612 • SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Mr. Roy 0. Fitch, of the Bureau of Standards, died on October 13, 

 1918, of complications resulting from an attack of influenza. Mr. 

 Fitch was born in Oregon in 1891, grachiated from the University of 

 Oregon in 1912, and entered the government service in 1913 as junior 

 chemist. His work was chiefly on bituminous materials of construc- 

 tion, and he had been engaged recently on war problems connected 

 with the manufacture of prepared roofings for the cantonments and 

 the treatment of the hulls of concrete ships. He was a member of the 

 Chemical Society. 



Mr. Thomas Bartlett Ford, associate physicist at the Bvneau of 

 Standards, died on October 1, 1918, of pneumonia resuUing from 

 influenza. Mr. Ford was born October 4, 1882, graduated from the 

 Universit}" of Kansas in 1904, and entered the government service in 

 1907. He had been for several years in charge of the low-temperature 

 laboratory of the Bureau, including the Hquid air and hquid hydrogen 

 apparatus, and had devoted considerable attention to the separation 

 of the rare gases. He was a memljer of the Chemical and Philosophical 

 Societies of Washington. 



Prof. David Ernest Lantz, assistant biologist in the Biological 

 Surve}', U. S. Department of Agriculture, died on October 7, 1918, 

 of pneumonia following influenza, at the age of (53. Prof. Lantz was 

 Ijorn in Pennsylvania, March 1, 1855. He was associated with the 

 secondary schools of Kansas and with the Kansas State Agricultural 

 College until 1904, when he became a member of the Biological Survey. 

 He was a member and former secretary of the Biological Society of 

 Washington. His publications were concerned chiefly with ornith- 

 ology and economic mammalogy. 



Dr. Harrison E. Patten, of the Bureau of Chemistry, Department 

 of Agricultu7'e, has been commissioned a captain in the Quartermaster 

 Corps. 



Mr. George A. Rankin, of the American University Experiment 

 Station, has been commissioned a captain in the Chemical Warfare 

 Service. 



Prof. J. E. RowE has returned to Pennsylvania State College after 

 having spent the summer at the Bureau of Standards working on 

 problems connected with airplane radiator design. 



Mr. E. W. Shaw, of the Geological Survey, has been appointed an 

 internal revenue agent under the Treasury Department, and is chair- 

 man of the committee on natural gas taxation. 



Mr. H. C. Raven, of the Smithsonian Institution, who for three 

 years has been collecting mammals and birds in Celebes, arrived in 

 Washington September 28. 



