Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 81.djvu/626

620 emeritus of chemistry at the University of Virginia and eminent for his contributions to chemistry; of Dr. John Monroe Van Vleck, professor of mathematics at Wesleyan University from 1853 until his retirement as emeritus professor in 1904, and of Major General Robert Maitland O'Reilly, U.S.A., retired, former surgeon general of the United States Army.

the first president of Cornell University, distinguished for his work in education and diplomacy, and for his publications on history and science, celebrated his eightieth birthday on November 7.—Dr. Edward W. Morley, the American chemist, has been made an honorary member of the Swiss Association for the Advancement of Science.—The gold medal for science of the Prussian government has been conferred on Dr. Robert Helmert, director of the Geodetic Institute of Potsdam.

American Association for the Advancement of Science and the national scientific societies affiliated with it will hold their convocation week meeting at Cleveland, Ohio, beginning on Monday, December 30. Cleveland is centrally situated between the Atlantic seaboard and the scientific centers of the central states, and Western Reserve University, the Case School of Applied Science, and the other scientific institutions of the city will supply excellent places of meeting. The address of the retiring president is made by Dr. C. E. Bessey, of the University of Nebraska, while Dr. E. C. Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory, will preside over the meeting. A large number of important and interesting addresses are assured from the vice-presidents of the association, the presidents of the affiliated societies and others who will take part in the scientific proceedings. There is sure to be a large attendance of scientific men. In recent years, however, the American Association has fallen behind the British Association in its influence on the general public and in the number of those not professionally engaged in scientific work who are attracted to its meetings. Those who are interested in such a meeting and might like to become members of the association should write to the permanent secretary, Dr. L. O. Howard, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.