RECENT DEATHS 



EXPERT Ijr BOTANT 



Proleasor Cymn Gnemney Prlnarle 

 Wim Cnrfitor of Herbarinm at tlie 

 lljiIversUy of Vermont 



Professor Cyrus Guernsey Pringle, cu- 

 rator of the herbarium at the University 

 of Vermont and one of the best-known 

 botanists in the United .States, died yes- 

 terday at BurllnKto.n, Vt. He was 

 seventy-three years old. On his last 

 search for spring blossoms he caught a 

 severe cold, which developed Into pneu- 

 monia and the end came at the Mary 

 Fletcher Hospital. His herbarium at the 

 University of Vermont was said to be 

 ore of the largest and most complete 

 in America. 



Professor Pringle was one of the 

 world's most famous figures in bota'n- 

 ical research. A man whose ".schooling" 

 ended with his boyhood days in ord«r that 

 he might assist in tilling the farm of his 

 parents, he succeeded by assiduous study 

 in reaching great heights in his chosen 

 fleld. 



Born In Charlotte, Vt., May 0, 1838, 

 Mr. Pringle from his earliest boyhood 

 possessed a passion for plants a>nd flow- 

 ers. The death of his brother prevented 

 his taking a contemplated course In 

 botany In the University of Vermont, 

 but ho devoted his spare time to study. 

 He became an authority on the flora of 

 New England and Canada, and while a 

 [ you.ng man he was oommisskmpd by Dr. 

 Asa Gray of Harvard University to look 

 up certain plants in the White Moun- 

 tains and the St. Lawrence Valley. La- 

 ter, as collector of the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History of New York, 

 he made collections from Arizona to the 

 State of Washington. His reputation 

 made, and styled "the prince of collec- 

 tors" by Professor Gray, he was sent by 

 Harvard University In 1884 to Investi- 

 gate the flora of Mexico. The follow- 

 ing year he was made botanical collec- 

 tor Year after year he made the trip 

 and brought out each time from 10,000 

 to SO,«K) specimens. 



Mr Prlngle's Mexican plants not only 

 enrich the herbaria of Harvard Univer- 

 sity and the University of Vermont, but 

 sets liave been .sent to the principal bo- 

 ta^nlcal museums of the world. In turn, 

 American uni 

 rlchcd by 

 with tl 



been 



sets from countries favored 



I One of the most interesting of scientific 

 leoturea wa'? delivered at tlie Polyclinique , ) 



No. 4360, May 20, 1911 



Henri de Rothschild at the end of March 

 by Prof. S. Pozzi, and has just been printed 

 at length in the Revue. Scientifique. It 

 described a visit lately paid by the lecturer 

 to the Institute Serumtherapico of Butantan, 

 near to Sao Paulo in Brazil, where the cure 

 of snake-bites by a serum taken from horses 

 and asses made immune by injections of 

 snake poison is practised. One of the un- 

 expected effects noticed was that the horse 

 towards the end of the treatment became 

 much heavier in weight, but lost this 

 increase when the daily dose of attenuated 

 virus was stopped. 



Prof. Pozzi described in the course of his 

 lecture a battle that he there witnessed 

 between a huge harmless snake, Eachidelus 

 brasili, and an extremely venomous one, 

 Lachesis lanceokitus, which he poetically 

 compares to the combat between Ommzd 

 and Aliriman. Although Rachidelus was 

 bitten more than once in the course of the 

 fight, it seemed to have no effect upon him ; 

 and when he had paralyzed his poisonous 

 adversary, he proceeded calmly first to 

 dislocate his cervical vertebra", and then to 

 swallow him head first. 



SCIENCE 



REFORMED CALENDAR 



A CALENDAR project which ignores the im- 

 mutable character of the week has sliglit 

 chances of being adopted because the week 

 is fixed by religious observance in all christian 

 nations. The calendar here proposed is based 

 on the week as a fundamental unit. It is 

 closely similar to the calendar recently pro- 

 posed by Dr. C. G. Hopkins, but differs in 

 that it consists of a year of thirteen months, 

 each four weeks in length, instead of Dr. 

 Hopkins's twelve months divided into quarters 

 of three months, each quarter containing two 

 four-week months and one five-week month. 

 Dr. Hopkins's reason for retaining twelve 



LN. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 857 



the week; the same is true of the days of the 

 month. Thus, the first, eighth, fifteenth and 

 twenty-second of every month would fall on 

 Monday; the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first 

 and twenty-eighth of every month would fall 

 on Sunday. 



If desired Sunday may as well be taken as 

 the initial day of the week, month and year. 



An additional advantage is that a calendar 

 for one year is good for all future time, as 

 the years are all alike in all respects except 

 that every fifth year has an extra week added 

 to December, with exceptions noted below. 



The details of the project are as follows: 



Common years consist of thirteen months 



