familiarizes himself of his own accord with the required technique. His relations to his professor now become those of an apprentice to his master, but the greatest latitude is given to him to work as he best sees fit. There are no special courses to be followed nor hours to be spent in the laboratory. Students who are working for the "diplôme d'études supérieures," which is required for teaching in a lycée, are usually given a research subject; those who have a doctorate in view search out a subject for themselves, or, if they ask suggestions from the professor, are quite free to work out the problem according to their own lights. Such a system is of course not fit for the mass production of doctors, but is excellent for the careful training of a few specially gifted individuals.

The Parisian laboratories, placed in a great center of intellectual life, and usually with more funds to dispose of than the provincial laboratories, are the ones which are most likely to attract foreign investigators. It may thus not be amiss to lay particular stress on the enumeration and description of the laboratories in the capital.

Zoology is taught in five laboratories at the Sorbonne, at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and at the Ecole de Pharmacie. The premedical students attend special courses, which while given by professors of the Sorbonne, are apart both in their location and in their mode of treatment from the other courses at the Faculté des Sciences. The professor of zoology at the P. C. N., as the premedical school is called (physical, chemical, natural sciences), is Rémy Perrier, brother of the famed comparative anatomist, Edmond Perrier; he has continued, in a way, the latter's work. He is ably seconded by Georges Bohn, who has done much work on comparative psychology and on the chemical aspects of biology. Zoology for non-premedical students is taught by Professors Charles Pérez and Hérouard, both of them morphologists, in the laboratory lately held by Yves Delage. Comparative anatomy and histology are in the hands of Professor Paul Wintrebert, whose work has mostly been in experimental zoology. General biology and embryology are taught both at the Laboratoire d'Evolution des Êtres Organisés, by Professor Maurice Caullery and M. François Picart, and at the Laboratoire de Biologie Expérimentale, by Professor Etienne Rabaud. At the École Normale Supérieure the laboratory of zoology is directed by Professor Robert Lévy.

Besides these teaching laboratories, there are others where only research is ordinarily carried out. Such are the biological laboratories of the Collège de France and of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle. In the former institution the chair of comparative embryol

ogy is held by Professor Henneguy, ably seconded by M. E. Fauré-Frémiet; in this laboratory much experimental work is being carried out. The chair of histology is in the hands of Professor Nageotte, while there has been recently created a chair of physiological histology for Professor Jolly. At the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle there are several laboratories of zoology, which are mainly devoted to taxonomy and morphology. Chief among them are the laboratories of Professor Bouvier, in entomology, Professor Roule, in herpetology and ichthyology, Professor Gravier, in Crustacea and worms, Professor Joubin, in Coelenterates, Professor Anthony, in comparative anatomy of vertebrates. Similar laboratories, dealing with marine life, exist at the Institut Océanographique.

Of interest also to zoologists are the laboratories of histology of Professor A. Prenant, and of parasitology of Professor Brumpt-at the Faculté de Médecine -and of parasitology of Professor F. Mesnil, at the Institut Pasteur.

General physiology at the Sorbonne is taught by Professor Lapicque, the discoverer of chronaxy. His laboratory deals very largely with the physical aspects of physiology. On the contrary, in Professor A. Mayer's laboratory at the Collège de France, and in Professor Portier's laboratory of comparative physiology at the Sorbonne, it is the chemical aspects which are largely stressed. At the Collège de France also is the laboratory of Professor Gley, where the work deals with hormones and with the nervous system Professor Richet's recent chair at the medical school is now occupied by Dean Roger, while there is also located here the laboratory of Professor Gautrelet attached to the École des Hautes Études.

Biochemistry is taught at the Sorbonne by Pro fessor Gabriel Bertrand, whose work deals mostly with enzymes and the physiological action of metals and by M. Javillier, of the Institut Agronomique. A the medical school biochemistry is in the hands of Professor Desgrez.

Botany is extensively studied at the Sorbonne Plant morphology is taken up by Professor Dangeard cytology by Professor Guilliermond, while plant phys iology is taught by Professor Molliard. The biologi cal aspects of botany, such as variation, heredity, etc. are studied under the direction of Professor Blar inghem.

Attached to the University of Paris are three marin biological stations and several stations for botanica and limnological investigations. Of the marine sta tions, the one at Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais, is small while the ones at Roscoff, Finistére, and Banyuls Pyrénées-Orientales, are modern and well equipped The direction of these stations is in the hands, re spectively, of Professors Caullery, Pérez and Dubosco

Of interest also are the independent marine stations of Monaco and of Salammbô, Tunis.

The main provincial cities where biological research is being actively carried out are Strasbourg, Montpellier, Nancy, Lyon. In Strasburg are Professors Bouin and Ancel, who have done remarkable work on the biology of sex; Nicloux and Blum, who have applied to biochemistry the methods of micro-chemistry; the physico-biologist, Vlès, the physiologist Terroine, the protozoologist Chatton, besides many younger able

At Montpellier are the experimental zoologist Bataillon, the comparative anatomist Vialleton, the histologists Hollande and Turchini, and the physiologists Hédon and Derrien. At Nancy is the school formed by Professor Cuénot, leader of French geneticists, while at Lyon an outstanding figure is Professor Policart, physiological histologist.

In all the laboratories which have been enumerated, as well as in all other French research laboratories, foreign investigators are made welcome. American biologists coming to work in France should not, however, choose any laboratory in which to do their investigation before meeting the various directors personally. The various laboratories differ so much from each other, in both spirit and equipment, that it is far preferable to decide "sur place" which suits best one's particular needs.

The spirit of individualism and personal liberty, preeminent in France, is amply reflected in the life of its laboratories. Americans, accustomed to a system which has a tendency to over-organization in science, can greatly benefit from association with a method which is totally different from their own. RAOUL M. MAY

AMERICAN FIELD SERVICE, PARIS, FRANCE

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

LECTURES AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION THE following lecture arrangements at the Royal Institution before Easter next year have been announced: The Christmas course of six lectures for juveniles were delivered by Professor A. V. Hill, on "Nerves and Muscles: how we feel and move," commencing on December 28. On Tuesdays, at 5.15 P. M., beginning on January 18, there will be two lectures by Professor R. Whytlaw-Gray on smokes as aerial disperse systems; six by Professor Julian Huxley on problems of animal growth and development; two by Dr. G. Shearer on X-rays and the chemical molecule, and two by Professor J. W. Cobb on some properties of coke. Thursday afternoon lectures, at the same hour, include three lectures by Sir William Bragg on acoustical problems treated by Lord Rayleigh; three by Professor John Garstang on the prog

ress of Hittite studies; two by Mr. J. Guild on color measurement and standardization, and two by Mr. Harold J. E. Peake on the beginnings and early spread of agriculture. Saturday afternoon lectures, at 3 P. M., include four by Sir Ernest Rutherford on the a-rays and their application to atomic structure. The Friday evening meetings will begin on January 21, when Sir William Bragg will deliver a discourse on Tyndall's experiments on magne-crystallic action. Succeeding discourses will probably be given by Professor E. P. Cathcart, Mr. T. L. Eckersley, Dr. Ernest Law, Sir Josiah Stamp, Professor D'Arcy Thompson, Sir Herbert Jackson, Dr. George Macdonald, Mr. E. Hatschek, Professor C. T. R. Wilson, Sir Ernest Rutherford and others.

PUBLIC LECTURES AT THE HARVARD

MEDICAL SCHOOL

THE faculty of medicine of Harvard University is offering a course of free public lectures on medical subjects, at the Medical School, Longwood Avenue, Boston, on Sunday afternoons at four o'clock, beginning on January 9 and ending March 27.

January 9.-Healthy children. Dr. Richard M. Smith, assistant professor of child hygiene.

January 16.-The public health aspects of venereal diseases. (To women only.) Dr. Myrtelle M. Canavan, curator of the Warren anatomical museum.

January 23.—Alcoholism, syphilis, and some other conditions as causes of mental disease. Dr. Harry C. Solomon, instructor in neuropathology and associate in psy chiatry.

January 30.-The dangers of overweight. Dr. Lawrence T. Fairhall, instructor in physiology.

February 6.-The internal secretions. Dr. Joseph C. Aub, assistant professor of medicine.

February 13.-Some causes of bladder trouble. (To men only.) Dr. J. Dellinger Barney, assistant professor of genito-urinary surgery.

February 20.-The problem child. Dr. Douglas A. Thom, instructor in psychiatry.

February 27.-How the nerves, eyes, nose and throat may be affected by the teeth. Dr. George H. Wright, assistant professor of dentistry.

March 6.-The meaning of blood pressure. Dr. William H. Robey, assistant professor of medicine.

March 13.-Fresh air, sunlight, and vitamines. Dr. Edwin T. Wyman, instructor in pediatrics.

March 20. Something about dreams. Dr. Percy G. Stiles, assistant professor of physiology.

March 27.-Cancer and new growths. Dr. Shields Warren, instructor in pathology.

GIFT OF THE ROEBLING MINERAL COLLECTION TO THE SMITHSONIAN

INSTITUTION

WHAT is said to be the finest private collection of minerals in the world, belonging to the late Colonel

Washington A. Roebling, builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, has been given by his son, Mr. John A. Roebling, to the Smithsonian Institution. Accompanying the gift is an endowment of $150,000 to insure the maintenance of the collection.

This gift makes the Smithsonian Institution the possessor of the two greatest private mineral cabinets in this country, received within two months of each other. The first, containing 9,000 specimens, which is only surpassed by the Roebling collection of 16,000 specimens, came from Mr. Frederick A. Canfield, of New Jersey. It is also endowed to the amount of $50,000. These two gifts added to the 50,000 mineral specimens already owned by the Smithsonian put the institution ahead of any other in this country in mineralogical material, and class it with the British and Vienna Museums in the front of the world.

It has been claimed for the Roebling collection that it contains a greater number of species than any other, public or private, in the world. The number of welldefined species of minerals is about 1,500. Colonel Roebling lacked less than 15 of these. Included are an almost complete series of the varieties and of all dubious mineral species. In his attempt to get specimens of every known mineral, he kept an up-to-date list of desiderata, circulating copies of this among mineralogists and dealers in all corners of the globe. The collection contains a number of rarities such as a 64 carat black diamond from South Africa. It is a perfect crystal and is believed to be one of the largest black diamond crystals known. A group of nine Arkansas diamonds contains one of 18 carats, which was, up till two years ago, the largest known from Arkansas. A black opal from Humboldt County, Nevada, weighs 18-6/10 ounces, being the largest precious opal known.

Among the cut stones there is a 319 carat peridot from the Island of Saint John in the Red Sea. It is supposed to have adorned the image of a saint in an Austrian church for some three centuries. A wine colored topaz from Brazil weighs 93 carats. An exceptional alexandrite of 32 carats from Ceylon shows green in sunlight and red in artificial light.

The finest group of precious tourmalines ever taken from Mesa Grande, California, are included in the Roebling collection. Maine contributed its finest purple apatite. A rare four carat cut blue euclase from Brazil is exceptional in color and size.

The collection contains many type specimens, which greatly enhance the scientific value of the cabinet, while the number of dubious minerals included will provide the Smithsonian mineralogists an opportunity to reinvestigate them and determine what they actually are.

REVISION OF THE U. S. PHARMACOPOEIA SINCE the appearance of the tenth revision of the "Pharmacopoeia of the United States" the committee entrusted with the task of preparing this national standard has turned its attention to the problems that will arise in the preparation of the eleventh revision in 1930. Many revision problems involve extended research and the revision committee is hopeful that individual workers will take up these problems as a part of their regular research work.

A list of chemical problems has therefore been submitted to American chemists with the hope of interesting them in this field of research. Perhaps some of the problems are already being studied by certain chemists; perhaps others may interest individual chemists now looking around for a useful subject for research. In either event, it is desired that the person engaged in the specific research notify Chairman E. F. Cook, U. S. P. Revision Committee, 636 South Franklin Square, Philadelphia, Pa., or the chairman of the research group on chemistry, Dr. H. V. Arny, stating the topic of research taken up and when the research is finished either send in information as to where the article will be found, or better still, send in a reprint of the article. Copies of the list may be obtained by addressing the office of the general chair

man.

The list of problems upon which information is desired has for convenience been classified under five divisions, each division having the corresponding members of the executive committee of revision, one member serving as chairman of the group. The divisions are as follows: (1) Committee on therapeutics and pharmacologic research, H. C. Wood, Jr., chairman, with C. W. Edmunds, George W. McCoy and Torold Sollmann; (2) committee on pharmacognostic research, Edwin L. Newcomb, chairman, with W. O. Richtmann; (3) committee on chemical research, H. V. Arny, chairman, with Frank R. Eldred, Charles H. LaWall, W. O. Richtmann and George D. Rosengarten; (4) committee on pharmaceutical formulas and processes, Wilbur L. Scoville, chairman, with George M. Beringer and Jacob Diner; (5) committee on miscellaneous research topics, A. G. DuMez, chairman, with Theodore J. Bradley.

NEW LABORATORY OF ENGINEERING FOR LEHIGH UNIVERSITY

A GIFT of a million dollars for the erection of an electrical and mechanical engineering laboratory at Lehigh University by James Ward Packard, a graduate of the class of 1884 and originator of the Packard automobile, was announced at a meeting of the board of trustees of Lehigh University on January 14. The

gift is unconditional. The new building will be known as the James Ward Packard laboratory. This is the largest gift ever made to Lehigh University by a single individual since its establishment in 1865 by Asa Packer.

Preliminary plans for the James Ward Packard laboratory have been prepared by Visscher and Burley, architects, of New York. It will have an overall width of 225 feet and a depth of 184 feet, designed in the collegiate Gothic style with exterior walls of native stone trimmed with cut limestone. The main laboratories will be provided with electrical and mechanical equipment of the most modern and efficient type for experiment and instruction purposes. From the heaviest boilers, prime movers and generators to the most delicate known devices for precise measurement, every type of equipment needed for the study of mechanical and electrical engineering will be the finest obtainable. Special laboratories for research in radio, high voltage work, fuels, refrigeration and other special branches of technology are planned. Drafting rooms, an engineering library, an auditorium seating 500 and equipped with stereopticon and motion picture projectors and an engineering museum are also included in the plans.

THE TENNESSEE ANTI-EVOLUTION LAW THE Supreme Court of Tennessee on January 15 handed down a decision upholding the constitutionality of the law prohibiting the teaching in state supported schools that man is descended from a lower order of animals. Before reading the opinions, Chief Justice Green made a statement in summary of the results of the court's deliberations, saying, according to an Associated Press dispatch:

The majority of the court holds the act to be constitutional Judge Cook, Judge Chambliss and myself. Judge McKinney believes the act invalid and will state his reasons.

Judge Cook and I think the act prohibits broadly the teaching in the schools of the state that man descended from a lower order of animals. Judge Chambliss thinks the act only prohibits the teaching of the materialistic. theory of evolution, which denies the hand of God in the creation of man. He will state his reasons.

All of us agree that the judgment herein must be reversed on account of the error of the trial judge in attempting himself to fix a fine of $100 upon Scopes. Under the constitution of Tennessee a fine in excess of $50 can only be assessed by a jury. The jury in this ease returned a verdict of guilty, but did not assess the fine and the judge undertook to do this himself.

Since the minimum punishment authorized by the statute is a fine of $100 and no tribunal except a jury ean levy such a fine in this state, the error pointed out can only be corrected by awarding a retrial.

All of us agree that nothing is to be gained by prolonging the life of this bizarre case. On the contrary, we think that the peace and dignity of the state, which all criminal prosecutions are brought to redress, will be subserved by the entry of a nolle prosequi herein. Such a course is suggested to the Attorney General.

Regarding the effect of the ruling the majority opinion said:

As the law thus stands, while the theory of evolution of man may not be taught in the schools of the state, nothing contrary to that theory is required to be taught. It could scarcely be said that the statutory scriptural reading would amount to teaching of a contrary theory. Our school authorities, are, therefore, quite free to determine how they shall act in this state of the law, and this course of study may be entirely omitted from the curriculum of our schools.

The opinion declares it seems plain that the Legislature only intended "to forbid teaching that man descended from a lower order of animals. The denunciation of any theory denying the Bible story of creation is restricted by the caption and by the final clause."

Justis Chambliss asserted in his separate opinion concurring with the majority decision that the teaching of materialistic evolution only was forbidden by the act:

It follows that to forbid the teaching of the biblical account of divine creation does not expressly or by fair implication involve acceptance or approval of instantaneous creation held to by some literalists.

One is not prohibited by teaching, either "days" as used in the book of Genesis, means days of twenty-four hours, the literalist view, or days of "a thousand years'' or more, as held by liberalists, so long as the teaching does not exclude God as the author of human life.

Justice McKinney's dissenting opinion declared his belief that the statute is invalid "for uncertainty of meaning." He quoted in support of his belief the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Connally versus General Construction Company as follows:

That the term of a penal statute creating a new offense must be sufficiently explicit to inform those who are subject to it what conduct on their part will render them liable to its penalties is a well recognized requirement, consonant alike with ordinary notions of fair play and the settled rules of law; and a statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application violates the first essential of due process of law.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS

DR. H. R. KRUYT, of the University of Utrecht, will be guest of honor at the fifth National Colloid Symposium, which is to be held in Ann Arbor from June 22 to 24. Dr. Kruyt has accepted a lectureship in colloid chemistry at the University of Michigan for the coming summer session.

DR. PETER DEBYE, formerly professor at the University of Utrecht and of Göttingen and now head of the physics department at the technical high school in Zürich, Switzerland, has been appointed acting professor of mathematical physics at the University of Wisconsin for the second semester.

PROFESSOR GILBERT N. LEWIS, head of the department of chemistry at the University of California, will spend the next summer quarter at the University of Chicago as the first holder of the Ernest A. Hammill visiting professorship. Dr. Lewis will present a lecture course on "Valence and the Structure of the Atom" and will also conduct a seminar in the field of thermodynamics.

DR. S. A. WAKSMAN, associate professor in soil microbiology at Rutgers University, was elected corresponding member of the Russian Microbiological Society, Leningrad, U. S. S. R., on December 16.

THE John Scott Medal, founded in 1816 by John Scott, of Edinburgh, and awarded from time to time by the board of city trusts of Philadelphia for outstanding inventions, has been awarded to Gustaf Waldemar Elmen for his invention of permalloy.

GEORGE EASTMAN, founder and president of the Eastman Kodak Company, has been awarded the progress medal of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. The award was made "in recognition of Mr. Eastman's inventions, researches and publications, resulting in an important advance in the development of photography."

THE New York Rotary Club presented a wrist watch to Captain Roald Amundsen, discoverer of the South Pole and commander of the dirigible Norge in its recent North Pole flight, at a luncheon on January 13 at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York. Captain Amundsen told of his polar experiences.

A TESTIMONIAL banquet, given by three hundred members of the Boston Tufts Alumni Club, was given at the new University Club to Dean Gardner C. Anthony, retiring head of the Tufts Engineering School. The banquet was presided over by Professor Edwin A. Shaw, retiring president of the Alumni Club. The speakers included ex-Mayor Richard B. Coolidge, of Medford, President Cousens and Rev. John J. Mark, of Fall River.

DR. C. W. JOHNSON, dean of the school of pharmacy in the University of Washington, has been elected president of the American Pharmaceutical Association.

THE following officers and council for 1927 were elected at the Birmingham-Atlanta meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers: President, E. R. Weidlein; third vice-president, R. T. Haslam; secretary, H. C. Parmelee; treasurer, M. H. Ittner; directors, N. K. Chaney, H. A. Curtis, D. D. Jackson. THE Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York, announces the appointment to its scientific staff in the division of biophysics of Dr. Ralph W. G. Wyckoff as associate member and Dr. Sterling B. Hendricks as assistant, formerly of the geophysical laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

WALTER C. HENDERSON has been promoted by the secretary of agriculture to be associate chief of the U. S. Biological Survey, a new position in that bureau, created on January 1.

W. R. SINGLETON, graduate student at the Bussey Institution, has been appointed as assistant geneticist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

B. C. RENICK has resigned from the U. S. Geological Survey and has gone into commercial geological work.

DR. A. S. PEARCE, professor of zoology in Duke University, recently traveled over seven hundred miles into the interior of Nigeria. He is now at the British Museum working on the rodents collected and expects to return to Duke University about January 25.

DR. HAROLD S. BURR recently returned from a six months' absence abroad, spent in study of neurology in Amsterdam and London while holding a Sterling Fellowship. He has been promoted from the rank of assistant professor to that of associate professor of anatomy at Yale University.

DR. E. S. SCHULTZ, pathologist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, is continuing the work on potato mosaic and other virus diseases at the Boyce Thompson Institute, at Yonkers, N. Y.

DR. EDWIN B. FROST, director of the Yerkes Observatory and professor of astrophysics at the University of Chicago, will give a public lecture at the University of Minnesota on February 6 under the auspices of the zoological museum. The title of Dr. Frost's lecture is "Seeing Stars."

DR. W. T. BOVIE, assistant professor of bio-physics at the Harvard Medical School, addressed a regular meeting of the Chicago section of the American Chem