SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 245 



NOTES 



The following program of papers was presented at the public meet- 

 ing of the Board of Surveys and Maps at the Interior Department on 

 March 9, 1920: 



I. Coordination of Government mapping and surveying through the 

 Board of Surveys and Maps, O. C. Merrill, Chairman of Board. 2. 

 Report of Joint Committee of Non-Federal Agencies, M. O. Leighton, 

 Chairman of National Service Committee, Engineering Council. 3. 

 Need for a general topographic map of the United States and means by 

 which its preparation may be expedited: (a) From a highways stand- 

 point, Thomas G. MacDonald, Director, Bureau of Public Roads, (b) 

 From a railroads standpoint, A. C. Baldwin, Vice-President, Illinois 

 Central Railroad, (c) From a military standpoint. Col. C. O. Sherrill, 

 Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, (d) Present status of map, and rate 

 and cost of completion, G. O. Smith, Director, U. S. Geological Survey, 

 and William Bowie, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 4. Extent and 

 means of cooperation between the Board and other agencies: (a) Federal 

 agencies, Edwin F. Wendt, District Engineer, Interstate Commerce 

 Commission. (6) State and municipal agencies, F. W. DeWolP, State 

 Geologist of Illinois, (c) Non-Governmental agencies, Alfred D. 

 Flinn, Secretary, Engineering Council. 5. Public needs which a cen- 

 tral map information office may serve, E. B. Matthews, Chairman of 

 Division of Geology and Geography, National Research Council. A 

 general discussion followed the fixed program of the meeting. 



International Exchange shipments of publications are now being 

 made direct to Finland in the care of the Delegation of Scientific So- 

 cieties of Finland, at Helsingfors. 



Brood No. 19 of the 13-year race of the periodical cicada ("seven- 

 teen-year locust") will be the subject of special observation in Ten- 

 nessee this spring, to determine the effect of unfavorable weather upon 

 its development. This brood has been subjected twice in its history 

 (in 1894 and 1907) to the unusual condition of freezing weather follow- 

 ing its emergence, in May, causing the death of a large proportion of 

 the cicadas before they had begun laying. It is possible that the 

 brood may have been exterminated thereby over a large part of its 

 original territory. 



Dr. C. G. Abbot, of the Astrophysical Observatory, announces that 

 solar radiation measurements at Calama, Chile, have indicated, almost 

 without exception, extremely high values since October 7, 1919. At 

 the same time there has been an unusually severe winter in the north- 

 eastern United States and extraordinary cloudiness and precipitation 

 in the Southern Andes. 



Mr. Walter M. Berry, Associate Gas Engineer, has been appointed 

 Chief of the Gas Engineering Section of the Bureau of Standards, suc- 

 ceeding Mr. R. S. McBride, who recently resigned to join the staff 

 of the McGraw-Hill Company. 



