SCIENCE 



Frtoay, April 22, 1921 



Sherhurne 

 Fkost . 



CONTENTS 

 Burnliam: De. Edwin B. 



The Centennial Expedition of Indiana Univer- 

 sity to Peru: Dk. William Rat Allen .... 377 



Scientific Events: — 

 Illinois State Parks; Industrial Fellow- 

 ships of the Mellon Institute; Appoint- 

 ments Committee for Bussian Sojentifio and 

 Literary Men; The Visit of Madame Curie; 

 Lectures by Professor Einstein 380 



Scientific Notes and News 882 



University and Educational News 386 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Genetics of the "Chinchilla" Sabbit: Pro- 

 FESSOB W. E. Castle. The Early History 

 of Litmus in Bacteriology: De. Ivan C. 

 Hall. Another Drift Bottle which crossed 

 the Atlantic: De. James W. Mavoe. News- 

 paper Science: Peopessor Oein Tugman. . . 387 



Scientific BooTcs: — 

 Atmospheric Pollution: Peofessoe Alex- 

 ander McAdie 389 



Special Articles: — 



The Mechanism of an Ensyme Bea,etion as 

 exemplified by Pepsin Digestion: De. John 

 H. NoETHEOP. Knipp's Singing Tube: Peo- 

 pessor F. E. Watson 391 



The American Physiological Society: Pro- 

 fessor Chas. W. Greene 395 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



SHERBURNE WESLEY BURNHAM, 

 1838-1921 



We record, with deep regret at his passing, 

 but with high appreciation of his long and 

 valuable service to astronomical science, the 

 death of Sherburne Wesley Burnham, emeri- 

 tus professor of practical asti-onomy at the 

 Terkes Observatory, of the University of 

 Chicago. 



Born on December 12, 1838, in the upper 

 valley of the Connecticut, at Thetford, Ver- 

 mont, Mr. Burnham had the ordinary advan- 

 tages of the district school, supplemented by 

 some study in the local academy, but he did 

 not go to college. He became an expert 

 stenographer and shorthand reporter, long 

 before the days of the typewi-iter, and this 

 was his profession for some thirty years. 

 During the Civil War he served in his pro- 

 fessional capacity with the Union Army 

 while it was occupying the city of New 

 Orleans. He came to Chicago, after the close 

 of the war, and became attached to the United 

 States Courts. 



His interest in astronomy must have devel- 

 oped very early in the sixties, for he pur- 

 chased his first telescope during a visit to 

 London in 1861; and in 1870 he became the 

 possessor of a fine six-inch refractor, a master- 

 piece of Alvan Clark, which he had ordered 

 in 1869. Mr. Burnham's vision was extra- 

 ordinarily keen, for among the 451 new double 

 stars which he discovered with that instru- 

 ment many were found by other observers to 

 be extremely difficult to resolve with much 

 larger instruments. 



In 1873 and 1874 he sent five lists of new 

 double stars to the Eoyal Astronomical 

 Society, which were published in the Monthly 

 Notices. At first he had no micrometer, and 

 was obliged to give estimated angles and 

 distances. A correspondence developed with 

 Baron Ercole Dembowski, who gladly made 



