that we have done better in sciences such as astronomy and zoology, having no immediate applications, than in medicine, physics and chemistry, where it might be supposed that the need of their applications and the wealth of the country would have led to researches in pure science. Perhaps the two greatest astronomers of the present generation have been Dr. G. W. Hill and the late Simon Newcomb. Another distinguished American astronomer, Lewis Boss, director of the Dudley Observatory at Albany, has died at the age of sixty-six years. His researches were technical in character, consisting largely of rigid determination of stellar positions. The catalogue in which he gives the positions and proper motions of 6,188 stars is a model of accurate work, and has led to discoveries of importance, such as the Taurus stream of stars. His work is highly appreciated by astronomers, and was given recognition by his appointment as director of the department of Meridian Astronomy of the Carnegie Institution. Science suffers severely in his death.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the death of Dr. John William Mallett, F.R.S., pro-
late director of the Dudley Observatory.
