106 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1439 



sometime in 1923. The date will be given in 

 later announcements. 



The Congress of the German Society of 

 Geneticists will be held from September 25 to 

 27, immediately after the Mendel celebration 

 in Briinn. It is open to members, as well as 

 to guests interested in research in genetics. 

 The following addresses are on the program 

 and will be followed by a general discussion of 

 the subjects : R. Goldsehmidt, Berlin, "The 

 problem of mutation"; H. Spemann, Freibui'g 

 i. B., "The hereditary material and its activa- 

 tion"; E. Riidin, Munich, "The inheritance of 

 mental disturbances." On September 27 a 

 special session will be held, which will be 

 addi'essed by E. Baur, Berlin, on the "Tasks 

 and aims of the science of genetics in theory 

 and practice." In addition to these addresses, 

 a large number of other papers are on the pro- 

 gram. Information on all matters concerning 

 the congress and its program may be obtained 

 from Dr. H. Nachtsheim, Berlin, N. W., 

 Invalidenstrasse, Nr. 42. 



A MEETING was held recently at Harvard 

 University, at which the subject under discus- 

 sion was the killing of flies and mosquitoes. 

 Sanitary experts, business men and the heads 

 of women's and children's welfare organiza- 

 tions of the metropolitan district were present. 

 J. Albert C. Nyhen, director of fly and mos- 

 quito suppression of the Brookline Board of 

 Health, and Professor G. C. Whipple, of the 

 engineering department of Harvard University, 

 called the meeting, at which Professor Whipple 

 presided. Its purposes were to consider ac- 

 tion to be taken in a cooperative movement for 

 the suppression of mosquitoes and flies in the 

 metropolitan area and to call a later meeting 

 to start a state-wide mosquito campaign. It 

 is hoped that all insect nuisances affecting 

 public health may be abolished and the move- 

 ment will try to include the flea and the biting 



fly. 



The Forest Service of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture is using airplanes 

 for locating and photographing undiscovered 

 lakes in the national forests of Alaska. It has 

 long been known that there are many lakes 

 on the headlands and islands traversed bv the 



inside passage between Seattle and Skagway 

 that do not appear on any map. During the 

 New York-Nome flight made by army aviators, 

 lakes were frequently sighted which could not 

 be found on the latest and most authentic 

 maps of the territory. Tales of unknown 

 water bodies are constantly being brought in 

 by trappers and prospectors. Less than a year 

 ago a lake four and one half miles long and 

 one half mile wide was discovered at the head 

 of Short Bay. This lake has over 1,000 acres 

 of surface area and is less than one and one 

 fourth miles from tidewater, yet because of the 

 siuTOunding country's rough topography, it 

 has remained unknown and unnamed. Recog- 

 nizing that many other of these "lost lakes" 

 may be sources of valuable water power, the 

 Forest Service has laid plans to map this no 

 man's land of the north by means of aerial 

 photographs. A few days' flight, it is said, 

 will be sufficient to cover the area with a 

 degree of accuracy that would require many 

 years and great expense to accomplish by or- 

 dinary methods. The work, which has been 

 approved by the Federal Power Commission, 

 will be done by seaplane, flying from Ketchikan 

 as a base. 



The British Medical Journal states that the 

 annual report of the Gordon Memorial College 

 at Khartoum for 1920, which is the nineteenth, 

 shows steady progress in all directions; it pays 

 a tribute to the late Sir William Mather, one 

 of its most generous supporters and an ener- 

 getic member of the governing body for seven- 

 teen years. The Wellcome Research Labora- 

 tories are accommodated in the Gordon Memo- 

 rial College; they are under the supervision of 

 Major Archibald, who is maintaining the high 

 standard set by his predecessors, Drs. Andrew 

 Balfour and Chalmers; it contains research de- 

 partments in medicine, chemistry and entomol- 

 ogy, the activities of which are duly set forth. 

 Research work in the bacteriological section was 

 interfered with by depletion of the staff and by 

 the large amount of routine work that had to 

 be carried out. But the director has a number 

 of articles awaiting publication — namely, notes 

 on urinary amoibiasis in the Sudan; on kala- 

 azar in the Sudan; on tropical splenomegaly 

 caused bv a hitherto undescribed bacillus; on 



