; 



96 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



air,' ' to travel at speeds higher than 

 any with which we are familiar.' 



The secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution should be the representa- 

 tive of American science and should 

 be extremely careful not to do any- 

 thing that may lend itself to an inter- 

 pretation that will bring injury on the 

 scientific work of the government or 

 of the country. Dr. Langley has 

 stated that for ' the commercial and 

 practical development of the idea it is 

 probable that the world may look to 

 others.' We think that it would 

 have been better if the secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution had adhered 

 to this resolution and had not spent 

 large sums on secret experiments for 

 the War Department. He could have 

 placed his scientific knowledge at the 

 disposal of army officers and expert 

 mechanicians, and this would have 

 been better than to attempt to become 

 an inventor in a field where success is 

 .doubtful and where failure is likely to 

 bring discredit, however undeserved, 

 on scientiiic work. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 



Professor Alexander Bain, for 

 many years professor of logic in the 

 University of Aberdeen, died on Sep- 

 tember 17, at the age of eighty-five 

 years. Dr. Bain was the author of an 

 important series of books on psychol- 

 ogy, logic and English. His works on 

 ' The Senses and the Intellect,' in 1855, 

 and ' The Emotions and the Will,' in 

 1859, in many ways laid the founda- 

 tions of modern scientific psychology. 



Dr. W. a. Notes, of the Rose Poly- 

 technic Institute, has accepted the posi- 

 tion of chemist in the National Bureau 

 of Standards. — Professor J. Mark 

 Baldwin, of Princeton University, has 

 been called to organize a graduate de- 

 partment of philosophy and psychology 

 at the Johns Hopkins University. — 

 Dr. T. H. Montgomery, Jr., assistant 

 professor of zoology at the University 



uf Pennsylvania, has been appointed to 

 the professorship of zoology in the Uni- 

 versity of Texas, vacant by the re- 

 moval of Professor \\\ M. Wheeler to 

 the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory. Dr. Herbert S. Jennings, assist- 

 ant professor of zoology at the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, and now at 

 Naples, has been called to the as- 

 sistant professorship of zoology at the 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



Mr. Robert E. Peary has been given 

 three years' leave of absence from the 

 navy to continue his Arctic explora- 

 tions. His plan contemplates the con- 

 struction of a strong wooden ship with 

 powerful machinery, in which he will 

 sail next July to Cape Sabine and, 

 after establishing a sub-base there, 

 force his way northward to the north- 

 ern shore of Grant Land, where he will 

 spend the winter with a colony of 

 Whale Sound Esquimaux, who will 

 be taken there by him from their homes 

 further south. This winter base will 

 be at or in the vicinity of Cape Co- 

 lumbia or Cape Joseph Henry, situated 

 about the 82d degree of north latitude. 

 The new medical buildings and labo- 

 ratories of Toronto University were 

 officially opened on October 1. The 

 opening address was given by Professor 

 Charles S. Sherrington, of Liverpool. 

 Speeches were made by representatives 

 of various institutions, and an address 

 in the evening was made by Professor 

 William Osier, of the Johns Hopkins 

 University. A special convocation was 

 held on October 2, at which the fol- 

 lowing visitors received the honorary 

 degree of LL.D. from the university: 

 William Williams Keen, Jefferson Med- 

 ical College, Philadelphia; William 

 Henry Welch, Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity; William Osier, Johns Hopkins 

 University; Russell Henry Chittenden, 

 Yale University; Charles S. Sherring- 

 ton, University of Liverpool; Henry 

 Pickering Bowditch, Harvard Univer- 

 sity. 



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