WASHINGTON OFFICES OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL In view of the present crisis, and at the request of the Council of National Defense, the Research Council has entered into close relations with the Defense Council, acting as a department of the latter. It is, in this capacity, charged with the organization of scientific research so as most effectively to contribute to national defense directly, and to the support and development of those industries affected by the war. The original organization of the Research Council, designed primarily for peace conditions, took the form of a number of subject committees, but this has been augmented by the addition of several special problem committees, the number of which will be increased as the necessity arises. In order to carry out this scheme of cooperation the Research Council and several of its subcommittees have secured offices in the Munsey Building, Washington, D. C., where also are the headquarters of the Defense Council. The Research Council as a whole is represented by its chairman, Dr. George E. Hale, and by Dr. R. A. Millikan, the vice-chairman, charged with the correlation of research problems in general. The work has already grown to such dimensions that Dr. C. E. Mendenhall has been granted leave from the University of Wisconsin and has come to Washington to be associated with it. The subcommittees are represented in Washington as follows: Military: Dr. C. D. Walcott, chairman, Dr. S. W. Medicine and Hygiene: Dr. Victor C. Vaughan. As rapidly as possible these representatives are getting into touch with defense research problems through the military branches of the government, in which matter the military committee through its secretary plays an important part, and at the same time bringing these problems to the attention of the research men and organizations. The representatives in Washington will, among other things, act as a central clearing house for the reception of problems from the government, and their proper distribution; will sift, distribute and follow up suggestions of a scientific or engineering nature received from any source, individuals or groups; and will keep those who are working on specific problems informed as to the progress being made by others working along the same lines. It is the desire of the Research Council to do anything possible to stimulate scientific activity and aid in any possible way its direction and concentration upon the most vital and immediate problems. As one further means to this end, it will shortly have available for limited distribution to investigators especially concerned, brief statements of the various problems, and some account of the conditions under which these problems develop. The attention of research men should, however, be given not only to the solution of suggested problems and the development of suggested methods, but, obviously, also to the unearthing of new problems, which may be their most valuable service. The National Research Council may be addressed at the Munsey Building, Washington, D. C. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS DR. ARNOLD HAGUE, of the U. S. Geological Survey, distinguished for his work on the geology of the Yellowstone National Park and the Rocky Mountains, died at Washington on May 13 in his seventy-seventh year. IN the last issue of SCIENCE it should have been stated that Professor A. A. Michelson, of the University of Chicago, had been elected vice-president of the National Academy of Sciences to fill the vacancy caused by Dr. Walcott's election to the presidency. DR. D. T. MACDOUGAL, director of the Desert Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Tucson, Arizona, has been elected president for the ensuing year of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. DR. COLIN G. FINK, in charge of the research laboratory at the Edison Lamp Works, Harrison, was elected president of the American Electrochemical Society at its recent Detroit meeting. Ar its meeting of May 9, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on the recommendation of the Rumford Committee voted that the Rumford Premium be awarded to Professor Percy W. Bridgman, of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory, for his "Thermodynamical Researches at Extremely High Pressures." THE Academy of Sciences at Berlin has presented the Helmholtz medal to Professor R. von Hertwig, of the University of Munich, for his embryological researches. THE Medical Society of London has awarded the Fothergillian Medal for 1917 to Sir Leonard Rogers, of the Medical College, Calcutta, in consideration of his work on dysenteries, their differentiation and treatment. DR. ABRAHAM JACOBI was given a dinner on May 6 on the occasion of his eighty-seventh birthday by a group of New York physicians, most of whom had been his assistants. A DINNER was given on May 5 in the Haverford College dining-hall in honor of Dr. Henry S. Pratt, professor of biology, who has been for over six months one of the district superintendents of food distribution in northern France. DR. MARSTON T. BOGERT, professor of organic chemistry at Columbia University, has been given leave of absence to undertake special chemical research at the request of the National Research Council. PROFESSOR WILLIAM D. ENNIS, since 1907 head of the department of mechanical engineering in the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, has been appointed major in the ordnance section, Officers' Reserve Corps. IN ACCORDANCE with the request of the National Research Council, the faculty of Wesleyan University have appointed the following local committee, consisting of one representative of each of the scientific departments of the institution with the president, William Arnold Shanklin, ex-officio: Professors Walter G. Cady, physics, chairman; William North Rice, geology; Raymond Dodge, psychology; Frederick Slocum, astronomy; Leroy A. Howland, mathematics; Moses L. Crossley, chemistry. AMONG the committees working under the general direction of the Pacific Coast Research Committee of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of which Dr. John C. Merriam, of the University of California, is chairman, is a committee on zoological investigations on animal food supply, composed of the following: Dr. Barton Warren Evermann, director of the Museum of the California Academy of Sciences, chairman; Dr. Charles A. Kofoid, of the University of California; Dr. Wm. E. Ritter and Mr. W. C. Crandall, of the Scripps Institution for Biological Research; Professors F. M. McFarland, Jno. O. Snyder and E. C. Starks, of Stanford University, and Mr. N. B. Scofield and Dr. Harold C. Bryant, of the California Fish and Game Commission. This committee is now active in making a survey of the native animal food supply (fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, mammals, etc.) of the state, for the purpose of determining the available supply and of devising ways and means for its increase. DR. SAMUEL E. CHIU, a recent graduate of the Western Reserve Medical School, is now director of the department of dermatology, ophthalmology and Wassermann Laboratory of the Eden Dispensary, Shanghai, China, and reports he is organizing a modern hospital in Shanghai with nursing and medical schools. MR. F. M. ANDERSON, for many years curator of invertebrate paleontology in the California Academy of Sciences, has resigned that position in order to devote his time to special work for the Southern Pacific Company, and Dr. Roy E. Dickerson, who has been assistant curator since 1914, has been appointed curator. MR. W. P. FRASER, plant pathologist, of Macdonald College, has been appointed to investigate the problem of grain rust on the prairie provinces of Western Canada. DR. O. L. FASSIG, in charge of the U. S. weather bureau station at Baltimore, has gone to San Juan on a special mission to extend and reorganize the weather bureau service in the West Indies. In the Virgin Islands a station is to be established, two stations are to be started in Haiti and one at Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo. The station in San Juan will probably be designated as the station in charge of the West Indies Service. Ar the annual meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History on May 2, the following officers were elected: President, Edward S. Morse; Vice-presidents, Nathaniel T. Kidder, William F. Whitney, Charles F. Batchelder; Secretary, Glover M. Allen; Treasurer, William A. Jeffries; Councillor for one year, George H. Parker; Councillors for three years, Thomas Barbour, Henry B. Bigelow, John W. Farlow, S. Prescott Fay, Robert T. Jackson, John E. Thayer, Charles W. Townsend, William P. Wharton. In addition to the annual reports of the officers, the award of the Walker Prizes in Natural History was made. The first prize of $100 was given to Alfred C. Redfield, of Cambridge, for his essay on "The Physiology of the Melanophores of the Horned Toad"; the second prize of $50 was awarded Adelbert L. Leathers, of Olivet College, for his essay on "An Ecological Study of the Chironomida and Orphnephilidæ, with special reference to their Feeding Habits." Ar the meeting of the New York section of the American Chemical Society held in Rumford Hall on May 11, the program consisted of a symposium on Chemical Education and Its Relation to the Profession." The speakers were Raymond F. Bacon, director, Mellon Institute, "The Professional Status of the Chemist," and Herbert R. Moody, professor, College of the City of New York, "The Call for the Chemist." AT the meeting of the Geographic Society of Chicago on May 11, Dr. Henry C. Cowles lectured on "The Trees of California, a Riddle of Forest Geography." THE foundation stone of the Carmichael Hospital for Tropical Diseases was laid a year ago. We learn from The British Medical Jour nal that during the last year the hospital has been nearly completed, the donations, amounting to £5,000, for the construction of the top story having been provided by the Calcutta firms belonging to the Bengal Chamber of Commerce. The total subscriptions to the endowment fund have risen from £20,000 to £40,000, which will allow of the completion and partial endowment of the hospital, and, in addition, annual subscriptions of over £5,000 for research, contributed by the great industries of Bengal and Assam, will be available when the school can be opened-possibly in October, 1918. Meanwhile, plans are under consideration for the addition of 80 ft., to the height of three stories, to the north wing of the laboratory. This will accommodate an out-patient department and dispensary on the ground floor, and hygiene laboratories for practical and theoretical teaching for the university diplomas in public health. A full course for this diploma has not yet been provided in India, although instruction in the prevention of tropical diseases, which are the most important from the public point of view in India, can obviously best be imparted in such laboratories as that provided in the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine. On the third floor there will be space for further research laboratories, which will soon be required on account of the success of the endowment fund in providing several research workers in addition to the goverment staff of the school. Omitting the cost of the biological laboratory of the Medical College, which has been included in the new building for administrative convenience, the Calcutta school possesses in its laboratory, hospital and endowments, property of the value of £90,000 of which £40,000 has been provided by the government of India on the advice of Sir Pardey Lukis, Director-General of the Indian Medical Service, and an equal sum raised by the endowment fund, of which Sir Leonard Rogers is the honorary secretary. The remaining £10,000 has been found by the Bengal government, whose finances have been severely handicapped by the war. It is hoped that the Bengal government will be able to contribute some substantial help towards the hygiene ex tension before very long, to enable it to be opened with the rest of the building after the war. This will complete the laboratories as at present proposed, although the foundations have been designed to allow a fourth story to be added at a later date, a wide view having been taken of the future possibilities of the institution. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL STANLEY COULTER HALL, the new biology building at Purdue University, erected at a cost of over $100,000, will be dedicated on May 17. This building has been named in honor of Dean Coulter in recognition of his thirty years of scientific work in the university. The dedication will be held in connection with the spring meeting of the Indiana Academy of Science at Lafayette. Professor Wm. T. Sedgwick, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. H. C. Cowles, the University of Chicago; Dr. Carl Eigenmann, Indiana University; President W. J. Moenkhaus, of the Academy; and J. S. Wright, Esq., of the alumni, will be the chief speakers. WESTERN UNIVERSITY receives $20,000 by the will of the late William H. Burrows, a trustee of the institution. THE late William H. Burrows, president of the Middletown National Bank, has bequeathed $20,000 to Wesleyan University, of which he was a trustee. By recent action of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago, the president of the university, on recommendation of the head of a department, will welcome doctors of philosophy of the University of Chicago and other universities as guests of the university, with the privilege of attending seminars and of carrying on research in the laboratories and libraries. There will be no charge except for laboratory supplies and a nominal laboratory fee where laboratory work is done. LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE has adopted the quarter system, to begin on October 1, 1917. By the adoption of this system the school has a continuous session, any three quarters constituting a college year. The quarter system has been in effect at the Rush Medical College, Chicago, since 1899. MORRIS M. LEIGHTON, Ph.D. (Chicago, '16), has been elected to the Washington Geological Survey for next year and to an assistant professorship in geology at the University of Washington, Seattle, to take effect on September 1, 1918. Dr. Leighton substituted at the University of Washington during the year 1915-16. PROFESSOR FREDERICK B. LOOMIS, of Amherst College, has been appointed professor of geology to succeed Professor B. K. Emerson, who is retiring from active work. DR. WILLIAM G. MACCALLUM, professor of pathology at Columbia University, has resigned to accept the chair of pathology and bacteriology at the Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Adrian V. S. Lambert, associate professor of surgery, has been designated to serve as acting head of the department, vacant by the resignation of Dr. George E. Brewer. DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE WHERE DO PITCHER-LEAFED ASH TREES GROW? AT the New Orleans meeting of the scientific societies, in 1905, I reported the discovery of a group of pitcher-leafed ash trees (Fraxinus americana) near the Station for Experimental Evolution, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. These trees had one or more leaflets of nearly every leaf-especially the terminal leaflets-formed into ascidia or so-called "pitchers." This group of pitcher-leafed trees occupies a definitely circumscribed area, surrounded on all sides by trees with only normal flat leaflets, and I supposed, until a few months ago, that the pitcher-bearing trees were limited to this single small area, and the inference seemed justified that they had originated on this area by a comparatively recent mutation. Two new localities for this peculiar form were discovered last fall in western Pennsylvania by Professor Charles W. Palmer, of the Westtown School, Westtown, Pennsylvania, and by a friend of his to whom he explained 1 See SCIENCE, N. S., 23: 201, February, 1906. the situation. These discoveries indicate that the pitcher-leafed type may be an older form than I had supposed, and that it may have a rather wide distribution. As the peculiar form of the leaflets is readily observed, especially on the young trees, the fact that the occurrence of pitchers in this species has never been published except by myself, and in relation to the trees at Cold Spring Harbor, would seem to indicate that this form probably does not occur in any considerable abundance over extensive areas. In order to work out their probable evolutionary history, it is necessary to have more complete information regarding the present distribution of these pitcher-leafed ash trees. The reader is requested to assist in securing this information during the present spring and summer, by carefully examining as many young ash trees as may be accessible to him, and reporting the result to the undersigned, giving approximately the extent of area. covered by the observations, and the number of normal ash trees observed, as well as the number of pitcher-leafed trees-if any of the latter should be discovered. A report is just as desirable in case only normal trees are found as if pitchered specimens are found. All communications should be addressed to GEO. H. SHULL game of golf-"Keep your eye on the ball." When a ball is swung on the end of a cord, the centripetal force exerted by the stretched cord on the ball is unbalanced and produces the centripetal acceleration of the ball. There is the whole story as far as the ball is concerned. The inertia reaction of the ball acts upon the cord and through the cord acts upon the hand. The law of motion states that the rate of change of momentum of any body is at each instant proportional to the resultant of all the forces acting upon that body. In applying the law to a given body A, keep your eye on A and consider only the forces acting upon A. Among these forces, the inertia-reaction of A is never to be included since it always acts upon some other body or bodies. Mr. Patterson would have us believe that inertia-reaction and friction are not full-fledged forces in the single definite sense implied in the laws of motion. He says neither can produce positive acceleration. Let us see if this is true. Consider the experiment in which which two masses, connected together by a string and free to slide along a horizontal rod, are rotated about a vertical axis. If the distances from the axis are in the right ratio, the masses will rotate without sliding, the inertia-reaction of each mass accelerating the other. Then take the case of a passenger leaning forward as he stands on a starting train. The forces acting on him are his weight, the upward elastic reaction of the floor which balances his weight, and friction. He is being accelerated, and friction is doing it. Even though some forces are always pulls, others always pushes, and others neither, we need not differentiate between them since each tends to produce acceleration in a certain direction. Let us agree, then, that a body can not exert a force upon itself; that all forces are similar in their effects; and that in applying the laws of motion to any body, care should be taken to consider only the forces acting upon it. GORDON S. FULCHER WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY, March 24, 1917 |