Personal and Scientific \czvs. 399 
TiiK .Carnegie Museum of Pittsburg has purchased the 
hhrary of the late J. H. Hatcher of that Museum atul also that 
of the late professor C. E. iJeecher of Yale. The first is es- 
pecially rich in works on verlehrate i)aleontology, and the latter 
in works on invertebrate paleontology. 
Dr. D. W. Johnson, of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, has just completed a report on the "Relation of 
the Underground Waters to the Law." It will be published in 
the reports of the Eastern Section of the Division of Hydrol- 
ogy of the United States Cieological Survey. 
Dr. Gi-:o. P. Mkrrill gave a paper, Nov. 2^, before the 
Geological Society of Washington on "The Formation of the 
vein of so-called Asbestos (fibrous serpentine) at Thetford 
mines. Canada." At the same meeting Mr. Bailey Willis gave 
an illustrated lecture on "Some aspects of China." 
Pkofks.sor T. C. CiiA.MBERLiN gave an address at the 
meeting of the Chicago chapter of the Society of the Sigma 
Xi on November 22d. His subject was ''The theories of the 
origin of the earth." At the same meeting an exhibit from 
the department of paleontology of the University of Chicago 
was shown. 
The Si-:\ knteexth Winter Meetinc; of the Geological 
Society of America will be held at Philadelphia, beginning De- 
cember 29, at 10 o'clock a. m. Headquarters wdll be at the 
Walton Hotel. Locust and Broad streets. The meetings will 
be at College Hall, University of Pennsylvania. The presi- 
dent is J. C. Branner. 
Dr. T. C. CHAMnERi.iN under the Auspices of the 
Sid.MA Xi Society on December 2nd gave a lecture in the 
auditorium of the Ohio State University on "Some hypoth- 
eses as to the origin of the earth." An audience composed 
of students, professors and residents of Columbus, numbering 
at least i.ooo. listened for more than an hour to a most schol- 
arly and interesting address. 
The United States Geological Survey has just com- 
pleted an arrangement wMth Dr. T. L. Watson, the recently 
appointed State Geologist of Virginia, for cooperation in the 
investigation of the artesian waters of that state. These in- 
vestigations will be carried on during the winter and following 
summer bv Mr. M. L. Fuller of the United States sur\-ey in 
conjunction with Dr. Watson of the State survey, and a joint 
report will be prepared early in the fall of 1905. 
National Geogrvphical Society. In the popular meet- 
ings planned by the Society for the year 1904-05 is a lecture 
on April 21. by G. K. Gilbert, on "Niagara Falls." .At the 
scientific meetings the following subjects of geological inter- 
est will be discussed : "Glacial erosion," bv W. D. Johnson and 
G. K. Gilbert. November i8th; "Geography of Alaska." by A. 
