JANUARY 29, 1914] 
a paper by Dr. J. W. Babcock, Superintendent 
of the State Hospital for the Insane at Columbia, 
S.C., on the medico-local relations of pellagra. 
Dr. E. Bates Block, of Atlanta, discussed the 
mental disturbances of this disease. Dr. G. M. 
Niles took an unusually optimistic stand in his 
discussion of prognosis. The main paper of the 
symposium was presented by Dr. W. J. Macneal, 
of the New York Post-graduate Medical School, 
for himself’ and his colleagues, Dr. J. S. Siler, 
Medical Corps, U.S.A., and Dr. P. E. Garrison, 
Medical Corps, U.S.N., and comprehended an 
announcement of the later studies of the 
Thompson-McF adden commission on the etiology 
of pellagra. During the summer of 1913 the 
commission has been actively at work at Spartan- 
burg, S.C., and has accumulated and digested 
a mass of facts bearing upon the etiology which 
seem to discredit completely all questions of diet, 
either as to character or amount, and to place the 
responsibility for the disease upon unsanitary con- 
ditions as regards the disposal of excreta; in 
other words, upon food contamination. The re- 
maining paper was entitled “The Entomological 
Aspects of the Pellagra Investigation of the 
Thompson-McFadden Commission,” by Mr. 
A. H. Jennings, of the Bureau of Entomology, 
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Mr. Jennings 
having worked for two seasons with the com- 
mission at Spartanburg, practically absolved 
Simulium from any relation to the disease, and 
stated that if any insect is the vector of pellagra 
it is in all probability the stable fly (Stomoxys 
calcitrans). 
Among the actions by the council were the 
acceptance of the Society of American Foresters 
as an affliated society, the adoption of a resolu- 
tion looking with favour upon the organisation 
of a Brazilian division of the association, the 
authorisation of the establishment of local 
branches of the association, the continuance of 
the associate secretary for the south, and the 
authorisation of the preparation of a directory of 
the funds available for research work. 
A report of progress from the Committee on 
Expert Testimony was received. The movement 
to bring the force of the association, composing 
in its membership so many hundreds of scientific 
men constantly called upon to give expert testi- 
mony in the courts, towards a modification of 
the present system of employing experts by 
opposing parties in courts of law, was begun two 
years ago at Minneapolis. The committee in 
charge of the work consists of Prof. E. C. 
Pickering, of Harvard, chairman; Dr. E. B. 
Wilson, of Columbia; Dr. W. H. Welch, of Johns 
Hopkins; United States Senator Elihu Root; Dr. 
A. D. Little, formerly president of the American 
Chemical Society; and Dr. J. A. Holmes, of the 
U.S. Bureau of Mines. The committee reported 
a compilation of the laws of the different States 
of the union on this subject, and stated that a 
compilation of the laws of the different nations 
of the world is in hand. Positive recommenda- 
tions are to be expected from this committee at 
the next meeting of the association, and, com- 
NO. 2309, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
611 
prising as it does some of the most eminent 
scientific men in America, together with one of 
its most eminent lawyers, the report will carry 
great weight. 
It was decided to hold the next meeting of the 
association during Convocation Week, 1914-15, 
at Philadelphia, with a summer meeting to follow 
in August, 1915, at San Francisco. The general 
committee recommended to the next general com- 
mittee that Toronto, Canada, be chosen as the 
place of meeting for 1915-16, on invitation from 
the University of Toronto. 
The officers elected for the coming year were 
as follows :— 
President: Chas. W. Eliot, president emeritus of 
Harvard University. Vice-Presidents (or Chairmen of 
Sections): A. H. S. White, Vassar College; B, A. 
Zeleny, University of Minnesota; C (no election); D, 
A. Noble, New York; E, F. R. Lillie; G, G. B. Clin- 
ton, New Haven; H, C. Wissler, American. Museum 
of Natural History; I (no election); K, R. M. Pearce, 
University of Pennsylvania; L, P. H. Hanus, Howard 
University; M, L. H. Bailey, Cornell University. 
General Secretary: W. A. Worsham, jun., Athens 
State College of Agriculture. Secretary of Council: 
Henry Skinner, Academy of Sciences. Associate 
Secretary: R. M. Ogden, University of Tennessee.. 
DR. S: C. CHANDLER. 
R. S. C. CHANDLER,‘ whose death we 
recorded with regret last week, was not 
the least conspicuous in that earnest band of 
American astronomers whose energy and resource 
have done so much to advance astronomical 
science. He began his scientific career in the 
United States Coast Survey, a school that has 
trained many brilliant observers, who, in positions 
of greater independence, have rendered valuable 
service. Dr. Chandler’s claim to a place among 
the most famous of these rests upon three notable 
achievements. First, the invention and use of the 
Almacantar, an instrument in which the small 
circle perpendicular to the meridian passing 
through the pole is adopted as a fundamental 
circle of reference, and gravitational action round 
an imaginary vertical axis is substituted for the 
motion of rotation round the pivots of the hori- 
zontal axis in the case of a_ vertical circle. 
Secondly, for his valuable catalogues of variable 
stars, in which he systematised the results col- 
lected by many observers, thereby encouraging 
and facilitating further observations. His work 
in this direction was by no means confined to 
simple compilation. He was both an indefatigable 
observer and the fortunate discoverer of many in- 
teresting objects of this class, ever directing atten- 
tion to a branch of astronomy that has proved 
both suggestive and fructiferous. 
This habit of industrious examination and 
critical scrutiny, acquired in discussing many 
series of observations, proved of remarkable assist- 
ance in the successful inquiry with which his name 
will ever be associated, the detection of the varia- 
tion of latitude, due to the want of exact coin- 
cidence between the axes of the earth’s figure and 
of rotation. This work was exceedingly laborious, 
