December 19, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



565 



Dr. Allan MoLane Hamilton, at one time 

 professor of mental diseases in the Cornell 

 Medical College, died on November 23, aged 

 seventy-one years. 



The death is annoimced at the age of 

 seventy-eight years of Dr. Walter Knorre, 

 long an astronomer at the Berlin Observatory. 



Detailed accounts of the railroad wreck in 

 the Engo forest, Belgian Congo, in which Dr. 

 Joseph R. Armstrong and William Stowell, 

 both of Los Angeles and members of an ex- 

 ploring expedition sent out by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution and the Universal Service 

 motion picture company, were killed have 

 been received from railway headquarters in 

 Rhodesia. The expedition left Sakania, Bel- 

 gian Congo, for Elizabethville in a special 

 coach attached to a freight train. While the 

 train was stopping for fuel a water truck 

 broke away and crashed into the rear of the 

 train. 



A conference of representatives of the 

 State and Local Academies of the Central 

 States will be held at St. Louis in connection 

 with the meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. Officers of 

 the academies are requested to meet at the 

 Soldan High School at one thirty on Monday, 

 December 29. Professor H. B. Ward, of the 

 University of Illinois, whose address at St. 

 Louis will be Hotel Statler, will be ready to 

 give further information concerning the con- 

 ference. 



There wiU be a joint dinner of members of 

 Section A of the American Association and of 

 the American Mathematical Society on Tues- 

 day, December 30, at 6.30 p.m. in the American 

 Hotel Annex, 6th and Market Sts. The cost 

 per plate will be $1.50. Those who will attend 

 are requested to notify Professor W. H. 

 Roever, Washington University, St. Louis, be- 

 fore December 26. 



The twelfth annual meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Institute of Chemical Engineers was held 

 in Savannah, Ga., December 3 to 6. A series 

 of papers and addresses devoted particularly 

 to such southern industries as cotton, turpen- 

 tine and rosin was presented, and excursions 



to the various chemical industries of Savan- 

 nah and the vicinity were made. 



As December 20, 1920, is the centennial of 

 the Academy of Medicine at Paris, a commit- 

 tee of six members was recently appointed to 

 have charge of the celebration of the anniver- 

 sary. 



The Geological Survey of Great Britain 

 and Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn 

 Street, S.W., have been transferred for admin- 

 istrative purposes from the Board of Educa- 

 tion to the Department of Scientific and In- , 

 dustrial Research as from ISTovember 1, but 

 correspondence with reference to the work of 

 the Survey should be addressed as hereofore to 

 the director of the survey and museum, Jer- 

 myn Street, S.W. 



I The Agricultural Experiment Station Jour- 

 nal states that an announcement was recently 

 made in the British parliament of a change 

 in policy in 1918 regarding research in ento- 

 mology and plant pathology through public 

 funds. These subjects were originally allo- 

 cated to the University of Manchester and the 

 'Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, respectively, 

 'with grants from the Development Fund for 

 their support. In 1918, however, the Develop- 

 ment Board decided that all research in plant 

 diseases, whether due to insects or fungi, 

 should be concentrated at a single phytopatho- 

 logieal institute at Rothamsted, where also the 

 board's scientific advisory staff in the subject 

 would be stationed. Accordingly the staff at 

 Manchester and a portion of the mycological 

 staff at Kew were transferred to Rothamsted. 

 A grant of $5,000, per annum, was however 

 continued to the University of Manchester to 

 maintain certain phases of its entomological 

 work and also to take up work in mycology 

 there. 



Captain William C. Van Antwerp has 

 given $5,000 to the California Academy of 

 Sciences, to meet the cost of one of the large 

 habitat groups of California marmnals which 

 the academy is installing in its museum in 

 Golden Gate Park. Captain Van Antwerp 

 recently visited the museum and was so de- 

 lighted with the beauty of the groups already 



