their meeting on January 12, expressed their gratitude, on behalf of the nation whose treasures they hold in trust, to the newspapers which so unanimously gave voice to the public disapproval of a proposal which threatened the safety of the museum and its collections.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS MEMORIAL exercises were held at the Johns Hopkins University on February third, in commemoration of Professor Franklin Paine Mall. President Goodnow presided and addresses were delivered by Professor Florence R. Sabin, Professor Lewellys F. Barker, Professor William H. Welch, of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, and President Robert S. Woodward, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

SURGEON-GENERAL SIR ALFRED KEOGH, director-general of British Army Medical Services, has been permited to resume his duties as general executive officer to the Imperial College of Science and Technology, and will be replaced at the War Office from March 1 by Colonel T. H. J. C. Goodwin, Royal Army Medical Corps, until recently the assistant director of medical services to the British Recruiting Mission in America. He will be appointed acting director-general of the Army Services.

DIRECTOR RUSSELL H. CHITTENDEN, of the Sheffield Scientific School and professor of physiology at Yale University, has left for Europe to represent the United States on an important Government commission to England, France, and Italy. He will probably be away for a period of from three to six months. During his absence Professor Percey F. Smith, will be the acting director of the Sheffield Scientific School.

DEAN PHILIP A. SHAFFER, of Washington, University and major in the food division of the Surgeon--General's Office, Washington, D. C., is making a tour of the cantonments, before leaving for France to take charge of the food division with the expeditionary forces. DR. FRANK SCHLESINGER, director of the Allegheny Observatory, has been appointed aeronautical engineer in the U. S. Signal

Corps. He will have charge of the instruments that are mounted on aeroplanes and will form the connecting link between the construction department of the Signal Corps and the National Research Council. During his temporary absence from the observatory Dr. Frank C. Jordan will be in charge.

DR. C. JUDSON HERRICK, professor of neurology in the University of Chicago, has recently been commissioned major in the Sanitary Corps of the National Army and has been assigned to active service as neurohistologist in the neurosurgical laboratory of the SurgeonGeneral's Office, located at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore.

PROFESSOR BRADLEY M. DAVIS has been granted leave of absence from the University of Pennsylvania to take up work with Dr. Raymond Pearl in the Statistical Division of the Food Administration, Washington, D. C.

MR. E. A. GOLDMAN, of the Bureau of Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture, has been commissioned a major in the Sanitary Corps of the National Army, for the purpose of investigating methods for the control of the rat pest in its relations to the army. As is well known, the common house rat exists in enormous numbers both in this country and especially in France, where it is reported to transmit certain diseases among the soldiers.

DR. K. L. MARK, head of the chemistry department and of the school of general science at Simmons College, Boston, has been granted a leave of absence for the duration of the war to accept a commission as captain in the Sanitary Corps of the Army.

AMONG the professors of the State University of Iowa and instructors who have joined the colors recently are: B. P. Fleming, professor of mechanical engineering, captain in the engineering corps; H. B. Whaling, associate professor in the newly organized school of commerce, aviation; F. C. Brown, associate professor of physics, captain in the ordnance division, Washington, D. C.; I. L. Pollock, instructor in political science, United States War Trade board, Washington, D. C.; D. A.

Armbruster, physical training department, aviation; A. R. Fortsch, physics department, private at Camp Dodge; R. H. Sylvester, assistant professor of psychology, psychological division of the medical officers' training camp, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.

PROFESSOR ROLLIN D. SALISBURY, head of the department of geography and dean of the Ogden graduate school of science at the University of Chicago, was presented with the Helen Culver gold medal of the Geographic Society of Chicago at a banquet in the Hotel Sherman, Chicago, on January 26. The occasion marked the twentieth anniversary of the society, of which Professor Salisbury was the first president.

DR. GRIFFITH TAYLOR, of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, has been awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland, for his work on the settlement of tropical Australia.

OFFICERS of the Association of American Geographers have been elected as follows: President, Nevin M. Fenneman; First Vicepresident, Charles R. Dryer; Second Vicepresident, Bailey Willis; Secretary, Oliver L. Fassig; Councilor, Walter S. Tower; Treasurer, François E. Matthes.

THE American Geographical Society of New York has elected the following officers: President, John Greenough; Vice-president, Anton A. Raven; Foreign Corresponding Secretary, William Libbey; Treasurer, Henry Parish; Councilors, Banyer Clarkson, Edwin Swift Balch, W. Redmond Cross, Walter B. James, M.D., H. Stuart Hotchkiss.

WITH the purpose of securing desirable material from various sources for the Scientific Exhibit at the Chicago meeting of the American Medical Association an advisory committee on scientific exhibits has been appointed consisting of Dr. Harlow Brooks, New York; Dr. A. S. Warthin, Ann Arbor; Dr. George L. Dock, St. Louis; Dr. L. B. Wilson, Rochester; Dr. E. R. LeCount, Chicago; Dr. Oskar Klotz, Pittsburgh; Dr. F. P. Gay, Berkeley; Dr. C. C. Bass, New Orleans; Dr. W. M. L. Coplin, Philadelphia; Dr. Joseph C. Bloodgood, Baltimore, and Dr. Walter B. Cannon, Boston.

DR. I. W. E. GLATTFELD has been appointed a member of the committee on the supply of organic chemicals for research during the war.

J. A. MCCLINTOCK, plant pathologist, of the Virginia Truck Experiment Station, has accepted a position with the United States Department of Agriculture, as extension pathologist, in charge of cotton, truck and forage crop disease investigations in Georgia, with headquarters at the State University, at Athens.

PROFESSOR GEORGE J. YOUNG, recently professor of mining in the University of Minnesota, and previously in the Mackay School of Mines at Reno, Nev., has joined the editorial staff of the Engineering and Mining Journal as assistant editor-in-chief.

MISS GRACE MACLEOD has become assistant editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Miss MacLeod holds the degree of S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and of M.A. from Columbia University, and for the past seven years has been instructor in chemistry at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y.

DR. W. J. LENZ has severed his connection with the Lenz Apparatus Co., New York, in order to devote his time to his manufacturing interests.

MR. VICTOR YNGVE has been engaged as research chemist by the Oldbury Electro Chemical Company of Niagara Falls, N. Y., and will have charge of their research laboratory.

MR. HOWARD B. BISHOP has severed his connection with the General Chemical Co., at Easton, to accept a postion with the National Aniline and Chemical Co.

DR. F. E. CHIDESTER, chairman of the course in biology and sanitary science and professor of zoology at Rutgers College, has been granted sabbatical leave of absence for the second term of the collegiate year. He will spend some time in research at the University of Pennsylvania, also visiting other institutions to secure ideas for the further development of public health instruction in the State of New Jersey.

MR. C. WILLIAM BEEBE, curator of birds in the New York Zoological Park, has returned from the Tropical Research Station established last year in British Guiana by the New York Zoological Society. While the intention of Mr. Beebe's short trip was principally to salvage books and instruments until after the war, and to seek rest from an airplane accident, yet opportunity was found for a month of investigaion.

THE program of the Indian Science Congress held in Lahore from January 9 to 12, included three evening lectures, open to the public. The first was on "Some simple living things-parasitism and disease" by Major Norman White, sanitary commissioner to Government of India illustrated by cinematograph. The second was on "Aviation" by LieutenantColonel G. M. Griffith, commandant, of the Royal Flying Corps in India, and the third on "The planetry system, ancient and modern," by Dr. D. N. Mallick. The program also included a visit to the railway workshops, an aviation display if not prevented by military exigencies and a scientific conversazione.

DR. DAVID EUGENE SMITH, of Columbia University addressed the Association of Teachers of Secondary Mathematics, of North Carolina, in Greensboro on February 1 and 2. He gave a popular lecture on "The origin of mathematics," a somewhat more technical one on "Deficiencies in present preparatory mathematics" and a round table discussion on the topic "A proper approach to elementary mathematics." W. W. Rankin, Jr., of the University of North Carolina, was elected president of the convention.

PROFESSOR ELLERY WILLIAMS DAVIS, dean of the college of arts and sciences and head of the department of mathematics of the University of Nebraska, died on February 3 from pneumonia after a short illness, at the age of sixty years.

THE death is announced at Dorchester, Mass., of Paul S. Yandel, known for his observations on variable stars, at the age of seventy-three years.

DR. CHARLES L. PARSONS, the secretary, writes that after consultation with the advisory committee and other members of the American Chemical Society, the directors have voted to omit the spring meeting of the society, which was to have been held in St. Louis the coming April. It is felt that the transportation conditions are such that unnecessary travel should be avoided, and also that the chemists of the country are so busily engaged in meeting war needs that their work should not be interrupted for the purpose of conference at this time. The annual meeting of the society will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, in September.

THE New York Section of the Société de Chimie Industrielle, was organized at a meeting held at Rumford Hall of the Chemists' Club, on the evening of January 18, 1918. The following officers were elected: President, L. H. Baekeland; Vice-president, Jerome Alexander; Treasurer, George F. Kunz; Secretary, Charles A. Doremus. Council: Charles Baskerville, M. T. Bogert, Ellwood Hendrick, R. E. Orfila, E. P. Verge, Henri Blum, Charles F. Chandler, W. H. Nichols, G. E. Valabrégue, Henri Viteaux. Professor Grignard, and Lieutenant René Engel, of the French Military Mission, were elected honorary members. The section has about 160 charter members.

THE California Academy of Sciences announces lectures for January and February as follows:

January 16. Professor E. C. Starks, department of zoology, Stanford University, "The sea lions of the Pacific coast of America." (Illustrated.)

January 20. Professor R. W. Doane, department of entomology, Stanford University, "Forest insects." (Illustrated.)

January 27. Professor J. C. Bradley, department of entomology, Cornell University, "Experiences in a Georgia swamp." (Illustrated.)

February 3. Dr. J. Rollin Slonaker, department of physiology, Stanford University, "Bird life as seen through the camera. '' (Illustrated.)

February 10. Dr. Roy E. Dickerson, curator of invertebrate paleontology, California Academy of Sciences, California petroleum." (Illustrated.)

was

Ar the annual meeting of the State Microsscopical Society of Illinois, which founded in 1868, at the Chicago College Club on January 15, the following officers were elected: President, N. S. Amstutz; First Vicepresident, Dr. C. H. de Witt; Second Vicepresident, Shelby C. Jones; Secretary, Chas. A. Ruhl; Corresponding Secretary, Dr. Vida A. Latham; Treasurer, Frank I. Packard; Curator, Henry F. Fuller; Trustee for five years, Paul R. Wright. The board of trustees now consists of Dr. Lester Curtis, David L. Zook, F. T. Harmon, Dr. J. A. Hynes, Paul R. Wright. During the year monthly meetings were held except during July, August and September as follows:

February-Dr. B. Gruskin-❝ Celloidin tings."

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March-Mr. S. F. Maxwell-The habits of insect life."

April 20-Dr. E. M. Chamot, of Cornell University, gave an illustrated lecture before a joint meeting of the Microscopic Society and the Chieago Section of the American Chemical Society on "Chemical microscopy" at the City Club.

The May meeting was given over to a very successful Soirée held in conjunction with the Chicago Academy of Sciences in the Academy Building, Lincoln Park, at which 58 microscopes among other attractions were exhibited to nearly 500 visitors.

June, an open meeting on "Pond life under the microscope."

October, the president on "Mechanical features of the microscopes."

December-Dr. Geo. E. Fells-The detection of forgeries by the microscope.'

The president's annual address related to "Enlarged industrial applications of the microscope."' WE learn from Nature that the Science' Museum, South Kensington, was reopened to the public on January 1. The museum has been closed to the public for nearly two years; it has, however, been open without interruption for students. As compared with 1914 conditions, the extent and the hours of opening for 1918 are somewhat reduced, but the greater part of the museum will be open free on every week day from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., and on Sundays from 2:30 P.M. to 5 P.M. The col

lections contain many objects of interest as representing discoveries, inventions, and appliances that have been of first-rate importance in the advancement of science and of industry, such as Watt's engines, early locomotives, steamships, flying machines, reaping machines and textile machinery.

THE National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics has issued a pamphlet entitled "Report No. 13.-Meteorology and Aeronautics." It is a handbook in which are discussed the properties and general phenomena of the atmosphere which aeronauts and aviators should understand. This report was prepared by the subcommittee on the Relations of the Atmosphere to Aeronautics, of which Professor Charles F. Marvin, chief of the Weather Bureau is chairman. In particular the report deals with the physical properties and dynamics of the atmosphere, topographic and climatic factors in relation to aeronautics, and current meteorology and its use. Copies may be had on application to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Munsey Building, Washington, D. C.

DR. ADDISON, minister of reconstruction in the British government recently in London, declared his belief in the urgent need of creating a Ministry of Health with widly decentralized powers and of bringing its machinery into thorough working order before the end of the war. He stated that he had been specially invited by the Prime Minister to cope with this, one of the most important of the many problems of reconstruction. The public conscience was fully alive to the obligations of the state in regard to it, and was not in the mood to brook any further dilatoriness. But the national administration of public health through such a ministry as they contemplated must necessarily impinge on many interests, and it was necessary to bring those interests-insurance, local government, medical and others-into substantial agreement before legislation could usefully be framed, since Parliament had not the time to debate highly contentious proposals. That was the

only reason for the reply recently given by the government in the House of Commons to a question regarding legislation for the creation of a Ministry of Public Health. He appealed, therefore, to all interests concerned to sink minor differences and to approach the problem of public health administration as a whole from the broad national standpoint and in a courageous spirit.

EDUCATIONAL NOTES AND NEWS

A COMMITTEE consisting of Regent Schulz and Deans Thatcher and Vance has been appointed to plan the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the University of Minnesota. The inauguration of President Burton will be one of the chief features. In view of the war conditions the celebration is planned to be of state interest only.

THE Harvard summer engineering camp at Squam Lake, N. H., has been abandoned on account of the war and owing to the fact that the expenses of the camp can not be met unless more than the thirty students already registered attend.

At Louisiana State University, Assistant Professor S. T. Sanders has been made head of the department of mathematics, and Dr. I. C. Nichols has been appointed associate professor.

MR. ROY RICHARD DENSLOW, assistant tutor in the department of chemistry, College of the City of New York, has been appointed instructor in Smith College.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE LUMINOSITY OF RECTIFIER ELECTRODE TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In setting up as a demonstration experiment, the well-known arrangement for rectifying an alternating current, the essential part of which is an aluminum rod and lead plate in ten per cent. sodium phosphate solution, the following observation was made, which may be well known but which I wish to take this opportunity of

mentioning, since I have not found it described anywhere in connection with the experiment.

When the aluminum rod is positive, that is to say, when the current is in such direction that it will not pass through the rectifier, a very distinct luminosity appears over the surface of the aluminum and if the applied potential is as high as 250 volts, this luminosity becomes quite brilliant enough to be observed by a spectroscope. This is not due to local heating since the aluminum is only gently warmed. The glow is orange yellow in color and, through a direct-vision spectroscope, shows a continuous spectrum through the red, yellow and green with a trace of blue. Phosphorescence is suggested, possibly similar to that shown by alum.

May I lay this before your readers in the hope that some one of them may be familiar with, and have an explanation for, this luminosity. Our time at present is so taken up with other matters that investigation of it can not be pushed as would otherwise be the

case.

HARVEY B. LEMON

RYERSON PHYSICAL LABORATORY, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

AN UNUSUALLY BRILLIANT HALO

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: The very complete halos visible at Boulder, Colo., on the morning of January 10, 1918, are perhaps worthy of a brief description

The phenomena were first observed when the sun was about 10° or 12° high. At this time all of the 22° halo that was above the horizon

was very distinct. The white horizontal parhelic circle extending each way from the sun to a short distance outside the 22° halo was also plainly marked and the parhelia where it crossed the halo were very bright, though somewhat diffuse. In about half an hour the 22° halo became much brighter showing red on the inside and a faint blue on the outside. Above the sun, tangent to this halo and convex toward the sun, appeared the usual oxyoke-shaped arc of a pale pink tinge. During this time also the 46° halo appeared and be