some sources of error, like those due to magnitude and color, would thus be eliminated. The variation in latitude should be studied at a series of southern stations like those now in operation in the northern hemisphere. The systematic search for double stars of the ninth magnitude and brighter, undertaken at the Lick Observatory, should be extended to the south pole. Photometric measures of faint stars, of comparison stars for faint variables, of the components of clusters, and of nebulae, are much needed. It is not known whether the spectra of nine tenths of the nebulæ are gaseous or continuous. A wide field is opened in the study of the spectra of bright variables when faint, and of faint variables when bright, of the distribution of faint spectra and of the components of clusters.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the deaths of the following men of science: Professor Dimitri Ivanovitch Mendeléef, the eminent chemist, director of the Russian Bureau of Weights and Measures; M. Henri Moissan, professor of general chemistry at the Sorbonne and director of the Institute of Applied Chemistry; Sir Michael Foster, professor of physiology in the University of Cambridge, secretary of the Royal Society from 1881 to 1903, president of the British Association in 1899, and member of parliament for London University; Professor Wilhelm von Bezold, director of the Royal Prussian Meteorological Institute; Professor Nicholas Menschutkin, professor of chemistry at St. Petersburg; Mr. William Wells Newell, of Cambridge, Mass., known for his researches in folk-lore, especially in connection with the Arthurian tales, secretary of the American Folk-lore Society; Professor Wilbur Samuel Jackman, who held the chair of the teaching of natural science in the School of Education of the University of Chicago; Dr. David Irons, professor of philosophy at Bryn Mawr College; Charles B. Simpson, entomologist of the Department of Agriculture of the Transvaal, and formerly of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and Dr. John Krom Rees, since 1881 professor of geodesy and astronomy and director of the Observatory of Columbia University.
By special act of Congress Dr. James Carroll has been made a major in the medical department of the army, in recognition of his important work in yellow fever.—Colonel W. C. Gorgas, chief sanitary officer of the Isthmian Canal Commission, has been appointed by President Roosevelt a member of the commission.
M. Daniel Osiris has left by his will a sum of $5,000,000 to the Pasteur Institute of Paris.—Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has received a gift of $1,000,000 from Mrs. Russell Sage. The money will be used for the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. Mrs. Sage has also given $1,000,000 to the Emma Willard School of Troy.
