Brown and White Vol. 2 no. 45

              a chance for philadelphia to help on the cause of science to the editor of the press : sir — the announcement has been made that professor c l doolittle of lehigh university has received and accepted an ap pointment jo a chair of mathe matics and astronomy in the uni versity of pennsylvania while the latter institution is to be con gratulated in thus securing the ser vices of a man of such eminent qualifications the announcement will be received by astronomers the world over with some dis quietude lest it may lead to the interruption or discontinuance of the important researches which professor doolittle has carried on at south bethlehem during the last few years and which have given him and his institution so enviable a reputation at home and abroad it may not be as well known to philadelphians generally as it should be that this gentleman has made contributions second in importance to none towards the solution of the enigmatical phe nomenon of the instability of the earth's axis the discovery of the existence of which by dr keustner at berlin startled astronomers a fey . years ago since fclfet time this problem has absorbed an am ount of attention and labor unex ampled by any other which has arisen during the present century professor doolittle is justly re garded by astronomers as a pioneer in its investigation having reso lutely attacked it at a time when astronomers generally were skepti cal as to its reality he has un ostentatiously and persistently con tinued his instrumental researches in this direction up to the present time there has been a keen con centration and emulation of effort in the same direction by govern mental institutions and observa tories in all parts of europe since 1891 and in this competition simi lar institutions in the united states have taken a most distin guished and honorable part but none whether in europe or ameri ca have made more extensive or valuable contributions to the sub ject than professor doolittle al though the instrumental means at his disposal have not been entirely worthy of his skill and devotion he has attained a degree of accuracy in his results which is universally regarded as of the very highest indeed only within a week or two a comparison has been published in germany by the distinguished director of the observatory at ley den of the various current series of observations in which those of pro fessor doolittle are awarded the highest place of all as to precision now it will be a circumstance very much to be regretted if pro fessor doolittle's removal to his lehigh university south bethlehem pa march 18 1895 vol 11 no 45 the brown and white calendar monday march 18 — mathemati cal club physical laboratory 7 p m friday march 22 — sophomore class supper eagle hotel 8.30 p m saturday march 23 — ec-examina tions in modern languages 9 a m chess club christmas hall 7.80 p m sunday march 24 — christian asso ciation christmas hall 6.80 p m new field shall lead to the cessation of this work which is winning so much renown for americans astronomy it is sincerely hoped that the government of the univ ersity of pennsylvania will see its way clear to providing the very moderate instrumental equipment required for carrying it forward and also aid in the way of a com puter in onerous calculations whick professor doolittle has heretofore taken upon his own shoulders in addition to the exacting labor of observations and his instruction work at the college if it have not the means free to devote to this purpose the public-spirited and wealthy citizens of philadel phia could do nothing which would more redound to the repu tation of their city in the way of scientific achievement than the provision of the very modest sum needed for proper facilities for this undertaking if this is not clone it is pretty certain that astron omers — who recognize the extreme importance ot carrying on this series due to the especial value of a location near the atlantic sea board — will earnestly agitate the question of inducing some other in stitution to take it up where pro fessor doolittle is compelled ta leave it a similar series of ob servations has been going forward at columbia college but more than one is urgently needed it should be added that professor doolittle him self is in entire ignorance of the intent to make this appeal and no one will be more surprised at its appearance than he it is impelled solely by the consideration of what is due to his patient devotion and distinguished service to science in this direction and of the need in which american astronomy now stands the city of philadelphia will rarely have an opportunity to to meet an exigency and reap so much credit for so trifling an out lay s c chandler cambridge mass march 10 1895 — phila press die-weight contests these though not very scientific proved to be both amusing and exciting the event was won by myers first place in the swinging rings event was easily taken by van benthem 95 england 98 sec ond there were five entries for the running high kick : pflueger 98 with a handicap of one foot won first place having kicked the leather at a height of 8 ft ; second murray 9s scratch kick 8 ft 11j in breaking the lehigh record of 8 ft lof in third yates 97 2 in handicap kicked 8 ft 10 in the preliminaries in the light weight contests were then wrestled lundy 98 threw boyer 96 pflueger 98 won from dußarry 95 and galan 98 succeeded in downing barker 97 in the middle weight wrestling hood 97 lost to e j rights 95 tarleton 95 and harvey 95 middle weights then boxed a few rounds tareleton winning with ease the next thing on the program was putting the 16 lb shot turner 98 with 2j ft handicap took first place distance 31 ft 9f in second senior 97 scratch 81 ft 1 fin lundy 98 then threw galan 98 in a wrestling bout and later on in the day was himself downed by pflueger 98 at fencing p lovering 95 won from becerra 98 and yates de faulted to lovering the latter win ning the event van benthem 95 and van duyne 97 gave a very pretty exhibition on the horizontal bar yanduyne was awarded first place nine men had entered for the running broad jump but three failed to appear the event was won by yates 97 jump 19 ft second cleary 98 17 ft 1 in merriman 98 third of the light weight boxers lov ering 95 won from janney 97 in three rounds and afterwards easily vanquished dußarry 95 this was immediately followed by heavy-weight boxing between c becerra 98 and dufour 96 the former winning the event the only heavy-weight wrestling of the meet was a bout between dewitt 95 and wheeler 95 dewitt being thrown after a stub bornly contested struggle the final bout in the middle weight was wrestled between e j rights 95 and slade 97 the latter winning the event the score by actual perform ances barring handicapping is as winter meet the annual winter meet of the athletic association was held sat urday afternoon in the gymnasium before a fair sized audience consist ing principally of college men with but a few of bethlehem's fair sex the feature of the day was the breaking of four lehigh records by w s murray whose long legs seemed to have no difficulty in taking him over anything in the contest between 97 and 98 the former by a score of 42 to 29 won the banner which is to hang in the gymnasium 95 however made the largest score of the meet a new feature introduced was handi capping which was productive of at least one peculiar result in that bailey 98 by means of his handicap of 19j inches beat mur ray 95 although the latter broke the lehigh record by 2 inches at 2.40 o'clock curtis 97 ap peared in the opening event and accompanied by a few members of the banjo and guitar club gave an exhibition of club swinging he winning first prize and c newton 97 second the running high jump was won by murray 95 the scratch man height 5 ft 5 in ; second senior 97 handicap 1 in actual jump 5 ft 8 in yates,'97 third lehigh's record of 5 ft 4f in broken the third event a three round middle weight boxing bout be tween tarleton,'9s and nevins,'9b was easily won by tarleton nevins making but a poor showing against his more active and ex perienced opponent the fence vault was carried on in the intervals between the pre liminaries in the middle weight wrestling the handicapping was made in proportion to the reach first bailey 98 handicap 19j in actual vault 5 ft 8 in ; second hall 96 handicap 7j in vault 6 ft 6j in ; third kline,'96 murray 95 scratch vaulted 6 ft 10 in raising the lehigh record by 21 in the first of the preliminaries in middle-weight boxing was an ex citing bout between slade 97 and homer 98 in which slade finally threw his man kline 96 and hood 97 then attempted to wres tle but an unfortunate accident to kline's wearing apparel caused a slight delay this being replaced hood after a hard and exhaustive tussle won the bout • the standing high jump was an interesting event and called forth a burst of cheering from 95 when w s murray raised a third record by half an inch first murray 95 scratch 4 ft 9 in second h a reid 96 handicap 2 in actual jump 4 ft 5 in third mil ler 96 6'donnell 97 and myers 98 boxed (?) three rounds in the mid dr oaskey recently went to reading to confer with the bishop of the diocese rt rev m a de wolf howe d d ll d the brown and white ex changes are now on file in the new room in christmas hall it is re quested that they be returned in the condition found w h kavanaugh 94 was in town on saturday prof doolittle's work murray 95 makes four new lehigh records class firsts seconds thirds points 95 96 8 3 0 0 3 2 49 11 97 .. . 98 .. . 4 6 4 3 3 5 42 29