720 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 540. 



According to the British Medical Journal 

 in 1861 the total number of medical practi- 

 tioners in Italy was 18,947, the proportion to 

 population being 8.8 per 10,000. In 1881 it 

 was 18,950, or 6.6 per 10,000. In 1901 it was 

 22,168, or 6.8 per 10,000. The distribution of 

 practitioners is somewhat unequal, the pro- 

 portion being higher in the south (7.7 per 

 10,000) than in the north (6.1 per 10,000). 

 In the province of Udine the proportion is 

 lower than anywhere else in Italy, there being 

 only one practitioner to 2,831 inhabitants; in 

 that of Naples it is highest, there being two 

 doctors to 732 inhabitants. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

 Dr. Browx Ayres on April 25 was inaugu- 

 rated as president of the University of Ten- 

 nessee. Senator James B. Frazier presided. 

 The welcome to Dr. Ayres for the colleges of 

 the east was delivered by Dr. J. S. Ames, 

 professor of physics at the Johns Hopkins 

 University; on behalf of the colleges of the 

 west, by President George E. McLean, of the 

 University of Iowa, and on behalf of the 

 southern colleges, by Chancellor K. B. Fulton, 

 of the University of Mississippi. Following 

 Dr. Ayres's inaugural address Dr. Charles Dab- 

 ney, president of the University of Cincinnati, 

 who was the immediate predecessor of Dr. 

 Ayres at Tennessee, delivered an address. Dr. 

 Ayres came to the University of Tennessee 

 from Tulane University, where he was pro- 

 fessor of phj^sics. At the inaugural exercises 

 a gift was announced from Mr. Andrew Car- 

 negie of $40,000 for a library building, condi- 

 tioned upon the securing an equal amount as 

 an endowment; and a gift of $7,600 from Mr. 

 John L. Ehea, the income to be used in the 

 interests of the engineering departments. 



After a long contest in the courts the will 

 of Henry C. Peabody, inventor of the rifle 

 bearing his name, has been affirmed. This 

 was partly the result of a compromise, by 

 which an additional $20,000 goes to the heirs. 

 About $350,000 will be used for the establish- 

 ment of an industrial school for girls at Nor- 

 wood, Mass. 



The legislature of Tennessee, in passing a 

 bill appropriating $25,000 a year for ten years 

 for the Peabody Normal College, at Nashville, 

 has assured the reception by that institution 

 of $1,000,000 from the division of the Peabpdy 

 Fund. 



President Schurman, of Cornell Univer- 

 sity, has received $1,000 from Mr. and Mrs. 

 Gerrit S. Miller, of Peterboro, N. Y., for the 

 foundation of a free book fund in memory of 

 William C. Seidell, who worked his way 

 through the university and graduated in 1904. 



University College, Sheffield, is to be given 

 a charter as the University of Sheffield. The 

 city will contribute about $40,000 annually to 

 its support. The present college buildings, 

 which are not united on a single site, are to 

 be vacated shortly for handsome new buildings 

 on a site adjoining one of the public parks of 

 Sheffield, now within a few months of com- 

 pletion. 



A SUMMER school will be held at the Uni- 

 versity of Colorado, Boulder, from June 17 

 to July 26. Courses in science are as follows : 

 chemistry, physics, geology, psychology and 

 botany. The work will be given by the regular 

 professors of the university. 



Professor E. B. C. Johnson (philosophy) 

 and C. H. Mcllwain (history) have resigned 

 from Miami University to accept preceptor- 

 ships at Princeton University. 



At the recent annual meeting of the regents 

 of the University of Nebraska Dr. F. D. 

 Heald, adjunct professor of plant physiology, 

 was elected botanist of the Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, and associate professor of 

 botany in the University School of Agricul- 

 ture. Appropriations were made for equip- 

 ping his laboratories in the new Agricultural 

 Hall on the station farm. At the same meet- 

 ing Dr. F. E. Clements, assistant professor of 

 botany, was promoted to be associate professor 

 of plant physiology. 



Dr. Alfred Hettner, associate professor of 

 geography at Heidelberg, has declined a call 

 to a professorshij) at Breslau. 



Dr. Pall Grube has resigned the chair of 

 physics in the Universitj- of Giessen. 



