has, however, a heavier load and is cheeked by necessary slacking as it passes through crowded streets and past level crossings. The fastest long-distance train in England is 'The Flying Scotsman,' which goes from London to Edinburgh, a distance of 393
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miles, at a rate of 50.77 miles per hour. The United States holds the record for short distances in the run from Camden to Atlantic City, which is made by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad at a rate of 66.6 miles per hour and by the Pennsylvania Railroad at a rate of 64.3 miles per hour. There is a considerable number of trains run at these rates or nearly as fast, and the rate is sometimes as great as eighty-eight miles an hour for distances of twenty miles. England seems to be now distinctly inferior to France and America in the speed for both long and comparatively short distances, although the roadbeds are better, and although they do not have to contend with level crossings and runs through streets. The greater speed of the American trains appears to be due to the superiority of the engines. It is a fact that the speed of railway trains has increased little in recent years—scarcely at all in Great Britain for thirty years. If more rapid transit is required it will probably be found in the use of light trolley cars. There seems to be no technical difficulty in establishing a ten-minute service between Jersey City and Philadelphia, the time being reduced to one hour.
Among recent events of scientific interest we note the following: Prof. H. A. Rowland, of the Johns Hopkins University, has been awarded the grand prize of the Paris Exposition for his spectroscopic gratings, and Prof. A. Michelson, of the University of Chicago, the same honor for his echelon spectroscope. —The Balbi-Valier prize (3.000 francs) of the Venetian Institute of Sciences has been awarded to Professor Grassi, at Rome, for his work on the relation of Mosquitoes to malaria. —The Paris Academy of Moral and Political Sciences has awarded its Audifred prize of the value of 15,000 francs to Dr. Yersin for the discovery of his anti-plague serum. —A movement has begun in London for the erection of a memorial in honor of the late Sir William Flower, which will consist of a bust and a commemorative brass tablet to be placed in the Whale Room of the Natural History Museum—one of the departments in which he was most interested and to which he devoted special care and attention. —A monument in honor of Pelletier and Caventou, the chemists, to whom the discovery of quinine is due, was unveiled at Paris on August 7. An address was made by M. Moissan, president of the committee, who presented the monument to the city of Paris, and by other speakers. —Milne Edwards has by his will bequeathed his library to the Paris Jardin des Plantes, of which he was a director. It is to be sold and the proceeds to be applied toward the endowment of the chair of zoology which he held. He also leaves 20,000 francs to the Geographical Society, of which he was president, for the establishment of a prize and 10,000 francs to the Société des Amis des Sciences. —The collection of jewels arranged by Mr. George F. Kunz and exhibited by Messrs. Tiffany & Co. at the Paris Exposition has been presented to the American Museum of Natural History by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. —The New York Board of Estimate and Apportionment has authorized the expenditure of $200,000 for the Botanical Garden and $150,000 for an addition to the American Museum of Natural History. —The Peabody Academy of Science at Salem, Mass., is trying to raise $50,000 for an addition to the museum building. Already over $26,000 has been pledged for the purpose.
