Parks, to which reference has already been made, other committees which have been active are those on ethics, finance and accounting, and fire hazards.

The final report of the committee on ethics has just been adopted by the association and will issue shortly as a "Code of ethics for museum workers." The chairman of the committee was Harold L. Madison.

ST. LOUIS MEETING

The beginning of a new fiscal year was marked by the twentieth annual meeting of the association, held in St. Louis from May 17 to 21. On that occasion the membership of the governing body, the council, was increased from ten to thirty by constitutional amendment in order to make possible a representation of the museum interests of the country both geographically and with respect to subject.

The members of the council as just constituted are: S. A. Barrett, Milwaukee; Laura M. Bragg, Charleston; William Alanson Bryan, Los Angeles; Hermon C. Bumpus, Buffalo; Harold T. Clark, Cleveland; William Sloan Coffin, New York; Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Boston; John Cotton Dana, Newark; Barton W. Evermann, San Francisco; Chauncey J. Hamlin, Buffalo; Robert B. Harshe, Chicago; William M. Hekking, Buffalo; Archer M. Huntington, New York; Frank Logan, Chicago; Richard Swann Lull, New Haven; J. Arthur MacLean, Indianapolis; John D. McIlhenny, Philadelphia; Charles B. Pike, Chicago; George D. Pratt, New York; C. G. Rathmann, St. Louis; William deC. Ravenel, Washington; Paul M. Rea, Cleveland; Paul J. Sachs, Cambridge; Samuel L. Sherer, St. Louis; George M. Stevens, Toledo; Douglas Stewart, Pittsburgh; Felix Warburg, New York; Frederic Allen Whiting, Cleveland; Edward Wigglesworth, Boston, and Clark Wissler, New York. The officers elected by the association by ballots cast prior to the annual meeting were: President, Chauncey J. Hamlin, president of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences; Vice-president, Frederic Allen Whiting, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art; Secretary, Laurence Vail Coleman; Treasurer, George D. Pratt, trustee of the American Museum of Natural History. These officers tendered their resignations in order that the enlarged council might elect its own officers in accordance with the amended constitution. The president, vice-president and treasurer were reelected. Clark Wissler, curator of anthropology of the American Museum of Natural History, was elected secretary, and Mr. Coleman was appointed executive secretary.

The report of the treasurer showed that receipts during the year for general purposes had totalled approximately $35,500 and that the year had closed with a net income of more than $6,000. This surplus, to

gether with a like amount from the previous year, has been set up as a reserve fund, and it was pointed out that the bulk of this reserve had been derived from items budgeted to the work of the director, but not expended because taken up from a special fund.

The total receipts for special purposes was shown to be in excess of $85,000 and the total for all purposes, therefore, to be more than $120,000.

PAN-AMERICAN PROJECT

Efforts to bring about closer relations between the museums of North, Central and South America were projected at the meeting-the matter being placed in the hands of the council, which accordingly appointed a committee on Pan-American cooperation. Dr. Clark Wissler is chairman and the other members are Dr. John C. Merriam, president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Dr. Leo S. Rowe, director of the Pan-American Union.

The present project is a development of plans that were begun a year ago. The tentative plan, as summed up in a memorandum which was referred to the committee, is as follows:

(1) To appoint a representative of the association to visit twelve or fifteen museums of the United States during the fall of 1925 for the purpose of explaining the plan to directors and trustees and of finding out exactly what help they are in a position to give to institutions in the South.

(2) To make provision for the representative to visit points in Mexico, Central and South America, to study museum problems, to invite cooperation, to spread an understanding of our attitude and to demonstrate our sincerity through actual service; university centers also to be visited; the report of the trip to include a directory of museums and a program for future cooperation.

It is not anticipated that material results will develop out of a first trip but there is every indication that such a mission would result in the formulation of a far-reaching program which would give a basis for independent activities on the part of American and Latin-American museums in cooperation.

DR. WILSON'S GIFT

In his report on museums in national parks, Dr. Bumpus emphasized the importance of creating museums that will minimize indoor exhibits in favor of the out-of-doors ones that nature has already provided, and made a plea for a cessation of collecting activities, even by museums, in places than can be developed as out-of-door exhibits by construction of little shelter

museums.

Immediately after this report, Dr. William P. Wilson, director of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, presented to the association all the anthropological

material which he and Mrs. Wilson had collected in the Southwest in years past. It is his wish that the material be restored to the original settings if that course should prove practicable in the development of museums in the West. This gift was greeted as an important impetus to the movement for branch museums out-of-doors, and was also hailed as the entering wedge which may open up new activities by inducing the creation of official machinery to administer material for distribution to points of greatest need. It was suggested that the problem of mobilizing some of the excess material of large museums for the benefit of small ones might thus be approaching a solution. At a later session, Dr. Wilson made his gift formally as follows:

At this, the twentieth annual meeting of The American Association of Museums, as an indication of my faith in the purposes of this organization, of which I was a founder and for twenty years have been an active member, I desire to give to the association all the archeological collections which were obtained by Mrs. Wilson and me, as a result of explorations which were conducted principally by her at Otowi, New Mexico, during the years 1915, 1916 and 1917.

In making this gift I am confident that The American Association of Museums, through its growing interest in science and popular education, will place and care for this material to enhance its value. The gift is only conditioned by the liberal regulations which control the disposition of all similar material secured from public lands under the control of the Department of the Interior.

LAURENCE VAIL COLEMAN, Executive Secretary

JAY BACKUS WOODWORTH

ON August 4, 1925, after a long illness, Professor Jay Backus Woodworth, of the department of geology and geography at Harvard University, passed away in the sixty-first year of his age. He was connected with the university since the year 1890. After serving as instructor in geology, he was promoted to an assistant professorship in 1901 and to an associate professorship in 1912. Many thousands of students have been introduced to the science of geology by Professor Woodworth. He served the university, not only as an enthusiastic and respected teacher but also as an administrator, serving on many committees and for some years as chairman of the department. Throughout most of his professional career he was a member of the United States Geological Survey and has published many valuable memoirs under the auspices of that survey. Another of his leading contributions to science was a prolonged exploration in

the geology of Brazil and other parts of South America. This expedition was financed by the Shaler Memorial Fund, which is controlled by the division of geology at Harvard. It was appropriate that Professor Woodworth could have been the first investigator to be aided by this fund for he was the trusted friend of his master, Professor Nathaniel Shaler, who organized the present department of geology and geography at the university. As a labor of love, Professor Woodworth undertook the rather arduous task of organizing and continuously administering the Harvard Seismographic Station, which has been in continuous operation since the year 1908. Professor Woodworth was one of the American pioneers in the scientific study of earthquakes, and the records from his station have been among those most prized by the seismological stations of the world. This is especially on account of the accurate timing of the records. It is important to note that Professor Woodworth has steadily held the opinion that, according to the testimony of both human history and the geological facts in hand, the city of Boston is not in serious danger from earthquake shocks. Like all other scientific students of New England earthquakes, he recognized that New England is sure to have small shocks at irregular intervals, but he strongly deprecated the effort now being made in certain quarters to lead the public to the opinion that science supports the claim of considerable danger to Boston and New England in general from earthquakes. Professor Woodworth's other chief researches have been in the field of glacial geology, where he was the recognized authority, and in the structural geology of New England, particularly Massachusetts:

Professor Woodworth has served for some years on the National Research Council, his most important contribution to the work of that council being perhaps his service as chairman of the committee on the use of seismographs in war, 1917-18. He was active in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in the administration of the Geological Society of America, of which he had long been a fellow. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; past president of the Seismological Society of America; a member of the Washington Academy of Science, of the National Geophysical Union, the Meteorological Society of America, Boston Society of Natural History, and other societies.

Professor Woodworth was born at Newfield, New York, the son of the Reverend Allen Beach Woodworth. He is survived by a daughter, Miss Ethel Woodworth.

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

AN INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL

CONFERENCE

THE Second International Conference on the Unification of Formulae of Heroic Medicaments will be held in Brussels, Belgium, during the week beginning September 21, 1925.

The first conference of this nature, also held in Brussels, was convened on September 15, 1902, the following countries being represented: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

The agreements reached were incorporated into a treaty which was signed by the countries represented November 29, 1906. This country signed with the following reservation: "The Government of the United States of America does not assume, by virtue of its signature to this treaty, any other obligation than that of exercising its influence to bring the next edition of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States into harmony with said agreement."

The progress which has been made as a result of the labors of the first conference is most gratifying. The pharmacopoeias which have been revised since the treaty of 1906 became effective show, without exception, that an earnest endeavor has been made to comply with the requirements laid down by the conference. It was to be expected, however, that the agreements reached by this initial conference would require, as further knowledge was gained, revision from time to time, both in the nature of modifications and additions. It is for the purpose of making such changes and additions that the second conference has been called.

The countries that have signified their intention of participating in the second conference are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, France, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Roumania, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

Dr. A. G. Dumez, of the Hygienic Laboratory at Washington, is the official delegate to this congress of the Army, Navy and the United States Public Health Service.

passing the bill, will create an asset of the highest commercial, popular and scientific value.

The Transvaal, in which the proposed park is situated, has the credit of being the first state in Africa to realize the importance of protecting wild life. In March, 1898, two years before the Conference of African Powers called by the late Lord Salisbury led to the establishment of reserves and sanctuaries in many parts of Africa, the Transvaal government had set apart a district on the Sabi River, between the Drakensberg Mountains and the Lebombo Hills, adjoining Portuguese East Africa, as a sanctuary in which it was forbidden to "hunt, shoot, seek or in any way to intimidate, to chase or to drive, or in any way disturb any game or birds in the game reserve."

The country is known as low veld or bush veld. From east to west it rises in height gradually from about 400 feet above sea level to about 2,000 feet. It is subtropical climatically, and consists of a series of undulating ridges and steep-cut water courses forest clad except below the 1,200-foot level, where it becomes savannah country with rocky outcrops, the home of troops of baboons. There are a few large perennial rivers flowing from west to east and a multitude of tributary water courses, most of them now as a result of the gradual desiccation of South Africa dry except during the rains.

In 1923, under pressure from the companies, the government excised the whole western area of the reserve, amounting to about 1,500,000 acres, between the Olifants River on the north and the Crocodile River on the south.

There remain about seventy farms within the area which are still private property, and it is the acquisition of these at a fair price that is the final obstacle to be overcome. If these are purchased and the remaining area of the original reserve permanently established by the Union Government as a national park and sanctuary, as contemplated by the bill, South Africa will gain possession of one of the greatest reserves in the world.

THE GERMAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRY Ar the ninth annual general meeting of the Association of British Chemical Manufacturers recently held at the Chemical Society's Rooms, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W., D. Milne Watson, the chairman, said, according to a report in the London Times, that the chemical industry, though, fortunately, not to such a great degree as some other industries, was going through a serious time. He attributed the mitigation in their case to the organization which they had built up. During the year there had been closer cooperation between the dyestuffs industry and other branches

of the chemical industry. The fine chemical group seemed to have had a fairly quiet year. A very strenuous one awaited them. It was to the public, as represented by the House of Commons, that they must now appeal. The Safeguarding of Industries Act expired next year, and it seemed obvious that the government would require to know what progress had been made in the manufacture of fine chemicals and what effect the act had had. The council was expecting to receive a full report from the group in the autumn and would then review the whole situation. Dr. E. F. Armstrong said that there was difficulty in finding suitable chemists with a broad outlook to initiate new problems. If the association could bring pressure to bear on the universities so to alter their course of training as to produce the better-class chemists they wanted, it would be much to the benefit of the industry. He thought that they all realized as much as he did the rocks ahead, because of German competition. It would be true to say that the penetration of the German into matters chemical was even wider, more rapid, and more serious to-day that it was in 1914. The fight was going to be an arduous one. Mr. N. H. Graesser said that he had recently re turned from Germany. He had been amazed to see what developments had occurred in the last year or two. Apparently there was now no home competition there at all. Everything was coordinated. They had their fine chemical convention, and that consisted of firms working to a common policy. But in the dye industry itself he understood that there was only one group. They had bought up all the smaller firms who used to be independent, or had obtained control over them, and they were working as a national industry, with no competition in their own country and with a national effort for all outside business. He was told that in this process of coordination they had recently made tremendous further steps. One of the directors of a large concern told him that since January they had stopped 4,000 men, simply in the transfer of processes to larger scale and power plants. Every plant that was not absolutely up-to-date was simply left, and on any plant that could be revised they were spending money freely. The one feature that seemed to be causing them any trouble was liquid capital and the competitive nature of the market. The reports on labor were uniformly good.

FEDERAL FUNDS FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN AGRICULTURE ACCORDING to information received from the Missouri College of Agriculture, one of the most important and far-reaching laws in the interests of agriculture prepared by the dean of the college, Dr. F. B. Mumford, was approved by President Coolidge on

February 24, 1925. This law provides for increased appropriations to the colleges of agriculture of the several states for scientific research in the interest of agriculture. The bill provides for an initial appropriation of $20,000 for the first year and $10,000 additional each year thereafter until the total appropriation shall have reached $50,000 annually. The provisions of the bill limiting the use of these funds are indicated by the following quotation from the bill:

The funds appropriated pursuant to this act shall be applied only to paying the necessary expenses of conducting investigations or making experiments bearing indirectly on the production, manufacture, preparation, use, distribution and marketing of agricultural products and including such scientific researches as have for their purpose the establishment and maintenance of a permanent agricultural industry; and such economic and sociological investigations as have for their purpose the development and improvement of the rural home and rural life; and for printing and disseminating the results of such researches.

The administrative features of this bill are similar to those of the Hatch and Adams Acts providing funds for agricultural experiment stations, but the uses for which these funds may be expended are broader and place emphasis upon certain phases of agricultural research in agricultural economics, home economics and rural sociology. This increased emphasis upon the business side of farming is a recognition of the importance of world economic conditions in the development of agriculture. The prosperity of the farmer is not alone dependent upon efficient production methods, but is determined by economical methods of distribution and marketing. Investigations in distribution and marketing of farm products will therefore be undertaken by all the stations benefiting from this act. The bill also recognizes that the solution of the rural problem involves rural conditions. It therefore provides for investigations of the rural home and rural living.

This endowment for agricultural research, added to amounts already available, will represent a major endowment of approximately $250,000,000 and an annual income of more than $10,000,000 for the state experiment stations.

RAMSAY MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIPS

THE Ramsay Memorial Fellowship trustees have made the following awards of new fellowships for the session 1925-26:

A British fellowship of £300, tenable for two years, to Mr. G. A. Elliott, B.Sc., for work at University College, London.

A British fellowship of £300, tenable for one year, to Mr. H. R. Ing, M.A., D.Phil., for work in the University of Manchester.

A Glasgow fellowship of £300, tenable for two years, to Mr. T. C. Mitchell, B.Sc., for work in the University of Cambridge.

A Glasgow fellowship of £300, tenable for one year, to Mr. J. D. Fulton, M.A., B.Sc., for work in the University of Manchester.

A Canadian fellowship to Mr. D. McKay Morrison, M.Sc., Ph.D., for work in the University of Cambridge. A Japanese fellowship of the value of £370, to Dr. Seisi Takagi, for work at University College, London.

The trustees have renewed the following fellowships

for the same session:

Mr. S. W. Saunders, B.Sc., Ph.D. (British fellowship), for work at University College, London; Mr. Kai J. Pedersen (Danish fellowship), for work in the University of Bristol; M. M. Mathieu (French fellowship), for work in the Davy Faraday Laboratory, Royal Institution, London, and Dr. Nicolas Oeconomopoulos (Greek fellowship), for work at University College, London.

Sir Robert Waley-Cohen has been appointed a trustee of the Ramsay Memorial Fellowship Trust, in place of the late Sir George Beilby.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS PROFESSOR NEILS BOHR, of Copenhagen, has received the Barnard gold medal for meritorious service to science from Dr. John D. Prince, American minister to Denmark, acting on behalf of Columbia University, where he was once a professor. The medal was awarded to Professor Bohr in recognition of his researches in the structure of atoms by the trustees of Columbia University in April, on the nomination of the National Academy of Sciences.

A MEDAL for archeological research has been instituted and attached to the Board of Archeology in the University of London. The first presentation was made at University College on July 7 to Sir Flinders Petrie in recognition of his half-century of work for archeology.

THE honorary degree of LL.D. has been conferred by the University of Aberdeen on Dr. J. J. R. MacLeod, professor of physiology at the University of Toronto.

THE degree of doctor of laws has been conferred by Wabash College on Dr. J. N. Rose, research associate in botany of the Carnegie Institution. Dr. Rose graduated from the college in 1885 and received the Ph.D. in 1889.

ARTHUR LOWENSTEIN, chemist and vice-president of Wilson and Company, has received the honorary degree of doctor of science from the University of Cincinnati.

THE Walker prize of $100, awarded annually by the Boston Society of Natural History for the best essay in the field of natural history, has been given this year to Edward F. Holden, of the University of Michigan, for his manuscript entitled "The pigment of amethyst."

THE Comet Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific has been awarded to Professor Max Wolf, of Heidelberg, Germany, for the discovery of an unexpected comet on December 22, 1924.

THE Spanish Achúcarro prize for distinguished work in the histology of the nervous system has been awarded to Professor K. Schaffer, chief of the Budapest Institute for Research on the Brain. This prize is awarded every two years alternately to a Spanish and a foreign histologist.

DR. RAPHAEL ISAACS, instructor in medicine at the Harvard Medical School, has won the Alvarenga prize of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which is given annually for the best essay on a medical subject. Dr. Isaacs' subject was "The nature of the action of Roentgen rays on living tissue."

DR. TRUMAN W. BROPHY, of Chicago, was awarded the Miller prize for dental research at the opening session of the annual meeting of the International Dental Federation in Geneva. He also was made an

honorary member of the Swiss Odontological Society.

DR. CHEVALIER JACKSON, of Philadelphia, has been honored by the French government with membership in the Legion of Honor. Dr. Jackson is now in France lecturing at the University of Paris on bronchoscopic work.

Ar the recent meeting of the International Research Council in Brussels, the reelection of M. E. Picard as president was proposed by Professor Lorentz and was unanimously agreed to. Dr. George E. Hale and M. Lecointe being unable for reasons of health to serve on the executive committee, Dr. Vernon Kellogg and M. P. Pelseneer were elected to fill these vacancies.

AT the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, held in Washington, Dr. Charles C. Bass, dean of the School of Medicine at Tulane University, was elected president.

SIR ST. CLAIR THOMSON, M.D., has been reelected president of the Royal Society of Medicine.

HUGH D. MISER, of the United States Geological Survey, has been appointed state geologist of Tennessee, to succeed Wilbur A. Nelson, who goes to Virginia to become state geologist and head of the department of geology in the University of Virginia.