318 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 530. 



The Caniogie Institution of Washington 

 has recently made a grant of $2,500 to Pro- 

 fessor C. F. Burgess, of the department of 

 applied electro-chemistry of the College of 

 Engineering of the University of Wisconsin, 

 to aid him in carrying out investigations upon 

 the properties of pure iron and its alloys. 

 During the past three years Professor Burgess 

 has developed a method of producing iron 

 electrolytically of a very high degree of purity, 

 in a manner similar to that employed in the 

 refining of copper. Previous to this work pure 

 iron has been obtained only in very small 

 quantities and at excessive cost, but Professor 

 Burgess is now able to produce comparatively 

 large quantities at a small cost, using for this 

 purpose a cheap grade of steel. Careful an- 

 alysis of this product fails to show the pres- 

 ence of any foreign element, with the excep- 

 tion of hydrogen, which can readily be driven 

 off by heat. There is already a considerable 

 demand for this iron for scientific purposes, 

 and about half a ton has been made. 



According to the New York Evening Post 

 the grants made by the Carnegie Institution 

 for scientific research include the following to 

 Cornell: Professor Wilder D. Bancroft, for 

 chemical study of alloys, $500; W. W. Cob- 

 lentz, for study of infra-red emission and ab- 

 sorption spectra, $1,000; E. S. Shepard, for 

 study of brasses and bronzes as alloys, $1,000. 



We learn from Nature that an international 

 committee has been formed in Heidelberg, 

 under the presidency of Dr. A. Freiherr von 

 Dusch, minister of education, of the Grand 

 Duchy of Baden, with the object of honoring 

 the memory of the late Professor Carl Gegen- 

 baur, who for nearly thirty years was the 

 director of the Anatomical Institute of Heidel- 

 berg. The committee has decided upon a life- 

 size bust of Gegenbaur, to be executed in 

 marble by Professor C. Seffner, Leipzig. The 

 bust will be placed in the vestibule of the 

 Anatomical Institute, probably in the early 

 summer, at a date not yet fixed. The com- 

 mittee invites former pupils of the deceased 

 master, and all those who have benefited from 

 his epoch-making works on human and com- 

 parative anatomy, to send contributions, with 

 their addresses and titles, to Professor M. 



Fuerbringer or to Professor E. Goeppert, both 

 in Heidelberg. Every contributor will receive 

 a picture of the bust, and casts may be ob- 

 tained, on special application, from Professor 

 C. Seffner. 



A MEMORIAL service in honor of the late 

 Professor Alpheus S. Packard was held at 

 Brown University on February 18. 



Dr. George Bond Howes, F.E.S., Huxley's 

 successor as professor of zoology at the Royal 

 College of Science, London, known for his 

 contributions to vertebrate morphology, died 

 on Februai-y 4, at the age of fifty-one years. 



The Rev. Thomas Arthur Preston, who 

 founded the Marlborough Natural History 

 Society and Museum and who did much to 

 promote nature-study in England, died on 

 February 6, at the age of seventy-one years. 



Dr. Julius Scriba, professor of surgery at 

 the University of Tokio and the author of 

 contributions on anthropology and botany, has 

 died at the age of fifty-five years. 



The United States Civil Service Com- 

 mission announces that in view of the very 

 small number of applications filed for the 

 examination for assistant in the Philippine 

 service, on March 1-2, this examination has 

 been postponed to April 5-6, 1905, and will 

 be held in different parts of the country, 

 to secure eligibles from which to make cer- 

 tification to fill a large number of positions 

 in the grades of clerk and teacher in the 

 Philippines. As a result of this examination 

 it is desired to secure 140 college graduates, 

 including 20 polytechnic and 20 agricultural 

 graduates, at a salary of $1,200 per annum, 

 and 60 normal school gradiuites at a salary of 

 $1,000 per annum. Many of the appointees 

 will be required in the position of teacher, 

 while some will be required in the various 

 clerical and administrative offices in the 

 islands. Excellent opportunities for promo- 

 tion are afforded for well-qualified appointees. 

 For positions requiring college graduates 

 students who graduate in 1905 will be accept- 

 able. 



The United States Civil Service Commis- 

 sion announces an examination on March 8, 

 1905, to secure eligibles from which to make 



