March 24, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



479 



that this section of the museum will be turned 

 over by the city to the Brooklyn Institute of 

 Arts and Sciences very soon. 



The French government has proposed to 

 the chamber of deputies to create a Universal 

 Exposition in Paris in 1920 to commemorate 

 the foundation of the French republic. 



The daily papers state that the Duke of 

 Orleans is preparing an Arctic expedition, 

 and has offered to purchase the Fram of the 

 Nansen expedition. The Norwegian govern- 

 ment has, however, declined to sell it. 



In order to avoid clashing with the Inter- 

 national Tuberculosis Congress, which is to 

 be held this year in Paris from October 2 to 

 7, the organizing committee of the French 

 Congress of Medicine has decided to change 

 the date of meeting from October 2, 3 and 4, 

 to September 25, 26 and 27. 



It is said that United States food labora- 

 tories will be established in Boston, Orleans 

 and San Francisco similar to the one recently 

 opened in New York City. 



A METEOROLOGICAL observatory in the Trans- 

 vaal has been established near Johannesburg, 

 with Mr. E. T. A. Innes as director. 



The Lake Laboratory of the Ohio State 

 University announces for its summer work in 

 biology at the Cedar Point Laboratory, near 

 Sandusky, courses of instruction in general 

 zoology and botany and advanced courses in 

 comparative anatomy, embryology, entomol- 

 ogy, ichthyology, ornithology, experimental 

 zoology, ecology and special work in botany. 

 The staff includes, besides the director. Pro- 

 fessor F. L. Landacre, of the Ohio State Uni- 

 versity; Dr. W. E. KelHcott, Barnard College, 

 Columbia University; Professor L. B. Walton, 

 Kenyon College, and Mr. O. E. Jennings, 

 curator of botany at the Carnegie Museum, 

 Pittsburg. The course in experimental zool- 

 ogy, under the charge of Dr. Kellicott, of 

 Columbia I^niversity, is a new feature in the 

 work. As heretofore special attention will be 

 given to the opportunities for investigators, 

 those doing independent work being allowed 

 free use of the laboratory with the expecta- 

 tion that each will furnish his own microscope 



and other apparatus or materials used in his 

 investigation. The instruction courses open 

 on June 26 and close on August 4, and the 

 laboratory will be open for investigators from 

 June 26 to September 15. Detailed informa- 

 tion may be obtained by addressing the di- 

 rector, Professor Herbert Osborn, Ohio State 

 University, Columbus, Ohio. 



The London Times states that the French 

 Ministry of Public Works has corhmissioned 

 M. Jacquier to project plans for a railway be- 

 tween Chamonix and Aosta. He considers 

 the difficulty would not be so great as with the 

 Simplon tunnel ; the tunnel would be 4J miles 

 shorter, and the rock gives no indication of 

 subterranean reservoirs of water. The tunnel 

 would commence at Chamonix, 3,415 feet 

 above sea level, and end at Entreves (4,550 

 feet), a distance of 8 J miles. The Dora Baltea 

 would give ample water power for the boring 

 work, and afterwards for locomotion. 



According to foreig-n exchanges, the Danish 

 government has begun a survey of Iceland. 

 Much of Iceland has never been accurately 

 surveyed, triangulation having been carried 

 out in only a few parts of the island. The 

 least known region is the southern coast, which 

 is impassable in summer owing to the quick- 

 sands, and also the inland ice-masses of the 

 Vatna Jokull, and it is here that a beginning 

 has been made with the survey. During the 

 summer of 1903 a plan of the survey was laid 

 down by means of a preliminary expedition, 

 and in the spring of 1904, so long as the frosts 

 made it possible to cross the morasses and 

 streams, a part of the southern region in the 

 district of Skeideraasande was surveyed. A 

 second survey party was detailed to study the 

 inland ice. One result of the work was to 

 show that the highest point of the island is 

 Hvannadalshnukr, which is 2,120 meters, and 

 no^, as has been hitherto supposed, the Oraefa 

 Jokull, which is only 1,959 meters. In all 

 about 100 Danish square miles, that is 5,700 

 square kilometers, have been already surveyed. 



Reuter's Agency is informed that Mr. A. 

 E. Pratt, who lately returned to England from 

 a two years' expedition in the remote interior 

 of British New Guinea, chiefly along the Owen 

 Stanley Range, has sailed on a new scientific 



