ceed as far north as possible. In the meanwhile, Mr. Baldwin is making a similar attempt from another direction, and there are a number of other expeditions in the far north. Baron Toll, who started from Russia in May, 1900, was recently in the Strait of Tarmour, while from the same country. Admiral Markaroff is testing his ice-breaking steamship. From Norway, Captain Sverdrup on the Fram has for three years been making explorations about Greenland and west of Ellesmere land. From Germany, Captain Banandahl was, when last heard from, advancing north from Spitzbergen. None of the expeditions in the north are of the same scientific importance as the national antarctic expeditions of Great Britain and Germany, but it seems certain that the next year will add greatly to our knowledge of the unknown regions of the north as well as of the south.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS.
Professor William Theodore Richards, of Harvard University, has declined a call to a newly-established research professorship of chemistry in the University of Göttingen. It is a special compliment to the United States that Germany should seek here a professor for such a chair, especially when we remember the large number of chemists that are trained at the German universities.—On the application of the Government of Victoria, Australia, for a director of agriculture, officers of the U. S. Department of Agriculture have recommended Professor B. T. Galloway, chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, and Professor Willett M. Hays, agriculturist of the Minnesota Experiment Station.
The Reale Accademia dei Lincei of Rome has elected eight foreign members, including from the United States Edward C. Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory; Samuel P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and Chas. D. Walcott, director of the U. S. Geological Survey.—The Veitch silver medal has been awarded to Mr. Thomas Meehan, of Philadelphia, 'for distinguished services in botany and horticulture.' Mr. Meehan is the third American on whom this medal has been conferred, the others being Professor Charles S. Sargent, of the Arnold Arboretum, and Professor Liberty H. Bailey, of Cornell University.
Professor Ed. Suess, the eminent geologist, gave on July 13 a formal lecture to his present and former students on the occasion of his retirement from the chair of geology. He has reached his seventieth year and his forty-fourth year as a university teacher.—Dr. Ernst Mach, professor of philosophy in the University of Vienna, has been compelled by ill health to retire from the active duties of his professorship.—Professor E. Haeckel, of Jena, has made public the announcement that owing to the state of his health, his advanced age and pressure of work, he will not in future make any public addresses or attend any scientific congresses.
A royal commission has been appointed in Great Britain to study the relation of bovine and human tuberculosis, consisting of Sir Michael Foster, Dr. Sims Woodhead, Dr. Harris Cox Martin, Professor J. McFadyean and Professor R. W. Boyce.
The British Association for the Advancement of Science held its meeting at Glasgow from September 11-18 under the presidency of Professor A. W. Rücker, the eminent physicist. The Congress of German Men of Science and Physicians is being held at Hamburg from September 22-28, under the presidency of Professor R. Hertmg, the well-known zoologist.
