164 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1364 



nied by the council (Octc^ber lY, 1920), but 

 permission was granted for those interested in 

 the History of Science to enter Section L on 

 " Historical and Philological Sciences," a Sec- 

 tion which had never been organized and ex- 

 isted only in name. 



The special committee appointed by the 

 president of the association for the organiza- 

 tion of a History of Science Section, recom- 

 mended, on December 16, 1920, that the words 

 " and philological " be dropped. This recom- 

 mendation was likewise rejected by the council. 

 It is clear, therefore, (1) that the council does 

 not deem it wise to admit a separate section on 

 the History of Science and (2) that the organi- 

 zation effected in Chicago on December 29, 

 1920, will not meet the needs of the increasing 

 number of men interested in the History of 

 Science, since, at any time, those representing 

 " Philological Sciences " and the " Historical 

 Sciences" (whatever that term may mean), 

 may step in and give rise to a heterogeneous, 

 incoherent group of workers, having no inter- 

 ests in common. If representatives of the 

 " Philological Sciences " and " Historical Sci- 

 ences" do not appear, then Section L consti- 

 tutes in reality the very kind of organization 

 which the council decreed should not be ad- 

 mitted as a Section. 



In the judgment of the present writer, the 

 dignified and logical procedure for those inter- 

 ested in the History of Science is, therefore, to 

 withdraw altogether from organized historical 

 work in connection with the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science until 

 such time when the council and general session 

 will be ready to welcome them into the associa- 

 tion as a separate Section. 



Florian Cajori 



Univeesitt op California 



concerning "aerial photo- 

 hydrography " 



In an article'- describing attempts to photo- 

 graph "the small coral heads and pinnacle 

 rocks" off the coast of Florida, E. Lester 

 Jones of the United States Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey concludes that: 



1 Science, December 17, 1920. 



These experiments proved very conclusively that 

 photographs from the air, using present-day equip- 

 ment, are of little practical value to the hydro- 

 grapher (p. 575). 



Those interested in the study of imderwater 

 features may be interested in the opposite 

 view published in Comptes Bendus? Objects 

 in French water were photographed to a 

 maximum depth of 17 m. and several points 

 of rock were revealed by the photographs 

 which had escaped detection by other methods. 

 (" Plusieurs tetes de roche qui avaient echappe 

 aux leves detailles et tres exacts de ces parages 

 ont ete ainsi revelees par la photographie.") 

 Specific instances are given where points of 

 rock dangerous to shipping, not indicated on 

 the hydrographic charts, were discovered by 

 means of the photographs. 



Perhaps the statement that photographs 

 taken from the air are of little practical value 

 is more conclusive than was intended. 



Willis T. Lee 



XJ. S. Geological Survey 



SOIL COLOR STANDARDS 



In order that there may be uniformity in 

 the designation of the color of soils it is pro- 

 posed that a set of color standards be pre- 

 pared in which those colors which occur in 

 soils and subsoils may be represented. Such 

 a set of standard colors would be of great 

 value to soil survey workers and would cer- 

 tainly lead to a better understanding of the 

 descriptions of soils from the various regions 

 of the United States and of the earth as a 

 whole. 



In order that such a set of color standards 

 might be published representative soils from 

 all parts of the United States would need to 

 be examined. No doubt the Bureau of Soils 

 of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture could lead in the work and by consulta- 

 tion with various State Soil Surveys and with 

 the Soil Surveys of other nations standardize 

 the colors and publish reproductions of them 

 as Robert Ridgway did in his " Color Stand- 

 ard and Color i^Tomenclature " (published by 



2 Tome 169, 27 October, 1919. 



