118 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 525. 



conclusions are said to be that cancer is 

 neither hereditary nor contagious, that it is 

 not of parasitic origin, and that excision is the 

 only cure except in the case of certain super- 

 ficial growths which may be cured by radio- 

 therapy. 



The British postmaster-general has made 

 arrangements with the Marconi Company for 

 the acceptance and prepayment at telegraph 

 offices of telegrams for transmission from wire- 

 less stations on the coast to ships at sea. 



President Roosevelt has sent a message 

 to congress urging the passage of the bill, now 

 before that body, for the reorganization of the 

 medical corps of the army. He says he is 

 satisfied that the medical corps is much too 

 small for the needs of the present army, and 

 therefore very much too small for its success- 

 ful expansion in time of war. 



The local chamber of commerce at Grenoble 

 has opened an industrial museum or perma- 

 nent exposition of the special products and 

 diverse industries of this region. This is to 

 be supplemented later by an agricultural mu- 

 seum and bourse to show the progress of sci- 

 ence as applied to soil cultivation and the best 

 implements for field work, and to facilitate 

 business transactions on the part of farmers 

 and cultivators. 



A correspondent writes to the London 

 Times: The Carnegie Dunfermline trustees 

 have endeavored to provide secondary and tech- 

 nical education at cheap rates, yet of a quality 

 equal to that supplied in the largest educa- 

 tional centers, and by means of bursaries to 

 bring university education within the reach 

 of all capable and diligent students. They 

 have appointed a musical director, Mr. David 

 Stephen, who superintends the arrangement 

 of concerts and directs the study of music 

 both in the schools and by suiiplementary 

 cla.s.ses. They have also charge of a gym- 

 nasium and public baths, built at a cost of 

 between £40,000 and £.50,000, especially staffed 

 and equipped for the development of physical 

 culture. The trustees engage lecturers of 

 repute and award prizes for the best-kept gar- 

 dens. They have acquired by purchase the 



old parish glebe adjoining the southeastern 

 extremity of the Pittencrieff, and have thus 

 foreshadowed the construction of a new ap- 

 proach to the glen. By arrangement with the 

 Crown they have taken charge of the palace 

 ruins, the pathways to which they have greatly 

 improved, and the superintendence of Queen 

 Margaret's Cave Oratory has been transferred 

 to them by the town council. So far the only 

 building contemplated by the trustees is a 

 library with a museum, the present Carnegie 

 library being defective as regards accommoda- 

 tion. 



The secretary of agriculture says in his an- 

 nual report that " during the past year the 

 main building of the Weath* Bureau Observa- 

 tory has been completed, while the power plant, 

 the building from which balloon ascensions and 

 kite fiights are to be made, and the magnetic 

 building are being constructed. The physical 

 laboratory for electrical and radioactive effects 

 is being planned, the erection of which will 

 take place in another year. Finally, a compre- 

 hensive physical observatory for photograph- 

 ing the sun directly and through the spectrum, 

 for measuring radiation energy by actinometry 

 and bolometry, with their allied equipment, 

 will be required. This complex institution 

 must grow up slowly as plans can be matured 

 along the best modern lines. When the equip- 

 ment is ready we shall make and send out 

 apparatus for the exploring of the atmosphere 

 to altitudes of from 3 to 10 miles. It is 

 probable that many balloons will be simul- 

 taneously liberated from different stations so 

 as to get records of storms and cold waves 

 from their four quadrants. With observations 

 from the magnetic, the electric and the solar 

 physics observatories, opportunity for study 

 will be given to those who believe that the 

 cyclonic and anticyclonic whirls that consti- 

 tute storms and cold waves are mainly the 

 result of changes in the amount or intensity 

 of some form of solar radiation. It is the 

 puri)ose to make the research at Mount 

 Weather catholic in its broadness." 



The London Times statas that the annual 

 conversazione of the Royal College of Science 

 and Royal School of Mines was held at the 

 college in South Kensington, on December 21. 



