84 SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Dr. D. R. Harper, 3rd, physicist at the Bureau of Standards, 

 and engaged in the personnel and employment work of the Bureau 

 during the war, resigned at the close of the year and has joined 

 the staff of the U. S. Bureau of Efficiency, where he will assist in the 

 reorganization and expansion of the Internal Revenue Service. 



Mr. M. D. Hersey of the Bureau of Standards recently returned 

 from an extended trip abroad. He spent several months in England, 

 France and Italy, conferring with officials there in regard to the de- 

 velopment of aeronautic instruments. 



Professor A. S. Hitchcock, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, is 

 chairman of the Committee on Nomenclature of the Botanical Society 

 of America. 



Mr. Neil M. Judd, of the department of anthropology, Smithsonian 

 Institution, has been appointed curator of American archeology in the 

 National Museum. 



Dr. Paul D. Merica, associate physicist in the metallurgical division 

 of the Bureau of Standards, has resigned from the Bureau and is with 

 the International Nickel Company at Bayonne, New Jersey. 



Dr. P. W. Merrill has resigned his position at the Bureau of Stand- 

 ards to take up scientific work at the Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory 

 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, at Pasadena, California. 



Professor C. K. Leith, professor of geology at the University of 

 Wisconsin, and member of the Shipping Board, sailed for France early 

 in January to join the American peace delegation. 



Dr. Wallace Clement Sabine, professor of physics at Harvard 

 University, died at his home on November 11, 191 8. He had been 

 located in Washington during the war as Director of the Section of 

 Technical Information of the Bureau of Aircraft Production. 



Professor T. T. Smith of the University of Kansas, who has been 

 in charge of the work on optical instruments and the testing of optical 

 glass at the Bureau of Standards for the past year, has returned to the 

 University. 



Mr. H. F. Stale Y, formerly professor of ceramic engineering at 

 Iowa State College, joined the staff of the Bureau of Standards in 

 December as metallurgical ceramist. Mr. Staley had been engaged in 

 war research at the Bureau since June, 191 8. 



Lieut. D. L. Webster, formerly with the National Research Council, 

 has returned to the department of physics of the University of Michigan. 



Dr. Edgar T. Wherry, of the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, has been appointed editor-in-chief of The American 

 Mineralogist. Among the associate editors is Dr. W. T. SchalleR, 

 of the U. S. Geological Survey. 



Major F. E. Wright, of the Ordnance Department (formerly of the 

 Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution), has been elected presi; 

 dent of the Optical Society of America. 



