The great strides made by the Russian academy since the revolution and the improvement of general economic conditions is indicated in its report for 1924. During that year the academy held 64 meetings at which 112 papers were read discussing 85 important questions. Four hundred additional papers were read at meetings of different sections of the academy. In addition, the academy published 55 scientific books, copies of which were sent abroad; and 78 expeditions were sent to the Urals, Siberia, Mongolia, Central Asia, North and South Russia, etc. The physiological laboratory carried on research on the occipital lobes of the higher animals. Other departments prepared a catalogue on the life, culture, social structure and religions of India; and studied the biochemical properties of human blood. Important work was also done by the Asiatic museum which prepared for publication 340 volumes of Dao-Jsan and other Chinese works. The academy has also stimulated an interest in applied science. Researches and experiments have been carried on in the separation of metals by nitrogen under high temperature and pressure; Crimean lakesal has been analyzed; and a new system of making seismographs has been invented. The academy works in close cooperation with economic organizations and with the government. It has prepared maps and other material for the government and is working with the State Planning Commission on a study of Russian natural resources. Other government commissions with which the academy cooperates are conducting studies in race problems, tropical countries, the Polar regions, literature, dictionaries and bibliographies. Important are Professor Steklov's studies in the basic problems of mathematical physics; Professor Numerov's astronomical studies; Professor Joffe's studies on the atomic structure of matter, and Professor Pavlov's studies in biology and pathology. The academy has already reestablished many of its contacts with scientists of other countries. Charles D. Walcott, of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D. C.; Fridjof Nansen, of Norway; A. J. Thompson, of England, and scientists of various other countries are honorary members of the academy. Among the academy's corresponding members are Dr. Alexis Carrel, of New York, and Professor. A. A. Michelson, of the University of Chicago; Louis Bauer, of Washington, D. C.; Madame Curie and Albert Einstein. THE DORMITORIES OF THE HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL MR. HAROLD S. VANDERBILT, of New York City, has given to the Harvard University Medical School for the new dormitories the sum of $575,000, in addition to the $125,000 that he gave last April for the installation of a gymnasium within the dormitories. Since the latest architects' estimate of the total cost of the land and buildings is $1,327,865, and since the building fund now has $445,000 and expects a contribution of $300,000 from the Harvard corporation, Mr. Vanderbilt's gift will permit immediate construction The new dormitory will provide housing for 250 men, who are now occupying often unsuitable quarters in scattered sections of Boston and Cambridge. A dining hall will be included, which will be convertible into a medical auditorium. Here it is expected that physicians can be seen and heard by students, faculty, profession and public, and the larger medical societies may hold their future annual assemblies. Moreover, it has been found that the regular weekly lectures given under the auspices of the school to the public at large have outgrown the present amphitheaters in the medical school, which accommodate only about 300. The large auditorium in the new dormitory will be available for the lectures hereafter. Plans for the new building have been drawn by Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch & Abbott. Although these may be the final plans, the critical study and analysis of them has yet to be completed by the fund committee, by Dr. David L. Edsall, dean of the Harvard Medical School, and by other authorities. HONORARY DEGREES CONFERRED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE As has already been reported in SCIENCE, the University of Cambridge, in connection with the meeting at Cambridge of the International Astronomical Union, conferred the honorary degree of doctor of science upon five leading members of the union. The ceremony took place in the Senate House on July 21, the vice-chancellor, Dr. A. C. Seward, master of Downing, presiding. In presenting a general greeting to the astronomers, the public orator, Mr. T. R. Glover, as reported in the London Times, reminded them that they had come to the university of Newton, and further, he referred to the discussion between Adam and the Archangel in "Paradise Lost," turning upon the very problems to which the astronomers were giving their lives. He quoted in the version of "Gulielmus Hogaeus" (William Hog) the lines of the Archangel: "With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er." The Archangel, he said, was very properly on the side of eternity and willing to weigh the simpler theories of Copernicus. Satan, lover of the fugitive and the temporary, was a firm adherent of the old and false. The orator believed that the astronomers were "on the side of the angels." In presenting President Campbell, of the University of California, the orator, speaking in Latin, said that there was on a mountain top a building—he himself had seen it from afar-where for five and twenty years, amid the solitudes, sat a philosopher for whom "the moon, day, night and all night's stars austere," brought many a dark and difficult question, for which, however, as far as a man amid the things of God could be, he was equal. But he was recalled from the mountains to preside over a great university with 9,000 students of both sexes. There was no bay, the public orator thought, in the world that outshone the Bay of San Francisco, within its Golden Gate. So did it delight one with the alternate charms of sun and sea mist, with the beauty of tree and hill, that he might well believe that Homer himself, when he described the Isles of the Blest in the West, free of the snow and tempest, glad in zephyr and the ether, happy in that gathering of white souls, was really describing this place which the orator found as delightful as he did. He was delighted, as a conscript in the company of the Golden Bear, to present to them his friend, President William Wallace Campbell. In presenting Professor W. de Sitter, the orator said he was in charge of the observatory at Leyden. He counted Jove and the four Galilean satellites as Jove among his intimates, as might be expected of one who had so long wooed Jove's daughter Truth in South Africa. They would remember the words of the Athenian: "Vortex reigns," but Newton taught men not to believe too much in Aristophanes or Descartes. Contemplating the incredible mechanism of nature, Newton repudiated Vortex and its arbitrary rule. He found order in the heavens, and this their guest further elaborated. But lately it had been whispered among shrewder people that Newton had been abandoned for relativity, and on that subject the orator did not know what to say to their guest. Introducing Dr. B. Baillaud, the Public Orator said that when first the astronomers met in this conference M. Baillaud was their chairman. Since then he had made the Eiffel Tower a center of a network of wireless for the more accurate keeping of time. He was among those at the head of French astronomical research. Amid the flames of war, while from afar Long Bertha hurled every day her globes of fire at Paris, their friend never abandoned his station, but while earth blazed, like Archimedes, he was at leisure for the society of the stars, and, as if in peace, had his mind on the things of heaven-a true philosopher. In introducing Professor Nagaoka, the Public Ora tor said light was once more sought from the East, and a Japanese astronomer came well skilled to track the footsteps of the fugitive atom. A shrewd and able investigator, he had quite recently invited the men of science to decide whether in point of fact he really had made gold out of humbler atoms by transmutation. In introducing Dr. Schlesinger, he said their guest, a true "son of Eli," was eminent among those who had tried to measure the distance between the stars. Whether, with Bacon, they called it "perspicillum," or, with Milton, "a glazed optic tube," he was taking one from New England to South Africa that, after the study of another sky and other stars, he might still further blend light and truth. Student Branches.-C. E. Magnusson, Seattle. Public Policy.-Gano Dunn, New York. Code of Principles of Professional Conduct.-John W. Lieb, New York. Safety Codes.-Paul Spencer, Philadelphia. Edison Medal.-Gano Dunn, New York. Institute Prizes.-L. W. W. Morrow, New York. Columbia University Scholarships.-W. I. Slichter, New York. Licensing of Engineers.-Francis Blossom, New York. TECHNICAL COMMITTEES Electrical Machinery.-H. M. Hobart, Schenectady, N. Y. Power Generation.-V. E. Alden, Baltimore. Power Transmission and Distribution.-Percy H. Thomas, New York. General Power Applications.—A. M. MacCutcheon, Cleveland. Applications to Marine Work.-L. C. Brooks, Quincy, Mass. Applications to Mining Work.-F. L. Stone, Schenectady, N. Y. Applications to Iron and Steel Production.-F. B. Crosby, Worcester, Mass. Electrochemistry and Electrometallurgy.-G. W. Vinal, Washington, D. C. Production and Application of Light.-P. S. Millar, New York. Communication.-H. P. Charlesworth, New York. Instruments and Measurements.-A. E. Knowlton, New Haven. Protective Devices.-E. C. Stone, Pittsburgh. The board of directors confirmed the appointment by President Pupin of new members of the Edison medal committee for terms of five years each as follows: George Gibbs, New York; Samuel Insull, Chicago; R. D. Mershon, New York. The board also elected three of its membership as members of the Edison medal committee for terms of two years each, namely: W. P. Dobson, Toronto; Farley Osgood, Newark, and A. G. Pierce, Cleveland. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS On the occasion of the graduation ceremonial of the University of Edinburgh, on July 25, the honorary doctorate of laws was conferred on Professor A. S. Eddington, Plumian professor of astronomy and natural philosophy in the University of Cambridge. FOREIGN members of the Linnean Society of London have been elected as follows: Dr. Nathaniel Lord Britton, director-in-chief of the New York Botanical Garden; Professor Carl Schroeter, of Zürich, and Dr. Alexander Zahlbruckner, director of the department of botany of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. DR. HENRY F. OSBORN has been appointed chairman of the Mary Clark Thompson Fund of the National Academy of Sciences in succession to Dr. Charles D. Walcott. Professor W. B. Scott has been appointed a member of the committee. DR. LEOPOLD VACCARO, an instructor in the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, who is in Rome in the interests of the Philadelphia SesquiCentennial Exposition, has received the honorary degree of doctor of medicine from the University of Rome. DR. SERGE VORONOFF, director of the laboratory of experimental surgery in the Collège de France, has been named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. AFTER forty-seven years' uninterrupted work Professor Charles Richet, the physiologist, of Paris, recently delivered his last lecture in the presence of the dean of the faculty of medicine and a large audience of professors and students. DR. DAVID J. DAVIS, professor of pathology and bacteriology in the Medical School of the University of Illinois, has been appointed to the newly established position of director of research in the Research and Educational Hospital. EDWIN R. MARTIN, assistant professor of electric power engineering at the University of Minnesota, has resigned in order to take a position in the industrial power division of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company at East Pittsburgh. D. J. PRICE, engineer in charge of development work in the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, has resigned to take up commercial work in Pittsburgh. In accepting Mr. Price's resignation, Dr. C. A. Browne, chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, wrote: "The investigational work upon dust explosions, which you have initiated and directed since becoming associated with the Bureau of Chemistry in 1914, has resulted in the prevention of enormous economic losses in various agricultural industries." Nature reports that Sir Ernest and Lady Rutherford left Great Britain for Australia and New Zealand on July 25 on the S. S. Ascanius, bound for Adelaide. While their main object is to visit their parents and relatives in New Zealand, Sir Ernest has also promised to deliver lectures on aspects of modern physics in some of the chief cities of Australia and New Zealand. They hope to return to England in January, 1926. DR. CHARLES B. DAVENPORT attended the seventh meeting of the International Commission of Eugenics which was held in London on July 14 and 15. DR. JOHN A. MILLER, who will lead the expedition of the Sproul Observatory of Swarthmore College, to observe the total solar eclipse of January, 1927, is now in the Orient to make preliminary arrangements. PROFESSOR H. E. ROSE, of the dairy department of the State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, has accepted the invitation of the government of Argentina to investigate and report on conditions in the dairy industry of the country. Dr. Rose and his family sailed for South America on August 15. DR. WILHELM MARINELLI, assistant of the II Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna, Austria, has been working in the division of mammals of the U. S. National Museum, studying the skulls of carnivores. Dr. Marinelli expects to be in the United States from six to twelve months and will visit the principal museums of the country in that time. DR. BRUNON A. NOWALKOWSKI, professor in the State School of Hygiene, Warsaw, Poland, and a fellow of the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, who spent last year at the Johns Hopkins University, will study the coming year at Harvard University. A LETTER from Dr. Hrdlička dated July 14 at Adelaide, Australia, reports that he has taken measurements of many aborigines and of over 1,000 skulls. He reports the heartiest cooperation on the part of scientific men in the museums, the Australian government officials, and from the U. S. Consular officers. ON July 27 Mr. Samuel G. Gordon, assistant curator of minerals of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, returned from a six months' trip to Bolivia and Chile. Thirty-eight cases of mineral specimens were secured. This is the third of the academy's mineralogical expeditions, the first having been to the Andes in 1921, and the second to southern Greenland in 1923. DR. PAUL BARTSCH, of the Smithsonian Institution, has left for Tortugas, Florida, where he will spend a month in the study of heredity among the Cerions. DR. H. M. JOHNSON, formerly assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University, has accepted an industrial fellowship at the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research of the University of Pittsburgh, where he will conduct an investigation of the psychological and physiological aspects of sleep. Owen W. Ellis, formerly assistant professor of metallurgy at the University of Toronto, Harold K. Work and Isaac H. Odell, Jr., of Columbia University, are among other recent appointees as industrial fellows. Ir is announced in Nature that at the annual general meeting of the Royal Society of New South Wales, held on May 6, the following officers were elected: President, Professor R. D. Watt; Vice-presidents, Mr. J. Nangle, Mr. E. C. Andrews, Mr. C. A. Sussmilch and Dr. C. Anderson; Treasurer, Professor H. G. Chapman; Secretaries, Mr. R. H. Cambage and Dr. R. Greig-Smith. THE British Institution of Electrical Engineers has elected the following officers: President, Mr. R. A. Chattock; Vice-presidents, Lieut.-Col. K. Edgcumbe, Professor W. M. Thornton; Treasurer, Mr. P. D. Tuckett. THE Journal of the American Medical Association writes: "Mme. Curie, the discoverer of radium, has recently visited Czechoslovakia as the guest of the Czechoslovak government on her return to Paris from her native country, Poland. For the first time she saw the places from which the ore was brought, from which she succeeded finally in isolating radium. She visited, in Prague, the State Institute for the Study of Radium and the clinic of Professor R. Jedlička for the study of medical radiology. Accompanied by former pupils from her Paris laboratory, Mme. Curie visited also the watering place Jachymov, where she descended into the mine from which the ore was taken to be shipped to her Paris laboratory. Her chief interest was centered on the presence in the Jachymov ores of ionium, which she is studying at present and from which she expects further advances in the treatment of malignant growths because she anticipates that with ionium it will be possible to develop a more prolonged and moderate treatment than has been possible with radium. DR. WILLIAM W. GRAVES, professor and director of the department of mental and nervous diseases of the St. Louis University School of Medicine, has been invited to deliver a lecture under the auspices of the William Ramsay Henderson Trust in the University of Edinburgh on October 16. The subject will be "The relations of shoulder-blade types to problems of mental and physical adaptability." DR. SELIG HECHT, at present in Europe as fellow of the International Education Board, delivered recently two lectures on the "Photochemistry of vision" at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute in Dahlem and at the Physiological Society in Berlin. THE widow of the late George M. Sternberg, at one time Surgeon General of the United States Army, has donated to the University of Michigan Medical School a sum of money, the interest of which is to be used for a medal to be awarded to the student who during his course has made the best record in preventive medicine. DR. FRANCIS ROBERT JAPP, F.R.S., emeritus professor of chemistry in the University of Aberdeen, died on August 1. DR. RUDOLF MARTIN, professor of physical anthropology in the University of Munich, died on July 11 at the age of sixty-one years, A SPECIAL cable to the New York Times reports the murder of Professor Felix Rosen, professor of botany and director of the institute of plant physiology in the University of Breslau. Dr. Rosen was sixty-two years old. THE Swedish meteorologist, Ernest Calwagen, was instantly killed on August 11 when a plane in which he was making observations for the Norwegian Meteorological Institute fell from a high altitude. A JOINT meeting of ten sections of the American Chemical Society will be held in New York City during the week of September 28 to October 3. The sections cooperating in this meeting are New York, Western New York, Eastern New York, Rochester, Ithaca, New Haven, South Jersey, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania State College and Philadelphia Sections. Arrangements have been made for reduced rates over the railroads for members of the society from points in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New England to this meeting. All members of the society are invited to be present. The meetings will be held at the Chemists Building, 52 East 41st Street, New York, on each morning during the week to avoid conflict with the Tenth National Exposition of Chemical Industries. Among the plans for this meeting announced by D. H. Killeffer, secretary of the New York Section, are a symposium on the conservation of motor fuel, and an address by Dr. Alexander Findlay. THE autumn meeting of the British Institute of Metals is to be held at Glasgow from September 1 to 4, under the presidency of Professor T. Turner, Feeney professor of metallurgy in the University of Birmingham. The proceedings commence with the fourth autumn lecture, by Sir John Dewrance, who will take as his subject "Education, research and standardization." Sixteen papers on various aspects of the constitution and properties of metals and alloys are to be submitted for discussion at the meeting. THE first international congress on malaria will be held at Rome from October 4 to 6, under the presidency of Professor Marchiafava. The subjects to be discussed are: anopheles and malaria, the biology of the malarial parasites, the alkaloids of quinine and the treatment of malaria, and the epidemiology and statistics of malaria. Further information can be obtained from the general secretary, Professor Bastianelli, Via XXIV Maggio 14, Rome. AT the first International Congress of Radiology held from June 30 to July 4, at London, England, under the presidency of Dr. Charles Thurstan Holland, an international committee was constituted comprising Professor Görsta Forssell, Stockholm, Sweden; Dr. Charles Thurstan Holland, Liverpool, and Dr. Stanley Melville, 9 Chandos Street, London, W.. 1, secretary. The next international congress will be in Stockholm in 1928. AN Esperanto summer school is being held at Geneva, and on August 12 the Eighteenth Congress of Esperanto, in which 25 organizations, four governments-Austria, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands--and the League of Nations took part, was opened. THE budget of the University of Paris has appropriated 600,000 francs for the work and upkeep of the new Institute of Radium and the laboratory of physical chemistry. AN appeal for funds to rebuild the laboratory for colonial botany of the University of Paris, which was destroyed by fire last June, has been issued by the French Association for the Advancement of Science, 28 rue Serpente, Paris, 6e. Subscriptions should be sent to M. Rivet, secretary of the Council. ELI LILLY & COMPANY, manufacturers of pharmaceutical preparations, has arranged with Indiana University to donate $1,200 a year for five years to be used in research work. The fund will go to the department of surgery the first year. Dr. Willis D. Gatch will have charge of the work. DURING the recent meeting of the American Ceramic Society in Canada, Alexander Silverman, of the University of Pittsburgh, announced that through the generosity of Isaac W. Frank $50,000 had been given for the establishment of the first laboratory of glass technology in an American institution of higher learning, according to Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. This is in memory of William Frank, father of the donor, and one of Pittsburgh's pioneers in the glass field. It is expected that an additional amount will later be added to the original gift. The laboratory is to be a part of the chemical department to be located in the new Cathedral of Learning, the fiftytwo story building which the university plans to begin building this autumn. THE fellowship in medicine established at the University of Michigan by Frederick Stearns and Company, Detroit, in honor of the late Frederick Kimball Stearns, will be devoted during the coming year to researches on insulin and insulin therapy. THE British Empire Cotton Growing Corporation has decided to establish a central cotton research station in Trinidad. It is intended to investigate there the cotton plant in all phases of its growth and under rigorously controlled conditions, in order to ascertain and estimate the importance of several factors which contribute to the final result. The intention is to breed out pure lines for special characteristics. These will be tested locally in different parts of the world to ascertain if they are satisfactory in any particular country so that that country can raise its own seed. It is also hoped that the central station |