December 10, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



841 



sum of £2,000 to i^rovidc the salary of an 

 assistant in tlie Purdie Chemical Research 

 Laboratory. 



The Special Board for Moral Science of 

 Cambridge University calls the attention of 

 the senate in a report to the need of more 

 adequate accommodation for the laboratory of 

 experimental psychology. At Oxford an ex- 

 cellent laboratory devoted to experimental psy- 

 chology has recently been erected. It is esti- 

 mated that a building adequate for the present 

 needs of the department might be erected at a 

 cost of £3,000, and to this must be added 

 £1,000 for fittings. Towards this amount 

 nearly £3,700 has been already promised or 

 paid, but this includes an offer of £3,000 made 

 on condition that the building is begun with- 

 out delay. 



At Cornell University, the graduate de- 

 partment, hitherto under the jurisdiction of 

 the university faculty, has been reorganized 

 as a separate college under the title of the 

 Graduate School. A research professorship 

 has been conferred upon Professor Titchener, 

 who becomes Sage professor of psychology in 

 the Graduate School. 



Among recent appointments at the Iowa 

 State College are the following: W. W. 

 Dimock, B.Agr., D.V.M. (Cornell), associate 

 professor of veterinary medicine; "W. M. Barr, 

 B.S. (Iowa, '02), Ph.D. (Pennsylvania, '08), 

 associate professor of metallurgy; Archibald 

 Leitch, B.S.A. (Ont. Agr. Col., '05), assistant 

 professor of animal husbandry; W. H. Pew, 

 B.S.A. (Iowa State, '07), assistant professor 

 of animal husbandry; Ira G. McBeth, B.S.A. 

 (Ohio, '07), M.A. ('08), assistant professor of 

 soil bacteriology; H. W. Gray, B.C.E. (Iowa 

 State, '06), assistant professor of civil engi- 

 neering; H. E. Ewing, A.B. (Illinois, '06), 

 M.A. ('08), assistant professor of zoology. 



Dr. Oscar Klotz, assistant in pathology at 

 McGill University, Montreal, has been ap- 

 pointed professor of pathology in the Univer- 

 sity of Pittsburgh. 



Hajidex Hill, A.B., has been appointed in- 

 structor in chemistry in the University of 

 Korth Carolina. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 

 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE 



To THE Editor of Science: In order that 

 American scientists may know something more 

 of " Ido " than is given in Professor Jesper- 

 sen's article in Science of November 12, I 

 quote below a statement of Professor Dr. 

 Forster, who was a member of the Interna- 

 tional Language Committee referred to by 

 Professor Jespersen, and honorary president 

 of it. This statement is taken from Oermana 

 Esperantisto, for December, 1908, pp. 138-9. 

 Professor Forster, who was formerly director 

 of the Berlin Observatory, says: 



1 was a member of the international committee 

 whose dut}' it was to examine critically the most 

 important liitherto existing systems of interna- 

 tional language. The past autumn [t. e., in 1907] 

 this committee recognized Esperanto as the most 

 satisfactory hitherto existing auxiliary language. 

 At the same time, the committee, without an 

 intention of disturbing the essential genius of the 

 language, recommended some reforms, by means 

 of which it was thought to attain a more rapid 

 and general spread of Esperanto. 



But the committee, or rather the commission 

 elected by it, failed to secure the absolutely neces- 

 sary consent of the officials of the already ex- 

 tensive Esperanto organization to their reforms, 

 \,-hich the whole body of Esperantists, with very 

 few exceptions, did not consider as improvements. 



But instead of consenting that the effort be 

 made to introduce the reforms gradually, in con- 

 sideration of the natural resistance of such an 

 enthusiastic movement, the commission, going be- 

 yond the task given it by the committee, and 

 against the desire of eminent members of the 

 committee, assumed towards the officials of the 

 Esperanto movement a critical air of superiority 

 and attempted themselves to spread a reformed, 

 and even in its external aspect essentially changed 

 language, which they variously called " Ido," 

 " Ilo," " Reform-Esperanto," " Esperanto-simpli- 

 fied," etc., although the Esperantists did not 

 consent to the use of the name Esperanto and 

 although the additions " reform " and " simpli- 

 fied " contradicted the conviction of nearly all 

 Esperantists. 



This procedure caused me not only to relinquish 

 the honorary presidency, but also to resign from 

 the committee, for in such proceedings there is 

 lacking, in my opinion, anj- degree of social wis- 



