660 



SCmNGE, 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 356. 



editor of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis- 

 eases, died on October 15, at the age of fifty- 

 four years. 



George B. Simpson, for thirty- five years the 

 accomplished delineator of fossils for the pale- 

 ontological department at Albany and a well- 

 known student of the fossil Bryozoa, died on 

 October 15. 



M. E. KoNiG, of Paris, well known for his 

 scientific instruments and his investigations on 

 acoustics, has died at the age of sixty-nine 

 years. 



Mr. William West, known for his study of 

 fresh- water algse, has died in India from cholera, 

 at the age of twenty-six years. 



The deaths are also announced of Dr. Peter 

 M. Pokrowskij, professor of mathematics at the 

 University of Kiew, and of Dr. Alex. F. Berger, 

 docent in mathematics in the University of 

 Upsala. 



The next International Congress of Physiol- 

 ogists will be held at Brussels in 1904, under 

 the presidency of Professor Heger. 



The Nineteenth Congress of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union will convene at the 

 American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York City, on Monday, November 11, at 8 

 o'clock p. m. The evening session will be de- 

 voted to the election of officers and members 

 and the transaction of other routine business. 

 The meetings, open to the public and devoted 

 to the reading and discussion of scientific 

 papers, begin on Tuesday morning and continue 

 for three days. In connection with the Con- 

 gress there will be a conference of representa- 

 tives of the Audubon Societies, for the purpose 

 of forming plans for more effective cooperation. 



The Coast and Geodetic Survey steamers 

 Pathfinder and MacArthur have nearly com- 

 pleted the survey of the Fox Island channels 

 which form the entrance or exit for all Bering 

 Sea commerce. The steamers Patterson and 

 Gedney are now charting Cross Island and Icy 

 Straits, of the Southeast archipelago. The 

 Pathfinder will proceed to the Philippines be- 

 fore long via Nagasaki to take up the work of 

 surveying called for by the Philippine Com- 

 mission. 



The Antarctic expedition from Sweden, un- 

 der the direction of Professor Otto Norden- 

 skjold, left Gotenberg on the steamship Antarc- 

 tic on October 16. Professor Nordenskjold is 

 accompanied by Professor Ohlin, the well- 

 known explorer, and M. K. A. Anderson, as 

 zoologists ; Dr. Bodman, hydrographer and 

 magnetician ; M. Skottoberg, botanist, and Dr. 

 E. Ekolof, medical officer. Captain Larsin, a 

 Norwegian, who has already made several voy- 

 ages to the South Polar regions, is in charge of 

 the Antarctic. The vessel will proceed to 

 Terra del Fuego and thence to the South Polar 

 regions, where the field of exploration will not 

 conflict with those chosen by Great Britain and 

 Germany. Professor Nordenskjold expects to 

 land with a party while the vessel makes ex- 

 plorations about Terra del Fuego. 



As we have already announced the coast and 

 Geodetic Survey has established a magnetic ob- 

 servatory at Sitka, Alaska, and is construct- 

 ing another at Honolulu. These observatories 

 will cooperate with the German and British 

 Antarctic expeditions in making simultaneous 

 observations. 



As the daily papers have very fully re- 

 ported M. Santos-Dumont in his air ship on 

 October 19, succeeded in circumnavigating the 

 Eifel Tower and returning to Saint Cloud. The 

 trip was made within the half hour allowed by 

 M. Deutsch for the award of his prize, but 

 owing to a delay in landing the prize was not 

 awarded. 



Reuter's Agency gives the following infor- 

 mation concerning Dr. Sven Hedin, the Swedish 

 traveler, based upon a letter from him, dated 

 July 10. It appears that Dr. Sven Hedin, at the 

 time of the dispatch of the letter, was at the 

 foot of the Akka Tagh, in Northern Thibet, and 

 intended to proceed in the direction of Ladak 

 in order to survey accurately the region about 

 the source of the Indus. Next spring he pro- 

 posed to return to Osh via Kashgar. Mean- 

 while, a caravan of 15 horses has arrived at 

 Kashgar bringing the results of two years of 

 the traveler's work in the shape of scientific 

 collections, maps, photographs and diaries. 



R. W. Amidon, M.D., of New York City, is 

 spending October and November near Chau- 



