SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 563 



On October 6 Mr. France, chairman of the Senate Committee on 

 Public Health and National Quarantine, asked unanimous consent to 

 consider S. J- Res. 76, providing for an investigation of the cause and 

 methods of prevention of influenza and allied diseases. Mr. Smoot 

 objected, and no action was taken on the resolution. 



The Senate resolution concerning the Botanic Garden (S. Res. 165) 

 was taken from the table on August 23 and referred to the Committee 

 on the Librar}^ together with the report of the Fine Arts Commission. 

 This report recommends the acquisition of 400 acres on Mount Hamil- 

 ton, in the northeastern quarter of the District, as a site for "an ade- 

 quate national botanic garden and arboretum." It will be recalled 

 that the earliest scientific society in the District of Columbia, the 

 Columbian Institute, organized in 1816, was the founder of the Botanic 

 Garden, which was afterwards turned over to the Federal Government 

 but still occupies its original grounds at the western base of Capitol 

 Hill. 



NOTES 



The United States Geological Survey is about to supervise extensive 

 topographic mapping in the West Indies. The Republics of Santo 

 Domingo and Haiti have made appropriations sufficient to complete 

 the surveys of their countries and have requested the Geological Sur- 

 vey to take charge of the work and to furnish the technical personnel. 

 It is probable that Porto Rico and the Republic of Cuba will take simi- 

 lar action. In order to provide for the administration of this work a 

 Division of West Indian Surveys has been created in the Topographic 

 Branch. Lieut. Col. Glenn vS. Smith has been relieved from his duties 

 in connection with military surveys and has been designated as Topo- 

 graphic Engineer in Charge of the new division. Field work in the 

 Dominican Republic has already been started with an organization of 

 five parties having a force of approximately sixty men which will be 

 gradually increased to ten parties as the work progresses. It is ex- 

 pected that the survey of this Republic will be completed within four 

 years. 



The glass work and the chemical part of the cement investigation 

 work of the Bureau of Standards, which has been located for several 

 years at the U. vS. Arsenal buildings at 40th and Butler Streets, Pitts- 

 burgh, Pennsylvania, has been transferred to Washington. Mr. P. H. 

 Bates, director of the Pittsburgh branch, is now located in the new 

 Industrial Building of the Bureau. Mr. A. V. Bleininger, chief 

 ceramic chemist of the Bureau, will move to Washington in the near 

 future. 



The following educational courses are being given at the Bureau of 

 Standards this winter: ^4. Advanced theoretical mechanics, W. S. 

 Gorton; B. Harmonic functions, D. R. Harper; C. Introduction to 

 mathematical physics, L. B. Tuckerman; D. Thermodynamics, h. H. 

 Adams; E. Colloidal chemistry, W. D. Bancroft. Dr. C. W. Kanolt 

 is chairman of the committee in charge. 



