422 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 350. 



of physics at Groningen ; Ed. Yerschaffelt, 

 professor of botany and pharmacognosy at 

 Amsterdam, and S. G. De Vries, of Leiden. 

 Foreign members have^been elected as follows : 

 H. Becquerel, professor of physics at the Ecole 

 Polytechnique, Paris ; Max Planck, professor 

 of mathematical physics and director of the 

 Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Uni- 

 versity of Berlin, and Heinrich Dubois, asso- 

 ciate professor of physics at the same university. 



Joseph Y. Bergen, the"author of well-known 

 text-books on botany, has resigned his position 

 in the English High School of Boston. With 

 his family he sailed on September 3 for Naples, 

 Italy, where for the future he will make his 

 home. 



The oflBcers of the Society for the Promotion 

 of Agricultural Science elected at the recent 

 Denver meeting, to serve for next year, are : 



President, W. H. Jordon, director of the New York 

 State Experiment Station, Geneva. 



Secretary- Treasurer, [F. M. Webster, Wooster Ohio. 



Memhers of the Executive Committee, to serve ■with 

 the president'and secretary, W. J. Beal, Agricultural 

 College, Mich. ; W. E. Lazenby, Columbus, Ohio ; 

 C. S. Plumb, Lafayette, Indiana. 



Dr. Adolf Fick, the eminent physiologist, 

 died on August 21, at the age of seventy-one 

 years. He was born at Cassell, and after study- 

 ing at Zurich became professor at that Univer- 

 sity iu 1876. In 1868 he removed to Wiirz- 

 burg, where he made the laboratory of 

 physiology one of the most important in 

 Germany. He published a well-known com- 

 pendium of physiology, the third edition of 

 which appeared in 1882, and was also the 

 author of books on the physiology of the senses 

 and on muscular contraction, to which subjects 

 his researches contributed in an important 

 degree. 



The death is announced of Admiral Jon- 

 quieres, the well-known^French geometer. 



Professor Samuel Porter, a widely known 

 teacher of the deaf and dumb, died at his home 

 in Farmington, Conn., on September 2, at the 

 age of ninety-one. He was a son of President 

 Noah Porter, of Yale College, and graduated 

 from that institution. He began the instruction 

 of the deaf and dumb] at Hartford, where he 



remained till 1836. In 1846 he went to New 

 York and in 1866 was made professor of mental 

 science and English philology at Gallaudet Col- 

 lege, Washington. He became professor emeri- 

 tus in 1884. 



During the present season the biological 

 laboratory of the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion at Wood's Holl, Massachusetts, has been 

 under the personal direction of Dr. H. M. Smith, 

 of the Commission staff. The former director, 

 Dr. H. C. Bumpus, owing to his new duties at 

 the American Museum of Natural History, was 

 unable to continue his services, much to the 

 regret of Commissioner Bowers. Among those 

 who have occupied tables and pursued investi- 

 gations during the summer are Dr. Robert P. 

 Bigelow, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology ; Dr. Gary N. Calkins, Columbia Uni- 

 versity ; Dr. Otto Folin, McLean Hospital 

 (Waverly, Mass.); Dr. Caswell Grave, Johns 

 Hopkins University ; Mr. Karl Kellerman, U. 

 S. Department of Agriculture ; Dr. F. T. Lewis, 

 Harvard Medical School ; Dr. H. R. Linville, 

 DeWitt Clinton High School ; Professor W. J. 

 Moenkhaus, Indiana University ; Professor 

 George H. Parker, Harvard University ; Dr. H. 

 W. Rand, Harvard University ; Dr. R. M. 

 Strong, Harvard University ; Dr. F. B. Sum- 

 ner, College of the City of New York ; Dr. W. 

 T. Swingle, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 and Professor R. W. Tower, Brown University. 



Two vacancies in the position of assistant 

 computer in the Nautical Almanac Office will 

 be filled by civil service examination on 

 October 8 and 9. 



A New York State civil service examination 

 will be held on or about September 28, to fill 

 certain positions, including that of electrical 

 engineer, at a salary of $900, and of instructor 

 in various manual arts in the State reformatories 

 and institutions. 



At the approaching annual reception and 

 opening of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, New York, the Tiffany collection of 

 gems, recently presented to the museum by Mr. 

 J. Pierpont Morgan, will be on exhibition ; 

 part of the Bement collection of minerals will 

 also be exhibited. 



