November 29, 1901.] 



SCIENCE, 



863 



In the Selkirk Mountains he secured the speci- 

 mens needed for a group of the American 

 dipper or water-ousel. 



We trust that the announcement of the death 

 of Dr. Arthur Konig, professor of physics in 

 Berlin, published in the 'New York Evening 

 Post and other journals, is incorrect. It seems 

 probable that there is confusion, owing to the 

 recent death of Dr. R. Konig, of Paris. 



Me. Thomas Meehan, the well-known hor- 

 ticulturist and botanist, died in Germantown on 

 November 19. He was born in England in 

 1826 and came to this country at an early age. 

 Dr. Meehan was botanist of the Pennsylvania 

 State Board of Agricultui-e, vice-president and 

 one of the curators in charge of the her- 

 barium of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, editor of Meehan' s Monthly, was a 

 fellow of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science and a member of numer- 

 ous other scientific societies. He was the 

 author of valuable papers in botany and horti- 

 culture. 



Dr. William Fisher Norris, professor of 

 ophthalmology in the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, died in Philadelphia on November 18. 

 He was born in that city in 1839, and gradu- 

 ated from the academic and medical depart- 

 ments of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. 

 Norris was well known for his researches and 

 publications on diseases of the eye. In conjunc- 

 tion with Dr. C. A. Oliver he edited the stand- 

 ard ' System of Diseases o i the Eye,' and was 

 the author of a ' Text-book of Ophthalmology.' 



Dr. Albert Leary Gihon, medical director 

 -of the United States Navy, retired with the 

 rank of commodore, died from apoplexy in 

 New York on November 17. Born in Phila- 

 delphia sixty-nine years ago, he received his 

 education there and at Princeton College. He 

 was made professor of chemistry and toxicology 

 in the Philadelphia College of Medicine and 

 Surgery in 1853, but resigned to enter the 

 navy in 1855. He had been president of the 

 American Academy of Medicine, of the Amer- 

 ican Public Health Association and of the As- 

 sociation of Military Surgeons, and was the 

 author of contributions to naval hygiene and 

 public health. 



The American Physiological Society will 

 hold its fourteenth annual meeting in Chicago, 

 on Monday and Tuesday, December 30 and 31, 

 1901. The sessions will be held at the Physio- 

 logical Laboratory of the University of Chicago. 

 The headquarters of the Society will be at the 

 Hotel del Prado, 59th Street and Washington 

 Avenue, near the University. Information re- 

 garding other local arrangements and railway 

 rates will be furnished later. Members of the 

 Society will please inform the Secretary at their 

 earliest convenience whether they intend to be 

 present and what communications they desire 

 to make. Those who will require apparatus or 

 other necessities for the making of demonstra- 

 tions may communicate with Professor Jacques 

 Loeb, University of Chicago. 



The steamer Gmiss, bearing the German Ant- 

 arctic Expedition, which sailed from Kie^ 

 August 11, has arrived at Cape Town. 



The New York Zoological Park has received 

 large accessions of animals from Maine and 

 from Hamburg. They include buiBfaloes, elks, 

 bears, baboons and other animals. The gelada 

 baboons are said to be the only specimens in 

 captivity. 



The American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York City, has acquired an important 

 collection of mammals and birds from the State 

 of Vera Cruz, Mexico, which contains good 

 series of specimens of several species not before 

 represented in the museum collection. The 

 Museum has also received from the Duke 

 of Loubat a valuable collection of mammals 

 chiefly from the State of Jalisco, which adds 

 much valuable material. A third collection 

 of mammals and birds has been received 

 from Venezuela, collected by Mr. Klages ; and 

 a final instalment of birds and mammals of the 

 H. H. Smith collection from the Santa Marta 

 district of Colombia has also come to hand. 



The New York Independent publishes an 

 article on the Nobel Foundation by the secre- 

 tary of the Swedish Nobel Committee, Dr. C. 

 L. Lange, according to which the first distribu- 

 tion of the five prizes will take place on Decem- 

 ber 10, of the present year, and the amount of 

 each prize will be about $40,000. The amount 

 that has been deducted from the income for local 



