520 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



tics, business and society, not unnat- 

 ural under rapid material exploitation 

 in the childhood of a democracy. The 

 danger is that great men may be lack- 

 ing in our universities when the time 

 comes for them to assume the place 

 they should hold in the community. 



Of our thousand leading scientific 

 men, 739 are in educational institu- 

 tions, 110 in government work, 59 in 

 applied science, 38 in museums and 

 gardens, 36 in research institutions, 

 18 are amateurs or in other profes- 

 sions. The conditions in the govern- 

 ment service are somewhat similar to 

 those in the universities. There are 

 men and money in abundance, but 

 mediocrity is favored rather than 

 genius. In the establishment of en- 

 dowed research institutions the United 

 States has taken a forward step which 

 may give to us the world's leadership 

 in scientific research. In our research 

 establishments, in our universities, in 

 government, state and municipal serv- 

 ice, in discovery through the applica- 

 tion of science, we have possibilities 

 never before presented to any nation. 

 It will be well for us and for the 

 world if these are realized in per- 

 formance. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 



We regret to record the deaths of 

 Professor Eobert Woodworth Prentiss, 

 who had held the chair of mathematics 

 and astronomy in Eutgers College since 

 1891 ; of Dr. George McClellan, a Phil- 

 adelphia surgeon, known for his re- 

 searches in anatomy, and of Dr. Adolf 

 Slaby, professor of electrotechnics in 

 the Berlin Technical School and the 

 University of Berlin, known for his 

 work in wireless telegraphy. 



It is announced that Dr. H. B. Fine, 

 professor of mathematics in Princeton 

 University, has been offered by Presi- 

 dent Wilson the ambassadorship to 

 Germany. — Dr. David F. Houston, sec- 

 retary of agriculture, will retain the 

 chancellorship of Washington Univer- 

 sity on leave of absence. — Professor 

 Willis Luther Moore, who has been 

 chief of the United States Weather 

 Bureau since 1895, has been retired 

 from this office. 



The Bruce medal of the Astronom- 

 ical Society of the Pacific has been 

 awarded to Professor J. C. Kapteyn, 

 of Groningen, for his work on the 

 proper motions of the stars. — The Har- 

 ris lecture committee of Northwestern 

 University has announced that the 

 Norman Waite Harris lectures for 

 1913-14 will be delivered by Dr. 

 Edwin Grant Conklin, professor of 

 zoology at Princeton University. The 

 general subject of his lectures will be 

 heredity and eugenics. 



The university faculty of Cornell 

 University passed on March 14 the 

 following resolution : 



Whereas: Professor Willard C. 

 Fisher, a distinguished alumnus and 

 former fellow of the university, has 

 been dismissed from the chair of eco- 

 nomics and social science at Wesleyan 

 University on grounds stated in the 

 letters of January 27, 1913, exchanged 

 between the president of Wesleyan 

 University and Professor Fisher; 

 therefore, 



'Resolved, That the faculty of Cor- 

 nell University extend to Professor 

 Fisher greetings and assurance of re- 

 gard, with the message that his alma 

 mater still seeks to maintain and ex- 

 tend the spirit of liberality, toleration 

 and loyalty to truth, illustrated by the 

 principles and lives of its founders, 

 Ezra Cornell and Andrew D. White. 



