108 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 78. 



approved by the standing committee, will be offered 

 for public discussion in the sectional meetings at such 

 time as the committee may determine, probably on 

 Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 8 and 9. In addition to 

 the above, the following subjects have been carefully 

 considered by some of the members, and papers or 

 discussions on them may be expected, if the commit- 

 tee are able to arrange for them upon the daily pro- 

 grammes: Fermentation; Adulteration of food and 

 drugs ; Thermo-chemistry and chemical theory. 



— With a view of more generally disseminating 

 the results of scientific investigation, and of facili- 

 tating the work of the student in natural history, 

 the following members and officers of the Academy of 

 natural sciences, Philadelphia, have associated them- 

 selves into a bureau of scientific information, whose 

 function shall be the imparting, through correspond- 

 ence, of precise and definite information bearing upon 

 the different branches of the natural sciences. It is 

 believed by them, that, through an organization of this 

 kind, considerable assistance can be rendered to those 

 who, by the nature of their surroundings, are pre- 

 cluded from the advantages to be derived from 

 museums and libraries. As the organization is of a 

 purely voluntary character, it is to be hoped that no 

 unnecessary burden will be imposed upon its mem- 

 bers by communications of an essentially trivial 

 nature. All correspondence must be accompanied by 

 a return stamp (two cent), and may be addressed to 

 the following: Joseph Leidy, M.D., Mycetozoa, Rhiz- 

 opoda, Entozoa, Vertebrate paleontology ; Edward 

 Potts, Pond life, Fresh-water sponges, and Bryozoa; 

 George W. Tryon, jun., Conchology ; Benjamin 

 Sharp, M.D., Worms, Annelids, Histology ; G-. H. 

 Horn, M.D., North- American Coleoptera ; H. C. Mc- 

 Cook, D.D., Ants, Spiders, Insect architecture ; Hen- 

 ry Skinner, M.D., North-American moths ; Eugene 

 M. Aaron, Diurnal Lepidoptera; W. N. Lockington, 

 Echinoderms, Fishes; Spencer Trotter, M.D., North- 

 American ornithology ; Thomas Meehan, Exotic 

 and cultivated plants ; J. H. Redfield, Ferns and 

 North- American phanerogamic plants ; J. T. Roth- 

 rock, Vegetable physiology; F. Lamson Scribner, 

 Grasses ; H. Carvill Lewis, Mineralogy, Glacial and 

 stratigrapliical geology; Angelo Heilprin, Inverte- 

 brate paleontology, Physiography, Dynamical geol- 

 ogy; D. G. Brinton, M.D., Ethnology, American 

 linguistics, and Archeology; Harrison Allen, M.D., 

 Teratology; J. Gibbons Hunt, M.D., Microscopical 

 technology ; E. J. Nolan, M.D., Bibliography of nat- 

 ural history; Professor Harrison Allen, chairman; 

 Professor Angelo Heilprin, secretary. It is to be 

 clearly understood that the scope of the organization 

 does not embrace considerations of a purely profes- 

 sional character, such as mineral or cbemical analy- 

 ses, nor the determination of collections, except by 

 special agreement. Departments not represented in 

 the above titles will be filled as early as practicable: 

 correspondence pertaining to such should be ad- 

 dressed to the secretary. In all other departments 

 the respondents may be addressed directly, care of the 

 Bureau of scientific information, Academy of natu- 

 ral sciences. 



— Lieut. A. R. Gordon of the royal navy, superin- 

 tendent of the Canadian meteorological service, sailed 

 from Halifax, June 22, in the steamer Neptune, with 

 a party of observers, to establish stations along the 

 Hudson's Strait. The crew, with the explorers, will 

 in all number fifty-five men. The expedition will first 

 call at Nain, on the Labrador coast, and finally at 

 Ramah, the northernmost station on the Atlantic 

 coast, and but a few hundred miles south of Cape 

 Chudleigh, at the entrance to the strait. Eskimo 

 interpreters will be engaged at one or more of these 

 Labrador stations. Seven stations in the strait will 

 be established, as follows: No. 1, at Cape Chudleigh, 

 at the south-east entrance of the strait; No. 2, on 

 Resolution Island, at the north-east entrance of the 

 strait, and about forty-five miles across from No. 7 

 station; No. 3, at Cape Hope, or on the south side of 

 about the centre of the strait, and about two hundred 

 and fifty miles from stations 1 and 2; No. 4, di- 

 rectly north of No. 3, on the Upper Savages Islands; 

 No? 5, on the south-east end of Nottingham Island, 

 and about two hundred miles from No. 4; No. 6, on 

 the south side of Mansfield Island, and a hundred 

 and fifty miles from No. 5; No. 7, at Fort Churchill, 

 four hundred and sixty miles from No. 6. 



— By order of the secretary of the navy, a board, 

 consisting of Commodore Luce, Capt. Sampson, and 

 Commander Goodrich, has reported upon the estab- 

 lishing of a post-graduate course, or school of appli- 

 cation, for officers of the navy. It recommends 

 that the leading subjects of the course should be 

 the 'science and art of war,' and ' Law and history.' 

 Subsidiary to these, instruction will be given in ord- 

 nance, torpedoes, and hydrography. These latter 

 courses will consist partly of instruction in the higher 

 mathematics and the physical sciences, and partly of 

 practice at the Washington navy arsenal and experi- 

 mental battery and the Newport torpedo station. 



Only officers of and above the rank of lieutenant 

 are to be allowed to take the courses. In the two 

 main branches the students are to come to the school, 

 and the subjects are to be taught by eminent special- 

 ists. For the instruction in science, the students 

 must go to the instructors, wherever such and the 

 necessary laboratories are to be found. For this and 

 other reasons, the board recommends Newport for the 

 site of the school, that the students in science may 

 avail themselves of the facilities about Boston. 



— The Detroit Free press reports a fall of a light 

 dust on Lake Michigan on June 13. The dust covered 

 the ground about Wangoshance lighthouse to the 

 depth of an inch. 



— The paper promised by Professor Bonney for the 

 Montreal meeting of the British association will be 

 on the archaean rocks of Britain, and not on the 

 archaean rocks of Canada. 



— The director of the meteorological observatory 

 of Turin, Father Denza, is organizing observations 

 on board the Godard captive balloon, which ascends 

 to an altitude of two hundred to three hundred me- 

 tres at the Turin exhibition. 



