of the Canadian universities have prepared papers and some of them dealing with new geological fields will be of special interest. Dr. Eliot Blackwelder, at present at Harvard University, will deliver his address as retiring vice-president of this section on "The trend of earth history." It is intended that the geological and engineering sections will combine for a banquet.

THE second meeting of geneticists interested in agriculture will be held at Toronto, on Tuesday, Dec. 27.

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The program will take "The genetics curriculum in the college of agriculture." Discussion of various phases of the subject will be opened as follows: (1) The elementary course in genetics. Prof. C. B. Hutchinson, Cornell University. (2) Advanced courses in genetics. Prof. J. A. Detlefsen, University of Illinois. (3) Laboratory courses in genetics. Prof. A. C. Fraser, Cornell University. (4) Genetics preparation for research in other fields. Dr. E. D. Ball, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Invitation to attend and to participate in the discussions is extended to all who may be interested, whether or not they are connected with agricultural institutions, since the topic really comprehends the general subject of genetics teaching. It is hoped to have a good attendance of those concerned with the teaching of applied courses in plant and animal breeding.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS HENRY TURNER EDDY, professor emeritus of mathematics and mechanics in the University of Minnesota and dean emeritus of the graduate school, died on December 18 at the age of seventy-seven years.

DR. ERNEST FOX NICHOLS, who recently resigned the presidency of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is to return to Cleveland to resume the directorship of pure science in the Nela Research Laboratory, maintained by the National Lamp Works of the General Electric Company.

STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY held a fiftieth anniversary banquet at the Hotel Astor, New York City, on December 15. A silver loving cup was presented to Professor

Charles Kroeh, secretary of the faculty, who has been professor of modern languages at Stevens ever since it was founded. The speakers were Dr. Alexander Humphreys, president, Dr. John H. Finley and Mr. Job E. Hedges.

THE Howard N. Potts gold medal and diploma of the Franklin Institute have been conferred upon Alfred Q. Tate for inventions which have created the new art of electrolytic waterproofing of textile fabrics.

PHILIP L. GILE, formerly connected with the American Agricultural Chemical Company and for eleven years previously chemist of the Porto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station, has been placed in charge of the division of soil chemical investigations of the Bureau of Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

RALPH STONE, member of the staff of the United States Geological Survey, has left the federal service to become assistant state geologist of Pennsylvania.

MR. JAMES E. IVES has resigned as research associate and lecturer in physics at Clark University to become physicist in the office of industrial hygiene and sanitation of the Public Health Service in Washington.

DR. C. G. ABBOT of the Astrophysical Observatory is at present in Antofagasta, Chile, at the solar radiation station on Mt. Montezuma. He expects to return in January.

C. H. BIRDSEYE, chief geographer for the U. S. Geological Survey, left Washington on November 30, to inspect the map-making activities of the Survey in the West and in Hawaii.

J. W. GILMORE, professor of agronomy, College of Agriculture of the University of California, has returned from the University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. Professor Gilmore has been exchange professor with this university for the past six months. While in Chile he was in consultation with the Chilean authorities with a view toward improving the agriculture of the western coast of South America.

DR. MORTEN P. PORSILD, director of the Danish Arctic Station, Disko, Greenland, is at present in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he is making plans for a visit to England and America. In December and January he will lecture at the University of Cambridge, England, on botanical and ethnological subjects. He expects to reach the United States about the middle of February and may lecture at scientific centers.

DR. CLEMENT PIRQUET, Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles and Dr. Alfred F. Hess, have been appointed to give this year the Cutter Lectures on Preventive Medicine under the au spices of the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Pirquet is professor of pediatrics at the University of Vienna and is best known for his work on behalf of the under-nourished children of Austria since the war. Dr. Stiles is assistant surgeon general of the U. S. Public Health Service and consulting zoologist of the Bureau of Animal Industry in the Federal Department of Agriculture; Dr. Hess is a New York pediatrist.

DR. E. M. EAST, of the Bussey Institution of Harvard University, gave a series of lectures at Cornell University, December 8-10, 1921, as follows: "Problems of population in relation to agriculture," to the Society of Sigma Xi; "Inbreeding as a tool in plant improvement," to the staff and students of the College of Agriculture, and "The problem of self-sterility in plants," to the seminary of the department of plant breeding.

HENRIETTA SWAN JEWETT, of the Harvard College Observatory, died on December 19. Since 1902 she had been engaged in the study of the photographic brightness of the stars and the distribution and periods of variable stars.

THE Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund has been serviceable for many years in giving aid, by small grants, to research which otherwise might not be readily undertaken. The grants are made only for scientific investigations and must be applied to actual expenses of the research, i.e., they are not made to support an investigator or to meet the ordinary expenses of publication. The trustees give preference to

researches involving international cooperation. The grants are not made for researches of narrow or merely local interest, nor are they available for equipment of private laboratories or for purchase of apparatus ordinarily to be found in scientific institutions. Applications for grants from this fund should be made before January 15, 1922, to Professor W. B. Cannon, secretary of the trustees of the fund, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.

THE Fifth National Medical Congress of Cuba, which takes place every five years, will be held from December 11 to 17, under the presidency of Professor J. A. Presno, founder and director of the Revista de Medicina y Cirurgia of Havana.

ADOLPH LEWISOHN has given $150,000 for the pathological laboratory of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City. The gift is in addition to others to the hospital and laboratory made by Mr. Lewisohn, including a similar amount for the laboratory.

THE Committee of the Universities' Library for Central Europe, formed in England to renew the stocks of books and scientific and learned periodicals in the universities of Central Europe, has recently issued its report for its first year of working, ending March 31, 1921. It has sent consignments of literature to Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Esthonia, Germany, Hungary and Poland. Donations of money and English books published since 1914 are still urgently needed, and may be sent to the honorary secretary, Mr. B. M. Headicar, London School of Economics, Clare Market, W. C. 2.

THE Sarah Berliner Fellowship for research in physics, chemistry or biology is now of the value of from one thousand to twelve hundred dollars. In view of the fact that some of the holders of this fellowship have given important courses of lectures at Cornell, the Johns Hopkins, Yale and other universities, the committee in charge of the fund has decided to give explicit recognition to this aspect of the fellowship. Hereafter, therefore, preference will be given those candidates who can carry on research and at

the same time have the privilege of giving one or more courses of lectures at some university or institution of learning.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

PRESIDENT ANGELL has announced that Mrs. Stephen V. Harkness of New York is the hitherto unnamed friend of the University whose conditional gift of $3,000,000 was made public by President Hadley at the Commencement alumni dinner in 1920. Mrs. Harkness's gift of $3,000,000 was made conditional upon the securing of an additional $2,000,000 from alumni and other friends which was pledged on October first, 1921. In her original letter of gift, dated April 5, 1920, Mrs. Harkness stated: "I am informed that Yale University has recently increased the salaries of the members of its several faculties. This action seems to me to be in accord with the general feeling of its alumni and friends, that those who are devoting their lives, with little or no opportunity for large pecuniary rewards, to the teaching of young men and women and the moulding of their characters and opinions, should receive so far as possible a compensation sufficient always to attract persons of ability and standing."

...

EARL B. YOUNG has been elected professor of geology at the Montana School of Mines, Butte, Mont.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND THE METRIC SYSTEM

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: The National Academy of Sciences at its meeting in Chicago in November, on request, considered the bill introduced in the Senate by Senator E. F. Ladd, which reads as follows: 67th Congress,

1st Session

S. 2267

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

July 18, 1921

Mr. Ladd introduced the following bill; which

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Manufacturers.

A BILL

To fix the metric system of weights and measures as the single standard of weights and measures for certain uses

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep resentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after ten years from the date of passage and approval of this Act the weights and measures of the meter-liter-gram or metric system shall be the single standard of weights and measures in the United States of America for the uses set out herein.

Sec. 2. That the national prototypes of the fundamental standards of the metric system shall be the copies of the standards known as meter numbered twenty-seven and kilogram numbered twenty, allotted to the United States by the General Conference of Weights and Measures held at Paris in 1889. These are now deposited in the vault of the Bureau of Standards of the Department of Commerce and those which are now used and employed in deriving the values of all weights and measures used in the United States. These national representations are hereby adopted as the primary standards of weights and measures for the United States of America, and from these all other weights and measures shall be derived and ascertained.

Sec. 3. That from and after ten years from the date of passage and approval of this Act no person shall do or offer or attempt to do any of the following acts, by weights or measures, in or according to any other system than the metric system of weights and measures, namely:

(1) Sell any goods, wares, or merchandise except for export, as provided in section 8;

(2) Charge or collect for the carriage or transportation of any goods, wares, or merchandise.

Sec. 4. That from and after ten years from the date of passage of this Act no person shall use or attempt to use in any of the transactions detailed in section 3 any weight or measure or weighing or measuring device designed, constructed, marked, or graduated in any other system than the metric system of weights and measures.

Sec. 5. That not later than ten years from the date of passage and approval of this Act all postage, excises, duties, and customs charged or collected by weights or measures by the Government of the United States, shall be charged or collected

in or according to the metric system of weights and

measures.

Sec. 6. That rules and regulations for the enforcement of this Act not inconsistent with the provisions hereof shall be made and promulgated by the Secretary of Commerce. The Secretary of Commerce shall also take such steps as he may deem expedient for giving publicity to the dates of transition specified herein and for facilitating the transition to the meter-liter-gram or metric system.

Sec. 7. That all Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed but only in so far as they are inconsistent herewith; otherwise they shall remain and continue in full force and effect. Whenever in any Act, or rules and regulations, or tariff or schedule made, ratified, approved, or revised by the Government of the United States of America weights or measures of the system now in customary use are employed or referred to, and to comply with the provisions of this Act weights and measures of the metric system should be employed, then such references in such Act, rules and regulations, tariff, or schedule shall be understood and construed as references to equivalent weights or measures of the metric system ascertained in accordance with the required degree of accuracy.

Sec. 8. That nothing in this Act shall be understood or construed as applying to

(1) Any contract made before the date at which the provisions of this Act take effect;

(2) The construction or use in the arts, manufacture, or industry of any specification or drawing, tool, machine, or other appliance or implement designed, constructed, or graduated in any desired system;

(3) Goods, wares, or merchandise intended for sale in any foreign country, but if such goods, wares, or merchandise are eventually sold for domestic use or consumption then this clause shall not exempt them from the application of any of the provisions of this Act.

Sec. 9. That nothing herein shall be understood or construed as prohibiting the enactment or enforcement of weights and measures laws or ordinances by the various States or cities, and the various States or cities shall have the same powers as though this Act were not in force and effect: Provided, however, That no standard weights or measures shall be established for the uses set out herein which conflict in any way with the standards established herein, and such standards which may already have been established shall be null and void for the uses set out herein.

Sec. 10. That the word " person as used in this Act shall be construed to import both the plural and singular, as the case demands, and shall include corporations, companies, societies, and associations. When construing and enforcing the provisions of this Act, the act, omission, or failure of any officer, agent, or other person acting for or employed by any corporation, company, society, or association, within the scope of his employment or office, shall in every case be also deemed to the act, omission, or failure of such corporation, company, society, or association as well as that of the person.

After discussion, the bill was referred to the Committee on Weights, Measures, and Coinage of the Academy for report, with power to act through the President of the Academy. Upon receipt of the report from the Chairman of that Committee, Dr. Thomas C. Mendenhall, the following communication was sent to Senator Ladd:

ential coloring that will make mycelium stand out in contast to the tissue of the host have been described.1

The writers, in an attempt to obtain a stain which would reduce the time required for the examinations of a set of woods infected with molds by producing satisfactory differentiation both for visual examination and for photomicrography, have worked out the following method. The results, although the work is only in the preliminary stage, are so promising that they are given here in order that others may avail themselves of the method if they desire to do so.

Since there is a difference in chemical composition between wood substance and chitin or "fungous cellulose," the assumption was made that the fungous mycelium might possess characteristic mildly oxidizing or reducing properties. Then a solution of silver nitrate in distilled water was applied to thin sections of the infected wood. These were allowed to stand for periods of various lengths, overnight staining giving a very satisfactory result. The sections were then examined directly or dehydrated with alcohol, cleared with xylol, and mounted in Canada balsam. Drying the balsam mounts under weights in an oven over night appeared, if anything, to improve the stain secured.

Both conifers and hardwoods were treated in this way. The mycelium of several molds and of two wood-destroying fungi has thus far been stained. In all cases the mycelium was differentiated by its blackish brown, purplish brown, or orange color. The wood tissue presented, if stained, a lighter shade of yellowish brown against which the mycelium was readily visible, often under relatively low magnifications.

Silver nitrate solution also gave interesting staining of the wood structures and cell contents which will be discussed at some future time.

Gold chloride solution, and the "Berlin Blue" stain, the latter as described by Dr. Sophia Eckerson in her course in microchem

1 Sinnott, E. W. and I. W. Bailey, Phytopath., 4: 403, 1914. Vaughan, R. E., Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard., 5: 241, 1914 and others.

istry,2 were also used with some success for the same purposes as the silver nitrate.

M. E. DIEMER,

Chemist, ELOISE GERRY, Microscopist

FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY,
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
MADISON, WISCONSIN

SHARKS AT SAN DIEGO

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: It has occurred to the writer that a very brief statement of some experiences in collecting shark material at San Diego, Cal., in 1920-21 might be of value to persons interested in research problems in elasmobranch morphology and embryology. Owing to the fact that the reduction plants in San Diego paid in 1920-21 a price for sharks high enough to make it worth while for the fishermen to bring in all such material caught incidentally, and since nearly all such material was brought to the fishmarket pier, at the latter place it was possible in a very short time to collect a considerable range of species. The writer obtained twentysix species of elasmobranchs at San Diego, and the embryos of fourteen of them. No other place along the Pacific coast, or probably on any other coast, offers such a wealth of material and such easy access to it. It was not uncommon to see fifteen species of elasmobranchs at one time on the pier at San Diego. H. W. NORRIS

GRINNELL COLLEGE

MUNICIPAL OBSERVATORIES

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In SCIENCE for August 5, the Municipal Observatory at Des Moines is" said to be the only municipal observatory in the world." The Cincinnati Observatory was incorporated in 1842, its corner stone being laid in 1843 by John Quincy Adams. Here Cleveland Abbe (director '68-'73) first issued daily weather reports and laid the foundation of the U. S. Weather Bureau. In 1872, the property was transferred to the University of Cincinnati (municipal) on condition that the city sup 2 Text-book now in preparation.