Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-27
SCIENCE NOTES.

The committee appointed by the
Paris Academy of Sciences to examine
the requests for grants from the Bona
parte fund have been confirmed by the
academy.
At a recent meeting OF the American
Society for Experimental Pathology in
Boston Dr. Simon FIezner was elected
president, DR.. Gedeon Wells vice presi-
dent and DR.. Peyton Rous secretary for
1916.
The Bache fund of the National
Academy of Sciences is constituted as
follows: Ross G. Harrison, Yale Uni
versity; Arthur c. Webster, Clark Uni
versity, and Edwin 3. Frost. chairman.
University of Chicago. and William
May, Wisconsin.
Photographs of the companion to
Sirius, the distant sun, taken at the
Mount Wilson Observatory. seem to in
dictate that the line OF spectrum is iden-
teal with that of Sirius, but that there
is a slight tendency for continuous
spectrum of the companion to fade on
more rapidly in the violet region.
A series of remarkable photographs
of the crater of Kilauea,, Hawaii. have
been obtained by means of kites during
ject of taking those pictures is to Sc
cure additional data for use in the con-
struction of the large naturalistic
model of Kilauea that has been under
geological department of Harvard Uni
versity.
The late Dr. A. Ksel Steen. director
80 ofa oil ioa1
ice who had charge of working up
the magnetic observations made W
Amundsen on his northwest passage
"a sou4e years ago. said just before his
death that it viii be Impossible to give
a definite position for the north mag
re+ic pole because in his opinion this
pole is not fixed point attached to a
certain geographical latitude and long,
itude, but must be defined as that point
on the surface of the earth where the
horizontal intensity at the moment il
zero.
r. NJ. Raymond, managing director
Of the Ell Orc Company. has been ap-
pointed professor of mining in the
s.nool Oh n.I,es of CoiumpIa Lniver-
sity, succeeding Prof. Henry S. Munroe.
who retired last June after twenty
seven years OF service.
The officers of the American Society
of Naturalists for 1916 are: President,
Raymond Pearl; vice president, Albert
Davis, and Treasurer, j. Arthur Harris.
Prof. Ward of Harvard University.
in the current bulletin of the Ameri-
can Geographical Society, proposes
eight climatic subdivisions of the
United States. Eastern is by far the
largest as it embraces approximately
the eastern half of the country. ex-
elusive of the tier of states along the
gulf. as far west as the middle Of
Texas. which constitute the gulf prov
ince. The others are the northern
plains. southern plains, northern plat
eau, southern plateau. northern Pa
cific and southern Pacific.
At the suggestion of the international
committee on storm
warnings, the United States weather
bureau is preparing to introduce a new
system of night storm warnings. con-
sisting of three lanterns in a vertical
line, instead of the two lanterns here
tofore employed. By this arrangement
it will be possible to indicate the ex-
pected direction Of the wind to the
nearest quadrant, instead of to only
two directions. Experiments recently
conducted by the bureau show that in
order to be seen separately by the
naked eye lanterns should be approxi-
mately four feet apart for each mile
the observer is distant. To secure
great brilliancy a standard electric
lamp of the gas-filled Tungsten type il
being tried out. The new system OF
lanterns is being installed on the great
lakes.