in three years at Washington, is an affiliation of national medical societies devoted chiefly to different departments, but including the Association of American Physicians, which is a small and select body of practitioners. These societies, sixteen in number, had special programs, holding their sessions in the mornings, while the congress met as a whole in the afternoons and evenings. The president. Dr. W. W. Keen, of Philadelphia, chose as the subject of his address 'The Duties and Responsibilities of Trustees of Medical Institutions.' The subjects for special discussion were 'The Pancreas and Pancreatic Diseases' and 'The Medical and Surgical Aspects of the Diseases of the Gall-bladder and Bile Ducts.'
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS.
Paul Belloki Du Chaillu, the explorer and author, died at St. Petersburg on April 29. He was born in New Orleans in 1838, and in 1855 he went from New York to the west coast of Africa, where he made the well-known expedition described in his 'Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa.'
At the recent meeting of the National Academy of Sciences new members were elected as follows: T. C. Chamberlin, professor of geology, University of Chicago; William James, professor of philosophy, Harvard University; E. L. Mark, professor of anatomy, Harvard University; Arthur G. Webster, professor of physics, Clark University; Horace L. Wells, professor of analytical chemistry and metallurgy, Yale University.
The board of regents of the University of Wisconsin on April 21 elected Dr. Charles R. Van Hise, professor of geology, to the presidency of that institution.—The Walker Grand Prize, which is bestowed once in five years by the Boston Society of Natural History, has just been awarded to J. A. Allen of the American Museum of Natural History for his able and long continued contributions to American ornithology and mammalogy.—Professor Simon Newcomb, of Washington, has been appointed a delegate from the National Academy of Sciences to the International Association of Academies, which meets in London this coming June. Mr. S. F. Emmons and Mr. Geo. F. Becker, of Washington, and Professor C. R. Van Hise, of Madison, Wis., have been appointed delegates to the International Geological Congress, which meets in Vienna in August of this year.
Mr. Andrew Carnegie has given $1,000,000 for a building for the engineering societies. It is to be situated in New York City, and will provide an auditorium, a library and headquarters for five engineering societies, namely, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Electrical Engineers, the American Institute of Mining Engineers and the Engineers Club. Mr. Carnegie has also given $1,500,000 for the erection of a court house and library for the permanent court of arbitration at The Hague and $600,000 to the endowment fund of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.'
