October 10, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



341 



resumed with the coming of peace. Little 

 did any one think that the renewal of pub- 

 lication would be in the hands of other than 

 Jacques Danne. Indeed, the war being finally 

 over Danne himself was busy with the prepa- 

 ration of the first new number when a sudden 

 and rapid illness culminated in his death on 

 March 8, leaving the science of radio-activity 

 and electronics sadly weakened. 



Jacques Danne was born in Paris in 1882. 

 After excellent schooling he entered the Ecole 

 de Physique et Chemie de Paris in 1897, where 

 he distinguished himself as the first in a re- 

 markable class of scientific students. He was 

 invited by Curie to become his assistant in 

 1902, and at once added the power of his 

 knowledge to Curie's work. Curie, working 

 entirely as a physicist, had met innumerable 

 problems which were leading up to the dis- 

 integration theory. The chaotic condition of 

 the science of radioactivity in the years 1898- 

 1902 was due chiefly to the fact that it was 

 carried on by physicists without aid of chem- 

 ical methods. These latter Soddy supplied in 

 Montreal and Danne in Paris, and within a 

 year the fact of atomic disintegration was 

 established, and radio-activity became a 

 science. 



In 1904 M. Danne founded Le Radium, the 

 first number of which appeared on July 15. 

 He gathered about liim an impressive " scien- 

 tific committee " to insure an adequate treat- 

 ment of all phases of the sciences of radio- 

 activity and electronics, radiation and ioniza- 

 tion; in short, of subatomic phenomena. For 

 ten years he gave the greater part of his 

 time to this journal, and in 1914 it was the 

 sole representative of this very vital field of 

 Icnowledge. 



Six numbers of Volume 11 appeared in 

 1914, and now N'umber 7, Volume 11, appears 

 in May, 1919, under the direction of Gaston 

 Danne, the younger brother of Jacques, who 

 for many years has been the chief spirit in 

 the admirable Laboratoire d'Essais des Sub- 

 stances Eadioactives, which Danne established 

 at Gif in the Vallee de la Chevreuse. 



The loss of Jacques Danne is irreparable, 

 but under the direction of M. Gaston Danne 



Le Radium will continue admirably to serve 

 the new science of subatomic phenomena. At 

 the request of M. Danne I am receiving papers 

 and subscriptions at this address. 



Gerald L. Wendt 

 UNivERsirY OF Chicago 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



EXPEDITIONS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF 

 CALIFORNIA 



Just returning from a four month's ex- 

 pedition through southeastern Alaska and 

 northern British Columbia, a party of sci- 

 entific men under the leadership of Dr. Joseph 

 Grinnell from the University of California has 

 brought about 1,200 specimens of birds and 

 mammals representing nearly all of the birds 

 and smaller species of mammals inhabiting the 

 country, as well as a few examples of the larger 

 mammals, such as mountain goat, grizzly bear, 

 wolf and beaver. Some amphibians, plants, 

 and a large number of photographs also were 

 brought back. 



H. S. Swarth, curator of birds, and Joseph 

 Dixon, economic mammalogist, assisted at 

 times by local guides and himters, comprised 

 a party which started from Wrangell, Alaska, 

 and went to Telegraph Creek, British Colum- 

 bia, a distance of 170 miles from the coast 

 and at the head of navigation on the Stikine 

 Eiver, traveling by the river boat which runs 

 on the stream during the five months of the 

 year when it is free of ice. On the return trip 

 down stream camps were established at various 

 points and explorations were pursued. 



Reports from the party indicate that the 

 coast of southeastern Alaska is characterized 

 by extremely heavy rainfall while the interior 

 toward the source of the Stikine River is 

 relatively arid. 



The country about the upper Stikine River 

 for a long time has been a mecca for big game 

 hunters, this region being one of the few re- 

 maining places in K'orth America where a 

 variety of such game may be pursued with a 

 fair assurance of success. But this year's ex- 

 pedition of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 

 of the University of California is said to be 

 the first party of naturalists to visit and care- 



