The Entomological Society of America will hold morning and afternoon sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, under the presidency of Dr. F. E. Lutz, of the American Museum of Natural History. A 五 symposium on "The Physiology of Insects" will be held on Tuesday afternoon. The annual public address of the society will be delivered by Dr. H. T. Fernald, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. There will be exhibits of specimens and equipment. The American Association of Economic Entomologists will hold its fortieth annual meeting from December 27 to 31. The Section of Plant Quarantine and Inspection will meet on Tuesday. Late on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning there will be papers and discussions on apiculture. The regular sessions of the Association of Entomologists will open on Wednesday afternoon. The main address will be that of the president, Professor R. W. Harned, head of the Mississippi Plant Board and of the department of entomology at the A. and M. College of Mississippi. The entomologists' dinner will be held on Wednesday evening. The papers to be read deal with artificial and natural control of insect pests generally. There will be a joint session of the Association of Entomologists with its Cotton States Branch. The extension entomologists and members of the Insect-Pest Survey will meet Thursday evening. Reading of papers will be continued son Friday and the meeting will close on Saturday with a final business session. The American Society of Parasitologists will hold its third annual meeting from December 27 to 30. A special program on the teaching of parasitology has been arranged, with Epapers and discussions. A series of invited papers will be given on medical problems in parasitology, including the control of malaria and hookworm disease. The address of the retiring president, Dr. R. P. Strong, will be of special interest, for he has just returned from an extended African trip. The Wilson Ornithological Club will hold its annual meeting on Friday and Saturday when morning and afternoon sessions will be devoted to reading of papers by members of the Wilson Club and of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, an affiliated organization. The official business session will be held on Saturday morning, the ornithologists' dinner on Saturday evening, and a special field excursion is planned for Sunday, for those who can take part. The Hermitage Hotel, Union St. and Sixth Ave., is to be headquarters for all these zoological groups.

G. Botanical Sciences.-On Wednesday afternoon, December 28, Section G will hold a joint session with the several botanical societies. Dr. B. M. Duggar, of the University of Wisconsin, retiring vice-president for Section G, will deliver an address on "Experimen

tal Evidence upon the Nature of the Mosaic and other Plant Viruses." Dr. Duggar's address will be followed by three invitation papers: "Cell Physiology," by Dr. Charles F. Hottes, of the University of Illinois; "Epidemiology of Puccinia graminis," by Dr. E. C. Stakman, of the University of Minnesota; and "Dichogamy in Flowering Plants," by Dr. A. B. Stout, of the New York Botanical Garden. The Botanical Society of America will hold its annual meeting from December 28 to 30, under the presidency of Dr. Harley H. Bartlett, of the University of Michigan. Programs are being arranged for all five sections of the society and there will be joint sessions with Section G of the American Association, the American Phytopathological Society and probably with other societies. The physiological section of the Botanical Society will hold a round-table discussion on mineral nutrition. The general section will hold a roundtable discussion on the teaching of botany. The annual dinner for all botanists will be held on Friday, December 30, at which time the address of the retiring president, Dr. L. H. Bailey, will be delivered. The American Phytopathological Society, in conjunction with its Southern Division, will hold sessions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, December 28, 29 and 30. Since this meeting is in the South, the plantdisease problems of that region will be emphasized. One session will be devoted to southern crop-disease problems, another to sweet-potato diseases and their control, and a third to tobacco diseases. But northern and western pathologists will find much to interest them in these conferences and in the other sessions that are being arranged. There will be joint sessions with Section G and with the mycological section of the Botanical Society of America, a conference on extension work in plant pathology, and a plant-diseasesurvey round-table discussion. The annual phytopathologists' dinner, with entertainment features, will be held at the Commercial Club on Thursday evening, December 29. The American Society of Plant Physiologists is arranging for three sessions at Nashville and it will hold a joint session with the Physiological Section of the Botanical Society. This is to occur Thursday morning. Joint sessions with the horticulturists and with the phytopathologists are also being arranged. Perhaps the most interesting feature of this meeting is to be a program in honor of the twohundredth anniversary of the publication of Stephen Hales's "Vegetable Staticks." The programs of the Society of Plant Physiologists and the Physiological Section of the Botanical Society, are being arranged to avoid conflict this year. The Sam Davis Hotel, Commerce St. and Seventh Ave., is to be headquarters for all these botanical groups.

F-G. Organizations related to both Sections F

and G, Botanical and Zoological Sciences.-The regular annual meeting of the American Society of Naturalists will be held Friday afternoon, December 30. The session is to be devoted to a symposium on "Temperature and Life." The naturalists' dinner is planned for Friday evening. The Hermitage Hotel,. Union St. and Sixth Ave., is to be headquarters for the society. The Ecological Society of America will hold its thirteenth annual meeting December 28 to 30. Besides the regular sessions of the society, joint sessions will be held with the Botanical Society of America, The American Society of Zoologists and the American Society of Naturalists. There will be an informal dinner for all who are interested in ecology. The Sam Davis Hotel, Commerce St. and Seventh Ave., is to be headquarters for ecologists. The American Microscopical Society will hold a business meeting on Wednesday, December 28, at 4:30. The Joint Genetics Section of the Botanical Society of America and the American Society of Zoologists will hold regular sessions for the presentation of papers on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, December 28, 29 and 30. This organization will join with the Geneticists Interested in Agriculture in a symposium on "Irregularities of Chromosome Behavior in relation to Plant and Animal Improvement," to be led by C. B. Bridges and A. F. Blakeslee. The American Nature-Study Society will hold sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 27 and 28. One session is to be devoted to nature education in the juvenile organizations associated with the Coordinating Council. This program is being arranged by Dr. Bertha C. Cady, of the Girl Scouts, and the session will have Dr. G. Clyde Fisher, of the American Museum of Natural History, as chairman. Another is to deal specially with nature education in the South. Papers are to be read by members from many different parts of the United States and the Nashville meeting promises to be specially successful. The Tulane Hotel, Church St. and Eighth Ave., is to be headquarters for the nature-study group.

H. Anthropology.-Section H will hold sessions from December 27 to 30. Dr. George L. Collie, director of the Beloit-Logan North African Expedition, will exhibit artifacts and skeletons taken from Aurignacian deposits in Algeria, and will present the results of recent exploration in that region. The subject of "Race Crossing, Group and Individual Changes," will occupy one day, while topics of general anthropological interest will also be presented. A session will be devoted to the evidences of human occupation of the caves of the Nashville region and to other questions of local archeology. The dinner for anthropologists is planned for Tuesday evening.

The Tulane Hotel, Church St. and Eighth Ave., is to be headquarters for anthropologists.

I. Psychology. Besides the separate session for Section I, at which technical papers will be read, there is to be a joint session of the section with the Southern Association for Philosophy and Psychology, and another with Section Q (Education). There will be a joint dinner with Section Q and the educational fraternity, Phi Delta Kappa, at which the vice-presidential addresses for the two sections will be heard. Dr. Margaret F. Washburn, the retiring vice-president for Section I, will deliver an address on "Purposive Action." The sessions in psychology are to be held early in the week and one may attend both these and the meeting of the American Psychological Association, which is to occur on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, in Columbus, Ohio. The Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology is to hold a special meeting this year in order to meet with Section I of the association. The regular meeting will be held in Lexington, Virginia, next spring, but the society is highly appreciative of the advantages of holding this special meeting with the section at Nashville. All members of the society are urged to attend if possible and to take part in the joint sessions on December 27. The Tulane Hotel, Church and Eighth Streets, is to be headquarters for philosophy and psychology.

K. Social and Economic Sciences.-Section K will not present a program for the Nashville meeting. It is hoped that the section may take part in the great four-yearly meeting at New York next year. Those who are actively interested in having Section K occupy a place in the American Association commensurate with the importance of its field are invited to contribute ideas and suggestions to the permanent secretary's office early in the year, so that plans for the New York meeting may be inaugurated in ample time. The annual meeting of the Metric Association will occur on Tuesday, December 27. The meeting will include conferences on the industrial, engineering and educational aspects of the project for the universal use of the metric system. The first of these will deal with national and international standardization from the standpoint of manufacturers. The engineering conference will deal with electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering in relation to metrology. In the educational conference teaching, text-books and measures for home and hospital will be discussed. Recent action by the General Federation of Women's Clubs endorsing metric legislation will be reported on. The annual "Metric dinner," at the Andrew Jackson Hotel, will close the meeting.

L. Historical and Philological Sciences.-Section

L of the association operates in two parts, one for that portion of history that deals with the history of science and the other for the linguistic aspects of philology. Those interested in the history of science will find that the Nashville program includes some very important topics presented by some of our best students in this field. The papers on the history of science are not to be brought together in special sessions, however, but will be distributed among the other sections with regard to their subjects. This year marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Sir Isaac Newton and the centenary of the death of the Marquis de Laplace. Interesting and important papers on their relation to modern science are being arranged. In the field of chemical science there are to be papers on chemical anniversaries in 1927 and on the contributions of Marcelin Berthelot, the centenary of whose death has recently been appropriately celebrated in Paris. A program on the work and influence of Stephen Hales is being arranged by the American Society of Plant Physiologists; Hales's best-known publication, "Vegetable Staticks," appeared two hundred years ago, which gives occasion at this time for special attention to his scientific contributions. The general session Wednesday evening is to be devoted to an address on the life and work of the eminent astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard, whose birthplace was Nashville. As to linguistic science in Section L, the special committee that has for several years done such excellent work in arranging programs in this subject has not been active this year. With the affiliation of the Linguistic Society of America with the American Association, that society was requested to arrange a linguistic program for this meeting, which it cordially undertook to do, although its regular meeting does not occur at Nashville. A special committee of the society has prepared an excellent program for Friday, December 30. Professor G. M. Bolling, of the Ohio State University, will present a paper entitled "Phonetic Laws admit of no 'Exceptions.' Professor C. M. Lotspeich, of the University of Cincinnati, will speak on "Sound Symbolism." Professor T. Michelson, of the Smithsonian Institution, will present "Some Algonquian Notes." "The linguistic aspects of a tenth-century Byzantine paraphrase of Onasander" will be discussed by Professor Clarence G. Lowe, of Washington University, St. Louis, and "The Latin vi-perfect" is the subject of a paper to be presented by Professor W. Petersen, of the University of Florida. Professor Leonard Bloomfield, of the University of Chicago, and several other wellknown scholars will also take part in this program. Headquarters for Section L will be the Hermitage Hotel, Union St. and Sixth Ave.

M. Engineering.-Section M is planning a morning and an afternoon session for Wednesday, December 28. In addition to the retiring address of the vice-president .for the section, who is Dr. C. R. Richards, of Lehigh University, the morning session will include addresses on such subjects as Hydroelectric Development, Radio Engineering, the Earthquake Situation in the Mississippi Valley, and similar questions of both broad and local interest. The afternoon program is being arranged by a committee of engineers of Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga, of which Dean W. H. Schuerman is chairman. This is to deal with local problems, especially those with broad application. There will also be a dinner arranged by the local engineers, with the speaker provided by the section. Engineering headquarters will be the Andrew Jackson Hotel, Deadrick St. and Sixth Ave.

N. Medical Sciences.-Section N, which endeavors to arrange for its sessions discussions in fields where medical sciences and other lines of research overlap, is planning two half-day symposia for the Nashville meeting. The morning session will be held jointly with Section C (Chemistry). It will be devoted to "Contributions of Other Sciences to Medicine," with the following papers: E. C. Kendall, of the Mayo Foundation, University of Minnesota, "Contributions of the Chemist to our Knowledge of Biological Oxidations." G. H. Whipple, dean of the Medical School, University of Rochester, "Contributions of the Biochemist to our Knowledge of Blood in Formation and within the Body." Alfred F. Hess, of New York University and Bellevue Medical College, "Contributions of Chemistry, Physics and Pathology to our Understanding of Rickets." L. G. Wesson, of the Medical School of Vanderbilt University, "Relationship of Plant Vitamins to Human and Animal Metabolism." Aleš Hrdlička, of the U. S. National Museum, "Contributions of Anthropology to Medicine." The afternoon session is to be a joint meeting with the American Public Health Association, on the topic "The Medical Problems of the South." It will be opened by the retiring vice-president for the section, Dr. Rufus I. Cole, director of the Hospital, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, who will speak on "The Interrelationship of the Medical Sciences." Other speakers will be Colonel A. M. Stimson, Assistant Surgeon-General, U. S. Public Health Service, Dr. C. C. Bass, of the Medical School of Tulane University, and Dr. R. S. Cunningham, of Vanderbilt University, who will discuss malaria in the South, parasitological problems in the South and tuberculosis in the South. Headquarters for Section N will be the Andrew Jackson Hotel, Deadrick St. and Sixth Ave.

O. Agriculture.-In cooperation with the Association of Economic Entomologists and the Society of Agronomy, Section O is arranging a half-day symposium on "The corn-borer situation," for Tuesday afternoon, December 27. The annual dinner of the section will be the occasion for the presentation of the address of the retiring vice-president for the section, Dr. C. F. Marbut, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, who will speak on "A Hitherto Neglected Factor in the Agricultural Situation." The American Society for Horticultural Science will meet from Tuesday to Thursday, December 27, 28 and 29. A general session on Tuesday morning will have papers mainly on different phases of tomato culture. In the afternoon will be sessions on vegetable culture and pomology. Two sessions on Wednesday will deal with (a) "Pollination, Sterility, Fruit-setting, and Spraying," and (b) "Nutritional Relations of Fruit Trees." The Thursday morning session will consider root stocks, propagation, pruning. The afternoon session will be devoted to the address of the president of the society, a business meeting and papers on fruit investigations. The dinner of the society will occur on Wednesday evening. Headquarters for horticulturists will be the Tulane Hotel, Church St. and Eighth Ave.

Q. Education.-Section Q is planning sessions to occupy three days at Nashville, on December 26, 27 and 28. On Monday there will be a session on supervision and one on methods. Among the speakers' names are Courtis, Hennon, Hull, Waples, Gray, Barr, Gates and Ayer. Tuesday is to be devoted to school administration, some of the speakers' names being Strayer, Packer, Englehardt, Clark, Phelps, Ayer, Alexander and Monroe. An annual summary of research will occupy Wednesday, with papers by Courtis, Cade, Garth, Lentz, O'Brien, Pechstein, Cook, McGregory, Donovan, Purdon and others. The retiring vice-presidential address for Section Q will be given Tuesday evening by Dr. Melvin E. Haggerty, dean of the college of education of the University of Minnesota, at the joint dinner-meeting of Sections I and Q and the Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity. The Tulane Hotel, Church St. and Eighth Ave., is to be headquarters for philosophy and psychology. Phi Delta Kappa headquarters will be the Andrew Jackson Hotel, Deadrick St. and Sixth Ave.

Organizations not Classified by Sections of the Association.-The Society of the Sigma Xi is to hold a business session and its annual dinner on Tuesday, December 27. The sixth annual Sigma Xi lecture, by Dr. Clarence Cook Little, president of the University of Michigan, on "Opportunities for Research in Mammalian Genetics" will be given at the general session of the association on Tuesday evening. The

Tennessee Academy of Science will hold its annual meeting at this time. There will be a special session Monday morning at 10, to welcome visiting members of other academies. The academy is specially interested in the movement to provide opportunities by which the many state academies may cooperate for mutual benefit. The academy will have on exhibition throughout the week a collection of photographs, publications, etc., of the late Edward Emerson Barnard, medals awarded to him, and other Barnardiana. Several scientific fraternities are to have business sessions and dinners in the period of the Nashville meeting, without scientific programs. To be mentioned here are the Gamma Alpha Graduate Scientific Fraternity, the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the Sigma Delta Epsilon Graduate Women's Scientific Fraternity, the Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematical Fraternity and the Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Fraternity.

FURTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REPORTS OF THE NASHVILLE MEETING

Later announcements about the approaching meeting will be made in SCIENCE, and full information will be contained in the General Program, which will be available in the registration offices Monday morning, December 26, and throughout the week of the meeting.

It is planned that a general report of the second Nashville meeting will appear in special issues of SCIENCE to appear on January 27 and February 3. These will contain accounts of the main features of the convention, the business transacted, and especially a full series of readable reports on the section and society programs, the latter reports based on material to be supplied by the secretaries of those organizations. These will be sent to all members. New members who join the association before the time of their publication and all associates for the Nashville meeting will receive the special issues.

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

THE NEW BIOLOGY BUILDINGS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM THE new buildings of the University of Birmingham at Edgbaston, which were opened by the prime minister on October 20, will accommodate the departments of botany, zoology and brewing and the biochemistry of fermentation, which have long been inadequately housed in the older part of the university in Edmund Street.

The additions are the fulfilment of a further portion of the original design of Sir Aston Webb. Sir William Waters Butler, Bt., has contributed £40,000 and an anonymous donor £5,000 towards the total cost of

the buildings and equipment, which exceeds £120,000. Zoology occupies the ground floor, brewing and biochemistry of fermentation the greater part of the first floor and botany the second floor, with certain rooms also on the first floor.

The departments have already started work in the new buildings, although the internal equipment and furnishing are not yet complete. Apart from facilities for teaching, the zoological department is admirably equipped for research. A large sum of money has been expended on apparatus, which includes elaborate instruments used in the newer experimental de1velopment of the science. The necessity of having the means of keeping marine animals alive far away from the sea has been recognized, and tank rooms have been provided, containing aquaria, with arrangements for filtering, circulating and aerating the sea-water, which i will be obtained from Plymouth. The new department is particularly well equipped for entomological teaching and research, there being a special room for this work in the building itself and an outdoor laboratory for insect-breeding work, and students will have access to a large fruit farm in Worcestershire for a part of their field training in the agricultural aspect of the subject. The brewing and biochemistry of fermentation department consists of a series of sixteen rooms. There is a spacious general laboratory, a well-appointed microscope room and a research laboratory. A special laboratory is provided for analysis, as well as an incubator room and dark rooms for photography and polarimetric work. The laboratories are equipped with the latest forms of apparatus in addition to recent researches on starch investigations.

the

In his presidential address to the British Association, Sir Arthur Keith made an appeal for a fund to purchase Darwin's home at Downe in Kent, where he did most of his epoch-making work, so that it might be preserved for the nation. According to the London correspondent of the Journal of the American Medical Association the appeal met with a prompt response. Mr. George Buckston Browne, a retired genito-urinary surgeon, on reading the appeal at once telegraphed to Sir Arthur offering to make himself wholly responsible for the gift. His motive was to allow future generations to see Darwin's home, which, with its estate, might otherwise pass into the hands of builders. The cost, with some endowment fund, is

estimated at from $60,000 to $75,000. Mr. Browne has made it a condition that no other contributor is to be asked to share the cost with him. He was admitted to the membership of the College of Surgeons in 1874, and for fourteen years acted as assistant to Sir Henry Thompson, the leading genito-urinary specialist of his day. He is an antiquarian and an enthusiastic collector. In offering to buy Downe House and to establish a fund for its perpetual upkeep, he is giving expression to his profound admiration for the work of the great naturalist. He considers that the house in which evolution was cradled should be as reverently preserved as Shakespeare's birthplace. He desires that the house should be restored as nearly as possible to its condition when Darwin lived there. When the house and garden have been restored, he would wish them to be opened without charge to visitors, who could then be shown Darwin's study, laboratory and living rooms much as when he left them. He also expressed the wish that some physician of slender means and good record should be appointed the custodian. Sir Arthur Keith has suggested that out of the endowment fund money should be spared for a prize to be given every second year for the best contribution to biologic knowledge. Downe House is the property of Darwin's son, Professor Francis Darwin and is now used as a school for girls.

BUILDING ACTIVITIES OF THE CHICAGO ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY

THE report of the first year's building activities of the Chicago Zoological Society shows the new park to be well under way and much construction work already

completed. According to a summary in Museum News,

it is now estimated that the major portion of the work will be completed by June 1, 1930, and that the park will be opened to the public at that time.

During the past few months the new park, which is located to the west of the city proper and just outside the town of Riverside, has been entirely fenced in. Within this enclosure are 133 acres of land and fifty additional acres are available for future development. Over ten miles of sanitary and surface sewers have been laid. Water mains have been laid and heating and power lines put in place.

The excavations for three separate lagoons are nearly complete, as well as the construction of a complete power and pumping station. Work has already been started on the group of buildings at the entrance. These will house the administration offices, curators, head keeper, forester, director, the society's meeting room and library. The only exhibition building to be started this year is the reptile house. In addition to the work being done within the new park,