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cation and profound sympathy with Yale sentiment. A believer in physical and mental development; a scholar and a man. In choosing Dr. Angell as president, Yale has gone back to her earliest traditions, and, as was the case with her first five presidents, has taken a graduate of another institution. It was not until 1766 that a Yale graduate became president. Instead of having been a Yale man, he has spent his life preparing to be one.

HONORARY DEGREES AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

HONORARY degrees were conferred at the commencement of Harvard University on June 23 on the men of science given below. In conferring these degrees President Lowell spoke as follows:

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THE degree of doctor of science has been conferred by Williams College on Dr. Henry Baldwin Ward, head of the department of zoology in the University of Illinois.

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE conferred at its recent commencement its doctorate of science on Dr. H. P. Talbot, professor of analytical chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ar the commencement exercises of the New York State College for Teachers, Albany, on June 20, the honorary degree of doctor of pedagogy was conferred on Dr. C. Stuart Gager, director of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Dr. Gager delivered the address on June 18 at the unveiling of the bronze tablet in memory of students of the State College who lost their lives in the war.

THE degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon Dr. C. H. Mayo at the commencement exercises of Northwestern University on June 15.

DR. W. J. MAYO delivered the Henry Jacob Bigelow Medalist Address before the Boston Surgical Society on June 6, at which time he was awarded the Bigelow Gold Medal. The Henry Jacob Bigelow trust fund was established in 1916 by Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow, of Boston, in memory of his father, the income to be used by the Boston Surgical Society to award medals for valuable contributions to the advancement of surgery in this country or in other countries. Dr. Mayo is the first recipient of the medal.

DEAN THOMAS F. HOLGATE, of Northwestern University, has been invited by the University of Nanking, China, to spend his sabbatical year at that institution, lecturing on mathematical subjects and assisting in the general organization of the university. He sails for China on August 18 on the Empress of Asia.

DR. MARK F. BOYD, professor of bacteriology and preventive medicine in the Medical Department of the University of Texas since 1917, has resigned to enter the service of the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation.

DR. JUAN GUITERAS, formerly director of public health of Cuba, has been appointed secretary of public health and charities.

DR. EDWARD B. KRUMBHAAR, assistant professor of research medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, has resigned to become director of the pathological laboratory of the Philadelphia Hospital.

DR. J. F. DILLINGWORTH, who, for the past four years, has been under engagement with the Queensland government, investigating pests of sugar cane, is returning with his family to their home in Hawaii. For the present his address will be University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T. H.

THE Commencement address at Clark University was given on June 13 by Dr. John M. Clarke. The occasion was the first commencement under the presidency of Dr. Wallace W. Atwood.

Ar a public meeting of the British National Union of Scientific Workers on May 25, Professor L. Bairstow gave an address on The administration of scientific work."

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Ar the meeting of the Physical Society of London on June 10, Sir Ernest Rutherford delivered a lecture entitled "The stability of atoms."

SIR NAPIER SHAW gave the Rede lecture of the University of Cambridge on June 9 on the subject of "The air and its ways."

COLONEL JOHN HERSHEL, F.R.S., formerly of the Indian Trigonometrical Survey, died on May 31 at the age of eighty-three years.

THE death is recorded in Nature of Miss Czaplicka, who went from Poland to Oxford in 1910 with a scholarship in Summerville College. She has since conducted explorations in Siberia and has been lecturer on ethnology at Oxford and Bristol.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

GIFTS and bequests to Yale University in the past year aggregating $1,859,154 were an

nounced at the alumni luncheon by President Hadley. Of this amount, $545,729 was from the alumni fund, the report of which showed more than eight thousand contributors during the year.

THE California Legislature has appropriated $500,000 for building and equipping a new physics building for the University of California. Work has begun on the plans, and it is hoped that the building will be ready for occupancy by December, 1922. Liberal provision will be made for research, both in space and equipment, and ample laboratory accommodations will be provided for the undergraduate students, who have more than doubled in number during the past two years.

MR. SAMUEL MATHER has given to Western Reserve University $500,000 to be used in the construction of a building for the medical college.

MRS. RANSOHOFF, widow of Dr. Joseph Ransohoff, former professor of surgery at the Medical College of the University of Cincinnati, has given $25,000 to this institution (not Cornell) toward the endowment fund for the establishment of "The Joseph Ransohoff Professorship of Surgical Anatomy," or if such is not feasible "to endow the Joseph Ransohoff Fellowship of Surgery." Effort is under way at the present time to secure the added $125,000 for the total endowment above mentioned.

THE resignation of Dr. Russell H. Chittenden, director of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, to take effect at the end of the college year has not been accepted by the trustees, and has been postponed to July, 1922.

PROFESSOR DAN T. GRAY, of the North Carolina Experiment Station and Extension Service, has been elected dean of the Agricultural College and director of the Experiment Station of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute.

RECENT appointments in Colorado College include A. W. Bray, as assistant professor of biology, and James H. C. Smith, as assistant professor of chemistry.

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sion" and "corrasion." Without entering into a discussion of the merits of various past definitions of these words, may I presume to express my own views on this subject?

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"Erosion means "gnawing away," and is properly used to include all natural processes which have their origin at the earth's surface and which involve the destruction of rocks at or near the earth's surface. This is the broadest term referring to surficial rock destruction. It embraces work performed by passive or motionless agents (weathering) and work performed by moving agents, such as running water, glacial ice, waves, and wind. It may be used correctly for rock destruction on the land or on the sea floor. Thus, we may speak of erosion of the sea floor by waves or by submarine currents, and of the erosion of rocks, exposed on land, by moving ice or by alternate contraction and expansion due to heating and cooling, etc., etc. While it must connote transportation and may connote deposition, it should not be used to include these dependent processes. "Denudation," by derivation, refers specifically to stripping or laying bare. It is often used in the sense of natural removal of soil or mantle rock from underlying solid rock, or removal of one rock formation from one lying below. It refers to erosional processes which are destructional, and like erosion should not be used to denote transportation or deposition. Almost, if not quite, without exception, "denudation" refers to stripping (erosion) only on land, whether it is on a small scale or on a large scale.

"Corrasion " is mechanical erosion performed by moving agents such as wear by glacial ice, by wind, by running water, etc.

"Corrosion" is most commonly used for chemical erosion, whether accomplished by motionless or moving agents.

I have suggested the foregoing definitions always having in mind that the "rock" eroded

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THE BREEDING HABITS OF AMBYSTOMA TIGRINUM

THE eggs of Ambystoma tigrinum are usually described as occurring in small clumps. This is typical of the species in the eastern part of its range. While collecting in Colorado at an altitude between 6,000 and 7,000 feet, I found eggs of tigrinum laid singly. When first laid the egg resembles that of Diemictylus. As development continues the outer envelope becomes swollen until at the time of hatching its diameter is one half to three quarters of an inch. The eggs are attached to vegetation or debris. The depth varies from a few inches to two feet. On one occasion adults brought into the laboratory laid freely.

RALPH J. GILMORE

COLORADO COLLEGE, COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.

A PHENOMENAL SHOOT

An extraordinary water-shoot, discovered by Mrs. B. W. Wells, near the city of Raleigh, N. C., on March 21, 1920, is of such unusual size as to deserve recording. The shoot sprang from the side of the trunk of a be headed tree of Paulawnia tomentosa (Thunb.) Steud. and grew in one season (1919) to the length of 19 feet, 5 inches. Twenty internodes were formed, the longest of which, located a little below the middle of the shoot, measures 19 inches in length. The base of the shoot is 7.75 inches in circumference and 2.5 inches in diameter. Braunton in Bailey's Encyclopedia of Horticulture gives 14 feet as a maximum length of Paulownia shoots growing from the root after winter killing. The shoot recently discovered, exceeding this by 5 feet, 5 inches, is believed to be a record for

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THE AURORA OF MAY 14, 1921 TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: A very fine display of northern lights was observed here on Saturday night May 14th to daylight Sunday morning. It was first observed at 8:30 P.M. and was most conspicuous in extremely bright patches here and there in the sky, lasting usually not over a minute, with long arcs crossing the northern horizon. It was slightly cloudy, especially overhead and toward the northeast, but bright patches of aurora could be seen through the clouds. The sky was clear in the west and here and there groups of fine lines were visible, having always a slant of 60 degrees from the horizontal, corresponding to the dip of the compass at Tucson.

The colors were a dull white changing to a greenish tint in the northerly glows, a brilliant pearly luster in the patches and an occasional strong red color over large indefinite

areas.

The display appeared to become somewhat less intense at 10:30 but shortly afterward showed renewed activity especially in long lines extending over large parts of the sky, which was now nearly clear, and all pointing toward a vanishing point of perspective situated about 30 degrees south of the zenith and a little to the west of the meridian, which is the direction of our lines of magnetic force extending toward the south pole. This vanishing point was very beautiful and was observed by many people. By one o'clock the display had somewhat diminished, but a later view at 3:30 showed a perfectly clear sky and the ordinary arcs crossing the northerly horizon with occasional nearly vertical streamers extending upward.

This was observed in many other parts of Arizona and far exceeds the recollection of anything of the sort seen here in forty years. I have notes upon four previous occurrences. One was seen from Flagstaff, Arizona, in the winter of 1894 and 1895. One was reported to me on November 5, 1916, and faint displays

were seen here on October 9 and December 13, 1920. This was the first display of northern lights for most of the people of this part of the country. A. E. DOUGLASS

STEWARD OBSERVATORY,

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

THE AURORA SEEN FROM SINALOA, MEXICO IN LATITUDE 27° N.

THE Northern Light display of May 14 was very plainly visible from the mesa here-only a few miles from the tropics. The Indians have been firing the forests to hasten the advent of the summer rains, and, when I first observed the glow along the sky-line formed by the Sierra Madre I thought they were indulging in their propitiation of the gods on a rather larger scale than usual. The glow began about eight o'clock and the rays were first visible about fifteen minutes later. They were white to pale yellow in color, ever changing in form, location, and brightness. Many of them appeared to reach an east-and-west great circle through the zenith, those low down in the eastern sky appearing longer. The apparent focus was several degrees east of north.

I had never before witnessed such a display and never expected that my first observation of the aurora would be from the semi-tropics. J. GARY LINDLEY

QUOTATIONS

THE MOUNT EVEREST EXPEDITION

THE organization of the expedition is now complete, and all the members proceeding from England have left for India. The leader of the mountain party, Mr. Harold Raeburn, sailed from Birkenhead direct for Calcutta on March 18. Colonel Howard Bury, chief of the expedition, left Marseilles for Bombay on April 9, and Mr. G. H. Leigh Mallory, one of the young climbers, sailed from London direct for Calcutta on the preceding day. Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston, surgeon and naturalist, left Marseilles for Bombay on April 16, and by the same boat Mr. G. H. Bullock, who had been selected at the last moment to replace Mr. George Finch, who was unfortunately, owing to ill-health, unable to take part in the ex

pedition

this year. These gentlemen, with Dr. Kellas, who is already in India, complete the party of six from this country who will make the reconnaissance, and will, if conditions are favorable and the reconnaissance has clearly revealed the best route, make an attempt this year to reach a considerable height on the mountain. The survey operations will be entirely in the hands of the Survey of India, and we learn from the surveyor-general that Major Morshead and Captain Wheeler were under orders to leave Darjeeling about April 1 to carry forward a good triangulation on to the plateau of Tibet with a view to the ultimate determination of the deviations of gravity north of the Himalaya, the question of the first importance to Indian geodesy. At the request of the government of India an officer of the Indian Geological Survey will also accompany the expedition. The commander-in-chief in India, Lord Rawlinson, has responded very kindly to the request that he should assist the expedition by the loan of transport, and a letter has been received recently from the quartermaster-general detailing orders which have been issued for the selection of trained mules and their accompanying personnel. The transport train was to have assembled at Darjeeling on May 12, and the value of this assistance can hardly be overestimated.

At a recent party at Buckingham Palace the president was summoned both by the King and Queen to give them the latest news of the organization and plans of the expedition, and His Majesty has graciously shown his kind interest in the project by contributing the sum of £100 from the Privy Purse to the expedition's funds. The chief of the expedition, Colonel Howard Bury, was received before his departure by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Vice-Patron of the society, who, with the Duke of York, spent an hour examining the plans of the expedition, and expressed his keen interest and good wishes for its success; an expression that was followed almost immediately by a generous contribution of £50 to the funds of the expedition.

As a result of the appeals made by the presi

dent of this society and the Alpine Club a sum has been collected which is approximately sufficient for the work of the first season, but leaves little reserve. It is, therefore, greatly to be desired that all fellows of the society who are jealous for the success of the first important enterprise undertaken since the war, should, if they have not already done so, send subscriptions according to their means to the funds of the expedition.-The Geographical Journal.

SPECIAL ARTICLES

AN OUTLINE FOR VASCULAR PLANTS 1

If an attempt is made to prepare a numbered list of the orders and families of flowering plants, there should first be some agreement on the sequence of the major groups. For example, should the monocots precede or follow the dicots? Should gymnosperms and ferns be included in the enumeration, as they are included in our manuals? Unless these points are agreed upon, the enumeration will be pre

mature.

It will first be necessary to bring together the work of anatomists, morphologists and systematists. A list prepared in this way should command the respect of all botanical workers, and all might be expected to follow the list. If this synthetic view is taken, we find the ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms forming coordinate groups. And this series stands in coordinate relation with the lycopods and horse-tails taken together. It remains for some authority on taxonomy to embody these conclusions in the system. With a view to bringing such a system under criticism, we offer below a tentative arrangement of the larger groups of plants. If some such system is adopted-as must ultimately be we could best number the orders and families of each class separately. Thus ferns and gymnosperms would have separate numerals from those allotted to angiosperms. It is to be hoped also that the dicots will be given a permanent place at the beginning of the angiospermic series. The entire series of vascular plants would appear thus:

1 Cf. Plant World, 22: 59-70. March, 1919.

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