PROFESSOR J. H. PRIESTLEY, head of the department of plant pathology of the University of Leeds, England, has returned home after a series of lectures at the University of California.

DR. T. K. WOLFE, agronomist at the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, addressed the University of Virginia chapter of the Society of the Sigma Xi on March 8, on "Achievements in Agricultural Research."

DR. B. S. HOPKINS, professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Illinois, addressed the Science Club of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute on April 16, on "Some Recent Advancements in Inorganic Chemistry."

Ir is announced that Professor Kirtley F. Mather, of the department of geology at Harvard University, and the Reverend Dr. John Roach Straton, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, will engage in debates on the theory of evolution. Tentative dates are May 13 and May 14.

ON April 20, 21 and 22 Mr. Austin H. Clark, of the Smithsonian Institution, gave a series of three lectures on "Life in the Sea," at the annual symposium arranged by the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, the University of Buffalo and Canisius College. In these lectures marine life was discussed in its relation to life on land, and in its relation to sea life in the past as evidenced by a study of the fossils.

DR. CHARLES A. KRAUS, research professor of chemistry at Brown University, will offer two lecture courses in the forthcoming summer session at Western Reserve University, June 20 to July 29.

DR. NATHAN FASTEN, head of the department of zoology of the Oregon State Agricultural College, gave two addresses before the students and faculty of Willamette University on April 25. In the morning he spoke before a general assembly on "The Social Significance of the Eugenics Movement." In the evening he addressed the men students of the university on "The Physiology of Human Reproduction."

DR. M. F. GUYER, of the University of Wisconsin, addressed the recent meeting of the Northwestern University chapter of Sigma Xi on the subject of "Heredity and Human Conduct." The meeting was held in the new medical school building on McKinlock Campus.

THE Society of Biology in Paris and its affiliated societies, together with the Eighth International Congress of Neurologists, are planning to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Vulpian's birth from May

sion. It will coincide with the commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of Pinel's death, which is being organized by the Medico-psychologic Society.

A PORTRAIT of the late Dr. Henry J. Waters, former dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Missouri, was recently unveiled in the library of the college of agriculture and presented to the college as the gift of members of the faculty and a number of the alumni.

YALE UNIVERSITY plans to honor the memory of two of its teachers, Josiah Willard Gibbs and William Graham Sumner, by the establishment of the Gibbs Fund and the Sumner Fund, $150,000 having been contributed to the $250,000 required for each fund. The income from the Sumner fund will be devoted, according to a vote of the university corporation, to the work of the department of economics, sociology and government; the income from the Gibbs fund to the work of the departments of chemistry, physics and mathematics.

DR. IRVING BARDSHAR CRANDALL, a member of the technical staff of the Bell Telephone Laboratories and an authority on the telephonic transmission of speech, died on April 22 at the age of thirty-six years.

PROFESSOR HARRY THOMAS SPENGLER, of the department of civil engineering at Lafayette College, died on April 23, aged forty-four years.

DR. HERMANN D. ENGELHARDT, for the past thirtytwo years head of the analytical department of Sharp and Dohme, Baltimore, died on February 9, aged sixty-four years.

DR. ALFRED H. BUCHERER, professor of mathematical physics at Bonn, Germany, died on April 16, aged sixty-two years. Dr. Bucherer formerly lived in this country when he held the position of chemist for the Aluminum Company of America.

PROFESSOR HERMANN AMBROWN, for many years head of the department of microscopy at Jena, has died at the age of seventy-one years.

THE third annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science was held at Harrisburg on April 15 and 16. Sixteen papers were read in the scientific program. At the dinner of the academy Dr. George P. Donehoo, of Harrisburg, gave an address on "The Indians of Pennsylvania." The following officers were elected: President, E. A. Ziegler, director of the Pennsylvania State School of Forestry; Vice-president, F. D. Kern, Pennsylvania State College; Secretary, T. L. Guyton, Pennsylvania Bureau of Plant Industry; Assistant secretary, M. W. Eddy, Carlisle; Treasurer, H. W. Thurston, Pennsylvania State Col

lege; Editor, R. W. Stone, Pennsylvania Geological Survey; Executive Committee, O. E. Jennings, University of Pittsburgh; B. L. Miller, Lehigh University; N. H. Stewart, Bucknell University, and W. A. McCubbin, Pennsylvania Bureau of Plant Industry.

DR. ARNOLD DRESDEN, assistant secretary of the American Mathematical Society, reports that the twenty-seventh western meeting of the society was held at the University of Chicago on Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16, 1927. Professor Virgil Snyder, Cornell University, president of the society, presided at some of the sessions, being relieved by Professor D. R. Curtiss, H. L. Rietz, Dunham Jackson and G. A. Bliss. The total attendance at this meeting was about 120, including 87 members of the society. At this meeting fifty papers on geometry, point set theory, algebra, theory of numbers, applied mathematics and analysis were presented. A special feature was the symposium address on "Some Phases of General Topology," delivered on Friday afternoon by Professor E. W. Chittenden, of the University of Iowa.

THE Association of State Geologists on invitation of George Otis Smith, director of the U. S. Geological Survey, met in Washington, D. C., on April 25 and 26, for a conference with officials of the Federal Survey. Sixteen State Geological Surveys were represented. Those present were: H. A. Buehler, Missouri; G. C. Branner, Arkansas; J. A. Bownocker, Ohio; E. F. Bean, Wisconsin; C. N. Gould, Oklahoma; Herman Gunter, Florida; C. A. Hartnagel, New York; M. M. Leighton, Illinois; H. B. Kummel, New Jersey; E. B. Mathews, Maryland; S. W. McCallie, Georgia; R. C. Moore, Kansas; Wilbur A. Nelson, Virginia; W. F. Pond, Tennessee; R. W. Stone, Pennsylvania; I. C. White, West Virginia.

THE regular meeting of the Le Conte Geological Club was held at the department of geology, Stanford University, on April 25. Papers were presented by Howell Williams, George E. Ekblaw, M. K. Eliasevich, and Marcel E. Touwaide. Professor A. C. Lawson delivered an after-dinner address on "Geological Observations in Africa." Officers for the coming academic year were elected, Dr. Solon Shedd, curator of the Branner geological library at Stanford, succeeding Mr. E. L. Furlong, of the University of California as president, and Dr. Hubert G. Schenck was reelected secretary-treasurer.

THROUGH the efforts of Dr. I. Maizlish, head of the department of physics at Centenary College, the Sigma Delta chapter of the Sigma Pi Sigma National Physics Fraternity was established on April 20. Dr. J. M. Douglas, head of the department of physics at

Davidson College, North Carolina, installed the chapter. Addresses at the initiation banquet were made by President Geo. S. Sexton, Dr. J. M. Douglas, Dr. I. Maizlish, Dean Jno. A. Hardin and Professor Robert Frye. The charter members are: T. J. McCain, president; Edwin Monkhouse, secretary-treasurer; Henry Fisher, vice-president, and John I. McCain. Dr. Maizlish is an honorary member of the Centenary chapter.

UNDER the auspices of the Associated Business Papers, the American Chemical Society, the American Engineering Council, the American Electrochemical Society, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Army Ordnance Association and the Society of Automotive Engineers, a special trip to West Point is being arranged on May 12. The Alexander Hamilton of the Hudson River Day Line has been chartered for the trip. On reaching West Point the party will be the guests of Brigadier-General M. B. Stewart, superintendent of the academy. A close survey of the operation of the National Military Academy will be permitted and there will be special drills by the cadets, followed by an evening parade in full-dress uniform. It is planned to leave the West 42nd Street pier at 10:00 a. m., returning there at about 10:00 p. m.

Nature reports that the tenth Italian Geographical Congress will be held at Milan from September 6 to 15, under the patronage of the King of Italy and the honorary presidency of the prime minister. It is being organized by the Italian Touring Club. There will be five sections: (1) Physical and cartographical; (2) historical; (3) political and economic; (4) explanation; (5) education. At the conclusion of the meetings there will be a number of excursions, by rail or road, to various parts of Italy. During the congress there will be an exhibition of recent Italian maps and photographs.

THE fifth exhibition of chemical apparatus and appliances will take place from June 7 to 19 at Essen, Germany, and simultaneously the principal conference of the Association of German Chemists. Previous exhibitions have been held at Hanover, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Nürnberg, under the name of the "Achema." The name "Achema" is a combination of the initial letters of the "Ausstellung für chemisches Apparate-Wesen" (exhibition of chemical apparatus and appliances). Apart from the problems of chemical apparatus technic in general, which arise from science and practice, the matter of apparatus

for the chemical treatment of carbon will have special attention. The exhibition will be held in five halls situated on the exhibition grounds at Essen, which have been completely renovated for the purpose.

THE opening of the Museums of the Peaceful Arts in New York City took place on April 20, following a dinner meeting of the American members of the Newcomen Society. The Museums of the Peaceful Arts, of which Dr. F. C. Brown was recently appointed director, occupy temporary headquarters at the Scientific American Building, 24 West Fortieth Street, where a start has been made in organizing a great industrial technical museum for the city, made possible by a bequest from the late Henry R. Towne. The Newcomen Society is organized for the study of history and technology. Its headquarters are in London, but it has an active group in America. Charles Penrose, American member of the council, presided at the meeting which followed dinner at the Engineers' Club. This meeting was held simultaneously with a meeting in London, and a paper on Marc Sequin and the invention of the tubular boiler was read at both gatherings. Following the dinner the group adjourned to the museums, where they were greeted by Dr. George F. Kunz, president, and surveyed the exhibits so far collected, which include a portion of the lightning rod which Benjamin Franklin erected on St. Paul's Cathedral.

ACCORDING to Nature a Danish scientific expedition, under the leadership of Professor C. Olufsen, and supported by the Carlsberg fund, is now on its way to Senegal to explore the upper region of the valley of the River Niger, the Upper Volta, and the south part of the Sahara, especially Air (Asben or Agadiz). The expedition, the main purpose of which will be to collect objects of ethnological interest for the Danish Museums, is to return via Zinder and Kano, through Nigeria, to the Guinea Coast, and thence by sea to Dakar. Professor Olufsen will be accompanied by two Danish scientific workers, Oluf Hagerup (botanist) and Harry Madsen (zoologist).

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NOTES

UNION COLLEGE, Schenectady, dedicated its new physics laboratory on April 30. The exercises were held in the building, which is nearing completion.

THE will of the late Dr. Walter B. James includes bequests of $25,000 to Columbia University to the endowment fund of the College of Physicians and Surgeons; $25,000 to the New York Academy of Medicine, and $25,000 to the Trudeau Sanatorium, Saranac Lake.

It was announced, April 9, that Samuel Mather has subscribed $1,000,000 toward the campaign to raise $6,000,000 by the university hospitals of Cleveland for additions to the medical center. Thirteen years ago, Mr. Mather and his associates secured the land for the medical center, and his gifts to its institutions already total millions of dollars.

PROMOTIONS announced by Columbia University include the following from the grade of associate professor to full professor: Dr. Albert T. Poffenberger, psychology; Dr. Samuel R. Powers, natural sciences; Dr. William D. Reeve, mathematics; Dr. William E. Caldwell, clinical obstetrics and gynecology; Dr. William W. Herrick, clinical medicine, and James K. Finch, civil engineering.

DR. ROSS V. PATTERSON, dean of Jefferson Medical College, has been elected to a full professorship in medicine in the college. Other promotions include Dr. C. E. G. Shannon, to be professor of ophthalmology, and Dr. Fred J. Kalteyer, Dr. E. J. G. Beardsley, and Dr. Elmer H. Funk, professors of medicine.

DR. SIDNEY S. NEGUS, professor of organic chemistry at the University of Richmond, has been appointed to a similar position in the Medical College of Virginia, Richmond.

DR. J. R. HAAG, assistant professor of agricultural and biological chemistry at Pennsylvania State College, has been appointed to a position in the Oregon Experiment Station.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ETHEL M. TERRY-MCCOY has resigned from the staff of the department of chemistry at the University of Chicago.

DR. CECIL MCLAREN WEST has been appointed professor of anatomy in the University College of South Wales, in succession to Professor D. Hepburn, who retires from the beginning of October.

E. FOEX, director of the Central Station of Phytopathology, Paris, has been appointed professor of plant pathology at the National Horticultural School.

the fact that, in an analysis for water soluble salts, a high ratio of water to soil has been used. Under these conditions sodium zeolite will be hydrolyzed almost completely, and the alkalinity when calculated to the dry-soil basis may represent a relatively high percentage of sodium carbonate. The hydroxyl ions that are derived from the hydrolysis of sodium zeolite have heretofore been thought to be derived from the hydrolysis of sodium carbonate. When, in making an extract, the ratio of water to soil is gradually reduced, the percentage of hydroxyl ions is also reduced, until at a ratio that represents the optimum moisture content of the soil, few, if any, OH ions are found in the soil solution.

The titration curves for pH values of black alkali soils have been compared with curves made from solutions of known alkalis, and in this way the results of the soil investigation have been confirmed. This work, which has recently appeared as Technical Bulletin 13 of the Arizona Experiment Station, entitled "Sodium Hydroxide rather than Sodium Carbonate the Source of Alkalinity in Black Alkali Soils," by J. F. Breazeale and W. T. McGeorge, has an important bearing upon the reclamation of alkali lands by leaching, the application of gypsum and other correctives and to other practical soil problems. P. S. BURGESS

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

RESPIRATION OF INSECTS

IT has been known for a long time that insects breathe by means of openings called spiracles along both sides of the thorax and abdomen. These openings lead to tubes which branch and rebranch and thus spread to all parts of the body. The abdomen pulsates out and in during respiration.

In order to determine whether some of the spiracles were used for inhaling air and others for exhaling, the following experiments with large active grasshoppers were tried.

The first experiment consisted in placing the body of the grasshopper in a vertical position in a glass vessel. Water was then poured into the vessel until the abdomen was immersed in water and the head and thorax were out of water. The grasshopper was left in this position for twenty-four hours. At the end of that time it was taken out and appeared to be none the worse for its experience. During the course of the experiment I noticed that the abdomen continued to move in a normal manner and that air bubbles kept coming out of the abdomen.

The second experiment consisted in taking another grasshopper and reversing its position so that the head and thorax were under water and the abdomen only was out of water. The grasshopper was left in

this position for twenty-four hours and during this time air bubbles came out around the thorax and rose to the surface of the water. When the grasshopper was liberated it seemed quite normal.

In the third experiment a grasshopper was placed in a vertical position in water with only the head out of water to see if air entered the body by any openings around the head. Air bubbles left the body and in ten minutes the grasshopper was limp and apparently lifeless.

CONCLUSIONS

These experiments would seem to prove that no special spiracles are used for inhaling and others used for exhaling, but rather that all are alike in this respect, as the abdomen expands air is taken in and as the body contracts the gases are exhaled. The same thing is probably true of all insects. D. A. MACKAY

OTTAWA COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE,
OTTAWA, CANADA

FOSSIL REMAINS IN THE LOESS OF EASTERN WASHINGTON

IN SCIENCE, page 477, November 12, 1926, announcement is made by O. W. Freeman of discovery of fossil bones of a mammoth (Elephas primigenius) in loessial deposits in the vicinity of Cheney, Washington.

This is of interest in connection with the study of the origin, distribution and age of the loessial soilforming materials of eastern Washington, a subject which has been touched upon at intervals in the pages of this publication. It is particularly suggestive as indicating the age of accumulation of these great deposits from which the loessial soils of this region are derived, though widespread redistribution and modification of the soil materials have since taken and are still taking place.

The purpose of this comment is, however, to call attention to the fact that while reported fossils are rare, the writer, with Messrs. A. T. Strahorn and E. J. Carpenter, of the Bureau of Soils, found some large fossil bones embedded in loessial deposits exposed by a fresh highway cut in September, 1923. The remains were found about thirty miles northeast of Pasco on the Pasco-Kahlotus highway. They were partially removed during the following day under direction of Dr. Kirk Bryan, of the U. S. Geological Survey, and identified as a fossil elephant, and include thigh and pelvic bones, a number of ribs, vertebrae and the lower jaw. These fossil remains are now in the U. S. National Museum at Washington. The upper jaw and skull, however, which now appear essential to complete identification and restoration, were not recovered.

The bones were found on a hill slope bordering a small stream valley. They were embedded in finetextured, uniform, very fine sandy and silty material of light brown color, without stratification, and entirely free from gravel or coarse gritty materials.

Accompanying the larger fossil bones were a number of jaws, skulls and small bones of small rodent or rodent-like animals, and there was some evidence in teeth marks on some of the rib bones that at least some of these smaller animals were of contemporary date.

A more accurate and exhaustive account of the fossil remains has recently been published by Dr. Bryan.1

BUREAU OF SOILS,

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

MACY H. LAPHAM

DEFEAT OF ANTI-EVOLUTION IN

MINNESOTA

SINCE Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the home of the Reverend W. B. Riley, a leader in anti-evolution agitation and in attempts at legislation against the teaching of evolution in tax-supported schools in many states, a little more than ordinary interest may be felt by scientific men in the failure of the "Riley bill" before the Minnesota legislature that is now in session. This may be especially so because a letter by the Reverend Riley in a leading newspaper here now admits his defeat, but with so much apparent cheerfulness that a person who knows him well may be inclined to wonder as to just what he expected to accomplish by this bill and whether after all his defeat is not more in appearance than in reality.

It may be well for the evolutionists not to be deceived. The bill as it was presented to the legislature is any way more of a gesture or oratorical skirmish than an effectual attack on evolution teaching. Something more serious for Minnesota may lie behind it. In Minnesota, where the function of the university is defined in the constitution of the state, a mere legislative enactment very probably could in no way bind the university as to its educational policy. It is virtually a fourth department of the state and coordinate with the executive, the legislative and the judicial functions.

The State University has little if anything to fear from direct legislation against teaching any subject whatever in Minnesota. Again it is notable that the Riley bill does not aim broadly to forbid the teaching of evolution, but is specifically directed against the 1 U. S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 790-B, The "Palouse Soil" Problem with an account of Elephant Remains in WindBorne Soil on the Columbia Plateau of Washington.

doctrine of the descent of man from animals, as if a particular department of the university is criticised. Against this bill, however, other universities of this state join with the State University in common. Both sides of the controversy thus make a great showing of political strength before the legislature.

Arguments used by either side are not such as are used pro and con in a scientific debate on the validity of natural science theories of evolution. No scientist as such appears against the bill nor for it. The battle is political when not theologic. Dogmatic assumption and deduction and even gross bigotry are met in kind largely. As a geologist, I could view the whole matter as in the clouds above me. I am spectator only.

Very obviously the Reverend Riley's opponents who do not know him intimately are deceived in him. From occasional contact with him for thirty years, it is not consistent for me to say that there is anything shallow about him. He doubtless has a very deep and serious purpose from which he may not be easily diverted. It may be a very pertinent matter to pause to consider just now as to whether any advantages are losing to the Riley attack.

To the best of my knowledge, the legislature and the governor do not commit themselves in the essential matter in laying aside this bill. Nothing is built up that hinders further agitation. The most sanguine of my friends predict only a lull of a year or two or even four, in Minnesota, whereas a few years ago any such attack at all would have been taken as highly improbable. Anti-evolution may be gaining in public respectability.

As a scientist, I am aware that something new is happening in this controversy about the teaching of evolution in Minnesota's schools. Attack by antievolutionists is not new here, however. Attack from the pulpit and otherwise by the Reverend Riley as against individual teachers of sciences began some 20 years ago. An effective method then is to back him off the board in defense of natural science theories of evolution by a plain show of visible evidence in their support. My personal experience is then that he can be a very reasonable and gentlemanly antagonist when faced in that way.

The new thing in the present instance, however, is not only his open attack on whole universities here, but further that the old effective method of meeting him can not be used by anybody. The controversy is gone beyond the field of the natural sciences, dogmatically into theology and politics on both sides. In all this controversy in Minnesota now the science professor is only an innocent bystander, in a sort of a no-man's-land. And, the end is not yet!

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

FREDERICK W. SARDESON