272 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1290 



of tlie emergency special committee held in 

 Philadelphia last ISTovember and in Chicago 

 last December, brought out a rather confusing 

 lack of agreement as to the effects of pre- 

 ventive measures, and of modes of treatment, 

 upon the form of the epidemic wave, and as 

 to the kinds and character of statistical data 

 available. The work and recommendations of 

 the other three registration and tabulation sub- 

 committee will result in bringing before the 

 coming meeting data that are more uniform, 

 and so better adapted to comparative study 

 towards discovering the quantitative relation- 

 ships which hold in this epidemic and which 

 it holds in common with other epidemics. 



Towards having epidemiology take another 

 step or two away from qualitative methods 

 and towards quantitative research, an earnest 

 invitation is hereby extended to members of 

 the medical profession, to physical chemists 

 and biochemists, to bacteriologists, to those 

 interested in mathematical statistics and cli- 

 matology, and others to attend the meetings 

 on September 19 and 20, at Columbia Uni- 

 versity, and other meetings to be announced, 

 and to participate freely in the deliberations 

 of the committee. Meanwhile the chairman 

 invites correspondence addressed to Pomona, 



isr. Y. 



Professor Svante Arrhenius pointed out in 

 his Tyndall lectures that "physical chemistry 

 allows us to follow quantitatively the influence 

 of temperature and of foreign substances upon 

 these interesting organic products, which are 

 of the greatest importance in industry, in the 

 physiological processes of daily life, and in dis- 

 eases and their therapy." In the Proceedings 

 of the Eoyal Society of Medicine, May, 1918, 

 Vol. XI., No, Y, pages 85-132, John Brownlee, 

 M.D., director of statistics, medical research 

 committee, develops a theory in which " the 

 organism producing the epidemic loses infect- 

 ing power according to the law of a mono- 

 molecular reaction." Whether fitting curves to 

 Pearsouian types or to those of immuno-chem- 

 istry shall lead to statistical light on influenza 

 remains to be seen. These and other ques- 

 tions remain to be discussed by this committee 



in a spirit of scientific open-minded search 

 for the truth. 



Charles C. Grove, 



Chairman 



THE NEW ENGLAND FEDERATION OF 

 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES 



The fall meeting of the Federation will 

 be held at Fall River on Friday and Saturday, 

 September 26 and 27, with the Fall Eiver 

 Society of Natural History. The meeting 

 will be in the parish house of the First Baptist 

 Church on Pine Street just below Main. 

 Take cars from the depot to Pine Street. For 

 information in regard to hotels or other local 

 matters write to Mr. Norman S. Easton, Fall 

 Eiver. 



The Fall Eiver Society will make a large 

 exhibit illustrating the Natural History of 

 the country around the city. Other exhibits 

 are desired from societies and individuals. 

 The exhibition will be open to the public all 

 day Friday and Saturday. Packages may be 

 sent to the parish house in care of the janitor. 



Friday evening, September 26, there wiU be 

 a public meeting at which there will lectures 

 and addresses by several members. Saturday 

 morning there will be excursions into the 

 country for observation and collecting led by 

 local members. Saturday at 2 p.m. there will 

 be a meeting for business, for reports from the 

 societies of the federation and or discussion 

 of the exhibits and the mornings collections. 

 J. H. Emerton, 

 Secretary 



30 Ipswich St., 

 Boston, Mass. 



the mary clark thompson medal 

 The president of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, on authority of the Council of the 

 Academy, has appointed the following com- 

 mittee to serve as the committee for the award 

 of the Mary Clark Thompson Gold Medal, 

 to be awarded annually for meritorious serv- 

 ices in geology and paleontology: John M. 

 Clarke, Chairman, Gano Dunn and Henry 

 Fairfield Osborn. 



The Academy accepted the gift in the fol- 

 lowing resolution: 



