14 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1279 



follow up the Stikine River from the sea east- 

 wardly into the interior to the vicinity of 

 Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. The pur- 

 pose of the work will be to gather specimens 

 and all sorts of natural history information 

 concerning the mammals and birds of the 

 section traversed, particularly in order to 

 learn how the fauna of the relatively arid in- 

 terior differs from that of the humid coast 

 belt, as also what happens where the two 

 faunas meet. 



Several seasons of work in the same general 

 region have brought together large collections 

 from adjacent sections and these have already 

 been reported upon fully in a series of papers 

 published from the University of California 

 Press; so that the new material will be 

 gathered and interpreted upon a more advan- 

 tageous basis than would otherwise be possible. 



The present year's field work is in charge of 

 Mr. H. S. Swarth, curator of birds in the 

 museum, and he will be assisted by Mr. Joseph 

 Dixon, economic mammalogist, as also by a 

 local trapper and hunter. 



This opportunity of the museum of verte- 

 brate zoology to resume its field work in south- 

 eastern Alaska is due to the special interest 

 of Miss Annie M. Alexander, who is providing 

 the means whereby the work can be carried on 

 there. This is in accordance with the general 

 plan adopted by Miss Alexander some years 

 ago, namely, to contribute to a more complete 

 knowledge of the vertebrate fauna of the 

 Pacific coast of JSTorth America. 



As heretofore, all of the field notes, photo- 

 graphs and specimens, which latter include 

 study skins, skeletons and skulls of mammals 

 and birds, become at once the property of the 

 University of California. 



INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING STANDARD- 

 IZATION 



The Electrical World states that Professor 

 Comfort A. Adams, of Harvard University, 

 president of the American Institute of Elec- 

 trical Engineers, has returned from the trip 

 which he made to England and France with 

 H. M. Hobart, of the General Electric Com- 

 pany in the interest of standardization. Mr. 

 Hobart remained abroad and is doing work 



of the same character as that in which he and 

 Professor Adams were engaged. Mr. Hobart 

 will probably return about the middle of July. 



Professor Adams and Mr. Hobart crossed 

 the Atlantic to adjust certain differences be- 

 tween the American and French rules with 

 regard to the rating of electrical machinery 

 which had arisen during the war, when a 

 meeting of the International Electroteclmical 

 Commission was not possible. As a result of 

 the conferences held abroad an arrangement 

 was made satisfactory to all concerned, and 

 certain changes from the previous Interna- 

 tional Electrochemical Commission rules will 

 therefore be recommended at the next regular 

 meeting of that commission. This meeting 

 will probably be held in London during the 

 latter part of October in this year. 



Another commission of Professor Adams 

 and Mr. Hobart was on behalf of the Amer- 

 ican Engineering Standards Conmiittee in 

 order to establish relations with corresponding 

 committees in other countries. In France 

 the corresponding organization is called a 

 Permanent Commission on Standardization 

 and is appointed by the Minister of Com- 

 merce. In Holland the organization is known 

 as the Normalization Bureau. In England it 

 is the Engineering Standards Association and 

 was organized originally by the five national 

 engineering societies. It has government affil- 

 iations and regularly does the standardization 

 work of the government in certain important 

 fields. In Switzerland a similar organization 

 is contemplated, but it has not yet been per- 

 fected. The organizations of Holland and 

 France are of comparatively recent origin, as 

 is the American Engineering Standards Com- 

 mittee. The British association has been in 

 operation about eighteen years and is doing 

 an enormous amount of very important work, 

 having secured the confidence of the govern- 

 ment and many organizations (including 

 those in the railway and shipbuilding fields) 

 not directly represented on the main com- 

 mittee. For example, the aircraft section 

 alone of the Engineering Standards Associa- 

 tion has about fifty subcommittees. 



As a result of the conference held by the 



