1038 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 287. 



ments necessary for bringing the Survey in its 

 more general features to a speedy and satisfac- 

 tory termination, having regard especially to its 

 economic importance ; and, further, to report 

 on the desirability, or otherwise, of transferring 

 the Survey to another public department." 

 The members of the committee are : The 

 Eight Hon. J. L. Wharton, M.P. (chairman), 

 Mr. Stephen E. Spring Rice, C.B., Mr. T. H. 

 Elliott, C.B., General Festing, C.B., Dr. H. F. 

 Parsons, Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., and 

 Professor C. Lap worth, F.R.S., with Mr. A. E. 

 Cooper as secretary. 



At a meeting of the Board of University 

 Studies of the Johns Hopkins University held 

 May 23, 1900, the following minute in regard 

 to the death of Professor Thomas Craig was 

 unanimously adopted : 



"The members of the Board of University Studies 

 of the Johns Hopkins Uni%'ersity desire to express 

 their sorrow at the death of their friend and colleague, 

 Professor Thomas Craig, -who, as student and teacher 

 of mathematics, had been connected with the Uni- 

 versity for nearly the entire period of Its existence. 

 One of the brilliant young men -whom Professor 

 Sylvester attracted to the University in its early days 

 he won straightway the favorable notice of that emi- 

 nent man for the enthusiasm and intellectual acumen 

 with which he entered upon the study of advanced 

 mathematics, then almost an unknown science in this 

 country; and this fortunate combination of interest, 

 energy, and ability characterized his entire career. 

 At the time of his death he was occupied in the pre- 

 paration of a treatise on the Theory of Surfaces. Un- 

 doubtedly the intense ardor with which he'engaged 

 in this work contributed in large measure to that im- 

 pairment of the nervous system from which ,he had 

 recently suiiered. Professor Craig possessed great 

 power of research, and wrote much for various mathe- 

 matical journals. For many years he was editor of 

 the American Journal of Mathematics, and it is largely 

 due to his zeal and able direction that that Journal 

 continues to hold its high rank in the mathematical 

 vporld. Professor Craig occupied a place in the very 

 front rank of American mathematicians. His scien- 

 tific ideals were the highest, and as teacher, editor, 

 and investigator, he brought to his work a high de- 

 gree of originality, and an intellectual ardor which 

 was a source of inspiration to all withj]whom he was 

 closely associated." 



Walter Percy Sladen, formerly zoological 

 secretary of the Linnean Society [of London, died 



at Florence on June 11th. Mr. Sladen wrote 

 the Report on the Asteroida dredged by the 

 Challenger, and numerous papers on recent 

 fossil Echinoderms. A monograph by him on 

 the British Cretaceous Asteroidea was in course 

 of publication by the Paleontographical So- 

 ciety. Some years ago Mr. Sladen had an at- 

 tack of the so-called influenza, and the effects 

 of that combined with the cares of an estate 

 to which he recently succeeded, checked his 

 activity as a zoologist. One of his last pieces 

 of work was the revision of the sections on 

 star fish, and sea urchins in Dr. Eastman's edit- 

 ion of Zittel's ' Paleontology.' His British col- 

 leagues will miss not only a leader in a diffi- 

 cult branch of zoology, but a genial personality. 



We regret also to record the death of Professor 

 Mortiz Low, Chief of Division in the Geodetic 

 Institute of Potsdam and of Dr. Julius Alt- 

 haus the well known physician and neurolo- 

 gist. 



We learn from Nature that a meeting was 

 held at the Meteorological Society on May 31st 

 to consider the question of a memorial of the 

 late Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S. It was resolved 

 that the memorial should take the form of a 

 gold medal, to be awarded from time to time 

 by the Council of the Royal Meteorological So- 

 ciety for distinguished work in connection with 

 meteorological science. An executive commit- 

 tee was appointed to take the necessary steps 

 to raise a fund for this purpose. Contributions 

 will be received by the Assistant Secretary, Mr. 

 W. Marriott. 



Dr. Donaldson Smith has returned to Lon- 

 don from his journey across the unexplored tract 

 of country between Lake Rudolph and the White 

 Nile. The London correspondent of the New 

 York Evening Post states that he was the first 

 white man to reach the river, approaching it 

 from the Somali coast, and travelling almost 

 due west. He started on the 1st of August, 

 1899, and reached Fort Berkeley, near Lado, 

 on the 17th of March, 1900. Dr. Smith 

 says that he came through almost entirely un- 

 molested by natives ; had no occasion to fire a 

 shot in self-defence, and lost only two men out 

 of the small force of eighteen Goorkhas who 

 formed his escort, this being the first time ex- 



