nearly in touch with a true and vigorous democracy.
Perhaps some subscribers to Discovery who receive The Popular Science Monthly in its place will think that the Monthly is not entitled to use the adjective "popular." The publishers receive frequent postcards asking for a sample "coppy." This may be the better way to spell the word, but those unsophisticated by conventional orthography would probably not find the Monthly suited to their purposes. It is popular in the sense that it is not special or technical, not in the sense that it makes an appeal to all the people. We need a journal such as The Popular Science Monthly intended for those having a cultivated and intelligent interest in the advancement of science, but we also need a magazine for the larger class who visit museums and read the daily papers. Provision is now made for invention and technological science, but we should welcome the establishment and support of a magazine devoted to natural history and the simpler aspects of physical science.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
At the commenoration day exercises of Johns Hopkins University, on February 22, a portrait of Henry Newell Martin, formerly professor of biology, was presented to the university by his old students. The presentation speech was made by Dr. William H. Howell, dean of the medical school.
The Silliman lectures at Yale University will next year be given by Dr. Albrecht Penck, professor of geography at the University of Berlin.
The Bruce gold medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific has been awarded to Professor Edward C. Pickering, director of Harvard College Observatory.—The gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society has been awarded to Sir David Gill. M. Henri Poincaré, the eminent mathematician, has been elected a member of the French Academy, in the place of the late M. Berthelot.
By the will of the late Mrs. Frederick Sheldon, Harvard University receives $300,000 for the enlargement of the library building or such other purpose as may be preferred, and the residue of the estate for establishing traveling scholarships. The total bequest will probably amount to more than $800,000.
