September 1, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



247 



merly president of the American Medical Asso- 

 ciation, was tlie guest of honor at a dinner on 

 July 26, in Washington, given by the charge 

 d'affaires of the Panama legation, Sefior 

 Lefevre, in honor of the committee of the 

 American Medical Association appointed to co; 

 operate with the board of directors of the 

 Gprgas Memorial. 



Mr. W. H. Dines has retired from the direc- 

 torship of the Aerological Observatory of the 

 British Meteorological Office at Benson. 



De. F. VON" LuscHAN, professor of anthro- 

 pology at the University of Berlin, retires this 

 year, having reached the age limit. 



G. R. Mansfield has been appointed chief 

 of the section of non-metalliferous deposits in 

 the Geologic Branch of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey. 



Dr. J. S. Flett, director of the Britisli 

 Geological Survey, will act as one of the dele- 

 gates of the Geological Society of London at 

 the International Geological Congress at Brus- 

 sels on August 21 to September 3. The other 

 delegates nominated by this society are Pro- 

 fessor E. J. Garwood, vice-president, and Dr. 

 J. W. Evans, F.R.S. 



The Rontgen Society, London, has elected 

 as president Sir Humphry RoUeston, and as 

 vice-presidents Sir W. H. Bragg, Sir Ernest 

 Rutherford and Dr. A. E. Barclay. 



Professor Thomas F. Holgate, of North- 

 western University, has returned home after a 

 year's leave of absence in China, during which 

 time, though nominally on a vacation, he as- 

 sisted in the mathematical and administrative 

 work of tlie University of Nanking. 



Atherton Seidell, of the Hygienic Labora- 

 tory, U. S. Public Health Service, is in Europe 

 to study methods and progress of work on 

 vitamines. 



Dr. F. W. Pennell, curator of botany in 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadel- 

 phia, accompanied by Mrs. Pennell and by Mr. 

 E. P. Killip, of the National Museum, have 

 gone to Colombia, where about six months will 

 be spent in botanical exploration in the central 

 and western Cordillera. 



It is announced in Nature that Dr. Michael 

 Grabham has gone to Porto Santo, the north- 

 ern island of the Madeira group, to study the 

 conditions under which the local naee of Portu- 

 guese inhabitants are said to enjoy complete 

 immunity from dental caries. These people 

 possess huge, ugly, yellow, but sound teeth, and 

 Dr. Grabham proposes to bring specimens to 

 London. 



A. E. Fath has taken furlough from the 

 Geological Survey to do private geological 

 work abroad. 



We learn from the Journal of the Washing- 

 ton Academy of Sciences that at the call of 

 Secretary Walcott, a meeting of the scientific 

 staff of the Smithsonian Institution and its 

 branches was held on- May 23 to discuss the 

 promotion of research. Several research prob- 

 lems which could be advantageously taken up 

 were suggested, together with means for carry- 

 ing them out. A committee on research was 

 then appointed by the secretary, consisting of 

 Dr. Merrill, chairman, Dr. Coville, Dr. Fewkes, 

 Mr. Fowle, Dr. Hough, Mr. Nelson and Dr. 

 Stejneger. The committee will hear reports 

 by individuals on proposed research projects 

 and consider means for taking them up, and 

 it is hoped that by fall a definite plan of action 

 will be formulated. 



Park Benjamin, the well-known patent 

 la^vyer, formerly editor of The Scientific Amer- 

 ican, and of Appleton's "Cyolopasdia of Ap- 

 plied Mechanics," died on August 21, in his 

 seventy-fourth year. 



Dr. Arthur Ransome, F.R.S. , known for 

 his contributions to the study of tuberculosis 

 and public health, died on July 25 at the age 

 of ninety-two years. 



A committe has been organized, as has 

 already been reported in Science, to collect 

 subscriptions for the monument to the memory 

 of Professor Yves Delage which it is proposed 

 to erect near the marine laboratory at Roscoff, 

 Finisterre. Several Americans have worked at 

 this laboratory and all biologists are indebted 

 to Delage not only for his discoveries in marine 

 biology but also for his organization of 

 zoological science, his book on protoplasm and 

 heredity and "L'Annee Biologique." Sub- 



