Applications for assistance from this fund, in order to receive consideration, must be accompanied by full information, especially in regard to the following points: Applicants 1. Precise amount required. are reminded that one dollar ($1.00 or $1) is approximately equivalent to four English shillings, four German marks, five French francs, or five Italian lire. 2. Exact nature of the investigation proposed. 3. Conditions under which the research is to be prosecuted. 4. Manner in which the appropriation asked for is to be expended. All applications should reach, before January 1, 1904, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Dr. C. S. Minot, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., U. S. A. It is intended to make new grants in January, 1904. The trustees are disinclined, for the present, to make any grant to meet ordinary expenses of living or to purchase instruments, such as are found commonly in laboratories. Decided preference will be given to applications for small amounts, and grants exceeding $300 will be made only under very exceptional cir cumstances. (Signed) HENRY P. BOWDITCH, President, THEODORE W. RICHARDS, Grants made prior to 1900 have already been printed in SCIENCE. The following grants have since been made. 1900. 86. $200, to Dr. H. H. Field, Zürich, Switzerland, to aid in the publication of a card catalogue of biological literature. 87. $500, to S. H. Scudder, Esq., Cambridge, Mass., for the preparation of an index to North American Orthoptera. 88. $300, to Professor P. Bachmetjaw, Sofia, Bulgaria, for researches on the temperature of insects. 89. $250, to Dr. E. S. Faust, Strassburg, Germany, for an investigation of the poisonous secretion of the skin of Amphibia. 90. $250, to Professor Jacques Loeb, Chicago, Ill., for experiments on artificial parthenogenesis. 91. $650, to the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D. C., towards the expenses of three delegates to attend the conference of academies at Wiesbaden in October, 1899, to consider the formation of an International Association of Academies. 1901. 92. $150, to Professor E. W. Scripture, New Haven, Conn., for work in experimental phonetics. 93. $300, to Professor W. Valentiner, Heidelberg, Germany, for observations on variable stars. 94. $50, to A. M. Reese, Esq., Baltimore, Md., for investigation of the embryology of the alligator. 1902. 95. $125, to F. T. Lewis, M.D., Cambridge, Mass., for investigation of the development of the vena cava inferior. 96. $150, to Professor Henry E. Crampton, New York, for experiments on variation and selection in Lepidoptera. 97. $100, to Professor Frank W. Bancroft, Berkeley, Cal., for experiments on the inheritance of acquired characters. 98. $250, to Professor John Weinzirl, Albuquerque, N. M., for investigation of the relations of climate to the cure of tuberculosis. 99. $300, to Professor H. S. Grindley, Urbana, Ill., for investigation of the proteids of flesh. 100. $300, to Dr. Herbert H. Field, Zürich, Switzerland, to aid the work of the Concilium Bibliographicum. (An additional grant of $300 was made June, 1903.) 101. $250, to Dr. T. A. Jaggar, Cambridge, Mass., for experiments in dynamical geology. 102. $50, to Professor E. O. Jordan, Chicago, Ill., for the study of the bionomics of Anopheles. 103. $300, to Dr. E. Anding, Munich, Bavaria, to assist the publication of his work, 'Ueber die Bewegung der Sonne durch den Weltraum.' 104. $300, to Professor W. P. Bradley, Middletown, Conn., for investigations on matter in the critical state. 105. $300, Professor Hugo Kronecker, Bern, Switzerland, for assistance in preparing his physiological researches for publication. 106. $300, to Professor W. Valentiner, Heidelberg, Germany, to continue the work of Grant No. 93. OBSERVATORY AND PHYSICAL LABORA TORY AT WASHBURN COLLEGE. WASHBURN COLLEGE OBSERVATORY, Topeka, Kansas, was dedicated September 18. The address was delivered by Professor C. L. Doolittle of the Flower Observatory. The equipment now comprises the 11-in. 'Grand Prix' refractor exhibited by Warner and Swasey at the Paris Exhibition, a five-inch photographic doublet, 7-centimeter combined transit and zenith telescope, sextant, mean time break circuit chronometer and a standard chronograph. There will be added at once a mean time and a sidereal clock, a position micrometer, a computing machine and a working li brary of star charts and catalogues, tables, standard works of reference and observatory publications. Provision is also made for a meridian circle and spectroscopic outfit. The dome is a 26-foot, copper covered, by Warner and Swasey. There is a dark room, a clock and reception room, an apparatus room, library and computing room, and recitation room. Adjacent to the observatory are the new physical laboratories and mathematical On the ground floor are the heat and electrical laboratories and shop; on the main floor the lecture-room, apparatus room, offices, general laboratory, light and spectroscopy room and a room for special or advanced work. Both the observatory and the laboratories are the gift of an eastern man who has not allowed his name to be announced in connection with the gift. rooms. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. THE attendance at the Southport meeting of the British Association was 1,754, consisting of 250 old life members, 21 new life members, 319 old annual subscribers, 90 new annual subscribers, 688 associates, 365 ladies, and 21 foreign members. This is slightly larger than the attendance at the Belfast meeting last year and is not far from the average of recent meetings, but falls short of the attendance of the Southport meeting of 1883 by nearly 1000. The International Meteorological Committee sat during the meeting of the British Asso The following resolutions by the committee of recommendations were agreed to: That, as urged by the president in his address, it is desirable that scientific workers, and persons interested in science, be so organized that they may exert permanent influence on public opinion in order more effectively to carry out the third object of this association, originally laid down by the founders-namely, to obtain a more general attention to the objects of science, and a removal of any disadvantages of a public kind which impede its progress-and that the council be recommended to take steps to promote such organization. That the council be requested to consider the desirability of urging upon the Government, by a deputation to the First Lord of the Treasury or otherwise, the importance of increased national provision being made for University education. A resolution was also approved to the effect that the sectional committees should be continued in existence until their successors were appointed, and should be authorized to bring to the notice of the council, in the intervals between the meetings of the Association, any matters in which the action of the council might be desirable. The appointment of twenty-six committees without grants was approved. The following resolutions presented to the committee of recommendations by section A were approved: That the attention of the council be called to the utility which would result from obtaining more uniformity in the units adopted in meteorology and to the fact that the moment has come for bringing about such uniformity. That the systematic investigation of the upper currents of the atmosphere by means of kites or balloons is of great importance to meteorology, and that the council be asked to take such steps as they may think fit to urge upon the treasury the importance of providing the Meteorological Council with the funds necessary for the purpose. names At a meeting of the general committee the of Professor Simon Newcomb, of Washington, Professor L. Boltzmann, of Leipzig, and Professor Mascart, of Paris, were added to the vice-presidents of Section A. Dr. W. A. Herdman was elected one of the secretaries of the Association in the room of Dr. B. H. Scott. The Association will meet on August 17, 1904, at Cambridge, under the presidency of Mr. Arthur Balfour, the prime minister. The following year the meeting will be in South Africa, the governments of Cape Colony, Natal and other colonies having appropriated £6,000 to assist in the transportation of members. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. DR. W. A. NOYES, of the Rose Polytechnic Institute, has accepted the position of chemist in the National Bureau of Standards. During the present year while the laboratories are in course of erection, Professor Noyes will enjoy the hospitality of the Johns Hopkins University. PROFESSOR GEORGE H. DARWIN, of Cambridge University, has been elected associate of the Belgian Academy of Sciences in the room of the late Professor Stokes. DR. M. P. RAVENEL has been appointed assistant medical director and chief of the laboratory of the Henry Phipps Institute for the Study and Treatment and Prevention of Tuberculosis, Philadelphia. DR. ANDREW D. WHITE, formerly president of Cornell University and ambassador to Germany, has decided to spend the winter in Germany and Italy. He will consequently be unable to give the lectures that had been planned at Yale and Cornell Universities. MR. R. S. WILLIAMS, museum aid at the New York Botanical Garden, has been sent to the Philippine Archipelago to make collections for the garden. DR. F. L. TUFTS, tutor in physics in Columbia University, has been given a year's leave of absence to spend in research in Germany. DR. EUGENE C. SULLIVAN, of the University of Michigan, and Mr. Waldemar T. Schaller, of San Francisco, have been appointed assistant chemists in the United States Geological Survey. The appointments were made upon the basis of civil service examinations, MR. J. C. CADMAN has been elected president of the British Institution of Mining Engi neers. PROFESSOR AUGUSTUS RADCLIFFE-GROTE, director of the Museum in Hildesheim, an authority on entomology, died on September 23. He lived for many years in New York State, being director of the Buffalo Academy of Science. THE death is announced of the Rev. Maxwell Henry Close, at Dublin on September 15, at the age of eighty-one years. He had devoted himself to scientific pursuits since 1861, having published papers on astronomical and other subjects. THE Henry Phipps Institute for the Study, Treatment and Prevention of Tuberculosis has arranged for the coming fall and winter a series of lectures on various phases of tuberculosis. The first of these lectures will be given by Dr. E. L. Trudeau, of Saranac Lake, N. Y., during the last week in October, his subject being 'The History of the Development of the Tuberculosis Work at Saranac Lake.' The following have been invited to give the subsequent lectures: Dr. Pannwitz, of Germany, in November; Dr. William Osler, of Baltimore, in December; Dr. Calmette, director of the Pasteur Institute, at Lille, France, in January; Dr. Herman M. Biggs, of New York, in February, and Dr. Maragliano of Italy, in March. All of them have accepted with the exception of Dr. Calmette, who will come if it is possible. THE American Grape Acid Association, 318 Front St., San Francisco, Cal., offers a premium of $25,000 for any person who devises a process or formula for the utilization of California grapes containing over twenty per cent. of saccharin, worth $10 a ton, to produce tartaric acid at a price that would permit of exportation without loss. The decision in awarding the amount is to rest with a jury of five, of which Professor E. W. Hilgard, of the University of California, is one. The offer closes on December 1, 1904. A JAPANESE translation of Elements of Sanitary Engineering,' by Professor Mansfield Merriman, has recently been published at Tokio. The translator is B. Onuma, principal of the Kogyokusha Engineering College at Shiba. A CABLEGRAM to the daily papers states that a high speed trial over the Zossen experimental electric railroad on September 26 resulted in attaining a speed at the rate of over 117 miles per hour. Every part of the 100-ton car was intact and the roadbed was not affected. A CORRESPONDENT of the London Times writes that students of the history and of the prehistoric times of the Scandinavian countries have been much surprised by the recent discovery of an artistically highly-finished 'sun chariot'—a structure of ancient religious and sacrificial import-in a moor of Seeland in Denmark. From the site where it was found it is supposed to be not less than 3,000 years old. It is now in the museum at Copenhagen. The subject is of great interest for the whole Scandinavian and Germanic race. WE learn from the London Times that it is stated that a scheme is on foot for the organization of a floating industrial exhibition of British manufactures, which is to make a tour of the Empire. The movement has the support of prominent shipping and manufacturing firms, but it has not yet taken final shape. The plan which is now in course of development is to fit out a large ship with samples of all classes of manufactured articles which Great Britain supplies or can supply to her Colonies, including even fairly heavy machinery. From 50 to 100 firms are expected to exhibit, and a representative of each firm will accompany the ship, which, in the course of a voyage extending over some six months, will call at every port of importance in the British Colonies and dependencies, as well as in Japan, China and other specially selected places. It is the intention of the organizers to be in a position to sail in the early part of next year. DR. R. BOWDLER SHARP Writes to the editor of the Times: In common with many other zoologists, I have been somewhat concerned to see the avidity with which certain journals in this country publish broadcast myths connected with natural history, and the credulity with which nonsensical paragraphs of this kind are received by the public. The myth most in vogue in the springtime is the one that the British Museum is in want of a kingfisher's nest, and has offered a reward of £100 to anybody who will procure one for the national collection. This fable dies hard, and causes me much loss of time every spring in assuring well-meaning collectors that the British Museum has long ago acquired as many kingfisher's nests as it wants. On a par with this foolish myth is another which is now being exploited-viz., the story that a wellknown entomologist has paid £1,000 for a specimen of a flea! The journals which print, and the folk who read, this nonsense must surely know it is untrue. The fleas and mosquitoes are both families of insects extremely difficult to study. We know the mischief which is done by mosquitoes in the case of malaria, and the report of the Plague Commission shows that fleas play no unimportant part in the dissemination of disease. To make a collection of these noxious insects is a tedious and difficult matter, but they have to be studied and monographed like butterflies and the higher orders. It is, therefore, annoying to zoologists to find mendacious statements published broadcast which are calculated to bring into ridicule the earnest work which is being carried on by entomologists who devote themselves to the study of these difficult groups. I have heard of one instance when a new and curious genus of Pulicide was valued at 10s., but, as a rule, the sum of 3d. or 6d. is considered sufficient value by museums for any specimen of fleas obtained from animals in any part of the world. There is, sir, a considerable difference between sixpence and a thousand pounds, and it may be considered that the exposure of such a palpable untruth is not worth the time that it takes to expose it; but the reiteration of the myth in responsible journals, and the credulity of the public, as shown by the correspondence on the subject, make it desirable to give publicity to the true facts of the case. MR. W. W. HARRIS, U. S. Consul at Mannheim, writes to the Department of State: Beginning with June 7, 1903, a three days' congress of the German Society of Electricians was held in Mannheim. The meetings were attended by about 300 electrical engineers from all parts of the empire. Papers were read on a variety of topics pertaining to electrical engineering, especially as applied to street-railway construction, electric lighting, etc. Among those who presented papers were Privy Councillor Professor Arnold, of Carlsruhe; Professor Görges, of Dresden; and Baron von Gaisberg, of Hamburg. At this meeting, as at similar meetings in Germany, that which first attracts the attention of the observer is the active part taken by teachers from the technical and other schools in what might be regarded the purely practical side of the subject. Thus, in this particular case the discussions led into the construction of street railways, installation of light and power plants, etc. Among those who took a leading part in these discussions were teachers and professional men. No opinion is ventured as to whether, upon the whole, a science such as that of electricity, mining, architecture, etc., progresses more rapidly if left mainly to what |