September 27, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



503 



Fe Eailway. The cost of the trip from Chi. 

 cago, lasting about thirty days, including berth 

 and meals will be $250. 



The Dutch Society of Sciences at Harlem 

 announces a series of subjects for the prizes to- 

 be conferred during the next three years, the 

 details of which can be obtained from the Sec- 

 retary, Professor J. Bosscha, Harlem. The 

 prize in each case is a gold medal or 500 florins 

 at the option of the author and the papers may 

 be written in English. 



The British Medical Journal gave in a recent 

 issue the prizes offered by the Paris Academy 

 of Medicine, about thirty of which are open to 

 foreigners. The Frangois-Joseph Audiffred 

 Prize is of the value of £1,000, and is offered to 

 any person who is adjudged to have discovered 

 a preventive or cure of tuberculosis. The follow- 

 ing are also among the more important offered 

 for the year ending with the end of February, 

 1902 ; the sum specified in each case does not 

 necessarily go to one candidate, but may be 

 divided. The Academy Prize, awarded an- 

 nually, worth about £40, is this year for a re- 

 search on the role of toxins in pathology ; the 

 Baillarger Prize of about £80 (biennial) is for 

 the best work on the treatment of mental dis- 

 eases and the organization of asylums ; and the 

 Charles Boullard Prize, also biennial, of £50, 

 is for a similar subject. The Barbier Prize of 

 £80 (biennial), is for the discovery of a cure for 

 such ' incurable ' maladies as hydrophobia, 

 cancer, epilepsy, typhoid and cholera. The 

 Mathieu Bourceret Prize of £50 (annual) is for 

 work on the circulation of the blood. The 

 Campbell Dupierris Prize (biennial), of the value 

 of £96, is for the best work on anaesthesia or 

 the diseases of the urinary passages. The Che- 

 villon Prize (annual) of £65, is for the best 

 work on the treatment of cancer. The Desportes 

 Prize of £55 (annual), will be awarded for the 

 best work on practical medical therapeutics. 

 The Herpin (of Metz) Prize (quadrennial) of 

 £50, is offered for a research on the abortive 

 treatment of tetanus. The Theodore Herpin 

 (of Geneva) Prize of £125 (annual), is for a re- 

 search on epilepsy and nervous diseases. The 

 Laborie Prize of £210 (annual), is given for the 

 greatest advancement in surgical science during 



the year. The Lefevre prize (triennial) of £75, 

 is for a research on melancholia. The Meynot 

 Prize (annual), of £108 is for the best work on 

 ear disease ; and the Saintour Prize (biennial) 

 of £166, for the best work on any subject in 

 medicine. 



We learn from the Astronomical Journal that 

 the council of the Astronomische Gesellschaft has 

 undertaken the preparation of a new Catalogue 

 of Variable Stars and has delegated the conduct 

 of the work to a committee consisting of Pro- 

 fessors Duner, Hartwig, Miiller and Oudemans. 

 The committee request' observers of variable 

 stars who have considerable unprinted series of 

 observations, which would be useful in the 

 correction of elements, either to publish them 

 soon or to communicate them to the member of 

 the committee in charge. Professor G. Miiller, 

 Potsdam Observatory. The Committee also 

 announces that it will from the present time 

 undertake the definitive notation of newly dis- 

 covered variables as soon as their light-fluctu- 

 ations are certainly ascertained. A list will 

 shortly be published of the names of variables 

 found in recent years which have heretofore 

 remained unnamed. 



The New York Sun, whose astronomical news 

 is unusually full and accurate, notes that the 

 foreign associates of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society are distributed as follows : Argentine 

 Republic, 1 ; Austria, 1 ; France, 9 ; Germany, 

 8; Holland, 3; Italy, 2; Russia, 4 ; Sweden, 

 1 ; United States, 14. It is to be noted that 

 the associate from the Argentine is himself an 

 American. The American members are : Dr. 

 E. E. Barnard, Yerkes Observatory, Chicago ; 

 Professor L. Boss, Dudley Observatory, Albany; 

 Professor S. W. Burnham, Yerkes Observatory, 

 Chicago ; Dr. S. C. Chandler, Cambridge ; Dr. 

 W. L. Elkin, Yale University ; Professor G. E. 

 Hale, Yerkes Observatory, Chicago ; Professor 

 A. Hall, U. S. N., retired ; Dr. E. S. Holden, 

 New York; Dr. S. P. Langley, Smithsonian 

 Institution ; Professor A. A. Michelson, Uni- 

 versity of Chicago ; Professor S. Newcomb, 

 Washington ; Professor E. C. Pickering, Har- 

 vard College Observatory; Professor C. A. 

 Young, Princeton University, and Dr. J. M. 

 Thome, National Observatory, Argentine. 



