In the opinion of the committee an important phase of its activities should be to promote the securing and recording of full and accurate information regarding changes in the form of our shorelines resulting from erosion and accretion, or from variations in the relative levels of land and sea due to either local or general causes. Such changes not only result in frequent and serious damage to public and private property, bringing heavy charges upon taxpayers and property owners, but they precipitate legal controversies, the solution of which depends upon a proper understanding of the changes and their causes, and they necessitate costly shore protection works for the proper construction of which the engineer demands a fuller knowledge of shore changes than is now available to him. The committee brought to the attention of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey the importance of having its field parties make and record in their field reports accurate measurements of the distances between permanent marks established on the coast, and changing elements of the shore, such as high water line, top of beach slope, crest of cliff and other easily recognized shore features. In response to this representation the survey issued to its field parties special instruction for the making and recording of the desired measurements. As a further step in the direction of securing fuller knowledge of shoreline changes, the committee, confining its attention for practical reasons to the Atlantic Coast,1 has addressed to geologists, geographers and engineers (including appropriate state and municipal authorities) in the Atlantic and Gulf coastal states a circular letter emphasizing the economic value of natural and artificial beaches, the practical importance of their adequate protection and the lack of precise data required by marine engineers for the proper installation of protective devices; and requesting information regarding shoreline conditions and shoreline studies in each coastal state. The committee also addressed a similar letter to the chiefs of the Coast Guard and Lighthouse Services, and requested the chiefs of these services to circulate among their officers and employes stationed on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts a carefully prepared questionnaire, designed to elicit information regarding shoreline changes taking place under the observation of men whose regular duties give them special facilities for noting the variable effects of waves and currents. It is the thought of the committee that replies received from both letters and questionnaires 1 A Committee on Features and Changes of the Shoreline of the Pacific Coast has since been formed in the Division of Geology and Geography of the National Research Council. will serve to indicate more clearly the directions in which further steps can most profitably be taken. As a contribution to the work of the committee the chairman assigned certain shoreline problems to a limited number of graduate students in physiography. W. D. Burden completed a study of shore changes on Gardiners Island and parts of the northern coast of Long Island, in which past rates of coast erosion and successive positions of the shoreline are considered at some length. E. I. Winter has made a study of variations in mean sea level in the course of which much data useful to the committee were assembled. H. S. Sharp carried out an examination of artificial beach construction along the New York and Connecticut shores, with a view to determining certain of the physical factors favorable to and unfavorable to enterprises of this type. O. Kuthy collected and analyzed published data on elevated beaches in order to determine how far such data may properly be used as evidence of sea-level changes as distinguished from changes in the level of the lands. D. A. Nichols is engaged on a study of the evolution of the southern shoreline of New Jersey, this work being prosecuted with support from the Geological Survey of New Jersey. In the opinion of the committee the results already obtained from these studies justify the belief that investigations of shoreline phenomena at various points along our coast, carried on by properly qualified and directed graduate students, can be made to contribute substantially toward the objects which the committee has in view, both by discovering and making known facts of shoreline changes, and by directing public attention in an increasing measure to the importance of shoreline problems. With a view to furthering studies of this type the committee decided to get in touch with professors of geology and geography in our coastal states, and to ascertain to what extent they would be willing to encourage shoreline studies by competent students under their direction. The committee believes that there is much need of an enlightened public opinion to demand and support intelligent action by governmental agencies-federal, state and municipal-in dealing with the protection and development of our shores. In Great Britain, Holland and other countries the burdens which coast erosion throw upon the taxpayer are better understood, and support for constructive action by public authorities has not been lacking. Our people must be made to realize that loss of coastal land in the long run becomes a charge upon them, whether or not they live upon the shore. They must understand the advantages which may be enjoyed by the whole public if their representatives take proper steps to protect existing beaches and to create new ones. As an aid toward arousing a wider and more intelligent public interest in shoreline problems and to collect information of possible value concerning shoreline phenomena, the committee is asking all who are interested in the work to communicate to the committee information on the following points: (a) Changes in the shoreline (backward cutting, forward building, shifting of inlets, etc.) now in process of taking place, or which have taken place very recently. Precise data, or the names of reliable persons able to give precise data, are particularly desired. Photographs, especially photographs taken at intervals from the same viewpoint, are valuable in showing cliff retreat under wave attack, the progressive growth of bars and sandspits, the erosion of FRANK HALL KNOWLTON AT the close of a distinguished career it is quite impossible to separate the influences of heredity and environment, but both were certainly united in mak beaches and the destruction of seawalls, houses and ing a naturalist of Frank Hall Knowlton. His ances other artificial structures. (b) Engineering works now in process of construction for the protection of shore cliffs or beaches, for the maintenance of inlets or channels across beaches or bars, or for any other purpose which will involve a checking or changing of the natural operation of waves or currents along the coast. Information as to the purpose of the works in construction, with addresses of engineers or contractors in charge of construction, will be especially valuable. (c) Completed engineering works that are of especial interest, either because they have proven unusually successful in accomplishing their purpose, or because they have signally failed to achieve the results for which they were designed. Addresses of engineers, contractors or other authorities who can furnish reliable detailed information are particularly desired. (d) New beaches created by artificial means, whether completed or in process of development. Photographs or sketches showing original condition of the shore and its appearance after the new beach was formed, together with information as to conditions of wave and current action in the vicinity and the degree of success obtained in securing a satisfactory beach will be useful. The addresses of engineers, contractors or others in charge of the development work are desired. (e) Addresses of individuals or organizations willing to cooperate with the committee by measuring and recording shoreline changes in their vicinity, by photographing rapidly changing shorelines at stated intervals, by observing the behavior of waves and currents on their parts of the coast in different seasons, or by loaning the committee photographs, sketches, engineering drawings, unpublished reports or other data throwing light on shoreline changes and the results (whether satisfactory or not) secured by shore tors were of that sterling old Vermont stock which originally settled that region. He was born at Brandon, Vt., on September 2, 1860. At Middlebury College where he arrived in due season he came under the influence of Ezra Brainerd and Henry M. Seely, those distinguished naturalists who taught all the sciences and collaborated on the difficult problems of geologic research among the older rocks of that region. Their influence on the lad can not be doubted. Knowlton's earliest interests were ornithology and botany and he retained these undiminished through life. In his early days in the West for the Geological Survey he collected recent birds and plants as well as fossil plants. The wonderfully isolated lignites of Brandon, unique in all New England, with their great variety of curious Eocene fossil fruits, must also have early stimulated his imagination and he returned to their study in his later years. In 1884 Middlebury gave him the B.S. and three years later the M.S. degree. Knowlton came to Washington in 1884 in connection with the preparation of the U. S. National Museum exhibit for the Cotton Centennial Exposition at New Orleans, remaining afterward at the museum on a slender salary, first as aid and then as assistant curator. When Lester F. Ward was placed in charge of paleobotany by Major Powell, then director of the survey, Knowlton was made one of his assistants being employed in collecting fossil plants in the summers and studying the anatomy of fossil woods during the winters, his first work of this kind being on the woods and lignites of the Potomac formation. In 1894 he was appointed assistant paleontologist on the U. S. Geological Survey, and in 1907 he was advanced to the rank of geologist. For nine of his earlier years in Washington he was professor of botany in Columbian (now George Washington) University, from which he received the Ph.D. degree in 1896. In 1897 he founded The Plant World and was its editor for seven years. Official salaries were low and Knowlton was forced to do a vast amount of routine botanical work at that time for the Century, Standard and Webster's dictionaries and for the Jewish Encyclopædia. Knowlton's youthful interest in ornithology culminated in "Birds of the World," published by Holt in the American Nature Series in 1909, a great upto-date work of 873 pages, 236 illustrations and 16 colored plates, eloquent of the insight with which he had followed the expanding knowledge in all of the phases of avian study. Throughout those earlier years Knowlton was active in the meetings of the various scientific societies in Washington and held office in many of them. He was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1889, and was a charter member of the Paleontological Society and one of its first vice-presidents, serving as president in 1917. In 1921 his youthful alma mater conferred on him the degree of Sc.D. As he came more fully into his powers a long series of memoirs on Mesozoic and Cenozoic floras flowed from his ever-active pen, and each winter season he reported on literally hundreds of collections of fossil plants made by the various survey field parties. Nor was this all-many ambitious works were partly completed and had to be laid aside because of more urgent duties, remaining unfinished. Knowlton's health was never robust and only his great love for his work can account for an industry that was the marvel of all who knew him. It is too soon to attempt an evaluation of his contributions to science, but no one can gainsay that his keen chronologic sense has served in large measure to remove the prejudices with which his predecessors had handicapped paleobotanical studies. AN extensive program for the expansion of the medical school and the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has been announced by Dr. Alfred Stengel, professor of medicine at the university and chairman of a committee arranging for a conference on January 10 to discuss the subject. Some of the objects included in the program are the establishment of an "out patient" department; erection of a hospital with 1,000 beds and a staff of 100 internes and 500 nurses, and the establishment of a "medical press," which would issue pamphlets on the latest developments in medicine and surgery for the information of the public. As goals for immediate action Dr. Stengel suggested the establishment of the Martin Maloney medical clinic, provided for under the terms of a gift of $250,000 by Mr. Maloney; further development of the Henry Phipps Institute for the study and treatment of tuberculosis, in accordance with a gift of $500,000 from the Phipps family, an additional $500,000 to be raised by the university; establishment of a Philip Syng physical foundation, with an endowment of $500,000 as an adjunct to the department of surgery, and the establishment of a Joseph Leidy chair of anatomy. The plans call for the erection of suitable buildings for the housing of these clinics. Each separate medical and surgical specialty would have a chief who would also be the senior professor of that subject in the medical school. Plans are to be discussed at the coming conference, at which Dr. Hubert Work, secretary of the interior, and Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, president of the Carnegie Foundation, will be among the speakers. For many years the Knowltons lived at Laurel, Maryland, and he was never happier than working in his garden or dispensing hospitality to his many scientific friends. A few years ago they moved to Ballston, Virginia-an easier journey from the museum. Knowlton's interests were broad-all phases of human activities-scientific, religious, politicalwere the themes of the lunch hour. He held decided opinions and was forthright in his likes and dislikes, but a kindlier spirit never lived, and he was never too busy or too ill to counsel and help his colleagues. In 1913 we spent a memorable summer in the Rocky RESEARCH IN PURE CHEMISTRY AT THE Mountain states, and Knowlton did not again go into the field until the past summer. This year he made a trip to the Pacific coast, collecting a large amount of material from the Puget group and the Spokane lake beds. The summer had been unusually good, but in November his chronic enemy, asthma, necessi MELLON INSTITUTE ACCORDING to a statement by Dr. Edward R. Weidlein, director of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research of the University of Pittsburgh, there has been established in the institute a definite department of research in pure chemistry, with Dr. Leonard H. Cretcher as the head. As a senior fellow of the institute, Dr. Cretcher (A.B., Michigan, 1912; Ph.D., Yale, 1916) has been in charge of the institution's fundamental chemical studies since 1922, and has published jointly with several assistants and other members of the institute a number of papers on the results of their organo-chemical researches. As head of the new department, Dr. Cretcher will have supervision over all investigations in pure chemistry and will also serve as an adviser to industrial fellows who are carrying on research on problems in synthetic organic chemistry. Dr. Cretcher's activities will be operated as an integral part of the institute and will be sustained by institutional subsidy. Dr. William L. Nelson (B.S., Trinity, 1920; Ph.D., Pittsburgh, 1926), who has been named as the first fellow in the department, was a member of the staff of the department of chemistry of the University of Pittsburgh during the period 1922-26. Dr. Weidlein states that while Mellon Institute is primarily an industrial experiment station, it has always recognized the need of fundamental scientific research as a background and source of stimulus for investigation on behalf of industry. During the past five years the institute has been giving a constantly increasing amount of attention to the encouragement and support of research in pure chemistry, and has been progressively successful in arranging for funds to devote to the prosecution of investigations not suggested by industry, but planned within the institute and aimed towards the study of more basic problems than those usually investigated for direct industrial purposes. In the institute's new department of research in pure chemistry this interest and work will be nurtured and given opportunity to expand. THE AMBROSE SWASEY PROFESSORSHIP OF PHYSICS As has been noted in SCIENCE a chair in physics at the Case School of Applied Science has been endowed by Mr. Ambrose Swasey. On December 19, his eightieth birthday, he sent the following letter to Case School: For many years, as you know, I have been greatly interested in your institution and those who have been responsible for its progress and the high standard of its work. As the years have gone on I have been especially attracted to the department of physics and the splendid men who are known throughout the world because of their work in scientific research. It gives me much pleasure to advise you that I have to-day set over to the Cleveland Trust Company, securities amounting to one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) as an endowment fund for a chair of physics This is the second valuable gift which Mr. Swasey has made to Case School. A number of years ago he and his partner presented to it the Warner and Swasey Astronomical Observatory with its complete equipment. The first gift indicated his interest in astronomy and this second gift shows his interest in physics. Mr. Swasey was one of the founders of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and is a past president as well as an honorary member of that institution. He is also a member of the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. The state of Ohio has but two members in the academy-Dr. Swasey (for the doctorate has been conferred upon him by several institutions of learning) a member of the corporation of Case School, and Dr. Miller, professor of physics in the same college. There are no conditions attached to this donation except that it shall be used for a chair in physics; but the trustees, in accepting the gift, have taken certain steps which they think will be agreeable to the donor. Dr. Dayton C. Miller has been appointed to the Ambrose Swasey Professorship of Physics and has been relieved of all teaching duties so that he may devote his entire time to research work. OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE A FULL account of the Philadelphia meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science prepared by the permanent secretary will be printed in the issue of SCIENCE for January 28. Officers were elected as follows: President A. A. Noyes, professor of physical chemistry, the California Institute of Technology. Vice-presidents and Chairmen of the Sections A-Mathematics: Dunham Jackson, University of Minnesota. B—Physics: A. H. Compton, University of Chicago. F-Zoological Sciences: C. E. McClung, University of Pennsylvania. G-Botanical Sciences: William Crocker, Thompson Institute for Plant Research. H-Anthropology: R. J. Terry, Washington University. I—Psychology: Knight Dunlap, Johns Hopkins University. K-Social and Economic Sciences: W. S. Leathers, Vanderbilt University. L-Historical and Philological Sciences: Harry Elmer M-Engineering: A. N. Talbot, University of Illinois. University. 0-Agriculture: L. E. Call, Kansas State Agricultural College. Q-Education: A. I. Gates, Teachers College, Columbia University. Members of the Council David White, Smithsonian Institution. L. E. Dickson, University of Chicago. Members of the Executive Committee J. McKeen Cattell, New York. Member of the Finance Committee Herbert Gill, Washington. Members of the Committee on Grants W. Lash Miller, University of Toronto. Oswald Veblen, Princeton University. Trustee of Science Service D. T. MacDougal, Desert Laboratory, Carnegie Institution. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS THE prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was presented to Professor G. D. Birkhoff, of Harvard University, for his vice-presidential address entitled "A Mathematical Critique of Some Physical Theories." SCIENTIFIC Societies meeting in Philadelphia in association with the American Association for the Advancement of Science report the election of presidents as follows: The American Mathematical Society, Dr. Virgil Snyder, of Cornell University; The American Physical Society, Dr. Karl T. Compton, professor of physics at Princeton University; The American Society of Zoologists, Dr. S. J. Holmes, professor of zoology at the University of California; Society of American Bacteriologists, Dr. Robert S. Breed, professor of dairy bacteriology at Cornell University and bacteriologist of the Experiment Station at Geneva, N. Y.; The American Anthropological Association, Dr. Marshall A. Saville, director of the Heye Museum, New York City; The American Psychological Association, Dr. H. L. Hollingworth, professor of psychology, Barnard College, Columbia University. AT the annual meeting of the Board of Directors of the Psychological Corporation, held in its offices at the Grand Central Terminal on December 2, officers were elected as follows: President, Walter V. Bingham; First vice-president, Walter Dill Scott; Second vice-president, Lewis M. Terman; Chairman of the board, J. McKeen Cattell; Secretary and treasurer, Paul S. Achilles; Assistant secretary, Elsie O. Breg man. DR. J. J. R. MACLEOD, professor of physiology at the University of Toronto, and Dr. E. G. Martin, professor of physiology at Stanford University, will exchange courses during the months of January, February and March, Professor Macleod going to Stanford and Professor Martin to Toronto. PROFESSOR J. H. PRIESTLEY, of the department of botany in the University of Leeds, will give a course of post-graduate lectures and demonstrations to students of the departments of botany and biochemistry of the University of California during the spring of next year. Professor H. H. Dixon, of Trinity College, Dublin, has been invited to lecture at the university during the summer months of 1927. DR. ROGER ADAMS, head of the department of chemistry in the University of Illinois, has been awarded the Nichols medal in chemistry of the New York Section of the American Chemical Society, for his work on the Acids of Chaulmoogra Oil in the Treatment of Leprosy. THE Committee on awards of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers has nominated Wilfred Lewis as the medalist for 1927 for his contributions of research and analysis to the problem of gearing. THE faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto has awarded the Charles Mickle Fellowship for 1926-1927 to Dr. and Mrs. George F. Dick, Chicago. PROFESSOR W. H. HOFFMANN, of the Finlay Laboratory, Havana, has been awarded the medal "Bene Merenti" and diploma of the International Exhibition, section of tropical medicine, Rome, 1925. THE Longstaff medal of the British Chemical Society has been awarded to Professor Robert Robinson, F.R.S., of the University of Manchester, for his "distinguished researches in organic chemistry." The Harrison memorial prize of the society was awarded to Dr. Charles Robert Harington, of University College, London. The presentation of the medal and of the prize will take place at the annual general meeting of the society on March 24. THE gold medal of the Royal Society of Medicine was presented to Professor J. S. Haldane, director |