but also to all those who are interested in any aspect of science, and it is desirable that, following the precedent of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, there may be a large attendance of those who are not professional scientific men. The association admits to membership those who are in sympathy with its aims and who wish to assist in promoting them, even though they are not engaged in scientific work. Information concerning membership may be obtained from the Permanent Secretary, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the death of Dr. Cleveland Abbe, the distinguished meteorologist, and of Dr. Percival Lowell, of Boston, director of the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, widely known for his work and theories on the planet Mars.
A meeting to plan a memorial to the late Sir William Ramsay was held at University College, London, on October 31. After the meeting, the director of the University College Chemical Laboratories, Professor J. Norman Collie, F.R.S., delivered a memorial lecture on "The Scientific Work of Sir William Ramsay."
Dr. Wilhelm von Waldeyer, professor of anatomy in the University of Berlin, has been raised to hereditary nobility on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.—The American Academy of Arts and Sciences on November 15 presented the Rumford medals to Mr. Charles Greeley Abbot, of the Smithsonian Institution, for his researches on radiation.—The degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon Thomas A. Edison over the telephone by Dr. John H. Finley, president of the University of the State of New York, at the closing session of the institution's fifty-second convocation on October 20. Mr. Edison was in his laboratory at Orange, N. J., while Dr. Finley was in the auditorium of the New York Education Building at Albany.
