had deposited her large collection of reprints in the department library now completely destroyed. Those to whom correspondence should be addressed are Alma G. Stokey, botany department; Mignon Talbot, geology depart ment; Samuel P. Hayes, psychology department; Abby H. Turner, physiology department; Ann H. Morgan, zoology department, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts. THE main laboratory of the United States Fisheries Biological Station at Fairport, Iowa, was destroyed by fire in the early morning of December 20, only the office furniture and records being saved. That station is the center of most of the scientific work of the Bureau of Fisheries in the Mississippi Basin, combining the functions of mussel propagation and fishery investigation and experimental work. It is the only station of the bureau equipped and employed for continuous fish-cultural experiment work. Fortunately, the water supply, the large series of ponds, and the smaller buildings are unharmed, and many phases of the work will continue without interruption. Nevertheless, the loss of the laboratory, with its excellent equipment for biological and chemical studies, will serve to retard some investigations of immediate importance to the best utilization of the products of fresh waters. Not the least significant loss was the library which, though not large, had been assembled with much care. It comprised many rare books and a large number of separate pamphlets contributed by authors or gleaned from the second-hand book stores of America and Europe. Many of these can not be replaced. As steps are now being taken looking to the prompt restoration of all facilities for investigation, the cooperation of authors is particularly invited. Those having separates relating to the subjects of fresh-water biology, ecology, limnology, biochemistry and the chemistry of foods will render a valuable service by forwarding papers to the station or the Commissioner of Fisheries, Washington, D. C. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS THE officers elected at the Pittsburgh meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science are given in the account of the meeting published elsewhere in the present issue of SCIENCE. Professor John M. Coulter, of the University of Chicago, the newly elected president of the association, was also elected president of the American Association of University Professors. PROFESSOR WILDER D. BANCROFT, of the department of chemistry of Cornell University, is in Washington, serving as technical adviser in the U. S. Bureau of Mines. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR P. W. BRIDGMAN has received leave of absence from Harvard Uni versity to join Professor G. W. Pierce at the submarine base in New London, where both will experiment on wireless problems. DR. BASHFORD DEAN, of the American Museum of Natural History, has been assigned the rank of major in the United States Army and is at present in Europe. DR. THOMAS DARLINGTON, formerly health commissioner of the city of New York, has been called to Halifax by the relief committee to act in an advisory capacity regarding the sanitation and housing in the reconstruction of the devastated areas. In recognition of his contributions to science, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt has been appointed honorary fellow of the American Museum of Natural History, of which his father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., was one of the founders and most energetic supporters. THE Société de Pathologie Exotique, of Paris, has elected Charles A. Kofoid, professor of zoology, University of California, as corresponding member. AT its fifth annual meeting in New York on January 18 the National Institute on Social Science will present medals for "notable service to mankind" to Herbert C. Hoover, Food Administrator; Henry P. Davison, chairman of the Red Cross War Council, and Dr. William J. Mayo, the surgeon. On the recommendation of Surgeon-General Bradley, General Pershing has appointed a committee to study hospital conditions, surgical treatment and sanitary medicine in Italy. The committee consisted of the following members: Majors Angus McLean, George E. McKean and Harry N. Torrey. Lieutenant Bror H. Larsson accompanies the expedition as secretary, and Captain James W. Inches represents the American Red Cross. Permission for this investigation was obtained through the Italian military authorities, and was granted for fourteen days. DR. JOEL ASAPH ALLEN, after twenty-eight years of active service as editor of the scientific publications of the American Museum of Natural History, has resigned in order to devote his entire time to the collections of the department of mammalogy and ornithology, of which he is curator. The following is an extract from the resolution passed by the publication committee of the museum in appreciation of Dr. Allen's services: As the scientific editor, he has been little less than ideal, since with a natural fitness for the calling there was combined also the highest quality of scholarship in the subjects dealt with by his contributors. He was thus more than editor; rather a leader in the researches represented in the Bulletin and Memoir series. Dr. F. E. Lutz, of the department of invertebrate zoology has been appointed to suceed Dr. Allen. Ar the recent meeting of the American Association of Anatomists, held in the new Institute of Anatomy at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, the following officers were elected: President, Professor R. R. Bensley, of the University of Chicago; Vicepresident, Professor C. R. Bardeen, of the University of Wisconsin; Secretary-Treasurer, Professor C. R. Stockard, of Cornell University; Members of the Executive Committee, Dr. G. L. Streeter, Carnegie Institution, Professor G. S. Huntington, Columbia University, and Professor H. E. Jordan, University of Virginia. THE following officers have been elected by the Association of American Geographers for 1918: President, Nevin M. Fenneman; First Vice-President, Charles R. Dryer; Second Vice-President, Bailey Willis; Secretary, Oliver L. Fassig; Councilor, Walter S. Tower; Treasurer, François E. Matthes. THE British Air Inventions Committee appointed by Lord Cowdray, the late president of the Air Board, consists of the following members: Mr. Horace Darwin, F.R.S., chairman, Major-General Luck, vice-chairman, Sir Dugald Clerk, F.R.S., Sir Richard Glazebrook, F.R.S., Professor H. L. Callendar, F.R.S., Professor C. H. Lees, F.R.S., Professor J. E. Petavel, F.R.S., Mr. L. Bairstow, F.R.S., Lieutenant-Commander Wimperis, Major G. Taylor, Captain B. M. Jones, Captain A. V. Hill, Munitions Inventions Department, Mr. J. P. Millington and Mr. F. W. Lanchester. The main function of the committee is to investigate inventions submitted to it. THE next lecture of the Harvey Society will be given on Saturday evening, January 12, at the New York Academy of Medicine, on "Food Chemistry in the Service of Human Nutrition," by Dr. H. C. Sherman, professor of food chemistry in Columbia University. AT University College, on December 18, Major Sir Filippo de Filippi delivered a public lecture, illustrated by lantern slides, on the sanitary services of the Italian army. Ar the meeting of the Royal Statistical Society on December 18, Sir R. Henry Rew read a paper on the prospects of the world's food supplies after the war. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS By the will of Zenas Crane, late of Dalton, Mass., public bequests of more than $500,000 are made to various institutions, including $200,000 to the Berkshire Museum of Natural History and Art of Pittsfield; and $5,000 each to Washburn College, Topeka, Kans.; Yankton College, Yankton, S. D.; Idaho Industrial Institute, Weiser, Idaho; Lincoln Memorial University, Cumberland Gap, Tenn.; Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio; Berea College, Berea, Ky.; Tuskegee Normal School, Tuskegee, Ala.; Hampton Normal and Industrial School, Hampton, Va. UNDER the will of Evelyn MacCurdy Salisbury, of New Haven, widow of the late Professor Edward E. Salisbury, Yale University is to receive the sum of fifty thousand dollars to found a professorship to be called the Charles J. MacCurdy professorship of anthropology, on condition that the university pay to George Grant MacCurdy the sum of twentyfive hundred dollars annually during his lifetime. The will also provides for a conditional annual gift of fifteen hundred dollars to be expended at the discretion of Professor MacCurdy for the benefit of the anthropological department of the Yale Museum. Another provision is that upon the decease of George Grant MacCurdy the sum of sixty thousand dollars is to be paid to either (1) Yale University to found a research fund to be called the Evelyn MacCurdy Salisbury Research Fund in Anthropology; or (2) the Connecticut College for Women at New London to found a professorship of American history as George Grant MacCurdy shall designate by his last will; a power of apportionment as between these two institutions being conferred upon him. MRS. KING, of Worthing, has given £1,000 five per cent. war stock for the establishment in the University of Cambridge of a scholarship for research work on fevers, in memory of her daughter, Neita King, a member of a voluntary aid detachment who died of cerebrospinal fever in France last May. THE Harvard University registration is 3,684, nearly 2,000 less than last year. The Law School shows the greatest decrease, its figures of 856 last year dropping to 296 this year. Two departments show an increased attendance, the Medical School, with an enrolment of 386, a gain of 28 over last year, and the engineering and mining department, with 591, an increase of 14. WILLIAM M. DAVIS, Sturgis Hooper professor of geology, emeritus at Harvard University, has asked to be relieved of his position as western exchange professor, and his resignation has been accepted. CHARLES FULLER BAKER, assistant director of the Botanic Gardens at Singapore, and professor of agronomy (on leave) at the College of Agriculture of the Philippines, has been recalled to the Philippines to assume the deanship of the College of Agriculture and the professorship of tropical agronomy due to the mid-year retirement of Dean Copeland. DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE GEOLOGIC DATES IN PHYSIOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS THE protest repeatedly urged by Davis1 against the unwarranted introduction of formation names and other irrelevant geologic material into geographic descriptions is, no doubt, heartily seconded by the majority of geographers and physiographers. A good thing may, however, be carried too far. A case in point, as it appears to the writer, is a description by C. A. Cotton of "Block Mountains in New Zealand," which appeared in a recent number of the American Journal of Science.2 Cotton's paper is a most commendable example of a physiographic description worked out along the lines advocated by Davis. The material is most effectively presented, but, in accordance with Davis's suggestions, all mention of geologic age, or dates, either of the block faulting movements or of the formations involved, is deliberately and studiously avoided. This may be desirable from the standpoint of a geographer whose sole interest is in the present landscape, but his geological colleagues are sure to find it disappointing. The science of geomorphology has now reached such a stage that it has an interpretative as well as a descriptive value. Geologists are coming more and more to rely upon physiographic evidence in interpreting recent earth history. Why, then, should a 1 Annals Assn. Amer. Geogr., Vol. V., 1915, p. 90. 2 Cotton, C. A., "Block Mountains in New Zealand," Am. Jour. Sci., 4th Ser., Vol. XLIV., 1917, pp. 249-293. لو physiographic contribution of so great possible interpretative value as "Block Mountains in New Zealand" be rendered almost useless to the student of earth history by the deliberate omission of all reference to geologic dates? Surely the incidental mention of the geologic age of the weak over-mass described by Cotton, and of any other events whose geologic dating may have been known, would not have impaired the geographic value of the paper. By all means let us eliminate unnecessary and irrelevant geologic detail from geographic or physiographic descriptions, but let us not go to the extreme of rendering our geomorphologic studies valueless for their important interpretative functions. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS JOHN L. RICH REMOVING INSECTS FROM GREENHOUSE PLANTS WITHOUT SPRAYING AND WITHOUT INJURY TO THE PLANTS WHEN one is running experiments in the greenhouse and the plants become infested with insects, the disposal of the pests becomes an important question. This question becomes all the more important if the nature of the investigation will not permit the plants to be sprayed. The writers were recently faced with such a problem and solved it by using an apparatus working on the principle of a vacuum cleaner. A flask was fitted with connections similar to those of a wash bottle, the mouthpiece being connected with a suction pump by a piece of tubing sufficiently long to allow the flask to be moved to any point desired. The nozzle was extended to a point parallel with the bottom of the flask and the opening made sufficiently small to just allow the desired insects to pass readily. By putting a small amount of oil in the flask, for an insecticide, closing the connections and turning on the pump, the apparatus was ready for use. Small plants that were thickly covered with aphids and red spiders were quickly cleaned. Ants and other insects were also readily taken up. It is possible that this apparatus may be modi fied to meet many requirements by simply changing the size and shape of the nozzle, and by using various kinds of motors and pumps. PAUL EMERSON, J. B. S. NORTON MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, COLLEGE PARK, MD. SCIENTIFIC BOOKS The Electron, Its Isolation and Measurement and the Determination of Some of Its Properties. By R. A. MILLIKAN. University of Chicago Press. This volume of 260 pages contains an account of the work on the exact determination of the electronic charge and allied subjects done by Professor Millikan and his pupils during the last ten years. It also contains an account of the earlier researches which led up to Millikan's work, and besides a short discussion of recent views on the electron theory of matter and the theory of radiation to which Millikan's exact investigations have added precision in several important ways. The book is intended for the general reader as well as for the physicist and it will be read by both with immense enjoyment and instruction. It is written clearly and concisely and is full of most interesting and important information. The only criticsm the writer of this review has to make is that the concluding chapters are too short; they contain so much that is interesting and suggestive that one can not help wishing the writer had found time to make them as full of detail as some of the earlier chapters. Millikan's beautiful investigations on the electronic charge and on the photo-electric effect are justly celebrated throughout the scientific world; they will undoubtedly become classical examples of the highest type of modern physical research. A description of such researches by their author is immensely valuable and will serve to stimulate scientific investigation as nothing else can. Every student of physics, and especially every graduate student, should obtain this book and study it thoroughly and then endeavor to imitate the author's infinite capacity for taking pains to overcome every difficulty and eliminate every source of error. By such work modern science is placed on a sure foundation, and besides new avenues of research are opened up. It is a mistake to suppose that investigations of high precision do not lead to new discoveries. Lord Rayleigh's exact measurements of the densities of the common gases resulted in the discovery of argon, and many similar examples could be given. It would be truer to say that inexact work often leads to discoveries being missed which ought to have been made and besides rough work generally leads to erroneous conclusions which others have to waste valuable time and energy setting right. Millikan, for example, has had to spend considerable time setting right the erroneous conclusions of Ehrenhaft on the existence of a "sub-electron," conclusions which ought never to have been drawn. Millikan's new book is admirably printed and illustrated and seems very free from typographical errors. It is dedicated to Michelson and Ryerson and forms a record of work worthy of the inspiration of the former and the generosity of the latter. H. A. W. MINERALS OF JAPAN VALUABLE Service has been rendered to mineralogy by Dr. Wada in his editorship of the "Beiträge zur Mineralogie von Japan," the articles in which, in spite of the German title, have been almost all in English. The latest issue1 contains two articles on the minerals of Korea by Nobuyo Fukuchi, describing specimens of sixty different minerals (pp. 207228). Other papers treat of prismatic sulphur from Formosa, by Masakichi Suzuki; the optical properties of danburite from Bungo Province, Japan, by Mikio Kawamura; epidote crystals from Iwaki Province, by Kinzô Nakashima; ferberite from Kai Province and hübnerite from Shimotsuke Providence, by Kotora Jümbô. A paper of special interest is that on the aragonite cones formed at the 1"Beiträge zur Mineralogie von Japan," ed. by T. Wada, No. 5, November, Tokyo, 1915 (pp. 207305 of the series, one plate). Kurujama Geysers, in Yuzawa, Shimotsuke Province, Japan. A cone 30 cm. in height was formed by the hot water of one of the geysers in a period of ten months. In his work on "The Minerals of Japan," Dr. Tsunashirô Wada2 gives in concise and systematic form characterizations of the various mineral forms that had been observed in Japan up to the date of his treatise. His thorough training in European methods added to his familiarity with the geology of his native land make this book a trustworthy source of information. The crystallographic details are quite fully given and constitute one of the most valuable features of the work for the mineralogical student. As to the metals of Japan, Dr. Wada notes that the richest gold deposits are those on the island of Formosa (p. 12), the chief localities being Zucho Kinkwaseki near Taihoku, in the northeastern part of the island. Quartz veins traversing a volcanic rock are sometimes found bearing a large quantity of native gold. Frequently the yellow surface has a coating of limonite formed by the decomposition of pyrites. There are also alluvial gold deposits in Formosa. In Japan proper the rich placers in the Hokkaido are extensively worked; one crystal from the mining district of Esashi measured 6-10 mm. along the edges of its octahedron. The largest nugget was found in 1900 at the Usotannai in Esashi; it weighed 769.2 grams (2 pounds 15 2/3 dwts. Troy), the dimensions being 106 × 63 × 25 mm. (p. 13) and the intrinsic value about $500. The oldest known gold mine in Japan is that of Sado. As in many parts of the world, platinum is found in association with gold in Japan, for example in the Yubari-gawa and Pechan rivers in the Hokkaido, and it occurs with gold and iron sands in Nishi-Mikawa. Copper and silver are also met with in a number of localities, but crystallized silver has never been found in Japan. Of the ornamental or gem stones the ame2 Tsunashiro Wada, "Minerals of Japan," transl. by Takudzi Ogawa, Tokyo, 1904, vii + 144 pp., 30 pls., 8vo. |