February 3, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



197 



monia by Heat ' ; a report of exiDerimental 

 work. December 19 — Assistant Professor 

 George A. Hulett, ' Eevolving Electrodes and 

 Electro-analysis.' January 16, 1905 — Pro- 

 fessor Moses Gomberg, ' A Review of the 

 Literature in Tetravalent Oxygen.' 



We learn from The Botanical Gazette that 

 the Botanical Society of America, the Society 

 for Plant Morphology and Physiology and 

 the American Mycological Society, through 

 committees of conference, have agreed upon 

 certain general principles, upon the basis of 

 which they will fuse into one national society 

 under the name of The Botanical Society of 

 America. For some years the names of all 

 the societies will appear upon official publica- 

 tions until the union is thoroughly known. 

 There are to be two classes of membership, 

 members and associates, the distinction being 

 placed upon published work. The fees are to 

 be $5 a year. Grants for research are to be 

 made from the income. Meetings are to be 

 annual with no permanently organized sec- 

 tions, but free opportunity for local meetings 

 or temporary sections in charge of committees. 

 A joint committee has been formed to prepare 

 a constitution for the united societies, which 

 shall embody the principles agreed to, and 

 complete the reorganization. 



A CABLEGRAM to the Ncw York Herald says 

 that Professor Curie has sent through the 

 Austrian ambassador, a tube of radium to the 

 Vienna Hospital for use in the cure of lupus. 

 The gift is a recognition of the act of the 

 Austrian government in furnishing Professor 

 Curie with pitchblende for his original re- 

 searches. 



The government of the northwest territories 

 of Canada is establishing a new bacteriologic 

 and pathologic laboratory and has appointed 

 Dr. George Charlton, formerly of the McGill 

 University pathologic department, chief of the 

 laboratory. 



The department of geology of the American 

 Museum of Natural History has recently re- 

 ceived a series of fossils from the beds of Hud- 

 son River age near Cincinnati, Ohio. All the 

 specimens are in beautiful condition and many 



rare forms, especially of Echinoderms, are 

 represented by several specimens. 



The king of Italy has given $20,000 towards 

 the expenses of the exhibition to be held in 

 Milan in 1906 in celebration of the opening 

 of the Simplon tunnel. 



Among the recent contributions received by 

 the Imperial Cancer Research Fund are the 

 following : the Duke of Bedford, £1,000 (third 

 instalment of £3,000); Mr. J. A. Mullens, 

 £100; the Clothworkers' Company, £50 and 

 Mr. Ai-chibald Walker, £50. 



Dr. W. Bell Dawson, the engineer in 

 charge of the Tidal and Current Survey of 

 Canada, has been awarded the Gay prize of 

 1,500 francs, by the Academy of Sciences of 

 Paris. This prize was offered for the best 

 determinations of mean sea level on the coasts 

 of the North Atlantic Ocean. Such determina- 

 tions serve either to detect any gradual change 

 of the land elevation relatively to the ocean, 

 or to establish a plane of reference for general 

 levels throughout the country. Although this 

 is additional to the direct work of the Tidal 

 and Current Survey as a marine undertaking. 

 Dr. Dawson has evidently given special atten- 

 tion to this matter. As there are yet no gen- 

 eral geodetic levels throughout Canada, he 

 has established independent bench-marks at 

 all the more important harbors and other 

 localities where tidal observations have been 

 obtained. These are at widely separated 

 points, from Labrador to Nova Scotia, and 

 from the St. Lawrence to Newfoundland. 

 The resulting tide levels are described in 

 his recent paper in the Transactions of the 

 Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, entitled 

 ' Tide Levels and Datum Planes in Eastern 

 Canada.' It is the work there detailed, and 

 explained in" his other reports and papers on 

 tidal subjects, that formed the basis of the 

 award of the prize referred to. 



Mr. S. Harbert Hamilton announces that he 

 has sold to the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, 

 Pa., the famous W. W. JeiTeris collection of 

 minerals, with the understanding that it is to 

 be known in perpetuity as the ' W. W. Jefferis 

 Mineral Collection of the Carnegie Museum.' 



