A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement 

 of Science, publishing the ofHcial notices and 

 proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, edited by J. McKeen 

 Cattail and published every Friday by 



THE SCIENCE PRESS 



I 1 Liberty St., Utica, N. Y. Garrison, N. Y. 



New York City: Grand Central Terminal 



Annual Subscription, $6.00 Single Copies, 15 Cto. 



Entered as second-class matter January 21, 1922, at the 



Post Office at Utica, N. Y., Under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



Vol. LVI OCTOBER 27, 1922 No. 1452 



CONTENTS 



William Stewart Malsted: H. C 461 



Earth Currents and Magnetic Variations: 

 Professor Fernando Santord 464 



Besearch at the Tortugas Laboratory: Pko- 



TESSOE A. A. SCHAEFFER 468 



The Mount Everest Expedition 470 



Scientific Events: 



Nitrates in Southeastern California; The 

 Dedication of the Sterling Laboratory of 

 Yale University ; The Joseph Sullivant 

 Medal; Installation of the President of 

 Lehigh University 471 



Scientific Notes and News 474 



University and Educational Notes 477 



Discussion and Correspondence: 



Some Seismological Evidence that is not 

 evident: Dr. James B. Macelwane. The 

 Beginnings of American Geology: Dr. 

 Marcus Benjamin. An Opportunity : De. 

 Veenon Kellogg 478 



Scientific BooTcs: 



Emil Fischer's Aus •nieinem Lehen: De. 

 Benjamin Harrow 482 



Notes on Meteorology and Climatology : 

 A Neiv Aerological Summary: De. LeEoy 

 L. Meisingee 482 



Special Articles: 



Deficiency of Atmospheric Dust in Coal: 

 De. Waldo S. Glock 484 



The American Chemical Society: De. Charles 

 li. Parsons 485 



WILLIAM STEWART HALSTED, 

 1852-1922 



Pkopessoe Halsted, certainly one of the 

 most cultivated, and regarded by many as the 

 most eminent surgeon of his time, in view of 

 tlie character of Lis contributions, died at noon 

 on Thursday, the seventh of September, in the 

 Johns Hopkins Hospital, of which he had been 

 surgeon-in-ehief since soon after its opening. 

 At that time, in 1889, neither he nor his clinic- 

 al colleagues. Osier and Kelly, had as yet 

 turned forty. 



A man of unique personality, shy, some- 

 thing of a recluse, fastidious in his tastes and 

 in his friendships, an aristocrat in his breed- 

 ing, scholarly in his habits, the victim for 

 many years of indifferent health, he neverthe- 

 less was one of the few American surgeons 

 who may be considered to have established a 

 school of surgery, comparable, in a sense, to 

 the school of Billroth in Vienna. He had few 

 of the qualities supposed to accompany what 

 the world regards as a successful surgeon. 

 Over-modest about his work, indifferent to mat- 

 ters of priority, caring little for the gregarious 

 gatherings of medical men, unassuming, hav- 

 ing little interest in private practice, he spent 

 his medical life avoiding patients — even stu- 

 dents, when this was possible — and, when 

 health permitted, working in clinic and labora- 

 tory at the solution of a succession of prob- 

 lems which aroused his interest. He had that 

 rare form of imagination which sees prob- 

 lems, and the technical ability combined with 

 persistence which enabled him to attack them 

 with promise of a successful issue. Many of 

 his contributions, not only to his craft but to 

 the science of medicine in general, were funda- 

 mental in character and of enduring import- 

 ance. 



As a schoolboy at Phillips-Andover and as 

 an undergraduate at Yale, he was prominent in 

 sports rather than in the class-room, and in 



