1917] The Ottawa Naturalist. 15 



NOTES. 



This number of Tile Ottawa Naturalist begins a new club 

 year and dues are, therefore, now payable. If all members will mail 

 the dollar membership fee to ihe Treasurer, Mr. J. R. Dymond, Seed 

 Branch, Dept. Agriculture, Ottawa, it will save his time and a con- 

 siderable amount of postage. 



Dr. John Stanley Plaskett, formerly in charge of the department 

 of astrophysics in the Dominion Observatory at Ottawa, has been 

 appointed director of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, which 

 is being established at Victoria. The principal instrument of the 

 observatory is a 7 2 -inch reflecting telescope, the mounting of which is 

 in place, and the mirror is nearing completion at the shops of the 

 Brashear Company. 



The U. S. Government makes larger appropriations for scientific 

 research than any other nation, and the money has on the whole been 

 used to advantage. The fact that the work there is mainly economic 

 is not, altogether, a drawback. The difficulty has been that better 

 provision was made for routine work than for exceptional performance. 

 The present emergency has led to further large appropriations for 

 scientific research, and we may hope that the truth expressed in the 

 President's words "Preparation for peace is the best preparation for 

 war"' will lead to still greater efforts to promote science for the national 

 welfare. 



A fund of $25,000 has been raised as a nucleus for the purposes 

 of organizing a Museum of Natural History in the city of Portland, 

 Oregon. A similar movement has been started in Spokane, Washing- 

 ton, and it is hoped that the city of Spokane will in the near future 

 have a museum specially devoted to the American Indians of that 

 region. 



Sir Alfred Keogh, director-general of the British army medical 

 service, presiding at a lecture at the Royal Institute of Public Health 

 on February 14, is reported in Nature to have stated that in France at 

 that moment there were only five cases of enteric fever and eighteen 

 cases of paratyphoid fever, with seventy or eighty doubtful cases. He 

 attributed this result to inoculation, the general good health of the 

 army, to good food, and in addition, to careful sanitation. The health 

 of the army at all fronts was said to be better than the ordinary health 

 of the army in peace-time. /s&S* _ - v >\. 



o 



