Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/573

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE
569

Columbia University; W. F. Hillebrand, chemist in the U. S. Geological Survey; Wm. B. Clark, professor of geology, the Johns Hopkins University; Whitman Cross, geologist, U. S. Geological Survey; E. G. Conklin, professor of zoology, University of Pennsylvania, professor-elect of biology, Princeton University; Theobald Smith, professor of comparative pathology, Harvard Medical School; Simon Flexner, director of the laboratories of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.

At Philadelphia the program was twice as long and even more diverse, as the Philosophical Society includes in its scope the historical and philological sciences. Of the forty-two papers presented, it is possible to mention only three or four. Professor C. S. Minot, of Harvard University, discussed the differentiation of the protoplasm of the cell in its relation to reproduction; Professor H. S. Jennings, of the Johns Hopkins University, described experiments on inheritance among the protozoa. Dr. C. B. Davenport, of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, considered the extent to which Mendelian inheritance obtains; and Professors E. T. Reichart and A. P. Brown, of the University of Pennsylvania, showed that the crystals of oxyhemoglobin from the blood of different genera differ, and that even species can be recognized by the crystals. Dr. H. F. Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History, gave a lecture on the results of the Museum's explorations in the Fayfûm desert of northern Egypt, preceding a reception in the hall of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, and there was a concluding dinner with speeches by the Chinese minister and others.

DEDICATION OF THE NEW BUILDINGS OF THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

The beautiful and well-planned buildings of the College of the City of New York were dedicated with ceremonies adequate to the event on the fourteenth of May. As shown in the accompanying sketch, drawn by Mr. Richard Rummell, they form a group of buildings such as has rarely if ever before been dedicated at one time to academic purposes. The situation on St. Nicholas Heights equals that of Columbia University, a mile to the south, and is less likely to be marred by the encroachments of shops and apartment houses. An institution of this character, which embodies in its external impressiveness as well as in its work and aims civic duty and pride, represents the best ideals of modern civilization.

The College of the City of New York is maintained by the people of the city for the education of its young men, and is in some respects unparalleled in this country or elsewhere. Philadelphia and Baltimore have high schools of nearly college rank, and Cincinnati has a municipal university, and these four institutions represent a movement likely to become general throughout the country. The College of the City of New York, in view of what it has already accomplished and in view of the great population and wealth of the city, seems destined to take the lead in an educational advance likely to be as important for the next generation as the evolution of the state universities has been for the present generation.

LEWIS HENRY MORGAN

Under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences there are published biographical memoirs of its deceased members. These documents are of value for the history of science in this country, but are not as widely circulated or as well known as they should be. Just published is a memoir of Lewis Henry Morgan by Mr. W. H. Holmes, chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, which from several points of view is of special interest.

Morgan, who was born in Aurora,