72 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1438 



ing Division of the National Research Council, 

 endorses Dr. Stepanek's suggestions "that at 

 an early date there should be an international 

 conference of engineers, rather than of politi- 

 cians and of statesmen, bound by tradition and 

 self-seeking nationalism — a conference of con- 

 structively-minded men who could take fresh 

 views of the world's condition, deal scientifie- 

 ally with fundamental causes, and suggest im- 

 partial, far-sighted plans for continuing 

 progress." 



In appealing for the establishment of an 

 American university in Central Europe, Min- 

 ister Stepanek said that it would constitute a 

 center from which could be given out the best 

 products of American culture, a source of cor- 

 rect information about America and American 

 ideas. Through a world alliance of engineers, 

 the minister said, a constructive type of mind 

 could be brought more effectively into the 

 service of the nations. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 Jacobus Cornelius Kaptetn, professor of 

 astronomy and theoretical mechanics at the 

 University of Groningen since 1888, has died 

 at the age of seventy-one years. 



William Wislicenus, director of the chem- 

 ical laboratory of the University of Tiibingen, 

 died on May 8, at the age of sixty-one years. 



Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, editor of Science 

 Service, received the honorary degree of LL.D. 

 at the recent commencement of the University 

 of Kentucky. 



Dr. W. S. Thayer, formerly professor of 

 medicine in the Johns Hopkins Medical School, 

 has been elected an overseer of Harvard Uni- 

 versity. 



Db. Otto Klotz has been elected an hon- 

 orary overseas member of the Norman Loekyer 

 Observatory in England. 



M. Henri Lesbegue has been elected a mem- 

 ber of the Paris Academy of Sciences in the 

 section of mathematics to succeed the late 

 M. C. Jourdan. M. Lesbegues has recently 

 been elected professor at the College de France. 



At the meeting of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh on June 19, the Keith Prize (1919- 



1921) was presented to Professor R. A. Samp- 

 son for his astronomical researches, and the 

 Neill Prize (1919-1921) to Sir Edward 

 Sharpey Schafer, for his contributions to our 

 knowledge of physiology. 



At a special meeting of the directing board 

 of the National University of Mexico, it was 

 voted to grant an honorary diploma to Dr. 

 S. Ramon y Cajal. The Mexican Academy of 

 Medicine has appointed him an honorary mem- 

 ber. 



The second year's work of the American 

 School in France for Prehistoric Studies began 

 the first week in July at La Quina, Charente, 

 under the directorship of Dr. Charles Pealjody. 

 The retiring director. Professor George Grant 

 MacCurdy, will visit Switzerland, Austria, 

 Czechoslovakia, Germany, Belgium and Eng- 

 land before returning to Yale University in 

 September. 



Dr. John L. Stenquist, who has been as- 

 sistant to the director of reference and research 

 in the Department of Education of New York 

 City, has been appointed director of the new 

 Bureau of Educational Measurements, Statis- 

 tics and Research for the city of Baltimore, 

 where he will assume his duties about Sep- 

 tenuber 1. 



Dr. Edward A. Spitzka has been appointed 

 district medical officer, Second District, U. S. 

 Veterans' Bureau. The Second District em- 

 braces the state of New York, New Jersey and 

 Connecticut. 



Hugh M. Henton, formerly instructor in 

 metallurgy at Case School of Applied Science, 

 has opened an office as consulting engineer in 

 Cleveland. 



Professor Herbert H. Whetzel, who has 

 been head of the department of plant pathol- 

 ogy since its organization in the State College 

 of Agriculture at Cornell University, has been 

 relieved from the leadership at his own urgent 

 solicitation in order that he may devote his 

 time exclusively to teaching and research. 



Professor Joel Stedbins, of the University 

 of Illinois, who, as was reported early in the 

 spring, has been appointed professor of astron- 

 omy and director of the Washburn Observatory 



