brings the foundation's fund to $500,000. It is the aim of the foundation to obtain one million dollars by January first.

Engineering Foundation was organized to care for the gifts aggregating $300,000 of Ambrose Swasey, of Cleveland, Ohio, the income from these gifts being devoted to research. Since its organization as a trust fund in 1914, the funds of the foundation have been used to aid the National Research Council and others in performing research directly connected with engineering. Mr. Swasey's gifts were made to United Engineering Society as a nucleus of a large endowment "for the furtherance of research in science and in engineering, or for the advancement in any other manner of the profession of engineering and the good of mankind."

The Engineering Foundation is administered by the engineering foundation board composed of members from the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and American Institute of Electrical Engineers and members at large. The board is a department of United Engineering Society. It is the instrumentality of the founder societies named for the stimulation, direction and support of research.

The officers of Engineering Foundation are Charles F. Rand, chairman; Edward Dean Adams, first vice-chairman; Frank B. Jewett, second vice-chairman; Joseph Struthers, treasurer; and Alfred D. Flinn, secretary. The executive committee is composed of Charles F. Rand, chairman; Edward Dean Adams, George B. Pegram, Frank B. Jewett and H. Hobert Porter.

A statement issued by the foundation says: Potential benefits for the whole nation are very great, but these benefits can not be gained without expenditure of effort and materials. Research workers must be supported. Equipment, materials, working places and traveling facilities must be provided. Since the benefits accrue to the profession, the industries and the public in general, support in large measure should come from general funds, such as those provided by endowments.

Engineering Foundation seeks to build up its endowment to dimensions worthy of the engineering profession. Engineers connected with industrial and financial organizations having great resources can aid by convincing proper officials of corporations that the continued prosperity of our industries depends upon continued progress of research. Since the commercial and industrial establishments of the country reap the larger proportions of the financial profits arising from scientific and technological work, these establishments should contribute liberally to the support of research.

There are many problems relating to the materials and forces of engineering on which further knowledge is needed. Progress will be made approximately in proportion to the funds made available. But there are other kinds of problems which concern the engineer. No longer may one declare, as did Professor J. H. Johnson a generation ago, that "Engineering differs from all other learned professions in this, that its learning has to do only with the inanimate world, the world of dead matter and force.''

Many acute social and economic questions of our day need the dispassionate, impartial, patient study of scientists and technologists. To these questions must now be applied the scientific method of collecting facts by thorough study, and the engineer's capacity for planning and performing, instead of ill-considered "reforms."

Occasionally experimental work is undertaken in accordance with a well-conceived plan as a necessary or desirable adjunct to the main operation. In such cases the exigencies of the main operation sooner or later interrupt the experimental work; or the men who have it in hand leave the force; or the information is gained but never written up; or the statement is buried in some report of limited circulation; or greater familiarity with research methods and a broader conception of the problem could, with small additional expense, have secured much more valuable results and have made them more generally useful.

These services and many others could be performed by Engineering Foundation, if adequate funds could be placed at its disposal. The Foundation does not plan to build laboratories and conduct research work directly, but rather to stimulate, coordinate and support research work in existing scientific and industrial laboratories, cooperating, in so far as possible, with the National Research Council.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS

AT the annual meeting of the Royal Society on November 30, Dr. C. S. Sherrington, Wayneflete professor of physiology at the University of Oxford, was elected president to succeed Sir Joseph Thomson.

DR. E. H. GRIFFITHS has been elected general treasurer of the British Association in succession to the late Professor John Perry.

THE Weldon medal has been conferred by the University of Oxford upon Dr. J. Arthur Harris, of the Station for Experimental Evolution of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in recognition of his work in biometry. The Weldon Medal, accompanied by a monetary prize of about £90 may be awarded every three years ". . . without regard to nationality, sex, or membership of any University, to the person who, in the judgment of the electors, has, in the six years next preceding the date of the award, published the most noteworthy contribution to biometric science," in the field of zoology, botany, anthropology, sociology, psychology or medical science.

THE King of Italy has conferred upon J. E. Zanetti, assistant professor of chemistry in Columbia University, the order of the crown with the rank of officer, for services rendered during the war as lieutenant-colonel in the Chemical Warfare Service. He has also received from the French government the legion of honor and from the British government the distinguished service order.

PROFESSOR ALBERT P. WILLS, of the department of physics in Columbia University, and Dr. Frederick Barry, formerly instructor in chemistry, have been awarded the Ernest Kempton Adams research fellowship by Columbia University. This fellowship was founded in 1905 by Edward Dean Adams in memory of his son Ernest Kempton Adams, E.E. '97, A.M. '98. The provision of the fellowship is that its incumbent "shall prosecute researches either in Columbia University or elsewhere, in the physical sciences, in psychology or in their practical applications."

DEAN P. H. ROLFS, for fifteen years director of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station and for the past six years dean of the Agricultural College, has been granted leave of absence to locate, establish and conduct an agricultural institution for the state of Minas Geraes, Brazil. His address after January 1 will be at Bello Horizonte, Minas Geraes, Brazil. The president of that state desires to have a full corps of scientific workers appointed from the United States.

IT is stated in Nature that the following have been elected officers of the Cambridge Philosophical Society for the session 19201921: President, Professor Seward; Vice-presidents, Sir E. Rutherford, Mr. C. T. R. Wilson and Dr. E. H. Griffiths; Treasurer, Professor Hobson; Secretaries, Mr. H. H. Brindley, Professor Baker and Mr. F. W. Aston; New Members of the Council, Professor Marr, Mr. C. T. Heycock, Mr. H. Lamb, Professor Hopkins, Dr. Bennett and Dr. Hartridge.

FIVE university lectures on "The theory of relativity" are being given at Cornell University by Dr. L. Silberstein, of the research laboratory of the Eastman Company, of Rochester. Dr. Silberstein suggested that a preliminary lecture beginning with the experimental basis of the theory of relativity would be helpful, and such an introductory lecture was given by Professors Floyd K. Richtmyer and E. H. Kennard, of the physics department of the university.

C. E. KENNETH MEES, director of the research laboratories, Eastman Kodak Company, delivered a lecture on December 2, before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, on "The structure of photographic images."

ELMER D. MERRILL, director of the Philippine Bureau of Science, delivered on November 18, an address on "Land and nature in the Philippines," before the Washington Academy of Sciences.

PROFESSOR J. STIEGLITZ, of the University of Chicago, gave three lectures on the Mayo Foundation at Rochester, Minnesota, November 3, 4, and 5, on Chemistry and

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DR. FREDERICK H. GETMAN lectured before the Rhode Island State College on November 18 and before the Rhode Island Section of the American Chemical Society at Providence, on November 19, taking as his subject "The relation between absorption and spectra and chemical constitution."

BARON GERARD DEGEER, professor of geology at the University of Stockholm, delivered two lectures at the University of Michigan on November 12. The topic of the lectures was "An autographic record of climate for the last ten thousands of years," in which lectures the methods of work and the applications to Sweden and America were discussed.

THE annual Huxley memorial lecture of the Royal Anthropological Institute was delivered by Dr. A. C. Haddon, in the lectureroom of the Royal Society on November 23, on "Migrations of Cultures in British New Guinea."

A MONUMENT has been erected at CasteraVerduzan, Gers, France, to the memory of the celebrated French surgeon and pathologist, Lannelongue, who died in 1911.

WE learn from Nature that the council of the British Association has agreed to the formation of a separate section of psychology, as recommended by the sections of physiology and educational science at Cardiff, and approved by the general committee. Consideration of the number and scope of the various sections is to be referred to a special committee. It has been decided to invite national Associations for the Advancement of Science

to send representatives to annual meetings of the British Association in future.

THE second International Congress of Comparative Pathology will be held at Rome in April, 1921. An organizing committee has been established under the presidency of Professor Perroncito, composed of Professors Ascoli, Golgi, Grassi, Lustig, Marchiafava, Paterno, Raffaele, Sanarelli, and Colonel Bertoletti. Among the subjects to be discussed are influenza in man and animals, foot-and-mouth disease, recent researches in sarcoma and carcinoma, rabies and antirabic vaccination, piroplasmosis, acari and scabies in man and animals, and phylloxera.

THE Upsilon Sigma Chapter of the Chi Phi medical fraternity has been installed at Columbia University. The installation ceremonies and a dinner of the fraternity were held recently at the Hotel Netherland in New York.

SINCE October the Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, has been recording on the chronograph the Arlington and Annapolis wireless time signals, together with the Observatory Riefler clock.

THE Smithsonian Institution, of which her father, Joseph Henry, was secretary for many years, is to be the ultimate beneficiary of the estate of Caroline Henry, according to the terms of her will, which has been filed for probate. An immediate bequest of $1,000 is made to the institution, together with several other bequests. The net income from the remaining estate is to be distributed among several beneficiaries upon whose death the estate is to go to the Smithsonian Institution.

Nature writes "the council of the British Association has recently had before it the suggestion made by Professor Herdman in his presidential address at Cardiff for a new Challenger expedition for the exploration of the great oceans of the globe with modern instruments and methods. It will be remembered that this proposal received the support of all the sections of the association by formal resolution, and the council was asked to appoint

a committee to take the necessary steps to urge its need upon the government and the nation. This committee has now been appointed, and the scientific world will follow its activities and their result with close attention. An oceanographical expedition along the lines contemplated, and equipped with the instruments which modern science can provide, would lead to a great increase of knowledge both for scientific study and for profitable development, and no nation could carry it out more appropriately than Great Britain in cooperation with our overseas Dominions. There will be an eclipse of the sun in September, 1922, with the line of totality crossing the Maldive Islands, and the expedition could very well include an astronomical party to observe it. It is believed that the Admirality is favorably disposed towards the scheme, and every scientific man hopes that the necessary support will be forthcoming to carry out the enterprise on a scale worthy of the British empire."

THE annual meeting of the British Medical Association will be held on July 19, and the scientific sections will meet on July 20, 21 and 22. The annual meeting in 1922 will be held in Glasgow, and the council has now decided to recommend to the Representative Body that the annual meeting in 1923 shall be held at Portsmouth, in response to an invitation of the Portsmouth Division.

THE Rockefeller Foundation announces the gift to the State of Louisiana of the Grand Chenier Wild Life Refuge, comprising about 35,000 acres, in Cameron and Vermillion laboratories, equipment, methods, publications. parishes. The tract was purchased from individual holders by the foundation in 1914, in order to preserve the wild life of the country and has since been under the supervision of the Department of Conservation of the State. A condition of the gift is that the tract shall remain as a perpetual wild-life preserve.

EDUCATIONAL NOTES AND NEWS THE two weeks' campaign for a $5,000,000 endowment fund for McGill University ended with the collection of $6,321,511.

DR. JOHN GABBERT BOWMAN, president of the University of Iowa from 1911 to 1914 has been elected chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh to succeed Dr. Samuel Black McCormick.

THE Cornell University board of trustees at its meeting on November 13, assigned professors to eight professorships which were established last June commemorating the service of Cornellians in the war. The assignments in science are Professor Ernest Merritt (physics), in arts and sciences; Professors S. S. Garrett and E. W. Schroder, in engineering; Professor W. D. Bancroft (physical chemistry), in the graduate school; Professor Sutherland Simpson (physiology) in the Ithaca division of the medical college.

AMONG recent appointments to the faculty of the college of arts and sciences of Tulane University are the following: Dr. D. S. Elliott, recently head of the department of physics in the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been elected to the professorship of physics. Dr. S. A. Mahood, chemist of the Forest Products Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin, has been elected to an associate professorship in chemistry. Dr. Herbert E. Buchanan, professor of mathematics in the University of Tennessee, has been elected to the chair of mathematics.

MR. J. W. BARTON, recently fellow in psychology in the University of Minnesota and formerly a member of the faculty of the University of Utah, has been elected associate professor of psychology in the school of education of the University of Wyoming.

R. J. GARBER, assistant professor of plant breeding at the University of Minnesota, has been appointed associate professor of agronomy and associate agronomist in the West Virginia University and Station.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE RECEDENT LAKE SHORES OF THE CRETACEOUS

LAST year while cycad hunting in the southern Black Hills, Mr. E. F. Arnold called my

attention to a remarkable reef of huge concretions in the Lakota of "Driftwood Cañon several miles northerly through the "rim" from the Burlington dam. The forms simulated huge more or less globular cycads three or four feet through, and displayed much coarse radial structure, with more or less granular siliceous or even sandy, to partly limy texture. As an illustration of these forms, Plate 21 in "Lakes of North America," by I. C. Russell, showing an old lake Lahontan shore, would all but serve. Though knowing the Lakota of the Black Hills so widely, and never having noted anything similar before, I looked on the Driftwood reef as belonging to the domain of the purely inorganic.

Now, however, this phenomenon has come up in a much more tangible form. Early this year Mr. Jesse Simmons, a geologist of the Midwest Refining Company wrote me that he had observed innumerable cycad-like masses in the Lakota [Cloverly] of the Como anticline, about sixteen miles easterly from Medicine Bow, Wyoming. On reaching this point last August I found very striking conditions indeed. There is, fairly speaking, a reef of the calcareous concretionary forms, or tufaceous heads of finely radiate structure. This lies near the top of a sandy to conglomeratic rim 80 or more feet thick resting on the broadly exposed [Como of Marsh] Morrison. The reef stratum itself marks a change in sedimentation, being sandy, to shaly or slightly limy, with the concretions very definitely in the lower portion and varying from quite globular types one to two feet in diameter up to much larger more irregular shaped masses. While immediately within the reef occur numerous smoothed quartz pebbles from small up to several pounds weight. Of these many are simply smoothed or with a ground-glass surface, but many others are polished, and of the type known as "Dreikanter" with the desert "patina." Such are like, though in no way to be confused with the gastroliths of the Como or other Dinosaurians.

As showing in a most curious manner the course of events on this reef one of the concretions, a subspherical example one and one half

feet through which I packed and sent back to Yale, contains imbedded well toward its center one of the highly smoothed pebbles a half pound in weight. All round this pebble the radiate concretionary structure runs as uninterruptedly, the same as if no pebble were present. Evidently when these siliceous pebbles containing traces of fossils of some earlier geologic period were being smoothed by wind or wave or both, and when the masses of calcareous tufa were being deposited from more or less saturated waters, a wave cast that pebble on top of the first formed basal or squamous rosette. Then the tufaceous mass, with little increase of diameter, continued its growth and regularity of structure upward as before.

Of such tufa reefs as these, and such pebbly shore lines of the western Cretaceous, little is as yet known, and to my knowledge nothing has been reported hitherto. But inasmuch as the general facts seem to indicate conditions not unlike those found about such recedent lakes as Bonneville and Lahontan, it is hoped this preliminary note may call forth much further observation afield. If those who have perchance seen the tufa reefs, and especially the smoothed pebble beaches, would kindly report their observations I would esteem it a favor. It is not improbable that some considerable and synchronous lacustrine shore lines can be definitely located, a result which would be of the first geologic interest.

To what extent algal life has played a part in the growth of these tufas of more remote geologic time is not fully understood. In the case of all the finely radiate tufas there is less likelihood of substitution of any kind than in the coarser Thinolitic type of Lake Lahontan studied by E. S. Dana. It seems unlikely that the masses often of such striking regularity of form could result from purely inorganic processes.

YALE UNIVERSITY

G. R. WIELAND

IS HONEY A LUXURY?

IN the October 15, 1920, number of SCIENCE appeared an article by Mr. J. J. Willaman,