SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The Maryland-Virginia-District of Columbia section of the Mathe- 

 matical Association of America held its annual spring meeting on May 

 4, 1918, at the Catholic University. The following officers were elected 

 for the ensuing year: President, A. E. Landry, of the Catholic Univer- 

 sity; Secretary, Ralph Root, of the Naval Xcsidemj ; third member ex- 

 ecutive committee, L. F. Hulburt, of Johns Hopkins University. 



Professor O. Steels, of the School of Civil Engineering, Univer- 

 sity of Ghent, and Professor Albert Van Hecke, of the Faculty of 

 Sciences of the University of Louvain, arrived in Washington in May 

 as members of the Belgian Mission on Industrial Management. Pro- 

 fessor Steels is President of the Mission. 



An "Inventions Section" has been added to the organization of the 

 General Staff of the army, "in order to secure prompt and thorough 

 investigation of inventions submitted to the War Department." It is 

 headed by an advisory board of chemical, electrical, and mechanical 

 technologists. D. W. Brunton, Chairman of the War Committee of 

 Technical Societies, is chairman of the Advisory Board of the new Sec- 

 tion, and Dr. Graham Edgar and Lieut. -Col.. R. A. Millikan, of the 

 National Research Council, are members. 



The offices of the Chemical Service Section of the National Arm}- 

 have been removed from the building of the Interior Department to 

 LTnit F, Seventh and B Streets. 



By an executive ord«r issued May 11, 1918, the President of the 

 United States requests the National Academy of Sciences, under its 

 congressional charter, to perpetuate the National Research Council. 

 The order defines the duties of the Council, which are, briefly: (1) to 

 stimulate research; (2) to survey the larger possibilities of science; (3) 

 to promote cooperation in research; (4) to bring American and foreign 

 investigators into cooperation with the Government; (5) to aid in the 

 solution of war problems; (6) to gather and collate information. The 

 order further provides for the appointment by the President of govern- 

 ment representatives as members of the Council, upon nomination by 

 the National Academy, and instructs the heads of government depart- 

 ments to continue to cooperate with the council. 



The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington, in accordance with a request from Captain Roald 



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