Apeil 20, 1900.] 



SCIENGE 



635 



botany in the University of Kansas, has sailed 

 for Europe. He will spend the summer in special 

 study in bacteriology at the University of Ber- 

 lin, returning for the opening of the fall term. 



The following appointments have been 

 made by the Irish Department of Agriculture 

 and Technical Instruction : To be Superin- 

 tendent of Statistics and Intelligence branch, 

 Mr. W. P. Coyne, M.A., Fellow of the Royal 

 University of Ireland, professor of political 

 economy and jurisprudence, University Col- 

 lege, Dublin, barrister-at-law. To be Inspector 

 in Agriculture, Mr. James Scott Gordon, B.Sc, 

 Department of Agriculture, Edinburgh Uni- 

 versity, principal of the Cheshire County 

 Co uncil Agricultural and Horticultural School. 

 To be Inspector in Industrial Branch, Mr. W. 

 T. M'Cartney Filgate. 



Me. Rogers Field, an English hydraulic 

 and drainage engineer, died at Hampstead on 

 March 28th, at the age of 69 years. He was 

 the inventor of an improvement in the aneroid 

 barometer, but was best known for his improve- 

 ments in methods of sanitary engineering. 



M. Samson Jordan, a distinguished French 

 engineer and metallurgist, has died at the age 

 of sixty-nine years. He had been since 1865, 

 professor of metallurgy in the Ecole des Arts et 

 Manufactures. He in numerous ways promoted 

 the advancement of the iron and steel industries 

 in France and was the author of several valu- 

 able metallurgical treatises. 



We find in the Auk notices of the deaths of 

 several members of the Ornithologists' Union. 

 Mr. George P. Sennet died at his home at 

 Youngstown, O., on March 18th at the age of 

 59 years. Though in active business he made 

 valuable studies on the birds of Texas and the 

 adjacent territory and his fine collection is at 

 present in the American Museum of Natural 

 History. W. E. Brooks has died at Mount 

 Forest, Ontario, at the age of 70 years. He 

 was an authority on the birds of India and his 

 large collection is now in the British Museum. 

 He wrote especially on the smaller warblers and 

 the raptores. Mr. Francis C. Brown has died 

 at Framingbam, Mass., in his 70th year. In 

 early life he was associated with Agassiz and 

 other naturalists and made valuable observa- 



tions on the habits of birds. John A. Dakin 

 has died at Syracuse, N. Y., in his 48th year. 

 He was a student of birds and butterflies. Mr. 

 Foster H. Brackett died at Dorchester, Mass. , 

 aged 87 years. He had contributed notes on 

 birds to the Auk. 



A TELEGRAM has been received at the Harvard 

 College Observatory from Professor Kreutz, at 

 Kiel, stating that he has information from Pro- 

 fessor Backlund, Director of the Observatory at 

 Pulkowa, Russia, that from a discussion of spec- 

 trograms, Belopolsky has found the time of ro- 

 tation of Venus to be short. 



We note in a recent article by Dr. K. Kishin- 

 ouye, in the Bevue Internationale de Peche et de 

 Pisciculture (the new Russian journal), that a 

 Japanese marine zoological station was opened 

 during the past summer, on the coast of the In- 

 land sea. It is for the present located in a two- 

 story house at Omomichi. We note also in the 

 same article that a large coral reef has been 

 recently discovered near the southern end of 

 Kiu Shiu. Its size must be a large one, for 

 more than sixty boats are fishing it actively. 



State bacteriological institutes are being es- 

 tablished in various parts of Russia. Among 

 those recently founded are one at Vladivostock 

 in Eastern Asia, and one in Merv, in Central 

 Asia. The latter is of special importance be- 

 cause many epidemic diseases are thought to 

 have their origin in Central Asia. 



The Maryland Legislature has made the fol- 

 lowing appropriations for the scientific work of 

 the Maryland Geological Survey and the Mary- 

 land Weather service for the next two years : 



Maryland Geological Survey, Geological Division, 

 $10,000 annually. 



Maryland Geological Survey, Highway Division, 

 $10,000 annually. 



Maryland Geological Survey, Topographic Division, 

 $5,000 annually. 



Maryland Weather Service, $2,000 annually. 



The Survey has recently commenced the in- 

 vestigation of the clay products of Maryland un- 

 der Professor Heinrich Ries who will prepare a 

 volume of reports upon the clay industry of 

 Maryland, making such physical and chemical 

 tests of the clays as may be required to show 

 their possibilities iu various directions. 



