SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The Division of Mechanical Technology of the National Museum 

 has constructed and placed on exhibition a model of the flying machine 

 designed and constructed in 1491 by Leonardo da Vinci. 



An unexpected result of the National Prohibition Act is the acquisi- 

 tion by the National Museum of an excellent skull of the mammoth, 

 Elephas primigenius, the second specimen of its kind ever found in the 

 United States. It had long been exhibited in a Cincinnati bar-room 

 and the proprietor had refused all ofi"ers for it until prohibition ren- 

 dered it valueless in its existing location, when it was acquired for a 

 small sum by the Museum. 



Mr. A. V. Bleininger, ceramic chemist and head of the ceramic 

 division of the Bureau of Standards, resigned in September to become 

 research chemist for the Homer-Laughlin China Company, of East 

 Liverpool, Ohio. 



The Carnegie Institution of Washington published in September the 

 second volume of The Cactaceae, by N. L. Britton and J. N. Rose. 

 An abstract of the first volume appeared in this Journal for August, 

 1919. Two other volumes are yet to appear. 



Dr. Norah E. Dowell, formerly instructor in geology at Smith 

 College, has beeen appointed assistant geologist in the U. S. Geological 

 Survey for duty as office geologist and research assistant in the Ground 

 Water Division. 



Dr. J. W. Fewkes, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, spent 

 August in the excavation and repair of Cedar Tree Tower in the Mesa 

 Verde National Park, Colorado. 



Dr. August F. Foerste, of Dayton, Ohio, spent the summer in the 

 Division of Paleontology of the National Museum, cooperating with 

 Dr. R. S. Bassler on a monograph of the Silurian cephalopods. 



Mr. J. W. GiDLEY, of the section of vertebrate paleontology, U. S. 

 National Museum, visited Williamsburg, Virginia, in September, to 

 investigate the discovery of remains of an extinct species of whale, 

 reported by Dr. Donald W. Davis, of the College of William and 

 Mary\ Material was secured for the Museum, although not sufficient 

 for a skeleton mount. 



Mr. A. K. Haagner, director of the zoological park at Pretoria, 

 South Africa, visited Washington in September, on his way to London. 

 Mr. Haagner came to the United States in charge of a shipload of 

 African animals which had been collected at Pretoria during the war 

 for various American zoological parks, and which arrived at Phila- 

 delphia in September. 



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