NOTES .115 



The National Council of the U.S.A. has had placed at its disposal by the 

 Rockefeller Foundation a sum of $500,000 to be spread over five years for the 

 promotion of fundamental research in physics and chemistry in educational 

 institutions in the United States. The first intention of the donors is the 

 initiation and maintenance of a system of National Research Fellowships to be 

 awarded to those who have shown themselves to possess a high order of ability 

 in research. They will, for the most part, be awarded to persons who have had 

 training at an American University or Scientific School equivalent to that repre- 

 sented by a doctor's degree. The research fellows will, in the first instance, be 

 appointed for one year at a salary of $1,500, but will be eligible for successive 

 reappointments with increases of salary. It is hoped to award from fifteen to 

 twenty fellowships this year. 



In a letter to Science (Feb. 14, 1919) Prof. George Sarton announces the 

 reappearance, next autumn, of the I sis (an international quarterly devoted to 

 the history and philosophy of science), which has not been issued since 1914, 

 owing to the fact that the sixth part was in the press in Brussels when war broke 

 out. After the parts already prepared have been issued it is proposed to use only 

 two languages, French and English, mostly the latter, and Dr. Charles Singer will 

 then share with Prof. Sarton the responsibilities of editorship. In future, also, 

 Jsis will contain only the shorter articles ; the longer ones are to be included in 

 Dr. Singer's Studies in the History and Method of Science, of which the second 

 volume is now in the press. 



The Year Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of Great Britain and 

 Ireland Tor 1918 (Griffin & Co., gs. net) is even more complete than usual, as it 

 gives information concerning twenty-six societies not hitherto mentioned, and has 

 been extended to include musical societies. This extension, however, has led 

 to some rather incongruous inclusions ; for example, the precise reasons for 

 classing the Glasgow Ballad Club (with its headquarters in a restaurant) with the 

 "Learned and Scientific" are not exactly obvious! On the other hand, the 

 National Union of Scientific Workers has been overlooked, though not so the 

 recently formed British Association of Chemists. The Rdntgen Society is 

 classified under the heading Chemistry and Photography, and not under Physics, 

 or even Medicine, where one might naturally expect to find it. Incidentally the 

 publishers might consider the possibility of separating the first of these sections 

 into its two parts, the disparity between the two, from a scientific point of view, 

 being so very considerable. This issue of the Year Book contains, of course, the 

 usual features, i.e. the prospectus of each society, and a list of the papers read 

 during the year. 



The report of the General Committee of Chemical and Allied Societies 

 dealing with the question of the publication of chemical bibliographies in 

 the English language, recommends that steps should be taken forthwith to 

 render English-speaking chemists altogether independent of the German com- 

 pendia. In support of their suggestions the Committee urge (1) that though the 

 German publications have been continued during the war period their export is 

 prohibited, and this prohibition may be maintained ; (2) that their compendia are 

 not impartial, the survey of original work performed outside Germany being very 

 incomplete ; (3) that in other countries, e.g. Italy, technical students learn 

 German, rather than English, owing to the superiority of the technical literature 

 published in that language, the result being that their sentiments lean rather 

 towards Germany than to ourselves ; finally (4) that the study of German in the 

 schools in this country has declined so much during the war that comparatively 



