A conference was appointed, to be held at Wiesbaden, Germany, October
9th and 10th, to promote the formation of an International Federation
of Science--a scheme which was referred to in Sir Michael Foster’s
presidential address before the British Association. This idea for
the establishment of an international association of great learned
societies appears, the London Athenæum says, to be the outcome of
discussions carried on at Göttingen in 1898. For some time past
the Academies of Vienna, Munich, Göttingen, and Leipsic have been
federated into an association or “Castell,” each meeting in turn at
their respective headquarters to talk over scientific matters of joint
interest. At two or three recent meetings questions were brought
up, such as antarctic research and the cataloguing of scientific
literature, which, besides being of sufficient interacademic value to
come before the “Castell,” were of prime importance to English men
of science. English delegates were therefore invited to attend, and
did so; and out of this invitation has grown a desire for a wider
international basis for the association. The adherence of the principal
learned societies of the world, including our National Academy, is said
to have been secured to the movement.
* * * * *
The thirteenth season of the Department of Botany at the Marine
Biological Laboratory, Woods Holl, Mass., will open July 5th and
continue till August 16th. Three laboratory courses are provided,
accompanied by lectures, including the subjects of cryptogamic
botany, plant physiology, and plant cytology and micro-technique. The
principal instructors are Dr. Bradley R. Davis, Mr. George T. Moore,
and Dr. Rodney H. True. The department extends a special welcome to
investigators, and desires their co-operation in the development of the
laboratory. Woods Holl offers great attractions in variety of material
and facilities for biological research, and is proposed as an excellent
center of resort where the botanists of the country may meet for a few
weeks. A six weeks’ course in Nature study, including both animals and
plants, and consisting largely of field work, is a new feature offered
this year for the first time.
* * * * *
On Friday, March 9th, occurred the death of two of the six surviving
founders of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science--Dr. Charles E. West, of Brooklyn, and Professor Oliver Payson
Hubbard, of Manhattan. Both were distinguished teachers. Dr. West was
born in Washington, Mass., in 1809, and after being graduated from
Union College, began his career as a teacher in the Albany Female
Academy. He was afterward principal of the Rutgers Female Institute,
the Buffalo Female Seminary, and the Brooklyn Heights Seminary, where
he remained twenty-nine years. He also assisted in preparing the
original courses of instruction of Vassar Female College. He was one
of the founders of the Long Island Historical Society; was a fellow
of the Royal Antiquarian Society of Denmark; and was a member of the
American Ethnological, the American Philosophical, and the New York
and the Long Island Historical Societies. Professor Hubbard was born
at Pomfret, Conn., in 1809, was graduated from Yale College in 1828,
and was appointed Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Mineralogy at
Dartmouth College in 1836. He remained there, with an interval, from
1866 till 1871, in which he devoted himself to lecturing, till 1883,
when he became professor emeritus. He was made in 1871 overseer of the
Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and he was a member of the
New Hampshire Legislature in 1863 and 1864. Only four of the founders
of the American Association are now living--namely, Dr. Martin H. Boye,
of Cooperstown, Pa.; Prof. Walcott Gibbs, of Harvard; Dr. Samuel L.
Abbot; and Epes Dixwell.
* * * * *
The firm of Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., says the Lancet, are to be
congratulated on the generous care which they have taken to promote the
material and intellectual welfare of their employees. Their principal
works are at Dartford, where they employ more than eight hundred
persons of both sexes, including some two hundred scientific workers.
For the purpose of establishing a sort of club for these employees, Mr.
Wellcome succeeded in purchasing the Manor House known as Acacia Hall,
and the extensive and beautiful grounds in which it is situated. The
Manor House he has fitted up as a club for the members of his staff. An
old mill which stands close by has been converted into what is called
the library building. The upper floor is fitted out as a lecture-room,
and there is a library which already contains some thousands of
volumes. A third building, called the Tower House, contains club
accommodations for men. Then there are elaborate bathrooms, and finally
a large gymnasium. The grounds are most extensive, being half a mile
in length and very tastefully laid out. There is a lake, a river, and
many pleasure boats for rowing, a large field for sports of all sorts,
a grand stand to witness the same, a rich orchard and a beautiful
pleasure garden, several luxurious lawns, and many superb trees.
* * * * *
A peculiar kind of glassy bodies, known as moldavite or
bouteillenstein, is attracting the attention of Austrian and Bohemian
geologists. These glasses are ovals from an inch to an inch and a half
long, and are characterized by various markings, some of which suggest
finger impressions, while others form a network of furrows, which may
have in part a rough radial arrangement. They have been regarded by
some authors as relics of prehistoric glass manufacture, but this view
does not appear to have been sustained. Dr. F. E. Suess, the famous
Austrian geologist, finds resemblances between them and meteorites,
and the most general disposition of students of the subject is now to
consider them of extra-terrestrial origin. Resemblances have further
been pointed out between them and some peculiar obsidian bombs found in
Australia. The moldavites in Bohemia occur in sandy deposits which are
assigned to the late Tertiary or early Diluvial period.
* * * * *
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, besides studies
bearing directly on science and the arts, courses are given in
modern languages, as an important means of access to foreign works
in the student’s professional department: English, for the purpose
of training pupils to express themselves readily, accurately, and
adequately, and of aiding them in the understanding and appreciation
of good literature; history and political and social science, the
instruction in which is arranged to connect with that in biology, so
that the two departments shall present “an unbroken sequence of related
studies extending through three successive years, and resting upon the
fundamental knowledge of living forms and of prehistoric man that is
presented in general biology, zoölogy, and anthropology,” followed by
comparative politics and international law; and economics.
* * * * *
A witness recently admitted to the British Government’s Committee now
making inquiry into the use of coloring matters and preservatives in
food, that yellow coloring substances were largely purchased without
any discrimination for the purpose of giving a rich appearance to milk
and milk products. As a rule, no question was asked as to the injurious
or non-injurious character of the dye so used. One of the best coloring
matters was known as Martius’s yellow, naphthol yellow, naphthalene
yellow, Manchester yellow, saffron yellow, or golden yellow, and is
chemically the same as the dinitro-alpha-naphthol prepared from the
naphthalene that crystallizes in gas mains, which is an important
constituent in the making of lyddite. It is slightly explosive when
heated, is injurious when it comes in contact with an abrasion of the
skin, and has been shown by physiological experiments to be a highly
improper substance to mix with food.
* * * * *
A goose market is held regularly in October at Warsaw, Poland, to which
about three million geese are brought, most of them to be exported to
Germany. Often coming from remote provinces, many of these geese have
to travel over long distances, upon roads which would wear out their
feet if they were not “shod.” For this purpose they are driven first
through tar poured upon the ground, and then through sand. After the
operation has been repeated several times the feet of the geese become
covered with a hard crust that effectively protects them.