci- 

 mens weigh respectively 156, 129 and 118 

 pounds. These five specimens represent the 

 pick of a lot of 13 collected in the Galapagos 

 group last winter by Capt. William Johnson, of 

 San Francisco. 



The Bulletin of the New York Botanical Gar- 

 den states that the first instalment of the Vige- 

 ner Herbarium, the purchase of w^hich was ar- 

 ranged by Dr. Britton while in Europe last fall, 

 has lately been received. This portion of Mr. 

 Vigeuer's herbarium contains the Schaffner 

 Mexican collection numbering about 4,500 

 specimens, many of them duplicated, and thus 

 valuable for future exchanges, and that part of 

 a general collection consisting of cryptogams, 

 and the flowering plants from the Banuncvlacese 

 to the Leguminosse, according to the DeCaudol- 

 lean system, numbering 10,877 specimens. This 

 important accession was made by means of 

 funds provided by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. 



The Paris correspondent of the London 

 Times writes under date July 2 : I went yes- 

 terday to Vesinet, a pi-etty little village be- 

 tween Paris and St. Germain, where I witnessed 

 some most interesting experiments in wireless 

 telegraphy by Colonel Eugene de Pilsoudski, 

 an engineer of the Russian army. His sj^stem 

 depends in no way upon the air for transmis- 

 sion of the current. The earth itself is his 

 conductor. He established his apparatus in 

 two villas about one kilometer apart. The 

 messages were transmitted clearly, rapidly. 



