June 29, J 900.] 



SCIENCE. 



1037 



Physicians, Sir William MacCormac, the Presi- 

 dent of the Royal College of Surgeons ; Sir 

 John Burdon Sanderson, Bart., Sir Michael 

 Foster, K.C.B., M.P., and Sir Joseph Fayrer, 

 Bart, K. C.S.I. 



We learn from the Philadelphia Medical 

 Journal that Dr. W. W. Keen has raised a $50,- 

 000 library fund for the College of Physicians 

 of that city. 



Me. J. S. BuDGBTT has been awarded a grant 

 of £50 from the Balfour Fund of Cambridge 

 University to aid him in his zoological re- 

 searches. 



Peofessor W. B. Claek, of the Johns Hop- 

 kins University has been appointed by the 

 Governor of Maryland, Commissioner on be- 

 half of the State of Maryland to act with a 

 similar Commissioner on behalf of the State of 

 Pennsylvania and the Superintendent of the U. 

 S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in the reestablish- 

 ment of the old historic Mason and Dixon line, 

 in part forming the boundary between Mary- 

 land and Pennsylvania. This famous line, so 

 long regarded as the boundary between the 

 north and south was run by two English sur- 

 veyors, Mason and Dixon, between the years 

 1764-68, and was marked throughout its east- 

 ern portion by granite monuments brought from 

 England that had cut on their southern faces 

 the arms of Lord Baltimore and on the north- 

 ern the arms of the Penns. It was by^ far the 

 most extensive engineering work of colonial 

 days. The old line is now very obscure be- 

 cause of the destruction of many of the monu- 

 ments and property interests are suffering as 

 the result. It is the purpose of the new Survey 

 to redetermine and properly remark the old 

 line. 



The Director of the United States Geological 

 Survey, says the New Haven correspondent of 

 the New York Evening Post, has placed Pro- 

 fessor H. S. Williams, of Yale University, in 

 charge of the mapping, areal geology and 

 preparation of the geological folios of the middle 

 section of Connecticut, including the topo- 

 graphical sheets of Granby, Hartford, Meriden, 

 Middletown, New Haven, and Guilford. Those 

 west of the seventy-third meridian are already 

 under way, in charge of Professor Hobbs, of 



Wisconsin University. Dr. H. E. Gregory, as- 

 sistant to Professor Williams, has done the 

 field work on the crystalline rocks of the Granby 

 and Middletown sheets, and will work during 

 the summer on the crystallines of the Meriden 

 sheet, and the triassic areas of the Connecticut 

 valley in general. The triassic and crystalline 

 work will probably be finished this year. The 

 region to be covered is an exceedingly interest- 

 ing one in this State, with its volcanic remnants, 

 dikes, terraces, pot-holes and glacial boulders, 

 and moraines in the area already partly cov- 

 ered by the investigations of Dana. 



After thirty-seven years' service as secre- 

 tary to the Paleontographical Society (London) 

 the Rev. Thos. Wittshire has retired from that 

 oflice. The present position of this Society is 

 mainly due to the influence of Mr. Wittshire, 

 as was recognized some time ago by those of 

 his admirers and others who presented him 

 with a testimonial in the form of his own por- 

 trait in oils. The council has requested Dr. A. 

 Smith Woodward, of the British Museum, to 

 join the Society for the purpose of taking over 

 the secretarial and editorial duties. It is no 

 doubt hoped that Dr. Smith Woodward's emi- 

 nence as a paleontologist and experience as a 

 writer will attract to the Society the numerous 

 British paleontologists who have hitherto man- 

 ifested their interest in its good work by criti- 

 cism unaccompanied by subscriptions. He will 

 have no easy task to please all critics : those 

 who stigmatize as ' paving-stone paleontology ' 

 the descriptions of local faunas by enthusiasts 

 who are anything but zoological specialists ; 

 and those whose lack of patience (or other 

 quality) does not permit them to master the 

 elaborate zoological investigations of restricted 

 groups of fossils, and whose love of ease sets 

 them in opposition to new conceptions and the 

 new language in which they are perforce ex- 

 pressed. 



Nature states that the president of the Brit- 

 ish Board of Education has approved of a com- 

 mittee, which is now sitting, " to inquire into 

 the organization and stafi" of the Geological 

 Survey and Museum of Practical Geology ; to 

 report on the progress of the Survey since 1881; 

 to suggest the changes in staif and arrange- 



