University, was elected president. Two new members of the council were elected: Professor Warner Brown, of the University of California, and Dr. F. L. Wells, of the Psychopathic Hospital, Boston.

DR. W. C. FARABEE, curator of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, was elected president of the American Anthropological Association at the Brooklyn meeting.

THE Perkin medal of the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, was presented on January 13, to William M. Burton, chemist of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana. Presentation addresses were made by Sumner R. Church, R. F. Ruttan, Charles H. Herty, Russell Wiles and Charles F. Chandler, to which Mr. Burton replied.

DR. E. P. HYDE, director of the Nela Research Laboratories, was made president of the International Commission on Illumination which met lately in Paris.

DR. A. W. ROGERS has been elected president of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science to preside at the next annual meeting to be held in July at Lourenco Marques.

WE learn from Nature that Professor Horace Lamb, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Sir Arthur Schuster and Professor G. Elliot Smith have been elected honorary members of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.

THE honorary degree of doctor of science has been conferred by the University of Calcutta on Sir W. J. Pope, professor of chemistry, Cambridge University, and on Professor C. V. Raman, professor of physics, University of Calcutta.

AMONG the prizes recently awarded by the Paris Academy of Sciences was one to E. Roubaud for his works on malaria in France and the disappearance of malaria in temperate climates.

THE British Medical Journal reports that the eminent histological anatomist Professor Johan August Hammar, of Upsala, celebrated his sixtieth birthday on August 21, and re

ceived on this occasion from his fellows, friends and pupils a Festskrift containing thirty-eight scientific papers written in Swedish, German, and English, covering over a thousand pages. THE position of naturalist of the Albatross in the Bureau of Fisheries, which for some time has been vacant for lack of an available candidate of suitable qualifications, has been filled by the appointment of Paul S. Galtsoff, who was formerly chief zoologist of the Russian Academy of Sciences and assistant director of the marine biological station at Sebastopol.

EARLE E. RICHARDSON, instructor in analytical chemistry and physics for the past four years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been appointed research physicist at the Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y.

J. E. WALTERS, F. W. Schroeder and Frank Porter, chemists at the helium plant of the Bureau of Mines at Petrolia, Texas, have been transferred to the new cryogenic laboratory of the Bureau in Washington, D. C.

DR. RALPH W. G. WYCKOFF, of the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, is on a year's leave of absence, which he will spend at the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena, California.

THE third Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum, under the leadership of Mr. Roy Chapman Andrews, is beginning its work in China, with the cooperation of Dr. Yen, minister of foreign affairs, and other members of the cabinet in Pekin. Dr. V. K. Ting, director of the National Geological Survey of China, and Dr. J. G. Anderson, mining adviser to the Chinese Government and curator of the Museum of the Geological Survey of China, have also given assistance.

DR. SAMUEL J. MIXTER, of Boston, delivered the Hodgen Lecture, under the auspices of the St. Louis Surgical Society and the Medical Fund Society on January 4.

WILLIAM A. DURGIN has been given leave of absence from the Commonwealth Edison Company, Chicago, to direct the new activities

of the Department of Commerce toward the elimination of waste in industry by simplifying and standardizing commercial practices. The new organization will form a subdivision of the Bureau of Standards.

THE Huxley lecture at the University of Birmingham was delivered on November 25 by Professor C. Lloyd Morgan on "A philosophy of evolution."

CHARLES DARWIN'S birthplace, according to the London Times, has been sold. The purchase includes the Darwin Walk above the Severn River. It is said that its future use is to be for the Office of Works to house a body of clerks.

DR. HUBERT WORK, president of the American Medical Association, has appointed as the Commitee on the Gorgas Memorial, Drs. George E. de Schweinitz, Philadelphia; Charles W. Richardson, Washington, D. C., and Fred B. Lund, Boston. This appointment was made in compliance with the request received by the Board of Trustees from the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine of Panama for the cooperation of the American Medical Association.

DR. HOWARD B. CROSS of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research died at Vera Cruz on December 27 from yellow fever contracted at Tuxtepec. Dr. Cross was a member of the staff of the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation. He was a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and received the doctorate of philosophy from the Johns Hopkins University in 1921.

THE death is announced at the age of 57 years of Max Verworn, professor of physiology at the University of Bonn.

DR. G. P. JORDAN, port health officer of Hong-Kong and professor of tropical medicine in the Hong-Kong University, died in London on December 4 at the age of 64 years.

THE spring meeting of the American Electrochemical Society is to be held in Baltimore from April 27 to 29. There will be three sessions, dealing respectively with electric fur

nace cast iron, the electrochemical industries and electromotive chemistry. Inspection trips will be made through industrial plants near Baltimore.

THE Association of German Men of Science and Physicians will hold its centennial meeting in Leipzig from September 17 to 23.

AT the recent meeting of the American Psychological Association in Princeton, N. J., provision was made for the accrediting as consulting psychologists of qualified persons belonging to the American Psychological Association. The committee asks that members of the Section for Clinical Psychology of this association desiring such action on their behalf await the receipt of a circular letter of instructions as to their procedure. Other members of the association are asked to await a further announcement of the committee which will be forwarded to SCIENCE and to the Psychological Bulletin.

THE annual report shows that the work of the United States Geological Survey for last year included detailed geologic surveys of 4,600 square miles, reconnaissance geologic surveys of 21,500 square miles, exploratory geologic surveys of 18,000 square miles, cooperative geologic work with 17 state organizations, studies of ore deposits in 10 states, oil and gas surveys in 10 states, geologic surveys in Alaska of 1,500 square miles, and the continuation of studies of mineral deposits in Alaska. It included also topographic surveys in the United States of 12,311 square miles and topographic reconnaissance surveys in the Alaska Range of 390 square miles, running of 4,796 miles of levels, establishing 1,123 bench marks and making 576 linear miles of river surveys. The Geological Survey continued measurements of stream flow throughout the United States and in Alaska and Hawaii, cooperating in part with other federal organizations and with 31 states and Hawaii; also continued investigation of waterpower resources of Southeastern Alaska. It also made field examinations in 11 states under the enlarged homestead and stock-raising homestead laws, increased designations of stockraising lands by 31,000,000 acres, and reported

on 7,000 applications for oil and gas prospecting permits, on 249 applications for coal prospecting permits, on 78 applications for coal leases and 7,500 applications under the mineral-leasing laws. It also conducted an engineering investigation and prepared an exhaustive report on a proposed "superpower system"-a comprehensive system for the generation and distribution of electricity for the operation of railroads and manufacturing industries in the region between Boston and Washington. Special publications of the year were "Guides to desert watering places in Arizona and California," and a large relief map of the United States. Other published reports numbered 132, containing more than 10,000 pages, and 60 new topographic maps were engraved and printed. The Survey distributed 631,000 books and 740,000 maps, of which latter 550,000 were sold.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NOTES

A MOVEMENT has been started to raise a fund of $2,000,000 to establish a medical school as a memorial to Major General William C. Gorgas. The present plan is that the fund be contributed by the nation and that the school be situated in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where General Gorgas lived as a boy. Dr. Seale Harris, of Birmingham, Ala., is chairman of the national committee.

FIRE of unknown origin has almost completely destroyed the chemical building of the Colorado State Agricultural College at Fort Collins, Colo. The loss on buildings and equipment is estimated at $70,000.

THE board of curators of the University of Missouri has elected Dr. John Carleton Jones, president of the university to succeed Dr. A. Ross Hill who resigned several months ago to become connected with the American Red Cross. Dr. Jones has been vice president of the university since 1918 and dean of the college of arts and sciences.

JOHN H. MOFFETT has been appointed associate professor of metallurgy in the University of Minnesota.

R. S. Lowe, of the nitrate division, Ordnance Department, U. S. A., has been appointed dean of the department of chemical engineering, University of Cincinnati.

REVEREND DR. CHARLES WESLEY FLINT, president of Cornell College at Mount Vernon, Iowa, has been elected chancellor of Syracuse University in succession to Dr. James Roscoe Day.

DR. WALTER F. TITTMAN, formerly of the Bureau of Mines and later engaged in consulting practice at Pittsburgh, Pa., has been appointed head of the department of commercial engineering, Carnegie Institution of Technology.

DR. HAROLD DIEHL has been appointed head of the health service of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, to succeed Dr. John Sundwall.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPOND

ENCE

COMMITTEE FOR THE PROTECTION OF

ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION

SOME weeks ago it suddenly became apparent that the activities of the various antivivisection societies had finally reached a strength where they were able to menace effectively the health of the community. On a referendum vote in California they threatened all animal experimentation last year, and it was only with some difficulty that the measure was defeated. The Interstate Convention of Antivivisection Societies was held in Boston last month and at that time a committee was organized to undertake a campaign of sane, humane education to combat the propaganda of those who seek to prevent the making of vaccines and antitoxins, the testing of all such drugs as ergot and a general interference with medical methods of proved efficacy for the diagnosis, the prevention and cure of disease.

A committee of the Boston Society of Natural History was first appointed of which T. Barbour was chairman, to arrange for Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes to deliver two lectures, one upon a "Nature Study" subject, the other

entitled "The Truth about Vivisection." Mr. Baynes delivered the last lecture December 17 to a large and enthusiastic audience in Huntington Hall, Boston. It was an amplification of the article which he prepared for the Woman's Home Companion, July, 1921, and which at once aroused a howl of consternation from all of the antivivisection groups in the country. So much interest was aroused in the general question that the lecture committee of the Boston Society of Natural History reorganized itself into the Committee for the Protection of Animal Experimentation. An appeal for funds, signed by President Charles W. Eliot, Professor Richard P. Strong, M. D., Ernest Harold Baynes, Dr. John C. Phillips, Dr. Edward Wigglesworth, Dr. Townsend W. Thorndike and Dr. Thomas Barbour, brought a most encouraging response. The committee has published several statements, designed to instruct the community as to just what the results may be if the antivivisectionists succeed.

Cardinal O'Connell was one of the first to endorse the movement in a most inspiring letter which was followed by letters of endorsement from persons in all stations of life and representing many different interests, particularly Life Insurance Companies, Agricultural Interests and Charitable Organizations of many sorts.

The newspapers gave the work of the committee generous publicity and its efforts as a whole have become so successful that there is now a widely expressed desire that the work of the committee be carried forward by some permanent organization. The committee has studied carefully the organization and work of the Research Defense Society in England and it is probable that some organization of this sort will be founded.

To be really effective the Society should be national in its scope and have an able, active field secretary and should aim to protect the public from the mischievous activities, not only of the antivivisectionists, but the antivaccinationists, the medical freedomists, so-called, and all others who aim to lower the standards of medical education or jeopardize the public health in other ways.

terested and our literature is available for free distribution.

EDWARD WIGGLESWORTH, PH. D.

J. C. PHILLIPS, M. D.

T. BARBOUR, PH. D.

FOR THE COMMITTEE

POISONOUS SPIDERS

One of the best reviews of our knowledge of the poisonous properties of spiders is contained in Dr. Henry C. McCook's beautifully illustrated volumes, "American spiders and their spinning work." In Volume 1, page 274, he concludes that most of the cases of serious poison in the United States are caused by the bite of the widely distributed Lineweaver, Lactrodectus mactans, and the Saltigrade, Phidippus morsitans. He cites an instance of serious sickness resulting from the bite on a man's back of Lactrodectus. He also thinks it very probable that the large Mygales, commonly called tarantulas, on account of their large fangs and exceptionally large supply of poison, can inflict very serious bites.

He cites instances of spiders killing fish and birds, in one instance the victims being two sunfish about two inches long, which were promptly killed by the poison of a spider I saw at work. From my description Dr. McCook thought this was a Dolomedes.

In his third volume Dr. McCook quotes Professor Bentkau of Bonn, who suffered very serious pain and general swelling from being twice bitten by a Chiraianthium nutrix on the fingers.

Dr. McCook thinks it most likely that even the bites of the first two mentioned species are in most instances of small consequence and that the bites of the great majority of spiders are of little more consequence than those of mosquitoes and not nearly as serious as the stings of bees, hornets, etc.

In instances that have come under my direct observation of spiders biting human beings the results have been comparable with mosquito bites. F. R. WELSH

A LONG-LIVED WOODBORER IN SCIENCE, Friday, August 5, 1921, H. E. Jaques, Iowa Wesleyan College, Mt. Pleasant,

borer." It was intimated that eburia quadrigeminata (Say) spent forty years growing from egg to mature larva, in the top piece of an old birch bookcase. A number of such stories are current, but I am of the opinion that the simple solution of the whole matter is as follows: Eburia quadrigeminata breeds in the heartwood of dead, dry, seasoned logs and wood,-Hicoria, Quercus, Robinia, Betula, Fagus, Fraxinus, Castanea, Ulmus and perhaps others. The eggs are placed in the cracks and crevices of dry, weathered or seasoned scars, "cat faces," and similar placed. An impregnated female in some manner got into the house, and in crawling over the piece of furniture took advantage of a crack in the varnish or wood, and inserted an egg.

I can not believe that any Cerambycid larva could exist for forty years in a piece of furniture. In fact, the normal duration of the larval stage of insects of this family is from one to five years.

I think the same explanation will cover the other case mentioned in this article. The adults of this species often hide beneath bark, and might have crawled between the bricks and doorsill.

PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, HARRISBURG, PA.

A. B. CHAMPLAIN

PERCIVAL LOWELL

THE absorbing interest that Dr. Percival Lowell was able to throw about the astronomical investigations of his later years has obscured to an extent the fact that he was a man of many parts. There are comparatively few who are familiar with his keen observations of the nearer Orient, crystallized into published essays, and fewer still have known of his interest in botany, geology and general natural history, in one or more departments of which he has made contributions to science.

A comprehensive view of him is presented in Miss Louise Leonard's recent volume, "Percival Lowell-An Afterglow" (Boston: The Gorham Press), a book which through the medium of selections from his own writings shows him in his variety of studies. No seri

ous undertaking has yet been made towards a biography of Lowell-the time since he passed on is perhaps yet too short, but in this volume one has a valuable reminder of him. Extracts from his letters are deftly framed in a Foreword, a prelude and an afterpiece, the last a poem that he loved. There is no appraisal of Dr. Lowell's scientific achievements, but everywhere is reflected his spirit of investigation, cheerfulness and wish to help his fellow man. J. R.

THE PASTEUR CENTENARY

THE year 1922 marks the lapse of a century from the year of Louis Pasteur's birth and a "Centenary" volume of Pasteur's collected scientific writings would be a fitting homage to the memory of such a man.

In view of the conditions in Europe, is it not possible for investigators here to sponsor such an undertaking, in the English language, and contribute to it by means of translations of the original French articles and memoirs? AUGUSTO Bonazzi

OHIO AGRICULTURAL

EXPERIMENT STATION,
WOOSTER, OHIO

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

Insect Transformation. By GEORGE H. CARPENTER, D. Sc., Professor of Zoology, Royal College of Science, Dublin, London. Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1921, pp. 282, figs. 124.

PROFESSOR CARPENTER for many years has been doing admirable work in Ireland. Well trained in biology, and a broad zoologist, he has interested himself in many aspects of scientific work. His publications on crop and animal pests have been of great service to the Irish farmers and stock growers; he has been much interested in the admirable zoological garden in Dublin, where they breed lions in confinement more successfully than in any other place in the world, and has been active in the Royal Irish Academy, of which he is secretary.

His book on "Insect Transformation," just published, is a mature book, written by a broad man, and differs in many interesting and important ways from any book yet published.