the end of his life from the semiannual meetings of the National Academy of Sciences.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the deaths of David Pearce Penhallow, professor of botany in McGill University, and of Professor Melchior Treub, for twentynine years director of the Buitenzorg Botanical Garden in Java.
The Nobel Prize in medicine for 1910 has been awarded to Dr. Albrecht Kossel, professor of physiology at Heidelberg.—For his researches on the determination of atomic weights the Royal Society has awarded the Davy medal to Dr. Theodore W. Richards, professor of chemistry at Harvard University.—The Harben Lectures of the Royal Institute of Public Health, of London, for 1912, will be given by Dr. Simon Flexner, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York.
On the occasion of the recent celebration of the Mexican centenary a statue of Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt, who more than one hundred years ago made his journey of research through Mexico, was unveiled.—It is proposed to erect in the new chemical building of the University of Michigan a bronze tablet in memory of Dr. Albert B. Prescott, for many years director of the chemical laboratory.—A drinking fountain has been erected at the Central Experiment Farm, Canada, in memory of Dr. James Fletcher, former Dominion entomologist and botanist.—The classification and cataloguing of the Simon Newcomb Library, the acquirement of which by the College of the City of New York has been announced, has been completed. This collection of 4,000 volumes and 6,000 pamphlets, was presented by Mr. John Claflin.
The hospital of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research was opened on October 17. There were no special ceremonies, but a number of guests were present to inspect the hospital. At the same time it was announced that Mr. Rockefeller had given securities valued at $3,820,000 for the endowment of the institute, and that its organization had been completed.—At the celebration of the centenary of the University of Berlin Emperor William made an address, in the course of which he said that the occasion seemed to be peculiarly appropriate for a fresh movement towards the completion of Humboldt's aims. Humboldt's scheme required, in addition to the Academy of Sciences and the University, independent institutions for research. The plan had been communicated only to a small circle, but already sums amounting to between nine and ten millions of Marks, had been forthcoming. It would be the care of his government to see that the new foundations did not lack state assistance.
