SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



A meeting of the Maryland, Virginia, and District of Columbia 

 Section of the Mathematical Association of America was held in Wash- 

 ington on December 6, 191 9. 



The Physics Club of the Bureau of Standards was re-established in 

 October, 1919, and the following lectures have been delivered before 

 the Club since that date: October 27, R. C. Tolman: Similitude; 

 November 3, 10 and 17, C. W. KanolT: Gravitation and relativity; 

 November 24, F. C. Brown: Recent development of bomb ballistics; 

 December i, I. C. Gardner: Optical instruments for military work; 

 December 9 and 16, R. C. Duncan: Some applications of science to 

 ballistics; January 5, W. F. Meggers: Aerial photography; January 



12 and 26, E. A. EckhardT: Sound ranging and recent developments 

 in acoustics. F. B. Silsbee is president and H. F. Stimson is secretary 

 of the Club. 



The U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer Isis had to be beached 

 about five miles south of St. Augustine, Florida, on January 15, on 

 account of damage due to collision with a submerged wreck. It was 

 believed that the vessel could be salvaged if the weather remained 

 favorable. 



Representatives J. A. Elston, of California, F. L. GrEEne, of 

 Vermont, and L. P. Padgett, of Tennessee, were appointed Regents of 

 the Smithsonian Institution by the Speaker of the House on Januar}^ 9. 



The Board of Surveys and Maps recommended by the map-making 

 conference,^ and recently created by executive order, met on January 



13 and elected the following officers: Chairman, O. C. Merrill, 

 Chief Engineer of the Forest Service ; V ice-Chairman, William Bowie, 

 Chief of the Division of Geodesy, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; 

 Secretary, C. H. Birdseye, Chief Geographer of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey. 



The following commissioned officers resigned from the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey in December: H. R. Bartlett, J. A. Daniels, 

 G. H. DuRGiN, A. J. Ela, C. G. Quillian and A. C. Witherspoon. 



Mr. R. M. Brown, formerly librarian of the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, has accepted an appointment with Rand, McNally and Com- 

 pany, to prepare and edit material for a new edition of their atlas of the 

 world. 



Mr. Robert Hollister Chapman, topographical engineer of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey, died on January 11, 1920, in his fifty-second 

 year, while attending a meeting of the American Alpine Club in New 

 York City. Mr. Chapman was born at New Haven. Connecticut, 



1 This Journal 9: 605. 1919. 



115 



