238 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. YI., ^o. 136. 



relieve European nations, particularly Germany, of 

 their excess of silver. 



The closing paper was also by Professor Elliott, 

 upon electric lighting, giving the results of an ex- 

 amination of the system in use in the Philadelphia 

 post-oflQce. The system is the Weston; the incandes- 

 cent lights employing an electro-motive force of 73.75 

 volts, and the arc lights a current of 80.05 amperes. 

 One effective horse-power of the engine was required 

 for 13.25 incandescent lights, and for 1.43 arc lights. 

 One horse-power on the incandescent circuit gave 

 a light equal to 237 standard candles, and on the arc- 

 light circuit of 1,077.3 candles. In remarking upon 

 these results, a member called attention to the low 

 electro-motive force employed, and pointed out that 

 this largely increased the safety of the system as 

 compared with others. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The officers elected for the next meeting of the 

 American association for the advancement of science, 

 wliich will be held in Buffalo, commencing Aug. 18, 

 1886, are : president, Prof. Edward S. Morse of Salem, 

 Mass. ; section A, mathematics and astronomy, vice- 

 president, Prof. J. Willard Gibbs of Yale College, 

 New Haven, Conn. ; secretary, Mr. S. C. Chandler, 

 jun., of the Harvard observatory, Cambridge, Mass.; 

 B, physics, vice-president. Prof. C. F. Brackett of the 

 College of New Jersey, Princeton, N.J. ; secretary. 

 Prof. H. S. Carhart of the North-western university, 

 Evanston, 111.; C, chemistry, vice-president, Dr. H. 

 W. Wiley of the department of agriculture, Washing- 

 ton, D.C. ; secretary, Professor William McMurtrie 

 of the Illinois industrial university. Champaign, III.; 

 D, mechanical science and engineering, vice-presi- 

 dent, Mr. O. Chanute of Kansas City, Mo. ; secretary, 

 Mr. William Kent of Jersey City, N.J. ; E, geology 

 and geography, vice-president. Prof. T. C. Chamberlin 

 of the U. S. geological survey, Beloit, Wis. ; secretary. 

 Prof. E. W. Claypole of Buchtel college, Akron, O. ; 

 F, biology, vice-president. Dr. Henry P. Bowditch of 

 the Harvard medical school, Boston, Mass. ; secretary, 

 Mr. J. C. Arthur of the N.Y. experiment station, 

 Geneva, N.Y. ; H, anthropology, vice-president, Mr. 

 Horatio Hale of Clinton, Ont. ; secretary, Mr. A. W. 

 Butler of Brookville, Ind. ; I, economic science and 

 statistics, vice-president, Mr. Joseph Cummings of 

 Evanston, 111. ; secretary, Mr. H. E. Alvord of Hough- 

 ton Farm, Mountainville, N.Y. No nominations were 

 made for section G, histology and microscopy, as it 

 has been decided to merge it in the biological section. 

 The permanent secretary is Mr. F. W. Putnam of the 

 Peabody museum, Cambridge, Mass.; the general 

 secretary, Prof. S. G. Williams of Cornell university, 

 Ithaca, N.Y. ; the assistant secretary. Prof. W. H. 

 Pettee of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; 

 and the treasurer, Mr. William Lilly of Mauch Chunk, 

 Penn. 



— The Germans hold the fifty-eighth meeting of 

 their association of naturalists and physicists this 

 year at Strassburg, Sept. 17-23. 



— The Anthropological congress, which is shortly 

 to be held at Kome, will have a curious feature 

 in a collection of 700 skulls of criminals, num- 

 bered and classified. To these, says Nature, will 

 be added the photographs of 3,000, and the brains 

 of more than 150 convicts ; thousands of autographs, 

 poems, sketches, and special instruments, the work 

 of criminals; an album containing a record of 700 

 observations, physical and moral, on 500 criminals, 

 and on 300 ordinary men. There will also be graphic 

 maps of crime in Europe, with reference to meteor- 

 ology, food, institutions, suicide, etc. ; tables of the 

 stature of criminals in relation to the length of the 

 arms, and of crime in towns compared to that in 

 the country. Mr. Bertillon will exhibit the graphic 

 curves of 23,000 recidivistes examined in twelve parts 

 of the body, and the practical results obtained. Pho- 

 tographs of Russian political and other criminals, 

 especially of those from Moscow, and wax masks of 

 a large number of celebrated criminals, will also be 

 exhibited. All the notabilities in the science of crim- 

 inal anthropology will take part in the congress. 



— On the 28th of April, 1884, during a very severe 

 thunder-storm, the monument of the first duke of 

 Sutherland at Lilleshall, Shropshire, Eng., was struck 

 and badly injured by lightning. Mr. C. C. Walker, 

 who was near by during the storm, made a careful 

 study of the monument and its surroundings, the re- 

 sults of which are published in the Quarterly journal 



^^^^m 



of the Boyal meteorological society (January, 1885). 

 The monument stands two hundred feet above the 

 surrounding country, and is built of sandstone in 

 the form of an obelisk. In 1839, six years after its 

 erection, it was so severely damaged by lightning 

 that it had to be taken down and rebuilt. The 

 builder, ignorant of electrical science, fixed on the 

 top, as the apex of the shaft, a pyramid of glass eight 

 inches square at the base, and also inserted pieces of 

 plate-glass six inches wide and thirty inches in length, 

 in grooves cut in the sides of the shaft, thinking, no 



