780 



SCmNGE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 359. 



are to be used for greater elevations. Meteor- 

 ographs after the Blue Hill pattern are to be 

 sent up with the kites. Spirit thermometers, for 

 dry and minimum readings, graduated to — 90° 

 F.; special screens; low-reading thermographs ; 

 sunshine recorders adapted to the peculiar con- 

 ditions which are to be met with in the 

 high latitudes ; earth thermometers, etc. — are 

 also provided. A Dines pressure anemometer 

 and an anemograph of similar pattern are to be 

 used at land station on the Antarctic continent. 



CHARLES MBLDRUM. 



The death, on August 28 last, of Dr. Charles 

 Meldrum, for many years director of the Royal 

 Alfred Observatory, Mauritius, should not be 

 passed by without at least a brief mention in 

 these Notes. Dr. Meldrum did a work of the 

 greatest importance for meteorology in con- 

 nection with the cyclones of the Indian Ocean, 

 to the study of which he devoted a large part 

 of his life. His name will also always be asso- 

 ciated with the question of the relation of sun- 

 spots and rainfall, a subject in which he was 

 much interested. Dr. Meldrum was one of the 

 founders of the Meteorological Society of Mau- 

 ritius, Government Meteorological Observer, 

 Director of the Royal Alfred Observatory, and, 

 during the last ten years of his life, a member 

 of the Government Council of Mauritius. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



The annual bibliographical number of the 

 Annates de Geographic (No. 10, for the year 

 1900) contains the usual notices of climatolog- 

 ical publications bearing the date 1900. The 

 reviews are arranged by subjects as well as by 

 countries, and there is an author and a subject 

 index. This bibliography is chiefly geograph- 

 cial, but climatology is given its proper share 

 of attention. R. DeC. Ward. 



Harvard University. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The Elisha Kent Kane Medal of the Geo- 

 graphical Society of Philadelphia has been pre- 

 sented to Dr. A. Donaldson Smith, the African 

 explorer. 



Professor E. Ray Lankester has been 

 elected a cori-esponding member of theGottingen 

 Society of Sciences. 



Dr. Richard P. Strong has been appointed 

 director of the Government Biological Labora- 

 tory recently established in Manila. 



Sir William White, since 1885 director of 

 naval construction in the British Navy and 

 the author of important publications on naval 

 architecture, is about to resign. 



It is said that Dr. Wolf Becher, of Berlin, is 

 preparing a biography of Professor Rudolf Vir- 

 chow. 



A lectureship in moral science will be 

 established at Cambridge University as a me- 

 morial to the late Professor Sidgwick. The sum 

 of £2,450 has been subscribed for this purpose. 



A difficulty has arisen, says Nature, con- 

 cerning the site on which the new Pasteur statue 

 in Paris shall be erected. The use of a space 

 in the Square Medicis in the Quartier Latin has 

 been granted, but this spot is being tunneled 

 for a railway, and it is feared, in consequence, 

 that the statue may be too weighty for it. Other 

 places, such as the Place du Pantheon, the Place 

 de la Sorbonne and the entrance of the Avenue 

 de rObservatoire, are under consideration. 



Charles A. Bacon, professor of astronomy 

 at Beloit College and director of the Smith Ob- 

 servatory, died on November 6, aged forty -one 

 years. 



Professor M. Maercker, director of the 

 agricultural experiment station at Halle, Ger- 

 many, and professor of agricultural chemistry 

 in the Agricultural Institute, died on October 

 19, 1901. 



The preliminary plans have been accepted 

 for a new building for the Department of Agri- 

 culture at Washington. These plans contem- 

 plate a magnificent marble structure of classic 

 design, something over 300 feet long, with wings 

 at either end extending to the rear to accommo- 

 date the various laboratories of the department. 

 It is expected that the details of interior ar- 

 rangement will need to be changed to some 

 extent to suit the needs of the various bureaus 

 and divisions of the department, but these plans 

 will serve as a working basis. About 158,400 

 square feet of space are provided. Lord & 

 Hewlett, of New York, are the architects. 



The American Morphological Society will 

 meet in Chicago in affiliation with the American 



