! I 



NATURE 



[April 



1913 



Chancellor of the Washington University at St. 

 Louis. He is now in his forty-eighth year. A change 

 has also been made in the assistant secretaryship of 

 the Department of Agriculture, where Mr. W. M. 

 Hays is succeeded by Mr. B. T. Galloway, who has 

 been since 1900 chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 

 Mr. Galloway had previously" spent twelve years as 

 chief of the Division of Vegetable Pathology and 

 Physiology. Before entering the Government service 

 he was an assistant in the horticultural department of 

 the University of Missouri, of which he was a gradu- 

 ate in agricultural science. He is the author of a 

 large number of works on botany and horticulture. 



An official guide, who commenced his duties on 

 April 1, has been appointed to conduct parties of 

 visitors round the collections in the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew. Two tours will be made daily, ex- 

 cept on Sundays and public holidays ; one of about an 

 hour and a half, starting at 11.30 each morning, and 

 one of about an hour at 3 each afternoon, except 

 during June, July, and August, when the afternoon 

 walk will start at 5. Morning parties will be limited 

 to six persons, and will visit the plant houses and 

 museums ; in the afternoon twenty persons will be 

 conducted round parts of the outdoor collections. In 

 the morning each member of the partv will be charged 

 is. 6d., and in the afternoon the charge per person 

 will be is. Visitors wishing to join a party should 

 attend at the stone portico of Cambridge Cottage, 

 Kew Green, shortly before the time of starting. The 

 new arrangement will meet the needs of those visitors 

 who, in addition to their desire to enjoy the beauty 

 of the gardens, wish to understand something of the 

 scientific value and bdtanical significance of the 

 unique exhibits at Kew. 



Disastrous floods have followed the severe wind- 

 storms in the United States on March 23. The areas 

 chiefly affected are the middle western States. The 

 storms seem to have started on the eastern side of 

 the Rockies, and to have rapidlv developed energy 

 occasioning the heaviest rains in the Ohio and 

 Mississipi valleys. Immense tracts of country have 

 been submerged, and many large towns have become 

 flooded. Much of the ground is below the flood level 

 of the rivers, and in parts the embankments have 

 given way, whilst many tributary rivers have over- 

 flowed their banks. Dayton, Indianapolis, Columbus, 

 and numerous other smaller towns have suffered 

 immensely during the last week of March and much 

 loss of life has occurred. Hundreds of houses have 

 been washed away, and immense suffering has been 

 caused. At Louisville the river is said to have passed 

 the level of the great flood of 1907. Fortunately the 

 immense loss of life given in the earlier reports was 

 somewhat exaggerated, and later estimates at the 

 end of March give the total casualties in the stricken 

 area as 500. The rivers are said to be still rising 

 in many places, and the full result of the disaster will 

 depend largely upon the weather for the next week 

 or two. 



We have received the first two monthly issues of 

 The O.S. Review, the Journal of the Organisation 

 Society. This society (which has offices at 15-16 

 NO. 2266, VOL. 91] 



Buckingham Street, Adelphi) aims at applying objec- 

 tive methods of analysis and presentation to the data 

 upon which all social legislation and administrative 

 activity upon the large scale must be based. This 

 aim necessarily implies that the society must itself 

 "be outside politics, parties, and every kind of move- 

 ment " in order to become " a centre of authority and 

 reference," the activities of which will tend to bridge 

 the present " gap between legislation and fact," and 

 to minimise the distorting effects of political bias. 

 The two numbers of the review offer illustrations of 

 the proposed methods of research and of the applica- 

 tion of the society's cardinal principle that "society 

 is an extension of the individual." The society has 

 a branch — "the Andrological Institute" — the special 

 function of which is to collect and analyse measure- 

 ments of bodily organs and physical and mental 

 functions. As an expose" of its aims and methods it 

 has published an elaborately illustrated pamphlet 

 which deals in particular with measurements of 

 mental "perseveration." 



The general meeting of the American Philosophical 

 Society will be held in Philadelphia on April 17-19, 

 when the president, Dr. W. W. Keen, will take the 

 chair. A very varied programme will be provided, 

 and it is possible here to refer to a few only of the 

 numerous papers. These include : — " Interpretations 

 of Brain Weight," Prof. H. H. Donaldson ; " Heredity 

 and Selection," Prof. W. E. Castle, of Harvard Uni- 

 versity; "The Nature of Sex and the Method of its 

 Determination," Prof. C. E. McClung, of Pennsyl- 

 vania University; "The Control of Typhoid Fever by 

 Vaccination," Prof. M. P. Ravenel, University of 

 Wisconsin ; " New Spectroscopic Evidence for the 

 Solvate Theory of Solution," Prof. H. C. Jones, Johns 

 Hopkins University; "The Magnetic Field of the 

 Sun," Dr. G. E. Hale, director of the Solar Observa- 

 tory at Mount Wilson, Cal. ; and "Progress of New 

 Lunar Tables," Prof. E. W. Brown, Yale University. 

 On the evening of April 18, Prof. G. G. MacCurdy, 

 Yale University, will give an illustrated lecture on 

 " The Antiquity of Man in the Light of Recent Dis- 

 coveries." On April 19 a symposium on wireless tele- 

 graphy has been arranged, in which the following 

 physicists will take part :— Dr. L. W. Austin, head of 

 the U.S. Naval Radio-Telegraph Laboratory; Prof. 

 G. W. Pierce, Harvard University; Prof. M. I. Pupin, 

 Columbia University, N.Y. ; and Prof. A. G. Webster, 

 Clark University, Worcester. 



The problem of the cooperation of museums with 

 education is being seriously considered in America. 

 In No. 3, vol. iii. of The Museum Journal we have 

 a description of the means by which the museum is 

 being made accessible and interesting to school chil- 

 dren. The arrangement of the exhibits is geograph- 

 ical, and special attention is naturally paid to the 

 large collections illustrating the life of the American 

 Indian, his arts and industries. A native and his 

 wife, of the Chilkat tribe, are employed on the museum 

 staff, and, dressed in their national costume, take an 

 active part in class- work, moving among the children, 

 explaining the exhibits, and answering questions re- 

 garding them. This arrangement is described to be 





