SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The National Geographic Society announces the foundation of a series of 

 Memoirs for the publication of the results of its expeditions. The first 

 number will be devoted to a general account of the Katmai Expeditions, 

 and technical papers on the botanical, entomological, geological and chemical 

 results will follow. Prof. R. F. Griggs, director of the Katmai Expeditions, 

 has been requested to devote his full time to the completion of this series of 

 reports, and has accordingly resigned from the faculty of the Ohio State 

 University and has taken up his residence in Washington. 



At the request of the Radio Dynamic Torpedo Unit, Coast Artillery Corps, 

 U. S. Army, arrangements have been made for the cooperation of the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey with the U.S. Army in the securing of data on currents 

 in connection with the development of subaqueous sound ranging. 



The Secretary of State has authorized Mr. William Bowie, who, prior to 

 the war, was a member of the Permanent Commission of the International 

 Geodetic Association, to notify the secretary of the Neutral Geodetic Associa- 

 tion that the United States formally withdraws from this association. In 

 1916, a number of neutral countries — the United States being one of them — 

 voted to continue the International Geodetic Association. When the 

 United States entered the war it ceased to take an active part in this asso- 

 ciation. 



Within the two years of its existence the new Czecho-Slovak Republic has 

 established two new universities, one at Brno (Brunn) and the other at 

 Bratislava (Pressburg). In addition the University at Prag finds itself this 

 year with a nearly redoubled number of students, of whom there are now 

 over 10,000. With the generally and greatly reduced exchange values of 

 European currency, it has become exceedingly difficult for the scientific men 

 of these universities to provide themselves with literature in all branches of 

 learning published since 1914, and they appeal to their American colleagues 

 for all possible help in this direction. Publications should be sent to Dr. A. 

 Hrdlicka, U. S. National Museum. 



The Division of Plants of the National Museum has received a package 

 of plants from the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, collected by Professor C. CoN- 

 ZATTi, who has from time to time during the last twenty years forwarded 

 to the Museum several thousand Mexican plants. Most notable among the 

 specimens of this last shipment is a branch from the famous cypress tree at 

 El Tule, near the city of Oaxaca. This tree, which is many centuries old, 

 has a trunk circumference of over 100 feet and a height of about 130 feet, 

 and is one of the largest trees known. 



A valuable and well-mounted collection of moths and butterflies, including 

 many from Oriental countries, collected by the late J. P. Iddings, petrologist 

 and mineralogist, has been presented by his heirs to the National Museum. 



Dr. George I. Adams, formerly with the U. S. Geological Survey, spent 

 October in Washington. Since leaving the Survey he has been professor of 

 geology in the Government University at Peking, China, and is now pro- 



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